"Enough, Jose!" the gruff male voice said. There was no other introduction, no formality, and no questions, "You're our man. Five thousand dollars plus expenses. You'll receive advance payment and instructions by registered mail, Agreed?"
"No."
Now there was a pause. "Seven—five, then,"
"Negative. It is not the money, señor. I do not work for an anonymous employer. Or one who lacks proper confidence."
"We have confidence! We know you're the best in the business. Our type of business."
"Yet you tested me," Jose said flatly.
"No, Windbreaker. There was a leak."
"I do not work for leaky people. It is bad for my health."
"Not exactly a leak. We let slip to a certain party that we had hired the most capable international agent available. We did not identify him. In this manner we verified a suspicion, and located the best man. The leak has been fixed—permanently—and we now propose to hire the man. You. If our competition calls you the best, that's good enough for us. And we rather like your style."
"Señor, my style stinks."
"Yes indeed!"
"Still, I must know you."
"Very well. Fifteen minutes from now, alone." The man reeled off an address. "You have eidetic memory, don't you? See that you are not followed."
Jose was not partial to either the man's attitude or his assumptions. As though any professional would allow himself to be followed! "Señor, I am not finished with my breakfast. You come here to the La Campana restaurant, and we shall talk."
"Listen, I'm paying you a lot of money."
"Señor, wad that money into a roll one inch in diameter and insert it in your—"
"All right! I'll meet you there. This time."
"And be prompt," Jose said. "See that you are not followed."
There was a stifled sound before the connection broke, Jose smiled broadly. Presumption deserved what it received.
Still, he rather thought he would take the job. His prospective employer had a devious and ruthless mind, and a certain arrogant honesty. Jose liked that. He understood that type of mind. The code-name had been the signal, of course. It was the man's way of telling him that he knew about the contretemps of the morning, and how Jose had summoned help. Hence the man knew something of visceral learning.
Few people realized that the so-called involuntary reflexes and systems of the body could become voluntary—with proper training. Fewer still could actually practice such control. Hardly any were adept at it. Juan Jose was one of these fewest.
It had been an elementary matter to disrupt his own digestive processes so that gas formed. Then it was merely a matter of ejecting it with sufficient force to create a noisy vibration, while bringing certain muscles into play to shape the sound. The result: a crude cry for help.
The resultant code name: Windbreaker.
But this was not an ability Jose normally chose to advertise. It was not merely that many people found the notion objectionable, but that it was one of a complex of unusual abilities whose main virtue was surprise. Had the hoods known he could make that cry, they would have made sure he was all the way unconscious. Fortunately, they hadn't known, and O'Brien hadn't told them. It seemed that his prospective employer had had the discretion to keep his mouth shut on that matter, also.
Juan Jose finished his meal, burped contentedly, and waited for the man to arrive.
SUMMARY OF
THE REMAINDER
Juan Jose's employer turns out to be an American gangster who once operated a nightclub, hotel and casino in Havana. He had four partners with whom he theoretically split the proceeds evenly—but he cheated on them so that he actually amassed a considerable fortune. There were no real taxes in Cuba, and he had been adept at "skimming." Thus he amassed about five million dollars "retirement money" in thousand dollar bills and diamonds, buried in small watertight metal containers under a tree in his garden.
But Castro came to power so suddenly that he was caught short—and probably a suspicious partner betrayed him. He was arrested, his apartment searched, and his worldly goods confiscated: about half a million dollars worth of loot was taken over by the state. They then deported him without realizing that they had missed the main portion. But he had no chance to recover the riches himself.
Now about fifteen years have passed, and things have cooled off. The gangster has succeeded in eliminating his erstwhile partners, but his type of business has not been as good in America as it was in Cuba, and he needs that lost money. He can not trust any criminal hirelings to recover it for him, and they would betray him for it without qualm. He dares not show his own face in Cuba, of course. So he is making a legitimate offer to Jose, who is known to be scrupulously fair to friends and enemies alike (though not to people who fit neither of these categories).
