Disaster

  It was then I found something.

  I could not believe my luck!

  The jacket I was putting on had a hidden knife! It was about five inches long and very sharp. It lay flat against the left rib cage!

  When Heller brought me back a plate and canister, I carefully schooled myself to continue to look bland.

  “There’s a field nobody uses,” I said, “about three miles from the base. It is in a fold of the mountain and innocent of rocks. It belongs to the base but the soil is worn-out and it is not leased to tenants. They are giving it a rest. If we land there after dark, we only need to walk over the shoulder of a hill and we will be on a road that goes right past the villa. And it, too, is not much used. I can get you in there but you have to take my advice and do what I say.”

  He was only half-listening. He was looking up the passageway toward a clock. I knew what would be on his mind. Every part of him wanted to believe me but part of him was also saying that it might not be true. He looked rather white around the eyes. His hands were shaking slightly.

  I was careful not to exhibit any satisfaction over his state. What a brilliant bomb I had thrown into him! My whole situation was reversed. He was not even being careful!

  Darkness crept across the land below.

  Heller, on the flight deck, carefully located the field and fed in its coordinates.

  Finally the Earth went black under us.

  “Here we go,” said Heller, and he reached for the controls.

  I could scarcely breathe. In only a couple of hours I would be free to wipe out the hopes of Earth for cheap fuel. Rockecenter must be saved!

  Very shortly now, Heller’s corpse would join the lifeless body of the Countess Krak.

  PART SIXTY-FOUR

  Chapter 3

  We landed with a whisper in the dark.

  Heller, at the airlock, put the cat back inside. “You stay here and guard the ship.” The cat sat down and he shut the airlock in its face.

  We went across an open field and began to climb the shoulder that separated us from the road.

  “We must be very quiet,” I said. “When you see me stop and listen, you must stop, too.”

  “You stay ahead of me,” said Heller. “Walk fast.”

  I walked along. I was desperately thinking of how I could get behind him. All it would take was just one stab. He was mortal like any other man and he seemed too impetuous for caution. And I had other ways to get him, too!

  We descended the slope of the shoulder and came to the road. There was no traffic.

  We went along the footpath beside the road. We passed the ill-fated copse where I had had so many women in the car. We came at length within reach of the villa gate.

  Everything was quiet inside. There was the glow of a single light burning in the garden and some yellow splashes from the windows of the staff hut.

  I held up my hand to stop him. “There’s a secret lock to open the bars,” I said. I reached up on the pillar and pressed the staff alarm.

  Urgent lights would be flashing in their quarters now.

  I silently opened the gate.

  Heller pushed me ahead of him. He had no idea at all he was walking into a trap.

  I saw something moving in the bushes beside the walk.

  Musef and Torgut!

  Ah, bless them! They would be ready, as they had been for Black Jowl.

  Heller stopped. I glanced back. He was looking around. But he was not looking toward that spot that had moved.

  SUDDENLY TWO FLASHLIGHTS CAME ON!

  One from the right! The other from the left!

  They were drilling straight at Heller’s face!

  Below them were the muzzles of guns!

  Suddenly a scream.

  “The DEA man!” cried Musef.

  There was a clatter.

  A lead pipe had fallen to the walk!

  The flashlights were weaving a wild pattern as they went away.

  They got to the wall.

  They went up and straight over the top, barbs and glass and all!

  “Run for your life!” Torgut was bellowing in the field beside the villa.

  The rush of frantic footsteps faded away.

  I was stunned.

  “What was that all about?” said Heller.

  I thought fast. I was swallowing my disappointment. “We must have surprised some robbers at work,” I said.

  But I was very far from through. All I had to do was get to my secret room, step on a tile and sound the general alarm for the whole base. They thought he was there to kill them. I had long since made sure they believed that.

  Silently we crept into the patio of the villa itself. The only sound was the fountain. We went through to my bedroom.

  Now, if I worked this right, I could con him into my secret room and get my foot upon the tile.

  I opened the closet passageway. Heller pushed me ahead of him. I stepped through into my secret room.

  The lights were on. Krak’s broken viewer still lay on the floor. My gun rack glinted invitingly. Heller, seeing it, made me step back.

  I only had one pace to take so I could step on the key tile and twist it to sound the general alarm. It would not be heard in here but it would bring every man on the base into the hangar and set up every gun!

  Heller was in my way!

  He seemed to be listening.

  Then I heard it.

  Someone was coming up the tunnel from the other side of the secret door!

  Heller spotted the portal.

  He reached out and grabbed me by the arm to hold me still.

