Nick Carter

Hood of Death

Dedicated to The Men of the Secret Services of the United States of America

Chapter I

Ten seconds after he turned off Route 28 he wondered if he had made a mistake. Should he have brought the girl to this isolated area? Was it necessary to leave his weapons out of reach in the hidden locker under the car's rear deck?

Headlights had raced on their tail all the way from Washington on U.S. 66. You expected that on the busy superhighway, but the twin glares had stayed with them on Route 28, which was less logical. He thought they belonged to the same car. It was there now.

"Funny," he said, trying to feel whether the girl in his arms tensed at the remark. He felt no change. The lovely soft body remained deliciously pliant.

"What?" she murmured.

"You'll have to sit up a moment, darling." He moved her gently upright, spread his hands evenly on the wheel at three-and-nine-o'clock and put the throttle to the floor. A minute later he skid-turned into the familiar side road.

He had puttered with the tuning of the new engine himself and felt personal satisfaction as the 428 cubic inches growled out acceleration without a stumble on the rev up. The Thunderbird whipped through the S-turns of the two-lane Maryland back road like a hummingbird banking between trees.

"Exciting!" Ruth Moto levered herself away to give him arm room.

Smart girl, he thought. Smart, beautiful. I wonder…

He knew the road well. The odds were they didn't. He could outrun them, slip away to safety and a promising evening. That wouldn't be doing the job. He sighed and let the Bird slow to a moderate speed and checked his back trail on a rise. The lights were there. They didn't dare put them out at these speeds on winding roads. They'd crack up. Mustn't let that happen — they might be as valuable to him as he would be to them.

He slowed to a crawl. The lights came closer, bobbled as if the other car were braked, and then they went out. Ahh… He smiled in the gloom. After the first chill of contact there was always the thrill and the hope of accomplishment.

Ruth leaned against him, the aroma of her hair and subtly delightful perfume pleasant again in his nostrils. 'That was fun," she said. "I like surprises."

Her hand was on top of the hard, solid muscles of his thigh. He couldn't tell if she pressed down slightly or the feeling was caused by the sway of the car. He replaced his arm around her and added a discreet hug. "I wanted to try those turns. The wheels were balanced last week and I haven't had a chance to bend her in town. She corners perfectly now."

"I think — everything you do is aimed at perfection, Jerry. Am I not right? Don't be modest. I get enough of that when I'm in Japan."

"I suppose so. Yes… perhaps."

"Of course. And you're ambitious. You want to be with the leaders."

"You're telling fortunes. Everybody wants perfection and leadership. Just as a tall dark man will appear in every woman's life if she lasts long enough."

"1 waited a long time." The hand pressed his thigh. It was not car motion.

"You're making a snap decision. We've only been together twice. Three times if you count meeting at Jimmy Hartford's party."

"I'm counting that," she whispered. Her hand rubbed his leg, very slightly. He was surprised and pleased at the sensual warmth that the simple caress aroused in him. It sent more tingles up his spine than most girls generated when they fondled his naked flesh. It's so true, he thought, the physical is fine for animals or a quickie, but to raise a really high temperature you need the emotional rapport.

In part, he supposed, he had sold himself on Ruth Moto when he watched her at the Yacht Club dance and a week later at Robert Quitlock's birthday dinner. Like a boy peering through a store window at a shiny bicycle or a mound of temptingly displayed candy, he gathered impressions that fueled his hopes and longings. Now that he knew her better, he was convinced his tastes were excellent.

Among the expensive gowns and dinner jackets at parties where men in the money brought the most beautiful women they could find, Ruth shown like an incomparable jewel. She had inherited height and long bones from her Norwegian mother and dark coloring and exotic features from her Japanese father, forming a Eurasian blend which produces the most beautiful women in the world. By any standards her body was amply perfect, and when she moved through a room on her father's arm every pair of male eyes flicked after her or followed her, depending on whether some other woman was watching them or not. She aroused admiration, desire and, in simpler minds, instant lust.

Her father, Akito Tsogu Nu Moto, provided a fitting escort. He was short and blocky, with smooth ageless skin and the calmly serene expression of a patriarch sculptured in granite.

Were the Motos what they seemed? They had been checked by the most efficient intelligence arm of the United States — AXE. The report was clean but the probe would go deeper, right back to Matthew Perry. David Hawk, AXE's top officer and Nick Carter's one superior in the chain-of-command had said, "They may be a blind alley, Nick. Old man Akito made a few million in Japanese-American ventures in electronics and building products. He's typed as hard as nails but straight. Ruth behaved at Vassar. She's a popular hostess and moves in good Washington circles. Follow other leads… if you have any."

Nick suppressed a grin. Hawk would back you with his life and career, but he was deft with the inspirational needle. He replied, "I have. How about Akito as another victim?"

Hawk's thin lips showed one of his rare smiles, forming wise-and-weary wrinkles about his mouth and eyes. They had rendezvoused for their last talk just after dawn in a secluded dead-end at Fort Belvoir. The morning was cloudless, the day would be hot. The crisp rays of the sun lanced through the air above the Potomac and illuminated Hawk's strong features. He watched the boats starting out from the Mt. Vernon Yacht Club and Gunston Cove. "She must be as beautiful as they say she is."

Nick did not quiver an eyelid. "Who, Ruth? One of a kind."

"Personality plus sex appeal, eh? I must have a look at her. She comes over nicely in the pictures. You can have a look at them at the office."

Nick thought, Hawk. If the name wasn't such a perfect fit I'd suggest Old Fox. He said, "I prefer the real thing. She smells so nice. Unless — pornographic?"

"No, nothing like that. She checks out as a typical girl of decent family. Maybe an affair or two but if so discreetly hidden. Perhaps a virgin. There's always the perhaps in our business. But don't buy them on this first check, Nick. Be careful. Don't relax for an instant."

Time and again Hawk had, with words of caution and extra foresighted action, literally saved the life of Nicholas Huntington Carter, N3 of AXE-US.

"I won't, sir," Nick replied. "But I have the feeling I'm not getting anywhere. Six weeks of Washington parties have been fun, but I'm getting bored with the good life."

"I can imagine how you feel, but stay with it. This case gives one a sense of helplessness, with three important men dead. But we'll get a break and it will burst wide open."

"No more help from the autopsy conferences?"

"The best pathologists in the world agree that they died by natural causes — evidently. They give themselves that small out Natural? Yes. Logical? No. A senator, a cabinet official and a key banker in our monetary complex. We'll find the method or the link or the why. I have the feeling…"

Hawk's "feelings" — based on his encyclopedic knowledge and reasoned intuition — had never, as far as Nick could remember, been wrong. He had discussed details of the case and possibilities with Hawk for an hour and they had parted. Hawk to command — Nick to his role.

Six weeks ago Nick Carter had slipped almost literally into the skin of "Gerald Parsons Deming," Washington representative for a West Coast oil company. Another tall, dark and handsome young executive who was invited to all the best official and social gatherings.

He fitted the part. He should; it had been created for him by the master technicians in the Documents and Editing Divisions of AXE. Nick's hair became black instead of brown, the tiny blue hatchet inside his right elbow concealed with skin paint Where his deep tan wasn't enough to mark him as a genuine brunet, his skin was darkened. He stepped into a life which a double had established in advance, complete with papers and identification perfect even to hairline detail. Jerry Deming, man-about-town, with an impressive country place in Maryland and an apartment in the city.

The flicker of headlights in the mirror brought him back to the moment. He became Jerry Deming, fitting himself into the fantasy, forcing himself to forget the Luger and stiletto and tiny gas bomb so perfectly hidden in a compartment welded under the rear of the Bird. Jerry Deming. On his own. Decoy. Target. The man sent out to make the enemy move. The man who sometimes got the casket.

Ruth said softly, "Why are you in such a changeable mood tonight, Jerry?"

"Had a hunch. I thought a car was following us."

"Oh, dear. You didn't tell me you're married."

"Seven times and loved every one." He chuckled. It was the kind of a joke Jerry Deming would make. "No-o-o, sweet. I've been too busy to get deeply involved." That was the truth. He added a fib, "Don't see those lights any more. Guess I was mistaken. You gotta watch it. Plenty of stickups on these back roads."

"Be careful, dear. Perhaps we shouldn't have come away out here. Is your place terribly isolated? I'm not — scared, but my father is strict. He has a horror of publicity. He's always cautioning me to be careful. His old-country prudence, I suppose."

She eased back against his arm. If it's an act, Nick thought, it's great Since he had met her she had behaved precisely like the modern but conservative daughter of a foreign businessman who had discovered how to amass millions in the U.S.A. A man who considered his every move and word in advance. When you found the golden cornucopia you shunned any notoriety that might disturb your shoveling. In the world of war contracts and bankers and brass, publicity is as welcome as a slap on a red raw sunburn.

He found a luscious breast with his right hand, without any protest from her. It was about as far as he had gone with Ruth Moto, slower progress than he liked, but it fitted his methods. Schooling women, he had learned, was akin to training horses. The qualities for success were patience, one small advance at a time, gentleness — and experience.

"My place is isolated, dear, but there's an automatic gate on the drive and the police patrol the area regularly. Nothing to worry about."

She snuggled against him. "That's good. Have you owned it long?"

"Several years. Ever since I began spending a lot of time in Washington." He wondered if her questions were casual or well planned.

"And you were in Seattle before you came here? That's lovely country. Those trees in the mountains. The even climate."

"Yes." She couldn't see his small grin in the darkness. "I'm really a nature boy. I'd like to retire to the Rockies and just hunt and fish and — things like that."

"All alone?"

"No. You can't hunt and fish all winter. And then there are rainy days."

She giggled. "Those are wonderful plans. But will you? I mean — maybe you'll put it off like all the rest and they'll find you at your desk at the age of fifty-nine. Heart attack. No hunting. No fishing. No winter or rainy days."

"Not me. I'm planning ahead."

And so I am, he thought, as he braked when the small red reflector that marked the almost hidden drive came into sight. He turned in, went forty yards and stopped in front of a sturdy wooden gate made of cypress planks stained a rich red-brown. He cut the engine and the lights.

The stillness was astonishing, when the roar of the engine and the ripple of the tires stopped. He gently tilted her chin toward him and the kiss was smoothly begun; their lips undulated together in a warm and stimulating and moist blending. He stroked her lissome body with his free hand, cautiously advancing just a little further than he ever had before. He was pleased to feel her cooperating, her lips parting slowly to the probe of his tongue, her breasts seeming to return his gentle massage with no shiver of retreat. Her breath quickened. He matched his own to its sweet-scented beat — and listened.

Under the insistent pressure of his tongue her lips at last parted fully, flaring like a flexible hymen as he formed a lance of flesh, exploring the pungent depths of her mouth. He teased and tickled, feeling the quivers of reaction flutter through her. He caught her tongue between his lips and sucked gently… and he listened.

She was wearing a simple dress of thin white sharkskin with a button front. His deft fingers unslipped three buttons and he stroked the smooth skin between her breasts with the backs of his fingernails. Lightly, thoughtfully — with the force of a butterfly stamping on a rose petal. She stiffened briefly and he was careful to keep the rhythm of his caress even; accelerating it only when her breath exploded into him with a warm panting rush and she made small humming sounds. He sent his fingers on a soft exploratory cruise around the swelling globe of her right breast. The hum lowered to a sigh as she pressed against his hand.

And he listened. The car came slowly and silently along the narrow road past the driveway, its headlights a floating glow in the night. They were just too decorous. He had heard them pause when he had turned off. Now they were checking. He hoped they had good imaginations and had seen Ruth. Eat your hearts out, boys!

He slid the fastener of the half-bra apart, where it met between her splendid cleavage, and enjoyed the smooth, warm flesh that greeted his palm. Delicious. Inspiring — he was glad he wasn't wearing his especially made jock shorts; the weapons in the form-fitting pockets would have been comforting, but the stricture annoying. Ruth said, "Oh, my dear," and bit his lip lightly.

He thought, I hope it's just a teenager looking for a parking spot. Or perhaps it was a carload of sudden death for Nick Carter. The removal of a dangerous piece in a game that was being played now, or a legacy of revenge earned in the past. Once you earned the classification of Killmaster you bought the risks.

Nick ran his tongue up the silky cheek to her ear. He began a beat in time with his hand which now enveloped a magnificent warm breast inside the bra. He matched her sigh with his own. If you die today — you don't have to die tomorrow.

He drifted his right forefinger upward and inserted it delicately in the other ear, forming a triple titillation as he varied the pressures in time with a little symphony all his own. She shivered with pleasure, and he found with some dismay that he enjoyed shaping joy for her and he hoped she had no connection with the car on the road which had stopped a few hundred yards away. He could hear it easily in the silence of the night. She could hear nothing for the moment.

His hearing was acute — indeed, the instant he wasn't physically perfect AXE wouldn't give him assignments like this and he wouldn't take them. The odds were deadly enough as it was. He heard the tiny creak of a car door-hinge, the sound of a stone struck by a foot in the blackness.

He said. "Darling, how about a drink and a swim?"

"Love it," she answered, with a little hoarse gulp before the words.

He pressed the transmitter button for the gate actuator and the barrier moved aside, closing automatically behind them as they followed the short winding drive. It was just a deterrent for trespassers, not a barrier. The property fencing was simple open post-and-rail.

"Gerald Parsons Deming" had built a charming country home, seven rooms and a giant patio floored with bluestone facing the swimming pool. The houselights and exterior floodlights went on when Nick pressed a button on a post at the edge of the parking area. Ruth gurgled with delight.

"It's lovely! Oh, the beautiful flowers. Do you work on the landscaping yourself?"

"Quite often," he lied. "Too busy to do all I'd like to. A local gardener comes twice a week."

She paused on the flagstone walk beside a column of climbing roses, a vertical color bar of reds and pinks, whites and off-whites. "They're so lovely. It's part of being Japanese — or part Japanese — I guess. Even a single flower can thrill me."

He kissed the back of her neck before they walked on, and said, "Just the way one beautiful girl can thrill me? You're just as lovely as all these flowers together — and you're alive."

She laughed appreciatively. "You're sweet, Jerry, but I wonder — how many girls have you led up this walk?"

"The truth?"

"I hope so."

He unlocked the door and they went into the large living room with its giant fireplace and wall of glass facing the pool. "Well, Ruth — the truth. The truth to Ruth." He led her to the little bar and flicked on the record player with one hand, holding her fingers with the other. "You, my sweet, are the first girl I ever brought here alone."

He saw her eyes widen, then knew by the warmth and softness of her expression that she decided he was telling the truth — which he was — and she loved it.

Any girl would, if she believed you, and the build-up and setting and mounting intimacy were right tonight. His double might have brought fifty girls here — knowing Deming he probably had — but Nick was telling the truth and Ruth's intuition verified it.

He built martinis with swift motions while Ruth sat watching him across the narrow oaken bar, her chin in her hands, her black eyes dreamy-alert. Her flawless skin still gleamed with the emotion he had aroused and Nick caught his breath at the astonishingly beautiful portrait she made as he put the glass in front of her and poured.

She's bought it but won't believe it, he thought. Oriental caution, or the doubts women harbor even as their emotions lead them astray. He said softly, "To you, Ruthie. The prettiest picture I've ever seen. An artist would love to paint you right this instant."

"Thank you. You make me feel — very happy and warm, Jerry."

Her eyes glowed at him over the cocktail glass. He listened. Nothing. They were coming through the forest now, or perhaps had already reached the smooth green carpet of lawn. They would circle carefully and soon discover that the picture windows were ideal for observation of those inside the house.

I'm bait. We didn't mention it, but I'm just the cheese in the AXE trap. It was the only way. Hawk wouldn't have set it up like this if there were any other out. Three men of importance dead. Natural causes on the death certificates. No leads. No clues. No pattern.

You couldn't give the bait much protection, Nick mused grimly, because you didn't have any idea what might scare the quarry, or at what strange level it might appear. If you set up complicated safeguards, one of them might be part of the pattern you were seeking to uncover. Hawk had decided on the only logical course — his most trusted agent would be the bait.

Nick had followed as closely as he could the Washington paths of the dead men. Unobtrusively he received invitations via Hawk to innumerable parties, receptions and business and social gatherings. He went to convention hotels, embassies, private homes and estates and clubs from the Georgetown to the University and Union League. He grew sick of hors d'oeuvres and filet mignons and he became tired of climbing in and out of dinner jackets. The laundry didn't return his pleat-front dress shirts fast enough and he had to call Rogers Peet to deliver a dozen by special messenger.

He had met dozens of important men and beautiful women and he received dozens of invitations which he respectfully declined, except for those which involved people the dead men had known or places they had gone. He was instantly popular and most women found his quiet attentiveness fascinating. When they discovered that he was an "executive in oil" and single, some of them were persistent by note and telephone.

He had turned up exactly nothing. Ruth and her father seemed perfectly respectable and he asked himself if he was honestly checking her out because his built-in trouble antenna gave a slight spark — or because she was the most desirable beauty of the hundreds he had met in the last few weeks.

He smiled into the gorgeous dark eyes and captured her hand where it lay on the polished oak near his own. There was one question: Who was out there and how had they picked up his trail in the Thunderbird? And why? Had he actually struck oil? He grinned at the situation pun as Ruth said softly, "You're a strange man, Gerald Deming. You're more than you seem."

"Is that some wisdom from the Orient or Zen or what?"

"I think a German philosopher said it first as a maxim — 'Be more than you seem.' But I've been watching your face and eyes. You've been far away from me."

"Just dreaming."

"Have you always been in the oil business?"

"More or less." He spun his prefabricated story. "I was born in Kansas and drifted down to the oil fields. Spent some time in the Mideast and made friends with a few of the right men and got lucky." He sighed and grimaced.

"Go on. You thought of something and stopped…"

"Now I'm about as far up as I'll go. It's a good job and I ought to be satisfied. But if I had a college degree I wouldn't be limited."

She squeezed his hand. "You'll find a way around that. You have — you have a vibrant personality."

"I've been around." He grinned and added the sleeper. "Actually I have done more than I tell. In fact a couple of times I didn't use the name Deming. It was a fast deal in the Mideast and if we could have stood off the London cartel for a few months I'd be a rich man today."

He shook his head as if in deep regret and stepped to the hi-fi console and switched from the player to the radio bands. In a shower of static he spun down the frequencies and in the long waves he caught it — bip— bip— bip. So that was how they followed him! Now the question was, had a beeper been hidden on his car without Ruth's knowledge, or did his beautiful guest carry it in her handbag or fastened to her clothing or — you had to be thorough — in a plastic suppository? He switched back to a recording, the strong, sensual imagery of Peter Tschaikovsky's Fourth, and ambled back to the bar. "How about that swim?"

"Love it. Give me a minute to finish this."

"Want another?"

"After we swim."

"Okay."

"And — where's the bathroom, please?"

"Right here…"

He conducted her into the master bedroom and showed her the big bath with its Roman sunken tub in pink ceramic tile. She kissed him lightly and went in and closed the door.

Swiftly he returned to the bar where she had left her handbag. Usually they took them to the John. A trap? He was careful not to disturb its position or arrangement as he checked its contents. Lipstick, bills in a money clip, small gold lighter which he opened and inspected, a credit card… nothing which might be the beeper. He replaced the items precisely and picked up his drink.

When would they come? When he was in the pool with her? He disliked the helpless feeling which the situation gave him, a nasty sense of exposure, the unpleasant fact that he couldn't strike first.

He wondered dourly if he had been in the business too long. If weapons meant confidence he ought to quit Did he feel defenseless because thin-bladed Hugo wasn't strapped to his forearm? You couldn't cuddle a girl much with Hugo on you before she'd feel it.

Lugging Wilhelmina, the modified Luger with which he could usually hit a fly at sixty feet, was also impossible in his role of Deming-the-Target. If felt or found, it was a giveaway. He had to agree with Eglinton, the AXE gunsmith, that Wilhelmina had drawbacks as a favorite arm. Eglinton altered them as he wanted them, installing three-inch barrels on perfect actions and fitting them with butt plates of thin transparent plastic. It reduced the size and cut the weight, and you could see the cartridges march up the ramp like a stick of little bottle-nosed bombs — but it was still a lot of gun to carry.

"Call it psychological," he had argued with Eglinton. "My Wilhelminas have got me through some tough ones. I know exactly what I can do from every angle and every position. I must have burned ten thousand rounds of the nine-milly in my time. I like the gun."

"Take another look at this S. & W., Chief," Eglinton had urged.

"Would you try and talk Babe Ruth out of his favorite bat? Tell the Mets to switch gloves? I go hunting with an old guy in Maine who has got his deer every year for forty-three years with a Springfield 1903. Ill take you up there with me this summer and let you talk him into using one of the new autoloaders."

Eglinton had given up. Nick chuckled at the memory. He glanced at the brass lamp that hung above the giant couch in the conversation pit across the room. He wasn't entirely helpless. AXE craftsmen had done what they could. Yank that lamp and down came the ceiling wallboard, carrying with it a Swedish Carl Gustav SMG Parabellum with its stock in place for you to grab.

In the car's compartment were Wilhelmina and Hugo and a tiny gas bomb known by the codeword Pierre. Under the bar the fourth bottle of gin on the left side of the locker contained a tasteless version of Michael Finn that would put you out in about fifteen seconds. And in the garage the next to last coat hook — the one with the shabby, least attractive raincoat — would open the hook-board with a full turn to the left. Wilhelmina's twin sister lay there on a shelf between the studs.

He listened. Frowned. Nick Carter with nerves? You couldn't hear anything with Tschaikovsky's masterpiece pouring out its suggestive theme.

It was the waiting. And the doubt. If you went for a weapon too soon you ruined the whole expensive set-up. If you waited too long you might get dead. How had they killed those three? If they did? Hawk had never been wrong…

"Hi," Ruth came around the archway. "Still feel like a swim?"

He met her halfway across the room, took her in his arms and kissed her thoroughly, and led her back into the bedroom. "More than ever. Just thinking about you sends my temperature up. I need a dunking."

She laughed and stood by the king-size bed, looking uncertain as he stripped off his dinner jacket and pulled the knot from his maroon tie. When the matching cummerbund hit the bed she said timidly, "Do you have a suit for me?"

"Sure," he smiled as he popped the gray pearl studs from his shirt. "But who needs 'em? Are we that old-fashioned? I hear in Japan the boys and girls hardly bother with suits at all in the baths. You just want a suit so you can go home and tell them that I'm a square?"

She looked at him quizzically and he caught his breath as the highlights danced in her eyes like sparks caught in obsidian.

"We wouldn't want that to happen," she said throatily and in a low key. She unfastened the buttons of the trim sharkskin, he looked away and heard the promising z-z-z-z of a hidden zipper, and when he looked again she was laying the dress neatly on the bed.

With an effort he kept his eyes from her until he was completely nude, then he turned casually and gave himself a treat — and his heart gave a slight thump, he was sure, as it began to increase his blood pressure.

He had seen them all, he had thought. From tall Scandinavians to robust Australians, in Kamathipura and Ho-Phang Road and in the politician's palace in Hamburg where you paid a hundred dollars just to get in. But you, Ruthie, he thought, are something else again!

She had turned heads at exclusive parties where the competition was picked from the best available in the world, and she had had her clothes on then. Now, standing naked against the background of the oyster-white wall and the rich blue carpeting, she looked like something which had been especially painted for a harem wall — to inspire the owner.

Her body was firm and flawless, her breasts high-riding twins with the nipples high-centered like redball signals — beware explosives. Her skin was flawless from brow to pink enameled toes, her pubic hair was an exciting bib of soft blackness. He was locked in place. She had him for the moment and she knew it. She carried one long fingernail up under her lips and tapped her chin questioningly. Her eyebrows, plucked in high curves to add just enough roundness above the slight slant of her eyes, came down — went up. "You approve, Jerry?"

"You…" He swallowed, choosing his words carefully. "You are one tremendous package of beautiful woman. I'd like — I'd like a picture of you. Just as you are this moment."

"That's one of the nicest things anyone ever said to me. You have some artist in you." She picked up two cigarettes from his pack on the bed, centered one after another in her lips for him to hold a light. After she handed him one she said, "I'm not sure I'd have done this except for what you said…"

"What I said?"

"About my being the only girl you've brought here. Somehow — I know that's true."

"How do you know?"

Her eyes became dreamy behind the blue smoke. "I'm not sure. It would be a typical lie for a man to tell, but I knew you were telling the truth."

Nick put a hand on her upper arm. It was round and satiny and firm as an athlete's under the tan skin. "It was the truth, my dear."

She said, "You have a tremendous body yourself, Jerry. I didn't realize. How much do you weigh?"

"Two-ten. Give or take the day."

She felt his arm, around which her slim hand hardly curved, so flat-hard was the surface above the bone. "You get lots of exercise. That's good for anyone. I was afraid that you'd be like so many men today. They grow paunches behind those desks. Even the youngsters at the Pentagon. It's shameful."

He thought, This isn't really the time or place but, oh brother, and took her in his arms and their bodies melded into one column of responsive flesh. She put both arms around his neck and pressed in his fervent embrace her feet left the floor and she spread them apart several times like a ballet dancer, but with a more jerky, vigorous and excited movement, like a muscular reflex.

Nick was in excellent physical shape. His program of both body and mind exercises was faithfully practiced. They included control of his libido, but he failed to catch himself in time. His distended, passionate flesh swelled between them. She kissed him, deeply, her body pressed against his.

He felt as if a child's sparkler had been drawn up his spine from coccyx to crown — lit. Her eyes were closed and she was breathing like a mile runner near the two-minute mark. The gusts from her lungs felt like lascivious jets aimed to sear his throat. Without disturbing her position he took the three short steps to the edge of the bed.

He wished he had listened harder — but it wouldn't have done any good. He felt— or perhaps caught a reflection or a shadow — the man step into the room.

"Put her down and turn around. Slowly."

It was a deep voice. The words came loud and clear, with just a touch of rolling guttural. They sounded as if they came from a man used to being obeyed to the letter.

Nick obeyed. He quarter-turned and put Ruth down. He took another slow quarter-turn to face a blond giant of a man, about his own age and easily as big as himself.

In a big hand, held low and steady and fairly close-in to his body, the man held what Nick easily identified as a Walther P-38. Even without his perfect handling of the weapon you would know that this lad knew his business.

This, Nick thought regretfully, is it. All the judo and savate in the world don't help you in a situation like this. He knows them, too, because he knows his trade.

If he has come to kill you, you're dead.

Chapter II

Nick remained frozen in place. If the big blond man's blue eyes had tensed or flared Nick would have tried a rolling fall — McDonald's Singapore reliable which had saved a lot of men's lives and gotten a lot of men killed. It all depended on your opposition. The P-38 didn't waver. It might have been thumbscrewed into a test-firing mount.

A short, slim man came into the room behind the big fellow. He had brown skin and features that looked as if they had been smeared on in the dark by the thumb of an amateur sculptor. His face was hard and his mouth expressed a bitterness that must have taken centuries to build up. Nick wondered — Malay, Filipino, Indonesian? Take your pick. There are over 4,000 islands out there. The smaller man held a Walther, too, with nice firmness and pointed at the floor. Another professional. "Nobody else here," he said.

The record player suddenly stopped. That meant a third man.

Big blond regarded Nick impassively, waiting. Then without losing focus on him they roved over Ruth and a flicker of amusement showed at the corner of one lip. Nick let out his breath — when they showed emotion or talked they usually didn't shoot — right away.

"You've got good taste," the man said. "I haven't seen a dish as tasty as that in years."

Nick was tempted to say go ahead and have a meal if that's your thing, but he bit it off. Instead he nodded, slowly.

He turned his eyes sideways without moving his head and saw that Ruth was petrified, standing with the back of one hand pressed against her mouth, the other clenched knuckles-up in front of her navel. Her black eyes were fastened on the gun.

Nick said, "You're scaring her. My wallet is in my pants there. You'll find about two hundred. No use anybody getting hurt."

"That's right. You don't even think about making any fast moves and perhaps no one will be. I'm a believer in self-preservation, though. Jump. Jerk. Reach. I just have to shoot. A man is a fool to take chances. I mean that I would consider myself a fool not to kill you quickly."

"I get your point of view. I'm not even planning to scratch my neck and it's itching."

"Go ahead. Very slowly. Don't want to now? All right." The man ran his eyes up and down Nick's body. "We are built very much alike. You're big all over. Where did you get all those scars?"

"Korea. I was very young and foolish."

"Grenade?"

