Read The Last Two Weeks of Georges Rivac for Free Online

visit to the flat was entirely unexpected. As never before he looked like a military automaton with set face, though she knew he was nothing of the sort. She kissed him and regretted that her mother was out.
    â€˜Yes, Zia. I waited until she was. You remember Karel Kren?’
    So the curtain had risen and she was on stage. She had never spoken to him of Kren or the party at the Polish Embassy in London.
    â€˜Of course I do.’
    â€˜He is flying to Brussels early on Saturday May 21st. Can you find an excuse for being at the airport when he arrives?’
    â€˜No. But I can be in Vienna on business. I could ask if I might have a few days off in the mountains and then fly to Brussels with nobody any the wiser.’
    â€˜Vienna—that’s useful! Your mother chaperoned you when you rode in the dressage there.’
    â€˜Should she go with me? She has a valid visa.’
    â€˜Perhaps later, if it’s advisable. Now yours is a very simple assignment. I’ll tell you what is wanted from you and as little about the reasons as I can.’
    â€˜The club’s business?’
    â€˜He used that word?’
    â€˜Kren? Yes.’
    â€˜Well, it sounds better than that nasty name of Military Junta.’
    The general told her that Karel Kren had a genuine unquestionable excuse for going to Brussels on business, but the real object of his journey was a quick visit to England. He believed that he might be already under grave suspicion and dared not buy a ticket to London because it would be at once reported that he had. He hoped to be able to get his ticket at the Brussels airport, taking the first available flight out and returning the same day.
    â€˜Suppose there is someone to meet him at Brussels?’
    â€˜That’s the point, Zia. I wish I had you on my staff. There is no reason why he should be met. He never is, and he hasn’t asked for it. He’s a plain business man and he normally goes straight to his hotel. And so if there is a car from the Embassy with a secretary—a very special sort of secretary—to meet him, we shall know that he is in trouble.’
    â€˜From his own government?’
    â€˜Worse. From their masters as well.’
    Her uncle emphasized that she could not be compromised. Neither Czechs nor Russians were likely to recognise her. She was nobody’s secret agent and not engaged in any plot. She had only to watch the arrival of the passengers from Kren’s flight and see that he obtained his ticket to London and passed back immediately into the departure lounge. After leaving the airport for town she was to telegraph an address in Budapest under any name she liked saying Returning Today if Kren was safely in the air and Not Returning Till Tomorrow if he had been met at the airport and driven away.
    â€˜Shouldn’t I have any way of reporting what actually happened?’
    â€˜If you can disguise it somehow. Obviously he cannot be forcibly detained at the airport of a foreign country. And assuming he is suspected they’ll want him alive and well for interrogation. So it is almost certain they will pick him up peacefully and he’ll thank them for the courtesy. Any attempt to break away then and there would only make matters worse.’
    â€˜And you, uncle?’
    He was too honest a man to have all the discretion of a conspirator.
    â€˜Don’t worry, my dear! I’m in no danger yet. Lukash knew nothing. Poor Lukash!’
    â€˜This Lukash is dead?’
    â€˜I hope so. Forget it! Forget it! That was not his real name in any case. I’ll put it this way. Something vital has been settled. On the other side they can count on it, but our channel of communication has been closed down. Everything destroyed in time! Kren has found another channel—old-fashioned but damned ingenious. I think it’s completely safe, but he is not.’
    Zia made the necessary arrangements with her usual calmness, a little astonished