Sabotage in the Secret City

by Diane Fanning

  ‘I thought we got rid of all those spies last year. You think we missed some of them?’ Rudy asked.

  ‘I suspect there are more espionage agents on the reservation, but in this case, the people that might want to trick me could be army or administration. Only, I do think it most likely it is Tom. I would think that anyone else wouldn’t suggest that I bring someone else with me.’

  ‘Unless this is another attempt by Crenshaw to find out who is in the group.’

  I sighed. ‘That is a possibility. You don’t have to go with me, Rudy.’

  ‘Are you kidding? Of course I’m going with you. I don’t care if I’m exposed. He knows most of the names of the group by now anyway. C’mon, let’s go get some lunch.’

  After lunch, I went through the priorities on Charlie’s desk and then returned to my lab station. It’s good that I had a monumental stack of work piled up beside me. Without it, I’d probably dwell on the evening to come and grow more agitated counting down the hours until I went into the woods. I grew so focused on the task at hand that all the sounds around me faded away.

  I heard ‘Libby’ right by my ear and jumped up off my stool. I blinked twice. My neck bent forward as I peered at the person standing next to me. I couldn’t believe my eyes. Gregg. Hollowed eyes. Sunken cheeks. Slumped shoulders. Even his hair looked exhausted. But it was Gregg.

  I threw my arms around him. ‘Gregg, when did you get back? Are you okay? What about the others?’

  ‘I don’t know about all the others but Teddy and Dennis were dropped off with me. Teddy is waiting for you outside before he goes into his lab.’

  I took both of his hands in mine and stared into his eyes. ‘You won’t go anywhere, right? You’ll stay right here until I get back?’

  ‘No, Libby, I won’t go anywhere. Hurry, don’t keep Teddy waiting.’

  Racing outside, I again had that moment of disbelief when I spotted Teddy. He ran towards me and we collided into each other hard. If we hadn’t clutched each other in the immediate aftermath, we would have both gone down. Teddy looked even worse than Gregg. I was surprised he was even able to move.

  ‘Why did you come here? You look like you need a good, long sleep. You should have gone to your rooms.’

  ‘I had to see you, Libby.’

  ‘What did they do to you? Did they even feed you? Are you injured?’

  ‘I’m tired. I’m hungry and I’m thirsty. But we want to get the group together at Joe’s tonight at 8.’

  ‘We really need to make it earlier,’ I said.

  ‘Why? What’s going on?’

  I explained about the rendezvous in the woods.

  ‘Libby, you’re taking Rudy? He’s like Marshmallow Man. You gotta be kidding.’

  ‘That’s about what he said but what other choice did I have? If I took Gary, he might chicken out and leave me alone in the middle of nowhere.’

  ‘That’s true. We’re back now. We’ll all go.’

  ‘Tom said only one person. Let’s talk about it at Joe’s. Can we meet at 7?’

  ‘Sure. You tell Gregg and Gary.’

  ‘I will. I hate to leave but I need to get back if I have any hope of finishing up before 7 tonight.’

  ‘Wait,’ Teddy said, and kissed me as if the end of the world was nigh.

  TWENTY-NINE

  I took care of the necessary communications and then threw myself into my work keeping an eye on the clock on the far wall. I finally reached the point where I could leave work without guilt at 6.45. I straightened up the disorder and scurried over to Joe’s.

  I stepped into the back room and every man at the table rose to their feet, raised their beer mugs high and shouted, ‘To Libby!’

  ‘Thank you but although I may have pried Gregg, Dennis and Teddy out of Crenshaw’s claws, we still have Joe and Charlie behind bars.’

  ‘You forgot, Tom,’ Gary objected.

  ‘Not at all. He never was locked up. I’ll have more on that in a bit, but first I want to hear about our prisoners’ experiences. Gentlemen …’

  Gregg spoke first. ‘We weren’t in a jail cell, well, at least I wasn’t. I never saw any of the others from shortly after our arrival until it was time to leave. The room was damp. We walked down a flight of stairs to get there. If it wasn’t an actual basement, it was somewhere underground. There were no windows at all – just four concrete block walls painted a nauseating shade of green.

