Assassin: Code Name Vulture

by Nick Carter

  "And note how careful he is to keep my name out of it," Minourkos said heavily.

  Erika put her arm through mine. "The police are looking into the charges, but by the time they are found to be groundless, the three colonels will be dead."

  "Not if the general comes through for us," I said. "Has he called?"

  "Not yet," Minourkos said. "Did you get into my place?"

  "Yes, I made it," I answered. I told them of the bits of conversation I had overheard and of actually seeing Stavros.

  "I wished you'd had a gun," Erika said bitterly.

  "If I had had one I wouldn't have gotten in," I reminded her. "They searched me well. No, we'll have to go back. I wish we still had Zach."

  Erika looked up at me. "He was very good at his job."

  "Yes," I said. "Well, if we have to, I may be able to get help from my people. There's an AXE agent in this area, I think. I'll find out for sure." I turned to Minourkos. "Have you been able to get through to the camp commanders?"

  "I reached both of them," he said. "I told them just what you said. Both men advised me that they would not make another move until they heard from me personally. I also advised them not to contact the penthouse and to disregard any contrary orders from my so-called secretary."

  "You did very well, Mr. Minourkos," I said. "Now if we can find out…"

  I was interrupted by the telephone.

  Erika answered it, and the caller identified himself. She nodded and handed the phone to Minourkos. He took it and cradled the receiver to his ear. There was little dialogue from his end. "Yes, Vassilis. Yes. Ah, yes. Yes, go on. I see. Yes. Ah, excellent." When he was finished and had replaced the receiver he looked up at us with a sly smile.

  "Well?" Erika asked impatiently.

  "Vassilis called the penthouse and Tzanni refused to see him either today or tomorrow on the excuse of being too busy. He suggested Vassilis call next week. There was an argument and an exchange of hot words, but Tzanni remained adamant. He also refused to discuss the colonels on the phone."

  "So what did he do to make you smile?" I asked.

  "Remember Despo Adelfia? The man who replaced Rasion on the committee of colonels? Stavros' own man?"

  "Yes," Erika nodded.

  "Vassilis went to this man. He suspected that Adelfia would be the one to engineer a meeting, and he was right. Adelfia knows the entire plan. Vassilis ranted about the three colonels and won Adelfia's confidence. Adelfia told him the time and place of the meeting. Kotsikas, Plotarchou, and Glavani have already agreed to meet with me at the residence of Kotsikas. He has a country estate north of the city in a rather remote area. Adelfia will be there, too."

  "When?" I asked.

  "This afternoon," Minourkos replied. "In just a few hours."

  "How are the colonels to be assassinated?" I inquired.

  Minourkos hunched his heavy shoulders. "Adelfia would not tell that part when he found that Vassilis did not know. We will have to wait and see, it seems."

  "That could be extremely dangerous," I said. I glanced at the watch on my wrist. "Erika, call a cab. We're going out to Kotsikas' place. Mr. Minourkos, you stay here at the hotel and keep out of sight If anybody recognizes you we're in trouble."

  "Very well, Mr. Carter."

  While Erika called a taxi, I removed my jacket and strapped on my Luger in its holster and then the stiletto on my right forearm. Minourkos watched silently and somberly. I took the Luger from the holster and pulled the slide ejector back, working a cartridge into the chamber with an easy movement, then reholstered the automatic.

  Erika was off the phone. "Our cab will be outside in five minutes."

  "Then let's get moving," I said. "We have an appointment to keep."

  Eight

  "I don't think I understand," Colonel Anatole Kotsikas said after he had received us in the entrance foyer of his large home. "Adelfia said this was to be a private meeting, General."

  We had picked up General Kriezotou on the way because I knew that Kotsikas would turn us away if Erika and I went by ourselves. Kotsikas, a slim man who appeared to be a young fifty, stood in his khaki uniform, eyeing me suspiciously.

  "Are any of the others here, Colonel?" Kriezotou asked.

  "They are expected shortly."

  "Good. Just give us a moment of your time," Kriezotou said.

