by Arno Baker
Orlov looked furious. Each word came out like a pounding hammer.
“Mr. Rosenberg, listen to what I say, I just gave you your orders that are being issued by the Organs for a reason. You must follow them to the letter. Your sister in law is not your direct responsibility, her condition is our headache. We are providing you with an escape route because of the value of your contribution and your potential for future work for us. Do not try our patience or attempt to deviate from these orders. I will leave my briefcase under the table. You shall meet another contact exactly two weeks from today at the same time at location number six for a report on your progress. Be there!”
Orlov left one dollar bill on the table then got up and walked out without having touched his coffee. Julius sank back in his chair depressed as he watched the Soviet case officer quickly fade into the Broadway crowds. It was an impossible situation and Julius understood what he was facing. He fumbled under the table and grabbed the handle of the cheap leatherette attaché case. How would he handle David who was once again his semi-hysterical self. He‘d also have to convince Ethel and he knew that she wouldn‘t want to leave. He walked out into Times Square that was already filling up with late afternoon crowds and in his mind he longed to be able to procrastinate and delay those unpleasant confrontations as much as possible. So he decided to go to a movie theater on 42nd Street showing The Enforcer, a gangster picture with Humphrey Bogart, but he didn’t really pay much attention to what was going on on the screen. All he could do was think the situation through in peace and quiet before returning home.
Dorothy couldn’t hold back and just let herself go, whenever Al was in one of those sexual moods of his she felt helpless and enraptured. He would turn into an animal, predatory and aggressive to the limits of sensuality. She screamed then bit her clenched fist, as tears of orgasm clouded her eyes and she would look at Al and feel him coming deep inside her at the same time. It drove her crazy and she would dig her nails into his back until he groaned with pain and then suddenly rolled over to the side. She could smell his strong body covered with dark hair like a human ape. Then the wild moment slowly passed and she could feel the cooler air seeping through the crack in the window.
Al reached over and grabbed a Lucky lighting it with his Zippo. He couldn’t delay telling her now, there was no time left and they would be safe only if they acted quickly.
“Something I gotta tell you Dot. I must leave the country. ... You understand, and it’ll be for a long time.”
He smoked and felt helpless as he expected an agonizing reaction from Dorothy. Running off with him was something he couldn’t see her doing. Picking up a shopping bag filled with meager belongings, simply dropping out of Richard’s life, and abandoning her children without even a good-bye, from one hour to the next. She sat up while the tears of sexual gratitude were still streaming down her cheeks. But she understood and wanted to know what was about to happen to him, and to them both.
“Oh, Al is it about the work you did during the war?”
“Yeah. That’s it.”
She looked outside, it was the end of the afternoon and the sunlight was quickly fading into dusk. She slipped on a t-shirt, drew up her hair and fastened it quickly. Then she faced him and asked in a no-nonsense voice, the one she used for the big occasions.
“When?”
“Tonight.”
“Tonight? Oh Al, no, no, I can’t bear it, I can’t bear it!”
She came up to him and hugged his body that she suddenly knew would be gone from her life forever. In seconds an overwhelming sense of rejection grew inside her: she couldn’t be without him. She couldn’t stay behind knowing that he was on his way somewhere far away from her. Her mind was no longer in charge of her decisions, it was only her instinct.
“No, Al I can’t be without you, it’s impossible for me, I just can‘t accept this!”
“But you have Richard and the kids! Come on, don’t be silly!”
“But this is about you and me, about us, Al! I need you, you’re inside me, always! I can‘t face life without you.”
She heard her words flowing out uncontrollably; as if the lines were memorized and being spoken only by her mouth. Most people would have thought her whole attitude was obscene but then what could they know about violent passion, about her passion, and her needs. She was enslaved to him, she had to have his skin touching hers constantly, anywhere and she was deeply troubled by this awful news. Then he spoke and everything became clear.
“Look Dottie, this won’t be easy, we have to leave early this evening—in a few hours—by train to New York, Grand Central first, then to Penn Station and Long Island where we’ll pick up a car. By midnight we must be on the road. We’ll drive as if we were heading across country, Northeast to Southwest, in that general direction. Officially we’re on our way to Phoenix or Tucson, on Route 66. If anyone asks, at a gas station or in the coffee shops on the highway, it’s Arizona. But then at some point we‘ll cut south, straight down towards Texas. We’ll share the driving, all night and all day. We’ll stop only to eat and refuel, we just can‘t pull it off otherwise, you understand. They‘ll be onto us. Then at some point we’ll go from the Panhandle around Lubbock to El Paso and across to Mexico at a lonely border crossing. Once we get down there, at Ciudad Juarez, I’ll continue on alone and you’ll drive back. There’s no other way.”
Suddenly it all felt like an adventure and that made her feel happy so she managed to express her thoughts.
“Yes, yes, I’ll drive all the way to Mexico City if necessary, Al. I’ll help you get out. But I must come with you. I must. I can’t stay here alone, without you. It’s impossible. You know it too, I’m lost without you.”
She hugged him desperately, burying her face on his chest as he went on smoking calmly.
