“The military will buy or they won’t. If they do, no one is going to kill all six of us. Attempts may be made, but some of us will escape. If the military doesn’t buy, myself and my two scientists counterparts are expendable anyway.”
“Holly has to know!”
Desiree waited for his leap at her. But he stood his ground, protecting the telephone. He used a stiff forefinger to poke the black-rimmed glasses back up his nose. Desiree took a step toward him.
“Hold it, Desiree—”
“Sam?”
The threats hung in the room. Then suddenly he seemed to concede. His shoulders sagged. He looked down at the carpeting, he shuffled and he moved away from the telephone.
“All right,” he said in a subdued voice, “you win.”
Desiree Fleming stood rooted in surprise for a moment, and then she leaped for the telephone. He was behind her. She began to dial the special Washington number. She had dialed the fourth digit when she heard the hiss of indrawn breath. She looked over her shoulder. She had just enough time to see the extended hand, the chopped blow sweeping down to her neck — then there was only blackness.
When Desiree came awake, she had a pounding headache and the sensation that her wrists were bound. She twisted up on her side. At least her feet were free and she knew that she was on a bed. She stretched her neck and looked over her head. What looked like severed lamp cords held her wrists against the bedposts. Desiree struggled.
“Useless, Miss Fleming,” said a remarkably satisfied voice to her right.
Desiree snapped her head, stared at Doctor Samuel Herchenfelder. He was seated in a wing chair across the bedroom. His legs were crossed, he was smoking a cigarette, and he looked comfortable.
“I learned my karate at the YMCA,” he said casually. “You?”
“The YWCA,” Desiree Fleming snapped.
He nodded. “I had the impression you recognized the blow. What belt do you cherish?”
“Let me up from here, you fool!”
“Careful, Miss Fleming. Anger will reap no harvest.”
“Holly has to know!”
Sam seemed to settle lower in the wing chair. Desiree fumed. He smoked. “I have been sitting here, Miss Fleming, and I have been thinking.” He drew on the cigarette, blew out smoke. “I have also reached a couple of conclusions. A scientist’s prerogative, you know. I’ve concluded that in addition to being attractive you are a very imaginative young lady.
“I’ve concluded that because of this imagination and because you are new in your work — you must be new, you are not old enough to be experienced in anything — you tend to allow this imagination to sway decisions.
“Now, long ago, I learned to appreciate imagination, but I also, through years and experience, have learned to examine its product guardedly. Thus I am inclined to be cautious when another person’s imagination is designed to have a direct effect on me.”
Desiree struggled fiercely against the cord shackles. “Let me free, you fool!”
He considered her. “Only if you promise to settle down. Only if you promise not to telephone your superior. You have failed to discover one thing about me, Miss Fleming. I may be an egghead, but it does not necessarily follow that I am a coward. Nor are my colleagues.
“My entire scientific life has been in the field of weaponry. Ditto for Blue and Gray. And we are not totally naive men, as you seem to think. We are aware that because of the nature of our work there always has existed, and does exist, an element of personal danger.
“We are aware that there are other governments deeply interested in our findings, that some of these governments will go to almost any means to pick our brains, or to keep this nation from reaping the fruits. On the other hand—”
Desiree broke in, “Very fancy words! So you guys don’t run scared.”
He nodded. “In a nutshell. In spite of your sarcasm, Miss Fleming — precisely.”
“And that’s supposed to fill me with relief? That’s supposed to make Holly wonder why he even bothered to send his people out here in the first place?”
“A point I attempted — and failed — to make with your Mr. Holly several days ago.”
“A lot of people have a stake in what you have stored inside your head, Sam. Take a look at a big chunk of the world. These people live free lives, for the most part, because of men like you. They depend on you to keep them alive and free. They depend on your mind and this minds of others. They don’t want the man or the mind destroyed.
“And that’s Holly’s job. That’s my job. To keep you alive and healthy and thinking. If you had been, you and I would be on a train or a bus or a plane or a go-cart, anything, and heading back into Washington this very instant.
“Come on; cut me loose. My arms are beginning to tingle and I have a monstrous headache. I’m not going to run, Sam. I’m not going to scream. If you think we can ride this thing out sans bloodshed, I’ll be a fool and go along, against my better judgment.”
He left the chair and untied the knots in the cords. “I suppose I’ll now have to pay the hotel for a pair of lamps.”
“You can always tell them that someone broke in here and attempted to electrocute you.”
“Knock it, Miss Fleming.”
She stopped rubbing her wrists and looked up at him in surprise. “Why, Sam! I do believe you have become domineering.”
“I can be. Can I trust you?”
“Can you?”
They stared at each other for several seconds without moving. They allowed their eyes to talk. Desiree kept the challenge in hers. He probed. Finally he stood erect. “I’m going to bed, Miss Fleming. Tomorrow already has all the earmarks of a tiring day.” He left her bedroom.
Desiree knew a pinch of satisfaction. She was gaining ground on Doctor Samuel Herchenfelder. He had not closed her door when he had left the bedroom. She watched him cross the main room, enter his bedroom. He also left that door ajar.
Desiree found aspirin in her purse and spent fifteen minutes in her bath. She knew a tremendous urge to loll in the tub of hot water, watch the water pink the natural tan of her skin, but she also was aware of the danger.
She toweled quickly and returned to the bedroom, and put on fresh clothing. She examined her reflection in a mirror. She liked the fit of the yellow Capris. They should give Doctor Samuel Herchenfelder something to think about in the morning now that his eyes were slightly open. Something other than weaponry, that is.
Desiree opened her bedroom door wide. The main room was dark now, but she noticed that the bedroom door at the opposite end remained ajar. All seemed quiet and normal. She repaired her broken fingernail, put a fresh coating of gold on her lips, then took the gun from its holster and snapped put the light.
Waiting until her eyes had adjusted to the darkness, she crossed the main room on silent bare feet and stood outside the other bedroom door. The telephone was on the stand near her left hand. It was inviting. All she had to do was close the door before her, pick up the receiver and dial the Washington number.
On the other hand, the dedicated man who was now snoring softly in the bedroom was also displaying a trust in her. To shatter that trust would make an enemy, and, she admitted ruefully, she didn’t want Doctor Samuel Herchenfelder an enemy. Underneath all of that science veneer he was a nice lunk. He might show a girl a good time in Washington sometime.
Desiree pushed the bedroom door wide open, stood looking on the huddled shadow in the bed for a few moments, then turned from the temptation of the telephone. She found a straight-back chair and drew it up to the couch. She put the gun on the seat of the chair, propped two pillows and stretched out on the couch.