The Vanishers Read Free

waited for my answer. I hesitated, but it was no time to be tactful. I said, “Well, I can make a guess. Patriotism and loyalty are corny words these days. Patriots are out of fashion. Faith and trust are out, lie detectors are in. It’s the time of the fink and the snitch and the traitor, sir. If I were planning to vanish you, I’d first send some known Commies to see you, on one pretext or another. I’d plant a few bits of evidence here and there to establish your subversive associations. It doesn’t take much, these suspicious days. After that, when you went AWOL, nobody’d believe you hadn’t defected, even after a lifetime of patriotic service.” After a moment, when he didn’t speak at once, I said, “Well, nobody’d believe it except a few naive and trusting characters in this outfit, who’re also suckers for Santa Claus and the tooth fairy. It’s amazing how gullible some folks can be.”
    “Thank you, Eric.” After a moment, he went on: “Your guess is quite correct. After certain rumors had come to my attention, I investigated discreetly and learned that I’m currently supposed to be very depressed and angry at the scanty recognition my work has received over the years and the way our organization is forever being slighted, financially and otherwise. Furthermore, some peculiar characters have presented themselves here for interviews in recent months, supposed journalists, informants, and job applicants. I’ve made a point of taking on a couple of the last-named in spite of their questionable records. Very incriminating, for me. I’ve sent them out to the Ranch for screening and indoctrination with, of course, the special cautionary code in their induction papers.”
    The Ranch is our agent training, maintenance, and rehabilitation center in Arizona. It’s a fairly tough place, and I wouldn’t want to arrive there with that little watch-this-guy mark on my record.
    Mac went on: “I’m afraid they won’t be made very happy, and there will have to be a couple of training accidents after this is over, very bad for our safety record. However, at the moment their presence reflects unfavorably on my judgment or, if you want to be suspicious, my loyalty—the fact that I’ve admitted such dubious individuals to a highly classified government training area under my control.” He paused, and went on: “Not to mention letting an obvious tap on my office telephone go unreported and unremoved.”
    “That’s why we’re using this elaborate communications system?”
    “Yes.”
    “You’re planning to let yourself be defected, then?”
    “Your grammar is still deplorable, but the answer to your question is yes. I have sent a good many agents down similar rabbit holes in the past. This time I am the logical ferret. You’ll point out that it’s a long time since I’ve operated in the field. Well, that leaves it up to Joel and you to look after your helpless superior, doesn’t it? You remember Joel; you worked with him once out West.”
    “Yes, sir. I remember Joel.”
    “I thought you would. A good man. I know you won’t mind working with him again.”
    “No, sir.”
    He was throwing it at me fast. The fact was that Joel wasn’t a very good man, in my opinion. While technically competent enough, he was one of those scheming characters, ambitious for preferment, who’d hog the credit for success any time he could manage and try to slip out from under the blame for failure. I can work with anybody I have to, and there had been no blowup to jeopardize the mission; but I’d let Mac know how I felt afterwards. For him to now tell me calmly that I wouldn’t mind working with Joel again was another clear signal: this line, too, was bugged, and we had an audience somewhere that we were trying to impress with the brotherly spirit pervading our undercover organization.
    He went on: “Actually, the two of you will be operating independently. He will be covering me, rather carelessly of course. After