After that all drivers were ordered to take their trucks to unloading depots. Illya and Solo drove to their assigned building. The nuclear base was swarming with workers in dark coveralls, and soldiers who paced a barb wire perimeter. But there were not many soldiers: the base was remote from any danger.
Their truck empty, Illya and Solo drove back to the motor pool area. In the deserted space, crammed with trucks, the two agents parked their vehicle and stepped out into the night. All the drivers and soldiers of the convoy were laughing and walking toward a lighted barrack building.
“I think we better find out what’s going on right now,” Illya said grimly.
“The main control building. I saw Dr. Li go in there with General Po and the rest,” Kuryakin said.
“Let’s go, then,” Solo said simply.
The two men began to glide silently through the night toward the small, but brightly lighted, control center.
Five
In the main control room of the missile launching site, Dr. Li Po Shue, General Po, three other high-ranking Chinese Officers, Maxine Trent and her three THRUSH aides sat around a table. The conference had been going on for some hours, as Dr. Li explained his job.
“The missiles will be set up tonight, twenty-four hour work,” the thin impostor said. “I will set the controls and the guidance system. General Po will prepare the nuclear warheads for full operational installation in the morning. By noon tomorrow, gentlemen, the world will know that China has operational missiles aimed at India!”
General Po smiled like a wolf. “That should make them take notice of us! Those weaklings in India will be begging us!”
The general looked at Maxine Trent in her Albanian officer disguise. “Our Albanian friends will be glad they backed us. And they will tell our Soviet comrades!”
“We will tell them all, General Po,” Maxine said.
“Good! Then we had better go to work.”
The conference broke up, and everyone left the room but Dr. Li and one assistant.
The thin doctor worked carefully over the electronic instruments that would control the IRBMs. It was a slow and painstaking job. The doctor and his assistant worked in silence.
The doctor never looked up to a ventilation grid where bright eyes watched him work.
Behind the grid, flat in the ventilation duct, Illya Kuryakin and Napoleon Solo lay in silence. They had been in the small space for some hours now, after entering the building with the help of their hidden devices.
They watched the false Dr. Li Po Shue operate the system controls, then turn his attention to a thick set of blue-prints and specifications. The small impostor and his assistant worked on these for some hours. At last the doctor straightened up.
“That should do it. One missile will be prepared for target Calcutta, and one for target Delhi. That should make the world take us a little more seriously.”
“And six years ahead of schedule!” the assistant said.
Dr. Li chuckled. “Thanks to our generous Soviet comrades, eh? Fools! To send IRBMs through China. Your General Po outwitted them nicely when he talked them into sending the missiles to Viet Nam. This should give your anti-Mao faction a big gain.”
“And help, in the end, to insure world peace,” the assistant said. “With a nuclear delivery punch, they must talk to us. We can make honest overtures for an understanding, and the people will back us once they know that we are strong. Mao’s war pose will have to fall.”
“Of course,” Dr. Li said. “Well. I think we can go and see how General Po is progressing. You should go ahead. I have one minor test to make.”
The assistant bowed and left.
Dr. Li stood there for a moment; then he stepped softly to the door. He peered out, was satisfied, and closed the door. Then he returned to the sheaf of blue-prints and specifications he and the assistant had just finished working on. The doctor began to work very fast, making notes, correcting the charts.
In the ventilation duct, Illya and Solo looked at each other as they watched.
Another half hour passed, and the small scientist stood with a smile. He turned toward the door. There was a light knock on the door. The doctor opened the door. Maxine Trent came into the room.
“Is it done?”
“Done,” Dr. Li said.
“Good. Then we must rejoin General Po before he becomes at all suspicious,” Maxine said.
Maxine Trent and the false Dr. Li left.
There was a moment of silence in the dark control room.
Then metal grated, and Illya and Solo dropped down to the floor of the room. Solo drew his pistol and stood guard at the door; Illya sat back in the chair and stared at the charts before him. He touched the missile load and power specifications. Then he turned. Solo watched him.
