Show CARIBBEAN conspiracy cal BRENDA CONRAD CON R AD k CHAPTER I 1 at three tuesday after nan loon d anne heywood hurried burned through the b blinding 9 snow 11 toward 1 d I a 1 fashionable lahl mit dress shop on upper LIP e I 1 I 1 fifth t h AY avenue she pulled her beaver cap d down own tighter over her smooth red dusl dish a gold old hair and drew her beaver coat closer around it her sum in logs legs it seemed so utterly crazy to be buying 9 summer met cottons it I 1 in the mi middle hl dle of B winter b blizzard d at the same a moment two blocks blacks away a slow gray ray spider was silent allent ly spinning its web across a 0 dark corner of acel a cellar at we wall 11 and d eighteen eight floors above in the lemon im and gray french salon of an elegant ten tell room ream apartment two men raised t their air hands in a formal stiff armed salute and sat down at a satinwood table in front of the window one of them was short bud and heavyset behind pis ilia rimless thick sPeet spectacles edles his hi blue eyes were small bud and piercing and ahre shrewd w d the other ther man was tall and b lond blond they were both in their middle forties and both had a kind of cynical art arrogance 9 no that neither made any attempt to conceal your dour orders are simple and direct 1 the tall man said curtly he opened a worn won briefcase in front of him and took out a sheaf of papers the as island of puerto rico can be put out ol of commission as an effective base in halt half an hour it if you do your job the way you re expected to even after the millions the ameri americans ans have poured into ato its defense f s the tall man ignored the question puerto rico is vulnerable at two points only its gas line supply and its water supply the first will be taken care of its the second you are concerned with the island is one clue hundred miles long slid and thirty five miles wide out of its population half of th them in unemployed and starving to death it will be simple to find five hundred malcontents they are to be placed where at a given signal the machinery of every unit of the water system can be completely demolished and the island destroyed as a functioning base for the defense oft 04 the panama canal 1 I shall he need eed some a help i the the short bar t m man S said aid you will have help conscious and unconscious the tell tall man picked up a sheet 0 of paper and looked down the list of names name typed on an it this in fact has been the most delicate part of the program he smi smiled I 1 ed D diego 1 go bongaro is the only man mail in fai puerto RIO who knows you he said he is there from our party I 1 in spam you can trust him he has do done the spade work his brother in law alvaro valera is the shining knight behind whom you yen are to hide he has the e old aristocrats dream a of itro arif spanish empire pire he is honest and sincere it is those qualities that you will wd have to use cleverly but bu t as he hap happens pens to trust his bobb broth e erm er m law diego gongal Gon garo that will be easy there are three po possible sh shall avra I 1 co call them obstacles bt acles to or imponderables the small blue eyes across the table town tawn narrowed slightly wn watching it g steadily waiting the first I 1 is alva alvaro valeras son ithe miguel guel he is twenty eight aducal ed cd at guman gilman and princeton pro american now new or has scerne seemed d to be fete here is his dossier he worships warships his father at one time he was an ardent nationalist he has a captain a commission I 1 10 the reserve corps and was under orders which the war department cancelled last rek week without apparent explanation do you know the reason 1 I have an idea but diego go gon garo earn will know and the fewer theories ties you go down with the more facts you a pick up this thin may help i you yen I 1 he passed two closely typed sheets of paper across the table the second is captain P F G wilcox C he is an american newspaperman now w in the military intelligence service he is attached to the office of the assistant chiel chief ol of staff G 2 in san juan he is an see ace newspaperman pap ermall and impatient ith with what I 1 pre presume a ume he regards as a official cl red tape F for or that reason he might even be of use to you he be looked across the table intently no he be elsaid said you re not at likely to I 1 fool him in for very long don t try just watch that he does doean t tool feel you heres h hia dossier da he got up ad and moved ve silently 1 anty back and ad forth across the r room and came to td top stop by the window T then hen there is a a girl gi whom h 1 aou haven I 