White Cargo

35

They sat at the long table at dinner. Cat refused wine; so did Meg. They didn’t do much with the food either. Jinx was at the far end of the table, too far away for Cat to get any sort of reading on her state of mind.

“I’m scared,” Meg said.

Cat laughed. “Isn’t everybody?”

“I’ve never been in a spot quite like this,” she said. “Being a journalist usually bought me protection, but I doubt it would be much help if I flashed my credentials here.”

“I think you’re right.” Cat threw his napkin on the table. “Excuse me. I’ll be back in a minute.” He got up and asked a waiter for directions to the men’s room, knowing quite well where it was, just across the foyer from Vargas’s office. He had nothing specific in mind; he just wanted a few minutes in that communications room, and he was groping for a way to achieve that.

As he walked past Vargas’s office, he could hear the quiet whir of the Cat One printer coming from the radio room. He used the men’s room, and as he was about to leave, a man in a uniform came into the men’s room and went into a booth. Maybe, Cat thought, just maybe. He walked quickly across the hall into Vargas’s office, then into the communications room. He wasn’t sure what he would say if someone was in there. No one was. The duty man was across the foyer on the can. Cat went to the printer, switched it off, and lifted the cover. Using his ballpoint pen, he changed the settings on the dip switches, then closed the cover and switched the printer on again. Nothing happened. The printer was now useless. He started out of the office, but he heard an all too familiar sound from across the foyer — a flushing toilet. The noise disappeared as the men’s-room door closed. The radioman was on his way back. He was trapped. Then he heard footsteps and the voices of two men. He had a moment.

Cat turned to the only refuge he knew about. Quickly, he followed Dell’s instructions. The bookshelf, dead ahead as you walked into the room, opened. He began looking for the door handle, feeling behind the books. He heard footsteps on the marble floor again just as he found it. The shelf swung out silently, and Cat stepped inside the closet, pulling the shelf closed behind him. Standing in the dark, he heard the voices of two men as they entered the communications room.

“Oh, shit,” one of them said. “The goddamned printer’s down.”

“You sure it’s plugged in?” the other man asked.

“Of course — it was running just a minute ago. Vargas is really going to be pissed. He wanted this job done by morning, and it’s a big one.”

“Let me take a look at it,” the other man said.

Cat heard a scraping noise as the cover was lifted.

“Jesus, that’s Greek to me,” the man said.

“You think there’s a reset button or something? What’s that, there?”

It was obvious to Cat that both men were looking into the printer. Their backs would be to the door. He felt under his arm, to be sure the pistol was still there, pushed open the door, carefully closed it behind him, and tiptoed into Vargas’s office. There, he took a moment to catch his breath, then he walked back into the communications room. “Excuse me,” he said. Both men turned around. “I was wondering if I could borrow a soldering iron. I’ve got a broken circuit board on a portable radio, and I think I can fix it.”

“Sorry,” the radioman said. “I haven’t got one here. You’ll have to see maintenance about that, and they won’t be around until tomorrow morning.”

“Okay, thanks anyway,” Cat said, turning to go. “Got a problem there?”

“Yeah, the printer’s down.”

“That’s a Cat One, isn’t it? I used to sell them. Want me to have a look at it?”

“I’d really appreciate it,” the man said.

Cat walked to the printer and removed the cover. “Have you got a small screwdriver?” he asked.

“Hang on,” the radioman replied. He went and rummaged in a drawer. “How’s this?” he said, holding up a screwdriver.

“Ideal,” Cat said. “Just give me a minute.” He wondered how the hell he could get rid of them for a few minutes.

“Listen, Tom,” the radioman said to the other man, “you want to do double shifts? You do twelve to eight tonight, and I’ll do tomorrow night. We’ll both get more sleep.”

“You think Vargas would mind?”

“What the hell? The room will be covered, and he never comes around here in the middle of the night, anyway. He’s never set foot in that office before nine, and you know it.”

“Sure, okay. I’ll relieve you at midnight. See you then.” He left the room.

Cat reached down with the little screwdriver and reset the dip switches. He closed the cover. “Let’s try it now,” he said. He switched the machine off, then on again. It puffed away, the print head moving fast, back and forth across the paper.

“Hey, that’s fantastic,” the radioman said. “My ass would have been in a wringer if I hadn’t gotten this job done tonight.”

“No problem,” Cat said. “It was just a small adjustment. That rarely happens, and it’ll probably never happen again.”

“Listen,” the man said. “I’m back on duty at eight tomorrow morning. I’ll get you a soldering iron from maintenance, if you like.”

“Thanks, I’d appreciate that. I’ll stop in after breakfast to get it.”

Cat left the communications room with even more information than he’d expected, walked through the foyer, and back to the dining room. Dessert was just being served.

“You okay?” Meg asked.

“Yeah, I’m fine, and I think I may have a shot at getting those troops in here.”

“How?”

“I’ll tell you later. Right now, I’ve got to talk to Dell.” Some of the diners were leaving the table, and Dell was among them.

“Come on, let’s go,” Cat said, rising. Followed by Meg, he made his way out of the room and managed to draw up alongside Dell. “All right,” Cat said. “I’ll help you get the money out.”

“I can manage by myself,” Dell said.

“Listen to me, dammit!” he whispered hoarsely. “There’s one man on duty there all night, and by early in the morning, he’s going to be pretty sleepy. I’m going in there at five A.M. to use the radios, and I’m going to have to disable the operator. Can you get there at that time?”

“Yeah, I can do it.”

“All right, meet me in the men’s room across the foyer from Vargas’s office at five, and for God’s sake be careful. There’ll be guards out at that hour.”

“Okay, you’re on.”

“Do you have a gun?”

“Yeah.”

“Bring it. Plan on going straight from the radio room to the clearing where the helicopter is.”

Dell nodded and drifted into the crowd.