Eve - Iris Johansen [97]
“What kind of proof?”
“A ledger of transactions between the North Koreans and arms dealers of various countries. It was described as a slender leather-bound book and easily portable. The ledger was in the possession of General Tai Sen. He kept it at his country home near Pyongyang. Our orders were to go in and grab the ledger and head for the coast to get picked up. The theft went slick as glass.” He grimaced. “But everything went wrong from the time that we stole the ledger. We knew the chances were that we all weren’t going to make it to the coast. We hid the ledger and separated and took off on our own.”
“And you were caught.”
“Capshaw and Silak were shot and killed. I was taken to prison and questioned. They wanted to know what happened to the ledger. I told them that I was only a noncom and that Capshaw as the commanding officer had taken it with him when we separated. I thought they believed me, maybe they did for a while. The Koreans have an almost slavish obedience and respect for their officers.” He lifted his cup to his lips. “But General Tai Sen decided they had to be sure when they still couldn’t find the ledger.” He looked at her and his lips twisted. “And this is where I start to skip a few years, if you don’t mind.”
She shook her head. No, she didn’t want to hear about the years of torture and starvation. It hurt her to think of them. “But you didn’t tell them where to find the ledger?”
“No, first I thought I was being a patriot. Then I was angry; and then I just endured.” He shook his head as if to clear it. “I told you about escaping and the Tokyo hospital and going to Atlanta.”
“Queen visited you in the hospital. He told Joe and Catherine that you were raving and that Army Intelligence was afraid you might give away top secret information.”
He shrugged. “I was raving at the time. And I was probably even more unbalanced than I was later. I’d completely blocked out most of the things that happened. The only thing I remember about Queen’s visits were his questions about the ledger. He kept at me.”
“You’d forgotten that, too?”
“It was the one question they kept asking in the prison. I blocked it so thoroughly that there was no way it was going to come back without a hell of a lot of time and therapy. That was why Queen got me dismissed from the hospital. He didn’t want me talking to any therapist.”
She shook her head. “You must have been in terrible shape.”
He nodded. “I didn’t work my way through the worst of it for years after Queen sent me off to try to get me killed.”
“You knew they were suicide missions?”
“Not at first. I was still in a haze for a long while. I was operating on automatic.”
And that automatic had clearly been lethal if it had kept him alive. “You said you came back to the U.S. some years later.”
He nodded. “Because I’d become clearheaded enough to realize that I was a target. I started to wonder why Queen was so determined to rid himself of me in a way that wouldn’t be questioned. Oh, they were very determined.” He paused. “And it all came back to the ledger.”
“Which you couldn’t remember.”
“By that time I’d worked my way through the haze enough to start to remember some details.” His lips tightened. “And I’d realized that it probably wasn’t dedication to home and country that had driven Queen. Some of the missions they sent me on were a revelation. They appeared to have nothing