by Alan Filewod
Wade: What’s your classification?
Harlan: Why now, Wade?
Wade: What are you supposed to be doing in Costa Rica?
Harlan: Data collection.
Wade: What have you found?
Harlan: You’ve seen it.
Wade: It’s not very much.
Harlan: It’s what I’ve found.
Wade: But there’s no shortage of data.
Harlan: Some of it doesn’t stand up.
Wade: Analysis isn’t your job.
Harlan: What’s bugging you, Wade? Your wife screwing around again?
Wade: The U.S. Citizens Committee in San José.
Harlan: I watched her the other night at the Swiss embassy. She was all over the Argentinian trade commissioner.
Wade: The U.S. Citizens Committee isn’t mentioned in your last report.
Harlan: I think she’s hot on me too.
Wade: She never had any taste.
Harlan: The U.S. Citizens Committee is not communist.
Wade: They sit in downtown San José and they publish stuff about contra camps in Costa Rica. According to our government, and the government of Costa Rica, those camps don’t exist.
Harlan: But they do.
Wade: That’s not the point.
Harlan: I ran a check on the leadership.
Wade: What do you want, red flags?
Harlan: I’ve got someone at the meetings.
Wade: That’s analysis.
Harlan: I don’t think so.
Wade: What is it then?
Harlan: As I understand it, I am supposed to collect evidence of communist activity in Costa Rica … If I’m collecting rocks for a geological survey, before I send off a sample I make sure it’s a rock. I do this to avoid wasting time on tennis balls and potatoes. Is that simple enough for you? What do you want, Wade? Every time a Russian or Cuban sets foot in the country, I report it. There’s statistics on land expropriation, state ownership, rationing, tax increases, export controls. What the fuck do you want?
Wade: You attached news clippings of Nicaragua border violations to a memo saying you want information about their origin and you sent the memo to our offices in Managua, Guatemala, Honduras …
Harlan: Salvador, Bolivia and Chile.
Wade: And Langley, Harlan, don’t forget Langley, Virginia. What were you doing exactly?
Harlan: Verifying the authenticity of the reports.
Wade: Why?
Harlan: To verify the authenticity of the reports.
Wade: Why is that any business of yours?
Harlan: I’m trying to separate rocks from potatoes.
Wade: And I’m trying to separate good old boys from communists.
Harlan: Look, Wade. Listen to me. When I was in Jamaica, when I was in Chile, it was my job to fabricate reports. I made things up. A bomb’d go off somewhere, we call the local paper and claim responsibility in the name of some left-wing group. I’d fake a story that there were 3000 Cuban military advisers and plans for a Soviet air base. We’d surface the stories through agents in Venezuela or Colombia. If we worked it right they’d show up in the NBC news. But that’s not my job here. Here in Costa Rica I’m supposed to gather information about communist strength, activity, that kind of thing. No disinformation, but information. You with me so far?
Wade: One hundred per cent.
Harlan: Now here, in Costa Rica, I’m taking this slow, step by step so you’ll understand, somebody else does for Nicaragua what I used to do in Chile and Jamaica, right? They fake that information if necessary but they get it circulated. I’ve got no trouble with that but it’s not my job. My job is to do research. So. One day I’m sitting in my office, cutting out clippings to send to Langley, and I say to myself, I know this style, I recognize this. This is just like what I used to write. I thought it was funny. Here I am sending off evidence of communist activity and it’s probably the operative in the office next to mine that made it up. I thought this is not good research. So I started to make sure that I only sent in actual intelligence.
Wade: You missed the whole point.
Harlan: I’m talking about good intelligence.
Wade: What about direct orders? Does it matter to you that you’ve been told more than once, by more people than me, to stop separating rocks from potatoes?
Harlan: Yeah, it matters to me.
Wade: That you went over my head.
Harlan: It matters a lot to me.
Wade: Yeah?
Harlan: I was sure I’d find support up the line.
Wade: How high?
