Read Online The Seventh Secret by Irving Wallace - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Irving Wallace
Tags: Suspense & Thrillers
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what?"
"Plenty. You would receive assignments abroad. First you have to be trained during a twelve-month leave from the paper. Learn to send communications by code, learn to shadow a suspect and to shake a pursuer, learn hand-to-hand combat, learn to use a .22 Beretta. Then you would be ready."
"Why me?" she had pressed.
"I told you we've had an eye on you. We liked your looks and your tenacity. We liked your observant reporting. We liked your knowledge of German, Spanish, English." He had paused. "Well, what do you say?" He had paused again. "Or do you want to think about it?"
Sitting there, listening, she had been thinking about it, meaning her life. The newspaper work was all right, but had become somewhat repetitious and tiresome. Her love life was nothing special, although there had been someone more interesting recently. Still, there would be time for that later. She yearned for an exciting involvement in something that would mean some-thing. Also, she yearned for travel, to break out of this tight community of sufferers, to see new places, new people.
She had stared back at the director. "I have thought about it," she said. "When do I start?"
Tovah had already been in the Israeli army. The Mossad training was a little more of the same, perhaps more rugged, more exacting, more varied, but continually fascinating. Then she had worked the rest of the year in the Tel Aviv headquarters, deciphering coded messages, debriefing agents, interrogating possible contacts.
Her first assignment abroad as Helga Ludwig, had been to research and write a major travel article on Paraguay. Actually, Mossad had obtained a fresh lead on the supposedly deceased Dr. Josef Mengele, the SS physician at the Auschwitz- Birkenau death camp who had sent 380,000 innocent people to their deaths in Hitler's reign of terror. Mengele had escaped from the American Zone in Austria to Argentina in 1951, and, with the help of German colonists there and in Paraguay, had eluded all Nazi-hunters. Now Mossad had come upon a fresh lead. Dr. Mengele had been seen in Nueva Germania, a small town in central Paraguay. Tovah had been ordered to verify the sighting of Dr. Mengele, and learn what she could about five other wanted Nazis, several of whom might still be in hiding in Paraguay. She had learned much, but the big catch proved as elusive as ever. Now the assignment was almost over and she could leave this godforsaken country. Tovah glided back into the present, the plaza bench in Asunción.
Her watch told her it was one-thirty, just time enough for her to get back to the lunch in her room with Ben Shertok and her report.
When she emerged from the hotel elevator and made for her room, she found Ben Shertok already there, leaning contentedly against the wall outside her door, puffing on a cigar. He resembled a professorial type, rumpled hair, horn-rimmed spectacles on a hawkish nose. A quiet and dedicated intelligence chieftain.
He planted a chaste kiss on each of her cheeks, and apologized for coming early. "Because the plane wasn't on time. It was early. So I'll excuse you if you want to go to the bathroom."
She let them into her room. "I feel guilty, living in this fancy hotel even for a day. I assure you, Ben, it wasn't like this for the last four weeks."
"You bet I know," he said. "I took the liberty of ordering from room service when I was downstairs. I don't have much time, and yet didn't want to rush our lunch. I have to be in Chile this evening."
"I'll just wash my face and hands," she said. "It was hot out there. What am I having for lunch?"
"I thought I heard you say, when we dined in Buenos Aires, how much you were taken by those dumplings of ground maize and onion on your first visit here."
" Sopa paraguaya ," she said. "You couldn't have done better."
"Some red wine, too," he added.
"Great. See you in five minutes."
When she came out in twenty minutes, she found that the food had already been served from a rolling cart set
"Plenty. You would receive assignments abroad. First you have to be trained during a twelve-month leave from the paper. Learn to send communications by code, learn to shadow a suspect and to shake a pursuer, learn hand-to-hand combat, learn to use a .22 Beretta. Then you would be ready."
"Why me?" she had pressed.
"I told you we've had an eye on you. We liked your looks and your tenacity. We liked your observant reporting. We liked your knowledge of German, Spanish, English." He had paused. "Well, what do you say?" He had paused again. "Or do you want to think about it?"
Sitting there, listening, she had been thinking about it, meaning her life. The newspaper work was all right, but had become somewhat repetitious and tiresome. Her love life was nothing special, although there had been someone more interesting recently. Still, there would be time for that later. She yearned for an exciting involvement in something that would mean some-thing. Also, she yearned for travel, to break out of this tight community of sufferers, to see new places, new people.
She had stared back at the director. "I have thought about it," she said. "When do I start?"
Tovah had already been in the Israeli army. The Mossad training was a little more of the same, perhaps more rugged, more exacting, more varied, but continually fascinating. Then she had worked the rest of the year in the Tel Aviv headquarters, deciphering coded messages, debriefing agents, interrogating possible contacts.
Her first assignment abroad as Helga Ludwig, had been to research and write a major travel article on Paraguay. Actually, Mossad had obtained a fresh lead on the supposedly deceased Dr. Josef Mengele, the SS physician at the Auschwitz- Birkenau death camp who had sent 380,000 innocent people to their deaths in Hitler's reign of terror. Mengele had escaped from the American Zone in Austria to Argentina in 1951, and, with the help of German colonists there and in Paraguay, had eluded all Nazi-hunters. Now Mossad had come upon a fresh lead. Dr. Mengele had been seen in Nueva Germania, a small town in central Paraguay. Tovah had been ordered to verify the sighting of Dr. Mengele, and learn what she could about five other wanted Nazis, several of whom might still be in hiding in Paraguay. She had learned much, but the big catch proved as elusive as ever. Now the assignment was almost over and she could leave this godforsaken country. Tovah glided back into the present, the plaza bench in Asunción.
Her watch told her it was one-thirty, just time enough for her to get back to the lunch in her room with Ben Shertok and her report.
When she emerged from the hotel elevator and made for her room, she found Ben Shertok already there, leaning contentedly against the wall outside her door, puffing on a cigar. He resembled a professorial type, rumpled hair, horn-rimmed spectacles on a hawkish nose. A quiet and dedicated intelligence chieftain.
He planted a chaste kiss on each of her cheeks, and apologized for coming early. "Because the plane wasn't on time. It was early. So I'll excuse you if you want to go to the bathroom."
She let them into her room. "I feel guilty, living in this fancy hotel even for a day. I assure you, Ben, it wasn't like this for the last four weeks."
"You bet I know," he said. "I took the liberty of ordering from room service when I was downstairs. I don't have much time, and yet didn't want to rush our lunch. I have to be in Chile this evening."
"I'll just wash my face and hands," she said. "It was hot out there. What am I having for lunch?"
"I thought I heard you say, when we dined in Buenos Aires, how much you were taken by those dumplings of ground maize and onion on your first visit here."
" Sopa paraguaya ," she said. "You couldn't have done better."
"Some red wine, too," he added.
"Great. See you in five minutes."
When she came out in twenty minutes, she found that the food had already been served from a rolling cart set
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