International Concerto - Plot

Plot

Igor Sladek, a famous pianist, is secretly a WIN agent who uses his music as the ultimate front for espionage. Embarking on a world tour, Sladek's travels take him to an embassy in Eastern Europe, where he is congratulated on his playing by Colonel Malner. Major Kloss has information for Malner concerning plans for a new military airbase. When the private discussion is interrupted by the discovery of the pen concealing Sladek's WIN audio recorder, Malner's suspicions are raised and Sladek realises that his cover is no longer secure. Matters deteriorate when a government official – in what is claimed to be an accident – drops the pen into the inner workings of another piano. Fortunately, Sladek has already sent a letter to Britain and WIN, decrypting the ink in the maestro's signature, has learnt of the airbase's construction.

Sladek's last communication prior to his arrest by Kloss is a telegram addressed to the McClaines, for whom he recently gave a private rendition of his International Concerto. Isolating each word's first letter, Joe discovers that the message is a warning that Sladek's time is running out. Sam Loover requested that Sladek's brain impulses be recorded during his visit to the McClaine cottage; Professor McClaine transfers them to Joe via the BIG RAT and all three fly east. To prevent a diplomatic incident, the radio broadcast that was due to end Sladek's tour is to go ahead as scheduled; the maestro will perform the International Concerto live on-air before his transfer to Vazlo Prison. Loover has planned a rescue.

That night, preparations for the transmission are entering the final stages when Joe arrives at the studio building and offers to help by turning the pages of Sladek's scroll. Once the two are inside the booth, Sladek requests that a sound baffle be re-positioned so that he and Joe will be hidden from the view Malner and Kloss, and the broadcast commences. Underground, Loover follows a series of cables leading him to a floor cover. Drawing on Sladek's musical expertise, Joe takes over at the piano while the maestro escapes through the manhole. In the open, he finds Mac waiting at the wheel of a car. Mac and Sladek speed to the nearest border checkpoint, aware that Sladek must have left the country before the concerto comes to an end. ALthough mystified by the appearance of a man identical to Sladek, the guard on duty has no choice but to allow professor and pianist to cross the border when his telephone call to the studio incurs the wrath of Malner, who cannot believe that anyone other than Sladek could be playing the piano. Seconds later, Joe finishes.

Malner and Kloss are interrogating Joe about Sladek's disappearance when Mac returns to collect his son. Unable to comprehend how he has been outwitted, Malner grudgingly permits the McClaines to leave the country – on the condition that they never come back.