"How did they become drugged?" Waverly asked.
"It's a long story, sir. It had better wait for my full report. The bakery plant at Pig Wallow has burned down. Or, more accurately, is burning down, because the fire still going. Boris Rank, Anton Radak, Dorcus Elias and four other THRUSH agents are lying in the mud in the street in Pig Wallow, unconscious from chloral hydrate."
"Indeed," Waverly said with mild surprise.
"When I get to Barth, I will inform the sheriff's department so that they can be picked up. I will also ask them to rush a loud-speaker system to Pig Wallow."
"A loud-speaker system, Miss Dancer? Whatever for?"
"The villagers are all standing in the street singing ta-ra-ra-ra-boom-de-ay at the tops of their voices, sir," April said. "They will continue singing until they drop from exhaustion unless ordered to stop, and the only way an order could be heard is over a loud-speaker."
After a moment of silence, Waverly said, "Your report gets curiouser and curiouser, as Alice in Wonderland said, Miss Dancer. As a matter of fact, your reports frequently remind me of Alice in Wonderland. I suppose that when you make your full report, you will have a reasonable explanation for all the chaos you seem to have created in Pig Wallow."
"Yes, sir."
I think I will "wait for your full report. My understanding of what you have been up to has already passed the point of credence."
“April said.”I hope to back in New York some time tomorrow."
Dancer pushed down the antenna, replaced the communicator in her purse and took out her compact. Opening it, she stared into the mirror. An expression of horror grew on her face.
She made immediate repairs before starting the helicopter engine.
One week later April, Slate, Randy Kovac and Waverly were seated in Mr. Waverly's office. Mr. Waverly was summarizing a long written report he had just received from the investigative team he had sent to Pig Wallow.
"The baking plant was totally destroyed by fire," Waverly said. "Nothing remained but a heap of ashes. There have been no further deaths and all residents of Pig Wallow, including Mrs. Rooney, have now fully recovered from the effects of the drug."
"What's the status of the THRUSH people?" Mark Slate asked.
Waverly skimmed through the pages of the report until he found the proper section. "Boris Rank and Dorcus Elias are being held in the county jail on charges of murder---the fourteen deaths resulting from Z-seventeen, of course. Anton Radak, Kurt Shill, Josef Donner and young Betz are charged with conspiracy to commit murder. The helicopter pilot, Chance Mott, is being charged only as an accessory."
April said, "Even if they don't end up in the gas chamber, they all should be out of circulation for a long time."
Randy Kovac said, "What I don't understand is why Miss Dancer is immune to the drug. Nobody else seems to be."
"Funeral director Myron Stoyle was," Slate reminded him. "And he had been ingesting Z-seventeen daily for a month."
"Oh, yeah," Randy said. "The guy with the migraine headaches."
A knock came at the door and Waverly told the knocker to come in. Sam Clifford of U.N.C.L.E.'s research lab stepped quickly into the room.
"We've hit on an antidote for Z-seventeen, sir," he said to Waverly. "If THRUSH ever tries to distribute the drug again, we can broadcast a general warning and tell people to lay in a supply of the antidote from their nearest drugstore."
Waverly hiked his eyebrows. "Is the antidote that easily available?"
Sam Clifford grinned. "It's one of the most easily available drugs on the market, sir. It's nothing but common aspirin."
The Deadly Drug Affair Page 12