The Hydra Monster

by Lee Falk

  Miranda grew thoughtful. "There's certainly some merit in your suggestion, Senor Walker," he said finally, "The thing is, I don't know if I can spare even twenty men for more than a few days

  "A few days may be enough time."

  "Very well, I'll draw up the list. Meet me in my

  office tomorrow morning." Miranda refilled his glass.

  Sumter was sitting on the edge of the desk table with the list in his hand. "Thorough, pretty complete."

  The Phantom closed the door, crossed the room and took the list out of the reporter's hand. "I don't think Captain Miranda is ready to release this to the press."

  "Excuse me. He stepped down the hall for a minute and I couldn't resist a peek."

  Scanning the list, the Phantom said, "I don't want any of this to get out yet, Sumter."

  The reporter smiled at him. "Carrying around a good ton of info in my head already," he said. "Stuff I'm not supposed to reveal. One more ounce won't bother me. So consider your deep dark secrets safe with Sumter."

  "You're showing; considerable interest in the

  Vultures," remarked the Phantom.

  "Told you before, Walker, earthquakes make good copy, but they don't amount to much alongside a secret conspiracy," said Sumter. "People love to read about mysterious societies of criminals. If I can dig up enough material, I can get a book out of this, besides the NEWS piece."

  "Sounds like a valid motive."

  "Speaking of motives, I'm still not very clear about yours."

  "I told you as much about that as I'm going to."

  "If you'd like to confide a little more in me,

  Walker, I could make sure you'd get a nice play in my article. Some publicity wouldn't . .

  Captain Miranda returned to his temporary office. "Good morning, Senor Walker, we're . . . Senor Sumter, I must ask you to leave us now."

  The reporter hopped to the floor. "Okay, I'll go off and tap some other news sources. Good hunt-

  E -37

  mg.

  When the door closed on the reporter, the Federal Police Captain moved to his desk and picked up a pen. "While I was combing my hair, I thought of one more possible target for the Vultures. Ill add it to . . ."

  The Phantom stayed his hand. "Don't write it down," he said. "And don't send any men there." "But why, senor?"

  "Tell me what place you have in mind. I'll look after it."

  "Very well," said Captain Miranda. "What makes you desire to take an active part in this operation?" "A hunch," the Phantom told him.

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  The city of Zurrapa was thirty miles inland and north of the port city of Lanza. Because of the fault pattern, Zurrapa had been much harder hit. AH its civic buildings, which had stood around the

  plaza in the center of town, had now collapsed. Fissures cut across the plaza; palm trees lay on their sides, as though they'd been uprooted by a giant hand; a large pack of wild dogs, more than fifty of them, roamed the ruins of the square.

  Most of the central core of Zurrapa had been evacuated. The buildings which hadn't toppled were leaning at odd angles, all out of kilter. The understaffed army had approximately two hundred men in the city. Only about fifty of the blue-uniformed soldiers were actually guarding anything. The rest, along with several hundred civilians, were in the rubble digging.out bodies. There was still a strong possibility of plague.

  On the west side of the central area was a business district. Most of the buildings here had remained upright. It was here that Zurrapa's jewelry row was located. A line of ten shops, each dealing in retail and wholesale gems. The owners of the shops had had to vacate and leave much of their stock behind. The gems, mostly diamonds and rubies, were valued at over two million dollars. This was why a dozen armed soldiers patrolled the street which housed the jewel dealers' shops.

  At twilight, three black shapes appeared over the tallest of the buildings. A harsh whirring filled the air. Then three dark helicopters, swaying, dropped down closer to the street.

  Five of the soldiers aimed rifles at the lowering airships.

  From one of the copters, cannisters began dropping. The black containers snapped open on hitting the paving stones, releasing wisps of a yellowish gas.

  The rifles fell from the soldiers' hands. They began scratching at their throats, tearing at their tunics. Then they were lying sprawled on the street. In less than two minutes, eleven of them were down.

  The twelfth man had run, trying to Keep ahead of the spreading yellow gas but it soon caught up with him, and yellow streamers tangled around him. He ran a few more wobbling paces before falling over into a stone bench.

  The copters landed, waited for the gas to dissipate. Then black clad Vultures spewed out of the ships, armed and watchful.

  "Too easy," said V306 when his booted foot hit the ground. "This is probably some kind of trap, too."

  His companion said, "This is one target we know isn't on the police list. You can relax."

  "Who can relax on one of these damn raids? I'm always waiting for some trigger-happy cop to pop out from behind a lamp post and start blasting away."

  The two of them, along with three other Vultures, had been assigned the looting of the shop of Pieter, Goedewaagen, Diamond Merchant.

