(1976) The R Document

by Irving Wallace

  ‘I’m not worried about how you’ll handle yourself,’ said Tynan airily. ‘You did well enough on the 35th during your Congressional hearings. You know as much as you need to know.’

  ‘But maybe -‘ Collins hesitated.’ - maybe I don’t know everything.”

  Tynan displayed a flicker of fretfulness. ‘What else is there to know?’

  The moment had come. Collins shut his mind’s eye and plunged. ‘There’s something - some kind of supplement -called The R Document. What about that? How much does it have to do with the 35th Amendment?’

  Collins wore an ingenuous expression on his narrow features. All innocent curiosity. He focused closely on Tynan to see if his reaction betrayed anything.

  Tynan’s hooded eyelids had lifted. His small dark eyes had widened. But they were blank. Either he v/as a consummate actor or the reference to The R Document meant absolutely nothing to him.

  Collins broke the silence by prodding him. ‘What should I know about The R Document?’ ‘The what?’ asked Tynan.

  ‘The R Document. I thought you could brief me on it, so that I’m prepared for anything.’

  ‘Chris, I have no idea what you’re talking about. Wherever did you come up with that? What is it?’

  ‘I don’t know. I was cleaning out some of Noah Baxter’s old papers. I happened to see the title on one of Noah’s memo notes concerning the 35th. Something about checking it out in relation to the Amendment. That’s all there was on the memo.’

  ‘Do you have the memo? I’d like to see it. Might refresh my memory.’

  ‘No, dammit, I don’t have it anymore. It went into the shredder with a lot of Noah’s dated papers. But it stuck in my mind, so I thought I’d mention it. I thought if you’d heard of the document, it might help me.’ He shrugged. ‘But if you haven’t -‘

  ‘I repeat,’ said Tynan firmly. ‘I haven’t the slightest idea what you are referring to. It was probably Noah’s synonym - or whatever you’d call it - for the 35th Amendment. I can’t imagine anything else. Anyway, I don’t know a thing about it. You can be confident you have all the information you require to do a bang-up job in California. You do your job, we’ll do ours, and you can be certain California will ratify. It’s all our chips on one bet in another month - and Chris, I don’t intend to see us lose the pot.’

  ‘Nor do I,’ said Collins, packing his papers. ‘Well, I guess I’m in pretty good shape.’

  Once in the hall, and alone, Collins walked thoughtfully down to the sixth floor, reviewing the meeting. There had been no crack in Tynan’s armor. There had not been anything in his response, in his behavior, to indicate that he had knowledge of a paper - a dangerous paper, Baxter had called it on his deathbed - known as The R Document.

  Still…

  As he walked to the elevator, his eyes fell on the huge open well in the center of the sixth floor. He veered toward it and looked up. There was no roof above it. He peered down far below at the open pedestrian plaza on the ground floor. On his first tour of the new FBI building, he had asked his guide, a Special Agent, why there was this big opening in the center of the building and why it was uncovered on top. The guide had replied, ‘To make our FBI

  headquarters seem less secret, less closed in, less ominous and forbidding. We’ve made it appear wide open so that we will appear wide open to the public.’

  Appear wide open, Collins thought.

  Perhaps the Director had taken on the look of his building, a deception of openness to camouflage the truth.

  Collins continued slowly toward the elevator where his daytime bodyguard, Oakes, was waiting.

  Well, he decided, there was still California, where he might learn more about Tynan and his operation. And after that, there was still Lewisburg, where he might learn even more about Tynan and The R Document.

  Noah Baxter, in his dying breath, had urged him to expose a trick called The R Document at all costs at once.

  Had Noah realized, Collins wondered, that he was sending him into a maze with only blank walls? At the same time, Noah would not have directed him on this blind odyssey unless there were a door somewhere.

  Entering the elevator, he vowed to find it fast.

  *Ś’#.,.*

  Back in his own office once more, Director Tynan stood grimly in the center of the room, awaiting Harry Adcock.

  When Adcock entered, shutting the door softly behind him, Tynan was staring absently at the carpet. Without raising his head, he said, ‘He just left.’

