“It was in Belgrade that we picked up his trail. Those of us who have seen reports on his career call him the Butcher — the Butcher of Belgrade. He is both dangerous and cunning. Although we have come close to capturing him more than once, he has continued to elude us. He changes names and identities and even his face. We know nothing about his present life and we don’t know exactly what he looks like now. We do know that people who were acquainted with him in the past spotted him recently in Belgrade. And he is supposed to be traveling on this train with us.”
“I can see that this is more than just another assignment. Capturing him is very important to you.”
“Yes, it is. The things he did...” She didn’t finish the sentence. She didn’t need to finish it.
I swallowed the last of my coffee. “We’ll keep in touch, Ursula. It isn’t a very big train. I’ll be around if you need me. You are armed, aren’t you?”
“Yes.”
“Good.” I glanced across the aisle and saw that Lubyanka and the woman were leaving together.
“Excuse me,” I said, taking some bills out of my pocket and placing them on the table. I rose from my seat. “We’ll get together later.”
Lubyanka and the brown-haired woman were leaving the dining car. They were headed toward the end of the train, rather than back toward the Class A compartments. I followed them out of the car, taking a quick look at the Chinese as I passed. His face was not familiar, but he glanced at me again as I walked by.
There was a small observation platform on the rear of the train, and the mysterious woman and Lubyanka went directly to it. They stood there and continued their conversation. They did not see me as I stood in the smoking salon behind them. I reached into my jacket pocket and pulled out a small disc-like limpet microphone. With that gadget I might just be able to find out what they were saying. I went on the platform with them.
The sound of my approach was drowned out by the movement of the train, but so were their voices. I made an obvious sound, and they turned. The woman gave me a hostile look; Lubyanka studied me carefully. He did not appear to recognize me.
“Good morning,” I said with a French accent. “It is a lovely morning, is it not?”
The woman turned away from me impatiently. Lubyanka grunted out, “Yes, a beautiful morning.”
“How far are you going?” I asked. I pretended I was losing my balance, and grabbed at the rail near Lubyanka, depositing the limpet on the underside of the rail.
Now Lubyanka’s face was also hostile. “It all depends,” he said. He did not want to be bothered by an intruder any more than the woman did. He turned coldly away from me and stared out over the receding tracks that glinted brightly in the morning sun.
“Well, have a good day,” I said to them.
Lubyanka nodded without looking at me. I turned and went back inside. When I passed through the dining car, Ursula had gone. I went to the sleeping car and entered my compartment, number three. Then I opened up my luggage and located the small receiver set that was hidden in it. I snapped it on and turned a dial.
At first all I got was static. Then I heard the steady click-click of the wheels of the train and the voices interspersed with it.
“It is necessary... see the device... make an offer.” It was Lubyanka’s voice.
More static, then the woman’s voice.
“...not reveal the device... if we allowed you to examine... but there are good photographs... to my compartment later.”
Lubyanka’s voice then uttered a curt farewell to the woman, and the conversation was over.
I snapped the receiver off and hid it in my luggage. There was no doubt in my mind now. The woman was the Topcon agent, and she was dealing with Lubyanka for sale of the stolen monitor device.
The question still remained, though, whether the woman was on the train alone or whether she was traveling with another Topcon operative, possibly the head of the organization, who was keeping out of sight per Jan Skopje’s prediction. If she was on board alone, it was possible that she was the head of Topcon. In any case, she would probably not be carrying the device on her person, and it might not even be in her compartment. I had to check to make sure.
A light lunch was served in the diner just before we hit Milan. I met Ursula, and we ate together. I thought of the pleasure she could afford in one of the sleeping compartments. But I did not have time to think about sex for long. I had to find out which compartment the Topcon woman occupied.
I was able to accomplish my mission when the train stopped at Milan and the dining car was taken off. Ursula had stepped off the train briefly, to get a look at the passengers who had gotten off to stretch their legs, and I had gone with her. Just as the train was about to leave, I saw the Topcon woman emerge from a station doorway and get aboard the second of two sleeper cars, the one next to Voiture 7, where I was staying. I left Ursula on the platform and quickly moved into Voiture 5. As I entered the corridor, I saw the woman disappearing into a compartment. I moved down the corridor and noted that she had entered Compartment 4. I continued to the end of the car and stepped out onto the platform. A tall dark-haired man in his fifties — but with a youthful, virile look — climbed aboard the car; he was carrying a portable radio, an excellent German brand, but it was silent. He passed me with a curt nod, and went on into the sleeper. I remembered that I had seen him at the Lausanne station. After he had passed, I got off the train again and found Ursula.
She had been watching faces, but she had not found her man yet. She was becoming angry.
“Do you know how long he will be aboard?” I asked as we climbed back aboard together.
“He may be getting off at Belgrade, but I’m not sure. He may have gotten wind that we are tracking him and not boarded at all.”
We watched the uniformed train official on the platform swing his “poached egg,” the disc on a stick that signaled the train’s departure from the station. There was a small jerking movement and then the train was moving on. Many people were waving from the platform.
I was standing very close to Ursula. I put my hand on her waist. “Do you think you’ll know your man if you see him?”
She glanced at me and then out at the station as it slid past us and fell behind the train. “As an SS man in the Third Reich, he was a blond. He has probably dyed his hair. He wore a mustache then, but he may have shaved it off. Still, there are things I can look for. He is a man about your size. He used to have a bullet scar on his neck. I realize that could have been surgically removed, but I can still look for it.”
“That isn’t much to go on.”
“There’s something eke. He has a malformed knuckle on his left hand. That would be difficult to change.”
“It still isn’t much. But I’ll watch for a man who keeps his left hand in his pocket all the time,” I said jokingly.
Ursula gave me a small smile. “If I see someone who might be him, Nick, I have hope of tricking him into giving his identity away.”
She sounded determined. But her devotion to duty was not the only thing about her that I found appealing.
I slid my arm around her and she turned suddenly, her lips slightly parted. I pressed my mouth to hers, and she responded.
After a moment, she pulled away. “I see you still enjoy keeping your fellow agents in a happy frame of mind,” she said.
I noticed the way her breasts pressed against the sweater she was wearing. “You know me, I like to keep everyone smiling,” I said.
She was a little flustered, maybe a little embarrassed, by the way she had responded to the kiss. “I must go to my compartment now, Nick. I’ll — see you later.”
I smiled easily. “I’m counting on it.” Then she was gone.
We were out in open country again. It was a sunny spring afternoon. The Italian countryside was splashed with the vivid colors of crimson poppies and blue wildflowers. Venice was our next stop in late afternoon, and I expected to find out about the Topcon woman before we arrived there.