"Shrapnel," Nick said, hoping the lad hadn't had too many looks at infantry casualties. Shrapnel rarely stitched you on both sides. The collection of scars were his mementos of his years with AXE. He hoped he wasn't about to add to them; P-38 slugs are vicious. A man once took three and is still around — the odds are four hundred to one for surviving with two.

"A brave man," the other said in a tone that was commentary, not compliment.

"I was hiding in the biggest hole I could find. If I could have located a bigger one I'd have been in it."

"This woman is beautiful, but don't you prefer white women?"

"I love to love them all," Nick replied. The guy was supercool or crazy. Cracking like that with a brown man behind him with a gun.

A horrible face appeared in the doorway behind the other two. Ruth gasped. Nick said, 'Take it easy, baby."

The face was a rubber mask worn by a third man of medium size. He had apparently chosen the most horrible one they had in stock, red gaping mouth with protruding teeth, a fake bloody slash down one side. Mr. Hyde on a bad day. He handed a coil of white line and a large jackknife to the small man.

The big man said, "You, girl. Lie down on the bed and put your hands behind you."

Ruth turned to Nick, her eyes wide with terror. Nick said, "Do as he says. They'll clean out the place and they don't want to be followed in a hurry."

Ruth lay down, her hands above her magnificent buttocks. The small man paid no attention to them as he circled the room and efficiently roped her wrists together. Clove hitches, Nick noted, probably a sailor at one time.

"Now you, Mr. Deming," said the man with the gun.

Nick joined Ruth, and felt the reverse coils slipped over his hands and drawn tight. He expanded his muscles to gain some slack but the man wasn't fooling.

The big man said, "We'll be busy here for a while. Behave yourself and when we're gone you can get loose. Don't try it now. Sammy — you watch them." He paused for a moment in the door. "Deming — prove you've really got savoir-faire. Roll her over with your knee and finish what you started." He chuckled and went out.

Nick listened to the men in the other room, guessing at their movements. He heard drawers in the desk open, the shuffle of "Deming's" papers. They explored closets, opened suitcases from the closets and his briefcase, went through the bookcases. This operation was completely mad. He couldn't get two pieces of the puzzle to fit — yet.

He doubted that they'd find anything. The submachine gun above the lamp would only be exposed by really tearing the place apart, the pistol in the garage was in an almost foolproof hiding place. If they drank enough gin to reach that fourth bottle the knock-out drops wouldn't be needed. The secret compartment in the Bird? Let them look. AXE craftsmen knew their business.

Why? The question spun around in his head until it literally hurt. Who? Why? He needed more clues. More talk. If they searched the place and left it would be another wasted evening — and he could already hear Hawk's chuckle at the telling. He'd purse up his thin lips judiciously and say something like — "Well my boy, it's a good thing you didn't get hurt, anyway. You must be more careful of yourself. These are dangerous times. Better stay out of the rougher neighborhoods until I can spare you a partner to work with…"

And he'd be chuckling soundlessly all the time. Nick groaned, a sour sound of disgust. Ruth whispered, "What?"

"Nothing. We'll be all right" And then the idea hit and he thought of the possibilities behind it. The angles. The ramifications. His head stopped hurting.

He took a deep breath, squirmed lower on the bed and worked his knee under Ruth's and levered upwards.

"What are you doing7" Her black eyes gleamed close to his. He kissed her and kept up the pressure until she rolled over onto her back on the king-size bed. He followed her, his knee again thrust between her legs.

"You heard what the man said. He's got the gun."

"My God, Jerry. Not now."

"He wants savoir-faire. We'll follow orders with nonchalance. I'll be in shape in a couple of minutes."

"No!"

"Rather get shot?'"

"NO! But…"

"Do we have a choice?"

Steady, patient training had made Nick the complete master of his body, including his sexual equipment. Ruth felt the pressure against her thigh, rebelled and squirmed violently as he hitched himself across her marvelous body. "NO!"

Sammy woke up. "Hey, what you do?"

Nick tilted his head around. "Just what the boss told us to. Right?"

"NO!" Ruth yelled. The pressure, was hard against her stomach now. Nick wiggled lower. "NO!"

Sammy ran to the door, yelled, "Hans," and returned to stand beside the bed in confusion. Nick noted with relief that the Walther was still pointed at the floor. What a way it would be to go, though. One bullet through you and a beautiful woman at the right moment.

Ruth writhed under Nick's weight, but her own hands, bound and pinned under her, frustrated her attempt to twist away. With both Nick's knees between hers, she was virtually pinioned. Nick pressed his hips forward. Damn. Try again.

The big man burst into the room. "You yell, Sammy?"

The short man gestured at the bed.

Ruth screamed, "NO!"

Hans barked, "What the hell's going on. Cut that noise."

Nick grunted as he strove forward again with his loins, "Just gimme time, old buddy. I'll make it."

A powerful hand grasped his shoulder and slammed him over and onto his back on the bed. "Shut your mouth and keep it shut," Hans snarled at Ruth. He looked at Nick. "I don't want any noise."

"Then why did you tell me to finish the job?"

The blond man put his hands on his hips. The P-38 was out of sight. "By God, man, you're something. You know I made a joke."

"How did I know? You got the guns. I do as I'm told."

"Deming, I'd like to wrestle with you, someday. You wrestle? Box? Fencer'

"A little. Make an appointment."

The big man's face became thoughtful. He shook his head slightly from side to side as if to encourage his brains. "I don't know about you. You're either a nut or the coolest case I've ever seen. If you're not crazy you'd be a good man to have around. How much do you make a year?"

"Sixteen thousand and what I can edge."

"Chicken feed. Too bad you're square."

"I've been wrong a few times, but I've got it made now and I'm not shooting angles any more."

"Where'd you go wrong?"

"Sorry, old pal. Grab your take and travel."

"Looks like I was wrong about you." The man wagged his head again. "Sorry to clean one of the club, but business is slow."

"Ill bet."

Hans turned to Sammy. "Go help Chick pack up. There isn't much." He turned away, then almost as an afterthought picked up Nick's pants, removed the bills from the wallet and tossed it at the bureau. He said. "You two stay still and quiet. You'll get loose soon enough after we're gone. The phone wires are cut. I'll leave the distributor cap from your car near the drive entrance. No hard feelings."

The cold blue eyes fixed on Nick's. "Not a one," Nick answered. "And we'll get to that wrestling match someday."

"Maybe," Hans said, and went out.

Nick rolled off the bed, found a rough edge on the metal frame that supported the box spring, and in about a minute had sawed through the tough cord at the expense of a patch of skin and what felt like a strained muscle. When he popped up off the floor Ruth's black eyes met his. They were wide and staring, yet she didn't seem scared. Her face was composed. "Stay very still," he whispered, and crept to the door.

The living room was empty. He had a strong desire to go for the efficient Swedish submachine gun but if this crew were his first lead, that would be a giveaway. Even oil men who had been around didn't have Tommy guns on tap. He went silently through the kitchen and out the rear door and circled the house to the garage. Beyond the floodlights he saw the car they had arrived in. There were two men beside it. He went around the garage and entered it from the back and twisted the coat hook without taking down the raincoat. The strip of wood swung out and Wilhelmina slid into his hand and he felt the sudden comfort of her weight.

A rock bruised his bare foot as he circled a blue spruce and approached the car from the dark side. Hans came from the patio, and when they turned toward him Nick saw that the two near the car were Sammy and Chick. None of them held guns now. Hans said, "Let's go."

Out of the night Nick said, "Surprise, boys. Don't move. The gun I'm holding is as big as yours."

In silence they turned toward him. "Take it easy, boys. You too, Deming. We can work this out. Is that really a gun you have there?"

"A Luger. Don't move. I'll come forward a little so you can see it and feel better. And live longer."

He stepped into the light and Hans snorted. "Next time, Sammy, we use wire. And you must have done a rotten job with those knots. When we get time I'm going to give you a new education."

"Ah did 'em tight," Sammy snapped.

"Not tight enough. What did you think you were tying up, grain bags? Maybe we better get handcuffs…"

The pointless conversation suddenly made sense. Nick yelled, "Shut up," and started to back up but it was too late.

The man behind him growled, "Hold it, bucko, or you're full of holes. Drop it. That's the boy. Come over, Hans."

Nick gritted his teeth. Smart, that Hans! A fourth man on watch and never exposed. Fine generalship. He was glad, when he awakened, that he had gritted his teeth, otherwise he might have lost several. Hans came up shaking his head, said, "You're something else," and hung a swift left on his jaw that shook the world to pieces for many minutes.

* * *

At the very moment that Nick Carter lay tied to the bumper of the Thunderbird, with the world coming and going, the golden pinwheels flashing and the pain throbbing in his head, Herbert Wheeldale Tyson was telling himself what a grand world it was.

For a lawyer from Indiana who had never made over six thousand a year in Logansport and Ft. Wayne and Indianapolis, he had it made in the shade. Congressman for one term before the citizens decided his opponent was a degree less slippery, stupid and self-interested, he had parlayed a few fast Washington connections into a great big thing. You wanted a lobbyist who got things done — you got Herbert, for certain projects. He was well connected at the Pentagon and in nine years he had learned a lot about the oil business and munitions and juice-dripping building contracts.

Herbert wasn't nice, but he was important. You didn't have to like him, you used him. and he delivered.

Tonight Herbert was enjoying himself at his favorite pastime in his small, expensive house on the edge of Georgetown. He was in the big bed in the big bedroom with a big pitcher of ice and the bottles and glasses beside the bed in which a big girl awaited his pleasure.

Right now his pleasure was watching a sex movie on the far wall. A pilot friend brought them in for him from West Germany, where they make them with sock.

He hoped the girl was getting the same lift from them that he was, although it didn't matter. She was a Korean or Mongolian or one of those wog types who worked at one of the trade offices. Dumb, maybe, but the way he liked them — a big body and a beautiful face. He wished those slobs in Indianapolis could see him now.

He felt safe. There was that unpleasantness with the Baumann outfit but they couldn't be as tough as it was whispered. Anyway the house had a complete burglar alarm system and there was a shotgun in the closet and a pistol in the bedside table.

"Watch this, baby," he chortled, and leaned forward.

He felt her move on the bed and something obscured his view of the screen and he raised his hands to push it away. Why, it came right down over his head! Hey.

Herbert Wheeldale Tyson was paralyzed before his hands reached his chin, and dead a few seconds later.

Chapter III

When the world stopped shaking and came into focus Nick found himself on the ground at the rear of the Bird. His wrists were roped to the car and probably Chick had shown Hans that he knew his knots by securing Nick for a long stay. There were clove hitches around his wrists, plus several bights to a square knot pinioning his arms together.

He heard the four men talking in low voices and only caught Hans remark, "…we'll find out. One way or another."

They climbed into their car, and as it passed under the floodlight closest to the drive Nick identified it as a '68 Ford, metallic green, four-door sedan. He was pinned at a wrong angle to get a decent look at the tag or quite identify the model, but it was not a compact.

He applied his tremendous strength on the rope, then sighed. Cotton line but not household grade, shipboard stuff and strong. He worked up ample saliva, tongued it onto a section at his wrists, and began to gnaw steadily with his strong white teeth. The stuff was tough. He was chewing monotonously with his eyeteeth at the tough, sodden mass when Ruth came out and found him.

She had donned her clothes, right down to her trim white high-heeled pumps, and she strolled across the blacktop and looked down at him. He felt that her stride was too steady, her stare too calm, for the situation. It was depressing to consider that she might be on the other team in spite of what had happened, and the men had left her to administer some sort of coup de grâce.

He turned on his widest smile. "Hi, I knew you'd get loose."

"No thanks to you, you sex maniac."

"Darling! What a thing to say. I risked my life to chase them off and really save your honor."

"You might have at least untied me."

"How did you get loose?"

"The way you did. Rolled off the bed and ripped skin off my arms scraping the rope on the bed frame." Nick felt a wave of relief. If she had been left behind to close his book she wouldn't have had to get herself loose. She continued with a frown, "Jerry Deming, I think I'll leave you right there."

Nick thought rapidly. What would a Deming say in a situation like this? He exploded, "Dammit, Ruthie, enough is enough! Get a knife and cut these ropes now. I'm not fooling. I left you on that bed for your own safety. The only reason I pretended to screw you was to start a noisy fuss. Now you get me loose right now or when I do get loose I'll paddle your pretty ass so that you won't sit down for a month and after that I'll forget I ever knew you. What kind of a crazy girl are you…"

He stopped when she laughed and bent down to show him a razor blade she held concealed in her hand. She sliced his fetters carefully. "There, my hero. You were brave. Did you actually attack them barehanded? They might have killed you instead of tying you up."

He rubbed his wrists and felt his jaw. That big fellow Hans packed a wallop! "I keep a pistol hidden in the garage because if the house is burgled I figure there's a chance of it not being found there. I got it and I bagged the three when a fourth one hidden in the bushes got me. Then the one called Hans clouted me. Those guys must be real pros. Imagine leaving a picket out? They fooled hell out of me."

"Be thankful they didn't do worse. I imagine your travels in the oil business have gotten you used to violence. You acted without fear, I think. But you can get hurt that way."

He thought, They train them with cool at Vassar, too, orthere's more to you than meets the eye. They walked to the house, the lovely girl holding the arm of the naked, powerfully built man. When Nick was stripped he made you think of an athlete in training, a pro footballer perhaps.

He noticed that she kept her eyes averted from his body, as a nice young lady should. Was it an act? He called as he climbed into a pair of plain white boxer shorts, "I'll phone the police. They never catch anybody out here but it'll cover my insurance and maybe they'll keep a closer eye on the joint."

"I called them, Jerry. I can't imagine where they are."

"Depends on where they were. They have three cars for about a hundred square miles. Another martini?…"

* * *

The officers were sympathetic. Ruth had garbled the call slightly and they had wasted time. They made comments about the large number of burglaries and holdups by city hoodlums. They wrote it up and borrowed his spare keys so that their BCI men could recheck the place in the morning. Nick thought it was a waste of time — and so it proved.

After they had gone he and Ruth had their swim and another drink and danced and cuddled a bit but the zing had gone out of the evening. In spite of her stiff-upper-lip in the pinch, he thought she seemed thoughtful — or nervous. As they swayed in tight embrace on the patio, in time with Armstrong's trumpet on a blue-and-easy number, he kissed her several times but the mood was gone. The lips didn't melt any more, they were flaccid. The beat of her heart and the tempo of her breathing did not accelerate as they did before.

She noticed the difference herself. She took her face away from his, but laid her head on his shoulder. "I'm sorry, Jerry. I guess I'm really timid. I keep thinking about what might have happened. We could be — dead." She shuddered.

"We're not," he replied and squeezed her.

"Would you have really done it?" she asked.

"Done what?"

"On the bed. What the man called Hans — suggested."

"He was being a wise guy and it backfired."

"How?"

"Remember when Sammy yelled for him? He came in and then sent Sammy out for a few minutes to help the other guy. Then he left the room himself and that was my chance. Otherwise we'd still be tied on that bed, maybe, with them long gone. Or they'd be here sticking matches under my toes to make me tell where I hide money."

"Do you? Hide money?"

"Of course not. But didn't it look like they had a false tip that I do."

"Yes. I see."

If she saw, Nick thought, that's fine. At least she was puzzled. If she was on the other team, she would have to admit that Jerry Deming behaved and thought like a typical citizen. He bought her a fine steak at Perrault's Supper Club and took her home to the Moto residence in Georgetown. Not far from the lovely little house in which Herbert W. Tyson lay dead, waiting for the maid to find him in the morning and the hurried doctor to decide another abused heart had let its bearer down.

He did collect one small plus. Ruth invited him to be her escort at a dinner party at the Sherman Owen Cushings' on Friday week — their annual All Friends affair. The Cushings were rich, reserved and had begun accumulating real estate and money before the du Ponts began making gunpowder, and they had held onto most of it. There were plenty of Senators who wangled for a Cushing bid — and never got it. He told Ruth he was quite sure he could make it. He would confirm with a call on Wednesday. Where would Akito be? In Cairo — which was why Nick might fill his seat. He learned that Ruth had met Alice Cushing at Vassar.

The next day was a hot, sunny Thursday. Nick slept until nine, then enjoyed breakfast in the restaurant of "Jerry Deming's" apartment house — fresh orange juice, three scrambled eggs, bacon, one piece of toast and two cups of tea. When he could, he scheduled his living pattern like that of an athlete staying in condition.

His big body wouldn't stay in first-class shape by itself, especially when he enjoyed a certain amount of rich food and alcohol. Nor did he neglect his mind, especially where current affairs were concerned. His newspaper was The New York Times, and via AXE's cover-name subscriptions he read periodicals ranging from Scientific American to The Atlantic and Harper's. Not a month went by that his expense account didn't list four or five significant books.

His physical skills demanded a continual, although not regularly scheduled, program of practice. Twice a week unless "on location" — AXE vernacular for on a job — he practiced tumbling and judo, punched the bags and swam methodically underwater for long minutes. Also on regular schedule he talked into his recorders, polishing his excellent French and Spanish, improving his German and the three other languages in which, as he put it, I can "get a broad, get a bed, and get directions to the airport."

David Hawk, who was impressed by almost nothing, once told Nick that he thought his greatest asset was his acting ability."… the stage lost something when you came into our business."

Nick's father had been a character actor. One of the rare chameleons who slipped into any role and became it. The kind of a talent that smart producers search for. "See if you can get Carter," was said often enough to give Nick's father all the roles he chose to take.

Nick had actually grown up all over the United States. His education, split between tutors, studio and public schools, seemed to benefit by the variety. At the age of eight he was polishing his Spanish and crap-shooting backstage with the company playing Está el Doctor en Casa? By his tenth year — because Tea and Sympathy had a long run and the lead was a mathematical genius — he could do most algebra in his head, quote the odds on all poker and blackjack hands and do perfect Oxonian, Yorkshire and Cockney imitations.

Shortly after his twelfth birthday he wrote a one-act play which, revised slightly a few years later, is now in the books. and he discovered that the savate taught him by the French tumbler, Jean Benoist-Gironière, was as effective in an alley as on a mat.

It was after the night show, when he was headed home alone. Two would-be muggers had closed in on him in the lonely yellow glare of the deserted passageway from the stagedoor to street He stamped a toe, kicked a shin, dove on his hands and lashed out like a mule to connect with a groin and then cartwheeled for a grand coup and a chin-kick. Then he went back into the theatre and brought his father out to view the crumpled, moaning figures.

The senior Carter noted that his son spoke calmly and his breathing was perfectly normal. He said, "Nick, you did what you had to do. What'll we do with them?"

"I don't care."

"Want to see them arrested?"

"I don't think so," Nick had replied. They had gone back into the theatre and when they went home, an hour later, the men were gone.

A year later Carter senior discovered Nick in bed with Lily Greene, a luscious young actress who later did well in Hollywood. He just chuckled and went out, but after a later discussion Nick found himself passing college entrance exams under another name and entering Dartmouth. His father was killed in an automobile accident less than two years later.

Some of these memories — the best ones — marched through Nick's thoughts as he walked four blocks to the Health Club and changed to his swim trunks. In the sunny rooftop gym he exercised at an easy pace. Rested. Tumbled. Sunbathed. Worked out on the rings and trampoline. An hour later he worked up a sweat on the bags and then swam steadily for fifteen minutes in the big pool. He practiced Yoga breathing and checked his underwater time, grimacing when he noted that he was forty-eight seconds short of the official world's record. Well — you can't do everything.

Just after twelve Nick eased his way through luncheon-bound foot-traffic to his swank apartment house to keep his appointment with David Hawk. He found his senior officer in the apartment. They greeted each other with handshakes and silent, friendly nods; a blend of controlled warmth built on long association and mutual respect.

Hawk wore one of his quiet gray suits. When he slumped his shoulders and walked carelessly, instead of with his usual marching stride, he could be a major or minor Washington businessman, civil servant or a visiting taxpayer from West Fork. Average, undistinguished, not to be remembered.

Nick remained silent. Hawk said, "We can talk. I think the boilers are starting to be lit."

"Yes, sir. How about a cup of tea?"

"Excellent. Had lunch?"

"No. I skip it today. A counterbalance for all the canapes and seven-course dinners I'm getting on this assignment."

"Put the water on, my boy. We'll be very British. Maybe it will help. We're up against the kind of thing in which they specialize. Threads within threads and no beginning to the knot. How did it go last night?"

Nick told him. Hawk nodded occasionally and toyed carefully with an unwrapped cigar.

"Dangerous spot, that. No weapons and taken and tied. Let's not risk it again. I'm sure we're dealing with cold killers and it might come up your turn. Plans-and-Operations doesn't agree with me one hundred percent, but I think they will after we meet tomorrow."

"New facts?"

"New nothing. That's the beauty of it. Herbert Wheeldale Tyson was found dead in his home this morning. Ostensibly of natural causes. I'm beginning to like that phrase. Every time I hear it my suspicions double. And now with good reason. Or better reason. You recognize Tyson?"

"Nickname Wheel-and-Deal. A string-puller and greaser. One of fifteen hundred or so like him. I can name perhaps a hundred."

"Right. You know him because he was rising to the top of the smelly barrel. Now let me try and put the edges of the puzzle together. Tyson is the fourth man to die of natural causes and they all knew each other. They were all substantial holders in Mideast oil stocks and munitions complexes."

Hawk paused and Nick frowned. "You expect me to say this is not at all unusual in Washington."

"Quite right. Another piece. In the last week two important and very respectable men have received death threats. Senator Aaron Hockburn and Fritching at the Treasury."

"And they're tied in with the other four somehow?"

"Not at all. Neither of them would be caught having lunch with Tyson, for instance. But they both have tremendous key positions which can affect — Mideast oil and certain war contracts."

"They were only threatened? Not ordered to do anything?"

"I believe that will come later. I think the four deaths will be used as terrifying examples. But Hockburn and Fritching aren't the type to scare, although you never can tell. They called the FBI and they cross-fertilized with us. I told them AXE might have something."

Nick said carefully, "It doesn't look as if we have much — yet."

"That's where you come in. How about that tea?"

Nick got up, poured and brought in the cups with two teabags in each. They had been through this ritual before. Hawk said, "Your lack of faith in me is understandable, although after all these years I thought I deserved more…" He sipped tea, peered at Nick with the twinkling glint which always foreshadowed a satisfying revelation — like laying down a powerful hand for a partner who fears he has overbid.

"Show me that other piece of the puzzle you're hiding," Nick said. "The one that fits."

"Pieces, Nicholas. Pieces. Which you're going to fit into place, I'm sure. You're warm. You and I know that was no ordinary robbery last night Your visitors were looking and sounding out. Why? Let's guess they wanted to know more about Jerry Deming. Is it because Jerry Deming — Nick Carter — is close to something and we don't realize it yet?"

"… or Akito keeps a damn close check on his daughter?"

"… or the daughter is in on it and she played victim?"

Nick frowned. "I won't discount it. But she could have killed me when I was tied up. She had a razor. She could have gotten a butcher knife as easily and carved me like a roast."

"Perhaps they need a Jerry Demiog. You're an experienced oil man. Underpaid and probably greedy. You may be approached. That will be a lead."

"I searched her bag," Nick said reflectively. "How did they tail us? They couldn't have had those four riding around all day."

"Oh," Hawk pretended regret. "There is a beeper on your Bird. One of the old twenty-four-hour type. We left it in place in case they decide to pick it up."

"I knew that," Nick turned the tables — gently.

"You did?"

"I swept the frequencies with the house radio. I didn't find the beeper itself but I knew it had to be there."

"You might have told me. Now a more exotic subject. The mysterious East. You've noticed the plenitude of pretty girls with slanting eyes in the social swing?"

"Why not? Since 1938 we've been creating a new crop of Asian millionaires every year. Most of them arrive here sooner or later with the family and the loot."

"But they stay out of sight. There are others. We assembled the guest lists from over six hundred and fifty functions during the past two years and put them on the computer. Among Oriental females six charmers top the list for attendance at parties of international or lobbying importance. Here…" He handed Nick a memo form.

Jeanyee Ahling

Suzie Quong

Anne We Ling

Pong-Pong Lily

Ruth Moto

Sonya Ranyez

Nick said, "I've seen three of them plus Ruth. Probably just wasn't introduced to the others. The number of Eastern girls caught my attention but it hasn't seemed important until you showed me this pattern. Of course I've met about two hundred other people during the last six weeks, of every nationality in the world…"

"But not including other lovely flowers from the Orient."

"True."

Hawk tapped the slip of paper. "Others may be in the group or whatever it is but didn't show up in the computer pattern. Now for the nugget…

"One or more of these darlings was at least at one gathering where they could have met the dead men. The computer tells us that Tyson's garage man tells us he thinks he saw Tyson leave in his car about two weeks ago with an Oriental girl. He's not sure but it's an interesting piece for our puzzle. We're checking Tyson's habits. If he had a meal at any major restaurant or hotel or surfaced more than a few times with her, well find it out."

"Then we'll know we're on a possible track."

"Although we won't know where we're going. Keep your ears open for mention of the Confederation Oil Company of Latakia. They tried to do some business through Tyson and another of the dead men, Armbruster, who told his law firm to turn them down. They own two tankers and charter three more with a lot of Chinese in the crews. They are prohibited from carrying U.S. cargoes because they've made trips to Havana and Haiphong. We can't pressure them because there is high-level French money involved and they have tight Baalh connections in Syria. Confederation is the usual five corporations stacked one on the other and exquisitely tangled in Switzerland and Lebanon and London. But Harry Demarkin got word to us that something called the Baumann Ring is the center of power."

Nick repeated it "The Baumann Ring."

"You're on."

"Baumann. Bormann. Martin Bormann?"

"Possible."

Nick's hard-to-surprise pulse quickened. Bormann. The mysterious aged vulture. As elusive as smoke. One of the most wanted men on earth, or off it. It sometimes seemed as if he operated from outer space. His death had been reported dozens of times since his boss died in Berlin on April 29, 1945.

"Is Harry still probing?"

Hawk's face clouded. "Harry died yesterday. His car went over a cliff above Beirut."

"Genuine accident?" Nick felt a sharp pang of regret. AXEman Harry Demarkin had been his friend, and you didn't develop many in this business. Harry had been fearless but cautious.

"Perhaps."

It seemed to echo in the moment of silence — perhaps.

Hawk's thoughtful eyes were as bleak as Nick had ever seen them. "We're about to open a bag of big trouble, Nick. Don't underestimate them. Remember Harry."

"The worst of it is — we're not sure what the bag looks like, where it is or what's in it."

"Good description. Nasty situation all around. I feel as if I'm sitting you down at a piano with the seat full of dynamite that goes off when you hit a certain key. I've got to ask you to play and I'm unable to tell you which is the deadly key because I don't know either!"

"There's the chance it's less serious than it looks," Nick said, not believing it but as cheer for the older man. "I may discover that the deaths are astonishing coincidences, the girls a new play-for-pay group and Confederation the usual crowd of promoters and ten percenters."

"True. You're relying on the AXE maxim — only the stupid are sure, the intelligent are always in doubt. But for God's sake be very careful, the facts we have point in many directions and that's the worst kind of a case." Hawk sighed and took a folded paper from his pocket "I can give you a little more help. Here are dossiers on the six girls. We're still digging into their backgrounds, of course. And here…"

He held a small bright metal pellet, about twice the size of a baby lima bean, between his thumb and forefinger. "A new beeper from Stuart's department. You squeeze this green dot and it will activate for six hours. Range about three miles in the country. Depends on conditions in a city. Whether you're shielded by buildings and so on."

Nick examined it "They're getting better and better. Another suppository type?"

"Can be used that way. But the real idea is to swallow it A search reveals nothing. Of course if they have a monitor they know it's in you…"

"And they have up to six hours to cut you open and silence it," Nick added dryly. He put the device in his pocket "Thanks."

Hawk reached down behind his chair and brought up two bottles of scotch whisky, an expensive brand in rich-looking, dark-brown glass. He handed one to Nick. "Look that over."

Nick examined the seal, read the label, inspected the cap and base. "If it was a cork," he mused, "there could be almost anything hidden in it but this looks absolutely kosher. Is it really scotch in there?"

"If you ever pour yourself a drink of it, enjoy it. One of the finest blends." Hawk tipped the bottle he was holding up and down, watching the liquid form tiny bubbles with its own trapped air.

"See anything?" Hawk asked.

"Let me try." Nick watchfully turned his bottle over and over, and he got it. If your eyes were extremely sharp and you looked at the bottom of the bottle, you'd discover that the oily bubbles did not appear there when the bottle was upside down. "The bottom is wrong somehow."

