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your own and let's get some sleep."
91
He snappd off the light, but found that the room was
still fairly bright with daylight coming through the drapes.
When she didn't move from the trd, he tugged the
towel from around his waist, it to the and
settled into his pillow.
Then she was sliding down on the tred and her hands
were working on the negligee. It and
slitted eyes he in all the delightful colors and curves
about her.
Then her face was near his. He put his arms around her
and pulled her easily against him. He orrned his eyes wide
then and watched her head tilt slowly to one side and her
lips part. Slowly her lids dropped until her eyes were
closed.
"Why, Miss Purdue, I do trlieve you want me to kiss
you."
"More than that, you bastard. I plan on staying in this
"Ihat's all I needed to hear."
Her lips were full of fire with her body close against
im, her rrrfume flooding his nostrils. She turned her face,
rubbed her cheek against his. He pressed his lips against
er throat and then her shoulder as he let his hands roam.
"You'd never know all this was there, with the clothes
you usually wear," he chuckled.
"Must you talk?" Her voice was low and raspy now.
She undulated against his exploring palms, and he
pressed his lips to her warm flesh. Her hands went behind
his head to put it gently, pressing his mouth a little more
y against her. Her fingers moved, the nails straying
easily through his hair as he moved one hand against her
ack, holding her with the Other. His hand traced the
smoothly arching curve of her spine, caressed the mound
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that was her hip and her indented waist and then her breast.
She slid against him, her cheek touching his again and
then her mouth against his, her lips moist, her tongue alive
and restless, darting and probing. Her hand closed convul-
sively against his ann, the fingers gripping tightly and then
relaxing, suddenly gripping again.
Her voice was hot in his ear, the breath washing against
his neck as she said softly, "Nick, oh, Nick, darling. This
is crazy. Darling, darling
It was too much, way too much, overdone. But Caner
pushed the words from his mind. She wasn't reaching his
mind now anyway.
The smell and touch of her reminded him of Jova's re-
cent plea in her bedimm. But he pushai that from his
mind as well, and concentrated on Sharon Purdue's ample,
willing
Down, down he went, with his lips over her hard flat
belly to her hip. She moaned and he to press his
mouth against the softness of her other thigh. His lips were
parted and his tongue savored her flesh. He moved his
mouth up and down, teasing her.
Her belly undulated demandingly. "Oh, please!"
He kissed her all over, using verve and imagination,
taking time.
Finally he pressed his lips against her crinkly, deep-set
navel. She moaned sharply.
"Finish it!" she demanded.
He knew she didn't mean that. She was anxious, yes,
but there was more to come.
He climbed onto his knees on the bed, trtween her legs,
and fell forward on his elbows. He didn't enter her yet, but
went instead to her high-surging breasts and lowerul his
open mouth towardone of the dollar-size circles that
stared up at him, its sensitive flesh crinkled with tiny little
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bumps. The nipple at its center high and waiting. He
kissed the aureole, pressing hard against the pillow Of
breast beneath it, and then he t'X)k the hard nipple between
his tongue and uplrr lip.
She squirmed, rmving her breast against his mouth, but
he held the nipple fast. Then he brought his hands up to
ld the large breast on each side and moved it back and
orth as he relaxed his mouth and let the nipple slip around
Inside it and then out and back again. He did the same
with her other breast until she was wild with desire. She
was gasping and pulling at him, her legs flexing at his
ides, but he still would not drive himself into the final
phase of the act.
Instead, he leaned back on his haunches and said, "Turn
over."
"Oh, Nick.. e"
She tumed, presenting to him the small but Fitly
unded cheeks of her lxxtom. When he lifted her hips at
ither side, she came up to her knees. He drew close,
ouched, and trgan teasing her. He supprted his weight
n her back and reached trneath her with his hands to
hake and fondle her susrrnded breasts. The urgent rota-
•on and backward thrusting of her hips caused her warmth
enclose him.
She moaned and he continued playing with her free-
ging breasts, taking both of them in his hand, squeezing
em together, and brushing åe very hard nipples with his
ngertips. He moved his lower txxiy only slightly, still
ing.
Suddenly she drew her legs up and tumed around. As
sat back, she whirled, straddled his lap, and came
own around him ... all around him. She tEgan jogging up
d down, her breasts bouncing delightfully.
"Oh!" she cried. "Oh, yes, long and wild!"
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He made it long and wild, bucking and driving, caress-
ing her intimately with his fingers at the same time.
It was up, up, up into the breathless reaches of high
passion until they extended themselves and seemed to
touch the very stars. And then they plummeted downward
and she hugged him and covered his face with 0Fn-
mouthed kisses.
"More," Sbe murmured.
"You've got to be kidding
For the next half hour they found pleasure after pleasure
in each other's arms. No matter what it turned out to she
was involved in, Carter would always give her credit for
knowing her way around a man's body. As an agent' she
was a wasted talent. Her true art was in t*d. The surprise
factor was one of her biggest assets in trd, he decided. She
seemed to wing it, always doing what came naturally to
her. Together they skirted ecstasy like two demons around
the fires of hell before they finally went off on another
fling into space and timelessness.
Sharon seemed deter-mined to drive him to complete ex-
haustion. And she was almost succeeding.
"Tired?" she asked, when they finally lay limp in each
other's arms.
"I'll say," Carter groaned. "Can't hold my eyes
"Let's rest a while," she purred, pulling away from him
and fluttering the covers around him. "After all, we've got
the whole long morning ahead of us."
Carter allowed her to arrange him onwne side of the
bed. He didn't his eyes. And after a few minutes he
adjusted his breathing to the long slow beat of sleeping.
Another minute and he felt her move from the bed, heard
her pad through the sitting to her own bedroom.
Through üle two doors he saw her dressing quickly.
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Seconds later, she left the suite noiselessly.
Carter smiled himself to sleep.
95
The very slight click of the sitting room door awakened
him. He barely cracked one eye. He could see her as she
closed the door and tumed the second lock. She moved
into her own and he watched her strip.
He a quick glance at his wrist t*fore shutting his
eyes again.
It was one-thirty in the Little Miss Purdue
had evidently had a busy morning.
Carter continued to breathe the slow, relaxed way of a
soundly sleeping person as she padded into the and
crawled back into the bed.
Then she was kissing him, gently shaking him. He
fought her sleepily, and she lay quietly t*side him in the
dim light for a while before snuggling up to him again.
Ihis time she seemed determined to arouse him, so he al-
lowed himself to awakened.
*'You've been sleeping a long time," she scolded, feign-
ing a pout. It didn't become her. "It's after one."
"With you here Epside me? Nonsense," he yawned, tak-
ing her into his arms but still acting out his drowsy role.
"Really you have, Nick," she insisted.
"Why didn't you wake me up?" he asked without
ing his eyes.
"You were tired," she stroking his head with
her fingers.
"Did you sleep well?" he said, his face shielded from
her eyes by her own soft flesh.
"Like a baby." Her hand moved over his chest and ab-
domen in small circular motions he found more and more
difficult to ignore. Then she raised herself up so that one
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he was awake. He opened his eyes and his mouth simulta-
neously, his hand reaching out to enclose the other breast.
"It's time you stopped ignoring me," she with
delight, and Carter ü•uly admired her durability.
"Enough," he groaned suddenly. "I can't handle all
these sudden IErsonality changes on an empty stomach!"
He slid from the trd and pulled on his pants. While she
combed her hair he ordered lunch from service.
She was still playing the femme fatale when lunch for
two arrived. Instead of hiding in the bedroom, she stayed
on the balcony in full view of the young waiter with the
sun shining through her negligee.
Over the food, she skillfully managed to get the conver-
sation back to Howard.
"What will you do if Howard's story tums out to
true?"
"What story?"
"Why... I don't know. He seems to think he has some-
thing criminal on Sir Charles."
Caner kept his eyes on his food. "I'll probably talk to
Sir Charles."
"But what if it's true?"
'"Ihen I'll probably let Cory Howard go his own merry
way."
Sharon "And kill Sir Charles?"
He at her sharply. "Do you have a sugges-
don?"
"I I guess I don't know."
