Mac paused here, long enough to indicate that I was supposed to say something. I said "You mean, go over and stalk them in their native habitat, sir?"
CHAPTER 10
How he'd ever managed to sell the project to someone in authority, I never found out. It must have taken some doing, since America is a fairly sentimental and moral nation, even in wartime, and since all armies, including ours, have their books of rules-and this was certainly not in the books.
I never discovered where or from whom he got his orders. It was fascinating to try to imagine the scene. I couldn't picture a straight-backed West Point graduate actually putting it into plain English; certainly it was never set down in writing, and you'll find no records of our activities in the archives of the Department of Defense, as I understand that mighty, unified organization is known nowadays.
I used to visualize a conference room with a sentry at the door, very hush, with high-ranking general officers in secret conclave and Mac just sitting there in his gray suit, listening.
"There's the fellow von Schmidt," says General One.
"Ah, yes, von Schmidt, the fighter-group man," says General Two. "Based near St. Marie."
"Clever chap," says General Three. This would be in London or somewhere nearby, and they'd all have picked up something of that insidious clipped British way of speaking. "They say he'd have Goering's job if he'd learned how to bend that stiff Prussian neck. And if his personal habits weren't quite so revolting, not that Goering's are anything to cheer about. But I understand that there isn't a female under thirty within a hundred kilometers of St. Marie with a full complement of limbs and faculties who hasn't been favored with the general's attentions-and they're pretty fancy attentions. He's supposed to have a few wrinkles that KrafftEbing overlooked."
Mac would shift position in his chair, ever so slightly. Atrocities always bored him. We didn't, he'd say, go around killing people simply because they were sons of bitches; it would be so hard to know where to draw the line. We were soldiers fighting a war in our way, not avenging angels.
"The hell with his sex life," says General One, who seems to be of Mac's persuasion. "I don't give a damn if he rapes every girl in France. He can have the boys, too, for all I care. Just tell me how to get my bombers past him. We take it on the chin every time we come within range of his fields, even with full fighter escort. Whenever we learn how to counter one set of tactics; he's got a new one waiting for us. The man's a genius, professionally speaking. If we're going to be given targets beyond him, I recommend a full-scale strike at his bases first, to knock him out of the air for a time at 1east~ But I warn you, it's going to come high."
"It would be convenient," says General Two in a dreamy voice, after some discussion of this plan, "if something should happen to General von Schmidt during the attack, or maybe just a little before it. Might save the lives of some of our boys, if he wasn't around to give the last-minute orders; besides keeping him from being back in business within the month."
Nobody looks at Mac. General One moves his mouth as if to get rid of a bad taste. He says, "You're dreaming. Men like that live forever. Anyway, it seems like a sneaky and underhanded thing to wish for. But if he should happen to fall down dead, about four in the morning of April seventeenth would be a good time. Shall we adjourn, gentlemen?"
I don't vouch for the language or the professional terminology. As I say, I never learned how it was really done; and I never was a general or even a West Point graduate; and as far as aviation was concerned, it was all I could do, even during the war, to tell a Spitfire from a Messerschmidt. Planes were just something I climbed into, rode in a while, and then climbed out of after we'd landed on some strange and bumpy field in the dark-or jumped out of with a parachute, which always scared me silly. Given a choice, I always preferred to start a mission with a boat ride. I suppose that is another thing I owe to some ancestral Viking; for a man brought up in the middle of what used to be called the Great American Desert, I turned out to be a pretty good sailor. Unfortunately, a great deal of Europe can't be reached by boat.
The German general's name was actually von Lausche instead of von Schmidt, and he was based near Kronheim instead of St. Marie-if such a place exists- but he was, as I've indicated, a military genius and an 18-carat bastard. He had his quarters-you could spot them by the armed guard in front-only a few doors down the street from the tavern I've already mentioned. I kept a long-range watch over the house after I'd made my contact. It wasn't in the orders, precisely. In fact, I was supposed to show no interest in the place at all, until the time came. I didn't really know what I was watching for, since I U already received from Tina a full report on von Lausche's habits and the routine of the guards, but it was the first time I'd worked with a woman, let alone a young and attractive girl who'd deliberately placed herself in such a position, and I had a feeling I'd better keep myself handy.