Jose is to go into Cuba, dig up the hidden treasure, and bring it back. Perhaps a week's work, with all expenses paid, plus a fee of $7,500. Juan turns it down contemptuously; he has more enemies than friends in Cuba, and the government there does not like him, and the fee offered is a pittance. He bargains for half the loot, and settles for twenty percent: one million dollars. He doesn't need to trust the gangster; he will merely turn over all the money in excess of his million. With that money, Jose can retire and take proper care of his child.
The mission, despite the gangster's description, is more than a week's work. It is possible to get into Cuba, but it can be fatally difficult to get out again, especially with five million dollars. Jose must arrange it so that no one suspects his mission. He obtains false papers and goes to Mexico, where he joins a guerrilla group. This is no picnic; he must prove himself to the tough and suspicious guerrillas by participating in a raid on a railroad station. He does, but other guerrillas get drunk and kill a number of people. They end up seizing the whole town and looting it, withdrawing only when government troops come. Jose, not yet fully trusted, is left to escape on his own. He does so by hiding in a refrigerator truck. He is able to lower his body temperature to survive the freezing interior.
The guerrillas then follow Jose's subtle suggestion and hijack an airplane going to Mexico City, and take it to Havana. True revolutionaries still are welcomed in Cuba. But they are not taken on faith; they must prove themselves. This group is given a fair choice: work in the cane fields, or undertake more training for revolutionary activity in other countries. So they "volunteer" for the training. Jose uses his visceral control to pass a lie detector test. Actually, this training is exactly what he wants, because the training camp is near Havana, and Havana is where the gangster's cache is buried.
They are taught how to use special C-3 grenades. One explodes prematurely and the instructor's head is blown off. The entire party is badly wounded. Jose gets shrapnel his arms; his right hand is wounded, and an artery in the left is cut. He can't apply a tourniquet, so controls the rain and bleeding through his unique talents and walks five miles to the militia post to get help. Then he lets the blood flow and collapses—in the arms of a beautiful Cuban girl—so that the authorities will not suspect his powers.
He is hospitalized in Havana, and touted as something of a hero, because the help he summoned saved the lives of several injured men. He cultivates the association of the girl, Perla, who seems happy to be cultivated. Jose can be quite charming when he puts his mind to it, and his sexual talents are remarkable because of his visceral control. Perla thinks he likes her mind; the others are sure it is her body he likes. The truth is that she lives in the woman's dormitory that has been set up on the former estate of the gangster, and to which he needs unobtrusive entry.
Actually, Perla does have a mind, and talents of her own. The government has researched Jose's background and discovered his real identity and abilities; the girl has been assigned to learn the nature of his current mission. Jose, adept at reading body language, suspects that she is a counterspy, but goes along with her for several reasons. First, her mission means she can be very helpful to him, because they can't
find out what he is up to unless he is granted some leeway; second, he is not out to assassinate Fidel, so is innocent of their prime concern; third, he believes he can subvert her to his side if he has to.
Perla catches him as he digs up the treasure. Now he has to deal with her. It would be awkward to kill her, and he has a strong aversion to that anyway. So he tells her the truth and offers to take her out of the country with him if she will join him. She agrees. Of course this may be part of her job as a counter-agent, but it gives him a chance to get moving efficiently.
Unfortunately these negotiations take too long, and the other girls of the dormitory discover them. Now there are no subtleties; the two have to fight their way out and flee to the jungle. Castro's troops pursue with much shooting. The two hide in the swamp. Jose alone could have gotten away easily, but Perla's presence makes it a narrow thing. They manage to board a patrol boat, naked and dripping. They get rid of the occupants and take the boat to sea, eluding further pursuit—only to run into a storm.
They take refuge at Cay Sal, a small island in the Bahamas near Cuba that Cuba claims. The Cubans follow and there is a battle between the gunboats, while the British, who have the authority but not the will to break it up, look the other way. Jose's boat, undermanned, is no match; it begins to sink. He jumps off and swims with the money underwater. Such is his control, he is able to stay underwater some ten minutes, avoiding discovery. But once he is clear he reconsiders, drops the money in the deeps and goes back to rescue Perla.