Her face had paled and that stark, cold hardness had
retumed to her eyes. But it faded a little when Carter
again.
"I really enjoyed this morning."
"*Ihank you. So did I."
They finished the meal and Caner stood. "Gonna get
dressed. Time to go to work."
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97
They moved inside and parted in the center of the sitting
room. Seconds later, in his own trdrcx)tn, Ca.rter sensed
her t*hind him.
He turned and smiled.
ne negligee was a gossamer puddle at her feet.
'One more time?" she asked.
And Carter, with tlr premonition it might well be the
last time he'd be with her alone, pulled her roughly into his
arms. He was all caveman, no nibbling and coaxing and
teasing, but all demanding and taking. It was as though he
wanted to hurt her, but she writhed in pleasure, no matter
how he her to his will.









NINE
It was three in the afternoon by the time Carter stepped
from the cab in front of the slightly dilapidated old man-
sion. He was about eight miles from the center of San
Juan, and he had taken two buses and three cabs to get
there after buying a cheap suitcase and the items of cloth-
ing he would need for the coming night's work.
By now be could be fairly sure that no one was on his
tail. But then, if his observations were in agreement with
his calculations, they were probably figuring that there was
no reason to follow him.
He gave the cabby—a jovial giant of a man with a tiny
mustache and droopy eyes—an American fifty. "Will this
make you wait?"
ne man bit the bill, then cackled. "For this, seöor, you
can have my mother-in-law and you don't need Senora
Pina's place!"
Carter laughed and, carrying fre bag, moved up the
wide steps under the stone portico. It was immediately ten
degrees cooler out of the brilliant sun.
He rang the twice and waited. When nothing hap-
rned he rang again, several times. When there was still no
response, he raprd hard with his knuckles.
At last the door 'swung to reveal a sleepy-eyed
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99
young girl blinking at the sudden light. She was stark
naked, with small, erect breasts and blond hair, uncurled
and falling to her shoulders.
'Oh, seöor," she whined, "we are not open, yet. We
don't do business until six in the evening. Come back
then."
She started to close the door. Carter caught it and
stepped around her into the high-ceilinged hall.
"I'm not a custorner," he said. "I'm a friend ... of Se-
fiora Pina."
"Madre de Dios!" the young girl cried. "Don't tell her I
answered the door like this. She will put me back on the
Carter patted her cheek. "Your secret is safe with me.
Where is she?"
"In the charrl," the girl replied, closing the door. "If
you will let me get a robe, I will—
"Never mind. I know the way."
Carter moved through the mansion toward the rear of
the house. Little had changed in the three years since Se-
nora Pina had hidden him in one of the many upstairs bed-
rooms and saved his life.
He walked through the spacious living room where
nightly the girls met their clients. It had a massive stone
fireplace, tall windows elaborately draped, and rich fur-
nishings. The enormous rug on the floor was a genuine
oriental, and the traditional fumiture had been designed
with a view to comfort as well as period style.
But then everything around Senora Pina had style ...
except, perhaps, some of her younger girls.
firough a small sitting room he entered another long
hall. At the end of it there were three steps down to an
ornately carved pair of doors. Carter one of them
and slid into the dim chapel.
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The only light in the windowless room came from tall
tapers around the wall-to-wall, floor-to-ceiling altar.
As he slid quietly into one of the four Carter
could barely see the kneeling figure, all in black, trfore
the altar.
The only sound was her whispered prayers.
He waited patiently, actually enjoying the quiet serenity
of the room. He knew the woman was aware of his pres-
ence, but he also knew that nothing—not even a visit by
the local police—could disrupt her moming, afternoon,
and evening ritual.
Senora Pina might lun the most exclusive and profitable
whorehouse in the islands, but she was the most devout
Catholic he had ever known.
At last, with a groan, the woman stcxxi and walked up
the aisle. 'lhere was no surprise when she saw him. "Hello,
Nick," she said, kissing him lightly on both cheeks. "You
are a long time away."
'"lhree years," he said, nodding.
"How is your wound?"
"Fine, thanks to you."
"No, .thanks to God. He was looking over you." She
smiled. "Come, we will have coffee in the sitting
In the hall she shed the heavy dark shawl from her head.
Her jet-black hair had sprouted flecks of gray. It was pulled
severely back from a pretty but wom, tired face. The fig-
ure, in an expensive black blouse and skirt, was still gaod,
but the shoulders stooped slightly and Carter noticed that
she favored her right leg.
They were scarcely seated when a maid aMEared with a
silver service and Senora Pina poured. It was as if he had
been expcted.
"What brings you back to San Juan?" she asked, hand-
ing him his coffee.




101
"The usual," he replied, accepting the fragile china cup
and saucer. "Trouble."
"Ah, then you are still in the same line of business," she
said, with a flash of even, white teeth in the still attractive,
olive-toned face.
"I'm too young to die and too por to retire," he joked
with a grin.
Ihey talked for another fifteen minutes about nothing
and everything. Then she asked, "Well, what is it?"
"Does Santiago still work for you?"
"Of course." The smile faded. "Your business is not
with him?"
S'Oh, no, only that I need his help. I would like to have
him in on this."
Seiora Pina pressed a button with her foot and the
maid appeared at once, as if she had tren just outside the
door.
"S', seiora?"
"Where is Santiago?"
"I believe in the POI, Seiora."
"Ask him to come in here at once."
seiora."
From the inside pocket of his jacket, Carter produced a
map he had crudely drawn in the taxi. "Do you still own
She laughed, a low, tinkling sound full of genuine
mirth. "Of course I do. It's still my summer house away
from the heat here in San Juan."
Carter matched her smile. He knew that the "heat" she
referred to wasn't all weather. Every summer, for
ances' sake, the plice would close her down for three
weeks to a month. During that time, Senora Pina, San-
tiago, and her merry band of ladies would move shop to
the big plantation house on Topaz Road outside of Fajardo.
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Business, of course, wasn't as good from the coast and
smaller city, but that was all right. ney just treated it as a
working vacation in the c'»ler mountain air.
"Is the old tunnel still there?"
She nodded. "Never used anymore, of course, since
Chara died. But it's still there. "
Chara had been Senora Pina's lifelong lover. He was a
smuggler, and had built a tunnel from the plantation house
to an abandoned schoolhouse nearly a mile away. Many
times in the old days it had saved him from a jail sentence.
The door orrned and Santiago entered. He recognized
Carter at once and, like Senora Pina, showed no surprise.
Carter stocü "How are you, amigo?"
"Well, older, but still fit," the other man replied, shak-
ing Carter's hand and taking a chair.
Santiago—it was the only name Carter had ever heard
him called—was a tall man with thick brown, gray-flecked
hair and a striking face. The lines were sharp, angular,
strong. His features reminded Carter of a sculpture not
quite finished, the head done in an ancient and rough
Greek style, with the chisel marks and lines and gouges
obvious in the stone.
When he sat he rested his hands, one over the other, on
his lap. Like the man, the hands were large and strong.
Carter knew. He had seen those hands kill three men,
quickly, quietly, efficiently.
"Santiago, I need your help, tonight and for a
couple of days on another island. "Ihe pay is
The man swiveled his chiseled profile his employer.
She nodded and he turned back to Carter.
"What do I do?"
"I want to fool some people into thinking I am meeting
someone at Divino: I will need five besides yourself. Can
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"lhe pay is good, you say?"
"It is."
"Then I can get all you want."
103
"Excellent." Carter smoothed out the map. 'II don't
know how many there will be, but I imagine they will
already be on their way to Fajardo. Ihat is, if I'm right."
"You mean," Senora Pina said, • •this may come to noth-
ing."
"Perhaps. I wish it would be nothing, but my instincts
tell me they will be there." Carter turned back to the man.
"And they will be good, very well trained. Your people
will have to be invisible."
Santiago smiled. ' Clhey will be peasants from the
mountains. No one sees peasants."
"All right. I want one man here at the fork outside of
Fajardo. I don't know how many or how they will come up
Topaz Road, but he will them."
"It will be no problem."
"Three more along the road spotting their progress, and
a fifth man on the hill, here, behind the house to tell us
what they do."
