Donald Hamilton - The Betrayers

Without warning, I stumbled out of the jungle into a pleasant grove of the big mesquite-kiawes, under which were pitched several well-camouflaged tents, carefully placed where natural growth would shield them from both air and sea observation. The flap of the nearest tent was tied back and I could see radio equipment inside. The trees ended at a placid inlet. Beyond was an open area of muck and grass and sandy hummocks.

I looked for the boats and couldn't see them at first. Then I spotted them back in the jungle to the left, where the inlet kind of disappeared into a dense tangle of vegetation. Part of this had been carefully undercut to make room along the bank-a kind of natural boathouse – for the two white speedsters.

Down at the edge of the brush, Monk was standing with Irma. There were also a couple of dark-faced, armed, Hawaiian-looking characters like the ones who formed my escort, and a chunky man in a dirty white suit. Another man, also in grubby whites, lay on the riverbank, apparently dead.

"I tell you, darling," Irma was saying angrily when we came up, "I tell you, they were trying to force their way past the guards. When I came running, that one pulled a gun. He was going to shoot; naturally I shot first."

The chunky man had a round, impassive, Oriental face and slanting dark eyes, very narrow now. His voice was soft and his English was chosen with care.

"I think I am entitled to explanation, Mr. Rath. We go to make final inspection of equipment-our equipment. We are seized by ruffians. My colleague is murdered by impetuous young lady. He was most valuable. My superiors will be displeased. How shall I report this unfortunate incident?"

He was a good man. He knew he was in a tight spot, a very tight spot, but his face was calm and he wasted no time on anger. He might have been discussing a defective circuit instead of a dead colleague.

"Well, Mr. Rath?" he said to Monk.

Monk's eyes were wide and grave. "I'm sorry as hell, Mr. Soo," he said-at least that's the way the name sounded to me. "I'm sorry as hell. It's a stupid misunderstanding, that's all it is. Just a misunderstanding.

You said your work was finished, so I put the boats out of bounds so no one would monkey with them until tomorrow morning. These men just take orders. They're not supposed to think; you know how it is. They didn't understand that of course you are free to come and go as you wish. And Miss Darnley, here, well, she's young, and nobody likes to be shot at… How does it happen that your friend had a gun, Mr. Soo? I told you we would take care of all the security arrangements."

Mr. Soo, or whatever his name was, hesitated for a second or two. Then he said smoothly, "I told him it was a breach of hospitality, but he would insist on bringing it." The only sign of strain he showed was that his English, surprisingly, got a little more fluent as he talked. "So there are faults on both sides, Mr. Rath. A terrible thing, but it is done. You will take care of him?"

"Yes, of course. If you still want to look aboard the boat…"

Mr. Soo smiled gently. "Not right now. I am hardly, as you say, in the mood. I will return to my tent, if you please."

He started to walk away. Monk nodded. The nearest man stepped forward and chopped him down with the butt of a carbine, using no more force than required. There was a little silence after he had fallen.

Monk looked at the man on the ground and at me. "There's your shipmate, Eric."

It was time for somebody to ask a stupid and obvious question, and I seemed to be the logical candidate. "So you and the lady from Moscow are double-crossing your Chinese associates," I said. "What the hell kind of complicated deal are you trying to pull here, Monk?"

"Not trying, friend." His eyes were bright and hot and intensely blue. "Pulling."

I glanced at the girl and looked back to Monk. "With her help. Did you sell out for rubles instead of yen, is that it?"

"Nobody sold out!" His voice was harsh. "We merely discovered, shall we say, that our interests were identical in certain areas. Large areas. When the fate o mankind is at stake, friend, one takes one's allies where one finds them! I tried to convince people in Washington, but I couldn't find anybody who'd face the facts and do what needed doing. We're governed by cowards and sentimentalists. I had to go elsewhere to find a realistic approach to international politics."

"Realistic," I said, with another glance at Irma, who kept her young face expressionless. I looked at the man she'd shot, lying there on the bank, and I remembered a woman she'd also shot, and I said, "She's realistic, all right. Are you going to tell me about this realistic approach, amigo, or do you expect me to guess?"

Monk stepped up to Mr. Soo and with his foot contemptuously rolled the unconscious Chinese over and looked down at the broad yellow face.

"There's the true enemy, Eric!" he said grimly. "They're arrogant bastards. They think they can use and outsmart anybody. They thought they could use and outsmart me. They figure civilization started with them and will end with them. And unless something's done with them soon, they may be right."

The picture was beginning to come into focus, gradually.

"And you're just the boy to do it," I murmured.

"Let's say I'm the boy to see that it gets done," Monk said. "I've spent years studying them, out here in the Pacific. They're the most dangerous people in the world, and there are more of them than there are of anybody else. Once all four hundred million of them break loose, there'll be no stopping them. We've got to do it now, Eric! Now!"

I said, "And that's what you're really working for? You're not protesting against the war we've got; quite the contrary. You're trying to promote a bigger and better one. You figure on sinking a U.S. transport with Red Chinese equipment and having the body of a Chinese technician found on board the boat that set off the explosion. You figure that will force Washington's hand. We'll have to retaliate somehow, and there'll be counter-retaliation, and what you're really hoping is that it will build up-escalate, to use the jargon-to a nuclear payoff. Is that it?"

He smiled. "You underestimate me, Eric. I've made sure of forcing Washington's hand. There will be found on board the boat not only a Chinese technician, but a cowardly American peacemonger fairly high in government employment. Don't forget yourself, my friend. Why do you think we were so careful to lure a man out from Washington, hoping for a fairly senior agent who, unlike the kids we'd hired for show, couldn't possibly be called a dupe or a catspaw. As Irma said, you played right into our hands with your pacifist cover. Your body found on the boat along with the Chinaman's will discredit both the pacifist groups and the wishy-washy government that tolerates them. There'll have to be action, real action, to quiet the national uproar that will follow."

I glanced at Irma. "And supposing you get your war, what part will her people take?"

Monk said, "They will fight with us. They'll have to. They have just as much to lose as we have."

"That'll be the day," I said.

"We fought together to defeat the Germans, didn't we? This is a greater danger than Hitler."

I said, "Suppose they just stand by rubbing their hands gleefully while the two largest nations they share the world with kill each other off, after which they simply move in to pick up the pieces." I didn't look at Irma, but I was aware that she'd stirred minutely, as if I'd touched a sensitive nerve. I said, "You're dreaming, Monk. I won't argue with your premise; I don't know that much about Asiatic politics. But I don't trust your allies."

"They'll have to fight," Monk said stubbornly, his eyes hard and bright. "They know as well as we do that the fate of the white race is at stake."