Lofty reached for his drink and began to move with a precision which bluffed even guards who had been trained to expect attack. Instead they saw a man swiftly rip off two buttons from his jacket and drop them into water. His hand then knocked over the glass, and while fluid trickled to the floor he pulled out what looked like a handkerchief, though the colour was more pale green than white, and suddenly clapped it across his face as though to cleanse his nose. Neither Grant nor the girl reacted until they felt themselves go light-headed, and as they struggled to rise from their seats the guards flopped, unconscious, one by one to the floor. Grant’s last memory was of the Australian standing above him, his voice muffled by the improvised gas-mask which protected his face.
‘I told you I could drop the lot of you any time I wanted,’ he said. ‘You can listen for about twenty seconds as from now and then you drop off. A new chemical activated by water. But fruit juice was good enough too and no one guessed that my buttons were more useful than dynamite.’
Grant heard only that last word before slithering to the floor, deeply unconscious, his head resting on the thighs of the girl beside him.
Lofty turned to the guards and lifted a stabbing knife from the nearest. He was poised to plunge it into the girl’s neck when Lu entered the room wearing a gas-mask. He was armed with a gun not easy to place and his voice was very soft. ‘Not this time, sir. Just drop that knife.’ His voice was stifled but enough came through to rock Lofty in his tracks, and as the knife fell to the thickly carpeted floor the Australian froze into total immobility.
‘Good,’ said Lu flatly. ‘And now sit down, keeping your hands on the table in front of you.’
Lofty eyed him carefully. ‘Who tipped you off?’ he said at last. ‘Who wised you up on gas?’ His face was flushed and his eyes glinting with rage.
Lu chose to ignore him. ‘One word of advice. Since you pulled that surprise over two very experienced agents you would do well to remember that any movement of any kind will now be rated as a threat, and you’ll die. Unless, of course, you are carrying out my instructions. And then,’ he said easily, ‘you might live. Might, I said. But it is a possibility. You might, really, live.’
The Australian stared at him curiously from behind the folded handkerchief. ‘Meaning?’
Lu pointed towards the sunshine. ‘We can talk in the little patio outside. It could be more comfortable than wearing this mask. So walk very slowly towards the door, stop when I touch you on the shoulder, then turn right, advance five steps and sit down on the lower of the two stone seats which have been carved out of the rock on which this thing has been built. Understand?’
The Australian followed instructions to the letter, dropped his improvised gas-mask-type handkerchief and again looked curiously towards the Mongol who had deftly released his nose-piece while he followed the Australian. Lofty was squatting close to the ground and the Mongol sitting two feet above him with the gun still pointing without a tremor in line with the Australian’s left temple. The patio was small and Lofty marked that someone had closed the outer gate. ‘You said I might live. Care to take it a bit further?’
Lu stared at him thoughtfully. ‘You know who I am?’
‘No.’ Lofty sounded convincing. ‘Only that you seem to be out on a limb while I thought you were the girl’s hatchet-man. Or am I wrong?’
The Mongol smiled slightly. ‘Half and half. I help Miss Dove up to a point: and the point is where our interests stop being the same. That point may now have been reached. Because I don’t care too much for some of her ideas. So I’m prepared to listen to you, bearing in mind that the only thing I am really interested in is the restoration of my country into one state, which means fresh treaty negotiations with both Russia and China.’
Lofty’s eyes flickered with amusement. ‘You’ve got big ideas.’
‘And a good chance of succeeding,’ said Lu shortly. ‘Because the position is now quite simple. You can let loose your old woman as a new Messiah, get your organisation to wipe out the old washed-up establishments which matter, and have your people organise fresh, revolutionary governments under Mafia control almost overnight. You would then only have to cope with the usual guerilla wars here and there, but it would be essentially simple to control everything and everyone who mattered, and for long enough to get a new set-up launched to re-establish discipline. When need for the old woman faded it seems to me that you would replace her with something more attractive: what P.R. officers say had a better public image. And you might very well have thought out the same sort of idea as Harmony Dove, using a lot of supposedly religious prostitutes operating under a goddess madame with everything angled towards people’s superstitions or fundamental desires. This could lead to both China and Russia having fresh governments virtually overnight, and you could do what you wanted with Mongolia. Who would care?’ he added caustically. ‘Who, in the West, even knows where my country is or that it actually exists? The West couldn’t care less.’
