Heffer had made the classic blunder of all incompetent would-be assassins. He should have shot Mitchell on sight and then asked the questions. Mitchell flicked on his pencil torch and spun it upward, where it spiraled around like a demented firefly. Heifer would have been less than human not to have had the instinctive reaction of glancing upward as his subconscious mind speculated as to what the hell Mitchell was up to: a speculation of very brief duration indeed, because Heifer was dead before the flash fell back onto the platform.
Mitchell picked up the flash, still surprisingly working, pocketed it, then dragged Heffer by the heels and rolled him off to join his friends at the bottom of the Gulf. He returned to the sick-bay vestibule, donned his shoes and entered the sick bay itself. Dr. Greenshaw had both his patients on blood transfusion.
Roomer looked at his watch. «Six minutes. What took you so long?»
A plainly unnerved Marina looked at Roomer, half in disbelief, half in stupefaction.
«Well, I'm sorry.» Mitchell actually managed to sound apologetic. «I had the misfortune to run into Heifer on the way back.»
«You mean he had the misfortune to run into you. And where are our friends?'*
«I'm not rightly sure,»
«I understand.» Roomer sounded sympathetic. «It's hard to estimate the depth of the water out here.»
«I could find out. But it hardly seems to matter. Dr. Greenshaw, you have stretchers? Complete with straps and so forth?» Greenshaw nodded. «Get them ready. Let them stay where they are meantime. Can you carry on the blood transfusions in flight?»
«That's no problem. I assume you want me to accompany them?»
«Yes, please. I know it's asking an awful lot, but after you've handed them over to the competent medical authorities, Fd like you to return.»
«It will be a pleasure. I am now in my seventieth year and I thought there was nothing fresh left in life for me to experience. I was wrong.» Marina stared at them in disbelief. All three men seemed calm and relaxed. Melinda appeared to have dropped off into a coma-like stupor, but she was merely, in fact, under heavy sedation. Marina said with conviction: «You're all mad.»
Mitchell said: «That's what a lunatic asylum inmate says about the outside world—and he may well be right. However, that's hardly the point at issue. You, Marina, will be accompanying the others on the trip back to Florida. You will be perfectly safe there—your father will see that the most massive security guard ever mounted will be there.»
«How splendid. I love being made a fuss over, being the center of attraction. However, mastermind, there's just one small flaw in your reasoning. I'm not going. I'm staying with my father.»
«That's exactly the point I'm going to discuss with him now.»
«You mean you're going out to kill someone else?»
Mitchell held out his hands, fingers splayed. They could have been carved from marble.
«Later,» Roomer said. «He appears to have some other things on his mind at the moment.»
Mitchell left. Marina turned furiously on Roomer. «You're just as bad as he is.»
«I'm a sick man. You mustn't upset me.»
«You and his berserker moods. He's just a killer.»
Roomer's face went very still. «You know, I don't look forward to the prospect of having a mentally retarded person as a sister-in-law.»
She was shocked and the shock showed. Her voice was a whisper. «I don't really know you, do I?»
«No. We're the men who walk down the dark side of the streets. Somebody has to look after the people on the dark side. We do it. Do you know how much your father offered us to take you home?» Roomer smiled. 'Tm afraid I'm not much good in that department at the moment, but Mike will take care of it.»
«How much did he offer you?»
«Whatever we wanted in the world. A million dollars to take you home? A hundred million if we'd asked for it? Sure.»
«How much did you ask for?'* Her face wasn't registering much in the way of expression.
Roomer sighed, «Poor Mike. To think that he regards you as the pot of gold at the foot of the rainbow. Poor me, too. Fm going to have to live with you too, even at second hand. Let's be corny. Your father loves you. We love you. To pile cliche on cliche, there are some things that can't be bought. Pearls beyond price. Don't make yourself an artificial pearl, Marina. And don't ever insult us again that way. But we have to live on something, so we'll send him a bill.»
«For what?»
«Ammunition expended.»
She crossed to his cotside, knelt and kissed him. Roomer seemed too weak to resist. Dr.
Greenshaw was severe. «Marina, he's not only having a blood transfusion, there's also the factor of blood pressure.»
Roomer said: «My blood pressure is registering no complaints.»
She kissed him again. «Is that apology enough?» Roomer smiled and said nothing. « 'Berserker* you said. Can anyone stop him when he's like that? Can I?»
«No. Someday, yes.»
«The one person is you. Yes?»
«Yes.»
«You didn't.»
«No.»
«Why?»
«They carried guns.»
«You carry guns.»
«Yes. But we're not evil people who carry evil guns to do evil things.»
«That's all?»
«No.» He looked across at Melinda. «You see?»
«Please.»
«If Kowenski and Rindler hadn't been such damned lousy shots, she'd be dead.»
«So you let Michael loose?»
«Yes.»
«You're going to marry her?»
«Yes.»
«Have you asked her?»
«No.”
«You don't have to. Sisters talk.»
«Mike?»
«I don't know, John. Fm a running coward, running scared.»
«Well?»
«He kills.»
«I've killed.»
«He'll kill again?»
«I don't know.»
«John.»
He reached out, took a lock of her gleaming black hair, picked out a single thread. «That»
«You mean?»
«Yes.»
«I have to see.» She kicked off her high-heeled shoes.
«So much to learn. Sit.»
She sat on his bed. Dr. Greeitshaw rolled his eyes heavenward. She was wearing blue jeans and a white blouse. Roomer reached up and undid the top button of her blouse. She looked at him and said nothing. Roomer said: «You do the rest. Navy or black jumper.»
She was back in thirty seconds, wearing a navy polo- She looked inquiringly at Roomer, who nodded. She left the sick bay.
In Lord Worth's living room, he and Mitchell were seated in adjacent armchairs. The wall-speakers were on. When Marina came in, Mitchell waved her to urgent silence.
Over the speakers Durand's unmistakable voice sounded testy. «All I know is that the deck lights went out some minutes ago and then came back on.» Marina glanced at Mitchell, who nodded. «All the light you need to land.»
«Have you neutralized the radar scanner yet?»
Marina had never heard the voice before, but the tightening of Lord Worth's lip showed that Cronkite's voice was no stranger to him.
«We don't need to now.»
«It was your idea. Do it. We'll leave in ten minutes, then about fifteen minutes' flying time.»
« 'We'll leave'? That mean you're coming too?»
«No. I've more important things to do.» There was a click: Cronkite had ceased to transmit.
Lord Worth said uneasily: «I wonder what that devious devil means by that?»
«We'll just have to find out the hard way.» Mitchell looked at Marina. «Where are your shoes?»
She smiled sweetly. «I'm a quick study. Shoes make too much noise out on the platform.»
«You're not going out on any platform.»
«I am. There are gaps in my education. I want to see how killers operate.»