The Canceled Czech

Because the paper involved no new work on my part beyond ru

“…of incest as a humorous component,” I typed. “Ophelia’s madness and its sexual overtones, seen in this light…” And the telephone rang.

I answered it. A young man said, “Mr. Ta

“Oh?”

“Could I come up and see you?”

“What about?”

“I’m enrolled at Columbia. There’s… uh… something I wanted to talk to you about.”

“Go ahead.”

“Huh? Well, I’d rather not go into it over the phone.”

“No one from Columbia has a tap on my phone. At least I don’t think-”

“Would it be all right if I come up to your apartment?”

“Not before noon.”

“Well-”

“I’ll be busy until then.”

“All right,” he said. I asked if he had my address. He said he did, and that he would see me at noon. I finished up Diane Blumberg’s term paper, put it in an envelope, and went downstairs to mail it to her. I picked up my own mail on the way back and carted it upstairs. There was the usual glut of pamphlets and magazines and newspapers, a batch of appeals for donations, and a good bit of foreign correspondence. Sir William Wheatly had dashed off an enthusiastic note accepting an article of mine for the quarterly bulletin of the Flat Earth Society of England. He liked my thesis that the sky was a curved two-dimensional entity. Rolfe MacGoohan of the Jacobite League reported sadly that he had made no headway with Prince Rupert of Bavaria, the Stuart pretender we hoped to restore to the English throne. A French anarchist named Claude Martinot sent me an elaborately engraved a

I had barely organized the morning mail, much less read through it, when my doorbell rang. It was eleven-thirty. I opened the door and admitted a young man with a crew cut, an NYU sweat shirt, chino pants, and dirty te

He said that he was Jeff Lind, and I said that he was early.

He came inside, closed the door. Once inside his ma

I unfolded the paper he had handed me. It was a single sheet of typing paper with this message on it.

TANNER

IGNORE EVERYTHING I SAY AND MAKE NORMAL ARRANGEMENTS WITH ME FOR THE ECONOMICS PAPER. WE HAVE REASON TO BELIEVE THAT YOUR APARTMENT IS BUGGED AND YOUR PHONE TAPPED. THE CHIEF WANTS TO SEE YOU THIS AFTERNOON. HE WILL BE IN ROOM 1114 OF THE RUTLEDGE HOTEL. ARRIVE THERE AT 2:45. MAKE SURE NO ONE FOLLOWS YOU. DESTROY THIS NOTE.

The bearer of the note went on to explain the details of his economics assignment. Everything he said sounded as though it had been carefully memorized and laboriously rehearsed. We discussed time, price, and theme. True to my instructions, I ignored everything he said.

The Chief was a pudgy man in an expensive blue suit which appeared to have been perfectly tailored for someone else. It was tight around his waist and loose at his shoulders. He closed the door, motioned me to a couch, offered me a cigarette which I refused and a drink which I accepted.

“You’ll excuse this morning’s dramatics,” he said. “Probably u

“Is my apartment really bugged? And my phone?”

“We think so.”

“By whom?”

“Either the CIA or the FBI. Quite possibly both. The Agency boys know you worked for us. They’re always hungry to find out something about us. The fact that we work better without their scrutiny doesn’t seem to deter them.” He shook his head sadly. “Sometimes,” he said, “those Boy Scouts seem to forget that we’re all on the same side.”

“And the FBI?”

“They don’t know of your co

“They visit me all the time.”

“Well, you are a member of a startling number of unusual organizations, Ta

I had met the Chief once before, in an unidentified office somewhere in Washington. His name was one of the myriad things about him which I did not know. He headed an extraordinary secret government agency, also blessed with an unknown name. I knew that he thought I had been recruited by an agent of his, a man named Dahlma

“Something unusual has come up,” he said. “Something that I think might be particularly suited to a man of your talents and co

“Yes, I have.”

“That’s not surprising. Very few people have. Kotacek was a Slovak who – did you say yes, you have heard of him?”

“If you mean Josef Tiso’s Internal Affairs minister in the Slovak puppet government, yes, I have.”

“Well, that’s a pleasant surprise, Ta

“That’s what I had heard.”

“Did you? Do you happen to remember the details?”

“Not clearly. I think he was supposed to have shot himself in Brazil.”

He nodded. “That was one story. Another had him discovering that he was dying of cancer or some such, and taking poison. It appears he did neither. Instead he went to Lisbon. He lived unobtrusively but well. His Swiss bank accounts have evidently not yet run dry. Ten days ago… more whiskey, Ta

“Please.”

He filled our glasses. “Let me see,” he said, “where was I?”

“Ten days ago…”

“Yes. Ten days ago, agents of the Czechoslovak secret police kidnapped Kotacek from his home in Lisbon and spirited him away. The day before yesterday they landed him in Prague and tucked him into a prison cell. In approximately three weeks he will be brought to public trial, charged with collaboration with the enemy, complicity in the murder of several hundred thousand Slovakian Jews and Gypsies, and a variety of more specific war crimes. He will be found guilty on all counts and will be hanged.”