The feeling paid off later in the week. It was a gray evening, and Kronheim was having a little wet, belated snow just to make things more pleasant. There was a stir of movement and Tina came running into sight partially undressed, a small white figure in my night glasses. She stumbled past the guards out into the slush of the street, carrying in her arms what was apparently the cheap dark skirt and jacket she'd worn into the place an hour earlier.
I hurried out and intercepted her as she came around a nearby corner. I don't know where she was going, and I don't think she knew, either. It was strictly against instructions and common sense for me to contact her so openly and so close to our target; and taking her back to my place was sheer criminal folly, endangering the whole mission as well as the French family sheltering me. But I could see that I had an emergency on my hands and it was time to shoot the works.
Luck was with us-luck and the lousy weather. I got her inside unseen, made sure of the lock on the door and the blind on the window, and lit a candle; it was an attic room, not wired for lights. She was still hugging the bundle of clothes to her breasts. Without speaking she swung around to show me her back. The whip had made a mess of her cheap blouse and underwear, and had drawn considerable blood from the skin beneath. -
"I'll kill the pig," she whispered. "I'll kill him!"
"Yes," I said. "On the seventeenth of the month, two days from now, at four in the morning, you'll kill him."
That was what I was there for, to see that she didn't go off half-cocked-it was her first mission with us-to make sure of the touch, and to get her out alive afterwards, if possible. There might be guards to silence; that was also my job. I was kind of a specialist at silencing guards silently. I never touched her, or even indicated that I might like to, those first half dozen days. After all, I was in charge and it would have been bad for discipline.
"You mean," she whispered, "you mean, you want me to go back?" Her eyes were wide and dark, violetblack now, deep and alive as I'd never seen them. "Back to that swine?"
I drew a long breath and said, "Hell, kid, you're supposed to enjoy it."
Slowly the darkness died out of her eyes. She sighed, and touched her dry lips with the tip of her tongue. When she spoke again, her voice had changed, becoming flat and toneless: "But of course, chйri. You are quite right, as always. I am being stupid, I love to be whipped by the general. Help me on with the clothes, gently…
Now as she walked past me into the center of my studio, fifteen years later and five thousand miles away from Kronheim, I could see a little hairline mark across the back of her bare arm. It wasn't pronounced enough to be called a scar. I picked up her stole and took my Colt automatic from a concealed pocket in the satin lining and tucked it inside my belt. I took a revolver- presumably Barbara Herrera's-from her purse and found that the girl had packed a real weapon under all those skirts and petticoats: one of the compact, aluminum-framed.38 Specials. I'd read about them in the sporting magazines to which I contribute fishing yarns from time to time. It was only a handful, light as a toy; and I was willing to bet that with so little weight to s
oak up the recoil of a full-charge load, it would kick like a pile-driver. I stuck it into the hip pocket of my jeans.
Then I took Tina's gun and carried it, with the rest of her belongings, to where she stood looking thoughtfully at the open bathroom door as if she hadn't quite decided what should be done with what was inside. I put the purse and pistol into her hands, and laid the furs over her shoulders. I touched the little mark on her arm, and she glanced at me.
"Does it still show?"
"Very little," I said, and she turned to look at me fully, and her eyes were remembering exactly how it had been.
"We killed the pig, didn't we?" she murmured. "We killed him good. And we killed the one who almost caught us as we were getting away, and, hiding in the bushes, waiting, we made love like animals to wipe out for me the memory of that Nazi beast, while they hunted us in the dark and rain. And then the planes came in, those beautiful planes, those beautiful American planes, coming right on the hour, on the minute, coming in with the dawn, filling the sky with thunder and the earth with fire… And now you have a wife and three pretty children and write stories about cowboys and Indians!"