1 been able to fi figure g out t h he said aid slowly her no name is anne anna heywood her father is bryson heywood editor edito er of the heywood newspapers newspaper she I 1 is gol going OIL to son san juan on friday in the santa isabella that 1 is why your plane a le reservations rv tons were cancelled belled end and you are r going gain 9 b by y ship hica we don dent t know it w why hl y a she 1 es s going ging she has had a job ob an n her I 1 others fathers i paper here in new york tor for the last two years year and she worked at it she may be taking a vacation captain wilcox W alcox was on her fathers paper to too a he may be the reason ease lor for her going do down SON he e stood rigidly tor for a moment and d sat down here is her picture ile he took it a out of 1 the briefcase it was taken two years ago she is even lowlier lovelier now it is hr her col coloring as much as anything her or h hair is reddish gold her eyes are almost amber am ili BY with gold flecks in 11 them the I 1 ho have ve been watching her I 1 the last three days day I 1 can t make out whether the w way she h e laughs laugh whon when people ah ask her if she e s going down to see wilcox is because she is or is 13 not she at any rate watch wat ell her er too 0 she is intelligent and keen e as we well ell babeu as beautiful I 1 wish we he had d a few women like her i he took a green clo cloth th bound book out of the rack under the h aarl radio il 0 and here is a bon vo voyage yaga present pre ent in for r you it is pue puerto arto rico A guide ulde to the island of kindly put out by the government of the united states state it has all the proper information about the history and monuments of the island it also had a map mail on n the babit cover unfortunately feet 0 it t was not as detailed as w we a wished I 1 so chave I 1 have taken the liberty of substituting another he riffled raffled the pages until he came to the end of the book it is a scale map that you or are to mark it A blue circle for major plants in civilian areas a red circle for key stations in military establishments green where they supply both civilian and military like the plant at aguadilla aguabilla Agu adilla for instance which serves borinquen Borm quen field end and the town use blue and red crosses for minor units put the number of ifil 4 N T SST she it ehnow exactly why bause rither bather use of ile them should make her feel the way war she did I 1 men stall stationed a ned at each in red fig ures and the number we have at each in blue figures you may even enoy enjoy taking the tours toure that this back suggests do so in any event now new if you he have any que questions the deep violet blue on the sauth southern horizon was slowly taking form arm and substance as the ship ploughed sloughed hed steadily forward feathering the cobalt sea anne heywood leaned on the damp salt ailt sucky sticky rail 1 g it in the east already 1 eada suffused effused wit with h pale gre green n slid and yer yellow and P pink k a so single star t r still till shone a precise clean candle lighting the sun a way up over the last step into the it dawning S we world 1 it she heard a step on the deck behind hind her glanced around bud and smiled that it it II isn ip she nodded into the opalescent distance the man beside her stood tor lot an instant gravely intent jes yes lie he said T at a it puerto III ruo patria its de mis has amores J jardin do de flat flores ile he stopped and turned to her with a smile the I 1 ible le of En enchantment chanon cat we used to call I 1 it t now they call it the gibraltar of america and were we re spending how many mill millions a ons to make it that anne aane heywood asked lightly she glanced around mr me taussig would know new I 1 suppose he seems to be be a one in man an information bureau A short heavy set man in a light green tropical suit with terms tennis slip pers an and d a yachting cap had come came out on deck k A camera a and d a pair of ion binoculars du were idohl slung over lat ll 11 his shoulders h r 1 the e black it sun am glasses attached ta 41 det to hi his thick alib k spectacles hid h his is P pale ale blue eyes without making h him any more attractive 1 I dont know why mr me taussig reminds me or of an adder in tourist clothing cloth mg A anne ame said d 0 or r why bihy ihy it he seems to fo follow ilow sol to me are around d miguel valeras x dark eyes were fixed on the shore share line comma mm luminously minous ly ato to view ew 1 I heard him ask the captain why you were coming to puerto P berto rico he saidi said without moving anne anna glanced at hum him quickly there was something