‘Never told you anything?’ Shaw looked sceptical.
She hesitated. ‘Not about what he’s on to now, no. I knew the general aim of the organization, of course… that’s about all.’
‘Uh-huh.’ Shaw sat back in the chair, swivelling from side to side but keeping the gun levelled on the girl’s navel. He said, ‘I think I’d better tell you one thing, and it’s this: I may be British, but that doesn’t stop me acting as an agent for… shall I say, a certain department of the United States Government concerned with Counter-Intelligence duties. Now, we don’t know all about Fleck, I’ll admit. But — we do know quite enough to put you behind bars as an accessory, and maybe as a traitor in your own right for all I know. Believe me, when I turn you in, you’ll go up the river for a heck of a long while, Miss Myra Yarrow, and under certain circumstances you could even go to the chair.’ He sat forward threateningly. ‘Now… is Rudolf Fleck really worth that? He hasn’t got much longer to run anyway, and as soon as he gets himself hooked, he’s going to be made to talk.’
She took a long, shuddering breath, her eyes on his face all the while. ‘I wouldn’t be too sure he hasn’t much longer to go, Mister. Fleck’s no fool, and he’s one very determined man right now.’
‘Then why not speed the process — and earn yourself a good point or two in the meantime?’
She hesitated for a long time and then she said, ‘I–I can’t do that. I’m not aiming to shield Fleck, but that guy’d get me, he’d get me for sure.’
‘Nonsense — you’d get all the protection you might need. What would he do to you?’
She seemed surprised at that. ‘Why, get rid of me, of course. Anyone sings, Mister, they don’t last long — that’s what he says. There’s such a place as the Hudson River, you know, and quite a few weighted sacks have bumped the bottom past the Statue of Liberty before now—’
‘Fleck’s doing?’
‘Maybe.’ She shrugged. ‘I wasn’t referring to him specially, though. Just talking in general. This may not be the twenties, but New York doesn’t change all that much. Don’t try to teach a New Yorker the facts of life and death, Mister!’
Shaw raised an eyebrow. ‘Fleck’d do that to you — his girl?’
She nodded vehemently. ‘Wouldn’t he just!’ She leaned forward with her eyes wide again. ‘Listen, I’m just a convenience, that’s all. That’s why I’ve been left here, just so I’m around as soon as Fleck feels he wants me again. He’ll be back here for me later on… and in the meantime, I guess I know just a little too much to be left right out in the open like you put out the cat. And where he’s gone now, he’s going to be busy. Too busy for me… or maybe I’d just be in the way and therefore an unnecessary danger. That’s how I figure it. And that’s just how far Rudy’s feeling for me goes.’
‘And you?’
She said succinctly, ‘I like Fleck like a fly likes insecticide. I just detest his guts. He’s a low-down swine.’ She jerked a hand towards the door into the radio room. ‘If I’d known how to operate that radio and if the sets hadn’t been killed when the boys packed up — and if I’d had the guts — I’d have called up the Police Department and I’d have sung and sung and sung… just like a bird!’
Shaw sat up straight. He smiled at her but he didn’t put down the gun. ‘In that case,’ he observed, ‘I rather think we can do business.’
It took some more persuasion, and Shaw, sweating with impatience under a casual exterior, soft-pedalled her all he could, with a few more threats just hinted at beneath the velvet.
After a while she gave a sigh and said, ‘Okay, like you say, it’s my opportunity. Maybe. And I’d like to help.’ She took a deep breath. ‘You know what Fleck is, of course.’
Shaw said carefully, ‘We have an idea that he’s got some hook-up with Russia, but we don’t know—’
‘You mean you think he’s a Red?’
Shaw nodded. ‘That’s the general idea, but what…’
He stopped when he saw the girl’s face. It was a picture of incredulity and she even laughed a little, which transformed the slightly sulky expression on her face into one of lively prettiness… giving back to her the vivacity of the scantily dressed girl he’d seen on that bed earlier. She said, ‘Oh, my God, how wrong can you get! That’s great, that really is great! Fleck’d give birth if he heard that, though it might suit his game all right, I guess.’ The light died out of her face then and she said soberly, ‘Fleck’s a German nationalist. I mean, he wants to see Germany re-united—’
Shaw hadn’t quite got it. He said, ‘So do a lot of Germans, Miss Yarrow. Depends on which side of the demarcation line you want the whole lot to go.’
‘Sure — but they don’t all want it the same way as he does, and he knows which side of the line he’s on, all right! He wants the Fuehrer back. I don’t mean Adolf Hitler, just any Fuehrer. You see… Fleck’s a Nazi.’
‘What?’ Shaw’s face had been showing more and more bewilderment and now he stared across at the girl in sheer astonishment. ‘A Nazi? Fleck?’
‘Yep,’ she said, nodding. ‘The whole of this bunch. All of them.’
‘But…’ He could still scarcely take in the implications. He pulled at his cement-crusted collar, feeling the closeness of this subterranean room. ‘Look, what’s he after, what’s behind all this lot?’ He swept a hand around.
‘I reckon you ought to know that better than me,’ she said, ‘but it seems you don’t… and I don’t either — that’s honest. Mind, it’s not just Fleck on his own, he’s not the big boy. He’s peanuts… well, that’s not quite true. He’s what’s called the Resident Operator in the States, based here in New York. All this is controlled from Germany, and there again, don’t ask me where. I don’t even know if it’s East or West Germany. You’ll just have to believe that.’
He nodded. ‘Just go on talking about Fleck.’
‘All right. I’ll try to summarize it… he talks a lot, in a general way, not too specific. Thinks he has a mission or something, I guess. Me, I’m no traitor, not willingly, that is. That don’t go for Fleck, because for extra cover he took out U.S Citizenship papers, convinced the State Department he’d never been a Nazi at heart or something. Actually he’s one of the organizers of International Nazism.’ She frowned, stuck out her lower lip. ‘They’re all over — here, Britain, Europe, Canada, part of Africa… even Asia, believe it or not. South America’s lousy with them — Eichmann went there because of it, because of the welcome he knew he’d get. That’s what Fleck says,’ she added, ‘not me! I’m no politician. But then, I guess Fleck knows what he’s talking about.’ She looked up then and smiled a little shyly. ‘Am I teaching my grandmother? I wouldn’t want to do that.’
‘It’s all interesting,’ he assured her. ‘Just carry on. There’s one thing: why did Fleck tell you all this?’
She said, ‘He didn’t tell me it all, I picked some of it up from the others. But he has told me quite a lot, and the reason is, he’s been trying to convert me to the goddam cause. He’s a kind of evangelist, in that way. Say’s it’s the only hope left for the West — you know? Hinted that a good many guys in the Administration feel the same way and that the real big man behind him over here is an American. No names, of course, not even any clues.’
‘And you? How did you come into this in the first place?’
She laughed cynically. ‘Why, I don’t mind admitting… he picked me up. I worked in a night spot as a hostess. Guess he liked the look of me, and me, I didn’t know what I was letting myself in for… but I’d no roots, no relatives, so I fell easy. When he got me here, he started the indoctrination process.’