  Kotsikas looked at us silently, biding his answer. Although his military rank was beneath that of the General, he was the most powerful man in Greece at the moment. When the 1967 coup had taken place, the men who headed it had purposely kept the highest-ranking officers off the junta because the generals were associated with the favored upper-class.

  "All right,", he finally said. "Come into the study, please."

  A moment later the four of us were standing in a circle in the center of the rather dark study. A servant pulled a drapery open, and the room was brightened. Kotsikas offered us drinks, but we refused.

  "Colonel, I would like you to allow these two people to search your house before the meeting and to stay here through the meeting," Kriezotou said.

  "Why?" Kotsikas asked. "What a ridiculous request."

  "Listen to me. This meeting is a trap," the general said. "There is much to explain later when we have the time, but Nikkor Minourkos is not the man behind the recent attacks on you. There is a man named Adrian Stavros who is hiding behind Nikkor's name and who plans a bloody coup against the junta. You, Plotarchou and Glavani are to be assassinated here in your home this afternoon."

  Kotsikas' face took on hard, straight lines. "I see."

  "I suspect that Adelfia is to escape unharmed," the general added. "Nikkor, of course, will not be here because he has nothing to do with any of this."

  Kotsikas looked out the window for a long time. When he turned back to us, he asked: "And this man and the girl?"

  "They are here to help," Kriezotou said simply.

  "How do I know that it is not you three who have come to murder me?" Kotsikas asked evenly.

  Kriezotou made a grimace.

  "Colonel," I said quietly, "if I had come here to kill you, you would be dead."

  His eyes stared deeply into mine. "All right. You are free to check out the house. But I am certain nobody has been inside who would want to harm me or my friends."

  "Is there a basement, Colonel?" I asked.

  "Yes."

  "We'll start there," I said to Erika. "You and the general have a nice talk, Colonel. How much time do we have before they begin arriving?"

  "I would say at least fifteen minutes."

  "That should be enough." I turned to Erika.

  "Let's get started."

  We searched the large basement quickly and found no bomb or explosives. We checked out the rest of the house and left the study, where the meeting was to take place, for last. We searched the study carefully. Although no bombs were discovered, we did find two electronic bugs.

  "Incredible," Colonel Kotsikas said when I pointed out the devices. "I don't know when it could have been done."

  "These people are professionals," I said. "Now you should believe me."

  "Well, it's about time," Erika remarked. "Will they arrive separately?"

  "Since they have been at the committee headquarters this morning, they could come together," Kotsikas said. "Even Adelfia might be with the others, despite the fact that they dislike him immensely. After all, this is an alleged attempt at reconciliation."

  The colonel's guess was right. Ten minutes later a big, black limousine drove up, and all three colonels were in it Plotarchou and Glavani were older men, Glavani with white hair. Adelfia was about forty, an oily, obese man whose uniform seemed three sizes too small for him. He beamed smiles in every direction and spoke loudly of settlement and accord and was very surprised when, in the entrance foyer, I slipped the handcuffs on his right wrist.

  His demeanor changed like lightning. The smile was gone, and an icy hardness appeared in the dark eyes. "What are you doing?" he crie
d.

  Kotsikas and Kriezotou kept silent. I turned Adelfia roughly and cuffed his hands together behind him. His hard face was quickly filling with rage. "What is the meaning of this?" he asked loudly, looking from me to Kotsikas and the general.

  "Mr. Carter here says you came to my house today to kill us," Kotsikas said coldly.

  The other two colonels exchanged shocked looks. "Is this true, Anatole?" Glavani asked Kotsikas.

  "It is absurd!" Adelfia exclaimed. "Who is this man?" Before Kotsikas could answer, Adelfia switched from the formal manner to one that allowed a barrage of hot Greek, spitting out the words like venom, throwing his head toward me regularly. I couldn't catch most of it.

  "We shall see, Colonel," Kotsikas finally replied.

  I grabbed Adelfia roughly by the arm. "You get to spend the next little stretch of time in the study," I said, "in case we missed some surprises in there." I looked over at Kotsikas. "The rest of you except Erika stay in the room across the hall until you hear more from me."

