The Ring of Five Read Online Free PDF Page B

have been comical if Danny hadn't seen the thunderous look in his eyes. Without anyone touching it, the door closed in Brunholm's face.
    It was a medium-size room, shabby in a cozy way, with a battered sofa and chairs and a fire burning in the grate. To one side of the room was a desk, behind which sat a man in a pinstripe suit, his face in shadows. Danny turned around and almost jumped out of his skin. A stuffed weasel stood on a shelf beside the door, its snarl so lifelike, he recoiled.
    "The weasel," the man said. "Our equivalent in the animal world. Of the spy, that is." His voice was low and pleasant. He didn't say anything else, so Danny looked around. The room was full of things to do with spying--so many that he thought it might be a museum. On a side table there was a pen that on closer examination contained a gun. There were false mustaches and wigs. There were volumes of Catullus and other Roman scholars, each containing a radio transmitter in its hollowed-out middle pages. A whole shelf was devoted to cigarette packets in various stages of being transformed into a miniature revolver. In a stand in front of him Danny noticed an umbrella with an ornate ivory handle carved in the shape of an elephant's head.
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    "Pick it up," the man said. Danny did as he said. "Press the elephant's left tusk." When Danny pressed it, a long spike shot from the tip of the umbrella.
    "For delivery of poison," the man said, coming out from behind the desk. "Remarkably efficient in a crowd." Danny shuddered. "Invented by the Bulgarians," the man continued examining the umbrella thoughtfully. "Resourcefulness on a limited budget. Sometimes it makes for the best espionage." He stepped into the light. He was a tall man with an intelligent, well-bred face that was entirely expressionless. He did not look directly at Danny.
    "It has been a long war," he said, seeming to be speaking to himself, "and a long and uneasy truce. They get stronger, and we get weaker by the day." Master Devoy sighed. He suddenly lifted his head and looked straight into Danny's eyes. Danny felt as if all his secrets had been exposed, and found himself blushing.
    "Yes," Devoy said slowly, "Brunholm was right. Not just the physical appearance ... a quality you have, not quite deviousness, not yet ... you will have to learn that ..."
    "I don't want to learn anything," Danny said, his voice not quite seeming to belong to him. "I want to go home."
    "That's the problem." Devoy's tone was kindly now. "You can't go home."
    The fire crackled and spat. Rain spattered against the window. Danny stared at Devoy. There was something final about the way he had told Danny that he wasn't going home.
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    "Why?" Danny managed, aware of how tired he felt.
    "We need a spy," Devoy said, "a great spy who will sit at the very heart of our enemy and reveal what he is thinking."
    "But I'm not a spy," Danny protested.
    "No," Devoy said, "but you will be. I cannot reveal your mission until you complete your basic training. I will say no more than that, except that we are under great threat."
    "Why would I want to help you?" Danny said. His voice sounded petulant, like that of a naughty child, but he didn't care. "You kidnapped me!"
    Devoy didn't answer. Instead, he sprang to his feet and went to a cabinet. He opened the glass doors with a small key and removed a globe of the world. He brought it over to Danny and set it down in front of him. "What is it?" he asked.
    "A globe?" Danny replied. Devoy waved his hand over it. The globe began to change. The familiar seas disappeared. The landmasses dissolved. Danny found himself looking at a new world with new seas and new lands. The same, but different. Danny examined it. Were the colors harsher, the shapes of the land a little more jagged?
    "This is a Globe of the Two Worlds," Devoy said, "a rare and beautiful object."
    "Two worlds?" Danny said. "I thought there was only one."
    "Two," Devoy said, "occupying the same space and time. You have just