“Good Lord, man,” he spoke aloud. “Do you realize that on this basis alone I have virtually no choice but to ask for your resignation? And not just you, but Deputy Director Martinelli and this woman, uh, Danielson? They’ve conspired with you. Have you any idea of the turmoil in the Agency if I’m forced to let you all go?”
Isaacs started to speak, but his voice caught in his throat.
“What’s that?” demanded Drefke.
Isaacs tried again. “I said you can leave Martinelli and Danielson out of this. I coerced them.”
“You may want to leave them out now, but it’s too late,” McMasters’ voice was cool and smooth in his victory. Isaacs refused to look at him. “They allowed themselves to become involved. They must suffer the consequences.”
Damn my eyes, thought Isaacs. Danielson was bad enough; her low status is some protection since I can say I ordered her. But I shouldn’t have involved Martinelli. Photos from the U-2’s altitude relayed from a special scanner by satellite link showed virtually nothing useful anyway.
Drefke had his hand over his eyes, looking inward to struggle with the enormity of the final issue.
“How could you,” he removed his hand to stare at Isaacs in pain and anger, “how could you meet with them, the head of the Washington KGB, for chrissake, to reveal the President’s tactics in the confrontation over the new laser in Cosmos 2231? What could possibly induce you to sell out? To put the whole future of our control and use of space in jeopardy? And in such an obvious way?”
“Have you been one of them all along?” McMasters asked calmly.
Drefke glared at him and Isaacs exploded. “No! Goddamnit! I’m not one of them! I’ve sold out nothing! You don’t understand!”
“Understand?” asked McMasters quietly. “We have the interchange with Zamyatin on tape. It’s quite damning.”
Tape! So the bastard had me under surveillance, Isaacs thought. He continued to speak to Drefke. “If you recorded that session in his limousine then you know that whole crazy episode was Zamyatin’s idea.”
“The recordings are incomplete for technical reasons,” McMasters purred, “but there was enough to show your perfidy. You failed to report the contact. There is nothing to suggest you were not a willing accomplice in this conspiracy. We have only your word for that.”
“But you have my word,” Isaacs shot the oath at McMasters, looking directly at him for the first time. McMasters stiffened, but could not summon the strength of mind to voice a contradiction.
Isaacs used the opening.
“Sir,” he addressed Drefke, “you said yourself the meeting with Zamyatin was an absurd way to sell out. Surely it’s obvious that if I were really cooperating with the Soviets, I wouldn’t do so in so stupid a fashion?”
Drefke gave a small nod. He didn’t understand, but he knew that if a man like Isaacs turned, he would be damned difficult to catch. He certainly would not be hitching rides with the local KGB to exchange tidbits.
Isaacs continued, “I won’t deny that my actions precipitated the meeting, but it was all Zamyatin’s idea. He didn’t think I could or would respond through official channels. Whether he thought or cared that I would be in hot water if he snatched me off the street, I don’t know.
“If you will hear me out, I would like to try to explain. You recognize that my recent behavior is not only at odds with Agency policy, but also with my own record and methods. We are all involved in some very odd circumstances. These peculiar circumstances have forced me to extreme lengths. I think the peril was confirmed two days ago in Nagasaki, but we still don’t understand—that’s the major problem.”
“Ah, Nagasaki,” Drefke leaned back in his chair. “Perhaps you can tell me what the hell went on there.”
“I can tell you the background. The details are in this memo.”
Isaacs extracted an envelope from his pocket and pushed it across the desk to Drefke.
“Mr. McMasters has a previous version of it.”
“Oh? I wasn’t informed of that.”
“In my considered opinion,” McMasters said uncomfortably, “Mr. Isaacs has constructed a tissue of fantasy. What little merit there was to the case was not Agency business. I did not and do not believe there was any rationale to violate Agency regulations in the manner summarized there.” He nodded at the file on Drefke’s desk.
“I see,” said Drefke. He didn’t, but he was beginning to.
“Mr. Isaacs, may I ask why you did not proceed according to regulation if you had some concern?”
