As he let go of the window-frame with his left hand, he called out, “Right, Virginia. Up you come — and take it easy. Relax all you can.” He waited while she lifted herself on to the sill and stood up outside the window, holding on to the frame with a grip like death. Just for a moment she seemed to sway, and Shaw noticed her closed eyes.
“Keep your eyes open!” he ordered sharply. “Do as I told you — keep watching the wall, and make sure you keep your body straight.”
She nodded, not speaking. She was shaking badly as she reached out towards Shaw and slid her arm around his waist as she’d been told. He said reassuringly, “Fine — you’re doing all right, Virginia. Now just let go of the window… and move out along with me. Keep close. There’s not really so far to go, and we’re going to take it nice and slowly. Just don’t think about it, except to tell yourself what you know in your heart is true — that is, if this ledge was only six inches above ground-level you’d waltz along it!”
He slid his right foot along cautiously, feeling for any impediment or crumbling. The ledge took his weight and he followed with his left foot. Virginia moved in step with him, reaching with her free hand along the wall as he was doing, figure flattened hard against the concrete. The tremor in her body was transmitted to Shaw by her arm; he himself was alarmingly conscious of the wicked drop below, and for a fraction of time, he felt an almost overwhelming urge to give up, to let himself go, sway backwards away from the wall, and be done with a nightmare, be done with the cruel uncertainty of playing a game with a very present threat of death. He took a grip on himself and they inched along; the goal of the fire-escape never seemed any nearer, was always impossibly out of reach. Time meant nothing now, though after a few minutes, it seemed to Shaw that they had already spent half eternity on that ledge — distance was the only thing that mattered. An increasing wind was sighing around the tall block now. They could still hear the occasional traffic noises from the streets below. The building was mostly in darkness, and Shaw was not unduly worried about being spotted unless anyone still awake in the flats below should take it into his head to look out of a window and glance perpendicularly upward at the sky. Meanwhile the ledge itself was holding firm and there was no crumbling, for which fact, Shaw sent up a heartfelt prayer of thankfulness — and hoped he wasn’t being premature.
Inch by inch, they moved.
Their hands and clothes, and now and again their faces, rasped painfully along the rough wall. Virginia was panting, each breath dragging and difficult. Shaw felt his knees trembling now. Occasionally, his body swayed out, forcing him to stop and maneuver to regain a delicate balance. At these moments, he and Virginia stopped breathing, seeming to fear that the smallest movement might finish them. They were just about half-way now, he judged, with the forsaken haven of the open window some half-dozen yards to their left… they were right out on a limb, with no other refuge until they reached the fire escape.
They edged on.
Shaw, soaked with sweat in spite of the cold wind, was keeping his gaze fixed on the metal framework ahead, concentrating everything on the goal of the platform that was a couple of feet below the level of the concrete ledge and around the far side of the structure. He scarcely dared to think of anything else now but the platform, and how he was to get himself and the girl safely over and on to it.
Two yards to go…
Just two more yards!
Virginia was trembling badly now, her nerves right on the stretch, almost at their limit. Shaw knew she wasn’t going to hold on much longer. But he moved along just as carefully, not hurrying… and then a few moments later, his reaching fingers contacted the coldness of metal.
He called hoarsely, “Hang on tight… we’re there!”
He heard her sob of relief and then he slewed his body and had grasped the spider’s-web of the escape firmly with both hands.
Twenty-two
When they were both holding fast to the outer framework of the fire-escape Shaw asked, “How d’you feel?”
“Lousy, but I’ll manage,” she said. “Frankly, I’m surprised I made it at all!”
“You’ve done wonders,” he assured her. “Now, we’ll climb round to the platform. It’s not far to go.”
He led the way along the frames; three minutes later he had reached the square platform and was helping Virginia over the rail.
When she was standing safely beside him, he relaxed, leaning back against die rail and mopping the streaming sweat from his forehead. He said, “Well, that’s that. And thank God it’s over!”
“You did wonderfully,” he told Virginia again as they made their way down the steps, quickly and soundlessly, “and you’ll have to bear up a little longer. We aren’t entirely out of the wood yet. Where’s the nearest metro station?”
She said, “I came by Autozavodskaya, and that’s a longish walk.”
He nodded; they reached the foot of the escape and walked unhindered round to the front of the block and out across the forecourt into Neruyin Street. Like lovers, they drifted along towards Autozavodskaya station, his arm around her and their heads touching… the way they had before, back in Minsk. No one was going to look twice at them and, besides, Shaw found he liked it that way.
Virginia quickly regained her usual composure, though there was still a tremor in her body. After a while, she asked, “What do we do now, Steve?” He saw the flash of her teeth as she grinned. “I always seem to be asking you that!”
He didn’t answer right away; after a few moments he said, “One thing, we avoid the Moskva from now on. I’ve an idea this business, whatever it turns out to be, is moving right to its climax — and I can’t risk being nailed by the KGB for giving their tail the slip. What I’ve got to do, if possible, is to fix it with Jones that the KGB’s informed by a calculated leak that I’ve been rumbled by the Embassy and duly smuggled back to the UK for trial — or even maybe held incommunicado in the Embassy itself. That’s tough on the real Cane’s family, I know, but national security’s involved in this. In any case, our security people in London’ll be watching out that end — so we can only hope.”
“You know something?” she asked. “I was thinking we ought to have put a watch on that flat, then seen where a tail on Wicks and Fawcett might have led us.”
He shook his head. “Waste of time. We’re just a little too well known to those two, and it’s never hard to shake off a tail when you know the ropes, is it, let alone when you actually recognize the tail!”
“Your Embassy won’t help?”
He hesitated. “As a matter of fact, we’ve reached the stage when they’ve got to help whether they like it or not, but a tail’s still not the answer. Wicks and Fawcett may not show up there in time to be any use. We can only do one thing, Virginia, and that is, think a little faster than those two, try to anticipate their next move, and be there ahead of them. Not trailing behind — get me? And I’ve got to contact Jones before I plan my own next move — and Jones is out of Moscow till morning. Meanwhile there’s something he can do for us just the same.”
She looked up at him, lifting an eyebrow. “Such as?”