Mission (63 page)

It has taken me a little time to trace the people on the list you enclosed. Hence the delay in replying. So far, I have discovered the following:

(a) A Mr and Mrs Philip Resnick live at 112 Polhemus Place, Brooklyn, NY. They have a daughter, Bella, aged 18, and a son, Leonard Nathan Resnick, aged 13. He is currently attending Friends School in Brooklyn Heights.

(b) Rabbi Abraham Lucksteen lives at 206 Fisk St, Brooklyn, NY. This is just around the corner from the Resnicks. He and his wife have a daughter Abbey, aged 13. I called the secretary of Resnick's school and she confirmed that he and Miss Lucksteen were classmates. I also called the Rabbi and he was kind enough to confirm that he had conducted Leonard Resnick's barmitzvah.

(c) No joy on Dr Miriam Maxwell. From the approximation of her age given in the transcript she would now be 10-11 years old. Her father may be a doctor. I propose to check the AMA listings for the state of New York and will let you know what
I turn up. The address given in the scroll preface for her appartment is presently a construction site.

(d) Nothing so far on Linda or Peter Kovacs. The indications are that these people may be refugees from the 1956 Hungarian uprising. I will check with immigration.

(e) There is a D.E. Russell currently undergoing recruit training with the NYPD but there is insufficient evidence to positively identify this individual.

(f) Nothing available on Lazzarotti, McDonald, Fowler or Shiragawa. So I cannot confirm that these are real people either.

(g) Perez: I checked 49th Street between Fifth and Third Avenue. There are no dry cleaners or laundry shops operating under or owned by anybody with this name.

Just out of interest I include the following:

(h) Dr Henry Kissinger is a lecturer at Harvard and a part-time national security consultant to the Eisenhower Administration.

(i) Richard Nixon, as you know, is currently Vice-President under Ike. He is undoubtedly an adroit politician but, unlike the writer of the scroll, my Republican friends do not view him as Presidential timber in his own right.

(j) Clint Eastwood: I understand from my youngest daughter that he is an up-coming TV actor currently playing a character called ‘Rowdy Yates'(!) in a new series titled ‘Rawhide'

(k) David Frost: The writer implies that he is some kind of celebrity/interviewer similar to Walter Cronkite or Arthur Godfrey. Nobody here has heard of him.

Incidentally, I must say that I took exception to the scurrilous remarks about Ike. He's a good man and far above that kind of thing

Even though this document is pure fiction I feel bound to remark that it portrays a chilling, and somewhat depressing, view of life twenty years from now. The use of explicit language between men and women and the free-for-all sexual licence I find rather upsetting. And I simply cannot believe that a stag film of the kind described in the text and titled ‘Deep Throat' could ever be allowed to be shown publicly. I can only say ‘God help us' if it is.

Similarly, as I will be eighty in twenty years' time, I find the idea of 12-year-old muggers absolutely horrifying. As much as I
admire the aggressiveness with which the writer expresses some of his ideas, his description of life in this future New York reveals a morbid preoccupation with sex and violence.

Let me know if I can be of any further assistance.

My best wishes to Sheila, and Frank Walker,

Your friend,

Jake

(Professor S.J. Wassmeyer Department of Psychology)

American School of Oriental Studies Jerusalem, Israel

To: Professor Moritz Kaufmann

Curator – Dead Sea Scrolls,

HEBREW UNIVERSITY, JERUSALEM

25th September 1958

From: Dr Arthur Lovell

CONFIDENTIAL

Dear Moritz

Ref: Q-11-7

I enclose a copy of a letter from Jake Wassmeyer. His comments, I am sure, will be of interest. I must say Frank and I are more than a little disturbed to discover that some of the characters in Q-11-7 appear to be derived from real people. What is more, at the time the related events are supposed to occur, twenty-three years from now, the real Leonard Nathan Resnick will be the same age as the purported narrator of the scroll. I hardly need to point out that the implications of this development are quite frightening.

I am glad your committee agrees that we should all do our utmost to conceal the existence of this document whilst stopping short of its destruction. Frankly, it raises too many disturbing questions for which there are no reasonable answers.

