 Are you willing to undertake a dangerous mission behind the enemy lines, knowing you may never return alive? What you have just heard is the question asked during the war of agents of the OSS. Ordinary citizens, who to this question answered, yes. This is... Cloak and Dagger. Warfare, espionage, international intrigue. These are the weapons of the OSS. Today's adventure, the last mission, the story of an American OSS agent in Canton, China, is suggested by actual incidents recorded in the Washington files of the Office of Strategic Services. A story that can now be told. He must have had another name, but I never knew what it was. Everybody on the waterfront called him Charlie. He was old and he limped and he should have drunk less and shaved more. We'd see him in the wars in the afternoons in his dirty dungarees and torn sweater, begging cigarettes from sailors. Then evenings he would hobble into Lee Chen's tavern where I worked to beg for something else. Hey, Tonya! Hey, ain't you gonna buy Charlie one little drink, eh? No, I'm not Charlie. No drinks on the house tonight. Oh, but tonight's the night. There ought to be drinks in the house. Are you forgetting it was just five years ago tonight, Canton fell to the Japanese? We gotta celebrate, don't we? What's the matter? I say something wrong. I don't like your sense of humor. Oh, I don't see what you've got again, the Japs, Tony. With all them nationalities mixed up in you, you've probably got some Jap blood yourself. Oh, no, I haven't. Every other kind may be Spanish and Russian, even Irish, but there's not a drop of Jap blood in the Bonillas. All right, all right, all right. Don't get steamed up. I still say there's no reason for you to hate them. What do you care who's running Canton? I told him then. I don't know why I did. I've never told anyone else. How they'd murdered my family and young king six years before. My father, my mother, my two sisters, the Japs had killed them all. And if we hadn't got out of the city ahead of them, they'd have killed my brother Florian and myself. So, so you wasn't always a waitress in a waterfront dive, huh, Tonya? No. And my brother didn't always prowl the streets looking for trouble. I got the Japs to thank for that. No, maybe you can understand. Easy, Tonya. We got visitors. What do they want now? Chicken identification papers again. A press arise. Always arise in the presence of the soldiers. Remember that hereafter. No, your papers, please. Tonya Bonilla. Born in Madrid. You are Spanish, but you have Russian first name. And an Irish middle name. What does that make me? Perhaps it makes you an Arian. Captain. Yes, Lieutenant. It would be very dull in Canton if we put all the beautiful girls in jail. That is true. Your papers are in order, Miss Bonilla. And now, your papers, please. Oh, me? I ain't got no papers, Captain. What you done with them? I don't know. I guess you must have lost them. What is your nationality? I don't know that neither. Nobody never told me. Seems like I've been around Canton since it was knee-high. You are an American, perhaps? American? That's good. Take him away, Lieutenant. No, now wait a minute, brother. Hold your horses, will you? I ain't gonna do you guys no good locked up in the break. But I could help you plenty if I was free to mosey around the dock. You come now. Oh, I will. Wait, Lieutenant. What do you mean, Orman? How could that help us? Well, I get around, Captain. Old Charlie talks to everybody. And everybody talks to me. And they ain't too careful what they say. And either, if anybody was planning any monkey business, sabotage or anything like that, Old Charlie would be just about the first to know about it. And you would report it to us? Why not? You're the guy who's running the show. So you're the guys I take orders from. You know what I mean? They saw what he meant. And when they left, he was still sitting with me, grinning as if you were proud of what he had done. I got up without a word and went to the bar and bought a drink. I brought it back and held it out. Say, did you buy that for me, Tonya? Yes, I bought it for you. Well, now that's mighty nice of you. Let me have it. I'll let you have it there. What's your idea of throwing good whiskey in my face? What's your idea of that? I couldn't find words to tell you what I think of you, Charlie. But I wanted you to know. I was sorry after all. After all, Charlie was old and hungry and half cracked. I should have saved it for somebody else. Someone closer and dearer to me. I should have saved it for my brother, Florian, who was waiting for me when I got home. I thought you never get here, Tonya. Hurry up and change your clothes. We're going to a party. A party? What party, Florian? Well, sort of an anniversary banquet. You know, five years in Canton, there are going to be a lot of important people there. Chinese, Japanese, both. Big celebration. And we're going to celebrate with them? Oh, we weren't invited, of course, but I know a fellow at the door he's going to let us in. We rub shoulders with some of the most important people in Canton. Maybe even with the men who murdered your mother and father. What? Oh, now, don't be like that, Tonya. That was a long time ago. These aren't the same fellows who took Nanking. They're Japanese. We're not going to the party, Florian. We got nothing to celebrate. No? Well, maybe you are not going, but I am. Why? Because I know what side my bread is butting on, that's why. The Jap side? As long as they're top dog, yes. And