EDI:European Department of Intelligence
There were two of them. Hawker and Jude. They had no other names. Just Hawker and Jude. They were young, fast, and clever. They worked for EDI, in the European Government.
You know about the Americans' CIA and the Russians' KGB? Well, this was EDI—the European Department of Intelligence. Big secrets. Very strange secrets. The secrets of the Omega Files. They don't get into the newspapers, and most people never hear about them. Most people don't know anything about EDI.
In the early years Hawker and Jude travelled a lot. Brussels, Strasbourg, Rome, Delhi, Washington... North Africa, South America, Australia... No home, no family, just work. They worked for the top man in the Brussels office of EDI, and only for him. He was called Arla. Nobody knew his real name, or much about him. Some said he was Latvian; others said he was from another planet. He always gave the hard jobs to Hawker and Jude. The jobs with questions, but not many answers. The Omega Files.
When I met them, many years later, Hawker and Jude were about seventy years old. They lived very quietly, in a little white house on a Greek island. They went walking, swimming, fishing; they sat in the sun, and slept a lot.
At first, they didn't want to talk about their work.
'We can't,' said Jude. 'Our work was secret. It's all in the government files, and nobody can read them.'
'After thirty years,' I said, 'people can read all secret government files.'
'Not these files,' Hawker said. 'It's a hundred years before people can read the EDI files.'
I looked at them. 'But I don't need to read the files,' I said. 'I can get the stories from you.'
And I did. Here are some of them...
EDI:歐洲情報(bào)局
他們只有兩人——霍克和祖德。除了霍克和祖德,他們?cè)贌o其他名字。他們年輕、機(jī)警、聰明。他們?cè)跉W洲政府的EDI工作。
你知道美國(guó)的CIA和俄羅斯的KGB嗎?這里說的是EDI——歐洲情報(bào)局。大秘密、非常奇怪的秘密,這就是奧米茄文件里的秘密。它們不會(huì)出現(xiàn)在報(bào)紙上,大多數(shù)人也從沒聽說過它們。人們大多也都沒聽說過EDI。
霍克和祖德早年四處旅行,布魯塞爾、斯特拉斯堡、羅馬、德里、華盛頓……北非、南美、澳大利亞……他們沒有家,也沒有親人,只有工作。他們?yōu)?,且只為EDI在布魯塞爾辦公室的最高長(zhǎng)官效力,這位長(zhǎng)官名叫阿拉。他的真名及其他一切都無人知曉。有人說他是拉脫維亞人,也有人說他來自于另一個(gè)星球。他常把艱巨的任務(wù)交給霍克和祖德,這些任務(wù)通常問題較多,難以解決,這就是奧米茄文件。
多年以后,當(dāng)我遇到霍克和祖德時(shí),他們已是七旬老人了,恬靜地生活在希臘一個(gè)島上的一座白色的小房子里。他們散步、游泳、釣魚;他們曬曬太陽,睡睡覺。
起初,他們不愿談?wù)撍麄兊墓ぷ鳌?br />
“我們不能說,”祖德說,“我們做的是保密工作。它們都記在政府的文件中,沒人能看到。”
“30年后,”我說,“人們就可以看政府所有的保密文件了。”
“這些文件可不行,”霍克說,“可能要等到100年后人們才能看EDI的文件呢。”
我看著他們。“可我并不想看這些文件,”我說,“我只想聽你們講其中的故事。”
他們給我講了,以下是其中的幾個(gè)……