Red Rabbit - Tom Clancy [257]
"Watch. We usually travel at night. Is more—dramatic, you say? I know the Határ-rség here many years now. Captain Budai Laszlo is good man to do business with. He has wife and little daughter, always want present for daughter Zsoka. I have," Kovacs promised, holding up a paper bag.
The border post was sufficiently well lighted that they could see it three kilometers off, and blessedly there was little traffic this time of night. Jani drove up normally, slowing and stopping there when the private of the border guards, the Határ-rség, waved for them to halt.
"Is Captain Budai here?" Kovacs asked at once. "I have something for him." The private headed into the guardhouse and returned instantly with a more senior man.
"Laszlo! How are you this cold night?" Kovacs called in Magyar, then jumped down from the cab with the paper shopping bag.
"Istvan, what can I say, it is dull night," the youngish captain replied.
"And your little Zsoka, she is well?"
"Her birthday is next week. She will be five."
"Excellent!" the smuggler observed. He handed over the bag. "Give her these."
"These" were a pair of candy-apple-red Reebok sneakers with Velcro closures.
"Lovely," Captain Budai observed, with genuine pleasure. He took them out to look at them in the light. Any female child in the world loved the things, and Laszlo was as happy as his daughter would be in four days. "You are a good friend, Istvan. So, what do you transport tonight?"
"Nothing of value. I'm making a pickup this morning in Beograd, though. Anything you need?"
"My wife would love some tapes for the Walkman you got her last month." The amazing thing about Budai was that he was not an overly greedy man. That was one of the reasons Kovacs liked to travel across the border on his watch.
"What groups?"
"The Bee Gees, I think she called them. For me, some show tunes, if you don't mind."
"Anything in particular? The music from American movies, like Star Wars, perhaps."
"I have that one, but not the new one, the Empire Attacks Back, perhaps?"
"Done." They shook hands. "How about some Western coffee?"
"What kind?"
"Austrian or American, maybe? There's a place in Beograd that has American Folgers coffee. It is very tasty," Kovacs assured him.
"I have never tried that."
"I'll get you some and you can try it—no charge."
"You are a good man," Budai observed. "Have a good night. Pass," he concluded, waving to his corporal.
And it was just that easy. Kovacs walked back around and climbed into his truck. He wouldn't have to part with the present he had for Sergeant Kerekes Mikaly, and that was good, too.
Hudson was surprised. "No paper check?"
"Laszlo just runs the name through the teletype to Budapest. Some people there are also on my payroll. They are more greedy than he is, but is not major expense. Jani, go," he said to the driver, who started up and pulled across the line painted on the pavement. And just that easily, the truck left the Warsaw Pact.
In the back, Ryan had rarely felt so good to feel a vehicle start to move. It stopped again in a minute, but this was a different border.
And going into Yugoslavia, Jani handled it, just trading a few words with the guard, not even killing the engine, before being waved forward and into the semi-communist country. He drove three kilometers before being told to pull off onto a side road. There, after a few bumps, the Volvo stopped. Yugoslavian border security, Hudson saw, was sod-all.
Ryan was already out of his cardboard box and standing at the back when the canvas cover was flipped aside.
"We're here, Jack," Hudson said.
"Where is that exactly?"
"Yugoslavia, my lad. The nearest town is Légrád, and here we part company."
"Oh?"
"Yes, I'm turning you over to Vic Lucas. He's my counterpart in Belgrade. Vic?" Hudson beckoned.
The man who came into view might have been Hudson's twin, except for the hair, which was black. He was also two or three inches taller, Jack decided on second inspection. He went forward to get the Rabbits out of the boxes. That happened in a hurry,