"Yes," I said, "and you seem to be doing your best to break up my happy home. Did you have to shoot the girl?"
"But yes," she said, "of course we had to shoot the girl. Why do you think Mac sent us here, my love, except to shoot her?"
CHAPTER 11
IT changed things. Somehow, even after learning how well she'd been armed, I'd assumed Barbara Herrera was merely a minor character who'd blundered into the line of fire, so to speak. But if she'd been important enough that Mac had made her the target of a full-scale mission.. -.
Before I could frame a question, somebody knocked on the door. Tina and I looked at each other, startled; then I cast a hasty, appraising glance around the studio, reflecting that Beth must have seen the truck still standing in the yard and my lights on, and come over to help me pack, perhaps with a cup of coffee. The only things I could see that might attract her attention were the shotgun by the door, the pistol in my belt, and, of course, Tina.
"Into the bathroom, quick,"! whispered, "and flush the john when you get there. Count ten, then close and lock the door." She nodded, and hurried away, moving on tiptoe so the sound of her heels would not betray her. I turned towards the front door and called: "Just a minute. I'll be right out."
The john flushed-our timing was good-and I tucked the.22 inside my wool shirt, made sure the.38 was well buried in my hip pocket, and stuck the shotgun back in the rack. The bathroom door was just closing. It occurred to me, rather unpleasantly, that it was my wife I was deceiving with such nice, clock-like precision, and with the aid of another woman, a former mistress, to boot. But there was no alternative. I could hardly explain Tina's presence without going into details I wasn't free to divulge, nor could I very well escort Beth into the bathroom, show her the thing in the tub, and suggest that she grab a shovel from the garage and start digging… Thinking along these lines, I pulled the studio door open, and saw Frank Loris's bulky figure outside.
Even if I didn't like the man, it was a relief. I stepped back to let him in, and closed the door behind him. -
"Where is she?" he asked.
I jerked my head towards the bathroom. He started that way, but Tina, having heard his voice, came out before he reached the door.
"What are you doing here?" she demanded.
"Finding out what you're doing here," he said. He glanced at me briefly. "What's the matter, is he balking?" He turned back and looked her up and down, obviously checking on the condition of her dress and hair and lipstick. "Or have you two been renewing old friendships? How the hell long do you expect me to sit waiting at the corner in the dead chick's car, anyway?"
Tina said, "You had your orders."
"I don't have to like them."
"Where's Herrera's car now?"
"Outside in the alley. And the junk's all in WriterBoy's truck. I threw it in back just now. Suitcase, handbag, hatbox, raincoat, and a bunch of dresses and stuff on hangers. Your problem, honey. The heap's clean, so now I'll take it the hell down to Albuquerque and bury it like you said. With your permission, of course." He bowed in a burlesque way, and then turned and walked up to me, looked at me, and said over his shoulder:
"Has this guy been giving you trouble?"
Tina said quickly, ' 'Frank! If you've got everything out of the car, you'd better get it out of the alley before somebody sees it here."
The big man didn't pay her any attention. He was still looking at me, and I was looking at him. It occurred to me that with his square jaw, curly blond hair, and powerful frame, he might have seemed attractive to some women. He had strange eyes. They were kind of golden brown with flecks of a darker color, and they were set wide apart in his head. This is supposed to be a sign of intelligence and reliability, but I've never found it so. The man with the greatest space between the eyes I've ever seen-a Czech with an unpronounceable name-I had to use a club on to keep from betraying our hiding place by cutting loose on a Nazi patrol that had already passed us by. He'd killed once that day, and it had apparently whetted his appetite; he just couldn't stand seeing all those nice, broad, uniformed backs moving out of range of his gun.
