"Dead! With all those doctors standing around?"
The general's face assumed its habitually worried expression "I rather
doubt he died of your knife. The highest echelons of the Party do not
approve of failures. You were correct when you said you would have
lost prestige had you fled Rakoczi's challenge or even insisted upon
your diplomatic immunity rights. As it is, the prestige has been lost
on the other side. By the way, it occurs to me that no further effort
will be made to eliminate you physically. It would be too blatant."
Joe said, "One of the things I wanted to talk to you about, general.
While we were in there together, Rakoczi was sounding off in an effort
to crack my nerve. Called me a lot of names, that sort of thing. But
he also said, I'll try to repeat this exactly, _No longer do you worry
about locating the Sov-world underground and helping overthrow the
Party, eh?_"
Armstrong slumped down into the bedside chair. "Dash it! That makes it
definite. They're fully aware of your mission, though they haven't got
it exactly right. Your purpose isn't to aid the local underground but
merely to size it up, get the overall picture." He snorted his
disgust. "I'll have to get in touch with our organization in Greater
Washington. One thing certain, we're not going to be able to let you
go into the field in your status as military attache and observer."
Joe had been scheduled to observe some of the combat taking place in
Chinese Turkestan with nomad rebels. He had looked forward to the
experience, in view of his own background, wondering in what manners
the Sov forces of the Pink Army differed from the mercenary armies of
the West-world. He said now, "Why not?"
Armstrong snorted. "You'd never come out alive. There's be an
accident, and the nomads would be given the dubious credit for having
killed you." He came to his feet again. "I've got to think about this.
I'll drop in later, Mauser."
Joe thought about it too, after the other had left. Obviously, the
restrictions on his movements were a growing handicap on his abilities
to serve the organization headed by Holland Hodgson. He wondered if he
was becoming useless.
* * * * *
Max stuck his head in the door and said, "Major, sir, one of these
here Hungarians wants to see you."
"Who?" Joe growled. "And why?"
"It's that Lieutenant Colonel Kossuth one, sir. I told him Doc Haer
said you couldn't be bothered, but he don't seem to take no for an
answer."
Kossuth, Joe Mauser knew, was assigned to the West-world Embassy
military attache department on a full time basis. It occurred to him
that the Hungarian would be privy to the inner workings of the Party
as they applied to Joseph Mauser and his associates.
"Show him in," he told Max.
"But the Doc--"
"Show him in, Max."
Lieutenant Colonel Bela Kossuth was solicitous. He clicked heels,
bowed from the waist, inquired of Joe's well being.
Joe wasn't feeling up to military amenities after his framed-up near
demise of the day before. He growled, "I'd think you'd be wishing I
occupied Captain Rakoczi's place, rather than offering me sympathy."
The Hungarian's eyebrows went up, and uninvited he took the chair next
to the bed. "But why?"
"You _were_ the man's second."
Kossuth was expansive. "When asked to act, I could hardly refuse a
brother officer. Besides, my superiors suggested that I take the part.
As you probably have ascertained, major, there is considerable doubt
the desirability of you remaining in Budapest."
Joe was astonished. "You mean to sit there and deliberately admit the
duel was a planned attempt to eliminate me?"
The colonel coolly looked about the room. "Why not, major? There is no
one here to witness our conversation."
"And you admit that your precious Party, the ruling organ of this
Proletarian Paradise of yours, actually orders what amounts of
assassination?"
Kossuth examined his finger nails with studied nonchalance. "Why not
admit it? The party will do literally anything to maintain itself in
its position, major. Certainly, the death of a junior officer of the
West-world means nothing to them."
"But aren't you a Party member yourself?"
"Of course. One must be, if one is to operate as freely as
circumstance allows in this best of all possible worlds, this paradise
of ours."
Joe sank back on his pillow. He couldn't get used to the idea of this
man, whom he had always thought of as the arch-stereotype Sov-world
officer, speaking in this manner.
Kossuth crossed his legs comfortably. "See, here, major, you are all
but naive in your understanding of our society. Let me, ah, brief you,
on the history of this part of the world, and the organization which
governs it. Have you studied Marx and Engels?"
"No," Joe said. "I've read a few short extracts, and a few criticisms,
or criticisms of criticisms of short extracts. That sort of thing."
* * * * *
Kossuth nodded seriously. "That's all practically anybody does any
more, even in the Sov-world where we give lip service to them. The
point I was about to make is that the supposed founders of our society
had nothing even remotely approaching this in mind when they did their
research. It evidently never occurred to either that the first
attempts to achieve the--" the Hungarian's voice went dry--"glorious
revolution, would take place in such ultra-backward countries as
Russia and China. The revolution of which they wrote presupposedly a
highly industrialized, technical economy. Neither Russia nor, later
China had this. The, ah, excesses that occurred in both countries, in
the mid-Twentieth Century, were the result of efforts to rectify this.
You follow me? The Party, in power as a result of the confusion
following in one case the First World War, and in the second case, the
Second World War, tried to lift the nations into the industrial world
by the bootstraps."
The colonel cleared his throat. "Let us say that some elements
resisted the sacrifices the Party demanded--the peasants, for
instance."
Joe said, dryly himself, "If I am correctly informed on Sov-world
history, you do not exaggerate."
"Exactly. Let us admit it. Stalin, in particular, but others too, both
before and following him, were ruthless in their determination to
achieve industrialization and raise the Sov-world to the level of the
most advanced countries."