Isaacs looked him squarely in the eye.
“I was ordered not to.”
“By McMasters here.”
“That’s correct.”
“His request was ill-considered and inappropriate to the function of the Agency,” McMasters said stiffly.
“Mr. McMasters is your superior,” Drefke said to Isaacs.
“Yes, sir.”
“You not only disobeyed him; you violated a number of Agency regulations to do so.”
McMasters relaxed a little. Precisely so, he thought.
Drefke regarded the two men before him, sensing the tension between them. McMasters ran a tight ship on internal affairs. That freed Drefke to concern himself with the large issues. Isaacs had risen rapidly with an excellent record. Two such men could come to legitimate disagreement on occasion. In this business, McMasters was acting true to form, but Isaacs’ behavior had been bizarre, completely out of character. Was Isaacs’ aberrant behavior to be stopped short and penalized for the greater good of a smooth-functioning Agency, or did he actually see something that McMasters, the narrow-minded authoritarian, couldn’t perceive? If McMasters were right, Isaacs was a damnable nuisance. If Isaacs were right?
“You were going to tell me about Nagasaki,” Drefke said to Isaacs. McMasters shifted uncomfortably.
“This all goes back to the Soviet carrier, the Novorossiisk,” Isaacs said.
“The Novorossiisk?”
“That’s right. You know what followed from that. An escalating conflict in space.”
“If you’re implying all that has been Agency business, I’m quite aware of the fact, thank you,” said Drefke drily.
“But you don’t know what happened to the Novorossiisk. What started it all.”
“No,” Drefke said slowly. “But does it matter now?”
“It matters for two reasons. An understanding of the origin of these affairs may help put a cap on them. And what happened to the Novorossiisk may be the greater question.”
“Greater than nuclear or beam warfare in space?” Drefke asked incredulously.
“Ridiculous,” McMasters said, backing him up.
“I have no proof yet, but I’m sure Nagasaki and the Novorossiisk are closely linked. Nagasaki is another clue to the ultimate problem. The current danger is the unknown. The Soviets feel that, too. They don’t know what happened to the Novorossiisk either.”
“Why did Zamyatin pick on you anyway?”
Isaacs paused. This could be crucial, if it weren’t already on the tapes.
“I wrote a letter to Academician Korolev,” Isaacs said, “describing my fears about the Novorossiisk.”
“You what?” Drefke almost shouted.
“Oh, for god’s sake,” McMasters blurted simultaneously.
“You’ve got to see we’re on the same side on this one,” Isaacs protested.
“But you can’t go discussing Agency affairs with the top brains in the Kremlin!” Drefke said, exasperated.
“According to Mr. McMasters, this wasn’t an Agency affair,” Isaacs said.
“Well, any security matter then,” Drefke said, but he calmed down, granting Isaacs the point.
“I felt something had to be done,” Isaacs persisted. “I sent a memo to Korolev similar to the one I gave Mr. McMasters, outlining the series of circumstances that led to my concern. Zamyatin saw that letter. I told you they’re still worried about the Novorossiisk. That’s what we talked about.”
“You talked about the Cosmos 2231 and our nuclear deterrent,” McMasters said meanly.
“Only briefly, and in a completely different context from what you’d like to believe,” Isaacs snapped. He turned to Drefke.
“Korolev has used my letter to argue that we did not initiate the Novorossiisk business. Zamyatin told me that my letter convinced the Soviets to keep a cap on the confrontation over the Cosmos. That’s all we said about it. And Zamyatin did most of the talking.”
“So they’re worried,” Drefke said.
“Yes, they are.”
“You still haven’t told me what exactly happened at Nagasaki.”
“Pat Danielson assembled a variety of data that have shown that some force or influence is moving through the Earth in a very regular way. I think that influence damaged the Novorossiisk, sank the USS Stinson that was sent by the Navy to investigate the phenomenon, and did the damage in Nagasaki.”
Drefke started to speak, but Isaacs continued intensely.
