It only took me a couple minutes to connect his detonator to my radar gizmo, but Lou was fidgetin’ every second of the time. I never seen him lookin’ nervous or flustered before. He was always the coolest of the cool, never a hair out of place. Now he was half jumpin’ up and down, lookin’ up the tunnel and grumblin’ that the train was comin’ and I was gonna miss it. I had to work real hard to keep a straight face. Little Lou uptight; that was somethin’ to grin about.
Okay, so I had everything ready in plenty time. The maintenance train musta been doin’ two miles an hour, max, scrapin’ down the tracks and scoopin’ up most of the garbage in the tunnel as it dragged along. I turned on my gizmo. The readout numbers on the little red window started tickin’ down slowly. When they reached the number already set on the other window beside it, the relay on the detonator clicked.
«Bueno,» said the moustache, still kneeling beside me. He didn’t sound happy or nuthin. Just, «Bueno.» Flat as a pancake.
I looked over at Jade, standin’ with Rollo and the other strangers off by the tunnel wall, and I smiled at her.
«Does that means it works okay?» I asked. I knew the answer but I wanted him to say it so Little Lou could hear it. Lou was bendin’ down between the two of us.
«Yes,» he said, in that sad heavy voice of his. «It works perfectly.» He said each word carefully, like he wasn’t sure he had his English right.
I got to my feet and said to Lou, «Okay. I done my part. Now Jade and me can go, right?»
«No one leaves this tunnel,» said the moustache. Still sad, but real strong, like he meant it. He had unbuttoned his suit jacket and I could see the butt of a heavy black revolver stickin’ out of a shoulder holster. [Deleted], it would’ve taken my both hands just to hold that pistol up, let alone fire it off.
«Hey, now wait a minute—» I started to say.
Lou grabbed me by the shoulder and spun me around, his fist raised to smack me a good one. The moustache grabbed his upraised arm and held it in midair. Just held it there. He must’ve been pretty strong to do that.
«There is no need for that,» he said to Lou, low and firm. «There will be enough violence in the morning.» Lou pulled his arm away, his face red and nasty. The moustache turned to me and almost smiled. Kind of apologetic, he said, «It is necessary for you and your lady to remain here until the operation is concluded. For security reasons. Do you understand?»
I nodded. Sure I understood. What I was startin’ to wonder about, though, was whether these guys would let us live after their «operation» was finished. I knew Lou was goin’ to want to take Jade with him. If these foreigners didn’t whack me tomorrow, probably Lou would. Then he’d have Jade all to himself for as long as he wanted her.
So we sat on the crummy tunnel floor alongside the tracks and waited. The foreigners had some sandwiches and coffee with them. Moustache offered a sandwich to Jade, real polite, and one to me. It was greasy and spiced hot enough to scorch my mouth. They all laughed at me when I grabbed for the coffee and burned my mouth even more ’cause it was so hot.
I tried to sleep but couldn’t. I saw that the two younger guys had curled up right there on the floor, sleepin’ like babies with their rifles in their arms. Lou took Jade off down the tunnel a ways, where it was dark, far enough so I couldn’t see them or even hear them. I sat and watched Rollo, hopin’ he’d nod off long enough for me to follow Lou down the tunnel and slice his throat open. But Rollo just sat a few feet away from me, his chin on his knees and his eyes on me. Big as a [deleted] elephant.
Moustache wasn’t sleepin’, either. I went over to where he was sittin’ with his back against the wall.
«Why’s the Chairman comin’ in on a train?» I asked him, hunkering down beside him. «There ain’t been a train through here since before I was born.»
Moustache gave me his sad smile. «It is a gesture. He is a man given to gestures.»
I couldn’t figure out what the hell he meant by that.
«Why do you want to whack him?» I asked.
«Whack?» He looked puzzled.
«Kill him.»
His eyes went wide, a little. «Kill him? We do not intend to assassinate the Chairman.» He shook his head. «No, it is not so simple as that.»
«Then what?»
He shook his head again. «It is none of your affair. The less you know about it the better off you will be.»
«Yeah,» I said. «Until this thing is over and Lou whacks me.»
He shrugged. «That is your problem. Not mine.»
A lot of help he was.
My wristwatch said seven twenty-seven A.M. when Lou came walkin’ back up the track toward us. His hair was mussed and he had his suit jacket thrown over one shoulder. He grinned at me. Jade came followin’ behind him, her face absolutely blank, starin’ straight ahead. I figured she was tryin’ not to see me.
What the hell, I thought. Why don’t I kill the mother-[deleted] [deleted] right now. Stick my blade in his nuts and twist it hard before Rollo gets a chance to move. They was gonna whack me afterward anyway. I knew it.
I was even startin’ to pull up my pants leg when I felt Moustache’s hand on my shoulder. «No,» he whispered.
I must have looked pretty sore to him. He said, low and soft, «I am a man of honor. I will see to it that you and the girl go free after our operation is concluded. You can trust me.»
Lou had already passed me by then. Rollo got up on his feet, towerin’ over us all like a mountain. I let my pants leg slide down to my ankle again. I just hoped Lou and Rollo didn’t notice what I had started to do.
A little while later three more guys came down the same ladder we had used, two of them carryin’ big leather suitcases, the third carryin’ a little metal case and climbin’ down so careful that I figured he had the bomb in it. They were foreigners too, but they looked different from Moustache and his men. They had dark skins, all right, but a different kind of dark. And they were taller, slimmer, with big hooked noses like eagle’s beaks. Like Moustache and his men, they were wearin’ regular suits. But they looked like they were uncomfortable in them, like these weren’t the kind of clothes they usually wore.
Anyway, after talkin’ a few minutes with Moustache they went up the tracks with the little metal case. They came back again without it, but trailin’ a spool of wire. Which they connected to my radar gizmo. I noticed that the detonator was gone; they had taken it with the bomb, I figured. Then they set the gizmo right in the middle of the tracks and waited.
«Won’t the oinks see it there?» I asked Moustache. «The police,» I added before he could ask what oinks meant.
In that sad way of his he said, «Your Mr. Lou has been well paid to see to it that the security guards do not come down the tunnel this far.» He kind of sighed. «It always surprises me to see how well bribery works on little men.»
Bought off the security guards? I wondered if even Big Lou could cover all the Federal oinks that must be coverin’ the Chairman. I mean, this guy was the Chairman of the World Council. They must be protectin’ him like they protect the president or some of those video stars.
Moustache must’ve understood the puzzled look on my face. «There is a full security guard on the train itself, and entire platoons of soldiers at the station. The responsibility for checking the security of the tunnel was given to your city police force. That is why we decided to do our work here. This is the weak link in their preparations.»
He talked like a general. Or at least, the way I thought a general would talk. No, I never did get his name. Nobody spoke to him by his name; nobody I could understand, at least. I did find out later on that he had another half dozen men farther down the tunnel, also waitin’ for the train. Twelve guys altogether. Fourteen, if you count Little Lou and Rollo.