“Of course.” Hertz had no hesitation. “He could even kill himself if not subjected to pressure. We are dealing with a personality who does not value life. It is even possible that he might kill himself at this very moment . . . just a whim.”
Warren began pacing again. Then after a minute or so, he said, “All right, doctor. Thank you. Would you stand by, please? We could need you again.”
Understanding this was a dismissal, Hertz got to his feet.
“Do you want me to stay here or may I return to the sanatorium?”
“You can return to the sanatorium, doctor,” Warren said. It is late. I don’t think anything can happen until tomorrow.”
When Hertz had gone, Warren came back to the table and sat down.
“It is not possible for Forrester to get away?” he asked Williams.
“Not a chance. The whole district and the apartment block are sewn up tight, sir.”
“You are sure of that?”
“Yes, sir.”
Warren brooded for a moment, then said, “I would be happier if you and Captain Terrell were on the ground, making completely sure. Could I ask you gentlemen to take care of this operation?”
Both Williams and Terrell knew Warren wanted to talk to Hamilton alone. This was now a Top Secret mission, and Hamilton was of the C.I.A.
They left. When they had gone, Warren said, “Forrester is right at this moment the most important man in this country, Jesse. We must have his invention. He is talking about terms. I don’t know what he means by terms, but whatever his terms may be, we’ll have to go along with him, so long as we can be sure he will decode the formula. I have this direct from the president himself. We must handle Forrester with velvet gloves. We must have this formula.” He stared down at the polished surface of the table. “We know we are dealing with a mentally disturbed man, but according to this girl, he can and will, granted his terms, decode the formula. I have been given a free hand. There must be no slip up. Is that understood?”
“Suppose Forrester walks out of this apartment?” Hamilton asked. “What do we do?”
“He won’t. I have a feeling about that.” Warren lit a cigarette. He felt tired. He had had two meetings with the President that morning. He had had a mad rush to catch the plane that had brought him to Paradise City. He felt the load of responsibility weighing him down. “Do you know if we can reach Forrester by telephone?”
“Sure.” Hamilton flicked open his notebook. “I have the number right here.”
“Would you get it, please?” Warren stubbed out his scarcely smoked cigarette.
Hamilton told the operator to give him an outside line. When he got it, he dialled the number he had in his book. As soon as the ringing tone sounded, Warren took the receiver from him.
There was some delay, then a click. A man said, “Yes?”
“Dr. Forrester?” Warren asked, his voice level and steady.
“This is Dr. Forrester.”
This is Mervin Warren. How are you, Paul?”
A long pause, then Forrester said, “Oh . . . I suppose . . . yes . . . I’m all right. When do we meet?”
“I’m just back from Washington. The President sends you his regards, Paul,” Warren said. “He wanted to know . . .”
“When do we meet?” the flat, cold voice interrupted.
“I can come over right away.”
“Miss Jacey has told you of my conditions?” Forrester said. “You are to come alone. That is understood?”
“Yes . . . of course.”
“Then I will wait for you,” and Forrester hung up.
Warren pushed back his chair and stood up.
“He wants to see me alone.”
Hamilton looked alarmed.
“He could be violent, sir,” he said, getting to his feet. “I don’t think it would be safe . . .”
“The President considers Forrester to be the most valuable man in the country right now,” Warren said quietly. “Forrester wants to see me. I must see him . . . let’s go.”
A fast ten minutes drive brought them to Lennox Avenue, a quiet residential street on the outskirts of the City. Both ends of the street were blocked off by patrolmen. As Warren’s car pulled up, Terrell appeared out of the darkness.
“I’m talking to Forrester,” Warren explained as he got out of the car. “On no account are you to take any action without my say-so. We have to play the cards as they are dealt. We take no chances of upsetting him.”
“Dr. Forrester is believed violent,” Terrell said uneasily, “You are taking a risk, sir.”
“So I take a risk. Where is his apartment?”
Terrell pointed.