“We don’t know what’s going on; that’s what frightens me. That’s what has caused me to do all these things you think are so crazy. But this thing is dangerous. It’s real. It’s predictable. Pat Danielson predicted where and when there would be damage in Nagasaki. She has predicted a similar fate for Dallas in a little over two weeks. This thing, whatever it is, will keep on causing death and destruction until we determine what it is!”
Isaacs leaned back, spent.
Drefke tried to absorb this diatribe. He didn’t understand at all. But Isaacs was either sincere and committed, or he was insane. Could his insanity be contagious, caught by the Russians? What the hell was going on? Was this a good man gone around the bend? Or was here an issue of great magnitude on which he could truly serve his President? He would have loved to kick the whole thing to McMasters, but he perceived that, in ways he did not yet fully comprehend, McMasters was part of the problem. Besides, the involvement of the Russians smacked of truly global issues, not simple internal bickering. The only good decision now was no decision.
“Mr. Isaacs, I don’t understand all that you have been trying to tell me. Not by a long shot. And the fact remains that there is a prima facie case against you for violating Agency regulations as well as good common sense.” He paused and picked up Isaacs’ memo.
“But I think perhaps I should read this document of yours before deciding what to do about you and the others.”
The tone of dismissal hung in the air for a long moment until Isaacs and McMasters finally shuffled their chairs and got to their feet. There was an awkward moment at the door as they each tried to ignore the other, which prevented signals as to who should go first. Finally, Isaacs stepped back and gave a brief gesture. McMasters charged through. Isaacs waited until McMasters passed the outer doorway and then slowly closed Drefke’s door behind him.
Drefke got up and walked to the window. He looked out for a long time, hands clasped behind his back. Then he took his seat and pulled the typewritten pages from the envelope Isaacs had left him. He began to read.
Robert Isaacs resigned himself to the fact that the situation was out of his hands. Under the terms of his partial suspension awaiting the outcome in Dallas, he could not engage in policy decisions, so for the next two weeks he busied himself with routine things neglected in the recent press of events. To his relief the confrontation with the Russians cooled. The fragile status quo held. On the final weekend before Dallas, he arranged for his daughter Isabel to stay with a friend and convinced Muriel to spend the time with him sailing on the Chesapeake.
Pat Danielson spent the two week period in an agonized limbo. She, too, went about her duties, but the upcoming event that would profoundly affect her career was never very far from her mind. Some mysterious force would push through the Earth six hundred times, she mused, while she chewed her nails, waiting for it to hit Dallas. In a way, she was glad that Drefke had explicitly forbidden both Isaacs and her from going to Dallas, as well as from exercising any other connection to Project QUAKER. She recognized the great likelihood of futility, but knew that if the trip were not proscribed she would have gone to Dallas to try to see something, anything, that would give a clue to the force that would erupt there.
On the final Saturday she dragged her roommate, Janine, on a prolonged shopping trip and then to a movie. Sunday she could not shake the doldrums and spent the day in fretful listlessness. Monday evening she went to bed early, but tossed in a restless, unsatisfying sleep. Something in her kept time, and she later found herself wide awake, staring at the ceiling. Without looking at the clock she knew that it must be nearly one a.m. An hour earlier in Dallas it was about to happen. She continued to stare in the darkness, straining to project herself into the scene. What would she see? What would it do? She felt completely halted in that prolonged state of painful anticipation, but then the alarm pulled her up from a deep sleep. She pried her eyes open. The world still looked the same.
“You ever been to Dallas before?” Glen Wilson asked his partner in a subdued voice.
The two men walked slowly, purposefully, down the street, eyes catching every facet of the subdued activity.
“Me? Nah,” replied Sam Spangler. “Unless you count changing planes in the airport. You ever ride those little trolleys?”
“Um. Yeah, couple of times. Kinda fun at first, no driver and all. Irritating, though, when they stop for no apparent reason.”
They skirted a disheveled old man, slumped asleep against the wall, legs sprawled onto the sidewalk, brown bag cradled in his lap.
