"How much does he look like Salaka?" I asked.
"Very much. They were only a year apart Some say they look like twins, except that Salaka was about an inch taller and somewhat heavier than his brother."
"We could fix that," I said more to myself than to Erika and Minourkos. "Does this fellow live in Athens?"
Minourkos looked at me quizzically. "Just outside of town in a small village."
"Call him and tell him about Salaka," I said. "Then ask him if he would like to help avenge his brother's death."
Erika looked at me. "Nick, do you mean…"
"If Stavros can come up with an imposter, so can we," I said. "Yianis Tzanni isn't the only one who can speak for a dead man."
"A third Salaka Madoupas?" Erika asked.
"That's right. Maybe, just maybe, he can get us into the penthouse." I turned to Minourkos. "Will you call him?"
Minourkos hesitated only a brief moment "Of course. And I will get him here."
Two hours later, just at dusk, Sergiou Madoupas arrived at the hotel room. He appeared to be a meek, timid man, but under the surface was a grim determination to help get the man responsible for his brother's death. I gave him elevator shoes and some padding and did a quick makeup job. When it was over, he looked almost exactly like the imposter I had seen at the penthouse. It was, after all, the imposter that Sergiou was impersonating in our scheme, not actually his brother. I wanted the men in the penthouse to accept Sergiou as Tzanni, the fake Madoupas.
When I was finished with him, I stood back, and we all took a long look. "What do you think?" I asked Minourkos.
"He looks very much like Salaka — and therefore like Tzanni," Minourkos said.
Our own imposter grinned uncertainly at me. "You have done a good job, Mr, Carter," he said. His voice was very much like Tzanni's and his English had about the same quality.
"I think we'll make it," Erika said.
An hour later we pulled up at the Apollo Building. It was the dinner hour in Athens, and there was almost no traffic on the city streets. The building itself was dark except for the lobby and the far-off twinkling lights in the penthouse. We sat in the rented black sedan for about ten minutes, and then a tall man appeared around the corner of the building. He walked directly to the car and got in beside me in the front seat. Erika and Sergiou were seated in back. Minourkos had been left at the hotel.
"Hello, Carter," the tall man said. He looked at the other two and his eyes lingered on Erika.
"Anything happening?" I asked.
"Not a thing. Nobody in or out since I got here." He was Bill Spencer, my AXE colleague. He was new to the agency, and I had met him before only briefly. Hawk had assured me on the phone, in our brief conversation earlier, though, that Spencer was a good man. He had been watching the special elevator to the penthouse through the glass exterior of the building for almost three hours, according to my instructions.
I introduced him to Erika and Sergiou. "We get in by the service door to the lobby," I said, "with this key. Sergiou goes first, and we act as if we own the place. If we get upstairs, we operate as I outlined earlier. Anybody have any questions?"
There was a pensive silence in the dark car. "All right," I said. "Let's get it over with."
The four of us climbed out of the black sedan and walked in a tight knot to the front of the building. At the left of the main entrance was a locked glass service door. Sergiou stuck the key that Minourkos had given him into the stainless steel lock and turned it. In the lobby, the guard at the elevator turned toward us with a puzzled look.
Sergiou entered first, and we followed. I found myself wondering whether we would really catch Stavros by surprise. He should be pacing the floor, waiting to hear what happened at Colonel Kotsikas' home. I hoped he had not sent a squad of his own men out there to investigate. There was also the possibility that he had tried to call Paracatu in the last day or two and had found that he could not reach anybody there. Not being able to get hold of anybody at the jungle plantation would tell Stavros that something was wrong.
We reached the guard at the elevator. He was looking at Sergiou oddly.
"Where have you been?"
"These are members of the press," Sergiou said, acting out his new role. "They have heard of a terrible massacre of junta colonels that took place just a few hours ago. The police reported the tragedy to them. They want a short interview to learn Mr. Minourkos' views on this dreadful event, and I will speak to them upstairs."
I felt Hugo the stiletto on my right forearm and wondered if I would have to use it. If the guard had been on duty for a while, he would know Tzanni had not left the building.
"All right," he said. "I'll get the elevator."
The elevator was upstairs at the penthouse. He rang for it, and it slowly began its descent. It seemed like an eternity before it arrived on the main floor, but the doors finally slid open. The same elevator operator who had taken me up and down previously was on duty. We got aboard while the operator stared openly at Sergiou. The doors closed behind us, but the operator did not push the button to take us up.
"I didn't know you were out of the building," he said to Sergiou, eyeing us warily.
"Well, now you know," Sergiou answered testily. "I left to meet these newspaper people. Take us upstairs. I am giving an interview."
The man studied Sergiou's face carefully. "I will just make a call upstairs first," he said.
"That is not necessary!" Sergiou complained.
But the operator had stepped to the communications panel at the side of the car. I nodded to Spencer, and he stepped closer. He pulled his Smith & Wesson.38 and the other man saw the movement. He turned just in time to receive the muzzle of the gun across the temple. He gasped and slid to the floor.
Erika stepped to the controls. "Take it up," I said.
On the way up to the penthouse, we moved the limp form of the operator into a corner of the elevator where it wouldn't be readily seen when the four of us emerged. A moment later the doors opened on the penthouse corridor.
As I suspected, there were still two men on duty. One of the two was the blond thug I had met previously. These were gunmen, and I did not want to play games with them. The blond rose from the table at the entrance to the penthouse while the other one remained seated. Both looked at Sergiou as if they were seeing an apparition.
"What the hell…" the blond one exclaimed. "What goes on here?"
Sergiou captured the blond thug's attention while Spencer went over to the dark-haired one at the table. The man rose slowly to face Spencer.
"I have given permission for an interview with these men," Sergiou said.
"How did you get out of the penthouse?" the blond asked.
I stepped around beside him while Sergiou answered. Spencer stood close to the dark man. Erika covered us both with the little Belgian revolver hidden behind her purse.
"Don't you remember my leaving?" Sergiou asked indignantly. "It was just about an hour ago. I told you that…"
No further explanation was necessary. Hugo slipped into my palm soundlessly. I grabbed the blond man with my left hand and pulled him to me while he was off-balance. I made a quick pass across his throat with the knife hand. Red spattered onto Sergiou's shirt and jacket.
The dark man went for his gun, but Spencer was ready for him. He pulled an ugly-looking garrote from his pocket and looped it quickly over the thug's head, then pulled hard on the crossed wire with the two wood handles. The man's hand never reached his gun. His eyes went wide, and his mouth popped open as the wire bit through flesh and arteries down to bone. More blood sprayed onto the thick carpet at our feet as the thug jumped and twisted in Spencer's grasp for a moment, his legs kicking at the air. Then he joined his comrade on the floor.