Текст книги "The Radioactive Camel Affair"

Автор книги: Peter Leslie

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Текущая страница: 10 (всего у книги 10 страниц)

Chapter 15

Invitation to the Dance

“IT WAS FORTUNATE, Alexander Waverly said in his office some days later, “that this fellow Mazzari was sufficiently persuaded by your evidence to withdraw his men from the fray. Whichever side he has been on, it would have been extremely awkward for us: it’s not part of the Command’s duty to interfere in civil disputes in any country.”

“Yes, I thought of that afterwards,” Illya Kuryakin said. “If he had thrown in with us, we could have been accused of working against the lawful government of the Sudan; and if he’d fought against us, those on the other side would have charged us with helping to suppress a minority!”

“No repercussions on the—ah—end-product?” Napoleon Solo asked.

Waverly tossed a morning paper across the huge desk towards him and felt in his pocket for a pipe. Halfway down the front page Solo read:

EARTHQUAKE IN THE SOUTHERN SUDAN?

Seisomographs as far apart as Santa Barbara, Tokyo and Edinburgh registered shock-waves the day before yesterday whose epicenter was placed in an unexplored region of the Southern Sudan. The shock, which was of short duration, is thought to have been an earthquake, although certain characteristics showed points in common with large man-made explosions, experts said. The Sudan government last night accused rebel factions in the southwest of having caused the explosion. A communique issued by the so-called “Nya Nyerere” laid the blame squarely on “government elements” however…There have been no reports of casualties in the area…

“Yes,” Solo said reflectively, laying the paper down. “It’s best to leave it at that, I suppose.”

“You gentlemen are lucky that the human character is so fallible,” Waverly continued, reaching for his tobacco pouch. “If Hassan Hamid had not been greedy enough to want to line his own pocket—and if Marshel hadn’t been such an egomaniac that he thought he could decoy you to his headquarters and wrest our secrets from you—you might well have been murdered with the man Mahmoud in Alexandria.”

“What about Marshel’s own secrets?” Illya asked. “Do we have those?”

“Oh, yes. The Eros newsagency was a Thrush satrap, as you suspected. Our people found complete lists of the scientists and technicians responsible for stealing the Uranium 235 in Marshel’s office safe. We’ve passed the information on to the proper authorities in the countries where the thefts occurred…Good heavens! I seem to have run out of tobacco!” He stared unbelievingly at the empty pouch.

For an instant it trembled on Solo’s lips to point out that there must have been several ounces deployed around the room in the selection of unsmoked pipes littering ashtrays, desk and occasional tables. Then he thought better of it and said quietly, “I’ll see that some is sent in to you, sir, on my way out.” It was, after all, a good thing that human nature was so fallible…

“To be sure, to be sure,” Waverly was saying. “You gentlemen are due for a few days’ leave, are you not? Just how do you propose to spend it?”

“So far as I am concerned,” Kuryakin said with a rare smile, “I must first search my mind for a really good reason to refuse a pressing invitation to visit Bonn.”

Solo grinned. “I’m staying home,” he said. “There are a lot of attractions I’ve missed in New York lately. Tonight, for example, I’ve got a ticket for a first-night at El Morocco—they tell me the new middle-eastern belly dancer there is sensational!”