The Sharecropper Prodigy (31 page)

             
“Ben! What in the world’s the matter?” I asked, opening the door wider for him to come in.”

             
Ben walked in and walked straight into the kitchen and got himself a drink of water. “Get your clothes on and get a flashlight,” Ben said.

             
“Why? I mean, what’s wrong? Have you got trouble?”

             
Rachel walked into the kitchen, holding her hand up to her face to shield the bright light from her sleepy eyes. “What is it Ben?” she asked, with concern and a little bit of fear in her voice.

             
Ben was gulping water like he had been walking through the desert and had finally stumbled upon an oasis. “There’s a man I work with down at the office. Electrical engineer, and a brilliant one, too. I ain’t never really trusted him, especially since he started goin’ out of his way to be nice to me. He used to treat me like a red-headed stepchild, but the last couple of months he’s been, well, too nice, if you know what I mean. I wanted to believe he was bein’ sincere, but I could just tell he was tryin’ too hard. Anyway, I was gettin’ ready to leave tonight and was gonna go over to the next office to tell him. All the doors in the offices have to be locked at all times and I was about to stick the key in the door when I saw him takin’ pictures of some of the blueprints with a tiny camera. Or at least that’s what I think he was doin’. So, I made sure I made a racket as I was unlockin’ the door and saw him quickly put the camera in his inside coat pocket. Then, I hid outside and waited on him. I followed him down to the bridge that crosses that little creek on Kentucky Avenue. He climbed down the bank once he got there. I figure he’s hidin’ something down close to the creek.”

             
Ben took one more drink of water and pointed toward the closet. “So get your clothes on and get a flashlight. We gotta get down there and see if we can find out what it was.”

             
Rachel had a look on her face that said she really didn’t want us to do this, but she didn’t say anything. I got my clothes on and found my flashlight. I flipped it on to make sure the batteries were strong and kissed Rachel on the cheek. Me and Ben got in my truck and started driving across town to the bridge.

*****

              “Drive across to the other side,” Ben told me. “There’s a little picnic area over there where we can park and maybe not arouse suspicion.”

             
I drove across the bridge slowly, trying to see how wide the creek was. It had rained a lot lately and I figured it would be swollen and probably out of banks. I couldn’t see anything, though. The night was dark with only a small sliver of a moon. I found the picnic grounds and drove my truck as far down the little road as I could. We got out of the truck and Ben started trotting, forgetting that my injury in North Africa had put an end to my days of moving in a hurry. He stopped and turned around.

             
“Sorry. I still forget, sometimes.”

             
“That’s okay,” I said. “If it wasn’t for the pain I’d probably forget, too.”

              When we’d crossed the bridge, I gave Ben the flashlight. “I don’t know if I ought to try goin’ down that bank, especially in the dark,” I said. “If I hadn’t thought it might be dangerous, I’d have brought Rachel with us. She could have helped you.”

             
“That’s alright,” Ben said. “Somebody needs to stay up here and keep watch, anyway. Just kind of hide somewhere off the road. If somebody drives by that looks suspicious, just let out one of those annoyingly loud whistles of yours. I’ll be able to hear it over the runnin’ water.”

             
Ben took the light and climbed down the bank, trying hard to keep his footing and not slip. When he reached the bottom, he shined the light into the thick trees that were on the creek bank. Then he looked down and tried to see if there was any grass that was laid down where Feldman had walked. He saw what looked like some Johnson Grass that had been disturbed and followed the faint path until he came to the bare dirt of the creek bank. He saw Feldman’s footprints leading down to an old sycamore tree that’s roots had been exposed by years of running water. Ben shined the light all around the roots, trying to find anything that looked out of place. The tracks didn’t go any place else, so whatever Feldman was doing, he had to have done it here. Ben was pretty sure he didn’t risk breaking his neck going down the steep bank in the dark just to take a leak.

             
There was only one set of footprints, so he didn’t meet anybody. What was he doing here? Ben thought he knew, but couldn’t see any evidence of it. Then he had a thought. He held the light with his left hand and put his right hand down into the cold water, beneath the roots that were visible. He felt around on the roots that were under the water until his hand grabbed something that felt like a small rope. He laid the light down and pulled on the rope with both hands until he got whatever was tied on the end to the surface. He took his small knife out of his pocket and cut the rope, laying whatever the object was on the ground. When he shined the light on it, he saw that it was a piece of an old rubber inner tube that had been fashioned into a container and tied with thin twine at the top. He quickly cut the twine and stuck his hand inside. He felt a small object and pulled it out, examining it closely. He could see it was a very small, cylindrical container made of heavy rubber, similar to the rubber of an automobile tire, only much more pliable. Ben picked it up, turning it this way and that, trying to find a lid of some kind. Then he saw a small crease on one side where the rubber overlapped. He took his knife and pried on it. When he got it separated, he saw the teeth of a tiny zipper. He kept prying until he found the slider and pulled on it, unzipping the container. Inside was the smallest roll of film Ben had ever seen. At least he thought it was film. He quickly put it back in the container, zipped it back up and stuck it in his pocket.

             
I was crouching down at the edge of the bank, near a big tree with low branches, when I saw the light bobbling and knew that Ben was climbing back up the bank. I hurried as fast as my lame leg would allow over to him and gave him a hand. We hurried back across the bridge and into the little park to my truck. After we got in, Ben showed it to me.

             
“This is the smallest roll of film I’ve ever seen,” Ben said. “That camera must be tiny. I wonder where Andrew found a camera like that?”

