Delta Factor, The Page 17

  This time I had to take the chance that they were too busy to monitor my phone. I dialed Lisa’s room, heard it ring twice before it was picked up and a listless voice answered with a hello. I said, “Morg, kitten. Come on home,” then hung up.

  I looked at my watch again and the hands seemed to be double-timing around the dial. Somehow, Kim had made her own way to Lisa’s room unobserved and somehow she’d make it back. However she pulled the guard off balance was her own affair, but I couldn’t afford the waste of even a minute.

  Once more I had to hope Lady Luck was riding my horse. I picked up the phone and dialed Room 203. After it rang a half-dozen times a pleasant voice answered with “Si?”

  “Luis Rondo?” I asked in English.

  “Yes,” he answered, “this is he.”

  “My name is Winters, Mr. Rondo. Your services have been recommended to me by a friend.”

  “Ah, yes,” he said noncommittally.

  “I want to indulge myself in a hobby,” I told him. “That of flying.”

  For a moment there was silence and I knew he was weighing the situation and balancing it out. “Since you are in the import business I was wondering if you could order me a plane.”

  “Yes, that is possible. Have you anything specific in mind?”

  “Oh, something fast. One that could hold five or six people.”

  “I see.”

  “How quickly could it be delivered?”

  “That depends on how quickly you want it.”

  I laughed, faking a joke. “Like right away. Once I want something I get impatient until it’s in my hands.”

  He played the game with me. “Of course, I understand. With such a customer I wish I could deliver it before the sun rose. However ...”

  “Do the best you can, okay?”

  “By all means, sir. In fact, I have a party in Miami with a Queenaire for sale. At the earliest opportunity I will contact him for you, Mr. Winters. I appreciate your call. Will I be able to reach you at your room?”

  “I’ll be here.”

  “Well, I will do what I can.”

  I hung up and went to the window overlooking the street. Most of the windows on street level were boarded over and only stray lines of light seeped out onto the side-walks. The clusters of people below were still milling about, not certain where to go. Since the danger wasn’t immediate yet there was a mock carnival atmosphere about the scene. The breeze had turned cool finally, a welcome relief, and they were enjoying it while they could, the sounds of guitar music and singing coming up through the happy confusion.

  Joey sidled up next to me, his face drawn. “What do we do now?”

  “Wait,” I told him, then grabbed the phone again and asked for Angelo. When he came on I told him to bring me a pot of coffee with a couple of sandwiches.

  Ten minutes later I let him in and while he was unloading his tray said, “I need two kilo-size cardboard containers filled with confectioners’ sugar. Wrap them in plastic and seal them with tape. Can do?”

  Angelo nodded. “Yes, we have such in the kitchen.”

  “Outside in the lot is a new Volvo. There’s a dent in the front-right fender so you can’t miss it. Stick them under the front seat.”

  He frowned, but didn’t question my motives.

  “Did you get through to Jose?”

  “Sí. He was reached by radio. Your boat is still waiting, but there is little time remaining.”

  “Stay in touch with him. I’ll call you when I can to see how we’re going to handle this.”

  “Please be careful, señor.”

  I let him out, closed the door and glanced at my watch again. It was twelve twenty. Overhead I heard the throb of heavy engines that grew into a roar as the plane passed almost directly over the hotel before turning to the northwest. I said, “Luck, Lisa,” and made myself a drink, then sat down to wait some more.

  11

  KIM GOT BACK at twelve thirty, using her key and slipping through the door to close it silently behind her. She gave me the okay sign with thumb and forefinger, listened to see if there was anyone behind her in the hall, then with a sigh of relief went over and made herself a quick drink.

  “Give it to me,” I told her.

  “She got off the way you planned it. Russo Sabin called just before I left the room, so he doesn’t know about it yet.” She smiled at me like a conspirator. “But he will soon.”

  “Why?”

  “He’s been calling every fifteen minutes to check on her.

  “Now the stuff really hits the fan,” I said. “He’ll turn this hotel inside out. There aren’t any more flights out so he’ll think she’s in the area and will spread his men out to find her.