it looked like they're going to be top dog for a long time. I see. You're a traitor to our family, Florian. We haven't got family, Tonya. We haven't got anything. And we never will have unless one of us starts playing on the winning team. I didn't sleep well that night. I lay there in the dark, feeling as if I were alone in a world of enemies. That same feeling haunted me all the next day at Lee Chen's. Charlie didn't come to the tower in that evening. I didn't see him till I was through working, till I stepped out into the dark street. Then a shadowy figure came staggering up to me. All right, Tonya. You're drunk, Charlie. You better go home. That's just what I was thinking, Tonya. Morning. I can't seem to get there. His feet keeps going round in circles. How about you kind of steal old Charlie along? I'm sorry. I want to get home myself. It's late. Come on, Tonya. Be a sport boy. Help old Charlie. He grabbed my arm and hung on to it. Come on, Tonya. It seemed easier to do what he asked me to argue about it. Very good girl. I had never seen his home, but he remembered the address and I let him toward it through the deserted streets. Here we are. It was the kind of place you'd expect Charlie to live in, a filthy two-story dump in the worst part of Canton. He was still holding my arm as I took his key and unlocked his door for him. Good night, Charlie. Go to bed and sleep at all. Come on in for a while. Why don't you? No, good night, Charlie. Get a bottle in there, Tonya. We can have a little bit. I don't want to drink. Come on in anyway. Come on, Charlie. Charlie, let go of me. Let go of you here. But he didn't let go. His fingers were like a vise around my wrist. He jerked me across the threshold. He shoved me into the pitch-black room and slammed the door. Now where's that lamp? You filthy old bum. Let me out of here. Sorry I had to manhandle you like that. It was the only safe way of getting you in here. I thought someone else had said it. I thought there must be three of us in the room. And the light flashed down, and there were just two. Just Charlie and me. Surprise, Tonya. I'm sorry, but I have to play it safe. You see, Tonya, I am an American, an agent of the OSS. I didn't speak. I stared at him and tried to understand. Tried to connect him with the shuffling little wharf right I'd always known as Charlie. You realize, of course, Tonya, that this is something of an act of faith, exposing my identity to you like this. No one else in Canton knows who I am. I thought a long time before I decided to let you in on it. When you told me about your family, I had a hunch I could trust you. And then when you threw that drink in my face, I was sure of it. But, Charlie, I mean. That's right. I'm still Charlie. But why have you done this? Why should you trust me with your life? For a very good reason, because I need your help. My help? You see, I've operated alone here for a long time. Oh, it hasn't been too tough, but now. Now? Jap intelligence is tightening up. A lot of things I can't do alone anymore. That's why I need you. But I have no experience. I don't know anything about it. You have courage, and you hate the Japanese. That's worth a lot more than experience. What do you want me to do, Charlie? Come on upstairs. He led me up a long, narrow, rickety staircase. He opened the door to a tiny, guard-like room just beneath the roof. It was hot and stuffy. The light, these switched on, was so dim that at first I couldn't see. Do you know what this is, Tanya? A radio transmitter. That's right. You send messages to whom? American submarines operating off the Chinese coast. And what I send is all the information I can get about Jap shipping entering and leaving the port of Canton. I see. Tanya, you wait on sailors at Leach Hands all day. You drink with them. I'm never drunk with a Japanese sailor. But you could. Sailors talk a lot when they're drunk. And if they don't talk enough, I could provide you with knockout drops. They'd sleep peacefully while you examined their papers. I see. It scares you a little? A little, yes. You see, I'm- Watch it, Tanya. What? That lever on the wall, you almost touched it. You'd better not. What is it, Charlie? It's a little precaution I've taken. I wouldn't want this transmitter to fall into Japanese hands. They could do a great deal of damage with it. But the lever in the wall. That can do a great deal of damage, too. It sets off an explosive that'd blow this building sky high. I wasn't sorry to leave that room. We went downstairs a few minutes later. He stood in front of me, watching me. Tanya, let me explain something. We're all volunteers in the OSS. And the people who help us are volunteers, too. You don't have to do this unless you want to. I understand, Charlie. If you refuse, I won't worry about what you know. I'll still trust you. I don't intend to refuse. It doesn't scare you too much? When I think of my father and mother and sister, it doesn't scare me at all. It's a deal? It's a deal. I don't have any liquor. We might have a smoke on it, though. American cigarettes. I haven't had one for years. Keep the pack. Thanks. To a free world, Tanya. To a free world. That night I slept well. Now I have friends and allies. That is, I slept well until sometimes shortly before dawn. And then the sound of my bedroom door opening awoke me. I wasn't frightened. I knew who it was and what he wanted. It had happened so many times before. I waited until he reached my dresser, until he bent over my purse. Don't take