“Find it?”
Illya, Kuryakin nodded. “I found it, Napoleon.”
“Well?” Solo said.
“Dr Li has changed the rocket attitude, the entire operational data. The missiles, when they are erected on the pad and programmed to these control and guidance specs, will not be aimed for Delhi or Calcutta.”
“Where will they be aimed?”
Illya Kuryakin was silent a moment. He looked up at a large world map on the wall of the control center.
“One will be aimed at Peking! The other at a place in the Ural Mountains---the exact spot of the Soviet Missile Testing Station!”
“You mean,” Solo said slowly, “if those missiles are fired, nuclear bombs will hit Peking and Russia at the same time?”
“I’m afraid that’s exactly what I mean.” Illya said. “And I doubt that Russia, or Peking, will stop to ask questions. Each will assume that the other fired!”
ACT IV
SONS OF GENGHIS KHAN, ARISE
Illya and Solo moved through the dark night of Sinkiang, cold at the high altitude, toward a rocky hill just east of the base below them now in the bowl-shaped valley. They had escaped from the control building, and the center itself, without trouble, and without being seen.
No one had challenged them, and they had crossed from the valley up into the hills. Now they reached the crest of the hill, and Solo crouched down and pressed the button on his radio ring.
“Napoleon Solo calling Lhasa relay. Agent Solo requests direct relay to Hong Kong Control Central. Over.”
There was a silence, and then, “Lhasa relay: stand by, Agent Solo.”
Another silence, and the calm voice of Alexander Waverly. “Ah, Mr. Solo, you have been silent a long time. Is Mr. Kuryakin with you?”
“Yes sir, and we don’t have much time. They can trace a relay call,” Solo said quietly.
“Quite true. You have uncovered the THRUSH plan?”
“Yes sir,” Solo said, and explained what Illya Kuryakin had discovered.
Waverly did not speak until the report was finished. Then there was a moment of silence.
Waverly’s voice was grim. “I see. The Soviet will blame the Chinese. Mao’s faction will probably blame Russia. The anti-Mao faction could blame both Russia and Mao. Also, Dr. Li will undoubtedly be labeled a tool of the Americans. No matter what is learned, the situation would be terribly dangerous. It could lead to a very tense situation in the world, a threat of World War III, and chaos inside China at the same time.”
“A perfect chance for THRUSH to probably gain control of China!” Solo said.
“At least,” Waverly’s voice said from far off Hong Kong. “If it did not lead to a world war, with THRUSH hoping to emerge as the ruler of the world, it would probably leave them in control of China. We cannot permit either to happen, Mr. Solo. We cannot even permit Russia to attack China and create a situation in which THRUSH could take over a weakened China!”
“No sir,” Solo said.
Behind him, on the actual crest of the dark Sinkiang hill, Illya Kuryakin watched the barren countryside.
“They must be stopped, Mr. Solo,” Waverly said at last. “You and Mr. Kuryakin must stop them. C
hina and Russia must remain as they are. We must gain at least a year of time in which to bring the world to its senses!”
“Yes sir,” Solo said. “They’ll be stopped.”
“Reveal yourselves to General Po if you must. But you must do everything to aid the Chinese in this matter. Every year counts, Mr. Solo.”
“Yes sir,” Solo said.
The radio went silent. Solo looked at the ring for a moment, then pressed the button to close communications. He stood.
“Napoleon!” Illya whispered.
Solo turned, his pistol in his hand.
Illya Kuryakin pointed down the hill.
Less than a hundred yards down the hill men were climbing.
There were not many, about six, but they came up steadily and carefully. Illya and Solo watched. Then they slipped away to the other side of the hill and started picking their way down through the rocks.
A beam of light caught them like insects on a pin.
Illya dove for a boulder directly in front of him.
