by Nick Carter
I put the car in gear slowly, backed out and headed for Townsville. My shoulder continued to throb and burn — it hurt so much I could hardly keep my thoughts straightened out. Mona, Mona, Mona, I repeated to myself, I had to find Mona. She was going for her second cover, I was sure, and equally sure it had to be on the coast. She was a pro, that one, and she'd never return to the ranch or the apartment. She'd figure I'd have both of them covered sooner or later. Damn, but that shoulder was about to fall off, I thought, grimacing.
It was a long, painful drive back to Townsville, seeming to last longer that it actually did, and by time I stopped the car I was feeling lightheaded from the constant searing pain. I stumbled from the car and up the stairs, the first light of day following me into the hallway. I leased on the bell and finally the door opened a crack and smoke-gray eyes peered out at me, frowning at my swaying figure in the hallway. Then the eyes widened in recognition and the door was flung open.
"Yank!" she gasped. "What in bloody hell's happened to you?"
I stumbled past her and fell against the couch and she saw the blood-stained smear at my shoulder. She was on her knees with scissors at once, cutting away the shirt. She helped me up and into the bedroom. I sank down on the bed and gritted my teeth as she stripped me down to shorts. Her voice made little cries of dismay as she saw the deep slashes on my back and legs from the cable. She handed me a bottle of whiskey and I took a long gulp. It helped, but only a little. The cold compresses she put on the shoulder finally brought some relief. Then, with a skin-diving first-aid kit, she applied antiseptic lotion to my slashes.
"This is getting to be a habit, isn't it?" I grinned at her. The robe, loose at the top, let her round breasts peek out at me as if they were offering an incentive to heal up quickly. I talked to her as she worked on me, telling her the main points of what had happened. She wouldn't have believed that I was loud-mouth, freckled Tim Anderson if I hadn't still had some of the make-up on and my hair wasn't still red.
"Lord, almighty," she said. "And to think you had me sized up as a part of all that."
"Well, dammit, you were part of it," I said, "And I noticed that you kept on finding people for them after I left. You steered them to Tim Anderson."
I sat up and saw her lips grow tight. "Yes, that's bloody well right," she said. "After you left, I was damned mad at everything and everyone. If they wanted to keep giving me money, that was fine with me. It's always been scratch for me, and I expect it always will be. There's no one looks out for little Judy except herself."
"And when I pulled out suddenly like that you went right back to the old stand," I accused.
"Maybe that's how it was," she said, her chin thrust forward defiantly. "Nobody's shown me a better stand to go back to."
She finished taping my shoulder and stepped back. The burning had stopped and I saw her looking at me.
"Lord, you're a dinkum lad," she said. "Even all banged up the way you are now."
She turned away, gathering up the bandages and tapes, while I took another pull at the whiskey. I put my head back and gazed up at the ceiling. In the white expanse I saw Mona Star — deadly, gorgeous, lying Mona — and tried to figure out where she could be holed up. Without Mona in my hands, I had nothing, really. I'd only stopped them temporarily. She was smart, luscious and vicious. She could and would start up again if she were left running around loose- I was convinced now that she was a direct agent for the Chinese. There were still a lot of empty holes that needed explaining about her, especially how she got to be Major Rothwell's top assistant with full security clearance. But I didn't wonder about that now. I was wracking my brain for some load, some small, remembered thing or incident or object that might clue me into her new hideout. But I was drawing a blank. I needed something or someone to open a door that might trigger my mind. Just then Judy came back into the room and did it, literally as well as figuratively. She opened the closet door and I saw all the scuba-diving gear she had stacked in there. It was the trigger that set my mind off on a fast series of leaps — skin-diving, underwater, marine objects, the collection in the large cases at the Circle Three ranch — Some of the rare things in that collection were found in one place only, the Great Barrier Reef off the coast of Queensland! The giant clam shell was one example. These large bivalves grow that size in the waters of the reef, one of the most fantastic collections of marine life found in the world.
Now I was hearing Bonard's last mocking words, "You'll never find her… she's put a great barrier between you." It fitted perfectly with the operation which had to be supplied with money for the payoffs from the Chinese. The pieces were suddenly coming together by themselves. The operation's second cover was an underwater station somewhere along the Great Barrier Reef!
I swung out of the bed, ignoring the sharp pain in my shoulder. Judy had taken a dress from the closet, gone into the next room and changed. She was just zipping it up, a bright yellow and violet print that blended together in a vibrancy that was also subdued. I walked to where she'd hung my trousers over the back of a chair and fished out two small keys on a separate ring.
"You want to knock off thinking just about Judy?" I said to her. "You want to help me?"
"Maybe," she said, eyeing me cautiously. I shook my head.
"Maybe isn't good enough," I said. "I'm going to need help and right now you're the only safe person I know around here. I can't trust anyone else — not yet anyway."
"That's nice to hear for a change," she said. "About being trusted. What do I have to do?"
"Go to the public lockers at the airport at Ayr," I told her. "Here are the keys. Take the bag out of the locker and bring it here at once. There's a car downstairs you can use. You can drive, can't you?"
