Nick selected the right moment — when the man was too engrossed in what he was doing to be on his guard — to step out of the closet and approach the bed. He jabbed at the man's neck and clicked the cap once. It was all over, and Lotus disengaged herself. She ran into the bathroom and Nick turned the man over. If he didn't know better he would have sworn the man was dead. Lotus came back and put on her pajamas.
Nick stripped and put on the man s uniform.
"What are you doing?" she wanted to know.
"When he doesn't return they'll be looking for him. That couple downstairs saw him come up. And he may have told some of his buddies that he was coming here"
Lotus nodded her head wisely. "So you are going to leave here, pretending to be him. If the couple downstairs are questioned they will say they saw him leave."
"Right. I'll double back and come up the back way. Then well work on our friend here." Nick patted the man's belly. "I'll bet hell have a lot to say."
Nick went down and walked out the front door. The couple were close together, whispering. He bumped into them, keeping his face down, mumbled something in German, and kept on going, pretending he was drunk. When he was two blocks away, he made a wide circle, hoping he wouldn't get lost in doubling back. The streets were narrow, and he threaded his way carefully till he was in back of the apartment house. He went up the back way and Lotus kissed him as if he had returned from a long journey.
He stripped off the uniform and dressed the man and then put on his own clothes. "You'd better wait in the other room," he advised her. Without a word, Lotus went away.
Nick found some cord and bound the man's wrists and ankles to the bed. He put the gun on the night table and then used the pen again, this time injecting the man with the antidote.
The German started to breathe again. He opened his eyes in wonder and then anger.
Nick picked up the gun and showed it to the officer. "I'll blow your brains out if there's an outcry. Do you understand me?"
The man's eyes narrowed with hate.
"I have some questions to ask you, and you're going to answer them. Do you understand?"
Stubbornly, the man shook his head.
Nick grinned wolfishly. He put the gun aside and then went to work on the German with his hands. The man gasped and blacked out.
Nick went to the bathroom, filled a glass with water, went back to the bedroom and tossed the water in the man's face. The eyes opened slowly and stared up at Nick.
"All you got was a sample," Nick said. "I'll teach you what pain really is." His hands got busy again. Once the man started to scream and Nick dug two fingers in his windpipe.
Nick worked up a good sweat before the stubbornness left the German. The officer finally nodded his head and answered freely as Nick threw questions at him.
Nick used the pen once again and the man went under. Nick went into the front room and sank into a chair. Lotus brought him a glass of rice wine. "I heard him groaning. It chilled my blood."
Nick drained the glass. "Don't ask me to apologize for my actions. I do what I have to."
Lotus touched his shoulder. "I understand"
Chapter 9
Nick had what he wanted. The laboratory was located near the village of Tsin Then. He learned from Lotus that the village was less than a hundred miles from Peking. Nick told Lotus everything the German had told him, leaving nothing out. There was a new Nazi movement in Germany, and Bormann was more than just a small part of it Bormann had promised to help the movement with the most powerful weapon ever invented and that, to Nick, meant giving Agent Z to the movement. The German in Lotus's bedroom hadn't mentioned Agent Z, which hadn't surprised Nick. Bormann had gathered around him men who followed blindly, never asking questions. So Bormann had kept Agent Z a secret except to a small handful of his closest confederates. The German knew that Captain Stryker had information about this mysterious weapon. There were a couple of others but he, himself, had been told nothing.
"I thought the man with the frozen face was working for the Chinese?" Lotus wondered out loud.
"The old doublecross," Nick said. "He's using the ChiComs to get what he wants. Equipment, technical help, and time. He has no intention of handing Agent Z over to the Chinese. He needs it to push his way to the top. That kraut in there…" Nick jerked his thumb toward the bedroom door"…knew about the laboratory but not what was going on. He'd been there to help supervise the delivery of laboratory animals and equipment. Lotus, I'm going to Tsin Then."
"You're going now?"
"Yes."
"I'm going with you,"
He started to shake his head but saw the determination in her eyes. "It's too damn dangerous," he said weakly.
"I know a family in Tsin Then. They will give me food. You can't enter the village. The villagers would be suspicious. No whites ever go there."
"I'll dump our friend in the closet Hell keep for a week. I'll take along that black costume you made. It may come in handy."
While Nick lugged the German to the closet, Lotus wrapped the costume and some food in packages and then changed into a black pajamalike outfit They went out the back way.
On Chow Din Avenue they came across an old Packard. Nick worked quickly. He lifted the hood, crossed some wires, and soon they were driving away. In the dashboard compartment Lotus found identification papers that belonged to the owner. He was a factory foreman.
"An ordinary worker usually can't afford a car," Lotus explained to Nick.
They left the city without being stopped, and Nick breathed a sigh of relief. They stopped to eat and then continued.
It was two in the morning when they came within sight of the village. Nick left the dirt road, drove through some foliage, and stopped near a tree. He didn't want to leave the car in open country. He cut the motor and got out.
"This family you mentioned — you re sure you can trust them?" he asked her.
She made a wry smile. "You can't trust anyone these days, not even your own family. I'll give them a story about taking a drive out here with some man. I'll ask them for some food and then I'll start talking about the laboratory. Maybe they'll tell me what we want to know."
"You're taking a chance," Nick told her. "You'll be playing it by ear, and that's no good."
"They may get suspicious," Lotus conceded. "Give me all your money."
Nick handed over all the yuan notes in his pockets.
"I'll pay them for the food. Even if they get suspicious they won't say anything. Not with all this money to keep them happy."
Nick watched her run off toward the village, then he stripped and put on the black costume. It was an hour before she returned.
She had chicken pies and rice wine, which they finished off first. Then she told Nick what she had learned. The laboratory was patrolled by Chinese guards. It was a three-house compound. The white-painted house was the laboratory and the other houses, drab in appearance, housed the guards and the technicians. The villagers didn't know what was going on. They always saw white-coated men but never the guards, enter the white house. That was how Lotus knew the white house was the laboratory. Some of the villagers worked in the compound cleaning and washing, but they weren't allowed in the house painted white.
"Listen, Lotus, you're sticking right here. And no use arguing with me." He gave her the pen and told her how it worked. "In case I'm caught, I don't want this to fall into their hands."
Lotus took the pen, put it away, and watched him walk away. He headed to the left of the village where the laboratory was located.
Lotus had no intention of staying in a safe place while Nick went out alone against a formidable enemy. She waited five minutes and then went out after him.