Background to Danger Read Online Free PDF Page B

Luis Gomez engaged in anti-Soviet propaganda particularly with reference to Soviet petroleum imports in Spain. Believed acting for English oil interests.
    Note
. Above agent identified as Saridza 1929. See remarks below.
    February
1930. Case heard before Judge Mahoina in New York City. Cator and Bliss (New York) Inc. (defendant) versus Joshua L. Curtice (plaintiff). Curtice alleged nonpayment of $100,000 expenses in connection with work done at second disarmament conference Geneva. Nature of work: Alleged contra-disarmament propaganda. Curtice employed by London directors of Cator and Bliss Limited. Hearing of case in New York arranged by plaintiff. Judgment on case given in accordance with agreement reached between litigants. Curtice claimed Swiss citizenship. Identified as Saridza by B.71.
    Remarks
. Saridza is understood (Report ZB356/28) to possess large organisation, principally in Europe and Near East. Activities now mainly political propaganda on behalf of industrial and banking groups. Excellent organiser. Unscrupulous. Speaks English (slight accent), French (bad accent), German, Russian and Slovene.
    Appearance
. Height, average. Thin build. Grey hair, nearly bald, sallow complexion. Small grey clipped moustache stained with nicotine. Has been known to carry fire-arms.
Important Note
. On every occasion on which Saridza has been identified it has been through the fact that his left arm is incapable of full articulation at the elbow. This disability produces an unmistakable awkwardness in the use of the arm.
    Standing Instructions
(May 1926). Any agent securinginformation, even from an unreliable source, of Saridza’s activities, to report immediately.
    Tamara closed the file and crushed out her cigarette. Through the open door she could hear her brother speaking rapidly.
    “… the Pan-Eurasian Petroleum Company, there is not a doubt of it, Petroff. The affair becomes a little clearer, my friend, does it not? You have heard of Balterghen’s failure in Rumania?… yes, yes, that is so … but I will leave you to notify Moscow … no … yes … I shall go straight away to Linz … yes … I shall take Tamara. I will recall J12 from Berne to take charge here. Please be good enough to warn Vienna …”
    There was a long pause. Tamara could feel her heart beating.
    “Ortega?” went on Zaleshoff. “Yes, I remember his face. Who could forget it? He has a skin like elephant hide and eyes like a snake.
Au ’voir.”
    There was a clatter as he hung up. When he came bustling back into his office, Tamara was looking at the file again.
    “You have read it? You heard me speaking to Petroff?” He was looking excited.
    “Yes. But why do we go to Linz?”
    “You have read the dossier. It was I who identified Saridza in New York. I know his face well.”
    “But our people in Vienna …?”
    “They do not know him as I do. It is lucky for us. Saridza is an important enemy. It will be a great
coup
for us. Now, please, Tamara, get me Berne on the telephone.”
    Waiting in the dark little outer office for the call, she heard him rummaging furiously in his desk. He was humming
Tchoubtchik
softly to himself. Once he stopped and swore, and she called to ask him if he wanted anything; butit was only ammunition for his revolver and he had found it. Then:
    “Andreas! we are going back to Moscow next month?”
    “Yes, Tamara, next month.”
    “For three months?”
    “Perhaps.”
    She was silent for a moment. With her finger she drew a long straight line in the dust on the shelf beside her. When she spoke again, her voice had dropped slightly.
    “Andreas, shall we always do this work?”
    “I hope so. We are good at it.”
    She heard him slam and lock a drawer in the desk. The telephone pressed to her ear, she stared at the clumsy, old-fashioned typewriter on the table as she went on.
    “I suppose Borovansky will be dead by the time we reach Linz?”
    “Ortega has instructions not to kill, but to get the