'You want some more coffee?'
'No, thanks, it's making me dizzy.'
'You look like hell. When did you last eat?'
'Billie gave me some cookies. Forget food, will you? Tell me what you know.'
Bern stood up. 'I'm going to make you a sandwich, before you faint.'
Luke realized he was painfully hungry. 'That sounds great'
They went into the kitchen. Bern opened the refrigerator and took out a loaf of rye bread, a stick of butter, some corned beef, and a bermuda onion. Luke's mouth began to water.
'It was in the war,' Bern said as he buttered four slices of bread. The French Resistance was divided into Gaullists and communists, and they were maneuvering for post-war position. Roosevelt and Churchill wanted to make sure the communists couldn't win an election. So the Gaullists were getting all the guns and ammunition.'
'How did I feel about that?'
Bern layered corned beef, mustard, and onion rings on the bread. 'You didn't have strong feelings about French politics, you just wanted to beat the Nazis and go home. But I had another agenda. I wanted to even things up,'
'How?'
'I tipped off the communists about a parachute drop we were expecting, so they could ambush us and steal our ordnance.' He shook his head ruefully. 'They screwed up royally. They were supposed to run into us on our way back to base, apparently by accident, and demand a friendly share-out Instead, they attacked us at the drop point, as soon as the stuff hit the ground. So you knew we had been betrayed. And I was the obvious suspect.'
'What did I do?'
You offered me a deal. I had to stop working for Moscow, right then, and you would keep quiet about what I had done, for ever.'
'And...?'
'Bern shrugged. 'We both kept our promises. But I don't think you ever forgave me. Anyhow, our friendship was never the same afterwards.'
A grey Burmese cat appeared from nowhere and meowed, and Bern tossed a sliver of meat to the floor. The cat ate it delicately and licked its paws.
Luke said: 'If I'd been a communist, I would have covered up for you.'
'Absolutely.'
Luke began to believe in his own innocence. 'But I might have become a communist after the war.'
'No way. It's something that happens to you when you're young, or not at all.'
That made sense. 'I might have spied for money, though.'
'You don't need money. Your family is wealthy.'
That was right Elspeth had told him. 'So Anthony is mistaken.'
'Or lying.' Bern sliced the sandwiches and put them on two non-matching plates. 'Soda?'
'Sure.'
Bern took two bottles of Coke from the refrigerator and opened them. He handed Luke a plate and a bottle, picked up his own, and led the way back into the living room..
Luke felt like a starved wolf. He finished the sandwich in a. few bites. Bern was watching with amusement 'Here, have mine,' he said.
Luke shook his head. 'No, thanks.'
'Go ahead, take it. I ought to go on a diet anyway.'
Luke took Bern's sandwich and tore into it.
Bern said: 'If Anthony is lying, what was his real reason for making you lose your memory?'
Luke swallowed. 'It has to be connected with my sudden departure from Cape Canaveral on Monday.'
Bern nodded. 'Too much of a coincidence otherwise.'
'I must have learned something very important, so important that I had to rush to the Pentagon to talk to them about it'
Bern frowned. 'Why didn't you tell the folks at Cape Canaveral what you had learned?'
Luke considered. 'It must be that I didn't trust anyone there.'
'Okay. Then, before you got to the Pentagon, Anthony intercepted you.'
'Right. And I guess I trusted him, and told him what I had found out 'And then?'
'He thought it was so important that he had to wipe my memory to make sure the secret never got out'
'I wonder what the hell it was.'
'When I know that, I'll understand what happened to me.'
'Where will you start?'
'I guess my first step is to go to my hotel room and look through my stuff. Maybe I'll find a clue.'
'If Anthony wiped your memory, he must have gone through your possessions too.'
'He would have destroyed any obvious clues, but there may be something he didn't recognize as relevant Anyway, I have to check.'
'And then?'.
'The only other place to look would be Cape Canaveral. I'll fly back tonight...' He checked his watch. It was after nine o'clock. 'Or tomorrow morning.'
'Stay the night here,' Bern said.
'Why?'
'I don't know. I don't like the idea of you spending the night alone. Go to the Carlton, pick up your stuff, and come back here. I'll take you to the airport in the morning.'
Luke nodded. Feeling awkward, he said: 'You've been a heck of a good friend to me over this.'
Bern shrugged. 'We go back a long way.'
Luke was not satisfied with that 'But you just told me that after that incident in France, our friendship was never the same.'
'That's true.' Bern gave Luke a candid look. Tour attitude was that a man who betrayed you once would betray you twice.'
'I can believe that,' Luke said thoughtfully. 'I was wrong, though, wasn't I?'
Yes,' Bern said. You were.'
.
9.30 P. M.
The instrument compartment tends to overheat prior to take-off. The solution to this problem is typical of the crude but effective engineering of the rushed Explorer project. A container of dry ice is attached electromagnetically to the outside of the rocket. A thermostat switches on a fan whenever the compartment gets warm. Just before take-off, the magnet is disconnected and the cooling mechanism falls to the ground.
Anthony's yellow Cadillac Eldorado was parked on R Street between 15th and 16th, tucked in behind a line of taxis waiting to be summoned by the doorman of the Carlton Hotel. Sitting in the car, Anthony had a clear view of the hotel's curving driveway and brightly lit carriage porch. Pete was in the hotel, using the room he had rented, waiting for a phone call from one of the agents who were watching out for Luke all over town.
A part of Anthony hoped that none of them would call, that Luke would somehow make his escape.. Then, at least, Anthony would be able to avoid making the most painful decision of his life. The other part of him was desperate to find out where Luke was and deal with him.
Luke was an old friend, a decent man, a loyal husband and a terrific scientist. It made no difference in the end. During the war, they had all killed' good men who just happened to be on the wrong side. Luke was on the wrong side in the Cold War. It was knowing the guy that made it so hard.
Pete hurried out of the building. Anthony rolled down the window. Pete said: 'Ackie called in. Luke is at the apartment on Massachusetts Avenue, Bernard Rothsten's place.'
'At last,' Anthony said. He had posted agents outside Bern's building and Billie's house, anticipating that Luke might go to his old friends for help, and it gave him bleak satisfaction to have been right.
Pete added: 'When he leaves, Ackie will follow him on the motorcycle.'
'Good.'
