• Choose a category
• All
• Classic-Fiction

By Root 961 0

For once he had no brotherly advice to give me. He asked me a few questions about Paul. When I said I liked him Tadeusz beamed. He loved Paul Christopher. He kept telling me what a kind and honest boy Paul was. The others he liked—he was loyal to his friends. Paul he loved. A man can love a man, you know. Their friendships, when they are deep as Tadeusz’s and Paul’s seemed to be, are almost love affairs. They forgive each other and trust each other much more easily than they can do with any woman. A great romantic, Tadeusz. He was born into the wrong age. He was the ugly knight, Paul the beautiful knight. The ugly always think they owe something to the beautiful. Hence Ilona. And Paul.

Q. You never found out where everyone went?

A. I never asked.

Q. And the next day you left in the car? That was July second.

A. The next day we left in the car. We started down the Nile. After we had driven out to the Pyramids and the Sphinx. We all had our pictures taken on a camel in front of the pyramids. All except Tadeusz, of course.

Q. Why not Tadeusz?

A. He always hated being photographed. It amounted to a psychosis. He believed himself to be the ugliest man alive. Even now I have no picture of him. Once he told me, “If you have no photograph of me, you’ll remember my actions instead of my face. I don’t want you to be reminded each time you look at a photograph what a poor piece of work God made of me.”

55. AMERICAN SURVEILLANCE REPORT FROM CAIRO (EXCERPT).

1 July, 0745: Subject (Ilona Bentley) emerged from Nile Hilton Hotel and entered taxi at curb. I followed by car. Because of light traffic, pursuit presented no difficulty, but there was relatively high risk of detection. Subject kept watch through rear window of taxi. I used other vehicles in line of traffic as shield whenever possible. 0810: Subject left taxi in Khalili Bazaar. She carried a hand purse and a camera equipment bag on a shoulder strap. Until 0820 subject moved casually through bazaar area, taking photographs. 0823: Subject, after looking around her, presumably to spot possible surveillance, entered a curio shop (Akhbal’s: the red-fronted shop at the top of the steps at the entrance to the bazaar). 0827: Second European female entered curio shop. She carried a camera equipment case identical to first subject’s (i.e., Bentley). 0828: As view was impossible from outside the shop, I entered and observed Bentley and second female exchanging camera cases. 0832: Subjects broke contact. Bentley continued to saunter through the bazaar to no apparent purpose until 0945, when she returned to the Nile Hilton in a taxi.

(Note: From photo files I subsequently made tentative identification of second female subject. She is believed to be Olga Borosova, a clerk in the Soviet Embassy, Cairo, and a known operative of the Soviet intelligence service.

Throughout remainder of surveillance, which terminated at 0645 hours 2 July when Bentley departed Nile Hilton in a Cadillac limousine (Swiss license X—3675), Bentley carried her camera on her person at all times. Lack of necessary manpower precluded any attempt to enter her hotel room for a search of her personal effects.

56. REPORT BY CHRISTOPHER’S CASE OFFICER (FROM CAIRO).

1. Christopher reported to this officer at 0820 on 1 July at the safe house provided by the Cairo station. He observed no surveillance en route to our meeting. I found the agent in good condition, but in only fair spirits. He delivered written reports (attached) and a lengthy verbal report, which is summarized below.

2. Christopher reports that Miernik has made no move to take him into his confidence concerning the latter’s assumed mission in Sudan. Christopher expressed reservations about Headquarters’ theory that Miernik is in fact a Soviet/Polish agent with any specific mission in Sudan. Christopher stated: “I think you guys ought to consider the one possibility you haven’t considered—that Miernik is not telling an elaborate cover story, but the truth.” I assured Christopher that this possibility had been thoroughly considered and had not yet,