The Tristan Betrayal - By Robert Ludlum Page 0,181

nodded, a terrible understanding dawning in her face. "When I am arrested, the Germans will learn of it through their spy in the Lubyanka. Then Hitler's men will see that this was no Soviet plant. They will be persuaded that the documents are authentic." She shrugged; her tone was casual, but she could not hide the strain, the fear. "The execution of one insignificant ballerina is surely worth it if it means the end of Hitler."

Metcalfe grabbed her with both hands, wresting her face toward his. "No! I would not sacrifice you!"

"I would be sacrificing myself," Lana replied coolly.

"Listen to me! You will not be arrested. You know how these things work. The NKVD will not arrest you on German soil. They will lure you back home, tell you that you must return at once. There's an emergency, they'll tell you. Perhaps something with your father. They will use some pretext, some ruse. They will put you on the first train out of Berlin, and once you reach Moscow, then they'll arrest you."

"Yes, yes," she agreed. "That is indeed how they'll do it."

"But you won't get on that train! You'll defect they'll think you were tipped off, that you figured out the truth and you chose instead to defect. You chose life over execution it's entirely reasonable."

"And how will I defect?"

"All you have to do is say the word, Lana, and I'll place a call to Switzerland. The British Special Operations Executive and the R.A.F operate a fleet of small, light monoplanes Lysanders that are used to parachute agents into Nazi-occupied territory. Occasionally to make pickups as well."

"They fly into German airspace?"

"They know the capabilities and schedules of Nazi antiaircraft defenses. They fly in low and fast enough that the Nazi defenses don't have time to react. These planes have already made dozens of flights like this. But the timing is extraordinarily tricky. The whole thing requires a high degree of coordination. Once we request a plane, we have to be ready to meet it, signaling at a designated rendezvous site outside of Berlin. If everything doesn't happen with perfect timing, the plane won't even land. It'll circle around and return to Tempsford Airfield in Bedfordshire. And then the window will slam shut."

"The window?"

"Once Kundrov has transmitted his report about you to Moscow, we'll have only one opportunity to get on the plane. If we miss it, the NKVD will grab you. And I won't have that."

"And Kundrov?"

"We've already spoken about this. He's already arranging his end of the rendezvous. All I have to do is call Bern, and once I know the Lysander is being dispatched, Kundrov will make his report to Moscow. The authorities in Moscow will coordinate your arrest with the NKVD presence here. The machinery will be set into motion. It'll be unstoppable. There'll be no turning back then."

"You trust him?"

"That's the same question he asked of me. He saved your life and mine." Metcalfe recalled Kundrov's request to defect. "I have other reasons to trust him as well. But Lana this is up to you."

"Yes."

"I want you to think long and hard about this. It may sound terribly risky, but I think it's even more risky for you to return to Moscow, where it's only a matter of time before you're arrested."

"I said yes, Stiva."

"You realize that things can still go wrong?"

"I told you, I'm not a child. Nothing in life is guaranteed. Nothing in our world is safe. Not anymore. Leaving my father this will tear me apart, my darling. But I have said good-bye to him for the last time, just as I do every morning. So I'm telling you yes."

Both of them were silent for a minute or two.

"I need to place two calls. One to Kundrov, who's waiting for my call." He pulled out a scrap of paper on which he'd scrawled the number of a telephone booth in central Berlin. "The other to Switzerland. Von Schiissler's a diplomat, which means the Foreign Office provides him with the kind of telephone line with international access that few other Germans have."

"There's a telephone in his study. He placed a call to the German embassy in Moscow shortly after we arrived here."

He glanced at his watch, something he realized he had been doing with increasing frequency this evening.

"All right. We have five hours, even less. If all goes according to schedule, once I call Kundrov, he will call Moscow. The wheels will turn quite fast; Kundrov will see to it. You will then