  "Very well," Kotsikas said.

  The colonels and General Kriezotou entered a living room on the opposite side of the hall from the study while Erika and I applied tape to Adelfia's fleshy mouth and tied him to a chair. I took a revolver off his hip and stuck it into my belt. Erika and I returned to the foyer with Adelfia mumbling insults at us from behind the tape.

  "Now we wait?" Erika asked.

  I looked down at her. Her red hair was pulled back in a twist and she looked very businesslike in her bell-bottom pants suit. She took the Belgian.25 from her purse and checked its ammunition.

  "Yes, we wait," I said. I went to the open front door and looked down the long drive fringed by tall Lombardy poplars. It was almost a mile to the only road that passed the place. A perfect spot for a multiple killing. The question was, what had Stavros' twisted mind dreamed up? I had considered questioning Adelfia, but time was short and he was too scared of Stavros. That showed in his face.

  Erika came up behind me and pressed her body against me. "We have so little time alone, Nick."

  "I know," I said.

  Her free hand, the one without the revolver, stroked my shoulder and arm. "When this is over, we'll hide away in Athens and just eat and sleep and make love."

  "I don't think our bosses would appreciate that," I grinned.

  "They can go to hell. They can spare us a few days," she said petulantly.

  I turned to her. "We'll make some time," I assured her. "I know a nice little hotel where…"

  I turned back to the door at the sound of a car engine. At the far end of the drive, before it curved out of sight, a black sedan was approaching. It had a light fixture on its top.

  "It's the police!" Erika said.

  "Yes," I agreed, slowly. "Do you think that Stavros bought off a precinct captain?"

  "It would only require a few to go along," Erika speculated.

  "Especially if Stavros sent a couple of his own men along," I added. "Come on."

  We hurried into the room where the junta members and the general were waiting.

  "A police car is pulling up outside," I said quickly to them. "This looks like Stavros* gambit. Are you all armed?"

  They all were but Kriezotou. I gave him Adelfia's revolver. "Now just sit here as casually as you can, as if you're engaged in serious discussion. Have your weapons ready, hidden at your sides. Erika, get into that closet there." She moved quickly.

  "I'll be just outside those French doors," I continued. "When they all get into the room, we'll try to take them. If any of you wants to leave now, you can go out the back way."

  I looked at the tight-mouthed officers. They stayed in their place.

  "All right. We'll try to avoid gunplay. Take your cue from me."

  I went through the French doors just as I heard the front door crash open. A servant tried to stop the police, but he was verbally brushed aside. I heard them rattle the locked door of the study where Adelfia was tied and gagged, and then I heard the servant's voice again. It sounded as if there were several men. A brief moment later, I could see them clearly, they stormed into the living room. There were six — five in uniform and one in plain clothes. All the men in uniform had revolvers on their belts.

  "What is the meaning of this?" Kotsikas asked, rising but keeping his gun hidden behind him.

  The one in plain clothes stepped forward, a uniformed man with lieutenant's bars at his side. The plainclothes man was a Stavros bodyguard whom I had seen at the penthouse. The lieutenant was probably the policeman Stavros had bought There would have to be real police. There would have to be a made-up, but credible story for the press.

  "We did not expect you here, General," the lieutenant said. He looked around the room, probably for Adelfia. "You are all under arrest for treason. We have evidence that you came here to meet with a Communist agent and to arrange for a clandestine agreement with international bandits." He seemed very nervous.

  "That is absurd," Kotsikas said.

  "You are all traitors," the lieutenant insisted loudly. "And you will be executed as such." I watched as the lieutenant drew his revolver.

  The Stavros man gave a hard grin. "And the execution will occur here," he said in English. "When you resist arrest."

  "We have not physically resisted arrest," Kotsikas reminded the younger man.

  "No?" the Stavros hood questioned. "Well at least that is the way it will go into the police report That is the way the people will hear it on the radio."