"Right. There's a glass partition. Top half scotch. Bottom half one of Stuart's super-explosives that looks like scotch. You activate it by breaking the bottle and exposing it to air for two minutes. Then any flame will set it off. As it is now, under compression and airless, it is relatively safe, Stuart says."

Nick set his bottle down carefully. "They may come in handy."

"Yes," Hawk agreed, standing up and carefully brushing an ash from his jacket "In a tight spot you can always offer to buy a last drink."

* * *

At precisely 4:12 p.m. on Friday afternoon Nick's telephone rang. A girl said, "This is Miss Rice of the telephone company. Did you place a call to…" She quoted a number ending in seven, eight.

"Sorry, no," Nick answered. She excused the call sweetly and hung up.

Nick turned over his telephone, removed the two base screws and attached three wires from a small brown box to three terminals, including the 24-volt power input. Then he dialed a number. When Hawk answered he said, "Scrambler on code seventy-eight."

"Correct and clear. Report?"

"Nothing. I've been to three more boring parties. You know which girls were there. Very friendly. They had escorts and I couldn't pry them loose."

"Very well. Carry on at Cushing's tonight. We're in deep trouble. There are big leaks in the top company."

"Will do."

"Report please ten-o-nine a.m. via number six."

"Will do. Good-bye."

"Good-bye and good luck."

Nick hung up, removed the wires and replaced the phone base. The little brown portable scramblers were one of Stuart's most ingenious devices. Scrambler patterns are infinite. He designed the little brown boxes, with transistorized circuits packed into a package smaller than a pack of regular-size cigarettes, with a ten-contact switch. Unless both were set on "78" the audio modulation was gibberish. Just in case — every two months the boxes were exchanged for new ones with new scrambler patterns and ten new selections. Nick donned his dinner jacket and departed in the Bird to pick up Ruth.

The Cushing gathering — the annual All Friends party with cocktails, dinner, entertainment and dancing — was held at their two-hundred-acre estate in Virginia. The setting was magnificent.

As they drove up the long drive, colored lights sparkled in the dusk, music sounded from the conservatory to the left, and they had a short wait while substantial-looking people got out of their cars and the attendants took them away. Shiny limousines were popular — Cadillacs prominent.

Nick said, "I suppose you've been here before?"

"Many times. Alice and I used to play tennis all the time. Now I come down occasionally for a weekend."

"How many tennis courts?"

"Three, counting the one indoors."

"The good life. Spell it money."

"My father says that since most people are so stupid, there is no excuse for a person with brains not being rich."

"The Cushings have been rich for seven generations. All brains?"

"Daddy means that people are foolish to work for so much an hour. Selling themselves in hunks of time, he calls it. They love their slavery because freedom is terrifying. You must work for yourself. Grab opportunities."

"I'm never in the right place at the right time." Nick sighed. "I'm sent places ten years after the oil starts coming up."

He smiled at her as they ascended three broad steps. The lovely black eyes were studying him. As they followed the tunnel-like pathway of colored lights across the lawn she asked, "Would you like me to speak to Father?"

"I'm wide open. Especially when I see a bash like this. Just don't cause me to lose the job I've got."

"Jerry — you act conservative. That's not the way to get rich."

"It's the way they try to stay rich," he murmured, but she was greeting a tall blonde girl in the line of beautifully dressed people at the entrance to a giant tent. He was introduced to Alice Cushing and fourteen other people in the receiving line, six of them named Gushing. He memorized every name and face.

Past the line they strolled to the long bar — sixty feet of table covered with snowy linen. They exchanged greetings with a few people who knew Ruth or "that nice young oil man, Jerry Deming." Nick received two brandies on the rocks from a bartender who looked surprised at the order — but he had it. They drifted back from the bar a few feet and paused to sip their drinks.

The big tent could hold a two-ring circus, with room left over for two bocce games, and it handled just the overflow from the cut-stone conservatory which it adjoined. Through tall windows Nick saw another long bar inside the building and people dancing on the polished floors.

He noted that the hors d'oeuvres on the long tables opposite the bar in the tent were made on the spot. The roasts, fowl and bowls of caviar behind which the white-coated attendants deftly prepared your requested snack would have fed a Chinese village for a week. Among the guests he saw four American generals that he knew and six from other countries that he did not.

They paused to speak to Congressman Andrews and his niece — he introduced her everywhere as his niece but she had that haughty carriage of the dull girl who has it made-in-the-shade — and while Nick was being polite Ruth exchanged glances behind his back with a Chinese girl in another group. Their looks were swift, and because they were absolutely without expression, they were furtive.

We tend to classify Chinese as small, gentle, even obsequious. The girl who swapped quick recognition signals with Ruth was big, imperious, and the bold glance from her intelligent black eyes was shocking because it came from under brows deliberately plucked to accent the slants. "Oriental?" they seemed to issue a challenge. "You're damned right. Take ahold if you dare."

This was precisely Nick's impression a moment later as Ruth introduced him to Jeanyee Ahling. He had seen her at other parties, checked her name carefully into his mental list, but this was the first lime he had felt the impact of her glance — the almost molten heat from those sparkling eyes above the round cheeks whose softness was challenged by the clean, sharp planes of her face and the impudent curve of her red lips.

He said, "I'm especially pleased to meet you, Miss Ahling."

The glossy black brows rose a fraction of an inch. Nick thought, She's striking— beauty like that belongs on TV or in the movies. "Yes — because I saw you at the Pan American party two weeks ago. I hoped to meet you then."

"You're interested in the Orient? Or China itself? Or girls?"

"All three."

"Are you a diplomat, Mr. Deming?"

"No. Just a minor oil man."

"Like Mr. Murchison and Mr. Hunt?"

"No. There's about three billion dollars' difference. I work for Official."

She chuckled. Her tones were mellow and deep and her English was excellent, with just the trace of "too-perfection," as if she had learned it carefully, or spoke several languages and had been taught to round all vowels. "You're very honest. Most men one meets give themselves a little promotion. You could have just said, 'I'm with Official.'"

"You would have found out and my honesty rating would have dropped."

"You're an honest man?"

"I want to be known as an honest man."

"Why?"

"Because I promised my mother. And when I lie to you you'll believe it."

She laughed. He felt a pleasant tingle along his spine. They didn't make many like this one. Ruth had been chatting with Jeanyee's escort, a tall, slim, Latin-American type. She turned and said, "Jerry — have you met Patrick Valdez?"

"No."

Ruth moved and drew the quartet together, away from the group which Nick cataloged as politics, munitions and four nationalities. Congressman Creeks, already high as usual, was telling a story — his hearers pretended interest because he was old devil Creeks, with seniority, committees and the control of about thirty billion dollars in appropriations.

"Pat, this is Jerry Deming," Ruth said. "Pat is O.A.S. Jerry is oil. That's so you'll know you're not competitors."

Valdez showed handsome white teeth and shook hands. "We might be where beautiful girls are concerned," he said. "You two know that."

"What a nice way to slip in a compliment," Ruth said. "Jeanyee — Jerry — will you excuse us a second? Bob Quitlock wanted to meet Pat We'll join you in the conservatory in ten minutes. Near the band."

"Certainly," Nick answered, and watched the couple work their way through the increasing crowd. Ruth had a breathtaking figure, he mused, until you got a look at Jeanyee. He turned to her. "And you? A princess on leave?"

"Hardly, but thank you. I work for the Ling-Taiwan Export Company."

"I thought you might be a model. Frankly, Jeanyee, I've never seen a Chinese girl in the movies as pretty as you. Or as tall."

"Thank you. We're not all little flowers. My family came from north China. They grow big there. It's a lot like Sweden. Mountains and sea. Plenty of good food."

"How are they doing under Mao?"

He thought her eyes flickered, but the emotion was unreadable. "We came out with Chiang. I haven't heard much."

He guided her into the conservatory, brought her a drink, tried a few more gentle questions. He got gentle, uninformative answers. In her pale green gown, a perfect contrast for her sleek black hair and brilliant eyes, she was a standout. He watched other men stare.

She knew a lot of people who smiled and nodded or paused for a few remarks. She fended off some of the men who wanted to stay attached with a change of pace which set up a wall of frost until they wandered on. She never offend-

ed, she just went into a deep-freeze locker and came out the instant they departed.

He discovered that she danced expertly and they stayed on the floor because it was fun — and because Nick heartily enjoyed the feel of her in his arms and the aroma of her perfume and body. When Ruth and Valdez returned they exchanged dances, drank fairly steadily and gathered into a group in one corner of the big room comprised of some people Nick had met and some he hadn't.

During one pause Ruth said, standing beside Jeanyee, "Will you excuse us for a few moments? Dinner should be announced about now and we want to freshen up."

Nick was left with Pat They picked up fresh drinks and toasted each other with the usual cheers. He learned nothing new from the South American.

Alone together in the ladies' lounge Ruth said to Jeanyee, "What do you think of him after a close look?"

"I think you got the best of it this time. Isn't he a dream? Much more interesting than Pat."

"The Leader says if Deming joins, forget Pat."

"I know." Ruth sighed. "I'll take him off your hands as agreed. Anyway he's a good dancer. But you'll find Deming is really something else. So much charm to waste on the oil business. And he's all man. He nearly turned the tables on Leader. You'd have laughed. Of course Leader switched them right back — and he's not mad about it. I think he admires Deming for it. He recommended him to Command."

The girls were in one of the innumerable lounges available for ladies — complete dressing rooms and baths. Jeanyee looked at the expensive furnishings. "Should we talk here?"

"Safe," Ruth answered as she retouched her exquisite lips at one of the giant mirrors. "You know the military and political only spy on the outs. These are the ins. You can snoop on individuals and double-cross each other, but if you're caught spying on the group you're finished."

Jeanyee sighed. "You know so much more about politics than 1 do. But I know men. There's something about this Deming that bothers me. He's too — too strong. Have you ever noticed how the generals are made of brass, especially their heads? And the steel men are steel and the oil men oily? Well, Deming is hard and quick and you and Leader discovered he has courage. He doesn't fit the oil man pattern."

"I'll say you know men. I never thought of it that way. But those are the reasons Command is interested in Deming, I suppose. He's more than just a businessman. He's interested in money, like all of them. I checked that tonight. Offer him whatever you think will work. I suggested my father might have something for him, but he didn't snap at the bait."

"Cautious, too…"

"Sure. That's a plus. He likes girls, in case you were afraid you were getting another one like Karl Comstock."

"No. I told you I know Deming is all man. It's just — well maybe he's such a valuable type I'm not used to it. I felt he was wearing a mask some of the time, just as we are."

"I didn't get that impression, Jeanyee. But be alert. If he's a thief he's no use to us." Ruth sighed. "But what a body…"

"You're not jealous?"

"Of course not. Given a choice I'd pick him. Given an order, I take Pat and make the most of it."

What Ruth and Jeanyee did not discuss — never discussed — was their conditioned taste for Caucasian rather than Oriental men. Like most girls raised in a certain society, they had adopted its norms. Their ideal was a Gregory Peck or Lee Marvin. Their Leader knew this — he had been carefully briefed by Command One, who often discussed it with their psychologist, Lindhauer.

The girls closed their handbags. Ruth started to leave but Jeanyee hung back. "What shall I do," she asked thoughtfully, "if Deming is nor what he seems? I still have that strange feeling…"

"That he might be on the other team?"

"Yes."

"I see…" Ruth paused, her face expressionless for an instant, then stern. "I wouldn't want to be you if you're wrong, Jeanyee. But if you became sure, I suppose there would be only one thing to do."

"Rule seven?"

"Yes. Hood him."

"I never made that decision on my own."

"The Rule is clear. Hood him. Leave no traces."

Chapter IV

Because the real Nick Carter was the kind of a man who drew people to him, both men and women, when the girls returned to the conservatory they saw him from the balcony in the center of a good-sized group. He was chatting with an air force single-star about artillery tactics in Korea. Two entrepreneurs he had met at the newly reopened Ford's Theatre were trying to get his attention to talk oil. A ravishing redhead he had exchanged warm remarks with at an intimate little party was talking with Pat Valdez while she looked for on opening to get Nick's eye. Several other assorted couples had said, "Hey, there's Jerry Deming!" — and were pushing in.

"Look at that," Ruth said. 'The personality kid. He's too good to be true."

"That's oil," Jeanyee replied.

"That's charm."

"And salesmanship. I'll bet he sells that stuff by the tanker-load."

"He does, I think."

The girls sweetly penetrated the knot of bodies. Ruth claimed Nick and Jeanyee reached Pat as the soft tones of chimes sounded over the PA system and hushed the crowd.

"Sounds like the SS UNITED STATES," the redhead chirped loudly. She had almost made it to Nick, and now he was lost to her for the time being. He saw her from the corner of his eye, filed the fact for reference, but made no sign.

A man's voice said over the PA loudspeakers, in dulcet oval tones that sounded professional, "Good evening everyone. The Cushings welcome you to the All Friends dinner party, and have asked me to say a few words. This is the eighty-fifth anniversary of this dinner, which was started by Napoleon Cushing for a most unusual purpose. He wished to acquaint the philanthropic and idealistic Washington community with the need for more missionaries in the Far East, especially in China. For many years the dinner parties were influential in obtaining many kinds of support for this noble effort."

Nick took a gulp of the drink he had been nursing and thought, Oh, man, tuck Buddha in a basket. Build me a home where the water buffalo roam out of kerosene and gasoline tins.

The unctuous voice went on. "For some years, due to circumstances, this project has been somewhat curtailed, but it is the sincere hope of the Cushing family that the good works will soon be resumed.

"Due to the present size of the annual dinner, tables have been placed in the Madison Dining Room, the Hamilton Room in the left wing and in a large room at the rear of the house."

Ruth squeezed Nick's hand and said with a tiny giggle, "The gymnasium."

The speaker concluded, "Most of you have been advised where your place cards can be found. If you are not sure, the butler at the entrance to each room has a guest list and can advise you. Dinner will be served in thirty minutes. The Cushings say again — thank you all for coming."

Ruth asked Nick, "Have you been here before?"

"No. I'm working my way up."

"Come on and see the things in the Monroe Room. It's as interesting as a museum." She motioned to Jeanyee and Pat to follow and threaded away from the group.

It seemed to Nick they walked a mile. Up wide stairways, through great halls like hotel corridors, except that the furnishings were varied and expensive and every few yards a servant stood at attention to provide guidance if required. Nick said, "They have their own army."

"Almost. Alice said they employed sixty people before they cut the staff a few years ago. Some of these were probably hired for the occasion."

"They impress me."

"You should have seen the do a few years ago. They were all dressed as French court servants. Alice had something to do with modernizing that."

The Monroe Room offered an impressive selection of art objects, many of them priceless, guarded by two private detectives and a dour man who looked like an old family retainer. Nick said, "It warms the heart, doesn't it?"

"How?" Jeanyee asked curiously.

"All these wonderful things given to the missionaries, I suppose, by your grateful countrymen."

Jeanyee and Ruth exchanged glances. Pat seemed to want to chuckle but thought better of it. They went out another door and found their way to the Madison dining room.

The dinner was magnificent, ranging through fruit and fish and meat. Nick identified guy choy ngow tong, Lobster Cantonese, soot dow chow gee yok, and Bok choy ngow before he gave up as a simmering slice of Chateaubriand was placed before him. "Where can we put it?" he murmured to Ruth.

"Try, it's delicious," she answered. "Frederick Cushing IV selects the menu personally."

"Which is he?"

"Fifth from the right at the head table. He's seventy-eight. On a bland diet, himself."

"I'll be with him after this."

There were four wine glasses at each setting, and they were not allowed to remain empty. Nick sipped a half-inch from each and responded to several toasts, but a fair majority of the diners were flushed and flying high by the time the gay don go— steamed sponge cake with pineapple and whipped cream — arrived.

Then things happened smoothly and rapidly and to Nick's complete satisfaction. The guests drifted back to the conservatory and tent where the bars now dispensed coffee and liqueurs in addition to great quantities of alcohol in almost every form devised by man. Jeanyee told him she had not come to the dinner with Pat… Ruth suddenly had a headache, "All that rich food"… and he found himself dancing with Jeanyee while Ruth disappeared. Pat paired with the redhead.

Shortly before midnight Jerry Deming was paged and handed a note: My dear, I'm ill. Nothing serious, just too much food. I've gone home with the Reynolds. You might offer Jeanyee a ride to town. Please call me tomorrow. Ruth.

He gravely handed the missive to Jeanyee. The black eyes sparkled and the magnificent body came into his arms. "I'm sorry for Ruth," Jeanyee murmured, "but delighted by my luck."

The music was smooth and the floor less crowded as the wine-heavy guests drifted away. As they circled slowly in a corner Nick asked, "How do you feel?"

"Splendid. I have an iron digestion." She sighed. "It's a sumptuous affair, isn't it?"

"Sumptuous. All it needs is Basil Zaharoff's ghost popping out of the swimming pool at midnight."

"Was he fun?"

"The most."

Nick inhaled her perfume again. It invaded his nostrils from her glossy hair and gleaming skin and he savored it like an aphrodisiac. She pressed against him with a soft persistence that suggesteed affection, passion, or a blend of both. He felt a warmth at the back of his neck and far down his spine. You could raise quite a temperature with Jeanyee and about Jeanyee. He hoped she wasn't a black widow spider taught to flutter gorgeous butterfly wings as bait. Even if she was, it would be interesting, perhaps delightful, and he looked forward to meeting the talented man who tutored such skills.

An hour later he was in the Bird, humming toward Washington at an easy speed, with the fragrant and warm Jeanyee nestled in the curve of his arm. He reflected that the switch from Ruth to Jeanyee might have been contrived. Not that he minded. For his AXE assignment or personal enjoyment he would take either or both. Jeanyee seemed very cooperative — or perhaps it was the booze. He squeezed her. Then thought — but first…

"Darling," he said, "I hope Ruth is all right. She reminds me of Suzi Quong. Do you know her?"

The pause was too long. She had to decide whether to lie, he guessed, then she concluded truth was most logical and safest. "Yes. But how? I don't think they're very much alike."

"They have the same kind of Oriental charm. I mean you know what they are saying but often you can't guess what they are thinking, but you know it would be damned interesting if you could."

She thought that one over. "I see what you mean, Jerry. Yes — they're sweet girls." She slurred the tones and rolled her head gently on his shoulder.

"And Anne We Ling," he went on. "There's a girl always makes me think of lotus blossoms and fragrant tea in a Chinese garden."

Jeanyee just sighed.

"Do you know Anne?" Nick insisted.

Again the pause. "Yes. Naturally girls of the same background who bump into each other a lot tend to get together and exchange notes. I guess I know a hundred nice Chinese girls in Washington." They drove silently for several miles. He wondered if he had gone too far, relying on the alcohol in her. He was afraid he had when she asked, "Why are you so interested in Chinese girls?"

"I was in the East for a while. Chinese culture intrigues me. I like the atmosphere, the food, the traditions, the girls…" He cupped a generous breast and caressed it ever so gently with his sensitive fingers. She snuggled.

"That's nice," she murmured. "You know the Chinese are good business people. Almost anywhere we land we do well in trade."

"I've noticed. I've dealt with Chinese firms. Reliable. Good credit."

"Do you make a lot of money, Jerry?"

"Enough to get by on. If you want to see how I live — let's stop at my place for a nightcap before I take you home."

"O.K.," she drawled languidly. "But by money I mean making some for yourself, not just earning a wage. So that it comes in in nice thousand-chunks and maybe you don't have to pay too much tax on it. That's the way to make money."

"Indeed it is," he agreed.

"My cousin is in the oil business," she went on. "He was talking about getting another partner. No investment. The new man would be guaranteed a handsome salary if he had real experience in oil. But if they do well he'd share in the profits."

"I'd like to meet your cousin."

"I'll mention it when I see him."

"I'll give you my card so he can call me."

"Please do. I'd love to help you." A slim, strong hand squeezed his knee.

Two hours and four drinks later the lovely hand was squeezing the same knee with a much firmer touch — and touching a lot more of him. Nick had been pleased at the ease with which she had agreed to stop at his apartment before he drove her home to what she described as "the place the family bought in Chevy Chase."

Drink? She was hollow, but hardly another word could he pry from her about her cousin or the family business. "I help in the office," was all she added, as if she had an automatic silencer.

Play? She made not the slightest protest when he suggested that they remove their shoes for comfort — then her dress and his striped pants…"so that we can relax and not get them all wrinkled."

Stretched on the couch in front of the picture window overlooking the Anacostia River, with the lights low, the music soft and the ice and soda and whisky tucked beside the couch so that he wouldn't have to move too far, Nick thought contentedly, What a way to make a living.

Jeanyee partially stripped was Jeanyee more gorgeous than ever. She wore a silk half-slip and strapless bra, and her skin was the tasty hue of a golden-yellow peach at the instant of firm ripeness before the red softness takes over. Her hair was, he thought, the color of new oil gushing into storage tanks on a dark night — black gold.

He kissed her thoroughly but not with the continuity that would bore her. He caressed and stroked her and let her dream. He was patient, until out of the silence she said suddenly, "I can feel you, Jerry. You want to make love to me, don't you?"

"Yes."

"You're an easy man to be with, Jerry Deming. Were you ever married?"

"No."

"But you've known lots of girls."

"Yes."

"All over the world?"

"Yes." He gave the brief answers gently, swift enough to indicate they were true — and they were, but with no hint of shortness or irritation at the questioning.

"You feel that you like me?"

"As much as any girl I've ever met You're simply beautiful. Exotic. Prettier than any picture of a Chinese princess because you're warm and alive."

"You can bet I am," she breathed, and turned to him. "And you are going to learn something," she added, just before their lips blended.

He didn't have time to worry much about that, because Jeanyee applied herself to lovemaking and her activities required all his attention. She was absorbing, a magnet that drew your passion out and out and once you felt its pull and let yourself go a fraction of an inch you were caught by the irresistible attraction and nothing would stop your plunge to the core. Nor, once moved, did you want to stop.

She did not rape or ravish him, nor were her attentions those of a prostitute, bestowed with professional intensity at emotional arm's length. Jeanyee made love as if she had a license to manufacture it, with skill and warmth and so much personal relish you were swept away. A man would be a fool not to relax, and no one ever called Nick foolish.

He cooperated and contributed and was grateful for his good luck. In his lifetime he had had more than his share of sensual sessions, earning them not by chance, he knew, but thanks to his physical attraction for women.

With Jeanyee — as with others who needed affection and only required the right offer of exchange to open wide their hearts, minds, and bodies — the sale was made. With tenderness and finesse, Nick delivered the goods.

As he lay with damp black hair draped across his face, tasting its texture reflectively with his tongue and wondering again what the perfume was, Nick thought, Excellent, outstanding. In the last two hours he had embraced joy — and he was sure he had given as good as he got.

The hair was drawn slowly from contact with his skin and replaced by sparkling black eyes and an impish grin — a full-size female elf looming in the dim light of the single lamp which he had further muted by tossing his robe over it. "Happy?"

"Stunned. Super-thrilled," he answered very softly.

"I feel that way too. You know that."

"I sense it."

She rolled her head onto his shoulder, the giant elf all soft and blending to his length. "Why can't people be happy with that? They get up and argue. Or leave without a kind word. Or men go away from it to drink or to fight stupid wars."

"It means," Nick said after considering the words with surprise, "most people don't have it. They're too tense or self-centered or inexperienced. How often do two people like ourselves get together? Both givers. Both patient. You know — everyone thinks they are born gamblers, conversationalists and lovers. Most people never discover they don't really know a damn thing about any of them. As far as digging in and learning and developing skill — they never bother."

"You think I'm skillful?"

Nick reflected on the six or seven varieties of skill she had exhibited so far. "You're very skillful."

"Watch."

A golden elf flipped to the floor with the ease of an acrobat. He caught his breath at the artistry of her movements and the undulating perfect curves of her breasts and hips and rump caused him to run his tongue over his lips and swallow. She stood wide-legged, smiled at him, then bent backward and suddenly her head appeared between her legs, the red lips still upcurved. "Did you ever see this before?"

"Only on a stage!" he propped himself up on an elbow.

"Or this?" She swung slowly upright, bent over and placed her hands on the wall-to-wall carpeting, and then smoothly, an inch at a time, raised her trim toes until their pink nails pointed at the ceiling, then lowered then toward him until they just missed the bed and reached the floor with her body bent in a hairpin arc.

He was looking at half a girl. An interesting half, but strangely disturbing. In the pale light she was cut off at the waist. Her soft voice came from out of sight. "You're an athlete, Jerry. You are a mighty man. Can you do this?"

"Heavens no," he answered in genuine awe. The half-body grew into a tall, golden girl again. A dream arising, laughing. "You must have practiced all your life. Are you — were you in show business?"

"When I was small. We exercised every day. Often two or three times a day. I've kept it up. I think it's good for you. I've never been ill in my life."

"It must be a big hit at parties."

"I never perform any more. Only like this. For someone who is especially nice. It has other uses…" She lowered herself on top of him, kissed him, drew back to regard him thoughtfully. "You are ready again," she said with surprise. "A mighty man."

"Watching you do that would put life in every statue in town."

She chuckled, rolled from him, and then wiggled lower until be was looking down at the crown of black hair. Then she reversed herself on the bed and the long, supple legs swung 180 degrees, an effortless arc, until she was bent more than double again, curled back upon herself.

"Now, darling." Her voice was muffled against her own stomach.

"Now?"

"You'll see. It will be different."

As he complied Nick felt an unusual stimulation and eagerness. He prided himself on his perfect self-control — dutifully went through his Yogi and Zen exercises daily — but he needed no self-urging now.

He swam into a warm cavern where a beautiful girl awaited him but he could not touch her. He was alone and with her at once. He went all the way, floating on his crossed arms, resting his head on them.

He felt the silky tickle of her hair floating on his thighs and he thought he might withdraw from the depths for a moment but a great fish with a moist and gentle mouth caught the twin globes of his maleness and for another instant he fought against losing control but the delight was too great and he closed his eyes and let the sensations sweep through him in the sweet darkness of the friendly depths. It was unusual. It was rare. He floated in red and dark purple and transformed himself into a living missile of unknown size, tingling and throbbing on a launching pad beneath a secret sea until he pretended that he willed it but knew he was helpless as with a surge of delicious power he was fired into space or from it — it made no difference now — and the booster rockets joyfully burst in a chain of enthusiastic assists.

When he looked at his watch it was 3:07. They had napped for twenty minutes. He stirred and Jeanyee awoke as he always did — instantly and cat-alert. 'Time?" she asked with a contented sigh. When he told her she said, "I'd better get home. My family is tolerant but…"

On the way to Chevy Chase Nick convinced himself he mould see Jeanyee again very soon. Thoroughness often paid off. Time enough to double-check Anne and Suzy and the rest. To his surprise she refused to make any date.

"I've got to go out of town on business," she said. "Call me week after next and I'd love to see you — if you still want to."

"I'll call you," he said, and he meant it. He knew some lovely girls… some featured beauty, some intelligence, some passion, and several had combined assets. But Jeanyee Ahling was something else!

Then there was the question — where was she going on business? Why? With whom? Could it connect to the unexplained deaths or the Baumann Ring?

He said, "I hope your business trip is to a place away from this hot spell. No wonder the British pay a tropical bonus for Washington duty. I wish you and I could slip off to the Catskills or Asheville or Maine."

"It would be nice," she replied dreamily. "Perhaps some day. We're very busy right now. We'll be flying mostly. Or in air-conditioned meeting rooms." She was drowsy. The pale gray first light of dawn was easing the blackness when she directed him to stop near an older ten- or twelve-room house. He parked behind a screen of shrubbery. He decided against trying to pump her further — Jerry Deming was making good progress in all departments and it would be senseless to ruin everything by pushing too hard.

He kissed her for several minutes. She whispered, "It's been great fun, Jerry. Think about whether you'd like me to put you in touch with my cousin. 1 know there's real money in the way he handles oil."

"I've decided. I want to meet him."

"Good. Call me week after next."

And she was gone.

He enjoyed the drive back to the apartment. You could think when a fresh, still cool day was breaking and the traffic was light. A milkman waved at him when he braked to let him cross and he waved heartily back.

He considered Ruth and Jeanyee. They were angle-shooters from a long line of promoters. You hustled or you starved. They could want a Jerry Deming because he appeared to be a hard-nosed, experienced type in a business where money poured in if you had any luck at all. Or they could be his first valuable contacts with something both complex and deadly.