‘So if I want to live,’ interrupted Lofty, ‘I’ve to hand over the Gobi and all that to you and your buddies.’
‘Exactly.’ Lu studied him with even more care. ‘But you are a completely ruthless man and it might be only a matter of time till you decided to murder me. So,’ he added gently, ‘I would have to arrange some sort of insurance for my own future. And I figure that that could be done by your handing over your eldest son and two younger daughters for education in Asia at one of our Mongol colleges. My people would, of course, treat them as honoured guests, they would learn many of our customs, and so long as I remained alive, and experienced no trouble which could be traced to Mafia interference, they would continue to be happy. But, of course, you are a realist and know the rest. My problems would be their problems. My death would be their death—unless, for example, I died from causes which were obvious to my cabinet. Then, after a few years, when everything had settled down, your children would return to you and by that time we would have built up some sort of mutual trust enabling everyone to live more or less happily.’
‘Like Miss Dove and you,’ said Lofty gently.
Lu shrugged his shoulders indifferently. ‘We trusted one another completely—though only so long as our interests were identical and we could use one another. But I keep an open mind and I’ve already told you that I’m interested in only one ambition. If I believed that the Dove approach could be more useful in arranging a united and independent Mongolia I would never have allowed you to get the upper hand of Grant and her. I allowed it only because I knew what you would do, and that your gas would knock them out for only a few hours or so and that their lives were quite safe. They are paying a small price for enabling us to discuss business, especially when one thinks of all that is at stake.’
‘Then tell me,’ said Lofty, ‘what didn’t you like about the Dove campaign? Surely she would still have given you your Mongolia? What bothers?’
‘Only the odds.’ Lu had vaguely relaxed and Lofty guessed that the man had decided to let him live. ‘On balance I think that the Mafia has a better organisation. So you have a better chance of success and I decided to discuss matters.’
‘But do you still think so?’ asked Lofty.
The Mongol raised one cynical eyebrow. ‘Probably. The Mafia has centuries of tradition and discipline behind it while Miss Dove may be handicapped by a shortage of key men. And as a realist I prefer a group which is accustomed to using power. My own safety would be greater working with Miss Dove, but if you live to do real business with Mongolia you’ll have to pay insurance cover. And these members of your family have been chosen since I have been told that you like them best.’ He glanced at his watch. ‘We’ve got about half an hour left it you want to say anything. There’s religion, for example. I am Hinayana Buddhist and would insist on no attempts of any kind being made by the Mafia or anyone else to change the spirit or hearts of my people, so you would have to accept that and remember it very carefully.’
Lofty grinned broadly. ‘I coul
dn’t care less. And I doubt if in our lifetime communications between countries like Mongolia and the States will become so close that there would be any risk.’
‘There would be no risk for another reason,’ interrupted Lu tersely. ‘Because we would “do a Tibet” and close our frontiers for at least a decade in order to purge our people of any hang-over from communism. The only travellers across our new frontiers—which would really be our old historical borders—would be your own family and their body-guards. Or, myself,’ he added cynically, ‘since it might be necessary to have a word with you from time to time.’
Lofty was genuinely amused. ‘That would be the least of your problems. If you get Mongolia you can keep it on ice for all I care.’
‘Then my insurance policy,’ said Lu. ‘Any comments?’
Lofty kept a wary eye on Lu’s trigger-finger when he finally spoke, and he was poised for almost anything. The temperature seemed, suddenly, to have dropped and Lu was once again the man who held the aces. ‘Now hold it, Mr. Lu. I’m prepared to negotiate, but these kids are out. Though I would be ready to fix something else.’
