Matt Helm 04 - The Silencers by Donald Hamilton

Author:Donald Hamilton [Hamilton, Donald]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Helm 04
Published: 2012-07-14T18:29:05+00:00

Buddy McKenna stepped forward. "Lay off, Peyton," he said. "The boy's just a free-lance photographer looking for a few pix. Can you blame him? We aren't all on Uncle Sam's payroll, you know. Some of us have to work for a living."

It made me feel a little guilty to have him come to my defense like that, since-although he didn't know it-I was on Uncle Sam's payroll, too.

The man called Peyton turned slowly to face him. "Mr. McKenna," he said, "before we started, you were informed as to the regulations that would be in effect for this group of observers and the reasons for them. You were asked not to communicate with anyone from the time you joined us in Washington for the preliminary briefing to the conclusion of the

experiment when you would be free to submit your story-subject, of course, to proper

clearance."

"All right, all right," Buddy said, "so who's communicating? Can't I say hello to an old friend I see on the street?"

He winked at me. We were newspapermen together, disrespectfully bamboozling the

pompous forces of law, order and security, as always, for the sake of the picture and the story-and maybe, incidentally, an ancient principle known as the freedom of the press.

"You know this man?" Peyton demanded.

"Sure, I'm just telling you-"

"How long have you know him? When was the last time you were in touch with him?"

"Why, hell, it was... "Buddy thought back and seemed shocked at the passage of time.

"Jeez, he was just a long, skinny, green kid with a brand new camera, it must have been a year or two before the war. My God! I didn't think it had been that long!"

"And you haven't seen him since or communicated with him in any way? And today you just happen to see him driving along the street.... You say he's a photographer? That's very convenient, isn't it, your coming across a photographer friend at just this time? You may be sure the coincidence will be investigated, Mr. McKenna."

Buddy said, "I don't like your insinuations. I didn't send for-"

"In that case," Peyton said coldly, "since you haven't heard from this man in-what is it?-

fifteen or twenty years, you're hardly in a position to vouch for him, are you? I think you'd better leave us. I'll talk to you later."

Buddy hesitated, shrugged and gave a mock salute. "So long, Flash. Remember the motto of the working press:

Illegitimati non carborundum. That means don't let the bastards grind you down."

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.