  ‘What did he want?’ asked Adcock, coming to die center of the room.

  ‘He tried to play games with me. He said he was here to get some help on the speech he’s delivering in Los Angeles.’ Tynan snorted. ‘Bullshit.’

  ‘What did he really want, chief?’

  ‘He wanted to know if I’d ever heard about something called The R Document.’

  ‘Had you?’

  Tynan raised his head. ‘I didn’t even know what he was talking about.’

  ‘Where did he hear of such a thing?’

  ‘I don’t know. He talked about seeing it on one of Noah’s

  memos.’ Tynan snorted again. ‘He was lying.’ He met Adcock’s eyes. ‘He’s a pretty nosy fellow, our Mr Collins, pretty nosy. He seems to be looking for ways to make trouble.’

  Adcock nodded.

  ‘Sit down, Harry.’

  Tynan moved around his desk and settled into his swivel chair, as Adcock lowered himself into the seat across from him.

  Tynan lay back in his swivel chair, arms crossed on his barrel chest, eyes set on the ceiling.

  After a while, he spoke. ‘I thought he was a nice kid, one of those lightweight intellectuals, still wet behind the ears. I also thought, considering that Noah brought him in, he was a team player. I’m not so sure of that anymore. I think he’s a smart-ass and I think he’s definitely looking for trouble.’

  ‘Like what, chief?’

  ‘Like dunking he can outsmart Vernon T. Tynan.’ The swivel chair groaned as he sat straight up in it. ‘You know, Harry, this building is J. Edgar Hoover’s monument. I know what I want my own monument to be. I want it to be the 35th Amendment ratified as part of the Constitution. I don’t care if I’m not remembered for anything else, as long as I’m remembered for that.’

  ‘You will be, chief,’ said Adcock fervently.

  ‘Yeah? Well, I want to be sure our Mr Collins understands that, too. I think we better start keeping an eye on him. Not only here - but in California.’ His pause was almost a threat. ‘Especially in California. Yeah. Let’s talk awhile about that, Harry - about Mr Collins and about California. I’ve got a few ideas. Let’s try them on for size.’

  Despite the speech he was scheduled to deliver, and the damn television show, Chris Collins had looked forward to the California trip. He had purposely kept his plans light. He would arrive in San Francisco on Thursday afternoon, check into his favorite suite at the St Francis Hotel, and meet, over drinks, with two of the United States Attorneys from California’s four judicial districts. After that, he would wait for his nineteen-year-old son, Josh, to come over from Berkeley. Following their reunion - he had not seen the boy in eight months - they would go out to Ernie’s and enjoy a long and leisurely catch-up dinner.

  It hadn’t worked out that way at all.

  Two days before his departure from Washington, Collins had telephoned Josh to set their date.

  There had been the obligatory questions and the abbreviated answers.

  ‘How’ve you been, Josh?’

  ‘Busy as hell. Too much homework. Lots of outside activities.’

  ‘Well, how is school?’

  ‘You know. The usual.’

  ‘Still as excited about Political Science?’

  ‘Sure, if they didn’t make it so boring.’

  ‘Have you seen your mother lately?’

  “Not since her birthday. I went to Santa Barbara for

  two days. Helen’s okay. Only she can’t get off my back.’r />
  ‘How’s her husband?’

  ‘I guess they get along. Me, I can’t stand him. What’s there to talk about to an over-the-hill tennis pro with arthritis? And worse, he insists on calling me “son”.’

  Collins could not resist laughing, and finally Josh had laughed, too. Actually, he was not a humorless boy; indeed, he was very sharp when it was worth his trying, and extremely intense about the world around him. Physically, he was very much like his father. He was tall - over six feet; wiry, with a gaunt face.

  Collins had asked him if he still had his beard. He replied that he had only half as much as before. Mary had insisted that he trim it. Yes, he was still living with Mary in unwedded bliss, and she’d recently redone their apartment on Stuart Street, had repainted the interior herself. He was thoughtful enough to inquire about Karen, whom he’d met only twice. Collins had weighed telling him about her pregnancy, and finally had told him he would have a brother or sister in five months. To Collins’ relief, Josh was delighted and full of congratulations.

