Higgins Hello, Condor.
Higgins Deputy Director Higgins, New York Center. I'm controlling now, Condor. Where are you?
How come I need a code name, and you don't?
Higgins Where are you, Turner?
Higgins You all right?
Are you insane? Everybody's dead.
Higgins Take it easy. Just take it easy, and we'll bring you home. Here's how we'll do it. Do you know the Ansonia Hotel?
Broadway and, uh...74th st.
Higgins Broadway and 73rd. There's an alley behind the hotel. One hour from now at exactly 1520, enter that alley from the 73rd Street side.
Higgins The head of your department just came from D.C. He'll bring you home.
Higgins Don't worry. He's studying your photos now. Turner?...Turner!
I don't know you, either.
Higgins We'll meet. He'll be carrying a Wall Street Journal in his left hand.
There were two guys at my house.
Higgins What were you doing there? You were told not to go there!
I was homesick. Who were they?
Higgins They were ours.
What were they doing in my house? I'm not going into any alley. **** the Wall Street Journal!
Higgins It's been a long day. You've been under--
Damn right I've been under.
Higgins All right, Turner. We'll bring along a familiar face, somebody you know.
Higgins Got a friend in statistics named Sam Barber.
Sam. You guys are something.
Higgins Will he do?
Higgins All right, Turner. Stay well for 60 minutes, and you're home.
Higgins Sure.
Higgins I'll talk to you in 60 minutes.
You wouldn't also happen to be acquainted with a tall gentleman, 6'4", blond hair, strong like a farmer. He's not American, has an accent. Country, toward Germany, maybe Alsace-Lorraine.
Higgins I want to see that report, Turner.
No, no..Higgins. C'Mon! ..Do you know him?
Higgins Professionally, yes.
Professionally, he kills people.
Higgins Yes! Yes.
He works for the company?
Higgins He did once. He's a contract agent.
Higgins Freelance. Where did you see him?
Higgins It would help if I knew.
Who would it help? Who'd hire him now?
Higgins Anybody.
Higgins I wouldn't accept it, either.
Higgins When I knew him, Joubert.
Come on, Higgins. Who'd hire him? You don't look up Joubert in the yellow pages.
Higgins That's right. It'd have to be somebody in the community.
Higgins Intelligence field.
Community! Jesus, you guys are kind to yourselves. Community.
Higgins I want to see that report, Turner.
That report was sent to headquarters and disappeared.
Higgins Who read it?
You mean besides Wicks? You tell me. I pick up traces of what I think's an intelligence network the company doesn't know about, and I report it. Now, why is that going to make anybody mad? Unless it was the company's network and you didn't want it blown, even to your own guys. Unless somebody is lying, Higgins. Come on. Why is everybody so shy?
Higgins I'm not shy. I don't know. That's what worries me. I don't know.
Higgins Wicks died. Someone yanked him off the life support system at Guvenor Hospital.
Higgins What good would that do if you're right, and they are inside? What good would it do to bring you in?
What am I supposed to do?
Higgins I'm sorry.
You're sorry? You're sorry. Oh, I get it. I get it. You expect me to draw fire, like one of those penny arcade bears that parades back and forth, waiting for somebody, somebody good, to take another shot. You'll pick him up before he does it, or just after?
Why aren't you further along, Mr. Higgins?
Higgins With the Company, you mean?
Higgins Thank you, sir.
Are you perfect for it, Mr. Higgins?
Higgins I try to be.
Were you recruited out of school?
Higgins No, sir. The Company interviewed a few of us in Korea. You were with Mr. Donovan's OSS, weren't you sir?
I sailed the Adriatic with a movie star at the helm! It doesn't seem like much of a war now. But it was. I go even further back than that. Ten years after The Great War, as we used to call it. Before we knew enough to number them.
Higgins You miss that kind of action, sir?
Nope. I miss that kind of clarity.
Do we have plans to invade the Middle East?
Higgins Are you crazy?
Higgins Look, Turner…
Higgins No. Absolutely not. We have games. That's all. We play games. What if? How many men? What would it take? Is there a cheaper way to destabilize a regime? That's what we're paid to do.
So Atwood just took the games too seriously. He was really going to do it, wasn't he?
Higgins A renegade operation. Atwood knew 54/12 would never authorize it, not with the heat on the company.
What if there hadn't been any heat? Suppose I hadn't stumbled on their plan?
Higgins Different ballgame. Fact is, there was nothing wrong with the plan. Oh, the plan was all right, the plan would've worked.
Boy, what is it with you people? You think not getting caught in a lie is the same thing as telling the truth?
Higgins No. It's simple economics. Today it's oil, right? In ten or fifteen years, food. Plutonium. And maybe even sooner. Now, what do you think the people are gonna want us to do then?
Higgins Not now — then! Ask 'em when they're running out. Ask 'em when there's no heat in their homes and they're cold. Ask 'em when their engines stop. Ask 'em when people who have never known hunger start going hungry. You wanna know something? They won't want us to ask 'em. They'll just want us to get it for 'em!
Boy, have you found a home. There were seven people killed, Higgins.
Higgins The company didn't order it.
Atwood did. Atwood did. And who the hell is Atwood? He's you. He's all you guys. Seven people killed, and you play **** games!
Higgins Right. And the other side does, too. That's why we can't let you stay outside.
[Turner and Higgins stop in front of The New York Times.]
They've got all of it.
Higgins What? What did you do?
I told them a story. I told 'em a story. You play games; I told 'em a story.
Higgins Oh, you… you poor, dumb son of a bitch. You've done more damage than you know.
Higgins You're about to be a very lonely man. It didn't have to end this way.
Higgins Hey Turner! How do you know they'll print it? You can take a walk… but how far if they don't print it?
Higgins How do you know?
[after the botched attempt to come in from the field]
The question was, Mr. Higgins, is he qualified with a handgun?
Higgins No handgun, sir. M-1 rifle and carbine. Evidently, it was sheer luck. Or else--
Or else what, Mr. Higgins?
Higgins This Condor isn't the man his file says he is.
Where did he learn evasive moves?
Higgins He reads.
What the hell does that mean?
Higgins It means, sir, that he reads everything.
Yes. Very good. Has operations got anything?
It was very well executed.
Which requires planning, communications, tracks. I'm not asking for footprints, but a blade of grass, a broken twig-- Something disturbed.
Yes, sir. Wicks seems to be all we've got.
Higgins We don't. They rushed him to Guvenor Emergency before we got word.
Maybe we should leak the name of the hospital, make Condor make his move.
Of course, Len, don't expect too many mistakes from this man. He does seem rather more interesting than just another of our reader/researchers. For example, has he gone into business for himself? Was he turned around? Does someone operate him? Homosexual? Broke? Vulnerable? Could he be a soldier of fortune? Did he arrange the hit? Is that why he's still in flight? Still, he... may be an innocent. But then, why didn't he come in gently with Mr. Wicks?
Higgins Turner. Why'd you call so late? We were worried about you.
Likewise. The car for me?
Higgins It's all right. It's safe. You'll have a few hours of debriefing.
Hey, Higgins? Let's say, for the purposes of argument, I had a .45 in one of my pockets, and I wanted you to take a walk with me, you'd do it, right?
Higgins Which way?
