Curtain of Fear (18 page)

When she had left him he finished shaving, undressed and got into the bath. It was the first real chance he had had to sort out his ideas, and the pleasant warmth relaxed the tension to which he had been subject. Although Fedora seemed to think that by now he should have guessed why she had lied to Vaněk about his being Bilto, he could still find no answer to that riddle. That she had been Bilto's contact was beyond doubt, but as the Marlow weekend had been an invention it seemed he had been wrong in assuming her to be Bilto's mistress.

He had ruled out at once the idea that she might be the woman Bilto hoped to marry, as she did not at all fit the description, but as the widow presumably lived in Prague and Bilto lived in England, he had thought it probable that his cousin had been consoling himself for that separation by having parties on the side with Fedora. Apparently that was not the case. But what about the widow? Where was she?

Frček had known about the promise made to Bilto, but had not apparently regarded that as any part of his business. No doubt such arrangements were handled by another department of the police administration. If so, it seemed probable that she was to be produced and formally handed over at the reception, by whoever was to act as official host. Frček having said that he was not attending the lunch added to the plausibility of such a theory.

Nicholas devoutly hoped not to be there either, as it seemed certain that if he had to appear that would lead to his landing up in prison; but he already had Jirka, the barman's, unsolicited testimonial to the esteem in which Fedora was held by the Underground, and ample evidence of the strength of character she could display when she wanted anything; so he was reasonably confident that she would succeed in getting them smuggled out of the hotel.

He could not quite make up his mind if he liked or disliked her. Now that he had seen her smile and heard her laugh he thought her much more attractive than he had formerly. That pale face of hers, and her green eyes, lit up in a most extraordinary way when she was amused by anything, and the little cast in the left one held a curious fascination for him. He thought it a pity that she did not dress more smartly, as if she had given more care to her appearance and made up her face she could have passed for a beauty; but he supposed her shortcomings in that respect were due either to lack of money, or, in view of her work, a deliberate wish to remain as inconspicuous as possible. Her obvious courage and resource were qualities calculated to appeal to any man, but her violently reactionary sentiments and her constant attempts to traduce the Workers' State, in which
he so fanatically believed, made her personality unsympathetic to him.

He was still thinking about her when it entered his mind that her political beliefs were, in essence, the same as those of his beloved Wendy. It therefore seemed strange that he should find the mentality of the one girl grate upon him, while he ignored it in the other and adored her. Wendy's lovely image took possession of his thoughts, and he toyed with the idea of how marvellous it would be if, free of the danger in which they stood, she was sharing this luxury suite with him instead of Fedora. During the past three hours his brain had had such a surfeit of puzzling, guessing, wondering and straining to arrive at sound conclusions, that he allowed it to continue this most pleasant form of daydreaming until the water began to chill, resuming his anxious speculations only as he began to dress.

When Fedora got back he was still in his shirt-sleeves. He heard her quick footsteps crossing the bedroom, then she poked her head round the door and gave a smiling nod, to let him know that things were going all right. Seeing that he was nearly dressed, she came in, closed the door behind her and, putting her fingers to her lips, tiptoed over to his side. The water from his bath was still running out, and they watched it in silence for a couple of minutes. When the last of it had drained away she turned on the taps again, and said:

“I've fixed it. But it's going to be pretty tricky, because you will have to attend the reception.”

“Good God!” he exclaimed aghast. “I can't do that! Those old Comrades of Bilto's student days that Frček said would be there are certain to realise that I'm not him.”

“I don't agree,” she countered quickly. “To look at, you are quite extraordinarily like Bilto. You have a much closer resemblance to one another than most brothers; and it must be twenty years since Bilto was a student in Prague. That is a long time to remember anyone's features. In this case, too, your being younger than he is will prove an advantage, for their memory of him will naturally be as a young man.”

“Perhaps you're right,” he murmured uncertainly. “But
what about the scientists? It's certain they will have their top boys to meet me, and I'm not an atom man. If they start talking technicalities to me I'll be out of my depth in no time. They'll smell a rat, and under cross-examination I'd be completely sunk.”

“Then don't talk technicalities. Be frightfully hush-hush, and say you never discuss your work outside a laboratory.”

He shook his head. “No; it's no good. There's one thing you've forgotten—that's the woman. Even if I could get past the old pals and the back-room boys, I couldn't possibly hope to deceive her.”

“What woman?” Fedora gave him a puzzled look.

“Bilto's woman, of course. The one he was expecting to meet in Prague.”

“Frček said something to that effect; but it didn't seem to fit in. As he handles so many cases, I thought he would have only skimmed through Bilto's dossier and had got things muddled up.”

“He had. He took you for Bilto's woman. In the circumstances that was quite understandable; but if he'd gone properly into things he couldn't have, because she is a middle-aged widow and is living in Prague.”

“How do you know that?”

“Because Bilto told me so. He has been in love with her for a long time and wants to marry her.”

Fedora sat down on the side of the bath. For a moment she was silent, then she asked, “Are you quite certain of this? Somehow, it doesn't sound like Bilto.”

“I don't know why you should think that,” Nicholas replied thoughtfully. “He's quite a normal sort of chap. He had a pretty hectic youth, but I think his work has been his main preoccupation for a long time past, and now he is forty there is nothing at all extraordinary in his deciding that he would like to have a wife and proper home. About the details of the matter I'm a bit hazy, as he really said very little, but about the main facts I have no doubt at all.”

“Did he definitely say that she was living in Prague?”

“No, I couldn't swear to that; but it was the impression I
got. Something he said about having known her when she was first married gave me the idea that she was a girl-friend of his in the old days, Anyhow, it was a part of the deal he made on agreeing to leave England that she should be here to meet him on his arrival, and that the authorities would relieve her of the work she was doing so that they could marry and settle down.”

