"No. Should I talk to him?"
"NO!" I said. Oh, Gods, if Faht Bey found out his whole base was mortgaged, maybe they would convene an officers' conference on me!
"Why are you holding him?" said Faht Bey.
"Reasons of state!" I said emphatically. "I can't tell you any more than that."
"Are you sure?" said Faht Bey.
"Of course I'm sure!"
"I think you're up to something, Officer Gris. Raping women, blowing up mosques. We're supposed to lie quietly here and do what we're supposed to do. You know, of course, that heroin supplies continue to vanish. We inventoried two days after you came back, just to be careful. And we're out a lot of kilos. If I had any proof, Officer Gris, I'd convene an officers' conference on somebody I am looking at."
"What would I do with heroin?" I yelled.
"Run a drug ring on the side," said Faht Bey. "You seem to have quite a bit of money we didn't give you."
"Special funds came in on the Blixo," I lied.
He raised his eyebrows and shifted in his chair. "This Forrest Closure," said Faht Bey, "could be a messy thing. Grabbe-Manhattan is connected to I. G. Barben Pharmaceutical. They could cut off our amphetamines. I can't make heads or tails of why you would order him put in a cell. In fact, I haven't the least idea of what you are up to. I am responsible for this base. Now let me tell you this: If I find any evidence that you are cooking up another catastrophe for us, I will convene a conference on you and take my chances with authorities on Voltar. My guess is that they are as sick of you as we are. Have I made myself clear?"
I limped out.
Things were pretty touch and go.
In just three or four days now, Grabbe-Manhattan was going to realize that Forrest Closure should be reporting back in. They would send somebody here and, of course, talk to Faht Bey, and the base commander would know he was dealing with the biggest threat this base had ever experienced.
What would Faht Bey do? He would tell them that I had no title to this base and he'd feed me to the Turkish authorities. And in addition to whatever the Turks did to me, I would also have a conference convened on me and be sentenced to death.
My only possible hope was Heller's assassination.
And soon!
Only then could I make things come out all right.
The following day, I was feeling pretty haggard. I was bolstered somewhat by the fact that I had Lombar's order to kill Heller and so could not be tagged for that. But I had all these other things threatening me and if I also failed to nail Heller, then to the list of enemies I could also add Lombar.
Amongst other things, my feet had not healed. Walking around with cuts in goat droppings is not conducive to health of the heels. The wounds were festering.
I had Ters drive me to the hospital. Nurse Bildirjin, my third wife, passed me by without so much as a glance as I waited in the lobby.
I got tired of it. I found Prahd washing his hands after an operation.
"The free clinic is closed for the day," he said.
"Hey, wait a minute," I said. "I might die of blood poisoning. I can't even wear boots."
"Then you can't kick anybody," he said. And he would have walked out of the washroom.
I blocked his way. "You can't treat me like this."
"I'm not going to treat you at all, Officer Gris. You owe me an order starting my pay. You have not made arrangements for funds to start campaigns against prevalent diseases. And you have not paid the kaffarah to the villages of the wives you messed up. And your marriage-dowry bank order bounced. When you see fit to go up to Istanbul and straighten up your affairs with Mudur
Zengin and keep your bargains, I might have time to talk to you."
"How can I go to Istanbul with my feet rotting off?" I demanded.
"Steal some crutches," he said. "Nobody around here would even lend you any." And he simply walked out.
I was NOT going to Istanbul and face the rage of Mudur Zengin of the Piastre Bank. The way my luck was running in that direction, he would probably have me arrested for getting dirt on his floor.
Riding back home, I pondered this. It seemed quite logical that when I had killed Heller, getting back in Rockecenter's good graces, I could do my future business with Grabbe-Manhattan. Until then, I would let it ride. To Hells with those (bleeped) wives, anyway. And who cared if the riffraff had disease?
In my bathroom, I soaked my festering feet in Epsom salts and was hopeful it would help.
My radio went live. RAHT!
"Have you killed him?" I shouted.
"That's what I'm trying to tell you," said Raht.
"Then tell me!"
"That's what I'm trying to do. Do you want this report or don't you?"
I swallowed my rage. "Give me the report!"
"That's better. An agent's report should be precise, not rushed and all tangled up. You almost took my ear off. Now, let's see, where was I? Yes. I arrived at Termoli but they didn't have any fish boats. All available craft were out at the site of the crash. So I went up the coast to Pescara, a bigger town, and I got a boat.
"Pescara is about 120 miles from the Palagruza where the plane crashed, and it took us some time to get out there. The Adriatic is pretty stormy, lots of waves and tides.
"The plane went down in about a hundred feet of water. The Italian navy was trying to raise it with a tug and crane. It was pretty buried on the bottom in yellow mud and sand and lying upside down.
"A plane like that weighs forty or fifty tons and the crane they had just wasn't up to it.
"The Royal officer was helping them. They tried to pump some kind of foam into it but it was so broken up the foam just floated away. So the Royal officer went down in scuba gear and they began to send up bodies.
"Did you know there were a lot of kids on that plane? Well, anyway, they had to get another craft up to take the bodies. They had a priest there making the sign of the cross as each one came up. I counted thirty-five. The airline people said there were forty-nine on the plane including crew. But the crash had opened the side of the ship up and fourteen of the bodies, they figured, must have floated away. They spent a lot of time trying to find them and couldn't.
"The Royal officer had helicopters searching the sea and beaches, but they only found some bits of wreckage. So he went down again and they started passing up cabin hand baggage. They found a couple scarves identified as having been bought by the woman in the Rome airport and I think that was the first time he began to believe she had been aboard, because he started caving in.
"Finally the navy got some cutting tools up from Taranto and they opened up the baggage compartment and he found her suitcase. He seemed to lose interest after that.
"The authorities are trying to investigate the crash. The pilot recorder is missing..."
"(Bleep) you, Raht," I snarled. "Did you kill him or didn't you?"
"Now I know how you got poor Terb tortured and murdered. No planning. That place was completely swarming with Italian navy. If I had fired, I would have had to cross 120 miles of water in a slow boat with patrol craft on my tail. In order to do a job like this, you have to have the subject in some secluded place where nobody can witness it and you can get away."
"So you didn't kill him."
"Not yet. I'm just giving you a report."
I knew I would have to give firmer directions. "Where is he now?"
"Leaving the area. That's why I'm giving you this report."
"Raht, if you don't do this job, you're through. I'll kill you myself! You missed your opportunity!"
"There WAS no opportunity!" he snapped.
"Are you going to kill him or aren't you?"
"Of course I'm going to kill him. I think he is heading back for New York and I'll be right on his heels. The moment I get him alone, he's dead. But I need help."