"Hardly anything. Were you evermarried?"

"it crossed my mind once or twice.But what wot-nan in her right mind would want to live up here' ' "'

She smiled. "Oh, I don't know. It'sreally quite beautiful."

"To a visitor, maybe. But most ofthe local girls can't wait to get the hell out and head for New York."

"There weren't any women you evermet that you liked?"

"Some, but not many I'd care to leadup an aisle."

"The photograph back in the house,Tell me about it."

There was a sudden look of pain on hisface and he stood as if to stop the conversation going ' any further.

"A long time ago, as they say. And atale not for the telling. We'd better be getting back."

"You still haven't told me aboutthis Popov. Who is he?"

He looked down at her. "DemitriPopov is a weapons and self-defense instructor. With a knife and gun and fistshe's probably one of the best there is."

"He's Russian?"

"No, Ukrainian. And that means hehates the Russians. He fought against them during the war with a Ukrainian SSregiment before he finally joined the immigrant movement. He's a nasty piece ofwork but in a matter like this he's worth his weight in gold. That's whyMassey's people use him. Right, let's get back. Unless, that is, you want tosit here all day and admire the view."

She looked at him with irritation on herface. "I don't have to like you, Stanski, and you don't have to like me.But if I'm supposed to be your wife then I have some rules of my own. In mycompany you'll be more polite. You'll treat me like you would a wife or atleast like a human being. Or do you think that would be too difficult?"

His eyes blazed back at her a moment, andthen he tossed away his cigarette and said dismissively, "if you don'tlike the arrangement, you don't have to put up with it. Now let's getgoing."

As Anna went to stand she slipped off therock. He caught her wrist and pulled her in and at that moment she looked upinto his face.

The blue eyes stared at her and suddenlyfor no reason at all he went to kiss her, his mouth moving on hers. For a fewmoments she was caught up in it all but then she pushed herself free.

@ I Don't ... He smiled. "Like yousaid, I ought to treat you as a wife. That is what you wanted, isn't it?"

She knew he was simply provoking her andsaid angrily, "Understand one thing-if we have to sleep together for thesake of appearances on this mission I don't want you ever to touch me, is thatclear?" He turned and started to walk back down the ridge.

Helsinki. February 8th The southwestcoast of Finland, seen from the air in winter, looks like a shattered jigsawpuzzle of frozen green and white shapes, as if some giant hammer had smashedland and frozen sea into a million particles.

islands and ice meet whenever a harshwinter freezes the Baltic, and that winter it was no different. To the west layHango and Turku, ancient seafaring towns that had both seen invaders come andgo-Russians, Swedes and Germans. For almost all her history Finland had had toendure invasion by her Baltic neighbors. To the east lay Helsinki, and to thesouth, fifty miles across the narrow frozen Gulf of Finland, lay the Balticstates occupied by Stalin's army.

It was almost noon when Massey arrived inHelsinki on the morning flight from Paris, and Janne Saarinen met him in theArrivals area. As they drove west along the coast in Saarinen's little grayVolvo, the Finn looked across at Massey.

"I thought I was going to have arest from covert mission flying until I got your phone call. Who is it thistime, Jake?

Not more types like those two SS creeps Idropped last month from Munich?"

"Not this time, Janne."

Saarinen smiled. "Thank God forsmall mercies. How many passengers do you want to drop?"

"Two. A man and a woman."

"What is this, Jake? Somethingspecial'? Your people don't normally drop from up here in winter. The weather'susually too bad.

"Between you and me, Janne, it's anunrecorded drop, Y(U'll be well paid, but that goes without saying."

Saarinen grinned. An unrecorded dropmeant it was highly secret and unofficial, and usually highly dangerous.

"Smells like danger, and I could dowith a bit of that right now. Say no more. We can discuss money when it'sdone."

The roads were icy, but the sturdy littleVolvo was equipped with snow chains and they came to a small fishing villagetwenty minutes later. It was no more than a clutch of brightly painted woodenhouses set around a frozen harbor. y There was an inn at one end and Saarinenpulled up outside it and said to Massey, "This will do nicely. Belongs toa cousin of mine. There's a room at the back where we can talk and won't bebothered. Let's go inside where it's warmer, Jake."

The Finn eased his false leg out of thecar and they went into the inn. It was surprisingly large inside and all donein pine, a blazing fire roaring and a ceramic stove going at the same time, andthe view looked out onto the frozen harbor locked in solid ice. There was a manbehind the bar, tall and blond, wearing a spotless white bar smock and readinga newspaper.

Saarinen said to him in Finnish,"Give us both a drink quick, Niilo, before we freeze to death. We'll usethe room at the back, if you don't mind. I've got a bit of business todiscuss."

The man behind the bar placed a bottle ofvodka and two glasses on the table and handed Saarinen a set of keys.

Saarinen led the way to a room at theside of the inn and unlocked the door. Inside, it was icy cold. He grinned ashe closed the door.

"Don't know why Niilo bothers toopen half the winter. Most of the locals stay at home. I think he must bemissing a couple of slates off his roof. In summer the place is crawling withkids from Helsinki out on a bender, but in winter it's as quiet as the inorgue.So tell 'me what you have in mind."

dropped near "The two people I spokeabout, I want them Tallinn."

Saarinen raised his eyes. "WhyTallinn'? It's a garrison town. Crawling with Soviet troops."

"There are two reasons for the dropin that area," Massey explained. "Number one, it's only a short hopacross the Gulf of Finland to Estonia and the Soviets would never expect it inwinter. And number two, there'll be a weldrop in that area come committee fromthe Estonian resistance waiting to help my people on their way."

"I see. Where to?"

"Sorry, Janne. That I can't tellyou."

"Fair enough. As long as you knowthe dangers. Where do you plan to take off from?"

"I had thought the place you've gotfarther up the coast, if it's not too close to the base at Porkkula?"

"Bylandet Island? Why not, it'swhere I keep my plane hangared in winter and it's pretty much ideal. And don'tworry about the Soviet base on Porkkula."

The Porkkula peninsula, over thirtykilometers from Helsinki, was occupied by a small Soviet military and navalforce. Such an occupation was a touchy subject for Finns. But having sided withGermany in the war, Finland had been forced to allow a small part of itscountry to be used as a Russian base until Helsinki had paid Moscow its warreparations in full.

"By air, the peninsula is over tenkilometers from Bylandet Island," Saarinen explained. "But the Sovietbase has never caused me any problems-it's strictly out of bounds to Finns andthe Russians keep to themselves. And if we go from Bylandet the crossingshouldn't take more than thirty minutes. Maybe forty at most if there's aheadwind."

"You think the weather will be aproblem?"