by Alisa Smith
“What about saving democracy?” I asked. Partly sarcastic, and partly hoping that’s what we were really about.
“I leave that to the politicians,” Bill said. “The spymasters don’t buy it. They just talk the talk when it suits them. What’s an ideal except a weak spot? The arrow always goes into the neck, so you keep your neck covered.”
Bill was right. Link had died because he wanted to restore his honour. I didn’t want an end like that. I would have to predict everything that might come, and fight to make my own way within Miss Maggie’s constraints. Bill seemed to have managed it. “I don’t want to be bait for men,” I said, putting my empty glass down on the sideboard. “That’s what they always have women do. It’s too boring. I want to be a full part of the front business.”
“That’s exactly the plan,” Bill said. “Gems and opium provide cover to travel to some odd places. The Chinese Commies have spilled into Burma to regroup. Miss Maggie believes they’ll win their war. China is next door to the Soviet Union. Commies everywhere now. There’s work to do.”
The Soviet Union. I felt a surge of excitement. Maybe I’d get there yet, as I’d wanted for so long, to finish my language research from before the war. Alone, if possible. Of course, I could still meet somebody out in the field. Love was a hazard and I apparently lacked judgment in this area. Link and Bill, two strikes. And to be honest with myself, had I not thought von Roth attractive before I knew he was a Nazi? I felt sick to think of it. I had a fifty-fifty chance of picking wrong again, and I did not play the roulette tables for this reason. I’d been independent for thirteen years—since I fled Bill—and wanted to stay that way. Maybe Byron still loved me a little, but not like when we were younger. I supposed that wouldn’t interfere with our work. In fact, I could make use of it. He’d be my ally and he would protect me, even from Bill. It would be best if I could get away from Bill, though.
“Will she send me there? I speak Russian. Far as I know, I’m the only one,” I said pointedly.
“If it comes to that, we’ll all go.”
Bill’s eyes as he looked at me were so blue, deep and cold as ice off a glacier when it breaks away in spring. In innocent seas, a freed iceberg crushes ships and destroys people.
I would not be destroyed.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
THIS BOOK WAS many years in the making. My most profound thanks to those who had faith in me when faith was hardest to come by: Richard Bausch, my mentor at the Humber School for Writers, and John Pearce, my tireless agent who holds the torch for literature. I am grateful to my great-aunt Sheelagh, who served in the Canadian Air Force in World War II on the West Coast. Hearing that she was involved in radio intelligence against the Japanese inspired Lena’s profession. My deepest thanks also to Marcia Markland of Thomas Dunne, whose enthusiasm for Speakeasy led her to ask for a sequel, which had not been part of my original plan. It was so much fun to revisit my characters.
This is a work of historical fiction, and I have a master’s degree in history, which makes me a bit of a fanatic. It led me to happily obsess for many, many hours over books about World War II, the “Far East” as it was then called, and the early CIA. This book is underpinned with many facts, and I tried my best for historical accuracy in broad strokes, but fiction necessitates some liberties. There are also facts that can never be known, particularly in the history of the secret service. The death of King Ananda by a bullet through the head was never solved, and the story that he was playing with a gun in bed is thin indeed. The early CIA was active in Southeast Asia during the years after the war, while pursuing better-known plots to overthrow governments in Guatemala and Iran; elsewhere, agents planned assassinations of Fidel Castro in Cuba and Patrice Lumumba in Congo. Following the grand actions of World War II, meddling in the highest levels of state in countries deemed at risk of Communism was an acceptable tactic. As well, the Americans really did recruit Nazis as secret agents against the Soviets, though they were not to my knowledge employed in Southeast Asia. However, the US chose Thailand as its base against Communism in Asia. Bill Donovan, the former head of the entire American secret service during World War II, was appointed ambassador there in 1953. Perhaps “ambassador” should be in quotation marks. He was well acquainted with the region, having struggled to demobilize his irregular OSS agents on the Burma border right after the war, because they “preferred to concentrate on the heroin trade” (The Old Boys: The American Elite and the Origins of the CIA by Burton Hersh). The early CIA supported Chief Phao Sriyanond of the Thai national police and armed his men. When Chief Phao’s officers strangled, burnt, and buried five political figures in 1952, he said: “There is nothing under the sun that the Thai police cannot do” (A History of Thailand by Chris Baker and Pasuk Phongpaichit).
