by Nick Carter
I moved over to him, reached into his jacket and pulled out a Smith & Wesson .44 Russian. I stuck the gun into my belt.
'I told you, I'm here to talk,' I said.
'Talk about what?'
'About what you stole from Drummond's attaché case.'
The dark eyes went blank. 'I stole something from his case?'
'That's right,' I said.
'I think you have come to the wrong place, my friend. It was not I but a man named Maspero who was involved with Drummond and his case.'
'I know all about Maspero — and who killed him.' He blinked at that but otherwise his face showed me nothing. 'You have some microfilm that you found in Drummond's attaché case, and you're trying to peddle it.'
He laughed harshly. 'You had better take this matter up with Maspero's superiors. If anybody has the film, it is they.'
Fayeh, who had been silent all this time, now turned to me. 'He has probably already gotten rid of the film, Nick, or he would not be so smug.'
My eyes didn't leave Reynaldo's face. 'No, he still has it,' I said. 'Look, Reynaldo, everybody's on to you. I know you've got the film and so does Bovet'
Now his face showed some expression — hatred, uneasiness. 'Bovet?'
'That's right. He knows you held out on him, and I don't think he likes it.'
'How do you know this?'
I grinned. 'Never mind. Your time is running out, Reynaldo. Bovet will be after you. You can't stall any more. You have one chance — get whatever you can for the film and run!'
His eyes shifted away from me as he tried to think. Finally he looked back at me. 'Let us assume, for the moment, that I have this film. Are you here to make me an offer?'
'I'm prepared to buy the film from you for the minimum I understand you have quoted, a million pounds sterling.'
He hesitated. 'If I did have this film, I could expect a larger offer from other sources,' he said finally. 'The Chinese, for example, who would be eager to have it And then, of course, there are the Russians.'
'You won't get a better offer from Kam Fong,' I said casually, 'for the simple reason that he's no longer able to make one.'
If Reynaldo was shaken at that, he didn't show it. That still leaves the Russians,' he said. 'And who knows who else? That is, if I had this film. And if I did have it, my friend, your offer would not be good enough.'
Now I was getting mad. Hawk had told me to use my own discretion about how much we offered, but I was in no mood at the moment to raise the ante. Before I could let Reynaldo know, however, Fayeh pulled the Beretta from her purse and moved over to him.
'Give up the film, you greedy swine!' she said. 'Give it up now!'
'Fayeh!' I yelled at her. I had been afraid of something like this.
She was waving the Beretta near Reynaldo's face, standing between him and me. I was about to tell her to back off when Reynaldo made his move.
He grabbed quickly for the Beretta, his hand moving like a striking cobra. In a moment he had twisted the gun from the girl's grasp and pulled her toward him, holding her between him and me as a shield and pointing the Beretta at me.
'Now, Mr Carter,' he said.
So he knew who I was. 'That's not a smart move, Reynaldo,' I said, still holding the Luger on him.
'Your mother mated with a camel!' Fayeh hissed at him in Arabic, kicking and squirming in his grasp. She might be a lousy cop, but she had guts.
'Drop the gun,' Reynaldo ordered, aiming the Beretta past the girl at my head.
'I can't do that,' I told him.
'Then I'll kill you.'
'Maybe,' I said. 'But not before I get the girl and you with this Luger.'
That stopped him. 'You would kill the girl?'
'If I have to.'
Fayeh regarded me somberly. I knew she was trying to guess whether I was bluffing or not. Reynaldo hesitated a moment, then began edging toward the door to the corridor. 'All right, we will bluff it out,' he said. He was holding the Beretta against Fayeh's temple now. 'But I assure you that if you try to stop me, Mr Carter, the girl will go first.'
Watching him edge toward the door, I knew he had me in a small corner. I would not kill Fayeh to keep him from leaving the room, and he saw that in my eyes. He was opening the door now.
'Remember, she will die first.'
'You're acting like an idiot, Reynaldo,' I said, following him with the Luger. 'You're not going to get any offers better than mine. You'd better give that some thought before you leave.'
