Chapter Nine
October 8, 1960, Mid Afternoon; Bahía de Cochinos, República de Cuba.
Censor notes: no redaction issues unaddressed. The agent has appeared to have come back to being a profession working for the top Agency in the World.
We pulled half-way in the Bay and anchored on the windward shore, not far from the fishing village of Playa Los Cocos, well away from the main village of Playa Larga at the head of the Bay. (Translation for the language impaired, Coco or Coconut Beach and Big Beach).
Although Barb was a bit impatient with me, I followed my training and insisted we go over the plan again. Next morning, I would go into Larga alone and ask after a local putita I knew named {Eula}. It would be easy and normal to send a message to her to meet me at a beach cottage she often used in her business. Then we would both go there, but I would go ahead to meet {Eula} and ensure it was clear for Barb to join us. Once together we could exchange information and Barb could ask for what she wanted.
Barb wasn’t paying much attention to me through this and was mostly looking around the Bay as if assessing it for some purpose. But she stubbornly refused to give me any hint as to what her mission was about. The Yale boys had sworn her to absolute secrecy and apparently didn’t even trust me!
Then, for about the tenth time and accompanied by Barb’s eye roll and weary sigh, we examined the weapons locker. One thing the Agency people back at Langley are good at is devising great ways to store and hide weapons. A totally invisible panel by the steering wheel covered the locker. It was placed there to be handy if we needed weapons while Fidelistas were on the boat but up forward.
Once you knew how to get the cover off, the locker was a mini version of an assault team’s arsenal. Two Tommy guns, (Yes, I know that’s slang for Thompson sub-machine guns, but I like the name better, a sniper rifle, a Beretta 418 (lady’s gun, not enough stopping power for my taste), a Walther PPK 7.65mm (an excellent all-around choice), finally a Long-barreled Colt .45, a handgun for distance work.
They also included flack jackets and other standard items, most of which would have no use on this mission.
I took the PPK and recommended the Berretta to Barb. She was happy with it since she’d read that handsome Brit agent used one. (Actually, the Brit guy did use it for a while until he realized it was a lady’s gun and almost got killed when the action (not internal like the PPK) caught on his clothes as he went for the gun. I think his handlers then forced him to change to a, wait for it, Walther PPK 7.65mm!
We had dinner and sat quietly afterwards. We made love and went to sleep. It did nor feel like Barb's heart was in the sex.
Next morning, I untied the painter and stepped into the dinghy. I tried to leave Barb with instructions, but she was getting an attitude. I guess great sex isn’t enough to get a feisty girl to come to heel. She kept interrupting, saying she had her own mission and once, under her breath muttered, “Why does the man always give the orders?” (Who did she think she was, Rosie the Riveter?”) Fortunately, she had to remain on the boat, my main order, since I had the dinghy. I was becoming more and more concerned about her attitude.
I motored into Larga and had not trouble getting help from the locals as a rich Canadian with money to burn. A very appreciative bartender promised to get the message right to {Eula}, after he pocketed my C$5. I continued for another hour exploring the town and spending freely, before heading back to the boat.
First thing, Barb is on me, “Why were you gone so long? What do you expect me to do here alone? Did you expect dinner to be made? Fat chance for that, Mister! If you were later, should I wait up?” Jeeze, had I gotten married without knowing it.?
At five that afternoon, we pulled the dinghy up on the eastern shore, about a half mile south of {Eula}’s cottage. There was no sign or sound of any observation. I walked up the beach while Barb went 100 yards inland and paralleled me. As I strolled up the sand acting like I didn’t have a care in the world except to get to my whore and get my rocks off, Barb was struggling through the underbrush. I knew when I next saw her, I would hear about it.
At the cottage all looked well and I walked in the open door. There was {Eula} as lovely as ever in a very slutty outfit of a cut-off tee shirt that barely came down below her nipples, and a very, old, very brief, very tight pair of shorts whose button had long since disappeared and were just held up by a tired zipper. God, she was sexy! We fell into each others arms and hugged tightly while kissing. And yes, it was open mouth kissing, we had a cover to maintain. Besides, I always take a personal interest in my agents.
{Eula} assured me she wasn’t watched or followed and knowing her, it was true. But we still talked in low voices and sat on the old couch and made out to cover if anyone burst in (and {Eula} was always fun to make out with. Not an unstoppable sexual athlete like {Kathy} but a simple, normal girl who could make you feel like a super normal man!).
After a minute, when my hand had somehow found itself up under her top, teasing her right nipple, Barb burst in the door waving her Beretta and then snorting at us. “I’m waiting out there in that bug and snake infested brush while Mr. ‘I’m God’s gift to Women’ here makes out!” I wondered how she knew my Caribbean nickname, then realized she must have been told by many of my admirers in Jamaica.