             
“He didn’t get it from our government,” I said. “That camera was made for being easy to hide. For sneaking into places and making pictures of things that are not supposed to be photographed. Do you think the man is a spy?” My heart was starting to race from the excitement. I reached down and hit the start button on my old Ford pick-up. The motor turned over several times but it wouldn’t fire up. I pumped the accelerator a few times and tried again. Still, all the motor would do was turn over.

             
“Must be flooded,” I told Ben. “I don’t want to run the battery down. I’m gonna raise the hood and put my hand over the breather and try to choke it. When I tell you, try the starter again.”

             
I got out and raised the hood. I held my flashlight on the motor with one hand while I started removing the wing nut from the breather cover. I almost jumped out of my skin as I felt a sudden vice like grip on my ankle. It felt like the jaws of a steel trap. I lost my balance and fell to the ground. The man was on me as quick as lightning, and I immediately saw a pistol pointing at my face. Then I heard the truck door open and looked up to see Ben being held at gunpoint by another man. The man who had the gun on Ben had the coil wire from my truck dangling from his hand.

             
“Won’t run worth a damn without this, will it mister?”

CHAPTER THIRTY

             
I recognized the man immediately. I didn’t know his name, but I had seen him numerous times working with the electricians. He was one of the foremen and had been a master electrician for years. The other two men I didn’t know, but soon found out that one of them was Feldman, Ben’s coworker who had taken the pictures and hidden the film.

             
“You two start walking and don’t even
think
about trying anything foolish or heroic. All three of us are armed,” Feldman said in a sinister voice that sounded like a movie gangster.

             
We obeyed, seeing as we weren’t in any position to argue. We walked through the park and down a little path toward another row of houses. We were led to the end of a dead end street where a car was parked behind a stand of giant oak trees. One of the men opened the back door and motioned with his pistol for us to get in. Me and Ben were both bound and then blindfolded. One of the men got in the back seat with us, making sure we saw the gun in his hand.

             
We rode what seemed like maybe ten minutes before the car stopped. I tried to judge how many turns we made so I’d know the direction we were traveling. But it was no use. They could have been taking us anywhere. When the car finally stopped, the door on my side of the car was opened and we were told to get out. The men had a hand on each of our shoulders guiding us as we walked off the pavement and into the grass. I assumed we were at a house or some kind of building. I heard keys turning a lock and a door open. They took us inside and sat us down beside each other on a couch.

             
“Alright, Ben, my young, inquisitive friend. What did you do with the roll of film you found?”

             
“I don’t know what you mean? What film?” Ben said, in the most convincing voice he could conjure up.

             
I heard the sound of an open handed slap and heard Ben let out a slight grimace. I instinctively starting struggling with the ropes that were tied around my wrists.

             
“Don’t hit him, you bastards,” I said through clenched teeth. All the outburst accomplished was getting me the same thing Ben had just gotten. A hard slap across the face. The man hit me so hard, my ear started ringing.

             
“We don’t have the time or the inclination to play games,” Feldman said. “I assume you must have seen me taking pictures before you unlocked the office door. Why else would you have followed me, then come back with your friend and walk down to the creek? I know you’re a bright young man, Ben. After you saw my tracks in the soft sand by the creek bank, you would have figured out where the film was hidden.”

             
“I’m telling you, I didn’t find anything. I looked all around where your footprints stopped, but I never saw anything.”

             
“Search him,” Feldman said. “You go outside and search his friends truck,” he said to another man.

             
I could hear the man patting Ben down roughly. “Take off your coat,” the man who was searching Ben said. Ben complied and the man went through his coat, then told Ben to take off his shoes.

             
“It’s not on him anywhere,” the man said. Then he told me to take off my coat and shoes and began searching me. After he had roughly groped and patted my whole body, he said, “This one don’t have it either.”

             
“I’m tryin’ to tell you, I didn’t find anything,” Ben said. “I didn’t even know what I was lookin’ for.”

             
“Look, Ben. If you’ll give me the film, I’ll let you live. Mind you, you’ll have to be relocated to a place a long way from here and we’ll have to keep you there until we are safely out of the country, but at least you’ll live. If you don’t give it to me,…. well, I don’t have to say anymore, do I?”

             
I couldn’t imagine what Ben had done with the roll of film. He had to have hidden it in the truck somewhere. I was sure the man who had gone to search it would be back with it any minute now.

             
“Go help Henry search the truck,” Feldman said to the other man. “Tear the thing apart if you have to.”

             
I heard the man walk out the door. I could hear Feldman walking around the couch. I was waiting for a punch or slap of some kind on me or Ben. But he just kept walking.

             
“Ben. Make this easy on yourself. Your not going to be any good to anyone dead. Be reasonable.”

             
“Why should I believe you wouldn’t kill us anyway, even if I had this film your talkin’ about, which I don’t.” Ben said. His voice sounded calm, considering the predicament we were in.

             
“You just have to trust me, Ben. I give you my word.”

             
“A man who is involved in espionage against his own country. Who gained the trust of all his colleagues and was regarded as one of the top electrical engineers on the project, and then betrayed them all. Forgive me, Andrew, if I don’t put much stock in your word now. Why don’t you take these blindfolds off so we can at least see? We already know what all three of you look like, anyway.”

             
“Oh, you’ll get the blindfolds off soon enough, I assure you,” Feldman said, sounding like a mad scientist.