  “Morgan ...”

  “What?”

  “Supposing he holds you on suspicion?”

  Before I could answer her the phone rang. I picked it up and said, “Hello.” The voice on the other end was Luis Rondo and he said in a businesslike manner, “Mr. Winters, I believe I can fill your order according to your specifications.”

  “Confirmed?”

  “Yes, quite. Delivery will be made at the time you sug gested, north end. The owner wishes to make a quick turnover, so there won’t be much time to bargain.”

  “I understand. Thanks for your attention.”

  “Certainly, señor.”

  When I put the phone back Kim asked softly, “Who was that?”

  My voice was almost drowned out in the blaring of the radio. “Rondo. He made a contact with Miami. Your agency’s sending a plane out to pick us up at the north end of the airfield at dawn.” I glanced at my watch. “Now we can move.” Over her shoulder I saw Joey Jolley, out of earshot, making himself another drink. “Whitey Tass came in on that last plane out of Miami. Don’t let Joey know about it or he’s liable to panic. You’re to stay with him all the way. Just keep Joey out of sight until I get back.”

  Those big dark eyes roamed my face before they dug into my own. “And if you don’t?”

  “You two get on that plane and cut out. It means I won’t be coming back.”

  “My orders ...”

  “Screw your orders, doll. I’m making command decisions at this point. I’ll tell you this much: I can get into the Rose Castle and I may be able to get out. If I don’t it’s because I’m dead. But if I go you won’t have to worry about Victor Sable anymore because he’ll take the big fall with me.”

  “You’ll kill him?”

  “I won’t have to. They’ll do it for me. They couldn’t afford to have either of us alive after this. At least we know he’s alive at this point so that much of the mission is accomplished. Either way your report will be positive.”

  Her hand touched my arm and something changed in her voice. “Morgan ... what are the chances?”

  I looked down into the depths of her eyes. Seriously, I said, “You either survive or you don’t, sugar. At least I’m a positive thinker. Let’s leave it at that.”

  “You will be ... careful?”

  “Since when do you care?”

  She stiffened as if I had slapped her, the cold professional attitude wiping out any trace of feminine concern, and that was the way I wanted it. It was a cold, nasty business and you had to keep it that way to keep alive.

  All she said was, “I care about the success of the project.”

  “Then make sure somebody turns in the report.”

  “I will.”

  “Good. Now get into your traveling clothes and don’t carry anything more than you can put in your handbag. The guard outside is stationed at the end of the corridor. I’m going to fake him out long enough for you two to get down the stairs to the lobby. There ough to be enough of a crowd to cover you if you play it right. Stay casual and play it straight. There’s a Volvo in the parking lot about halfway down from the entrance. Make sure nobody sees you; get in and stay in the back seat below window level. When I’m clear I’ll get you out to the airfield.” I looked over to make sure Joey couldn’t
see me and said, “Don’t let Whitey Tass spot him.”

  Kim memorized the description I gave her of Whitey and nodded. “Would he know Joey was here?”

  “No, but Joey doesn’t know he’s here either. Since they’re setting up a field hospital downstairs the hotel will probably be headquarters for any evacuees and they’ll be herding all the foreign nationals in. Don’t play Whitey down. He’s an old hand at this, with a damn big personal interest at stake. He’ll have every entrance covered somehow. You’ll just have to pick the right time and place.”

  “Very well.”

  I went over and dug the bills out from under the carpet and shoved them in my pocket. Cash always has a way of talking its own language and you never know when you need it to speak for you. I stuck the extra .45 clips along with a handful of spare cartridges in my other pocket, cautioned Joey to be as inconspicuous as possible and left.

  Taking care of the guard was a simple matter of walking past him, cutting down the west wing into the adjoining hall and knocking on the door of an empty room while he watched curiously. After standing there five minutes I shrugged, and went back to where I came from, walked to the elevator and stepped in when the door opened. They’d pick me up again downstairs, but as long as they had me in sight, that was all that mattered.

