Too Many Traitors Read Online Free PDF Page B

At the door safeties clicked off two pistols.
    "No!" shouted Elena. She flung herself between Vladimir and Joe, pushing them apart. To Vladimir she said, "You promised it would not be like this." Then to Joe she whispered, "Strike him and they will shoot you."
    Vladimir shoved her away. "They will cooperate—or suffer." He pushed Joe off his chair. "I would think carefully," Vladimir said as he grasped Joe's arm and tossed him back in the chair. "Your only hope of leaving this consulate alive is to give me answers." Joe shook his head and said nothing. Vladimir shrugged. "Perhaps they don't believe me." He went to the gunmen by the door and took one of their pistols. "We do not need both of them. If this one will not cooperate, perhaps his death will convince the other one." He sighted along the barrel, aiming at Joe's head. "Don't move now." Smiling at his little joke, he slowly squeezed the trigger.
    A black-gloved hand reached in the door and seized Vladimir's wrist, jerking his hand back and up. The bald man whirled around, furious, then he jerked back in surprise. "Konstantin!"
    Whoever this Konstantin might be, it was obvious that Vladimir wasn't expecting him and wasn't happy to see him. The tall blond stranger, on the other hand, was calm and completely at ease. His piercing blue eyes twinkled over his confident smile.
    "Vladimir, Vladimir," Konstantin said as he took the gun away. "Exile to this lonely country has not changed your ways?"
    Vladimir rubbed his bruised wrist, still glaring. "What brings you to Spain, comrade?" he asked. "Have you come to invite me back to Department V?"
    "Department V?" Frank whispered to Joe. "That's the KGB's assassination bureau!"
    "No, Vladimir." Konstantin put a restraining hand on the big man's shoulder as he studied the Hardys. "The department is no secret — not among professionals." He emphasized the word as Vladimir's eyes narrowed angrily. "However, we prefer stealth and skill, not the brute force you demonstrate here."
    Furious, Vladimir shrugged off Konstantin's hand and headed for the door. "Very well, I leave them in your hands. We shall see whose methods are most effective." He turned on his heel and stormed off, slamming the door behind him.
    Sighing with relief, Elena picked herself up off the floor and approached Konstantin. "Thank goodness you arrived when you did, comrade. He was about to torture them, I'm sure."
    Konstantin shook his head. "How terrible. Brutality solves nothing. There are more appropriate techniques." Casually, he walked to the table, picked up the lamp, and ripped the wire from its base. The lamp cord, still plugged into the wall, sprayed a shower of sparks as the exposed wires met.
    With the look of a scientist who has performed the same experiment many times, he moved the sparking wires toward Joe's face. "Now," he said, "we shall get our answers."

Chapter 6
    "DON'T!" ELENA SCREAMED. "How can you think of such a thing? Who are you?"
    Konstantin blinked at Elena as if noticing her for the first time. To one of the gunmen he said, "One of ours?" The gunman shook his head, and Konstantin faced Elena again. "Ah! One of Vladimir's local puppets. This is beyond you, girl."
    "You can't — " she began, but Konstantin cut her off. "I can. I am Vladimir's superior. While he may permit you to question his decisions, I will not.
    Perhaps your loyalty to the Party is insincere — " "I am loyal," Elena insisted. "But torture—" "This is incentive," he said, tapping the live wires together, creating a fat spark.
    "You don't need that wire," Frank told him. "We've been telling the truth."
    Nodding, Konstantin rested the cord on the table so that the ends dangled off without touching. "But one must make certain, no? Let us put together a picture of events.
    "One: My government graciously accepted a proposal from your agency to exchange a captured agent for a piece of information of extreme interest to us. Your agent had been caught in the midst of