The Last Mission an episode of Cloak and Dagger radio show

Please enjoy The Last Mission a great episode of the legendaryCloak and Dagger radio show - A Classic Old Time radio Show - OTR

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Are you willing to undertake a dangerousmission behind the enemy lines, knowing you
may never return alive. What youhave just heard is the question asked during
the War of agents of the OSS. Ordinary citizens to this question answered yes.

(00:23):
This is cloak and dagger, blackwarfare, espnar's international intrigue. These

(00:48):
are the weapons of the OSS.Today's adventure, the Last Mission. The
story of an American OSS agent inCanton, China is suggested by actual incidents
recorded in the Washington piles of theOffice of Strategic Services, a story that
can now be told. He musthave had another name, but I never

(01:10):
knew what it was. Everybody inthe water front called him Charlie. He
was old, and he limped,and he should have drunk less and shaved
more. We'd see him on thewalls in the afternoons, in his dirty
dungarees and thorn sweated baking cigarettes andsailors. Then evenings he would hobble into
leechen Stoven, where I worked,to beg for something else. Hey,

(01:34):
turny, Hey, Hey, can'tyou gonna buy Charlie when he'll bring No,
I'm not Charlie, nor drinks fromthe house tonight. Robert tonight,
tonight youanta be drinks in the house. Are you forgetting? It was just
five years ago? Tonight? Tantonterrible Japanese. We gotta celebrate, don't
we? What do you matter?I say something wrong. I don't like

(01:57):
your sense of humor. I don'tsee what you got again, the Japs
journey with all am nationalities mixed upin you. You probably got some Jap
blood yourself. No, I haven'thave. We have a time, maybe
Spanish and Russian, even Irish,but there's not a drop of jump blood
in the bunny, all right.I don't get stealing up. I still

(02:17):
say, there's no reason for youto hate him. Why are you care?
Who's running turns on? I toldhim then, I don't know why
I did. I never told anyoneelse. Or they'd murdered my family nineteen
six years before, my father,my mother, my two sisters. The

(02:39):
Japs had killed them all, andif we hadn't got out of the city
ahead of them, they'd have killedmy brother, Flooran and myself. So
he wasn't There was your waitress andthe waterfron dives hunt on you. No,
and my brother didn't always prowl thestreets looking for trouble. I got
a jump to thankful fact. Nowmaybe you can understand. We got visit.

(03:06):
What do they want? Now?Checking identification papers again? Y press
arrives, lays rites in the presenceof the suggest remember that hereafter no your
papers press here, Danya Bonnia bornin Madrid. You are Spanish, but

(03:36):
you have Russian first name in anIrish middle name? What does that make
me? Perhaps makes you anyway?And Captain, yes, lieutenant, it
would be uh ready dall in Cantonif we put all the beautiful girls in
jail. That is true. Yourpapers are you know that, Miss Bonia?

(03:58):
And now your peppers fish oo me. I ain't got no papers,
cap'n. What you're doing with him? You know? I guess you must
have lost him? What is nationality? I to know that neither? Nobody
never told me. Seems like I'vebeen around Canton since it was knee high.
Or your American fats American? That'sgood, take him away. I

(04:21):
don't know. No, wait aminute, hall, where the horse is?
We're here? I ain't gonna doyou, guys no good lucked up
from the bridge, but I couldhelp you plenty if I was feeding to
mose you around the dog coming out? What your man? Or man?
How would that? Hepp us?I get around Cavin, Old Charlie touch

(04:45):
to everybody. Everybody touched me,and they ain't too careful what to say
neither. If anybody was planning anymonkey business, sabotage or anything like that,
Old Charlie would be just about thefirst to know about it, and
you would report it to us.Why not? You're the guys. You're

(05:05):
running the show, so you're theguys. I take orders from you,
what I mean? They saw whathe meant, and when they left it
was still sitting with me, grinningas if you were proud of what he
had done. I got up withouta word and went to the bar and

(05:26):
bought a drink. I brought itback and held it out. Hey,
do you buy it from me?Johnny? Yes, I bought it for
you. Well, now that's smileynice. Have you let me have it?
I'll let you have it. Thatwhat you ideas from good wish in
the face? What idea? Icouldn't find words to tell you what I