'Ille big man's eyebrows furrowed. "l do not under-
stand. What do you mean?"
"We want to be in the house." Caner laid the bag he had
brought on its side and opened the lid. From it he took two
identical white tropical suits and a denim jacket and bnght
yellow shirt. "I bought these this moming. You are about
e size of the man they think I am going to meet, You will
wear one of the white suits and this hat. Just after dark, I
ant you to drive out of Fajardo and meet me at Divino. I
ill wear the denim jacket and the yellow shirt. In the
asita, I will strip and dress two dummies in my clothes
the white suit."
Carter knew that neither Senora Pina nor Santiago com-
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pletely understood what he was driving at, but he also
knew that they would follow his lead.
Santiago SEX)ke. "Will we need hardware?"
"If you mean guns, no. We will need six high-m».vered
walkies and a motorcycle. Can you handle that?"
Senora Pina stood. "f will make a phone call." She
lirn}Ed from the room, and Carter returned to the map,
IY)inting to the rise behind the house.
"I want this man to placed in such a way that he can
see all approaches to the house and the interior of the great
room.
"That is what you mean by 'observe'?"
"Yes. Have the bike ready at the schoolhouse. We'll nde
to Point Puerca. I'll have a seaplane waiting for us there."
"It is a very elaborate plan to just •observe.' If these
men are your enemies, why don't we simply kill them?"
Carter's grin was clear across his face- "Because I won't
know if they are my enemies unless they kill the dum-
mies.
Outside. the last gray of dusk was just into
darkness. Inside a small restaurant off the central square of
Fajardo, a candle burned between them like a votive light.
The meal was finished. The check was paid. It would be
only a few minutes until Carter would leave the restaurant,
climb solo into the little Opel she had rented, and drive up
into the mountains to Divino.
When he had returned to the hotel from Seöora Pina's to
tell Sharon that he would be meeting Hö.vard at ten that
evening. she had merely shrugged. When he had told her
that Howard was definitely against seeing her, that he
would meet only with Carter, she had shrugged again.
But beneath the calm exterior she was seething, and
Carter could sense it.
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is it ... what's the matter?" he had pressed.
"When I came back with the car, I called Jova's rch)m,"
she had replied trtween clenched teeth. "She wasn't there.
When I inquired at the desk, they told me that she had
checked out and taken the airport bus. Did you know atk)ut
"Yes."
'41 thought we were a team!" she exploded. 'SAnd, as
half of this team, I think I should be informed of what's
going on!"
Carter had plastered the most abashed. guilty look he
could muster on his face. He apologized. He explained that
it had been Jova's decision. He strengthened and com-
pounded the lie by telling Sharon that Jova had no wish to
stay in San Juan. And since he didn't feel she should go
back to Cayman Brac, she might as well return to Washing-
ton.
After another five minutes of fanciful storytelling in his
most contrite manner, Sharon seemed to accept that
Caner's only real error was in not thinking the girl's depar-
ture important enough to raise Sharon's ire.
In the car, driving to the western end of the island and
Fajardo, she warrned to him again. Now, sitting across the
table from him, surrounded by the contented hum from
other diners, she radiated the same warmth he had experi-
enced earlier, in bed.
"You know, Nick," she said, "I really horr you can
convince Cory to simply drop all this and come back to
London with us and take it up directly with M16."
"That would be nice," Caner agreed. "But knowing him
as we both do, I doubt he'll take that route."
The thin waiter appeared, gesturing with his coffeepot.
Carter raised his eyebrows to Sharon, who shook her head.
The waiter moved on, slipping by the elbows of patrons
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like a matador avoiding the horns of the bull.
Caner stod "When you finish your coffee, go back to
the room. I'll phone you from up there as as I know
anything."
Sharon nodded, tugging absently at the scarf knotted
around her neck. "Be careful. You know Cory's
"Yeah," Carter replied, and moved out of the restaurant
with his mind uying to work through the faqade of her face
and find out how much real meaning had tren in her last
words.
Outside, walking toward the OFEI, he tried to spot San-
tiago's man.
He couldn't. Other than a scant few tourists, everyone
looked alike and paid him no attention at all.
In minutes he was outside the -town and at the cross-
roads. Left went down to the cxean. In a few hours, San-
tiago would come from that direction. Caner tumed right
and started to climb. As he drove, he ran his hand under
the seat and found the battery-rx)wered walkie-talkie.
So far, so gocxi, he thought. Santiago's Æxople were on
the ball.
He on the button and set the walkie in the
seat beside him.
It was ten miles from the fork to the cutoff to Divino.
Carter drove slowly, uying to the watchers. He
couldn't, and smiled to himself.
About halfway up, the walkie crackled and a voice
came through: "Sehor C. , this is Fajardo."
"Go ahead."
'The lady has left the restaurant. She walked to the
center of the square and talked to a man on a
"Could you get close enough to hear?" Carter asked.
"Not words, butthe man had an accent—British."
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107
good about it. The final tally on Sharon Purdue would
come at the plantation house.
"She has left the man and is now walking across the
square. I think she is going back to your hotel. Should I
follow?"
"No, Fajardo, get on out to the crossroads."
Caner waited a few minutes and depressed the. "send"
button again. ' SLet me know who is on the road."
A youthful voice came back at once in Spanish: "You
passed me about ten minutes ago, sefior."
And a second voice, older, lower: "You are just going
by me now."
About three minutes later the third man checked in:
"You are about three miles from me, Senor C. I can just
make out your lights through the trees."
"All right," Carter said, "you all know the game. The
minute they pass your checkpoint, get out. Your job is
done."
There was a chorus of agreement and the walkie went
dead.
Twenty minutes later he srx»tted the sign announcing the
estate and passed through two tall stone arches. Two
hundred yards of gravel drive wound under huge umbrella
trees to the turnaround in front of the house.
Carter stopped and killed the engine.
The casita was part stucco, part brick, a rambling. two-
story monstrosity built into the side of an emerald hilL
Carter picked up the walkie. "Anybody on the hill?"
seior. My name is Manuel."
"How goes it?" Carter asked.
"l arrived just before sundown. I looked over the whole
area, nere is no advance man, seöor, or I would have
flushed him."
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g *Good. How's your view?"
'*There is very little cannot see the drive, the front
and rear patios. and both sides of the house."
"How about the bay window lcxjking out over the rear
patio and the pool?"
"I will able to tell tEtter when you are inside and
there is a light. but it should not be a problem."
"Talk to you from inside," Carter growled, and got out
of the can
He took his regular small airline bag and the cheap suit-
case he had purchased that morning from the trunk, closed
it, and walked into the front patio.
A narrow walk was bordered by meticulously kept flow-
ering shrubs. Senora Pina had told him that twice a week a
gardener came up from Fajardo to maintain the place. lhe
inside wall of the entranceway and the wall of the house
itself were a mass of bougainvillaea vines with thousands
of crimson and purple blossoms. Along the front of the
house, dew-laden hibiscus clustered thickly on stcxky
bushes. A twenty-foot-high flowenng poinsettia tree stood
in one comer of the patio.
It was all very beautiful. Carter only hoped it looked the
same way come morning.
He used the key Santiago had provided and slipped into
the front hallway. By feel, he made it back to the great
room overlooking the rear patio. When he had lit several
candles, he slipped across the room to a large closet.
Manuel had done his work. Inside were two large male
mannequins, their flesh tones a mahogany tin.
He carried both of them to the wicker table and chairs in
the center of the room and orrned the suitcase. When the
larger of the two dummies was dressed in the white suit.
shirt, and a string tie, he set it in one of the high-backed
chairs facing away from the window.
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109
Then he stripped, and dressed the second one in the
dark trousers, yellow shirt, and denim jacket. This one he
placed in a chair across from the first, so it could only be
partially seen from through the window.
A final touch was a wide-brimmed Panama forthe San-
tiago mannequin, and a fishennan's cap for his own.
It took him another ten minutes to kill all but two of the
candles and arrange those two on the wicker table just so.
When this was done, he 0Æxned the dra'XS and grabbed the
walkie.
"Manuel?"
*'How dcrs it look?"
After several seconds, the voice came back. 'SVery
good, senore If you could move the candle on your right
just a little toward the window?"