a little odd in the ev even e tone of his voice that disturbed it her it disturbed her he too I 1 that mr Tot taussig should be wa wondering rider about be t her issig because because she had be been woride wondering rin a little about out mr me ta taussig she sh know exactly exactly why wh y either a of them should make her he feci feel the way she did it had all seemed plain enough the jim hawley w who we was ma managing laging editor of her fathers paper in new york city called her in 1 look I sister tv t youve be been asking ito for a go good job and ad 1 ive e lot got one me for you yin he said aid c cheerfully eer T theres heres a story in puerto rico the place I 1 is a 1 hotbed and dancle uncle so sama pouring abr halt hall bichon bilhon dollars dollar in m IV its got get everything g old spam new money meney 7 glamour g amour poverty love hatred everything go get it Youcan you can kill a flock of birds with one stone y you 0 u can get a tropical tan and m maybe ay b earn your pay for once you yen might even do a service for your country you cant ever tell and as anne started out hed looked over the half me moon of his hill glasses and while y youre down there make up your mm mind d about rbt pete wilf rox cox will you and it was funny about pete anne heywood thought he was the only man she knew that shed thought seriously about marrying eyen even it if she harin t been able to make up her mind not finally everybody thought that vas why she was down here now new but it wasn gasn t it or was pride it was the business of showing them all jim hawley and her father and pete e himself that she could use her own head and stand on an her own two feet feet it had been like ft a dose of vitamins carrying he her C confidently fid e aly up to that moment with the yellow m masses sex of the ancient weathered e rock of el morro looming ild of her now and ad the gay excited cl clamor of the people cr crowding ding around amund them against the rail all the confidence was seeping out of her she looked up at miguel valera there was something in his dark eyes fixed on the stained and P pitted bitted fortress rising sheer tram from the white pounding surf that silenced the casual remark she we was about to make you really love puerto rico very much dont you he looked at her gravely very much my father says it Is only a country whose people suffer fer deeply whose people love it deeply I 1 don t know it a true that with all the poverty and squalor and overpopulation that your magazines are so full of our people wont leave leave the island and when they do they always return our country comity is an emotion with us ile he smiled but were gatins and Lat latis a are sabor an emotional people youre saxon n our oui standards our backgrounds a out customs customs differ as much a as our languages next to them along the rail a fat middle aged woman in stifling ornate black was clinging to her husband s a arm theo their faces were streaked with tea tears rs as they watched the narrow ent entrance ranc of the harbor under the timeworn time tone worn byor n fortress opening its I rockbound kyound arms to bring them h home me but the human heart differ diffee ery cry greatly does it if anne asked for a moment miguel vale valera was silent then he said aid quietly if you have learned that miss heywood you have learned a great deal it is something most people never learn I 1 should have thong thought h I 1 you yen were one of them perhaps you will learn even a more without turning be her head arm anne could hear mr me taussig his voice was moistly oleaginous his information precise and pedantic in a way that reminded her ol of the coti courier rIet guide uie who had ad taken them through notre dame in paris pans A sudden little panic of loneliness made anne catch her breath quickly 1 I should have told pete I 1 was coming she thought it had all seemed so simple in new Y york or I 1 facing it now the noisy teeming el city t Y the babble of a language spoken so rapidly that the little she knew was hopel hopeless s she had bad the sudden sense of being an outsider with no I 1 right to be there at all and underneath it there was a vague chill chili feeling of apprehension like the sound of a stealthily opening door I 1 m he an empty midnight house I 1 in being an utter fool she told he herself if sharply she looked do down again at the gy gay w welcoming c avig I 1 faces TZ on the dock trying r yg ag I 1 to reviva the determination nation that whatever this ous ined turned out to be it was to be her lob job but I 1 do wish I 1 d cabled him ju just at the same sh she e thong thought h L ie 10 BE 0 i |