(05:48):
think of your Charlie, but Iwanted you to know I was sorry afterwards.
After all, Charlie was old andhungry and half cracked. I should
have saved it for somebody else,someone closer and dearer to me. I

(06:14):
should have saved it for my brother, Florian, who was waiting for me
when I got home. I toldyou never get it here, Tanya,
hurry up and change your clothes.We're going to a party. The party.
What party, Florian, Well,it's sort of an anniversary banquet.
You know, five years in Canton. There's gonna be a lot of important
people there, Chinese Japanese, bothbig celebration, and we're going to celebrate

(06:38):
with them. We weren't invited,of course, but I know a fellow
at the door. He's gonna letus in. We rubbed shoulders with some
of the most important people in Canton, maybe even with the men who murdered
your mother and father. Oh don'tbe like that, Tanya. That was
a long time ago. These aren'tthe same us who took nineteen now Japanese.

(07:01):
You are not going to the party, Florian. We got nothing to
celebrate. No, maybe you arenot gone, but I am why because
I know what side my bed isputting on. That's why the chap side.
As long as the top dog.Yes, and it looked like they're
going to be top dog for along time. I see you're retraitor to

(07:25):
our family, Florine. We haven'tgot family, Tanya. We haven't got
anything, and we never will haveunless one of us thoughts playing on the
winning team. See you later.I didn't sleep well that night, and
later in the dark, feeling asif I were alone and you know,

(07:46):
a world of enemies. That's thesame feeling haunted me all the next day
at ly changed. Charlie didn't cometo the tvern that evening. I didn't
see him til I was through working, set out into the dark street.
Then a shadowy figure and staggering upto me her turn. You're drunk,

(08:09):
Charlie, better go home. That'sjust when I was thinking, hurry,
I can't see him together. Thestrait keeps going around, and the circles.
How about you kind of steal Charlieon. I'm sorry, I want
to get home myself. It's late. Come on, tell her this way,

(08:30):
couple child. He grabbed my armand hung on. Trug girl,
it's indeedier to do what he askedme to argue about good girl. I'd
never seen his home, but heremembered the address, and I let him
toward it through the deserted street her. It was the kind of place you'd
expect Charlie to live, in,a filthy two story dump in the worst

(08:56):
part of Canton. He was stillholding my arm as I took his chin
and locked his door for him.Good night, Charlie, go to bed
and sleep it off. Come on, no, good night. You're a
bottle and Jenny with his handle bad. I don't want it drown. Come
on anyway, come on, you'rehere. But he didn't let go.

(09:24):
His fingers were like a bight aroundmy waist. He jerked me across the
pressure and shoved me into the pitchblack room and found the door. H
you filthy old bump. Let meout of here. Sorry. I had
a man handle you like that.It was the only safe way of getting
you in here. I thought someoneelse had said it. I thought there

(09:48):
must be three of us in theroom. And the light flashed down and
they were just two, just Charlieand Mean surprised down. I'm sorry,
but I have to play it safe. You say e Tanya, I am
an American, an agent of theOSS, and didn't speak and stared at

(10:13):
him. Tried to understand, triedto connect him with a shuffling little wharf
rid I'd always known as Charlie.You realize, of course, Tania,
this is something of an act offaith, exposing my identity to you like
this. No one else in Cantonknows who I am. I've had a

(10:33):
long time before I decided to letyou in on it. When you told
me about your family, I hada hunch I could trust you, And
then when you threw that drink inmy face, I was sure of it.
But I mean, that's right,I'm still Charley. But why have
you done this? Why should youtrust me with your life? For a
very good reason, because I needyour help my head. You see,

(10:56):
I've operated alone here for a longtime. Well it has been too tough.
But now now Jack Intelligence is tighteningup a lot of things. I
can't do alone anymore. That's whyI need you. But I have no
experienced I don't know anything about courage, and you hate the Japanese. That's

(11:16):
worth a lot more of an experience. What do you want me to do,
Charlie, Hm, come on upstairs. He led me up a long,