Carter did. "How's that?"
"Perfect. I am lc»king through field glasses, and they
are very lifelike."
Carter dressed, grabbed his flight bag, and made his
way down to the wine cellar. With the aid of his penlight,
he found the proper wine rack and pulled it inward. Behind
it was a trapdoor with a large metal ring. He it and
went down the dozen steps to the tunnel.
There he left his bag and a lighted candle. Leaving the
trap open, he returned to the great room, where he built a
drink at the bar, lit a cigarette, and sat back to wait.
"Seöor C. • •
"Yes?"
'This is the halfway point. Santiago has just passed me."
"G€x)d. Fajardo?"
"Nothing yet, seöor. nere has been no one approaching
the crossroads since Santiago passed by."
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"Stay alert." Carter said, and he did a last once-over of
the room to make sure the scene was set.
"Tlis is numtxr three. Santiago is just oppsite me."
"Check."
Carter moved to the front of the house. He unl«xked the
front door, left the key in the lock and the dCÅ)r ajar, and
returned to the great room. Carefully, he arranged glasses
half full of brandy and a bottle on the table. To these he
added cups, saucers, and a carafe of steaming coffee.
As a last touch. he used his rrnknife to drill a hole in
the Santiago dummy's mouth. From a on the bar he
got a cigar and lit it. When it was going steady and even,
he inserted it and stood back.
"A touch of genius, if do say so myself," he said to
himself and chuckled.
"Sefior C... ."
"Yes, Manuel?"
"Santiago has arrived."
"I hear him."•
Moments later, Santiago lumbered into the room, carry-
ing a small flight bag. He took everything in with one
glance, and grinned. "A work of art."
"Thank you, amigo. Did you lock the front dcx)r?"
The man held up the key.
"Seöor C. , this is Fajardo."
"Yes?" Carter said.
"If it were a baseball game, you would have just hit a
home nm."
"How so?"
"Five men, one woman. They are in two cars. They just
passed the crossroads and went up Topaz Road."
"Did you recognize the Englishman you saw earlier with
the woman?"
"S(, senor. He is driving the lead car. They are going
very fast."
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111
"All right. Fajardo, you get back to the hotel and keep
ck of the lady. Weill get a reB)rt in the morning."
"St. Vaya con Dior."
Caner lowered the walkie. 'Change."
By the time Santiago had changed into a dark tunleneck
d black trousers. checkB)ints one and two had an-
ounced the caravan's passing.
'They are moving fast," Santiago said.
"Yeah," Carter hissed, 'they sure as hell are."
"Yes."
Tis is numt*r three. They have pulled off the road
st tElow me and left the cars. They are all armed.
achine guns, I think. The rnen are moving on toward the
ouse. The woman is staying behind. It like she is
overing their rear down the road."
"Manuel," Ca.rter said into the walkie, "did you get
"St. I have two of them in my glasses. They have left
e road and are coming up through the trees."
"Okay, Manuel, it's all yours."
"S(, sehor. I will memorize what faces I can see
learly."
"Santiago, let's go!"
The two men raced to the wine cellar They pulled the
ine rack flush behind them and secured the trapd(M.
aner found his bag, and Santiago led the way through the
nnel with a powerful flashlight.
Only twice did they hit water, so less than five minutes
ad elapsed t*fore they were crawling through a second
pdoor opening into the moonlight.
"ne motorcycle is there, in the woods, under a tarpau-
n."
"Roll it out," Carter replied, and brought the walkie to
s lips. "Manuel?"
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"'I*hey are all around the house, seöor. One man has
climbed the palmetto tree and is going through a second-
story window. Two are somewhere in the front courtyard.
and the other two are going over the wall to the rear patio.
Now those two---
Suddenly Manuel's voice was drowned out by the chat-
ter of gunfire. Even without the aid of the walkie Carter
could hear it clearly through the hills.
It to go on forever and then, just as suddenly as
it had started, it
Carter waited a few seconds and spoke into the walkie.
"Manuel?"
"Seöor, if it had been you and Santiago in there, you
would now have been with the angels. They are inside.
Wait ... they have discovered the trick. Three of them are
going through the house the other two are outside,
searching."
"Sign off, Manuel, and watch yourself," Carter
growled, and tumed to Santiago,
"Have you observed enough?" the man asked.
"Yeah, I sure as hell have. Crank that thing up. Let's get
the hell out of here!"
At midnight sharp, they tumed the motorcycle over t
one of Santiago's people at the Point Puerca marina and
climbed into the plane.
"Santiago, Luis Pedroza," Carter said, a map.
lhe two men nodded and Pedroza lcx»ked down at th
map. "Where to?"
"Tortola, Do you know someplace you can dump us
we don't have to go through customs?"
"Yeah, right here. There's a deep cove just west o
Brewer's Bay. •can be down and gone before anybod
knows we've even landed."
KILLING GAMES
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113
"Perfect," Carter said. handing the pilot an envelope.
'There's a fat tx)nus in there for your trouble."
Pedroza pocketed the envelope and started the plane.
'Like I say, amigo. it's a pleasure doing business with
Five minutes later they were cruising high over the
ean.








TEN
ne tall, suntanned girl behind the desk wore an off-
the-shoulder, low-cut blouse that hid none of her physical
attributes. She was also genuinely pretty, with warm brown
eyes set far apart, a provocatively soft mouth, a r:Mt nose,
and flawless skin, all framed by loose, raven-black hair
that tumbled atX)ut her bare shoulders.
"Gocxi morning, sir," she said, managing to retain her
commercial smile even after taking in Carter's bedraggled,
unshaven apFarance.
"Mornin', darlin'. MacSweeney, Colin MacSweeney.
Got my reservation?" It was a sloppy Texas accent, but she
wouldn't know the difference.
She trgan punching a computer, still throwing sidelong
glances at his face and clothes.
"Been one hell of a night. Had plane trouble out of San
Juan, had to land in St. Thomas and take the ferry from
there. Slept on a hard bench most of the night. Hell of a
night."
Actually, he and Santiago had srrnt most of the night
sleeping on the beach, and the tEtter pan of the morning
hoofing it to where they could find a taxi.
"I'm sorry about that. Here we are, Mr. MacSweeney
114
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115
.. a suite?" She said it with amazement on her face, until
he saw the wad he produced from his jacket pocket.
"I'll just give ya two days in advance. How will that be,
S Ihat will be fine, sir." Her voice was like syrup now,
d her eyes told Carter that he was her kind of man. 'Take
is gentleman to bungalow nine."
A young bellboy took Carter's bag, but before he fol-
wed, Carter leaned over the counter.
"I don't mean to tE forward, darlin', but with only two
ys, a man's got to hurry a bit. What time do you get
lhe smile got wider. "Three."
"Drink by the poi?"
She shrugged and the front of the blouse did wonderful
ings. "I usually drop by ffe pcx»l when I get off."
"I'll just bet you do, darlin'."
lhe bungalow was deluxe, consisting of a huge high-
ilinged living rcx»m, an even larger bedroom, and a ter-
e with a view of the entire resort.
Carter pressed a twenty into the bellboy's hand. "Thank
out son. Say, 01' Marcus wouldn't be around this morn-
g, would he?"
"He usually is, sir, but lately he's sailing every
orning."
' 'That so? When does he get back usually?"
A shrug. "Depnds. Sornetimes in the aftemoon, some-
mes not until evening."
"l see," Carter said, pressing another twenty in the
y's hand. "Well, if you see him, don't tell him I'm here,
ill ya? We•re 01' friends and I want to surprise him.
kay?"
"Sure." He started for the dc»r.
"Say, what kind of a boat is Marcus sailin' now?"
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"It's the hotel's, a thirty-footer, two-masted, called the
Lilly."
It would be. Carter thought, and smiled the young man
out before he dived for the island directory. He looked up
the nurnt*r where he had left Santiago off, and dialed.
"The Sea View. good morning."
"MC Santiago's please."
It was answered at once.
"It's me. Marcus takes a sail every morning on the hotel
boat. It's called the Lilly. Ask around and see if you can
find out where he goes. Also uy to pick us up a boat."