“It’ll be dangerous sweetheart! We must move quickly and there‘s no guarantee we‘ll succeed. But you’ll come back here and continue your life. Your kids, your home, your husband Richard...Dorothy. Think about it.”
“I need you, Al, only you.”
He looked at his watch and moved to the edge of the bed.
“Gotta get ready to go to the station at six this evening. Only a small gym bag each, nothing more, mine is ready.”
Dorothy suddenly realized this was only ninety minutes away, not more.
“Oh, God! Oh, God!” she said, suddenly panicking. Then she began to cry just as Richard‘s car pulled into the driveway. Al got dressed quickly and went downstairs to tell Richard who already knew and had accepted the fact that they were having an affair. He’d known for months now how much of a cuckold he was, but he’d overcome his bruised ego and the deep distress that he felt so cruelly at first. Yet he hated Dorothy for doing this to him and to the kids. He hated her but he refused to show it.
When Al explained that she wanted to follow him into Mexico, Richard felt a cowardly and silent relief that Dot would remove herself from his presence with all her betrayals, her secret passions, and her abject enslavement to Al. There were some things that rational thinking couldn‘t resolve. For all the intellectual knowledge and superior attitudes rightly or wrongly attributed to academics and intellectuals, there remained vast dark areas of the mind and soul that eluded description. Dorothy had drifted away from him for some time and Richard reacted in ways that defied the ordinary imagination.
He didn’t look at Al when he spoke but just kept on emptying the grocery bags he’d carried in from the car.
“So you’re going this evening, then?”
“Yeah, Richard, I must and Dorothy says she wants to come along part of the way.”
Richard didn’t stop putting the cans away in the cabinets as he was tidying up the kitchen studiously avoiding any eye contact. He knew already, instinctively that she would go with Al all the way to edge of the earth if he’d asked her. She had become completely his, that’s all, there was no other complicated explanation and at the same time there were hundreds of reasons. Richard shrugged
his shoulders and asked,
“So you‘re taking the six o’clock train?”
Al stubbed out his cigarette and finally got Richard to look at him. His eyes were slightly cloudy but that was all the emotion he’d show, perhaps he was relieved to be rid of them both.
“Yes, that’s it. No time for packing or anything. Gotta go, just the way we are.”
For a brief second he thought that Richard was going to hit him, it was just a feeling, a mistaken one for sure but still the physical threat lingered for a few seconds in the air between them. Then Richard’s Anglo-Saxon cool and communist party discipline took over and the moment passed. Dorothy came into the kitchen; and told Richard that she’d be returning home once they reached the border, somewhere in West Texas once Al was able to get across without problems. Al admired her cool lies as she hugged Richard affectionately and took such a long time kissing the kids. He drove them to the station and didn’t stay to wave at them once the train arrived. When they emerged from the station to the platform with their tickets they could see that he’d driven off. He was angry after all.
The escape began on Long Island where Al picked up a car at a garage near Huntington, a 1948 Chevy sedan, big, black, and non-descript with a few dents but all revved up with a full tank of gas. By 9 pm Al was driving out of the Holland Tunnel in Jersey City and on his way south through Trenton, Wilmington, Baltimore, Washington, Richmond that all filed by anonymously like ghosts in the darkness as he kept on driving. By dawn they were in North Carolina. Dorothy was sleeping soundly on the back seat and Al only stopped for coffee and gas at the trucking areas. He talked to himself and sang the same tunes as he chain-smoked Luckys.
Three days later they reached the border crossing just west of Laredo and spent the night in a Howard Johnsons. Al was convinced that crossing the border would be less conspicuous in the morning rather than in the dead of night. Dorothy had emotional doubts about what she should do. In the end she said she would stick to the original plan and drive back once she was sure Al was safely on a bus to Mexico City. But on the morning that was to be their last, Al made love to her and she knew then that she couldn’t help herself and vowed to stay with him to the end. When they drove to the bus stop on the Mexican side in Nuevo Laredo she changed her mind for the final time and kept on driving south on the desolate dusty roads that led to Guadalajara. Al said nothing and just kept his hand on her bare thigh as she drove on.
Two days later they registered as Mr. and Mrs. Lombard in a cheap hotel off the Socalo. In the small, stifling room they broke down together with nervous exhaustion.
“Are you sure you can go through with this? I’m afraid of cracking up myself. It’s still time for you to travel back home you know. I’m glad we ditched the car they would have traced us very quickly if they tried hard enough. But you can go back: I’ll buy you a bus ticket, I have plenty of cash…”
Dorothy was coming out of the bathroom where she managed to take a shower, her hair still dripping, a very old towel barely covering her figure. Now she smiled,
“No, I’ve made my choice, Al. I have chosen you! Your thoughts, your dreams, your future…our future, the cause. I believe what you believe. We must be together. That’s it!”
She threw the towel off and came over to him as he lay smoking on the bed, almost indifferent with a faint sarcastic smile on his face. He had that look with his usual mix of lust, contempt for the physical and a monumental superiority complex that made him so remote and attractive to some women. He stubbed his cigarette and slipped his hand up her thighs lingering slowly as she became wet with desire. For a brief instant he thought of throwing her out and getting rid of her once and for all, to free himslef of that heavy baggage she was bound to become. But then he gave up on those thoughts and let her unbutton his shirt and pants and soon they were completely oblivious to anything else as they became entangled in familiar pleasures.