(11:37):
narrow, nickety staircase. He openedthe door to a tiny dart like
a room just beneath the roof.It was heart and stuffy. The light
he switched on was so ding thatat first I couldn't see. Do you
know what this is? Tanya?Radio transmitter? You send messages to whom

(11:58):
Americans maines operating off the Chinese coast, And what I send is all the
information I can get about jack shippingentering and leaving the port of Canton.
I see tell you you weigh onsailors at leech Hens all day you're drinking.
I've never drunk with a Japanese sailor, but you could. Sailors talk

(12:18):
a lot when they're drunk, Andif they don't talk enough, I could
provide you with knockout drops. They'dsleep peacefully while you examined their papers.
Hi, I see it scares youa little little? Yes? You see
a archit? What a letter onthe wall? Homostat's better enough? Oh
what is it? Charlie? What'sa little precaution I've taken? I wouldn't

(12:41):
want this transmitter to fall into Japanesehands. They could do a great deal
of damage with her. But thelabor in the wall that can do a
great deal of damage too. Itsets off an explosive that it'd blow this
building sky high. I wasn't sorryto leave that room. We went downstairs

(13:05):
a few minutes later he stood infront of me watching Tania. Let me
explain something. We're all volunteers inthe OSS, and the people who help
us are volunteers too. You don'thave to do this unless you want to.
I understand, Charley. If yourefuse, I won't worry about what

(13:26):
you know. I'll still trust you. I don't intend to refuse. It
doesn't scare you too much. WhenI think of my father and mother and
sisters, it doesn't scare me atall. It's a deal. It's a
deal, I am. I don'thave any liquor. You might have a

(13:48):
smoke on the tone. I verycan seal it. I haven't had one
for years. Keep the thie.Thanks to a free world, Tanya,
do a free world. That night, I slept work now I had friends

(14:16):
and allies. That is, Islept well until sometime shortly before dawn,
and then the sound of my bedroomdoor opening awoke me. I wasn't frightened.
I knew who it was and whathe wanted. It had happened so
many times before. I waited untilhe reached my dresser, until he bent

(14:37):
over my purse. Don't partake anyof my money, Florian, Oh,
oh you're awake. Well I wasyoung, Yes, I know, but
I really can't spare any this week. I need a little I got.
You don't need it any more thanI do. I'm broke, Tanya.
And where am I supposed to getmoney to live on? Now? Thought
of my purse? Please close it, Florian? All right, all right,

(15:00):
bos hey, what's this? What? Where you get these? What?
Frient? These American cigarettes? Igot them at a tavern who from
from a job soldier a job soyeah, he had taken them off an

(15:20):
American prisoner ward and a job gavehim to you. Yes, why not?
Are you accept them? Naturally?I said to them? Where so
now my noble sister has accepting giftsfrom the enemy. Either you had a
great change of heart on you orelse or else? What or else?

(15:41):
You are lying? Beginning the verynext 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 Iknew to persuade them to talk, and

(16:04):
when it became necessary, I usedsomething else, the little white pills that
Charlie had given me. I don'tnem to drink now, but the evening
is young dad. Come on,come on, let's drink it close to
the Emperor stand of course, youcan't let you. Come on. Let's

(16:32):
it now to the Son of Heaven, his Imperial majesty. Drink. Oh,
it was so easy. Charlie,he was out cold. Had just

(16:53):
reached into his pocket and there werehis papers, of course, after I'd
copied, and there's the information.How am I doing, Charlie? I
knew I was doing well, andas time went on, I did even

(17:14):
better. We would hear reports onCharlie's radio of JAP ship's torpedo and sunk
in Chinese waters, and Charlie wouldsay, I was the baby you told
me about last week. Chuck upanother one for Tanya, the scourge of
the jab Merchant Marine. I wasproud, and I was happy, and

(17:40):
I believed my father and mother andsisters knew, and that they were proud
too. And then came the nightI went straight from lee Chen's tavern to
Charlie's house to tell him what I'dheard Tako on my room. Huh.
That's one of the nuts biggest shipsI know, Charlie, and she's carrying
industrial machinery to Yokohama, one ofthose factories stripped in Fuchow. Be sure