  V306 tried the door. It was locked, so he smashed the glass out with the butt of his machine gun.

  An alarm started to ring, but that didn't matter. The soldiers were in no condition to do anything, the Zurrapa police headquarters was now a heap of stone, wood and shattered glass two miles across town.

  The five Vultures stormed into the diamond

  shop.

  It was the last time their comrades ever saw them.

  The Phantom had arrived in Zurrapa slightly before noon that day. He had traveled alone from the port city, using a small minibus the Police Captain had loaned him. The military guards at the main entrance to town, after looking at the letter Captain Miranda provided him with, had passed him into the devastated city.

  The only likely target for a Vulture raid which Miranda had failed to place on his original list was jewelry row here in Zurrapa. At the other dozen potential spots carefully selected police teams of two and three men had been stationed. The Phantom felt it would be worthwhile to keep an eye on this thirteenth target.

  Traveling a roundabout route, because of the many impassable streets, he'd parked the minibus two blocks from the location he sought. Then, leaving his civilian clothes behind, he had moved through alleys and over rooftops, in his tight- fitting costume, to the street of the gem merchants.

  He had let himself into one of the shops. So deftly had he accomplished this that the soldiers in the street were unaware he was waiting inside the shop of merchant Goedewaagen.

  The jungle teaches many things, one of which is patience. The Phantom was able to remain for several hours in the back room of the gem store.

  It was possible, he admitted to himself, the Vultures would not strike here today at all. He felt, though, that it was a likely spot.

  When the day began to wane, the masked man heard the sound of helicopters dropping down through the darkening sky. "It may be a military patrol," he thought.

  The soldiers outside began shouting to each other, running.

  "Those copters aren't ours!"

  "Must be scavengers!"

  "It's the looters! It's the looters!"

  "Get ready to fire!"

  "Look out! They're dropping something!"

  "Cannisters! It's gas! It's . . ."

  The Phantom stayed in the back room of the diamond dealers. No gas penetrated into the store.

  The whir of the Vulture helicopters grew louder and louder and then died. Booted feet began running on pavement.

  The Phantom ran into the front of the shop and stationed himself next to the door. The heavy drapes on the shop windows hid him from view.

  When V306 stepped into the store, the Phantom allowed him three steps before he hit him. He dealt the man a numbin
g blow to the neck, and another chop which rendered him unconscious.

  /

  As each Vulture stepped into the store, in single file, the Phantom acted similarly. In thirty seconds, he had five unconscious Vultures strewn on the floor.

  Working swiftly, he tied each man, using cord 102

  he'd brought with him. Before gagging them, he inspected their mouths for possible concealed poison capsules. He found none.

  He picked up the nearest man and hefted the limp form up over his broad shoulder. Carefully, he moved out through the rear of the diamond dealer's shop.

  The masked man had decided to take prisoners. Since the Vultures had arrived by air this time his original plan- to trail them to their hideout was not practical.

  There was no one in the lane behind the shop. He carried the stunned Vulture quickly to his minibus. He then drove the vehicle Hear to the rear of the shop and brought out the rest of his catch.

  Fifteen minutes later, he was back on the highway to Lanza with his five captives.

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  "It was once a dungeon," explained Captain Miranda as they descended the stone staircase. "During a much earlier and less liberal administration. Of course we've made a good many improvements and modernizations."

  The Phantom, in trenchcoat and dark glasses

  once again, glanced up at the fluorescent lights in the stone ceiling. "So I notice."

  "Senor Sumter has been quite persistent," said the tall Captain of Police. "He's aware we've captured these five Vultures and is very anxious to get a look at them."

  "I imagine he is."

  They reached the bottom of the steps and Miranda led the Phantom along a stone corridor. "He has all the necessary papers of identification, all the proper permits. Plus, I have read his stories in the South American edition of NEWS often."

  "That doesn't necessarily mean he's not passing information on to Hydra."

  "Yes, admittedly."

  "There wasn't a sign of the Vultures at any of the other possible raid locations yesterday, the places you had staked out," reminded the Phantom. "The place they hit was the one place not on your list when Sumter snatched a look at it."

  Nodding, the Police Captain said, "Possibly this is only a coincidence, senor. Despite what you may have heard of justice in my country, I don't like to condemn a man without sufficient proof."

  "I'll have proof, one way or the other," said the Phantom, "before I do anything about him. What I'm suggesting now is that you keep Sumter away from these captured Vultures, and away from any further information about the whole affair."

  "Very well, I can see the wisdom of that." Halting, the captain pointed at a heavy glass window which was built into the grey stone wall. "One way glass."

