Destination Unknown - Agatha Christie [53]
He stared straight ahead of him. It was as though he was determined to show no emotion of any kind. He said quietly:
‘So Olive’s dead? I see…’
There was a long silence. Then he turned to her.
‘All right. I can go on from there. You took her place and came here, why?’
This time Hilary was ready with her response. Tom Betterton had believed that she had been sent ‘to get him out of here’ as he had put it. That was not the case. Hilary’s position was that of a spy. She had been sent to gain information, not to plan the escape of a man who had placed himself willingly in the position he now was. Moreover, she could command no means of deliverance, she was a prisoner as much as he was.
To confide in him fully would, she felt, be dangerous. Betterton was very near a breakdown. At any moment he might go completely to pieces. In those circumstances it would be madness to expect him to keep a secret.
She said:
‘I was in the hospital with your wife when she died. I offered to take her place and try and reach you. She wanted to get a message to you very badly.’
He frowned.
‘But surely–’
She hurried on–before he could realize the weakness of the tale.
‘It’s not so incredible as it sounds. You see I had a lot of sympathy with all these ideas–the ideas you’ve just been talking about. Scientific secrets shared with all nations–a new World Order. I was enthusiastic about it all. And then my hair–if what they expected was a red-haired woman of the right age, I thought I’d get through. It seemed worth trying anyway.’
‘Yes,’ he said. His eyes swept over her head. ‘Your hair’s exactly like Olive’s.’
‘And then, you see, your wife was so insistent–about the message she wanted me to give to you.’
‘Oh yes, the message. What message?’
‘To tell you to be careful–very careful–that you were in danger–from someone called Boris?’
‘Boris? Boris Glydr, do you mean?’
‘Yes, do you know him?’
He shook his head.
‘I’ve never met him. But I know him by name. He’s a relation of my first wife’s. I know about him.’
‘Why should he be dangerous?’
‘What?’
He spoke absently.
Hilary repeated her question.
‘Oh, that.’ He seemed to come back from far away. ‘I don’t know why he should be dangerous to me, but it’s true that by all accounts he’s a dangerous sort of chap.’
‘In what way?’
‘Well, he’s one of those half-balmy idealists who would quite happily kill off half humanity if they thought for some reason it would be a good thing.’
‘I know the sort of person you mean.’
She felt she did know–vividly. (But why?)
‘Had Olive seen him? What did he say to her?’
‘I can’t tell you. That’s all she said. About danger–oh yes, she said “that she couldn’t believe it”.’
‘Believe what?’
‘I don’t know.’ She hesitated a minute and then said, ‘You see–she was dying…’
A spasm of pain convulsed his face.
‘I know…I know…I shall get used to it in time. At the moment I can’t realize it. But I’m puzzled about Boris. How could he be dangerous to me here? If he’d seen Olive, he was in London, I suppose?’
‘He was in London, yes.’
‘Then I simply don’t get it…Oh well, what does it matter? What the hell does anything matter? Here we are, stuck in this bloody Unit surrounded by a lot of inhuman Robots…’
‘That’s just how they felt to me.’
‘And we can’t get out.’ He pounded with his fist on the concrete. ‘We can’t get out.’
‘Oh yes, we can,’ said Hilary.
He turned to stare at her in surprise.
‘What on earth do you mean?’
‘We’ll find a way,’ said Hilary.
‘My dear girl,’ his laugh was scornful. ‘You haven’t the faintest idea what you’re up against in this place.’
‘People escaped from the most impossible places during the war,’ said Hilary stubbornly. She was not going to give in to despair. ‘They tunnelled, or something.’
‘How can you tunnel through sheer rock? And where to? It’s desert all round.’
‘Then it will have to be “or something”.’
He looked at her. She smiled with a confidence that was dogged rather than genuine.
‘What an extraordinary girl you are! You sound quite sure of yourself.’
‘There’s always a way. I