“It is necessary that we work in relays like this,” the man explained. “The Communists are searching for Ling Su and me. It would be fatal for all of us if we entered the city.”
“I can appreciate that,” Solo said. He extracted several gold coins from a money belt under his coolie jacket and passed them to the man.
“I have something for you too,” Mei-ling suddenly spoke from the night shadows behind Napoleon. “Your just reward!”
The U.N.C.L.E. agents caught a glimpse of a tiny gun in her hand. It made a curious plop! noise as the silenced bullet ripped into the guide's chest.
The girl with him gave a strangled cry. She fell on her knees in the river bank sand, pleading wildly for her life.
“What is it, Mei-ling?” Solo asked.
“We have been betrayed!” the Chinese girl said through clinched lips. “We were not supposed to have gone into the city at all. The tracking station where the orders are relayed is situated some distance down river from the town. There is no reason for us to go into the city---except to get us caught!”
“What is that smell?” April asked suddenly.
“Run!” Mei-ling cried. “It is the sleep gas! These traitorous dogs led us directly into a trap!”
She hesitated just a second to shoot the pleading girl and turned to run. April Dancer tried to follow, but her knees buckled. She toppled and collided with Illya Kuryakin. They fell in the wet sand. Directly in front of them Mark Slate reached the sampan, but collapsed before he could push it into the water. Napoleon Solo fell to his knees just three feet from them.
April's mind was in a fog. She dimly heard a voice say in English.
“Wonderful! Wonderful! Everything worked perfectly. We got the entire U.N.C.L.E. rat pack in a single snap of the trap!”
“Shall I kill them now?” another voice said. It also spoke in English, but there was in it a European accent.
“The Chinese girl, yes. Shoot her!” the American voice said. “Then take the body to the Red Chinese secret police. Tell them this is how their THRUSH friends protect their associates. There is quite a price in gold on this woman's head. Let the police chief have it. It will make him favorable to us.”
“Excellent, Dr. Pierce! And the others?”
“You can have the pleasure of murdering them as well---but just a little later. First they must do an errand for me. A most important errand, such as confusing Mr. Alexander Waverly and neutralizing him as a threat to us!”
TEN
CAPTIVES
They regained consciousness in a small concrete cell that had all the appearance of a decontamination unit for a nuclear fallout shelter. They were all handcuffed on wrists and ankles.
They remained in the cell for about an hour after coming out of their drug-gas induced sleep. Sure that they were being spied upon, none of them spoke.
Finally two Europeans came and took them into an adjoining room. There was a radio transmitting set in one corner, several bunk beds reaching to the ceiling on one side, and boxes of prepared food. To April Dancer, looking around, it verified her suspicions that they were in a fallout shelter belonging to the THRUSH cell.
An American was at the radio transmitter. A grim faced European stood beside him.
“What is the situation at the tracking station, Dr. Pierce?” the European asked.
Franklyn Pierce, the American nuclear scientist defector, looked up at Hanz Tiell, his cell chief.
“The difficulty in the tracking system has cleared up. It seems now that we can proceed on schedule. We will be able to fire the bombs within the next three hours. It will take approximately an hour and a half for them to reenter. They will strike New York, London, Paris, Peking, New Delhi, Moscow, Tokyo, Vienna, Berlin, Chicago, Los Angeles, Rome, Tel Aviv, Ottawa and Sidney. The second cluster bomb will be used to mop up if necessary.”
“Did you find the cause of the tracking difficulty?”
“We think it was experimental interference broadcast from the U.N.C.L.E. laboratories in New York,” Pierce said.
“Can they---”
“We can override the induced static,” Pierce said. “But it could cause a flutter in the aiming device that could result in missing the assigned targets.”
“That would be fatal,” Tiell snapped. “This system has been programmed to knock out the seats of government, including the United Nations. I want something done at once to eliminate any slight chance of U.N.C.L.E. interference!”