'I do not think you intend to pay me for film which I stole from your government,' Reynaldo said frankly, finally dropping the pose. 'The fact of the matter is, I don't think I can trust you at all.' He was backing into the corridor now, the Beretta still at Fayeh's head.
'You pig, let go of me!' she yelled.
We both ignored her. 'All right, have it your way,' I said. 'But don't say I didn't try to do it the easy way.'
'In this case,' he said, 'there is no easy way.'
I was beginning to agree with him. 'Leave the girl, Reynaldo. She's of no further use to you.'
'You are right, Mr Carter,' he said. 'You can have her.' He suddenly shoved her hard. She came flying back into the room, landed up against me, knocking the Luger aside.
Reynaldo, meanwhile, was disappearing down the corridor. I grabbed Fayeh to keep her from falling, then started around her toward the corridor. But she beat me to it. She grabbed the .44 Russian from my belt, Reynaldo's gun, and whirled out into the corridor with it.
'I will get him!' she said, her dark hair swirling around her face.
Before I could stop her, she fired two blasting rounds down the corridor after Reynaldo, just as he reached the stairs. Both shots missed and he was gone. I grabbed the gun from her.
'Damn it, Fayeh!' I said. 'If you kill him, we'll never find the damned film!'
She looked up at me. 'I am sorry, Nick. I almost spoiled everything, didn't I?'
I looked at her wearily. 'Get back to the Winter Palace and stay there.'
Then I turned and started down the hall, after the fleeing Reynaldo.
Ten
I had reached the lobby of the hotel. The clerk gaped at the gun in my hand, and I paused to stuff some piastres in his pocket.
'You didn't hear or see a thing,' I told him.
He looked down at the money, then up at me. 'Yes, sir,' he said.
I heard a car engine start up, and moved on to the door in time to see a maroon BMW 2002 pull away from the curb and roar off up the dark street I looked down the street and saw a man moving out to an old Buick. I raced over to him. He was an Arab in western dress.
I'm borrowing your car for a while,' I told him. I shoved a wad of money at him. 'Here. I'll leave the car where you can find it later. Give me the keys.'
He took one look at the Luger and reached quickly for his car keys. I grabbed them and hopped into the Buick. It was a clunker, but it was wheels. I holstered the Luger and started the engine. It roared into life. Then I was burning rubber to get away from the curb. Reynaldo had already disappeared around the corner at the end of the block.
When I got around the corner, Reynaldo's car was nowhere in sight. I hit the accelerator hard and gunned the old relic down to the next corner and turned right. The BMW was two blocks ahead and moving fast. We were on the Sharia el Karnak and had just passed the Luxor Police Station. I held my breath and hoped nobody saw or heard us roar by. We then passed the Public Garden area on the left and the Hotel de Famille on the right and were on the old Avenue of Sphinxes leading to the village of Karnak where the famed temples stood.
There was little traffic on the road at this time of night, which was lucky because neither one of us was about to stop or slow down. A few pedestrians stared after us as we roared past, but otherwise there was little notice of the chase. Surprisingly, I was keeping up with the BMW, despite its greater potential speed and maneuverability. The Buick bumped along over the ruts in the street like a stock car at a crash derby.
My head hit the roof on a couple of bad holes. And then we were at the Temples of Karnak.
Reynaldo had realised I was too close to try to lose me in the city, so he had adopted a plan that did not include his maroon sedan. He skidded to a halt just outside the gate of the temples. As I drove up I saw him heading for the massive South Gate of Karnak. For the last hundred yards of the palm-lined Avenue of Sphinxes, ram-headed sphinxes bordered the road, sitting as they had thousands of years ago but now in varying stages of decomposition. The pylons of the South Gate rose magnificently in the moonlight. I pulled the old Buick up next to the BMW and watched Reynaldo run past a night chain designed to keep tourists out after hours. His shadowy figure was disappearing into the forecourt of the Temple of Khonsu as I got out of the car.
I followed him, moving quietly. He still had that Beretta, and though it wasn't a big gun, a good marksman could kill very efficiently with it.