"Any particular brand?"
"The Lilly is sails. Pick us up a fast inboard."
"Will do."
"I'm in bungalow nine. I'll by the pool around
"I'll see you then."
Carter hung up and trailed clothes to the shower. When
he had all the sand washed off, he shaved and returned to
the phone. When he had the AXE message center machine
in Washington, he delivered a cryptic location-giver.
"N3 to NI as MacSweeney, Tortola Bay Resort, number
nine," he said, and hung up.
As he SEK)ke, he leafed through the ' Things To Do"
brochure for the resort. On the last page his eye fell on the
masthead listing the staff.
At the very top was ALEXANDER MARCUS, MANAGER.
The Tortola Bay Resort was built a finger of lush
green jutting out from the island itself. The bungalows
atx)ut forty of them—ringed the end of the finger, with th
large main building containing offices and nx»rns in th
center. It was all' stone, with lots of domes, arches, an
filigree.




117
In fact. the whole setup looked as if it had de-
signed by an architect who'd read Tales Of the Arabian
Nights once too often.
At a quarter to three, Carter rolled off the bed where he
had sprawled into instant sleep, and made for the bath.
After splashing a lot of cold water on his face, he climbed
into a pair of trunks, a towel, and headed outside
to the pcxyl.
He ordered a gin and tonic, designated a chaise with his
towel, and dived in. lhe pool was like tepid bath water but
still refreshing. After a dozen laps, he climbed out to find
his drink waiting. He settled into the chaise, lit a cigarette,
and glanced around.
At three-fifty a night for a room—and five hundred
dollars and up for a suite or bungalow—the Tortola Bay
Resort didn't attract Aunt Fannie and Uncle Jud from
Dubuque. Nearly every face he saw he recognized from
magazines or newspapers.
Two chaises away, an Italian actress was being overdra-
atic with a French Formula One driver while her pro-
ucer husband, looking bored, half listened to a Holly-
ood starlet whose eyes and conversation reflected the
revious night's 'tactical mistakes.
Just tryond them, a sleek New York model who had
ently become disengaged from her husband—a Detroit
otor executive—was tEnding the ear of a famous Span-
sh painter, The gist of the conversation seemed to de-
iled instructions on how to paint his next masterpiece.
The painter seemed far more interested in the
f line and form poured into her plunging swimsuit.
The model looked up long enough to give Carter an
•stocratic and tolerant smile, and quickly went back to
er stream of atrocious Spanish.
Suddenly Carter noticed all the male heads around the




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turning in his direction. Then a shadow fell across
him and he up to see why.
"Hello."
"Hello, darlin', sit right down."
She c»zed into the chaise beside Carter, and the Italian
star and Hollywcxxi starlet tumed green.
'Ihey had every reason to. In her string bikini, the dark-
haired desk clerk looked as good or tetter than any of the
exotic, international beauties sunning themselves there.
"Sorry I'm late. I got a call from my boss. He won't be
back until late. I'll have to do the five o'clock audit."
Caner up. S That would be 01' Marcus."
"You know Alex?"
"Well," Caner drawled, "let's just say I know his tX)SS."
"His tX)ss?" She looked Irrplexed, and then a little light
came on in her eyes. "Oh, you mean Cayman Interna-
tional?"
"Yeah," Carter said, leaning close enough to absorb
some of the ample heat from her body. "I'll let ya in on a
little secret, darlin' .. ."
She leaned a little herself, until her lips were breathing
on his. VOh, I love secrets."
"Ya see, I own quite a chunk of Texas, but what with oil
the way it is now, I'm lookin' to diversify."
"Really?" The light in her eyes had literally made them
turn green, the color of money. If she appeared to be some-
thing of a dingaling, it was all an act. "For instance," she
continued, "in the islands?"
"You might say that. 'Course, I wouldrYt want it nosed
around and make the price go up
"Of course not."
"This Cayman .lnternational is a little tight-mouthed
about their assets, •and like any good businessman, I like to
know if they're keepin' a plum back when they're offerin'
the apples."





119
She rolled to her side and faced Carter. The movement
dislodged one breast from its tiny crocheted cup. If she
noticed, she did nothing atX)ut it.
Carter guessed she noticed.
"Could I of any help? I've with the resort for
three years and do most of the internal bookkeeping."
Oh, brother, Carter thought, wait until I tell Howard
about his loyal employees!
"Darlin', those words are music to my ears," he replied,
and then abruptly changed the subject. "By the way, where
is Marcus?"
"I don't know. He called from the ship-to-shore phone
on the boat."
SThat so? When do ya reckon he'll be back?"
She shrugged. "Probably not until at least midnight. He
asked me to check out the eleven o'clock turnover on the
desk."
Carter nodded, his face a mask of deep concentration.
"One of the bellboys told me Marcus has doin' a hell
of a lot of all-day sailin' lately. Wonder where he goes
The dark eyes narrowed and Carter sensed bells of cau-
tion going off in her pretty head. He saw Santiago ap-
proach one of the two pool bars and take a stool.
"But I guess if you're the manager, you can play when-
ever ya want to, can't ya. But, say, darlin', hete we are
•abberin' and my manners have gone to hell. What would
ou like to drink?'
"A gin and tonic, no lime," she replied, relaxing and
gaining the smile.
"Be right back," he said, rising. "By the way, darlin',
hat's your handle?"
"Handle ... She flushed a little and rewrapped the
errant breast. Caner could hear the audible groans from the
y males.
"Your name, darlin' "
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"Oh.. Eugenie."
"Well, Genie honey, you just bake there for a minute
and 01' Mac will be back with the refreshments."
Carter jogged around the pool and made the stool beside
Santiago just before a plump matron who lc»ked like the
front window of Cartier's grabbed it.
"Couple of gin and tonics, pardner... make one of
them a double." The barman moved away and Carter
spoke, barely moving his lips and without turning his eyes
or head toward Santiago. "Got anything?"
"A couple of fisherrnen have spotted him leaving the
past three days. Evidently, one man sailing the Lilly is a
rough case , . that's why they noticed."
"Did they see his route?"
"Watched him cut into the channel between Great Ca-
manoe and Scrub Island, then he disaprrared. A chaner
captain told me he spotted Marcus heading past the Dogs
that's three small islands about four miles east of here. "
• 'lhere must be thirty or forty uninhabited and privately
owned islands in the Virgins," Carter growled. •s We donst
have nearly enough time to check half of them. Did you
get a
"Yeah, seventeen-footer, inboard. She's got a three-fifty
QYysler marine, and will do sixty easy and quietly."
"Good man. Where?"
SSA little marina at East End, It's called Jacob's, dock
four."
"Okay, I want you to get sorne night glasses and two
scuba rigs tanks, everything."
"We going out?"
"Yeah. The little lady says Marcus won't be back until
midnight or later. If can narrow the islands down, we'll
tot to spot the Lilly."
"You're sure he's not on Tortola?" Santiago murmured.
"Pretty sure. If Marcus is making daily runs, it's proba-
KILLING GAMES
121




121
bly to take Howard supplies and get instructions. That
would mean no phone."
"Got you," Santiago replied. "What time?"
"I'll try to make it at nine. Be ready."
"Here you are, sir. *Ihe double has the bent straw."
' 'Thanks, pardner."
Carter signed the check and retumed to the lounges.
"Here ya are, Genie darlin'." He handed her the double.
"And may make a little suggestion?"
"I'm always open to suggestions," she said, and smiled
brightly.
"Well, it's only three-thirty, and it's gettin' awful hot out
here. An' since you don't have to be at that desk until five,
maybe we can avail ourselves of the air conditioning in my
bungalow and talk about your place in the scheme of things
when I expand Texas!"
Drink in hand, she was up and leading the way.
Carter had no more trouble following her meaning than
he did her well-filled bikini around the pool. They came to
the lawn surrounded by hedges, and she continued to take
the lead to number nine.
She opened the door, took his hand in her long fingers,
and pulled him inside. *Ihe door closed with a kick from
her sandaled foot. Two soft arms closed around his neck.