Harlan: Anywhere. Christ, Wade, I would have been happy with you, I wanted you to understand. I am saying that I don’t mind us making up shit. I used to do it and I did it well. But isn’t it important that we know the difference between intelligence and disinformation? We said that the Sandinistas were responsible for the attack on Pastora. Good. But we believed it. We listed the Corinto bombings as a contra operation. There it was, the one biggest operation of the war. We’re telling each other, three months, six at the most, we’ll be celebrating in Managua. Then we find out, the whole fucking world finds out, it was a Company operation, planned and executed by us. If we want to win this we should know what they are really doing. If I send in phoney data, it gets analysed, the conclusions are wrong because the data is wrong, and Langley, never mind Langley, the State Department starts making policy based on completely wrong assumptions about communist strength and strategy.
Wade: So what’s the truth?
Harlan: What do you mean?
Wade: What’s lies, what isn’t?
Harlan: Go on.
Wade: Where’s it end, Harlan? Nicaragua some nice little country? We making a mistake here?
Harlan: You’ve been through my files.
Wade: Yeah.
Harlan: It’s all there.
Wade: Yeah, When I was a kid, my father used to make me hunt cougar with him. One time, I was fourteen, it was almost summer but in the mountains there was still snow. It was cold and wet, and I noticed the sound my boots made coming out the mud. I started running, just to hear the sound, and feel the pull of the mud on my boots. I ran past my father and the dogs took off ahead of me. Christ I ran. Over fallen trees, through creeks, jumping over boulders, I just ran. I wasn’t tired or feeling that pain under my ribs. I just felt the cold air sting my skin. I was running through this gully and there was a ridge on my right. It got bigger and steeper until it was like a wall. Then I saw the dogs. They were barking at a patch of trees by the ridge. I moved closer and I saw a big cougar, trying to get a foothold in the rock, but it was too steep. She moved towards us, the dogs barked, and she’d try the ridge again. My father caught up to us. He said, “She’s a big one.” He said, “She’s yours. Go ahead.” He shoved me with his rifle butt. “Shoot. Shoot.” I lifted the rifle and aimed. The cougar just stood there, looking right at me. I squeezed the trigger. She fell. (Wade goes and knocks on the door.) See, I liked the mountains. I liked running. But before that, I didn’t like the kill. I know you find part of your work distasteful. But you can’t say “I like this, I don’t like that.” It’s all part of the hunt.
(Prison sounds. The door opens and Ross is thrown in. His wrists are tied and he’s been beaten.)
Ross: (to Wade) What the fuck’s going on, man? I thought you were running this thing. You never fuckin’ told me, what the fuck they beat me up for? I thought I was coming in here to get him to talk, then you give me this communist bullshit and I get the piss taken out of me. Why don’t they beat him up, he’s the fuckin’ traitor.
Wade: You should sit down.
Ross: I’ll fuckin’ stand.
(Wade throws Ross down. Wade’s violence is always clean and precise. Like a torturer, he is neither obsessed nor appalled.)
Wade: You got a big secret, Ross. I want to know what it is.
Ross: I don’t know what you’re talking about.
Wade: Yes you do.
Ross: Y
ou never told me about this. This wasn’t part of the plan. (Wade hits Ross.) I don’t know anything.
Wade: I’ll start you off. You were in on a plan to hit the embassy.
Ross: I don’t …
Wade: I want to know about it.
Ross: (to Harlan) He set this whole thing up, man, to trap you.
(Wade hits him.)
Wade: Tell me.
Ross: You’re crazy.
Wade: I don’t have time. (Wade hits him again, then Harlan gets in Wade’s way. Wade pushes Harlan away, Ross jumps Wade, Wade kicks Ross.) (to Harlan) I want you to listen to this. (He moves to Ross and makes him sit up.) You want to go back to the States, you start talking now. The plan to hit the embassy. Who was in on it? The Civil Guard?
Ross: No.
Wade: Costa Rica Libre.
Ross: I don’t know.
Wade: Who? … I’ll smash your fucking head in.
Ross: Fuck, man.
Wade: Who? (He hits him.)
Ross: I’ll tell you. I’ll tell you.
Wade: Who?
Ross: Vega.
Wade: Who else?
Ross: Stassen. Holme.
Wade: In Miami.
Ross: I wouldn’t do it.
Wade: Whose idea was it?
Ross: I wouldn’t go along with it.
Wade: Whose idea was it?
Ross: Stassen said it came from upstairs.
Wade: From who? (another threat)
Ross: Maybe Bush.
Wade: Vice-President Bush?
