Treason in the Secret City

by Diane Fanning

  The agent said, ‘I’ll have her picked up right away. But you need to stay right here for your own safety until Clark and Snowden are arrested.’

  Gary paced the empty room, cradling his right arm in his left, while the pain and impatience escalated. He debated running out and finding a drugstore so he could at least get some aspirin – or even a local who could sell him a couple of shots of splo, anything to numb some of the pain. He tried the door but found it bolted and resumed his endless walk from one side of the room to the other.

  When the pain drove him off his feet, he tried to distract himself from his physical ailments by thinking about the problem of Libby Clark. What the agent alleged seemed impossible on the surface. But the poison of his lies seeped into Gary’s thoughts and colored his interpretation of past actions and comments made by Libby. By the time the agent returned, Gary was totally convinced of the truth of the man’s allegations.

  The agent was scowling when he returned. ‘Frannie’s gone, buster. Did you call her and warn her I was coming?’

  ‘No sir. Why would I do that?’ Gary denied. ‘Look. Look around this room – do you see anything, anything at all? Do you see a telephone? How could I?’

  The man crouched down in front of Gary and leaned into his space. ‘Where else does Clark go when she comes to town?’

  ‘I don’t know all the places Libby goes besides the hotel but I do know she has visited a woman named Mabel who is romantically involved with Dr Hansrote.’

  ‘Oh my. We think Hansrote is Clark’s next target. If Mabel gets in the way, Clark will probably kill her, too.’

  ‘I’ve got to get something done about my arm,’ Gary pleaded.

  ‘It’s a risk, but if you’re willing to take it …?’

  ‘Anything to dull this pain,’ he said, choking back the tears that threatened to break loose.

  Daylight was seeping into the streets as the agent escorted Gary downstairs and into his car. There was enough light for the shabbiness of the neighborhood to show everywhere, adding to Gary’s unease.

  The man drove him to the hospital entrance and said, ‘Don’t mention me. I don’t exist. You fell and heard your arm snap, okay?’

  Gary nodded.

  ‘And keep your eyes open for Snowden and Clark. No one followed us over here but you never know when they’ll track you down through their secret networks. They’ll know you’ve been injured and with that information, the hospital would be a logical place for them to look for you.’

  Gary was paranoid before that last comment. Now, sitting in the curtained treatment area, his adrenaline spiked with every approaching footstep. As soon as he had a new cast, he got out of the hospital as quickly as he could.

  He behaved like someone in a cheesy old movie as he walked to the bus stop constantly looking back over his shoulder for anyone who might be following him. He approached the group of workers waiting at the stop for transport out to the reservation. At first he thought it would be best to hide among that small crowd but after he caught a couple of people looking at him, he peeled away and stood off to the side where he could watch them all. As his eyes darted back and forth in response to each movement any one of them made, it didn’t cross his mind that the way he isolated himself made him stand out like a movie marquee.

  FORTY

  When he finished his story, I simply stared at him for a moment, still finding it hard to comprehend that anyone who knew me at all could possibly believe all those lies. Under the pressure of my gaze, Gary hung his head and shuffled his feet.

  ‘How could you fall for that?’ I said. ‘You’re a scientist, Gary. Where was the proof to give it credibility? What were you thinking?’

  ‘I don’t know, Libby. I’m just so sorry,’ he whined. ‘I didn’t realize how stupid I’d been until after I talked to Tom.’

  ‘Gullibility is a weakness in anyone, Gary, but in a scientist, it’s a total tragedy. The only excuse I can make for you is the pain. I realize it’s hard to think in times like that. You really need to build up your ability to respond better in a crisis situation.’

  ‘Libby, honestly, it sounds like you want me to be someone I am not,’ Gary said. ‘And it might all be irrelevant now. Tom told me to resign my position and go back home. He said if I don’t, he will first get me thrown out of the group and then he’ll have me fired.’

  A wave of pity washed over me. Certainly, Gary had been an annoying person to have around in the best of times but now that he’d been brought low, I had no desire to kick him. ‘Don’t do anything rash, Gary. Give this all some time. Let me get Tom and the rest of the group together and we’ll talk it all out. Okay?’