"Writer-Boy," Loris said softly, "don't get independent, Writer-Boy. You were big stuff once, she tells me, but the war's over now. You do as you're told, Writer-Boy, and you'll be all right."
Then he hit me. His eyes gave no warning at all-if the man knows his business, they don't. I shouldn't have been watching his eyes, anyway, but I was still full of peacetime trust and good fellowship. In peacetime, people don't haul off and poke in you in the diaphragm for no reason at all, and they don't crack you across the back of the neck as you double up, or kick you in the side as you hit the floor..
"Just a sample, Writer-Boy. Just do as you're told. You'll be all right."
His voice reached me only dimly. I wasn't interested in his conversation. I was concentrating on making it look good. The blow just below the breastbone, while half-paralyzing, made a good excuse for bringing my hands to my midsection as I lay curled up on the floor, writhing in agony with my best Grade A writhe. One hand got the shirt open and the other got a firm grip on the butt of the Woodsman pistol. I heard him move towards the door. The doorknob rattled. I sat up with the gun in my hand and aimed it carefully at the place where his spine joined his skull. He never even looked around. A darning needle will kill in that spot, let alone a.22 bullet. -
I sighed and lowered the pistol, watched the door close behind him, and listened to his footsteps dying away outside. He'd keep. I had enough dead bodies on the premises already. I got up slowly, and glanced at Tina. Her posture was a little peculiar. She'd slipped the glossy, satin-lined mink stole off her shoulders and was holding it, with both hands, as a bullfighter would hold his cape. Obviously she'd been prepared to fling it over my head to blind me, if she thought I was really going to shoot. It occurred to me that she was getting more mileage out of those furs, in more different ways, than the furrier had ever dreamed of.
She shook her head quickly. "Chйri, don't look like that. We need him."
"I don't need him," I said. "I plan to do without him, completely, as soon as it can be conveniently arranged. And I don't need you, either, sweetheart. Goodbye."
She looked at me for a moment. Then she shrugged and threw the minks back around her shoulders. "If that is how you want it," she said. "If you are quite sure that is how you want it."
I looked at her narrowly. "Spell it out, Tina."
"I would think carefully, amigo mio. I would not let my intelligence be warped by the jealous actions of one big fool." She moved her hand casually towards the bathroom door. "There is still that to consider."
Slowly, I put the.22 back under my belt. "I think," I said, "it's about time you told me what this is all about. Who was Barbara Herrera, what was she up to here in Santa Fe, and why did Mac order her killed? How does he get away
with killing people in peacetime, anyway?" I grimaced. "When you've finished that little chore, you can go on to tell me why she had to be killed in my studio with my gun…" I broke off. Tina was laughing. I said, "What's so damn funny?"
"You are, Liebchen," she said, reaching out to pat my cheek. "You wiggle so amusingly, like the fish on the hook."
"Go on," I said, when she paused.
She smiled into my eyes. "But it is your studio, my dear, and your gun. And you heard Loris, all the dead girl's belongings are now in your truck. And if I walk out and leave you now, it's your baby."
"Go on," I said.
"I'm afraid you don't appreciate me, chйri," she said. "It was really very nice of me to come back to help you. I would not have done it for anyone else. Loris knows it; that's what makes him wild with jealousy… Of course, you can make things easier for us, if you cooperate." She laughed at me, softly. "Think, Eric! A writer-an unstable person, of course-reports finding a pretty girl, whom he just met at a cocktail party, with whom he was heard to discuss an assignation after the party… this girl he now claims to have discovered shot to death, oh, much to his surprise, in his private writing place. But who will believe his astonishment and horror? The murder gun is his! Come now, come now, Mr. Helm"-her voice deepened and took on a masculine quality-' 'we are all men of the world here! Why don't you just admit that you slipped Miss Herrera the studio key and told her to wait for you, you'd be out-to read her manuscript, of course!-as soon as your wife was asleep… That's what they'll say to you," Tina murmured, still smiling, "if you call the police. And what will you say, my dear?"
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