"Remember that night, Nick?" she breathed into my ear. "Do you really remember it as I do?"
"I remember."
"It was very good, wasn't it?"
"Very."
We set our glasses down on a nearby table. I pulled her close to me and touched her lips with mine. Her tongue snaked inside my mouth.
"God, Nick," she mumbled.
I was moving my hands over her backside, feeling the curves that swept down to her thighs. Her hips had begun to undulate slowly under my touch.
She pushed me gently from her and snapped the light off. Then she began to undress slowly and gracefully. Under the robe she wore only small bikini panties. Her breasts thrust eagerly toward me as she took the robe from her shoulders. Her bosom was full and ripe and milky white. In another moment the small piece of underclothing was slipped down over her hips and thighs, falling to the floor in a wispy heap.
Erika stared openly at me, letting her eyes travel over my naked body in the dimness of the room.
"Beautiful," she purred. "So much hard muscle."
I drew her to me, feeling her nakedness against mine. She ran a hand over my chest and shoulders working her way down on my body. She stroked me, caressed me, made love to me with her hands as my fingers explored her. Her thighs parted at my touch, and she moaned.
There was a soft, thick carpet beneath us. Erika slipped to her knees on it, letting her hands slide along my body as she went down. She knew all the ways to arouse a man and she had no hesitancy about using them. In a moment I slid down beside her and pushed her roughly on her back on the thick shag of the carpet. I knelt over her, moving my hands over her breasts. She gasped. The long thighs hugged my sides. I moved a hand along one silky inner thigh.
"Oh, yes," she purred. Her mouth was partly open, the lovely, green eyes heavily lidded.
As I entered her, the full mouth went wide for a moment and a small shudder passed through her body. Then she began to move with me, her fingers gripping my shoulders, her thighs locked around my waist. I don't know how long we stayed locked together before it was over for both of us.
Afterward I lay with her for a long time, not wanting to move. A warm relaxation gradually seeped into the outermost fibers of my flesh and the innermost depths of my soul.
Later we dressed and sat on a small sofa together and finished our brandy. Erika had combed out her long red hair and she looked just as fresh as when I had walked into the room.
"I'm glad Zach didn't come pounding on the door," she remarked.
"He seems very jealous, Erika. Have you been intimate?"
She looked at me. "Once. His idea, not mine. And he was very inept. I told him there would never be anything physical between us again. He's bitter about it. I didn't want him on this case, but I was overruled. He's very good with a gun."
"He will have to be on this assignment, won't he?"
She regarded me thoughtfully. "Yes."
"Erika, I guessed why you are in Brazil. It seems we are after the same man. I had my supervisor communicate with yours and he confirmed what I thought. We're to discuss our separate assignments and cooperate with each other if it seems feasible."
The green eyes narrowed a little. "Giroux has not been in touch with Zach and me."
"You'll receive a cable in the next few hours. In the meantime, I've been given a code word that is supposed to allow you to take me into your confidence. The word is Goliath."
She stared in surprise. "That is the right word!"
"Giroux sent it."
She poured herself another brandy. "All right, Nick. But I'll wait for the cable to tell me just how free I'm supposed to be with you." She smiled and kissed my cheek.
I had to expect her to be cautious. She was a good agent. "That's fine. I'll just tell you some of my ideas. You don't have to talk at all."
"That's fair."
"We're both looking for Adrian Stavros, but for different reasons." Her face was expressionless. She wasn't giving away a thing. "You want him for the assassination of Ben Canaan. What we want him for is not yet quite clear to us, but it may involve Greek politics and the abduction of Nikkor Minourkos."
"The Greek shipping magnate?"
"That's right. He may be at Paracatu, being held against his will. Stavros is in Athens, so you'll either have to await his return or go to Europe after him. But I think the way to him Is through whatever we can learn at Paracatu. I have to talk with Minourkos.
"If you're interested, I'll take you two to Paracatu with me. It might raise the odds of getting into the place. Talk it over with Zach and let me know tomorrow after you've received your cable."
"If we were indeed after Stavros," Erika said, "wouldn't it be better for us to go directly to Athens?"
"Stavros is believed to be making his temporary headquarters there in Minourkos' penthouse, which is a veritable fortress. You can't just storm the place, you and Zach. And getting past his bodyguards on the rare occasions he leaves the place might be just as difficult But Minourkos can tell us how to get to Stavros."
She was suddenly quiet as she considered my suggestion. When she looked up at me, there was a slight smile on the full lips. "I'll be in touch with you tomorrow morning, Nick darling."
I leaned over and touched her lips with mine. "You do that." I rose, reached for my weapons, and strapped them on. Then I put my jacket on over them. "And keep Zach on a short chain, will you?"
She liked that. She was still laughing when I left the room.
Four
My mind was on Adrian Stavros as I left Erika's hotel. It was late evening by now, and there were no taxis in sight. I walked cautiously along the Avenida Rio Branco. Getting into the headquarters of Stavros at Paracatu, even with its reduced force of guards, might prove quite a challenge. Stavros' little group had a bad reputation. He had collected the dregs of society around him at Paracatu. These were essentially like himself, but without his leadership abilities. Thinking back on it, I decided that Adolf Hitler must have started out in much the same way. There must have been few people in the Germany of the 1930s who took the ex-corporal seriously. This example was a lesson to be learned, but the world never seemed to learn it.
I walked several blocks without seeing any sign of a cab. I was getting into an area of store fronts and businesses of the street. When I turned into a side street to start off toward my hotel, having given up on transportation for the moment, I had a surprise in store for me. At the third shop front, a dark figure stepped out of the shadows and swung a fist at me. There was a knife in the fist.
I had gotten almost past the entrance when the attack came. If he had waited another second, I would not have seen him at all, the attack would have been successful, and the knife would have sunk into my back. But in his anxiety to get the job done, he moved just a bit too fast, and I caught the movement in my peripheral vision.
As the knife came at my back, I twisted sharply and threw my left arm out to block the thrust I succeeded, but the blade cut through the cloth of my jacket and shirt and slashed my forearm in a shallow gash. I let the weight of the man carry him to me. Then I turned with him in my grasp and slammed him up against the building beside us.
For a moment I thought it was Zach, his jealousy having gotten the better of him, for the man was stocky and strong. But when I got a better look, I saw that he was bigger than Zach and that he had dark hair. He looked Brazilian, and he was a real thug.
I reached for Wilhelmina with my free hand, but my assailant was not about to let me gain that advantage. He slashed out wildly again with the knife, this time aiming at my face. I ducked aside and partially deflected the blade, but it nicked my ear. He raised the weapon a third time and threw his weight against me.