“That is what I'm working on,” Pierce said impatiently. “While these U.N.C.L.E. rats were unconscious I had samples taken of their blood. The three men are incompatible with the hypnotic serum. The girl's system appears to be sympathetic to the chemical compound.”
“You are taking a long chance,” the cell chief said uneasily. “I don't think---”
“But Dr. Tiell!” Pierce said, getting up in his agitation. “It is sure to work. I know the serum has not been field tested, but it worked in the laboratory. If it doesn't, then we can cut off the transmission.”
“U.N.C.L.E. will be warned,“ Tiell said.
“There is always a chance they can delay us. A delay can be fatal. The Chinese are becoming more and more suspicious. They are demanding that we take Chinese technicians into the tracking and control station. If that happens, nothing can prevent them from learning that we have programmed one of the bombs straight for the Red Chinese headquarters in Peking.”
Tiell took a deep, unsteady breath.
“We are working on a narrow margin,” he said. “What I fear is that Waverly will finally convince the UN of the truth about the satellites being clustered. Once that happens the U.S. Strategic Air Command can hit us with ICBMs and with H-bomb warheads within an hour and a half.”
“Take it easy,” Pierce said.
“We'll win. It is just a matter of a few more hours and I'll have a baby H-bomb in the center of every important city in the world.”
“There had better be no delays---for your sake!” Tiell rasped. “You made one bad mistake in killing that Chinese girl. I needed to question her.”
“She had a gun in her hand,” Pierce replied. “What should I have done? Let her shoot me?”
“That might have been better for us,” Tiell sneered. “I am beginning to doubt you, Pierce.”
“I'll deliver your damn H-bombs!” Pierce snapped. “Don't worry. I'll get the hypnosis serum now.”
He walked rapidly from the room. Tiell turned and gave Napoleon Solo a sour look.
“Remember me, Napoleon?” he asked.
“I seem to recall that you came just as closely as anybody ever did to killing me once,” Napoleon Solo replied.
“I expect better luck this time,” the THRUSH man said.
“You haven't a chance,” Solo said, desperately snatching at a bluff to throw the cell chief off guard. “I can tell you now because you haven't a chance to stop it. Mei-ling got word to her group before Pierce got her. I gave them the direction. They're moving in on you, Tiell.”
The THRUSH cell chief looked at Napoleon Solo with contemptuous amusement.
“Never play poker, Napoleon,” he said harshly. “You know nothing about Mei-ling. You thought she was helping U.N.C.L.E. She was leading you into a death trap after you served her purpose.
“She didn't belong to U.N.C.L.E. She was with an anti-Communist group, which is what fooled Waverly. But they were working for themselves only. Her object was to use you and U.N.C.L.E. to break through our defenses. Once this was accomplished, you would have been killed by her. She would have taken over direction of the cluster bombs to steal the fruits of THRUSH's work.”
Pierce came back into the room. He was carrying a tray with a small syringe and a bottle of green liquid that glowed wickedly.
The three men watched helplessly as Pierce charged the syringe with the peculiar liquid. The renegade American's hand shook slightly as he worked. Tiell, watching intently, was sweating profusely. Everyone in the room of the fallout she
lter was tense, knowing how much depended on the uncertain experiment.
Oddly April Dancer, on whom the experiment was to be performed, was the calmest one in the room. This was because she had already made her plan. There was only the slightest chance that it would work but this did not deter her.
All she ever asked for was a thin margin of chance. The rest she would supply from her own resources.
Watching her intently, Mark Slate, who knew her so well, was aware that she had something in mind. He stretched his manacled legs as if to ease a cramp. He barely touched Illya Kuryakin's foot imperceptibly with the toe of his shoe.
Kuryakin looked at him. Slate was watching April intently. Kuryakin followed the direction of Slate's stare. He realized that something was in the wind. He had no idea what nor how he could assist, manacled as they all were with handcuffs about wrists and ankles.
However, he braced himself for anything he might be able to do to help her.
