[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

and--"
"Zabicas hasn't got them."
"Oh, so? Then who did you guys arrange to--"
"Right now all you have to worry about is helping me get Gomez herded
in here." Helton stood. "We're going out into the jungle, you and I,
Cardigan, and--"
"And I'm what--bait?"
"Yeah, exactly."
Jake shook his head. "I decline."
"Then I'll have to persuade you."
Jake asked, "How high up in the OCO does this go?
Who told you to waylay us but not knock us off?."
Smiling, Helton answered, "Maybe nobody ordered me to spare your
lives," he suggested. "Perhaps I'm simply conning you, Cardigan. It
might be that your only real chance of surviving depends on your
helping me lo cate Gomez. Otherwise--"
"No need to come hunting for me, cabrdn." Gomez came striding into the
office, stun gun in hand. "You okay,
Jake?"
"Fit as a fiddle."
"Then we'll-No, hombre." Gomez had noticed Helton reaching toward a
shoulder holster. He fired the stun gun
Helton took a jerking step back, bumped into the wall.
Both his elbows went snapping back, one nudging into a viewscreen and
shattering it. He gave a brief gargling cry, then pitched over onto
his desk, scattering fax memos and data discs
"This would be a dandy time to depart, amigo." Gomez headed for the
door. "If you've no objections."
"None." Jake followed his partner. ilveira pointed up the dark
hillside. "There's a little town called Castel' Branco about another
three miles from here," he told them. "If we can get there, I'll be
able to set you up with a sky van
"If?" inquired Gomez as they started double-timing up a twisting
roadway that was cut through rocky ground. "Can't you be a bit more
optimistic, amigo?"
"Well, they must know by now that Jake's gone. be sending out as many
people as they can spare track us."
Jake said, "This isn't going to help your standing on island much.
"""Nobody spotted me while Gomez got you out of It'll be safe for me to
stay around awhile longer."
They climbed in silence for several minutes.
Then from the darkness far below, near the plantation came a faint
chuffing sound.
"Skycars," said Jake.
"At least two of them," added Gomez.
Silveira halted. From a trouser pocket he took three small black
squares of plaz. "Fix one of these to your clothes," he told them,
passing a square to each and slapping one to his jacket. "It'll block
your aura and fool their sensors."
"If they use lite beams they may spot us anyhow," said Jake.
"We'll have to make sure they don't." Silveira sprinted across the
roadway and into the tangle of jungle that stretched away beside it.
When they were in among the trees and flowering brush, Gomez said,
"Maybe we should've tried to take back the sky liner
"Too many guards." Silveira led them up through the night woodlands.
The sound of the sky car engines was growing louder. Looking back,
Jake saw three of them drifting up through the darkness. The
headlights bobbing like lanterns in the wind. From the belly of each
craft came a wide beam of intense bluish light. The sky cars were
moving slowly at a height of about 200 feet, sweeping the ground below
them with light.
The cars separated after a moment. Two of them headed inland and the
third kept heading up toward Jake and his companions.
"That one'll be overhead in about a minute," said the Pax agent. "We
better flatten out under the brush."
Gomez stretched out in a tangle of spiky bushes. "Oops," he muttered.
"I think I'm reclining amidst the remains of some animal friend's
snack."
Jake was ducked down a few feet from his partner.
In less than thirty seconds the sky car was directly above the three
men.
The beam of glaring light slowly and methodically probed at the jungle
all around them. The car seemed to hover there for a long time.
But then it moved on, flying uphill and away. Going very slowly,
illuminating the jungle as it went.
Five minutes after it had flown out of sight, Silveira said quietly,
"Muito bern. We can try for Castel' Branco now." He rose up out of
the tangle of brush he'd been hiding in.
Gomez stood, brushing at the front of his jacket with a handful of
leaves. "I wonder if we can find a haberdasher open at this hour," he
said.
Gomez guided the sky van up into the darkness above the sleeping
town.
The black craft rose quietly up and away from the is In the passenger
seat Jake was hunched slightly and a scanner screen on the dash panel.
"According this, all three of those sky cars are over on the other
island." "Let us attempt to sneak away without their tumbling to our
departure."
Gomez kept the sky van at a low altitude until they were out over the
dark Atlantic. Then he gradually climbed up to 10,000 feet.
Jake said, "Looks like we're away clear."
Gomez turned on the flying lights. "Remind me to send Jose a fax card
next Xmas," he said. "He was very helpful to the cause of Gomez
preservation."
"Find out anything new about the shipment of Devlin Guns?"
"He's of the opinion that several crates of them were routed through
here."
"Bound for Spain?"
"Far as he knows, which confirms what we've already been pretty sure
of."
"During my chat with Helton I played dumb and--"
"That must've required a heck of a lot of acting ability on your part,
amigo."
Jake grinned. "Good thing I'm aware that these jabs at my character
are due to the stress you've been through recently," he said. "The
point is, I suggested that Zabicas
Cartel was the destination for the Devlin Guns."
"Did he confirm or deny?"
"He let slip that the guns went to somebody other than Zabicas."
"Meaning that Natalie Dent's tip is probably right," said Gomez. "The
weapons went to Janeiro Martinez and his rebel outfit."
"Probably, yeah. But since Almita works for Zabicas and has
considerable interest in putting us out of business, we still have to
figure that Zabicas is involved in whatever's coming up in Madrid and
environs."
"If our recent hosts weren't spoofing us, these events are due any day
now," speculated Gomez. "They implied they only wanted us sidelined
for a week at most."
Jake tapped the vidphone. "I'll contact Bascom," he said. "Tell him
we're back on the job and also where Quixote Airlines can pick up their
missing sky liner He punched out the number of the Cosmos Detective
Agency in Greater LA. "Then I'll let Dan know we're okay." [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

zanotowane.pl

doc.pisz.pl

pdf.pisz.pl

razem.keep.pl