He set the alarm for 11:50 a.m. When he awakened he started the swift Farberware percolator and called Ruth Moto.

"Hi, Jerry…" She didn't sound ill.

"Hi. Sorry you felt badly last night. All better now?"

"Yes. I woke up feeling perfectly grand. I hope I didn't annoy you by leaving, but I might have been sick if I stayed. Certainly poor company."

"As long as you feel well again everything is fine. Jeanyee and I had a nice time." Oh, man, he thought, you can put that in lights. "How about dinner this evening to make up for your wasted night?"

"Love it."

"By the way — Jeanyee tells me she has a cousin in the oil business and I might fit in somehow. I don't want you to feel that I'm putting you on the spot, but — do you know if she and her business connections are solid?"

"You mean — can you trust Jeanyee's judgment?"

"Yes, that's it."

There was a silence. Then she replied, "I think so. She may get you closer to — your field."

"O.K., thanks. And what are you doing next Wednesday night?" The urge to ask the question came to Nick as he remembered Jeanyee's plans. What if several of the mysterious girls were going away on "business?" "I'm going to an Iranian do at the Hilton — like to go?"

She sounded genuinely regretful. "Oh Jerry, I'd love to, but I'm going to be tied up all week."

"All week! Are you going away?"

"Well — yes, I'll be out of town most of the week."

"It'll be a dull week for me," he said. "See you about six, Ruth. Pick you up at your home?"

"Please."

After he hung up he sat down on the carpet in the lotus position and began a run-through of Yoga breathing and muscular control exercises. He had progressed — after some six years of practice — to the point where he could look at the pulse in the wrist upturned on his bent knee and see it quicken or slow down as he willed it After fifteen minutes he deliberately turned his mind back to the problem of the strange deaths, the Baumann Ring, and Jeanyee and Ruth. He liked both the girls. They were strange in certain ways, but the unique and different had always intrigued him. He ran through the events in Maryland, Hawk's comments and Ruth's odd illness at the Cushing dinner. You could make a pattern out of them, or you could admit that the linking threads might all be coincidence. He could not recall feeling quite so helpless on a case… with a choice of answers but nothing to check them against.

He dressed in maroon slacks and a white polo shirt and went down and drove him toward Gallaudet College in the Bird. He followed New York Avenue, turned right on Mt. Olivet and saw the man waiting for him at the junction with Bladensburg Road.

The man had the double invisibility of complete ordinariness plus a shabby, slump-shouldered dejection which caused you to subconsciously pass him by quickly in order that the poverty or unhappiness of his world should not invade your own. Nick stopped, the man climbed in quickly and he drove on toward Lincoln Park and the John Philip Sousa Bridge.

Nick said, "When I saw you I wanted to buy you a square meal and tuck a five-dollar bill in your shabby pocket."

"You may," Hawk replied. "I haven't had lunch. Pick up some hamburgers and milks at that place near the Naval Annex. We can eat them in the car."

Although Hawk did not acknowledge the compliment, Nick knew he enjoyed it. The older man could do wonders with a shabby jacket Even a pipe or cigar or old hat could change his appearance completely. It was not the object… Hawk had the knack of becoming old and worn and dejected, or arrogant and stiff and pompous, or dozens of other types. He was an expert at genuine disguise. Hawk could disappear because he became everyman.

Nick described his evening with Jeanyee."…then I took her home. She'll be away next week. I think Ruth Moto will be too. Could they all be getting together somewhere?"

Hawk took a slow sip of milk. "Took her home at dawn, eh?"

"Yes."

"Oh, to be young again and out in the field. You entertain beautiful girls. Alone with them for — would you say four or five hours? I slave in a dull office."

"We talked about Chinese jade," Nick said blandly. "It's her hobby."

"I happen to know Jeanyee's hobbies include some with more action."

"So you don't spend all your time in the office. Which disguise did you use? I'd guess something like Clifton Webb in the old movies on TV?"

"You're close. Do you youngsters good to see the polished techniques." He dropped the dead pan and chuckled. Then went on, "We have an idea where the girls may be going. There's a week-long party — it's called a business conference — at the Lord estate in Pennsylvania. Top drawer international businessmen. Primarily steel, aircraft and of course munitions."

"No oil men?"

"No. Your Jerry Deming role wouldn't go over, anyway. You've met too many people lately. But you're the man who ought to go."

"What about Lou Karl?"

"He's in Iran. Deeply involved. I wouldn't want to bring him out."

"I thought of him because he knows the steel business. And if the girls are there, any identity I take will have to be a complete cover."

"I doubt that the girls will circulate among the guests."

Nick nodded gravely, watching a DC-8 pass a smaller plane in the dense Washington pattern. At this distance they looked dangerously close. "I'll go in. It may be all a false lead, anyway."

Hawk chuckled. "If that's a try at getting my opinion it's going to work. We know about the get-together because we've been monitoring the central telephone board for six days now without more than thirty minutes off. I'd say we're smelling something big and magnificently organized. If they're responsible for the recent deaths that were allegedly natural, they're ruthless and skillful."

"You deduce all this from the phone taps?"

"Don't try to draw me out, my boy — that's been attempted by experts." Nick suppressed a grin as Hawk went on, "All the bits and pieces don't fit, but I smell a pattern. You go in there and find out how it fits together."

"If they're as smart and rough as you guess, you may have to fit me back together."

"I doubt it, Nicholas. You know what I think of your ability. That's why you're going in. If you'll take a cruise in your boat on Sunday morning I'll meet you off Bryan Point If the river is crowded, go southwest until we are alone."

"When will the technicians be ready for me?"

"On Tuesday at the garage in McLean. But I'll give you a complete briefing and most documents and maps on Sunday."

Nick enjoyed having dinner that evening with Ruth Moto, but he learned nothing of value, and at Hawk's suggestion, he did not press. They enjoyed some passionate moments parked at the shore and he took her home at two.

On Sunday he met Hawk and they spent three hours going over details with the precision of two architects about to let the contract.

On Tuesday Jerry Deming told his answering service and doorman and a few other significant people that he was going to Texas on business and departed in the Bird. A half-hour later he drove through the doors of a medium-size truck terminal, set well back from the road, and for the moment, he and his car vanished from the earth.

On Wednesday morning a two-year-old Buick left the truck garage and went out Route 7 to Leesburg. When it paused a man slipped out and walked the five blocks to the cab office.

No one noticed him closely as he sauntered along the busy street, because he was not the type of man you bothered to look at twice, even though he limped and carried a plain brown cane. He might have been a local merchant or someone's father out to get the paper and a container of orange juice. His hair and mustache were gray, his skin red and ruddy, and he had poor posture and carried a bit too much weight, although his frame was big. He wore a dark blue suit and a blue-gray soft hat.

He hired a cab and was driven back down Route 7 to the airport, where he got out at the charter-rental office. The mannish woman behind the counter liked him because he was so polite and clearly respectable.

His papers were in order. Alastair Beadle Williams. She checked them carefully. "Your secretary reserved an Aero Commander, Mr. Williams, and sent out a cash deposit." She became very polite herself. "Since you haven't flown with us before we would like to check you out… personally. If you don't mind…"

"Don't blame you. Wise thing to do."

"Good. I'll go around with you myself. That's if you don't object to a woman…"

"You look like the kind of woman who is a fine pilot. I can tell intelligence. I'll make a guess — you have your L.C. and your instrument rating."

"Why, yes. How did you know?"

"Always could judge character." And, Nick thought, no gal trying as hard as you are to wear pants would let the men stay ahead of her — and you have the age to have the hours in the air.

He made two approaches — both flare-outs perfect. She said, "You're very good, Mr. Williams. I'm satisfied. You're going to North Carolina?"

"Yes."

"Here are the charts. Stop by the office and we'll file a flight plan."

After he had completed the plan he said, "Depending on circumstances, I may change that plan for tomorrow. I'll telephone control personally concerning any deviation. Please don't concern yourself about it."

She beamed. "It's so good to see someone with methodical common sense. So many just want to hit the blue yonder. I've sweated some of them out for days."

He gave her a ten-dollar bill "For your time."

She was saying, "No, please," and "Thank you" all in one breath as he left.

At noon Nick landed at Manassas Municipal Airport and telephoned a cancellation on the flight plan. AXE knew hit movements to the minute and could control the controllers, but by following the routine there was less chance of drawing attention. Leaving Manassas he flew northwest, threading the powerful little ship through Allegheny mountain passes where Union and Confederate cavalry had chased and checkmated each other a century before.

It was a grand day for flying, bright sun and minimum wind. He sang "Dixie" and "Marching Through Georgia" as he crossed into Pennsylvania and landed to top off his fuel tanks. When he took off again he switched to a couple of choruses of "The British Grenadier," pronouncing the words with an English old-boy accent. Alastair Beadle Williams represented Vickers, Ltd., and Nick had the exact diction to fit.

He used the Altoona beacon, then one more Omni course, and an hour later landed at a small but busy field. He phoned for a rental car, and by 6:42 p.m. he was crawling up a narrow road on the northwest slope of the Appalachian chain. It was a one-lane track, but except for its width it was a good road, with two centuries of fill and uncounted hours of work by strong men to channel its water and build the stone walls that still bordered it. Once a busy stage road west because it followed the longer route but easier grades through the notches, it no longer was marked on maps as a through road across the mountains.

On Nick's Geological Survey map of 1892 it was marked as a through road, on the map of 1967 the center portion was just a dotted line indicating a trail. He and Hawk had gone over every detail on the maps — he felt he knew the road before he drove it. Four miles onward was the closest approach to the rear of the gigantic Lord properties, twenty-five hundred acres in three mountain glens.

Even AXE had been unable to obtain recent details on the Lord estate, although the old survey maps were undoubtedly reliable as far as most roads and buildings were concerned. Hawk had said, "We know there's an airport in there but that's about all. Of course we could have photographed and surveyed it, but there never was any reason to. Old man Antoine Lord assembled the place about 1924. He and Calgehenny made fortunes when iron and steel were king and you kept what you made. None of this nonsense about feeding people you couldn't exploit. Lord was apparently the most sophisticated of the bunch. After making forty more million in the First World War he sold most of his industrial shares and bought a lot of real estate."

The story had interested Nick. "The old boy is dead of course?"

"Died 1934. He even made headlines then by telling John Raskob he was a greedy fool and that Roosevelt was saving the country from socialism and they ought to back him instead of tripping him up. The reporters loved it. His son Ulysses inherited the estate and seventy or eighty million split with his sister Martha."

Nick had asked, "And they are…?"

"Martha was last reported in California. We're checking. Ulysses set up several charitable and educational foundations. Genuine ones — about 1936 through 1942. Before it was the clever thing to do as a tax dodge and to insure permanent jobs for your heirs. He was a captain in the Keystone Division in World Scramble Two. Got a Silver Star and a Bronze Star with an Oak Leaf Cluster. Wounded twice. He started as an enlisted man, by the way. Never traded on his connections."

"Sounds like quite a lad," Nick had observed. "Where is he now?"

"We don't know. His bankers and real estate agents and stockbrokers write to him at a post office box in Palm Springs."

As Nick drove slowly along the ancient road he recalled that conversation. The Lords hardly sounded like cooperators with a Baumann Ring or Chicoms.

He stopped in a wide space that might have been a wagon turnout and studied the map. Half a mile on there were two tiny black squares that indicated what were now probably abandoned foundations of former buildings. Beyond them a tiny mark indicated a cemetery and then, before the old road swung southwest to cross the hollow between two mountains, there should be a trail leading across a small notch to the Lord holdings.

Nick turned the car around, crushing a number of bushes, locked it and left it in the turnout. He walked along the road in the dying sunlight, enjoying the rich green verdure, the tall hemlocks and the way the white birches stood out. A chipmunk, surprised, ran ahead of him for a few yards, waving its small tail like an antenna before it leaped on a rock wall, froze for an instant in a brown and black tiny bundle of fur before blinking its shiny eyes and vanishing. Nick wished for a moment he was out for an evening stroll, that the world was all at peace and that was the important thing. But it wasn't, he reminded himself, and paused and lit a cigarette.

The extra weight of his special equipment reminded him just how unpeaceful the world was. Because the situation was unknown, he and Hawk had agreed that he come well prepared. The white nylon underjacket which gave him his overweight appearance had a dozen pockets containing explosives, tools, wire, a small radio transmitter — even a gas mask.

Hawk had said, "You'll carry Wilhelmina and Hugo and Pierre anyway. If you're taken they're enough to incriminate you. So you might as well carry the extra equipment. It may be just what you need to see you through, or anyway signal us from a tight spot I'll have Barney Manoon and Bill Rohde planted near the entrance to the estate in a dry cleaner's truck."

It made sense but the stuff was heavy on a long walk. Nick wiggled the underjacket with his elbows to spread the perspiration which was becoming uncomfortable and hiked on. He came out into a clearing where the old foundations were shown on the map and stopped. Foundations? He saw a perfect picture of a rural Gothic farmhouse at the turn of the century, complete with a broad porch on three sides, rocking chairs and a swinging hammock, a truck garden and an outhouse near a flower-bordered path at the rear. They were painted a rich yellow with white trim on windows and gutters and rails.

Beyond the house a small red barn also shown neatly in fresh paint. Two chestnut horses peeked over a post-and-rail paddock at the rear, and under a double wagon shelter he saw a buggy and some farm machinery.

Nick walked on slowly, his attention focused with interest on the charming but out-of-date scene. They belonged on a Currier and Ives calendar — The Home Place or The Little Farm.

He reached the flagstone walk that led up to the porch and his stomach tightened as a strong voice behind him, somewhere off the edge of the road, said, "Stand still, mister. There's an automatic shotgun pointed at your middle."

Chapter V

Nick stood very, very still. The sun, now only a short way above the mountains to the west, was hot on his face. In the forest a jay screamed, loud in the silence. The man with the shotgun had everything going for him — surprise, concealment, and his quarry against the sun.

Nick had halted with the brown cane swung forward. He held it there, six inches above the ground, without lowering it. The voice said, "You can turn around."

The man came out from behind a black walnut tree flanked by scrub brush. It looked like an observation post that had been arranged to be unnoticed. The shotgun looked like an expensive Browning, probably the Sweet 16 with no compensator. The man was of medium size, about fifty, dressed in a gray cotton shirt and pants but wearing a soft hat in a tweed pattern that would hardly be sold locally. He looked intelligent His quick gray eyes roved over Nick without haste.

Nick returned the look. The man stood easy, cradling the shotgun with his hand near the trigger, the muzzle pointed low and to the right. A novice might have decided that here was a man you could take with speed and surprise. Nick decided quite differently.

"I've had a little trouble up here," the man said. "Mind telling me where you're heading?"

"Over the old road and trail," Nick replied in his perfect old-boy accent "My name is Alastair Williams. I'm with Vickers. I'm on holiday and I'm following one of your excellent government survey maps. I'll be glad to show you ray identification and the map, if you desire."

"If you please."

Wilhelmina felt comfortable against his left rib cage. She could spit in a scant fraction of a second. Nick's judgment said that they both would finish neck and neck and dead. He carefully took the map from the side pocket of his blue jacket and his wallet from the inner breast pocket. He removed two cards from the wallet — a "Vicker's Security Division" pass complete with his picture, and a Universal Air Travel Card.

"Would you mind holding them straight out in your right hand?"

Nick didn't mind. He congratulated himself on his judgment as the man bent forward and took them with his own left hand, holding the gun well back and away. He took two steps back and glanced at the cards, noted the area listed in the corner of the map. Then he walked forward and handed them back. "Please excuse this reception. I have some truly dangerous neighbors. It's not quite like England."

"Oh, I'm sure," Nick answered as he put away the papers. "I'm familiar with your mountain people and their clannishness and dislike of government revenooers — do I pronounce that right?"

"Yes. You'd better come in for a cup of tea. Stay the night if you like. I'm John Villon. I live here." He gestured at the storybook farmhouse.

"Charming place," Nick said. "I'd love to join you in a cup and have a closer look at that lovely farm. But I want to get over the mountain and back. Can I call on you about four o'clock tomorrow?"

"Certainly. But you're starting out a bit late."

"I know. I left my car in the turnout because the road became so narrow. Which puts me a half-hour off schedule." He was careful to say shedule. "I often hike at night. I carry a small lamp. There'll be a moon tonight and actually I see quite splendidly at night. Tomorrow I'll retrace the trail by day. It can't be a bad path. It's been a road for almost two centuries."

"The going is easy enough, except for some stony washouts and a cleft where there was once a wooden bridge. You'll have to clamber down and up and ford a stream. Why are you so set on walking this trail?"

"A distant cousin of mine came over it by stage in the last century. Wrote a book about it In fact he went all the way to your West Coast I'm going to retrace his route. It will take me several years of holidays, but then I'm going to write a book about the changes. This will make a fascinating anecdote. Actually this area is more primitive than when he came through."

"Yes, it is. Well — best of luck. Stop by tomorrow afternoon."

"Thank you, I will. I'll be looking forward to that tea."

John Villon stood on the grassy center of the road and watched Alastair Williams stride away. A large, plump, limping figure in city clothes, walking purposefully and apparendy with indomitable serenity. The instant the hiker was out of sight, Villon went into the house, walking purposefully and swiftly himself.

Although Nick stepped briskly, his thoughts debated caution. John Villon? A romantic name, and a strange man in a mysterious location. He couldn't spend twenty-four hours a day in those bushes. How had he known of Nick's approach?

If a photoelectric cell or TV scanner monitored the road, that meant big-time, and big-time meant a connection with the Lord estate. Which meant…?

It meant a reception committee, for Villon must have communication with the others over the mountain notch traversed by the side trail. It was logical. If the operation was as big as Hawk suspected, or it proved to be the Baumann gang, they wouldn't leave a back door unwatched. He had hoped to spot the watchers first, which was why he had left the car.

He looked behind him, saw nothing, and discarded the limp and swung on at a near-trot that covered ground rapidly. I'm the mouse. They don't even need cheese because I'm committed. If it's a trap it will be a good one. The people who set it buy the best.

He glanced at the map as he moved, checking the tiny figures he had penciled on it when measuring distances with a scale-gauge. Two hundred forty yards and a left and a right turn and over a brook. He hopped. O.K. on the brook and his estimated location was correct Now 615 yards rising straight for what was about 300 feet up in the distance. Then a sharp left and along what had seemed on the map to be a level track along a bluff. Yes. And then…

The old road turned right again but the side trail over the notch should go straightish before it turned left His keen eyes spotted the worn path and opening in the forest wall and he swung in through a grove of hemlocks brightened here and there by a white birch.

He crested the mountain top as the sun disappeared over the mountain at his back, and he went down the rocky trail in gathering dusk. It was more difficult now to measure distances by checking his strides, but he paused when he estimated he was three hundred yards from the floor of the little valley. Here was about where the trigger of the first trap would be.

They wouldn't be likely to put it higher. Too much trouble to service or reach — guards get careless if they have a long hike every day for what they think is a useless patrol. The map showed the next depression in the mountain's surface to be 460 yards to the north. Patiently Nick worked his way through the trees and brush until the land dropped down to a tiny mountain brook. When he cupped the cool water in his hand to drink, he noted that the night was completely black. Good timing, he decided.

Almost every stream has some sort of passage near it, worn by an occasional hunter, sometimes only one or two a year — but in most places over a thousand years. This unfortunately was not one of the better paths. It was an hour before Nick saw the first glimmer of light from below. Two hours before he'd seen an ancient wooden springhouse in the faint light of the moon through the trees. When he halted at the edge of the valley clearing, his watch glowed 10:56.

Now — patience. He remembered an old saying of Chief Standing Horse, with whom he made occasional pack trips into the Rockies. It was part of many advices to warriors — he who moves last lives.

A quarter-mile out on the valley floor, exactly where it had been indicated by a T-shaped black mark on the map, was the giant Lord mansion — or former Lord mansion. Three stories high, it twinkled with lights like a medieval castle when the lord of the manor was throwing a brawl. The twin lights of cars moved now and again around its far side, and in and out of a parking lot to the rear.

Up the valley, to the right, were other lights, which the map had indicated might be former servants' buildings or stables or shops or greenhouses — it had been impossible to deduce exactly.

Then be saw what he had been really watching for. Framed in the lights for a moment, a man and a dog crossed the edge of the valley near him. Something slung on the man's shoulder could be a weapon. They walked on a gravel path that paralleled the tree line and continued on past the parking area toward the buildings in the rear. The dog was a Doberman or shepherd. The two patrolling figures almost disappeared from sight as they left the lighted areas, then Nick's sensitive ears caught another sound. A click and a clang and the faint crunch of feet on gravel interrupted their beat, paused, then went on.

Nick followed the man, his own steps silent on the thick, smooth grass, and a few minutes later he saw and then felt what he had suspected — the back of the estate was secluded from the main house by a high wire fence whose top was three strands of taut barbed wire which was outlined ominously against the moonlight. He followed the fence across the valley, saw the gate through which the gravel path pierced the fence, and found another gate 200 yards further on which barred the black-topped road. He followed the lush landscaping on the edge of the road, slipped into the parking lot and hid in the shadow of a limousine.

The people in the valley liked big cars — the parking lot, or what he could see of it under the two floodlights, seemed to harbor only cars costing over $5,000. When a shiny Lincoln drove in, Nick followed the two men who got out of it toward the house — keeping a respectful distance in their rear. As he walked he straightened his tie, creased his hat precisely, brushed himself and pulled his jacket smoothly over his big frame. The man who had shambled along the Leesburg street became a respectable-looking man of substance who wore his clothes carelessly and you still knew they were of the finest quality.

The walk from parking lot to house made a gentle curve through the grounds. It was lit by overhead floods at long intervals and foot-level lights spaced frequently in the manicured shrubs that flanked it Nick strolled casually, a dignified guest expecting a welcome. He lit a long Churchill cigar, one of three carried in a neat leather case in one of the many inner pockets of his special jacket It is surprising how few people look suspiciously at a man strolling along enjoying a cigar or a pipe. Run past a cop with your laundry under your arm and you may get shot — stroll past him with the crown jewels in a dispatch case, blowing a blue cloud of fragrant Havana, and the officer nods with respect to your passage.

When he reached the rear of the house Nick hopped over the shrubs into the darkness and headed for the rear area, where lights under metal shields shown on wooden stockades which ought to conceal garbage cans. They did. He popped into the nearest door, saw a hall and a laundry, and followed the hall toward the center of the house. He saw a giant kitchen, but the activities were at the end away from him. The hall ended at a door which opened onto another corridor much more lavishly decorated and furnished than the service hall. Just inside the door, on the service side, were four lockers. Nick quickly opened one, saw brooms and cleaning equipment and tucked his hat behind some mops. He stepped into the main part of the house — and directly into the path of a lean man in a black suit who looked at him questioningly. The expression of question changed to suspicion, but before he could speak Nick raised his hand.

In precise Alastair Williams — but quite hurriedly — he asked: "My dear fellow is there a W.C. on this floor? All this wonderful ale, you know, but I'm most uncomfortable…"

Nick danced from foot to foot, looking imploringly at the man.

"A what? You mean the…"

"A water closet old boy! For God's sake where is the water closet?"

The man suddenly understood and the humor of the situation and his own sadism sidetracked his suspicions. "A closet for water, eh? You want a drink?"

"Heavens, no," Nick exploded. "Thank you…" He turned away, still dancing, letting his face flush until he knew the ruddy features must be glowing.

"Here, Mac," the man said. "Follow me."

He led Nick around a corner, along the rim of a giant room sullen in full oak paneling and hanging tapestries, and into a shallow alcove with a door at the end. "There." He pointed, chuckled — then realizing he might be needling an important guest he went quickly away.

Nick washed, groomed himself carefully, checked his make-up and sauntered back into the large room, drawing luxuriously on the long black cigar. Sounds came from a large archway at the far end. He strolled to it and surveyed a fascinating scene.

The room was a giant oblong with tall French windows at one end and another archway at the other. On a polished floor near the windows seven couples danced to smooth music coming from a stereo console. Near the center of the far wall was a small oval bar around which a dozen men clustered, and in conversation centers formed by colorful U groupings of couches other men chatted, some relaxed, some with their heads together. From the far archway sounded the click-click of billiard balls.

In addition to the women dancing, all of whom looked like polished types — either wives of the wealthy or the more intelligent, expensive whores — there were only four women in the room. Almost all the men had the affluent look. There were a few dinner jackets, but the impression was deeper by far than that.

Nick walked in stately dignity down the five broad steps into the room, unobtrusively studying the occupants. Discard the dinner jackets, imagine these men garbed in the robes of an English gathering at a royal court in feudal England, or assembled after a Bourbon dinner at Versailles. Plump bodies, soft hands, too-quick smiles, calculating eyes, and always the buzz of conversation. Discreet questions, veiled suggestions, complex plans, the threads of intrigues displayed one at a time and woven as circumstances permitted.

He saw several Congressmen, two generals in civilian clothes, Robert Quitlock, Harry Cushing and a dozen other men his photographic mind cataloged from the recent Washington scene. He made his way to the bar, obtained a tall whisky and soda — "No ice if you please" — and turned to meet the questioning glance of Akito Tsogu Nu Moto.

Chapter VI

Nick looked right through Akito and smiled and nodded at an imaginary friend beyond him and turned away. The elder Moto was expressionless as usual — you could not guess what thoughts revolved behind those placid but implacable features.

"Excuse me please," Akito's voice was at his elbow. "You and I have met I think. I find it so hard to remember Occidental features, just as you confuse we Asians I'm sure. I am Akito Moto…"

Akito chuckled politely, but when Nick looked at him again there was no trace of humor in those chiseled brown planes.

"I don't recall, old boy." Nick smiled barely and extended his hand. "Alastair Williams of Vickers."

"Vickers?" Akito seemed surprised. Nick thought rapidly, cataloging the men he had seen here. He went on, "Oil and drilling division."

"Aim! I have met some of your people in Saudi Arabia. Yes — yes — Kirk and Miglierina and Robbins, I think. You know…?"

Nick doubted that he could have made up all the names so quickly. He gambled. "Indeed? Some time ago, I suppose, before the — ah, changes?"

"Yes. Before the — changes." He sighed. "You had an excellent situation there." Akito dropped his eyes for a moment as if in homage to lost profits. Then he smiled with his lips only. "But you have recovered. It is not as bad as it might have been."

"No. Half a loaf and all that."

"I represent Confederation. Are you in a position to discuss…?"

"Not personally. Quentin Smithfield is handling all that You should see him in London. He couldn't come."

"Ah! He is — approachable?"

"Quite."

"I did not know. It is so difficult arranging — around Aramco."

"Quite." Nick took from its case one of the beautifully engraved cards of Alastair Beadle Williams of Vickers, complete with address and a London telephone number which was Vickers — but on the desk of an agent of AXE. With his pen he wrote on the back, 'Met Mr. Moto, Pa. 14 July. A. B. Williams.'

"That should help, old boy."

"Thank you." Akito handed Nick one of his own cards. "We are strongly in the market. I suppose you know? I plan to be in London next month. Ill see Mr. Smithfield."

Nick nodded and turned away. Akito watched him as he put the card carefully away. Then he made a little tent with his hands and thought hard. It was puzzling. Perhaps Ruth would remember. He went to look for his "daughter."

Nick felt a bead of perspiration on his neck and wiped it gently away with his handkerchief. Easy now — his control was better than that. His disguise was superb, but there had been suspicion in the attitude of the Japanese patriarch. Nick moved slowly, limping on his cane. They could tell more sometimes from your gait than from your looks, and he felt the bright brown eyes on his back.

He edged the dance floor — a ruddy, gray-haired British businessman admiring the girls. He saw Anne We Ling, flashing her white teeth at a young executive type. She was dazzling in a sequined split-skirt.

He recalled Ruth's remark; Daddy was supposed to be in Cairo. Ah so? He moved through the room, catching snatches of conversation. This gathering was definitely concerned with oil. Hawk had been misled slightly by what Barney and Bill had gleaned from their telephone taps. Perhaps the other side used steel as a codeword for oil. Pausing near one group he heard, "…$850,000 a year for us and about the same for the government. But on a $200,000 investment you can't complain…"

A British accent said, "…we deserve more of that, really, but…"

Nick got away from there.

He remembered Jeanyee's comment. "We'll be flying mostly or in air-conditioned meeting rooms…"

Where was she? The whole place was air-conditioned. He ambled into a buffet room, threaded through more people in a music room, glanced into a magnificent library and found the front door and went out. No sign of the other girls or Hans Geist or a battered German type who could be Baumann.

