“That’s what the commandant of Auschwitz said as he fired up his ovens each morning.” I sighed and rose. “Oh, all right. Where is this damn board? I suppose you’ve got it rigged so it’ll either blow me up or sink me…”
The boys with the dog tags revised their opinions of me steeply upward when they saw what I’d drawn for a surfing instructor. They stared so hard and so long that their girls turned audibly peevish. Meanwhile I was learning how to stand on a surfboard in shallow water, not the easiest balancing act in the world, even with Jill to steady the thing. After I’d fallen off three times, she said I had the general idea, and got her own board, and demonstrated the prone paddling technique. You could also paddle kneeling, she said, but I’d better not try that until I got my equilibrium working a little better.
It was quite a lesson. Just getting out there wasn’t easy and catching a wave right, even with Jill to give me the timing and an initial shove, seemed for a while to be next to impossible. I hadn’t tackled a new sport for a good many years, and I’d forgotten how clumsy a reasonably well-coordinated man can be when he really tries.
Then a big one came along, curling nicely as it reached us, and she pushed me off and called to me to stand up, as she had half a dozen times before. This time, however, I made it all the way to my feet without falling off, and as I found my balance I felt the thing really start to go. It was a strange sensation, hissing shoreward on a tender, tricky little plank with the wave roaring angrily right astern. I saw how it could become habit-forming, like skiing or auto racing.
I rode it clear out, and dropped down at last, and paddled back out to where Jill sat on her board, waiting for me.
“Not too bad,” she said. “Now on the next one, try to steer it a little, just to get the feel. Throw your weight back a bit and tilt the board in the direction you want to go. You’re not going to be able to ride big surf straight off like this, you know. You’ll want to turn at once, the minute you catch the wave, and slide across the face of it, away from the break… Matt?”
“Yes?”
“Who’s the frigid brunette, anyway? The one you were talking to at the party?”
I grinned. “What makes you think she’s frigid?”
“Sorry. Didn’t mean to insult your dreamboat. I hope you had a lovely time in her room last night.”
I said, “You’re just jealous because I spurned you for another woman. Maybe I’m tired of tanned blondes. I could also get tired of being watched all the time.”
“That would be tough,” she said coolly. “Real tough. Take it up with Washington, Matt. You know there’s nothing I can do about it. And you haven’t answered my question.”
I said, “If she’s anything but Mrs. Kenneth McLain from Washington, D.C., I don’t know about it.”
Jill said, “She may be Mrs. Kenneth McLain, but she’s not from Washington, D.C. We’ve checked her out that far already. And she was asking for you here. Before you arrived. Here at the hotel.”
I thought this over for a moment. “Thanks for the tip,” I said. “I had a hunch she was a little too good to be true. So that’s why Monk decided to have her room searched. I wondered. Of course you could be lying to me.”
“Of course,” Jill said, smiling.
I grimaced. “Well, whatever she is, tell your friends that batting folks over the head with gun barrels is clumsy technique, not to mention the fact that it’s hard on the guns. There are plenty of other ways to take people out of action.”
“How did you know it was a gun barrel?”
“A sap wouldn’t have cut the scalp that way. You’re sure she was inquiring about me? Before I came?”
“Quite sure.” Jill glanced past me. “Outside! Get ready. See if you can catch this one all by yourself. When I say go, paddle like hell… Go!”
I felt the lift of the wave, stroked hard with both arms, and felt the board start to plane; then the nose dug into solid water, the rear end rose, and I was thrown off. Half the Pacific Ocean landed on top of me. I clawed myself to the surface, retrieved the board, and returned to Jill. She wasn’t laughing when I got there, but that wasn’t saying she hadn’t laughed earlier.
“That’s known as pearling, or pearl diving,” she said. “You had your weight too far forward, so your board just dove for the bottom. Are you tired? You’ve been at it for almost an hour.”
I said, “Let’s see if I can’t make just one more reasonably good ride so I know I’ve got the idea.” I kicked my feet a bit to keep my board from swinging away from hers, and looked down into the clear water, some six feet deep. The coral down there looked brown and slimy alive, not bright and clean like the dead stuff you see in the stores. I said, “I hope you don’t have any sharks around here. California’s having a rash of them, from what I read in the papers.”
