“That’s all right with me,” Hewlitt said once more, “but in a way, I’m disappointed. I’d like a little more action if that’s possible.” Percival looked at him quite sharply for a moment, as though he were making a re-evaluation. “Before this is all over, I suspect that you’ll get all the action you want. We have certain operations planned which you will know about quite soon.”
Hewlitt leaned forward. “Where do I fit in?” he asked.
Percival rested his arms on the top of the desk and became thoroughly practical. “You know Captain Scott of the Air Force. We’ve had a tip-off that, for reasons unknown, he may be the person who betrayed Bob Landers — but it isn’t definite. We’ve been watching him very closely. Frank here knows about that. When you came up with the fact that Zalinsky saw him on short notice, that was an important piece of information that we had missed. We want to move fast on this before he can do any more damage, if he is the person we want. I listened to the tape of your dinner conversation with him; there is no doubt that he was probing you for a possible entrance into the underground.”
“He had me believing him,” Hewlitt said.
“Remember — he may still be absolutely O.K.”
“I hope that he is,” Hewlitt admitted. “But if he is our man, then why did he blow the whistle on Bob Landers so fast? That couldn’t help but hurt him in what he was trying to do.”
Percival raised one forearm and pointed upward as though he were addressing a classroom. “Suppose it was the other way around. It is very possible that Bob got onto him. In that case, if Scott detected it, he would want to get rid of Bob posthaste in order to protect himself. And he could get cooperation from Zalinsky.” Hewlitt thought. “It’s entirely possible, but very hard to believe. Scott seems to be so much a totally right kind of person. Also, what reason would he have to betray his country?”
Percival did not comment on that. “To get the answers to some of these questions, I had it in mind to use you — that is, if you want to come to the party. We can keep you pretty well covered and, if you’re really interested, it would be a chance to get a little field experience. But there is a very real element of risk and in your case it could be accentuated — you can see why.”
“What do you want me to do?” Hewlitt asked.
Percival studied him for a moment before he spoke. “We are up against a man who calls himself Colonel Rostovitch; he’s a modern-day Beria who heads up the enemy secret police. That’s a good old Balkan term for any kind of a suppressive force. Rostovitch is a terror, and he’s here now — ostensibly headquartered at what used to be their embassy. But he has other operating bases; one of them is a house something like this one which they have had for some time; we only got on to it a short while ago.
“If Scott is on the wrong side of the railroad tracks, we think that he will try to get in touch with you again. If he does, then you are to tell him that you have heard that there is an organization such as ours and imply — no more than that — that you might be able to put him in touch. This will be sticking your own neck out, of course. If he takes the bait, we believe that he will waste no time in going to that house to report. If he attempts to do that, then he will be dealt with.”
“It sounds grim.”
“It is; you were there when Bob Landers died.”
“Then Scott…”
Percival nodded. “Yes.”
“On the other hand,” Hewlitt reasoned aloud, “if he is all right, then there is no harm done. We could probably use him.”
“We considered that too.”
Hewlitt thought of Bob Landers. “All right,” he said, “I’m your man. When do you think that this will happen?”
Percival stood up. “If you’re ready to go,” he said, “we have it set up for tonight.”
11
The first thing that came into Hewlitt’s mind after that was an all but forgotten incident of his boyhood. He had been complaining about a pain in one of his teeth; he was told that there was a cavity and it would have to be repaired. That would require an appointment with the dentist. After he had accepted all that, and was ready to prepare himself during the next few days for the ordeal that lay ahead, he had been told that the appointment was slightly less than a half hour away. He had had no chance for psychological adjustment before he had found himself seated in the chair. It was like that now.
“You see,” Percival said, “if Scott is as dangerous as we believe he might be, we don’t want him on the loose an hour longer than is necessary.”
“I can understand that,” Hewlitt replied. “You had me off balance for a moment, that’s all. I think you’d better brief me.”
“Obviously. Your part, actually, is quite simple, though not completely so. I understand that there is a bar you visit fairly frequently when you have been out for an evening.”
Hewlitt was impressed that this detail of his private life was known, but he made a successful effort not to let it show. “That’s right, it’s only a block from my place. I stop there for a draft beer now and then; there’s a piano player I like.”
“Good. What I’d like you to do is to go there tonight when you leave here, just as you might ordinarily. Have a beer or two in your usual manner, but try to stay at least forty minutes if you can without being obvious about it.”
“No problem,” Hewlitt said.
“I can’t give you any odds on this,” Percival continued, “but we consider it possible^that Captain Scott might drop in there. Have you ever seen him there before?”
“No, not to my knowledge. Of course I only really met him recently.”
“Understood. If your movements are as well known to the other side as they are to us, with certain exceptions, then they will know about this habit of yours. If Scott should turn up, you can take it as pretty fair indication that he was sent.”
“I’d certainly think so,” Hewlitt agreed.
“In case he does, of course you will talk to him. Now listen carefully: if he stays off the subject of this organization, don’t you bring it up in any way. Follow his lead. If he does show up, and does get onto that subject, then you understand what that means.” “Yes.” Hewlitt had not moved in his chair for some minutes, he was almost afraid to do so now.
“Assuming that both of these things take place, then you are to tell Scott that you don’t know if you can be of any help to him or not, but you will ask around discreetly. I don’t want you to commit yourself; no good agent ever does that except in an extreme emergency.”
“I understand.”
“Now, if possible we want Scott, again assuming that he is our man, to go to the enemy’s house to report. He wouldn’t dare to use the telephone. So you are to tell him, in confidence, that you have heard a wild rumor that because of the amount of enemy traffic that is passing through the Baltimore Bay Tunnel, an effort is going to be made very soon to blow it up. Treat this very carefully, act like you don’t believe it yourself.” For a moment Percival relented and a half quirk touched the corners of his mouth. “Don’t, incidentally,” he added, “because there’s no truth to it at all.”
He became totally serious once more. “The hardest part of your assignment will be to make him believe that you just picked this up, that you believe it to be a wild rumor, but that it just might be true. In our right minds we would never do anything like that, but they don’t credit us with too much sense in that way. Whatever you do, don’t overdo it — don’t repeat the story, for instance, to be sure that he got it. Then break it up and part as warm friends. Put yourself in that frame of mind — if you don’t, there’s a good chance that he might read you out and that would blow the whole thing. Keep it in the forefront of your consciousness that he is your close and trusted friend, your comrade in arms. Believe it, and you’ll convince him.”