Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Spy

Chapter Fourteen

The need for medical care, security and isolation were all met by moving the Bekuvs to the Commodore Perry U.S. Navy Psychiatric Hospital, half an hour's drive out of Newport News, Virginia. There had been a hospital there before the word psychiatry was invented. It was an ugly sprawl of buildings on a desolate site near the water. The north wing was still used as a naval hospital, but all mentally disturbed sailors had been moved out of the inner compound that had been built to hold them. That was now a high security area, used by the C.I.A. for debriefing American agents, interrogating enemy agents, and sometimes for deciding which were which.

A U.S. Navy car met us at the airport. It came complete with uniformed driver and an 'official use only' sign stencilled on the door. Mann fumed, and at first refused to get into the car. 'Did you bring party hats and whistles, sailor?'

'There are no plain cars in the pool, sir,' said the driver. He was an elderly man with Second World War ribbons on his chest.

'Well, maybe we'll take a cab,' said Mann.

With commendable restraint, the sailor refrained from telling Mann that standing outside an airport building arguing with a uniformed sailor was more conspicuous than riding away in an official car. Instead, he nodded solemnly and said, The trouble with taking a cab is that they won't let you through the main gate without one of these stickers on the windshield. So you'd have to walk right through the hospital to the inner compound — it's about a mile.'

'O.K., smart ass,' said Mann. 'Just as long as you don't use the flashing light and siren.' He got into the car. It didn't have a flashing light, and probably didn't have a siren either.

'You're a lousy loser,' I told him quietly as I got in beside him.

'Yeah,' agreed Mann. 'Well, I don't get as much practice as you do.'

We watched the scenery go past. Mann put his documents case on his knees as if about to do some paperwork, but then put it down again unopened. 'I should never have agreed to them putting the Bekuvs into this nut-house.'

'Calm down,' I said. 'You over-react.'

'How the hell do you know if I over-react — you don't even know what I'm reacting to.'

I decided to let him cool down, but I suppose he wanted to get it off his chest. 'We're losing control of this operation,' he said.

'Speaking personally,' I told him, 'I never had control of it-you did.'

'You know what I mean,' he said. 'I've got these Washington know-alls crawling all over me like bugs. You know what the P.A.D. is?'

'Yes, I know,' I said. The Psychological Advisory Directorate was a cosy assembly of unemployed head-shrinkers who knew how to avoid every mistake that the C.I.A. ever made, but unfortunately didn't tell anyone until afterwards. 'Twenty-twenty hindsight,' said Mann after one of their cryptic admonishments.

'P.A.D. are moving in on Mrs Bekuv. They are taking her down to that farm near St Petersburg and Red Bancroft will be with her.' He reached into his waistcoat, found some Bufferin tablets, and swallowed two without water, 'Headache,' he said. I knew it was that sort of headache that comes through official channels from Washington.

'Red Bancroft,' I said. I looked at him, waiting for some explanation.

'Red Bancroft works for the department — did you guess that?'

'No, I didn't guess that,' I said. 'And I don't remember any prompting from the studio audience.'

'Now don't get mad,' he said. 'I'm disobeying orders by telling you. I'm breaking orders because you're a buddy, and I don't want you caught in the mangle.'

'Why the hell didn't she tell me herself?' I said.

'Me and Bessie have known her a long time,' said Mann.

'She's had a lot of lousy breaks, and it's left her in a tangle — you know what I mean?'

'No.'

He leaned forward and gripped my arm. 'Stay loose. She's a nice girl and I'd like to see her settle down — but not with you.'

'Thanks.'

'For your sake,' he added hurriedly. 'She's a tough girl. She's a damned good operative and she can look after herself. Two years back she infiltrated a Marxist group in Montreal. She nearly got herself killed — she went into hospital for three months — but she put three conspirators into hospital too, and another five into jail. This is a very special kind of girl, and I love her very dearly — but do yourself a favour: move on.'

'She's working for P.A.D. and going down to the farm with Mrs Bekuv?'

'Right,' said Mann. The car slowed as we got to the main entrance of the naval hospital. A sentry checked our identity cards and waved us through to the inner compound where another sentry checked them all over again.

The car stopped outside the eight-storey building that had been designed to house violent patients. Still the faded signs and steel shutters could be seen on the lower floors. Inside there would be that depressing institutional look to it: hard floors, a lack of ornaments, doors that opened automatically and hissed like Japanese slaves, too much light and far too many bright red fire extinguishers. Even the art reproductions on the walls would have been chosen to dull the senses.