  The window looked onto a corridor. Across the corridor were three cells. There were two men each in the outer cells and one in the middle. All the men still wore their Vulture uniforms. The solitary prisoner had discarded his wig and the tattooed black V showed clearly.

  "Since you brought them in yesterday, senor," said Captain Miranda, "they have steadfastly refused to talk. In recent years we have not been allowed to use the harsher forms of interrogation. I think that's for the best, and yet . . ."

  "The man in the cell on our right, the one slouching against the bars," said the Phantom. "I'd like to talk to him."

  "Ill have him brought to one of the questioning rooms," said Miranda. "Why this particular man?"

  "He's known as V306. He was one of those who captured me and took me off to Lake LaPaz," replied the Phantom. "He's a great complainer, an injustice collector. I think he might be willing to give us information if I can promise him a deal."

  "You can promise him a licjht sentence and protection if he talks," said the Police Captain. "Ill have him sent for."

  V306 squinted over at the air conditioner. "They keep this damn prison too cold," he complained. "I got a stiff neck already from the chill."

  The Phantom stood across the small, green room from the seated Vulture. "I can help you get out of here."

  "Sure, and off to the gallows."

  "Santa Florenza still favors the firing squad."

  V306 shrugged. "Were you the one who ambushed us down in Zurrapa? It sounded like you from what some of the other guys said. You hit me so hard I didn't wake up until . . ."

  "It was I."

  "Too bad you didn't drown in the lake," said V306. "How'd you get out of that sack?"

  The Phantom didn't explain. He asked, "How long have you been working for Hydra?"

  "For what?"

  "I don't think you're satisfied with the Vultures."

  "Maybe not. It doesn't much matter now."

  "If you tell us what you know about the Vultures, and about Hydra," continued the Phantom, "their plans, their possible hideouts . . . you won't have to serve a very long sentence."

  V306 didn't speak for several seconds. "They took my cigars away when they threw me in this hole. You got any smokes?"

  "No."

  The Vulture shifted in his chair. Then he gave a short barking laugh. "I'm better off in jail," he said. "If I finked on them . . . well, I'd probably end up in a sack full of rocks myself."

  "South America is very large," said the Phantom. "The world is larger still and . . ."

  "I don't need a geography lesson, Walker."

  "If you cooperate, Captain Miranda might even be able to get you a suspended sentence. He'll arrange for you to get safely out of the country. With a new passport, a new identity, perhaps even a new face. It's been done before."

  V306 rubbed his fingers over his cheek. "You don't know them. It wouldn't matter where I went, they'd find me. Find me and kill me."

  I intend to smash the Vultures, to destroy the wliole Hydra organization," the Phantom told liiin. "With your help, I'll be able to do that even M >< >ner. By the time you're safely out of Santa Flore nza, the Hydra could be well on the way to oblivion."

  "Oblivion," echoed the Vulture. "That might be where I'd head, too. I ... I don't know, Walker. I ,et me think about it." He stood up. "You're not conning me? I mean, if I deal, you'll deal."

  "That's right. You have my word."

  "Ill think about it."

  When the man had been returned to his cell, Captain Miranda came into the small, green room. "Were you successful?"

  "He's getting ready to talk," said the Phantom. He made a slow circle of the room. "Better bring die other Vultures in, one by one, for me to talk to."

  "Why?"

  "I don't want them to get the idea we've made a special offer to V306. They might pressure him."

  "You intend to offer any of the others immunity?"

  "Probably not," said the Phantom. "I think most of the others will refuse to say anything much to

  me.

  Which proved to be the case.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

  When the phone rang the man who called himself V came in from the terrace of his seaside villa.

  The mammoth house was built on a cliffside several hundred feet above the Pacific. This was one of the most fashionable stretches of Santa Flo- renza coastline. The quakes had left this resort area untouched.

  picked up the gold and white phone from his massive, wooden desk with one sinewy hand. "Yes?"

  "Been thinking?" asked the man on the other end.

  "I am always thinking."

  "About the five captured men."

  said, "I would imagine you'd be doing a good deal of thinking about this particular situation yourself. Since it's mostly due to your stupidity that the trap was sprung."

  "Possibly. Name calling isn't going to save our bacon, though."

  settled into his comfortable leather desk chair, turned to watch the midday sea. "Walker is the main source of our present trouble," he said.

  His large head dipped slightly as he followed the flight of a distant white gull.

  "Any opinions about what V2 said?"

  "He's quite probably rig
ht. Walker is very likely

  I IK; Phantom."

  "Ordinary methods won't work on the Phan-

  »

  loin.

  The gull was flying very low over the water. I wasn't aware ordinary methods were part of my stock in trade."