18 - The Unfair Fare Affair (21 page)

It was Habib Tufik, alias Hendrik van der Lee.

Smiling genially, he surveyed them from his wheelchair as one of the two bland Dutchmen crewing the plane helped them to get Solo up the ladder.

They had barely closed the transparent hatch in the blister when the solitary pillar from which they had been rescued collapsed into the valley in a great fountain of dust that rose hundreds of feet into the air.

"But how did you get here? How did you know?" Napoleon Solo asked a little later as they applied a dressing to the wound in his temple.

"I'm afraid that was me," Annike said. "You had lent me that nice little radio. I know a little about them... and I couldn't resist calling up my employer and telling him why I was late for work!"

"A good thing you did," Illya smiled. "Also that you hid in the back of that truck instead of waiting for Napoleon along the road as you arranged."

"You know how it is with Napoleons," the girl said. "They're always retreating! A girl has to make all the advances herself, these days!"

"As soon as I'm upright again I shall be honored to prove the converse of that remark!" U.N.C.L.E.'s Chief Enforcement Officer riposted.

"Sure, 'tis a fine, enterprisin' spirit you have there, the two of you!" the fat man said enthusiastically. "And it's similar to the one I've employed here meself at all. But seein' as how it's still well short of six o'clock, you can profit, from the cheap-rate day tariff, you."

"Day tariff?" Solo echoed. "Cheap rate?"

"To be sure. For the Van der Lee emergency escape service. I was thinkin' of starting a network, a European network, just to be used for getting the boyos out of scrapes. Do you not think that would be a good idea now?"

"You're incorrigible! Send in a bill," Solo said. "What I'd be much more interested in would be a service for writing reports! How I hate doing it... and I've just remembered—we shall have to do just that for Waverly."

"You're worrying for nothing, Napoleon," Kuryakin soothed. "It's all been attended to. It's done already.

"But... how can it be? We've just…"

"I did it myself. Tufik... er, our friend here, that is to say... kindly coded it for me and dispatched it via the plane's transmitter. It was quite short."

"Illya—what did you say, for heaven's sake?"

"I said we had investigated the existence of the reported criminals' escape organization in Europe... and that there was no foundation for the reports…"

[1] See The Man From U.N.C.L.E. #16
The Splintered Sunglasses Affair

[2] See The Man From U.N.C.L.E #7
The Radioactive Camel Affair

[3] See The Man From U.N.C.L.E #9
The Diving Dames Affair