'I get out here,' said Mann. 'I'm in the duty-surgeon's accommodation, top floor. You're in the V.I.P. block.'

I looked at him without bothering to conceal my anger. We had exchanged harsher words before, but we'd never come so close to a ding-dong row. I said, 'Which block is Miss Bancroft in?'

'I don't know,' said Mann.

'Then I shall have to phone the gate.'

'She left this morning,' said Mann. 'They moved Mrs Bekuv and Red went with her.'

My bad temper worsened. 'You deliberately moved her so that I wouldn't get a chance to talk with her.'

'Are you telling me I should schedule this caper to fit in with your private life?'

I didn't answer.

Mann said, 'I'll see you over here about nine in the morning. Maybe by that time you'll be in a mood to understand.'

'I understand already,' I said, 'I understand only too well. The P.A.D. are moving in on you. And you are determined to put Professor Bekuv through the wringer and get results before the P.A.D. get anything out of his wife. Yes, I understand. Red Bancroft is attached to P.A.D. and you don't like the idea of me being that close to your opposition. You don't trust me, Major. Well, you've heard of self-fulfilling prophecies, haven't you?'

'Good night,' said Mann. He got out and closed the door.

I brought the window down. 'Do I get an answer?'

'Yes. Grow up,' said Mann. He buttoned up his coat and put on the silly-looking tweed hat, with the brim turned down at front and back. 'And stay away from Miss Bancroft — and that is an order.'

I watched him as he marched into the lighted entrance. The two sets of glass doors opened automatically, but beyond them I could see the newly painted graticule of prison bars, and an armoured booth for the doorman.

They'd provided me with the comparative luxury of a four-room house normally occupied by a U.S. Navy captain, who was away on detachment to CINCLANT for a couple of months. His books and his furniture were still there. I had no doubt that this was the accommodation intended for Mann, until he swopped it for the cramped duty-surgeon's rooms that were so close to Bekuv.

I was tired, very tired. I thanked God for America, where even the poor-house probably has heated bathrooms. I opened my travelling bag and dumped my dirty linen into the laundry basket. Then I undressed and stepped into the shower. I stood there a long time, letting the hot water hammer at my muscles, and finished with water cold enough to make my teeth chatter. I grabbed the towel from the warm rack and wrapped it round myself before going into the kitchen. I set up a cup and saucer, filled the kettle and plugged in. While I waited for it to boil, I admired the captain's library. There were a lot of high-powered psychiatry books, papers and bound volumes. There were war memoirs, too, a Shorter Oxford Dictionary, and Dickens and Balzac, and a collection of very old volumes, about chemistry.

I walked into the bedroom. It was a large room with a double bed. On one side of the room there were large wardrobes, the doors entirely covered by tinted glass. Standing in front of the mirror there was a tall slim woman; she was naked except for a triangular frill of black silk. It was Red Bancroft and she smiled, pleased that her joke had worked so well. Her smile became a different sort of smile as she watched me examining her nakedness. She was beautiful. I began to tell her so but she came towards me and put her fingers to my lips. With the other hand she loosened the damp towel from my waist and let it drop to the floor. She flinched as we embraced and she felt the cold water against her skin. My wet hah- cascaded droplets over her face. We kissed, and she tightened her arms round me. I could not resist a glance at our reflection as we began our love-making.

Hardly had we started than there was a shrill scream. Red struggled under me but I held her. 'It's the kettle,' I said. 'It's sure to have a safety switch.' She sank back across the bed smiling. And in due time there was the reassuring plop of the kettle's switch.

We exchanged no words, apart from incoherent cries and murmurs, and afterwards, when she got out of bed, I pulled the blanket over my shoulders and settled my head into the down pillows. I was almost asleep by the time she reappeared. I was amazed to see her fully dressed.

'What's going on?' I said.

She sat down on the bed and looked at me as if seeing me for the first time. 'I must go.'

'Go where?'

She looked at her watch. 'We are moving Mrs Bekuv. I must be ready.'

'Nice timing,' I said.

'Don't be bitter.'

'Do you have to go?'

'Do you have to do the job you do,' she retorted. 'This is my job and I'm damned good at it, so don't treat me like the little woman.'

'So why not tell me about your job?'

'Did you tell me about your job — no, you didn't, because you're a secret agent.'

'What's this all about?' I said. I sat up.

She stretched her hand and touched my shoulder. 'I'm telling you goodbye,' she said. She shivered as if in apprehension.

'Goodbye for now, you mean?'

