The Angry Hills - Leon Uris [49]
Part 3
ONE
LISA KYRIAKIDES LISTENED INTENTLY as Dr. Harry Thackery recited the instructions.
Lisa thought the whole mission odd indeed and too shrouded in mystery and unsaid things. It was the first time that Dr. Thackery had withheld any details from her. But Lisa knew, in the very short time that the Underground had formed, that unquestioning discipline was a requisite. She did not question him; at the same time, she didn’t like it.
To travel to far-off Larissa to bring down a lone British escapee was too much to swallow. Perhaps he is an officer of high rank or some functionary in the new Underground—perhaps he was no escapee at all, Lisa thought.
Thackery opened his thin lips...
“You will leave for Dadi tonight. Once there, a girl named Eleftheria Yalouris will meet you. She will travel with you to a village named Kaloghriani. She will introduce you to a man you will know only as Vassili.
You identify yourself as Helena. You are not to question him.”
Lisa nodded and studied his stone face.
“Our people in Dadi will arrange his travel pass, papers and change his appearance. They will pass payoff money on the train he rides. You are to spare nothing in your power to insure his safety. Is that clear?”
“Yes,” Lisa whispered.
“Once you arrive in Athens take him to Lazarus’ and contact me immediately.”
“Very well.”
“Are there any questions?”
“I believe I understand everything.”
Lisa repeated the instructions and checked her papers and money.
Papa-Panos, the little priest, entered the room. “Come, children,” he said. “It is time to eat.”
“Yes,” Dr. Thackery said. “I’d better eat and get along. I wouldn’t want my two German friends to stand outside in the rain too long.”
They walked from the room toward the kitchen. Before they entered, Dr. Thackery turned suddenly and faced the woman. “Lisa, you seem upset today. Is anything wrong?”
“Wrong? No—no—of course not.”
“One more thing, Lisa. In the event that something goes sour, if capture seems imminent—you are to kill him. He is not to be taken alive by the Germans.”
As they entered the kitchen Lisa’s mind was spinning a plan furiously. A plan that could save her children—but would make her a traitor to her own people.
Konrad Heilser groaned, sprawling into a sitting position on the couch. His head throbbed. His eyes were bleary and bloodshot. He half-staggered to the huge marble-topped desk and slumped into the big swivel chair. A picture of his plump homely German wife and three plump homely German children stared at him. He shoved the picture into the top drawer of the desk and withdrew an envelope of headache powders.
What a party it had been! But was it worth the agony now? He mixed the powder and drank it down, screwing up his face. Greek headache powders. They can’t do anything right.
Zervos, the fat swine, had thrown a four-day orgy to celebrate the acquisition of his new apartment house. Zervos kept a ten-room penthouse, built and furnished in ultra-modern style and hideously scrambled with ancient art works standing alongside surrealist pieces. It was the museum of a madman.
Everyone in the High Command had showed up. Zervos had suddenly become very popular with his gifts and backslapping and coddling and favors. His extortion game against wealthy Greek families had skyrocketed him into a fortune overnight.
Ah! But the whores! Zervos knows his whores, Heilser admitted to himself. A smile crossed Heilser’s lips as he remembered the party. A new woman he had found there had turned out very well—much better than the other three.
Then Konrad Heilser’s smile turned to a scowl. Zervos, the lout! A scummy government clerk. Zervos was getting too big, too fast. He was currying the favor of everyone with promises of more fabulous parties. Everyone was seeking Zervos now—the fat lout.
He’d lay the law down to Zervos, show the Greek pig who was who. Zervos had