The Scorpia Menace (10 page)

"Certainly not," she said. "I didn't doubt you for a minute. Besides, I've seen your truck outside. But one can't be too careful these days."

"Too true, Ma'm," the big man said.

He paused by the door.

"And thanks again."

The sunlight shone on his blond hair and for the first time, Mrs. Palmer became aware of a faint scar on the side of his face, which seemed to affect the lid of one eye.

Then he was gone and the door had closed behind him. Mrs. Palmer sighed as she looked at the hall clock. It would be too late to do her shopping now.

She cleared up the coffee things and went back to the

drawing-room and the contented creativity of her flower-arranging.

Otto Koch's face looked impassive as someone knocked on the door of his private quarters.

"Who is it?" he asked.

His hand went as quickly as a snake to a drawer in the table at his elbow. He put the big Luger revolver down on the cushions of the couch at his side, where he could get at it in a second.

"Cringle," said the soft voice.

Koch grunted. He got up ponderously and crossed to the door with light steps. Once again, there was a marked contrast between his bulk and the lightness of his movements. He unlocked the door. Cringle stepped inside. He wore a raincoat over his clothing. On his head gleamed a peaked cap. He whipped it off with a grin and hurled it triumphantly across the room. It hit the couch and fell with a thump to the floor.

"I hope you didn't bungle it this time," said Otto softly.

Cringle smiled.

"It went like a dream, Chief," he said. He took off the raincoat disclosing blue coveralls, the knees of which were covered with dust. He brushed them absently as he went to put a metal toolbox down on the carpet.

Otto's grey eyes looked skeptical.

"You're sure this will work?" he asked. "Your wiring expertise hasn't gotten as rusty as your Morse?"

Cringle bared his teeth in a hard smile.

"You'll soon see, Otto," he said.

"Let's hope so, Cringle, let's hope so," Otto said.

He went to sit down on the couch again and picked up a crossword puzzle book he'd been working on when the other knocked. The thick ash from his cigar fell unnoticed onto his shirt.

"No one recognized you?"

He frowned at the puzzle.

"Two across, dumb pelican's lament," he said. "Back- breakingly difficult. I'd better leave that."

He shot a glance over the top of the newspaper at his subordinate.

"You took a chance going there after Diana Palmer had already seen you. I assume she wasn't there?"

"Certainly not, Chief," said Cringle in an aggrieved voice. He went to a hard-backed chair and sat down, taking a pack of cigarettes from the pocket of his coveralls.

"I checked it out first. Only Mrs. Palmer was home. She didn't suspect anything."

"Well, we shall soon find out," said Otto imperturbably. "When I've finished this puzzle, we'll go upstairs and turn the receiver on."

He smiled blandly at Cringle.

"If it fails to work, I shall personally punish you."

His eyelids went up and the full power of his gaze was directed toward the man with the scar.

"And you know what that means?"

Cringle shifted uneasily on the chair.

"Don't worry, Otto," he said. "I checked and double- checked. It will work."

"It better," Otto said. He went back to his crossword puzzle while Cringle smoked silently on.

Presently Koch threw the paper down with a curse.

"We'll be here all night," he said. "Let's see how good you are."

He led the way up to the attic. In the boarded room he sat down comfortably in his customary chair by the couch and waited for the blond man to complete his preparations. Cringle went to the bench and shifted his chair farther along, away from the Morse key.

He flipped a row of switches on the front of a grey-painted metal bank of receivers. He turned a dial, frowning in the dim light of the overhead lamps, his face a mask of concentration. A low hissing noise began to come out of the grill of the large loudspeaker on top of the bank of equipment

He turned to Koch with satisfaction.

"It's alive," he said. "I put a miniature microphone in every room of the house."

He grinned.

"Including the bathrooms."

Otto said nothing. He did not share Cringle's distorted sense of humor.

"I hear nothing," he said mildly.

Cringle smiled again.

"That's because I'm tuned into an empty bedroom," he said. "I wanted to make sure I was up to strength first."

He flipped another switch and the speaker went dead. Koch frowned. He opened his mouth as if to say something, then appeared to change his mind.

Cringle turned on another microphone. Mixed with the static, Koch could hear the faint rumble of traffic, the barking of a dog; somewhere feet were rat-tatting across a parquet floor.

"I got this one in the hall," said Cringle. "What did I tell you. A first-class job."

Koch grunted.

"What do you want, the Congressional Medal of Honor?" he demanded. "This is what I pay you for."

He sucked in his breath.

"For the money you get, Center expects first-class work."

He moved his chair nearer the speaker.

"What's happening?"

"Nothing right now," Cringle replied. "We won't hear anything until someone comes home. Diana Palmer's mother's alone in the house until early evening."

