Read Cuba for Free Online Page B

a
    youngster, understood it well, and spoke it with a
    flavored accent. Still, hearing nothing but Cuban
    Spanish spoken around him for days gave him a bit
    of cultural shock.
    He and two of his bodyguards had flown to Mexico
    City,
    V
    CUBA
    then to
    Havana.
    He had always kept His contacts with the Cuban
    government a deep, dark, jealously guarded
    secret, but rumors had reached him, rumors that
    Castro was sick, that important changes in
    Cuba were in the wind. The rumors had the feel of
    truth; his instincts told him.
    El Gato, the Cat, didn’t get rich
    by ignoring his instincts. He decided to go to Cuba and
    take the risk of explaining it away later. If the
    exiles in Florida ever got the idea that he had
    double-crossed them, money or no money, they would
    take their revenge.
    Courage was one of El Gate’s long suits.
    He didn’t accumulate a fortune worth almost a
    half billion dollars by being timid. So he and his
    bodyguards boarded the plane. That was almost a week
    ago. He had been steadily losing money in the
    casinos every day since while waiting. Now the waiting
    was over.
    Tonight he was to see the man he came to meet,
    Alejo Vargas. In five minutes.
    He checked his watch, then pocketed his chips and
    walked for. the door of the club, the Tropicana, the
    jewel of Havana. His bodyguards joined him, like
    shadows.
    El Gato left the casino via the back entrance.
    The three men walked a block to a large black
    limousine sitting by the curb and climbed into the rear
    seats.
    Two men were sitting on the front-facing seats.
    “El Gato, welcome to Havana. I confess,
    I didn’t think we would ever meet on
    Cuban comsoil.”
    “Miracles never cease, Senor Vargas. The
    world turns, the sun rises and sets and we all
    get older day by day. Wise men change with the times.”
    “Quite so. This is Colonel Santana, head of the
    Department of State Security:”
    El Gato nodded politely at Santana, then
    introduced his bodyguards, men Santana didn’t
    even bother to look at.
    “I was hoping, Senor Vargas, that you and I might
    have a private conversation, perhaps while these gentlemen
    watched from a small distance?”
    Vargas nodded Ms assent, pushed a button, and
    spoke into an intercom to the driver. After about
    fifteen minutes of travel, during which nothing was
    said, the limo pulled up to a curb and all the men
    got out. The car was sitting on a breakwater near
    Morro Castle, with the dark battlements looming
    above them in the glare of Havana reflecting off the
    clouds.
    Vargas and El Gato began strolling.
    “The cargo is aboardea”…El Gato said, “and the ship
    has sailed. I presume you kept me waiting
    to see if that event would occur.”
    “When you proposed this operation, I had my
    doubts. I still do.”
    “I cannot guarantee successea”…El Gato said.
    “I do everything within my power to make success
    possible, but sometimes the world does not turn my way.
    I understand that, and I keep trying anyway.”
    ‘The waiting will soon be overea”…Vargas said.
    “Indeed. In many ways. I hear rumors that
    Fidel will not be with us much longer.”
    Vargas didn’t reply to that remark.
    “Change is rapidly coming to Cubaea”…El Gato
    began, “and the thought occurred to me that a man with friends in
    Cuba under the new order would be in an enviable
    position.”
    “You have such friends?”
    “I am here to test the water, so to speak, to learn if
    I, do.”
    “After your years of opposition to Castro, any friends
    you have will not be very vocal about it.”
    “Noisy friends I have aplenty in Florida. No,
    the kind of friends I need are the kind who keep their
    friendship to themselves and help when help is needed, who
    give approvals when asked, who nod yes at the
    appropriate time.”
    “How much money have you given the exiles”
    political movements over the years?”
    “You wish to know the figure?”
    “Yes. I wish to learn if you will be honest with me.
    Obviously I have sources