Ross: Yeah.
Wade: Did Stassen say the order came from Bush?
Ross: He said Bush knew about it. And Vernon something.
Wade: Vernon Walters?
Ross: Yeah. Stassen talked to him on the phone.
Wade: You heard him.
Ross: I was in the room, man.
Wade: Did Reagan know?
Ross: No one said.
Wade: Did they mention Tambs?
Ross: Yeah.
Wade: What about him?
Ross: He was the fuckin’ target, man.
Wade: (pause) You’re sure?
Ross: That was the whole plan. We blow up Tambs, the Sandinistas take the rap, we send in the Marines, (pause)
Harlan: They talked about this, in front of you.
Ross: Fuck, they had maps of the embassy and everything, I swear it. I didn’t believe it neither, you ask them what’s this about, what’s this mean, they say you don’t need to know. You sit quiet, you hear it all.
Wade: Did they say when they wanted to do it?
Ross: No.
Wade: What else?
Ross: That’s it. That’s the last I heard about it.
Wade: No one ever mentioned it to you on Kemp’s farm?
Ross: No.
Wade: Jim Kemp never talked about it?
Ross: I swear.
Wade: You’re sure?
Ross: I swear.
Wade: (Wade hits him.) Look, son. I don’t want to hit you again. I’ll just tell you what I’m asking is for the good of your country. I know you want to protect him. I know he’s your friend. But it’s very important that we know if he knew about the plan.
Ross: (pause) We were at this sawmill …
Wade: When?
Ross: A month ago, maybe more.
Wade: Where?
Ross: Near the border. There was stuff stashed there. We went to pick up some shit for the contras. I grabbed some M79 grenades and some Claymore mines. Jim Kemp said to leave ’em. He said, “We may need ’em to do an embassy later on.”
Wade: That’s it?
Ross: I swear, I’ll never fucking forget it.
Wade: That wasn’t very hard, was it? What do you think, Harl?
Harlan: Other sources?
Wade: One.
Harlan: Vega.
Wade: Yeah.
Harlan: Very reliable.
Wade: He’s okay.
Harlan: And Bush is in on it?
Wade: Vega said the same thing.
Harlan: Bomb the embassy, kill the ambassador.
Wade: There were fucking phone calls …
Harlan: To Vernon Walters. Maybe.
Wade: Why wouldn’t Bush be in on it? We’re losing. We fucked Nicaragua, people make more money selling oranges in the street than they do working in factories and there’s fucking food shortages but you can count contra supporters on one hand. Nicaragua isn’t gonna attack anyone. If we want to invade, we’re gonna have to make our own reason. So okay, Bush isn’t in on it, let’s say. But Kemp’s in on it and Kemp don’t jack off without word from higher up. I didn’t believe Vega either. He told me about the kid, (Ross) said ask the kid. You think he’s lying?
Harlan: No.
Wade: No.
Harlan: (pause) So you want to hit Tambs.
Wade: Yeah..
Ross: Fuck!
Harlan: You’re serious.
Wade: One hundred per cent.
Ross: No fuckin’ way am I gonna kill Americans.
Wade: You think the U.S. should invade?
Ross: Yeah.
Wade: So who’s gonna die if we invade? Americans. Kids like you. Maybe ambassadors should get to die, too.
Ross: And CIA assholes like you.
Wade: I don’t mind, (to Harlan) What do you think, Harlan?
Harlan: It got stopped.
Wade: We hit the embassy, we set the whole thing in motion.
Harlan: Maybe they had a reason to stop it.
Wade: Some of them are soft, some of them are scared. They’re afraid it’ll come out. You worried about that? It came out in Chile, a few people got transferred. But Chile’s ours now, that’s what counts.
Harlan: What if you hit Tambs, and the U.S. doesn’t invade?
Wade: Americans might be getting soft but things aren’t so bad that we’ll sit back and watch the communists kill U.S. ambassadors.
Harlan: What do you want me to do?
Wade: We’ll need information ready to go, Harlan, and you know how to do it. The best agents you’ve found in eighteen years, AP, Reuters (ROY-ters), UPI, all gotta be primed. We can’t let ’em know what’s up, but they gotta be primed.
Harlan: You hit Tambs, it’ll get headlines without me.