(18:00):
about the sailing time, quite sure. Tomorrow night, at ten o'clock enough,
i'll tip off the sub dride awayand they'll be laying for if she
isn't traveling in convoy, she isn'tcheck, and they'll get her like a
sitting duck. Oh it's late,Tonya better get going. I'll see you
tomorrow, Churn. Not during theday. I'm going down to town horse
Junk on the river way back hereby evening. Now, good night,

(18:25):
let me see if the coast isclear. Okay, go ahead, good
night. It was late, thestreets were dark and deserted. I would
have taken a rich shot home,but it was too late for that,

(18:47):
so I walked, or rather Itried to walk, but it was hard
to keep myself from running. Itold myself I was a fool to be
afraid. The streets were safer thanin broad daylight. There was no one
on them, there was no onewho could possibly I stopped. I thought
I heard footsteps, some one walkingbehind me. I turned. There was

(19:11):
no one there, at least Icouldn't see any one. I started walking
faster, and I grabbed the revolverthat Charlie had given me. And then
I heard the sound again. Thistime I stopped the world around. There
was a street lamp behind me,and I saw a shadow on the wall

(19:32):
of the building, the shadow ofa man. Who's there? Come up
and show me who you are.If you don't, I shoot, Take
it easy time, Florian. Youwouldn't want to shoot your own brother with
you? Florian? What are youdoing here? Where will you following me?

(19:52):
Oh? Just curious, that's all. I've been wondering for quite a
while what you were up to Forquite a while. I've seen you go
to that place several times. Ieven took the trouble to find out who
lives there. It's at all furtherdaycourt Charlie. Yeah, that's right,
Charlie does live very he's sick.Oh he's sick here. Just just an

(20:17):
errand of mercy, Ah, exactly, an airand of 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 you, old boy, and what other reason
would you have to visit him?We walked the rest of the way home

(20:37):
together. I was sure he didn'tbelieve me, but I couldn't go back
to Charlie's to warn him, notwithout getting floy and more suspicious in the
morning, I thought. Then Iremembered that Charlie would be on toung horse
junk on the river in the morning. Lee chen S Tavern opened at noon

(20:59):
the next day. The minute Iwalked in, I knew something was wrong.
There were too many Japanese soldiers,far too many. They sat at
the bar drinking, They played cardsat the tables. They lunged against the
walls, popping their cigarettes and eyeingme as I crossed the room and whispered
to the chain, why are thereso many of them? Maybe your bladh

(21:23):
don't tell you done? My brothersin back room? He saw you,
combat see him, I knew him. I was sick with angulation, but
I was sicker still when I sawhim sitting alone in that back room,

(21:44):
when I saw this smirking triumph onhis face. Good morning, Tanya,
that's your sick friend this morning.Don't stand here 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 wasone operating in Canton. They haven't been

(22:08):
able to get their hands on himuntil 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 wentlast night, I mean, and there's
a crowd of them here. Theyabound to pick him up pretty soon.
Didn't you get a bonus for betrayingme too? Or I might have,

(22:29):
but I wouldn't sell out my ownsister. I kept you in the clear.
I told him you helped me spothim. Thank you, Florian,
Oh, not at all, Tarnya. By the way, I can pay
you back some of money I lefthim from your purse. After all.
If it one for you, Iwouldn't be sitting pretty now with a couple
of hundred yen even the score.Huh, Why you say? There was

(22:56):
so much I could have said,but I didn't waste the time. One
thing mattered now Charlie was still free. I swore, by the memory of
my mother and father that I wouldkeep him free. It was a half
hour before I managed to slip awayfrom me Chins unnoticed. Charlie had introduced
me to Tongue how and I hadbeen aboard his junk the week before,

(23:17):
so the gorillas on guard around theboat recognized me. They led me to
a cabin. It's Tanya, Charlie. Tanya, I thought you were Tongue
Ho. He just wanted to showthem the courier from Hong Kong, some
sort of important news, not asimportant as the news I have for you.

