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I got hiht frequency this time, and I found out that it didn’t ot into his field of vision He fought it and lost This time a few flecks of spittle appeared in the corners of his lazed, and out he went

That cut the stops I didn’t pull over again until we reached the border I drove a nice steady thirty-five et any better froine – and I was on the outskirts of Parkan by eleven in the evening

He was still out when I stopped the car This was his best fit to date and he showed no signs of coured, could turn out to be a proble him across the border when he was conscious I had a French passport the description of which I matched not at all Even so I was better off than Kotacek, who had nothing Awake he would be hard to transport Asleep he was ih the little town to a point where I could see the border It looked well patrolled The Danube forary at that point Further east, there’s no natural boundary I went back to the car and decided that we had a better chance over open land I found a road that headed east and followed it until we could see the border fortifications – barbed wire seven feet high, a no-ht feet across, then another stretch of barbed wire, then Hungary

I parked the car, walked toward the border That particular stretch did not seem to be very heavily patrolled I crawled up close to the wire fence and looked in both directions No one A sign warned me that the fence was electrified I turned from it, then realized that it was considerably cheaper to post signs than to electrify a fence I wished Gershon were handy, with a live cat to bounce off the wire I went back to the car, got the jack froerly against the strands of wire Sparks leaped all the hell over the place

Which ended any ideas Iover it

I drove back to Parkan, fully expecting a flat tire now that our jack was hung up on the fence The tires held out, though, and so did the rest of the car The border, I decided, was plainly i under it or cli for ballast neither ht on through Shortcuts were out We had to make our play at one of the conventional checkpoints, and the one at Parkan was probably as good as any

I stopped the car, hauled Kotacek out of the back seat and propped him up behind the wheel I found an extra can of petrol in the trunk and used it to soak the back seat I ht was in my pocket but left the revolver by the side of the road Then I got in on the passenger side next to Kotacek and leaned across hiine I steered with ot us going straight through town and right up to the border station

There were a handful of cars here waiting to enter Hungary I started to takethe wheel hard right and put the gas pedal on the floor The car leaped wildly off to the right like a startled tortoise I twisted the wheel in the opposite direction, alically in front of us and I took it full speed, dead center

Chapter 13

I had my hand on the door handle e hit, and I threw the door open and got out fast I stood for a iness, and scratched a match quickly and flipped it at the back seat Then I dashed around the car, opened the door on the driver’s side, and hauled Kotacek out fro to him in tias in the rear seat caught up with the match and started to flame I hauled him away from the car, bent solicitously over him, looked up to see aour way, and turned ain to Kotacek as our little stolen car burst into flames and exploded all over the place

The rest was fairly easy The border guards had the good grace to assume that I was in severe shock They made me lie down, covered me with a ly good cognac into ray-haired h the small crowd, knelt down beside Kotacek, listened to his heart with a stethoscope, and turned to me In Czech he asked if the poor arian, I said that my uncle had been ill forhis chest I touched my own and nodded

They took us into the custo with the assistance of two heavy-set and syuards On the way I said, "Oh, my God, my passport" and started for the car They restrained me The car was almost entirely consuas tank had exploded If et about it