The Annihilators (39 page)

“That does not for me an easy operation make; to have them warned,” Bultman said.

“On the contrary,” I said, “they should be nicely worn down for you by now, after being kept so long in a state of siege. And remember, you have a definite advantage: They are not expecting your kind of assault. They know me. That is, they know me as a long-range rifle specialist; they even know that I’ve had a suitable weapon made ready and ammunition loaded especially for it. I said I wanted them to sweat; and there’s nothing that generates perspiration quite as well as the thought that any high window in any tall building behind you may hold an accurate rifle with a telescopic sight aimed at your back. That’s what they’re really awaiting, not your type of operation, amigo. So the defenses you’ll meet at ground level shouldn’t be insurmountable. They’re expecting death to come from above, from afar.”

“Yes, that is an interesting thought,” Bultman said. “I will keep it in mind.”

There was a little silence; then Echeverria said in his contemptuous way: “One assumes this assistance is not offered, as you say in your country, entirely without attached strings, Señor Helm.”

I glanced at him briefly and looked at Rael. “Your Excellency, the information is yours, to do with as you wish. There are no strings, as the Honorable Director calls them. However, there are two favors I would like to ask, one for myself, one for a person of some importance whose name I can reveal only to you, in private.”

Echeverria snorted. “Favors!”

Rael’s eyes had narrowed slightly. “We will consider your requests, Señor Helm.”

I said, “For myself I ask only that the Jimenez family be wiped out; and in addition the man Cordoba, who was an accomplice in my… lady’s murder. I would like her to be able to sleep peacefully, knowing that this debt has been paid.”

Rael smiled thinly. “It seems like a reasonable request. Señor Bultman, what is your opinion?”

“I do not make a habit of leaving any live witnesses behind me, Your Excellency.”

I was reminded that, although we were getting along well together, he was not really a very nice man; but then, who was?

“And we will soon have this young cripple by the heels, Señor Helm. I think we can promise that your vengeance will be fulfilled.” As I’d hoped, Rael was now looking at me with greater approval. My first request had tickled his Latin fancy. They know how to hate down here; they can appreciate a kindred spirit. “Proceed. The second favor?”

“For that, I must request a private audience with Your Excellency, so that I may reveal the identity of the man for whom I am speaking.”

Echeverria said quickly,
“Excelentisimo!…
”

Rael waved him into silence. “I appreciate your concern, Enrique; but I do not think we have anything to fear here. You may leave us. Señor Bultman also.” There was a pause while they obeyed, Echeverria hesitating in the doorway as if to make a final protest, then thinking better of it and marching out angrily. The door closed behind him. Rael leaned forward to study me across the desk. “Very well, señor. You have your audience. Now, who is this mysterious person on whose behalf you wish to ask a favor?”

I said, “You are that person, Your Excellency.”

He frowned quickly. “I do not understand!”

I said, “You are highly regarded in Washington,
Excelentisimo.
It is considered of vital importance that you and your administration be safeguarded against all threats.”

“Washington’s concern is appreciated. But what further steps can be taken in this particular situation?”

I looked at him for a moment. I hoped it was a significant look. “This man Bultman,” I said deliberately. “Are you certain he is capable?”

Rael frowned again. “He comes well recommended. What are you suggesting?”

“I have a personal, vengeful interest in his success, of course,” I said. “But as a representative of my government, I feel also that it is of extreme importance that Hector Jimenez be eliminated before he can put his military experience to use here. I have fought beside Jimenez, Your Excellency. Whatever his failings in other respects, he is a good soldier. If he should be permitted to live, if he should manage to join forces with his older son, he could become a serious menace to Your Excellency.” I was, I decided, becoming a truly accomplished liar, in my flowery way.

“We are well aware of this,” Rael said. “Do you contend that Señor Bultman is not competent to carry out this mission? His record is excellent.”