(23:38):
I poured it all out and helistened thoughtfully. I found a transmitter,
of course, but that's not goodto them. Couldn't they use it
to send false messages. I'm withoutthe cord book. The subs with all
the messages were forny. They'd figureout what had happened. But where is
the cordbook? Right here? Oh, Charlie, then there's no reason why
you can't escape. Oh no,that I can see my usefulness and Cantanah's

(23:59):
over. Yeah, they'll pull outboth of us. You'll take me with
you, sure, Tomahow will takeus up river? It well here he
is now. I hope that courier'sreport was better than the news time you
brought me, tong Hu. Itwas about captive of American flyers, Charlie,
What about them? They'll tell them, have them brought into Concong.
They're being sent to prison camps inyour fine they sell tonight they broad the

(24:22):
that got to my rule, TacuttaRum. That's the ship I told you
about last night. Yeah, it'sthe ship already of the Suficer torpedo there
well, torpedo our own mending,Charlie, and will if I don't con
them in the order. Gotta letthem know the flyers are aboard. They
gotta let the chip go through.You cannot tend them, Charlie. You
cannot get to the transmitter. Ihave to look at a Japanese soldier.

(24:42):
They're waiting for you, or getpast them somehow, Chuffy. No,
don't go back there. They'll killyou if you do, and they'll kill
those flyers if I don't. Thereare fifty of them, there's only one
of me. I said I wouldgo back to him. I said he
would need help getting past the jocks. I said I wouldn't leave Canton without

(25:04):
him, and in the aim becauseI let them no choice. He allowed
me to stay at his side.He told me his plans before we left
the boat, and be waiting forme in the room downstairs. But we
won't go that way. There's atrap door and the ceiling of the radio
room. If we can get intothe building next door and out under the
roof, we'll be able to jumpover under my building. We may get
in and send a message without evenlelling them nowhere there. A half hour

(25:29):
later we were creeping up the stairsof the building next door. The two
minutes later we stood huddled on theedge of the adjoining roof. All right,
that's jump. Try to land asquietly as she can't, and then
flatten our stomachs. We crawled towardthe trap door and tried open it to

(25:51):
rusty hinges, and lowered ourselves intothe radio room. Charlie sat down at
the transmitter book in his hand.I went to the door, my revolver
in mine. Have you made contactwith him, Charlie, he sounds from
downstairs. No, not yet,Charlie, hurry, yes, but listen.

(26:17):
Someone coming upstairs, two of them, at least maybe three. Okay,
get going down, no quick,I throw the trap door and over
the roof those orders. But youchat have me right behind you. I
made contact. Now all I haveto do is finish the message. I
can get out of here. Thiswas a lie. It was the only

(26:40):
liar that Charlie ever told me.And I crossed the roof. I looked
behind me, and he wasn't there. I went down the stairs next door,
and now down to the street,and he still wasn't there. I
moved quickly through the crowd, stilllooking back, still waiting, still hoping,
And then he had pulled the leverthat destroyed the transmitter. Later,

(27:12):
a long time later, I learnedthat the Dakotamaru had passed safely through the
submarines with fifty American flyers aboard.Charlie had sent his message in time.
He had performed his last service forthe osays, the last but one,

(27:33):
I mean the very last, hadbeen to die for it. And once
again the report of another OSS agentcloses with the words mission accomplished. Listen

(27:56):
again next week for another true adventureon the files of the OSS on Cook
and Dagger. Heard in today's Fulkand Dagger Adventure. As Charlie was Ian

(28:18):
Martin, Kanya, Brianna Rapa,Chlorian Arnomark. Others were Ralph Bell,
Raymond Edward Johnson, Carl Weber andGuy Repp. Script was written by Kenfield
and music was under the direction ofJohn Guard. Sound effects by Max Russell
and Frank Laxman. Engineering Don Apple. Today's Oss Adventure was based on the
book Polk and Dagger by Corey Fordand Alista McBain. This program is produced

(28:41):
by Lewis G. Cowen and AlfredHollander under the direction and supervision of Sherman
Marx. Three Chimes Mean Good Timeson NBC. Some supervision of Sherman Marx
three Chimes Mean Good Times on NBC. Some