Clancy, Tom - Jack Ryan 03 - Red Rabbit by Clancy Tom

Author:Clancy, Tom [Clancy, Tom]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

was having coffee one table away from where my agent

made a drop," Szell explained in the Ambassador's

private office. It was located on the top floor, in

the corner-in fact, in the quarters once occupied by

Jozsef Cardinal Mindszenty during his lengthy

residency at the U.S. Embassy. A beloved figure both

in the eyes of the American staffers and the Hungarian

people, he'd been imprisoned by the Nazis, released by

the arriving Red Army, and promptly returned to prison

for not being enthusiastic enough over the advent of

the New Faith of Russia, though, technically, he'd

been imprisoned on the far-fetched charges of being a

raging royalist who wished to return the House of

Hapsburg to imperial rule. The local communists hadn't

been overly strong on creative writing. Even at the

turn of the twentieth century, the Hapsburgs had been

about as popular in Budapest as a bargeload of plague

rats.<br class="calibre1"/><br class="calibre1"/>"Why were you doing it, Jim?" Ambassador Peter "Spike"

Ericsson asked. He'd have to reply to the venomous,

but entirely predictable, communiqu that had arrived

with the Station Chief, which was now sitting in the

center of his desk.<br class="calibre1"/><br

class="calibre1"/>"Bob Taylor's wife-she's pregnant,

remember?-had some plumbing problems, and they flew

'em both off to Second Army General Hospital up at

Kaiserslauten to get checked out."<br

class="calibre1"/><br class="calibre1"/>Ericsson

grunted. "Yeah, I forgot."<br class="calibre1"/><br

class="calibre1"/>"Anyway, the short version is, I

blew it," Szell had to admit. It just wasn't his way

to cover things up. It would cause a major hiccup in

his CIA career, but that couldn't be helped. Damned

sure it was a lot rougher right now for that poor

clumsy bastard who'd screwed up the transfer. The

Hungarian State Security Authority-Allavedelmi

Hatosag, or AVH-officers who'd interrogated him

evidently hadn't had a good gloat in some time, and

had made a point of telling him how easily he'd been

bagged. Fucking amateurs, Szell raged. But the end of

the game was that he was now PNG'd, declared persona

non grata by the Hungarian government, and requested

to leave the country in forty-eight hours-preferably,

with his tail tucked firmly between his legs.<br

class="calibre1"/><br class="calibre1"/>"Sorry to lose you, Bob, but there's nothing much I can do."<br

class="calibre1"/><br class="calibre1"/>"And I'm

pretty useless to the team now anyway. I know." Szell

let out a long and frustrated breath. He'd been here

long enough to set up a pretty good little spy shop,

providing fairly good political and military

information-none of it overly important, because

Hungary was not an overly important country, but you

just never knew when something of interest would

happen, even in Lesotho-which might well be his next

posting, Szell reflected. He'd have to buy some

sunblock and a nice bush jacket... At least he'd get

to catch the World Series back at home.<br

class="calibre1"/><br class="calibre1"/>But for now,

Station Budapest was out of business. Not that Langley

would really miss it, Szell consoled himself.<br

class="calibre1"/><br class="calibre1"/>The signal

about this would go to Foggy Bottom via embassy telex-

encrypted, of course. Ambassador Ericsson drafted his

reply to the Hungarian Foreign Ministry, rejecting out

of hand the absurd allegation that James Szell, Second

Secretary to the Embassy of the United States of

America, had done anything inconsistent with his

diplomatic status, and lodging an official protest in

the name of the U.S. Department of State. Perhaps in

the next week, Washington would send some Hungarian

diplomat back-whether he was a sheep or a goat would

be decided in Washington.

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