Inadvertently Entangled: Day 6

Word Count: 36,011

Summary of Events:

Once the taxi driver and his friend had succeeded in losing one another deliberately, the taxi driver took Pierson first to meet with a Hungarian man who didn't seem to trust Pierson, and then to the Swedish Embassy, as Pierson had emptied his pockets for the Hungarian man they'd met, revealing he had a Swedish passport under a false name, where Pierson was barely able to get the name of the pretty young woman who helped them, before finally taking Pierson to the apartment of a man who was fluent in English and Hungarian, who questioned Pierson and asked to see the birthmarks on Pierson's hip before addressing the taxi driver in Hungarian…

Excerpt of the Day:

The driver seemed quite pleased by what the man was telling him, and after a few minutes the two men shook hands and the driver rose, putting on his cap. The man rose as well and the two walked to the door. Pierson got to his feet and took up his coat.

“Jó éjszakát!” the driver said cheerily, waving at Pierson in the open doorway before the man closed the door after him and put the chain in place, as well as locking the door.

Pierson felt a bit bemused at his having been left behind, and he felt a bit wary of the man, if he was honest, although the man smiled at him easily, his gaze rather warm and disarming.

“My name is Constantine Nyilas,” the man said. “I’m with Broadway.”

Although he felt very confused, Pierson nodded. Broadway was New York, and the world’s, most famous theatre district. How was that supposed to be reassuring?

“I got a message from Kraków that you’d disappeared near a train heading to Budapest and to be on the lookout for you,” Mr. Nyilas said. “I was even at the station looking, but I must’ve missed you. Thankfully you found Árpád, otherwise I’d have gone back to the station tomorrow.”

For some reason, Pierson felt relieved.

“What happened that you ended up getting on the train to Budapest?” Mr. Nyilas asked.

“I’d been instructed to take a taxi to a rendezvous that would take me to the airfield so I could fly to Sweden,” Pierson replied — not that he was sure why he was telling this man the full details. “But we were stopped by the SS, and even though they let us through, a car followed us, and we couldn’t shake it, so I was dropped off at the train station to try and fool them, but a man followed me into the station. Because the platform wasn’t busy, I decided to board the train to make him think I meant to take it, but before I could get off the train it started in motion, and because I wasn’t expecting it to, I hit my head and got too dizzy to risk jumping, so I stayed on the train. I’d like to get back to Kraków, and just wanted him to take me to a hotel, but for some reason I needed to accompany him on his errands around Budapest and now he’s left me with you.”

“You don’t think a colleague would let you stay in his flat if he has two bedrooms?” Mr. Nyilas asked.

Pierson felt confused. Colleague? How was Mr. Nyilas his colleague when Mr. Nyilas was a theatre actor?

“I wouldn’t want to impose,” Pierson said, despite his confusion.

“It’s no imposition,” Mr. Nyilas said. “Besides, I would need to wireless Kraków and let them know you’re here, and then we can discuss what should be done.”

“Well, I’m going to go back to Kraków,” Pierson said.

“It might not be wise, especially if you were followed,” Mr. Nyilas said. “It might be better to get you to Switzerland, or Spain, or Italy, maybe even Egypt.”

“I guess so,” Pierson conceded.

Pronunciations:

Jó: yoh

Éjszakát: aesahkaht

Nyilas: naelahs

Árpád: ahrpahd