  Gary sighed and his shoulders slumped down even further. ‘Sure,’ he mumbled. ‘Like Tom said, I need to apologize and then get my miserable self out of your sight. I hope you’re better soon and again I’m sorry.’ He shuffled out the doorway and back into the hall.

  Although I was angry at how easily Gary accepted the lies about me, I felt sorry for him and appreciated his remorse and willingness to apologize.

  Teddy, however, had no empathy. ‘He needs to be dropped from the Walking Molecules immediately.’

  ‘Teddy, he was manipulated by a master.’

  ‘No excuse. All for one. One for all. He violated the trust of the entire group.’

  ‘It’s not all that black and white, Teddy,’ I said, wondering whether his rigid attitude was a character flaw or simply a response to his fear for my safety and the close call all of us had in Mabel’s apartment.

  ‘We’ll discuss it when we are all able to get together for a meeting. Right now, I have something more immediate on my mind. I want to go see Charlie.’

  ‘Let me ask the nurse if you can get out of bed first.’

  ‘You go ahead. By the time she gets here, I’ll have gone down the hall and found Charlie.’

  ‘Libby, you have been through a horrible ordeal. You have to think of your health and well-being first right now.’

  ‘Well, I can’t and I won’t. Either you are going to help me or you are going to make things more difficult for me. Your choice. Decide. I’m not lying in bed and waiting for your decision.’ I swung my legs out from under the covers.

  He reached out to stop me but I shrugged him away and said, ‘Don’t you dare touch me unless you want to help me get up and go down the hall.’

  Teddy sighed. ‘You are stubborn. But my mother raised me to appreciate that quality in a woman. C’mon. Lean on me.’ He slipped an arm around my waist and I put one around his shoulders.

  As we hobbled down the hall past the nurse’s station, one of the angels in white shouted, ‘Stop, Miss Clark. Stop! You need to be in bed. Young man, what are you doing? She should not be out of her room.’

  ‘Ma’am,’ Teddy said, ‘this is what she needs to do right now and I recommend that you let her do it.’

  ‘I’m calling the doctor.’

  ‘Good,’ I said. ‘I’ll be glad to see him when I get back to my room.’

  I walked into Charlie’s room shocked at how pale and helpless he looked all bandaged up and tucked in. He turned his head in my direction and his face lit up.

  ‘Libby! You’re awake. You’re walking.’

  ‘Sort of, Charlie. I think without Teddy’s assistance, I would have had to crawl down the hall. Come to think of it, down on all fours I might have been able to slip past that nurse without her noticing.’ It was so good to see him smile and hear him talk. So good to see him alive.

  ‘Oh, Libby. I wish you’d come to me sooner. I understand why you didn’t but—’

  ‘Can’t undo the past, Charlie. What happened, happened. I’m here first of all to see with my own eyes that you survived. Secondly, I was hoping you might know more about what’s going on back at the reservation than we do.’

  ‘I am alive. Or experiencing a reasonable facsimile. And yes, I probably know a bit more. Crenshaw paid me a visit. Gregg and Frannie have both been released. Mabel, who pro
ved in the apartment she’s a crafty individual with a keen survival instinct, is reinforcing my opinion in her behavior with Crenshaw. She is revealing everything to the military. She knew a lot more about what Hansrote was doing than she let on to you. She knew he worked for Snowden and she told the military as much. She gave him the names of all the people involved in Marvin’s murder and Gary’s abduction. Crenshaw told me they’d picked up all but one of them.’

  ‘Who were they? Who is evading capture?’

  ‘Crenshaw wouldn’t answer either of those questions but assured me that they wouldn’t rest until every single person was apprehended. The big problem is Raymond. His phone line leads to an empty apartment.’

  ‘Teddy, did you all give Crenshaw that new phone number?’

  ‘Yes, Joe got our notes we copied from Hansrote’s notebook out of the hiding place and gave them to him.’