He strolled down the walk and circled toward the parking lot. A hard-looking young man posted at the corner of the house eyed him speculatively. Nick nodded. "Charming evening, isn't it, old boy?"

"Yeah."

A genuine Britisher would never use the "old boy" quite as much or to strangers, but it was wonderful for typing you quickly. Nick blew a cloud of smoke and sauntered on. He passed several pairs of men and nodded politely. In the parking lot he wandered along a line of cars, saw no one in them — and suddenly he was gone.

He followed the black-topped road in the darkness until he reached the barrier gate. It was secured by a common, good-quality padlock. In three minutes he had opened it with one of the master picks from his selection and had locked it behind him. It would take him at least one minute to do it again — he hoped he wasn't leaving in a hurry.

The road should wind gently for half a mile and end where the buildings had been shown on the old map, and where he had seen the lights from the height. He walked on, alert, stepping silently. Twice he left the road as cars came through the night, one from the main house and one returning. He rounded a turn and saw the lights of the buildings — a smaller version of the main mansion.

A dog barked and he froze. The sound was ahead of him. He selected a high point and watched until a figure passed between him and the lights, from right to left One of the guards, following the gravel path to the other side of the valley. At this distance, the bark had not been for him — might not have been the guard's dog.

He waited for a long time, until he heard the rattle and clang of a gate and was reasonably certain the guard was going away from him. He circled the larger building slowly, ignoring a ten-stall garage which was in blackness and another barn without lights.

This would not be easy. There was a man beside each of three doors; only the south side was unwatched. He crept through the lush landscaping on that side and reached the first window, a high, wide opening that certainly had been custom-built Cautiously he peeked into a lavishly furnished, empty bedroom — beautifully decorated in exotic modern. He tested the window. Double thermopane and locked. Damn air-conditioning!

He crouched and surveyed his back trail. Close against the house he had the concealment of the neat plantings, but his nearest cover away from the building was across the fifty feet of lawn over which he had approached. If they maintained a close-in dog patrol he might be in trouble, otherwise he would move cautiously, stay away from the lights of the windows as much as possible.

You never knew — his entrance into the valley and investigation of the lavish conference in the big house might all be part of a large trap. Perhaps alerted by "John Villon." He gave himself the benefit of the doubt. Illegal groups had the same personnel problems as corporations and bureaucracies. The heads — Akito, Baumann, Geist, Villon or whoever — might run a tight ship, issuing clear orders and excellent plans. But the troops always displayed the same weaknesses — laziness, carelessness and a lack of imagination for the unexpected.

"I'm the unexpected," he assured himself. He peeked into the next window. It was partially obscured by drapes, but through the centerfolds he surveyed a large room with five-seater couches arranged around a fieldstone fireplace big enough to barbecue a steer and have room left over for several spits of poultry.

Seated on the couches, looking as relaxed as an evening soiree at a Hunter Mountain resort hotel, he saw men and girls; he noted Jeanyee, Ruth, Suzi, Pong-Pong Lily and Sonya Ranyez from their photographs; Akito, Hans Geist, Sammy and a slim Chinese who, by his movements, might have been the man in the mask at the raid on "Deming's" in Maryland.

Ruth and her father must have been in the car that had passed him on the road. He wondered if they had come here specifically because Akito had met "Alastair Williams."

One of the girls was replenishing drinks. Nick noted how swiftly Pong-Pong Lily lifted the table lighter and held it for Hans Geist to light a cigarette. She had that look as she watched the big blond man — Nick filed the observation for reference. Geist sauntered slowly back and forth, talking, and the others listened intently and sometimes laughed at what he said.

Nick watched thoughtfully. What, how, why? Company executives and some of the girls? Not quite. Whores and pimps? No — the atmosphere was right but the attitudes didn't fit; nor was it an ordinary social gathering.

He took out a tiny stethoscope with a short tube and tried it on the double-glass; frowned when he couldn't hear a thing. He had to get into that room or to a point where he could hear. And if he could record some of that conversation on the little machine no bigger than a deck of cards that occasionally irritated his right hip bone — he must speak to Stuart about that — he might have some answers. Certainly Hawk's eyebrows would go up when he played it back.

If he wandered in as Alastair Beadle Williams his welcome would last for ten seconds and he would live for about thirty — there were brains in that bunch. Nick scowled and crept on through the plantings.

The next window looked in on the same room, and so did the one after it The next was a cloak room and lounge with what looked like washrooms leading off from it. The last windows were to a trophy room and library, all dark paneling and rich brown carpeting, where two hard-looking executive types were seated deep in conversation. "I'd like to hear that deal, too," Nick muttered.

He peeked around the corner of the building.

The guard did not look easy. He was an athletic type in a dark suit who evidently took his duties seriously. He bad a camp chair set back in the shrubs, but he didn't stay in it He strolled back and forth, looked at the three floodlights that illuminated the portico area, stared into the night. He never remained with his back to Nick for more than a few moments.

Nick watched him through a screen of bushes. He made a mental check of the dozens of offensive and defensive items in the magician's coat provided by the ingenious Stuart and AXE's technical men. Ah, well — they couldn't think of everything. It was up to him, and the odds were not good.

A man more circumspect than Nick would have weighed the situation and perhaps withdrawn. The idea never even occurred to the Axe agent Hawk thought of as "our best." Nick did remember something Harry Demarkin had once said, "I always push because they don't pay us to lose."

Harry had pushed once too often. Perhaps it was now Nick's turn.

He tried something else. He blanked his mind for a moment, and then pictured the darkness at the road gate. As if his thoughts were a silent movie he constructed a shape that approached the barrier, produced a tool and tampered with the lock. He even imagined the sounds, the clang as the man pulled on the chain.

Holding the picture in his mind he looked at the guard's head. The man started to turn toward Nick, then seemed to listen. He took several steps, seemed uneasy. Nick concentrated, knowing he was helpless if anyone approached him from behind. Perspiration ran down his neck. The man turned. Looked toward the gate. Stepped out on the walk, staring into the night.

Nick took ten silent steps and sprang. A chop, a jab with fingers formed into a rounded spearpoint, and then an arm-lock around the neck for insurance as he dragged the man back toward the corner of the house and into the bushes. It was over in twenty seconds.

Like a cowboy securing a steer after bulldogging it at a rodeo, Nick whipped two short lengths of line from his coat and threw clove hitches and square knots around the man's wrists and ankles. The thin nylon formed tighter manacles than handcuffs. A ready-made gag leaped into Nick's hand — he no more had to think or explore the pockets than a cowboy had to hunt for his pigging strings — and was secured across the man's open mouth. Nick dragged him into the thickest clump of shrubs. He would not awaken for an hour or two.

As Nick straightened car lights flashed at the road gate, paused and came on. He dropped down beside his victim. A black limousine whirled up to the portico and two well-dressed men, both about fifty, got out. A chauffeur type hustled around the car, seemed surprised at the lack of a doorman-guard, and stood for a moment in the light after his passengers had gone into the house.

If he is a friend of the guard it will be all right, Nick reassured himself. Hopefully, he watched. The driver lit a short cigar, glanced around, shrugged and got in and drove back toward the main house. He wasn't going to foul up his buddy who had probably left his post for a good and entertaining reason. Nick sighed with relief. Personnel problems can have advantages.

He went swiftly to the door and peered through the small glass pane. The men had disappeared. He opened the door, slipped through, and ducked into what had looked like a cloak room with washrooms.

The room was empty. He peeked back into the hall. Now was the time if ever — while the newcomers were the center of attention.

He took a step forward and a voice behind him said questioningly, "Hello…?

He whirled. One of the men from the trophy room looked at him suspiciously. Nick smiled. "I've been looking for you!" he said with enthusiasm he did not feel. "Can we talk in there?" He stepped to the trophy room door.

"I don't know you. What…?"

The man followed automatically, his expression hardening.

"Look at this." Nick conspiratorally produced a black notebook, concealed it in his hand. "Come out of sight. We don't want Geist to see it."

The man followed, scowling. The other man was still in the room. Nick grinned broadly and called, "Hello. Take a look at this."

The seated man stepped forward to join them, his expression one of complete suspicion. Nick pushed the door shut The second man reached inside his coat. Nick moved fast. He hooked his powerful arms around their necks and rapped their heads together. They went down, one silent, one moaning.

As he gagged and bound them, after tossing an S & W Terrier .38 and a Spanish Galesi .32 behind a chair, he was glad he had used restraint. These were older men — probably attendees, not guards or Geist's boys. He stripped their pockets and wallets of papers and cards, stowing them in a trouser pocket. No time to study them now.

He checked the hall. It was still empty. He slipped silently along it, saw the group around the fireplace in intent and cheerful conversation, and crawled behind a couch. He was too far away — but he was in.

He thought, A real Alastair would say "In for a penny, in for a pound." O.K.! All the way!

Halfway down the room there was another conversation center — a grouping of furniture beside the windows. He crawled to it and found concealment between tables at the back of a couch. They held lamps, magazines, ashtrays and cigarette boxes. He rearranged some of the articles to make a barrier through which he could peek.

Ruth Moto was serving the newcomers drinks. They remained standing, as if they came for a purpose. When Jeanyee arose and went to the further of the men — a bankerish type who wore a meaningless permanent smile — the purpose was clear. She said, "I'm so glad I pleased you, Mr. Carrington. And I'm awfully glad you came back."

"I like your brand," the man said heartily, but his jovial attitude looked false. He was still a Do-Right Daddy with his provincial mentality screwed up too tight to ever be at ease with a pretty girl — especially a high-class whore. Jeanyee took his arm and they strolled through an archway at the far side of the room.

The other man said, "I… I'd like to… to meet… to go with Miss… ah, Miss Lily." Nick grinned. He was up so tight he couldn't talk. A first-rate house of assignation in Paris or Copenhagen or Hamburg would show those two the door — politely.

Pong-Pong Lily got up and strolled to him, a dream picture of liquid loveliness in a pink cocktail dress. "You flatter me, Mr. O'Brien."

"You look the… the prettiest to me." Nick saw Ruth's eyebrows rise at the boorish remark and Suzi Quong's face hardened slightly.

Pong-Pong put a graceful hand on his arm. "Shall we…"

"We sure shall." O'Brien took a long pull at his glass and walked with her, carrying the drink. Nick hoped he had an early date with his confessor.

When the two couples had gone Hans Geist said, "Don't feel hurt, Suzi. He's just a countryman who has had a lot to drink. I'm sure you delighted him last night. I'm sure you're one of the prettiest girls he's ever seen."

"Thanks, Hans," Suzi answered. "He's not so much. A real rabbit, and oh so very tense. I felt uneasy with him all the time."

"He just went straight?"

"Oh, my yes. He even asked me to put out the light when we were half undressed." Everybody laughed.

Akito said kindly, "A girl as lovely as you cannot expect every man to appreciate her, Suzi. But remember — every man who truly knows beauty, will admire you. Every one of you girls is an outstanding beauty. We men know that and you suspect it. But beauty is not rare. To find girls like you with beauty and intelligence, ahl — there is the rare combination."

"Plus," Hans added, "you are politically informed. In the vanguard of society. How many girls are there in the world like that? Not very many. Anne — your glass is empty. Another?"

"Not right now," the beauty cooed.

Nick frowned. What was this? Talk about treating a duchess like a whore and a whore like a duchess! This was a prostitutes' paradise. The men were in the role of pimps but they behaved like visitors to a finishing school tea dance. And yet, he thought reflectively, it's an excellent tactic. Effective with women. Madame Bergeron built one of the most famous houses in Paris and accumulated a fortune with it.

A small Chinese in a white coat came in from the far archway carrying a tray of what appeared to be canapes. Nick ducked barely in time.

The waiter passed the tray, put it on a coffee table and departed. Nick wondered how many others were in the house. Thoughtfully he assessed his weaponry. He had Wilhelmina and an extra magazine, two lethal gas bombs — "Pierres" — in the pockets of his jockey shorts, which were as much magician's equipment as his coat and a variety of explosive charges.

He heard Hans Geist say, "…and we'll meet Command One on the ship a week from Thursday. Let's make a good impression. I know he's proud of us and pleased by the way things are going."

"Are your negotiations with this group going well?" Ruth Moto asked.

"Splendidly. I never thought it could go otherwise. They are merchants and we want to buy. Matters usually go smoothly in such a situation."

Akito asked, "Who is Alastair Williams? Britisher with Vickers' oil division. I'm sure I've met him somewhere before yet I can't place him."

After a moment of silence Geist replied, "I don't know. The name is not familiar. And Vickers doesn't have a subsidiary they call the oil division. Exactly what does he do? Where did you meet him?"

"Here. He's with the guests."

Nick raised his head for an instant, saw Geist pick up a telephone, dial. "Fred? Look on your guest list. Have you added an Alastair Williams? No… When did he arrive? You never admitted him? Akito — what does he look like?"

"Big. Plump. Red face. Gray hair. Very English."

"Was he with any others?"

"No."

Hans repeated the description into the phone. "Tell Vlad and Ali. Find a man who fits that description or there's something wrong here. Check out all the guests with English accents. I'll be there in a few minutes." He replaced the telephone. "This is either a simple matter or a very serious one. You and I better go…"

Nick lost the rest as his keen hearing detected a sound outside. One or more cars had arrived. If the room filled up he'd be caught between the groups. He crawled to the hall entrance, keeping the furniture between himself and the people at the fireplace. When he was around the turn he stood up and walked toward the door just as it opened to admit five men.

They were talking jovially — one was high, supported by another as he giggled. Nick gave them a broad smile and waved a hand toward the big room. "Come right in…"

He turned and went briskly up the wide staircase.

There was a long corridor on the second floor. He went to the windows overlooking the drive. Two big cars were parked under the floodlights. The last group seemed to have driven themselves.

He went toward the rear, past a luxurious sitting room and three lavish bedrooms with the doors open. He came to a closed door and listened with his little stethoscope, heard nothing, and went into the room and closed the door behind him. It was a bedroom with articles here and there showing it was occupied. He searched swiftly — desk, bureau, two expensive pieces of luggage. Nothing. Not a scrap of paper. It was the room of a large man, by the size of the suits in the closet. Perhaps Geist's.

The next room was more interesting — and nearly disastrous.

He heard vigorous, panting breaths and a moan. As he slipped the stethoscope back into its pocket, the next door down the hall opened and out came one of the men who had first arrived and Pong-Pong Lily.

Nick straightened and smiled. "Hello. Have a nice time?"

The man stared. Pong-Pong exclaimed, "Who are you?"

"Yes," a hard and loud man's voice repeated behind him. "Who are you?"

Nick whirled to see the thin Chinese — the one he suspected had been behind the mask in Maryland — approach from the stairway, his footfalls noiseless on the thick carpeting. A slim hand was disappearing inside his jacket to where a shoulder or clamshell holster might be.

"I'm Command Two," Nick said. He tried the door at which he had been listening. It was unlocked. "Good night."

He hopped through the door and slammed it behind him, found the catch and locked it.

There was a gasp and a growl from a king-size bed where the other early arrival and Jeanyee were untangling themselves. They were nude.

Fists thundered on the door. Jeanyee screamed. The naked man hit the floor and lunged toward Nick with the overweight purposefulness of a man who had played football long ago.

Chapter VII

Nick sidestepped the rush with the graceful ease of a matador. Carrington hit the wall with a crash, adding noise to the clatter from the door. Nick used a savate kick and a hand chop, both placed with the precision of a surgeon's strokes, to put him gasping on the floor.

"Who are you?" Jeanyee almost screamed.

"Everybody is interested in little me," Nick said. "I'm Command Three, Four and Five."

He watched the door. Like everything else on the premises it was of top quality. They'd need a ram or a sturdy piece of furniture to break through.

"You're what?"

"I'm Baumann's son."

"Help!" she yelled. Then thought an instant. "You're who?"

"Baumann's son. He has three. It's a secret."

She slid to the floor and stood up. Nick's eyes flowed over the long, beautiful body and his memory of what it could do gave him an instant's tingle. Someone kicked the door. He felt proud of himself — I've still got that old nonchalance. "Get dressed," he barked. "Quick. I've got to get you out of here."

"You've got to get me out of here? Are you crazy…"

"Hans and Sammy plan to kill all you girls after this meeting. You want to die?"

"You're mad. Help!"

"All except Ruth. Akito fixed that. And Pong-Pong. Hans fixed that."

She grabbed her filmy bra from a chair, whipped it around her. What he had said had tricked the woman in her. Given a few minutes to think, she'd know he was lying. Something harder than a foot hit the door. He drew Wilhelmina with one practiced whip of his wrist and put a shot at twelve o'clock high through the exquisite paneling. The noise stopped.

Jeanyee slid on her high heels, stared at the Luger. Her expression was a mixture of fright and astonishment as she looked at the gun. "That is the kind — that we saw at Baumann's…"

"Of course," Nick snapped. "Get over beside the window."

But his senses leaped. The first clean-cut lead I This gang, the girls and definitely, somehow, Baumann! With a flick of a finger he turned on his tiny recorder.

As he opened the window and slid the aluminum screen from its spring clips he said, "Baumann sent me to get you out. We'll save the others later if we can. We've got a small army at the entrance to this place."

"It's a mess," Jeanyee wailed. "I don't understand…"

"Baumann will explain," Nick said loudly, and flicked off the recorder. Sometimes the tapes survived when you didn't.

He looked out into the night. This was the east side, It had had a guard at the door, but he had apparently been sucked in by the turmoil. They hadn't practiced tactics for an internal upstairs raid. They'd think of the window in a minute.

In the glow of the light from the lower floor windows, the smooth lawn was empty. He turned and held out his two hands to Jeanyee. "Grip." It was a long way to the ground.

"What?"

"Take hold. As you do for work on the bar. Remember?"

"Of course I remember, but…" She paused, looking at the plump, elderly, but so strangely athletic man who bent in front of the window offering her his hands, twisted for an aerialist's lock-and-hold. He had even pulled up his sleeves and cuffs. The tiny detail convinced her. She grasped the hands and gasped — they were leather-over-steel, as powerful as those of any professional. "Are you really…"

She forgot the question as she was pulled headfirst through the window, imagined herself hurtling to the ground to break her neck, and tried to curl for a rolling fall. She tucked slightly but it was unnecessary. Strong hands guided her in a tight forward somersault and then twisted her sideways as she swung back toward the building's side. Instead of crashing against the white-painted shiplap she thudded on it lightly with her hip, held by the strange, powerful man who now hung above her, gripping the sill with his knees.

"It's a short drop," he said, his face a weird blob, with features reversed, in the blackness above her. "Bend your knees. Ready — oopsy-daisy."

She landed half in, half out of a hydrangea, scratching her leg but bouncing on her strong legs without effort. Her high-heel shoes were far gone into the night, lost during her outward spin.

She looked around with the helpless, panicky air of a rabbit flushed from a brush patch into open ground where hounds were baying, and started to run.

Nick made a crab-like mount up the side of the building as soon as he released her, gripped the ledge and hung for a moment until the girl was away from the area underneath him, then twisted sideways to miss the hydrangea and landed as lightly as a skydiver with a thirty-four-foot chute. He tumbled to break the fall, and rolled right-side-up running after Jeanyee.

How that girl can go! He caught just a glimpse of her disappearing into the meadow beyond the range of the lights. He sprinted after her and ran straight out into the blackness, reasoning that in her panic she might not turn and cut sideways for at least a few dozen yards. Nick could cover any distance up to the half-mile in times which would be respectable at the average college track meet. He did not know that Jeanyee Ahling, in addition to family acrobatics, was once the fastest girl in Blaghoveshchenski. They ran distances, and she helped whip every team from Harbin to the Amur River.

Nick stopped short. He heard feet pounding far ahead. He ran on. She was going straight for the high wire fence. If she hit it at full speed she'd knock herself cold, if not worse. He mentally computed the distance to the edge of the valley, estimated his time and strides covered, guessed how far ahead of him she was. Then he counted twenty-eight strides, stopped, and cupping his hands to his mouth called, "Jeanyee! Stop, Danger. Stop. Look out."

He listened. The pound of feet had ceased. He trotted forward, heard or sensed a movement across his front toward the right and angled his course to match. A moment later he heard her move.

"Don't run," he said softly. "You were heading right for the fence. It may be electrified. Anyway you'll hurt yourself."

He found her in the night and took her in his arms. She was not crying, just shaking. She felt as delectable and smelled as delicious as she had in Washington — more so, perhaps, with the heat of her excitement and perspiration wet against his cheek.

"Easy, now," he soothed. "Get your breath."

She would need it. The house was in an uproar. Men ran along the side, pointed up at the window, searched the bushes. Lights went on at the garage building and several men came out, half-dressed and carrying long objects which Nick decided were not shovels. A car raced up the road and disgorged four men and the lights of another hurtled toward them from beside the main house. Dogs barked. Through a patch of light he saw a guard with a dog join the men under the window.

He considered the fence. It had not looked electrified, just high and barbed-wire topped — the best industrial plant fencing. The three gates in the valley were too far away, led nowhere and would soon be watched. He looked back. The men were organizing — and quite well. A car went down to man the gates. Four patrols spread out. The one with the dog headed straight toward them, his nose on their trail.

Swiftly Nick dug at the base of a steel fence post and planted the three plaques of explosive that looked like black plugs of chewing tobacco. He added two more power-bombs that looked like fat ballpoint pens, and the eyeglass case filled with Stuart's special blend of nitroglycerine and kieselguhr. It was his stock of explosives, but with no way to contain the force it might take it all to rend the wire. He set a miniature thirty-second fuse and dragged Jeanyee away, counting as they went.

"Twenty-two," he said. He pulled Jeanyee to the ground with him. "Lie flat. Flat! Put your face in the ground."

He faced them toward the charges to present as small surfaces as possible. The wire might fly like grenade splinters. He had not used his two grenades, built Like cigarette lighters, because their charges weren't worth risking their shower of razor-sharp metal. The patrol with the dog was only a hundred yards away. What was wrong with…

WHAMO-O-O-O!

Old reliable Stuart. "Come on." He dragged Jeanyee toward the explosion point, explored the ragged hole in the blackness. You could drive a Volkswagen through it. If the girl's logic started to work about now and she refused to move he would have had it.

"Are you all right?" he asked sympathetically, squeezing her shoulder.

"I… I guess so."

"Come on." They ran toward where he estimated the trail over the mountain might be. After covering a hundred yards he said, "Stop."

He looked back. Flashlights probed at the hole in the wire. The dog bayed. More dogs answered — they were leading them in from somewhere. They must have several breeds. A car raced across the lawn, its lights stopping when the torn wire was in their glare. Men tumbled out.

Nick fused a grenade and hurled it as hard as he could toward the lights. It wouldn't reach — but it might be a depressant He counted fifteen. Said, "Down again." The blast was like a firecracker compared to the other. A submachine gun chattered; two short bursts of six or seven each, and when it stopped a man roared, "Hold that!"

Nick pulled Jeanyee erect and headed for the valley border. A couple of the slugs had passed in their general direction, ricocheting off the ground to flip past in the night with the vicious whir-r-r-r-r that is intriguing the first time you hear it — and chilling whenever you hear it forever after. Nick had heard it many times.

He glanced back. The grenade had slowed them up. They were approaching the wire gap well spread out, like an exercise group at infantry school. There were twenty or more men chasing them now. Two powerful flashlights stabbed into the murk, but didn't reach them. If the clouds uncovered the moon, he and Jeanyee would have had it.

He trotted, holding the girl's hand. She said, "Where are we…"

"Don't talk," he cut her off. "We live or die together, so depend on me."

His knees struck brush and he stopped. Which way was the trail? Logically it must be to the right, parallel to the course he had followed from the main house. He turned that way.

A strong light blazed from the gap in the wire and crept over the lawn, reached the forest at their left, fingered its way along the brush with a pale touch. Someone had brought up a more powerful light, probably a six-volt sportsman's handlamp. He pulled Jeanyee into the brush and pressed her to the ground. Pinned! He bent his head toward the ground as the light patted their hiding place and moved on, probing at the trees. Many a soldier has died because his own face glowed.

Jeanyee whispered, "Let's get out of here."

"In a moment I don't want to get us shot." He couldn't tell her that there was no way out. At their back was forest and bluff, and he did not know where the trail was. If they moved, the noise would be fatal. If they walked on the lawn, the light would find them.

He probed experimentally through the brush, trying to work along to where the trail might be. The low hemlock branches and second-growth set up a crackle. The light swept back, missed them again and explored in the other direction. If they moved in the brush, they'd draw it back.

At the wire they had started to come through one at a time, in nicely spaced rushes. Whoever commanded them had them all down now except the ones who advanced. They knew their business. Nick took out Wilhelmina, pressed his inner arm against the single spare clip fastened inside his belt over where his appendix used to be. It was faint comfort. Those short bursts had indicated a good man with the spray gun — and there were probably more.

Three men were through the gap and spreading out. Another ran toward it, a good target in the car lights. There was no use waiting. He might as well move while the wire was on his team, holding back their concerted rush. With the precision of a craftsman he allowed for the drop, the man's speed, and collapsed the running figure with one shot. He put a second bullet into one of the car's headlights, and it became suddenly one-eyed. He was aiming coolly for the strong handlight when the submachine gun opened up again, was joined by another, and two or three pistols started to blink flame. He hit the dirt.

The ominous whir-r-r-r-r sounded all around them. Slugs zipped through the grass, clattered on dry branches. They were peppering the landscape and he did not dare move. Let that light catch the phosphorescence of his skin, a chance glitter from his wrist watch, and he and Jeanyee would become animal meat riddled and torn by lead and copper and steel. She attempted to raise her head. He pushed it down, gently. "Don't look. Stay still."

The firing rattled to a halt. Last to stop was the spray gun which was stitching short bursts methodically along the forest line. Nick resisted a temptation to peek. That's my boy — a good infantryman.

The man Nick had shot groaned, a throat-tearing, misery-filled retch of pain. The strong voice shouted, "Hold your fire. John Number Two drag Angelo back behind the car. Then don't move him. Barry — take your three men and get a car and circle outside and hit those trees. Ram the car in, and get out and work along toward us. Keep that light going' along the edge there. Vince — you got ammo left?"

"Thirty-five — forty." Nick wondered — my good gunner?

"Watch the light."

"Right."

"Look and listen. We've got 'em pinned down."

So you have, general. Nick pulled his dark jacket up across his face, curled his hand inside it and risked a look. That cluster of orders should have most of them watching each other for an instant. In the Cyclops eye of the car headlight another man was dragging away the wounded man who was gasping out a blubbery choke. The handlight was moving along the forest far to the left. Three men ran toward the house.

An order was muttered which Nick could not hear. The men began to crawl in behind the car, like a patrol behind a tank. Nick worried about the three men who had come through the wire. If there was a doer in that bunch, he would be inching his way forward like a deadly reptile.

Jeanyee gurgled. Nick patted her head. "Quiet," he whispered. "Be very quiet." He held his breath and listened, tried to see or sense anything that moved in the near blackness.

Another mumble of voices and the handlight winked out The single headlight on the car was extinguished. Nick scowled. The mastermind would advance his gunners now without lights. Meanwhile, where were the three whom he had last seen lying prone somewhere in the sea of darkness out there in front?

A car started up and roared down the road, paused at the gate, then turned to race across the meadow. And here come the flankers! If I had support I'd radio for artillery, mortar fire and a support platoon. Better yet, send me a tank or armored car if there's one to spare.

Chapter VIII

The motor of the car with one headlight roared. Doors on it slammed. Nick's fantasies were interrupted. Frontal attack too! Damned efficient. He slipped his one remaining cigarette lighter-type grenade into his left hand and cradled Wilhelmina in his right. The flanking car dipped its headlights as it churned through a brook, bobbed up and was crossing the near gravel path.

The headlight of the car beyond the wire flamed on and it accelerated toward the gap. The handlight came on again, probing at the trees. It stabbed its glow along the brushline. There was a crackle — the submachine gun rattled. Rattled again. Nick thought, He's probably firing at one of his own men in there, one of the three who came through.

"Hey… I" It ended in a gasp.

Might have got him, too. Nick slitted his eyes. His night vision was as superb as carotene and 20/15 eyesight could make it, but he could not find the other two.

Then the car hit the fence. For an instant Nick saw a dark shape forty feet in front of him as the car's light swung in his direction. He fired twice and was sure he had scored. But now the ball begins!

