Spy Who Read Latin: And Other Stories by Edward D. Hoch Read Free Book Online

U.S. publishers. Mrs. Belgrave accompanied her husband, and perhaps she should take up the story at this point.”
    They turned toward the redhaired woman, and in that moment her pale drawn face revealed more of her ordeal than any words she might utter. Finally she pulled herself together and began. “We’d been there about two weeks, and Gordon had met with various minor government officials, when one night without any warning we were arrested as we were leaving the hotel for dinner. They said my husband was an American spy, and the—they took us away to jail. I was questioned several times and so was my husband. Finally this man Taz said that I was being released because I was British. He said Gordon had confessed to being an American spy, and would have to stand trial.”
    Rand interrupted. “Taz is my opposite number in Moscow. His field is codes and ciphers. He wouldn’t be involved in a routine espionage case.”
    “We know about Taz,” Lanning said. “That’s why you’re here, Rand. I understand you’ve met the man.”
    “We’ve met twice, in East Berlin and in Paris, and I think we respect each other’s work. It goes no further than that.”
    “But you’re the man to talk to him, to reason with him. He has some coded messages that Gordon Belgrave is supposed to have sent.”
    “Did Belgrave really confess?”
    Lanning motioned to the Japanese reporter. “Shoju can best answer that. He was there.”
    “I was,” Shoju Etan admitted. “I was in Moscow on this series of articles I mentioned, and when I heard of the arrest I hurried to the Kremlin. After some time I managed to see Taz, and he took me with him while he interviewed the prisoner. He said he wanted to avoid the sort of publicity that spy arrests usually received in the Western press. He wanted to show me that Belgrave had not been tortured or brainwashed or otherwise coerced into making a confession.”
    “And Belgrave did actually confess?”
    “He did,” the Japanese reporter confirmed. “He said he had sent telegraphic messages to Allied agents in London using something called a SYKO cipher. Taz had the evidence of the messages themselves.”
    “What information was he supposed to have sent?”
    Shoju stirred uneasily. “I did not include this in my published articles on the matter, but the Russians are working on a new form of SUM missile—surface to underwater missile—for use against America’s Polaris submarines. I believe Taz suspects that Mrs. Belgrave’s husband was spying on this activity.”
    “I see,” Rand commented. “But how can I help?”
    Mrs. Belgrave stood up. “My husband is innocent, Mr. Rand. Completely innocent. He’s—not well. He had a nervous breakdown about a year ago, and has been under treatment since then. I believe the Russians have done something to his mind.”
    “I’m sure the book publishers’ council wouldn’t have sent him to Moscow if he were seriously ill.”
    “Oh, it wasn’t anything he couldn’t control,” she insisted. “In fact, he’d been much better since the shock treatments at the hospital. But I can’t help feeling that his confession was the result somehow of his mental condition.”
    Rand turned to Lanning. “What about it, Lanning? Was he working for you?” He knew it was a foolish question, which could only bring a negative reply.
    “Absolutely not,” the CIA man insisted. “Belgrave was an Army Air Corps Intelligence officer during the Second World War, but he’d been completely separated from any sort of government service ever since. He has absolutely no connection with the CIA, NSA, or any other agency.”
    “I’m inclined to believe you,” Rand said with a smile. Then, to Shoju, “You’re returning to Moscow?”
    The Japanese nodded. “I said in my last article that I would return this week with Mrs. Belgrave to try and free her husband.”
    “You think that’s why they tried to kill you?”
    Shoju shrugged. “I do not know.”
    “All