“Hold that craft for a minute,” said Nick. “I want my own man to go along. And I want a thorough search of all buildings, grounds and adjacent areas in case that business of the “copter is a decoy.”
“Some decoy,” said Parry. “Three men dead and one of our aircraft missing. But as you say. Where’s that man of yours? For God’s sake, let’s not waste more time. That a thing like this should happen in my plant—!”
“Incredible,” Nick said mildly. “Ah, Fisher — into the “copter and on your way. Come on Parry, let’s clear the decks and get down to business at this end. I want a complete roll call of all men who are supposed to be on the premises. And I want absolute security coverage of this place so that nobody — but nobody — leaves here until I authorize it. Incidentally, that other “copter of yours — was it exactly the same as this?”
“It’s twin,” said Parry. “Identical to the last detail.”
“Fine,” said Nick. “That helps.” But he didn’t explain how it helped as he worked with Parry to set the search plan into operation.
“Sorry to keep you waiting,” said the dry, crisp voice of the head of AXE. “But something came up that I had to attend to. Something that may make it even more urgent for you to be here.”
Hakim looked at his watch as he listened. A bare half-hour, and the man was apologizing! AXE moved pretty fast.
“A jeep will be picking you up within the next ten minutes,” Hawk went on. “It will take you first to a small private plane at a local airfield. That plane will take you to one of our own Army air bases, where you will board a jet and fly directly to New York. You will be met. That is all. Unless you have any questions?”
“No questions,” Hakim said.
But while he waited for the jeep he asked Garvey for the use of a mirror, and when he turned away from it the face he wore was completely unlike his own. In the game of disguises he was as good as anyone, and he had no intention of being rubbed out at this stage of that game.
“I don’t understand you!” Julia said angrily. “What the hell are you playing at? You’ve got everybody else out beating the bushes — helicopters here, border patrols there, guards swarming through the countryside, Davis and Alston zooming around in that jet-propelled car, Hammond lurking about the grounds, peering under every bloody pebble, and all you can think of doing is riding up and down these rat cages. Good God, I thought the least you’d do would be to commandeer a chase plane and get out there yourself. What’s the matter, Carter, you getting soft or something?”
The watchtower cage descended slowly.
“The interesting thing is the gas,” said Nick. “It can only be turned on and off from right here. So the watchtower guard must have turned it off before he left us. Thoughtful of him, wasn’t it? Considering that he might have gained himself an extra few minutes if he hadn’t. But lucky for us all that he did.”
Julia snorted. “What was so lucky about it? It doesn’t seem to have helped us any. Anyway, it wasn’t lethal gas.”
“No, not lethal,” Nick said thoughtfully. “But if we’d inhaled it very much longer we’d all of us been disgustingly sick. Continued inhalation might very well have caused death. Do you think he cared about the rest of us after killing three men on the roof and doing God knows what with Valentina? I don’t think so. And he thought enough of the gas himself to wear a mask.” Nick toed it thoughtfully. It still lay on the floor of the cage, as if tossed carelessly aside when no longer needed. “I wonder why he bothered taking it off. It would have made a pretty effective disguise. On the other hand, everyone in the plant knew that he was on cage duty so I guess he didn’t think there was much point in covering his face. So let’s play over what he must have done.”
The cage reached main-floor level and descended into the sub-basement. Nick moved a lever and they rose again. The television monitors on the panel in front of him reflected miniature images of the search throughout the grounds and buildings and he watched the efforts almost idly as he mentally replayed the gassing scene.
“Play all you want,” said Julia icily. “But you still haven’t answered my question. Why aren’t you out there doing something?”
“Doing what?” Nick asked mildly. “You’ve answered it yourself. I’ve got everybody else out there beating the bushes, as you say. Somebody’s got to keep the home fires burning. Me.” His whole being cried out for action even as he spoke, but something kept on nagging at him and telling him that there was no point in going off half-cocked on some futile airplane chase. The cage rose steadily and then stopped at his touch.
“It was about here,” he said, “when I last saw it. Valentina’s cage was opposite. By that time the gas had already started to pour out. Let’s say that I am Hughes, the killer. I put on my gas mask, and I halt. I wait for a couple of minutes until the gas has knocked everybody out. Until I am sure. I know that Valentina is out because I see her slumping in her cage. But her cage goes on rising. Or does it? I suppose it does. I, Hughes, can’t stop its rising, and anyway I want her on the roof. So when everyone is lying flat I move onward, upward.”
Nick touched the switch and the watchtower cage rose steadily. “I reach the roof, I stop, turn off the gas, and take off ray gas mask. I see Johnny Thunder with two guards, and I shoot them. Then I race over, grab the weighty Valentina from her now-open cage, and drag her over to the “copter. No — first I send down my cage and hers, because now that I am on the roof I have control of both the cages. According to Parry they can both be operated from within or by remote control from the main floor or the roof. So I send the cages back, permitting them to stop at mid-point between the floor and ceiling, and then I stuff the bulky Comrade Valya into the chopper, with or without the help of some mysterious accomplice, and I take off.”
Nick looked out over the roof. “I am a pretty clever man. Swift, resourceful, strong enough to lift an ox. Congratulate me. Because according to the roll call I am the only man missing from the plant. I have no accomplice with me. Which means that I either managed to smuggle one onto the roof from outside — which that snoop Carter is assured is quite impossible — or that I performed the whole miraculous feat all by myself. Of course, the impossible has been known to happen. But it needs a little help. And why, in the midst of everything else I have to do, do I bother with turning off the gas and sending the cages back?”
Julia’s almond eyes surveyed him steadily. The look of scorn was gone from her face and small lines pinched her exquisitely arched brows together. “You sent the cages back as a stalling maneuver,” she said, “to mystify the rest of us. It didn’t work because of that snoop Carter, but you’re over the hills and far away by that time so it doesn’t matter. And as for turning off the gas — maybe you have an accomplice down below that you don’t want to harm.”
“Maybe,” said Nick. “Maybe.” He stared at the spot where Johnny Thunder’s body had lain. Johnny had not even had a chance to draw his gun, and Johnny was a quick man on the trigger. But one of the guards had. Drawn, and fired twice. And died before Nick’s eyes.
There was just a chance that he had hit someone, and that the blood outside the hangar was not Valentina’s.
“We’ll go down now,” said Nick, “and try the other cage.” He fingered the lever and the watchtower cage descended past the platforms and the watching guards. “And now that you’ve suggested an accomplice down below, try this one for size: He could have been the one to manipulate the cages from the floor controls. And turn off the gas.”