He shot out the headlight and squeezed lead at the car, stitching a pattern just across the lower windshield, his last shots guided by the handlight before it was switched off.

The car's engine whined and there was another rattling crash. Nick guessed that he might have winged the driver and the car had circled back into the fence.

"There he is!" the strong voice shouted. "To the right. Up and at 'em."

"C'mon." Nick pulled Jeanyee upright. "Make 'em get us on the wing."

He guided her forward to the grass and along it, away from the attackers but toward the other car which was a few yards from the tree line, about a hundred yards from them.

And then the moon came out from behind the clouds. Nick crouched and whirled toward the gap, snapped the spare magazine into Wilhelmina and peered through darkness which was suddenly not nearly as concealing. He had a few seconds. He and Jeanyee were harder to see against the forest than the attackers on the artificial skyline. The man with the handlamp foolishly turned it on. Nick noted that he carried it in his left hand, as he placed a bullet where a belt buckle should be. The man crumpled and the light spewed its rays along the ground, adding to Nick's visibility of the dozen shapes coming at him. The leader was about two hundred yards away. Nick dropped him. Thought, And Stuart wonders why I stick to Wilhelminas! Pass the ammo, Stuart, and we'll get out of this yet. But Stuart couldn't hear him.

Moonlight shooting! He missed one, got him on the second. A few more shots and it would be all over. Pistols winked at him and he heard whir-r-r-r-r again. He pushed Jeanyee along. "Run."

He pulled out a small oval globe, pressed a lever in its side and threw it at the skirmish line. A Stuart smoke bomb, quick spreading, thick concealment, but dispersed in a few short minutes. The device wooshed and for a moment they were hidden.

He ran after Jeanyee. The car had stopped at the edge of the forest. Three men tumbled out, pistols raised, dim menaces in the murk. They left the car's lights on. Guns at my back and guns in my face; Nick grimaced. And just two more cartridges in mine!

He glanced back. A man stumbled out of the gray-white mist, a dull shape. To save a bullet, Nick tossed his second and last smoke grenade and the shape was obscured. He turned toward the car. The three men were spreading out, either not interested in killing Jeanyee or saving all their fire for him. How important can you get? Nick went toward them in a crouch — two of you go with me and that's the end. I'll get close for this moonlight-carlight target work.

B-VOOM! From the forest, midway between Jeanyee and Nick and the three advancing men, a heavy weapon boomed — the full-throated roar of a rifle of decent caliber. One of the dark shapes went down. B-VOOM! B-VOOM! The other two shapes dropped to the ground. Nick could not tell if one or both were hit — the first man was screaming in pain.

"Come this way," Nick said, grabbing Jeanyee's arm from behind. The man with the rifle might be for or against, but he was the only hope in sight, which made him an automatic ally. He pulled Jeanyee into the scrub and crashed toward the firing point.

CRACK-WHAM B-VOOM! The same weapon with the muzzle blast close and pointed their way! Nick held the Luger low. CRACK-WHAM B-VOOM! Jeanyee gave a little gasp and shriek. The muzzle blast was so near it washed over them like a gust from a hurricane — but no wind could shake your eardrums like it. It was firing past them, toward the smokescreen.

"Hey," Nick called. "You want some help?"

"Well, I'll be damned," a voice answered. "Yeah. Come and save me." It was John Villon.

In a moment they were next to him. Nick said — strictly Alastair, "Many thanks, old boy. Bit sticky there. You wouldn't have any nine milly Luger ammo on you?"

"No. You out?"

"One left." A lie. You never knew.

"Here. Colt Government auto. You know it?"

"Love it." He took the heavy gun. "Shall we go?"

"Follow me."

Villon went through the trees, twisting and turning. In a few moments they came to the trail, the trees above showing an open slash against the sky, the moon a broken gold coin on its rim.

Nick said, "No time to ask you why. Will you guide us back over the mountain?"

"Sure. The dogs will find us though."

"I know. Suppose you go ahead with the girl. Ill catch you or wait for me not more than ten minutes at the old road."

"My jeep is there. But we'd better stick together. You'll only get…"

"Get going," Nick said. "You bought me some time. My turn to treat."

He ran down the trail into the meadow without waiting for an answer. They had bypassed the car in the trees, and he was on the opposite side from where its occupants had hit the ground. Judging by the quality of the men he had seen tonight, if any of them were in one piece after that rifle raking they were crawling into the trees looking for him. He ran to the car and peeked in. It was empty, its lights glaring, its motor purring.

Automatic shift. He half-mooned backwards, used low to get underway forward with full throttle — moved the lever immediately up to drive.

A man cursed and a gun blazed not fifty feet away. A slug whanged on car metal. Another pierced glass a foot from his head. He huddled down, did a double serpentine turn, crossed the gravel path and swooped down and up through the brook.

He followed the fence, reached the road and turned toward the main house. He drove a quarter-mile, cut the lights and jammed on the brakes. He jumped out and from the cornucopia of his jacket took a small tube, an inch long and hardly as thick as a pencil. He carried four of them, common incendiary fuses. He grasped the little cylinder at each end with his fingers, gave it a twist and dropped it into the gas tank. The twist broke a seal and acid flowed against a thin metal wall. The wall lasted about one minute and then the device would flare — as hot and penetrating as phosphorus.

There was a slight downgrade to the parking lot Not as much as he would have liked. He wished he had time to find a stone to hold down the accelerator, but behind him a car's lights were racing at the gate. He was going about forty when he flipped the gear selector into neutral, tilted the heavy car toward the parking lot and jumped out.

The fall shook him up, even with all the tumbling roll he could generate. He ran into the meadow, heading toward the trail out of the valley, then dropped to the ground as the headlights roared by in pursuit.

The car he abandoned had rolled between a line of parked cars for a considerable distance, scraping off front ends of assorted vehicles as it careened from side to side. The sounds were interesting. He turned on his recorder as he trotted toward the forest.

He listened for the whoosh of the gas tank explosion. You never knew about an incendiary cap in a closed tank. He had left the tank cap off, of course, and theoretically there should be enough oxygen, especially if the first blast ruptured the tank. But if a tank was chock full or especially built of solid or bulletproof metal all you got was a small fire.

Oriented by the house lights he found the trail entrance. He listened carefully, moved watchfully, but there was no sign of the three men who had been with the flanking car. He went up the mountain silently and swiftly, but not recklessly, alert for an ambush.

The tank let go with a satisfying blare — an explosion wrapped in mush. He glanced back and saw flames shooting into the sky.

"Play with that awhile," he murmured. He caught Jeanyee and John Villon just before they reached the old road on the other side of the notch.

* * *

They rode to the restored farmhouse in Villon's four-wheel-drive Jeep. He parked it out of sight in the back and they went into the kitchen. It was as exquisitely restored as the exterior, all wide counters and rich wood and gleaming copper — just the sight of it made you smell apple pie baking, imagine pails of fresh milk, and think of buxom, ruddy and rounded girls with long skirts but no underwear.

Villon put his M-l rifle between two brass hooks over the door, ran water in a kettle and said as he put it on the stove, "I suppose you'd like a bathroom, miss. Right through there. First door on left. You'll find towels. Some cosmetics in the cabinet."

"Thank you," Jeanyee said — a little weakly Nick thought — and disappeared.

Villon filled an electric percolator and plugged it in. The restoration hadn't ignored modern conveniences — the stove was gas, and in a big open pantry Nick saw a large refrigerator and an upright freezer. He said, "They'll be here. The dogs."

"Yes," Villon answered. "We'll know when they're coming. At least twenty minutes in advance."

"The same way you knew I was coming up the road?"

"Yes."

The gray eyes looked right at you when Villon spoke, yet the man had tremendous reserve. His expression seemed to say, "I won't lie to you, but I'm quick to tell you if it's none of your business." Nick was suddenly very glad he had decided, when he first came up the old road, not to try and jump that Browning shotgun. Recalling Villon's work with the rifle, he was especially pleased with that decision. The least he might have gotten was a leg blown off. Nick asked, "TV scanner?"

"Nothing so complicated. Along about 1895 a railroad man came up with a device called an iron mike. Ever hear of it?"

"No."

"The first one was just a sort of carbon telephone receiver planted alongside the track. When a train went by you heard the sound and you knew where it was."

"An early bug."

"That's right Mine are improved, of course." Villon pointed to a walnut box on the wall which Nick had thought was a hi-fi speaker. "My iron mikes are much more sensitive. They transmit without wires, and they're only activated when the sound level rises, but otherwise the credit goes to that unknown telegrapher on the Connecticut River Railroad."

"How do you tell whether someone is passing on the road or the mountain trail?"

Villon opened the front of the little cabinet, exposed six indicator lights and switches. "When you hear sounds you take a look. The light tells. If more than one is lit you cut the others off for a moment, or raise the sensitivity of the receiver with a rheostat."

"Splendid." Nick took the .45 out of his belt where it was hurting his rib and put it carefully on the wide table. "Many thanks. Mind telling me who? What? Why?"

"If you'll do the same. British intelligence? Your accent isn't quite right unless you've lived in this country a long time."

"Most people don't catch that. No, not British. Do you have any Luger ammo?"

"Yes. I'll get you some in a moment. Let's just say I'm an anti-social guy who doesn't want to see people hurt and is crazy enough to butt in."

"I'd rather say you're Ulysses Lord." Nick dropped the English accent. "You had a helluva record with the 28th Division, Captain. You started as a shavetail with the old 103rd Cavalry. Wounded twice. You can still handle an M-1. You kept this hunk of property when the estates were sold, perhaps for a hunting camp. Later you rebuilt this old farm."

"Villon" put teabags in cups, added hot water. "Who are your?"

"I can't tell you, but you were close. Ill give you a number in Washington to call. They'll partly endorse me if you identify yourself carefully through the Army records office. Or you can visit them down there and you'll be reassured."

"I'm a fair judge of men. I think you're all right. But jot down that number. Here…"

Nick wrote the number that would put a caller through a screening process which — if the caller was legitimate — would eventually put him in touch with an assistant of Hawk's. "If you'll take us to my car we'll get out of your way. How much time have we got before they block the road end?"

"It's a twenty-five-mile circle over narrow roads. We've got some time."

"Will you be all right?"

"They know me — and they know enough to leave me alone. They don't know I helped you."

"They'll guess."

"To hell with them."

Jeanyee came into the kitchen, her features repaired and composed. Nick resumed his accent. "Did you two introduce yourselves? We were so busy out there…"

"We chatted coming over the hill," Villon said dryly. He handed them cups of tea. From the walnut speaker came a scries of lazy thuds. Villon fussed with the switches. "Deer. You get so you can tell all the animals after awhile."

Nick noted that Jeanyee not only had her composure back, she wore a stiff expression he did not like. She had had time to think — he wondered how close to the truth her conclusions were. Nick asked, "How are your feet? Most girls aren't used to traveling in just stockings. Tender?"

"I'm not the delicate type." She tried to put it casually, but resentful fires glowed in the black eyes. "You've gotten me into a terrible mess."

"You might say that. Most of us blame others for our difficulties. But it seems to me that you found your way into a mess — entirely without my help."

"Baumann's son you said? I think…"

The wall speaker bugled the rousing music of a hound's baying. Another joined him. They seemed to advance into the room. Villon held up one hand and turned down the volume with the other. Feet thudded. They heard a man grunt and gasp, another breathing hard like a long distance runner. The sounds grew louder then died away — like a march past in a movie. "There they come," Villon declared. "Four or five men and three or four dogs, I'd say."

Nick nodded agreement "Those weren't Dobermans."

"They've got Rhodesian Ridgebacks and German Sheppherds too. The Ridgebacks can track like bloodhounds and attack like tigers. Marvelous breed."

"I'm sure," Nick said dourly. "I can hardly wait."

"What is this?" Jeanyee exclaimed.

"A listening device," Nick explained. "Mr. Villon has microphones planted on the approaches. Like TV scanners without the video. They just listen. Marvelous device, really."

Villon drained his teacup and put it neatly in the sink. "I don't think you really plan to wait for them." He left the room for a moment and returned with a box of nine millimeter parabellum cartridges. Nick refilled Wilhelmina's clip, put another twenty or so in his pocket.

He pushed in the clip, raised the action with his thumb and forefinger and watched a cartridge travel up to the chamber. He put the gun back in the harness. It rode under his arm as comfortable as an old shoe. "You're right. Let's go."

Villon drove them in the Jeep to the turnout where Nick had left the rented car. Nick paused after he climbed out of the Jeep. "You're going back to the house?"

"Yes. Don't tell me to wash out the teacups and put them away. I will."

"Watch yourself. That bunch is not to be fooled with. They may take your M-1 and match the slugs."

"They won't."

"I think you ought to take off for awhile. They'll be hot."

"I'm in these mountains because I won't do what other people think I should."

"Heard from Martha lately?"

It was a chance test. Nick was surprised by the direct hit. Villon swallowed, scowled and said, "Good luck." He rammed the Jeep back into some brush, turned it and was gone.

Nick tooled the rented car swiftly down the old road. When he reached the highway he turned left, away from the direction of the Lord property. He had memorized the map of the area and used a circle route toward the airport. On top of a rise he stopped, strung out the little antenna wire of his transceiver and called the two AXEmen in the dry cleaner's truck. He disregarded FCC requirements. "Plunger calling B office. Plunger calling B office. Come in."

Barney Manoon's voice came almost at once, loud and clear. "B office. Go ahead."

"I'm out. See any action?"

"Plenty. Five cars in the last hour."

"Operation complete. Get out unless you have other orders. Tell the bird. You'll use a phone before I will."

"No other orders here. Need us?"

"No. Go home."

"O.K. Finish."

"Finish and out."

Nick climbed back into the car. Barney Manoon and Bill Rohde would return the truck to the AXE office in Pittsburgh and fly to Washington. They were good men. They probably had not just parked the truck near the entrance of the estate, but concealed it and set up an observation point in the woods. Which was — Bill told him later — just what they did.

He headed for the airport. Jeanyee said, "All right, Jerry, you can drop the English accent. And where do you think you are taking me and what the hell is this?"

Chapter IX

A wry grin tilted Nick's lips for an instant. "Damn, Jeanyee. I thought my old-school-tie accent was pretty good."

"It is, I suppose. But you're one of the few men who know about my acrobatic training. I talked too much in your apartment but this is one time it helped. When we were getting out that window you said Take hold. As you do for work on the bar.' I didn't have time to think about it until I was cleaning up at Villon's. Then I watched you walk. I know those shoulders, Jerry. I'd never guess by looking at you. You've been made up by experts. Who are you, Jerry Deming? Or who is Jerry Deming?"

"A guy who thinks a lot of you, Jeanyee." He had to keep her quiet until he got her in the plane. She was a cool kitten. You couldn't tell by her voice that she had nearly been killed several times tonight. "Hans has gotten too big for his collar. He's pulling a big double-cross as I told you in the room. All the girls were to be eliminated except Ruth and Pong-Pong."

"I can't believe it," she said, her calmness shaken. She gulped the words and then was silent.

I hope you can, he thought, and I wonder if you have a weapon I don't know about? He had seen her stripped. She had lost her shoes and handbag, and yet… You could strip him almost to the skin and not find the lethal gas bomb, Pierre, in the special pocket of his shorts.

She said suddenly, "Tell me what the Leader looks like. Who do you know? Where are we going? I… I just can't believe you, Jerry."

He parked the car at the side of a hangar, just a few steps from where the Aero Commander was tied down. There was a hint of dawn in the east. He put his arm around her and patted her hand. "Jeanyee, you're the greatest. I need a woman like you, and after last night I think you see you need a man like me. A man on the inside who swings more weight than Hans. Stick with me and you'll be all right. We'll go back and talk to Command One and then you can make up your mind. O.K.?"

"I… don't know…"

He turned her chin slowly and kissed her. Her lips were cool and rigid and then softer and then warm and welcoming. He knew she wanted to believe him. But this strange Asian girl had seen too much in her life to be fooled easily, or to be fooled for long. He said, "I meant it when I suggested we take a little vacation together. I know a little place near Mt. Tremper, up above New York. The foliage will soon be all in color. If you like it we can go back for at least a weekend in the fall. Trust me until we talk to the Leader."

She just shook her head. He felt a tear on her cheek. So — the beautiful Chinese girl, with all her accomplishments, was not made of steel. He said, "Wait here. I won't be a moment. O.K.?"

She nodded and he went swiftly along the hangar, watched the car for a moment and then ran to the telephone booth outside the airport office. If she did decide to run, he would see her when she came along the road or went out on the field.

He reached a number, said, "This is Plunger. At nine o'clock call the Avis office and tell them the car is at the airport. Keys wedged under the back seat."

A man replied, "Got it."

Nick ran back to the corner of the hangar, then walked casually to the car. Jeanyee sat quietly staring into the new dawn.

He watched as he warmed up the aircraft's engine. No one came out of the little office. Although some lights were on, the airport seemed deserted. He let the plane fly herself off, eased her through some mild turbulence over the morning mountains and leveled off at seven thousand feet, course 120 degrees.

He peeked at Jeanyee. She was staring straight ahead, her beautiful face a blend of concentration and what might be suspicion. He said, "Well have a good breakfast when we land. I'll bet you're hungry."

"I've been hungry before. What does the Leader look like?"

"He's not my type. Ever fly a plane? Put your hands on the wheel. I'll give you a lesson. May come in handy."

"Who else do you know? Stop stalling, Jerry."

"We could spend a lot of time on stalls. I guess that next to ice in carburetors they've killed more airmen than anything else. Watch and I'll show…"

"You'd better show me who you are, Jerry," she stopped him in incisive tones. "This has gone far enough."

He sighed. She was warming herself up for real resistance. "Don't you like me enough to trust me at all, Jeanyee?"

"I like you as much as any man I've ever met. But we're not talking about that. Tell me about Baumann."

"Ever hear him called Judas?"

She was thinking. He glanced over. She frowned. "No. So?"

"It fits."

"And you called yourself his son. You're lying as fast as you talk."

"You've lied to me since we met, darling. But I understand because you had a role to play and you didn't know me. Now I'm being honest with you."

She lost some cool. "Stop trying to turn the tables and say something that makes sense."

"I love you."

"Save that for later if you mean that. I can't believe anything you say."

Her voice was hard. The gloves were coming off. Nick said, "Remember Lebanon?"

"What?"

"Remember Harry Demarkin?"

"No."

"And they got a picture of you with Wheel-and-Deal Tyson. Bet you didn't know that." That shook her. "Yes," he followed it up — a live lead. "Hans is so stupid. He wanted to throw you to the other side. Using the picture. Imagine if you talked."

He had never used the small version of the automatic pilot designed for general aviation and small planes, but he had been checked out on it He set the course — locked the ship on. It seemed efficient. He lit a cigarette and sat back. Jeanyee refused one. She said, "Everything you have said is a lie."

"You said yourself I was too strong for an oil peddler."

"You're too much all around."

She was strikingly beautiful with those dark brows arched low and her mouth taut and the eyes glowing in concentration. She was pressing too hard. She wanted to solve this herself in case he wasn't one of the gang and she'd be in double trouble after they landed. She must have a weapon. What? Where?

At last she said, "You're some kind of cop. Maybe you did get a picture of me with Tyson. That's where your lead started."

"Don't be ridiculous."

"Interpol, Jerry?"

"The U.S. has twenty-eight intelligence arms. Run through them. And half of them are looking for me."

"Maybe you're British then, but you aren't one of us. Silence. "All right…" Now her voice was low and hard, as biting and keen as Hugo after he honed the shining blade on a fine stone. "You mentioned Harry Demarkin. That makes you AXE more than likely."

"Sure. And CIA and FBI." Both sets of gloves were slipping off now. In a moment you tossed them into each other's faces and went for your Derringers or Pepperboxes.

Nick felt regret. She was so gorgeous — and he had hardly begun to explore her talents. That spine was made of flexible steel cable, all covered with dense foam rubber. You could… She moved a hand suddenly and he alerted. She flicked a bead of sweat from the neat valley under her lips.

"No," she said bitterly. "You aren't amateur night or a law clerk marking time until he can make a connection."

Nick's eyebrows went up. He must tell Hawk that one. "You did a perfect job on Demarkin. Dad approved."

"Stop that crap."

"Now you're angry with me."

"You're a fascist bastard."

"You jumped to that idea awful fast. I saved your life. We were — very close in Washington, I thought. You're the kind of a girl I could…"

"Bullshit, buster," she interrupted. "I was soft for a few hours. Like almost everything else in my life, it's gone sour. You're law. But I wish I knew which and what."

"All right then. Tell me how it went with Tyson. Did you have any trouble?"

She sat sullenly in an attitude of simmering rage, her arms folded. He tried a few more remarks. She refused to reply. He checked the course, admired the new autopilot, and sighed and slumped in his seat He put out his cigarette.

A few minutes later he mumbled, "What a night. I'm pooped." He relaxed. Sighed. The day was cloudless. He glanced down at the forested mountains, undulating under them like billows of green, unevenly rising bread. He peeked at his watch, checked course and speed, and estimated wind and drift. He mentally computed the aircraft's position. He dropped his eyelids and pretended to doze.

When he next risked a glance through slitted eyes her arms were unfolded. Her right hand was out of sight and that worried him, but he dared not move and stop whatever she was doing. He could feel the tension and menace of her purpose. Sometimes he thought that, because of his training, he could smell danger like a horse or dog.

He lost sight of her other hand.

He gave a dull sigh and murmured, "Don't try anything, Jeanyee, unless you're a hot pilot yourself. This thing is on a new autopilot that I'll bet you aren't checked out on." He sank lower in the seat. "Flying through these mountains is tough anyway…"

He breathed deeply, his head tilted away from her. He heard tiny movements. What was it? Perhaps her brassiere was 1000-1b. test nylon and made a garrote. Even if it had a self-locking clip he could handle that Explosive? Not in a plane. Blade? Where? The feeling of danger and evil became so strong he had to make an effort to keep from moving, looking, acting in self-protection. He kept his eyes slitted, watching.

Something moved at the top of his small field of vision and came down. Instinctively he stopped breathing on an intake as some sort of film lowered over his head and he heard a tiny "Phut." He held his breath — thought gas. Or a vapor of some kind. So that's how they did it! With the Hood of Death! It must be instantaneous, murderous stuff with fantastic expansion to enable a girl to take men like Harry Demarkin and Tyson. He exhaled a few cubic centimeters to keep the stuff from getting at his nasal tissues. Drew up his pelvis to keep pressure in his lungs.

He counted. One, two, three… she had closed it around his neck… held it tight with a strange gentleness. 120, 121, 122, 123…

He let every muscle and tissue go limp, except those of his lungs and pelvis. Like a Yogi he commanded his body to be utterly relaxed and lifeless. He let his eyes drift open a little. 160, 161, 162…

She lifted one of his hands. The arm lay as limp and lifeless as wet paper pulp. She dropped it — again with the strange tenderness. She was talking. "Good-bye, baby. You were something else. Please forgive me. You're a rat bastard like all the others but I guess the nicest rat bastard I ever met. I wish it was different I'm a born loser. Someday the world will be different If I ever get up to those Catskills I'll remember you. Maybe I'll remember you anyway… for a long time." She gave a small sob.

He had little time now. His senses were dulling quickly, the blood flow was slowing. She opened a window. Lifted from his head a hood of silk-thin plastic. She rolled it between her palms, looking at it as it compressed and vanished like a magician's scarf. Then she held it up between a thumb and forefinger. Attached to its bottom dangled a colorless capsule no bigger than a clay marble.

She waggled the small ball back and forth. It was attached to the postage-stamp-size packet in her hand by a tiny tube, like an umbilical cord. "Nasty thing," she said bitterly.

"It sure is," Nick agreed. He blew out his remaining air with a blast, leaned over her to breathe only the fresh flow from her window. As he sat back in his own seat she screamed. "You!…"

"Yeah, me. So that's how you got Harry and Tyson."

She crawled to the side of the small cabin like a newly captured chipmunk in a box trap, avoiding a grab, searching for a way out.

"Relax," Nick said. He made no effort to grab her. 'Tell me all about Geist and Akito and Baumann. Perhaps I can help you."

She got the door open against the wind pressure. Nick turned off the autopilot and throttled down. She squirmed out of the cabin feet first. She looked directly at him, with an expression compounded of horror and hate and a strange weariness.

"Come back," he said — authoritative and loud and clear. "Don't be a fool. I'm not going to hurt you. I'm not dead. I held my breath."

She balaneed half out of the plane. He could grab her wrist, and with his strength and a left tilt of the ship probably tumble her in whether she wanted to or not. Should he? She would be as valuable to AXE dead as alive, because of the plan he was making. If she survived she'd spend drab years in the secret Texas compound few Americans guess about, fewer see, and none mention. Years? She was entitled to a choice. His jaw hardened. He glanced at the bank-turn indicator and held the ship level. "Come back in, Jeanyee."

"Good-bye."

Her two words seemed softer and sad; without heat or hate — or was it his illusion? She was gone.

He estimated position again, went down a few hundred feet. Near a narrow country road he saw a sign on a barn, OX HOLLOW, located it on an oil company map and marked it on his chart.

* * *

When he landed the owner of the charter outfit was on duty. He wanted to talk about flight plans and business difficulties. Nick said, "Good ship. Lovely trip. Thank you so much. "Good-bye."

Either Jeanyee's body hadn't been found or the airport check hadn't reached this far yet. He called a cab from the telephone booth on the edge of the road. Then he called Hawk's current floating number — a circuit changed at random for use when scramblers were unavailable. He reached him in less than a minute. Hawk said, "Yes, Plunger."

"Suspect number twelve committed suicide about fifteen miles, 290 degrees from Ox Hollow which is about eighty-five miles from last action point."

"Well find it."

"No link to the firm or me. Better connect and cool, though. We were in my transportation. She left."

"Understood."

"We should meet. I have interesting points."

"Can you make it Fox time? Point Five?"

"See you there."

Nick hung up and stood with his hand on his chin for a moment. AXE would provide the Ox Hollow area authorities with an acceptable explanation for Jeanyee's death. He wondered if anyone would claim her body. He must check that. She was on the other team, but who has a chance to choose?

Fox Time and Point Five were a simple code for time and place, in this case a private meeting room at the Army and Navy Club.

Nick rode in a cab to within three blocks of the truck terminal near Route 7. He got out and walked the remaining distance after the cab was out of sight. The day was sunny-hot, traffic a thundering stream. Mr. Williams vanished.

Three hours later "Jerry Deming" rolled the Thunderbird into the stream of cars and mentally marked himself "present" in current society. He stopped at a stationery store and bought a common black marking pencil and a block of notepaper, along with a packet of white envelopes.

In his apartment he scanned his odds and ends of mail, opened a bottle of Saratoga water, and wrote five notes. Each was the same — And then there were five.

From the data sheets Hawk had given him he took the likely addresses of Ruth, Suzi, Anne, Pong-Pong and Sonya. Likely because Anne's and Sonya's file included the notation subject may use this address for mail only." He addressed the envelopes by printing and fastened the packet together with a rubber band.

Carefully he studied the cards and papers he had taken from the two men in the lounge of the house in Pennsylvania — he thought of it as the "private sporting annex." They seemed to be legitimate members of the cartel which controls the eagle's share of Mideast oil.

Then he set his alarm-radio and went to sleep until 6:00 P.M. He had one drink at the Washington-Hilton, dined on steak, salad and pecan pie at DuBarry's, and at ten minutes of eight strolled into the Army and Navy Club. Hawk was waiting for him in the comfortably furnished private room — a room engaged and used for only one month, then they would switch to another location.

His chief was standing near the small unlit fireplace and he and Nick exchanged a firm handshake and a long look. Nick knew the tireless head of AXE must have done his usual long day's work — he usually reached the office before eight Yet he seemed as calm and fresh as a man who has had an afternoon nap. There were tremendous reserves in that spare, stringy body.

Hawk's genial, leathery features focused on Nick as he made his own evaluation. It was a mark of his perception that he withheld their usual banter. "I'm glad you came out all right, Nicholas. Barney and Bill said they heard faint sounds of considerable — ah, target practice. The county coroner has Miss Ahling. The death won't make the wire services."

"She chose death. But you might say I allowed her the choice."

"Then it was not technically a Killmaster termination. I'll report it so. Have you written your report?"

"No. I was dead tired. I'll do it tonight. Here's the way it was. I drove up the road we marked on the map…"

He told Hawk exactly what had happened, using sparse phrases. When he finished he gave Hawk the cards and papers taken from the oil men's wallets.

