Zoltan frowned slightly. "You shouldn't have to," he said. "The first time I saw you and knew what you were involved with, I asked myself 'What is a nice girl like her doing in a job like this?'"
"I just knew more about this area and the people than anyone else in the Bucharest office. I was working as a code clerk there two weeks ago, and just about everyone else there grew up in the cities. But I was raised in Orjud, not forty miles from here, over the mountains, and I knew all the legends and the ways of life of these people. So they gave me a provisional promotion to the rank of Technician, and sent me here with Domn Endros. And that's all." She looked at Napoleon and Illya. "I'm sorry if you thought I had some training as an agent or something like that, but I'm really not."
"You'll be getting some training tonight if you come with us," Napoleon said. "Can you use a gun with any degree of effectiveness?"
"Oh, yes."
"Have you ever used one on a person?"
"N—no...."
"Then now is no time to start. The first few times are very difficult. You will stand in the background and hold a gun. You can look as though you were capable of killing someone, and that'll be all that's necessary. How about you, Zoltan?"
"I am capable, my friend. I have done many things when they have become necessary. I would as soon withhold the details." He glanced at Hilda.
"Good," said Illya. "We don't need them. You two will both have weapons." He looked at his watch. "We will leave the village by car at sunset. Dress warmly—it will probably snow again tonight."
* * *
Night had filled the woods again when the four shadowy figures slipped into the shallow cave. One finger-filtered flashlight scanned the wall, stopping at a hand-sized indentation in the rock near the back.
Zoltan reached up, then paused and whispered, "Once we are in the tunnels, make no sound. It can carry strangely." The other three nodded, and he threw his weight on the handhold.
In complete silence the back wall of the cave revolved and he slipped into the opening, catching the door halfway open and holding it while the others came through.
When they were past, he released it. The wall slid soundlessly back into its place, and the cave was empty once again.
Chapter 14: "Only When I Am In Costume."
Down the tunnel they crept, Zoltan in the lead. Without hesitation he guided them through the labyrinth for several minutes, turning at intersections where yellow blazes indicated the trail. Their path rose slightly, but without the irregularities Napoleon and Illya had found the night before. At one intersection, Zoltan paused and pointed. "Here," he whispered, "is where we entered the tunnel last night."
They continued, now in totally strange territory. After a good quarter of an hour, Napoleon gradually became aware of noises somewhere ahead—uncertain and indefinite so far, but definitely not natural.
As they continued walking, the sounds became clearer. Some of them were voices, and some were mechanical. They had an odd reverberant quality, carried as they were along the tunnels and corridors for indefinite distances, distorted, echoed and amplified by the baffles of rock they traveled among. But they were closer, and still approaching.
At last Zoltan stopped, and extinguished his light for a moment. As their eyes grew accustomed to the darkness they became aware that they could still distinguish the shadows of those ahead of them, and tell where the corridor walls were. The very faintest of blue glows showed ahead. Zoltan grouped the other three in a close huddle, and address them in the faintest of whispers.
"There's something not far ahead. I think it is a large cave with many people working in it. We will go ahead—Hilda, you wait behind us where you can see what happens."
"Wait a minute," said Napoleon. "I think it's very noble to try to keep Hilda out of this, but if something happens I want my life to depend on the best-qualified person around, rather than the least. Illya?"
"I quite agree. Do you stay, or shall I?"
"I think you should."
"All right. How long do you expect to be gone?"
"Not long. It sounds like there's a fair-sized group out there. I don't intend to tackle more than half a dozen. If it turns out there are more, we can just sneak right out again and radio for reinforcements."
Illya nodded, and Zoltan asked, "Everything arranged?"
"Right," said Napoleon. "We just go far enough to get a good look at what's going on, and then get out again."
Zoltan snapped his light off, and let Napoleon lead the way.
Around the bend to the left, the light grew brighter—and around a bend to the right it continued to increase. Now the texture of the rock surrounding them could be distinguished, and the four figures were all clearly visible to each other. Napoleon stopped short of the next bend and gestured to the others to wait while he went on.
Slowly and cautiously he cocked an eye around the corner of the tunnel, squinting against the brightness of the alien-looking fluorescent lights that hung from the ceiling of the large cavern which opened before his gaze.
The walls were of rough natural stone, but the floor had been smoothed artificially. There were no more than half a dozen men in plain sight, all working around the end of a wide conveyor belt that ran out of the cavern to the right. They seemed to be occupied with loading large crates, unlabeled but of sturdy construction, onto this belt, which carried them away to an unknown destination. Along the walls were stacks and stacks of apparently empty crates of identical design.
The conveyor was being loaded from a diminishing pile of boxes which seemed quite heavy—each took two men to lift it onto the belt. Napoleon could not see any indication of what the weight was, but his first guesses were heavy machinery, or ammunition.
He watched in silence a few more minutes while the last of the boxes rolled off into the darkness, and then was moderately startled when the six men climbed onto the belt and rode off after their burdens. About a minute later the conveyor belt rumbled gently to a stop and he became aware that it had not really been silent after all—there had been the low vibration of the driving motors.
Then he turned and crept back to where the others waited. "There's a cave just around the corner," he whispered, when they had gathered close around him. "There were some men working in it, but they're gone now. I'm going out to have a quick look around. Come as far as the entrance and keep an eye on me."
They followed like shadows, and stopped at the mouth of the tunnel. Once again Napoleon looked out carefully, and when he saw no one he stepped out into the light.
Now he could see that the conveyor belt ran through a hole in the wall next to a flight of steps leading up out of sight, and that it started up parallel to them just within the hole. The surface of the belt was ridged into sections which apparently folded flat on the bottom but served to lift the load on the ascent. There was another belt, level, which ran into the room and ended a few yards away on his right, where he couldn't have seen it before.
He started towards it, hoping to find an explanation of all this activity in the cave next door. Just then the scrape of a shoe on rock warned him of someone's approach.
He knew he was too far from the tunnel to get back there safely. In a moment he had jumped forward into the darkness of the next room along the conveyor belt. He hugged the wall and listened to the cautiously approaching footsteps.