Trevayne Read Online Free Page A

room. This time it’s different. I wonder why.”
    “Ask Frank Baldwin.”
    “I’d rather not.”
    “You should. You owe him that, Andy. Why do you think he chose you?”
    Trevayne crossed back to the terrace wall and looked out over the Long Island Sound. “I’m qualified; Frank knows that. I’ve dealt with those government-contract boys; I’ve been critical in print about the overruns, the openend agreements. He knows that, too. I’ve even been angry, but that goes back a long time ago.… Mainly, I think, because he knows how much I despise the manipulators. They’ve ruined a lot of good men, one especially. Remember?” Trevayne turned and looked at his wife. “They can’t touch me now. I haven’t a thing to lose but time.”
    “I think you’ve just about convinced yourself.”
    Trevayne lit a second cigarette and leaned against theledge, his arms folded in front of him. He continued to stare at Phyllis. “I know. That’s why I’m avoiding Frank Baldwin.”
    Trevayne pushed the omelet around the plate, not really interested in it. Franklyn Baldwin sat opposite him in the bank’s executive dining room. The old gentleman was speaking intensely.
    “The job’s going to get done, Andrew; you know that. Nothing’s going to prevent it. I just want the best man to do it. And I think you’re the best man. I might add, the commission’s voice was unanimous.”
    “What makes you so sure the job’ll get done? I’m not. The Senate’s always yelling about economies; it’s a hell of an issue, and always will be. That is, until a highway project or an aircraft plant is closed down in some district. Then suddenly the shouting stops.”
    “Not this time. It’s beyond cynicism now. I wouldn’t have become involved if I thought otherwise.”
    “You’re expressing an opinion. There has to be something else, Frank.”
    Baldwin removed his steel-rimmed glasses and laid them beside his plate. He blinked several times and gracefully massaged the bridge of his patrician nose. He smiled a half-smile, half-sadly. “There is. You’re very perceptive.… Call it the legacy of two old men whose lives—and the lives of their families for a number of generations—have been made most pleasantly productive in this country of ours. I daresay we’ve contributed, but the rewards have been more than ample. That’s the best way I can put it.”
    “I’m afraid I don’t understand.”
    “Of course not. I’ll clarify. William Hill and I have known each other since childhood.”
    “Ambassador Hill?”
    “Yes.… I won’t bore you with the eccentricities of our relationship—not today. Suffice it to say, we can’t possibly stay around too many more years; not sure that I’d want to.… This Defense Commission, the subcommittee—they’re our ideas. We intend to see them become working realities. That much we can guarantee; inour different ways we’re powerful enough to do that. And to use that dreadful term, sufficiently ‘respectable.’ ”
    “What do you think you’ll gain?”
    “The truth. The extent of the truth as we believe it to be. This country has the right to know that, no matter how much it may hurt. To cure any disease, a correct diagnosis has to be made. Not indiscriminate labels hung by self-righteous zealots, nor vindictive charges hurled by malcontents.… The truth, Andrew. Merely the truth. That gift will be ours, Billy’s and mine. Perhaps our last.”
    Trevayne had the desire to move, to be physically in motion. The old gentleman opposite him was succeeding in doing exactly what he thought he’d do. The walls were closing in, the corridor defined.
    “Why can this subcommittee do what you say? Others have tried; they failed.”
    “Because, through you, it will be both apolitical and in no way self-seeking.” Baldwin replaced his glasses; the magnification of his old eyes hypnotized Trevayne. “Those are the necessary factors. You’re neither Republican nor Democrat, liberal nor