  ‘I was directed to a stout wooden table under a very bright light fixture. Outside the cone of brightness, the rest of the place was gloomy and unsettling. I was ordered to sit on a hard, wooden chair behind the table. I sat there for what felt like hours before Crenshaw entered the room. With him was a chubby, balding man wearing a suit and tie. Crenshaw sat down opposite me and the man leaned against the wall, peering at me over the rim of his wire-rimmed glasses. I’ll try to relate the interrogation word for word.’ Tom’s eyes drifted upward and glazed over as he recalled his experience.

  Crenshaw asked, ‘Where did you get the rats?’

  ‘Rats? I haven’t even seen a rat since my trip to Chicago where I was interviewed for this job.’

  Inside, I was squirming but I dared not let it show and I struggled not to look away as Crenshaw stared into my eyes for far too long. Finally, he spoke again, ‘When did Miss Clark tell you where she delivered the packages?’

  ‘I was unaware of the location of Miss Clark’s rendezvous point until after the fire.’

  ‘What did you expect to accomplish by setting the fire at the rendezvous point?’

  ‘Since I did not set that fire, I do not know how to answer your question,’ I said.

  ‘If you didn’t then who did?’

  ‘I wasn’t there. I do not know.’

  ‘What did you use to puncture the tires of my fleet of jeeps?’

  ‘I have never intentionally punctured a tire in my life.’

  ‘Do you expect me to believe that you accidentally punctured four tires on seven jeeps?’

  ‘No, sir.’

  ‘You’re admitting it was intentional?’

  ‘No. The only time I accidentally punctured a tire, it was on my own car. I ran over a nail-studded board in the road. I should have missed it but I didn’t.’

  ‘How did you puncture the tires of my jeeps?’

  ‘I did not.’

  Crenshaw stared at me, willing me to change my answers to what he wanted to hear. I returned his glare but said nothing. When he spoke again, he said, ‘You have to admit that flooding the bathroom in Y-12 was a very juvenile act.’

  ‘Of course it is.’

  ‘And you are a professional scientist. How did you even think of doing something so incredibly immature.’

  ‘I didn’t, sir.’

  Crenshaw started from the top, going through the same questions and I repeated my answers. When he reached the end, he began again. He was on the questions about the tires, when the man in the suit stepped up beside Crenshaw and slammed his fist down on the table. I startled and nearly fell out of the chair.

  ‘Let’s get to the point,’ the man said. ‘We know you took out the bridge. We just want to know who helped you and where you obtained the explosives.’

  I had thought Crenshaw’s eyes were cold but when I looked into that man’s eyes, they were as blue and chilly as an iceberg. No sign of human emotion, no sign of life, just dead, cold orbs. They stunned me speechless.

  ‘Mr Abbott,’ Crenshaw said, drawing my attention back to him. ‘Where did you—’

  The man raised an open palm, pushing it aggressively into Crenshaw’s face making him stop mid-sentence. The man glared at me for a few minutes before he asked, ‘Who are you working for? The Germans? The Japs? The Soviets?’

  I was shocked by the question – he was accusing me of treason. I stammered when I answered. ‘I work for Kodak on behalf of the United States of America to help us win the war.’

  He stood with both palms resting on the surface of the table. He leaned t
oward me so close that I could feel his angry spittle on my face as he shouted. ‘Do you think I’m stupid?’ Then, he pushed away from the table and walked over to the door.

  Crenshaw asked, ‘Do you need anything, Mr Abbott?’

  Before I could ask for something to eat or drink, the chubby man turned back to the table and said, ‘He gets nothing until he tells the truth about killing those men in the locomotive.’

  I was left alone again for hours. When Crenshaw returned to the room, he was alone. ‘Mr Abbott,’ he said, ‘that man has no patience. Stop being stoic. He won’t care if you die of thirst. Let’s just start with the names of the people in your little group of troublemakers.’

  I asked, ‘Who is that man?’

  ‘He is a government agent.’

  ‘Which agency?’

  ‘All I was told was that it was a secret government agency. I was told I did not need to know anything more.’

  ‘Do you even know the man’s name?’

  ‘I do not. I have filed complaints but I doubt if anything will come of that. I am doing my best to have all of you released. It would help my efforts if you would give me the names of the others involved in your group.’

