The taxi ride had given me enough time to formulate a plan, which I hoped had a chance of success, if Doctor Alexander proved gullible enough. I asked the taxi driver to drop me half a mile before the chalet and used the time it took me to walk there to refine my plan. I had to knock twice before the chalet door was opened by Jerry.
“Yes?” he said, curtly.
“Take me to Doctor Alexander,” I said, speaking as imperiously as I expected that an undersecretary would speak.
Jerry was so surprised that he didn’t argue. He took a step back, and I walked inside.
“Who is that?” came Doctor Alexander’s voice.
“Ehr … for you,” said Jerry.
Presently Doctor Alexander appeared, gazed at me, and his jaw dropped. “Wha … what?” he mumbled.
“Doctor Alexander,” I said, speaking with authority, “I need your immediate assistance. Leave us,” I ordered Jerry, and he left without a murmur.
“But how …? I didn’t know. I don’t understand,” said Alexander.
“There are many things surrounding this operation that you don’t know, because they are above your pay grade. Now just listen and follow instructions. And while we speak, I would like a cup of coffee and some breakfast. I haven’t had the time to eat, this morning.” I was still feeling nauseous, and the heartburn in my throat was worse than before. I hoped that putting some food in my stomach would calm that.
“Yes, of course,” Doctor Alexander said, speaking uncharacteristically meekly. He then yelled for Jerry, gave him instructions, and turned back to Mary. “Please, take a seat. Now perhaps you can tell me what’s going on.”
“Up to a point. Only up to a point, but I’ll tell you what I am allowed to say. You know, of course, that we set up a telepathic operative—what’s her name? Theresa, I think.”
“Tessa,” Doctor Alexander murmured.
“Theresa or Tessa, that’s not important. Anyway, we needed her to witness what I was going to hear. I expected to receive top secret, critical information, and we feared that once I heard it I would be in danger, even in real danger for my life. So, if I happened to be neutralized, she would bring the information back to my superiors. You are aware of that, aren’t you?”
“Yes, yes. Not exactly as you say, but of course I’m aware that she was supposed to be … with you … yes.”
“Obviously not exactly. You didn’t need the exact details. This is a delicate operation, and information is imparted only on a need-to-know basis, and much of it you don’t need to know even now. Still, I’ll have to share some details with you now that things have changed in the field. First of all, we got the information we needed, and it’s intelligence of momentous importance to our country.”
“Oh, congratulations!”
“I’m afraid that congratulations are premature. Vladimir Vilikov gave me the information, over dinner. We were seated together and the room was noisy—a perfect setup that allowed him to whisper the details into my ear as if we were having an innocent conversation.”
“So you now have that information.”
“Unfortunately, I don’t. Somebody managed to slip a drug into my food, one of those drugs that make you forget recent events. I don’t know what it was, but I felt tired and went to lie down, and when I woke up I had forgotten all of it.”
A neat fib, I thought, and Doctor Alexander bought right into it.
“So it’s gone?”
“No. Your telepath was with me at dinner, and she heard everything. She obviously could not understand the meaning of what she heard, without some prior knowledge, but that doesn’t matter. She only needs to repeat what she heard to me. We need to debrief her right away.”
“Fantastic! We can go and wake her up right after I report to my director.”
“You are not to report to your director—particularly not to him—or to anybody else. This is a matter of state security, and what I just told you must not go beyond this room.”
“But Miss Payne …”
“Yes?”
“I report to my director, and I need to apprise him immediately of the situation.”
“You will do nothing of the sort. I warn you that ESA15 is not who you think he is. He’s a traitor, an enemy asset. He hasn’t been arrested yet because we didn’t want to alert our adversaries that we are on to him. Forget the director. From this moment on, you will follow my instructions exclusively. And, incidentally,” I said, using my most imperious tone, “it’s Undersecretary Payne to you.”
“I understand, Undersecretary,” said Doctor Alexander, meekly, turning a beautiful purple in the face.
Some other time I could have really enjoyed seeing him sweat like that, but right then I was in a pickle and didn’t know how to get out of it yet. Still, I admit that, in a sense, it was fun.
“Good. Let’s go talk to her,” I commanded.
We walked upstairs and knocked on my door, which, as expected, produced no response. An agitated Doctor Alexander yelled for help and a key arrived in no time, which he used to open the door. I need to tell you something: seeing myself through somebody else’s eyes is not at all the same as seeing myself in the mirror. It’s an altogether different experience, and this time it was not a good one. I lay on the bed, peaceful and with a hint of a smile—I don’t know which part of the night had left that smile on my face, although I can guess—but I was otherwise lifeless, like an empty shell of myself. Doctor Alexander tried to shake me awake, but of course it didn’t work.
“I don’t know what’s happened to her,” he said in despair.
“I do. That drug that they gave me must have somehow affected her brain as well, but differently. The side effects of those drugs are usually temporary, so eventually she’ll wake up.”
I wished I could be more convinced of it myself, but I had to believe it, or I wouldn’t have had the strength to go on.
“Oh, I’m relieved. So we’ll wait for her to wake up.”
“Yes, but not here. This chalet is no longer a safe place for her, or me; as long as we are here she is in danger, and so are you and your crew. You need us to be gone, and now is not soon enough.”
“So what is to be done?”
“You have a security agent named Tom in your team, right?”
“Yes?”
“I’ll take him and your car, and Tessa, and we’ll take it from there. You need to keep up appearances as if the operation was proceeding smoothly. Call ESA15 as soon as we are gone, and tell him that everything is working according to plan, and you have nothing special to report. We need to avoid arising suspicion with him. Do that for 48 hours, and by then I’ll get further instructions to you.”
Doctor Alexander nodded in assent, looking shell-shocked by the whole situation. Not for the first time I wondered how someone could be such a bright scientist and inexcusably stupid in everything else. Anyway, he only hung around without interfering, so Tom and Mary dressed my sleeping body, with him watching. Taking off my pajamas and dressing myself as I did was beyond surreal, believe me. At first I did my best to hide my body from Tom’s and Doctor Alexander’s view, but I soon realized that it was a futile effort. After all, I’m not a prude, and they weren’t the first people to see me naked, so I decided not to care. Let them enjoy it, I thought, if that’s what does it for them.
As soon as I was dressed, Tom picked me up and carried me to the car. He was gentle, but I noted that he was enjoying manhandling me a bit too much, placing his hands where they were not really needed for the job, but I didn’t hold that against him. Some men can’t resist temptation, but as much as I liked him, knowing his mind as well as I did, I resolved to tick him off at the first opportunity. He also lingered a bit too long while fastening my seat belt in the back seat of the car. He then walked to the driver’s door.
“Wait!” I ordered. It had just occurred to me that wherever we were going, we couldn’t just carry my body in that way, making it look like I was drunk or worse. But the chair on the porch had wheels on the front legs and, although it was not, properly speaking, a wheelchair of the type used for infirm people, it would have to do.
“Yes, Ma’am,” Tom said, stopping obediently.
“Go fetch a blanket and put that chair in the trunk of the car,” I said, pointing to it.
Tom was used to following orders and didn’t ask any questions. Luckily, the chair was small enough, and the trunk was large enough for it to fit in. As soon as that was done, Tom went to sit in the driver’s seat, waiting for instructions.
“Where to, Madam?” he asked.
“Drive on,” I said, dryly. I wished I knew the answer to that question.