Max backed away. “I can’t give you the Plan,” he said. “If I did, you’d rush out that door with it, and I’d never see it again.”
Noman smiled craftily. “Suppose I promised not to rush out the door with it?”
Max considered. “That throws a different light on the situation,” he said. “But how do I know I can trust you?”
“How do I know I can trust you?” Noman replied. “I’m taking as big a chance as you are. But I’m willing. I guess it’s a matter of basic character-you either trust people or you don’t.”
“You put me to shame,” Max said. “I’m sorry I doubted you.”
“Then it’s a deal?”
“Right. I’ll hand over the Plan. And you’ll promise not to rush out the door with it.”
“Shake,” Noman said.
They shook hands, then Max reached into his pocket and pulled out the Plan and handed it over to Noman. “A promise is a promise,” he reminded him.
Noman grinned evilly, taking the Plan. “Right,” he said. “But I didn’t promise not to jump out the window!”
Max looked disappointed. “Once a KAOS agent, always a KAOS agent,” he said.
Holding the gun on Max, Noman moved around to the window. With his back to it, he opened it.
“So long, sucker!” he laughed derisively.
“Happy landing,” Max said.
Noman threw himself backward through the opening and disappeared.
A second later a face appeared-the face of Agent 44.
“Good work, 44,” Max said. “You snatched the Plan from him as he hurtled past, of course.”
“The Plan and something else,” 44 said, handing in two sheets of paper.
“My list!” Peaches cried happily, leaping up.
Max accepted the two sheets of paper from 44 and handed one of them to Peaches.
“This isn’t my list!” she said angrily, throwing the sheet of paper to the floor.
“Here!” Max said, giving her the other sheet of paper. “That one is the Plan,” he said, picking it up.
“How could you mistake my lovely list for your horrid old Plan!” Peaches exclaimed, hugging her list to her bosom. “They should have named you Max Dumb.”
Max turned back to Agent 44. “Thanks again,” he said. “I’ll see you around.”
Agent 44 disappeared.
Max faced back to Peaches. “Did you notice how I maneuvered Noman into using the window-where I knew 44 would be waiting?” he said. “What was so dumb about that?”
“He’s just dumber than you are,” Peaches grumbled. “He should have been named Nobody.”
“Well, he’s Nowhere now.”
“Want to bet?” Peaches said. “I’ll bet he’s back on the train right now. And I’ll bet he’ll be back here with his gun before you can say ‘Jack Robinson.’ ”
“Jack Robinson!” Max snapped. He looked around. “Ha! He’s not here. You lose.”
“I’ll still bet he’s back on the train.”
“That bet I won’t take,” Max said. “And, just to make sure he won’t find us here when he comes back, I think we’d better go to the lounge car. If we surround ourselves with loungers, he won’t dare try anything.”
Peaches leaped up again, excited. “Isn’t that where the romantic strangers are?”
“There may be one or two,” Max replied. “However, I think you’ll probably find more stationery salesmen than romantic strangers.”
“I’ll chance it,” Peaches said. “Let’s go.”
Peaches led the way this time, and Max had to trot to keep up with her. When they reached the lounge, where a number of passengers were seated in lounge chairs, Peaches rushed forward and addressed the first man she came to.
“Are you a stationery salesman?” she asked.
“No, I’m a traveling salesman,” he replied. “I move around quite a bit.”
“I don’t mean stationary like standing still,” she said, “I mean stationery like writing letters.”
“I write home-to the wife and kiddies,” the man replied.
“Then you’re not a romantic stranger,” Peaches said disappointedly.
At that moment, Max caught up with her. “Try that fellow down there,” he said, pointing.
“Where?”
“At the other end of the car,” Max said. “That pleasingly plump fellow who looks like a typical romantic stranger.”
“Oh, him! Yes, he does look typical,” Peaches said.
She rushed off, headed for the far end of the car, and Max tagged after her.
When she reached the man, Peaches dropped into the vacant seat next to him. The man was reading a newspaper. But Peaches dug him in the ribs with an elbow, then, when he looked up, she fluttered her eyelashes at him.
“Hello, there!” the man beamed.
“I don’t speak to strangers,” Peaches replied.
“Oh. I thought that dig in the ribs was an introduction.”
“That was a slip of the elbow-purely unintentional,” Peaches said. “But, if you want to introduce yourself, then we’d be introduced.”
The romantic stranger smiled romantically. “You can just call me The Romantic Stranger,” he said. “Or, TRS, for short.”
At that moment, Max arrived. “Excuse me,” he said to the man. “May I sit on the other side of you? You see, I’m sort of responsible for this young lady.”
“Welcome, welcome,” TRS said.
But Peaches wasn’t exactly pleased. “Max, why don’t you go up to the engine?” she asked. “The engineer may need your help to get the train to New York. He may not know the way.”
“What could I tell him? Except, ‘Follow the tracks.’ ”
“You could run ahead and show him the way,” Peaches said.
Max sat down in the empty seat. “No, I think I’ll just stay here and see what I can do about this code.”
“You have a code?” TRS said. “I suggest that you take a couple aspirins, drink lots of water, and get lots of rest.”
“Code,” Max replied. “Not cold.”
“Oh-code.” TRS seemed interested. “Like secret code?”
“I can’t answer that,” Max replied. “It’s top secret.”
“Just keep it that way,” Peaches said to Max. “We don’t want to hear anything more about it.” She smiled at TRS. “I suppose you have a lot of outrageous lies you’d like to tell me,” she said.
“You mean, things like, ‘You’re gorgeous, you’re beautiful, and we were meant for each other’?”
“No, lies,” she replied. “Things like-”
“The Three Bears have stuffed Goldilocks into a Trojan horse,” Max mused.
“That sounds like a lie to me, all right,” TRS said.
“Max, will you keep out of our conversation!” Peaches complained.
“I didn’t know I was in it,” Max said. “I was simply working on the code.”
“Perhaps I could help you,” TRS said.
“You’re with me!” Peaches snapped at him. “Now, tell me some outrageous lies or I’ll-”
“Blow up the world with three bombs planted in a watch,” Max said.
TRS turned to Peaches. “You’d do that?”
“He said that-I didn’t.”
TRS faced back to Max. “You’d do that?”
“Not me,” Max said. “But somebody would.” He showed the Plan to TRS. “See this? This is a Dooms Day Plan. But it’s in code. We won’t know exactly what it means until we break the code.”
TRS started to reach for the Plan. But Peaches reached first and pushed it away. “You don’t want to look at
