The Spare and the Heir: An hilarious comedy of errors. The Prisoner of Zenda for the modern age. by James D. Wood

Author:James D. Wood [Wood, James D.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Kensington Square
Published: 2023-06-14T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 30

Panic at the Border

It was not until late in the afternoon that the helicopter returned Hentzau to Zenda. As he stepped down from the machine, what remained of his hair swirling in a vortex above him, an assistant rushed up and handed him a message.

“An emergency cabinet meeting?” he yelled above the noise. “No one informed me of this!”

The assistant explained that he’d held the shuttle to the Capital. Hentzau cursed. He’d planned to spend the night at the Castle. There was a lot to do, and he wanted a debrief with Tilly and his staff on how the American tour group visit had gone. But he knew that Blicker wouldn’t call an emergency cabinet meeting on a whim.

“OK,” he sighed. “Let’s go.” Behind them the rotor blades were already coming up to speed again as the helicopter prepared to return to Lougouev’s yacht.

As he swept through the VIP channel at Immigration he noticed an unusual level of activity. Special detachments of police from the Interior Ministry were milling around with sub-machine guns, and huge queues were forming in front of passport control. Was this somehow related to the summons by Blicker, he wondered? He pushed his way through to the office of an immigration officer he knew and asked him what was happening.

“Not entirely sure, sir,” replied the officer. “Orders from the Ministry. We’re to check everyone coming in, and all entries for the past week. Sounds like we’re back to the good old days, sir.” He grinned. As if to underline the point, the sound of raised voices came through the open door of an adjoining office, where two detectives from the Interior Ministry Police were grilling a bewildered immigration official:

“You say you gave them all stamps. How many of these men were there?”

“Am I to take it, then, that it’s back to foreign imperialist scum?”

“Look, sonny, don’t get smart with me…”

Hentzau said, “Are they looking for anyone in particular?”

“We’ve got a couple of names, sir,” replied the officer. “But we think they’re already in the country.”

He showed him his list. It didn’t mean a thing to Hentzau. Perhaps they were suspected drug dealers, he thought. Then he noticed a large box in a corner. It hit Hentzau with a sudden flash of recognition. The letters C-CAM were stencilled onto the side in big bold letters. It appeared to be plugged into a socket in the wall.

“What’s this doing here?”

“That, sir? Food samples from America. Some American called to tell us to keep it plugged in until he could send someone to collect it, then when they finally arrived they left this one behind by mistake. Arrived from Vienna, sir, this morning. Local fare obviously not good enough for him.” He chuckled. “What will they think of next, sir?”

But Hentzau’s thoughts were elsewhere. He had only half believed Lougouev’s story, but here was practical proof. It was impressive: the man’s intelligence was obviously right up to date. He could score some points with this.

“Who is this American? What’s his name?”

“His name, sir? Er.

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