Suddenly April started to choke. She coughed violently. Her chin fell down on her chest. Her body heaved and she almost toppled from her chair.
“What is the matter?” Tiell cried in alarm.
Pierce dropped the filled syringe back on the tray. He sprang to April's side. The three men from U.N.C.L.E. tensed their muscles, ready to throw their bodies forward. There was a slender chance that they might assist April by using their heads as human battering rams to knock down Tiell and Pierce. Then, if they were lucky, they might get in hard kicks with their manacled feet.
These thoughts were nothing but desperate groping for some means of fighting back.
The situation was so perilous that they were practically willing to try anything.
However, if April Dancer had been trying to give them an opening for such an attack by diverting attention from them to herself, Tiell quickly scotched it before it started.
While Pierce anxiously knelt beside April, the THRUSH cell chief stepped back. He drew his THRUSH gun and covered the three prisoners.
“If she is unable to take the hypnotic serum,” Pierce said in a badly worried voice, “there'll be no way to pull Waverly's fangs.”
“If this is some trick---” Tiell began ominously.
“Take it easy,” Solo said. “Remember I know you from a previous affair. We know you wouldn't fall for a kid's trick.”
“That's right!” the cell chief snapped. “You broke us up before through pure dumb luck! You won't again.”
“I can believe it now,” Solo said, playing on the man's egotism.
“Now you're getting smart,” Tiell grunted. “Are you willing to make a deal?”
“Nothing doing!” Solo said, an edge of contempt coming into his voice. “You're right on the brink of losing, Tiell. You expected to use April under hypnosis to send a false message to Waverly. You can't do it now! She's having one of her attacks!”
Blood rushed to Tiell's face, turning it almost black. He stifled a. curse and jerked up the THRUSH gun until the muzzle leveled on Napoleon Solo's chest.
“Help me! Help me!” April cried in a stricken voice.
Tiell hesitated for a brief second and then turned back to Solo. “I'm going to kill you!”
“Help me!” April cried again, the words slurring through her trembling lips. “I'll be all right if you'll give me my medicine from my purse!”
“Wait a minute, Tiell,” Pierce said getting up. “Maybe we can bring her out of it.”
“What is the matter with her?” the cell chief asked suspiciously.
“I'm not a doctor. Maybe she has something like diabetes. You know they have to carry insulin pills around with them.”
“In my purse!” April gasped, her body shaking all over. “Get me---”
“Try it,” Tiell said, turning away and dropping his gun aim at Solo. “It's a chance. Where is the stuff you took from them?”
“In the locker,” Pierce said.
“They were overloaded with U.N.C.L.E. devices---pill explosives, pen-communicators, cigarette lights that are really steel-cutting blow torches and who knows what else. I wanted time to inspect the stuff carefully. “
“Well, inspect what you give her,” Tiell ordered. “This could be a trick.”
April slumped more and suddenly pitched forward out of the chair.
ELEVEN
THE SMOKE MINT
Hanz Tiell did not see April Dancer break her fall with the palms of her hands as a tumbler would do. It seemed to him that she hit the concrete with a stunning force.
The three men from U.N.C.L.E. had a different view. They knew exactly now what she had in mind. The call for “medicine” from her purse was the tipoff. Among the numerous U.N.C.L.E. protective devices carried as standard equipment by them all were packages of mints. They would pass the closest inspection without disclosing their secret---which was that they turned into tremendous smoke bombs when dropped in water.
Tiell did not come near her. He backed away, uneasily shifting the barrel of the gun from the three men to the fallen girl from U.N.C.L.E.
He had scarcely stepped back when Pierce returned with the box containing the material taken from the captives. He quickly took out April's purse and pawed through it. He brought out the package of mints. He held them up for the men to see.
“Is this it?” he asked.
“Don't ask me!” Napoleon Solo snarled. “I'm not helping you one damned bit.”
“It has to be,” Pierce said. “It's the only thing that answers her description.”
