Candy Mann - Lusty Lady Lovers

If she didn't… Maria remembered Don's words. If she didn’t, they would have to assassinate her.

She was still awake when the first light of dawn began to filter through the open tent flap. The lapping of the waves on the gently sloping sands had accompanied Maria's vigil of self-searching throughout the rest of the night, and they were now washing with the same unending rhythm, counter pointing the How of the girl's thoughts.

A shadow fell across the entrance to the tent. Maria looked up sharply. It was Don. The man beckoned to her, putting his finger on his lips, and she pulled her robe on and went out into the glorious sunrise.

They moved away from the tent, then Don said in a quiet voice, “Headquarters called me on the radio a little while ago. Apparently there's been a very high level conference on Eva." He paused for a moment, then said, "Whether she agrees to defect or not doesn't matter now. They've given me orders to kill her immediately!"

Maria gaped at him. "You can't be serious!" she exclaimed at last. "They wouldn't do a thing like that! They couldn't!"

He looked at her thoughtfully. "You've fallen for her, haven't you, Maria? That's what they hoped would happen, first of all. But that scheme has been overruled. By a higher authority than “Beta:. This is a lousy business, Maria. You know that as well as I do. No one makes any allowances for personalities in this game, and people get hurt, they get hurt all the time."

Maria was silent. There was no use in pleading with Don to give them a chance. He was far too dedicated to even bend the rules, let alone break them. She ought to have realized long ago that they'd counted on her falling in love with Eva. They'd wanted real sincerity from her when she kissed and fondled the girl and told her she loved her. A pretense, however skilled, would have been too risky.

A feeling that she'd been used, that her well-known affection for her own sex had been cleverly manipulated by the Intelligence men, filled her with self loathing. She felt dirty, tainted.

And now they'd decided not to go through with their original plan. "Why?" she heard herself asking Don. "Why don't they want her to defect? Didn't you tell them it's working, that she's almost certainly going to come over to us?" Maria could feel a lump rising ill her throat. After last night I m sure she'll do whatever I tell her.”

"It's not as simple as that any more. Let me explain. First of all, they've established beyond reasonable doubt that Eva is perfecting the RPM. Secondly, they're certain she's the only person in the world capable of doing such a thing.

"Now, with Eva permanently on our side, the West will have a fantastic superiority over the Communists. Hence your original mission. But Headquarters suggested that if she's unpredictable if she'll defect to us out of an attraction to another woman, how can we be sure she won't be unstable enough to go back to the East when the infatuation wears off? Or at any rate, refuse to continue to work for us?

"And that's not all. WI1at we're doing is undercover work. Officially, no one knows about these espionage intrigues. But when It s made public, as it will have to be, that. Eva is now working for us, the Communists would have every incentive to start a nuclear war. They'd have nothing to lose, you see? For them the Radar-Proof Missile would be lost for ever and that means their hopes of world domination as well."

He went on, grimly: "At the very least, they'd call our bluff, threaten to send their missiles unless we surrendered Miss Harnecz. I can see their point. The situation is simply too explosive to risk. The West is ahead of the East in the missile race at the moment. So the simplest thing to do is remove Eva from the scene altogether. As long as they can't prove that our agents did it, we're all back to square once again.

"They should have thought of all this before they sent you after her, Maria," he said softly. "It's a lousy bloody trick. But you can see what's at stake can't you? We've got to kill Eva!"

Maria could feel the tears starting from her eyes. "Isn't there anything else we can do?" she asked brokenly. "Please, Don… Anything at all?"

Don shook his head slowly and regretfully. “I’m afraid not." The first rays of the sun caught at something metallic in his hand. Maria looked at it. He was holding a gun as inconspicuously as possible at his side. So it was all over, she thought. Eva's life was out of her hands now. She could do nothing.

Maria caught her breath and thought again. There was something she could do. She could defect to the Communists and go back to Hungary with Eva. The idea stunned her and overwhelmed her at the same time, but she dare not let Don see the sudden change.

"Wait here. Maria." Don told her. "I'll make it as quick as possible. She's still asleep, isn't she?"

Maria nodded. He stepped past her moving swiftly towards the tent. There was no time to analyze her feelings. It was now or never!

She tensed her fingers straightening them in the karate position. Then she leaped forward, chopping the man viciously across the back of his neck as he stooped to move into the tent. He fell forward against the canvas sliding off it to the ground unconscious before his body slumped into the sand.

Quickly, Maria stepped over him. Eva and Sandra were awake staring at her as she entered and began to dress. Ignoring Sandra. Maria said: "Get your clothes on, Eva. I'm taking you back to Hungary. They're going to kill you and we haven't much time!"

The urgency was communicated to Eva and the girl hurriedly dressed, shooting frightened glances at Maria. When they were both ready, Maria snatched up their bags and grabbed Eva's hand.

"When Don comes to tell him I'm sorry!" she said to Sandra. “He won't understand, but tell him they can't treat people as if they were puppets… not all the time, not the way they've treated me."

Against her better judgment and all common sense, Maria had landed in Nice to pick up Magda, Eva's maid. True, it was the last place Don would think of looking for them, but it was running a tremendous risk of discovery. Still, Eva said she couldn't leave the girl alone. Magda was probably being questioned (or even tortured) by the other Communist bodyguards who would suspect that the girl had something to do with the plot to kidnap her mistress.

And so they had taken a cab to Eva's hotel managing to get to the room Eva shared with Magda without incident. Eva went in first and Maria heard her give a loud sigh of relief. She put her head cautiously around the door. Eva and Magda were embracing and the room seemed to be empty apart from the two girls.

Maria sidled in, being careful to lock the door behind her. From her smattering of Hungarian, she could make out that Magda had been questioned by the security agents, but they had accepted her story that she knew nothing about Eva's disappearance.

Eva introduced them and Maria took Magda's hand and clasped it warmly. The girl was very attractive, she thought, appraising Magda's full, young figure. And she felt a moment's jealousy as she realized that Eva had, of course, known the girl very intimately.

“We must go," she said brusquely. “We can't waste tune. The plane will be re-fueled and ready to go by the time we get back to the airport."

Eva was listening to Magda who had begun to whisper quickly in her ear. She met Maria's eyes, looking rather mysterious. “Darling Maria," she said. I’m sure another hour won't make any difference. You see, Magda tells me that she has finished making a costume for me. I want so much to try it on!"

Maria stared at her in disbelief. “You can't be serious!" she exclaimed. "Every minute counts, yet you want to try on a damned dress!" She almost stamped her foot with impatience. “And you want to take a whole hour over it! You must be crazy! Come on, we've got to leave right now!"