  Yes, someone was coming. They were now at the door. It swung inward.

  UTANC!

  She was coming out of the hangar! How could she ever have known it existed? How could she even know about this secret room? She was carrying two bags of heroin over her shoulder!

  She stopped.

  And then in a draw so fast I didn’t even see a blur, she had a small gun in her hand!

  With a sudden yank, Heller had me in front of him.

  Utanc was raising the gun!

  “Oh, darling!” I screamed. “Look, look, look! It’s me! DON’T SHOOT!”

  In terror I watched her finger on the trigger.

  I made a struggle to get free.

  She looked straight at me.

  SHE FIRED!

  PART SIXTY-FOUR

  Chapter 4

  I felt the bullet jar my ribs.

  At the same instant I saw her big black eyes.

  They were cold and ruthless!

  I felt myself being hurled forward by Heller.

  SHE FIRED AGAIN!

  Then suddenly I was thrown to my left. Utanc’s gun hand was in Heller’s grasp.

  With a heave he snapped her spinning into the room. She went down.

  He was on her like a tiger!

  The gun was in his left hand and pointing at her throat!

  In this moment of his distraction, I saw the key tile not three feet away. With a sudden crabwise scuttle, I got my hand on it.

  I twisted. I pressed. I had sounded the hangar alarm that would assemble the whole base.

  I felt a surge of triumph. Then I saw my hand. Blood was running down my fingers. I had been hit!

  The shock of the bullets vanished. The pain struck me in a red, twisting tide.

  The whole room seemed to spin and upend. Items in it leaped into separate view as though unconnected with the rest. Krak’s broken viewer. Heroin spilled across the floor. The door to the tunnel once more tightly shut. Utanc’s heels drumming on the floor.

  Heller was no longer holding a gun. He was strangling her with his left hand!

  Utanc’s eyes were wild! She was struggling, threshing back and forth, trying to get away.

  Then I saw that Heller was doing a terrible thing. He was undressing her!

  The thought surged through my pain: Gods, has he gone mad? Is this a rape?

  With his free hand he tore her sleeves to bits a
nd cast her jacket aside. His fingers stabbed under her belly band and yanked. There was a sharp rip of cloth. He tore her Turkish pants off and cast them away. His savage hand gripped her underpants and tore them into shreds!

  Writhing and twisting and trying to get out from under him, Utanc was naked on the floor.

  The body, every muscle taut, writhed over on its side in my direction.

  Through the pink mist of pain, I could not believe what I saw.

  UTANC WAS A MAN!

  The comprehension hit me like another bullet. And then a wave of nausea swept through me.

  Ever since this creature had come, I HAD BEEN MAKING LOVE TO A HOMO!

  I vomited.

  Heller still held the writhing body down. The bra had been torn away, showing a hairless but male chest. He was searching under the body’s back. Then he shifted his holds and one hand started down the homo’s inner thigh. He yanked and Utanc screamed. He had removed a flat wallet that was taped there.

  Using one knee now to hold the creature, Heller was opening the leather. He was evidently reading something. He read it again, aloud, “Colonel Boris Gaylov of the Russian KGB!”

  Heller glanced in my direction. “If this was your woman, it’s the Code break of all time! You’ve been harboring an agent of the Soviet secret service! Was this your doing?”

  I vomited again.

  Heller turned to the homo he was holding down. “You’d better talk and talk fast! What were you doing here?”

  He had relaxed his grip on the throat and a stream of profanity—Russian, English, French—sprayed from the contorted lips.

  Heller reached across the floor to where the heroin had spilled. He scooped up a handful. “If you don’t talk, this is going to go down your throat!”

  Utanc screamed and writhed and tried to get away.

  “Russia is no more,” said Heller. “You can’t betray it, as it has ceased to exist. Talk!” The handful of heroin approached her mouth.

  “You beast!” screamed Gaylov.

  “Information!” demanded Heller, the hand holding the heroin hard against her chin. “Did you report this base to Moscow?”

  “You son of a (bleepch)!” howled Gaylov. “Russia was winning! We would have ruled the world! We had the greatest spy network man has ever seen!”

  “Information!” said Heller.

  Crystals of deadly heroin had reached those perverted lips. Colonel Gaylov spat them out. “I kept our whole worldwide spy network financed with heroin and money from this base. And now everything is wrecked. Go ahead and kill me!”

  I had ceased to throw up. I got a grip on myself. I had turned on the alarm. The longer he spent here, the better they would be organized in the hangar. Wounded though I was, all was not yet lost.

  There was more struggle from Gaylov.

  “Did you report this base?” said Heller.