any of my money, Florian. Oh, oh, you're awake. Well, I was just... Yes, I know, but I really can't spare any this week. I need the little I got. Well, you don't need it any more than I do. I'm broke, Tanya. Now where am I supposed to get money to live on? Not out of my purse. Please close it, Florian. All right, all right. Well, I was... Hey, what's this? What? Where do you get these? What, Florian? These American cigarettes. I got them at the tavern. Who from? From a job soldier. A job soldier? Yeah, he had taken them off an American prisoner of war. And a job gave them to you? Yes, why not? And you accepted them? Naturally, I accepted them. Well, so now my noble sister is accepting gifts from the enemy. Either you had a great change of heart on you or else... Or else what? Or else you are lying. Beginning the very next night, I flirted with every job sailor who came into Lee Chains. I kept my mouth closed and my ears open. I used every trick I knew to persuade them to talk. And when it became necessary, I used something else. The little white pills that Charlie had given me. I don't know more to drink now. But the evening is young, darling. Come on, come on, let's drink it toast to the Emperor. Stand up. Of course you can. Here, I'll help you. Come on, go. That's it. Now to the song of heaven, his Imperial Majesty. Drink. Oh, it was so easy, Charlie. He was out cold. I just reached into his pocket and there were his papers. No one saw you? Not a soul. The paper's back? Of course. After I copied them, there's the information. How am I doing, Charlie? I knew I was doing well and as time went on, I did even better. We would hear reports on Charlie's radio of Jap ships torpedo and sunk in Chinese waters. And Charlie would say... That was the baby you told me about last week. Chalk up another one for Tanya, the scourge of the Jap merchant marines. I was proud and I was happy. And I believed my father and mother and sisters knew and that they were proud, too. And then came the night I went straight from Li Chen's tavern to Charlie's house to tell him what I'd heard. The Takota Maru, huh? That's one of the Noop's biggest ships. I know Charlie and she's carrying industrial machinery to Yokohama. One of those factories they've stripped in Fuchao. You sure about the sailing time? Quite sure. Tomorrow night at 10 o'clock. Good enough. I'll tip off the subject right away and they'll be laying for her. If she isn't traveling in convoy... She isn't, Charlie. And they'll get her like a sitting duck. It's late, Tanya. Better get going. I'll see you tomorrow, Charlie. Not during the day. I'm going down to Tomho's junk on the river. I'll be back here by evening. Good night, Charlie. Wait a minute. Let me see if the coast is clear. Okay. Go ahead. It was late. The streets were dark and deserted. I would have taken a rickshaw home, but it was too late for that. So I walked. Or rather I tried to walk, but it was hard to keep myself from running. I told myself I was a fool to be afraid. The streets were safer than in broad daylight. There was no one on them. There was no one who could possibly. I thought I heard footsteps. There was someone walking behind me. I turned. There was no one there. At least I couldn't see anyone. I started walking faster. And I grabbed the revolver that Charlie had given me. Then I heard the sound again. This time I stopped and whirled around. There was a street lamp behind me. And I saw a shadow on the wall of the building. A shadow of a man. Who's there? Come out and show me who you are. If you don't, I'll shoot. Take it easy, Tanya. Florian. You wouldn't want to shoot your own brother, would you? Florian, what are you doing here? Where will you follow me? Oh, just curious, that's all. I've been wondering for quite a while what you were up to. For quite a while? I've seen you go to that place several times. I even took the trouble to find out who lives there. It's that old fellow they called Charlie. That's right. Charlie does live there. He's sick. Oh, he's sick? Yes. Just narrowing a mercy, huh? Exactly. And narrowing the mercy. You act as if you didn't believe me. Of course I'd believe you. I certainly don't think you're in love with the old boy. And what other reason would you have to visit him? We walked the rest of the way home together. I was sure he didn't believe me, but I couldn't go back to Charlie's to warn him, not without getting Florian more suspicious. In the morning, I thought. But then I remembered that Charlie would be on Tonghou's junk on the river in the morning. Li Chen's tavern opened at noon the next day. The minute I walked in, I knew something was wrong. There were too many Japanese soldiers, far too many. They sat at the bar drinking. They played cards at the tables. They lounged against the walls, puffing their cigarettes, and eyeing me as I crossed the room and whispered, Don Li Chen. Why are there so many of them, Li Chen? Maybe your brother can't tell you that. My brother. He's in the back room. He said you come back to him. I knew then that I was sick with anger and shame, but I was sicker still when I saw him sitting alone in that back room when I saw the smirking triumph on his face. Good morning, Tanya. How's your sick friend this morning? Don't stand there and stay. I haven't done anything so terrible after all, one spy more or less. How much did they pay you, Florian? Quite a bit. It seems they've known for a long time there was one operating in Canton. They haven't been able to get their hands