Gollowitz stiffened.
'Take care of Ferrari ? What do you mean ?'
Maurer showed his teeth in a grin that made him look like a wolf.
'Wait and see, Abe.'
They sat looking at each other for several long minutes, then the door opened and Ferrari came in. He walked silently across the room, climbed into an armchair, wriggled back until he was comfortable and looked at Maurer with alert bright eyes.
'About this girl,' Maurer said. 'It's got me beat. Abe says you can handle it. Can you?'
Ferrari lifted his eyebrows.
'Of course. It's my job to handle it.'
Maurer's eyes snapped, but his face remained impassive.
'I'll pay ten grand.'
Ferrari shook his head.
'Twenty. If it was worth only ten grand you'd be able to do it yourself.'
Maurer shrugged.
'Okay, I don't haggle. Twenty, then. What makes you so sure you can handle it?'
'I've never failed, and I don't intend to fail now,' Ferrari said. 'You look for difficulties, I look for solutions.'
'It's got to look like an accident.'
Ferrari nodded.
'It will be an accident.'
Maurer's face turned a purple red.
'You don't even know where she is! You don't know a thing about the set-up. How the hell can you talk like this?'
Ferrari gave him a sneering little smile.
'She's at the Ocean Hotel, Barwood. She's on the top floor, facing the sea. There are twenty guards; five of them in the grounds, five guarding the top floor, five in the three rooms below her windows, and five off duty. No one can enter the hotel without a security check. No one is allowed near the top floor. The elevators only travel to the ninth floor. Three police women remain with her day and night and never let her out of their sight. When she takes a bath the door is left open and one of the police women sits just outside. She isn't allowed to leave her room. There is no means of climbing up to her window as the windows below are guarded. The roof is perpendicular, and the only skylight to it is guarded day and night. What makes you think I don't know the set- up?'
Maurer felt a cold chill run down his back. He stared at Ferrari as if he had been suddenly transformed into a snake.
'You're lying! How the hell do you know all this? I've had the place watched for days and I haven't even found her room!'
Ferrari smiled.
'But then you are an amateur, and I am a professional.'
Maurer swallowed this insult as he felt it was justified.
'But how do you know?'
'I've been up to the tenth floor. I've listened end I've watched. I've even seen her.'
Maurer gaped at him.
'You've been up there! How did you get there?'
'That's my secret,' Ferrari returned.
There was a long pause, then Maurer said, 'Well, okay, then tell me how she's to the accidentally.'
Ferrari crossed one short leg over the other. He yawned, stretched, then folded his hands in his lap.
'It's an interesting problem, not impossible, but difficult. I believe I am the only man in the world who can do it.'
'You really can do it?'
'I stake my reputation on it. If I fail, you don't pay me a dime. That's fair enough, isn't it? But you'll pay me. I don't intend to fail.'
'But how will it be done?'
'That you must leave to me. I never discuss my plans. There are two things I need. I haven't the time to bother with them myself. Maybe you can take care of them for me?'
'What things?'
'I'll need an aircraft and a stunt flyer.'
Maurer's eyes bulged.