Solo flung himself sideways and crashed into a rock, rolled, and lay bruised behind it. A volley of machine-gun fire split the darkness. It came from below on this side of the hill. Then another beam stabbed from behind them.
They were caught in a crossfire.
“You take up, I’ll take down!” Illya called.
“Right,” Solo answered.
Both agents steadied their weapons and prepared to fight. They heard their enemies creeping closer in the dark. Solo fumbled in his clothes and brought out a long, slender tube. He attached it to his pistol, and inserted a special bullet in the chamber. Then he held it straight up and fired.
Instantly he removed the tube, ejected the special shell, and was ready to fire.
As a glaring light burst in the air over the hill.
A light as bright as day for a long minute.
The men above and below them were caught full in the light of the special flare.
Illya Kuryakin opened fire. Their enemies dove for cover, tried to run, scrambled across the face of the bare hill. Two went down and did not move.
Then the light of the flare faded. “They’ll rush us now,” Illya whispered through the dark.
“They will,” Solo said.
The two agents lay and waited. They waited a minute, their eyes straining to see in the dark that was deeper now that the flare had faded. They waited at least two minutes.
Almost three minutes passed.
“Try another flare,” Illya whispered. “Where are they?”
Solo prepared his pistol and fired another flare. He waited. The light burst high up and illuminated the entire hill.
“Look!” Illya cried.
They were all over the hill in the glare of the flare. Small men on horses, with shaggy hats and bandoliers of bullets, and bright clothes of cloth and leather.
Just as the light began to fade, a small, heavy-set man seemed to appear out of the ground itself and stand on a rock over Illya and Solo.
The man had a long, flowing mustache and carried a small curved sword. His piercing eyes looked down at them. Then he waved his arms in a wide circle.
All around Illya and Solo men seemed to appear---fifty men, all armed, all watching the two agents.
The man spoke one word. In Chinese.
“Come!”
Up the hill in the last light of the flare the two agents saw that the men who had attacked them first were standing with their hands behind their heads---captured.
One of the men with his hands up was Dr. Li Po Shue.
“Come!” the short, stocky leader of the strange men said once more.
All around the slope of the hill the small, shaggy men on their shaggy horses herded their captives downward and toward the north.
TWO
In the stifling hut the prisoners sat facing each other. Illya and Solo sat against one wall, their hands tied behind them, and grinned across the dirt floor at the five men led by the false Dr. Li who sat in the exact same condition against the other wall.
“Dr. Li, I presume?” Solo said. “Or not Dr. Li, I presume?”
The false Dr. Li shrugged. “What does it matter, Mr. Solo? There has been an error; these nomads will free us as soon as they contact the Chinese authorities. Then you will be dealt with.”
“Are you running this show, Dr. Li, or does Maxine Trent outrank you?” Solo said.
Li smiled. “Let us say we are equals. If you are looking for my THRUSH rank, don’t bother. You won’t have time to care.”
Suddenly, in the thick air of the hut, Illya began to chuckle. They all looked at the Russian U.N.C.L.E. agent, even Solo. The cold eyes of the fake Dr. Li narrowed.
“Something amuses you, Kuryakin?” Li snapped. “I assure you that what these savages will do to you will not amuse you.”
Illya looked around the hut, which was built of heavy skins hung over a frame of wicker-like bent boughs. Thick furs hung on all the walls of the hut.
“I’m not sure that it will amuse you either, Dr. Li, or whoever you are,” Illya said. “These savages as you call them are Mongols. From the look of their clothes and horses, I’d say they are from the Chuguchah area, and are Mongol mixed with Kazakh. That leader was wearing a Hetman’s shoulder knot.”
“Is that supposed to mean something?” Dr. Li snapped.
Illya nodded slowly. “I see that you aren’t a real expert on China, or Russia, whoever you are. I think the real Dr. Li would have known what it means, my friend.”
“Perhaps you can enlighten me then,” Dr. Li sneered.