Jill shrugged. “Oh, once in a while somebody reports seeing one, generally a hysterical tourist.”
“Yeah,” I said dryly, “I know those hysterical tourists with arms and legs bitten off. You can’t trust those people not to exaggerate.”
Jill laughed, and we waited for a wave, rocking gently so far from the beach that it felt like the middle of the ocean. I’d never been so far offshore without a real boat to support me, but I was gaining confidence in my board and my swimming ability—it occurred to me that I’d been doing a lot of swimming lately, in various parts of the world, with various companions, some of whom were no longer alive. It wasn’t a happy train of thought, and I shunted it out of my mind.
The sun was up now and the water was suddenly warm and pleasant. The beaches were filling with bathers. A couple of tiny sailboats had ventured out from shore and were jockeying around to seaward of us. Both of them caught a wave at an outer line of breakers and came planing in toward us. One got crosswise and capsized, but the two kids in bathing suits flipped it back up with hardly an effort and scrambled back aboard, laughing.
I swung my board around, expecting the same wave to reach us, but it died before it got that far and rolled by as a smooth and useless swell. I watched a water-skier go by far out, bouncing along behind a small speedboat with an enormous outboard motor. It seemed kind of unnecessary to get hauled around the ocean by all that horsepower when there were waves you could slide on for free.
“Matt?” Jill said.
“Yes,” I said.
“Is that what you really think?”
“What?”
“What you’re reported to have said in Washington. About… about our involvement in Asia.”
I regarded her for a moment, with some irritation. She was straddling her red board casually, riding it like a horse, obviously just as comfortable on it as a cowboy in his favorite saddle. Her soaked blonde hair streamed down her back, and her slender body, practically naked, was brown and wet and intriguing. I was annoyed with her for breaking the pleasant, lazy mood of the morning. I was even tempted to play along with her a little, just to maintain our happy relationship, but it would have been out of character and I couldn’t take the chance.
I said, “Too bad, kid. We could have had a lot of fun together in the line of duty. Maybe some day you’ll learn not to press too hard. See you on shore.”
I flopped down on my board and headed for the hotel. I heard her calling my name, but I kept on paddling. Pretty soon I heard the splash of her strokes behind me and the hiss of her board going through the water much faster than mine—she really knew how to drive the thing.
“Matt!” she said, drawing alongside. “Matt, wait! I didn’t mean—”
I stopped paddling. We coasted along side by side, losing speed. “I suppose you’ve got a waterproof tape recorder buried somewhere in this balsa,” I said grimly.
“It isn’t balsa, it’s polyurethane,” she said. “And there’s no recorder.”
“Well, it’ll sound good in the report, anyway. ‘By shrewd interrogation, subject was led to confirm political opinions attributed to him, saying, quote…’” I shook my head. “Baby, do you really think I’m st
upid enough to pull the same boner twice? Okay, so I once made a casual statement in answer to what I thought was a casual question, which was my mistake. Maybe I was even drunk enough to try to back up my opinion when it was challenged, but I’m sober now, and I’m clear out of the casual-statement business. Anybody who wants to know what I think about anything political is going to have to use scopolamine or pentothal in large doses. Do I make myself clear?”
“Matt, I—”
“As for you, doll,” I went on without letting her speak, “I know you’ve got orders to keep an eye on me, and to worm your way into my confidence, if possible. I wasn’t holding it against you. Hell, I even gave you a break last night; I could have let you make a complete fool of yourself, instead of just half a fool. So what do I get for thanks? A damn little agent-provocateur trying to con me into making incriminating statements, by God!”
She licked her lips. “You’re wrong! I asked because… because I really want to know. Because I believe exactly as you’re supposed to believe!”
