Nick’s heart missed a beat and he cursed himself for his stupidity, for his dullwittedness. And at the same time he felt a surge of almost overwhelming relief. He remembered what he had done with Pierre, and he remembered when he had done it. It was when they had stopped for a five-minute break in the long drive and he had strolled off to commune with nature — or so he’d said to Paula. He shifted his legs experimentally. Yes, Pierre was there.
“You can forget your threats,” he said harshly. “I’ll tell you what you want to know, and more than you want. And I’ll start with this. I was not sent by the Americans—”
“Oh, no, my friend,” said Hector. “That is not the way you start. Not by lying. You tell us exactly why you are here, what you have found out, and where the rest of your people are. Because we know that you are the advance man of an entire force. Now please talk nicely, or Ernesto will get itchy fingers.”
“Stop that silly babbling,” Nick said roughly. “Listen if you want to, and go fry in hell if you don’t. The Americans refused to send anyone. Why? Because they thought it was a fool’s errand, and maybe they were right. And how do I know? Because it’s my business to know things like that. That’s what the Chicoms pay me for. And they’re not too damned happy with you right now. Want to know why your pal Alonzo didn’t come back? Because they caught him spying.” His mind raced ahead of his words, remembering what Evita had said about Tsing-fu doubting the Fidelistas, putting together the little he had learned, padding it with a lot that he had guessed. He let it all pour out with a sort of sullen arrogance, as of a man who knows his own bosses are more powerful than the men who have entrapped him. “And you know what they did to him, of course, don’t you?” he went on. “Maybe now you can do a little imagining. And don’t think you’ll gain anything by killing me in return. I’m useful to them and that’s a whole lot more than you are. You’ve made enough trouble already by sending your snoop after them.”
Hector fixed him with a piercing, beetle-browed look.
“Are you trying to tell me,” he demanded, “that you are a mercenary in the pay of the Chinese? Do you think I am a fool, to believe that kind of cock-and-bull story?”
“You’re a fool if you don’t. You’d better believe it, or you’ll end up ripped to pieces like Alonzo Escobar.” Nick caught his stomach suddenly and groaned. “Goddamn, which of your donkeys kicked me in the gut?. I’ll screw his nuts off him, myself! Now what the hell was the idea of sending a spy after Tsing-fu?”
“We did not send him,” Hector said through his teeth, “and we are the ones who are asking you the questions.”
“Maybe you are,” said Nick, trying to sound like a gambler with a whole sleeveful of aces, “but you’d better give with some answers or you’ll find your comrades getting even less comradely. Why did you send—?”
“We did not send him! He rushed off to them without our knowledge, I tell you. The only thing he said was that the girl Luz had given him a lead. He didn’t think it was much, but he was going to follow it up. Now of course we know from her what she told him — that a force of Americans was to land at Cap St. Michel on the 13th at one a.m.” Hector glared bale-fully at Nick. His two companions looked bored; Ernesto kept glancing hopefully at the nails. “Now be good enough to explain how the girl had such specific information when, as you say, the Americans refused to send anyone at all. And how you happened to turn up at this very opportune time.”
Nick sighed tiredly and shifted his position on the floor, taking the opportunity to flex his muscles against the cords at his wrists and ankles. It seemed to him that his hands now had slightly freer play than before. He went on maneuvering them imperceptibly as he spoke.
“How stupid can you get?” he said. “Can’t you see that the girl fell for planted information? It was the same with the girl Paula. I had instructions to find out about The Terrible Ones, so naturally I made use of their approach to the Americans. Too bad your Alonzo decided to horn in. Too bad that he decided to follow Tsing-fu back to the Castle. And you’d better work pretty hard to convince them that you didn’t send him, because right now they don’t believe you. They don’t like being spied upon, and they don’t like the kind of cooperation you’re giving them. Tsing-fu’s very much concerned that you Cubans are going to endanger their Operation Blast if you go on like this. So if you know what’s good for you you’ll get this rope off me—”
“Their Operation Blast?” Hector rose from his chair and shook his fist. “Theirs! It was Fidel’s idea from the start and they were the ones who promised to help us. We got them here, we helped them organize their ammunition caches, we told him about the treasure that would finance it. They came in here as advisers and now they’re trying to run the whole show — just as if they were Americans! And then they go off to Haiti without even telling us. First thing we know about it is when they radio us to say that Escobar is dead. And they talk about cooperation? They talk about endangering Blast? I tell you, we would have been far better off to go on hunting the treasure for yourselves!”
“You!” Nick laughed, but he was cheering silently inside.
The man was a bonanza of information. “You don’t even have any of the treasure clues, do you? Do you? Or have you been holding them back?”
“Holding back!” Hector spat the words through his teeth. “Madre de Dios, if we had the clues we would have the treasure and the hell with the Chinese and their lies. Even Operation Blast, we can handle without them.”
“Oh, I don’t think so,” Nick said easily. “Things have changed. I don’t think Blast is any longer what you think it is.”
“Ah, is that so? What is it, then?” Hector glowered at him.
“You let me loose and I’ll tell you. You tell me your version, I’ll tell you mine. Then we can have a good laugh together.”
Hector stood absolutely still, staring down at him.
“So, laugh together, is it?” he said finally. “I am to let you loose while we chat about Blast, and I tell you all I know about it. Oh, no, my friend. It strikes me — belatedly, I must admit, but it does strike me — that you have been worming information out of me even while you lie there. Yes, and lie is the word! Now there will be no more lies, do you understand?” His advance toward Nick was slow and menacing. “Ernesto is ready with his treatment, and so am I with mine. Felix in the meantime can go and start enjoying himself with the girls unless you let us have the truth immediately. Tell me first — what was that you were saying about a castle?”
“What castle?” Nick said innocently, cursing himself for having overstepped the line too soon, and giving another twist to the cords at his wrist.
“Yes, exactly—what castle?” Hector roared, and slammed a brutal kick into Nick’s abdomen.
Nick grunted with pain and doubled up, clutching his gut with his bound hands and hiding their movement with his body. It would look a bit queer to be seen playing with himself at a time like this, he reflected as his probing fingers slid under his shorts and detached Pierre from his temporary hiding place, but to be thought peculiar was the least of his worries.
“Sit up, you!” Again the kick, but this time it was a lighter blow to prod him up.
Nick spat out a curse and sat up, still clutching at his gut. Pierre lay nestled in his hands. If he could just stall for long enough to find out about Operation Blast—