"Lord, yes," she said, taking the keys from me.
"And while you're doing that, I'll be making a phone call. To America," I added. Her eyebrows shot skyward.
"Blimey, mate," she said. "Make it collect."
VII
I found a good atlas on Judy's bookshelf, and had it open on my lap when my call to Hawk finally went through.
"I've got to use the goodies Stewart gave me to take along," I said. "Do we have any subs near the Great Barrier Reef?"
There was a moment of silence and I knew he was checking out the highly classified Naval Deployment chart. Finally he came back on.
"I believe so," he said. "We have three in the Coral Sea. One of them could move down to the reef very quickly."
"Good enough," I said, tracing a line with my finger on the map. "Have him surface and stand by for our signal as near to Flinders Passage as he can. There's plenty of deep water there. We'll use the call name Boomerang."
"I have it," Hawk answered. "Good luck." I put down the phone and smiled grimly. Hawk knew he'd get the details later. And he had gleaned plenty from our short conversation, more than others would. The fact that I'd asked for one of our subs to stand by told him immediately that there was top-level trouble in Australian Intelligence. The stand-by part of it also told him that I was still hunting.
I sat back and studied the map in my hands. The Great Barrier Reef ran for some thousand miles along the northern coast of Queensland. Ordinarily, the search would be a gargantuan task, but I was banking on factors that narrowed down the area. If I was right in my thinking about an undersea station, I could pretty well eliminate all those shallow areas of the reef. I could also eliminate the outer edge of the great reef because of the constantly seething surf that would make any kind of undersea-to-surface operation extremely hazardous. And lastly, as Mona had operated on land from a point near Townsville, I was betting that her sea cover wouldn't be too far away. Judy came in and I took the bag from her.
"Good girl," I said. "Now you can get out of that outfit and gather your scuba gear."
She shook her head and, hands on hips, watched me open the bag. I took out a scuba outfit and a length of thin wire attached to two small, black fitted cases — one a little larger than the other. A
small round object, similar to the very front section of a telephone receiver with a stretch rubber-band in the back of it also emerged from the suitcase.
"Maybe I'd better explain these to you first," I said, "seeing as how you'll be using them with me. You'll strap on the larger of these two small sets. You could call them a kind of underwater walkie-talkie. The smaller of the two boxes will be strapped onto my back and the thin wire will run from it to the one you'll have. When I talk into this mouthpiece, which will fit tightly inside my diving mask, my words will be instantly converted into electrical impulses which will travel along the wire, which is of course insulated. When the electrical impulses reach the set you have, they'll be automatically converted back into sound and words. I'll be below, underwater, and you'll be on the surface. It's a one-way walkie-talkie, from me to you, because the other part of the set you'll have on is a sending apparatus. When I give you the information I want to give you, you press a button on your set and start sending it. I'll brief you on what to say and how to say it. Now let's move. Every minute counts."
Judy, looking sober and perhaps a little frightened, went into the other room to change and I quickly put on the scuba-suit, except for the flippers, face mask and special equipment. I made a mental note to congratulate Stewart on being so psychic about what I might need.
Judy came out, filling the scuba-suit with beautiful curves. I never knew one of the damned outfits could look so sexy. We piled everything into the Mercedes, taking along two extra air-tanks, and headed for the coastline. I gave Judy a final briefing on how to signal the submarine if and when we found our target. She, in turn, told me what was the best probable spot to start our search — a little island reef to the south of Magnetic Island. As I pulled the Mercedes onto the firm white sand of the beach, she looked at me with a long, level look.
"Tell me what the ruddy hell I'm doing out here," she asked.
"I'll give you four reasons. You pick out whichever one you like best. You're doing something for your country. You're making up for having helped a group of foreign agents. You're helping me. You're getting a nice, extra-long visa to the States."
She looked at me, unsmiling. "Maybe it's a little bit of all of them," she said. I grinned at her and we started to put on the special equipment and the aqualungs. Before I strapped on my face mask, I took her by the shoulders.
"Now remember, when the time comes, after you send the message I give you to send, you take off, understand. I may come up after you and I may not. But you are to take off at once. Find your way back here to the car and go home. Have you got that right?"
Her lower lip thrust out a little. "I've got it," she said crossly. "But it's a little like having to leave when the party gets started."
"You just leave," I said severely. "Or you'll find this party to be pretty deadly."
I leaned over and kissed her quickly, and she clung to me for a moment. Then we strapped on our special gear and walked into the warm, clear waters of the Coral Sea.