Lu moved with an unexpected gentleness as he fixed a silencer into position and in the same five seconds slammed a bullet into the ground beside Lofty’s feet. ‘Next time your heart,’ he said, ‘and you’ve got five seconds to say yes or no. One . . . two . . . three . . .’
‘Hold it.’ Lofty’s voice was suddenly desperate. ‘I agree. Life is still sweet, and at worst these kids might die of ’flu or something any day. Maybe an earthquake, even. While I might still live. So I’ll see you. But subject to visiting them a coupla times each year.’
‘Subject to nothing,’ snarled Lu. ‘For the last time—yes or no?’ And as he spoke he fired with incredible accuracy, snicking perhaps a sixteenth inch of flesh from the lobe of the Australian’s ear.
The man sat completely rigid and measured his words. ‘You win.’
The Mongol’s face creased into a self-conscious smile. ‘You almost made me angry,’ he said. ‘And I pride myself that I am never impetuous. But we can now discuss business.’
Lofty sensed that for the moment at least he had caught Lu in a moment of rebound and his questions flashed with fantastic rapidity. The miracle was that his personality was so powerful that even Lu seemed to fall under its influence and replied off the cuff with almost equal speed.
‘Rumour says you’re Pentagon.’
‘Sure. But only to make contact with a world power which might give me what I wanted.’
‘Such as?’
‘Membership of an organisation,’ said Lu quietly. ‘That and the chance to get inside information.’
‘And when did you join them?’ Lofty was pressing his advantage. Lu was reacting differently from what he had expected, but he knew that the man was experiencing a sort of deep-down, emotional reaction and that he was willing to talk. It might even be a sort of confessional. He had worked too long alone, or in secret, thought Lofty. And now, at last, he felt some obsessive need to open up.
‘After Stalin died. That Khrushchev affair at U.N.O. brought me some official work and a credit rating, but shortly afterwards they drafted me into a section dealing with East Asia, and now I’m both its executive and administrative head.’
‘And Harmony Dove? Someone said she was also Pentagon. That right?’
‘In a way,’ said Lu. ‘America’s involved in several secret security clubs. So I daresay she has an indirect Pentagon connection.’
‘Indirect.’ Lofty had immediately seized on the word. And it explained plenty. Why she was short on manpower. Why she had roped in Grant. Why she had been forced to play a lot of the game by ear. Why she lacked the top professional contacts which could lead to direct involvement of a world power. If things went wrong Washington could claim total ignorance—as any other power would always do under the same circumstances—but this time with a sporting chance that enemy top brass might believe it. ‘So the Pentagon briefed her only when essential, gave the odd helping hand, turned a blind eye to irregularities where she was concerned, and also played it by ear. Right?’
‘I think so,’ said Lu. His voice sounded suddenly tired. ‘But there are so many things I’m not sure of.’
‘Such as?’ said Lofty curtly.
The Mongol hesitated. ‘She has been working on this for several years. As soon as first rumours of your own work began to trickle in. And she must have organised the best part of half a million supporters in fifty-plus countries. I worry in case some of them have talked too much. If Washington was able to get a line on you my own feeling is that other intelligence agencies must have marked Miss Dove. And yourself as well, for that part,’ he added. ‘Because the operations which you two have planned needed a drill almost as complicated as that for invading Europe. They are fantastic. So someone, somewhere, just must have heard at least a breath of rumour. And if these people should come from either Peking or Moscow you may be defeated before you even start.’
Lofty smiled slightly. He knew, better than the Mongol, what was meant by Mafia discipline. ‘Rumours don’t mean too much,’ he said at last. ‘And my people don’t talk. Harmony Dove was just lucky in finding a mafiosa who was hooked on dope.’
‘But how many others may have done the same thing?’ said Lu.
‘Possible,’ said the Australian at last. ‘But chances are on our side. And the balloon goes up when I touch down with the old woman.’
