Donald Hamilton: The Devastators

I climbed the stairs, unlocked the door, and went into the big room and started to throw my coat on the bed and stopped. There were some clothes on the bed. I picked up one item: a very simple little white shift of a dress, rather wrinkled and grimy, as if it had been worn longer than it should have been. I looked around. There were some suitcases parked beyond the bed that I recognized. I went into the bathroom and looked at the small blonde girl in the enormous tub.

"Some people knock," Winnie said. "Even husbands have been known to, not to mention people impersonating husbands. My God, it's nice to be clean again. I've been locked up in an attic for three weeks. One pitcher of water a day. You'd think they had rationing or something. Hand me that big towel, will you?"

I held it for her, as she stepped out of the tub. She wrapped it around her, and used another, smaller towel to dry her dripping hair.

"They turned you loose?" I said.

"She turned me loose," Winnie said, rubbing hard. "Do you make a habit of shooting holes in your girl friends? If so, remember I'm no friend of yours. I'm just your wife, and it's strictly a temporary arrangement, at that."

I cleared my throat and said, "What about Vadya?"

"She'll live. She sent you a message."

"Give."

"She says she bears no hard feelings for the interrogation you put her through, since you owed her something for a similar scene in the past. She says you once let a girl go whom you should probably have killed, and now she's doing the same. She says that makes the two of you even except for a bullet in the guts. She says she'll be looking forward to paying off that score, some day."

Well, that sounded like Vadya. How she'd got out of the place before it blew, in her condition, and made her way back south, I'd probably never know. How, after being in the place for hours, she'd escaped getting infected with McRow's plague, nobody'd ever know. She was a durable girl. I drew a long breath. Suddenly I felt much better, even though I was going to have to change part of my report to read failure instead of success. After all, I'd been more or less instructed to kill her.

Winnie was watching me with a wise look on her small face. "You're not in love with the bitch, I hope," she said.

"Love, schmove," I said. "Vadya and I are just good… enemies. I'd miss her if anything really happened to her."

Winnie grinned. "Well, with enemies like you've got, you don't need friends. Now dry my back, please, and then you can order me a drink and bring me up to date. I feel like Rip Van Winkle… Damn, there's the phone. Get it, will you, Matt?"

I got it and heard Mac's voice on the line. "Eric?"

"Here."

"I expected a call from you earlier. I was informed that you'd left Glasgow this morning. Did you have a pleasant drive?"

"Yes, sir."

"You will be glad to know that the northern situation seems to be under full control. Did you, er, happen to pick up anything you didn't give the British?"

"No, sir," I said. "I had my hands on it, but it sank."

"Ah, well, perhaps it is just as well. They seem to have solved their problem without it, and we have enough fantastic weapons to worry about. Well, I will be looking forward to receiving your full report. In the meantime, the British authorities inform me that you are not a very nice man, Eric. Not really the kind of brave and forthright chap we like to work with, don't you know? Under the circumstances, I think it might be best if you were to continue your honeymoon elsewhere. I am told the Riviera is very pleasant at this time of year…"

Winnie, still wrapped in the big towel, was trying to comb the snarls out of her hair when I came back into the bathroom. I looked at her for a moment. She was an attractive girl, but the nicest thing about her, I reflected, was the fact that she was in the business from choice. She knew the score; she was supposed to be able to take care of herself. I didn't have to feel responsible for her; in fact, she'd hate me if I did.

She glanced at me over her shoulder. "Orders?"

I nodded. "It's rough, baby. A real hardship case. We've got to head for the Riviera and check into the best hotel in St. Tropez."

She turned slowly. A funny, almost shy look had come to her face. "Still as… as bridegroom and bride?" she asked.

"Sure," I said. "We haven't got much mileage out of this honeymoon cover so far, and you know him, he wouldn't waste it." I grinned at her. "Hi, Bridie," I said.