Matt Helm--The Interlopers
Page 25
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.
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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)
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“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.”
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Assignment in Brittany
North From Rome
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Snare of the Hunter
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