  The atmosphere in the casino had changed. Those who couldn’t leave had a resigned attitude and were more concerned with having a good time to forget their troubles than they were with gambling. The same crowd still played the tables, coolly indifferent to the horde of natives who watched them with amazement, gaping at the money changing hands in amounts bigger than they had ever seen in their lives.

  From my spot at the bar I cased the room carefully, picked out some of Russo Sabin’s men and the lean form of Major Turez. If Whitey Tass was around he had concealed himself pretty well. It could well have been that he was locked in a room somewhere, not worried about locating Joey Jolley because nobody was leaving the place, figuring to run him down in the turmoil of the storm. It was a safe bet that he would have registered with a phony passport under another name, and with all the disorder at the desk the clerk couldn’t verify a description of him.

  I didn’t see Angelo until he was beside me paging a Mr. Roberts at the bar. Between calls he hissed, “The boat has left, señor. There was nothing else for him to do.”

  “It’s okay, kid. Thanks.” I said it without moving my lips or looking at him. He kept calling for Mr. Roberts and on the way back past me again I said, “The girl?”

  “She made the flight. Be alert, señor. Director Sabin is in the hotel. He knows she is gone.” That was all he had time for. He kept up his paging into the casino area until he was buried in the crowd.

  I finished my drink slowly, waved off the refill and walked toward the crap tables. The cashier changed two hundred dollars into chips for me and I played them off a few at a time, picking my way to the end of the room. The guards had me spotted and let me pass as long as I was in sight, but before I reached the last table I saw the major wave to them, pull four out of the ranks to hurry over to the desk.

  That left only one standing by the door leading to the service bar and when I sank the stiffened tips of my fingers deep into his gut he never knew what hit him. I had him through the doors and on the floor without anyone seeing us leave and when I brought the butt end of the .45 down across his skull it was going to be a long day before he woke up again.

  I dragged him behind the bar, shoved him into the storage space there and slammed the sliding doors shut. When it was done I got up and walked through the kitchen and out into the alley behind the hotel. The dozen cooks and helpers who saw me go were too busy to bother me and didn’t think I was any of their business anyway.

  You could smell the storm now. It had a fresh, salty tang, coming in on a steady wind whose intensity had increased steadily. It still wasn’t strong enough to blow more than loose papers around, but a hurricane was a compact thing that always arrived unexpectedly no matter how much warning it gave. It would come in with the sudden, devastating fury of an explosion, create its destruction and pass on with blue skies and sunny days to bury the dead on.

  The alley led out to the far end of the parking lot in back of the parapet that encircled it. I took it at a trot, pushed my way through the matted tropical vegetation that decorated its extremity and hugged the space between the parked cars and the wall, running toward the Volvo.

  I almost didn’t make it in time.

  They were just a formless blur in the darkness at first, seeming to sway gently and merge with the wind-driven shadows from the banana trees and palms behind them. Then I saw the ivory glow of Kim’s legs as she lay sprawled on the ground face down, her skirt whipped up to her hips.

  I ran then, half tripping over unseen obstacles in the way, seeing the white ovals of two faces whose bodies were locked in a deadly struggle, and the .45 jumped into my hand. I let out a strangled yell when I saw the terror in Joey’s eyes as he was losing the fight to keep Whitey Tass’s hand from bringing his gun into line with his head. One car had jumped the short curbing into the grassy lane and I had to scramble over the hood before I reached them and I knew I wasn’t going to be able to make it. Whitey’s teeth were bared in a grimace of pure pleasure as he brought the gun around and there wasn’t one thing I could do about it except watch.

  But somebody else was watching too. I heard the sharp crack of a small-caliber weapon, saw the tiny flash of flame from the top of the parapet fifty feet away and the tableau froze into position even as I brought the .45 up and blasted two shots at the source of the gunfire. Then Whitey Tass seemed to melt slowly and collapse in a heap at Joey’s feet.