Turning to Tiell, he asked for help in getting April Dancer up.
“Do it yourself,” the chief said roughly. “I'm taking no chances. I'm staying back far enough so I can get a clear shot if there's treachery.”
Solo turned his head slightly to look at his male companions. They could see the agony in his eyes. They knew he wanted as badly as they did to tell Pierce he had to drop the mint into a glass of water.
Instead the renegade American was moving his hand as if to slip it between April's lips. They knew when it hit the saliva in her mouth the mint would turn into clouds of suffocating smoke. The girl would die a terrible death. Then the smoke would choke the rest of them.
At the same time, they knew if they tried to offer instructions it would be out of character for a member of U.N.C.L.E. It would surely excite the THRUSH men's suspicions.
They looked to Solo for a sign of what to do. The chief enforcement officer sat. rigid, his face strained, waiting until the very last second to see What April might do.
As Pierce touched the smoke mint to her lips she suddenly coughed. He drew his hand back. She weakly opened her eyes.
“In---in a glass of water,” she said weakly.
Pierce stood up. Mark Slate almost gasped with relief. Solo shivered in spite of his iron control. Illya Kuryakin just stared stolidly, apparently unmoved by their narrow escape.
Pierce returned with a cup of water. He sat it on the tray beside the syringe of hypnotic serum he would use on April later. He picked up the smoke mint.
Solo mentally measured the distance between himself and Hanz Tiell. He decided the distance was too far. Instead he elected to hurl his body against the table, hoping he could upset it and knock the top back against the cell chief before Tiell could use the gun on any of them.
He hoped that the two THRUSH men would take the full force of the smoke. By throwing themselves to the floor, he hoped they could escape enough of the suffocating material to permit them to snake their manacled way to the door.
Their chances of success were less than one in a thousand, Solo estimated.
The three male prisoners watched Pierce's hand as it picked up the mint. April Dancer, face down on the floor, could not observe the progress of her desperate plan.
But before the renegade American scientists could drop the mint into the cup of water, the speaker blared out on the radio transmitter behind them.
Pierce half turned as Tiell hurried to the set.
“Tiell,”
he said into the speaker. “What is it?”
“The Chinese are here. They are demanding that we admit their technicians to the control center,” an agitated voice said.
“Stall them!” the cell chief snapped. “Three hours and it's over!”
“They won't stall anymore! The chief is suspicious. He says he will send troops to the control station and force his way in. He has orders directly from Peking!”
“You are at our center office?”
“Yes.”
“Do you still have the---means of carrying out emergency plan A?” Tiell asked.
They saw Pierce's face pale. The renegade sucked in his breath. His body trembled slightly as he stared at the cell chief with a stricken look.
“Yes!” the voice on the radio said. “There are two bombs left over from assembling the clusters. One is set up ready to fire in basement here. All it needs is to insert the fuse.”
“Insert the fuse” Tiell ordered. “It will take you about ten minutes to get here to the shelter. Set the timer for that length of time. However, keep stalling. Don't blow up the town unless you must. And don't fire it under any circumstances without checking with me to make sure all of our THRUSH technicians are in the shelter.”
“But won't the Chinese---” Pierce began.
“Shut up!” Tiell snarled. “We're fighting for our lives now!”
He adjusted the radio wave length to call on a secret channel to the tracking and control station.
“The Chinese are getting suspicious,” he reported to the technician in charge. “Move up the firing schedule as much as you can.”
“It is impossible to cut the countdown more than a half hour,” the voice from the radio protested. “It will take at least two hours before we can release the bombs in space. It will be an hour and a half after that before they can strike the cities. “
“If I have Carnovan set off the atom bomb here in Shunning to blow up this Chinese inspection crew, will the shock disrupt your countdown?”
“No. We are fifteen miles away and there is a range of hills between us. On a ground-burst bomb the hills will block the initial radiation.”
“You're right on the river. Will radiation washed down affect you much?”
The Sinister Satellite Affair Page 6
