The Four Corners of the Sky_ A Novel - Michael Malone [105]
Annie studied him for a while. “You ever get hurt flopping?”
He admitted that once he’d broken his arm falling under a Land Rover. But usually it all worked out. He only flopped on women drivers, many of whom “to tell the truth, carry a quantity of cash Santo Trafficante wouldn’t be ashamed of. Mostly I look to see if they’re Jewish, because they’re the ones with my attitude, which is, you never can tell when and where outrageous fortune is going to sling a sea of arrows at your head. My papa’s papa, Simon Rook? His papa was Rabbi Rook from Amsterdam who was stung to death by wasps in Naples, Florida. Who could predict that? Grandpapa Simon was always looking for doom to strike him in an instant. And it did.”
“This was the man at the Bay of Pigs?”
“Yes.” Sadly, Raffy kissed his gold cross. “Face-down in wet sand. A teenager he went to Mexico—I think it was gunrunning, but the family never said—and he met those bastards Ché and Fidel there and went off with them to fight Batista. My grandpapa fell for revolution absolutely without reservations. He fought all the way into Havana. Then he fell in love with my abuela because she ran from the sidewalk and kissed him when he marched with the rebels into the city.” Raffy slid a much-worn photo of two women from his wallet; he pointed not at the slim middle-aged woman with glossy black hair and beautiful eyes but at an old little bent woman in a black scarf and a black dress, leaning on an orthopedic cane, letting the younger woman embrace her but begrudgingly. She did not at all resemble anyone who would push her way out into the street to kiss a strange soldier in a triumphal parade.
“That’s your grandmother?”
“Later in life. That’s my mother next to her. So, after Castro takes over, my grandpapa stays in Cuba and gets a big job in the Departamento América. The DGI. He marries my grandmama and they move in with her family, Ramirezes, gold- and silversmiths.”
She gave him back the old photo. “Simon Rook gave up his U.S. citizenship and became a Communist? So he was actually fighting the Bay of Pigs invasion?”
“Not exactly. Here’s the secret, which he never told even his own wife. Simon Rook was CIA from that very first trip to Mexico. His whole family was clueless for years. Then one day he disappeared. Vanished. My papa was young.” Annie felt a curious empathy with Rook. He saw her response and nodded at her. “Yes, it hurts a child. But I did the same to my poor mama. Left her and came to America with her brother Mano, the only one with the brains to see that the money had left Havana and moved to Miami.”
Raffy finished eating the entire jar of nuts. She suspected he’d had nothing else for lunch and while she didn’t mind giving him dinner as well, she didn’t want to sit here waiting to do so. “How long before this nurse is going to call?” she asked.
“Chamayra is a true beagle.” Raffy opened the minibar and removed a Coca-Cola. He carefully poured the soda into a glass. “Well, Annie, enterprises of great pitch and moment their currents turn awry. My grandpapa Simon left his son, my papa, a letter to be opened after his death that told the whole story. Papa showed the letter to me. My grandpapa admitted it; how the son-of-a-bitch CIA had recruited him. They rewired his head and he became a major player.”
She looked skeptical. “A major player?”
“God’s truth!” He kissed his cross. “My grandpapa knew Posada and Bosch and Chi Chi Quintero. He knew the guys who worked on Phoenix and Condor. That’s right!” Rook lowered his voice as if the room were bugged. “Simon Rook is in the Operation 40 photo with Feliz Rodriguez and Porter Goss but you can’t really see him because a waiter’s in front of his head. You heard of Brigada 2506?” Annie shook her head no. “You should read about it. Operation Zapata? Well, my grandpapa was one of the guys who sneaked the guns in on the Barbara and the Houston. But then