COVERT WRITERS TAKEDOWN - Joe Bergeron (different ereaders TXT) 📗

before you call David. He
has his hands full right now.”
“I’ll call you later.”
Courtney had left the suite, and was now
exiting the elevator on the ground floor in search of
room service quarters.
It was in a late Spring class during his Senior
year at UVM when Wirtham had taught his students a
little trick in analysis.
If you want to remember a voice, always listen
intently to how someone speaks your name…the
inflections on vowels, and the beginning of syllables will
always contain the same repetition.
She’d said his name three times now. He didn’t
know how she knew it in the first place. One minute
she’s a registration clerk, now she’s taking room service
orders from the front desk.
Finding room service quarters, he knocked and
entered without waiting for an answer.
Inside, two uniformed women, both
approximately in their mid forties, were detailing five
uniformed men to dispatch items throughout the hotel.
One of the women turned as he entered.
She addressed him as if he were lost.
“May I help you?”
266
“Actually, I’m embarrassed, I probably should
stop by on Monday and see the people in the personnel
office.”
She smiled, but didn’t respond, hoping he’d
have something more to say than that.
He did.
“I’m trying to get my younger brother a job for
the summer, and someone told me there’s always a lot
of turnover in room service in the hotels, so I thought
I’d go right to the source and find out. Do you know if
the Marriott is hiring college students?”
“They might be, but not in this department -
we have more people than we can handle - they like the
tips. In fact, I had to send one person home tonight
because we’re slow this weekend. I think they might be
looking for a couple of bellhops, though. Why don’t you
try that for your brother.”
“Thanks, I will - hope I didn’t trouble you.”
“No bother - good luck.”
Returning to the elevator, he began working a
Game Theory equation, but hadn’t concluded much as
he reentered the suite.
‘A registration clerk taking room service
orders? Never saw her, but she knows me on sight.
Lied to me about help - why? What happens next? Was
the letter really from Kay - or was it written under
duress? No way, I know the CIA has her covered ten
ways to hell.’
An expected knock at the door made him turn.
Peering through the convex glass insert in all
hotel doors, he saw her standing beside a room service
cart, stainless steel covers over the food.
He was certain she also knew she was being
watched.
Withdrawing the door’s dead bolt, he greeted
her facetiously.
“Hi, thanks for bring this up. I hope you left
someone to cover the front desk.”
267
Chuckling, she pushed the cart ahead of her
into the suite.
“It’s no problem, Mister Courtney, and yes, I
did leave someone to cover for me.”
The door closed behind her.
Although she thought that was going to
happen, she felt momentarily insecure.
He’d just used both his First Law Corollary and
Law Seven against her - and to his advantage.
“You should develop a better working
relationship with your other departments.”
She bumped the cover on the meal with the
coffee pot.
“Why’s that?”
“Because you’d know which ones need help,
and which ones didn’t.”
Liz Hendricks had been bending over the cart,
preparing to serve the dinner on the Parlor’s center
table.
Standing straight up, she turned to face
Courtney, her arms folded.
“We have some matters to discuss, Mister
Courtney.”
He, now with his hands on his hips retorted.
“No kidding, lady, how about a name for
openers.”
“It’s Hendricks…Elizabeth.”
No response.
“I’m telling you the truth.”
“Like the room service truth?”
“Mister Courtney…”
“Please - call me Michael, I’m going to call you
Liz.”
“Listen to me, Michael - I work for Scott
Orefice - he wants me to talk to you.”
“No fooling? Your agenda, or mine? Who‘s
first?”
268
“The meeting you want with the President - it’s
been arranged for Monday at noon. I’m sure you’ll want
to make it. We also know you and Mister St. Croix are
preparing for an operation in Cuba, and it would be
wise if you told me about that plan, and gave me some
of those details. We don’t intend to stop you, but we can
give you help if you need it.”
“So what do you do at the CIA, Liz, I mean
besides making believe you’re a registration clerk at a
hotel, Do they send you out as an Operative to convince
people to betray their countries?”
“I think you better listen to me, Michael.”
“Really? You work for one of the best
structured organizations in the world, and you’re
delivering dinner on pushcarts. You have access to the
Top Dog so you must be in some kind of special
operations position. I also haven’t missed the
European make up or the mascara either, Liz. What’s
the perfume for?”
“I don’t care for your insinuations.”
“They’re not insinuations. I want you out of
here right now. Tell your boss I’ll make the meeting
with the President.”
He began moving toward the door.
“I also want you to tell him to call off his
details on me with the exception of you. Call me
Monday morning at eight, I’ll be ready.”
Pulling a pen from the breast pocket of her
uniformed blazer, she moved to the desk where a piece
of Marriott stationery lay on its surface. The
agent/hotel clerk wrote two numbers in the middle of
the page, identifying each one. Below them she wrote
her name.
“The top number is my apartment, the other
one is the office. If you feel like talking, call me.”
Taking hold of his arm, she deposited the paper
in his hand while looking through his eyes.