  “Yes, yes, yes!” Gaylov snarled, spitting out heroin crystals. “I’ve known you were extraterrestrials since I made that silly (bleepard) there think he bought me last fall!”

  Heller threw away the heroin. He was grabbing straps and lines from the rack. As he tied the secret agent up he said to me, “Every time I think I’ve gotten to the bottom of your crimes and can’t get any lower, you always have a new surprise! They’ll execute you for sure for this Code break.”

  I glared at him as he was taping up Gaylov’s mouth. I wasn’t through. In just minutes now, I was certain that he would be dead. I hated him more than ever for costing me the love of my life—Utanc! She was gone forever.

  PART SIXTY-FOUR

  Chapter 5

  Heller turned me over. He pulled back my shirt and coat. I was afraid he would spot the knife and flinched away.

  “You’ve got a bullet in your side,” he said. “And one in your arm.” He found some gauze compression pads and some tape. He pressed them against the bleeding holes and fixed them in place. “I don’t think any vital organ was hit and there is no arterial pumping. We’ll get them fixed later. Right now, we have other things to do. Can you walk?”

  I groaned. But he got me on my feet. He reached for the secret door. I was bad enough off, but I pretended I was even worse. My right hand and arm were fully operational. The knife could be swiftly drawn from its secret place in the coat lining. If I could just get behind him, if only for a moment, a sudden stab would finish him and all would be well. But I might never have to draw at all. The moment he showed his face at the end of that tunnel, a blast of fire from the crew would cut him down.

  The tunnel door was open. He glanced back at the securely trussed Russian. Then he shoved me ahead of him. The door clicked behind us.

  He seemed to be fumbling around in the ledge above the switches just outside the secret room door. And I remembered he had been all through this place last fall. He now had something in his hand.

  He pushed me further down the tunnel.

  Suddenly I realized that I, myself, was in grave danger. The moment I came to the tunnel end, a blast of fire from the hangar could cut me down. And it wouldn’t be bullets. It would be slashes of deadly fire from blastguns!

  Cunningly, I pretended to be weaker than I was. The tunnel end was just ahead. I was just about to be pushed into the open.

  Expertly, I weaved and crumpled.

  I shouted, “Kill him!”

  Instantly a barrage of fire racketed!

  The whole tunnel exit turned blinding orange!

  I felt my jacket singe!

  Something had me by the collar, dragging me back. “Well, blast you!” said Heller. “It was a trap!”

  He raised his voice in that piercing, Fleet-officer, carrying pitch. “I’m armed! Don’t try a rush. Is the commander of this base there?”

  Faht Bey’s voice through a loudspeaker in the hangar: “Throw out your guns and walk into view with your hands up!”

  “I am operating on orders from the Grand Council,” Heller called. “Any effort to impede their execution could bring a charge of treason. Throw down your guns and step over into view.”

  “We know exactly why you are here!” shouted Faht Bey. “We refuse to tamely let you execute us!”

  “I have no orders to execute you,” shouted Heller. “But I have a prisoner here, Soltan Gris, that I must take to Voltar.”

  Faht Bey gave a short, barking laugh through the speakers. “This doesn’t fool us for a moment. Gris is probably holding a gun on you. He is wanted here for mortgaging this base. We have a black-jowled man in custody who has confessed. Only Gris knew how to sound that alarm. Gris! Step out into view or we will begin barrage fire!”

  “Stop!” said Heller. “I’ve got Gris here. Are you going to listen to reason or aren’t you?”

  “Don’t try to trick us, Gris!” shouted Faht Bey through the speakers. “We’ve already had an earthquake today and now you! I demand that you surrender! We promise a fair conference trial.”

  I wailed, “I didn’t cause that earthquake! This Crown agent did!”

  “So you are there!” cried Faht Bey. “FIRE!”

  A torrent of slashing flame ripped into the tunnel mouth. Rocks fell! Stone dust swirled around the green glowplates.

  “Cease fire!” shouted Heller in that high-pitched Fleet voice.

  The shots ceased.

  Heller yelled, “If you do not surrender at once, I’ll bring half that roof down on your heads. Drop your weapons and step out where I can see you!”

  The answer was a renewed storm of electric flame!

  Heller was flat against the floor, up the tunnel and in back of me. I looked around to see how I could get in back of him. I had some idea I could blame the difficulties of the base on him, maybe get Utanc/Gaylov to say he put her up to it. I was in pain, my head was in a whirl, but I had not given up.

  Heller had a small device in his hand—it must be what he had taken from the ledge. Amidst the swirling dust he was pushing a lever up and down.