Read an Excerpt
"Listen carefully, Mrs. Springer. We have some friends on the other side. We pay them. They work for the communists, they fight for them, but they do us favors, if you understand. Those kind of people can't be trusted completely. But money can purchase their temporary allegiance. Do you understand what I'm saying?"
"You have spies in the other camp."
"Yes, as they have in our camp. We're trying to arrange a rescue of your husband by one of our friends."
"Yes," Katherine said. "Please."
He turned right and drove down a narrow side street. There was just enough room for two vehicles to pass.
"We think your husband witnessed a massacre of the entire population of a village. We would like to free Dr. Springer, for humanitarian reasons, of course, but also because he has a story to tell the world."
"I don't care about the pretext, Mr. Harley. Just get my husband out of there."
"You must not repeat anything I've told you."
"All right. But you've told me very little."
"This town is filled with informers. Anything you say about what I've told you, even a hint, could jeopardize your husband. As well as our friend."
"But there is a chance for Martin?"
"I won't claim that our friend is a good man. That would imply a moral quality." He smiled briefly. "But he's very competent. Yes, there's a chance."
Katherine looked straight ahead through the windshield. There were pushcarts and food stands and peddlers and beggars and people gathered around charcoal braziers, eating roasted corn and meats, and a legless man who moved along on a kind of skateboard. And there were children everywhere, fuel for this war or the next.
"I'll keep you informed," he said.
"Yes, please."
"Call me anytime at the embassy. I'll give you my home telephone number too."
"Thank you."
"We think that Dr. Springer witnessed a brutal massacre, an atrocity that the world should hear about."
Damn the world, Katherine thought, damn propaganda. I just want my Martin back.