That brown stone building. He’s on the top floor.”
“You and Hamilton will come with me as far as the floor below his. You will do nothing unless I call for you.”
“That could be too late,” Hamilton said.
“So . . . it will be too late. If I want you, I will call you.”
The three men entered the apartment block. They took the elevator to the seventh floor. Terrell and Hamilton got out. Warren nodded to them and pressed the button to take him to the floor above.
On the eighth landing, he got out. Facing him was a door that stood ajar. A light came from the inner room.
Warren moved forward, paused at the door, then raising his voice, called, “Dr. Forrester?”
“Yes. Are you alone?” Forrester’s shadow, long and thin, fell across the floor.
“I am alone. May I come in?”
“Yes.”
Warren walked into a comfortably furnished living-room. The walls were lined with books. Well worn Persian rugs made rich pools of colour on the charcoal coloured fitted carpet.
Standing at the far end of the room was Paul Forrester, his face partially hidden by the shadows thrown by the standard lamp.
Warren closed the door and then moving casually, took a chair away from where Forrester was standing and sat down.
“Well, Paul . . . it’s a long time since we last met,” he said quietly. “The President sends his regards to you.”
“Thank you.” Forrester seemed to relax slightly. He remained standing. “This won’t take long. You know all about my formula. We need not discuss it. I have decided to let you have it, but on one condition.”
Warren drew in a long, deep breath.
“You will give me the decoded formula on this one condition?”
“Yes.”
Warren stared at the shadowy figure. He wished he could see Forrester’s face more clearly.
“And what is this condition?”
“My wife is to be here tomorrow at eleven o’clock, and we are to be left alone together,” Forrester said.
Warren stiffened. This was the last thing he had expected to hear. He managed to control his expression. His brain began to work swiftly.
“Your wife, Paul? I don’t know where she is, but I suppose it is possible to find her. Could you give me a little more time? I am sure she could be here about three o’clock. Would that be all right?”
Forrester remained motionless. There was a long, nerve-racking pause, then he said, “Yes . . . but not later than three.”
“If I manage to arrange this meeting, you will decode the formula?”
“I give you my word. If my wife isn’t here by tomorrow afternoon at three o’clock, then you won’t get it. Is that understood?”
“Look, Paul, we have worked a long time together. Why do you want to see your wife? After all, she hasn’t brought you any happiness. Why do you want to see her again?”
In a cold, flat voice that was so full of bitterness that it sent a chill up Warren’s spine, Forrester said, “I have left a job unfinished. I happen to be a tidy person. Until I have finished the job, my mind won’t rest.”
“Wouldn’t it be better for you to forget her . . . after all, she is completely worthless. I want to see you back in your old position with all its tremendous opportunities.”
Forrester moved further into the shadows.
“You have my terms. You have until three o’clock,” he said.
He was starting towards a door when Warren said sharply, “Paul! Just one moment! I want to get this straight. Am I to understand you will decode ZCX if I arrange that your wife comes here?”
“Yes . . . but she comes alone,” Forrester said.
“You don’t plan to do her any harm?”
Forrester made a quick savage movement with his hand, slashing it up and down.
“Why should you care what I do with her?” he exclaimed, his voice rising. “You have said she is worthless. She and my formula are my property. You have until three o’clock tomorrow.” He went into the inner room, closed and locked the door.
Warren sat for some moments, motionless and badly shaken, feeling his face and hands turning damp. Then he got slowly to his feet and left the apartment.
He found Hamilton and Terrell waiting for him on the lower landing.
“Come with me,” he said to Hamilton. To Terrell, he went on, “Keep your men here, Captain. I want you to take the guards from Mrs. Forrester’s bungalow. Forrester can’t get away. I don’t want the press to find out we have been guarding Mrs. Forrester. Is that understood?”
“I’m working under your orders,” Terrell said. “Very well, I’ll get my two men back to headquarters.” His puzzled look of silent inquiry went unanswered.