Moving carefully through the forecourt, I eyed the deep shadows cast by the thick hieroglyph-adorned walls and the lotus columns rising along them. I did not think Reynaldo would stop here. I moved on through the forecourt into the Small Hypostyle Hall beyond. The roof was long gone and the setting was bathed in eerie moonlight. Suddenly, four thousand years magically disappeared and I was in ancient Egypt, in the court of Rameses XII. His relief stood out clearly on one wall, staring unseeingly into the centuries. This hall had pillars, too, and I moved cautiously as I passed through it. Then I heard loose stones roll somewhere ahead of me.
'Reynaldo!' I shouted. 'You can't get out of here. I'll give you one more chance to make a deal.'
There was silence in the moonlit temple for a moment, then came an answer: 'I don't have to get out of here, Mr Carter. I can kill you.'
I noted the direction of the sound of his voice and headed toward it. I had made my last offer; now it was him or me.
Silently I moved through the complex of temples and halls, pharaohs and queens gazing dumbly down on me from their pedestals. A slight breeze stirred some dust and litter in a corner and made me jump. The atmosphere of the place was getting to me. Maybe that was what Reynaldo had counted on.
I passed between another set of massive, bulky pylons crouching menacingly in the darkness. My foot scraped stone and suddenly there was a shot. I saw the flash from the corner of my eye before ancient stone chipped beside my head.
I ducked and swore. I was at a real disadvantage as the pursuer under these circumstances. If Reynaldo kept his nerve, he could pick me off from any number of excellent vantage points.
I crouched in darkness, waiting. Then I saw a shadow in the direction the shot had come from, moving quickly from one pillar to another. I rested the Luger on my arm and waited. The shadow emerged and headed for another pillar. I fired. Reynaldo screamed and catapulted forward on his face.
But he was not hit badly. In a moment he was on his feet again. I squeezed off another shot as he ducked behind a stone column and missed.
Now I had him at a small disadvantage. The wound was probably only superficial but it gave Reynaldo something to think about. It made him aware that ambush was a dangerous game.
We were in the Great Hypostyle Hall now, the biggest in the ruins. Here the roof was gone too, but still standing were 134 columns spaced at regular intervals throughout the huge room. They were massive blocks of stone, towering high overhead like giant dead trees. And Reynaldo was in that forest of ancient columns somewhere, waiting to blow my head off.
Slowly I moved to the nearest column and leaned against it. Reynaldo had not left this room, and he probably did not intend to. Certainly here he would have his best chance of getting a bullet into me before I did the same to him.
Gliding quickly to another column, I shot a glance down the next row of pillars. There was no movement The moon cast silver bars between the heavy shadows of the pillars. The columns were all around me now. It was like being in a ghostly dark hall of mirrors with the columns reflected endlessly in all directions.
'I'm coming after you, Reynaldo.' My voice echoed slightly. I knew he must be shaken up some from the wound, and I wanted to work on that a little.
I headed for another column, purposely slowing my movements. The quickest way to find Reynaldo was to draw his fire. And the further I was from him when I did, the better. As I moved slowly toward another column I saw Reynaldo step out from behind a column down the line. The Beretta barked again. The slug tore at my jacket sleeve.
Wilhelmina roared her reply. The 9 mm. slug zinged off the column Reynaldo had just ducked behind. While Reynaldo was lying low, I moved to my right to another row of columns. I listened carefully, turning my head. I heard a sound off to my left, whirled and saw a tattered newspaper blowing in the breeze. I had almost fired at it.
I moved quickly toward Reynaldo's last location, to a column which would put me closer to him. He spotted me just as I reached my new cover, and the Beretta fired again, the bullet hitting a column behind me. I returned fire, two quick rounds. The first one ricocheted off Reynaldo's column and came back and almost hit me. The second hit Reynaldo just as he was moving back to cover.
I could hear him swearing in Spanish, then he yelled at me:
'Damn you, Carter! All right, let's have it outcome and get me. You know where I am.'
It was getting down to the nitty-gritty. I knew sooner or later I would have to go in after him, like a white hunter going into the brush after a wounded leopard. But that was when he would have his best chance at me.
