Spies of the Balkans

comedy was the best part. Everybody laughed at the food fight and applauded Hitler’s dance with an inflated globe, literally kicking the world around. The political speech at the end was spoken out in Greek by the theatre owner, who stood to one side of the screen and read from notes.

Zannis didn’t find it all that funny, the way Mussolini provoked Hitler. The movie was banned in Germany, but Hitler would no doubt be treated to a private screening-trust that little snake Goebbels to make sure he saw it. Hitler wouldn’t like it. So, some comedian thought the Axis partners were comic? Perhaps he’d show him otherwise. When the movie was over, and the crowd dispersed in front of the mosque, Zannis wasn’t smiling. And in that, he saw, he wasn’t alone.

“So!” said a triumphant Tasia. “What will Adolf think of this?”

“I wouldn’t know,” Zannis said. “I’ll ask him when he gets here.”

14 December. The Breguet airplane bumped and quivered as it fought the turbulence above the mountains. Zannis was alarmed at first, then relaxed and enjoyed the view. Too soon they descended above Sofia airport, then zoomed toward the runway-too fast, too fast-and then, just as the wheels bounced on the tarmac and Zannis held a death grip on the arms of his seat, something popped in his left ear and the sound of the engines got suddenly louder. He could hear in both ears! He was overjoyed, smiling grandly at a dour Bulgarian customs official, which made the officer more suspicious than usual.

It was dusk when they landed in Budapest. Zannis took a taxi to the railway station and checked into one of the travelers’ hotels across the square. In his room, he looked out the window. Looked, as big windblown snowflakes danced across his vision, at the people hurrying to and from their trains, holding on to their hats in the wind. Looked for surveillance, looked for men watching the station. What happened to the fugitives who came here? Who was hunting them? How was it managed?

The following day, he waited until one in the afternoon, rode a taxi across the Szechenyi Bridge, and made his way to Ilka’s Bar. Which was small and dark and almost deserted-only one other customer, a tall attractive woman wearing a hat with a veil. She was not a casual patron but sat nervously upright, staring straight ahead, a handkerchief twisted in her hands.

As for Gustav Husar, he was nowhere to be seen. Except on the walls: a glossy publicity photograph of a menacing Gypsy Gus applying a headlock to a bald fellow in white spangled tights, and framed clippings from newspapers: Gypsy Gus with his arm around a blond actress, a cigarette holder posed at an angle in her gloved hand; Gypsy Gus flanked by four men who could only have been Chicago gangsters; Gypsy Gus sitting on another wrestler as the referee raised his hand to slap the canvas, signaling a pin.

Zannis had a cup of coffee, and another. Then, some forty-five minutes after he’d arrived, two men strolled into the bar, one with a slight bulge beneath the left-hand shoulder of his overcoat. He nodded to the barman, glanced at the woman, and had a long look at Zannis, who stared into his coffee cup. As the other man left, the barman took an orange, cut it in half, and began squeezing it in a juicer. Very quiet at Ilka’s, the sound of juice splashing into a glass seemed quite loud to Zannis.

The barman’s timing was exquisite-so that Gustav Husar, entering the bar, could take his glass of orange juice to a table in the corner. Zannis started to rise, but the tall woman was already hurrying toward the table. There was not much to be seen of the wrestling Gypsy, Zannis realized, only the rounded shoulders and thick body of a man born to natural strength, now dressed in a cashmere overcoat and a stylish silk scarf. On his huge head, where only a fringe of graying hair remained, a black beret. He had blunt features and, flesh thickened at the edges, cauliflower ears. His eyes were close-set and sharp. Cunning was the word that came to Zannis.

As Husar and the woman spoke in hushed tones, she reached beneath her veil and dabbed at her eyes with the handkerchief. Husar patted her arm, she opened her purse, and took out an envelope. This she handed to Husar, who slid it in the pocket of his overcoat. Then she hurried out the door, head held high but still dabbing at her eyes. The man with the bulging overcoat was suddenly at Zannis’s table and said something in Hungarian. Zannis indicated he didn’t understand. “I can speak German,” he said in that language. “Or maybe English.” Foreseeing the difficulties of a Greek needing to speak with a Hungarian, he had studied his English phrasebook, working particularly on words he knew he’d require.

The man turned, walked over to Husar, and spoke to him briefly. Husar stared at Zannis for a time, then beckoned to him. As Zannis seated himself, Husar said, “You speak English?”

“Some.”

“Where you from? Ilka’s in the office, she speaks everything.”

“Greek?”

“Greek!” Husar gazed at him as though he were a novelty, produced for Husar’s amusement. “A cop,” he said. “All the way from Greece.”

“How do you know I’m a cop?” Zannis said, one careful word at a time.

Husar shrugged. “I know,” he said. “I always know. What the hell you doing up here?”

“A favor. I need a favor. Sami Pal gave me your name.”

Husar didn’t like it. “Oh?” was all he said, but it was more than enough.

“Sami gave me the name, Mr. Husar, nothing else.”

“Okay. So?”

“A favor. And I will pay for it.”

Husar visibly relaxed. A corrupt cop. This he understood. “Yeah? How much you pay?”

“Two thousand dollars.”

Husar swore in Hungarian and his eyes widened. “Some favor! I don’t kill politicians, mister-”

“Zannis. My first name is Costa.”

“Your right name? I don’t care, but-”

“It is.”

“Okay. What you want from me?” I’m going to say no, but I want to hear it.

“You know people escape from Germany?”

“Some, yeah. The lucky ones.”

“I help them.”

Husar gave him a long and troubled look. Finally he said, “You are, maybe, Gestapo?”

“No. Ask Sami.”

“Okay, maybe I believe you. Say I let you give me two thousand dollars, then what?”

“People come off the …” For a moment, Zannis’s English failed him; then it worked. “People come off the excursion steamer from Vienna and get on the train to Yugoslavia. Zagreb, maybe Belgrade. You hide them, help them safe on the train.”

Husar puffed his cheeks and blew out a sound, pouf, then looked uncertain. “Not what I do, mister. I run business, here in Budapest.”

“This is business.”

“It ain’t business, don’t bullshit me, it’s politics.”

Zannis waited. Husar drank some of his juice. “Want some orange juice?”

“No, thank you.”

“Why I said Gestapo is, they’re around, you understand? And they play tricks, these guys. Smart tricks.” He leaned forward and said, “The Germans try to take over here. And there’s Hungarians want to help them. But not me. Not us, see? You got this problem? In Greece?”

“No.”

“We got it here.” He drank more juice, and made a decision. “How I find out what you want? What people? When? Where?”

“You own a cop here, Mr. Husar?”

“Gus.”

“Gus.”

“Yeah, sure, I do. I own a few.”

“We send him … It’s like a telegram, a police telegram.”

“Yeah? Like a ‘wanted’ notice?”