James Munro - The Innocent Bystanders

"You're looking better, Craig," he said.

"I'm feeling it," said Craig.

"No hard feelings, I hope?"

"None," said Craig, and spoke to Joanna. "This gentleman took me on a drug party in New York. I wound up telling him the story of my life." He turned back to the leader. "Do you have a name?"

"Lederer will do. Where's our mutual friend?"

"Dickens," said Joanna. "I adore intellectual conversation."

"In the bathroom," said Craig. "Go and take a look— but mind how you walk."

Lederer looked round the bathroom door. Kaplan sat strapped to the toilet, fast asleep.

"That's some coffee you serve," said Lederer. "I'll give you half a million dollars for him."

"I've got half a million dollars."

"A million—tax free."

"You shouldn't talk in such vast sums. It's what makes you Americans so unpopular," Joanna said.

"And guaranteed protection," said Lederer.

"I've already got a deal—with Loomis," said Craig.

"So has the CIA. He wants information. I'd sooner spend money."

"I'm sorry," said Craig. "I really am."

It was at that moment that Harry found it necessary to prove his manhood. A broad halfway through a burlesque routine seemed to him an insult to his maleness, even if she did hold a Colt .45. And anyway, he reasoned, a Colt is too big a gun for a broad. And with Lederer watching he'd be doing himself a whole lot of good. He'd been watching her, and sure enough the gun barrel had sagged, her concentration was all on Lederer and Craig.

Harry swiveled slightly on his chair. She took no notice. Careful to show no evidence of tension on his face or body, Harry prepared himself the way they'd taught him and made his grab. What happened was like a nightmare in slow motion. She seemed to have all the time in the world to bring the gun up, to choose the spot where the bullet would go. There was no tension in her eyes, only a glittering excitement as she pulled the trigger, the gun popped, and Harry felt as if the room had fallen on his shoulder before he lost consciousness. And all the time, Craig's gun stayed on Lederer.

"He's a little overexcitable," Lederer said.

Joanna went to him, opened his coat.

"He's lucky he's not a little dead," she said. "He didn't give me much time to choose a spot."

She went into the bathroom and came back with a towel.

"First they make one shoot them, then they expect one to patch them up. It's no fun being a woman," she said.

"The information Loomis is asking for is a little expensive," Lederer said to Craig. "Why don't you and I just settle this privately? I could go up to a million five."

"No deal," said Craig. "I'm sorry."

"It's too bad we need that bastard," said Lederer. "He costs too much."

Joanna looked up from Harry.

"What makes him so very expensive?" she asked.

"He can make the deserts blossom," said Lederer. "Put him down on sand and sea water and he'll turn it into an orange grove. It takes money and it takes technology, but he can do it. So we'll work out the technique, and sell it round the world."

"Sell it?"

"Not for money. As you say—we Americans have enough. For cooperation. For commitment." "You should start with Israel," Craig said. "We intend to."

"He's not exactly a willing worker," said Craig.

"He will be. Who else has he got but us?" He looked into Craig's eyes. "You don't like him much, do you?"

"I don't like him at all. But he's needed. A lot of better men died because of him, but the world hasn't any use for them. They couldn't do his trick."

"Give him a few years and he'll be just as friendly and lovable and integrated as any other millionaire," said Lederer. The lock expert groaned and twitched feebly.

"I guess we better be going," Lederer said. It sounded like a question.

"I think you had," said Craig.

"Just one thing I want to ask. How on earth did you know we were coming?" "We had her followed."

"Sure. I know that. Your local guy. We blocked him off before he could get near."

"We rather thought you would," said Craig. "You're very efficient. So we put another man on to her as well. Flew him in from England this morning."

Lederer accepted it without regret. "I guess we had it coming," he said. "One way or another, we gave you quite a runaround." He looked at the sleeping figure on the bed. "And Miss Loman."

"If your own operators hadn't been blown, you'd have got him yourselves," said Craig. "You did all you could do 1—under the circumstances."

"The circumstances were lousy," Lederer said. "But at least we've got Kaplan."

"You will have, tomorrow," said Craig.

"You're flying him back?"

"BOAC. It was funny how every American airline just happened to have four seats available."

Lederer grinned. "Can't blame us for trying, son," he said. "Next time, we'll block you off before the operation even gets started."

"There won't be a next time," said Craig.

The man on the floor groaned again. He should have been happy.

For the Americans, getting out of the hotel was easy. They used the same drunken-party technique they'd used with Craig, a hundred-drachma note to a night porter, and a waiting Buick. When they'd gone, Joanna put down the gun, stretched her arms and sighed. Translucent silk slid over her hips, stretched taut across her breasts.

"What a very exciting night," she said.

"Stop being the middle pages of Playboy" said Craig.

She moved toward him.

"I feel like the middle pages of Playboy," she said. She stood very close to him, and kissed him. He made no response. "Is it her?" she asked, and looked at the bed.

"No," Craig said. "That's over. In a way, it never even started. It was all loneliness and fear and"—he struggled for the word—"compassion. It almost got her killed. She deserves better than anything I could give her."

"I don't," Joanna said. "I don't expect it. I don't want it. You're what I want."

"Is that why you let me go free?"

"Of course it was."

Craig laughed. "And I thought it was because you thought you had a better chance with me than with Royce."

Suddenly, she was laughing too. It made her more beautiful, more exciting than ever. Still kughing, she pressed herself against him once more.

"You and I will get on beautifully, darling. You've so much to teach me," she said. Her arms came around him. "And vice-versa, of course."

CHAPTER 15

They flew to Rome, and then to New York. This time the movie was about sex in the Deep South. Craig's sympathies were with the South. He had always understood it had problems enough without that. Back in time they went, eating the same plastic meals, drinking the exactly measured drinks; bored, restless, embalmed in space. Craig sat beside Miriam, and tried to think of ways of saying good-bye. There were none.

"I'm taking a holiday," she said. "I reckon I deserve it."

"Send the bill to Force Three," he said. "The least they can do is pay."

"I thought maybe you'd like to come along."

"You've had enough of me, and everybody like me."

"Listen," she said. "Sometimes I hate you. Sometimes I could kill you for the way you can always get a rise out of me. The way you look at life—the things you do—it hurts me even when I think of them. The trouble is I love you."

"The trouble is I make you unhappy."

"I was happy for five nights," Miriam said. "Maybe I was lucky it lasted so long. You said something like that to Kaplan—that night in Troodos. Only he had six months."

"Maybe he earned it," Craig said.

"After what he did?"

"After what he suffered. You had it rough, Miriam, and most of it was my fault, and I'm sorry. But Kaplan—we can't even begin to guess the things they did to him."

"What about the things he did to the Jews? His own people."