Keith Thomson - Twice a Spy

At the base of the stairs, luxury gave way to dark, featureless walls and a hint of mildew. Drummond threw the light switch as if he’d known exactly where the wall panel was, illuminating a large basement of bare concrete.

At one end, a central air-conditioning unit heaved air into a labyrinth of foil-coated ducts. At the other end of the room stood a hot water tank sufficient in size to service an apartment building. The center of the basement included a laundry area, with an industrial-style sink and an ironing board that folded out from a wall compartment. Both devices appeared to have never been used. Ditto the gleaming stainless steel washing machine and dryer.

Charlie recognized the models from the display window of the ultrachic kitchen and bathroom store in the West Village that carried the French brand name. “They’re gorgeous,” he said. “The thing is, the washer we want is a three-hundred-buck Perriman piece of crap.”

Fielding might have upgraded to a pricier nuclear bomb container, but it was unlikely: The Cavalry’s Perriman Pristina models had specially modified linings to thwart radiation detectors.

Charlie snapped open the round door on the machine’s face, knelt, and looked in. “This is only good for doing laundry.”

As Drummond bent over to take a turn inspecting the machine, a Hispanic baritone resounded from the stairwell. “You looking for a bomb?”

Startled, Charlie spun around.

The watchtower guard took the last three steps in a leap. He was armed with a smaller machine gun than before. More than ample to shred two intruders, though.

“I was just wondering what in the world this washing machine does that makes it so expensive,” Charlie said.

The guard rubbed his chin, as if trying to make sense of Charlie’s words. Meanwhile Drummond unfolded himself from the washer.

“I knowed that was you, Senor Lesser,” the guard exclaimed.

Fear, like molten metal, filled Charlie’s intestines.

“How are you?” Drummond asked.

“Real, real good, gracias. ” The guard smiled, seemingly flattered by Senor Lesser’s interest. “Except that real estate fucker called the cops on you.”

“Didn’t see that coming,” Charlie said.

“I have an idea,” the guard said, waving for them to follow him up the staircase. “Also, the washer you want’s not on the island no more.”

Charlie looked to Drummond for a sign of assurance.

Drummond started up the stairs. Good enough.

At the top of the staircase the guard hurried to the kitchen and opened a screen door, taking them out the back of the pool house.

Drummond looked the guard over. “You’re Henrique, right? Or Hector …”

“ Si , Hector. Hector Manzanillo.” He led the way across a cricket field as lush and well tended as a golf course.

A smile creased Drummond’s face. “With the brother who pitches in the Milwaukee Brewers farm system? Rico, yes?”

Charlie could almost see lucidity surging into his father: As Drummond walked, he appeared to grow taller, his stride becoming more resolute, and the old glow returning to his eyes. Had Hector Manzanillo sparked him whereas du Frongipanier or Odelette’s children had not? Possibly. Sticking his head inside a washing machine might also have sparked him. Whichever, Charlie was elated. They needed an exit strategy, and when Drummond Clark was on, he was an escape artist.

“Rico blew out his shoulder last season,” Hector said.

“I’m sorry to hear it,” said Drummond.

“Don’t be. He’s doing way better now selling ‘bananas’ for the Bucagas.”

“First-class operation,” said Drummond of the drug dealers.

The trio reached a staircase whose eight flights zigzagged down a cliff face speckled with patches of grass and scrawny trees. From this far up, the choppy sea looked like tinfoil.

Hector pointed down to the beach that wrapped around the rock wall. “Follow the shore ’round to the pier, shouldn’t take you no more than a minute, then blast off in that fancy-ass speedboat you came in. I’ll go the other way, gunning one of the launches from the private dock, do what I can to draw away the cops.”

Drummond nodded his approval. “I owe you one, Hector.”

“I still owe you way more than that, senor.” The guard clambered down the stairs, unconcerned by the creaks and groans that suggested loose moorings.

Right behind him, Drummond said, “Hector, do you have any idea what Fielding did with the other washing machine?”

“The Perriman Pristina? Wish I did. Woulda saved me two broken ribs and fuck-near getting drowned.”

Drummond reddened. “Who did that to you?”

“They said they was Interpol.”

“That means we can rule out Interpol.”

Struggling to keep pace, Charlie surmised that whoever Bream was working for had interrogated Hector. They would have exhausted every means of locating the bomb before mounting their Gstaad operation.

Continuing down the stairs, Hector said, “I told those fuckers what Senor Fielding told me, which was pretty much nada. ”

“Tell me anyway,” Drummond said.

“When we loaded the Pristina onto his boat, he said he was gonna run it over to some new hiding place he got on Bernadette Islet or Antoinina Islet-you know, there’s tons of them little isles around here, no people on ’em, no nothing. The boss, he liked to cruise around, find new ones and draw ’em onto his map. He’d name ’em after the ladies he took there …” Embarrassment tinted the guard’s beefy face. “On dates.”

“I imagine your ‘Interpol officers’ searched all these islands?”

“Bernadette’s just a giant-ass sandbar, maybe three kilometers north of here. High tide, thing’s underwater. So you couldn’t really hide nothing there. So of course they didn’t find nothing.”

“What about Antoinina?”

“That’s the thing. There’s no Antoinina on any of Senor Fielding’s maps. Or on any map. Closest thing’s Arianne Islet, which is far, forty clicks easy. They tore that rock apart too. Found shit.”

“Could there be some meaning to ‘Antoinina’ that they missed?” Charlie asked Drummond.

“Damned if I know,” he said.

Which was reason to hope otherwise. Drummond opposed even mild profanity.

Charlie had difficulty keeping up with Drummond on the slender beach, which was piled with round, sea-smoothed stones that could broadcast their whereabouts.

“While it’s on my mind, I should say that I might know what Fielding meant by those islets,” Drummond said.

“That could come in handy,” Charlie said. He’d presumed Drummond had chosen to keep mum in the presence of Hector. Nice guy and all, but probably a hardcore criminal who would have been less concerned for their well-being once he knew the whereabouts of a weapons system that could net him enough of a fortune to buy this island several times over.

“Do you remember the false subtraction cipher?” Drummond asked. “Yeah. You’re thinking alphanumeric values of ‘Bernadette’ and ‘Antoinina’?”

“Ought to yield the latitude and longitude of Fielding’s hiding spot. I’d need to do the math on paper. But perhaps you can do it in your head.”

With each letter assigned a number based on its alphabetical order, BERNADETTE minus ANTOININA translated to:

As the cipher’s name implies, false subtraction isn’t true subtraction. Charlie worked left to right, subtracting numbers on the bottom line from those directly above. 2–1 = 1, 5–1 = 4-if this were true subtraction, 5–1 would yield 3 because the 1 that comes next borrows from the 5 in order to subtract 4. As for the rest …