“What are you going to do with us?”
There was a pause. “That depends. You’ll find out. You may come in very handy, both of you. No point in liquidating assets before you have to.”
Again, Shaw tried to push his swollen tongue through his lips, but again he failed. When he opened his eyes, he was forced to close them again at once as blinding shafts of light, painful light, shot into his pupils. And a moment later, unconsciousness came back.
He didn’t know how long, it was before he came round the second time. He was in darkness when he did so, as he found when he was at last able to open his eyes fully. He could see nothing for a while, and then he caught the faintest glimmer of light from behind a curtain drawn across a window. After a time, he believed he could hear breathing. That would be Virginia, perhaps. He waited until he felt stronger and then called out softly, “Virginia… are you there? Can you hear me?”
He heard the sigh of relief. “Yes, sure it’s me. How are you, Steve?”
“Still in one piece.” His head hurt abominably and he felt sick, but he did his best to keep his concentration. “Wish I could see something. Any idea where we are?”
“Yes,” she said bitterly. “I know exactly where we are! We’re firmly locked in a flat at the top of a skyscraper block of workers’ flats, in Neruyin Street. That’s in what I guess they’d call a suburb — anyway, it’s a long ride on the metro.”
“You’re remarkably well informed.” He winced as a wave of pain throbbed through his temples. “How come?”
“I came here under my own steam, that’s how I know.”
“But—”
“They rang me at the hotel,” she told him. “The British Embassy… at least that’s what they said… this guy Sir Hubert Worth-Butters. He said it was vital that I came along to this address. He said you wanted me…”
“And you came, and you found Fawcett.”
“Wicks, too. They’ve both gone now, but don’t ask me where.”
He said sourly, “I wouldn’t ever have thought an FBI agent would have fallen for that old gag!”
“But look,” she said, with a hint of tears in her voice, “the time you’d given me was almost up. I was about to call the Embassy anyway. I had no reason to think the message was phoney, I just simply didn’t think that way at all!” There was a pause. “If it’s of any interest, Steve, I was worred about you. The call came when I was getting most worried and it just had to be genuine — or so I thought, if you can follow me. Who else knew about your job, other than this Jones and Worth-Butters?”
“Who indeed?” Shaw asked in a hard voice. “That’s really a pretty interesting question, isn’t it?” He stopped, taking a deep breath as another wave of pain flooded him. “How did they get me up here?”
She said, “I gather they sprinkled you with hard liquor and forced enough down you to affect your breath… and passed you off as a drunk.”
“Nice of them. So that accounts for the aroma. Have you found out what Wicks and Fawcett are up to, Virginia?”
“No,” she answered from the darkness, “Not exactly what they’re up to, but I did overhear something one of them was whispering to the other, though I didn’t get it all…”
“Well?”
“It was something about Lake Baikal and the Soviet atomic plant around that way — and it could link with what you said Worth-Butters told you earlier, couldn’t it?”
Breath hissed through Shaw’s teeth. “Can you remember what it was all about?”
“That’s all I caught,” she said. “Just the mention of the area. Sorry I can’t be more help, Steve.”
“Well, never mind. As a matter of fact, that’s quite a lot of help. Anything else — anything at all?”
“Not a thing,” she said.
“Nothing’s emerged about Conroy’s cover identity? Was he mentioned at all?”
“No. They just weren’t talking,” she said a shade desperately. “Just in case we got away, maybe, though I doubt if they’re taking much of a chance on that!”
“That’s what they think. Virginia, we’re on our way out of here just as soon—”
“Oh, sure!” she broke in sarcastically. “That’ll be dead easy! We’re only tied up like you see in the Westerns. And even if we weren’t… didn’t I tell we’re locked in, and right bang at the top of a sixty-storey building?”
He murmured. “Sixty. That’s a long way up, all right, but we’ll find a way. Since we appear to be on our own here—”
“We’re not,” she said snappily. “There’s Lover-girl.”
“Lover-girl?” he repeated, somewhat shaken. “A doubtful-looking piece they said came along with you. She’s standing guard… to feed us and all that.”
“I see,” Shaw said thoughtfully. “Looks as if they mean to keep us some while, in that case. Maybe till after Kosyenko’s trip to Lake Baikal. Where is she now?”
“Around some place — in the flat, anyhow. She’ll be back. They locked her in with us.”
Shaw let out a long breath. “We’ve got to work on her when she shows up again. Once I’m out of this rope I’ll have us out of here whatever happens, don’t you worry!”
Ten minutes later, he was feeling much better, and he didn’t need to close his eyes for more than a few seconds when, after the door had been heard to open, a light was flicked on in the centre of the room. When he did open his eyes, he saw the girl from the alley behind Tavda Street, and she had a small but efficient-looking automatic in her hand.
Twenty
The girl moved towards Shaw with the gun pointed, none too steadily, at his head.
He had thought earlier that she was a good-looker; he saw no reason to alter his opinion now. She was tall and straight, with long legs, a slim waist, and a well-developed bosom — and though she didn’t look particularly bright she looked determined. All the same, Shaw doubted if she’d ever had a gun in her hands before. She was handling it gingerly and she gave the distinct impression that she might fire it from sheer nervous strain and a general terrified desire to do exactly as she’d been told by Wicks and Fawcett.
In Russian, she said, “I heard talk.”
“You probably did,” Shaw agreed, “but you can put that gun away. Just in case you hadn’t noticed, we’re tied up and can’t move.”
The girl nodded and said seriously, “Yes, I know. I helped to tie you, Cane.” She turned away and walked with a loping stride across to a table in a corner of the room and laid down the automatic carefully, as if it might go off spontaneously and she was glad to be relieved of it.
Shaw said, “So you were one of Fawcett’s lot all along.”
She shook her head, making her long, dark hair fall across her face. “I do not know what you mean by that,” she said, looking at him boldly, “but I think the answer is no. I have become involved only because you came to the side-door. I do not know any of what has gone before.”
“You mean they brought you here because you know too much now?”
“I do not understand that, Cane. The men have explained that you are both criminals, wanted in your own countries—”
“Which is a load of lies,” Virginia put in icily, “and I guess you know it!”
The girl turned to her. “It is what the men have told me and I accept what they say, because I know them, and they are friends of Comrade Gregor’s—”
“You mean you’re scared to ask questions,” Shaw broke in. “What have they threatened you with if you don’t do what they want — which, I presume, is to hold us here till they come back for us?”
She nodded. “That is right, that is what they wish.” She walked across the room again towards a low cabinet and took a cigarette from a packet. Sticking it between red lips, she flicked a lighter. A stream of smoke drifted from her nostrils and spiralled into the central light. Then, resting her elbow in the palm of her hand, she said, “They have threatened me with nothing. They did not need to. I have told you, they are trusted by Comrade Gregor, who is my employer.”