“None,” he replied as he absently rolled up his left sleeve.
“What’s wrong?”
Andros looked down at the floor and around the coffee table. “I lost a cuff link.”
“You’ll survive,” said Eliot. “Lose anything else?”
“Nasos,” said Andros, suddenly remembering his driver. “He was waiting for me.”
“We had a man dressed like you get into the car just before the mess started,” Eliot said. “Nasos drove him to Kifissia and heard the full story on you along the way. Later this morning he’ll take our man to Piraeus, where you’ll already be inside the Andros Shipping offices. You’ll walk out as yourself, and our man will walk out as a dockworker. Tonight Nasos will be integral to your escape from Baron von Berg’s Red Cross gala.”
“So you know about it?”
“Know about it? You made us break out in hives with that reckless move of yours to hand von Berg the ring box.”
“So you were listening.”
“All the way to the bank-or, more precisely, von Berg’s safe,” Eliot replied. “He opened it again a few hours later.”
“And?”
“We were all ears. Here’s the combination.”
Eliot handed Andros a slip of paper with four double-digit numbers. Andros memorized it and handed it back.
“What’s the word with the girl? Will she help?” Eliot asked.
Andros said, “I think so.”
“Good God, man, you can’t think. You must know.”
“I know she’ll see to it that the outside door to von Berg’s office is open. I also know she’ll delay one of his guards from getting to his post, long enough for me to slip in and out. What I don’t know is if we can pull it off undetected.”
“Which is why you’ll need this.” Eliot handed Andros what looked like a gold cigarette lighter but opened to reveal a camera lens. “Just in case the Maranatha text isn’t there but something else is. All you do is point and click. We don’t want von Berg to discover anything missing if we can help it.”
“Just tell me how Aphrodite and I are going to get out of here alive.”
“After the reception, Nasos will appear to drive you straight home,” Eliot explained. “But along the way, you’ll switch cars, and we’ll take you to Piraeus. There, the same ship that brought you from Italy, the Independence, is scheduled to make a supply run to the Luftwaffe air base on the island of Kythira at eleven P.M. About halfway there, it will make an unscheduled stop off the east coast of the Peloponnese, near Monemvasia. During that time you’ll cast off in a lifeboat. A reception committee of andartes will be waiting onshore to escort you back to the National Bands base.”
“Captain Tsatsos knows about this?”
“Both Captain Tsatsos and your uncle Mitchell know only that an agent code-named Sinon will be leaving Athens for the National Bands base. Neither has the foggiest idea who Sinon is, so you’ll have to identify yourself to them later this morning.”
“That should prove amusing.” Andros smiled at the thought and then grew serious. “Will Captain Whyte be waiting for me at the base?”
Eliot nodded. “Landed last night. You’ll hand her everything you’ve got and wait for your submarine pickup tomorrow night.”
“What about Aphrodite and our families?”
“We’ll stow them away aboard the Red Cross ship, the Turtle Dove, before it returns to Istanbul tomorrow.”
Andros shook his head. “It’s too risky for them to wait until I’m gone before they escape.”
“It’s too risky for us if they disappear before you.”
“Prestwick said they were coming with me.”
“I don’t know what your American superiors told you, Andros. But here in Greece, the British are in charge, and I’m not going to let anything jeopardize your escape.”
Andros leaned back and crossed his arms. “I’m not leaving without her.”
Eliot looked at his watch and sipped his tea. “It is now almost six A.M., and the Turtle Dove is due to arrive in Piraeus in a few hours. If you’re not at quayside to oversee the distribution of Red Cross consignments, if von Berg has even the slightest suspicion that it was you who killed those two sentries last night, then we’re all in trouble. You, your beloved, and her brother included. Andros, you’ve tried it your way. I bailed you out. Now it’s my turn. You’ll do as you’re told.”
69
A ndros arrived in Piraeus dressed as a docker and made his way past the other stevedores into the shipyard offices of Andros Shipping, overlooking the harbor. Uncle Mitchell and Captain Tsatsos were hunched over a chart table when he walked in.
“Reviewing the route for this evening’s run to Kythira, Uncle?”
Uncle Mitchell looked up from his chart and beheld his prodigal nephew. “Why are you wearing those rags?”
“Why, to help you out,” Andros replied cavalierly. “The Turtle Dove should be arriving shortly, and I want to do my part in distributing the Red Cross relief supplies.”
“As if you’ve done even one day of honest work with your hands.” Uncle Mitchell glared at him. “You never came home last night. You didn’t even bother to show up at church this morning. I suppose you couldn’t break away from your duties at the Vasilis estate. All of Athens knows you are a collaborator. I am ashamed of you for your father.”
Andros assumed the seat behind his uncle’s desk and fanned himself with a ship’s manifest. “Oh, Uncle. I’m no collaborator. I’m simply a realist.”
“I should strangle you right now, to keep such filthy words from pouring out of your mouth.”
“I thought you were going to congratulate me, Uncle. Tonight I plan to propose to Aphrodite.”
“You will still marry that slut?”
“Bite your tongue, or I’ll cut it out for you.”
“Strong words for such a puppy. And where will you get married? You think the archbishop will marry you two?”
“Probably not, unless he wishes to come to Cairo.”
His uncle looked at him. “Cairo?”
Andros nodded. “The king will be there, along with other dignitaries who have nothing better to do these days. I hope you’ll join us.”
“Have you ever heard such nonsense, Tsatsos?” Uncle Mitchell asked the old skipper, who had been silent the whole time. “This boy’s gone mad!”
Andros put down the manifest and grew serious. “Secret storage has been prepared for you on the Turtle Dove, Uncle. Get Yiaya, Aunt Maria, and Helen, and be ready to spend the night on board. You’ll leave in the morning. I’ll leave tonight with Tsatsos on the Independence for the run to the National Bands base.”
His uncle and Tsatsos exchanged nervous glances. “What are you talking about?”
“Don’t tell me you’ve forgotten the myth of the Trojan horse?”
His uncle stared in wonder. “You? You are-”
“Sinon, Uncle.”
His uncle crossed himself in wonder and looked up to heaven with a great smile. He kissed Andros on the cheek and started crying. “Mother of God, you are your father’s son!”
70
B aron von Berg was looking through the report that had just arrived from Istanbul when Werner entered his office and took a seat opposite the desk. “Well?” von Berg asked without lifting his eyes.
“The Turtle Dove just docked in Piraeus,” Werner reported. “Altenburg, Neubacher, and the home administration are greeting the Red Cross delegation while the consignments are being loaded onto trucks and other ships for distribution. Herr Andros is there directing the effort.”
“And?”
“Your suspicions are confirmed. It was Andros who allegedly was captured by our own security police in the Royal Gardens last night. The soldiers who chased him picked this up off the sidewalk.” He held up a gold cuff link with a large A embossed in the center.
Von Berg took the cuff link and looked at it. Herr Andros, he could see, was a man of considerably more depth than he had given him credit for. “What does our Gestapo chief say?”