I took a deep breath and stepped out from behind my column. In a moment Reynaldo stepped out into the open too. He was listing to his left, but still he came on. Like me he knew the time for caution was over. He headed slowly toward me down the aisle between the towering columns, the Beretta aimed my way.
I did not want Reynaldo dead. But it was his play now, and he wanted a shootout. He stumbled toward me.
'You cannot bluff me, Carter,' he said as he came on. 'You will get nothing from a dead man. You would rather not kill me. But I do not suffer from such a handicap.'
'I'll kill you if I have to,' I said. 'Just tell me where the microfilm is and you'll live.'
'I will live anyway.' He kept moving. I couldn't get much closer. Suddenly he fired, but luckily I moved to my left. The shot still plowed along my right side, leaving a burning flesh wound. I pressed back against a column, aimed the Luger and returned fire.
Reynaldo clutched at his chest and slammed up against a column, but he did not fall. He wouldn't give up — he really thought I would kill him. He blasted away again with the Beretta and missed.
I had no choice. I squeezed off another round and it didn't miss. This time Reynaldo was picked up off his feet and dumped rudely on his back. The Beretta flew from his hand.
I waited a moment, watching him. I thought I saw him move, but I couldn't be sure. A noise sounded off to my right somewhere. I spun around, staring into the darkness, but I saw nothing. The place was getting to me again. I moved along between the massive columns until I stood over Reynaldo, my Luger ready in case I still had to use it.
Reynaldo lay with one arm twisted under him, his face white. The last slug had gotten him in the right side of the chest. I did not see how he could survive.
I bent over him. Again I thought I heard a noise nearby. I squatted there listening. Silence. I looked down at Reynaldo.
'Look,' I told him. 'You're going to be all right, if you get to a doctor.' I hoped he wouldn't guess I was lying. 'I can get one to you, if you level with me about the film. I'll also keep my mouth shut to Bovet about your whereabouts.'
He laughed, a guttural laugh deep in his throat that turned into a cough.
'If you don't like the sound of that offer,' I added, 'I can promise you that you will not die easily.' That was no he.
Mixed emotions showed in his face. Then the arm hidden under his body suddenly flashed out at me. In the fist was the weapon Hakim Sadek had described to me, the thick-spined ice pick dagger. T
he thing slashed toward my abdomen just as I pulled back. It ripped through my jacket and shirt and pricked my flesh. I grabbed Reynaldo's hand, twisted with both of mine, and the pick fell from his fist.
I backhanded him, savagely, and he grunted. I grabbed the pick and held it up under his chin. 'All right, I've had it with you. You want me to start jabbing in nice places with this thing?'
His face collapsed. There was no more fight in him. He had nothing left to grasp but the straw I'd offered.
'The Valley of the Kings,' he croaked. 'The Merenptan tomb. Burial chamber.'
He coughed, spraying blood.
'Where in the burial chamber?' I prompted.
'Save me!' he gasped. 'There… is a doctor in Luxor. Near the Pharaohs. He can… keep his mouth… shut.'
'Okay,' I said. 'But where in the burial chamber?'
He opened his mouth to speak. More blood oozed out and that was it. His eyes glazed and his head fell back. He was dead.
I figured I was lucky. He could have died without telling me anything.
Slowly I moved back through the Great Hypostyle Hall. When I got to the entrance, I heard something again. This time it was definitely footsteps. I squinted into an open court and saw an Arab out there, peering into the darkness of the great hall.
'Who is it?' he yelled in Arabic. 'What is happening in there?'
He was apparently a caretaker who had been alerted by the shooting. When he found Reynaldo's body, there was going to be quite a fuss. I didn't want to be around.
I moved silently among the giant stone pillars, avoiding the court where the caretaker was standing uncertainly, heading for the South Gate I'd entered by.
The BMW was handiest — and fastest. I looked inside and saw that Reynaldo had left the keys in the ignition. I jumped in, turned the key, and shifted into gear. I skidded on gravel backing the car around, and as I shifted into drive, I saw the caretaker running toward me, waving his arms and shouting.
It would not be good for him to get a good look at the car. I gunned the engine and the BMW roared into the night. In seconds the temples had disappeared from view and I was on my way back to Luxor and the Winter Palace.