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

obtain special permission.”
    “You still haven’t told me what’s inside that couldn’t be trusted to the baggage compartment.”
    “And I’m afraid I can’t.” She made a pretty face. “It’s secret!”
    “Classified material,” the frowning Dr. Hardan said. “Can’t talk.”
    “I think it’s a body after all,” Rand said, smiling.
    “Perhaps it is,” she agreed. “Perhaps I’m a witch, Mr. Rand, and it is the body of something very old, very dangerous. A monster of sorts.” She was smiling as she spoke, but somehow her words were not humorous. Rand felt a chill down his spine.
    “You’re British?” he asked, changing the subject.
    “Half, on my father’s side. The other side—well, a mixture of things. The dark ways of the Orient. I’ve never been to England. Is it damp and dreary?”
    “Not really. Though there’s usually a time every winter when all your friends have colds. I’m used to it, I suppose. I like it.”
    “What are you doing on a flight to Moscow?”
    “Asking questions of ladies with coffins.”
    “A journalist?”
    “Of sorts.” He motioned toward the back of Shoju’s head. “My friend over there is a real one. I’ll bet he could find out what’s in your coffin.”
    She smiled again. “You can see for yourself at Customs. We’ll have to open it then.”
    “The great unveiling.”
    “Yes.” She glanced at her watch, an expensive timepiece with a jeweled face. “This is a very long flight.”
    “Exactly four thousand six hundred and sixty-three airline miles.” Rand liked to impress smiling ladies with his knowledge. “Even nonstop like this it takes over ten hours. It’ll be one o’clock this afternoon when we land in Moscow, counting the six hours we gain.”
    “A walking timetable!”
    “A sitting one right now, but I do have to get back to my own seat. I’ll talk to you later. Nice to have met you, and Dr. Hardan.” The frowning man nodded slightly.
    Rand resumed his seat next to Mrs. Belgrave. Lanning and Shoju were in the seats behind them. “Did you have an interesting chat, Mr. Rand?” asked Mrs. Belgrave.
    “Didn’t learn a thing,” he reported. “She says there’s a monster in the coffin, and that she’s a witch.”
    “She said that?”
    “More or less. Why?”
    Mrs. Belgrave pursed her lips. “I was watching that coffin when we took off. I could have sworn it moved.”
    “Vibrations.”
    “No. More than that. And six men to carry it on! It must weigh three hundred pounds!”
    “Maybe it’s a body after all.”
    “A live body, Mr. Rand. Do you suppose they’re Russian agents, kidnaping someone and taking him back to Moscow against his will?”
    “I doubt that.”
    “I would have doubted that Gordon could be arrested as a spy.”
    “That’s a bit different.”
    “Do we really know these Russians, Mr. Rand? Do we know what they want, what they’re up to?”
    “Perhaps they’re only afraid,” he said. “Like us.”
    It was a long trip, without even the time-killing relaxation of the in-flight movies provided on trans-Atlantic flights. By the time nine hours had passed, Rand and the others had pulled down the window shades against the noonday sun and were dozing fitfully. Rand was aware of Mrs. Belgrave leaving her seat at one point, making her way toward the rest rooms at the rear of the aircraft.
    It was a sound like a cough that awakened him finally, and even then he did not know what had caused it. He glanced around, saw Mrs. Belgrave making her way back down the aisle, saw Shoju and Lanning both dozing in the seats behind him. He got up to stretch his legs and speak to Yota Twain again, but she was not in her seat. Dr. Hardan was alone, his face buried in a Russian-language newspaper.
    He found Yota in the rear of the plane, bent over the coffin like some daytime vampire, and once more he felt the chill on his spine. “Checking body temperature?” he asked.
    “It would be quite low,” she replied, smiling. Then,