The brilliant girl scientist hummed under her breath as she savored the prospect. It might also be possible the thought struck her, to form a threesome with Magda! That could lead to all sorts of interesting varieties of lovemaking!
It was such a wonderful feeling for Eva to know that she would soon be away from the confinements and restraints of both her work and Communist politics. They could dance, take long walks along the beach. There would be so much time for pure pleasure, with Magda, and with others. The spirit of conquest and adventure filled Eva completely.
She had no inkling of the conspiracies that existed around her, no idea really of what a tremendously valuable person she was to the Communist cause. Her work was at the stage where the chemists and engineers would need at least three weeks testing time before they would have to consult her about the final refinements.
Nothing in the world worried Eva… at this moment.
Chapter 6
Maria Marshall alighted from her cab in front of one of the many unmarked government buildings in the area of the Federal Triangle near L'Enfant Plaza. Many of these new buildings contained spillover offices from some of the big departments and many of the smaller agencies. But the one Maria entered was unmarked for an entirely different reason, and the guard at the door was no routine building guard, but a highly paid agent of Western Intelligence.
She had left her luggage at Dulles, hoping that her trip would be a short one, and then it would be back to her paradise island on the Riviera… and Sandra. Today, it was warm in Washington, and Maria wore a thin, stretch-nylon dress without stockings. Once inside the building, she had to show the guard three sets of credentials, sign her name, have a thumbprint taken and whisked through a computer for an "okay." After that, she boarded the elevator and pressed the button for the next to the top floor of the well-guarded building. In the corner of the elevator, at the ceiling, there was a small black object. It was actually the lens of a television camera. Somewhere in the depths of the huge building, her every move was being monitored on a TV screen.
Finally, she was ushered into the carpeted office of her boss, a man known to her only as "Beta." He was a balding man of fifty to fifty-five, she guessed, and from things he had mentioned, she assumed that he had been thoroughly broken in to intelligence work during World War II as an attach at the U.S. Embassy in neutral Switzerland.
"Beta" stood up politely as Maria entered his office and waited until she had taken her seat opposite his desk before sitting back down.
"My apologies for interrupting your holiday, Miss Marshall," he said. And the girl thought she could detect genuine regret in his voice. "However, as things have turned out, I don't think you'll be kept too long from your vacation.
"'As a matter of fact," he continued, "I've arranged for you to return this afternoon!" He passed an airline ticket across the desk and Maria took it, her eyes widening in surprise.
"Well, forgive me for saying so, but wasn't it rather a waste of time to bring me all the way back here for a briefing? Surely you could have sent me a coded cable if the job I've got to do is in France? At least," she said after a pause. "I assume that's what you have in mind. There's certainly not going to be much time to do any work here."
"Beta" got his cigar going and blew a thick cloud of vile-smelling smoke past her head before replying. "No," he told her. "First of all, we couldn't run even the smallest risk of a communication being intercepted. The job is far too important. Secondly, you will start the assignment on the plane in Paris.
"Let me put you in the picture: I assume you know that a certain Miss Eva Harnecz is one of the East's leading woman scientists?" Maria nodded.
"But what you probably don't know… that nobody knew until this morning, when I received our Budapest agent's report-is that she's almost perfected an RPM-a radar-proof guidance missile!"
Maria leaned forward in her chair, amazement on her face. That's incredible!" she breathed. I always thought such a thing was scientifically impossible! Are you sure it's not just a piece of propaganda the Communists have allowed to filter out?"
"Beta" shrugged, lifting his hands in a gesture of uncertainty. "We can't say. It s a possibility, he admitted. "But, naturally, we can't afford to take chances. If she is on the brink of devising such a devastating invention the Communist will, quite literally, be able to strike anywhere without warning.
"I don't have to remind you, he went on. That everything we say in this room is "A-crypto" and confidential. However, what I'm about to tell you now is the most private and not-to-be-revealed information you've ever heard. I thought I should make that absolutely clear.
"Now somehow or other, and in spite of the danger that she'll be exposed to, Miss Harnecz has persuaded her superiors to allow her to take a vacation in Western Europe!" He sniffed as if the vagaries of the Communist Integrated Intelligence filled him with disdain.
"She'll be heavily guarded, of course, and watched every second. However, we want you to do your utmost to get to know her and try to convince her that she should defect to our side!"
Maria's mouth opened wide. She could scarcely believe her ears. "But this is a job for a man?" she protested. "Not because of the danger involved, she added quickly. "You know that I'm capable of looking after myself In a tight spot as well as any male!.
"To persuade her to defect means only one thing. You'd have to get her to fall in love with one of our agents. How can I…"
Maria broke off in mid-sentence, feeling her cheeks coloring as "Beta" nodded slightly, his eyes mischievous. "I see!" she finished softly. "You think I could succeed in that department better than a man because…"
"All right. I won't be coy about it! We both know that I enjoy going to bed with girls! But is Eva really a lesbian? Are you absolutely sure?"
"Absolutely!" the man told her. "Our most notorious Lothario has done his damndest to make her fall for him. And he had no luck at all! Our only hope is to try someone who will appeal to her, ah, forgive me, my dearher somewhat sophisticated tastes! I can't think of anyone more attractive and more appealing than you."
"Anything for the free world," Maria murmured to herself. "All in the line of duty, I suppose." To "Beta" she said: "Woul4n't it be easier and more likely of success to simply kidnap her, though? This seems a roundabout way of trapping her."
"Beta" shook his head. "No," he told her. "We need to find out if the report is true first of all. If it turns out to be only propaganda, we can forget the whole thing. On the other hand, ifas I'm inclined to suspectMiss Harnecz has broken through a tremendous scientific barrier, we want her to work for us. She'll hardly do that if we kidnap her.
"Our prestige and importance in the eyes of the world will be increased a thousand fold if we can persuade her to defect. So you see, my dear, how very important this mission is. I'm asking a great deal of you, I know. But it's a long-shot we've got to take. If it comes off, if you succeed in making Eva fall desperately in love with you (and I leave all the details to you, of course!) it ought to be a fairly easy matter, to play on the girl's loyalty and get her to come to our side.
Maria still felt bewildered. It was the first time the Department had made use of her particular sexual desires and the calm, unemotional way in which "Beta" was telling her to use the expertise of her lesbian inclinations was frightening.