“Well now, isn’t that sweet!” I looked at her coldly. “So we’re just political soulmates, are we? Honey, that gag is almost as old as the please-help-me-off-with-my-dress routine you tried yesterday. You’d better tell Monk to get a new writer on the job. This script stinks.” I dug at the water with both hands. “So long, Jill. Thanks for the lesson. As an agent you make a great surfing teacher.”
“Matt, wait!” she called. “There’s something I have to tell you. It’s about… about birds. Seabirds, Matt!”
Well, it was about time she made up her mind.
8
I swung my board around, not as easy a job as it sounds, since it had a kind of skeg or tail fin to make it run straight. But I got it turned and paddled back to where she was sitting on hers, eyeing me resentfully.
“Damn you!” she said. “I didn’t want—”
“Never mind your didn’t-wants,” I said. “Turn your head a bit when you talk. There’s probably somebody keeping an eye on us from shore. If he’s just using binoculars, we’re okay, but if he’s got a good big telescope he might be able to read lips, even at this distance. You’re sure the boards are clean? You checked them this morning?”
“Yes, of course, I checked them! I knew I might have to tell you—”
“Well, tell me,” I said.
“There are few seabirds on the Islands,” she said stiffly.
“Yes, but the landbirds are very numerous,” I said.
She drew a long breath. “Damn you, I didn’t want to have to talk to you yet. The more talk, the bigger the risk. Why did you have to act so impossible, both last night and this morning? You knew somebody would be contacting you sooner or later. You might have known I could be the one—as a matter of fact, I grabbed at this assignment so I’d be able to communicate with you quickly when the right time came. And then you went out of your way to make things absolutely impossible for me! Why?”
“Among other things, to make up your wishy-washy little mind for you, if you were the one,” I said rudely. “And to get rid of you if you weren’t.”
Jill said angrily, “Well, I don’t like the way you’re acting! My agreement with Washington—”
“Keep your face away from shore,” I said. “Who the hell are you to make agreements at the expense of the rest of us, Jill? Anyway, you made your deal with Washington. You didn’t make it with me. And you’ve already cost one man his life, trying to play it so damn safe. I’m not about to be number two if I can help it.”
“That’s not fair!” she gasped. “It wasn’t my fault that Naguki—”
“Naguki was playing lightning rod to your barn, baby. Under orders. He took the discharge meant for you. Well, I don’t conduct electricity and I have no desire to learn how. And I gave you the bird-cue last night. Since you didn’t speak up then and let me know who you were, you’re hardly in a position to complain because I haven’t behaved properly toward you.” I shook my head quickly as she started to protest. “That’s enough of that; we can’t sit here arguing all day. Give it to me quick. What have you got so far? What’s the Monk up to?”
“I… I don’t know yet.”
I said sourly, “That’s a big help. What do you know, yet?”
“Don’t talk to me like that!” she snapped. “What right have you got to criticize? You haven’t lived with this for weeks, like I have, expecting every minute to be found out and…” She shivered. “You don’t know what Monk is like, what he can do.”
It was no time to start an argument about who knew more about the Monk than whom. I said, “I left my crying-towel on the beach, honey, or I’d be more than happy to lend it to you. But suppose you just get real brave and wipe your nose on your finger and let me know just what you have got for me. If anything.”
“Why, you overbearing, insufferable…!” She stopped. I grinned at her. After a moment, she laughed reluctantly, which was a relief. I’d been starting to wonder whether I’d misjudged her completely when I’d decided she possessed enough nerve and intelligence to be worth cultivating. Tackling the Monk and the organization he’d built out here with nothing but a gutless ingenue for support wasn’t really an enticing prospect. But she did laugh; there was hope for her yet. “All right,” she breathed. “All right, I get the message, Matt. But you can’t blame me for being scared. It’s the first time I’ve done anything like this.”
I said, “Don’t get your hopes up. You’ll be just as scared the second time, and the twenty-second. After a while you’ll simply discover that people don’t really die of fright.”
She made a face at me. “That’s very encouraging! Thanks a lot! What do you want to know?”
“Start with the political bit. Where does that fit in?”
“What do you mean?”