Other books on these topics that I found interesting or useful include: The Secret Army: Chiang Kai-Shek and the Drug Warlords of the Golden Triangle by Richard Michael Gibson and Wen H. Chen; Siam Becomes Thailand: A Story of Intrigue by Judith A. Stowe; The Railway Man: A POW’s Searing Account of War, Brutality, and Forgiveness by Eric Lomax; A Life for Every Sleeper: A Pictorial Record of the Burma-Thailand Railway by Hugh V. Clarke; Behind Japanese Lines: With the OSS in Burma by Richard Dunlop; Far Eastern File: The Intelligence War in the Far East, 1930–1945 by Peter Elphick; OSS Special Weapons and Equipment: Spy Devices of WWII by H. Keith Melton; The Overseas Targets: War Report of the OSS (Office of Strategic Services) by Kermit Roosevelt; Spymistress: The Life of Vera Atkins, the Greatest Female Secret Agent of World War II by William Stevenson; Code Warriors: NSA’s Codebreakers and the Secret Intelligence War against the Soviet Union by Stephen Budiansky; Perilous Missions: Civil Air Transport and CIA Covert Operations in Asia by William M. Leary; Counterspy: Memoirs of a Counterintelligence Officer in World War II and the Cold War by Richard W. Cutler; The Very Best Men: The Daring Early Years of the CIA by Evan Thomas; Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA by Tim Weiner; and The Nazis Next Door: How America Became a Safe Haven for Hitler’s Men by Eric Lichtblau.
I found the recruitment of Nazis by the American secret service to be particularly chilling and wanted to raise awareness of it, as it seems largely forgotten. Frank Wisner—an OSS spymaster in Europe during World War II who became the CIA’s head of covert action—recruited Gustav Hilger, a Nazi behind the SS Einsatzgruppen, the mobile killing squads that exterminated Roma and Jews (Thomas). A CIA officer apparently having moral qualms revealed in 1953: “We will pick up any man who will help us defeat the Soviets, any man regardless of what his Nazi record was” (Lichtblau).
On a more minute level of historical fandom, where possible I have used spellings common in that era, which have changed considerably. As an example, the grand palace’s Gate of Supreme Victory used to be spelled Vises Jaisri in a 1930s guidebook, while the modern tourist brochure from my own visit to the palace spells it Visechaisri Gate. Street and canal names have also evolved, while Nakom Paton has been spelled in every possible variant. Siam was sometimes called Thailand in the period between 1932 and 1948, when the name because permanent. For simplicity’s sake, I continued to use Siam in my book, on the assumption that most ordinary people would keep the ancient name out of habit and the fact that the Allies rejected the 1939 renaming by the Japanese puppet government.
Much gratitude and many hugs to those who have read my manuscript drafts over the years and provided creative feedback, including both friends who are professional writers or those just literary at heart. You know who you are, and please hit me up for a beer or three. My wordsmith mom stepped in when needed, while grants from the BC Arts Council and Access Copyright helped me soldier on. To my editorial gurus—at St. Martin’s, Nettie Finn, and at Douglas & McIntyre, Caroline Skelton and Anna Comfort O’Keeffe—thank you for pushing me to be the best I could be. Any mistakes or follies are my own.
Most of all, my thanks to all the readers who still love to read.
Also by Alisa Smith
Speakeasy
ALISA SMITH is the bestselling co-author of Plenty: A Year of Eating Locally on the 100-Mile Diet (Crown). Her freelance writing has been published in Outside, Reader’s Digest, Utne Reader, Ms. Magazine, Canadian Geographic, Elle Canada, the National Post, and many others, winning two National Magazine Awards. She served as a judge for a various literary awards and has lectured widely on writing. She is based in Vancouver. You can sign up for email updates here.
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CONTENTS
Title Page
Copyright Notice
Dedication
Epigraph
November 28, 1945
Chapter One: The Next War
Chapter Two: December 7, 1945—Morning
Chapter Three: America’s Nazis
Chapter Four: December 7, 1945—Afternoon
Chapter Five: Fogs and Williwaws
Chapter Six: December 12, 1945
Chapter Seven: Awol is the Blond
Chapter Eight: December 13, 1945
Chapter Nine: The Quarlo
Chapter Ten: December 15, 1945
Chapter Eleven: Through the Porthole
Chapter Twelve: January 10, 1946
Chapter Thirteen: Blood in the Water
Chapter Fourteen: January 11, 1946
Chapter Fifteen: To Forgive a Thief
Chapter Sixteen: January 14, 1946
Chapter Seventeen: Bangkok Belongs to Him
Chapter Eighteen: January 16, 1946—Morning
Chapter Nineteen: The Mental Patient
Chapter Twenty: January 16, 1946—Evening
Chapter Twenty-One: First Time Twice
Chapter Twenty-Two: January 25, 1946—Noon
Chapter Twenty-Three: Evening at the Palace
Chapter Twenty-Four: January 25, 1946—Night
Chapter Twenty-Five: The Mission
Chapter Twenty-Six: February 11, 1946—Late Afternoon
Chapter Twenty-Seven: The Tunnel
Chapter Twenty-Eight: February 11, 1946—Midnight
Chapter Twenty-Nine: When Kings Die
Acknowledgements
Also by Alisa Smith
About the Author
Copyright
This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
DOUBLESPEAK. Copyright © 2019 by Alisa Smith. All rights reserved. For information, address St. Martin’s Press, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010.
www.stmartins.com
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First published in Canada by Douglas and McIntyre (2013) Ltd
First U.S. Edition: April 2019
eISBN 9781250097866
First eBook edition: March 2019