Joseph Kanon - Defectors

“What?” Jo said. “Who’s sending a boat?”

“The Agency,” Simon said. “To get you out.”

“The Agency,” she said, her eyes moving, someone being chased, then looking up at Simon as this sunk in.

Suddenly, too fast to anticipate, her hand came up, then both hands, hitting him, his arm raised to protect his face, the slaps falling on his chest.

“The Agency? They sent you? That’s why you came? To trap us? You?”

Simon grabbed her hands. “Stop it.”

But she was shaking. “You.”

Behind him, Nancy was taking quick nervous breaths, not expecting this.

“You’d do this to him? To me?”

“Stop it. I don’t work for the Agency. I’m trying to help you.”

“Kidnap us. Send us to prison.”

He turned to Frank. “Tell her.”

Another unguarded moment, a kind of pleading look, and for a second Simon thought he might do it, tell the truth, but then the eyes cleared, disciplined, back in his story. Not even to her.

“He’s not with them. I asked him to help us.”

“Help us.”

“It’s time. You need to go home.”

“I need?”

“I couldn’t tell anybody. It’s too dangerous.”

“But they knew,” she said, spreading her hand to take in the rest of the car. “And now what? We get in a boat? Sail away?” She nodded to Hal. “Are you going to take pictures? For UPI? And what happens to us?”

“We’ll be protected,” Frank said.

“Protected. Who arranged that?”

“I arranged it.”

“And what’s the price?” She turned, swatting Simon’s hand away. “Well, what else could it be? And you’d do that.”

“But you’ll be out,” Simon said.

“No we won’t. You can’t. Not here. We’ll be killed.”

“Killed?” Nancy said.

“Not if we do it right,” Simon said.

“And that’s your job?” Frank said, still trying to make sense of things. “Stop. Go back before it’s too late. This isn’t the arrangement. I go with DiAngelis. Only him.”

“You mean he comes back with you. I know. That’s always been the plan. Yours, anyway. Your Gary Powers. A gift to the Service. Another show trial. But I couldn’t let you do that. Help you. That would be treason.” He stopped. “I’m not you.”

Frank’s eyes narrowed, as if they were taking aim.

“Treason?” Jo said. Nobody listening.

“So we’ll go through with the original plan. You go to DiAngelis. Tell him what he wants to know. A little payback. For everything.”

Frank was still staring at him.

“What made you think I’d go along with this?”

“You have to. The only way to save yourself now is to go through with it. Defect.”

“The Service knows all about—”

“Your plan? With the Estonians who aren’t there? Except they’re already there. Where you put them. They’ll be sacrificed whatever happens, won’t they? And now you pull in DiAngelis. A real Cracker Jack prize. Your plan. And they’d believe you. If you’d stuck to it. But you didn’t. You ditched Boris. Took off in a car with UPI. To the border. A day ahead of plan. There’s no other way to interpret that. Their worst nightmare.”

“I was forced.”

“By me? The naïve little brother? Who’d believe that?”

“The Service. I’m an officer.”

“You think so? I don’t. They’ll eat you for breakfast. Just what they like. The double-dealing foreigner. Their favorite story. You’re not going to talk yourself out of this.”

“And you? What are you going to say? You don’t actually think this can work, do you? You’ll be—you’ll be the Gary Powers. You don’t want that. I didn’t bring you here for that.”

“No. Just to use me,” Simon said, his voice suddenly bitter. “Play me like a harp. Use Joanna—‘you have to save her.’ Knowing I’d want to. Use Richie. Jesus Christ, Frank, a dead child. Making me feel sorry for you. And it’s just part of the bait. Even use yourself. How’s your health? I’ll bet you’re not even close to dying. I’ll bet you’re in the pink.”

“No,” Frank said, still looking at him. “That part’s true. Maybe not as soon, that’s all.”

“What part?” Jo said. “What do you mean, dying?”

“Jimbo, stop. They’ll put you in prison. Worse. I never meant—”

“What did you mean? You thought you’d get away with it. I’d be on the ferry, so that was all right. But there was Jo. That was a wrinkle. She had to stay. So send me back with Marzena and fly me out. And what do I say when I get there? To the Agency? I’m the one set it up in the first place.”

“They’d know it was me.”

“With me as your tool. I’d still be guilty. But so what? Just crack a few more eggs to make the omelet. You used us, Frank. All of us. All of us. Christ, for what? To make yourself look good to them? Who don’t trust you anyway? You even used them. Kelleher? Finished anyway. Ian? Somebody had to do it. Gareth—”

“That’s enough,” Frank said, his voice gravelly. “You’ll outsmart yourself.”

“What about Gareth?” Jo said.

“But not you. I could never outsmart you.”

“You think you have. Stop. Now.”

“We can’t stop now. It was too late the minute we left Boris behind.”

“And when he catches up?”

“We’re almost there,” Hal said. “What do you want me to do?”

“There’s a train station with a little park. In the center. Drive there first.”

“I’m not getting on that boat,” Frank said, his eyes hard, fixed. Simon felt the car closing around them, windows trapping them inside, unable to move, Frank at the other end. Finally afraid, recognizing the glass around them, the faint scratching, two scorpions.

“No,” Simon said, keeping his voice steady. “But DiAngelis thinks you are.”

“What does that mean?”

“What does any of it mean?” Jo said. She looked at Frank. “I won’t go to the Agency.”

“You’ll be all right,” Simon said. “You’re part of the deal. When Frank made them think there was a deal. So now there is.”

“I won’t go to the Agency.”

“You can’t stay here. None of us can now. It’s too late.”

“None of us,” Nancy said, pushing herself into her corner. “Oh, my God.”

“I meant us,” Simon said, “not you and Hal. You’re not part of this.”

“I’m driving,” Hal said.

“Stop the car,” Frank said, reaching over to him.

“Take your hands off him. I have a gun.”

“What?” Turning, incredulous, a sharp intake of breath, the beginning of a laugh, then a stillness, seeing Simon’s face. “There’s only one way you could have got it. What did you promise him?”

“That you’d go through with the deal. And you will.”

“Jimbo, a gun from the CIA? That’s a death warrant. There’s no diplomatic cover for that. Not if you have a gun. Let me have it.”

Involuntarily Simon clutched at the coat in his lap, Frank glancing down.

“The idea was that you’d be at the other end of it. If there was any trouble.”

“Get rid of it then. Toss it off the pier, junk it somewhere—just get rid of it.”

“Later. When everything’s okay.”

“You’d never use it.”

Simon stared at him.

“A gun,” Nancy said.

“Why didn’t you tell me?” Jo said to Frank.

“Because you were never going to go,” Simon said, answering for him. “Nobody was. It was just a story he told to get them to come to him. You weren’t part of it.”

“But now I am? Thanks to you?”

“We’ll get you out.”

“Out.”

“Don’t make promises you can’t keep,” Frank said.

Simon looked at him. “Don’t try to stop this. We all have to go now. We’re on the same side. The Service just put us there.”