In Danger's Path Read Online Free Page B

moment, thoughtfully. “To me a friend is somebody you can trust when the chips are down—do you know that expression, ‘when the chips are down’?”
    She nodded.
    â€œI trust the Killer. Like I trust you, my love.”
    [FOUR]
    One day, in the middle of the morning, he came to her apartment, unexpected. Milla knew it was over as soon as she looked in Ed’s eyes.
    â€œI don’t know how to break this to you easy, honey,” he said, just looking at her, not even kissing her.
    â€œTell me.”
    â€œThe Fourth has been transferred to the Philippines,” he said. “I’m on the advance party. I fly out of here the day after tomorrow.”
    I knew it was too good to be true, too good to last .
    â€œGood God!”
    â€œWhich means we don’t have much time.”
    â€œTwo days…”
    She wrapped her arms around him and fought back the tears.
    â€œI’ve got to transfer title to all my stuff to you.”
    â€œI don’t want anything!”
    â€œYou’re my wife.”
    â€œI am not.”
    â€œYou will be at eleven o’clock tomorrow. Jim Ferneyhough—Father Ferneyhough—at the Anglican Cathedral says he’ll marry us, and to hell with getting permission from my colonel or anybody else.”
    â€œBut you will be in trouble with the Corps of Marines.”
    â€œOh, to hell with that, baby.”
    [FIVE]
    Milla came very close to taking her life the day Ed left Shanghai. When she saw him enter the huge, four-engined Sikorski Pan American Airways “China Clipper,” she was absolutely convinced that she would never see him again. And without Ed, she didn’t want to live. Not the way things were now in Shanghai, and certainly not in the Shanghai that was soon to be. Even though Ed was an intelligence officer and should know how things really were, she was sure she knew what really was going to happen better than he did.
    Because it had a basement garage, and she wouldn’t dare leave the red Pontiac on the street in front of her own apartment, Milla drove from the wharf to Ed’s apartment—which by now she had begun to think of as their apartment, their home.
    Maybe , she thought, it would be best to take my life in our apartment, where we were so happy .
    The bed was still mussed from their last time together. Wondering why she was doing it, she made it over with fresh sheets.
    The towel in the bathroom was still damp from his last shower, and he had forgotten to take a half-empty bottle of his aftershave lotion that smelled of limes.
    She went so far as to take out the Colt automatic pistol he had left with her, after teaching her how to load and cock and aim it.
    Then she decided she would wait until the 4th Marines actually left Shanghai. The advance party, to which Ed was assigned, would fly to Manila to arrange for the arrival of the regiment, which would be moved by ship.
    She did not want Ed to receive news that she was dead. But if she took her life before the regiment left, especially in his apartment, it was possible someone would notify him in Manila.
    It would be different after the 4th Marines were gone. No one would then care if a Nansen person shot herself in an apartment once occupied by an officer of the 4th Marines.
    [SIX]
    Two days before the 4th Marines had finished loading aboard the USS President Madison , the ship sent to transport them to Manila, Milla had a visitor in her apartment. It was a Marine, a sergeant. He was short, barrel-chested, round-faced, and stubby-fingered; and her first impression was that he was stupid and crude. Behind him was a flat-faced Chinese woman, with a pair of children in tow—obviously half white—and a third in her arms.
    â€œMrs. Banning?” he asked.
    It was only the second time in her life that she had been so addressed. The English priest at the cathedral had been the first. “May I congratulate you, Mrs. Banning, on your marriage,