  ‘When are we going to see you both?’ Josh had inquired.

  ‘That’s why I’m calling,’ Collins had replied. ‘You’ll be seeing me this week if you’re free. I’m flying to San Francisco Thursday.’

  He went on to explain the purpose of his visit to California.

  There was a brief silence, and then Josh had asked, ‘Are you going to be plugging the 35th Amendment in that speech, Dad?’

  Collins had hesitated, sensing storm warnings. ‘Yes, I am.’

  ‘Why?’

  ‘Why? Because it’s my job. I’m part of the Administration.’

  ‘I don’t think that’s a very good reason, Dad.’

  ‘Well, there are other reasons. There are some good things to be said for the 35th.’

  ‘I can’t think of one,’ Josh had retorted. ‘I’ll be honest with you. I told you I was busy with outside activities. Well,

  I’m busy, every spare moment I have, fighting the passage of that Amendment. I might as well tell you -I joined Tony Pierce’s group; I’m an investigator for Defenders of the Bill of Rights. We’re going to make a fight of it in California.’ ‘I wish you luck. I’m afraid you’re going to lose. The President is putting everything he has behind the bill.’

  ‘The President,’ Josh had said with contempt. ‘His head is as empty as a volleyball. He’d push the whole country under the rug if he could. Tynan’s the one we’re all worried about. He’s a Xerox of Hitler -‘

  ‘I wouldn’t be that hard on him, Josh. He’s a policeman, with a tough job to do. He’s anything but a Hitler.’ ‘I can prove you’re wrong,’ Josh had burst out. “What do you mean?’

  ‘The advocates of the 35th are always arguing it’ll never be invoked except in a serious emergency, like an attempt to overthrow the Government.’ ‘That’s absolutely correct.’

  ‘Dad, I think the people behind the bill - I’m not saying you, I mean Tynan and his gang - they intend to do much more with it, once they have the Amendment.’ ‘Do much more with it? Like what?’ ‘I don’t want to discuss this on the phone. But I can prove it.’

  ‘Prove what?’ Collins had demanded, trying to contain himself.

  ‘I’ll show you. I’ll take you there. We’ve all investigated it, and it’ll open your eyes. You’ve got to see for yourself to believe it. We - meaning some of us in Pierce’s DBR - were saving this as one of the big things we want to expose a few days before the legislature votes on the 35th. But my friends aren’t going to object if I show it to you, considering who you are. Maybe this’ll change your mind.’

  ‘I’m open to anything reasonable. If you won’t tell me what it is on the phone, perhaps you can tell me where it is. You understand, my time is very limited.’

  ‘It’ll be worth your time. I’ll take you there. Do me a favor, Dad. Do me just this one favor.’

  Collins had faltered. Never in recent memory had his son asked a favor of him.

  ‘Well, maybe I can make the time. What do we do?’

  ‘We meet in Sacramento at noon Thursday.’

  ‘Sacramento?’

  ‘From there we drive to a place called Newell … ’

  And that was how, because he was a father as well as the Attorney General and because he loved his son, he had flown into Sacramento, California, instead of San Francisco, after having transferred his meeting with the United States Attorneys to Los Angeles.

  He had arrived in Sacramento just before noon. Josh -clean, sunburned, beard neatly trimmed - had been waiting, clearly filled with an inner excitement. After embracing, they had gone straight to a rented Mercury. They had been followed by Special Agent Hogan, who would accompany them, while the relief agent, Oakes, awaited their return that evening, when Collins was scheduled to fly directly to Los Angeles.

  Now, after what had seemed hours on the road, Josh assured him that they were nearing their destination. He had not, and would not, divulge their actual destination. ‘You’ve got to see it for yourself,’ he had repeated several times.

  As their driver had headed north on U.S. Highway 5 to Weed, and then veered northeast on U.S. 97 to Klamath Falls, Oregon, and then had backtracked into California again, Collins had the growing feeling that he had too easily succumbed to what would prove to be a wild-goose chase, a teen-ager’s paranoidal trip. Nevertheless, he tried to remain good-natured about it, smoking, attempting to divert with small talk, meanwhile feeling pleasure in the presence of his gangling son.

