“Three to one she unloaded her refugee passengers,” General Gifford said.
“I’d go stronger than that,” the admiral answered. “I’m sure of it. Anyhow, she is presently on her way north and at least she is in better trim than she was.”
“Have they had a chance to check out the armament?” Ed Higbee asked.
“No definite word on that, but I’m certain she wouldn’t have reported all well unless.
“Of course; sorry.” Higbee resorted to his coffee cup; he didn’t often make mistakes like that. “It’s good to know that Walter’s all right.”
“No reason he shouldn’t be,” Prichard said. “He told me when I asked him that he’s done a hundred and twenty-five feet and apparently it didn’t bother him a bit.”
Stanley Cumberland shook his head. “Specialized ability, I never cease to marvel at it. You find it all over the place and there’s no real explanation. Training and practice, of course, but I wanted to be a violinist and after three years I gave it up as hopeless. It’s got to be born in you.”
Major Pappas did not comment on that; he contented himself with drinking his coffee.
“Anyhow, gentlemen,” the admiral continued, “the only question now is, do we start phase two immediately, or wait until Magsaysay is over the next hurdle?”
“I say we go,” Higbee said. “Every hour of delay now gives them more time to absorb and think. Let’s keep the pressure on.”
“He’s right,” Colonel Prichard agreed. He did not waste words.
“Those opposed?”
There was no response to that.
The admiral had a little more of his coffee. “All right, Ed,” he said to Higbee. “It’s your ball now, yours and Ted’s. Let’s see some action.”
Higbee rubbed his hands together. He was entitled to; he had waited a long time. “You will,” he promised.
Hewlitt noted the change of atmosphere once more as he answered the summons to the Oval Office. Usually Zalinsky continued with whatever he was doing and paid him no attention until it pleased him to do so; this time the administrator watched him as he came in and kept his eyes on him while he seated himself and waited.
After a pause of a few seconds Zalinsky spoke. “Today we will converse in my language; I do not desire to practice English.”
Hewlitt responded with an idiom which in essence meant, “That’s fine with me.”
“You have heard about the submarine?”
That called for an instant decision, and Hewlitt made it. “Rumors,” he said.
Zalinsky shook his head. “I do not understand you Americans. First, when you have everything, you refuse to fight back. Then, when you have nothing, you take desperate chances that cannot succeed.”
“We took a desperate chance in 1776,” Hewlitt said.
Zalinsky waved a hand. “A good slogan, I grant you, but what happened that far back is no precedent for today — you know that.”
While he was speaking Hewlitt saw the way out of a dilemma. “Let us talk about the submarine for a moment,” he said. “I have heard rumors, as I said, but they conflict. What happened?”
“Tell me first what you have heard.”
“One of our nuclear submarines is at sea manned by a Navy crew. She escaped in full daylight from the Bremerton Navy Yard. She is supposed to be fully armed with missiles.”
“That is all?”
“That’s enough, I would think.”
Zalinsky remained silent for a few seconds more. “I will give you some very good advice,” he said. “Stay out of this.”
Hewlitt looked at him. “How can I help it?” he asked. “I have nothing whatever to do with the Navy.”
Zalinsky returned his look. “It is good that you sleep with your girl friend; I approve of this. It is normal and healthy. But the house where you stay: there is a visitor sometimes who is part of your underground. This we know, and who he is. You understand?”
Hewlitt did not dare to reply. Instead he said, “I hope to marry her.”
Zalinsky nodded. “A good choice, I think — and very wise of you to try her out first. And she you, of course. In my country this attitude would not be approved, so you see I am becoming a little bit Americanized.”
“Congratulations,” Hewlitt said. “Thank you for your advice. Will there be anything else?”
“Only one thing — I am not feeling too well, find for me please a good doctor. Especially one I can trust — you understand.”
“Fully.”
“Thank you very much.” It was the first time that Zalinsky had been that courteous in either language. It could have been automatic, but Hewlitt thought otherwise. If the submarine never fired a round, at least she had proved something and the lesson could not be ignored. By Zalinsky or anyone else. The notorious Colonel Rostovitch had something new to think about, and catching a submarine at sea would not be an easy matter. Not if the crew knew what it was doing, and he was willing to bet, on the basis of performance already proven, that it did. He wondered if the rumor he had heard, and had not repeated, was true — that the captain was a Jew. Not that it made any difference, but it might make things more interesting.
As he climbed into Frank’s cab to ride home after work, his mood had changed somewhat. Zalinsky’s words about knowing the identity of an underground agent who came to the safe house from time to time came back to him and gave him cause for worry. Not for himself; he had progressed beyond that point, but Percival was a valuable man as all men were valuable, and his loss would be acute. As soon as they were out in traffic and sufficiently by themselves Hewlitt asked for and got the all-clear signal to talk. “I want to get word to Percival,” he said. “It’s urgent.”
“All right,” Frank said. “They’re giving me a rest right now. The idea is that when a guy’s been busy for a while they rest him just in case anyone’s tailin’ him. It throws them off. But I can get word to Percival. You wanna talk to him?”
“Better just give him the message. Zalinsky told me today that he knows an underground agent is calling at the house. He knows this and who he is.”
Frank digested that quickly. “If he told you that, then he had a reason. I’ll get it to Percival right away, but if he was plannin’ somethin’, he wouldn’t let the cat out of the bag like that.”
“I wondered about that,” Hewlitt said. “You tell him, but cover your tracks — they may be watching to see how I communicate.” “Right. I’ll be careful. We’ve got a way and it’s pretty foolproof. Holy hell!”
Hewlitt did not understand until he saw a sedan that had cut in front of the cab with scant inches to spare. Frank hit the brake and turned hard toward the curb to avoid a collision; the sedan led him, forcing him over. Within moments both cars were stopped; in the seconds that it took, Hewlitt understood that they were being intercepted, that he was undoubtedly the reason, and that Percival was not the only person whose disguise had been penetrated.
He felt a desire to panic, but he thrust it down. He had been living under tension for so long now he had his reflexes conditioned and his mind schooled. When he saw two men jump quickly from the sedan he knew that they were after him. Frank saw them too and quickly raised his hands in a gesture of surrender — exactly what he should have done, Hewlitt thought. There was no need to blow Frank in this operation.
When one of the men yanked the rear door open on his side Hewlitt knew Frank was out of it. He looked up into a cold, emotionless face that told him nothing. “Out,” he was directed.
As Hewlitt complied, the man showed him a gun and motioned to the sedan. Hewlitt walked to the car and climbed in as though it was his personal choice to do so. As soon as he was safely inside, the man jumped in beside him and the car took off with a burst of speed that left black rubber on the pavement behind it. At the first intersection the sedan turned right with screaming tires; Hewlitt was forced against the second of his captors. Then, unexpectedly, the man spoke. “Take it easy,” he said. “Percival sent us.”