Hawk looked at them bitterly. 'The name of the game seems always to be money. The information that Judas-Bormann is somewhere in the nasty web is priceless. Can he and Command One be the same?"

"Possibly. I wonder what they will do now? They'll be puzzled and worried about Mr. Williams. Will they go to ground?"

"Perhaps. But I believe they may blame the British and carry on. They're doing something far too big to dismantle their apparatus. They'll wonder if Williams was a thief, or a lover of Jeanyee's. They'll consider stopping whatever they're up to, and then they won't."

Nick nodded. Hawk was logical, as always. He accepted a small brandy which Hawk poured from a decanter. Then the senior man said, "I have a bit of bad news. John Villon had a strange accident. His rifle discharged in his Jeep and he drove over a bank. The slug went right through him of course. He's dead."

"Those devils!" Nick pictured the neat farmhouse. A retreat from society that had turned into a trap. "He thought he could handle them. But those listening devices were a giveaway. They must have grabbed him, searched the place carefully and decided to eliminate him."

"That's the best answer. His sister Martha is entangled with a rightest outfit in California. She's a queen in the Squires of the White Camellia. Ever hear of it?"

"No, but I get the picture."

"We're watching her. Do you have any suggestions for our next move here? Do you want to continue as Deming?"

"I'd protest if you told me not to." It was Hawk's way. He had their next moves planned, but he always asked for suggestions.

Nick produced the packet of letters addressed to the girls and described them. "With your permission, sir, I'll mail them. There must be a weak link among them. I think it will make a strong impression. Let them wonder — who's next?"

Hawk produced two cigars. Nick accepted one. They lit them. The aroma was strong. Hawk studied his thoughtfully. "A worthwhile needle, Nick. I wish I had thought of it. You'd better write four more."

"More girls?"

"No, extra copies for these addresses for Pong-Pong and Anne. We're not completely sure where they get their mail." He checked a notebook and wrote rapidly, tore out a page and gave it to Nick. "It will do no harm if a girl gets more than one. It would weaken the threat if one got none."

"You're right."

"Now another thing. I detect a certain sadness in your usual jolly attitude. Look." He put a five by seven photoprint in front of Nick. "Taken at the South Gate Motor Hotel."

In the picture were Wheel-and-Deal Tyson and Jeanyee Ahling. It was a poor sideshot taken in bad light, but you could see the faces. Nick handed it back. "So she did scrub Tyson. I was almost sure."

"Feel better?"

"Yes. And happy for Tyson. He went out satisfied."

"I'm glad, Nicholas, that your research is so thorough."

"That hood gimmick is fast. The gas must have astonishing expansion and lethal qualities. Then it seems to disperse or break down quickly."

"Well work on it. Of course the lab will find it easier when you bring back a sample."

"Where will I find one?"

"You have me there, and I know you know it." Hawk frowned. Nick kept quiet. "We ought to have everyone under surveillance who has anything to do with Akito or the girls or the men in Pennsylvania. You know how hopeless that would be, with our staff. But I do have a small lead. Many of our friends go often to the Chu Dai Restaurant. On the shore below Baltimore. Know it?"

"No."

"The food is excellent. They've been open four years and do a big gross. It's one of the places with a dozen big banquet rooms that cater to weddings and business parties and such. The owners are two Chinese and they check out clean. Especially so since Congressman Reid has a piece of the action."

"Chinese again. How frequently I catch a whiff of Chicom possibilities."

"Quite so. But why? And where does Judas-Bormann fit in?"

"We know him." Nick listed slowly, "Selfish, greedy, cruel, ruthless, cunning — and in my opinion mad as a hatter."

"But every so often we peer into the looking glass and there he is," Hawk added meditatively. "What a combination it might be. Chicoms using him because they need Caucasian fronts, connections, heaven knows what."

"Do we have a man in the Chu Dai?"

"We had. We let him get out because he found nothing. And that lack of staff again. It was Kole. He posed as a slightly rummy parking lot attendant. He found nothing but he said the place smelled wrong."

"That was the kitchen." Hawk did not give his usual small smile. He was really worried about this one. "Kole is a good man. There must be something there."

Hawk said, "The inside help is almost all Chinese. But we've been in as phone men and we helped sand and wax floors. Our boys found nothing that way either."

"Should I check it?"

"Whenever you wish, Mr. Deming. It's expensive but we want you to live well."

* * *

For four days and nights Nick was Jerry Deming, pleasant young man at the right parties. He wrote the extra letters and mailed all of them. Barney Manoon had a look at the former Lord estate, posing as a stale Conservation man. It was guarded and deserted.

He went to a party at the Manger Annapolis given by one of the seven thousand Arabian princes who love to swing in the city where the money originates. Watching the fat smiles and never-still eyes he decided that if he really were a Jerry Deming he would chuck the deal and get as far from Washington as possible. After eight weeks it was boring.

Everyone played a role. You weren't really Jerry or John… you were Oil or State or White House. You never talked about vital or interesting matters, you chattered on the fringes of them. His frown changed to a warm and genial expression as he spotted Suzi Quong.

About time! It was his first sight of one of the girls since Jeanyee's death. They and Akito and the others were staying out of sight or busy with other matters, about which Nick Carter as N3 would have given a lot to know. Suzi was part of a Utile cluster around the prince.

The lad was a bore. His hobby was blue movies and staying off the big, rich peninsula between Africa and India as much as he could. He had his interpreter explain, twice, that the hors d'oeuvres for this little get together were especially flown from Paris. Nick had tasted them. They were excellent.

Nick eased his way to Suzi. Caught her eye by planned chance, and reintroduced himself. They danced. After small talk he isolated the chic Chinese girl, snared a pair of drinks and let fall the key question. "Suzi, I've had dates with Ruth Moto and Jeanyee Ahling. Haven't seen them around for ages. Are they abroad, do you know?"

Of course, I remember, you're the Jerry Ruth is going to try and help make a connection with her father." It was too quick. "She thinks a lot of you." Her expression clouded. "But you didn't hear about Jeanyee?"

"No."

"She's dead. Killed in an accident in the country."

"No! Not Jeanyee."

"Yes. Last week."

"Such a young, lovely girl…"

"It was a car or an airplane or something."

After an appropriate pause Nick raised his glass and said softly, "To Jeanyee."

They drank. It established a cord of intimacy. He spent the rest of the evening weaving the first-line-aboard into a hawser. The connecting cable was secured so swiftly and easily that he knew he was having help on her end of the lines. Why not? With Jeanyee gone, if the other side was still interested in the services of "Jerry Deming" they would have instructed the rest of the girls to strengthen contact.

When the doors were opened to another large private room in which was spread a buffet, Nick escorted Suzi into the feeding chamber. Although the prince had engaged a number of conference-banquet-party rooms, his name must have gotten out on the sucker-list circuit. The rooms were crowded, the booze and lavish buffet consumed with gusto by a large number of Washington casuals whom Nick recognized as party crashers. Good luck to them, he thought, as he watched a neatly dressed couple fill plates with beef and turkey — spread the goodies at home.

Shortly after midnight he discovered that Suzi planned to take a taxi home."… I live near Columbia Heights."

She said her cousin had brought her and had had to leave.

Nick wondered if the other five girls were attending functions tonight. Each one brought by a cousin — so that she would be available to contact Jerry Deming. "Let me drive you home," he said. "I'm going to take a little spin anyway. It would be nice to go by way of the park."

"That's sweet of you…"

And sweet it was. She was quite willing to stop at his apartment for a late nighter. She was delighted to take her shoes off and nestle "just for a moment" on the couch overlooking the river.

Suzi was as cute and cuddly as one of the pretty Chinese dolls you find in the better San Francisco shops. All charm and smooth skin and gleaming black hair and attentiveness. Her conversation was smooth.

And that gave Nick his lead. Smooth! He recalled Jeanyee's polish, and the way the girls had talked while he eavesdropped in the Pennsylvania mountains. All of the girls fitted a mold — they behaved as if taught and polished for an objective, as the best madams used to school their courtesans.

It was more subtle than just providing a group of superior playmates for affairs like the one at the ex-Lord place. Hans Geist could handle that, but it went deeper. Ruth and Jeanyee and Suzi and the rest were… experts? Yes, but top teaching might make experts. He pondered while Suzi blew warm breath against his chin. Dedicated. That was it He decided to push.

"Suzi, I wish I could get in touch with Jeanyee's cousin. I suppose I could find him somehow. She said he might have a very interesting proposition for an oil man."

"I think I can reach him. Would you like me to have him call you?"

"Please do. Or do you think it might be too soon after — after what happened to her?"

"It might be better. You would be — someone she wanted to help. Almost like one of her last wishes."

That was an interesting angle. He said, "But are you sure you know the right one? She may have many cousins. I've heard about your Chinese families. I think he lives in Baltimore."

"Yes, that's the one…" She stopped. He hoped that Suzi was such a good actress that she would take her cue too quickly and the truth would slip out. "At least, I think he does. I can reach him through a friend who knows the family well."

"I'll be awfully grateful," he murmured, kissing the top of her head.

He kissed much more of her, for Suzi had learned all her lessons well. Instructed to captivate, she went all out. She did not have Jeanyee's contortionist's skill, but her smaller, resilient body offered enthusiastic vibrations especially her own. Nick fed her compliments like syrup, and she lapped them up. Under the agent there was a woman.

They slept until after seven, when he made coffee and brought it to her in bed and awakened her with proper gentle affection. She tried to insist on a cab but he wouldn't have it — protesting that if she insisted she was angry with him.

He drove her home, and noted the address off 13th Street It was not the one listed in AXE's records. He phoned it in to the data office. At six-thirty, as he was about to dress for what he dreaded as a boring evening — Jerry Deming was no longer fun — Hawk called him. Nick switched on the scrambler and said, "Yes, sir."

"I noted the new address for Suzi. That only leaves you three girls to go. Extracurricular, I mean."

"We played some Chinese checkers."

"Imagine. So fascinating you kept at it all night?" Nick refused the bait Hawk knew he would call in an address promptly, deduced he had left Suzi in the morning. "I have some news," Hawk went on. "The contact number you gave Villon was called. Heaven knows why they would bother checking it at this late date unless we are up against Prussian thoroughness or a bureaucratic boggle. We gave nothing away and the caller hung up, but not before our countercircuit established the area. The call was from area code three-o-one."

"Baltimore."

"Very probably. Add that to something else. Last night Ruth and her father went to Baltimore. Our man lost them in the city but they were headed south of the city. Note the connection?"

"The Chu Dai Restaurant."

"Yes. Why don't you drive up there and have a nice dinner? We think the place is innocent, which is all the more reason why N3 might find out otherwise. Stranger things have happened in the past."

"O.K. I'll leave at once, sir."

There was more suspicion or intuition about the Baltimore place than Hawk would say. The way he put it — we think think the place is innocent— was a cautionary signal if you knew the logical workings of that intricate mind.

Nick hung up his dinner jacket, donned the shorts with Pierre in its special pocket and the two incendiary caps forming a V where his legs joined his pelvis, and put on a dark suit. Hugo the stiletto was on his left forearm, and Wilhelmina under his arm in the especially fitted, tilted sling. He carried four ballpoint pens — only one of which could write. The other three were Stuart's grenades. He carried two cigarette lighters, the heavier one with an identification knob on its side was the one he treasured. Without the ones like it he would still be in the Pennsylvania mountains, probably buried.

At 8:55 he turned over the Bird to a parking lot attendant of the Chu Dai Restaurant, which was a lot more impressive than its name. It was a cluster of connected buildings on the shore with giant parking lots and much glowing neon. A large, obsequious Chinese maitre d' greeted him in an entrance lobby that could have been used for a Broadway theatre. "Good evening. Do you have a reservation?"

Nick handed him the five-dollar bill folded in his palm. "Right here."

"Yes, indeed. For one?"

"Unless you see someone who would like to make it two."

The Chinaman chuckled. "Not here. The Oasis downtown for that. But first you have a good meal with us. Just three or four minutes. Wait in here please." He gestured grandly at a room furnished in the carnival decor of a North African harem with Oriental touches. Amid the red plush, satin drapes, bold gold tassels and luxurious couches a king-size color TV flamed and bleated.

Nick grimaced. "I'll have a breath of air and a smoke."

"So sorry, there's nowhere to walk. We had to use it all for the parking lots. You can smoke in here."

"I may want to rent a couple of your private meeting rooms for an all-day business conference and banquet. Anybody handy to show me around?"

"Our convention office closes at five. A meeting for how many people?"

"Six hundred." Nick picked the respectable figure out of the air.

"Wait right here." The Chinese factotum put up a velvet cord which caught the people behind Nick like fish in a weir. He hurried away. One of the potential customers caught by the rope, a flush-faced jolly with a gorgeous woman in a red gown, grinned at Nick.

"Hey — how'd you get in so easy? Gotta have a reservation?"

"Yeah. Or give him an engraved picture of Lincoln. He's collector."

"Thanks, ole goodbuddy."

The Chinese returned with another, thinner Chinese, and Nick got the impression that the bigger man wasn't made of fat — you might find hard flesh under that appearance of plumpness. The big man said, "This is our Mr. Shin, Mr…"

"Deming. Jerry Deming. Here's my card."

Shin guided Nick aside while the maitre d' resumed channeling the fish. The man with the woman in red was taken right in.

Mr. Shin showed Nick three lovely meeting rooms that were empty, and four even more striking with their decorations in place and parties in progress.

Nick probed. He asked to see the kitchens (there were seven), the rest rooms, the coffee bars, the meeting equipment, movie projection room, Xerox machine and the cloak looms. Mr. Shin was affable and thorough, a good salesman.

"Do you have a wine cellar or shall we send up from Washington…?" Nick let the question hang. He had seen the damn place from end to end — the basement was the only place left.

"Right this way."

Shin took him down a wide flight of stairs near the kitchen, produced a large key. The basement was big, well lit, and built of solid concrete block. The wine cellar was cool, clean, and stocked as if the bubbly were going out of style. Nick sighed. 'Wonderful. We'll just specify what we want on the contract."

They went back up the stairs, "You are satisfied?" Shin asked.

"Perfectly. Mr. Gold will call you in a day or two."

"Who?"

"Mr. Paul Gold."

"Ah, yes." He conducted Nick back to the entrance lobby and handed him over to Mr. Big. "Please see that Mr. Deming has anything he wishes — compliments of the house."

"Thank you, Mr. Shin," Nick said. How about that! If you tried to con a free dinner with a pitch about hiring a hall they'd catch you every time. Play it cool and they bought the brick. He saw color brochures in a rack in the lounge and picked one up. It was a magnificent custom job by Bill Bard. The photographs were striking. He hardly opened it when the man he had dubbed Mr. Big said, "Come, please."

The dinner was sumptuous. He settled for a simple meal of butterfly shrimp and Steak Kow, with tea and a bottle of Rose, although the menu offered Continental and Chinese dishes in profusion.

Just comfortably full, over his last cup of tea he read the color brochure, noting every word in it because Nick Carter was a well-trained and thorough man. He went back and read one paragraph again. Ample parking for 1000 cars— valet parking service— private marina for guests arriving by boat.

He read that again. He hadn't noticed any dock. He asked for a check. The waiter said, "Complimentary, sir."

Nick tipped him and went out. He thanked Mr. Big, praised the house cuisine, and stepped into the mellow night.

When an attendant came for his ticket he said, 'They tell me I can come over in my boat. Where's the dock?"

"Nobody uses it no more. They stopped that."

"Why?"

"Like I said. No business for it — I guess. Thunderbird. Right?"

"Right."

Nick drove slowly up and down the highway. The Chu Dai was built almost over the water, and he could not see any marina behind it. He U-turned and went south again. About three hundred yards below the restaurant there was a small marina, with one dock jutting well out into the bay. One light burned at shoreside, the boats he could see were all dark. He parked and walked back.

A sign said MAY MOON MARINA.

A wire gate barred the dock from the shore. Nick looked swiftly around, vaulted it, and walked out on the planking, trying to keep his footfalls from sounding like a muffled drum.

Halfway out the pier he stopped, just out of reach of the dim light. The boats were an assortment — the kind you find where the marina service is minimum but the dockage price is right There were only three that were over thirty feet, and one at the dock end that loomed larger in the darkness… perhaps a fifty-footer. Most were hidden under canvas coverings. Only one showed a light Nick walked quietly up to it, a thirty-six foot Evinrude, neat but of indeterminate age. The yellow glow from its ports and hatch barely reached the dock.

A voice sprang at him out of the night "Can I help you?"

Nick peered down. A deck light snapped on and he saw a thin man of about fifty sitting in a deck chair. He wore old brown khakis that blended with the background until the light outlined him. Nick waved a casual hand. "I'm looking for dock space. I heard it was reasonable here."

"Step down. They got some. What kinda boat you got?"

Nick went down the cleated gangway to the floating planks and climbed aboard. The man indicated a cushioned seat. "Welcome aboard. Don't git much company."

"I've got a twenty-eight-foot Ranger."

"Do your own work? No service here. Lights and water is all."

"That's all I want."

"This might be the place then. I get my spot free for being nightwatch. They have a man on days. You can see him nine to five."

"Italian boy? I thought someone said…"

"Nope. Chinese Restaurant up the street owns it. They never bother us. Want a beer?"

Nick didn't, but he wanted talk. "Love it My turn when I tie up."

The older man went into the cabin and returned with a can. Nick thanked him and snapped off the top, raised it in salute. They drank.

The old man snapped off the light "Nice here in the dark. Listen."

The city was suddenly far away. The rush of traffic was Overlaid by the slap-slap of water, the moan of a whistle from a large vessel. Out on the bay colored lights winked. The man sighed. "My name's Boyd. Retired Navy. You work in town?"

"Yes. Oil business. Jerry Deming." They touched hands. "Owners use the dock at all?"

"Did once. Had an idea folks might come along in their boats to eat. Damn few did. Too easy to jump in a car." Boyd snorted. "They own that cruiser out at th' end I guess you know the ropes. Don't pay to see too much around here."

"I'm blind and dumb," Nick said. 'What's their racket?"

"Li'l poontang and maybe a pipe or two. I dunno. Most every night some of 'em go out or come in in the cruiser."

"Maybe spies or something?"

"Naw. I had a word with a friend of mine in Navy Intelligence. He says they're O.K."

So much for my competition, Nick thought Still, as Hawk had explained, the Chu Dai outfit looked clean. "They know you're ex-Navy?"

"Naw. I told 'em I use ta be a hand on a fishing boat in Boston. They swallowed it. Offered me the nightwatch when I haggled about price."

Nick gave Boyd a cigar. Boyd produced two more beers. They sat for long periods in comfortable silence. The cruiser and Boyd's remarks were interesting. When the second can was gone Nick stood up and shook hands. "Many thanks. I'll come down and see 'em in the daytime."

"Hope you do. I can tell a good shipmate. You Navy?"

"No. Did my time Army. But I've been on the water a bit."

"Best place."

Nick drove the Bird down the road and parked it between two warehouses a quarter-mile from the May Moon Marina. He walked back on foot and found a cement company pier from which, hidden in the blackness, he had a fine view of Boyd's boat and the big cruiser. In about an hour a car stopped at the marina and three people got out. Nick's excellent vision identified them even in the dim light — Suzi, Pong-Pong and the slim Chinese he had seen at the head of the stairs in Pennsylvania and who might have been the man behind the mask in Maryland.

They strolled down the dock, exchanged words with Boyd he could not hear, and went aboard the fifty-footer. Nick thought rapidly. This was as good a lead as he was likely to get What to do with it? Get help and check on the cruiser's habits? If everybody thought the Chu Dai crew was so legitimate, they'd probably have that covered. A great idea would be to plant his beeper on the vessel and track it with a copter. He took off his shoes, slipped into the water and swam slightly out and around the cruiser. There were lights on her now, but the engines had not been started. He probed for a crevice into which he could wedge a beeper. Nothing. She was sound and clean.

He swam to the nearest small boat in the marina and cut off a length of three-quarter-inch manila mooring line. He would rather have had nylon, but the manila was solid and did not feel too old. With the line around his waist he went up the dock ladder and silently boarded the cruiser, forward of her cabin windows. He went around to the bay side and peeked in. He saw an empty head, an empty master stateroom, and then came to a porthole of the lounge. The three who had come aboard were sitting calmly, with the air of people waiting for someone or something. The slim Chinese went into the galley and came back with a tray bearing a teapot and cups. Nick grimaced. Opponents who drank booze were always easier to handle.

Sounds from the dock alerted him. Another car had arrived and four people were coming toward the cruiser. He crawled forward. There was no place to hide on the bow. The vessel looked fast and she had trim lines. There was only a low hatch on the foredeck. Nick secured his line to an anchor-bridle cleat with a tight bowline knot and went over the port side into the water. They'd never notice the line unless they used an anchor or tied up on their port side.

The water was warm. He debated whether to swim away in the darkness. He had not planted the beeper. In his soggy clothes and armament he could not swim fast. He had not removed them because stripped he looked like an arsenal and he hadn't wanted to leave all the valuable gear — especially Wilhelmina — on the dark dock.

The engines rumbled. He tested the line thoughtfully, pulled himself up two feet and threw two bowlines on bights — the seaman's bosun's chair. He had done a lot of strange and dangerous things, but this might be too much. Should he go for the copter?

Feet stamped on deck. They were releasing their dock-lines. They didn't believe in warming up their engines much. His mind was made up for him — they were under way.

He swung forward and grabbed the sheer of the bow, worked his rump into the loop of the line and forked his arms and legs along each side of the bow. The cruiser engines were revved up and water pounded his behind. He hitched himself higher as the fast boat roared down the bay. Every time she dipped into a swell, water slammed into his legs like the blows of a rough masseur.

In open way the cruiser's throttle was opened even more. She rammed through the night. Nick felt like a fly straddling the nose of a torpedo. What in hell am I doing here? Unload? The boat's sides and screws would chop him into hamburger.

Every time the boat bounced he was pounded against the bow. He learned to make V-springs of his arms and legs to cushion the blows, but it was a constant battle not to have his teeth knocked out.

He swore. His position was deadly dangerous and, he felt, ridiculous. Here I go! AXE's N3. Roaring down Chesapeake Bay ass backwards!

Chapter X

The cruiser could really travel. Nick wondered what kind of big twins they had in her. Whoever was on the bridge could handle a wheel, even if he failed to warm up engines properly. The boat thundered away from the Patapsco River, holding steady-on to her course. If there had been an amateur at the helm who had let the bow rock from side to side, Nick wasn't sure he could have held on against some of the swells that slammed into him.

Somewhere off Pinehurst they passed a big freighter and when the cruiser crossed the ship's wake Nick realized how an ant would feel trapped in an automatic washing machine. He was dunked and raised on high, banged and buffeted. Water; crashed upward on him with such force that some was forced up his nose, even against his powerful lungs. He choked and gagged, and when he tried to control the water with his breathing, he bounced against the sheer and the wind was knocked out of him again.

He decided he was in the wrong place at the wrong time, and there was no exit. The blows against his backside as it bucketed against the hard salt water felt as if they might emasculate him. What a decoration — castrated in line of duty! He tried to hoist himself higher but the bouncing, vibrating line threw him down every time he hauled himself up a few inches. They passed the big ship's wake and he could space his breathing again. He wished they'd arrive wherever they were going. He thought, // they go out to sea and there's any weather running, I've had it.

He tried to estimate their position. It seemed as if he had been hammered like a yo-yo into the surf for hours. They must be off the Magothy River by now. He twisted his head to try and see Love Point or Sandy Point or the Chesapeake Bay Bridge. He saw only surging water.

His arms ached. His chest would be black and blue. This was hell on the water. He realized that in another hour he would have to concentrate to stay conscious — and then the roar of the engines died to a comfortable rumble. He swung again with his trunk above the bow wave. Relaxing, he hung in the two bights of line like a drowned otter being hoisted above a trap.

Now what? He brushed his hair from his eyes and twisted his neck. Idling up the bay, riding lights and masthead lights and cabin lamps a paintable picture in the night, came a two-masted schooner. No plywood plaything that, he decided, that's a baby built for the money and the deep sea.

They were bearing to pass the schooner port-to-port red-to-red. He hitched himself around to the starboard rim of the sheer, out of sight. It wasn't easy. The rope, hitched to a port cleat, fought him. The cruiser began to make a slow, tight turn to port In a few moments Nick would be presented to the eyes of those on the larger craft like a roach riding a bakery cake on a rotating window stand.

He whipped out Hugo, reached up the line as high as ht could and waited, watching. The instant the stern of the schooner came in sight he slashed the line with the stiletto's razor edge.

He hit the water and got one solid kick against the moving boat as he swam down and out, sweeping great strokes with his powerful arms, scissoring his legs as he never had before. He called on his magnificent body with straining intensity. Down and out, away from the meat grinder propellers coming toward you — sucking at you — reaching for you.

He cursed his stupidity for wearing clothes even if they had protected him from some of the pounding waves. He fought the weight of his arms and Stuart's devices that were thunder of the engines and the roaring-liquid mumble-rumble of the propellers rammed against his eardrums as if to break them. The water suddenly seemed like glue — holding him, fighting him. He felt an up-pull and an in-pull as the boat's screws reached out for great gulping draughts of water and slavered to take him with the liquid, like an ant sucked down into the grinders of a garbage disposal unit He fought, stabbing at the water with short choppy strokes, using every skill — feathering his hands on the forward lunges, wasting no energy on tail strokes. His loins ached with the power and speed of his kicking.

The pressure changed. The rumble growled past him unseen in the dark depths. Instead of groping for him the underwater currents suddenly tossed him aside, repelling him end over end. The screws were by him!

He straightened, stroked and kicked upward. Even his trained, mighty lungs were exhausted from the strain. He surfaced gently. Breathed gratefully. The schooner was masked by the cruiser, and he was certain that everyone on both ships must be looking at each other, not at a blob of darkness on the surface that moved slowly toward the bow of the schooner, keeping out of range of the lights.

The larger vessel had reversed her engines to stop. He decided that was part of the rumble he had heard. Now the cruiser reversed, made gentle contact. He heard calls in Chinese. Lines were secured. People clambered from the smaller craft to the larger. Evidently they were going to lay to for awhile. Good! They could have left him helplessly behind, perfectly able to swim home but feeling completely stupid.

Nick swam in a wide loop until he was bow-on to the big schooner, then slipped underwater and swam toward her, listening for the rumble of her big engines. He would be in trouble if she suddenly started forward, but he counted on greetings, talk, perhaps even a period of laying-to by both craft for talks or… what? He had to discover that what.

The schooner had no canvas up. She had been running on her auxiliaries. His quick glances had noted only four or five men on her, which would be enough to handle her in a pinch, but she might have a small army aboard.

He peeked down her port side. The cruiser had been secured. Under the dim deck lights of the schooner a man who looked like a Lascar sailor lounged on the low metal-and-chain rail, gazing at the smaller vessel.

Nick swam silently around the starboard bow, searching for a stray anchor line. Nothing. He went back a few yards and eyed the bowsprit rigging and chains. They were high above him. He could no more reach them then a cockroach swimming in a bathtub could reach the showerhead. He swam along the starboard side, passed her widest beam point and found nothing but smooth, well-cared-for hull. He went farther aft — and got his biggest break of the evening, he decided. A yard above his head, neatly secured against the schooner by bridle lines, was hooked an aluminum ladder. The type used for many purposes — docking, entering small boats, swimming, fishing. Evidently the ship had been at a dock or anchorage down the bay and they had not felt it necessary to secure her for sea. That indicated that a rendezvous between the cruiser and the schooner might be a frequent occurrence.

He dove, came up like an aqua-show porpoise leaping for a fish, caught the ladder and climbed up, lying against the ships side to let at least some of the water drain from his sodden clothes.

Everyone seemed to have gone below except the sailor on the other side. Nick climbed aboard. He slurped like a wet sail and shed water from both feet. Regretfully he took off his coat and pants, transferred his wallet and a few items to the pockets in his special shorts, and dropped the garments into the sea, after buttoning them into a dark ball.

Standing like a modern Tarzan, in shirt and shorts and socks, festooned with a shoulder holster and a slim knife strapped to his forearm, he felt more exposed — but somehow free. He crept aft along the deck, toward the cockpit Near a port, secured open but with a screen and drape blocking his view, he heard voices. English, Chinese and German! He could catch only a few words of the multilingual conversation- He slit the screen and tipped aside a drape very cautiously with Hugo's needlepoint tip.

