Read Assignment to Disaster for Free Online Page A

tell me about your brother."
    "Yes," she whispered. "I'll tell you what I know. But it won't help you. It will only be of help if you permit me to go to meet him."
    "I'll go with you," Durell said. "Then we'll see."
    She nodded. "There isn't much time. Four days. No, less. Most of today is gone."
    "Tell me about it," Durell said.
    She spoke earnestly, her eyes locked with his, waiting for a challenge from him. He listened in patient silence.
    "First of all, Calvin is innocent of any treason. He is sensitive, brilliant, a wonderful man. I love my brother, Mr. Durell. He suffered terribly when those unfair charges of treason and dubious loyalty were thrown at him last year. He wanted to quit the work he was doing, but John and I persuaded him to go on with it, because it was necessary and vital to the country, whatever he may have suffered personally. You know about my older brother, John?"
    Durell nodded. "Yes."
    "Calvin is not a traitor. He told me he had never joined any of the organizations that had his name on their membership rolls. He did not know how they had managed to do that to him. He was able to prove he could not possibly have attended the meetings they said he did. Perhaps it was a plot to discredit him and make him useless to our country. Is that possible?"
    "Maybe," Durell said.
    "John watched over him very carefully in Las Tiengas. I don't know what they're building out there. I don't want to know. I know it's big and important, that's all. A month ago, John wrote to me that he was worried about Calvin. He wrote that Calvin was getting too moody and introspective, doubting the wisdom of what he was doing — whatever his job required him to do. Last week John telephoned to me. He told me that Calvin had been caught in Las Tiengas, away from the base, against every expressed security order. He told me that Calvin was being held at the base hospital for observation. It seemed utterly incredible to me. I couldn't believe it. You have to know Cal — he's brilliant, a scientist dedicated to his work, but he's full of fun, too, wonderful to be with, a good companion, levelheaded. John said that Cal had cracked up.
    "I didn't hear any more about it until yesterday afternoon, when Calvin called me. He told me he had escaped from the base and that he was alone and deeply disturbed and didn't know what to do. I couldn't make much sense out of it. He said he had to see me, to talk something over with me before he decided on a course of action. He talked about his conscience, about doing the right thing. It frightened me. It upset me terribly. And then he rang off, after arranging to phone me again at the old house in Prince John."
    "Did he sound rational then?"
    "The second time, yes," she said. "He was very deliberate. He said he would not make the decision without seeing me first."
    "Why are you so important to him?" Durell asked.
    "I don't know. I suppose he — he must feel confused. We were always very close, in many ways. He would trust me, I think, to see through whatever is confusing him and help him to do what is right."
    Durell frowned. "I still don't understand it."
    "Well, I said I would go to meet him, wherever he was. He told me to be careful. He said you people would try to stop me and trip me up and question me. He begged me not to tell you anything at all until I came out there."
    Durell said, "And where are you to meet him?"
    "In Las Tiengas," she said quietly.
    "He's waiting there for you now?"
    "He said so. Yes."
    "Where, exactly?"
    She looked at him, hesitating. "If I tell you, what will you do?"
    "You must trust me."
    "Will you go there with me?"
    "Yes," Durell said.
    "Alone? Just the two of us?"
    "Yes," he said again.
    She drew a deep breath. "He said I was to check in at a place called the Salamander, in Las Tiengas. It's a hotel, or a motel, I'm not sure which. He said he would see me there tomorrow evening."
    Durell stood up. Instantly alarm flickered across the girl's features. He smiled.