MFU Whitman - The Affair of the Gentle Saboteur by Brandon Keith Read Free Book Online Page B

dear, not at all."
    She shivered. She knew now, finally, what her "cause" had led her into. Up to now she had been an amateur, mouthing words, thinking in abstractions, marching with the students in London, going limp and being carried off into the police vans, shouting deliriously with the others, "Down with the Bomb! Fallout is Failure! We want a Future! Better Red than Dead! Peace! Peace!" And so, with soft words and hard words, she had been recruited to THRUSH, and the hard words were attributed to the enemy, and the soft words had been the words of THRUSH. So she had been won, and had believed, and had even believed that the destruction of the shrines here in America were but steps toward peace. Peace! This was not peace. They had won her, experts had lectured her, and so she had gone with them now on her first endeavor—a professional for peace. Peace! This was not peace! This was crime! And she began to understand. Caught with crime, involved with crime, crime upon crime, there could not be a turning back. These were the professionals using the slogan of peace for the purpose of their professionalism; she was now one of them, a professional, already caught in crime; she had been won to the "cause" by the soft words and was hearing now from Burrows the new words, the hard words from this side, the truth. And she shivered again, crossing her arms, her fingernails pinching her skin.
    "What's the matter?" he said.
    "It's cold. The air conditioning."
    "Yes, the air conditioning," he said, and the dark eyes, narrow, smiling, grew crafty, and he uttered what now in the coldness she knew to be a warning, lecturing sternly, educating her. "We must kill as part of our work. The work of peace cannot always be peaceful. We are soldiers of peace in an army of peace, but we are soldiers. A soldier who defects is a traitor, and the penalty for treason is death. A soldier does not always like his duty, but he obeys orders and does his duty. If not, he is a traitor. There is much he does not understand because, above him, there is a grand plan." Burrows lit another cigarette. "In essence, here, in our own little company, you are a soldier, I am a colonel, Leslie Tudor is the general. I take orders from above, and you take orders from me, and neither of us questions the instructions. We are soldiers fighting in a cause."
    "But isn't a soldier—without questioning the orders—allowed to ask questions?"
    "Idiocy! I've been answering your questions, haven't I? I'm trying to give you—at this long last—an understanding."
    "An understanding about murder?"
    "You did not question me about murder. You questioned about senseless murder. I'm against murder, just as you are—against senseless murder. But don't you ever forget that our fight for peace is just that—a fight !—and in a fight people die."
    "And those three must die?"
    "But not senselessly. On the contrary, quite sensibly—because our own self-preservation is primary. Unless we do preserve ourselves, how can we continue our fight for peace? Sounds pretty—fight for peace––but there's another name to that game, more real but not as pretty; not a pretty little game with pretty little rules; there are no rules at all in that game."
    "What game without rules?"
    "War," he said. "The name of our game is 'war'."
    "Even war has rules."
    "Not this war; on our side there are no rules."
    "What about the other side?"
    "The deuce with the other side. Our concern is only with our side, us! That's lesson three for today, my dear. And now, if you please, I'm bored with giving lessons. Where's Leslie?"
    "On the beach by the helicopter."
    He clicked his heels, made a mock salute. "Should anybody want me—and nobody will except possibly you—I'm outside with General Tudor arranging the final details."
     
     

8. The Living Beacon
     
     
    AT UNCLE headquarters Mr. Solo was being prepared, but with caution.
    "Remember that," Waverly said. "Caution! You're young; I've known you to be