At Chicago he was transferred to the Butler ramp where he boarded a twin-engined private aircraft which bore no markings other than its registration number. His departure was quite private, so there was no notice taken by the general public when the lady who had been on the airliner boarded also. Two planes took off shortly after that, one of them headed for Upper Michigan, the other pointed toward Colorado. Both had high-altitude capability and were soon out of sight of all but the air traffic controllers, who had a great many pips to watch on their radarscopes.
“It is fantastic,” Zalinsky said. “Furthermore, it is very difficult for me to believe even a word of it.”
Hewlitt had expected that. “That is up to you,” he continued in Zalinsky’s language, “but it happened just as I have reported it to you and I haven’t added a thing. There is no need to.”
Zalinsky spread his hands. “But it is impossible; when you had everything, an immense military establishment, vast resources of nuclear weapons, millions of men under arms, you were defeated almost by default. Now you have almost nothing and now it is that you choose to put up a fight. Against impossible odds.” He shook his head.
“We’ve been over this ground before,” Hewlitt retorted. “As for the truth of what I have been telling you, you know that the submarine left San Francisco; practically everyone in the country does by now. And if you check, you will probably find that one attack-type submarine is missing from your navy.”
Zalinsky dropped into a brown study, his face heavily furrowed, his chin on his chest as he slumped back in his chair. He thought for some moments before he spoke again. “Let us say that it is all true — everything you have told me. You are then risking everything on one single submarine, a ship that can be found and sunk by the most powerful navy in the world.”
“Perhaps — but you haven’t done it yet.”
“Suppose that I believe that you were selected to be the messenger because you know me and can speak my language. I would like to believe it for your sake, but I do not. You are a member of this underground; it is not logical that they would trust you otherwise.”
“You can believe that if you want to, but I told you that we trust people more than you do; we are not as suspicious.”
“Colonel Rostovitch would not believe it, not for a moment.”
“I’m not talking to the colonel, I’m speaking to his superior — in position and I believe in intelligence also.”
Zalinsky stretched as he had a habit of doing. “It is not necessary that you flatter me if I am indeed as intelligent as you claim. What is now proposed?”
“That we continue as before while you communicate with the premier and inform him of the facts. Presumably he will want to make a decision.”
“That is all?”
“Substantially, yes. Except as I explained to you. No more people are to be shot.”
“It is blackmail.”
Hewlitt nodded. “That is part of the system. You will recall those words.”
Zalinsky seemed quite suddenly to be very tired. He did not look well, and Hewlitt recalled his previous request for a doctor.
“I will tell you someting,” Zalinsky said. “Never before in your life have you been as close to death as you are at this moment.”
“Every soldier must accept the risks of his profession.”
“But you are not a soldier. I have trusted you and you have betrayed me.”
“That is not true, Mr. Zalinsky,” Hewlitt answered. “I did not ask for this role — it was thrust upon me. You told me once that you did not expect loyalty and would not believe it if it were offered to you. I remind you of the terms: that this conversation is confidential between you and me, this is to give you reasonable time to consult your government and make such arrangements as you would like. You are the first and only one to know what you know now.”
Zalinsky thought some more. “Rostovitch will kill you.”
Hewlitt leaned forward and once again successfully ignored the gnawing tension which had gripped him from the moment he had come into the office. “Mr. Zalinsky, the people whom I talked to were not joking — they meant what they said. If anything happens to me, whether it’s Colonel Rostovitch or anyone else, that will be taken as a sign that the terms are not accepted. In that event the order will be given to the Magsaysay to fire. You know what that means! And if anything does take me out of the picture, then you will have to deal with someone else — the First Team will see to that.”
Zalinsky bestirred himself and some of the old fire came back into him; he leaned forward and quite suddenly was as cold-eyed and hard as Hewlitt had ever seen him. “And you claim that you do not know who the First Team is?”
Hewlitt shook his head, wishing that his stomach would remain still for just a moment. Then he forced his voice to remain level. ‘They didn’t tell me that, and you know yourself that they wouldn’t. I don’t know who they are, how many, or where — but I do know now that they exist.”
Zalinsky looked hard and long at him, appraisal and suspicion amalgamized into a hard alloy. “There are other things you do not know,” he said suddenly. He paused and the words sank into Hewlitt; he waited then for the sentence of death to be pronounced against him. “This submarine, we know all about it. About the high diver who has been one of your CIA agents for a long time. And the captain — he is a Jew.”
For a moment the tension relaxed; Hewlitt shook his head. “No,” he said.
Zalinsky thrust a hard cold look clean through him. “How do you know?”
“It came out in our conversation.”
Zalinsky banged a fist on top of the President’s desk. “He is a Jew, I was told so. We know.”
Hewlitt watched him intently, knowing that for that moment he held a higher card. “He couldn’t be, Mr. Zalinsky.”
A fierce light sprang into Zalinsky’s eyes. “Do you know who he is?”
“Yes.”
“What is his name?”
“Nakamura. Commander Ishiro Nakamura.”
As Zalinsky slowly sagged back into his chair Hewlitt stood up. He had had about all that he could endure and he had to make good his escape. But he held himself successfully in check so that his voice was his own when he turned at the door.
“By the way, Mr. Zalinsky,” he said, “I haven’t forgotten your request for a doctor. I’ll do the very best that I can, but there may be a problem — so many of the very good ones have been forced out of the hospitals recently. Now if you don’t mind, I’d like to go home and clean up.”
Zalinsky raised an arm and waved him away.
21
By the time that the first snowflakes were beginning to drift down into the gorges which separated the peaks of the Rockies one from another, the grip of economic depression had closed over the whole of the United States of America. The stock market was again operating, but it was a world of illusions and shadows; the substance of business growth and development was gone. Makeshifts and substitutes once more became a forced reality; good merchandise of almost any kind was increasingly hard to find. And skilled services normally available at short notice were spoken of more and more in the past tense. The whole pattern of living underwent a substantial change in outlook: people no longer planned for the future, they planned for the day immediately ahead and hoped to live it out in peace. Following that, if all went well, they would try to prepare for the next.
The rumor of the escaped submarine spread rapidly, peaked, and then gradually died away for lack of any kind of nourishment. There had been rumors also that England, France, Germany, and the Republic of China had formed a common front to bring about the liberation of the United States with a number of other powers, great and small, offering to contribute their share. Japan was reputed to be holding to a cautiously neutral position; the Pope had called for a withdrawal of the occupying forces and offered his good offices to bring about a peaceful settlement of all remaining outstanding problems. Israel also declared for the United States, but she was so desperately overwhelmed by mass migration from the United States that all of her resources were strained to absorb the influx and meet the continuing challenge of the militant Arab states at the same time.