Later on Al lit another cigarette,
“All right, now we must be at our coolest and lay very low. Very soon if they haven’t already started, they’ll be actively looking for us so we must change a few things. Get rid of the clothes, grow a beard and change hair color, everything must look radically different once we switch hotels. We’ll do it step by step. Avoid going out together as much as possible and buy only local sundries. Maybe we’ll rent a furnished apartment and say we’re writers or something...”
“I’ll start tomorrow. I brought the hair coloring when we left not knowing…”
Suddenly Al‘s hands began to shake and he was unable to control them, his nerves were out of control and he was feeling terrified. He was trembling as he grabbed the bottle of Jack Daniels and took a long swig of bourbon and walked around the room in a daze, realizing how dismal and dangerously precarious everything really was. He had a sinking feeling about being in Mexico City under those conditions with Dorothy abandoning her family but then those dark thoughts dissolved.
“I’m still working at our plan. I’m trying to second guess every move they might make. I must think logically, scientifically, and then do the illogical, unscientific thing they wouldn’t expect. I have a method mapped out in my mind, now we have to put it in practice. It’s best that I don’t tell you any of it just in case we’re separated so you won’t have to be hiding anything. They might torture us, you know.”
“I know, but I feel that we’re going to make it out of here all right...” He wasn’t so sure.
Al would buy the New York Times changing newsstands as much as possible while he looked for information about the Rosenbergs and the Korean War. They both slowly settled in and found a studio in a remote part of town where they told the landlord they were both poets and needed peace and quiet to write. Al bought a used Royal typewriter and could be heard banging away from time to time. The landlord was pleased because they paid two months in cash in advance and were very polite and quiet. After a few weeks Al decided it was time to make the move and he visited the Polish embassy. He figured correctly that the Soviet mission would be under closest scrutiny while the satellites were less of a focal point.
Sporting a thick reddish beard, he had managed to successfully dye his hair the same color, and went in through the front door convinced that someone had to be diligently photographing the entrance. At the front desk he showed his American passport and asked to see a passport officer for a visa application. The male employee who was obviously a security officer, scrutinized the passport for a few seconds noticing the marked differences between the photograph and the man standing in front of him and yet seeing that the resemblance was also very clear.
“All right, please take a seat and wait, thank you.” The security guard rang a bell and a blond woman came to replace him at the front desk while he disappeared up the stairs with the passport. Al nodded, picked a chair and quietly pretended to read the paper as the woman was busy making entries in a register and looked up at him furtively from time to time. The guard returned and asked Al to follow him upstairs where he was shown into a bare room furnished only with a couch and two armchairs.
“Please wait here, it may take some time, the counselor is busy right now. Unless you prefer to come back next week…?”
“No, that’s not convenient for me, I’ll wait.”
The guard nodded and closed the door behind him. Finally, a half hour later a man entered the room. A tall blond type, with typically Slavic features and intense blue eyes, he had to be about 35.
“My name is Yashinsky. Here is your passport.” He sat in one of the armchairs and invited Al to face him on the couch. “You may speak to me.”
Even though he had prepared his statement, Al Sarant was suddenly nervous and felt his hands beginning to tremble so he tried to hide them. As he began to tell his story the trembling stopped and his heartbeat returned to normal.
“I worked for the Soviet Union in New York. My contact was Julius Rosenberg. I am a scientist and I am seeking protection. I wish to seek asylum in Poland or the US
SR. I was given money and ordered to travel to Mexico City in case we were in danger. I know the Soviet embassy here is under heavy surveillance, there are cameras, Mexican policemen and all that...so I opted for the Polish embassy. I could have gone to the Czechs or the Bulgarians…”
Yashinsky was scrutinizing Al very carefully as if taking an inventory of the human material sitting in front of him. A few seconds slipped silently by as decisions were being made and Al could sense that this was the crucial moment. Suddenly Yashinsky opened a folder and handed him a pencil and five sheets of paper.
“All right, write your name, your address in Mexico City and a short biography. No more than five pages, then enter the date and sign your name on each page. Also mention the circumstances of your trip here and with whom you are traveling. We shall pass this along. But remember that you are to never set foot here again or make any attempt to contact us. If the answer is positive someone will contact you. Visit the Columbus statue in the park every Tuesday starting at noon for ninety minutes. There are several benches on both sides under the trees. I cannot say when or even if you will be contacted so you must be extremely patient. Is that clear to you?”
“Yes, I understand.”
Al began writing his biographical data and telling the story of his escape with Dorothy and Yashinsky was reading the pages one by one as soon as Al was finished...He looked at the diplomat’s expression each time but there seemed to be no reaction. Al then handed Yashinsky Dorothy’s passport as well. The diplomat went to another room to photograph the passports. When he returned, he said,
“Make sure the woman who is traveling with you is also present at the rendezvous, every time and without fail. Now you must leave through the back garage. Do not hesitate or look back as soon as you are outside. Understood? Now please follow me.”
