She toppled back on the bed, bouncing on its mattress, falling awkwardly so that she landed with her legs spread wide. She did not bother to close them. She placed one hand between her legs and used the other hand to beckon him to her.
Carter opened his shirt down the front but left it on. He kneeled on the bed, looming over Eva.
"Aren't you going to take your clothes off?"
"Sure," he growled. "Help me a little." And she did, and then Carter helped himself to everything the lascivious Eva had to offer.
Eva sat nude at a vanity, her bare buttocks nestled in the plush white satin cushion on the bench. She was making up her face and powdering her nose. The powder formed a little mound on a mirror. Eva leaned over it, using a cocktail straw to snort up lines.
"What's that, cocaine?" Carter asked.
"No, heroin."
"Hard to get in this country."
"Oh, Gianni can get anything. You know him." She sniffed and snuffled.
"Yes, I know him. Careful with that stuff."
"I know what I'm doing." She looked up, white powder frosting her nostrils. "Want some?"
"No, thanks. In my line of work, I can't afford to take anything which might slow me up."
Eva shrugged, then vacuumed up some more lines. When she was done, she rose, swaying a bit unsteadily. Carter held her arm, supporting her until the rush of dizziness passed.
"Whew! That stuff's pure!" Her eyes swam in and out of focus. She held on to him.
"Umm, Solano, the man they cannot kill. So tough, so hard… so very hard," she murmured. Her caressing hands ran over him. "Such a pleasure for a change, to be with a man who's strong and hard and knowing."
"I like you too, Eva."
"Want a replay?" she asked.
He toyed with her stiff nipples, chuckling. "Again? So soon? You're insatiable."
"I am that, but that's not what I meant." She slipped free from his embrace. "I'll show you something cute."
Eva crossed the room to a wall panel decorated with a mural of the Grand Canal in Venice. Her fingertips probed along its lower edge, tripping a concealed switch. A hidden catch sprang open with a click.
Intrigued, Carter went to it. A hairline crack, previously invisible, ran down the center of the mural, dividing it into a pair of panels that Eva now swung outward, disclosing a secret cupboard.
It was crammed with electronic equipment, the centerpiece of which was a video monitor.
"Well, I'll be a dirty…" Carter began.
"You were, darling. And still are, on tape. Here, I'll give you a peek."
Eva rewound the tape, then switched on the «play» button.
The image flickered into existence. Mirrored in tones of gray and white on the goldfish bowl of the screen was a full-length view of Carter and Eva writhing on the bed in mutual ecstasy.
"I switched on the hidden camera before we began. Like it?" Eva said.
Carter, studying the action, said, "I look pretty good in there."
"There's a setup like this in just about every room in the villa."
"I didn't know Girotti was a voyeur."
Eva laughed nastily. "To tell you the truth, Gianni's not good for much else but watching. But that's not why he had these installed."
"Don't tell me. I can guess. Blackmail."
"He calls it 'leverage. It's been one nonstop party ever since we arrived. Gianni brought along a half-dozen playmates, beautiful boys and girls who are all very accommodating. We've entertained the cream of local society. Knesset politicians, industrialists from Ramat, scientists from Rehovath, Cafe Cassit intellectuals.
"We've been very much in demand. Everybody who's anybody wants an invitation to one of Gianni's parties. We've hosted the big men and their bored wives at bashes where the booze keeps flowing and the fun never stops. For those who want something with more of a kick than champagne, there's cocaine, hashish, pills, heroin. And plenty of beautiful young people of either sex to play with. Only once you play, you have to pay. Not with money, but with favors and obedience."
"I get the idea," Carter said. "You provide both the party and the hangover."
"That's right. Gianni's built himself up quite a little network in the short time we've been here."
"I see what I've been missing while I was stuck out on that lousy ship."
Carter jabbed the «stop» button.
"Hey! What are you doing?"
He ejected the cassette, then pulled out several dozen feet of tape, bunching them up before he tossed the mess into a wastebasket. In Carter's world, the fewer pictures of himself in existence, the better.
He made a joke out of it. "Why settle for imitations when you've got the real thing?"
Eva pouted. "Spoilsport."
A knock sounded on the door to the suite. "Yes, who is it?" Eva called out.
"It's me, Gianni. Tell Solano to get dressed and come downstairs. Somebody wants to meet him."
Eight
The showdown took place in what Eva called the "orgy room."
"Wait till you see it," she enthused. "It's really something! The last word in entertainment."
"I'm looking forward to it," Carter said. "I'm looking forward to meeting the big boss, too. What kind of a fellow is he?"
"I don't know. I've never met him. He's supposed to be very secretive. He meets only with Gianni. You should feel flattered that he's come out to meet you."
"I am," Carter said.
It was time to get down to brass tacks. Carter's senses were on full alert. His body vibrated with every heartbeat. His mouth was dry, his palms were moist. He looked as cool and unconcerned as if he were strolling on the Via Veneto. He concentrated on keeping his body loose, relaxed. Flexibility beats rigidity every time. When the time came, he would have to move fast.
He felt like Daniel going into the lion's den. Lion's den? Lion's mouth was more like it.
He was well equipped, however. He had brought along a pistol, expecting that it would be discovered, which it had been. Tuttle had found it and had taken it from him. But his cursory pat-down of the Killmaster had failed to detect Hugo up Carter's sleeve, not to mention Pierre, a miniature gas bomb worn high on his thigh between his legs. He'd removed his personal arsenal while Eva was in the dressing room, but everything was back in place now.
Tuttle had also overlooked Carter's communications device, but that was not surprising, since it was incorporated into the stylish wristwatch worn on his left hand. It contained a microminiatured transmitter that could be activated by pressing one of the nibs for setting the time. A pretty sophisticated piece of equipment, it even kept the correct time.
Carter was as prepared as possible.
Eva looked lovely in a sleeveless turquoise-and-white striped knit dress and high-heeled sandals. "Here we are."
"After you." Carter followed her through a door and into the "orgy room."
The large room was cleverly divided into a system of stepped terraces, forming pits, pools, alcoves, and platforms — a seductive environment of rounded forms and smooth-flowing curves with no hard edges. A scheme of indirect lighting created zones of soft, inviting light and even more invitingly intimate shadow. Banks of fragrant potted plants and shrubs partitioned the space into a maze of secluded nooks and crannies. The sweet scent of incense perfumed the air.
A death chamber for the Killmaster.
Carter knew it as soon as he entered the room. Present were Girotti, Bob and Bill, and Tuttle. No one else, no one who could be Reguiba. But that didn't mean he wasn't there. The orgy room had plenty of places in which he could conceal himself if he wished.
There was no hiding the fact that Girotti and company had tumbled to the secret of his masquerade. Earlier they were suspicious, but they bought his story. Now they knew he was a phony. Their knowledge lurked behind a brittle facade of cool casualness.