“Are those the only grounds you have for supposing that she will be at the reception?”

“Yes. As she wasn't at the airport it seems pretty certain that they are holding her in reserve, so that the cameras can click on this touching reunion between Bilto and the love of his youth.”

“Do you think they will produce a wedding-cake in advance, or present the happy couple with a set of fish knives as a token of their esteem?”

He was adjusting his collar and tie in front of the mirror, but the sarcastic note in Fedora's voice made him turn and glance down at her. With a bitter little laugh, she went on, “If so, you'd better think again. There won't be any wedding-cake or fish knives, or love of Bilto's youth either. You may put right out of your silly head any idea that you will be brought face to face with her.”

“What makes you so certain of that?”

“The well-proved fact that one of the first principles of Communism is never to keep a promise. You may be right about their having dangled in front of Bilto the prospect of marrying this woman, as an inducement to get him here; but that doesn't mean a thing. She may quite well have been dead for years, or a semi-lunatic in one of their labour camps. If she is not, they will have her under arrest by now, with the intention of keeping her on ice indefinitely as a hostage to Bilto's good behaviour.”

Nicholas made a grimace of distaste. “I do wish you would stop this childish mud-slinging. It doesn't impress me in the least.”

“O.K., Professor.” She gave a heavy sigh and stood up. “All the same, I'd bet you my last dime that you won't be called on to meet Bilto's woman when we go downstairs.”

“If I do we'll be blown sky-high; but if you're right there's just a chance we may get through. I wish to goodness, though, that you had managed to fix things without my having to face such a big risk of exposure.”

“So do I,” she agreed. “But there was no other way. Still, it may comfort you a bit to hear that you won't have to go through the whole thing, and that we may get away before most of the guests have arrived. That minimises the danger of someone who used to know Bilto really well having any chance to talk to you long enough to realise that you're a fake.”

As she was speaking she stooped down, took hold of the hem of her dress with both hands, and with one smooth movement stripped it off over her head.

“Hi!” he said. “Give me a chance to get out of here.”

She shook her head impatiently. “Stay where you are, and listen to me. I've got to tell you what I've arranged; but the reception starts at midday; time's getting on and I don't want to have to go without my bath. I told the manager that you are a diabetic, and that it is part of my job to ensure that you eat nothing which might upset your metabolism. Then I asked to see the luncheon menu. That enabled me to say I'd like to see the Chef and arrange with him that one or two special dishes should be prepared for you. The Chef is a Legion man, so as soon as we were alone I was able to get down to brass tacks.”

While she talked she continued to undress herself. Nicholas had been telling the truth when he said he had never taken a girl away for the weekend; neither had he ever seen one undress in a bedroom. His few fleeting affairs had been confined to necking parties in front parlours with the lights out, tremulous embraces on the way home from dances, and one afternoon he always looked back on with pleasure that he had spent with a girl in a haystack. By the time Fedora had got down to her elastic belt and begun to peel off her stockings, he felt himself going hot all over, and exclaimed:

“Look here! I think I'll go into the bedroom, and you can whisper the rest to me later.”

She gave him a look of contempt. “Don't worry. I've neither
the time nor the inclination to seduce you. And I had no intention of stripping in front of you, anyhow.”

“Well,” he muttered uneasily, “you're not far off it.”

“Oh, shut up, you wretched prude!” she snapped at him. “You must have seen hundreds of girls on beaches with much less on than I have; and time is precious. We've got to go to this reception because there is no plausible excuse for the Chef to send a bowl of salad, or something of that kind, up to us; and even if he did they couldn't get us out if the bomb exploded up here.”

“The bomb!” he exclaimed in horror.

“Yes, but you needn't get the wind up. We never kill the Coms without a very special reason, because their reprisals are too drastic. This will be a combined smoke and tear-gas bomb. The Chef showed me the place where you will be expected to stand for the reception. We are to get down a little early and take our places while the preparations for lunch in the next room are still going on. A waiter will come in carrying a bowl of something, and as he passes behind you the bomb will go off. Whether you are temporarily blinded or not, you must stagger about and then collapse as if you had had a heart attack. By then there may be a score or more people in the room, but the smoke and the gas will cause confusion. Before anyone is sufficiently recovered to take an unwelcome interest in what is going on you are to be picked up and carried out to an ambulance that will have been waiting round the corner. Our friends here will tell the Coms afterwards that it just ‘happened' to be passing along the street; so they hailed it, but they don't know where it came from or where it went. As your ever-loving Comrade-companion I shall naturally go with you in it. The ambulance, of course, will be manned by Legionnaires, and with luck they will whisk us away to a place where the Coms will never find us.”

Nicholas nodded. “The plan sounds daring enough to have a good chance of success, but everything will depend on the timing. I only hope your friend the Chef is a good organiser.”

“You needn't worry about that.” She gave him a grim little smile. “If he wasn't he wouldn't have stayed the pace as long
as he has. In this game anyone who leaves loose ends untied soon finds them round his own neck. Now you had better leave me; unless you want to be properly shocked.”

He gave a sudden grin. “Since you called me a prude, it would serve you right if I came back when you've got the rest of your things off.”

“No! Please don't.” She at once became serious. “But I like you better for having one back at me and showing you are at least a little human.”

When he reached the bedroom he sat down on the edge of the bed and anxiously thought over the ordeal that lay before them. He felt that if he had to be in the reception room only for some five to ten minutes, he ought to be able to cope with any of Bilto's old acquaintances or scientists who were among the first arrivals, but he was still much perturbed about Bilto's woman. Habit of mind still made him very loath to accept Fedora's statement that the Communist leaders were entirely unprincipled, and if she was wrong it seemed highly probable that his official host would bring the lady with him. In that case the balloon would go up before the party had even started.