on him. Until you betrayed him? Yes, yes. Though they still haven't found him. There are some soldiers waiting for him over at his place where you went last night, I mean. And there's a crowd of them here. They're about to pick him up pretty soon. Didn't you get a bonus for betraying me, too? I might have, but I wouldn't sell off my own sister. I kept you in a clear. I told them you helped me spot him. Thank you, Florian. Not at all, Tanya. By the way, I can pay you back some of money. I left it from your purse. After all, if it weren't for you, I wouldn't be sitting pretty now. With a couple of hundred yen even a score? Huh? What do you say? There was so much I could have said, but I didn't waste the time. Only one thing mattered now. Charlie was still free. I swore by the memory of my mother and father that I would keep him free. It was a half hour before I managed to slip away from Nichen's unnoticed. Charlie had introduced me to Tong Ho, and I had been aboard his junk the week before. So the guerrillas on guard around the boat recognized me. They led me to a cabin. It's Tanya, Charlie. Tanya, I thought you were Tong Ho. You just want to show to me to courier from Hong Kong some sort of important news. Not as important as the news I have for you. I poured it all out and he listened thoughtfully. Well, they found the transmitter, of course, but that's no good to them. Couldn't they use it to send false messages? Not without the codebook. The subs would know the messages were phony. They'd figure out what had happened. But where is the codebook? Right here. Oh, none that I can see. My usefulness in Canton is over. Yeah, they'll pull out both of us. You'll take me with you. Sure. Tong Ho will take us upriver. Well, here he is now. I hope that courier's report was better than the news Tanya brought me, Tong Ho. It was about Captain of American Flyers, Charlie. What about them? Both of them have been brought into Canton. They're being sent to prison camps in Japan. They sell tonight aboard the Takotomaru. Charlie, that's the ship I told you about last night. Yeah, it's the ship I radioed the subs to torpedo. They're well torpedo our own men then, Charlie. They will if I don't count them and the order. Gotta let them know the flyers are aboard. They gotta let the ship go through. You cannot tell them, Charlie. You cannot get to the transmitter. I'll have to. But they're Japanese soldiers, they're waiting for you. So I'll get past them somehow. Charlie, no, don't go back there. They'll kill you if you do. And they'll kill those flyers if I don't. There are 50 of them. There's only one of me. I said I would go back with him. I said he would need help getting past the Japs. I said I wouldn't leave Canton without him. And in the end, because I left him no choice, he allowed me to stay at his side. He told me his plans before we left the boat. They'll be waiting for me in the room downstairs. But we won't go that way. There's a trap door and the ceiling of the radio room. If we can get into the building next door and out onto the roof, we'll be able to jump over onto my building. We may get in and send a message with the radio. We may get in and send a message without even letting them know we're there. A half hour later, we were creeping up the stairs of the building next door. And a few minutes later, we stood huddled on the edge of the adjoining roof. All right. Let's jump. Try to land as quietly as you can. Then flat on our stomachs, we crawled toward the trap door and pried open its rusty hinges and lowered ourselves into the radio room. Charlie sat down at the transmitter. His codebook in his hand. I went to the door, my revolver and mine. Have you made contact with them, Charlie? Not yet. Any sounds from downstairs? No, not yet. Charlie, hurry. You're doing the best I can. Yes, but if you... Charlie. Yes? Listen. Someone coming upstairs. Two of them at least. Maybe three. Okay. Get going, Turner. I'll throw the trap door over the roof. I'll be right behind you. I've made contact now. All I have to do is finish the message. And I'll get out of here. It was a lie. It was the only lie that Charlie ever told me. I crossed the roof. I looked behind me. And he wasn't there. I went down the stairs next door and out onto the street. And he still wasn't there. I moved quickly through the crowd, still looking back, still waiting, still hoping. And then... He had pulled the lever that destroyed the transmitter. A long time later, I learned that the Takota Maru had passed safely through the submarines with 50 American flyers aboard. Charlie had sent this message in time. He had performed his last service for the OSS. The last... But one, I mean. The very last had been... Die for it. And once again, report of another OSS agent closes with the words... Mission accomplished. Listen again next week for another true adventure from the files of the OSS on... Cloak and Dagger. Paired in today's Cloak and Dagger adventure, as Charlie was Ian Martin, Tanya, Breiner Ava, Florian, Arnold Moss, others were Ralph Bell, Raymond Edward Johnson, Carl Weber, and Guy Rapp. Script was written by Ken Field, and music was under the direction of John Gard. Sound effects by Max Russell and Frank Locker. Engineering, Don Abbott. Today's OSS adventure was based on the book, Cloak and Dagger by Corey Ford and Alistair McBain. This program is produced by Louis G. Cowan and Alfred Hollander under the direction and supervision of Sherman Marks. Three times mean good times on NBC.