I calmed her down and then reminded her of the strict protocol for approaching a foreign rendezvous place like this. She was not to come in under any circumstances unless I gave the codeword. If the place and I had been compromised, she could quietly slip away, get help, go back to Jamaica, whatever the plan called for. I’d have a chance to use my cover even if arrested. She would have no real cover and be in deep trouble.
Barb reluctantly agreed. But defiance flashed in her eyes.
I introduced Barb and {Eula} and they immediately hit it off. {Eula} does that; women feel safe around here, it just men that sometimes don’t. Hooker with a hard exterior and a heart of Gold is a cliché, until you meet {Eula}
I debriefed {Eula} on local status and committed the information to memory. I let her know a few updated things from the US and the Agency. She told me how Guevarra’s secret police had built a fortified camp above the town. She had exact information on the location and even some of the inside layout. I memorized her map-like details. She was a wonder!
She was eager to tell how she had been talking to the other prostitutes who were all rabidly anti-Castro. She was planning to share the weapons she and her brother had stolen and stockpiled as well as the few I had gotten them with her other whores. She joked that they had agreed to call themselves the “Commie-killing Joy Girls.” God that girl was clever, and funny.
Hearing that, Barb asked to take {Eula} aside for her own business. {Eula} looked at me uncertainly and I nodded that it was OK. They went out on the porch and spoke in low voices for about 15 minutes. When they came back, {Eula} was very excited and energized.
Next {Eula} showed us her piece-work job to earn extra money. Cartons of Havana cigars were piled in the corner. The cigar company exported to Europe and Asia by promising the "original secret" method of production. That consisted of a certificate with each box promising, in line with the old folk stories, that each cigar had been rolled on the inner thighs of a young girl (the language "young girl" (
la chica) was ambiguous, it could mean a girl under 20 or a virgin. The company hoped buyers would believe the latter {Eula}’s infectious laughter as she described her “virgin thighs” had us doubled over.
{Eula} sat down and promptly demonstrated her rolling technique. I took a photo for Agency records.
A short while later we left. We arranged that just I would meet with {Eula} at her families barn at 4 pm next day. {Windar} would meet us an hour or two later after his work clearing a farmer’s field. Barb wanted to know why she wasn't going, and I said I would explain on the boat.
The stroll down the beach was in silence. The ride in the dinghy to the boat was in silence, as was climbing aboard and tying up the painter. But a moment later, Barb’s floodgates opened and she began to rag on me for ten minutes straight. I sat quietly and listened.
After Barb ran out of things to say, including extensive sociological theories about “Male dominated Patriarchies” (clearly a Yale class for women; didn’t those Yale professors teach the funny old male invented rule about “redundancy?”) which seemed to be close to a criticism of me, being a male and all, she sat silent.
I quietly and slowly stated my position. I told her that I had been an agent since I was her age. I had seen partners and contacts die. It had killed a little bit of me each time. But it never happened because I hadn’t followed the plan or the instructions of an agent I respected. I knew it was mind-numbing to go over a plan, detail by detail, for the tenth time. I knew how tempting it was to trust that you’d figure it out when you got there or bully through with your gun and fists. But, early on, after learning from my own trainers how these things worked, I had sworn, by everything I love and hold dear, that I would never, NEVER, put another in danger because I had taken something for granted or not known the plan backwards and forwards like it was the only thing of meaning in the whole world.
I explained that she was a very talented and promising agent. But she was very young and didn’t have yet the fully committed attitude of a good agent. It had less than zero to do with her sex. She had much more ability and skill than many senior male agents I knew (more than my Station Chief, {Thehangingtree} I told her, even if he was sober).
But tomorrow, I was responsible for the safety of {Eule}, {Windar} and {Barbara Moore} I couldn't be everywhere at once and I didn’t like leaving her alone on the boat, but given her irresponsible attitude today, I wouldn’t take her to {Eula} and {Winder}’s home and compromise their safety. It was what I had to do.
When I finished, she continued staring silently at me as she had throughout the lecture. I hoped she understood what I had said, but she was so stubborn that I knew she wouldn’t admit a wrong now.
I suggested we have dinner which we made and ate in silence. For the second time since before North Myrtle Beach, we went to bed with making love.
The next afternoon at about 3:30, I took my PPK, and the long-barreled Colt and made sure Barb had her Beretta and got in the Dinghy. Beside the silence on the boat, I had a strong feeling that something was wrong and was glad I was leaving her behind.
I went up the west shore about two miles, pulled the dinghy into the underbrush, and set off cross-country to the barn.
As per protocol, I approached roundabout. As I got closer the heavy feeling of dread grew. But I wouldn’t stumble into an ambush and took all the time to get to the barn.
The barn was brightly lit, which was unusual. The big doors both wide open, which was unusual. Not a sound from the house or the barn, which was unusual.
I worked my way soundlessly up to the side of the front with my PPK at the ready, cartridge in the chamber, action cocked. Ever so slowly I came up to the open door, With my heart seeming to be loud enough to rouse the village, I looked around the door and into the barn.