The Spy by Garbo Norman

Author:Garbo Norman [Norman, Garbo]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 16

In Burke’s mind it always began the same way, with all of them moving steadily and well, in a long, loose column, through the thinning trees. He could see the dark banks of the stream below, and beyond it, the green slope of the hillside. On the other side of the slope, out of sight and about a mile distant, was the border. In a bit more than an hour they would be over it. Not counting Tom Ludlow and himself, there were twenty-three of them: eleven men, nine women, and three children. The youngsters were in their early teens, two boys and a girl, with wide, dark eyes, smooth faces, and incredibly white teeth. It all seemed like an exciting excursion to them. There were not supposed to have been any children in this group, but a mistake had been made somewhere along the line and by the time it was discovered, nothing could be done.

Ludlow had been angry, but as far as Burke was concerned, the kids’ presence would not affect the group adversely. He actually enjoyed having them along and did not expect -any trouble.

This was the seventh group they were taking through, .and nothing had gone wrong with any of them. Ludlow had a submachine gun slung over his shoulder and Burke himself carried a pistol and carbine, but so far there had been no need for weapons. Ludlow knew every foot of the border area and the posting and pattern of the patrols well enough to avoid all critical points.

None of the others in the group were armed. Ludlow would not permit it. A man with a gun in someone else’s contingent had once panicked, fired on a passing patrol, and almost caused a disaster. Now in Ludlow’s groups no weapons were allowed. Burke disagreed with the ban, feeling that in an emergency they might need the extra firepower, but he did not argue the point. Ludlow was officially in command, knew the country and people far better than he, and did not take kindly to having his judgment questioned. During the weeks that Burke had worked under him, he had found his superior to be a decisive, confident man who knew what he wanted done and went about doing it with a minimum of fuss and discussion. Which was perfect for this type of operation. Still, Burke did occasionally find himself irritated with Ludlow’s obvious arrogance towards those he was there to help.

Tony Kreuger had briefed Burke on his new commander before sending him on the assignment. “You probably won’t like Tom Ludlow,” he said. “He’s not your kind of man. But he’ll be good for you. He’s exactly what you need right now. He’s cold, clinical, and conceptually sophisticated enough never to lose sight of the broad picture. He’s not one of us, not a Service man. He’s an oil specialist, working undercover for the State Department. I’m sure he’s also C.I.A. But he knows everything there is to know about this business.

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