“Good morning, Nick.”
I turned and saw Ursula Bergman. “Guten morgen, Ursula,” I said.
“Did you enjoy your evening in Lausanne?”
“It was pleasantly quiet,” I lied. I noticed that despite the smile, Ursula had a new look on her face today. There was a tension there that had not been noticeable before. “Say, I hear we have a dining car until Milan. Can I buy you breakfast aboard?”
She hesitated only a moment, and then gave me a big smile. “I would like that.”
While I was boarding, I tried to get a look at most of the passengers who got on, but it was very difficult. A half hour later we slid quietly into the Swiss countryside, and soon we were running along at a good speed through the green hills. Ursula and I met in the dining car at eight-thirty and had no trouble getting a table.
“The Swiss scenery is fantastic, isn’t it?” I was making small talk.
Ursula seemed preoccupied. “Oh yes,” she responded with false enthusiasm.
“It looks a great deal like Bavaria here,” I continued.
She had not heard me for a moment. “Oh. There is a similarity. I see it now.”
I smiled gently at her. “Ursula, something is wrong, isn’t it?”
She looked quickly at me with serious blue eyes. “I don’t know if I want to get you involved in my problems, Nick. After all, you have your own case to worry about.”
I placed my hand on hers. “Listen, if you’re in trouble, maybe I can help somehow. My soul belongs to AXE, but they can spare a half hour or so of my time.”
She looked up and smiled at the small joke. “I was supposed to meet a man last night. Another agent with our organization. He was to board the train at Lausanne with me, and we were to — carry out an assignment together.”
“And he didn’t board?”
Her voice became tight with anger. “He... I found him in his hotel room...”
So that was it. Ursula and her fellow agent were apparently after another of their many ex-Nazis, and the companion had gotten too close to their prey and become the victim himself. “Was it one of your Third Reich friends?” I asked.
She glanced up, and her eyes told me yes. “I am not frightened, Nick. My fellow agent was assigned to the case just to back me up. Unfortunately, he must have been recognized. I don’t think they know who I am yet.”
“I don’t want to pry into things you shouldn’t be telling me. But we can relax the rules a little bit, I think. You’re after a war criminal and you expect him to be aboard this train. Am I right?”
“An informant told us he would be here.”
“Can you get other help if you need it?”
“No chance. Not on such short notice. But I have been telling myself that perhaps I could count on you for some assistance should the situation arise.”
“You can count on it,” I assured her.
Ursula nodded. She was a tough cookie. She’d had much experience with the “wet affairs” — as the Russians so nicely described them — that went with intelligence work.
A waiter brought out toast and coffee and left. I glanced down the aisle and saw an Oriental, apparently a Chinese, seated alone. He looked back at me and then quickly turned his attention to his breakfast.
Wondering if the Chinese could be a professional, I searched my memory for a name that might match his pudgy face. My boss Hawk was very insistent on certain precautions that he called the fundamentals of our trade, one of them being a requirement that agents of my rank periodically study files on the other side’s active operatives. Consequently I carried quite a memory bank around with me.
In this case, I failed to come up with a name. I couldn’t identify the Chinese. That didn’t rule him out as an adversary. He could be a recent recruit to the intelligence ranks, someone who had become active since I last did my homework. For all I knew, he might even be connected with Topcon.
Another man, an Occidental, came in and joined the Chinese. I watched them with interest, wondering what they were talking about. Curiosity might have killed the cat, but it never harmed anyone in my business. It was a lack of curiosity that sometimes proved fatal.
I took a sip of coffee and watched a new couple enter the dining car. They came down the aisle and took a table near the one where I sat with Ursula. The woman was about thirty, with dark brown hair and a good figure. The man was of medium height with brown hair and a strong chin under a prominent nose.
“What is it, Nick?” asked Ursula.
I shook my head. “Nothing.” My memory bank had just produced something on the man with the prominent nose. His name was Ivan Lubyanka and he was a KGB agent.
For the moment, I pushed the Chinese and his companion out of my mind. The appearance of Lubyanka meant something. He was high in the KGB ranks, the type of man the Russians would send to negotiate an important deal with an organization like Topcon.
Lubyanka and the woman with him appeared to be going through the formal amenities exchanged by strangers. His behavior, and hers, indicated they had just met.
I was carrying a small limpet microphone in my pocket. I wished I had it stuck to the table where Lubyanka and the woman sat, and that I was back in my compartment listening to their conversation. I was sure it would be extremely interesting.
“Do you know that man, Nick?” Ursula asked me.
“He looks a little familiar.” I put her off. She had enough to worry about.
“Maybe it’s the woman who interests you,” she suggested, showing me the trace of a smile.
“Hardly,” I assured her. “She can’t hold a candle to you.”
That, at least, was true. One of my pleasant memories of my past acquaintance with Ursula included a brief interlude in the bedroom.
Apparently the same thought had occurred to the German girl. She laughed softly and reached across the table and touched my hand. “Too bad this is a business trip, Nick.”
“Maybe it won’t be all business. I may get your clothes off yet,” I said.
While we talked, I was still watching Lubyanka and the woman. Their conversation appeared to be growing more intense. I had already decided that Lubyanka was the Russian agent assigned to buy the monitoring device from Topcon. But what about the woman? I didn’t think Lubyanka had picked her up on the train for fun and games. AXe’s report on him said he was strictly business, with no discernible weaknesses except possibly the belief that communism was the wave of the future. I would have bet my trusty Wilhelmina that the lady was also a spy.
As I gave that some thought, the woman happened to glance in my direction. Her eyes were cool and shrewd, and her gaze was very direct. Then she pulled her attention back to the KGB man and they plunged into discussion again.
I weighed the possibility that the woman was Topcon’s representative, that she had the monitoring device I was assigned to recover. But I had been told that Topcon’s boss was bringing the device aboard the train in order to handle the bargaining. Could it be that this woman was the brains behind a super-tough organization like Topcon?
If that happened to be the case, I thought, she might be an intriguing lady to meet.
“Nick, I’ve decided to tell you about the man I’m after. I can’t ask your help if I don’t level with you,” Ursula broke in on my thoughts. “We have been looking for him for twenty-five years. He was a killer of the worst kind. When he was in charge of a prison camp in Poland, those who died quickly at his hands were considered lucky.”
The German girl turned and stared out of the big window beside us. A chalet-dotted countryside slipped past. The click of the rails beneath the train was a rhythmic undercurrent to her low voice.