With Rita beside me, I started for the farmhouse. Chung Li had gone back inside, and as I entered my eyes swept the room in a glance, passed the two uniformed Chinese on the floor to the narrow bed where Carlsbad lay, a deep, red-stained hole creasing his temple. I heard Rita gasp beside me and she pushed past and ran to the bed. The room itself, simple clay walls with a wooden roof, branched off to two other rooms I could only glimpse. I nodded toward Carlsbad.
"Is he dead?" I asked.
Chung Li shook his head slowly. "Not yet anyway. But a bullet passed through his temple. He's in a coma. There was a battle, as you can see. We found the house and were attacked."
He gestured to the two dead soldiers on the floor, one with a field transmitter beside him. "My two men were killed," he said. "I fought back from the adjoining room. When a bullet struck Carlsbad, the others fled."
"The others? You mean the huge Japanese and the jet pilot?" I questioned.
Chung Li nodded. "And two other men," he said. "In a Land-rover. The jet must have been hidden a few miles inland at one of the larger meadows. But our immediate problems are over at least"
I saw something in Chung Li's eyes that I couldn't read. But it had triumph in it, a Cheshire cat feel. I didn't like it but I put it down as satisfaction at having gotten to Carlsbad first.
"How do you mean, our immediate problems are over?" I asked slowly. The Chinese espionage chief gestured to the inert form of the bacteriologist. "He is finished," he said. "I've seen men with that kind of wound live for months, paralyzed and in a coma as he is now. Whatever his plan, it's ended. All we need now is to have a platoon make an inch-by-inch search of the area to recover the X–V77."
I watched Chung Li lean back against the rough clay wall, very much at ease, bland satisfaction on his face. That wasn't the way I was feeling, and I turned as Ostrov and three men burst in through the open doorway. The Russian chief's eyes took in the situation at a glance and focused their ice-blue hardness on Chung Li. The Chinese again told him what had happened, and when he was finished I saw Ostrov's tensed face lose a little of its grimness.
"I agree with the general," he said. "Carlsbad's men can run but they'll be found. Meanwhile, the greatest danger is over. Carlsbad is in no condition to carry out whatever he planned or even to direct others in carrying it out."
"I can't call it over until the X–V77 is found and in our hands," I said. "What if that big Japanese knows where it is and tries to come back for it?"
"Without their brains, their leader, they will do nothing. Except hide in terror." Chung Li smiled at me.
"I agree again," Ostrov said gruffly. "The jackals run. That is always the way." I didn't answer, but I was thinking of those people back in the old temple in the Kuriles. They were all dedicated zealots in their own way and Carlsbad's missing helpers were part of that. Chung Li smiled at me again, a deprecating, condescending smile.
"Your concern is understandable, seeing as the entire problem was caused by your government's stockpiling of inhuman methods of warfare," he said. "But a careful search of the area is certain to uncover the virus."
I felt Rita move to my side and I glanced from the Chinese espionage chief to the Russian and back again. Chung Li's position was logical enough. With Carlsbad captive, nearly dead, and the others fleeing, it seemed the primary danger was over. Carlsbad was certainly in no state to carry out anything further. So why was I so damned uneasy? Ostrov's gruff, unfriendly voice gave words to something else in the back of all our minds.
"There is no need for me to stay any longer," he said. "My men and I will cross the border into Kraskino. It is safe to say that this period of cooperation is at an end. We shall not meet again under these circumstances, gentlemen."
I knew he was damned right about that but I was still thinking about the missing bacteria strain. I never liked things unfinished. Loose ends caused trouble.
"I want to get Dr. Carlsbad to America and have our doctors work on him," I said. "He's still alive. Maybe he can be brought around enough to tell us where the X–V77 is hidden."
"It is pointless," Chung Li said through the mask of his bland smile. "My men will find it, given time for a thorough search, I assure you."
I looked at Ostrov and waited for him to offer to help me get Carlsbad the short distance to Kraskino across the border. He merely shrugged, saluted smartly and turned on his heel. "It is over," he flung back. "I have important things to get back to." He stalked out with his three aides. I followed his broad back with my eyes, but he kept going until he was out of my sight. Cooperation was shattering so fast, I could hear the pieces falling.
I turned to Chung Li whose quick little eyes were watching me narrowly. Gesturing to the radio transmitter beside one of his slain soldiers, I said, "I should like to contact my people." Chung Li hesitated for a brief moment and then smiled again.
"Of course. I wish to speak to your Hawk myself." He disentangled the straps of the transmitter from the dead man's shoulders and handed the set to me. I called the carrier, using the agreed-upon code name. When I heard them answer, I asked for a relay hook-up to Hawk in Washington and told my boss what had happened. When Chung Li gestured, I turned the set over to him. He spelled out his thinking persuasively, and it almost convinced me as I listened to him. Almost. But I still had that gnawing inside me. Chung Li handed the set back to me, and I heard Hawk's faint voice.
"I'll take this up with the others who were at the meeting," he said. "But I'm afraid they'll see it Chung Li's way, too. And frankly, Nick, I can't see where his analysis is wrong. Without the brains, without Carlsbad, the others will just keep running."
I couldn't say what I was thinking with the Red Chinese chief standing within arm's length of me but, as I'd learned long ago, even silences spoke to Hawk.
"I know what's bothering you," I heard him say. "You don't trust the sonofabitch, to phrase it in your inimitable way."
"I guess that's about it," I admitted.
"I don't trust him any more than you do," Hawk said. "But look at it this way. If, as is in the back of your mind, Carlsbad's friends left with the X–V77, Chung Li would be anxious as all hell to get it back. It'd mean the same kind of big trouble for him as it originally meant. The only reason he cooperated at all was because he feared Carlsbad might strike at his boss. I can't see Chung Li being casual about this if he wasn't sure that the danger was past."
"I still want to bring Carlsbad back," I said. "I'd feel a lot better if he could be made to talk."
"By all means bring him back," Hawk agreed. "Let's let the medics have a crack at him."
I looked at Chung Li as I put down the set. "I'm to bring Dr. Carlsbad back with me." His fixed smile stayed in place. Only the glitter of his eyes brightened. "May I assume your cooperation in this?" I asked. I knew that under any other circumstances he'd have told me to go to hell. Or more likely, he'd have had me killed. But the World Leadership Conference was still waiting in the wings with his boss taking part. He didn't want to risk a wrong move at this time.
"Of course." He smiled, picking up the transmitter. "The nearest airport capable of handling a large plane is Yenki. I shall arrange to have a plane waiting there to fly you to Japan. I'll clear arrangements with Major Nutashi."
He spoke crisply and sharply into the set and the mask dropped away for a few seconds. I glimpsed the harsh, driving man I knew was under the bland exterior. Finally he turned to me.
"A car is coming for me," he said, the fixed smile in place again. "A medical lorry will also arrive for you and Carlsbad. All you need do is wait here. Of course, I believe all this completely unnecessary. The man will never recover and his plans are destroyed. Why all this undue concern over his life? It is foolish."