Assignment - Budapest Read Online Free Page B

cigarette, to McFee’s annoyance. It was close and hot in the shelter hut, with a kerosene stove going full blast. McFee didn’t smoke. “Any guesses on the other victim he’s going after?”
    “We can’t afford to guess. It’s up to you to find out.” “What about this Zoltan Ske? And the woman?”
    “We don’t have anything useful on either of them, Sam. Just the cover stories they used at our Vienna office to get flown over here with the last group of Hungarian refugees. You can get their pictures from Breagan.”
    “Check,” Durell said. “Now what do you really think, general?”
    “I agree with you. It’s all a blind.”
    “You believe they’d throw away a man like Bela Korvuth just to keep us busy while they try for another objective?” 
    “Yes. I see it that way, Sam.”
    “Would Korvuth know it?” Then Durell could have bitten his tongue. “Sorry. Of course, Korvuth has to know he’s the patsy. I must be a little tired. Korvuth would never break his cover this way, otherwise. For him, it might well be a suicide mission; and he’s got to know that. He’d obey orders, of course.”
    McFee looked uncertain. “Maybe I’d better put Holcomb on this, Sam. You may be too close to it—what with Deirdre, and all. But I don’t see how you can stay out of it, anyway, with Korvuth after you.”
    “I’ll be all right,” Durell said. “What do you think Bela Korvuth is trying to cover with his sacrifice?”
    McFee said irritably: “Put out that damned cigarette, will you, Sam? It’s the refugees, of course. We’ve heard rumors about a number of their agents getting through on innocent covers. Maybe a dozen, in all. We’ve got to know who they are and where they are—every last one of them. It’s probably a highly specialized sabotage crew, ready to take up jobs and ordinary lives and officially vanish—but with the difference that these dozen or more people are going to be dedicated to the proposition that when a certain day comes, they can and must and will paralyze something vital to our national defense. We’re supposed to forget about that possibility while we chase after Korvuth and try to stop him from getting his announced victims—you, and Mr. X, whoever the poor devil may be. It’s damned clever of them, really. We can’t afford to ignore Korvuth’s being here. We’ve got to find him and stop him. There’s nothing small or unimportant about his mission here, and that’s what makes it even more important to find out what he’s been sent to cover up. A sort of doublethreat play, as I see it. The old one-two. It’s going to have to work out fast, before our dedicated friends get too well set in their cover personalities and too deep in the ground for us to dig them out in time.”
    “You think it may begin with Korvuth?” Durell asked. “Bela Korvuth’s aim is to lead us away from the infiltration of the crew that came in with the innocent refugees. He’ll certainly try to lead us down the primrose path into a blind alley. The sooner he’s stopped, the better. At the same time, Korvuth might possibly be a connecting link to the other apparatus. We can’t tell. It’s up to you to find out, Sam.”
    “Then I’d better get up there.”
    “You’ll work with Breagan in Jersey,” McFee said. “As long as the trail stays there, anyway. After that, you’re on your own. Call for help at Twenty Annapolis, if you need any. Holcomb will assist, if I’m not back from Europe yet. Try to keep your cover intact, Sam. We don’t know how much Korvuth really knows about you, but we’ve got to assume the worst and hope for the best, understand?”
    Durell nodded. He was suddenly impatient to be going. McFee had nothing more for him. He looked at his watch. It was almost eleven o’clock in the morning.

Chapter Three
    At twelve-thirty Durell met Matt Breagan in the kitchen of the Dunstermeir farm in New Jersey. Almost six hours had gone by since Bela Korvuth, Zoltan Ske and