They had taken the chance and won.
That was in 1942, and that was a long time ago.
Almost twenty years later, in January of 1962, they met again in a Second Avenue apartment. There was snow in the streets of New York, and the windows were rimmed with frost, and Goody Moore came into the room blowing on his huge brown farmer’s hands and joking about how it never got this bad down in Georgia, even when the snow froze out all the crops. He had not changed a bit; he was still tall and lean, with ridges radiating out from his gray eyes, his hair almost as blond as when the South Pacific sun had bleached it day after day. They shook hands all around, Jason and Fatboy and Goody and Clay and Alex himself. Then Jason introduced them to Randy Gambol, whom he said he had worked with in a group called America in Distress, and then he’d broken out the whiskey and they sat around reminiscing about the days aboard the 832 while Annabelle went into the bedroom to watch television.
He didn’t get around to telling them about his plan until almost eleven o’clock, and they were still arguing it and discussing it when dawn broke against the frost-rimmed windows at six o’clock the next morning. Annabelle had fallen asleep in the next room with the television set on, and Jason went in to turn it off, and then he came back and put a pot of coffee on the stove and went to where the men were seated and said, “What do you think?”
“It would have to be Florida someplace,” Clay said.
“Well, Arthur has suggested the Keys, as you know,” Jason said.
“It’s pretty isolated down there, isn’t it?” Goody asked.
“Well, that’s the point,” Fatboy said.
“I don’t think that’s the difficult part,” Alex said. “Taking the town, I mean.”
“No, that would be simple.”
“It’s the rest that seems risky.”
“The rest seems just as simple to me,” Randy said.
“Well, you and Fatboy are already convinced of all this,” Alex ventured, “so naturally you’d think all of it was pretty simple.”
“I feel the plan has value,” Randy said, “if that’s what you mean.”
“I didn’t say it had no value.”
“Then what, Alex?” Jason asked.
“Look, if you simply want me to agree with everything you propose...”
“You know that’s not what I want. You’re here because I think your ideas are valuable.”
“All right, then, I’ve got to say I don’t think there’s a chance in hell of the second part succeeding. Not with fifty men, not with a hundred men. I don’t think it would work, that’s all.”
“Why not?”
“Because you wouldn’t get anywhere near her, not with the situation as tense as it is today. Any small boat making an approach would be immediately suspect.”
“He’s got a point,” Clay said.
“And especially a small boat carrying armed men. I’m sorry, Jason, it wouldn’t work.”
“He’s right,” Goody said.
“So there goes your plan,” Alex said. “Without the second part, it’s worthless. Without the second part, there’s no need to take the town. You’d never get to make your transfer at all.”
“Besides, Jason,” Goody said, “even if it was to work, we’re not sure what the reaction would be. We’re not sure we’d get what we were after.”
“I think we would.”
“Yeah, but there’s no guarantee.”
“That’s true. That’s the biggest chance we’d be taking.”
“But don’t you see, Jase? If we can’t be sure, why then all the rest of it is for nothing.”
“I think the reaction will be what we expect,” Jason said.
“Maybe,” Goody said.
“Maybe isn’t enough,” Clay said.
“Then you don’t like the idea, right?”
“I’m a married man,” Goody said.
“All right, then we’ll count you out,” Jason said. “Who else wants—”
“I didn’t say to count me out, Jase.” Goody paused. “You know how I feel about things. Goddamnit, we spent enough time together for you to know how I feel about things.”
“I thought I did, Goody.”
“But you can see how weak the second part is, Jase.”
“That can be worked out.”
“I’m not so sure it can,” Alex said, shaking his head. “That business with the boat—”
“The business with the boat,” Randy said angrily, “is simply a matter of finding an approach that will not be suspect.”
“Like what?” Alex said.
“I don’t know yet. How should I know? This only came up a few minutes ago.”
“It should have come up long ago. It’s the weakest part of the plan. You’re going to risk men’s lives taking a Godforsaken town down in Florida, and you don’t even know how the hell to—”
“I’m sure we can think of a hundred approaches,” Randy said.
“Yeah, you can think of a hundred,” Alex said, “but so far I haven’t heard a single one.”
“We’re not moving on this thing tomorrow, you know,” Jason said. “We’ve got all the time we need. The situation isn’t going to change overnight, you can count on that.”
“What do I tell my wife?” Goody asked.
“Nothing. You tell her absolutely nothing.”
“I just take off one morning, huh? Knowing I might never come back.”
“That’s a possibility,” Jason said.
“And she won’t wonder how come I’m not going out on the tractor. She won’t ask me, Hey, Goody, where you off to? You should’ve heard her when I told her I was coming up to New York for a reunion, Jase.” He shook his head. “I don’t know. I just don’t know.”
“Then drop out,” Jason said flatly.
“I let you down once,” Goody said.
The men in the room were silent.
“You don’t owe me any favors,” Jason said. “If you’re thinking I called you because you owe me something, you’re mistaken.”
“He called you because he thought he knew what kind of men you were,” Randy said.
None of the others said anything.
“Well,” Jason said, “the only thing I can do is ask you not to talk about this to anyone.”
“A woman might be able to pull it off,” Alex said suddenly.
“What?”
“The boat. Why don’t we use a woman?”
“It looks as though it’s clearing up,” Annabelle said.
Alex turned his eyes from the water ahead. She had come from below to stand beside him, her belly protruding, the same live intelligence sparkling somewhere behind the slitted eyes, like a fire burning in the depths of a cave.
“I was worried,” Annabelle said. “When Jason radioed to say we should go ahead, I was worried about the weather.”
“I don’t imagine Jason would have set us in motion if the weather was going to be a hang-up,” Alex said.
“Wouldn’t he?” Annabelle asked, and smiled.
“I don’t think so,” Alex said.
“You don’t know Jason.”
“I know he wouldn’t risk the whole thing collapsing.”
“Jason never even imagines anything collapsing,” Annabelle said flatly. “In Jason’s world everything comes off like clockwork, just the way he planned it.”
“That’s sunshine up ahead,” Alex said, and shrugged. “Jason knows what he’s doing.”