The length of wire was wound around a small spool which attached to my diving belt and wound out by itself. The hunt began; with Judy swimming above, on or just under the surface, feeling the slight tug of the wire to guide her as I moved along far below, 1 explored the hidden recesses of the vast coral formation known as the Great Barrier Reef. Built over the millions and millions of years by trillions of tiny limestone-secreting polyps, the great reef is the largest structure on earth built by living organisms. I avoided the smaller crevices in the coral structures. What I sought would require space. Besides, in the small crevices were the man-killers, the giant moray eels with the razor-sharp teeth, deadly stonefish and giant squid. I wanted no excursions into trouble with the vicious beauty that lurked in these waters. I passed a group of Mako sharks and sighed in relief as they kept going. A school of delicately colored butterfly fish kept me company for a while and then went off on their own pursuits. It was slow and painstaking and frustrating. Though I was well covered by the scuba suit, certain varieties of the coral were deadly sharp and I had to skirt them with the greatest of care. I ran head-on into a red and white reef octopus as I came up to peer across the top of one spot. More afraid and surprised than I was, he scurried off in that strange way they have, moving through the water like an eight-armed ballerina waving all her arms to unheard music.
Finally, I surfaced and waved to Judy a short distance off. It was getting dark and we clambered onto the top of a small reef, only a few inches above the water. I took off one tank that was just about empty — my eyes must have mirrored my discouragement.
"You've another hour before it gets real dark," Judy encouraged. "Let's give it another try." I grinned at her and strapped on my face mask. It would be possible to continue the search after dark, I knew, but a helluva lot harder.
I slipped into the water again and started down, catching a glimpse of Judy's form as she moved out on the surface overhead. I swam hard this time, moving from coral formation to coral formation. I was about to give up when swimming past a long expanse of coral that seemed endless, without a break in it, I suddenly noticed something strange. Of all the coral I'd gone by, this was the only section where there were no fish darting in and out among its striated sides. No anemone sent wavy fingers up from its surface and no tiny damselfish peeked out from it. I swam over to it and felt along its rough edges.
It was lifeless, without the touch of coral. It was plastic — beautifully made and beautifully fashioned plastic. I had been starting to think that if there was an undersea station, I'd never find it by searching this way. I was even beginning to think that perhaps they'd hidden it far from the area. But now excitement went through my body with a tingling shudder. My calculations had been right all along.
I swam alongside the man-made coral until I found a grotto-like dark opening. I didn't enter but I was pretty certain what I'd find if I did. It was obvious that they had transported and set up a station made up of self-contained, self-operating huge tanks. A certain number of personnel would be there at all times, and entrance could be gained only by scuba-diver. I looked at the underwater compass attached to my belt. Then I snapped on the little underwater walkie-talkie.
"Hear this, Judy," I said into the speaker mask in front of my mouth. "Hear this, Judy. Transmit this message from Boomerang. Repeat, say 'Boomerang calling' until you get an answer. Message is to proceed to one-four-six north by ten west. Blast and destroy long coral formation at that location. Coral is pink shelf, coral pattern. Repeat, blast and destroy entire coral section. Over and out."
I waited a moment and felt a tug on the wire which meant that Judy had received my message. I pulled the wire loose and let it float off freely so she could swim back to shore. I was going to stick around a while, until I saw the sub at least.
I didn't expect company so soon but I got it, six black-suited scuba-divers, coming out of the opening in the coral. Armed with spear-guns, they separated to circle me. In moments I had the choice of being skewered from six different directions or going along with them like a fish in a net. I chose to be a fish.
They swam along surrounding me, moving me into the grotto-like opening. Inside, a fluorescent light suddenly came on to bathe the area in a blue haze and I saw the door of the entrance chamber open. As they closed in tight on me, hustling me toward the entranceway, I saw again that the inner airtight chamber was built within the phony reef — the whole plastic coral formation attached at the back to a real reef. It was beautifully done, and anyone swimming by or passing in an undersea craft would have seen just another stretch of pink coral. I had been searching desperately, and it had almost fooled me. But it hadn't fooled the fish that live in and around the natural coral areas.
I was pushed into the entrance chamber, the door pulled closed behind us and I stood with the six other frogmen as the chamber was drained of water. Then the second door opened and I found myself inside the square, brilliantly lighted undersea station. I took off my diving mask and flippers as Mona c
ame over, clad in a black bikini. The tall, slender Chinese was standing next to her. Beyond her, 1 saw cots, tables, a refrigerator and an array of oxygen tanks and pressure gauges lining the walls of the station.
"I've never seen anyone so determined to get himself killed as you, Nick." Mona smiled — a deadly smile.
"And you've never seen anyone so good at avoiding it," I said.
"You do have a talent, I must admit," she said. As I looked at that gorgeous body, those magnificent breasts that made the bikini look like a band-aid on a watermelon, I wondered what made her tick. She was beautiful, passionate and smart. What the hell did she need this bit for? I'd nothing to lose by trying to find out. "What's a nice girl like you doing in a place like this?" I grinned at her. She shook her head in amazement.
"I'd heard that you're never flustered," she said. "I must admit that's certainly true. In your shoes, most men would be either pleading for mercy or resigned to their fate. You're asking flip questions. In fact, you're so damned relaxed, it worries me. I think you must have something up your sleeve."
"Little ol' me?" I said. "Now what could I do in a spot like this?"
"Nothing that I can see," she said. "You're going to be taken by submarine to China. I imagine there's a lot of information they can pull out of you."
The tall Chinese beside her spoke up, his black eyes glittering at me.