  He was too terror-ridden to talk when I reached him. I turned Kim over, saw the bruise on her forehead and the flutter of her eyes, picked her up in my arms and nudged Joey into the Volvo, tossing Kim in beside him. Somebody had started yelling at the front of the hotel and in another minute the place was going to be swarming with police.

  Whitey I didn’t have to worry about anymore. That single shot had taken him right through his ear and he died so quickly only one drop of blood marked the bullet entry. I grabbed the gun out of his hand, climbed behind the wheel of the Volvo and spun it out of the parking slot, shifted into forward even as I saw the crowd in the rear-view mirror running toward us. I cut down the ramp, turned east when I hit the street and gave the Volvo all it would take. As I made the first corner I thought I saw other cars taking up the chase, but I couldn’t be sure.

  Luckily, traffic coming into the city had all but ceased. A few stragglers still drifted along the shoulders of the road, the headlights of the car warning them of our approach. I wasn’t familiar with this section of the city at all, but in the distance I could see the revolving beacon of the airfield sweeping the sky at intermittent intervals, and headed in that direction, hoping I wasn’t going to trap myself in any dead-end streets.

  Beside me, Kim stirred, groaned softly and lifted her hand to her head. Joey’s breath was coming in gasps and when I said, “What the hell happened?” he could hardly speak for a minute.

  “I ... don’t know. It ... was Whitey Tass.”

  “Yeah, I know.”

  “Is he...?”

  “Dead,” I finished.

  Joe choked on a sob of relief. Kim came out of it then, sizing up our position quickly. She pushed herself upright, her teeth clamped against the pain. I didn’t have to ask her anything. Her words came out clipped but concise.

  “I didn’t think anybody saw us. At least the guards didn’t. We ... reached the parking lot. Some people were there ... getting out of a car ... so we hid ourselves in the bushes. My fault ... because I wasn’t watching ... all areas. Concerned about ... those people. He came up from behind and when I ... went for my gun he hit me with his.”

  Joey had composed himself enough to sound rational again. “He was going to kill me, Morgan. If he hadn’t swung on her he would have. I just gra
bbed his arm, that’s all. He was too strong. He laughed at me. He was almost ready to shoot me and he was laughing about it.”

  Kim said, “Did you kill him, Morgan?”

  “No.”

  I saw her frown, her hand coming away from her face. “Then who...”

  “The shot came from the top of the parapet. Somebody else followed you out too.”

  “Sabin’s people?” she whispered.

  I shook my head. “No.”

  The anger in her put a bite in her voice. “Who, Morgan?”

  “It’s just beginning to figure out,” I said. “That shot came from a peculiar place. Joey’s back almost obscured Whitey’s and even a wild shot had more of a chance of hitting him than Whitey.”

  “What are you getting to?”

  “That shot was a perfect, direct hit. It was meant for Whitey. The next two would have picked you off the same way if I hadn’t blasted a couple into his position.”

  “Morgan ...”

  “When I’m sure, you’ll know about it.”

  I wrenched the car around another turn, the tires screeching a wild protest. The tail end slued around in the gravel before taking hold, then I gassed it down the dirt road in front of me. In the mirror I could see the reflection of other headlights against the low-hanging scud; then they passed, missing the turnoff I had chosen. There was only a half mile to go and I knew they’d be doubling back looking for my exit route when they missed me.

  I saw the turn coming up, braked, downshifted, and threw the wheel over. I heard Kim’s half-scream as she saw it the same time I did and I had just enough control left to avoid it. Somebody had abandoned a two-wheeled wagon almost in the middle of the road and it had damned near creamed us.

  At the least it could do the job right if anybody was on our tail. I jammed my foot on the brake, backed up and hopped out. It took only a few seconds to grab the wagon by its tongue and pull it another four feet out into the road before I was back at the wheel, with the airport directly ahead.

  They had the time; I didn’t. I dropped them at the south end of the runway, and getting back to the other end would be up to them. When they got out Kim turned and leaned in the window, her lovely hair in disarray over her face, but eyes vitally alive and a mouth, lusher than ever, framing a statement.