"Jeff Hecht - The Awful Truth" - читать интересную книгу автора (Hecht Jeff)

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The Awful Truth
by Jeff Hecht
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Copyright (c)1997 by Jeff Hecht
First published in Middle Georgia Web Magazine, January 1997

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"Perestroika, glasnost, humbug!" muttered the old man as he sipped
lukewarm coffee from a chipped cup. "It is treason to the glorious
revolution."
"Indeed it is, comrade," agreed the Party Secretary, his shaky hand
tapping the end of a cigarette on his battered desk. "The Party is coming to a
sad end. Who would have thought..."
Both stopped when they heard a knock at the door. When they were young,
they would have held their breath in fear of the FBI, but now they worried
more about the landlord. The rent on their third-floor office was six months
overdue. The few remaining members had nothing to spare from their Social
Security checks, and the Party was waiting grimly for the eviction notice.
They saw a man's shadow though the dirty glass window, and ignored him.
The man outside knocked again, then turned the knob of the unlocked
door. "Comrades, I have glorious news," announced the stranger. He was small,
pale, and slightly built, but his clothes were finely tailored and his shoes
perfectly shined.
"Who are you?" asked the Party Secretary, always wary of well-dressed
strangers claiming to bear good news.
"I am Comrade Ralph, and I've been under cover for 50 years. I return
to report successful completion of my mission!"
The Party Secretary squinted over his glasses. "I thought the FBI had
stopped paying for memberships."
The newcomer was shocked. "FBI?? I evaded them for half a century. They
never suspected me."
"What have you done?" asked the other old man, who dimly recalled when
Party members had talked of spying.
"I have been undermining the capitalist swine of America. And I have
succeeded beyond my wildest dreams! The industrial imperialist empire is