Pentagon.” The gunman lowered the gun and took the seat on the couch that the driver had vacated, a place where he could watch both men with a minimum of effort- “Now I think we will sit silently, not saying a word. Like mice.”
“You’re a cocksucker,” Toad said.
The gunman looked at him and pursed his lips slightly.
“A genuine cocksucker. A cheap dick-sucking spook with a gun, a man who thinks everybody should faint dead away when he pulls out his weapon. Is that what they do when you whip out your dick? Is that—“
The gunman was very quick. He was moving and chopping with the pistol all in one motion.
Toad Tarkington was just as quick. He came off the chair and kicked mightily with his right leg. It caught the man in the knee and he lost his balance. Toad was erect now, the table banging from his cuffs, his leg swinging again. This kick hit the gunman in the arm. The pistol went flying.
Jake leaped from the chair, dragging it. The lamp fell over- He dragged the heavy chair toward the pistol on the floor. Toad was still kicking.
He was almost to the gun when he heard the shot and saw a chunk fly from the carpet just in front of him.
He froze. The driver came down the stairs with the gun leveled. “Get back.” He gestured threateningly at Toad, who seemed to shrink as his muscles relaxed. Tarkington exhaled convulsively, then turned slightly to find the chair he had been sitting on. At that moment the driver hit him a vicious blow in the back of the head with the gun and he fell heavily, overturning the table.
The second man helped the stocky man to the couch. He was still holding his stomach. He had blood on the comer of his mouth. Apparently one of Toad’s kicks had taken him in the face.
“Upstairs. Get back upstairs. Get me my gun first.”
The second man obeyed, then went back up the stairs.
“Sit in the chair. Captain, right where you are. Sit! One move, just one, and I’ll kill you and the lieutenant. Understand?”
Jake made the smallest of head nods. He sat.
Time passed. Minute by minute. The gunman on the couch massaged his arm and leg. Toad had really connected. Twice the man wiped the sweat from his face with his shirttail.
Toad stirred once. The table was on end beside him. He lay amid the magazines and newspapers that had gone flying when he jerked the table off the floor. Toad seemed to be breathing easily.
Jake heard the shuffling on the floor above him. and faintly the sound of a door closing. In seconds he heard someone walking above, then steps on the stair. He turned his head. Legs descend- ing.
Luis Camacho walked into the room with the driver behind him, his gun in Camacho’s back. “Hi, Harlan. Didn’t know if I was going to see you again.”
Camacho walked over to the couch and seated himself next to Albright “Jesus, what have you idiots done to my basement?”
Albright gestured at Tarkington, who was stirring again. “That fucker thought he was a hero.”
“Looks like that table has a busted leg. My wife isn’t going to be happy.”
The driver stood near the bottom of the stairs where he could watch everyone. He kept the pistol leveled at Caroacho,
“Well, Captain,” Camacho said. “You’ve had an eventful after- noon.”
“Yeah,” Jake replied. “Who are these guys?”
“Well, the man beside me goes by the name of Harlan Albright His real name is Peter Aleksandrovich Chistyakov, And this gen- tleman with the pistol at the bottom of the stairs — though I have never before had the pleasure — is, I think. Major Arkady Yakov of the Soviet Army.”
“Okay,” Albright said, “thanks for the introductions.” He rose from the couch and turned Toad’s table upright, then pulled a chair around and sat on it, facing Camacho.
“You know why I’m here. I thought since I was going to drop by, I might as well help myself to some Athena information on the way. It was very interesting. But it is you I want.”
“How droll. I wanted to talk to you too. You should have called.”
“You’re going to give me some answers, Luis. Now. If you don’t, first we’re going to kill the lieutenant. Then the captain. Then you. I want answers.”
“What will you do with them if you get them?”
Albright’s eyes widened. He took three steps across to the tele- phone at the end of the couch, picked it up and held it to his ear. He jiggled the button on the cradle, then replaced the instrument. “Upstairs, Yakov. Check the front and back.”
The major took the stairs two at a time.
In about a minute he was back. He spoke to Albright in a foreign language, one that sounded to Jake like Russian.
“This is a setup.”
Camacho shrugged. “My people saw you drive in. I thought you might be by to see me sooner or later. Didn’t know who you brought with you, though. Sorry, Captain.”
Jake nodded.
Camacho stood and shook out his trousers. ‘Tell you what, Harlan. Let’s you and I go downtown. We can talk there. No sense keeping these fellows any longer.”
Albright took his pistol from his pocket. “Sit”
When Camacho obeyed, Albright followed suit, back at the ta- ble. He rubbed his eyes. “So.” He spoke a sentence in Russian.
Camacho waved a hand irritably. “You know I can’t handle that language anymore. English or nothing.”
“You’ve been stringing me right along, haven’t you, Luis?”
Camacho’s shoulders moved a quarter inch up, then subsided.
“That name you gave me. That was bullshit, wasn’t it?”
“No. That was the name.”
“Why?”
“You have something we want. At least we think you have it You’re going to give it to me, Harlan. Hard or easy, you’re going to give it to me.”
‘Tell me what you want and maybe I’ll give it to you now.”
Camacho threw back his head and laughed. “You want to de- fect?”
Albright’s eyebrows went up. “Maybe.”
“Then shoot the major.”
“Just like that?”
“Then we’ll talk. That would be the easy way. The hard way will be more strenuous, but equally productive, I think.”
Albright glanced at the major, who was looking straight at Ca- macho. Still, Jake saw the major’s eyes flick sideways to catch Albright’s glance.
“You can’t get out of here, Harlan,” Camacho said, and stretched lazily. “The place is completely surrounded, with heli- copters and light planes overhead. Why don’t you two give me the guns and we’ll go upstairs and wave at Dreyfus. Then you and I can go downtown to the office. I’m sure the two of us can work something out.”
“I may not know the fact you want, Luis.”
“I think you do.”
“You’ve gone to an extraordinary lot of trouble for nothing if I don’t know it.”
“Life’s like that.”
“Maybe I could just give it to you here and now. If I know it.”
Camacho sat silently looking at Albright. “Three names.” he said at last.
Albright laughed, a long, loud guffaw. “All of this — for that?”.
“Yes.”
“My hat is off to you. I salute you. Never did I suspect. Not even once.” Albright shook his head and chuckled silently as he ex- amined his pistol.
Camacho sat motionless, watching Albright.
