Free Undeceived by Karen M. Cox

know.”
    He gestured with his hand as if to waive that idea away. “But we’ve got bigger fish to fry at the moment. I have an idea.”
    “I’m listening.”
    “There is a new vintner near Sopron.” He looked at her with wry amusement. “Part of my job is to find and encourage Western-style commerce, within the letter of communist law, of course.”
    “Of course.”
    “Anyway, there’s a grape grower in the lake region near here. He’s an agency asset—has been for years—long before I came to Hungary. Part of his crop goes to the state, but he makes his own wine, too, and sells to the place in Sopron for a little cash on the side. He’s also trying to break into Austrian wine country and trade with them, either his own wine or his grapes. So he has a reason to go both to the border and beyond it—and most importantly, the papers to do so. I think he can drive us out, but he needs some plausible deniability about why he’s going and what’s in his truck. So we’d go hidden in his cargo. That’s where you come in.”
    “I’m the one escorting you and Johanna?”
    “I know it’s a lot to ask, but the truck isn’t big enough to hide three of us, and you’re the only one not being sought by state security at the moment.”
    “If I try to pass myself off as Hungarian, they’ll want to check me at the border, thinking I might be Johanna.”
    “But you’ll be with my asset, the grape grower. That should diminish suspicion. Plus, your Hungarian is impeccable.” He gestured toward the house. “I forged you a passport in case of an emergency. It’s in my desk drawer.”
    Liz nibbled on the end of her thumb as she paced back and forth.
    Darby put out a hand to stop her but drew it back before he could touch her. “Look, I completely understand your nerves. Perhaps you don’t believe you’re ready to run an op like this. Frankly, I have some doubts myself, but our options are limited.”
    “Your faith in me is overwhelming.”
    “It isn’t a matter of faith, Liz. I’m sure this is the most precarious situation you’ve faced since joining the agency. I need to get out of Hungary before there’s enough suspicion for them to call me in for questioning. I know too much to be arrested. It would ruin my career, but even more important, if they could get the information out of me, I could compromise many of the officers in Central Europe. This escape plan is dicey and it’s dangerous, and I would be hard put to successfully run this op myself. I’m reluctant to hand it over to a rookie, but I don’t have any choice.”
    Perhaps she could see his point. But still…
    “I can do it.”
    He smiled at her. “Atta girl. Now, here’s what I’m thinking…”
    ***
    They couldn’t take the farm truck across the border at night. Nighttime would give them the cover of darkness, but nothing would arouse more suspicion than to take wine and produce to Austria after dark.
    In addition to Prague, Sopron was a popular escape route from Budapest to the West. Therefore, Darby judged the Hungarians would beef up the border patrols along those routes. He also knew that more guards at Sopron meant fewer guards at the other checkpoints along the Austrian border. It was becoming increasingly difficult for the Hungarians to man every station the way they had in the early years of Communist rule. Guard shacks and barracks were run down, Soviets were called home, and personnel were cut back in favor of other “necessities.” With that in mind, he and Peter, the grape farmer turned spy, had plotted a course from Keszthely, on the western edge of Lake Balaton, heading west to Körmend, then north to Szombathely and on to Kőszeg near the Austrian border. Once in Austria proper, they would just head north to Vienna, unimpeded.
    “There was some government activity on the road from here to Keszthely yesterday,” Darby informed Liz while he burned their courier’s message in the fireplace at Alsómező. It was a couple