Dragons Of Englor

Chapter 18

General Strong looked across his desk with an expression that seemed to indicate he wished the people facing him would vanish in a puff of smoke.

«Dragons?» he said.

Rilla nodded. «Dragons.»

«Flying, fire-breathing dragons?»

She nodded again.

«Flying, fire-breathing dragons that are going to fly from the tops of the mountains of Nordsbergen and land in Englor?»

Rilla nodded a third time. «It would be more accurate to say that they will glide, General. They are too heavy to really fly, except in a very strong wind. But-«

Blade gently squeezed Rilla's hand and she fell silent. Blade did not much care for the tone in General Strong's voice. Granted that General Sir Morgan Strong was Director of the Office of Military Intelligence. That did not prove that he himself had any intelligence. Certainly he was showing very little of it now.

Blade felt like saying that aloud. On the other hand, Sir Morgan Strong was a full general. He himself was a major with a background that could not safely be subjected to close investigation. General Strong seemed like the type to investigate any major who talked out of turn.

Blade decided he would have to leave in R's hands the problem of coping with General Strong.

The one-eyed man took a deep breath. «General Strong, I assume you question the reliability of Miss Haran's reports, in spite of her role in the creation of these dragons?»

General Strong obviously did. Just as obviously, he wasn't quite ready to come right out and call Rilla a high-priced defector to her face and in R's presence. «Not altogether. It merely seems to me improbable, to the point that I am extremely reluctant to commit this office of His Imperial Majesty's Armed Forces to any course of action based on it.»

R raised his bushy gray eyebrows, and Blade had the sense that battle had been joined. When R raised his eyebrows that way, it meant he'd made his decision. General Strong now had only two choices-he could surrender, or R would try to destroy him and probably succeed.

«You do not, I assume, question the existence of the cloning processes described in the material Miss Haran has presented?»

Again Strong shook his head. «No. I do not. I can say that definitely. I can also say that I see no logical reason why these processes should have been used to create-let us be frank, to create monsters out of children's fairy tales.» This time it was Rilla who looked as if she wanted to speak bluntly to the general-or even breathe fire all over him, like one of her own dragons.

R nodded with elaborate politeness. Blade recognized that nod as one of satisfaction. General Strong now had plenty of rope to hang himself. «Then your decision is final, with regard to action on this report?»

«It is. As long as I hold this office, His Majesty's Armed Forces will not be diverted from action against their real enemies to guard against, still less pursue, fairy tales.»

R chose to take those words as a dismissal. He gathered up Blade and Rilla with his eyes and they passed into the outer office.

Rilla's own bodyguards met them to escort her away. Blade took her aside into an alcove for a moment. Her arms went slowly around him, and her head rested on his shoulder.

«When they think it's safe, would you like to come away on a private holiday with me for a few days? I imagine it could be arranged.»

Rilla straightened up and looked at Blade. She was wearing high heels, and her eyes were nearly on a level with his. She looked at him in expressionless silence for a moment, then smiled.

«I would like that very much, Richard. I like the way you asked, too. It seemed you really wanted to know what I felt, and if I had said no you would have said nothing.»

Blade smiled in his turn. «Don't get in the habit of crediting me with virtues I may not have.»

«Ah, but that is one virtue you do have. You do not take me for granted. You are not the first man whose company I have found good, Richard. But you are the first who has not taken me for granted. I could care for you a great deal more than any of those other men, I think.»

Blade felt like telling her that he was not a good man to care for, not with his duties and with the war so close. But she must already know that. If she was setting it all aside…

«Well,» he said. «I think we can talk more of that some other time and place.»

«And more than talk,» she said, kissing him gently. She turned and walked out of the alcove to join her bodyguards.

When she'd gone, Blade and R went out to their staff car. As the car wound its way through London traffic toward the airport, R looked at Blade with a more than usually unreadable expression on his face and said quietly, «We have our evidence about Elva Thompson.»

«Conclusive?»

«Eighty percent.»

That was greater reliability than one could usually expect in intelligence matters. Whatever was about to happen to Elva would probably be well deserved.

A moment passed, and Blade realized that R seemed to be hesitating. That could hardly mean anything but bad news. Blade found himself resenting R's apparent notion that he was weak where Elva was concerned.

«Well?» he said abruptly.

«She is the center of Red Flame penetration of our Division. Not the only person involved, probably. But the key one.»

Blade's head jerked. «Was she responsible for the fake order about not deviating from prescribed routes?»

«She was. That is good, in a way. It means we only need to eliminate a spy, instead of also searching for some dusty-brained idiot who gave that order in perfectly good faith. It was Elva. She'd been around long enough to know all our forms and procedures. It was easy enough for her to insert a false message into the proper channels and set you and-what was his name?»

«Piedar Goron.»

«-up for that trap at the airfield. However, they set the trap for foxes. What they caught was a lion.»

«Thank you, sir.»

«Don't thank me. I should thank you for what you've done on this mission. You've got an absolutely matchless gift for this kind of work. I'll push it all the way up to the Minister of Defense if they don't approve you for lieutenant colonel at least.»

«Yes, but what about Elva Thompson?»

«For the moment, she's where she can do us no further harm and the Red Flames no good. The Norfolk shadow headquarters is still just that. We're not proposing to give the shadow any real substance, either, not as long as she's there. When my estimate is that she's outlived all her usefulness, we'll have her killed. Make it look like an accident, you know. We don't want to tell the Red Flames any more than necessary about our internal security.»

«Quite right,» said Blade. He found it almost a relief that R-like J-could use the blunt, honest word «kill.» Too many intelligence people were committed to euphemisms like «terminate.» Both R and J had the courage to look what they were doing squarely in the face and call it by its proper name.

It was also a relief to know that Elva's fate had been decided. He was not quite indifferent to the idea of her death, not after what there had been between them. He was much less indifferent to all the deaths her treason had caused. Elva Thompson would be no real loss to anyone except her masters in Russland.

R went on. «There's another project I want started, and I want you on it.»

«What's that, sir?»

«Contingency planning for action against the dragons, when they start landing in Englor.»

«When, sir?»

«I believe Miss Haran, Blade. Don't you?»

Blade laughed. «Absolutely, sir. But-isn't this intruding on the Plans and Operations people?»

«It is. But with General Strong's attitude, I doubt if one single lieutenant is going to be assigned to plan how to fight off dragons. That's going to mean trouble when they land, no matter how much planning we can do at Special Operations. But if we do something, it may cut the damage.» He smiled grimly. «Also, it will help tighten the noose around the neck of our mutual friend General Sir Morgan Strong.»