The Mysterious Ambassador

by Lee Falk

  So they talked and dozed and ate, and with every flying hour, the Bangalla adventure seemed more unreal. A stewardess gave Diana an orange (airline issue) shirt so she could discard Bababu's jacket. Alec received a similar gift from the pilot, since his own torn shirt remained on the ground in Bababu's tent. All of them were returning with nothing but the clothes on their backs and whatever remained in their pockets. All the rest—clothes, equipment, records, cameras, gifts and mementoes—had floated down the river on The Belch. The only exception was the parting gift Diana received from high chief Wambato, the antique necklace that ancient tradition said King Solomon had given to the Queen of Sheba. Treasuring it, Diana carried it in her purse and managed to save it.

  On their arrival at John F. Kennedy Airport, the team was greeted by a full representation of the press, TV and radio, plus hundreds of curious spectators. Their experiences in the war-torn country had been reported daily to the entire nation and around the world. Now they were home safe—a good story with a happy ending. A pretty girl always gets more than ordinary attention. Diana Palmer, as the glamorous Olympic champion, alone in the primeval jungle with all those men, had excited the public's imagination. As she descended the plane ramp, there were shouts of "there she is" and the crowd rushed toward her. A cordon of police was needed to protect her from the friendly crowd.

  They faced the cameras and reporters briefly. As befits a diplomat, Cari remained discreetly in the background. Alec Kirk spoke for the team. Cari had told him that a full report must be made to the UN Secretariat, following which would be a press conference. So, in response to the shouted questions in the noisy airport, Kirk stated only that the epidemic had ended, and that both Lamanda Luaga and the lost rescue team were alive and well somewhere in Bangalla. He had particularly mentioned the pilots Lanston and Osborne, because of the promise made in the Deep Woods, so their families would know. That brief statement—Luaga and the puots alive—was enough to make headlines around the world. Diana was besieged with questions, but she only smiled and refused to talk. Then die teams pushed through the crowd and were whisked away in waiting limousines.

  The doctors' families were waiting for them in New York City. Diana spent the weekend with her mother and uncle in their palatial home in Westchester, a suburb of the city, and it was a happy reunion for all of them. After the weekend, the team reported to their superiors at the UN skyscraper, then faced the press conference. At Diana's insistence, none of them mentioned either the Phantom or the pygmies. The hideout of Luaga and the pilots must remain secret, for if Bababu had any inkling of the truth, even the poison people could not stand up against his tanks and big guns.

  They described their work during the epidemic, their encounter with guerilla bands, but made no mention of the morning in Bababu's tent. This was done at Cari's insistence. Bababu still had to be dealt with. Bangalla had been much in the news for the last few days. The team's dramatic story had brought the remote little country into the news, both in America and Europe. Now, it was reported, sporadic fighting had broken out again in the capital. Diana and Cari and the doctors read this report with amazement and delight. It seemed, said the news item, that the resurgence of fighting in the streets of Mawitaan had been started by the rescue of a prominent farmer named Jotando from an execution squad. Following the rescue and disappearance of said farmer Jotando, Bababu's soldiers searched the area for him, and, in doing so, provoked local supporters of Lamanda Luaga. The fighting began all over again. The team was happy—their little friend was alive. It was not hard to guess who had rescued him.

  The doctors then separated to go their various ways for a well-earned two weeks' vacation. Diana returned to Westchester, but was called back to the UN Secretariat building two days later. The Secretary-General himself wished to see her. An amazing decision had been made high in the tower overlooking the East River.

  Bangalla's neighbors, some of them UN members, were troubled by the civil war. It was spilling across their borders. Thousands of refugees were fleeing Bababu's troops; guerilla fighters, bands of deserters, were terrorizing the countryside. The neighbors wanted peace in Bangalla. They had been ready to accept Bababu's coup and his dictatorship. Now, with this latest news that Luaga still lived (making a liar out of Ba- babu) they realized the trouble would continue. There were speeches in the General Assembly demanding action by the UN, preferably by diplomacy. If that failed, UN troops were available.

  Cari conferred with the Secretary-General, an eminent Asian who now headed the United Nations. The Secretary-General would use UN troops only as a last resort. They must use diplomacy to attempt to bring peace there. Cari ruled himself out. He felt his personal relationship with Bababu, mutual dislike, hatred was the word Cari used, made it impossible for him to return. Whom to send? People resented outsiders. Wasn't there a local man with enough influence to be useful, some prominent person on the scene who could be trusted, who could work for a truce and an end to the fighting? Cari considered. He could think of only one man. Yes, there was such a man. His name? Cari didn't know his name. Who did? Diana Palmer knew him. Ah, the pretty member of the medical team. Precisely. Send for Diana Palmer.

  So Diana found herself in the elegant oflice of the Secretary-General. They explained. Did she think her friend, still unnamed, could be useful in this delicate situation? Yes, she told them enthusiastically. If any man could do anything in that unhappy country, he could.

  "Good," said the Secretary-General. He held a pen in his hand. "His name?"