“What’s the connection between the political opinions you seem to hold and your signing up with us—that is, with Monk. And how did you get from there to letting Washington know all about it? I mean, are you seriously opposed to what’s going on in Asia, as you suggested a few minutes ago?”
“Of course I’m seriously opposed, aren’t you?” she said sharply. “That’s exactly why I joined. Monk promised us there’d be a chance to help. To put a stop to all the terrible things we’re doing to those poor people over in—”
I sighed. “Stay off the soapbox, honey, please. Don’t try to tug at my old heartstrings. Who’s us?”
“Why, all the latest recruits. Matt—”
“How many?”
“I don’t know. Half a dozen, I suppose, but you know how it is, we’re kept from knowing each other as much as possible. I’ve only met a few of the others, the ones I recommended myself. Monk asked me to suggest a few names. Matt—”
“They’re all young people like you? With the same mushy ideas?”
“Yes, of course. I mean—” She glared at me. “Matt, are you trying to tell me that you don’t really believe what you’re supposed to’ve said in Washington?”
I said, “What I said was based on strategy, not sentiment, honey. If you want to know the truth, atrocities bore hell out of me.”
“Then… then I feel sorry for you! You’ve been in this horrible business so long you’re no longer human!”
“That,” I said dryly, “is a distinct possibility, but I fail to see how it’s relevant to the subject at hand, any more than my political beliefs. I’m not here to do research for a polemic article. I’m here to do a job, and you’re supposed to feed me the information I need to do it. So far I feel damn undernourished, information-wise.” I scowled at her. “Let’s get it straight now. Do I gather that Monk is also opposed to our military posture in Asia, to use the jargon? And that he recruited you and some other idealistic kids by promising you a crack at leading the world back to peace and happiness?”
“Yes,” she said sulkily. “Yes, he was… very persuasive.”
“He can be,” I agreed. “When his ascetic face lights up with burning enthusiasm and he g
ets that fanatic look in his bright blue eyes… It’s one of his biggest assets. You should have seen him playing a dedicated Heil-Hitler boy some years back; he was damn convincing. What woke you up, Jill? What broke the hypnotic spell?”
“Nothing broke the spell,” she said stiffly. “There wasn’t any spell. I wasn’t hypnotized. I’m not a child, Matt; I knew what I was doing. And I haven’t changed my opinions in the least!” She hesitated. “I… I just didn’t realize how far he intended to go. In spite of what people seem to think, the fact that you’re opposed to your country’s foreign policy doesn’t necessarily mean… Well, I don’t like what’s being done in Washington, but that doesn’t mean I prefer Moscow or Peking, in this case Peking. And when I learned beyond any doubt that Monk was negotiating with them, and that they were sending a couple of specialists to help…”
“Specialists in what? To help with what?”
She shook her head. “I don’t know, Matt. I just haven’t been able to find out.”
I was beginning to have an uneasy feeling she wasn’t ever going to find out anything Monk didn’t want her to find out. What worried me even more was the fact that I couldn’t help wondering if what she’d already found out was anything the Monk was actually trying to keep hidden. He was too smart and wary to conduct treasonable negotiations in such a way that a green kid could stumble on the evidence, unless he wanted that evidence stumbled on. Which indicated that he must be playing a much trickier game than anybody seemed willing to believe—or maybe I was giving him too much credit. I hoped so.
“Do you know when these specialists are coming?”
“They were supposed to arrive earlier in the week with something Monk needed. I don’t have any reason to believe they didn’t. Of course I couldn’t ask without attracting attention—I wasn’t even supposed to know about it—but nobody’s been acting as if anything’s gone wrong.”
“If they did arrive, where would they be now?”
“Well, he wouldn’t want them hanging around Oahu, I don’t suppose. He’d probably get them to K as soon as possible.” She went on quickly, forestalling my question. “It’s just something I’ve heard mentioned, Matt, a kind of base or hideout, I gather, where they’re getting things ready for what they’re going to do. They just refer to it as K. I haven’t been able to learn where it is.” She paused and went on, “I’m sorry to be so little help. I’ve been scared to ask questions about it. I can guess, if it’s any good.”
The Betrayers Page 6