The Intercom Conspiracy — Eric Ambler

All right, I know. You think that I behaved like a clown, panicking at the sight of that C.I.A. bastard. But what you have to remember is that in the space of a few hours I had been snatched, interrogated under duress, roughed up, threatened, burgled and gassed. After that sort of treatment, you don't wait for second thoughts; you run.

So I ran.