he had struggled the thick fiber would have strangled him.
After checking his bonds, they stepped back. A few moments later the door opened and a slim man well over six feet tall entered the room. The Western agent immediately recognized him as Jon Tzerny, bead of Communist Integrated Intelligence. He came right up to Don, his small beady eyes bright and filled with pleasure. It looked as if it was all he could do not to rub his hands together gleefully.
“So nice to have you with us,' he chuckled. 'We I have met before, of course, but never in circum-stances quite so appropriate. However, I regret that I have no time to waste on hospitality and niceties.' He bent his anemic, perspiring face close to the Western agent. 'You have been showing an unusual interest in one of our top scientists during your stay,' he went on. 'Acting like a good, conscientious member of the Party, she contacted us and told us of your attentions.
“There is not much time and I have no wish to be subtle and play cat-and-mouse with you, Cabot. We both know why you sought out Miss Harnecz. The question is, what did you find out about her that might be useful to your country?'
The Western agent looked him straight in the eye. 'I confirmed that she's a lesbian,' he told Tzerny. 'And that she's only interested in members of her own sex.' He shrugged his shoulders. “I know that she's working on a very important missile project for you, but I know nothing about the details of it. She wasn't exactly forthcoming about her work or her love life.'
“Yes,' Tzerny commented. 'However, I doubt very much that you would be returning to the West with such scanty information. If that was all you'd discovered you would certainly not be leaving Hungary yet. Western Intelligence obviously knows these facts already.
'No, I think that wittingly or unwittingly, Miss Harnecz or her fellow-workers have revealed much more than you say about her work for us. You were posing as a Communist security agent. Oh, yes, she saw through your disguise. Miss Harnecz is a phenomenally intelligent woman. But nevertheless, before you got to see her, you had to pass through various checks and the people conducting them may have carelessly given you certain information.'
He turned to the two gunmen. «Did you search him yet?' he demanded. When they shook their heads, he gestured at them impatiently. «Idiots I Do it now. He must have a written or taped report. He would post it at the airport or get someone to carry it to the West for him, just in case something happened to him en route.'
Tzerny frowned. “Wait a minute. Are you quite sure no one contacted him at the hotel? Did he have an opportunity to pass anything to someone who might be traveling to the West?'
The men shifted uneasily. One of them said: 'Well, there was a girl in the bar this evening. He took her to his room.'
The skinny man turned on him, his face livid. 'You fool!' he screamed. 'Where is she? Didn't you check on her?'
“She’s an airline stewardess,” the man mumbled. “No one said anything to us about intercepting anyone else, we thought he was just making up for not getting to bed with Miss Harnecz.”
“A stewardess!” Tzerny looked as If he could strangle the man with just one of his huge hands. “And you didn’t suspect? This will be dealt with later,” he promised the unhappy man. “Now search him!”
It took only a few minutes for them to find the tape. Tzerny’s eyes gleamed triumphantly. “Ah, the proof!” he exclaimed. He looked at his watch. “It’s now 1:40,” he told them. “Too late to have the girl caught now. I hope for both your sakes that this is the only copy of his report!”
“It is. Don’t worry,” Don said. “You don’t think I’d trust an airline stewardess with dynamite like this, do your He thought quickly. The important thing was to convince them that Erica was simply a pick-up, that she was not involved in any way with the plot to find out exactly what Eva Harnecz was working on. The best way to do this was by telling Tzerny all he knew, leaving nothing out.
“When you play that tape you’ll know what I discovered anyway. So I might as well tell you now,” he said. “You’re right I did pick up quite a lot of information from Eva’s associates and fellow scientists. Enough to make me realize that she’s about to make the biggest breakthrough in missiles so far.
“It still needs a lot of work before the theory can be made a reality, but Eva is well on the way towards finalizing her ideas and putting them into practice.
“So far as we know, she’s the only person in the entire world who can do it. She’s the only scientist in the East or the West who’s come so close to accomplishing such a fantastic feat. I was sent here to check on the rumors and find a chink in her political affiliations that might serve our purpose. Our purpose being, of course, to persuade her to defect to the West.
“That’s about all,” he finished. “Since you’ve picked me up before I can report back, you’ve only got to wipe me out and tighten your security around Miss Harnecz. Haven’t you?”
Tzerny thought for a few minutes, letting the man’s confession turn over in his mind. Finally, he said, “Quite so, quite so. But something about this story I don’t like. You have never struck me as the type of man to admit defeat so easily. Why are you being so frank and open with me… unless you have something hidden up your sleeve?”
Don made no reply. Tzerny weighed the tape in his hand. “No matter,” he said at last “Even if your superiors do get a copy of this tape it will tell them very little that they don’t already know. And the price of this information will be the life of their best-known agent. You, Mr. Cabot!”
Don met Tzerny’s eyes unflinchingly. A single L bare bulb burned over his head, the harsh white light giving the room a ghostly, naked appearance. Tzerny turned away and walked to the door. “When I’m listening to your report, I shall try to think of a suitable end for you,” he promised. “Something befitting your standing in the world of espionage.”
As Tzerny went out, be held a warning finger up at the guards. “At the least sign of movement, however harmless it might appear, shoot him!” he instructed. “This man is highly dangerous.”
He walked out, leaving the door slightly ajar behind him. The two gunmen stood in front of. Don, watching him intently, scarcely blinking. For a moment, he felt completely resigned to his fate; he seemed listless and apathetic, hoping only that Tzerny's killing would be as quick and painless as possible. Though he knew very well that the Communist security chief would prolong his agony for as long as he could.
Erica's face loomed up suddenly in his mind, reminding him that life had been-could be-worth living and exciting. All right, so this particular mission had proved a failure, at least as far as he was concerned. So what? In the past there had been many where against all odds he had come off best. And you couldn't hope to win them all, Don reminded himself.
What had happened to his private promise that he would go out fighting? He began to cast around for something that might turn the tables, provide him with a 'miracle.'
He had no illusions that they wouldn't shoot him if he made a suspicious movement. The men were in Tzerny's black books already through their negligence over Erica, their eyes were wide and staring, waiting to use their guns if he gave them the slightest excuse.
While their search had been thorough, they had missed the tiny pellet of gas concealed in his ring. The center had been scooped out and it only required a brief, sudden Hick to send the pellet hurtling out towards them. He began to clench the finger against his palm, moving it as slowly as possible.
With luck, they wouldn't even notice the minute, highly concentrated pellet of gas until it had started to overpower them. Don let it go!
They didn't seem to have spotted the unobtrusive outward flick of his finger. He waited, holding his breath and trying not to draw their attention to it. His trusty razor blade was already concealed between his fingers, dropped into them from its hiding place under his watch strap.
The gas worked quickly. Before either of the men were able to react and squeeze the triggers of their guns it had seeped into their eyes and throats, blinding and choking them.
Their guns fell from their fingers to the floor as their hands went automatically to their streaming eyes. It was as if acid had been suddenly thrown into them and the men staggered, gasping, around the room, blinded and in terrible pain.
Don's eyes, too, were smarting. But he swiftly cut through the strands of rope binding his wrists and then tore the blade across the cord which secured his ankles. Leaving the noose still around his neck, he leaped up from the chair and smashed the flat of his hand into the nape of their necks in two deadly karate blows.
The men fell heavily to the floor and he snatched up both their guns. The scuffle didn't seem to have
