distraction.
'What's the meaning of this?' Eva, quickly snatching up a blanket to cover herself, broke into the electric silence which had descended on the room. 'You have no right to threaten my mend in this way… '
They were the men who'd accompanied Eva on the plane, Maria saw. The one she'd had the encounter with in the toilet was staring at her with an undisguised relish in his eyes. He had quite a lot of humiliation to repay her. And he looked as if he couldn't wait to start dishing it out.
Maria noted that they were both pointing guns at her; evidently her reputation had caught up with communist Integrated Intelligence at last, she thought with a wry amusement. Previously, they'd considered one man to be more than a match for the girl agent.
Not taking his eyes from Maria for a single moment, the man told Eva, 'Your friend, as you call her, is a spy-Western espionage agent, you have been deceived, Comrade Harnecz. This woman is only interested in persuading you to defect to the West! Whatever she has told you, whatever affection she has shown you, has been only to further this object.'
Maria cursed under her breath. If only she'd been able to turn the tables before he'd given the game away. Now, even assuming that she escaped, it would be a thousand times more difficult to get Eva to defect. And to convince her that, although at their first meeting she had been motivated by her professional duty, the last hour with the beautiful girl had completely altered her outlook.
Maria was very deeply in love with Eva! And whether she agreed to come over to the West made no difference at all to her relationship with the girl. But now even the slight possibility that Eva would help her to outwit the bodyguards was gone. Maria could see the Communist girl's eyes growing cold and accusing. They stared at her with a growing contempt, a trembling of her lips revealing the hurt she felt beneath her anger.
'Is true?' she demanded. 'Is what they say true? You are Western agent?'
Maria looked her in the eyes. 'Yes,' she said softly. 'It's true, Eva. But the rest of what they said isn't true… not any more. I do love you! No matter what they tell you, you must believe that! I love you!'
The gunman who had spoken now gestured impatiently. “Go back to your hotel, Comrade Eva,' he told the girl. “We have our orders and it is best that you do not see what we must do to her. Go! You will find three men outside with a car. They will take you safely to your own room.'
Eva dressed quickly, went to the door and opened it. She stood there for a moment as if tom between trying to intervene and leaving Maria to her fate.
'Go!' barked the man. 'That is an order, Comrade! Even you must obey!'
She started to back out of the room, unable to tear her eyes away from Maria. When she was halfway through, a hand suddenly went around her neck and gripped her tightly.
Eva was forced forward again, her body shielding a tall, broad-shouldered man who held a.45 automatic to her head.
'Let the guns fall to the floor,' he called to the men. 'Easily and very quickly. Or Miss Harnecz gets a bullet through her pretty head!' They ex* changed a brief look. His finger was curled tightly around the trigger and the expression on his face showed that he would have not the slightest hesitation in keeping his word.
Two soft thuds sounded in the room. The gunmen raised their empty hands and the newcomer pushed Eva to one side, entered the room and kicked the door shut behind him.
'Very nicely done!' he remarked. Marla picked up her own gun and walked to his side.
'Don!' she cried, 'How on earth did you get here?' He grinned at her, careful not to move his eyes from the two Communist agents, and recalling his 'Marie' from the past.
'They cabled me after my report arrived and told me to get to Nice as quickly as possible. All the action was taking place in France, they said… and for once they were right! I chartered a private plane in Paris and Hew the thing here myself! Where do we go now?'
'Somewhere quiet,' Maria told him. 'I've got to have a long tall, with Eva.' She glanced at the girl who was now huddled against the wall, looking startled at the rapid change of events. 'What about the men downstairs? Do you think we can get past them all right?'
Don nodded. 'I spotted them as I came in. Lucidly, they didn't seem to recognize me. You take Eva down the back stairs and I’ll meet you with the car by the fire exit. O.K.?'
'One of our Danish agents is with me… Erica Sondgaard, I'd better take her as well.'
He looked surprised. 'Erica?' he said, 'Is she in the game too? Well, I'll be damned! Yes, bring her along! Anyone else?'
Maria shook her head. 'Okay, off you go. I'll follow in just a moment… ”
Marla raised her eyebrows in mock-modesty, “Really, Don!' she said. 'Like this? At least give me time to dress!' Then, moving quickly, she stripped off the negligee, completely unconcerned that the three men had a dazzling view of her naked body, and pulled panties, bra and a dress on, She grasped Eva's hand.
'Come along, darling,' she said quietly. 'Let's go somewhere where we can talk about all this. I can explain everything, I promise you.'
Eva still looked stunned. She allowed herself to be led out of the room by Maria as if the girl had her under some kind of hypnotic spell. They walked down the hotel corridor toward the fire escape. Eva stopping sharply as the sound of two rapidly fired shots came from the room they'd just left.
'What was that?' she asked anxiously. 'He didn't shoot them, did he? Not in cold blood?'
Marla urged her through the door which led to the rear exit. 'Wait here.” She whispered. 'I'm just going to slip back and get Erica. She's the girl who was with me on the plane.'
“Where are we going? Where are you going to take me?'
'Trust me, darling. Please, trust me. I'll only be a moment.' Maria left the frightened and bewildered girl and rapped loudly on Erica's door. She kept glancing back to Eva, whom she could see huddled nervously behind the glass-fronted door of the back exit.
Eva felt her senses numbed, her mind in a state of acute shock. Things were happening much too quickly for her. She couldn't cope with this rapid and abrupt change of pace. One moment she had been lying peacefully next to Maria's luscious body, the next, she was hurled into a dramatic and dangerous situation where human life was of little value.
Her intelligence warned her to run to flee downstairs and seek the protection of her countrymen who were waiting outside the hotel. But her emotions made her hesitate. She had to know if Maria was the evil and corrupt spy her bodyguards had accused her of being. Somehow it just didn't seem possible. Not Maria, not the sweet and beautiful girl she'd shared such bliss with.
Eva insisted to herself that there was some other explanation. Her mind searched wildly for a more comforting reason that would account for Maria's strange behavior, and the sudden appearance of the American man in her room.
She was still standing there two minutes later when Maria and Erica came through the door and, keeping her between them, each girl holding one of her arms tightly, began to hustle her down the iron stairs.
High-heels clicked noisily on the metal steps as they descended. When they reached the bottom, Don was already waiting for them, the rear door of his Opel open, the engine running.
The girls scrambled into the back seat and Maria slammed the door shut. Instantly, the car moved off. The man shifted quickly into third-gear and gunned the car into the busy traffic circle.
'Too bad about the car,' he apologized. 'I tried to get the Alfa-Romeo but this was all they could let me have at short notice.' His face clouded. 'Damn! They must have spotted us! That's their car coming up alongside!'
The traffic light was still red and the stream of traffic flowing steadily across from their right showed no sign of abating. Marla looked out of the rear window. A black Mercedes was inching up on their left, unable to draw too close to them because of another car which blocked its progress. But she could see a man leaning out of the front passenger seat, a metallic object in his hand glinting in the light from the bright street lamps.
'He's got a gun!' Maria shouted. 'Get down on the floor! Quick!'
A bullet cracked through their rear window and out again, smashing the windshield. Don peered quickly up, saw that the lights were at last changing to green, and thrust the accelerator to the floor, keeping his body well down.
The car hurtled forward, narrowly missing the rear of a small truck, its engine screaming in protest as Don kept it in second gear. He weaved the Opel expertly across the wide boulevard, changing into third as they sped up a narrow street, the Mercedes dose behind.