Koch glanced at his watch.

"It's nearly five-thirty," he said.

"If we don't get anything positive tonight, we'd better take turns listening in. It could take days."

Cringle suddenly sucked in his breath. He had heard a change in the sounds being monitored on the speaker. He fiddled with the dials, bringing up the volume. A loud hissing noise filled the loft. Then there came a loud bang that almost made Koch jump. Cringle hastily turned the volume control down. Koch realized the explosion had been the closing of a door.

A voice both men recognized boomed through the room.

"Hello, Mama. Have a busy day?"

Cringle turned to Koch in triumph. He lowered the volume a little more to get rid of the distortion.

"That's Diana Palmer's voice," he said. "We hit the jackpot."

He fell silent as Koch's imperious forefinger quelled him. The speaker was full of sound again.

"Yes, a man from the phone company was here, the up- 70

holsterer called. There've been nothing but interruptions all afternoon. I didn't even get a chance to go shopping."

"Never mind," said Diana's voice. "I'll go out for you in the morning if you want me to."

Koch listened for an hour. It was an hour of small talk. He finally stood up.

"I'm going to get something to eat," he said. "I'll bring you some coffee."

Cringle nodded. He was evidently pleased with his toy.

"I'll make a note if anything important happens," he said.

He flipped a row of switches and inclined his head toward the hissing speaker as the other man went out. The door slammed heavily behind him.

Koch came back in half an hour with coffee and sandwiches. Cringle held up his hand for silence. He was scribbling rapidly on a pad. Diana Palmer's voice was coming through on the speaker.

"I've got more research to do tonight."

"Diana, I do wish you'd forget that Scorpia nonsense," said her mother.

"But Mama, I don't think it's nonsense," Diana replied.

"That's just it," said Mrs. Palmer's voice. "I don't like it at all. You've been warned. It may be dangerous to go on."

"But don't you see, Mother, that is just why I must go on," the girl replied. "There must be something in it. Otherwise, why would anyone want to stop my investigations?"

"Uncle David thinks it's a crank," Mrs. Palmer went on.

"In that case, it won't do any harm to complete my thesis," Diana said.

Otto's cigar burned steadily in his mouth as he fixed his grey eyes on the ceiling. He sat impassively, as though the conversation meant no more than a casual radio program he'd happened to tune into. The noise of the door slamming came through the loudspeaker. Cringle took the opportunity of the lull to pass his notes over to Koch. Otto studied them without saying anything.

David Palmer's voice was coming through the speaker now.

"You're still on that, Lily, are you?"

There was a brief silence, then his voice continued.

"The more I think about that Scorpia business, the more it baffles me."

"Me too, David," said Mrs. Palmer. "But it's frightening as well. I wish she wouldn't go on with this."

"You know Diana," said David Palmer.

"You're both the same, but you realize I've made up my mind," Diana went on.

"Maybe I'm on a wild-goose chase, but I intend to find out what Scorpia really is, Uncle Dave."

"Well, my dear, I'll back you in everything you want to do," said David Palmer. "But I think that it's simply an isolated crank trying to grab a little of your limelight."

"I'm not saying you're wrong, Uncle Dave," the girl answered. "But I've got to go on until I find the answer, or until I've proved that the entire business is nonsense."

"Well, there's obviously no more to be said," came Lily Palmer's voice.

"I think we've had enough of Scorpia for one evening. We'd better go into dinner, Diana, if you want to go down to the library later."

"I promise I won't talk any more about it—tonight," said Diana mischievously.

There was a burst of laughter on the speaker and then the faint sound of a door slamming.

Cringle turned off the switch and silence descended again.

"Well, that's it," he said to the silent walls. "She's obviously determined to go on with it. The girl's a nut."

Koch turned his strange grey eyes on his subordinate with that penetrating gaze that filled Cringle with such foreboding.

"Here, I strongly disagree with you, Cringle," Otto said. "This girl has courage, tenacity, resilience, many qualities you lack. Above all, she is highly educated and intelligent. The two do not necessarily go together. That is what makes her dangerous."

He bent over the message pad Cringle had given him and read the contents through once more.

A brief smile flickered across his plump face.

"So the Baron thinks the situation deserves only an Amber, does he?"

He looked sharply at Cringle, who brought his chair up opposite the Morse key.

"Prepare another transmission to Center." He smiled again as he bent over a signal pad, composing his message.

"And make it Red Alert!"

10

THE BARON MAKES A DECISION

Castle Toeplitz frowned above an azure sea. Baron Sojin stood staring intently out the great curved window until Colonel Crang began to feel that he had forgotten his presence. His silence was so profound that the ruler of Scorpia seemed oblivious to time and place..It was only when the Colonel coughed discreedy that he turned and came back to his desk.