ahead of time in Miami. I called the number he gave me and a woman answered. I told her I was alpha. Thatâs all. Then she hung up.â
âThat was your emergency signal? Just alpha?â
Basulto nodded.
âThen Roger Harris must have had some idea of what you might run into. I mean, without any sense of your emergency, just on the strength of that one code word, he was going to drop everything and come to you? Was there a time limit on his arrival?â
âTwenty-four hours. Heâd meet me at La Alameda,
a park downtown on the south side. Juárez Avenue. At noon.â
âHeâd just be standing there, big as brass. No fallbacks?â
âIf he was wearing a suit and tie, it would mean he was clean, and I was to walk around the park in a clockwise direction. Heâd follow to make sure I hadnât been made.â
âHe thought there was a chance someone would be there watching him as well as you?â McGarvey asked. He was trying to make sense of this. âI mean, as early as Miami he set up these precautions?â
âI was just following his instructions!â Basulto shouted in frustration.
âBut you liked it. This was exciting.â
âI tell you it wasnât what I expected. Nothing was like I figured it would be in Mexico City. There were a lot of angry people there. Big things were happening.â
âYes,â McGarvey said dryly. âDid you stay on the streets all night?â
âI went back to the apartment that afternoon. I figured Iâd better lay low.â
âWhat was going on at the Ateneo?â
âNothing. Not a goddamned thing. It was spooky as hell. It looked as if the entire operation had been shut down. The American and the Russian show up and bang!âthe very next day everything cools off. Nothing happened all that night. I know. I couldnât sleep. I was awake the whole night, watching. But there was nothing.â
âHarris showed up on schedule?â
âJust like he said he would. He was wearing his suit and tie, and he looked goddamned beautiful to me. I practically ran around the park. He caught up with me in front of the Hotel del Prado, which was right on the corner. He told me to calm down and
took me upstairs to his room on the third floor. It looked out onto the street. He told me to calm down, and he was nervous and crazy. I thought he was on something and I made a little joke, but he practically exploded. âThis isnât some kind of a goddamned game,â he shouted. He said it was my graduation exercise. After this was done, Iâd be able to write my own ticket. Weâd both be able to call the shots. This was the Company talking, you know, Mr. McGarvey. I mean, if it hadnât been for Roger Iâd be dog meat back home. He asked me to do something for him, and I did it. We were going to have a long association together. âProfitable,â he kept saying. And goddamnit, I believed him.â
âBut it didnât work out that way,â McGarvey said softly.
âIt wasnât my fault, goddamnit. I mean, Christ, how was I to knowââ
âRoger Harris was evidently in over his head,â Trotter interrupted. âAs far as we can tell he made no contact with the Mexico City chief of station. He was working this on his own. It led to his downfall.â
McGarvey glanced up. âThat was July of 1959?â
âCloser to August,â Trotter said.
âRoger sat me down and went through everything I had done, everything I had seen and heard, step by step from the moment I had left him in Miami. I told him about selling the car in Hermosillo, and about my new identification in Guadalajara, and about my apartment. He was mad at first that I hadnât done exactly what he told me to do, but then when he thought about it, he admitted that I had probably done the right thing. He was a good man, I mean it. A big man. He could admit his
Sharon Kleve, Jennifer Conner, Danica Winters, Casey Dawes