The Prodigal Spy Read Online Free PDF

mention tarred with the same brush.”
    “That’s right,” Larry said quickly, embarrassed. “Not to mention. This isn’t just happening to you.”
    His father looked up. “You don’t have to tell me that either, Larry. You don’t have a wife who wonders why nobody calls her anymore or a kid who can’t go to school without hearing his father’s a criminal. I know it’s happening to all of us. But I’m the one getting beaten up every day. This isn’t a trial–I’m already guilty. I’m a Communist whether I am or not. What’s the point of going on with it? How do I win?”
    “You don’t win. You just don’t lose it.”
    “No, they lose. Everybody who comes near me. Just by being around. Even old friends,” he said, with a wave of his hand. “It’s enough. I don’t want to go on being a punching bag just to get Welles elected.”
    “You don’t have a choice, Walter,” Larry said slowly. “And if you handle this right, he won’t get elected. He thinks he’s Nixon, but he’s not that good. He’s still looking for a pumpkin, and he’s not going to find one. All you have to do is let it play itself out.”
    “Forget the politics for a minute, will you? This isn’t about politics.”
    “Yes it is,” Larry said calmly.
    “My God, how you love all this,” his father said, then turned away.
    Larry looked up to answer, then seemed to change his mind and took out a cigarette. “Nobody loves this. Not this. It’s getting in the way.”
    “Of what? Business as usual?” Nick’s father said, still sarcastic, handing Larry a lighter.
    Larry nodded. “Nothing moves now. We’re paralyzed until we get him to run out of steam. Maybe it stops with you, Walter. Who knows?”
    “Well, that would be nice. Meanwhile, I’m the one being run out of town.” A roar of laughter came up from the first floor, a party sound, and his father smiled involuntarily. “All evidence to the contrary aside.”
    Larry smiled back and raised his glass appreciatively. His father, seeming agitated, started pacing across the room. “Look, do you think I like asking for help? I’m drowning. That’s what it feels like. Sometimes I think we’re all going to go under if it doesn’t stop.” He paused. “I’m not asking you to lie for me. Or tell the truth, for that matter. I don’t want you to testify. I just want you to run a little interference, that’s all.”
    “We don’t make deals with the committee, Walter.”
    “That’s right, I forgot. Everyone’s ducking under the table.”
    Larry shrugged. “Anyway, what have you got to trade? Twenty names at State? That’s about the going price these days, if you had them. Which you don’t.”
    “Marked down from twenty pieces of silver,” his father said.
    Larry said nothing.
    “I’m going to resign. That’s what Welles wants–let’s give it to him. He can take credit for hounding another Red out of the State Department. Cleaning out the stables. Without having to go to the bother of proving anything. Since he can’t, that should put him ahead. I’ll deny it, but it won’t matter. Even the people who don’t believe it believe it a little. We finish out the hearing in closed session–no more cameras. I don’t want my kid seeing me in the movies again, ever. Not a bad cover for the committee either. People will think they really had something. The republic’ll be safe and I’ll be out of this. End of the drama.”
    Outside the door, Nick stood still in disbelief. His father always told him never to give up. Why would he walk away from a fight? He wanted to push the door wide open, tell him that he didn’t mind the newsreel or what people said, any of it. Instead, there was only the prickling feeling of dread again. Where would they go?
    For a minute Larry was quiet. “You’re out of your mind,” he said finally.
    “No, I’m not. It’s the way it makes sense.”
    “Do you think Welles gives a rat’s ass whether you’re a Communist or not? The