  ‘That’s what Crenshaw said they used, Libby,’ Charlie said. ‘They also verified it when they found the original in Hansrote’s cemesto. Military and federal investigators went to the Manhattan address for that phone number and there was nothing in the room but a telephone sitting on the floor next to the wall. Not a piece of furniture, not a scrap of trash and the whole place had been wiped down and no fingerprints were found anywhere. They did find a lot of prints in Mabel’s apartment but they’ve all been identified as belonging to Mabel, Hansrote, the men Mabel named as cohorts and that one soldier Mabel saw on the side along with your and Jessie’s prints. In all likelihood, Raymond was never there.’

  ‘So he’s free to recruit more people and steal more information from our facility and probably, the others as well. Just knowing that is enough to make us paranoid about all the people working by our sides, and everyone we meet at a dance or at the market,’ I said.

  ‘It certainly would be better if they’d been able to remove the threat but, at least, all of you have solidified a group you can trust,’ Charlie said.

  ‘To a degree,’ Teddy said. ‘Gary’s actions proved that we had a weakness in our unity.’

  ‘Yes, Teddy,’ I snapped back. ‘It is a pity that we are all human and subject to the weakness of not being perfect. Who knows how any of us would react in a similar situation?’

  ‘But, Libby, no matter how forgiving you may be, can you honestly say that you will ever trust Gary again? Or if anything goes awry in the future, would you automatically suspect him first, above all the others?’

  Charlie jumped into our spat. ‘With or without Gary, I would be thrilled to be part of your group.’

  I imagine the look on my face appeared a lot like the one I saw on Teddy’s face. It was certainly never a possibility I’d considered. ‘You realize that Crenshaw – and probably all the military, as well as the police and administration officials – consider us nothing but nuisances and troublemakers?’

  Charlie laughed and then grimaced with pain. ‘Haven’t laughed since I left the lab. I didn’t realize how much it would hurt. I know you all have reason to distrust me but I learned through the situation earlier this year that what you were doing is more important than the rules you’ve broken. I would be proud to be among your number. I know you can’t answer now but I only ask that the group consider me.’

  Teddy looked at me and I nodded. ‘We can do that, Charlie. Don’t know the reaction we’ll get but we’ll ask.’

  The doctor chose that moment to enter the room with a nurse pushing a wheelchair. ‘Miss Clark, if you could please have a seat and we’ll get you back to your room and talk about your recovery.’

  I thought about objecting – on principle, if for no other reason – but I realized I was very tired and the idea of walking back down the hall seemed overwhelming. I walked to the wheelchair and surrendered.

  FORTY-ONE

  Although Charlie was still in hospital because of a secondary infection in his wound, the rest of us were back. The Walking Molecules’ first meeting since our fatal encounter with Hansrote was called to order in the back room of Joe’s. A celebratory ambience filled the air as we clinked beer steins and toasted that we didn’t lose another member in the experience.

  Initially we focused on the roundup of the individuals responsible for the murder of Marvin. We were all frustrated about not knowing the names of those who were already locked up but even more so about the one who was known to still be at large. Who was that person? And were we all in danger from that individual? We all felt, for our own protection, Crenshaw had an obligation to reveal that identity to us. Teddy and I agreed to go see him in the morning.

  We then turned to the subject of Gary. He was pointedly not invited to this gathering and it was clear from the onset that my willingness to give him another chance to prove himself was not shared by the majority.

  Tom, once Gary’s closest friend, was now the most adamant. ‘I will never feel as if I can talk freely again in this group if Gary continues to be part of it. I think that most of you, if you are honest, will admit that you, too, will feel a bit constrained in his presence.’

  Joe jumped in with his agreement. ‘Trust is the most important component. Without it, we have nothing. He did not trust us – most particularly, he did not trust Libby – and that attitude made him betray us all. This group loses all its value if he remains a part of it.’

  When it came to a vote, only Dennis and I voted for Gary to remain. Under pressure from all of us, though, Tom promised not to do anything to cause our former member to lose his job and be sent home in disgrace. Gregg agreed to deliver the mixed bag of news to Gary the next morning.