Wade: No, I’ve thought this through. If it hadn’t been stopped, Nicaragua’d be surrounded by U.S. troops on manoeuvres, everything’d be ready. But when we hit Tambs it’ll be a surprise, they won’t be ready. It’d take, I figure, minimum 36 hours, maximum 72 to invade. For 72 hours we’ve got to flood it. Headlines won’t be enough. We’ll need hard evidence that the Sandinistas did it, not the Libyans, not the Ayatollah, not the, we’ll need editorials, backgrounders, analysis, all that in-depth stuff you’re so good at. … What do you say, Harlan? You’re the only one that can do it right, you got years of contacts. (pause) I need you, Harlan. There’s no one else in Costa Rica.
Harlan: What if I say no?
Wade: It’s easy. It’s all set up. We get to do for them what they already wanted to do. We lost Cuba, Harlan. We don’t want any more communists on our turf.
Harlan: Christ, you talk about following orders, about the team. Where are the orders for this? Where’s the team when …
Wade: Don’t you remember how a team works, Harlan? If you got the right attitude, if you know what direction you’re moving in, you don’t need orders, you know what’s right for the team. We’re not talking details here, forget the details, look at the whole picture. What’s the team trying to do? That’s all you gotta know. … It’s a war, Harlan, all over the world. It’s freedom against communism, we gotta take action, and all I’m asking you is to make it possible for that to happen.
Harlan: I can’t.
Wade: I knew it wouldn’t be easy for you.
Harlan: No one knows what’s going on any more …
Wade: Fuck, you and I know. Ross knows.
Harlan: No one knows what’s lies, what isn’t …
Wad
e: Everyone’s got doubts, but that’s small shit. You look at anything hard enough, it starts to look funny.
Harlan: There’s too many lies.
Wade: We’re here to lie. That’s what our job is, to clear the way for what has to be done. And we know what we want to do, we don’t need your research to tell us what we want to do. Forget this lie shit. The bottom line is Nicaragua’s communist. We’ll bomb the fucking embassy and we will prove to the people of America and to our government that the Sandinistas did it. They will want to hear lies and we will give them lies. It’ll be for the good of the U.S.A., and I have no trouble living with that.
Harlan: I can’t.
Wade: Fuck, Harlan, in Washington, they got to worry about politics. What do you expect, a letter from the president, “Dear Harlan. Bomb the fucking embassy. Sincerely, Ron.” It don’t happen like that. And that’s what makes us different. We can take action. And there’s people in Washington that understand that. There’s people there that want it.
Harlan: What are you saying?
Wade: Harlan.
Harlan: What are you saying?
Wade: Just what I said.
Harlan: Are you saying there’s authorization for this?
Wade: I didn’t say that.
Harlan: But I’m supposed to believe it.
Wade: Believe whatever the fuck you want.
Harlan: I need time to think, I don’t know who to talk to, I don’t know what to do.
Wade: Harlan.
Wade: I can’t do it. … I can’t do it.
Wade: All right, Harlan. You cut your own throat a long time ago. I gave you another chance. You’re gonna be all alone. You’re gonna find out what a lonely place the Company can be. … You’re real good at explaining things, Harl. You can explain this to yourself any fucking way you want. But this is war. And you let down your country.
(Wade exits, leaves door open. Harlan looks at the door but stays. The lights fade.)
THE END
Boom, Baby, Boom!
Bauta Rubess
Bauta Rubess is an award-winning playwright and director whose work has travelled to such places as England, Latvia, and Newfoundland. Her plays range from the comedy Pope Joan, to the drama Smoke Damage, A Story of the Witch Hunts, to the jazz play Boom, Baby, Boom! She directed the premiére production of Goodnight Desdemona, Good Morning Juliet by Ann-Marie MacDonald, with whom she began collaborating when they were members of the collective that created This is for You, Anna. She has created non-traditional theatre for teenagers, such as the multi-media meditation on suicide Horror High, and a drama about date rape, Thin Ice, co-written with Beverley Cooper. Bauta Rubess also writes and directs for a third audience, a Latvian one. In 1989 her musical play Tango Lugano toured to Latvia with an emigré cast; in 1991 she co-directed, with Neil Bartlett of England, The Avenging Woman by Aspazija for the Kabata Theatre in Riga.