Glossy black hair streamed trhind her as lush red lips
lifted to his mouth, crushing against it. A darting tongue
probed his mouth hungrily. She ground her hips on his,
pressing her body against him, squeezing his neck so hard
it hurt.
Finally she came up for air.
"You're my kind of man," she groaned hoarsely, and
then the lips were back on his to smother any answer he
might have wanted to make.
She was grinding again, then nipping, then biting....
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"What are you, a cannibal?" Carter panted at last.
"You're going to be the cannibal," she smiled, taking
off. ecome on!"
The red message light was lit on the sitting room phone,
but, for the moment, Carter ignored it. His mind was on
other things.
Eugenie went through the sitting room like a young
deer. It was obvious that she didn't have conversation on
her mind.
By the time Carter hit the door, the top of the bikini was
gone and she was working on the strings that held the bot-
tom together
When in Rome, Carter thought, peeling off his trunks
and meeting her in the center of the room.
He tried to remain ccx)l and maintain self-control, but he
felt it melting away by the proximity of her hot
body, and the even hotter greediness of her lips.
Together they fen, side by side, to the bed. He plunged
his lips into the valley between her breasts and pressed the
soft mounds to his cheeks. They were firm and ripe, with
the need for love almost screaming from their inviting nip-
ples. There were two concentric circles in two shades of
pink agaihst the paleness of the skin where the bikini had
shielded her from the sun.
"Oh, take me!" she hissed. "Take me!"
Carter began to kiss her shoulders, then the delicious
mounds that stood straight up and seemed to tremble like
two sand castles in a minor earthquake. And the earthquake
was inside her, heaving her chest and m4ing her hips
writhe and her legs chum and sending little growls and
moans from her throat. He kissed the nipples, felt her
hands tear at his hair.
She tugged and urged until he was between her thighs.
His hands slid under her writhing body to grip her as she




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found him with her own hands.
123
"ncre," she panted as she arched upward, enveloping
him.
A momentary pause, and then violence. She. wriggled
beneath him and tossed her head on the pillow, clamping
her long legs high around his back. She praised him gasp-
ingly and in the most basic language, rotating upward at
the same time, acting as if she could have taken much
more of him.
He began a slow, methodical plunging.
"Oh, Mac," she breathed, 'Syou're good. Ohhhh,
soooo gooood"'
They moved in perfect rhythm, lunging and rotating.
Their bodies slapped and the bed groaned sharply. Carter
felt himself ascending. Again, now that he was in the midst
of it and taking her, he felt the sense of detachment, almost
as if he were standing back and watching another couple
perform the act.
"Ihe physical building of passion—slowly and evenly
—didn't detract from this curious mental sensation. He
propped himself on his arms and watched her lust-
contorted features as she voraciously tc»k all he had to
give her. He quickened the pace of his thrusts. She gasped
and groaned, demanding still more. He tried to match her,
but her thrusts were too erratically swift. and so he merely
held himself in place, slightly elevated, and let her do it
all.
She cried out and shrieked, seeming to take him in a
great opening surge that was hot and all-consuming. He hit
her with a torrent of short, savage strokes, made it over,
and began to recover. They tX)th were still.
She cooed against his ear and petted his back and hair,
and then she pulled his face around and kissed him with
her mouth as hot and moist and orxn as a mouth can be.
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She talked against his lips and tongue in incoherent gasps.
Well. he had done his duty, Carter sard to himself, and it
hadn't bad, of course.
But now he forced his mind to take over from his body.
"Tell you what, darlin'
She was doing things with her hand. It took all his will-
power to ignore it. "What time do you finish at the desk?"
"About six."
"Well, why don't you pop over to your room and climb
into something fancy. Then I'll pick you up in your office
about six-thirty and we'll have an early dinner. "
"And after dinner?" she whispered coyly.
"Why, darlin•, need you ask? Now just scoot along. I
got to call my bankers."
Reluctantly. she left the bed and dressed. "I could just
meet you in the dining room "
"No. no. can't do that, darlin' I'm a gentleman. I'll
pick you up!"
He waited until he was sure she was well gone before
climbing into his trunks and hitting the pay phone between
the bungalows.
Hawk wasn't in, but that didn't really matter. He goi the
big man's good right arm, Ginger Bateman, and she was
up on the whole mission as if she were Hawk himself.
Caner brought her up to date on everything in sharp
detail, and included the plan for the coming night's events.
"It sounds sticky and very, very shaky," she said when
he paused for breath at last.
agree, but where we pin it I don't know, and I might
not know after seeing Howard. I'd like to risk putting peo-
ple on all three of them."
"Sir Charles, Avery, and Hutchins?"
"That's right," Carter replied. "Don't know what we
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can find, but it's bound to be more than we've got."
125
"Since Hutchins is CIA, he should be no problem. lhe
other two? .. Hard to say, but I'm sure Hawk will go
along."
"Use free-lance in England. You've got a
"What about Sharon Purdue? Sounds like she's in up to
her earrings."
"No doubt about it. Her, too, if you can find her. Now,
anything for me?"
"Are you sitting down?"
"No chair," Carter said, "but give it to me anyway "
"You've joined Howard's club."
"Remember your kickoff contact in London?"
'Otto Luderman, yeah. "
"He's dead. Someone sliced him from ear to ear with
the jagged edge of a broken bottle."
Carter felt an ice-cold chill ripple up his spine and raise
the hairs on the back of his neck. "And my prints were all
over the bottle."
"Bingo, superspy. And that ain't all."
"Rita Lyon," he said hoarsely.
"You get to open door number two. They are combing
the islands for you, so you've only got so much time."
"Let's hope I use it wisely. Give my best to the man,"
Carter hung up. As he jogged back to the bunialow, he
found himself darting looks over his shoulder.
There was no doubt about it now. He and Cory Howard
were being royally set up.








ELEVEN
Carter barged right past the young night clerk with the
hail-fellow-well-met attitude he had already established,
and entered Eugenie's office.
"Here I am, darlin•. right on time!" He gave her lips a
brushing kiss and got a radiant smile in return. dress
she wore told him she had decided to go all out in this
seduction for a better position of employment; the black
silk dipped and clung to her every ample curve.
"I'll be Just a moment," she purred.
"You just take your time, Genie."
Carter perched on the edge of the desk where he could
take in the whole of the office, and lit a cigarette.
It her five minutes to finish up what she was doing.
In that time Carter perused the white cards on the fronts of
file drawers and every other labeled piece of information
he could see.
By the time she was locking up with a small ring of
keys, Carter had spotted the file drawer he wanted. It con-
tained the tax returns for the last seven yeari.
"Ready," she said, holding the door.
"Then let's do it!"
She locked the door, and arm in arm they entered the
dining room.
126




127
It fit the rest of the resort E*lfectly, with low-key light-
ing and high prices. A velvet rope was stretched before the
three steps leading down to the main room. A headwaiter
in a tuxedo practically leaped at it when they ,apFxared,
bringing a smile to Caner's face.
Little Eugenie had spread the word about the investment
baron from Texas.
They were shown to one of the very private booths near
the dance floor. Caner ordered drinks, dinner, and wine all
at the same time, bringing a lifted eyebrow from the
woman.
"No matter how good the food is, darlin'." he coun-
tered, "we don't want to waste the evening eating, do we?"
She laughed and swayed agamst him, clutching his arm
and letting him feel the pneumatic surge of her breast.
"You make me feel like Cinderella!"
"How sweet. Drink up." He signaled the waiter for two
more doubles.
From the salad through the entree he kept up a steady
patter that kept her mmd off the fact that she was drinking
as much or more than she was eating.
Over dessert. Carter disdained coffee and ordered
brandy instead.
They had been seated a minute or two after seven. At
8:05 he signed the check, rose, and reached for her hand.
She never realized that she had been so whisked through a
dinner.
He held her up all the way back to bungalow nine. By
the time they got inside she was walking on the sides of her
shoes instead of the heels.
'Ihe moment they were in the door, Carter got amorous.
His hands worked at her hips, tugging her close.
"Ohhh, what a tiger!" Her voice diPIEd low on the last
word and roughened sexily. She tried to say more, but gave
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up when her tongue got twisted up in her teeth. Instead,
she tried to drill two holes through his chest with her
breasts.
