"That family you know. What can you offer them? We have no more money."
"They don't like the Germans. I can tell them the Germans are after us."
"You're grasping at straws."
She shrugged and told him she was leaving it up to him.
Nick checked guns and ammunition. There were two pistols and a rifle. The rifle had six bullets in it. One of the pistols was fully loaded. The other had three cartridges in the clip. They weren't exactly a two-man army. "How do I sneak in if your friends say it's okay?" he wanted to know.
"The people will be in the rice paddies. They all work there except the very old and the young children. I'll talk to them. They won't say yes unless they mean it. They are honorable."
"If they tell the others…"
"They won't," she insisted. Before he could say anything else she turned and ran. He grinned after her.
It was late afternoon when Captain Stryker called Bormann from the compound. Two guards had been found dead in a closet in the mess hall. He was organizing a search party.
"Did you find out anything about the man who was captured?" Bormann asked.
"He was wearing a black costume. Probably used it to get into the Imperial Palace."
"Very clever," Bormann said dryly.
"Some of the men saw his body carried out of the laboratory. But two guards claim they saw him later in the laboratory while it was still burning. Those two were badly burned and are in the infirmary. They were lucky. Their comrades were killed, shot to death by the man."
"Carter must be back in Peking," Bormann said. "He wouldn't be fool enough to stay there, not after he accomplished what he set out to do."
"Shall I discontinue the search?"
"I will leave that to your own discretion, Captain Stryker"
Stryker heard the click and knew Bormann had hung up. He replaced the receiver in its cradle. Bormann believed the man was back in Peking, but there was always the chance he was hidden somewhere, trying to get his strength back. The man must be exhausted from all the chaos he had created. Now where would he be if he was still in the vicinity? There was always the village of Tsin Then. It would be foolhardy for a normal man to attempt to hide in the village, but this was not a normal man.
He could stop in the village for a quick investigation before going on to Peking. No need to bring any of the Chinese troopers with him. If he did find Carter, he was sure he could handle him alone. He wouldn't be asleep like the Germans whom Carter had killed in their beds. Kerner was more a scientist than a soldier. And the Chinese troopers were a stupid bunch. No, Stryker was no boy. He was a professional soldier. He was more than a match for that idiot American. Maybe Bormann was afraid of him. But not Stryker. No, indeed.
Stryker left the little makeshift office and got into his car. He signaled to a guard framed in the doorway of one of the two remaining buildings. The guard went inside to cut the electric beam. Stryker drove out of the compound.
It would be quite a feather in his cap to kill this man Carter. He knew how Carter plagued Bormann. It would be quite a feat to accomplish what Bormann had never been able to do.
Lotus and Nick sat on beds of straw, their backs against the wall of the thatched hut. They had just finished eating and their stomachs were full and satisfied.
"I feel grimy," Nick confessed. "Wish I could take a bath."
"There is a stream nearby. But it would be dangerous to go there now. We're lucky no one saw us come in." She reached inside her pocket and took out a piece of jade. "This is where our luck came from."
"What's that?"
"The jade I took from my father's dead body," she reminded him.
"You've been carrying it with you?"
"Yes. I hope it will bring me better luck than it did my father. We Chinese are superstitious, aren't we?"
"No more so than most people."
Lotus suddenly cocked her head. "I hear a car."
Nick scrambled to his feet. He peered out the doorway. The car was coming toward the village over an open field. There was one lone occupant. Lotus was beside Nick. She drew in her breath sharply. "It's Captain Stryker." Her fingers, like steel claws, pressed against Nick's arm. "I told you about him. He is brutal."
There were some old villagers outside their huts; they ignored the car.
Stryker braked and got out. He drew his Luger and started a systematic search of the huts, from left to right.
Lotus huddled against the wall of the hut while Nick flattened himself against the wall near the doorway. He had one pistol in his belt, but he didn't want to shoot Stryker; he didn't want the villagers in the rice paddies to hear the shot.
When Stryker entered the hut, his Luger protruded at least two feet in front of him. Nick chopped at the gun wrist and the Luger dropped. Stryker ignored the pain of his wrist and plunged his left fist into Nick's face. Nick rolled with the punch. He dropped to both knees, wrapped his hands around Stryker's ankles, and pulled. Stryker fell backward. Nick was on him, his knee digging in the pit of the German's stomach, his fingers around Stryker's neck. Stryker pushed Nick's head away, using the heel of his palm.
Nick had to let go of Stryker's neck or his own neck would have been broken.
Nick jumped to his feet as Stryker lunged at him. Nick sidestepped, turned swiftly, wrapped an arm around Stryker's neck. Stryker's back was against Nick's front Nick kept his legs wide apart so that Stryker couldn't heel his shins. Stryker tried to flip Nick over his shoulder, but his strength was fading fast. Nick's arm was pressing against his windpipe, choking off the oxygen to his brain.
Nick bared his teeth as he felt the man start to slump. He didn't let go till he was sure there was no chance of Stryker still being alive. Then his arm came away and the German folded like a rag doll with the sawdust running out.
Nick knelt and started to strip the man.
"What are you doing?" Lotus asked.
'We're about the same size," Nick said. "I'm taking his uniform and his car. It'll be safer than the Packard."
"We can't leave his body here."
"We won't. We'll leave him in some ditch." Nick added the Luger to his collection. He put on Stryker's uniform and found it just right.
"When will we leave?"
"Soon. But well go nice and slow. I don't want to get to Peking till it's dark. Well stop along the way at some village or farmhouse and have a good dinner." He showed her the money he had taken from Captain Stryker's body. "Bormann pays his men well. Nothing too good for the master race."
Chapter 15
The guard was shot dead on Bormann s orders. Sim Chan didn't interfere; she just wanted to know why.
In his office, his hip on the edge of the desk, one leg dangling, Bormann explained that the guard had left his post to be with a prostitute named Lotus the night the AXE agent. Carter, had slipped into the Imperial Palace to murder two of his men. The man had finally broken under pressure. Bormann had life-and-death control over the guards under him; it was part of his agreement with the ChiComs.
Sim Chan shrugged her slender shoulders. She had on black slacks, a white blouse, and a short alpaca jacket with wide pockets. She liked wide pockets — a good place to conceal a gun. "I am indifferent to the guard's death. I was only curious."
"I have put in a call to the Peking police to find where this Lotus lives. When I have their reply I will personally question her. I don't trust anyone to get Carter except myself."
Sim Chan lifted her eyebrows mockingly. "Are you afraid if I meet him again he may convince me of your treachery?"
Bormann scowled. Mentally, he swore he would kill Sim Chan himself once she perfected Agent Z. She kept rubbing him the wrong way, taunting him, mocking him. "It's a personal matter," he said gruffly. This isn't the first time he has interfered with me. So your snide remarks are wasted. My hide is tough as leather."