In the big main cabin or saloon, around a table covered with glasses and bottles and cups, sat Akito, Hans Geist, a huddled form with gray hair and a bandaged face and the thin Chinese. Nick studied the Chinese. It was his first really good look at him. There had been a glimpse in Maryland, when Geist had called him Chick, and in Pennsylvania. The man had alert eyes, sat confidently like a man who thought he could handle what came up.

Nick listened to odd chatter until Geist said, "… the girls are cowardly babies. There cannot be a connection between the Englishman Williams and the stupid notes. I say we continue with our plan."

"I saw Williams," Akito said reflectively. "He reminded me of someone else. But who?"

The man with the bandaged face spoke with a guttural accent. "What do you say, Soong? You are the buyer. With most to gain or lose because you need the oil."

The thin Chinese smiled briefly. "Do not believe we are desperate for oil. The world markets are glutted with it In three months we will pay less than the dollar-seventy a barrel in the Persian Gulf. Which by the way gives the imperialists a profit of a dollar-fifty. Just one of them pumps three million barrels a day. You can forecast the surplus."

"We know the world picture," the bandaged man said gently. "The question is do you still want the oil shipments now."

"Yes."

"Then the cooperation of only one man is needed. We will get it."

"I hope so," Chick Soong replied. "Your plan for obtaining cooperation by the use of fear, force and fornication hasn't worked too well so far."

"I have been around much longer than you, my friend. I have seen what makes men move… or not move."

"I admit your experience is immense." Nick got the impression that Soong had large reservations; like a good back he'd do his part in the play, but he had connections in the office so look out. "When will you put the pressure on?"

"Tomorrow," said Geist.

"Very well. We should know quickly whether it is effective or not. Shall we meet day after tomorrow at Shenandoah?"

"A good idea. More tea?" Geist poured, looking like a weightlifter trapped at a girl's party. He was drinking whiskey himself.

Nick thought. You can learn more at windows today than with all the bugs and taps in the world. Nobody discloses anything on a phone any more.

The talk became boring. He let the drape close and crept along past two portholes which opened onto the same room. He came to another which was the master stateroom, open and covered with a screen and chintz curtain. Girls* voices came through it. He slit the screen and cut a tiny opening in the curtain. My, he mused, how naughty.

Seated fully clothed and looking quite prim were Ruth Moto, Suzi Quong and Anne We Ling. On the bed, stark naked, were Pong-Pong Lily, Sonya Ranyez and the man called Sammy.

Nick noted that Sammy looked fit, no belly. The girls were luscious. He inspected the deck both ways for a moment so that he could devote a few seconds to scientific observation. Wow, that Sonya! You could just click a camera from any position and you'd have a Playboy foldout.

What she was doing you couldn't put in Playboy. You couldn't use it anywhere except in steel-core pornography. Sonya was devoting her attention to Sammy, who lay with his knees drawn up and a delighted expression on his face while Pong-Pong supervised. Every time Pong-Pong said something to Sonya in a low tone that Nick could not catch, it had a reaction seconds later on Sammy. He would smile, jump, twitch, moan or gurgle with pleasure.

School is in session, Nick decided. His mouth felt a little dry. He swallowed. Wooh! Who thought that one up? He told himself he shouldn't be so surprised. A true expert always had to learn somewhere. And Pong-Pong was a great teacher — she was making an expert out of Sonya.

"Oooh!" Sammy arched his back and emitted a gasp of pure enjoyment.

Pong-Pong smiled at him like a tutor proud of her pupil. Sonya didn't look up and couldn't speak. She was an apt student.

A chatter of Chinese on deck toward the stern alerted Nick. He withdrew his eye from the curtain with regret. You can always learn. Two sailors were on his side of the ship, probing the water with a long boathook. Nick retreated into the spacious cockpit. Damn! They hoisted up a limp black bundle. His discarded clothes! The weight of the water hadn't sunk them after all. One sailor took the bundle and disappeared down a hatch.

He thought fast. They may search. The sailor on deck was probing at the water with the hook, hoping for another find. Nick crossed over and went up the ratlines of the mainmast. The schooner was gaff-rigged. Once above the main truck he had considerable concealment. He curled himself around the topmast like a lizard around a tree trunk and watched.

He got action. Hans Geist and Chick Soong came and went on deck accompanied by five sailors. They went in and out of hatches. They explored the cockpit and checked the lazarette lock and gathered at the bow and beat their way to the stern like bush hunters beating for game. They got lights and searched the water all around the schooner, then around the cruiser, and then they searched the smaller craft. Once or twice one of them glanced up, but like many searchers, they failed to believe their quarry might be up.

Their comments arose to him loud and clear in the still night. "Those clothes were just junk… Command One says no… what about those special pockets?… He swam away or had a boat… anyway he ain't here now."

A short while later Ruth, Suzi, Sonya, Anne, Akito, Sammy and Chick Soong got into the cruiser and roared away. Soon the schooner's engines revved up and she made a turn and started down the bay. One man was on watch at the wheel and another on the bow. Nick studied the tillerman. When his head was over the binnacle Nick came down the ratline like a monkey in a hurry. When the man looked up Nick said, "Hi," conversationally and chopped him down before surprise registered.

He was tempted to drop him overboard to save time and cut the odds, but even a Killmaster rating wouldn't justify that. With Hugo he cut two pieces of line, secured his prisoner and gagged him with his own shirt.

The bowman may have seen or sensed something wrong. Nick met him in the waist of the ship and in three minutes he was trussed up like his mate. Nick thought of Pong-Pong. Everything goes so well when you're completely trained.

Things didn't go well in the engine room. He went down the iron ladder, held Wilhelmina on an astonished Chinese standing at the control panel, and then another one came out of the tiny stores room behind him and grabbed him around the neck.

Nick flipped him like a rodeo bronc bouncing a lightweight rider, but the man had a steely grip and held onto his gun arm. Nick got a chop down that hit skull instead of neck and the other engineman came across the deckplates gripping a big iron tool.

Wilhelmina roared. The slug bounced murderously around the steel plates. The man swung the tool and Nick's lightning reflexes put under the blow the man who clung to him. It hit his shoulder and he screamed and let go.

Nick parried the next blow and slammed Wilhelmina against the weapon bearer's ear. An instant later he had the other one on the floor where he lay moaning.

"Hey!" A shout came down the ladder in the tones of Hans Geist.

Nick swung Wilhelmina up and blasted a warning at the dark opening. He jumped to the back of the compartment, out of range, and studied the situation. Seven or eight men up there. He stepped back to the panel and cut the engines off. The silence was a momentary surprise.

He looked at the ladder. I can't go up and they can't come down, but they can get me out with gas or even burning rags. They'll think of something. He hurried through the| stores room and found a watertight door and threw off the dogs. It let forward. The schooner had been built for a small crew and with inside passages for heavy weather. If he moved fast, before they organized…

He crept forward, saw the room where he had seen the girls and Sammy. It was empty. Just as he entered the main saloon Geist disappeared up the main hatch, pushing before him the form of the bandaged man. Judas? Bormann?

Nick started to follow, then leaped back as a pistol snout appeared and spat slugs down the beautiful hardwood stairway. They tore up a lot of fine woodwork and varnish. Nick ran back to the watertight door. No one followed. He went into the engine room and called, "Hello, up there."

A Tommy gun chattered and the engine room became a shooting gallery as steel-jacketed slugs ricocheted around in it like shot shaken in a metal vase. Lying on the forward side of the barrier, protected by its high Up at deck level, he heard several bullets chung into the near wall. One went over him with the familiar deadly whir-r-r-r-r.

Someone shouted. The pistol forward and the spray gun at the engine room hatch stopped firing. Silence. Water slap-slapped against the hull. Feet pounded on decks. The vessel creaked and echoed with the dozens of sounds every ship generates when rolling in a light sea. He heard more shouts, the thud of wood and tackle. He surmised they were putting a boat overside, either the powered launch that was slung over the stern or the dory atop the deckhouse. He found a hacksaw, severed engine wires.

He explored his below-decks prison. The schooner appeared to have been built in a Dutch or Baltic yard. She was well put together. Metal was in metric measurements. The engines were German diesels. At sea, he thought, she combines the ruggedness of a Gloucester fisherman with extra speed and comfort. Some of these vessels were designed with a loading hatch near the stores and engine rooms. He explored midships, behind the watertight bulkhead. He found two small cabins which would serve two of the sailors and just aft of them he discovered the loading hatch in the side, beautifully fitted and secured with six big metal dogs.

He went back and bolted the engine-room hatch. So much for that. He crept forward along the companionway into the main saloon. A pistol tilted in his general direction was fired twice. Swiftly he returned to the side-hatch, unfastened the dogs and slowly swung out the metal door.

If they were putting the little dory on this side, or if one of the men topside was an engineer with a head on his shoulders and they had put a watch on the side-hatch already, it would mean that he was still trapped. He looked out. There was nothing visible but dark purple water and the glow of lights from above. All the activity sounded from the launch at the stern. He could see the tip of its bow. They had lowered it.

Nick reached up, grabbed the gunwale, then the rail, and slid onto the deck like a water moccasin crawling onto a log. He snaked his way aft Hans Geist helped Pong-Pong Lily over the side and down a ladder. He said to someone Nick could not see, "Go out fifty feet and circle."

Nick felt grudging admiration for the big German, He was putting his girl friend in a safe place in case Nick opened the seacocks or the schooner was blown up. He wondered who they thought he was. He crawled up on the deckhouse and stretched out between the dory and two U-rafts.

Geist came back along the deck, passing ten feet from Nick. He said something to whoever was watching the engine-room hatch and then disappeared in the direction of the main hatch. The guy had guts. He was going down into the ship to flush out the interloper. Surprise!

Nick went noiselessly aft on bare feet. The two Chinese sailors he had tied up were now untied and watching the hatch like cats at a mousehole. Rather than risk more blows on Wulhelmina's barrel, Nick took a belaying pin out of its hole. The two went down like lead soldiers brushed by a child's hand.

Nick raced forward, came up behind a man searching the water and guarding the foredeck. Nick paused as the man lay down on the deck under the belaying pin's tap without making a sound. This luck wouldn't last. Nick cautioned himself — went aft carefully, inspecting every cross-passage and deckhouse corner. The deck was empty. The remaining three men were working their way through the interior of the ship with Geist.

Nick realized he hadn't heard the launch's engine. He peeked over the taffrail. The launch had drifted thirty feet from the larger ship. A short sailor was cursing and fussing with the engine, watched by Pong-Pong. Nick crouched with the big pin in one hand and Wilhelmina in the other. Who had that Tommy gun now?

"Hey!" A voice behind him shouted. Feet thundered in the companion way.

Blam! A pistol roared and he was sure he heard the whir-r-r of the bullet as he went headfirst into the water. He dropped the pin and returned Wilhelmina to its holster and swam deep and out, toward the launch. He heard and felt the blasts and liquid kerchungs as slugs peppered the sea above him. He felt strangely safe and protected as he swam deep and then eased upward, searching for the bottom of the small boat.

He missed it, estimated that he was fifty feet out and surfaced as lightly as a frog peeping out of a pond. Outlined against the schooner's lights three men stood on the stern searching the water. He identified Geist by his giant size. The sailor in the launch was standing up, looking toward the larger craft. Then he swiveled, peering into the night, and his gaze stopped on Nick. He reached toward his waist. Nick realized he couldn't reach the boat before the man would be able to drill him four times. Wilhelmina came up, leveled — and the sailor went backward at the sound of its blast. The Tommy gun chattered wildly. Nick ducked under and put the launch between himself and the men on the schooner.

He swam to the launch — and looked sudden death right in the face. Pong Pong thrust a small automatic almost into his teeth as he grabbed the gunwale to pull himself up. She was muttering and pulling wildly on the gun with both hands. He grabbed for the weapon, missed and fell back. He was looking right into her lovely, angry face.

I've had it, he thought, she'll find the safety in an instant or she must know enough to cock it if the chamber is empty.

The Tommy gun rattled. Pong-Pong froze and then toppled forward onto Nick, striking him a glancing blow as she fell into the water. Hans Geist roared, "Stop that!" Followed by a stream of German oaths.

The night was suddenly very still.

Nick slid down in the water, keeping the launch between himself and the schooner. Hans called, a worried, almost plaintive appeal, "Pong-Pong?"

Silence. "Pong-Pong!"

Nick swam to the bow of the launch, reached up and got hold of a line. He secured the line around his waist and slowly began to tow the launch, stroking with all his great power against its dead weight. It swung slowly stern on to the schooner and followed him like a waterlogged snail.

"He's towing the launch," Hans yelled. "There…"

Nick surface dived as the spray gun chattered, came back up carefully, concealed by the launch. The gun rattled again, chewing at the stern of the small boat, flecking the water on both sides of Nick.

He towed the launch away into the night. Climbed in and started his beeper beacon — in hope — and after five minutes' swift work got the engine started.

The launch was slow, built for heavy work and rough seas, not speed. Nick plugged the five holes he could reach and bailed occasionally when water rose in her. A clear and brilliant dawn arose as he rounded the headland into the Patapsco River. Hawk, piloting a Bell helicopter, reached him as he headed in to a marina at Riviera Beach. They exchanged waves. Forty minutes later he had given the launch into the care of a surprised attendant and joined Hawk who had landed in the deserted parking lot. Hawk said, "It's a marvelous morning for a boat ride."

"All right, I'll ask," Nick said. "How did you find me?"

"Did you use Stuart's latest beeper? The signal was excellent."

"Yes. The thing is effective. Especially across water I suppose. But you don't go flying around every morning."

Hawk took out two of his strong cigars, gave one to Nick. "Once in awhile you meet a very smart citizen. You met one. Named Boyd. Ex-Navy Warrant Officer. He called Navy. Navy called F.B.I. They called me. I phoned Boyd and he described Jerry Deming, the oil man who wanted dock space. I thought I ought to buzz around in case you wanted to see me."

"And Boyd mentioned the mysterious cruiser that sails from the Chu Dai Marina, eh?"

"Well, yes," Hawk admitted cheerfully. "I couldn't see you missing a chance to sail in her."

"It was some voyage. They'll be cleaning up the wreckage for a long time. We went out…"

He described the events in exact detail Hawk refueled at Mountain Road Airport and they soared through the bright morning toward AXE's hangars above Annapolis. When Nick finished talking Hawk asked, "Any ideas, Nicholas?"

"Ill try one. The Chicoms want more oil. Top quality and now. They can buy all they want usually, but that's not like having Saudico or one of the others ready to load them as fast as they send tankers. Maybe that thin Chinese is a key. Say he set up a Washington organization using men like Judas and Geist who are experts at ruthless pressure. They've got the girls for information agents and to reward men who go for it. Once the news of the hood of death gets around, a man hasn't much choice. Fun and games or a quick death, and they aren't fooling."

"You are on target, Nick. Adam Read of Saudico has been told to load Chinese tankers at the Gulf or else."

"We have enough weight there to stop that."

"Yes, although some of the Arabs are acting rebellious. However we call the turns there. But that doesn't help Adam Read when he is told to sell or die."

"He's impressed?"

"He's impressed. They explained carefully. He knows about Tyson and although he's no coward you can't blame him for getting the wind up about an outfit that kills almost as an example."

"Have we got enough to close in?"

"Where is Judas? And Chick Soong and Geist? They will tell him that even if the men we know vanish others will get him."

"Orders?" Nick asked softly.

Hawk talked precisely for about five minutes.

An AXE chauffeur dropped Jerry Deming, clothed in borrowed mechanic's overalls, near his apartment at eleven. He wrote notes to three girls — and then there were four. And another — and then there were three. He dispatched the first set by special delivery and mailed the second group regular mail. Bill Rohde and Barney Manoon were to pick up any two of the girls except Ruth, during the day and evening, depending on opportunity.

Nick turned in and slept for eight hours. The telephone awakened him at dusk. He put on the scrambler. Hawk said, "We have Suzi and Anne. I hope they had a chance to worry each other."

"Sonya last?"

"We haven't had a chance at her but she's watched. Well get her tomorrow. But no sign of Geist or Soong or Judas. The schooner is back at a bay dock. Ostensibly belongs to a Taiwanese. British citizen. Leaving for Europe next week."

"Continue as ordered?"

"Yes. Good luck."

Nick wrote one more note — and then there was one. He mailed it to Ruth Moto.

Just before noon the next day he called her, reaching her after being transferred to Akito's office. She sounded tense as she refused his cheery invitation to lunch. "I'm — terribly busy, Jerry. Please call me again."

"It's not all pleasure," he said, "although you're the girl in Washington I'd most like to have lunch with. I've decided to chuck my job. There must be a way to make money faster and easier. Your Dad still interested?"

There was a pause. She said, "Please wait" When she came back on the phone she still sounded worried, almost scared. "He wants to see you. In a day or two."

"Well — I've got a couple of other angles, Ruth. Don't forget, I know where to get oil. And how to buy it Without limit I had the feeling he might be interested."

A long pause. At last she came back. "In that case — can you meet us for cocktails about five?"

"I'm looking for a job, honey. Ill meet you any time, anywhere."

"At Remarco's. Know it?"

"Sure. I'll be there."

When Nick, debonair in Italian-tailored gray sharkskin and Guards' tie, met Ruth at Remarco's she was alone. Vinci, the rugged partner who acts as greeter, took him to her in one of the many small alcoves of the discreet, popular rendezvous. She looked worried.

Nick gave her a big smile, slid in beside her and added a hug. She was rigid. "Hello, Ruthie. I've missed you. Ready for more adventures tonight?"

He felt her shudder. "Hi… Jerry. It's good to see you." She took a sip of water. "No… I'm… tired."

"Oh-h…" He raised a finger. "I know the medicine." He spoke to the waiter. 'Two martinis. Regular. The way Mr. Martini invented them."

Ruth fumbled out a cigarette. Nick slid one from the pack, held lights. "Daddy couldn't make it. We… we've had some important business come up."

"Problems?"

"Yes. Unexpected."

He tilted his eyes at her. She was a gorgeous dish! A king-size sweet imported from Norway and materials handcrafted on the way in Japan. He chuckled. She looked at him. "What?"

"I was just thinking how beautiful you are." He spoke slowly and softly. "Lately I've been watching girls — to see if there is just one with your wonderful body and exotic coloring. Nope. Not a one. You know you could be anything you wanted to, I believe. Model. Movie or TV actress. You actually look like what the world's future woman may look like. The best of East and West."

She colored a little. He thought, Nothing like a string of warm compliments to get a woman's mind off troubles.

"Thank you. You're quite a man yourself, Jerry. Daddy is really interested. He wants you to come and see him tomorrow."

"Oh." Nick donned a look of severe disappointment.

"Don't look so sad. He's really got an idea for you, I think."

I'll bet he has, Nick meditated. I wonder if he's really her father. And has he guessed something about Jerry Deming?

The martinis arrived. Nick continued a gentle conversation of sincere flattery and great possibilities for Ruth. He ordered two more drinks. Then two more. She protested — but she drank. Her stiffness retreated. She chuckled at his jokes. Time flowed by and they picked at a pair of Remarco's magnificent club steaks. They had brandy and coffee. They danced. Easing the lovely body around the floor Nick thought, / don't know just how she feels now but my spirits are up. He pulled her against him. She's relaxed. Eyes followed them. They made a striking couple.

Nick peeked at his watch. 9:52. Now, he thought, there are several ways to work this. If I do it the way I'll enjoy it most Hawk will figure it out and make one of his sardonic comments. Ruth's long, warm flank was pressed against his, under the table her slim fingers traced exciting patterns on his palm. My way, he decided. Hawk enjoys needling me anyway.

They entered "Jerry Deming's"' apartment at 10:46. Drank scotch and looked at the river lights while Billy Faire's music provided background. He told her how easily he could fall in love with a girl so lovely, so exotic, so intriguing. Playfulness progressed to passion, and he noted it was just midnight when he hung up her gown and his suit "to keep them neat."

Her ability at love-making electrified him. Call it relief from tension, credit it to the martinis, remember that she had been carefully trained to captivate men — it was still the greatest. He told her so at 2:00 a.m.

Her lips were wet against his ear, her breath a rich, hot compound of sweet passion, alcohol and a meaty, aphrodisiacal woman smell. She replied, "Thank you, darling. You make me very happy. And — you haven't enjoyed it all yet. I know a lot more" — she chuckled — "delightfully strange things."

"That's what makes me sad," he answered. "I've just really found you and I won't see you again for weeks. Perhaps months."

"What?" She raised her face, the skin glowing with a moist, hot, ruddy sheen in the light of one dim lamp "Where are you going? You're seeing Daddy tomorrow."

"No. I didn't want to tell you. I'm leaving for New York at ten. Catching a plane for London and then probably on to Riyadh."

"Oil business?"

"Yes. It's what I wanted to talk to Akito about but I guess that's out, now. When they squeezed me that time Saudico and the Japanese concession — you're familiar with that deal — didn't get it all. Saudi Arabia is three times the size of Texas, with maybe 170 billion barrels in reserves. Swims on oil. The big wheels have a lock on Faisal but there are five thousand princes. I've got my connections. I know where to tap out a few million barrels a month. Profit on it say — three million dollars. A third to me. I can't miss this deal…"

The sparkling black eyes were wide against his own. "You didn't tell me all this."

"You didn't ask."

"Maybe… maybe Daddy could make you a better deal than the one you're going into. He wants oil."

"He can buy all he wants from the Japanese concession. Unless — is he selling to Reds?"

She nodded slowly. "Do you mind that?"

He laughed. "Why? Everybody does."

"Can I call Daddy?"

"Go ahead. I'd much rather keep it in the family, darling." He kissed her. It took three minutes. Damn the hood of death and his job — it would be so much more fun just to — he gently disengaged. "Make the call. We haven't much time."

He dressed, his keen ears catching her side of the conversation. She told Daddy all about Jerry Deming's marvelous connections and those millions of barrels. Nick put two bottles of fine scotch into a leather bag.

An hour later she directed him down a side road near Rockville. Lights glowed in a medium-sized industrial-commercial building. The sign over the entrance said MARVIN IMPORT-EXPORT. Going down a hall Nick saw another small sign that was very unobtrusive, Walter W. Wing, Vice-President, Confederation Oil Company. He carried the leather bag.

Akito was waiting for them in a private office. He looked like an over-worked businessman, now, some of the mask was loosened. Nick thought he knew why. After the greetings and recap of Ruth's explanation, Akito said, "I know there is not much time, but perhaps I can make your trip to the Mideast unnecessary. We have the tankers. We'll pay you a dollar seventy-four a barrel for everything you can load for at least a year."

"Cash?"

"Of course. Any currency. Anywhere. Any split or arrangements you wish. You can see what I'm offering, Mr. Deming. You are in complete command of your profits. And thus your destiny."

Nick picked up the bag containing the scotch, put the two bottles on the desk. Akito smiled broadly. "We seal the deal with a drink, eh?"

Nick sat back, unbuttoned his coat. "Unless you still want to have another try at Adam Read."

The hard, dry planes of Akito's face froze. He looked like a below-zero Buddha.

Ruth gasped, stared in horror at Nick, turned to Akito. "I swear I didn't know…"

Akito brushed her silent with a chop of his hand. "So it was you. In Pennsylvania. On the boat. The notes to the girls."

"It was me. Don't move that hand again on your feet. Stay completely still. I can execute you in an instant. And your daughter might get hurt. By the way — is she your daughter?"

"No. The girls are… members."

"Recruited for a long-range plan. I can vouch for their training."

"Don't pity them. Where they came from they might never have had a full meal. We have given them…"

Wilhelmina appeared with a snap of Nick's wrist Akito stopped speaking. The frozen expression did not change. Nick said, "The way you are talking I assume you pressed a button under your foot. I hope it is for Soong and Geist and the others. I want them too."

"You want them. You said execute. Who are you?"

"You've guessed. N3 of AXE. Rated one of the three Killmasters."

"Barbaric."

"Like a sword chop on a helpless prisoner's neck?"

Akito's features dulled for the first time. The door opened. Chick Soong was a step into the room, looking at Akito, before he saw the Luger. He fell forward with the speedy grace of a Judo expert as Akito's hands flashed out of sight below the desk.

Nick placed the first bullet where the Luger was aimed — just below the triangle of white handkerchief in Akito's breast pocket. His second shot caught Soong in mid-air, four feet from the muzzle. The Chinese had a blue revolver coming up in one hand when Wilhelmina's shot took him right in the heart. As he fell, his head hit Nick's leg. He rolled on his back. Nick picked up the revolver and pushed Akito away from the desk.

The older man's body fell sideways from the chair. No more threat there, Nick noted, but you stayed alive by not taking anything for granted. Ruth was screaming in a full-throated glass-crash of sound that in the small room ripped at the eardrums like a cold knife. She ran out the door, still screaming.

He grabbed the two bottles of scotch-and-explosive from the desk and followed her. She ran down the hall toward the back of the building and into a warehouse section with Nick twelve feet behind her.

"Stop," he roared. She bolted down a corridor between stacked cartons. He holstered Wilhelmina and reached to grab her when she burst into an open space. A man naked to the waist was jumping down from the rear of a trailer truck. The man yelled, "What…?" as the three collided.

It was Hans Geist, and his mind and body reacted swiftly. He pushed Ruth aside, slammed a fist into Nick's chest. The man from AXE could not avoid the smashing greeting — his momentum carried him right into it. The scotch bottles burst on the concrete in a glass and liquid shower.

"No smoking," Nick said as he swung underhand at Geist's gun and then went to the floor as the big man opened his arms and closed them around him. Nick knew what it's like to surprise a grizzly bear. He was crushed, pounded and bounced on the cement. He couldn't reach Wilhelmina or Hugo. Geist had been around. Nick twisted to fend off a knee pounding at his testicles. Banged his skull into the man's face as he felt teeth biting at his neck. This guy played for keeps.

They rolled, grinding glass and whiskey into a greasier brown substance that coated the floor. Nick pistoned his elbows, expanded his chest and shoulders, and at last got his hands clasped together and shot them up — thrusting, prying, driving with every sinew and muscle and delivering all the power of his tremendous strength.

Geist was a powerful man, but when torso and shoulder muscles ram against arm strength, there is no contest. His arms flew out as Nick's locked hands surged up. Before he could close them again Nick's lightning reflexes decided the issue. He chopped the side of one iron-hard fist on Geist's Adam's apple — a clean blow that hardly touched the man's chin. Geist collapsed.

Swiftly Nick searched the rest of the small warehouse, found it empty, and cautiously approached the office section. Ruth had vanished — he hoped she wouldn't get a gun from Akito's desk and have a try. His keen hearing detected movement beyond the corridor door. Sammy came into the large room, preceded by an automatic of moderate size and with a cigarette clipped in the corner of his mouth. Nick wondered if he was a nicotine slave or watched old gangster movies on TV. Sammy went down the carton corridor, bent over the moaning Geist amid the shattered glass and stench of whiskey.

Staying as far back in the passageway as he could Nick called gently, "Sammy. Drop it or you're dead."

Sammy didn't. Sammy fired the automatic wildly and dropped his cigarette into the brown compound on the floor and Sammy went dead. Nick went twenty feet back along the cartons, blown by the force of the explosion, holding his mouth open to protect his eardrums. The warehouse was a mass of brownish smoke.

Nick staggered for a moment as he went through the office corridor. Wooh! That Stuart! His head was ringing. He was not too stunned to carefully check each room on his way to Akito's office. He entered it cautiously, Wilhelmina focusing on Ruth who sat at the desk, both her hands in sight and empty. She was crying.

Even with shock and horror smearing her boldly drawn features, with tears streaming down her cheeks, shaking and gasping as if she might retch any instant — Nick thought, She's still the most beautiful woman I've ever seen.

He said, "Relax, Ruth. He wasn't your father anyway. And it isn't the end of the whole world."

She choked. Her head nodded violently. She was struggling for air. "Don't care. We… You…"

Her head fell forward onto the hard wood and then tilted on its side. The beautiful body had become a rag doll made of soft cloth.

Nick leaned forward, sniffed and swore. Cyanide, most likely. He holstered Wilhelmina and put a hand on the sleek, smooth hair. And then there were none.

We are such fools. All of us.

He lifted the telephone and dialed Hawk.

Content

Nick Carter
Hood of Death

Chapter I

Chapter II

Chapter III

Chapter IV

Chapter V

Chapter VI

Chapter VII

Chapter VIII

Chapter IX

Chapter X