'There is the Police State side of it, too,' she went on. 'It's nothing like so bad as it used to be and, of course, it doesn't affect any great number of people. Most of them have learned by now that if they do their jobs without complaining about hours, or conditions, or food shortages, and refrain from having anything to do with the occasional firebrands who want to start making trouble, they won't be interfered with. But the fact remains that Communism has to be imposed by force. All the Iron Curtain countries would blow up, like the Hungarians did, if their people weren't convinced that Big Brother in Moscow would send in his tanks. And, of course, everyone who holds a position of any importance does have to be very careful what he does and says. Anyone who is fool enough to include in a speech a few sentences implying that perhaps, after all, life was a bit jollier under the old Austro-Hungarian Monarchy, or gets so tight that he allows himself to make a dirty crack at one of the Party bosses, is still liable to disappear quietly from his home overnight. And we all know where he's gone. He's been sent to work in the uranium mines. That is equivalent to a sentence of death by easy stages. I gather that few of the workers in them last more than two years, and, personally, I would infinitely rather be shot.'
'From what you say,' Robbie commented, 'it seems as if quite some time ago you had come to the conclusion that the old way in which the capitalist countries muddle along means a better life for most people than they would have if they lived in a totalitarian State.'
'Yes, I suppose I had. I've never actually admitted it before, even to myself. But I must have recognized it subconsciously. It is the reason why I have remained with Vaclav for the past four years. I had nearly made up my mind to break with him, then I heard he had been nominated as our Security Chief in Greece. Although I was a dyed-in-the-wool Communist, and fully believed that in the capitalist-imperialist countries the bloated rich actually treated the poor as slaves, I wanted to see for myself what went on; so I decided to stick to him for a bit longer. The diplomatic staffs of Iron Curtain countries are not allowed to mix freely with the people in whose countries they are stationed; so it was quite a time before I realized that the Greek lower classes were really a good bit better off than most Czechs and that nobody here need fear being imprisoned, whatever he may say about the Government. But, meanwhile, I was becoming accustomed to the good food, the pretty clothes, the hair-dos, the really worth-while cinema shows, the glossy magazines and all the other things I'd never had in my own country. To have broken with Vaclav would have meant being sent home. I suppose it was weak of me, but rather than have that happen I put up with his infidelities and the way he treated me, and did whatever he told me to, without argument.'
'Given the same circumstances, I think most people would have done as you did,' Robbie smiled. 'But where do you mean to go from here? Up till now, you have been doing your bit to help the Communists reach the goal they have set themselves of imposing their ideology on the whole world. But, willy-nilly, you have burnt your boats with them through helping me to escape. What is more, you now admit that Communist domination brings with it misery to all classes. As you know, I've been trying to defeat what I believe to be one move in that direction. Did you suggest that I should carry on with that only because you like me enough not to wish to see me condemned to death for killing Cepicka, or are you prepared to give me your help?'
Stephanie took another drink, then sat silent for a little, while Robbie anxiously awaited her answer. At length, she said: 'The more I think about life in Greece compared with life at home, the more certain I feel that the spread of Communism ought to be checked and, if possible, rolled back.'
'Then you will help me?' he asked eagerly. 'Even though you would be working against your own country?'
She shook her head sadly. 'I haven't got a country, although perhaps I may have one again one day. Czechoslovakia is now just a part of the Soviet Bloc. Besides, as far as blood goes, I'm half and half. I told you all sorts of lies, but I was telling the truth about my mother having been English.'
'Really!'
'Yes. I haven't a drop of Greek blood in me. But, like you, I'm good at languages and three and a half years in Athens have enabled me to speak Greek very fluently. I've still got quite an accent, though, and all along I was a bit scared that we would meet a Greek who would insist to you that I must be a foreigner.'
Robbie smiled. 'I noticed your accent myself, but I put it down to you having spent your early years in England and always talking English with your mother.'
'I was born in England, but I didn't remain there for long. My father was a Czech, and a technical expert in the manufacture of pottery. The pay for such work was much higher in England than it was in Czechoslovakia and, early in the thirties, through a friend, he got a job with a firm in Staffordshire. He had always been a Communist and, although my mother wasn't one then, she was an extreme Left-wing Socialist. Incidentally she was a school-teacher, and I owe it to her that I had a really good education. They were married in thirty-five, but I wasn't born until thirty-eight. Then, at the time of the Munich crisis, the Czech Government called up its Army reserves. Father was naturally madly anti-Nazi, so he went back to serve and took mother and me with him.'
'You were there all through the war, then?'
'Yes. I don't remember much about it, except that we were all half-starved and miserable. During the German occupation, father was in the Resistance and, as he managed to survive, he was given an administrative job when the Russians drove the Germans out. From then on, things improved for us and I was sent to a good school. Owing to the private teaching I had had from mother, I found lessons easy. Then, when the Government was taken over by the Communists, father became quite a big shot, and I was made a Youth Leader in the Young Communist Organization. I was just seventeen when I met Vaclav at a Party rally. He fell for me and I was flattered, because, in his way, he is a fine-looking man and he was already regarded as quite a shilling light among the younger officials of the Party. On that account my mother and father encouraged the match, and that was that.'
Again she took a drink. There's no point in going into details about what followed. Within a year, it became a marriage of convenience. I was still young enough to console myself with the status that being his wife gave me, and meeting important people. He amused himself with other women, but was careful not to drive me too far, from fear that he would lose my father's influence in helping him with his career. Then, when we came to Greece, I liked it too much here to face being sent home, and he found he could make valuable use of me. You see, there are no other wives of the Legation staff who can speak as many languages as I can and . . . why shouldn't I say it?—are smart and attractive. One way and another, I was able to pick up a lot of useful information for him; and, of course, as I am half English, I was the obvious choice when your advertisement for a chauffeur-secretary appeared and it was decided to put a woman on to you.'
'And now?'
T thought I'd made it plain. I daren't let myself be sent home. About a year ago, my father died; so there's no one there now who would protect me. I've decided to put the past behind me and come in with you.'
Thank God for that.' Robbie refilled her glass and his own, then lifted his, saying: 'Here's to us,' and they drank to one another. When he had set his glass down, he said:
'Your decision may be the means of your saving my life for the second time—now that there is no need for us to keep any secrets from each other. For my part, I have no connection with any oil company. I came into this thing only because I speak Czech and happened, one morning out at Toyrcolimano, to overhear Barak and Nejedly discussing the oil-prospecting concession they had got from the Greeks in exchange for taking the Greek tobacco crop. When I learnt that there was no oil in Greece, I became curious and suspected that it might be cover for installing some scientific device—something that, in the event of war, could be used against the N.A.T.O. forces. I told my uncle, the Ambassador, what I thought but he pooh-poohed my ideas, so I made a start on my own. I expect you already know all about the week I spent as a stooge in the Czech Travel Agency, and how I burgled the place and got away with some of Krajcir's secret papers. Anyhow, I have no official backing and you are the only person who knows how I've been spending my time since we left Athens. Now it's your turn. You have only to tell me what Barak and Co. are up to. Then, even if the police pick me up before I can secure proof of it, I'll be able to get them to start enquiries that should lead to justifying me from having killed Cepicka.'