  Diana thought for a moment. There was a name he used.

  "Walker," she said.

  "Oh, British?" said the Secretary-General.

  "No, born in Bangalla," said Diana.

  "First name?"

  Walker—she knew was merely a name standing for the Ghost Who Walks. There had once been a first name—the first name of all first-born males of the Phantom line—Kit. A name discarded by him long ago.

  "I don't know his first name," she said.

  "How can we reach him?"

  There was a post-office box number in Bangalla for this Mr. Walker. Diana gave it to him.

  The Secretary-General looked at the name and address.

  "What does this man do?"

  What does the Phantom do, she thought. A difficult question to answer. Then she remembered something.

  "He works with the jungle people. Settling disputes. They call him the 'Keeper of the Peace'."

  "An arbitrator? Perfect!" said the Secretary-General enthusiastically.

  "Just the sort of man we want."

  Diana and Cari looked at each other and grinned. The Secretary-General could never visualize this arbitrator clearing the decks of The Belch or mopping up the band of deserters. The Secretary-General wrote quickly, then handed the paper to Cari.

  "Please cable this at once," he said.

  "May I see it?" asked Diana.

  Mr. Walker, Box 7, Mawitaan. Will you serve as UN Ambassador to Bangalla to bring peace and legality? Advise Sec. Gen. UN.

  The Secretary-General looked at Cari and Diana shrewedly over his silver-framed glasses.

  "I used the word 'legality' advisedly," he said. "It is not our function to interfere in the internal affairs of any nation. However, it is the hope of our interested member nations that the legally elected government of Lamanda Luaga be restored. I hope your Mr. Walker can read between the lines and understand this."

  "I'm quite sure he can, sir," said Diana, knowing that the missing Luaga was in "Mr. Walker's" cave. As she turned to leave, she remembered something. "I haven't seen the papers for a few days. When we left Mawitaan, the congress was held prisoner by Bababu. He was forcing them to vote him president."

  "You recall that incident of the farmer Jotando rescued from Bababu's execution squad," said Cari. "And the fighting that followed? In all the confusion, the legislators slipped out and went home. Right after that, news of your press conference reached Bangalla—that

  Luaga was alive.
Bababu denied this, but not many believed him."

  "Do you think Luaga has a chance?" she asked, looking at the Secretary-General. He sighed, a veteran of many wars, civil and uncivil.

  "Bababu has the power. Luaga has the people. Who knows! It is difficult. The odds favor Bababu."

  He stood at his desk, indicating the meeting was over. Diana paused at the door.

  "If you hear from Mr. Walker, I mean, when you hear from him, could you tell me what he says?"

  The Secretary-General smiled and nodded.

  Two days later, the answer came, a brief cablegram.

  Sec. Gen. UN NY. I accept. Walker.

  Cari read it to her over the phone.

  "He's a man of few words," he said. "A man of action."

  "Yes," said Diana.

  When the Phantom left Diana at the airport, he hurried back to Ambassador Cari's hotel. Hearing it, he had to take a roundabout way, because the streets were filled with sporadic gunfire. As the medical team was to learn a few days later, the Phantom's rescue of Jotando from the execution detail had started it. A truckful of soldiers found the vehicle with the three unconscious soldiers in it. They began a house-to-house search for the missing prisoner. The area was filled with angry Luaga supporters. The sniping began from alleys, rooftops, and shuttered windows. The soldiers took cover behind cars, telephone posts, and doorways. And the battle was on. The street fighting spread from one district to another. Grenades and plastic bombs were added to the rifle fire. Crowds began to riot, smashing storefronts, looting shops known to support Bababu. It took a week for Bababu's troops to bring an uneasy quiet to the city.

  During the confusion, the Phantom reached the farmer Jotando and got out of town with him. The Phantom sped their departure by "requisitioning" a military vehicle he found along the road. Two of Bababu's soldiers were in it at the time. He "evicted" them, leaving them peacefully sleeping in the grass at the side of the road. This was war, and the Phantom was in a hurry. With Jotando, he raced deep into the jungle, as far as the dirt road would permit, then went on by foot to a hidden corral. Here, the great white stallion Hero waited, tended by a faithful young friend, Loro of the Llongo. While the Phantom discarded his outer city clothes, Loro saddled and bridled Hero. Then they raced off into the jungle, with Jotando seated behind the Phantom on Hero's powerful back. Devil, the giant mountain wolf, ran alongside them. They

  passed through Wambesi and Llongo country, on the shadowy narrow jungle paths.

  Many heard the thundering hooves in the night and knew who it was, and in the early dawn a few lucky ones had a glimpse of the great white stallion and his riders. In the jungle, such sights can be exaggerated in the retelling, and soon some were describing Hero's flight above the treetops with his mighty master, who had assumed the guise of two men. Only the children really believed this, but their elders liked the idea and found it picturesque. It would go down in the folklore—a two-bodied Phantom sailing above the treetops on the flying horse, accompanied by the fire-breathing wolf.

