Chapter 90 Chapter Four

I drove long enough that night to write a long letter by hand.But I've always had a terrible feeling because I knew that even if I wrote a letter, I wouldn't send it. Miami June 15, 1960 Dear Kitteridge: How can I explain to you what I do these days?I have a lot of odd jobs to do and very little guidance from seniors.I was at best Howard Hunter's sidekick, following his fantasies.The best-case scenario is that I have a new identity - Robert Charles, the legendary Edward's assistant.Edward was the political operations officer for the upcoming Cuban operation, spending long hours between Miami, New York, and Washington.He kept me to protect the story that covered our identities: Edward was the general manager of a major steel company who had the courage to fight communism in the Caribbean, so he had been brought in for the job by someone with ties to the highest political levels.Of course, this does not confuse our Cubans, it makes them very angry, and they hope that the agency headquarters will take care of it.

Although Howard may have blamed himself for being extremely headstrong and impulsive, and he let me use Robert Jordan as a pseudonym, I said to him: "Some Cubans may have read For Whom the Bell Tolls." "No," he said, "no Cuban with whom we deal has read this book." We finally decided to let me use the name Robert Charles, and soon the packet, credit card and bank account corresponding to this identity were processed. These small things are not a problem for our Miami operation team, so Robert Charles has been legally Certified, but those Cubans call me "Young Robert".

As for the office space, we chose Vertex Radio Technology Electronics, Inc. in Coral Gables, just south of the South Campus of the University of Miami.I've been in Montevideo for so long that I'm not used to not going to the US embassy to get my "career guidance".I'm now a sales rep for Vertex, in the spacious headquarters -- Vertex Oh!From the outside it looks the same as usual, a long, low-rise office building next to a light bulb factory.However, its interior has been completely remodeled according to our needs.Because we are a government activity, it is necessary to use wire fencing and high security access control.

We are all in the building, and more than a hundred of them have their missions arranged.Tables are spaced by square feet, but still cramped, and the room is air conditioned, which, well, works because this is Miami!We even hung up fake production charts in the lobby along with medals we got. But behind this normal surface, we are completely surrounded by actual work.I don't know what everyone else is up to, but most of my own work is outside the office.I spent a lot of time with Edward's Cuban exiles, and two days a week I was busy with new arrivals from Cuba.By now, it seems like every Cuban exile in Miami knows that we're building a training base in China and the US, so I might be seen in front of a storefront downtown on Tuesday morning, and I'd be driving to Opa Locka on Friday.In both locations, I oversee meetings with Cuban exiles in Miami, who are often recent arrivals and long-term visitors to Miami, and of course, people who would like to join us.Our sessions were conducted by my Cuban assistant, who spoke fluent Spanish and spoke so fast that I usually needed him to explain it to me again.It's ridiculous to say that all this activity is being run by the intelligence service behind the scenes, which should have been a secret, but everyone knows it now.Even though we lied and said all the money was borne by generous, warm, wealthy American citizens, an eight-year-old would know it was paid for by the Intelligence Service.I think the reason why the organization lies is that if Castro collapses in the exile movement, then Russia will definitely scream that we are in control of this, and then we need this group of Cuban exiles to prove our " clean".

In any case, every time the Miami Herald reported that Russians had entered Cuba, we were haunted.Why are these Cuban exiles joining us?They didn't know whether they were on the side of the United States or whether they would be sent back to their country and become part of the guerrillas in the mountains.I have to monitor which of these Cubans intend to fall to Cuba, and which ones will firmly support us. I must not only continue to talk to them, but also study the questionnaires to obtain first-hand information.In addition, we refuse to accept Cubans who cannot provide more detailed materials for themselves. We are more inclined to believe in the Cubans of the Catholic Action Student Association, and we are more inclined to believe in the Cubans of the Catholic Action Student Association, rather than individual Cubans who defected to us. people.The first step in my work is to check the letters of introduction made by local people for applicants. All local people who voluntarily sponsored Cubans have traces in the local community. There is a file storage computer in the Vertex company, which can be quickly checked. to information about these volunteers.It's a non-stressful job, and any volunteers, applicants I handle, are subject to further investigation by us before sending them to Fort Myers for early training.

I did study these people, however, and there were many of them who combined two impossible qualities, nobility and corruption.And I admit that there is something about these dark, proud and privileged Cubans that I can't put into words.These Cubans are very different from me, they care about their credit but also allow themselves occasional indulgences and small mistakes, which confuses me a lot.I also noticed that they were as proud of their names as they were of their beauty, but most of them were just commonplace. My dear, you understand what I said above. Many people are known by their names like Don Quixote, and only a few people are known by their names like Sancho Panza.Some lawyers have straight collars and beards twisted to the ends; some are so fashionable that they compare Proust with dangerous young gentlemen; Take whatever you want, but fortunately, they all passed the audit - there are young students with acne on their faces, who can make themselves pale with fright when they make a terrifying decision, and the two Legs were weak; there were veterans, who were bloated and dreamed of returning to their younger selves; there were others who passed me, weak and some with fever... People laughed at their peers around them, Pushing forward.Sometimes there would be three or four drunks and a professional soldier or two, and because those soldiers swore to die for Batista, we wouldn't pick them.Some are energetic, some are paranoid, some are brave, some are cowardly, but all strengthen us.