'I mean goodbye, goodbye.'

'Just for the record,' I said. 'Am I using the wrong brand of toothpaste?'

'Nothing personal, my darling. For a time you really had me going. Bessie Mann was asking me how many kids we were going to have, and I found myself looking at recipe books and baby carriages.'

I looked at her, trying to decide what could account for this resolute farewell.

'Don't try to puzzle it out, darling,' she said, and leaned over and gave me a sisterly kiss on the forehead. 'I planned it that way.'

'Only a woman would plan to say goodbye in bed,' I said.

'Don't believe it, baby. I've had the kiss-off that way, more times than I care to remember.' She got to her feet, and opened the wardrobe to get her suede overcoat. For a moment I thought someone was standing inside the wardrobe; but there were only two naval captain's uniforms in cleaner's transparent covers. She put her coat on carefully, watching herself in the mirror as she buttoned it.

I got out of bed and pulled on one of the captain's dressing-gowns. It was a little too short for me, but at the time I didn't care. Red Bancroft went into the lounge and picked up a large suitcase, opened the front door and placed it outside. She turned back to me. 'Look, darling, forget what I said just now — let's not part this way.'

'Why don't you tell me what this is all about?'

'There isn't time.'

'I'll make time.'

'And I'm too mixed up to know myself. Let me take a rain-check.'

'On a love affair?' I said.

'Please.'

Before I could answer, there were voices at the door and two men barged in. They were a tough-looking couple, with longish hair and denim jackets. But the hair was recently washed and carefully parted, and the denims were cleaned and pressed, so that the men looked like the sort of college lecturers who smoke pot.

'Scram,' I told them.

They didn't spare me more than a glance. To Red Bancroft one of them said, 'Is that your only bag?'

She pointed to another large case and then turned to me. 'I've got to go.'

'Who are these creeps?'

One of the men turned to me and said, 'You sit down and shut up and you won't get hurt.'

'I see,' I said it as passively as I could, and waited until he bent down to pick up Red's case before lifting the back of his jacket with one hand, while the other hand snatched the pistol from the holster he wore on his belt. 'Now let's try all over again,' I said, as he dropped the case and swung round at me. I'd already stepped far enough back to avoid any such counter action, and while he was still off balance I stepped forward and kicked the side of his knee, hard enough to make him yell. Without waiting to see him massaging the graze, I steered the Magnum to where the other one was standing. Even before I said anything he raised his hands. 'High,' I told him. 'Keep those hands very, very high.'

I went round the back of him and found his gun too. 'You've got to be quicker than that, if you want to keep your gun that far round your belt,' I told them. 'Now let's see who you are.'

'You know who we are,' said the first one. 'What do you think we are doing in this security area?'

'Keep your hands in the air, fatty,' I said, 'or I'll come over there and give you a bruise in the other leg.'

'We're C.I.A.,' said the second man. 'We're moving Mrs Bekuv.'

'Well, why didn't you say so,' I said sarcastically. 'And then I would have known that I was being threatened by goodies.'

He didn't answer.

'Let's have your social security cards,' I said. C.I.A. men rarely carry identification papers but they are assigned a special batch of social security numbers that enable them to be identified by fellow operatives, and also by the social security computer if they are found floating in the harbour.

Reluctantly the two men reached for their wallets. They did it one at a time, and very, very slowly. All the time Red Bancroft watched the fiasco, but said nothing. Neither did the expression on her face give an indication of her feelings, until she said, 'All right, children, you've all had your fun. Now let's get on with the job.'

'O.K.,' I said. I threw the Magnum back to its owner. His catch was so clumsy that he bared a knuckle on it. I noticed that he pulled the holster round to the front before putting the pistol back into it. 'Now beat it while I say good night to the lady.'

They went. They picked up the wallets from the table where I'd left them, walked over to "the door and left, closing it behind them. There was the sudden noise of a helicopter engine. Red went.across to the window. Over her shoulder I could see some lights and activity and then I heard the helicopter's rotors turning as the clutch was engaged. Red Bancroft said, 'Mrs Bekuv swims in the big indoor pool every morning before breakfast. This morning we'll put her in the chopper and be down in St Petersburg, Florida, before it's time for brunch.' She turned away from the window and put one arm round my waist and hugged me. 'Are you going to give me a second chance?' she asked.

I kissed her. She picked up her case and went to the door. I heard the voices of the two men and then the sound of a car engine. Soon after that the helicopter roared and lifted up over the roof tops. I still hadn't answered her.