The Betrayers (8 page)

“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.

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 gets 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.”

“Try it and we’ll see how good it is.”

“K has to be accessible by water, because they go there by boat and sometimes the weather holds them up for days. When the trades are blowing too hard, apparently, they can’t make it. Of course they may stop somewhere and switch to a car or a plane but I don’t think they do. And if the place is near the water, it probably isn’t on an island like this one, with a shore road clear around it. I mean, they wouldn’t want fishermen or picnickers stumbling on it by mistake, or seeing the boat coming or leaving. Do you know how the main islands go? There’s Kauai, farthest to the northwest, and Oahu, where we are. Then there are Molokai, Maui, and Hawaii, all strung out to the southeast beyond Diamond Head over there.” She started to lift her hand.

“Don’t point!” I said sharply.

“Sorry,” she said, abashed. “Anyway, Oahu itself is out because of roads, I think, and so are Maui and the Big Island, Hawaii. Well, there are some desolate places
along the shoreline of Hawaii that might do, but it’s a long boat ride, too long to be really feasible, a couple hundred miles. Even if you wanted to risk it in the speedboats they use, they don’t have the cruising range, and I’ve never seen them take extra gas. Also, I’ve clocked them out and in, when I could do it safely. Sometimes they’re gone for several days, of course, but once in a while they’re back in six hours or less. You couldn’t get to Hawaii and back in that time, not in the fastest boat in the Islands. You’d have to be averaging over sixty knots in open water. The boats they have are lucky to do thirty-five wide open in a sheltered lagoon.”

My opinion of her was rising again; at least she’d got some facts and done some thinking about them. “Where do these speedboats hang out?” I asked.

“Right here in the Honolulu yacht basin. There are two of them, registered under different owners—one outboard and one inboard—but only one is there now, the outboard. The other’s been missing since two nights ago. They usually make the trip at night. I suppose it’s at K. Maybe it took the Chinese delegation over with whatever they brought.”

“But you don’t know what that is?”

“No.”

“Does Monk have some kind of house or headquarters around here?”

“Yes, he’s renting a big house in a fashionable district behind Diamond Head, under the name of Rath. It’s a pink house with a swimming pool—”

“Never mind that,” I said. “I’m not about to play detective around there unless the situation changes drastically. Let’s get back to K. Say you’re right, and we can eliminate Oahu, Maui, and Hawaii. What about the smaller islands? There are some, aren’t there?”

“Well, Lanai is just a big pineapple plantation. It’s low and flat and pretty well cultivated. I can’t see it as a hideout. Kahoolawe is used by the military for bombing practice. It’s in restricted waters and any private boat sticking its nose in there would be challenged at once. Niihau is privately owned and strangers would be very conspicuous. And that’s about it. Of course there are plenty of small, deserted islets along the coasts, but most of them are just volcanic rocks sticking out of the water, hard to land on and mostly visible from shore, so any unusual activity would attract attention.” She shook her head. “I think it’s on one of the main islands close by. There’s a stretch on the northwest coast of Kauai that’s pretty deserted. I suppose K could be there.”

“But you obviously don’t think it is,” I said. “Let’s hear your real theory.”

“I think it’s on Molokai,” she said. “That’s only some thirty miles southeast of here, within easy range of a fast boat in good weather, and it has all of the qualifications. I’d be willing to bet five to one on Molokai.”

“The leper colony?”

“Please, Mr. Helm! We call it Hansen’s disease these days.”

“And old fogies are senior citizens, and house trailers
are mobile homes,” I said grimly. “Three cheers for the age of double-talk. But who’d park a hideout in the middle of a bunch of, er, victims of Hansen’s disease, with the flesh peeling off the bones? I mean, it’s a great cover, but what if you catch the bug?”

Jill laughed. “It isn’t nearly as communicable as the old stories would make you think, Matt. Furthermore, contrary to the popular conception, Molokai is a fairly large and pleasant island inhabited mainly by ordinary, healthy people. The Kalaupapa colony occupies just a small, inaccessible peninsula below the sheer cliffs of the north coast. The rest is pineapple, sugar cane, and mountains. Quite high mountains. Five thousand feet or so. They take up the whole northeast corner of Molokai; actually most of the eastern half. There’s a road along the south shore, but it barely turns the end of the island. From there back to Kalaupapa on the north side—the windward side—are twenty-odd miles of empty shore on which nobody lives nowadays: some of the wildest coast you can imagine. Mountains rising right out of the sea. Deep gorges, high waterfalls, impenetrable jungles. And Molokai is the least developed of all the islands. It has no tourist accommodations to amount to anything; you wouldn’t have to worry about many sightseers or Sunday geologists poking around. I think Molokai is it. It’s got to be.”