  ‘You know none of us will give you names – none of us will betray our friends.’

  ‘You may believe that now but there are things that man could do that would make me give up my mother. You need to reconsider.’

  I turned my head away from him and refused to say another word. He left then but the sessions with Crenshaw and the man in the suit or Crenshaw by himself continued with long pauses in between. I’d nap with my head resting on the table every chance I got.

  The next morning, the man came in with a soldier. The soldier set two battery-charging cables and something that looked a lot like a car battery except that an electrical cord was attached to it. He plugged it into a wall socket and pulled a pair of pliers out of his pocket and set them down next to the battery-like thing. Then, he left me alone with the unknown agent.

  Without saying a word, the man clamped the cables to the device and raised up the two ends making them touch and send off sparks. He set those down and picked up the pliers with his right hand and squeezed them down on the tips of his nails on each of the fingers of the other hand as if figuring out the best way to grab them and jerk them out. The unspoken threat made my ears ring.

  He set down the pliers, rested his forearms on the table and leaned forward. ‘Now is the time to talk. Before it is too late.’ Then he went through a litany of accusation-laden questions. My mouth and throat were so dry, I didn’t think I could talk even if I wanted to but I didn’t even try. At that point, I figured I was about to be tortured beyond the lack of food and water. I prayed I could hold up to it. I didn’t know any answers to his questions about the pranks in the lab or the damage to the railroad bridge. I was afraid, though, that I might betray you all.

  After he left, I was alone until this morning. A soldier walked in carrying a tray with a big glass of water, a cup of coffee and a plate of scrambled eggs and toast. I grabbed the water glass first but just as the wet hit my lips, I wondered if this was a trick, if I was being drugged or poisoned. I set it back down and looked away from the table. It was the most difficult thing I’ve ever done – the smell was so tempting.

  The soldier said, ‘What’s the problem? Are you on a hunger strike or something?’ I didn’t reply. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see his furrowed brow and puzzled facial expression.

  For a few minutes, neither one of us moved or spoke. Then he said, ‘Wait a minute. Are you afraid of poison or some kind of truth drug?’ He sat down in the chair across from me. ‘You are, aren’t you?’

  ‘The thought crossed my mind.’

  The soldier laughed. ‘Well, it’s not.’ We stared at each other across the table while my mouth watered. ‘You scientists are afraid of your own shadows, aren’t you? All right, watch this.’ He grabbed my fork and stabbed a piece of scrambled egg, took a bite of the toast, a sip from the coffee cup and a gulp of water. ‘There!’ he said throwing his arms wide. ‘And I’m still alive.’

  I hesitated for only a second before grabbing the water and guzzling it down. He grabbed the cup and pulled it away from my mouth. ‘Slow down,’ he said, ‘you’re going to make yourself sick. I’m not leaving until you eat every bite and swallow every drop but take your time.’ The soldier folded his arms and rested his elbows on the surface of the table.

  Sometimes my hunger and thirst got the best of me but each time it did, he reached up, grabbed my arm and made me slow down. When I finished, he cleared up the dishes and left the room. In less than five minutes, Crenshaw opened the door and stuck in his head. ‘You’re free to go, Mr Abbott.’

  ‘Really?’

  ‘Make it quick, Abbott, before I change my mind.’

  I was out of that door in a flash not even noticing the wobble in my knees until I was out in the hallway and had to push against the wall for support.

  When Gregg finished his story, he looked around the room and asked, ‘Dennis, Teddy was it like that for you?’

  Teddy said, ‘It was pretty much the same for me except when that food and water came in, I didn’t hesitate. If something was wrong with it, I wouldn’t have come out of there alive.’

  Dennis added, ‘Mostly the same for me except that butterball agent acted a bit differently with me. If he came in by himself, he always made sure to flash his shoulder holster at me and make sure I saw the gun under his suit jacket.’

  ‘Sounds like he was intimidated by your size, Dennis, which brings me to tonight. I think you’re a better choice for escorting Libby out in the woods. I wouldn’t intimidate anyone,’ Rudy said.

  Dennis, Teddy and Gregg fired off questions one over top of the other making it impossible for me to understand any of them. I raised up both my hands as if to fend them off. When they quieted, I explained about our mission for the night.

