Candy Mann - Lusty Lady Lovers

"Very nicely done!" he remarked. Marla picked up her own gun and walked to his side.

"Don!" she cried, "How on earth did you get here?" He grinned at her, careful not to move his eyes from the two Communist agents, and recalling his "Marie" from the past.

"They cabled me after my report arrived and told me to get to Nice as quickly as possible. All the action was taking place in France, they said… and for once they were right! I chartered a private plane in Paris and Hew the thing here myself! Where do we go now?"

"Somewhere quiet," Maria told him. "I've got to have a long tall, with Eva." She glanced at the girl who was now huddled against the wall, looking startled at the rapid change of events. "What about the men downstairs? Do you think we can get past them all right?"

Don nodded. "I spotted them as I came in. Lucidly, they didn't seem to recognize me. You take Eva down the back stairs and I’ll meet you with the car by the fire exit. O.K.?"

"One of our Danish agents is with me… Erica Sondgaard, I'd better take her as well."

He looked surprised. "Erica?" he said, "Is she in the game too? Well, I'll be damned! Yes, bring her along! Anyone else?"

Maria shook her head. "Okay, off you go. I'll follow in just a moment… ”

Marla raised her eyebrows in mock-modesty, “Really, Don!" she said. "Like this? At least give me time to dress!" Then, moving quickly, she stripped off the negligee, completely unconcerned that the three men had a dazzling view of her naked body, and pulled panties, bra and a dress on, She grasped Eva's hand.

"Come along, darling," she said quietly. "Let's go somewhere where we can talk about all this. I can explain everything, I promise you."

Eva still looked stunned. She allowed herself to be led out of the room by Maria as if the girl had her under some kind of hypnotic spell. They walked down the hotel corridor toward the fire escape. Eva stopping sharply as the sound of two rapidly fired shots came from the room they'd just left.

"What was that?" she asked anxiously. "He didn't shoot them, did he? Not in cold blood?"

Marla urged her through the door which led to the rear exit. "Wait here.” She whispered. "I'm just going to slip back and get Erica. She's the girl who was with me on the plane."

“Where are we going? Where are you going to take me?"

"Trust me, darling. Please, trust me. I'll only be a moment." Maria left the frightened and bewildered girl and rapped loudly on Erica's door. She kept glancing back to Eva, whom she could see huddled nervously behind the glass-fronted door of the back exit.

Eva felt her senses numbed, her mind in a state of acute shock. Things were happening much too quickly for her. She couldn't cope with this rapid and abrupt change of pace. One moment she had been lying peacefully next to Maria's luscious body, the next, she was hurled into a dramatic and dangerous situation where human life was of little value.

Her intelligence warned her to run to flee downstairs and seek the protection of her countrymen who were waiting outside the hotel. But her emotions made her hesitate. She had to know if Maria was the evil and corrupt spy her bodyguards had accused her of being. Somehow it just didn't seem possible. Not Maria, not the sweet and beautiful girl she'd shared such bliss with.

Eva insisted to herself that there was some other explanation. Her mind searched wildly for a more comforting reason that would account for Maria's strange behavior, and the sudden appearance of the American man in her room.

She was still standing there two minutes later when Maria and Erica came through the door and, keeping her between them, each girl holding one of her arms tightly, began to hustle her down the iron stairs.

High-heels clicked noisily on the metal steps as they descended. When they reached the bottom, Don was already waiting for them, the rear door of his Opel open, the engine running.

The girls scrambled into the back seat and Maria slammed the door shut. Instantly, the car moved off. The man shifted quickly into third-gear and gunned the car into the busy traffic circle.

"Too bad about the car," he apologized. "I tried to get the Alfa-Romeo but this was all they could let me have at short notice." His face clouded. "Damn! They must have spotted us! That's their car coming up alongside!"

The traffic light was still red and the stream of traffic flowing steadily across from their right showed no sign of abating. Marla looked out of the rear window. A black Mercedes was inching up on their left, unable to draw too close to them because of another car which blocked its progress. But she could see a man leaning out of the front passenger seat, a metallic object in his hand glinting in the light from the bright street lamps.

"He's got a gun!" Maria shouted. "Get down on the floor! Quick!"

A bullet cracked through their rear window and out again, smashing the windshield. Don peered quickly up, saw that the lights were at last changing to green, and thrust the accelerator to the floor, keeping his body well down.

The car hurtled forward, narrowly missing the rear of a small truck, its engine screaming in protest as Don kept it in second gear. He weaved the Opel expertly across the wide boulevard, changing into third as they sped up a narrow street, the Mercedes dose behind.

"We'll make for the airport," he called over his shoulder. "God knows how many more of them are ill Nice. I'll try to shake them off but I don't think they'll try anything once we're in the airport grounds. Anyway, we can get their car blocked at the entrance. Maria! You'll find the short-wave radio in the glove compartment. Get on to our man there and tell him what to do."

Maria relayed the message quickly, got an okay from the Intelligence man at the airport and got down on the floor of the car again; crouching over Eva to shield her body from any ricocheting bullets.

Don managed to lose the Mercedes at the next busy intersection, where they went through the amber light just at the point it turned red. By continuing at a faster than legal speed, they were at the airport in about ten more minutes.

“She's been shot! I think she's dead!" Eva screamed, suddenly realizing that Erica's body was slumped over" in the back seat, blood from a bullet wound oozing out of her neck.

“She'll be taken care of," Don assured her firmly as he drove out to the runway of the airport and braked the car suddenly. “Come on! Let's get to my plane. Our men here have arranged the clearance!"

Eva never stopped to think that in this very serious game of espionage, she was of far more value to them than one of their own junior agents.

In addition to his skill as a secret agent and. great lover, Don was a very good pilot. He had no trouble in guiding the rented plane to Maria's private vacation island off the village of Agay. His famel colleague was in the copilot's seat and Eva was sitting behind them. She appeared very tired and confused, unable to understand the swift moving events of the past hour.

Why had she allowed herself to be taken away by this man and woman, without making any kind of protest? Eva felt her emotions sharply divided (as they had never been before) between patriotism and a deep, intense love for the beautiful Maria.

Eva couldn't really believe that the girl was only interested in persuading her to defect to the West, and that was really the answer to her question. She hoped desperately that Maria would set her mind at rest once they had a chance to talk quietly together.

Until then, Eva knew that she had to follow the girl wherever she went; until Maria settled the question once and for all.

Over the intercom, Don and Maria were talking, "'Before I left Budapest." he was saying. "'Beta' told me what we were to do if Eva refuses to come over to us. This is probably a good time to put you in the picture, too."