Джон Болл - The First Team

“Forgive me,” he said. “You surprised me, that’s all.”

Frank smiled. “Understood, Mr. Hewlitt, I don’t blame you a bit. Take your time if you’d like.”

“How did all this come about?” Hewlitt asked.

“Well, you remember my telling you that I had been a Marine once. I was well treated in the service and I liked the work. The way the cards came out I was assigned to intelligence and they found out that even if I didn’t have much brains, at least I could keep my mouth shut.”

He stopped to wave his glass in greeting at a newcomer who had just entered the room, then went back to his topic.

“It’s a funny thing about cabdrivers, people almost never pay them any attention. They don’t look at them, they don’t remember their names, and sometimes they don’t even know that they’re there. And they always let you know where they’re going, they have to do that. Remember that I told you too how people sometimes talk to cabdrivers when they’re alone and ask them all sorts of things. An’ one very important thing: a cabby in his hack can be anywhere at almost any time without people wonderin’. Night or day, a guy driving a cab isn’t questioned; maybe he’s on a call, or just dropped off a fare someplace. An’ if he shows up when you want a ride, you don’t ask him how he came to be there.”

“Let me get this straight,” Hewlitt said. “Are you a real taxi driver or aren’t you? If not, you had me fooled.”

“Oh, I’m real enough all right as far as it goes. When I’m not needed I hack like everybody else. But when they want me, I’m on call.”

“How do you manage to pick up the right passengers, for example…”

Frank took a little more of his drink. “I don’t think we need to get into all o’ that,” he said. “I’ll give you a for instance: suppose I’m to pick up a certain guy at the Mayflower. A couple of the other guys are there too, just in case. I get in line, but not too far forward. Then just before the subject comes out, some of our people step up and take the hacks ahead of me. That’s one way. But like I said, you don’t need to worry about all that. The point is, there’s work’to be done now.”

Hewlitt took a long pull at his own drink. “Do you believe Davy’s statement that this house is completely safe?” he asked.

“Bank on it, Davy is one of the boys — which is one reason you’re here tonight. An’ this isn’t an ordinary house — it belongs to the Agency. It’s been fixed up with a lot of hidden equipment so that if anyone monkeys with it, we know it right away.”

“Does Davy actually live here?”

“Yep, and he makes sure that things are in order. Like me he’s got protective coloration, so not many people are willing to believe that he’s bright. You can take it from me that he is.”

Hewlitt felt a developing sense of interest, even excitement. He believed what he had been told, and he had heard enough to be convinced that Frank was all he claimed to be. He had wanted action; now there were greatly improved prospects of getting it. He too had always liked Frank; already he began to feel a certain kinship with him despite the differences in their backgrounds.

“What do I do now?” he asked.

“I was just comin’ to that,” Frank said. ‘I’ve got some orders for you. From up above. Major Landers told you that there’s an organization.”

“Yes, but for a while I wondered about it.”

“You can stop wonderin’. There’s a real good one and it’s run by pros; they know exactly what they’re doin’. Are you ready?”

“Go.”

“All right. First off, you aren’t to do anything on your own, no matter how good it looks to you at the time. Bob Landers did and he fell inta a trap. You know what happened.”

“Do you know what it was?”

“Right now, no, but we found out that he walked into a setup. So don’t do nothin’ on your own, nothin’ at all. Until you get the word from me.”

“If anything happens to you?”

“You’ll be contacted. And when it’s the right guy, you’ll know for sure. If there’s any doubt, any at all, don’t bite.”

“O.K.”

“Next, no matter how good somebody looks, don’t do any recruiting, leave that to us; most of the people we want are already picked and set up. Some of ’em know it; some don’t yet.”

“What can I do?”

“Several things. First, keep datin’ Barbara — that’s important. An’ it shouldn’t be too hard to take.”

“Not at all.”

“Good enough, she’s a real smart girl. What we want you most for right now is a listenin’ post. You got that new job right next to Mr. Z and we want to keep you there. So keep your nose real clean; do what he says. Sure as hell they’re goin’ to push somethin’ under your nose; don’t try to run with the ball, but don’t play stupid either, ’cause they know you aren’t. Just try to imagine that you’re strictly on your own, against them, but a little scared because of the Landers thing. If you play stupid, they’ll be on to you right then.”

That was good advice and Hewlitt knew it.

“Whatever comes your way,” Frank continued, “you pass on to me, or if you can’t, give it to Barbara. Mostly, though, she and Mary will be feeding you. You know what the word ‘control’ means in this business?”

“Vaguely.”

“Well, I’m your control, which means that I give the orders, I pick up your info and, if it comes to that, I look after you if I can. Nobody else, not even Davy, if I go under. If that happens, hang on tight and someone’ll get to you. Right now you can trust Barbara, Mary, Davy, and me, later you’ll get a couple more.”

“It sounds as though I’m going to be the cell leader.”

“No, Barbara is, but you’re the contact man because it’s a lot easier than to have me seein’ a white girl all the time. She’s got the experience, so she calls the signals, but you work with me.”

“How do we do that?”

“You follow my lead. Never talk to me, no matter what, unless I ask you first if Barbara’s given in yet. If’n I do, that means that it’s safe. Because of the way we had to set this up, Barbara knows who I am; we’ve worked together before. But the others don’t and you die before you tell ’em, you got that?”

Hewlitt digested the words. “Clearly,” he answered. He was beginning to believe in this man.

“All right,” Frank said. He rose to his feet and Hewlitt got up with him. “Don’t be surprised,” Frank said when they were standing together, “if Barbara and her friend move in here after a little while.”

“In this neighborhood?”

“About the best place for it,” Frank answered. “We’re goin’ to turn this into a real nice whorehouse.”

The following thirty days were the most traumatic in the history of the United States of America. It had faced disaster, civil war, and Pearl Harbor — even the divisive agony of the Vietnam war — but never before the galling indignity of defeat. The belief that had persisted at first — that the country would somehow extricate itself from its unexpected, awkward embarrassment, died under a series of events which fell like hammer blows throughout every part of the nation. Each day dozens of flights from overseas terminated at major airports with pay loads of up to four hundred of the enemy — troops, administrators, censors, secret police, and even scientists to take over existing plants and facilities. In a few places people resisted; they were ruthlessly pushed aside and were lucky if they escaped with their lives. Some did not.

It came as a bitter shock to most Americans when a swift and tight control was clamped on all forms of news dissemination. This was something almost impossible for a free people to understand, even for those comparative few who had visited East Berlin and had had to surrender every scrap of paper which might bear tidings of the West before being permitted to pass into the Communist-controlled portion of the city. Such isolation might be the unfortunate lot of certain other peoples, but it had been inconceivable that it could happen to the citizens of the greatest nation on earth.