“The reason you’ve come here”
“Not the only mason, Kirk” Trotter said, turning back to him. “I came here to thank you, and to see how you were getting along. Whether you know it or not, or care to admit it, you at the very least delayed their plans, and possibly even destroyed them”
“Still, there’s Baranov. Always Baranov” Trotter nodded glumly. “The general asked me to come speak with you.”
“Authorized you, John” McGarvey said a little crossly. “Let’s get our terminology straight right at the beginning”
“Yes. Authorized”
“No bullshit now. Tell it to me straight. What is it you want? Exactly.“
“There is going to be a Law Enforcement conference in East Berlin in seven days. The heads of the police forces from every country in the Warsaw Pact will be there. So will Baranov. “Along with half the KGB to guard him”
“We have come up with a copy of his itinerary”
“No mean trick “We have our sources as well, Kirk, you know this. At any rate there is a possibility, just a possibility, of taking him out”
“And Murphy is authorizing such a mission”
“Not yet” Trotter said. “He’s going to the president with it. But first he wants to know if you would be willing to take it on” Trotter’s eyes narrowed. “I am your friend, whether or not you want to believe that, and I’m telling you up front that the Agency will give you all the backup it can … but only to the point that you enter Germany. After that you would be on your own. I mean totally on your own. If you you were unbalanced, and that your action was totally yours”
“Why this now? Why the sudden change of heart”
“The man is insane, and Gorbachev either won’t or can’t do anything about him” Trotter leaned forward. “The man is consolidating his power, Kirk. He has most of the military establishment behind him now. The old guard who believe that Gorbachev has gone too far”
“When do you need my answer”
“If he goes ahead with En Gedi, and he is successful, we think he means to take over the entire Middle East”
“When”
Trotter sat back again. “Soon, Kirk. The conference begins in seven days and the general still has to go to the president with it”
“Why me”
“Again I won’t lie to you” Trotter said. “But the answer should be fairly obvious. You’re the right man for the job. It would be a vendetta, something everyone concerned would understand”
“I appreciate your honesty” McGarvey said. He got up and went into the house where he found a pack of cigarettes and lit one. It was his first since he had come to the island. Assassins were meant to assassinate.
His sister would say that he was finally developing a conscience. It was war, wasn’t it? Kill or be killed. Each time the call to arms came, he had more and more difficulty in accepting his role. Until now. Vengeance will be mine, the Lord said. But he wasn’t living in the modern world.
Trotter had come to the veranda door. McGarvey could feel his presence behind him. “All right” he said, without turning. “I’ll do it”
“We’ll brief you in Athens on Tuesday if we get the green light. But we’ll have to keep you at arm’s length, you understand this”
“Yes”
McGarvey said tiredly.
“Are you up for this, Kirk? I mean if the president gives us his go-ahead” McGarvey shrugged. “How do any of us know whether or not we’re up to something, unless we actually do it” Again there was a silence.
“I’ll get back then” Trotter said. “But I brought someone with me”
McGarvey turned around. “Who”
” Lorraine Abbott”
“Why”
“Because she insisted”
“Take her back with you, I don’t want to see anyone now. “She doesn’t know about this, of course, and she mustn’t.”
“Take her back with you, John, I mean it”
“I can’t”
McGarvey put on a shirt and walked back to the village with Trotter. They didn’t say much to each other on the way over, both of them lost in their own thoughts. The afternoon sun beat down with a vengeance, the interior of the island extremely hot, and they were sweating freely by the time they made it across. Most of the men were out with the fishing fleet. The village had a deserted air to it. Lorraine Abbott sat at an outside table in the tavema just across from the dock. The only boat was the long, sleek hydrofoil that had brought her and Trotter over from LAVRION on the mainland. She was in the shade, but the mass of her blond hair made it seem as if she were under a spotlight. She wore a short khaki skirt and military blouse with epaulets, a thin gold chain around her long, delicate neck, and simple earrings.
“Hello, Kirk” she said, her voice soft, mellifluous. McGarvey hadn’t heard anything like it since he had come to this island, in fact not for years, since his ex-wife. His own reactions were disturbing to him.
Excess baggage is the bane of any field officer. Hadn’t that been drummed into his head? Wasn’t it true? “What are you doing here” he asked a little more harshly than he had intended. “I came to see you”
“No” McGarvey said, shaking his head. “Go back on the boat with John.
Return to the NPT. “I’m no longer with the service”
“Then return to your lab, Doctor”
“I’m on a leave of absence”
“Not here” McGarvey insisted. “You don’t belong anywhere near me. You can’t know how close you were to being killed. Christ, this is not polite society” He turned on Trotter. “Tell her, John. Take her back with you”
“I tried” Trotter said, spreading his hands. “I hope to Christ someone is still watching her”
“The Bureau is taking care of it”
“Then why isn’t she at the safehouse” Again Trotter spread his hands.
“I signed a release” she said. “I won’t be cooped up any longer”
“Then they’ll try again to kill you, and this time they’ll probably succeed”
“Not as long as I’m with you” McGarvey’s jaw was tight. “You can’t know how wrong you are, Doctor. How terribly, tragically wrong you are. Go away from me. Leave now while you still have the chance. “No”
“I’m leaving here in a few days”
“Then I’ll come with you”
“That will be impossible, Dr. Abbott” Trotter said.
ie looked from McGarvey to him “You’re sending him out again” she asked incredulously. “You can’t be serious. “I can’t say anything more, you know that” Trotter said. “The man was nearly killed. He lost a kidney, for God’s sake. Are you all crazy” She turned again to McGarvey. “Tell him, Kirk.” she started, but something in the look in his eyes stopped her. “Now, will you go back with John” he asked.
“No” she replied firmly. “If you’re leaving in a few days I’ll stay here until then”
“You don’t owe me anything” McGarvey said, raising his voice. “Yes I do.
I owe you my life. But I didn’t deserve that remark. I’m here because I want to be here”
“Why” Her eyes were wide just then, and she blinked. “Because.” she started. McGarvey just stared at her. “Because I have nowhere else to go” she finished her sentence.
It was late evening. The air had cooled down as it did every night, and a soft breeze blew across the veranda at the lighthouse. They had remained in the village tavema until the fishing fleet had come in, and then had had a simple dinner and listened to the concertina player and watched the men dance. All through the evening they had avoided touching each other, and for the most part their conversation had been desultory.
