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Alek hesitated The man’s accent was unfamiliar, and he didn’t look British His can

"I do, a little," Alek said

The man’s face broke into a broad smile as he thrust out his hand "Excellent! I’m Eddie Malone, reporter for the New York World Do you mind if I ask some questions?"

Chapter Twenty

Thefor a waiter and ordering coffee

"Did he say reporter?" Bauer muttered in German "Is this wise, Fritz?"

Alek nodded - this was the perfect opportunity The job of a foreign reporter, after all, was to understand the politics around hireat powers here in the Otto to extract gossip froht notice Alek’s aristocratic accent

A few lanced at the reporter as he’d sat down, but no one was staring now The streets of Constantinople were full of stranger sights than a fabricated frog

"I don’t kno much we can help you," Alek said "We haven’t been here very long"

"Don’t worry My questions won’t be too tricky" The reporter pulled out a battered notebook "I’m just curious about what they call theup in Istanbul Are you here to work on so?"

Alek cleared his throat The man had assumed they were Germans, of course He probably couldn’t tell an Austrian accent fro But there was no point in correcting him "We aren’t in construction, Mr Malone At the hts"

Malone’s eyes scanned Alek up and down, co to a halt on the fez on the chair beside hi, though Men of e, on a vacation in wartime!"

Alek swore silently He’d always been hopeless at any sort of lying, but pretending to be a tourist was absurd when every ht they were deserters, or spies

Of course, a certain aht be useful

"Let’s just say you needn’t know our naraphs, if you please"

"No problem Istanbul is full of anony’s chin "I suppose you came in on the Express?"

Alek nodded The Orient-Express ran straight from Munich to Constantinople, and he could hardly admit they’d arrived by airship

"Must’ve been crowded, with all the neorkers coht have been crowded, but we had our own cabin" As the words caain Why did he always find ways to make it obvious that he ealthy?

"So you didn’t talk to any of the folks working on that wireless tower, did you?"

"Wireless tower?" Alek asked

"Yep The one you Ger on the cliffs out to the west A special project for the sultan, they say It’s huge - has its oer station!"

Alek glanced at Bauer, wondering how lish he’d picked up aboard the Leviathan A large wireless tower ht need its oer station, but so would a Tesla cannon

"I’ about that," Alek said "We’ve only been in Constantinople for two days"

Malone looked at hileam in his eye, as if Alek had just told a subtle but clever joke "Not long enough to start calling it Istanbul, I see"

Alek re that the locals used another name for their city, but the staff at his hotel hadn’t seemed to mind "Whatever the city’s called, we haven’t seen much of it"

"So you haven’t been down to the docks yet to see the sultan’s nearships?"

"Nearships?"

"Two ironclads, just handed to the Ottomans by the Germans" Malone’s eyes narrowed "You haven’t seen theed to shake his head "No, we haven’t been to the harbor at all"

"Haven’t been to the harbor? This is a peninsula, you know And doesn’t the Orient-Express co the water?"

"I suppose," Alek said stiffly "But ere quite tired e arrived, and it was a dark night"

The ain - this was hopeless Next, Malone would tell him that the ht

But what did itanyway Perhaps it was ti that creature here," Alek said, pointing at the bullfrog "I didn’t know the Ottomans allowed Darwinist abominations in their country"

"Oh, you just have to knoho to bribe" The o anywhere without Rusty He’s got a much better memory than s?"

"Sure Ever seen one of those e lizards?"

"I’ve heard of them"