North from Rome — Helen MacInnes

Attack in Rome...

From the quiet street came a woman's cry. It was quick, startled - strangled into silence. A car waited with its nose pointing from the curb - ready to leave. A man and a woman stood rigid... the rigidity of force equally matched. The woman - a girl it was - drew back with desperate strength. The man, one hand on her wrist, another clamped over her mouth, was trying to drag her into the car...