He wanted her to deliberately seduce this girl, do everything in her power to make Eva love her so much that she'd even act the traitor to please her and to be with her.
Maria shuddered inwardly at the cold bloodedness of the plot. And she realized, not for the first time, how completely the machinations of espionage overlooked and discounted the feelings of its servants. "Will I be working on my own?" she asked "Beta". "Or are you planning to send some strong-arm boys over to help me out?"
"Yes, as a matter of fact I've arranged for an old friend of yours to meet you in Paris. He'll have to keep out of sight of Eva though, because only two days ago he was doing his best to seduce her himself!"
Maria looked pleased. "If it's the man I think you mean, I couldn't be happier," she smiled. "Is it Don Cabot."
"Correct!" he replied. "He'll stay close to you, but rye warned him to keep in the background. The Communists will be particularly interested in meeting up with him. He killed Tzerny, their chief man in Hungary. He's being smuggled out of there this morning on a private charter flight to France.
"Oh, incidentally, you'll be taking along a girl named Erica Sondgaard… Danish. She was with Don in Budapest, more as a messenger than anything else. She'll be acting in the same capacity for you. Anything you feel you can't put into a cable or phone through Erica will deliver personally to me.
"What about 'Alfa'?" Maria asked. "Isn't he involved in this, too? Since Don usually works under him I would have thought… "
"Beta" tapped his pipe against the side of his desk. "It's been decided that the full responsibility for this little exercise should fall on my shoulders, he replied.
The man dropped the cigar into an ashtray, signaling that the interview was over. Maria got to her feet. She felt that there were still dozens of questions she wanted to ask him, but time was growing short.
"We've had word that Eva will be flying to the Riviera via Paris," he added as she turned to go. "Rather a convenient timetable, isn't it? You'll be able to bump into her right away… on the flight from Paris to the Riviera."
Maria turned to make an acid retort to this bit of baiting, but "Beta" was already absorbed in a bulky file, his eyes moving rapidly over the pages as if he had already dismissed her from his mind, She let the door slam behind her, a weak gesture of defiance she knew, but she felt she had to do something to show her disgust.
The Air France jet broke through the heavy dark clouds which hung over Paris' Orly Airport and straightened out from its climb. Just over two hours flying time away it would be coming in to land at the Riviera at about six in the evening.
Maria and Erica sat together in the first class section, talking in low voices. They had met each other just before take-off and Maria had been pleasantly surprised by the youth and attractiveness of her fellow-traveler. Erica was quite low in rank compared to herself, but Maria could tell after a few minutes' conversation with the girl that she possessed considerable potential. Both in terms of intelligence and sex appeal.
She found herself wishing momentarily that it was Erica she had to seduce. That would have been a most enjoyable task, Maria reflected; taking a quick look at her companion's extremely well-filled dress and noting the interesting pout of her lips.
So far, Maria had only caught a few brief glimpses of the woman scientist as they boarded the aircraft. Eva Harnecz was sitting two rows in front of them, accompanied by another Hungarian girl who seemed to be her maid. Two thickset men sat on the aisle opposite them and their eyes were constantly turned to Eva, betraying without a shadow of doubt their function as her bodyguards.
Maria waited until Eva got up to visit the wc, then gave her a few minutes grace before moving as casually as possible down the aisle after her. She could feel the eyes of the two Communist agents boring into her back and couldn't resist the temptation to sway her buttocks seductively as she sauntered away from them.
Curtains hung between the restroom section and the seat compartment and Eva made sure that they were closed after she'd passed through them.
She stood outside the toilet marked "engaged" until Eva opened the door, then smiled as sweetly as she could at the girl. To her surprise, Evain the fleshwas a total contrast to her photographs. She had an extremely beautiful face and figure, vivacious eyes and full red lips that seemed to invite a kiss.
Maria said, "Excuse me, I'm afraid rye left an earring in thereyou didn't happen to see it by any chance, did you?"
"No, I don't think so," Eva replied. Her English was excellentonly the merest trace of a Hungarian accent. Maria noticed that the girl's eyes were meeting hers with a frank, openly appraising gleam in them. Her tongue licked slowly over her upper lip, leaving a moist film on the red flesh.
"Oh dear!" Maria exclaimed. "I do hope it isn't lost. It was a present from a very dear friend of mine. A very special girl friend," she added, letting a very slight emphasis fall upon the last three words. An emphasis which would certainly have been completely lost on anyone unversed in lesbian affairs.
Maria saw instantly that Eva's eyes lifted in sympathetic understanding at the phrase. An unspoken alliance had been formed between the two girls; a silent, almost subliminal bond of recognition.
Eva had been put very much on her guard when she saw the American girl waiting outside the toilet. Then, studying her more closely, she felt convinced that she was simply an ordinary (though extremely beautiful!) touristcertainly nothing to do with Western Intelligence. A slight prickling sensation was running up and down her spine as she stood so close to Maria. The statuesque beauty of the blonde girl was strangely compelling. She sensed an almost tangible flow of rapport between them.
"Please," she said, and it seemed to her that her voice was trembling, so magnetic was the force of the girl's personality. "Let me help you to look for it. Come."
Eva turned back into the toilet and Maria squeezed into the tiny room with her. Their bodies were inevitably brushing together as the girls hunted for the fictitious earring. Eva bent down to search behind the bowl of the lavatory and Maria's silken thighher mini-skirt hem revealing seven inches of lovely leg above the kneewas breathtakingly close to her face.
The plane swayed and she could scarcely avoid her cheek coming into fleshy contact with the girl's thigh, and feeling the taut nylon she loved so passionately, Eva instinctively rubbed her face against Maria's stocking. She felt the girl's leg writhe briefly, but couldn't be sure whether this was due to the movement of the aircraft or not.
Flushed and aroused, Eva got to her feet again. Her companion swayed slightly towards her (and again, Eva found it impossible to know if the action was accidental or not). She put her hands out to steady the girl, and her fingers pressed into the sleek swell of her hips, feeling through the thin material of Maria's skirt her curved and fleshy hip.
Lifting her eyes up to the girl's face, Eva saw with a start that she was about to cry. Tears had welled up in the bright eyes, and Maria's lower lip was trembling prettily.
"It's lostI know it's lost!" she sobbed. "Ill never find it again! Oh, it meant so much to me!" Suddenly, she buried her head on Eva's shoulder and her body shook violently. Eva put her arms more tightly around the girl, drawing her into an embrace and letting their breasts press firmly together.
"There, there'" she soothed, stroking Maria and murmuring the words tenderly into her ear. "Please don't upset yourself. I'm sure your girl friend wouldn't want you to do that'" Eva rested Maria's tear-stained cheek against her own. "Come try to console yourself."
The woman was holding 'the weeping girl very close to her body, planting her feet firmly astride against the movement of the plane. Maria's hands came up slowly around her back and gradually tightened at her spine, the strong fingers pressing into Eva as the girl cuddled tearfully into her body.