“I was just thinking,” Wilson continued, “I’ve seen a few boots and hats, but except for the fact that it’s damn awful hot, it’s hard to tell where we are. I mean, look at this. Bars, strip joints, porny flicks. The only women you see that aren’t hookers are with some guy hustling ‘em off somewhere else. Just a little seedy piece of anywhere, USA.”
“You’re right about that,” Spangler agreed. “They do move a lot of produce through here in the daytime, I guess.” He flicked a rotting cabbage with the side of his shoe. It rolled up against the barred storefront. Behind the bars were partitioned tables waiting the next day’s yield.
“You’re also right about the heat. Feels like I’m wearing a blanket. Told you we should’ve gone native, jeans and T-shirts. Would have fit right in and been a damn sight cooler than these suits.”
“Hey, better than that,” Wilson shot him a quick smile, “I coulda dressed as a wino and sat around taking it easy and you coulda come in drag and walked the streets ‘til something happens. You might’ve made a few bucks.”
Spangler smiled back and swaggered a few steps. They reached a corner and turned to cross the street, waiting for the light. Wilson looked up at the buildings around them. The tallest ones of the main commercial area were a few blocks away. Around them, the buildings ranged from two to ten stories in height, the upper stories mostly dark as midnight approached. Once across the street they turned and headed back in the direction from which they had come. Wilson glanced at his watch.
“Five minutes?”
Spangler nodded confirmation. “Beats the hell out of me how they can know where something is going to happen, and when, to the second, and not know what. Screwy damn assignment.”
They walked on in silence, checking their watches more frequently as the assigned time approached, unconsciously walking more slowly, watching more carefully. Finally they stopped. Wilson noticed the digits on his watch that indicated seconds as they flashed to zero-zero, signaling the onset of the final minute during which the unspecified, but potentially dangerous event should occur. He tried to simultaneously register the numbers on the watch as they swapped places, second by second, and the urban visage around them. Thirty seconds later, he realized he had been holding his breath as he strained for any clue. He stared at the watch and exhaled, more loudly than he had intended.
The sound of his released breath mingled with and covered the onset of a strange
whistling roar. The two agents glanced suddenly at one another and then turned to look down the street, trying to fix the location of the noise. It seemed to rise rapidly above the buildings.
The roar diminished, to be replaced by a hoarse cry. In the middle of the next block a man emerged onto the sidewalk and stood there, his frantic screams tearing the night.
A hole appeared in the concrete foundation of the basement of the Poodle Lounge. Twin punctures followed in the keg of beer immediately above it. As the pressurized brew began to spurt a frothy spout, another hole was ripped in the floor of the bar. Chaos ensued there as the quiet atmosphere was split by the sound of smashing glass shelves and bottles, as if someone had suddenly taken an ax to the racks behind the bar. As the bartender spun to stare in disbelief, a new hole had already been drilled in the ceiling above his head.
Upstairs at Crazy Lil’s they played out the quiet midweek evening. The smoky room was dominated by a small oblong stage surrounded by seats for patrons. At the four corners of the stage were pillars that supported a canopy with mirrored undersurface and ruffled trim, the whole thing a grotesque parody of an old four-poster bed. Along one wall a screen was mounted for entr’acte movies. Opposite were a pair of coin-operated pool tables. At one of these, a tough- looking pair played eightball, studiously ignoring the woman working on the stage.
The audience was sparse. Three young cowboy-types in boots, jeans, and carefully sculpted straw hats. One of these boasted an unlawful eagle feather, the emblem of little britches rodeo days, not long past. A few bored salesmen sat each by himself, their common predicament being insufficient grounds to bring them together. The only spirit came from two stray out-of-town convention goers. One of these had just crooked a finger and gestured with a dollar bill. The dancer had interrupted her gyrations to pause in front of him, pelvis outthrust, as he worked the bill under the strap of her g-string. That position was one of precarious balance and left her unprepared for what happened next.
The Krone Experiment k-1 Page 21