They escape—but the mission is now a failure. Jose reports this to the gangster employer, who is furious; he does not believe the money is really lost, and thinks he has been double-crossed. So he kidnaps Jose's son Robertico, supposing this will make Jose yield the fortune.
Jose has to raid the gangster's estate, which is well guarded by sophisticated protective devices: vibration-sensitive attachments to doors and windows, anti-intruder screens, pressure-sensitive wires under carpeting, and electric-eye booby-traps. It requires all of Jose's ingenuity to get through, and some help from Perla and Robertico himself. He finally does prevail, though the gangster gets killed in the process.
Now Jose has to sweat out the most difficult problem of all: that of Perla, who naturally expects him to marry her. He is determined not to remarry, especially not without money. But even Robertico is against him on this issue. So Jose is in trouble again, and as the novel ends his sweating is unfeigned.
[This is the first novel of a projected series of adventures featuring the Windbreaker. Others will concern diamond mines in Brazil, Amazonian Indian slave exploitation, and voodoo and blood selling in Haiti.]
AUTHORS' NOTE: Remember, a quarter century has passed since this piece was crafted. Today the corded phones have been replaced by cell phones. Real numbers have also been replaced by 555 numbers, so we did update that. This project found no favor with publishers; perhaps they didn't like the notion that a leading character could break wind.
SORCEX
Sone is the bastard son of Togo, a veteran Samurai warrior. In June, 1281, the two are practicing Kendo, with Sone employing his fine sword against his father's staff. The old man fends off the attack easily, his long wooden pole blocking every thrust of the sword. "Are you a weakling? Strike harder! Harder!" he cries. Sone, an extremely powerful young man, aims a devastating blow at Togo's head, knowing that the sheer force of it will rock the man back and impress him. But the staff, though reinforced with iron, snaps in two, and the blade cleaves Togo's brain, killing him instantly.
Togo's legitimate son Kato charges in and spies the disaster. He has little love for Sone, but it is plain that the killing was unintentional. Thus they argue, not about Sone's guilt, but about the diabolical cause of the accident. Kato claims that some magician has put a spell on Togo's weapons, so that they betrayed their master; Sone concludes that all weapons are innately perverse and not to be trusted.
Both youths make oaths on the spot: Kato swears he will not settle down to his father's estate until he has avenged Togo's murder, while Sone swears never again to use a weapon. Kato demands that Sone join the vengeance quest, but Sone refuses, saying there is no one to wreak vengeance on. Kato is furious: "Not only are you a bastard, you are too cowardly to avenge your own father, even when your own arm was ensorcelled for murder," he shouts. "Traitor! Get out of this house!" And Kato draws his own sword, forgetting all Samurai ethics and caution, and charges upon Sone with the blade uplifted. Sone, unarmed, defends himself by employing what in later centuries will be described as a judo shoulder throw, ippon seoi nage, and unfortunately snaps his brother's arm.
After this second disaster there is nothing for Sone to do except depart his sire's estate forever. "'When I recover, I will seek you out and kill you!" Kato screams, and Sone, shamed, can not even reply. He moves into a hut some distance away and sets about farming turnips, choosing the lowliest of occupations to expiate his grief and disgrace. But he is so strong that he accomplishes much in a short time, and his turnips sprout in days as if magically fertilized.
Soon a beautiful girl approaches him, saying she is Miho, traveling from a distant land, who needs a place to rest for a few days before going on. This is suspicious, as she could obviously find much superior lodging; but Sone, mindful that his unknown mother might have been just such a visitor to his father's house twenty years ago, shares his hut. Miho shortly seduces him: no difficult task, as he is as lusty as he is muscular, and she has remarkable expertise. He obligingly marries her thereafter.