The three men went down in the elevator. Seeing Warren’s white, set face, neither Terrell nor Hamilton asked how he had found Forrester.
“We’ll return to the hotel,” Warren said as he and Hamilton walked quickly to the waiting car.
As the car rushed them back to the Belevedere Hotel, Warren sat huddled up, staring bleakly at his hands. Hamilton, uneasy, looked out of the car’s window at the lights, the long promenade, at the people still bathing.
It wasn’t until the two men were in Warren’s suite at the hotel that Warren said, “Sit down, Jesse. We have one hell of a decision to make.” He began to pace the big sitting-room, his hands clenched behind his back. “Forrester tells me he will decode the formula, but only on one condition.” He paused to regard Hamilton, then went on, “I don’t know if I should tell you this condition . . .” He hesitated, then said, “It should be my responsibility and my decision, but frankly, I don’t feel able to cope with it.”
“I can guess what the condition is,” Hamilton said curtly. I’ve seen this coming. We are dealing with a nut who is in a perfect position to blackmail us. He undertakes to give us the decoded formula if we allow him to murder his wife . . . that’s it, isn’t it?”
Warren flinched.
“How could you have guessed that?” he asked and came to sit by Hamilton’s side.
“Oh, it jells. I have studied Forrester’s dossier. I have discussed his case with Hertz. The thread that kept his reason together snapped when he caught his Chief Assistant laying his wife. He killed the man. He was prevented from killing his wife. Hertz says that this unfinished job has been poisoning his mind. For the past months he has been brooding over his failure. If we want this formula, we must give him his wife.”
“We can’t possibly do that!” Warren said, shocked.
“I’ve checked on Thea Forrester. She is no better than a whore. No one would give a damn if she dropped dead right now. We should do this deal with Forrester.”
Warren stared at him.
“Now look, Jesse, we are discussing a human life . . . we’re not discussing some animal.”
Hamilton shrugged impatiently.
“That is a matter of opinion, sir. To me, Thea Forrester is an insult to any animal. She is a degenerate and no loss to anyone if she died.”
“I can’t listen to such talk!” Warren said without much conviction. “She is a human being . . . we just can’t . . .”
“Sir!” The sharp note in Hamilton’s voice stopped Warren. “May I remind you what you said at the start of this operation? You said we must have the formula. You said whatever Forrester’s terms were, we would have to go along with him. You said the President had given you a free hand.”
“Yes . . . I know I said that,” Warren returned, “but this . . .”
“You have been offered a deal,” Hamilton said. “We get the formula and the woman dies. If we protect her, we lose Forrester and the formula. If we go along with Forrester, this metal of his will give us an enormous lead over Russia’s rocket race. The life of a worthless woman just doesn’t balance up with the loss of this formula which will give us security for a hell of a long time.”
“There must be some other way to solve this,” Warren said, getting to his feet and beginning to pace the floor. “Suppose we get the capsule from Forrester . . . neutralize him?”
Hamilton contained his impatience with an effort.
“We can’t take the slightest risk, sir. Okay, there are ways to neutralize him if we are prepared to take a risk. We have a gun that shoots a splinter of ice, loaded with enough drug to knock a man out. But it is not instantaneous. There is a time lag of a second or so. Forrester would have time to bite down on the capsule and he would do exactly that . . . so that idea is out. But why bother our heads about his capsule? We can’t force him to give us the formula unless we are prepared to give him his wife. That’s the situation.”
“But we can’t let him murder this woman J’ Warren said. “I can’t allow it, Jesse.”
“I wish I could let you out of this, sir,” Hamilton said. “But I can’t. The C.I.A. are used to this kind of set-up. When someone becomes a danger to the State, it is our job to get rid of him. We are trained to put the State first. The individual means nothing to us. Please leave this to me. I’ll take care of all the details. But you will have to deal with Forrester. It would be too risky if you dropped out now and I took over. The real problem as I see it is how to get Mrs. Forrester to go to this apartment where Forrester is. She will know from the press and the radio that he is there. She won’t go. You will have to persuade Forrester to go to her.”
