Matt Helm--The Interlopers

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Matt Helm--The Interlopers Page 25

by Donald Hamilton


  We faced each other for a moment in silence, sorting out the questions that could be asked and answered from the ones that couldn’t. There was, of course, no eager comparing of professional notes on the job just past. I didn’t inquire as to precisely what her mission had been, or even whether or not it had been successfully completed. My hunch was that, in spite of having her cover blown, she must have managed to pull it off somehow, whatever it was, or Mac wouldn’t have sent me here to cheer her up. He wasn’t much fonder of failures than Moscow or Peking.

  Ellen gave me a lopsided grin. “It’s all right. I’ll get over it, they tell me.”

  I said, “In about two weeks, I hope.”

  “Why two weeks?”

  “I’m going hunting,” I said. “But I’ll be back.”

  “Hunting!” She sounded shocked and at the same time amused. “Talk about your busman’s holiday! Or do you mean you’ve got another job—”

  I said firmly, “Hunting, like with a shotgun. I have a friend, a black, four-legged friend, who’s earned a reward for services rendered. I—” I stopped and cleared my throat. “I’m going to have to give him back pretty soon. I’m hardly in a position to keep a pet. But in the meantime… well, he’s a damn nice pup, and he’s had a long, dull trip. And while you may turn on with beautiful music, or LSD, he turns on with ducks. I’ve got nothing against birds, these days, but if ducks are what he wants, ducks are what he gets. Okay?”

  She gave me her crooked smile again. “Okay. Two weeks. I’ll try to be presentable by that time… Oh, Matt.”

  “Yes.”

  “I shouldn’t ask, but I did work on it, and I feel I deserve… I mean, after all, it almost got me killed. Just what is the Northwest Coastal System, anyway?”

  I put a stern look on my face. “Do you have a need to know, Miss Blish?” I asked and grinned as she stuck out her tongue at me.

  Then I stopped grinning and her face grew serious and we studied each other for a long moment, knowing exactly why we’d been brought together like this: two agents, male and female, after a tough assignment. It was Mac’s idea of safe rest and rehabilitation for both of us—simpler, cheaper, and less obvious than turning the wig-pickers loose on us; and more effective if it worked.

  It worked.

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  Donald Hamilton was the creator of secret agent Matt Helm, star of 27 novels that have sold more than 20 million copies worldwide.

  Born in Sweden, he emigrated to the United States and studied at the University of Chicago. During the Second World War he served in the United States Naval Reserve, and in 1941 he married Kathleen Stick, with whom he had four children.

  The first Matt Helm book, Death of a Citizen, was published in 1960 to great acclaim, and four of the subsequent novels were made into motion pictures. Hamilton was also the author of several outstanding standalone thrillers and westerns, including two novels adapted for the big screen as The Big Country and The Violent Men.

  Donald Hamilton died in 2006.

  ALSO AVAILABLE FROM TITAN BOOKS

  The Matt Helm Series

  BY DONALD HAMILTON

  The long-awaited return of the United States’ toughest special agent.

  Death of a Citizen

  The Wrecking Crew

  The Removers

  The Silencers

  Murderers’ Row

  The Ambushers

  The Shadowers

  The Ravagers

  The Devastators

  The Betrayers

  The Menacers

  The Poisoners (December 2014)

  The Intriguers (February 2015)

  The Intimidators (April 2015)

  The Terminators (June 2015)

  TITANBOOKS.COM

  PRAISE FOR DONALD HAMILTON

  “Donald Hamilton has brought to the spy novel the authentic hard realism of Dashiell Hammett; and his stories are as compelling, and probably as close to the sordid truth of espionage, as any now being told.”

  Anthony Boucher, The New York Times

  “This series by Donald Hamilton is the top-ranking American secret agent fare, with its intelligent protagonist and an author who consistently writes in high style. Good writing, slick plotting and stimulating characters, all tartly flavored with wit.”

  Book Week

  “Matt Helm is as credible a man of violence as has ever figured in the fiction of intrigue.”

  The New York Sunday Times

  “Fast, tightly written, brutal, and very good…”

  Milwaukee Journal

  TITANBOOKS.COM

  Helen MacInnes

  A series of slick espionage thrillers from the New York Times bestselling “Queen of Spy Writers.”

  Pray for a Brave Heart

  Above Suspicion

  Assignment in Brittany

  North From Rome

  Decision at Delphi

  The Venetian Affair

  The Salzburg Connection

  Message from Málaga

  While Still We Live

  The Double Image

  Neither Five Nor Three

  Horizon

  Snare of the Hunter

  Agent in Place

  TITANBOOKS.COM

  PRAISE FOR HELEN MACINNES

  “The queen of spy writers.” Sunday Express

  “Definitely in the top class.” Daily Mail

  “The hallmarks of a MacInnes novel of suspense are as individual and as clearly stamped as a Hitchcock thriller.” The New York Times

  “She can hang her cloak and dagger right up there with Eric Ambler and Graham Greene.” Newsweek

  “More class than most adventure writers accumulate in a lifetime.” Chicago Daily News

  “A sophisticated thriller. The story builds up to an exciting climax.” Times Literary Supplement

  “An atmosphere that is ready to explode with tension… a wonderfully readable book.” The New Yorker

  TITANBOOKS.COM

  The Harry Houdini Mysteries

  BY DANIEL STASHOWER

  The Dime Museum Murders

  The Floating Lady Murder

  The Houdini Specter

  In turn-of-the-century New York, the Great Houdini’s confidence in his own abilities is matched only by the indifference of the paying public. Now the young performer has the opportunity to make a name for himself by attempting the most amazing feats of his fledgling career—solving what seem to be impenetrable crimes. With the reluctant help of his brother Dash, Houdini must unravel murders, debunk frauds and escape from danger that is no illusion…

  TITANBOOKS.COM

 

 

 


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