  The really contentious issue was Charlie. Joe was enthusiastic about the prospect. ‘He took a bullet for us – for all of us. If for no other reason, he deserves to come on board.’

  ‘A management guy?’ Tom groused. ‘Really? How can we possibly trust him? Don’t forget when we were hunting down the killer of Irene Nance, he didn’t stand up for Libby or any of us.’

  ‘Tom, don’t you believe in redemption?’ Dennis asked. ‘If, as Teddy and Libby are telling us, he has realized the mistake he made in the past and now has our backs, how can we not welcome him into the fold – the prodigal son and all that.’

  ‘Oh, please, Dennis, not more of your holy-roller malarkey. Redemption? Phooey? He just wants to be on the winning side and he’ll stab us in the back when it’s in his best interest.’

  ‘I don’t think that’s fair, Tom,’ Teddy said.

  ‘Why not?’ Rudy asked. ‘The world right now is full of spies and double agents. And people like Gary who crumble under pressure. How could it be unfair to protect ourselves from them?’

  At that question, everyone seemed to start talking at once. The clamor of their voices was deafening. Gregg rose to his feet and pounded his beer stein on the table to get everyone’s attention. ‘Arguing without any real input from Charlie will not get us anywhere. I propose that we table this discussion until we can bring the man himself in to answer our questions.’

  ‘But then,’ Rudy said, ‘he’ll know who we all are.’

  ‘Because of his involvement with the demise of Hansrote, he knows most of us and from being down the hall from me in the hospital, I’m sure he could have been informed about any number of you who paid me a visit if he had any nefarious purpose. I really think that is a moot point,’ I said.

  ‘And, of course,’ Joe added, ‘if we did find him acceptable after our interview, he would still have to pass the Dossett Tunnel test before we voted on his approval.’

  ‘All in favor of my proposal to bring Charlie to a meeting to talk to us after he’s released from the hospital, raise your hands.’

  Everyone’s arm went in the air and a few expressed surprise that Tom had raised his. Tom said, ‘Even if he is our worst enemy, it would be better to assess him face-to-face so I say “yes” bring him in.’

  With that resolved, we finished up the last pitcher and called it a night. I decided that once we got through the Charlie decision, I’d bring up Jes
sie. I knew there would be a lot of objections because she wasn’t a scientist, but in my opinion she’d earned a place at the table. Besides, it would be nice for me to have another woman in the group.

  FORTY-TWO

  Teddy and I walked together back to his dorm. He wanted to escort me to my home but I brushed him off. I knew if he did, I’d feel obligated to invite him inside for a cup of tea or something and I just wanted to be alone with my thoughts for what little remained of the evening.

  When I return home, G.G. usually rushed to greet me to beg for attention, affection and food. But tonight, nothing. I called him and got no response. I finally found him under my easy chair but no matter how much I coaxed him, he wouldn’t come out. I went into the kitchen, put on the tea kettle and opened a can of tuna – he still wouldn’t emerge from his hiding place. Cats are weird.

  I got down a cup and a tea bag and was pouring the boiling water over it when I heard a sound behind me. I turned and there was Frannie Snowden. I was surprised to see her but was even more amazed to see a pistol in her hand pointing straight at me.

  ‘You betrayed me,’ she said.

  ‘Frannie, what are you talking about?’

  ‘It took me a while to figure it out but I realized while I was still locked up that it had to be you who told Crenshaw that I was in the hotel.’

  ‘No,’ I objected. ‘As a matter of fact, we found out—’

  ‘Shut up! I don’t want to hear any more of your lies.’

  I didn’t know what to say. The woman standing in the doorway of my kitchen was not the same Frannie Snowden that I had met in the shack. Had she snapped under the stress of the situation or was she simply one of those dark personalities that Dr Cleckley wrote about – an individual who wore a mask to hide their true nature from the world?

  Frannie continued, ‘I know you sicced Crenshaw on me in the hotel and I know after he let me go, you sent him after me again.’