his mother had gotten so brave so quickly. Carrie Rose watched the boy through narrow eye slits 'm her mask. 'That's right, Mark. We're not here to hurt either of you. Sit down there at the table. Your mother will make you some breakfast.
Never once taking his eyes off the intruders, the teenager slowly sat down.
Carole Hill walked over to her stove slowly and cautiously. Her hands trembled as she started to turn her bacon with a table fork. Little spits of grease flew up at her apron and face. 'My husband will be home soon, ' she said matter-of-factly. 'He just-'
Carrie smiled under her mask. 'Carole Ann, your husband isn't even in the country right now. Relax. Cook us all a nice breakfast, okay? We're going to be spending the day together, it looks like.
The man with her, a New York gumnan by the name of Kruger, sat down across from Mark at the breakfast table. 'Pay it no mind,' the man said. Doesn't concern you, Mark.'
'How do you know my name?' was the boy's first question.
'Oh, we're friends of your father's.' Carrie smiled.
CHAPTERTWENTY
One girl's candid evaluation of the CIA's Caribbean Account in '75.... Basic ineptitude down to a formal science. An inordinate paranoia about Fidel Castro, and/or Moscow. Paranoia about potential trouble in Puerto Rico. Paranoia over Cuban troops in Africa. A gross overestimation of Dassie Dred. A correct evaluation of Joseph Walthey as a potential strongman pig and ally....
Mostly bad information of all things. Bad intelligence....
The Rose Diary
Coastown, San Dominica
That same morning in Coastown, forty-four-yearold Harold Hill yawned so that his jaw cracked.
He stretched his thin arms and made eating noises with his lips, teeth, sticky furred tongue. He took off his hom-rimmed glasses and massaged the bridge of his nose.
Harold Hill then rearranged himself on a sighing wing chair inside the U.S. embassy. He glanced through an army report on Peter Macdonald: 'Peter Stillwell Macdonald. born Grand Rapids, Michigan; 1950. Son of a U.S. Army colonel and a high school mathematics teacher. Youngest of six sons. U.S.M.A. 1969-71. Honorable Discharge. Above-average intelligence. Inferiority complex caused in part by older brothers' successes.... Mixes well but prefers to stay alone.... No close friends.... Subject of homosexual probe ('73-all branches): negative.... Strong combat skills but ambivalent attitude about current war. A model top sergeant.... ' Tossing aside that report, Hill looked back at a yellow legal pad where he'd been free-associating about the Roses. He looked at a black folder marked 'Secret- Sensitive.' Then back at the legal pad. It was 5:00 A.M., and Hill hadn't slept since six the previous morning.
At the top of the yellow, blue-lined sheet, 'Carrie & Damian Rose' was centered and underlined in red. The rest of the paper was covered with neat black handwriting in orderly columns. Ideas, phrases, names, reminders... fourteen items.
1. Tall. Blond. English-looking. Has shopped at Harrods.
2. St. Louis Hotel in Paris... Nickie Handy shot by woman in nearby bistro. Carrie?... Handy used by Campbell (1972). Coincidence?
3. Carrie: fair-haired; supposed to be a stunner; tall... beware! Don't be a chauvinist, shithead! Carrie is as dangerous as Damian.
4. Husband and wife squabbles... absolutely.... So What?
5. Dr. Meral Johnson. Street-smart. Useful? How best?
6. Peter Macdonald should be found today. Cajoled. Useful!!!!
7. Marines from South America. Colonel Fescoe. Hindrance!!
8. Prop planes going out at night. Marijuana to New Orleans. Shoot down? Shoot down.
9. Coast Guard can blockade island effec- tively.... Search private craft especially.... Would Goldman help Roses escape? Think so....
10. Can't let Joseph Walthey go crazy executing Dr-ed's people. This is important.*****
11. Why Damian Rose phone calls to Campbell? Important!
12. Clue in their organized disorganization also. Important!... Stu Leedman coming from L.A.... Czech: killing team on Rose's level on loan from Interpol. Hindrance!!
13. Lucky 13! Damian probably a psycho.
14. Pattern suggests bigger plays to come. Anti- pattern suggests no further plays.... Operative word is 'play.' Have to learn to 'play,' or lose this one in grand style.********
Harold Hill got up and paced around the large oak-and-brass embassy office. VIP office: like presidential suite at famous hotels. Private bath, breakfast nook. The nuts!
There was no way the Roses were going to get off San Dominica, he considered.
No, there was a way, plenty of ways-but Hill was trying to convince himself that Damian Rose had programmed himself to make a mistake before he took one of them.... The telephone calls to Brooks Campbell. Those were the key. Crank calls!
Harold Hill didn't have very much to go onbut he did have something: Damian Rose was a tall, blond, English-looking megalomaniac. With luck he could be had.
Hill finally put his cream suit jacket over his arm and walked out of the big, cool embassy mansion. He believed that he'd made a beginning, at least. A good night's work.