My work naturally needs to take into account the actual situation.MDC, The AAA, Monte Cristo, Rescue, and MRR, the five political groups Hunt and I run, and I have to give them the results of my research . Don't you want to know the difference between them?They see themselves in varying degrees as liberal capitalists, or social democrats, and like Castro, they hate Batista.They didn't believe the cover story we made up, and assumed that Hunter and his "rich Americans" were trying to bring power back to Batista.Such a statement is still spreading all over the sky!I never thought that the Cubans would be so emotional, thanks to them being the leaders!They led five exile groups to form the "Revolutionary Democratic Front", or "Front" for short, which the United States chose as a leftist coalition not to isolate Latin American forces leaning toward Marxism.However, they should also try to move closer to the center and contribute to Eisenhower, Nixon and the intelligence agency.Let me repeat here, politics is not my strong suit and I don't think it is your strong suit either.However, I realize that a lot of our foreign policy in recent years has been trying to get out of the shadow of Joe McCarthy before, we have to prove to the rest of the world that we are more advanced than Russia, so this puts us in such a natural position Paradoxical situation: Hunter is more conservative than Richard Nixon, and he prefers to carry out the mission with a like-minded right-wing group; but now the organization has put this group in charge of Hunter, and Hunter is in the The status of the Intelligence Bureau depends on how well these people do their work.

Without a day job, I'm always amazed that Cuba is such a small country, its mainland maybe only eight hundred miles long, yet everyone here seems to have lived in the same neighborhood in Havana.These people have been in contact with each other for many years, and they also claim to have friendship with Castro, but it is not impossible, maybe some of them have been his agents.Although they are trustworthy, when they get along, they will always fight violently like a tense Latin American family.For the past three decades, our five "front" leaders have been at odds politically, and this has created great trouble for Hunter, who has to maintain the relative independence of the five while maintaining the relative independence of the five. Unite them to defeat the enemy together.

And our noble supporters: one is the former President of the Cuban Senate (which was subsequently abolished by Batista), another was the Foreign Minister of Cuba under President Carlos Prio Socalas, and one is Former President of the Industrial Development Bank of Cuba.But they don't impress me as awesome as their titles. On the contrary, sometimes I even doubt whether they really sit in such a high position. At this point, I decided to stop writing because I would never send this letter.I am as sad as a person dancing solo on an empty floor. Kitteridge, just now I tried to sleep and couldn't sleep, I had to pour out how lonely I was right now.I'm now too poor to live in motels, but the irony is that the rent I'm paying is enough for me to buy a small, fully furnished apartment in a slightly more outlying neighborhood, which I won't do.Likewise, I wouldn't accept any invitations from my "capstone" colleagues, so it's my own fault for not having a social life, but I just don't care if people recognize the effort I put in.In Uruguay, things are simpler, where everyone's social life is basically an embassy party, lighthearted and fun.But here, agents from all over the world are crowded into Miami, without the constraints of the embassy, ​​so this is more like a new city.There was one obvious exception—although everyone went to Zannit in the morning, at night everyone dispersed to various hotels in Florida, the ones they could afford, of course.So I had two options: either have intimate conversations with married couples, or get really drunk with single workers like me.But neither is the life I want.If it's talking to a married couple, I'm sure the wife will be introducing me to her girlfriends, or just fixing the plastic bikes their kids keep in the yard; the single staff reminds me of farm training days - still here There are many traces of the farm supporting the army, so drinking with them will only add to the sentimentality.

Of course, Howard Hunter was everywhere.In Uruguay, I spent most of my nights with Hunter and Dorothy.But now Dorothy is still in Montevideo, she will not come back until the children's term is over, and Hunter is shuttling between Washington and Miami.We met for dinner once a week, and every time we ate he would berate me about our marriage. During the day, Florida is shrouded in blazing sunshine, and at night, the oleander and bougainvillea planted on the streets of residential areas exude a charming aroma.At this moment, I feel like I am waiting for something, but the word "waiting" seems to be the most desperate.Kittredge, I seem to be waiting, I'm waiting for love.Feel the cheapest excitement and taste the most mellow wine from many forgotten old movies.

At this point I stopped writing and went to bed.I woke up in the morning and realized that it was not safe to leave such a letter in a hotel, so I stopped at the safe and locked the undeliverable letter in the mailbox. Later in Zannet, as if the labor of writing this letter had done me some kind of magic—Charlotte called me from a pay phone and said she wanted to talk to me.Can I find some excuse to go to Washington?Yes, because Howard keeps saying send me to Washington. "When is the earliest?" "tomorrow." "Let's have lunch, one o'clock. See you at Harvey's." The ticking of the phone echoed in my ears.