There were two men in the office waiting for them. The one behind the desk was early middle-aged; he had about him the aura of the health club and a well-used swim m ing pool which kept his muscles toned and his waistline in proportion. He was blond and definitely handsome, and when he held out his hand it was built of firm flesh well accustomed to being used to do things. "Don Washburn, Mr. Tibbs," he said as he shook hands; then he gestured to his companion.
The second man had been sitting at one end of a leather-covered davenport As he came forward Virgil noted the conservative cut of the sport coat he wore and the mirror-bright shine of his shoes-they would have passed a police inspection anywhere. That was aU that he needed to know for the moment. He shook hands and acknowledged the name, Lonigan; then he turned back to take his cue from the executive who was making him welcome.
"How do you take your coffee, Mr. Tibbs?" Washburn asked.
"Black, please."
The information was relayed via intercom; within a few seconds the girl opened the door once more, this time carry-
ing four cups of coffee in imported Japanese ceramic mugs. She served them and then withdrew.
As soon as the door was closed once more, Washburn continued. "We certainly appreciate your coming up here to see us. So that you know the lay of the land, this is a research facility engaged in government work which we like to think is of considerable importance."
Virgil nodded and sipped his coffee.
"Please forgive me, Mr. Tibbs, if I don't tell you anything more about what we are doing. It is very highly classified."
"I won't mention it to anyone," Virgil promised.
"Do you know?" There was a disturbed note in Washburn's voice.
"I beUeve so."
"Would you mind telling me?" Politely put, it was nevertheless a demand.
"I suspect fuel research, Mr. Washburn. Probably non-hydrocarbon, but that's only a guess."
The air was heavy.
Lonigan broke the brief silence that followed. "Mr. Tibbs, excuse my bluntness, but we'd be very much interested to know how you determined that."
"For one thing, by the thickness of the carpeting." After that Virgil continued to sip his coffee.
Washburn spoke quietly. "I don't see any point in being coy about this: I'd like to know where our security slipped. I ordered the carpeting, incidentally, and if it's giving us away, please tell me how."
Virgil set down his coffee cup. "The car that picked me up was new and obviously well maintained, but when we started climbing up here the engine pinged very noticeably. Since the temperature was normal according to the gauge, that meant either a bad timing adjustment or else a low-grade fuel. I didn't think too much about it until we arrived here and I saw the number of vent pipes in your roof. That rather strongly suggested internal-combustion engines indoors, and the idea of fuel experimentation occurred to me."
"About the carpeting?"
"I was coming to that. In a very new, well-kept car it was highly unlikely that the timing adjustment would have been neglected, so I assumed that someone was trying to economize by buying cheaper gasoline. Things like that happen sometimes when a company decides to put on a drastic cost-cutting drive."
Washburn nodded. "True."
"I believe that it's clear now. This is obviously a research facility: your location and the unused condition of your loading dock made that apparent. Since air pollution by hydrocarbons is an urgent national problem, it seemed possible that you might be working on it here-and trying out your product in your own vehicles. I was still undecided in my mind until I happened to notice the carpeting, which is very new and of exceptional quality. That eliminated a stringent economy drive, so fuel research was the only good possibility that was left that I could think of."
Washburn made a note. "I'll have those vents covered up, one way or another, immediately. And we'll stop carrying passengers in our test vehicles. Anything else?"
"I beheve not," Tibbs.answered. "Perhaps you'd tell me now what I can do for you."
Lonigan handed over a card which read. Department OF Justice, Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs. Duffy also supphed one which bore the same identification. When that formality had been completed, Lonigan picked up the conversational ball.
"Mr. Tibbs, in Washington we have an unpublicized file on police officers all over the country who have special abilities. When we recently had need of a man who could speak fluent Yugoslavian, we located one promptly-^he was working vice in Cleveland. Do you remember meeting a man at one time whose name was Gottschalk?"
Virgil searched his memory for a few seconds. "Yes, a missile engineer.'*
Lonigan nodded. 'That's the one. I believe he was driving south through Wells when the local police stopped him for questioning-in connection with a murder you were looking into down there."
"Yes." Tibbs did not need to be reminded.
"He told the security people at the cape about it; he was quite impressed. That's how you first got into our files. We sent out a questionnaire on you, a confidential one of course, and a Captain Lindholm supplied us with some additional data."
Virgil showed some signs of discomfort. "I can't honestly thank him for it. He retired as assistant chief a short while ago."
Lonigan smiled. "I don't believe that he did you any harm. Now let's get down to cases if you don't mind. We are confronted by a very serious problem and we need some
help; in particular we want a local officer to tie in with us. How does that sound to you?"
"Fine, if Chief McGowan approves. But I don't have any special abilities to offer. I'm not fluent in any foreign languages and I certainly don't know anything about fuel synthesis. If the problem is narcotics, we have a number of people who are very sharp, you might want to talk to them. Basically I'm a homicide man."
Apparently that created no reaction. Duffy removed a sheet of paper from his inside coat pocket and pretended to consult it. "It states here," he said, "that among other things, you hold a bona fide black belt in karate. Who gave it to you?"
"Nishiyama."
"We know Mr. Nishiyama very well; a black belt from him is harder to get than Moshe Dayan pennants in Cairo. If you went through that kind of discipline for a period of years, you must have learned a few things about the Orient along the way."
"A smattering of Japanese," Tibbs admitted, "mostly the words commonly used in training. But not very much about Japan itself other than the customs and courtesies that go with the martial arts."
"And you have also studied aikido under Takahashi."
"For about five years."
"Black belt?"
"Not yet."
Very smoothly Lonigan took charge once more. "What I'm going to tell you now may sound melodramatic, but don't take it that way-it's deadly serious."
Tibbs nodded.
"Prior to World War II the Japanese, who were in a highly aggressive military posture at that time, systematically began to flood China with opium as a means of softening up the whole country for eventual conquest. It wasn't the first time that that device had been used. The campaign was so successful that in 1936 the Nanking Government passed legislation that required addicts to present themselves for a cure within one year or else face the death penalty. It didn't work; two years later one-eighth of all of the Chinese in Nanking itself were hopelessly hooked on narcotics. And it was steadily getting worse. It was a deliberate poisoning of a nation, and despite the enormous size and population of China, it was definitely successful."
"A little like Hitler's genocide," Virgil commented.
"Unfortunately, yes. But sixteen years later the situation was reversed. The Japanese had encouraged the growing of opium poppies and the Chinese had responded. There's a UN report that came out back in March of 1952 which established clearly that the communist Chinese were converting opium to heroin and smuggling it into Japan and the United States in quantity. And not for the profit involved. It was a deliberate attempt to weaken two potential enemies. Then, in 1969, the Republic of China supplied us with information concerning a systematic new campaign by the red Chinese to pump narcotics in increasing quantities into the United States and certain other free countries. Particular attention was given to those nations that had taken a strong anticommunist position, such as Thailand, South Korea, South Vietnam, and the Philippines."