Show nm IV ls 01 11 CARIBBEAN 1 conspiracy b bit BRENDA CONRAD F num 0 mo m m 0 own a QI 1 B STORY SO FAR anne Iley wood beautiful daughter of a wealthy new york newspaper publisher goes on an assignment to puerto rico where pete wilcox a reporter on her fathers paper Is stationed as a U S array army intelligence officer on the boat she meets a young puerto rican lucan miguel mignel valera and an engineer named richard taussig of whom she Is immediately suspicious she does not know that he Is in fact a gernian german agent ordered to destroy puerto ricos water supply when annes bags are searched she suspects taussig she goes to his hotel room to investigate and is surprised by a man she recognizes as miguel valera valera Is talking to pete wilcox CHAPTER V pete blew a large white ring of cigarette smoke out in in front of him f 1 I watched it dissolve in the cool IE sandr 11 r air miguel valera had been lAnca bated ted in the states he ought to have learned that you dont discuss a girl with a man you scarcely know he took a deep breath and said nothing im sorry if ive offended you 0 miguel valera said quietly he put down his glass 1 I thought you were a close friend of hers 1 I am in that case it if you will allow me to offer you some advice send her back to the states on wednesdays clipper he got up good night captain wilcox he was halfway across the patio to the arcade before pete was sure he had really heard the words he looked silently after him and glanced up at annes dark window it was almost eleven when anne got out of the elevator and went over to the desk there was a note in her mail box from pete and a couple of airmail air mail letters from home nothing from miguel just why shed thought there would be she know or why she was disappointed just vaguely because there maybe he knew shed seen him she went out onto the porch and sat down to read her mail she must be careful of her skin her mother said and not go without a hat her father hoped she was having fun and fall in love with any damned native she smiled put the letters in her bag and opened petes note anne youre lunching with me same time same place pete she got up As she started to go back into the lobby a big shiny black limousine with a uniformed chauffeur pulled up under the portico annes heart jumped miguel valera was getting out with him was his father don alvaro for an instant her impulse was to run but she miguel had seen h it was an important moment y ni ething profoundly deep inside ad told her it was one of the most important moments of her life then he was coming toward her and she let him know she knew good morning this is awfully nice with the speed of light something so concealed that it was almost imperceptible relaxed behind miguel valeras gray green eyes he smiled warmly taking her friendly outstretched hand annes face brightened shed done it he know and the rest was easy you remember my father of course she smiled at don alvaro standing aloof and dignified in the archway waiting for his son he had on the same white drill semi mill mili t tary am uniform biform or another like it be ja he was spotlessly starched aironen A Diro ironed ned and the same gray felt bat in his hand good morning she said she know whether it should be mr or senor or don so she say his name at all good morning senorita don alvaro bowed with formal courtesy his eyes meeting hers with xray X ray clarity were old and wise and calm yet somewhere in them was a veiled shadow of the same subtle resentment shed felt so sharply and in gra ci elas she held out her hand simply As simply don alvaro took it in the brief instant her eyes were raised to his bis calm and trusting as a childs the heavy load he had carried since his sons return had bad vanished he smiled will you have coffee with us senorita miguel reaching in his pocket tor for his lighter stopped his hand abruptly he had known his father would like her he help it when he once knew her but he had expected a long uphill climb before more than a truce prevailed he glanced at his father out of the corner of his eye not entirely convinced id love to anne was saying wilcox know he thought how much it had taken for him to suggest sending her back to the states he watched her slim flame tipped body moving easily beside his fathers erect firm figure independence was a spiritual and physical as well as a social and economic quality you could spot an american girl anywhere in the world the way she moved was even more revealing than the way the she dressed just so long as it get her into trouble he thought ashes not half as sophisticated as she looks he glanced up at Taus sigs window 1 I ive got to get her away from here he sat down between anne and his father still uneasy as he be heard them speaking like all gatins his father loved a fine horse and a beautiful girl but so far as he was able to remember he had never heard him discussing social philosophy with either find poverty economic and spiritual on the island senorita don alvaro was saying but I 1 hope you will find richness too it is here for the understanding heart to search out pete wilcox sat at his desk at general headquarters going through the mornings reports from the departments part ments undercover under cover agents in puerto rico it was a curious assortment sort ment but no more curious than the assortment of people who sent it in army intelligence spreads like a sensitive plant over the entire caribbean area he looked at his watch it would be hours before he saw anne it if she showed at all he wished to god shed stayed at home there was only one ray of comfort in the immediate present tied to his desk with the ball and chain of army regulations like the prisoners of old morro he got some relief from the fact that miguel valera wanted her to go home it meant at any rate that he going all out to glamorize her into staying and there was one other dewdrop in the desert that had been dropped in passing by the generals aide old iron lung namely colonel mortimer st clair de voe engineer in charge of maintenance and construction st of the caribbean area had said to tell the CO with his compliments ments that he give a blank blank blank blank if the eternal himself sent the prophet hezekiah down to puerto rico nobody was seeing the details detail s of the pumps at borinquen or any place else he was in charge of he would be glad to write the senate of the united states individually and collectively and tell them so by blank what did the general say some one had asked the general said the aide I 1 oh the general the general grinned and sent mr taussig plus a copy of the senate resolution they passed yet for old iron lun lungs gs pet project on tortilla cay to the old boy both with his compliments so mr taussig is on the Engi engineers deers hands not ours which is okay with us im telling you all weve got to do is have him to dinner and say pete how about miss heywood the old man knows her father ashes at the granada 1 she pete looked down at the papers in front of him hed been trying to get up nerve to ask for a weeks leave it nerve