“Max, I’m not sure-”
“Halt!” Arbuthnot commanded. He pointed to the door of the vault, which was closed. “There you are. . that’s for you,” he said to Max.
“Sorry,” Max replied. “According to my wife, we cannot be bribed.” He stepped a few paces closer to Arbuthnot and lowered his voice. “However-”
“Bribed?” Arbuthnot said. “I have no intention of trying to bribe you. And-” He stepped back, looking bothered, “-don’t get so close! I don’t want your germs. I could get your Control germs and pass them on to other KAOS agents and start another epidemic as terrible as the bubonic plague.” He issued an order to the KAOS agent with the spray bottle. “Get him!” he said, indicating Max.
The KAOS agent stepped forward and sprayed Max thoroughly.
“That was very exhilerating,” Max said, waving away the mist of disinfectant. “But it didn’t help your cause any,” he said to Arbuthnot. “Before, you had a teensy-weensy chance of bribing me. You lost that chance, however, with that crack about Control and the bubonic plague.”
“What gave you the idea I would try to bribe you?” Arbuthnot asked.
“That’s a vault, isn’t it?” Max said, pointing. “And it’s a vault in a bank, isn’t it? I just put two and two together, that’s all. I have a very logical mind.”
“Well. . you’re right-it is a vault, and it is in a bank,” Arbuthnot said. “But I wasn’t thinking about bribery. I had in mind a gift.”
Max brightened. “ A gift?”
“I think we owe you something,” Arbuthnot said. “You’ve been quite entertaining. And cheap.”
Max frowned. “I don’t think I quite understand that.”
“There’s an old saying,” Arbuthnot said. “It goes: All work and no play makes a KAOS assassin a little edgy before he has his morning coffee. That could have happened here. After all, this was a working meeting. And there are no night clubs and no movie houses in this ghost town. And all you can get on television are ghosts. So, we all could have become quite nudgy.”
“Yes, I can see-”
“Thanks to you, however, we’re all in good spirits,” Arbuthnot said. He smiled. “See? I smiled. That proves that we’re in good spirits.” He turned to the other assassins. “Smile!” he ordered.
They smiled.
“Thanks to you-as you can see-we are all smiling,” Arbuthnot said, facing Max again.
“I can see that,” Max nodded, looking perplexed. “But how did I manage it?”
“You entertained us,” Arbuthnot replied. “Your stupid, bumbling, idiotic attempts to overcome us were hilarious. We laughed our heads off.” He turned to the other assassins again. “Show him how we laughed our heads off,” he commanded.
The assassins doubled over with uncontrollable laughter.
“Cut!” Arbuthnot ordered.
The laughter immediately ceased.
“You see how we laughed our heads off,” Arbuthnot said to Max. “You’ve been just what we needed to get our minds off our work after a long session of concentrated study. You’re a great clown, Smart-the perfect fool.”
“Perfect, yes,” Max replied, mildly hurt. “Fool, no. This case isn’t exactly closed yet, Arbuthnot. Before it’s over, you may lose your heads from something besides laughing.”
“Oh? You don’t want the gift, then?”
“Well. .” Max looked toward the vault. “We all like to be appreciated, even if it’s for the wrong reason.”
“Good, good,” Arbuthnot smiled. “And I suppose you will want to share the gift with your fellow agent-your partner and wife.”
“Yes,” Max answered. “I think I ought to correct you on one point, however,” he said. “She is my partner and wife. But she is not my fellow agent. I’d look pretty silly married to a fellow, wouldn’t I?”
“Of course,” Arbuthnot replied. “On the other hand, though, you look silly married to a woman, too. Who you are married to has nothing to do with it, however. The problem arises because of the fact that, married or single, you are silly-looking.”
“Could we skip the rest of the build-up and get on to the gift-giving,” Max said.
“Of course,” Arbuthnot replied. “Mr. and Mrs. Smart. . Agents 86 and 99. . it is my pleasure to present to you this bank vault. It will be your new home. And you will live in it as long as you live.”
“Oh, Max!” 99 cried. “He’s going to lock us in the vault!”
“Now, don’t panic, 99. He didn’t say that. Not exactly.” Max turned to Arbuthnot. “Could you kind of. . What I mean is, I don’t-”
“I’m going to lock you in the vault,” Arbuthnot explained.
“I was afraid of that. And you call that a gift? What kind of a gift is that?”
“A gift assassination,” Arbuthnot replied. “It’s what we do best.”
“Oh.” Max smiled thinly. “Oh. . well, I suppose. . yes, I can see the thought behind it. . In a way, I guess, it’s kind of sweet. . in a sort of diabolical sort of way. . I wonder if it would do any good to yell HELP in this ghost town, way out here miles from civilization?”
“The cry wouldn’t even get past the door of the vault,” Arbuthnot informed him.
“Then we won’t waste time on that,” Max said. “We can go directly to the last resort-a screaming, kicking tantrum.”
“That won’t do any good, either,” Arbuthnot told him. “That vault was built to withstand any force-dynamite, earthquakes, or the steady erosion of cellular structure caused by vibration.” He motioned to Max and 99 with the gun. “Inside the vault, please.”
A KAOS assassin opened the door of the vault, then Max and 99 entered. With only two of them inside, the vault was fairly roomy.
“Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do,” Arbuthnot chuckled.
“Just a min-”
But Arbuthnot refused to listen. He signalled and a KAOS assassin slammed the door shut.
The interior of the vault was totally dark.
“Oh, Max!” 99 wailed. “What are we going to do?”
“I don’t know, 99,” Max said disgustedly. “That’s what I wanted to talk to Arbuthnot about. He told us not to do anything he wouldn’t do. But I’m not sure what that includes. If we’d only got to know him better, so that we could have noted some of his idiosyncrasies and crotchets. Then, with a better knowledge of his personality, we’d be able to make a more educated guess as to what he would do and wouldn’t do.”
“Max,” 99 said, “I have the feeling that we got well enough acquainted with Arbuthnot to know that the only thing he
“That gives us a pret-ty wide leeway, 99. Because I got a glimpse of the interior of this vault before that KAOS assassin closed the door, and, although it’s well equipped with empty shelves, the one thing it doesn’t have is a bed. Keeping that in mind, I think we can use any means of escape we can work out without running the risk of offending our host.”
“Max! Why should we worry about offending Arbuthnot?”
“99, after all, this vault
“But, Max, for heaven’s-”
99 and Max were suddenly shoved against opposite walls of the vault.
“Max-what happened!” 99 cried.
“I can only guess, 99,” Max replied. “What I do know, though, is that there is a large hairy body between us. And it has. . let me see. . two rather long ears. . and one, two, three, four legs. . and a tail that-”
“Hee-haw!”
“Sorry about that,” Max apologized. To 99, he said, “I think it’s a mule. In this darkness, I can’t be positive, of course, but indications are that Madame DuBarry has reappeared-and just when we didn’t need her most.”
“Max. . I can hardly move. .”
“Madame,” Max said to the mule, “you could be a lot more help if you went back to the saloon and continued to look for that secret panel that leads to the secret passageway to the wine cellar. If we don’t find that Coolidge-