“His record
was
excellent,” I said. “But he led a raid into Cuba, not too long ago that was a complete failure, and he received a crippling wound in the course of it. Such a thing has been known to affect a man’s courage and interfere with his efficiency. And in confidence, Your Excellency, I must tell you that the ‘rescue’ he is supposed to have performed a few days ago did not happen in quite the heroic way he doubtless reported it. Let us say that he required a little help. He would have been in a bad spot without it.”

Rael’s little eyes were narrow. “You mean he lied?”

I spread my hands in a soothing gesture. “Please, Your Excellency, such ugly words are inappropriate. Was there ever a military commander who diminished his achievements in his report of an engagement? Señor Bultman’s arrival was truly very welcome. Nobody in our party begrudges him his reward for the services he performed for us, even if those services were perhaps not quite as great as he may have claimed. I am merely suggesting that it might be well to let a competent observer go along with him on this Chicago mission; a man capable of giving advice and, perhaps, correcting errors before they are made; perhaps even taking charge, if the situation should call for it.”

Rael was frowning at me. “You are asking our permission to accompany and assist Señor Bultman? But—”

I shook my head quickly. “Not I, Your Excellency. I repeat that my agency cannot afford to become openly involved. But you have a trained and experienced man quite close to you.” I paused, and spoke carefully: “He should be quite capable of steadying Señor Bultman’s hand if it should falter on a simple job like this, since I have heard that he claims to be the man whose genius was largely responsible for bringing Your Excellency to power.”

“That is an untruth!” Rael’s face was suddenly dark with anger so strong that he forgot to employ his customary royal plural. “
I
planned and executed the campaign that overthrew the corrupt Jimenez. I had many loyal allies and assistants, to be sure, but they operated to
my
orders!”

The fact was that before his political elevation, Armando Rael had been a fairly prominent Santa Rosalia attorney with no military experience whatever; his present rank and medals were self-bestowed. But by this time he had undoubtedly convinced himself that he had conquered his country practically single-handed. They always do.

I shrugged apologetically. “You know how these rumors get started,
Excelentisimo.
I beg your pardon if I have said anything wrong.”

A mean little smile twitched the thin black moustache. “But you are correct, of course. Much as we will regret having the so-efficient Señor Echeverria absent from his post, he is the logical man for this task. We will issue the orders immediately…”

It was snowing in Chicago. I didn’t get there until well after dark the following day, a little surprised to find myself back in winter again. You tend to think that the weather you’ve got, wherever you are, is a worldwide phenomenon. As we drove away from O’Hare I sat in the passenger seat beside the man who’d come to meet me, shivering with my thin, tropical blood in my thin tropical clothes until the heater got the situation under some kind of control.

Already, I found, after a day of fighting airline schedules to which the airlines didn’t seem to pay much attention, Costa Verde seemed a long way off; and so did the people I’d known there. This had its advantages in certain instances, such as the case of Frances Dillman.

We’d said our polite good-byes that morning in the hotel lobby with Dr. Archibald Dillman standing by looking very bored by his handsome wife’s dull tour companion, me; so that I knew she was still keeping our guilty secret. Now I was careful not to bring her too clearly to mind, because I knew pain was there waiting to be exposed and awakened. To hell with it, I told myself firmly; you can’t have all the girls in the world, and what would you do with them if you did get them?

I allowed myself to think, instead, of the Señor Honorable Director Enrique Echeverria. When I’d seen him waiting for me at the airport with an SSN escort, I’d thought something must, have slipped badly and it was my turn for La Fortaleza, which was, of course, exactly what I was supposed to think.

“Señor Helm?” There were two of them, obviously SSN thugs, obviously armed, obviously hoping for some kind of resistance. The taller one spoke. “Señor Echeverria sends his compliments and wonders if you would spare him a moment of your time, señor. This way,
por favor
.”

Down there, I’m sure, when they lead you up to the scaffold, they say they’re very sorry to inconvenience the gracious señor, but if he would be so kind as to incline his head slightly to facilitate the placement of the noose, his cooperation would be greatly appreciated. I was marched over to where Enrique Rojo was waiting. He regarded me coldly for a long moment, letting me sweat, knowing exactly what I was thinking because so many others had thought it before me when confronted by the red-bearded director of the infamous
Servicio Seguridad National.
Then he smiled thinly.