Warren stared at him.
“Even if I could persuade him to go to her, how could we explain to the press that he got past the cordon?”
“My men are guarding the back of the apartment block. There is a back exit. I’ll get him out. I will take the responsibility of letting him escape. This is too important to worry about details like that. We will have to be careful about Terrell. He won’t go along with this.”
“From the press angle, how does Forrester find out where his wife is?”
“She’s in the telephone book . . . I’ve checked. As you say, from the press angle, Forrester finds her name in the book, leaves by the back exit, avoiding my men, steals a car which I will have waiting for him, then drives to the bungalow.”
Hamilton paused, thought, then went on, “You and I, six, will have to be at the bungalow, watching. When he has done what he wants to do, we must go in with the coded formula and get him to decode it before he changes his mind.”
Warren grimaced.
“I don’t think I can do this . . .”
“It’s your duty to do it,” Hamilton said, his voice hard. “You must do it.”
“And then? What do we do with Forrester?”
“You will have the decoded formula. I’ll take care of Forrester,” Hamilton said. “Once you have the formula, you will leave. Then I will tie up the loose ends . . . it’s my job.” He sat forward, resting his hands on the table. “You will telephone Forrester tomorrow morning early and tell him you want to talk to him again.” Tapping on the table with his long, bony finger, he went on to tell Warren what he was to say to Forrester.
CHAPTER SEVEN
Captain Terrell arrived at Police Headquarters a little after nine o’clock the following morning. He had had only three hours’ sleep and he was feeling his age.
Instead of his usual cheery greeting, he only nodded to Charlie Tanner who was at his desk, and went on up the stairs to his office.
Recognizing the symptoms, Tanner sent a patrolman, at a run, for a carton of coffee.
By the time Terrell had settled at his desk and had begun wearily to read the pile of reports that was waiting for him, the patrolman, hot and out of breath, put the carton of coffee within Terrell’s reach.
Terrell said gratefully, “Thank you, Jack,” and poured coffee into a paper cup.
Beigler and Lepski came in. Terrell put two more paper cups on his desk.
“Go ahead . . . help yourselves.” He sipped the coffee while Lepski filled the cups. He sighed, leaned back in his chair and looked at Beigler. “What’s new?”
“The guards are off Mrs. Forrester,” Beigler told him. “Tom has the important dope.”
“Go ahead, Tom . . . what have you got?”
“Here’s the detailed report, Chief,” Lepski said and laid a sheaf of papers on the desk. “Lindsey and Silk have blown. Lindsey took a fast boat, heading for Havana. Silk also took a fast boat; destination unknown. The boat’s owned by Alec Coogan. If and when Coogan returns, I’ll pick him up. It’s my bet both men are in Mexico by now. I’ve alerted the Mexican police, but you know what they are. I’ve talked to the Jacey girl. She says there was a doctor looking after Forrester and she’s given me a good description of him. It’s all in my report. Keegan’s dead. The girl who knocked him off is a junkie and out of her head. If we ever get her straightened out, she could nail Lindsey and Silk. Lindsey is well known at the Beleve-dere Hotel. He lived in the best suite rented by Herman Radnitz.”
Terrell knew all this wasn’t going to get him anywhere. The investigation was out of his hands. When the C.I.A. took over, he became merely a passer-on of reports.
“All right, Tom,” he said. “You take time off.”
When Lepski had gone, Terrell said wearily, “There’s something cooking, Joe, and I don’t like it. Why let this nut remain in this apartment? Why don’t they go in and get him? Why take our men off Mrs. Forrester?”
“Yeah,” Beigler said, “but this isn’t our funeral now. Right now, I can hear my telephone ringing. We’ve got other things to do.” He finished his coffee and stood up. Looking at Terrell’s worried face, he grinned. “Right, Chief?”
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