The Double Agents (Men at War 6)

Canidy took it from his hand and read it.

“Tubes says Nola wants more money for bribes and to start stockpiling weapons?” Canidy said. “So we send ’em.”

“There’s a Sandbox team getting ready to go in,” Fine offered. “Soon as Le Casa can get herself provisioned.”

“That’s not the problem,” van der Ploeg said.

“What is?” Canidy asked.

The radioman nodded at the message that Canidy held.

“That’s not his hand.”

“What do you mean?” Canidy said.

“The way he sends Morse code on the wireless key,” the radioman said, “I can tell that Tubes isn’t doing the—”

“I know what it means,” Canidy interrupted.

“But it’s his radio frequency,” John Craig van der Ploeg finished.

Canidy considered that.

“It was his hand for those”—van der Ploeg went on, nodding at the messages Canidy had been reading—“but at noon it suddenly wasn’t his hand. I even made him resend the messages.”

“You’re sure?” Canidy said. “Absolutely one hundred and ten percent certain?”

John Craig looked as if he took offense at the question.

“As certain as anyone can tell the difference between who’s blowing the blues horn, Miles Davis or Jack Benny. Or maybe the tone of airplane engines?”

“Your ear is that good?” Fine said.

“More like Tubes’s hand is that good. He has a natural rhythm. He makes his keying seem effortless. It’s almost art—”

“Shit!” Canidy flared.

“And whoever’s operating Tubes’s W/T has all the finesse of a ham-fisted gorilla.”

“Did he send the code for a compromised station?” Canidy said.

John Craig van der Ploeg shook his head. “Negative, sir.”

Canidy glared at him. “Don’t start with that sir shit again.”

“So you think he’s been turned?” said John Craig van der Ploeg. “He’s a double agent?”

The station is compromised, Canidy thought .

Jesus Christ, I led that poor sonofabitch there like a lamb to the slaughter.

Tubes, I pray you’re all right…as I promised you would be.

“Ask him,” Canidy said evenly to John Craig van der Ploeg. “Ask him, quote, is there another barnacle on the hull?, unquote.”

Canidy looked at John Craig van der Ploeg, then took the typewritten message he had just handed him and wrote on it: Is there another barnacle on the hull?

He handed it to him.