‘You aim to kidnap her?’ asked Lu.
‘Sure.’
‘And the crowd?’
Lofty pointed to his shoes. ‘These heels are solid chemical. And detachable. If I drop them into a bucket of water this place dies. The buttons were fairly harmless. But this other lot is lethal.’
‘And gas-masks?’ said Lu. ‘I want to be sure of everything.’
Lofty pulled out two more folded handkerchiefs. ‘One for each of us. Specially prepared. Take up no room and highly effective.’ He suddenly stared towards Lu and his manner altered when he rapped out a question. ‘How come you had a mask fixed to enter that room?’
The Mongol tensed slightly and the gun again angled direct towards Lofty’s head. ‘Because,’ he said gently, ‘you weren’t so clever as you think. I had never seen buttons of that type: or so many on a light-weight tropical suit. When we examined your possessions on your arrival they interested me and I investigated one. You see,’ he explained politely, ‘I have a lot of influence here and I am also quite well trained as a routine sort of scientist. It seemed to me that your buttons might dissolve in water. But, of course, there was no way of knowing what the effects might be, except to suppose they would be disagreeable—for other people. So we did it in a room holding two men condemned to death for murder. And you can guess the rest. We watched from outside, rather like being at the death house in old San Quentin,’ he added sarcastically. ‘Especially when the buttons began to bubble and the men dropped with almost the first sniff, though they didn’t become unconscious until a little while later. Say twenty seconds or so.’ He smiled slightly. ‘We replaced the two buttons we had taken from your cuffs, one from either side, with as good a substitute as we could collect and simply hoped that you wouldn’t notice. But at least now you know why I kept tabs on you when you were speaking to my friend. And why I arrived prepared.’
The Australian was fighting to conceal his surprise. Lu now had him guessing. And not for the first time. ‘So where do we go from here?’ he asked.
‘We go to your touchdown point,’ said Lu curtly. ‘And we go with no masks. On arrival you will then give the signal to your people. But it will be a signal with a difference, because Miss Dove will also be there, not forgetting Dr. Grant and the old lady. Miss Dove will rate as her priestess and the old Goddess will speak only when Miss Dove, David Grant or myself are around. She will read a message at the nearest television studio and the message will, in effect, order your people to do nothing but accept cancellation of all instructions, after whic
h she will then introduce Miss Dove as her reincarnated daughter. And from all other stations prepared by Miss Dove her stand-ins will also take over to issue her orders. That will guarantee minimal bloodshed, since there will then be no war between your side and mine. It will also reduce her problems and save a lot of killing. Though, naturally,’ he explained apologetically, ‘the worst of the bad men in every country will have to go. But as a Buddhist I abhor bloodshed and justify it only because I can see no other way out.’ He glanced at his watch. ‘Dr. Grant and Miss Dove will be conscious in a few moments if all goes well. And if so we shall simply collect the Mother Goddess, arrange to fly south and kill you immediately if you step out of line.’
The Australian had recovered his nerve. ‘And all that patter for the last hour. What was it in aid of?’
Lu smiled politely. ‘I wanted to see what sort of man you are. I wanted to see if there was anything still to be discovered, like your heels, for example. And I wanted to estimate your chances of success. Because, you see,’ he said slowly, ‘I am a little old-fashioned. I like good things. And as a Buddhist I like pure things. So I wanted to see if there was any reason to spare your own life; even though you have different standards of value from people like myself.’
‘And is there?’ asked Lofty softly, as he prepared for instant action. At least a man might have a fighting chance if it came to a show-down when the battle of wits suddenly ceased.
Lu shook his head. ‘You are evil. But for the moment at least your life can be safe enough. Because you are a key which could stop a lot of killings. So I shall make a bargain. If you fly to the correct place and co-operate intelligently with us you shall be given a quick bullet through the brain. But,’ he added venomously, ‘if you step one tiny bit out of line you will be crucified and each of your children will be destroyed. Understand?’
Goddesses Never Die Page 13