  The lieutenant had aimed the revolver at Kotsikas. I guessed that in a moment all the policemen would have their guns out at a signal from the lieutenant The Stavros man stuck his hand into his jacket and nodded to the lieutenant, who turned toward his men. I stepped quickly into the wide doorway, aiming Wilhelmina at the lieutenant's chest.

  "All right, hold it right there."

  The lieutenant stared at me with surprise etched across his face. The Stavros man had not quite reached his gun and only a couple of uniformed policemen had started to move their hands toward their holsters. Everybody froze and all eyes turned to me.

  "Drop the gun," I ordered the lieutenant. "And you, ease that hand out of your jacket carefully."

  Nobody followed my orders. They were assessing what it would cost them to take me. The closet door opened on their left and Erika stepped out, her Belgian revolver trained on the Stavros man.

  "I think you had better do as he says," she said coolly.

  Frustration and anger were building in the faces of the Stavros thug and the police lieutenant as they stared at Erika. I watched their faces closely for a long moment, trying to guess their intent Then all hell broke loose.

  Instead of dropping his gun, the lieutenant aimed it at my chest, and his finger tightened on the trigger. I saw the lightning fast movement and started dropping to the floor. His gun went off like a cannon, and I felt a hot, searing pain rip through the flesh of my left arm. The slug went on past me and shattered the glass of the French door. I hit the floor and rolled behind a chair as the lieutenant fired again, the slug chipping up the wood floor near me.

  "Kill them!" he was shouting. "Kill them all!"

  At the same moment that the lieutenant had aimed his revolver at me, Stavros' man had followed through and had drawn his own gun. It was a shiny, black automatic, and he was aiming it at Erika's head. Erika fired at him but missed as he dropped to one knee. The shot struck one of the policemen in the thigh. The man yelled in pain as he hit the floor.

  Two other policemen, crouching low, had their guns half-drawn. The wounded man and another cop dived for cover behind small pieces of furniture.

  Kriezotou and the two visiting colonels were still frozen immobile, but Kotsikas had drawn his revolver from its hidden position and fired it now at the lieutenant. The man spun off his feet and crashed across a low table, splintering it as he brought it to the floor with him.

  I was raising myself up to firing position. Stavros' man had just fired at Erika. He misse
d because he was still off-balance from avoiding her shot and because she had fallen into a quick crouch herself.

  Several guns were blasting simultaneously. Kriezotou had finished off one of the policemen, and I got two more. Erika shot Stavros' hood neatly through the heart.

  The lieutenant got ready for his second try at Kotsikas, but I saw the move and rose quickly to one knee. "I wouldn't do it."

  The remaining policemen gave up the fight. Dropping their guns, they raised their hands above their heads. The lieutenant glanced at them, lowered his own gun, and dropped it to the floor. He looked at the bodies lying motionless, then at me.

  "This is an outrage," he cried hoarsely. "You have obstructed legitimate police work and killed officers in their line of duty. You will not get away with…"

  I brought Wilhelmina down across the side of his head, knocking him down. He lay on the floor breathing hard, holding his head. "You need to acquire a little humility," I growled.

  The colonels and Kriezotou were handcuffing the two officers. Erika leaned heavily against the wall. "Are you all right?" I asked.

  "Yes, Nick."

  "I am glad I trusted you, Mr. Carter," Kotsikas said. "We owe you our lives."

  "And the assassination attempt has failed," Glavani added.

  "I shall contact the commissioner of police and have a long talk with him about what has happened here," Kotsikas said, glancing darkly at the wounded lieutenant.

  "I wish you would give me twenty-four hours before you do that, Colonel," I said. "The head of the octopus is still very much alive. Miss Nystrom and I are going after Stavros."

  He hesitated a moment. "All right, Mr. Carter. I will keep this quiet for twenty-four hours. But then I must make my move."

  "Fair enough," I said. "If we haven't found Stavros by tomorrow at this time, you can handle it any way you want."

  Kotsikas extended his hand to me. "Good luck."

  I took his hand. "We'll need it!"

  Nine

  We found Minourkos pacing the hotel room when we returned. It was clear that he had not given us much chance of coming back.