"Kali mera," he greeted us. He continued in Greek. "You wish to see the commander?"
"Excuse me," I said, gently moving him aside. Erika and I moved into a large living area with one glass wall overlooking a hillside of trees.
"Please!" the old fellow protested in English.
We went from room to room, cautiously, finally meeting back in the big room. Nobody was there.
"Where is the commander?" Erika asked the old man.
He shook his head violently from side to side. "Not at villa. Away."
"Where?" I asked.
"Go with Americans. To camp."
"Efharisto," I said, thanking him.
We went out and climbed back into the cab. "Take us to the military camp," I told the driver.
"What will we do when we get there?" Erika asked.
The cab pulled away from the house and started back along the gravel drive. "I'm not sure yet," I admitted. "I just have a feeling we should at least take a look from the outside."
But we never got that far. When we turned back on the road that paralleled the fence and proceeded along it for a few hundred yards, I saw a place where tire tracks left the roadway and stopped near some scrub brush.
"Stop!" I ordered the driver.
"What is it, Nick?" Erika asked.
"I don't know. Stay here."
I got out of the cab and pulled out the Luger. I moved slowly past the tire marks toward the scrub brush. There was evidence of a scuffle near where the car had been parked. When I got into the brush, I found what I had feared. A tall, slim man lay behind a thick bush, his throat cut from ear to ear. I had apparently found Galatis.
I returned to the car and told Erika, and we just sat there for a moment while the cabby eyed us in the rearview mirror.
"Stavros must already have one of Galatis' subordinate officers on his side," I said heavily. "If we don't find Stavros, he'll have these troops in Athens tomorrow."
"We can't go into the camp after him, Nick," Erika said. "He would have a small army to defend him there."
"We'll return to the hotel and hope that what Stavros told them there is true — that he intends to be there by noon. We'll be there waiting for him."
At the Rhenia, Erika and I got to Stavros' room undetected. We locked ourselves in and waited. It was mid-morning. The beds had been made, so we didn't have to worry about the maids. I poured us both a short shot of the scotch, and we sat on the edge of a bed drinking it.
"Why can't we be here on vacation like the tourists?" Erika complained. "With nothing to do but visit the windmills and go to the beaches and sit at the cafes, watching the world go by?"
"Maybe we'll get here together some day," I said, not believing it for a minute. "Under different circumstances."
Erika had removed the small vest that went with the slacks suit. She wore only a sheer blouse tucked into the slacks. She lay back on the bed, her feet still on the floor and her red hair spread in disarray against the plain green bedcover.
"We don't have much longer together," she said, staring at the ceiling. A small breeze came in through an open window, a soft sea breeze. "No matter how this all works out."
"I know."
"I don't want to wait for some possible future moment together. It may never come." She began unbuttoning her blouse.
I looked over at her. "Erika, what the hell are you doing?"
"I'm undressing," she said, not looking at me. The blouse was off. She unsnapped a small bra and whisked it away. I stared down at her.
"Do you realize that Stavros might walk in here at any moment?" I asked.
"It's only mid-morning." She had unfastened a catch at the waist of the yellow slacks and was pulling them down over her hips. There was only a wisp of panties underneath, a small piece of cloth that covered almost nothing.
I remembered, and my throat went dry. I remembered the sheer animal pleasure I had felt with her.
"Erika, I don't think…" I tried to protest.
"There's time," she assured me, moving languorously on the bed. I watched her body move and stretch. "You said yourself that Stavros will probably be in conference with a replacement commander at the camp all morning."
"We can't be sure of that," I said as she unbuckled my belt. My pulse rate was up, and I felt the familiar gut reaction to the touch of her.
She pulled me down beside her and moved against me. My left hand moved of its own volition to a breast.
"How sure do we have to be, Nick," she breathed, her hand inside my clothing.
Well, what the hell, I thought. The door was locked. The Luger would be within easy reach. We would hear Stavros before he got inside the room. And I had the same feeling Erika had. This might be the last time.
I turned and let my eyes move over Erika's body and the mane of flaming hair that fell over her milky shoulders, and I wondered if there had ever been a more desirable woman than Erika Nystrom. Anywhere. Any time.
I kissed her, and her mouth was hot and moist, and there was an urgency in the way she moved her lips against mine. As we kissed, she undressed me, and I didn't stop her. Then we were lying on the bed together, and I was sliding the sheer panties down over her hips and thighs. She helped me at the end by kicking them off.
She lay on her back, her eyes almost closed, and reached for me. I moved over her and she pulled me close. We kissed again passionately, and she had hold of me and was caressing me. When she guided me into her, there was a moment when her mouth opened in a gasp of pleasure, and then there was a low moan from her throat.
Her hips were moving against me, taking the initiative, demanding. I responded, thrusting hard into her. The long thighs left the bed and locked themselves behind my back, forcing me deeper inside.
And then the explosion ripped through us. It came sooner and with more violence than I had ever thought possible, making flesh shudder and tremble in its naked power and passing only after we had both been emptied of all the turmoil that had mounted inside us. We were left with soft ripples of pleasure that found their way into the deepest and most secret parts of us.
We dressed leisurely. It was still not late morning. I was beginning to fear, though, that Stavros might not show up. He might be at the airport waiting for a plane to Athens. He might have said he was returning at noon only to throw any pursuer off his trail.
It got to be eleven-thirty. Erika had another scotch, and there was a growing tension inside her that showed plainly in her face.
"I'm going to the desk," she said at eleven-thirty-five.
"What for?"
"Maybe he called and changed his plans," she said, taking a quick puff on a long cigarette. "'They might know something."
I didn't try to stop her. She was all knotted inside, despite the lovemaking we had earlier.
"All right," I said. "But if you run into Stavros, don't take him on yourself. Let him come up here."
"Okay, Nick. I promise."
After Erika left, I began pacing the room. I was getting jumpy myself. It was important that we get Stavros here. We had chased him long enough.
It was only five minutes after Erika had gone down to the hotel reception area when I heard the sound in the corridor. I drew the 9mm Luger and went to the door. I listened for a moment. There was another sound. I waited but nothing happened. Cautiously and quietly I unlatched the door. Easing it open an inch, I peered into the corridor. There was no one in sight. I stepped into the hall and looked up and down it Nothing. The corridor had open archways to a garden beyond. I went and looked out there and again saw nothing. There was an exit to the garden area down the corridor about fifty feet. I went down there quickly and took a look around and finally gave up. My nerves must have been on edge, I decided. I returned to the partly open door to the room and entered.