out first and then start building a depth cover for you. If you weren’t what I wanted, or if you wouldn’t play, I was out a couple of thousand. It’s like putting a dime on a number, the odds are so long you don’t cry if you never hit. Let’s go.”
“Go on ahead. It’ll take me a few minutes.”
“Take your time.”
I did little cleanup jobs until he was well out of sight. Then I unburied my money belt and put it on. It was lighter now. I left a couple of thousand in the hole, neatly wrapped in a triple thickness of aluminum foil along with my personal papers and my list. When I took down the list I thought of the moonshine I’d added to my morning coffee, and the breakfast and lunch I hadn’t had, and everything else.
I left my unbaited lines in the water. The third fish, which we hadn’t eaten, was beginning to smell. I left it where it lay. The tides would deposit dead fish all over my island while I was gone. There would be no one around to throw them out to sea. The birds would eat some of them, the tide would take some away, and the rest would rot.
I went to the boat. He was standing alongside it smoking a cigarette. We shoved it free of its moorings and got in. The engine caught first try, and I stood in the bow and looked where I was going, not where I had been.
More talk and more plans. He was going to run the boat straight down to Key West and let the owner send a cab for it. I would have to shave on the boat; he had a battery razor I could use. It wouldn’t work on my beard, but he also had a safety razor and a can of lather. I managed to get all but an eighth inch of stubble that way, then used the electric to eat up the rest.
From Key West you can fly to Miami. I let him have the first plane out and agreed to take the next one. By the time I got to Miami he would be somewhere over the Carolinas.
We went over everything a last time, and it looked tight.
“One thing,” he said. “Last night, when I kept going underwater.” He made it sound light enough but that only showed that he was good at the game. “I didn’t know you would get that rough, of course. Or that you would have bought the straight story to begin with. But the part that gets me is this—you were supposed to spot holes in my opening story. I allowed for that, I set it up. If you hadn’t tumbled I would have found a way to make it even more obvious.”
“I’m not surprised. You work that way, you like one cover on top of another. Layers.”
“Wheels within wheels. It works, Paul. No, to get back to it, I used the first pitch to set you up for the second. That was the real curveball, and you didn’t even bother tearing it up. You tore me up instead.”
“So?”
“I thought it was a fairly solid story.”
“I suppose it was.”
“And one two three and I’m in the middle of the ocean. What tipped you off? How did you know I was lying?”
“I didn’t.”
“You—”
“I figured if you stuck to it through three duckings it was true, and if you changed it you would come up with the straight thing. It was a cheap investment.” I smiled. “Like buying clothes for me and setting up my cover in advance. Same thing. Give a little to get a lot.”
He gave me a lot of silence. Then he told me he was glad we were on the same team. So was I.
NINE
T HE M ORNING A FTER I wished T.J. Morrison a happy birthday, I received a return telegram at my office in the compound. It was coded, a box cipher constructed upon the key word Superman, with the additional complication of a letters-for-numbers substitution cipher to back it up. I don’t think anyone on base could have cracked it, and doubt if anyone thought of trying, but this is what they would have read:
BUYER SET PRICE FIRM BAKER FOUR NINETEEN HOWARD
CARSON CAMERON TWO .
The first four words meant that our outlet was prepared to take delivery at our price. Baker four nineteen was a rendezvous—I should meet him at seven p.m. at the second of our proposed
“Go on ahead. It’ll take me a few minutes.”
“Take your time.”
I did little cleanup jobs until he was well out of sight. Then I unburied my money belt and put it on. It was lighter now. I left a couple of thousand in the hole, neatly wrapped in a triple thickness of aluminum foil along with my personal papers and my list. When I took down the list I thought of the moonshine I’d added to my morning coffee, and the breakfast and lunch I hadn’t had, and everything else.
I left my unbaited lines in the water. The third fish, which we hadn’t eaten, was beginning to smell. I left it where it lay. The tides would deposit dead fish all over my island while I was gone. There would be no one around to throw them out to sea. The birds would eat some of them, the tide would take some away, and the rest would rot.
I went to the boat. He was standing alongside it smoking a cigarette. We shoved it free of its moorings and got in. The engine caught first try, and I stood in the bow and looked where I was going, not where I had been.
More talk and more plans. He was going to run the boat straight down to Key West and let the owner send a cab for it. I would have to shave on the boat; he had a battery razor I could use. It wouldn’t work on my beard, but he also had a safety razor and a can of lather. I managed to get all but an eighth inch of stubble that way, then used the electric to eat up the rest.
From Key West you can fly to Miami. I let him have the first plane out and agreed to take the next one. By the time I got to Miami he would be somewhere over the Carolinas.
We went over everything a last time, and it looked tight.
“One thing,” he said. “Last night, when I kept going underwater.” He made it sound light enough but that only showed that he was good at the game. “I didn’t know you would get that rough, of course. Or that you would have bought the straight story to begin with. But the part that gets me is this—you were supposed to spot holes in my opening story. I allowed for that, I set it up. If you hadn’t tumbled I would have found a way to make it even more obvious.”
“I’m not surprised. You work that way, you like one cover on top of another. Layers.”
“Wheels within wheels. It works, Paul. No, to get back to it, I used the first pitch to set you up for the second. That was the real curveball, and you didn’t even bother tearing it up. You tore me up instead.”
“So?”
“I thought it was a fairly solid story.”
“I suppose it was.”
“And one two three and I’m in the middle of the ocean. What tipped you off? How did you know I was lying?”
“I didn’t.”
“You—”
“I figured if you stuck to it through three duckings it was true, and if you changed it you would come up with the straight thing. It was a cheap investment.” I smiled. “Like buying clothes for me and setting up my cover in advance. Same thing. Give a little to get a lot.”
He gave me a lot of silence. Then he told me he was glad we were on the same team. So was I.
NINE
T HE M ORNING A FTER I wished T.J. Morrison a happy birthday, I received a return telegram at my office in the compound. It was coded, a box cipher constructed upon the key word Superman, with the additional complication of a letters-for-numbers substitution cipher to back it up. I don’t think anyone on base could have cracked it, and doubt if anyone thought of trying, but this is what they would have read:
BUYER SET PRICE FIRM BAKER FOUR NINETEEN HOWARD
CARSON CAMERON TWO .
The first four words meant that our outlet was prepared to take delivery at our price. Baker four nineteen was a rendezvous—I should meet him at seven p.m. at the second of our proposed
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