“You Yankees! You have the mind running only on the one track! A Castro in Cuba, and you blame the Russians. Now a revolution here, and you blame Castro. I wish it were true, but it isn’t. Castro has cooperated with the Dominican revolutionaries, but we have been unsuccessful in gaining control of the revolution. Of course we will keep trying. But the truth is that it is not of Castro’s making and it is not Communist. It is a genuine people’s revolt against the military junta of Trujillo-ites who overthrow the democratically elected government of the republic.”
“Then why are you, a Cuban Red, so concerned?”
“I told you, because we will cooperate with the revolutionaries until the time comes to seize power from them. Or, what is more likely, if the same old pattern is followed and you Yankees come to the aid of the landowners’ government, then the rebels will voluntarily relinquish power to us in exchange for our help. The United States may be our greatest ally in getting control of the rebellion. You will see.”
“But what about you, Dovita? Did you come here originally as some kind of undercover agent to help get the revolution started?”
“No. I come to keep track of the traitors who fled Cuba when Castro take power. Here, in this house, the anti-Castro prostitutes act as liaison for much counter-revolutionary activity. I keep tabs on them for when the day of reckoning comes. Now it is here.”
“That Consuela you mentioned before-—is she one of the anti-Castroites?”
“What kind of fool you take me for? Of course she is. You think I no guess that why you so anxious to contact her? I know her boyfriend just defect. I guess he have information for you. But you never get it, Mr. Victor. We get him first. Him and the girl, they both die. And you too, Mr. Victor. You too.”
“But not right away. I have the gun,” I reminded her.
“But we have the house now. You never get out alive.”
“If I die, I’ll make damn sure you die first,” I told her. I was getting irked with her threats.
“Then it will be so.” Her eyes were the ice-cold eyes of the zealot. “I do not matter.”
“Where will I find Consuela and Raoul Marti?” I asked her.
“I never tell you that. Torture me, kill me, I never tell.”
“Those aren’t bad ideas,” I mused, “but I don’t have the time. Right now, first things first. And the first item on the agenda is survival. Now, if you were me, how would you go about getting out of here alive?”
“If I was you, Mr. Victor, I would surrender to me.”
“Somehow, I don’t have any faith in your treatment of prisoners, Dovita, my love. Your finger gets a little too itchy when it’s wrapped around a trigger. So I think we’ll just keep things the way they are.”
There was a burst of machine-gun fire very close at hand. It seemed to come from the downstairs of the house. The rebels were getting close. Dovita smiled when she heard it.
I crawled across the floor to the door and inched it open. There were four guerillas working their way down the hallway. They would stop in front of each door. Two of them would break it down and spring back out of the line of fire. The other two would plunge into the doorways with their machine guns chattering. They were mopping up, and they weren’t stopping to ask any questions. It would only be a matter of minutes before they reached our door.
I crossed over to the window and raised my head cautiously. Immediately a rifle bullet pinged off the sill. I spotted a pair of snipers on the roof of the building across from us. I knew they’d nail me before I got one leg over the window ledge. That particular exit was definitely closed for the duration.
“You are trapped, Mr. Victor.” Dovita’s voice was exultant.
“When those apes hit this room, you won’t be so happy,” I reminded her. “You won’t get a chance to show your credentials. Those babies are out for blood, and they don’t much care whose it is.”
“Then we will indeed die together.”
“That kind of togetherness I can do without nicely, thank you.” My mind was racing, desperately trying to find a way out. But meanwhile the chatter of the guns was getting closer; the trap was closing. I had to act and act quickly. I had to take the long chance.
I grabbed Dovita and pulled her to her feet, twisting her arm behind her. I made her stand beside the door, out of the line of fire from the window. When I heard them kicking in the door of the room next door, I flung our door wide open.
The two gunners were just moving into the other doorway as I heaved Dovita at them. They swung around to fire, but she was between me and them. I dived over the bannister and I heard her scream behind me as the bullets tore through her body. It was a dirty trick, but it was her or me.
My sudden, twisting swan dive landed me belly-up atop a pair of rebels. The three of us went down in a sprawling mixup of arms and legs. I pulled one of them over on top of me just in time to catch the spray of bullets coming from the bozos leaning over the banister. He screamed and began bleeding all over me. I yanked his tommygun out of his grasp and fired at close range at the other rebel who was tangled up with us. His face dissolved, and I raised the gun and pointed it upstairs. The four gunsels up there backed off, out of sight. They pegged some shots at me and I returned their fire, but neither of us hit anything. Playing it safe the way they were, they were out of range.
I spotted a large, stout wooden table in the center of the hallway and made a dash for it. A spattering of bullets trailed me, but I made it. I crawled under it and settled myself with the tommygun in my lap.
“Good evening once again, Mr. Victor.” It was the madam. She’d been crouching under the table through-out.
“Hi. Nice spot you’ve picked out here.”
“I owe it all to you, Mr. Victor.” Surprisingly, she seemed less fluttery now than when I’d met her earlier in the evening. “Your sudden descent made it possible for me to get away from my captors.” She pointed to the two dead rebels on the floor across from us.
“They took you prisoner, huh? Surprising, considering the nasty mood these guys are in. I would have thought they’d simply kill you like everybody else.”
“No. They must have had orders to the contrary. You see, I’ve always been in very solidly with the government. They probably want me alive so they can torture me for information. A woman in my profession learns much which would be of interest to those trying to stage a coup.”
“Yes,” I said. “Like for instance the whereabouts of Raoul Marti.”
Her eyebrows shot up. “So that’s what you were really after,” she said. “I wondered. The man from O.R.G.Y. indeed!”
“Indeed!” I told her. “That part was true. But you’re right. It’s imperative that I find Marti before the rebels do. And I suspect that you can tell me where he is.”
“Certainly. He’s with Consuela.”
“And where would that be?”
“There’s no reason why I shouldn’t tell you. They’re in the basement of this house. Marti has been hiding out there. Consuela paid me well to let him stay there. But it’s only a matter of time before the rebels find them there. There’s only one exit, and that leads into the house, and the house is surrounded.”
“Let’s get to them and—” I started to say. But just then one of the foursome upstairs tried to sneak down the steps. I fired a short burst and splattered parts of him over the runner. The fire was returned by the other three, but as long as we stayed under the table we were sheltered from their bullets.
I moved around in a small circle under the table, looking for the safest way to make a dash for it.
“Where does that doorway lead?” I asked the madam.
“To the kitchen.”
“And is that where the door to the cellar is?”
“Yes.”