“I can,” Illya Kuryakin said. “It means that these men are bitter foes of both China and Russia! They are known to hate the Russians and the government in Ulan Bator, which favors Russia, and they also hate the Chinese and the government in Peking. They are free nomads who believe they owe allegiance to no one, belong to no one, and admit no borders of any kind. They don’t even accept the Mongolian government.”
There was a thick silence in the hut. The odor of heavy animal skins was overpowering. But the odor of worry was even stronger. The THRUSH men all looked at each other. Dr. Li rubbed his thin face. There was sweat on his brow now.
“Which means?” Dr. Li said in a tight voice.
Illya Kuryakin shrugged. “That they will not contact the Chinese authorities, or any other authorities, and if they do, it won’t be to ask advice. No, I think we are all in the same boat, and the closer they think we are to the Chinese government, the worse it will be for us. The only thing worse, probably, would to be close to the Soviet government.
Dr. Li was about to make some angry reply, when the skins at the entrance of the hut were thrown violently back and three small, wiry, thin bearded men came in. Each carried an old-fashioned pistol from the vintage of the First World War, but the pistols were well-oiled and well-tended.
Each of the men also carried a long length of leather thong with loops in it. The three men were laughing and talking in some strange language. They laughed, but their eyes were the coldest black Napoleon had ever seen.
Without speaking to the prisoners, each of the men looped the thongs over the heads of the prisoners and tightened them around the necks. One of the men fastened his thong around Dr. Li and two other THRUSH men, the other two Mongols took Solo and Illya on one lead, the last two THRUSH prisoners on the other.
Then the prisoners were dragged out by the thongs around their necks.
They were pulled roughly across an open space among huts. The ground had been stamped down by years of many feet. The village itself was in a valley among mountains, set close to a high cliff so that it was almost invisible from the air or any direction. Illya looked around closely, his sharp eyes studying the mountains.
They were all dragged to the edge of the village where hundreds of the Mongol warriors sat their small horses, or stood in surly groups leaning on spears and rifles.
The small, stocky leader sat on a strange throne-like chair covered w
ith furs. The chair was made from the bones of animals, and the decorations were the skulls of men!
The leader stared at them a moment, then motioned.
The prisoners were all pushed to the ground, made to sit before the throne, the thongs still around their necks.
“So,” the leader said in Chinese. “Who are you, and why do you fight each other?”
Dr. Li tried to rise, was pulled back by the neck, and sputtered angrily. “I am Dr. Li Po Shue of the Government of The People’s Republic of China! I demand that you release me and my men, and execute these enemies of China!”
The leader looked at Li. “So? These men are the enemies of China? How are they enemies of China? How are they your enemies, Chinese man?”
“We have a big base, great rockets.” LI explained in childish Chinese. “We protect China and you from outside enemies. These men wish to destroy great rockets, destroy People’s Republic.”
Illya Kuryakin began to laugh. The Mongol leader, and the others, all looked at the U.N.C.L.E. agent. Illya nodded toward the mountains all around.
“Unless I’m wrong, and I’m not, we’re not in China, we’re across the border in Mongolia. I don’t think the leader cares much about China, Dr. Li.”
The stocky leader turned his cold eyes toward Illya. “How do you know we are across the border?”
“Because as a young man I have lived near here,” Illya said.
“Then you are a Russian!” the leader said.
“Yes,” Illya said, “I am a Russian, but I am not working for the Soviets. I am working for an international organization that wishes the peace of the world. This man lies to you. He is here to send the rockets against Russia and China, to start a big war!”
The leader stared. “You are Russian, but not Russian. This man is Chinese, but not Chinese? You speak of a big war, Russia and China, that is not bad. Russia. China, what do we care? Let them kill each other.”
“But the war will come to you, here,” Illya said. “There will be many soldiers, much death---here.”
The Mongol leader stared at Illya Kuryakin, then looked slowly at Dr. Li again.
The Genghis Khan Affair Page 7