With your permission, I propose to put a transcript of the text and photostats of the scroll together with copies of this correspondence into a safety deposit box at my bank in Boston on my next visit home. If, by the Grace of God and John Foster Dulles, the world is still in one piece twenty years from now, I will make arrangements for this extraordinary document to be brought to the notice of the appropriate authorities.

Cordially yours,

Arthur.

CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY, LANGLEY, VA

INTERNAL MEMORANDUM

COPIES: Original

One copy to FC File

MOST SECRET/YOUR EYES ONLY

To: Internal Operations Director

Date: Monday 13 April 1981

From: Field Co-ordinator ‘Gordon'

SUBJECT: OPERATION EASTER BUNNY

Sir,

The following first-response surveillance measures have now been successfully deployed and are at go status. Daily field reports will be submitted if and when target arrival is confirmed.

1. Agent ‘Sugar-George', who was recruited into the Field Services Department of the Agency in October ‘77 has now been working as Resnick's personal secretary for the past two years.

2. The janitor of Resnick's apartment block was replaced by Agent ‘Hotel-Queen' at the beginning of this year.

3. Agent ‘Victor-Bravo', a fully-qualified doctor from our Medical Intelligence Unit, has been assigned as an internee on Dr. Miriam Maxwell's team at the Manhattan General.

4. Communications intercepts have been installed on the appropriate private and business lines of all individuals on Target List Q-11-7.

5. By arrangement with the NY Police Commissioner, Agents ‘Orange-Dog' and ‘Able-Zebra' have been assigned to the Narcotics Division of the Organized Crime Control Bureau based in the Seventh Precinct. These two agents are the nucleus of the proposed external surveillance team. Lt. Dan Russell from the NYPD Internal Services Department has been appointed as Police Liaison Officer.

6. The co-operation of civilians on Target Q-11-7 will be solicited and/or additional Agency personnel will be inserted into the surveillance net as required.

7. Arrangements have been made to secure the contents of Resnick's safety deposit box at the mid-town branch of the Chase Manhattan Bank should the tapes and allied documentation listed in the Target File materialize as physical evidence.

MEMORANDUM ENDS

OFFICE OF THE DIRECTOR OF INTERNAL OPERATIONS CIA/LANGLEY/VA

Date: 17 April 81/1600 HRS   

To: Blue One/Washington

Copies: None/Read and Destroy

FOR YOUR EYES ONLY

OPERATION EASTER BUNNY

Sir,

There are now increasing indications that the Q-11-7 event may be about to occur on a sequential real-time basis. If so, we will need a decision in the next seven days on the containment strategy to be adopted in respect of the individuals concerned.

The graduated options open to us are as listed in Memorandum 12.

We also need to decide, within the same time-frame, whether or not we should inform Israeli Airlines of the possible danger to their Flight 072 on May 12.

CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY – I/OP TELEX TRANSCRIPT

ORIGINAL TRANSMISSION TIMED AT 1800 HRS/18 APRIL 81

ORIGIN:FIELD-CO GORDON

TO:INT-OP ONE

MESSAGE BEGINS

AGENT VICTOR-BRAVO CONFIRMS

RESNICK DUE TO MEET MAXWELL 2130 HRS TONIGHT

MANHATTAN GENERAL HOSPITAL STOP

AGENTS ORANGE-DOG AND ABLE-ZEBRA WILL MAINTAIN SURVEILLANCE OF TARGET ARRIVAL POINT EAST SIDE MANHATTAN STOP

LATEST WEATHER REPORT FOR NY AREA FORECASTS HEAVY RAIN STOP

MESSAGE ENDS

Born a man of Essex, Patrick Tilley spent his formative years in the border counties of Northumbria and Cumbria. After studying art at King's College, University of Durham, he came to London in 1955 and rapidly established himself as one of Britain's leading graphic designers. He began writing part-time in 1959 with three episodes for ATV's Crane.
In 1968 he gave up design altogether in favour of a new career as a film scriptwriter. Work on several major British-based productions was followed by writing assignments in New York and Hollywood. His books have been translated into several languages, and have achieved cult-novel status.

This electronic edition published in 2012 by Bloomsbury Reader
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London WC1B 3DP
First published in Great Britain 1981 by Michael Joseph Ltd
Copyright © 1981 Patrick Tilley
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eISBN: 9781448209842
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