  ‘I’m sorry, but I don’t think you should go, Libby,’ Teddy said.

  ‘Teddy, are you pulling that “this-is-a-job-for-a-man” nonsense on me again?’

  Teddy squirmed and stammered. ‘No, no, no, absolutely not. Not what I meant. I was just, um …’ His eyes jerked back and forth, making it clear to me that he was thinking up a reason on the spot.

  ‘What I was … uh … thinking was that maybe two of us should go out there and negotiate with whoever is out there. If it’s Tom and he’s snapped his cap, maybe he’d try to take you hostage. He’s less likely to try that on one of us, particularly not with Dennis. He and I could go and find out what he wants. If it’s not him, well, I guess it doesn’t matter but we don’t know.’

  ‘I can see through you like a new pane of glass, Teddy Mullins. We can talk about that later. For now, the decision is made. I am going. So, who’s going with me?’

  Everyone except for Rudy and Gary said, ‘I’ll do it.’

  I sighed.

  Rudy said, ‘Logically, it should be Dennis. His size is the best deterrence against something untoward.’

  That started a cacophony of objections that only ended when Gregg stood up and tapped a spoon on his beer mug. ‘Libby, I hope you won’t give me a hard time about this but we need safeguards. I am proposing that everyone who just volunteered accompany you as far as the fork in the trail. Then, just you and Dennis will go the rest of the way to the shack. If something goes wrong, we’ll be close enough to have a chance of intervening.’

  ‘If you’re going to do that,’ Rudy said, ‘then I’m going, too.’

  Gary said, ‘I’ll be at the dorm ready to report back if none of you return.’

  ‘Of course you will, Gary,’ Dennis said with a sneer.

  ‘Okay,’ I said, ‘that should work. I need to change into my hiking boots and grab a sweater. You all do what you need to do and we’ll meet at the chapel at 8.30, which means, I’ve got to hurry. See you soon. And don’t tell anyone.’

  THIRTY

&n
bsp; As I walked back to my flat-top, the last afterglow of the sun disappeared behind the mountains. A soft light from the moon and a myriad of stars washed over my path. A clear sky foretold dropping temperatures. I didn’t need a jacket now but I might before the night was over.

  I had a glimpse of my kitty G.G. perched on the back of the sofa. He threw himself to the floor caterwauling as he circled my legs. I went to the kitchen, put food in the bowl and heated up the morning’s leftover coffee. I turned on the radio, found a news report and went into my bedroom to change into woods-worthy clothing and boots.

  Dressed and ready, I grabbed my warmed-over cup and sat on the living room chair to listen to the news at the top of the hour. The wrap-up of the war in Europe continued without a hitch. Prague, the last major city in the continent, was liberated at last. The Pacific front, however, still slogged along with more of our men dying and no end in sight. News from that side of the world continued to be depressing.

  I stepped outside, over G.G.’s loud objections and peered down the street hoping to spot my colleagues converging on my house. I had expected them to straggle in one at a time, instead they arrived en masse like a ragtag army of resistance fighters ready to do battle. Stephen and Rudy led the pack and appeared to be the only two with the energy to take on the task at hand. The others looked haggard as they plodded up the road.

  When they gathered around me, I said, ‘Gregg, Teddy, Dennis – are you sure you are up to it? You probably need to be in your beds getting a good night’s sleep.’

  ‘We couldn’t sleep knowing you are out there in the woods,’ Teddy said.

  No surprise that Teddy would feel that way but what about the other two? ‘Gregg, Dennis – after all you’ve been through, no one will blame you for sitting out this one.’

  Gregg and Dennis both straightened up their spines making their slouch disappear. ‘Just try and stop us, Libby. We’re ready to go.’

  The air had cooled with the setting of the sun but the vivid colors of the sunset promised a quick warm-up and possibly warmer than usual temperatures for spring tomorrow. The first part of our hike was easy going but then we reached the edge of the wood, the light from the night sky was obscured by the canopy of foliage. I smelled the fertile scent of mosses and fungi sprouting in rotten leaves. The new undergrowth was intimidating, surrounding us and snapping back over our path once we’d passed. A blackberry branch slapped against my face drawing tiny pinpricks of blood across my cheekbone.