269
“You may think you have all the cards right
now, Michael, but sooner or later you’re going to have to
play by some of our rules.”
Trying not to reveal it, he somehow new there
might be a lot of truth to that statement.
She left.
He had no intention of making the meeting
with the President - and he knew the results of his nonaction
would be reaction.
In his Game Theory, he was working opposites,
understanding them to be absolute concepts in the
realm of thought, and therefore to be related.
Subsequently, by focusing attention on any one
concept, he could create its opposite.
The ancient Chinese Philosopher Lao Tzu said,
“When all the world understands beauty to be beautiful,
then ugliness exists; when all understand goodness to
be good, then evil exists.”
He knew opposites to be polar, that good and
evil, victory and defeat, love and hate, were simply
different aspects of the same phenomena.
He knew that all opposites were
interdependent, that their conflict could never result in
complete and final victory for one side or the other, but
that symptoms of both would be revealed in the
demonstration of either.
The Tao Xia notion of ‘Dynamic Balance’ would
not be demonstratively employed by his opponents, and
therefore would work for him as an act of omission on
their part.
Their inability to relate to their own offensive
and defensive patterns as connected components of
strategy would be significant enough to cause them to
respond to his own plans.
He’d set the game, he’d make the rules, and he
would coach both sides.
270
He assigned probabilities of occurrence to the
consequences of missing the meeting with the
President. Maximum expected utility was anticipated
to be an intensive search, a renewed interest in his
mission, and no ramifications. They couldn’t afford it.
For them it was like playing poker with their cards up.
He was dealing for now. He also knew she was right,
but as long as he could read their hands, he could
remain the dealer.
She did make a good point as he thought about
it once again. At some future time, all of this would
change again.
Friday, May 26, 9:16 p.m.
There were three phone systems and a short
wave radio in his Cadillac. Although he had available
to him a number of anti-terrorist drivers, he preferred
to be alone driving to and from work, never being far
from the protection of several highly trained people on a
minutes notice.
She reached him as he left the main stream of
highway traffic taking the exit toward home.
“Scott Orefice.”
“It’s Liz.”
“Go ahead.”
“I spoke with Courtney - he’s being very
obstinate right now. He asked me to tell you to remove
all personnel tracking him with the exception of me.
He’s agreed to meet with the President at noon, and
wants me to call him at eight. He knows we have a lot
to talk about and that we both have agendas. I don’t
know where he’s coming from with that statement. He
could be making implications without grounds for
reference trying to create a bluff. Either that, or he
knows more about us than we think he does. I don’t
know your intentions, Sir, but I’d feel more comfortable
if you didn’t call off all our people. He doesn’t seem
irrational, but somehow I feel like we could end up on
the short end of his training.” 271
“I’m still going to keep our people on him
around the clock. We need our finger on his pulse, but
he’s not the one making the Cuban plan, that’s St.
Croix. Courtney and Kathleen McKenzie have
separated. She’s either going to stay at her condo, or
she’s picking up her car to drive to her home on Old
Saybrook.”
He glanced at his watch.
“David has dispatched someone to see where
she ends up. This means Courtney will have some time
alone. See what you can do with that. Keep your
appointment with him on Monday, in fact, you bring
him to the White House at noon. I’ll make
arrangements for access and entrance through the main
gate. I’ll speak with the President over the weekend
and brief him.”
He paused, his moment of silence not an
indication for her to reply, but rather a stage to set his
final comments.
“Stay close to him, Liz. Find out what you can.
This is important.”
Friday, May 26, 9:18 p.m.
He fingered the last digit of the Commerce
Secretary’s secure line.
“Secretary Tollman.”
“It’s all set.”
He’d heard those words before. His intuition
told him to question the tempered remark.
“Did he give you a hard time?”
“Not this time. I told him I want the stories in
next Friday - he agreed.
The answer indicated that either he was
becoming more adroit with people, which the Secretary
doubted, or that Courtney was beginning to feel the
pressure. He chose the latter.
“Good, I’ll call Belize.”
272
No further conversation was necessary - the
NSA man understood.
George Tollman dialed another secure line from
his own.
“Belize.”
“Senor Belize, we’ll have our first round of
stories circulated through the American press one week
from today.”
“That is wonderful news, Mister Secretary.”
“Is Mister McKenzie comfortable?”
“He is more comfortable than any prisoner in
Cuba. Were you able to convince President Benson to
delay action on his initiative?”
“Yes. He questioned my conclusions because he
believes there’s enough U.S. capital available to begin
investment now, and he’s also concerned the Germans
and the Japanese will gain a foothold before we do.”
Tollman stood and stretched.
“He’ll continue to support his program publicly,
but he’s also taking ninety days to review the American
economic indicators. If they don’t show any significant
growth pattern, he’ll consider other options. I believe
when public support is destroyed through Yankee Echo,
he’ll have no choice but to abandon the plan.”
“You’ve done well Mister Secretary. I admire
your ability to manipulate