so much actually as proper self control when colonel fletcher turned him down the lie heavy load he had carried since his sons return had vanished he could hear his this is the army captain wilcox in case youve forgotten he read absently through the report of a dance hall girl at a dive on la marina that was out of bounds for soldiers put it aside read another and started in on a third this man is not a personal enemy to me he read methodically he is of ancient and honorable lineage and his family are all thieves throat cutters and swine he is without principle himself as all his generations before him pete stopped abruptly not because the tone of the letter was unusual but because of the name he suddenly saw staring up at him from the florid script miguel valera seeks to undermine them the government he has been seen by me in conversation with a man who is known to steal a box of dynamite from isla grande and dump it in the sea off la perla when the sailors come so they find nothing miguel valera was seen by me later with an american who is hired by the vi viego eg 0 R rum u m company the american whose name is george raised his glass and drank the toast to the first president of puerto rico I 1 write without bitterness my grandfather was killed in falling in machinery at valera central pete put the letter aside with a scowl vindictiveness wasted as much time as stupidity he went patiently on till he came caine to the last letter in the pile it was on cheaper paper than most of them even and was signed with the initial ID D miguel valera son of senor alvaro miguel valera y delgado seen by me this day speaking in back room of bar of la rosa wi with t h salvatore vegas salvatore steal dynamite from isla grande and throw w in in I 1 sea the family salvatore work long time in the sugar mill of valera salvatore of good information of machines he read it through a second time and a third went back to the other letter about miguel valera and read it again he sat back in his chair reached automatically in his coat pocket for a cigarette and remembered he was in the army he had no coat pocket and supposed to smoke on desk duty he sat there oddly enough it was anne heywood he was thinking about not miguel valera one of the bloodiest battles the conquistadores ever fought they fought tight right out there miss heywood pete said he waved his hand out over the rolling green golf gok course in front of el morros officers club it was in 1625 1623 in case you have your notebook with you ill try to supply you with one fact a day its usually tourists who supply us with facts but you dont seem to have your guide book with to you anne put down her coffee cup and looked at him across the table pete she said bald evenly the matter with you who me you she said youve been perfectly foul all through lunch and you know it the matter he took his last cigarette out wadded the empty package and dropped it into the ash tray in front of him he could see the warm flush creeping up into her cheeks and her tortoiseshell tortoise shell cats eyes getting darker storm warnings flying in the caribbean im sorry he said 1 I suppose its because im worried about you then he could have kicked himself across the graveyard into the atlantic that was just the thin thing g he have said he waited for her to flare flar e up and make some stinging retort but she may I 1 ask why youre worried about me she inquired calmly somebody must have told her about counting ten since hed left new york he thought you may ask but I 1 cant tell you he said quietly the trouble he looked at her sitting there cool and confident and a babe in the woods actually if he could just take her by the back of the neck the way you did a kitten or a latin woman and put her in a plane and say go home everything would be easy but he nobody could or tt if he could tell her why his job prevented that anyway it would probably be just the thing that would make her stay I 1 even if she believed him 0 look anne he said they were at the far end of the open porch the boys had bad cleared empty tables around them you know I 1 love you if its jealous pique dear he interrupted her calmly it youre probably sick ot of hearing me say it so lets skip it the point is I 1 like you too different and I 1 think you like me oh pete she began he gave her a twisted grin to try to conceal the sudden ache inside him when men her voice was like that it reduced his insides to quivering jelly the point is he went on unsteadily im going to ask you to do something and not ask any questions or try to guess the answers just trust your uncle pete just once he saw the shadow behind her dark curling lashes and the almost imperceptible lines between her eyebrows brows he liked her eyebrows they were dark and thick so that they accentuated her slim oval face not thin plucked lines that M made ade her look like a scared siren she looked at him a clear steady instant before she said you want me to go home dont you pete yes on tomorrows clipper its full but I 1 can manage that anne looked down at the little colony of ants busily cleaning up the crumbs shed spilled on the floor maybe she ought to go of course maybe she ought just to tell him what she knew about taussig and diego bongaro and miguel and go quickly before it was any harder to go but she if she always ran out when the sticking took a little well sticking then she never would be any good aad this meant that he must know something about all of it anyway something that she know because he she looked up at him pete she said 1 I know it on account of miguel 11 I 1 mean it because youre jealous of him and and like sue porter and it if its mr taussig she hesitated well im not afra idof him maybe I 1 could even even help you I 1 mean he stared at her without even being aware of it she had slip slipped in the connecting link hed been racking his brain all morning to find for himself taussig and his sanitary engineering miguel valera and salvatore vegas and she was vas already in it I 1 a child playing g dolls with a stick of dynamite he pushed his chair back abruptly youre going home tomorrow anne her eyes flashed dark brown and green 1 I am not you are too youre a crazy fool you dont know what youre getting into this place is a keg of nitroglycerine and youre lighting matches to powder your nose youre getting on that plane tomorrow morning it if I 1 have to tie your hands and feet and put you on it myself and as for that you he stopped abruptly she was standing on the other side of the table erect and vibrant as a streak of flame from a blow torch her eyes sheets of molten gold her face pale with anger 4 dont you dare peter wilcox her voice was low and quivering 1 I wont go ill leave san juan when im good and ready and not one minute before and I 1 hate you id never have believed you could be so contemptible goodby good by her high heels clicked across the bare wood floor of the club house porch like the sharp tattoo of a savage drum pete watched her his face a grim tight mask then he turned abruptly and went out the other way r TO BE CONTINUED |