“I am instructed by His Excellency, President Armando Rael, to give you His Excellency’s best wishes for a pleasant journey, and to tell you that His Excellency hopes you will again honor our country with your presence in the near future.”

I bowed. “Please inform His Excellency that his gracious words are greatly appreciated.”

Echeverria said, unsmiling. “That is my president’s message, Señor Helm. Now hear mine: Please do not take that return invitation too seriously. If you are as intelligent as I think, you will give Costa Verde a wide berth in the future.”

I regarded him for a moment. He was really a very good-looking chap, in his sinister way. I remembered Ricardo Jimenez’s brutally crippled body confined to the wheelchair; but that was not really my concern and I put the memory away. There was no need to let this man know what I felt about him beyond what he doubtless guessed already.

“The warning is noted, Honorable Director,” I said.

A flicker of something that might have been uneasiness showed in his brown eyes for a moment. I knew that he was receiving certain messages about me despite my poker face—and poker mind—and that they were telling him that it was not wise for him to let me leave this country alive. But he had definite instructions, and his president was already displeased with him; he could not take the risk of incurring further displeasure.

He said, “Very well. You may go.”

Then I was on board the plane; and shortly the roaring jets were shoving us up into the blue tropical sky. For once, smoggy, snowy Chicago looked very good to me when I finally arrived there. It was great to hear people talking crude
Ingles
for a change instead of flowery
español.
Even the black, glistening streets along which we drove looked attractive and friendly, now that I was safely out of the Costa Verde trap. The snow was melting where it hit the pavement, but it left a sugary frosting on the parked cars that glittered under the street lights.

I looked at the man behind the wheel, who’d been in charge of our local arrangements ever since Eleanor Brand’s kidnaping and death had caused Mac to throw an abnormally large task group, for us, into the Chicago area. My driver was thin and wiry, with a lined farmer’s face and very pale blue eyes. I knew him only as Jackson. I wondered idly, as you always do, where Mac had got this one and what kind of training he’d had. It couldn’t have been my kind of training or he wouldn’t be running surveillance errands—well, not unless he’d hit, or been hit by, something very bad in the line of duty, bad enough to disqualify him from the heavy work of the agency.

“Thawed out?” he asked, sensing from my glance that I was not ready for conversation. “There’s a flask in the glove compartment, if a little antifreeze… No? All right. We’ve put you in the Allmand Hotel. It’s about a twenty-minute drive from Lake Park, less at the time of night you’ll probably be heading out that way. We retrieved your suitcase—your other suitcase, the one you brought with you from Europe—from the Brand apartment right after you left town, so you won’t have to go shopping for warm clothes. It should be in your room by this time. You’ve got a car in the hotel garage, a little Datsun. All you have to do is call and they’ll bring it up front for you.”

“Any word yet from our super-Aryan friend?”

“Yes. The word. Bultman goes in at oh two hundred in the morning, day after tomorrow.”

I grimaced. “The Kraut moves fast, once he gets going, damn him. He’s not leaving me much time. Weather report?”

“Clearing. Winds ten to fifteen southwest tomorrow, easing toward nightfall. Calm tomorrow night.”

I grimaced. “Well, they’ve got to be right some time. Let’s hope this is the time.”

“Instructions?”

“Get everybody to hell out of Lake Park; tell them to take their cigarette butts and bobby pins with them. Make sure there’s no sign of us out there. It’s Bultman’s baby now. We don’t want to be involved in what happens next, in any way… Well, just one way, but I’ll take care of that.”

“Yes, we managed to get you a spot up in the new Park Towers, but it wasn’t easy. Fortunately somebody knew somebody who knew somebody who was willing to take a little trip, for a consideration, and keep his mouth shut.”

“How safe?” I asked.

Jackson shrugged. “Only one way is really safe.”

I shook my head. “It’s not that important; leave the poor guy alone. If he’s got any brains at all, he’ll keep his mouth shut when he figures out how his apartment was used, if he ever does. It may not ever come out, if we’re lucky.”