  They rode for two days and nights, stopping only at brief intervals to rest the men and animals. All the beasts of the jungle gave them a clear path. None, including the big cats, wished to test themselves against the sharp hooves of Hero and the long fangs of Devil. Soon the distant sound of the waterfall grew louder and louder, and they were home. The Deep Woods.

  Luaga and his delegation, and the pilots Lanston and Osborne, greeted him with mixed happiness and anxiety. The pilots were relieved to hear their families knew they were alive and safe. Luaga and his three friends had followed the news reports on the radio in the Skull Cave. Luaga was anxious to return to Mawitaan to lead his followers against Bababu. The Phantom was against that idea. Bababu's troops were smashing the city rebellion. The tyrant held the country ^in a strong, if hated, grip.

  "You are a healer, not a soldier," the Phantom told Luaga. "When the time comes, you will be needed to heal what Bababu has torn and destroyed."

  Luaga agreed, but believed the time had come, that the longer he waited, the stronger Bababu's hold would become and the weaker his own followers would become. Onato Omu, the lawyer, agreed with the Phantom. Wait. The other delegations agreed with Luaga. So they argued and discussed. It was then that a message arrived from the outside world that tabled the argument. The UN Secretary-General's cablegram to the Phantom.

  Messages from the outside reached the Phantom by various means. First, there was the postal box in the post office in Mawitaan. Box 7. Each day, a young man wearing sneakers, trousers, and a shirt arrived on his bicycle at the post office. At the postal window, he would inquire about mail for "Mr. Walker" in box 7. For years, the postal clerks had wondered about this Mr. Walker. None of them had ever seen him, as far as they knew. On this day, there was a message for Mr. Walker, a cablegram from New York.

  "Who is Mr. Walker?" asked the clerk, handing the envelope to him.

  "He is—Mr. Walker," said Loro grinning. This was the same young man who tended the hidden corral.

  "But where does he live?" shouted the clerk, leaning over the counter and Loro ran to the door.

  "Out there," called Loro, waving his hand at the outside world. The clerk cursed mildly as Loro ran out laughing.

  Loro then bicycled to the edge of town, at the fringe of the jungle, to his father's chicken farm. His father, Lorando, was a long-time friend of the Phantom, who had helped him start this prosperous hatchery. Lorando judged the importance of the message and the speed required for delivery. Some messages were relayed by talking drums. This was fairly fast, but sometimes inaccurate. Errors could occur in the transmission from one drum to another. A slower, surer method was by relay runner or pigeon to the edge of the Big Swamp. Here, an old man tended a half-dozen chimpanzees who were trained to carry a pouch over one shoulder and to swing through the trees over the Big Swamp to the Deep Woods. This was the Monkey Mail, a slower but surer method. There was one more method, the fastest, but used only rarely. Fraka, the Phantom's falcon. Lorando the chicken farmer recognized that this cablegram from afar required Fraka. The fierce, medium-sized hawk lived in his own quarters among the chicken houses. The message was rolled in a light tube, and affixed to Fraka's leg. The cage

  was opened and Fraka leaped into the air, gaining speed like a rocket. In a few moments, he was gone, out of sight beyond the treetops. There was nothing in the sky that dared an encounter with Fraka, and he sped on, soon diving to his perch near the skull throne.

  Mr. Walker. Box 7. Mawitaan. Will you serve as UN Ambassador to Bangalla to bring peace and legality.

  Advise. Sec. Gen. UN.

  The Phantom handed the message to the others.

  "This must have been Cari's idea," said the Phantom. "With Diana's help. No one else knows my address."

  "That word 'legality' gives you a good deal of room," said Lanston.

  "I imagine that was the intention," said Luaga. "Will you accept?"

  "You are the President," said the Phantom. "What do you want me to do?"

  "Thank you for that," said Luaga, smiling bitterly. "The title is almost meaningless now."

  "Not to millions of people who trust you as their best hope," said the Phantom.

  "Yes," said Luaga. "And how am I answering that hope? Hiding here."

  "The wise man picks his own time to fight, on the battlefield of his own choosing. I think that is what you will do," said the Phantom.

  "Your confidence is marvelous, a real tonic," said Luaga. "Yes, I want you to accept the UN appointment. Also, I wish to return and lead my followers."

  The Phantom considered for a moment. A daring plan was forming in his mind. The others watched. It was hard to know what was going on behind his mask.

  "Wait a little while longer," he said at last. "I will go back to Mawitaan, for a quick survey, then return here for you."

  "Yes, if that is what you wish," said Luaga. "But I don't know how a quick survey can change anything."

  "You never know," said
the Phantom.

  After a meal on the ground before the skull throne, he leaped up on Hero and sped off, followed by Devil.

  "He's got some plan. I wonder what?" said Onato Omu.

  "Whatever it is, we'll be leaving here soon," said Luaga.

  "I can hardly tear myself away," said Lanston, grinning.

  "I wonder what the mighty General Bababu is thinking about these days," said Osborne. "After announcing that we were all dead, Kirk told the world we're alive and kicking. Bababu must feel kind of foolish."