The Thief

Dr. Allan Fields, a nuclear physicist working for the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission, is also secretly a spy. He photographs secret documents with a Minox camera and passes the microfilm along a covert courier network toward New York and overseas.

The latest canister of undeveloped microfilm is intercepted after the courier dies in a Manhattan traffic accident. The FBI analyzes the microfilm and begins to suspect insiders at the AEC, including Fields.

The custodian of the secret documents is cleared, shifting FBI focus to subordinates within the AEC. Fields is identified as a suspect as investigators connect him to the missing microfilm.

Fields' case officer sends a Western Union telegram ordering him to destroy any evidence of espionage and to relocate to a safe house in New York City.

An increasingly paranoid Fields spends the night in a cheap hotel safe house in New York City, trying to avoid detection and decide his next move.

Following a signal from his case officer, Fields goes to the Empire State Building and meets Miss Philips on the 86th-floor observation deck.

An alert FBI agent pursues Fields through the building, chasing him from the 86th floor to the 102nd floor and up to the spire. A fight ends with the agent's death.

Fields escapes the immediate danger by returning to his hotel to retrieve a bundle of money and fake identity documents, intending to slip out of the country.

He heads to the docks where a ship bound for Egypt awaits, completing arrangements for his escape.

Shaken by the agent's death and his own actions, Fields experiences remorse and begins to doubt the escape plan he had set in motion.

Ultimately, Fields abandons the escape and surrenders himself to the FBI. He is torn by remorse for the agent's death and the danger he has caused, choosing to face the consequences rather than flee.

With Fields in custody, the FBI continues its investigation into espionage within the AEC, and Fields' actions become part of a larger case. The story closes on a note of accountability and the cost of living a double life.