"Why don't you run into the bedrcx)ln and get sexy.
darlin'„ while I fix us a little nightcap?"
"Oh, I don't know if 1 can handle-—
"Sure you can."
She staggered away and the Killmaster hit the wet bar.
He poured himself a glass of water, then swallowed a cape
sule recently developed by the AXE medicos that worked
wonders to quickly neutralize the effects of much
booze inbibed in a hurry.
Two minutes later he walked into the bedroom, a glass
in each hand. "Here we are!"
She had managed to get her dress off and that was all.
At that point she had collapsed across the bed.
Carter discarded the glasses and efficiently divested her
of the rest of her clothing. When she was naked, he slipped
her body under the sheet and returned to the sitting room.
There were two sets of keys in her purse. He mxketed
both of them and slipped from the bungalow.
Minutes later he was using a jimmy to the rear
French doors of Eugenie's office. Using a penlight, he
went directly to the file drawer he had spotted earlier.
The third key he tried orrned the drawer. Quickly he
fingered through the folders until he located the corporate
tax return for the previous year.
He found what he wanted on page twenty of the return:
property taxes paid on two islands called Big Rock and
Little Rock.
He replaced the folder and locked the drawer. On a wall
map he traced the. route that Santiago's fishermen had
given for Marcus ahd the Lilly: around Scrub Island and on
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north, he would have hit the tiny Rock Islands.
129
Carter was willing to trt a month's pay that he had his
route.
nere were three keys on Eugenie's second ring. One
was to room 419 in the hotel. The other two belonged to a
Ford, and there was a small tag with the license number on
the ring.
Jt ten minutes of prowling the parking lot before he
found a gray Mustang that matched the tag.
He hit the East End section with five minutes to spare
before nine o'clock.
When the car was parked and locked. Caner hurried
down the promenade that ran along the piers of the marina.
There was very little sound except the lapping of the water
and music from a hotel up the beach. Somewhere to his
left. probably on a boat, a woman began to laugh. The
laughter was strident and breathy, as though she were being
tickled.
men he spotted the right number. Ten steps out onto the
pier. Santiago apfrared like a out of the darkness.
'*Ihis way!"
The boat was low in the water, fast and sleek, perfect
for their needs. From a console the two bucket
seats, Santiago produced a nautical map of the islands.
"Here," Carter said. "They're called Big Rock and Lit-
tle Rock."
The engine roared to life. and seconds later they were
lurching through the opening in the stone breakwater to-
ward the open sea.
"There," Carter called, "through those bending trees. a
It was imƻssibie in the darkness to see any with
the naked eye. But with the night glasses, one of the masts




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and a portion of the Lilly's gleaming white side was distin-
guishable.
'SHe's making sail," Santiago said, handing Carter the
glasses.
The Killmaster refocused for his own eyes and trained
the glasses. He saw a single man on the aft deck, and then
the Lilly was moving.
"He's coming out," Carter hissed. "Over you go."
Both men had already donned the wet suits, masks, and
flippers. Santiago had strapped one of the small-tank scuba
rigs onto his back. The words were scarcely out of Carter's
mouth when the man rolled over the side and quickly dis-
appeared.
Carter let the launch idle him further around the island.
When the Lilly, already out of the cove, was out of sight,
he upped the throttle just enough to give him about five
knots, and entered the fairly wide channel the two
islands.
When he figured he was just orpsite where the Lilly
had been moored on the other side of Big Rock, he killed
the engine and dropped anchor.
Then, standing up in the boat, not giving a damn
his silhouette against the moonless gray night sky, he
slipped into the scuba tank. When it was secure and the air
mixture was right, he slipped into the crystal-clear water.
It was about two hundred yards to the sandy beach. He
came up only once for bearings. His feet hit bottom twenty
yards out and he kicked off the flippers. When the water
was just below his knees, he dashed for\he thick under-
growth and trees. Once there, he shed the tank and took a
bearing off the bobbing boat behind him. Shod with
sneakers he had attached to his utility belt, he struck off
inland.
The island was like a one-humped camel with the spine
KILLING GAMES
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131
running the long way. It was hard going uphill, and then,
over the hump, hard to keep a slow pace going down the
other side.
He could see the ocean again when, about halfway
down, the thick foliage began to thin out. Moments later he
spotted a clearing to his left and veered that way.
Ihen he saw it, shrouded by the trees: a small, one-
story stucco job with an honest-to-god tin roof. Smoke
belched from a stovepqx at one end, and a water tank had
been erected at the other. There wasn't a sign of an electric
wire or a telephone line.
Primitive living at its best. Caner thought, but one hell
of a place to hide.
From where he stood, a path led directly down to the
house. Without worrying about noise, he started down. He
was counting on the fact that Cory Howard already knew
he was there, so the man wouldn't shoot his visitor without
identifying him first,
Carter left the path when it petered out at the narrow
clearing around the house. He was just approaching the
front door, when a flash came on behind him, fully outlin-
ing him in its glare.
"Keep the hands where they can be seen, no quick
moves. Turn around very slowly. "
Carter did. "Hello, Cory."
"Hello, Nick. I thought it was you."
"It's been a long hunt, Cory," the Killmaster said,
barely making out the Walther held steady in the man's
hand. "Not thinking of shooting me after I've worked so
hard, are you?"
"I don't shoot oid friends, Nick. You know that."
lees talk."
"Afraid not. I'm leaving soon. I'm afraid you've come
for nothing. Inside."
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"I may be able to help."
O'Don't think so. You're loose, Nick, but you've still got
to battle bureaucratic red tape. I don't."
' 'Cory.. i" Carter a step forward.
"Don't do it, Nick. I won't kill you, but I'll put a slug
where it hurts. Inside."
Carter turned and walked to the door. It was an old-
fashioned latch. He lifted it and walked into the single
large room. He could•tell Howard had followed him by the
degree of light. In the center of the room he tumed.
"There's a humcane lamp, there, to your right," How-
ard said, dancing his beam that way,
Suddenly a materialized from the darkness tEhind
Howard against the wall. It moved quickly, without a
sound. One arrn went around Howard's neck, lifting him.
The other knocked his gun hand down with a savage chop.
The Walther clattered to the wooden floor.
Cory Howard struggled, but the arm at his neck and the
knee in his back held him like a vise.
"His name is Santiago, Cory. You and I are good, but
when it comes to a backup and night fighting, he's the
best."
"Jesus ... "
"Care to talk now, Cory? I'm in this as deep as you are,
and I want out."
*Ihe big man sighed• deeply and ncxided. "Oh, what the
hell. Let's talk."
Carter lit the hurricane lamp.
"so," Caner said at last, after an hour of hearing
Cory Howard out, "your initial reaction was that you
were double-crossed and fingered?"
Howard nodded: '"That's it. I mean, they obviously
wanted Marcel Longchamp dead. I jumped to the conclu-
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Sion that the head of StarFire, Denis Jeansoulin, had fin-
gered us. Hell. he was the only one I called to pick
Longchamp up."
"But when Jeansoulin blew his brains out, you changed
your mind and started digging."
"Right," Howard replied. "And it a lot of digging,
right on through about seven holding companies, until I
found out that the principal ownership of StarFire went to
Sir Charles Martin. Then, when Jeansoulin's secretary was
appointed interim president of the company, I knew who
had really fingered Lilly and me."
"Still a little thin to go after a fish as big as Sir
Charles," Caner said, pouring them both fresh brandies.
"True, but Lilly gave me another solid clue before she
died. The night I took her and Jova out, we had an M16
contact in Subotica. Yugoslavia. He debriefed me and in-
terviewed Lilly before he arranged transport for us to Lon-
don. His name was Wolf Longbone. Many moons ago.
Wolf caught a knife in the throat in West Berlin. He healed,
but it left him with a strange, very hoarse way of
It's like he can't get enough air to get his words out. Lilly
swore to me it was Longbone who ran the raid the night
she and Longchamp bought it."
Carter stayed calm. There would be time enough to in-
form Howard that it was ten to one Wolf Longbone was
Rita Lyon's killer. 'Go on."
