Parody
Parody Spy novelist John le Carré says it's now "worse than McCarthyism" in the United States, with all dissent crushed under labels like "anti-Semitic." He has a friend in California who "drove to...
...He's made it, thought Leamas, he s past the checkout only the bag-help boys to go...
...He told me everything...
...He trusts me...
...He'll hide there a while, and ta he'll come over...
...Christ...
...Cte guest, a Meez Elveera...
...Wolfowitz is after him and he's scared...
...This why Karl chose that grocery...
...News item The Spy Who Blamed Bush for it All 8 but Leamas said nothing, just peered through his binoculars down the Bel Air hills at the desolate Brentwood wasteland below...
...To the back, behind the row where they keep the wine and fizzy water...
...Let hm choose hus time...
...But not KM...
...He told you that...
...Leamas could hear the faint wail of a sum followed instantly by automatic rifle fire Uzis he guessed...
...Hack Volvo station wagon, Gdtfoma plates, the Mexican gatekeeper's voice announced...
...We switched cars...
...Someone had scratched off the bumper sticker...
...Just that morning they'd had a fight about Elvira, about the security risks, about the security risks, about the too-obvious "Peace is also Patriotic" bumper sticker she'd affixed to the Volvo, but Karl wouldn't hear it...
...Where did he go...
...Leamas walked back inside, out of the cold...
...He grimaad...
...Leamas turned on her...
...He was through it had worked after all the cheese would soon arrive...
...Karl slid his cart off the curb waved casually at te attrntate...
...Leamas pointed his binoculars back to Westwood Boulevard, a synagogue on one end of the dark block, a bank branch on the other, and Trader Joe's, a tiny oasis of light, in the midde...
...And he told you that...
...His men were sure to be arornd Then Leamas saw him, unmistakable in his tux, pushing a grocery cart...
...He has a friend in California who "drove to his local supermarket with a sticker on his car saying: 'Peace is also Patriotic.' It was gone by the time he'd finished shopping...
...When the Volvo rolled up to a stop, Leamas pushed passed tevalets and said to the driver, "Where is he...
...He's pubhdy opposed the use of force, his cover s been blown...
...How long will you wait...
...A few paces into the parking lot, though, Karl seemed to tense, appreteM some danger, he looked over his shoulder he pushed the cart faster, so its wheels spun in little circles on the asphalt Then the rooftop searchlighls went on white as ice locking Karl in their glare...
...That damned woman, he thought and Karl's damned crush on her...
...Yes, he knows one of the cash-register girls, her father is a Democrat It may help...
...Somehow his friend kept moving, still staggering forwari rnth fe gr°cerles, almost to, until more shots came and he sagged to the ground, tipping over the cart as his life spilled away, and with it, the cheesf Leamas lowered the binoculars, stepped back outside, and found himself stormg at Karl's Volvo, now orphaned, forlorn...
...Karl's car...
...Karl had picked fce wrong supermarket Wolfowitz controlled this quadrant...
...Pushing up his collar against the chill American air, Leamas walked ou1 to fce tennb court, its chain-link sidings like the fence of a concentration camp, he thought...
...They came for him in the imported cheese aisle and he ran...
...The intercom buzzed and the party chatter halted, everyone alert...
...You said he'd bring the hors d'oeuvres and it's already seven," the publishing assistant said wlh a tone of irritation...
...The bag-help boys waved back...
...Don't overdo it Leamas thought...
...Book agents don't have schedules...
Vol. 8 • February 2003 • No. 20