  Josh, for his part, while adamantly secretive about what he intended to show his father, was anything but silent about the way he and his group felt about the 35th Amendment.

  He was arguing against it again. ‘One of the few things great about this country is the Bill of Rights,’ he was saying. ‘The 1st through the 10th Amendments guarantee the freedom of religion, press, speech, assembly, petition, and they give us freedom from search, give protection to those accused of crimes, promise trial by jury, do not permit excessive

  fines or cruel punishment -‘

  Collins wriggled restlessly in his seat. Why do sons assume their fathers know nothing? Or have forgotten everything?

  ‘ - and now along comes the 35th Amendment to suspend all these freedoms and rights.’

  ‘All bills of rights regard liberties as relative, not absolute,’ Collins suggested quietly. ‘As Emerson said, constitutions are merely the lengthened shadows of men. They are invented by men to protect themselves from one another. When they fail to do that, when the fate of human society is at stake, more drastic measures must be taken by men for society’s own sake.’

  Josh refused to accept that. ‘No way,’ he said. ‘There’s only one test. Look around the world. Every truly free government has a bill of rights that can’t be tampered with by the government. Only dictatorships, tyrannies, unfree governments have no bills of rights or have bills of rights that are qualified and can be revoked by the parties in power in peacetime. England had the Magna Charta in 1215 and the Bill of Rights of 1689, and these and other bills gave the English freedom from arbitrary arrest, the guarantee of trial by jury, freedom of speech and petition, habeas corpus, protection of life, liberty, property. France has a Bill of Rights based on the Rights of Man and Citizen, enacted in 1789, six weeks after the fall of the Bastille. Here again the rights - of equality for all citizens, of care for women and children and for the aged and infirm, of work without discrimination, of social security and education, and so forth -are not qualified by any trick 35th Amendment. The same holds true in West Germany and Italy. Why, in West Germany their Bill of Rights cannot be amended, the way we’re trying to amend ours. But you go to other countries that have bills of rights, mainly Communist or dictatorship countries, and you always find a joker in the deck. Take Cuba. Freedom of expression guaranteed, sure, except that your private property can be confiscated “as the government deems necessary to counteract acts of sabotage, terrorism, or any other counter-revolutionary activities”. Take Russia
. Equal rights for all, no matter what nationality or sex, except for the “foes of socialism”. Or take Yugoslavia. Their

  constitution provides for freedom of speech, press, and so on, and then comes the joker. “These freedoms and rights shall not be used by anyone to overthrow the foundations of the socialist democratic order … to endanger the peace … to disseminate national, racial, or religious hatred or intolerance, or to incite to crime, or in any manner offend public decency.” Who decides that? Now your President and FBI Director are trying to stick a joker in our deck of liberties. Believe me, if California says Yes to the 35th, that’s the end of freedom and justice for all of us. Hell, I’d wind up in the slammer just for talking to you this way.’

  Exhausted from listening, Collins said wearily, ‘Josh, the horrors you predict will never happen. The 35th will be used to protect you - and in fact, it may never have to be invoked at all.’

  ‘Never be invoked at all? Wait‘11 you see what I’m going to show you in a few minutes.’

  ‘We’re almost there?’

  Josh peered through the windshield, over the shoulders of the driver and Hogan in the front seat. ‘Yes.’

  Collins looked out the side window into the glare of the sun. America was many countries with dramatically different landscapes, and this was America at its most desolate. In the past hour he had seen little except dry lakes, alkali beds, abandoned farms overgrown by scrub, an occasional gasoline station posing as a town. Now they were passing through a hard and forbidding terrain, mostly old lava flows and volcanic pumice and no signs of life.

  Suddenly, there was life, a few people chatting in front of a store, a few others gathered near a gas pump, some shanties, and a weatherbeaten sign reading Newell.

  Josh gave the driver directions, and after a brief interval told him to stop.

  Collins was bewildered. ‘Where are we?’

  ‘Tule Lake,’ Josh announced triumphantly.