"Do you remember my old secretary at M16, Caroline
Carter shook his head. "I never met her."
"Well, when I left. she was assigned to Sir Phillip
Avery. After a year or so, she was shoved into the tunnel. "
"Records?" Carter asked,
"Yeah. I contacted her a few days ago. She's on my
side, and one reason is, she thinks Avery is playing some




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pretty weird games with M16 economic intelligence."
"Like passing it on to someone who could profit highly
from it?"
"Exactly," Howard said, nodding. "Everything live
found points to Sir Charles, but it's bloody hard to prove.
The man is so insulated with wealth and layers of legal
shelters, he's practically imm)ssible to pin anything on."
"So you decided to draw him out into the OFn with an
extortion bit. Not smart. Cory."
Howard smiled, almost a leer. '9011? You're here, aren't
"Touché," Caner said. "More on that later. What about
Caroline Minor and this Longbone character?"
"When Wolf Longbone left the agency, he started a pri-
vate security company, Protec Limited. They 0}xrate out of
London, and they specialize in corporations operating in
Third-World countries. Once again it a lot of digging,
but I found out that Protec is owned by a large holding
company in Geneva."
"And that holding company," Carter finished, "is con-
trolled by Sir Charles Martin."
"Bingo. I also discovered that, wherever Protec OE*r-
ated„ a lot of important people died or A lot
of companies, like StarFire, suddenly came under Sir
Charles's Geneva corporations."
Carter stood and began to pace. "So it would that
the glue, or proof, if we can get it, is Wolf Longbone."
"Right. I had Caroline dig up everything in the M16
records that Longbone had anything to do •ith or even had
his name on. Right away she came up with an interesting
little item. Longbone, even retired from the agency, still
had total access to Records."
Carter froze. "That•s a hell of a breach of security. "
"And more. His authorization came from Sir Phillip
KILLING GAMES
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135
Avery. I asked Caroline to feed everything about Longbone
into a computer and try to come up with a pattern. I got
word tonight that she has come up with something that
might be the key. That's why I was leaving for London."
Carter sighed and slumped back into the chair. "That's
not going to easy."
"I know, but I've come too far to stop now."
'Granted. What about those two international detec-
tives, Guido Narboni and Jules Lafaye?"
S They're scum, anything for a buck."
"Did you kill them in Paris?"
Howard nodded. "Had to. I can't prove it, but I'd bet
anything Longbone sent them after me. I was getting too
close to Henri Liard."
Here Carter leaned forward until their faces were only
inches apart. He told Howard in detail about Otto Luder-
man and Rita Lyon.
"Dammit!" the other man gasped, slamming the fist of
one hand into the palm of the other. 'That proves it. Every-
one who helped lead you to me was whiffed right after you
got the lead. That's it, Nick—once you reached me they
were to waste the both of us!" Suddenly Howard's face lost
a couple of shades of color. "Are you sure you didn't lead
them here?"
"Positive. I figured out who was feeding them my
movements."
"I'm listening."
"Our man Hutchins in CIA is thick as thieves with
Avery. Only the two of them handled Sir Charles's intelli-
gence. When I was given this mission, I was to contact no
one else, none of our people nor M16. They also saddled
me with an agent from Sir Phillip's office. Tell me, Cory,
what you can about Sharon Purdue."
What color was left in Cory Howard's face drained
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away and he slumped further into the chair. "Oh, no. She
was assigned to help you hunt for me?"
"That's right. Seems she was very close to you at one
time."
Now the gnn returned, lopsided and sardonic. "Righto,
that she was. Sharon is a very ambitious woman. She is
also the most nationalistic person I've ever known."
How SO
"All for Queen and Country, no matter what. If she had
her way, Nick, the empire would have never folded.
What's more. she would wipe out a third of the world to
get the empire back. She's got tunnel vision—anything
that's good for England is good for the world."
"That's a dangerous person," Carter growled. "lhe kind
who sees a Communist under every rock and shoots before
asking questions."
"That's Sharon. "
"But would you say she is honest?"
'Ohs yes." Howard said, "she's blind, but she's honest.
Sir Phillip Avery is just like her. If he told her to blow up
Whitehall because of Communist infiltration, she would do
it because she would think it was right."
Carter leaned back and lit a fresh cigarette. "That an-
swers a lot of questions."
lhe Killmaster fell into a mood of intense concentra-
tion. Cory Howard saw and recognized the mood. He
could almost hear the wheels turning in Carter's mind, and
kept his silence.
And turning they were.
Sir Charles, Sir Phillip, and John Hutchins had formed a
little intelligence triumverate: you pat our back, we'll pat
yours. Was it all for personal gain, or were they all doing
what they were doing for their respective nations?
And what was the key that held them together?
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Mines mining ... metals precious industrial met-
als...
That had to be it, Carter thought.
'Cory," he said at last, "we're getting out of here. I'll
see your Caroline Minor in England. I want you to try
again for this Henri Liard in Paris. But first I want you to
send another extortion threat to Sir Charles. Tell him that
you are narrowing in, that you are extending the deadline.
I'll inform Hutchins in Washington that I've missed you
but I'm still close. I'll say I've tracked you to Rio or some-
where in South America. That should throw them off for a
bit."
"You'll only have a few hours in London," Howard re-
plied cryptically. "That's home ground for Longbone. He'll
have the city covered like the proverbial blanket."
"I know. I'll just have to use every minute the best I
can."
"Nick : '
"l think we're coming to the same conclusions. What if
Sir Charles is using Avery and Hutchins to build his own
"It could be that Avery and Hutchins are using Sir
Charles to feather their own nests and further their own
philosophies."
Howard sighed and stood. "Or both."
"Or both," Carter agreed.
"What then? What if we don't get enough proof to push
it all upstairs?"
"Then," Carter said, "I turn you loose."









TWELVE
The next twenty-four hours would a sleepless night-
mare.
Using the launch, Santiago femed them back to the iso-
lated west end of Tortola, where Lufs Pedroza was still
hanging around in of picking up cargo, human or
otherwise.
"Santo Domingo? Hell, yes."
Price was settled. and Carter penned a note to Eugenie
begging her forgiveness for stealing off in the dead of
night: emergency business in the form of a new oil find in
one of his Texas fields.
Santiago would retum the launch, her car, and plant a
note in bungalow nine. He would also gather Carter's
things and place the bag under the name of MacSweeney
on a London flight. Then he would present another note to
Alex Marcus penned by Howard. Marcus would see that
Santiago got back to San Juam
They hit Santo Domingo in the Dornvican Republic
around nine in the morning, just in time to catch a flight to
New York.
"What makes you think they won't watching Ken-
nedy?" Howard asked.
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139
"l don't," Carter growled, "but these marbles are all in
England now, since they don't know if I made contact with
you or not. My guess is they'll watch Heathrow and Gat-
wick."
*Ihat night they boarded the Concorde for Paris, where
they split up, Howard to run down Henri Liard and put him
on the griddle, Carter by train to the NATO airbase outside
Brussels.
It was a long, roundabout, and time-consuming route,
but Carter felt it would give him a few precious hours in
London he was spotted.
At first, General Mark Seever, head of NATO air com-
mand in Bnrssels, wasn't too happy about putting a jet at
Carter's disposal. A phone call to Hawk and then the Pen-
tagon changed his mind.
Two hours later, Carter landed at the military section of
Birmingham's Midlands Airport wearing the uniform and
double bars of a captain in the U.S.A.E He taxied off the
base and changed into workingman's clothing in the Brit-
Rail men's 100.
The wait for a train into Victoria Station was less than
an houn Carter slept all the way, and left the train to imme-
diately be swallowed up in the rush-hour crowd.
Wearily he moved around the huge structure several
times before coming to a halt at the airport transfer area.
He waited while a man with a flat Midland's accent
claimed three bags, and then stepped forward and gave the
woman behind the counter his identification.
"MacSweeney. Colin MacSweeney. I had a bag for-
warded here from Heathrow."
"One moment, sir." It seemed an eternity, but at last she
returned. "There you are, sir. That'll be four pounds
twenty."
Carter paid her and hit the street. He passed several taxi
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045