Ник Картер: The Code

I stepped toward him and hit him in the face with a loose board I had picked up. The blow was so hard the board splintered.

The other man was climbing in the window. I threw the stiletto at him, but my move was hurried and I missed. I dodged through the door. If Moose’s friend hadn’t picked it up, my Luger would still be lying outside.

I turned the corner at a trot. The gun was still there, but I didn’t lean over for it. Arlene was standing between the building, the reins of her nervous horse in one hand, a middleweight Mauser in the other.

“Go ahead and pick it up. I came back to help you,” she said.

“No, you came back to check with the boys and see if everything went according to plan. It didn’t. I’m still alive and they know the truth. You stole the money from Sheila. She ran when she found it missing, never guessing you had it. She trusted you.”

She fired the automatic.

I dropped fiat in the dust. I raised my head in time to see Moose’s companion lean out the window and fire at Arlene. The bullet was a .45 and it tore her face apart.

I let out a yell and lunged for the man, pulling him out of the window. I slugged him in the face and clamped onto his gun hand as we rolled over in the dusty street. Moose lumbered around the corner. He picked up a boulder, raised it over his head, and stepped toward me.

The man under me was trying to get his gun pointed in the right direction, but I had hold of his wrist. I hit him again. I knew Moose was coming. At the last minute, I rolled away. Moose had turned the boulder loose. The other man was sitting up and the boulder hit him with a terrible sound, like a cleaver whacking meat. There was no doubt in my mind that the man was dead. No doubt at all.

Moose looked bewildered by the turn events had taken. He shook his huge head unbelievingly. Then he walked over to his friend. He wrenched the .45 out of the man’s fingers.

I had crawled to the Luger. Turning, I shot Moose in the chest. Twice. I shot him a third time when he stood up, eyes wild, mouth working as if he wanted to speak.

Finally he fell and lay still in the dust. I rose slowly to my feet. The ghost town seemed almost soundless, like a cemetery. I was the only person in it who was left alive. The long hunt was over and, except for telling Hawk about the infiltrators in AXE bases, my job was done. But tomorrow there would be another.

I found Hawk by the side of the pool of his club in the green Virginia countryside near Washington. He was taking a much-needed sunbath. His bony elbows and knees looked like ivory doorknobs.

“How did the cleanup go?” I asked.

“It’s all taken care of. We had to close down the Carolina and the Denver bases, but we got ride of all the Mafia plants. Fortunately the operation was in an early stage and they hadn’t passed on any information of much value.”

“The Mob as a whole didn’t know anything about Rossi’s deal with the Communists or that he was involved in spying on AXE. Abruze probably didn’t know much either. He was just suspicious. But suspicions can be deadly when you’re mixed up with people like Lew Rossi.”

Hawk cracked one eye.

“It was a costly and bloody affair, Nick, but that’s our line of work, yours and mine. The dirty business they give no medals for.”

“I know,” I said.

“Are you ready to leave for London tomorrow?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Nick,” he called as I moved away. He sat up in the deck chair. “Who’s the broad waiting for you in the car?”

“A reliable informant.”

“You mean Valante’s daughter?” he said.

Barbara was waiting impatiently. “Let’s go somewhere and go to bed, Nick. Tomorrow will come awfully fast.” She slid closer to me as I drove away from the club. “Was your boss surprised?”

“Oh, sure,” I said. “He was almost speechless.”