Next day she goes into the village and buys a baby boy, whom she intends to adopt as their son. Sone is dismayed at the speed and nature of his progression into marriage and paternity, but she explains that it is all right: the baby is cursed with an incurable disease and will soon die. It occurs to Sone that fate is generously assisting him in his effort to expiate his shame through misery, so he shuts up and makes the best of it.
Fate is indeed generous. Sone returns from a hard day's labor in the field to discover the bloody carcass of his new son. Miho is incoherent and can tell him nothing—but huge tiger tracks lead away from the corpse. Sone sees his duty and sets off after the animal. He carries only his pitchfork that he had been using to farm, together with a resin torch and fire case so that he can travel by night. The region is mountainous and the tracks head toward the chill (even in summer) upper reaches, so he wears a thick cotton jacket with leather underpadding: sturdy and warm.
The trail is a strange one: terror, horror and grief remain where the creature has passed, but reports of its nature are inconsistent. Some call it a tiger, others a mad ape, still others a terrible snake. And the tracks vary accordingly. Sone suspects it is a demon creature, that can change its form. He can certainly do the world a favor by eliminating it.
He finally runs it down and brings it to bay, and his suspicion is confirmed: it is a creature of hell. It assumes the form of a dragon and charges him. Instantly Sone fires his torch and jams the brightly flaring end into one of the dragon's eyes. Then be stabs it in the underbelly—its only vulnerable place—with the pitchfork. It changes into a tiger, breaking off the tines of the fork in the process. Sone fends it off somewhat using the handle, then gets on its back and applies a neck lock. The creature then changes madly into a variety of awful shapes, but Sone will not let go, and finally its struggles weaken and he breaks its neck, killing it.
Another man would be joyful at his success, but Sone is grim. He has used torch and pitchfork as weapons; never again will he take up these things, for his oath forbids it. He must find his way home in darkness, and use some other tool for farming. And because his arms and hands were used to choke the creature, they too are weapons to that extent: be will not choke anything again.
He makes it home, but alas, his lovely wife is gone, and in her place is a grossly ugly hag. She is able to tell him only that she is his wife, but placed under a spell; she will not regain her natural beauty until he has seduced a hundred beautiful wom
en, each of whom has to know he is married and each of whom must undertake this humiliation because of envy of that wife. An impossible mission: who in Japan would envy such a wife, and who would yield her virtue to a married man who could not take any new wives?
Sone has been misfortunate, but he is not stupid. He now realizes that magic is involved, that has cost him his son and his wife's beauty. So maybe magic did kill his father, and Kato was right all along. In which case Sone must try to apologize to his brother, and seek out the guilty magician. The same sorcerer could have put a spell on his wife's tongue, so that she could not tell all she knew.
Sone is slow to anger, but now he is angry, and even considering his vow against the use of weapons he is a formidable antagonist. If there is a magician behind all this trouble, that magician is very likely to be sorry, once located. Sone seeks his brother, but Kato has by now mended enough to start his own quest for vengeance, and though each brother is looking for the other, they miss each other.
Sone heads for the Emperor's palace, hoping the court magician can give him some clues. The Regent of Japan at this time is Hojo Tokimune, and his magician is so powerful he was able to repulse the Mongol invasion of 1274 by summoning the demon Typhun to the aid of the Japanese. A good place to start.
The journey to the capital is an eventful one, as Sone encounters a number of demons, aggressive warriors, and beautiful women, dealing with each as seems expedient. Sone doesn't much like magic, and avoids it when he can; but hostile magic can be difficult to nullify. And each time a warrior attacks him, Sone has to become more ingenious, defending him self with some tool or article never before used as a weapon. In this way a number of the unusual weapons of the later martial arts are invented. And Sone tells each girl that there is none in all the world quite like his wife, and a number of those girls rise to the challenge with excitingly novel techniques of seduction. Thus the so-called Hercules position of love, and others. One samurai warrior even gets a notion, and Sone is hard put to it to dissuade the man from his unfortunate amours. And at one point Kato shows up, and immediately goes after Sone with his sword, refusing to listen to any explanations. Sone is unable to clarify the matter, and gets away only by seeming like a coward.
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