Blind Date by Jerzy Kosinski

Author:Jerzy Kosinski
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Grove/Atlantic, Inc.
Published: 1997-07-30T16:00:00+00:00

Both sides of the busy New York street were filled with cars, so Levanter had to double-park. But before he could turn off the engine, a police squad car came along on the other side of the street and pulled up across from him. A sergeant rolled down the window and leaned out. “No double-parking. Move!” he shouted.

“I can’t,” Levanter called back.

The sergeant stepped out of his car and crossed over, hands on his hips. “What do you mean ‘can’t’? You just move!”

Levanter took his wallet from his back pocket. He opened it and slowly removed his driver’s license and a laminated card. The card identified him as a member of the American Council for Global Security, Washington, D.C. The Council was a small educational society which regularly polled its members for their views on such issues as the television networks’ fairness in their coverage of American military strength and reported the results in its monthly mimeographed newsletter. Membership in the Council was open to the general public for an annual fee of five dollars, which included the newsletter subscription and a membership card. Levanter had joined as soon as he returned home from Impton.

He handed the sergeant his driver’s license and, purposely hesitating, the membership card. “You guys do your job, we do ours,” he said indifferently. The sergeant glanced at the license, and then examined the membership card. Levanter watched him study the Council’s symbol: an American eagle, clutching the globe, with the credo PEACE THROUGH VIGILANCE above it, bracketed by two military insignia stars.

Just as Levanter had hoped, the sergeant, sharing the confusion caused by a series of public disclosures about the White House, the CIA, and the FBI, assumed that the Council was yet another of the government’s elitist intelligence units and that Levanter was one of its agents. He scanned the surrounding buildings, then bent closer to Levanter. “Stalking them right here?” he whispered, furrowing his brow in an expression of complicity.

“As you see,” Levanter assured him.

Without further question, the sergeant returned the license and card. “Are they really in this crummy block?” He shook his head in disbelief.

“They are everywhere. But so are we,” whispered Levanter, winking.

“Right you are.” The sergeant saluted, returned to his car, and, waving at Levanter, drove away.

Levanter turned off his engine. He picked up two bundles of shirts from the rear seat and carried them into the laundry. As Levanter placed the bundles on the counter, the Chinese shopkeeper reached for them. Levanter stopped him.

“The shirts in this pile are just to be washed,” he said. “Only the ones in the other pile are to be starched. Please be careful not to mix them up.”

The muscles in the face of the Chinese tightened. He grabbed both mounds of shirts and threw them together into one linen bag. Without a word, he handed Levanter a receipt.

Levanter took the ticket from him and carefully placed it in his wallet. “Too bad you’re disregarding my instructions,” he continued in an even, calm voice.

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