Ник Картер - Assassin - Code Name Vulture

He hesitated a moment. “All right, Mr. Carter. I will keep this quiet for twenty-four hours. But then I must make my move.”

“Fair enough,” I said. “If we haven’t found Stavros by tomorrow at this time, you can handle it any way you want.”

Kotsikas extended his hand to me. “Good luck.”

I took his hand. “We’ll need it!”

We found Minourkos pacing the hotel room when we returned. It was clear that he had not given us much chance of coming back.

“The colonels are all right?” he asked, relief flooding into his face.

“Yes,” I said.

“And Vassilis?”

“He is unharmed,” Erika said. “We are very fortunate. It could have been a blood bath.”

“Thank God,” Minourkos said.

“We couldn’t have done it without the general,” I said.

“I am pleased that Vassilis gave a good account of himself. Have the surviving assassins been arrested?”

“No. I’ve asked Kotsikas to give us twenty-four hours until we’ve had a chance at Stavros.”

He was silent for a moment “I am not sure I agree with this secrecy. But I will go along for now. I too will keep my silence for twenty-four hours, Mr. Carter.”

“I appreciate it, Mr. Minourkos. Now we have our work cut out for us. We must go after Stavros.”

“It seems bad to continue handling this yourself,” Minourkos said. “This requires police help, Mr. Carter. I know some men I can trust.”

“Like the ones who came after Colonel Kotsikas intending to commit mass murder?” I asked. “No, I have to have my chance at him, Mr. Minourkos. I can’t trust that the police would be able or willing to bring Stavros to justice. Neither can my government. That’s why I have orders to kill Stavros on sight. Those orders coincide with the ones Miss Nystrom has from her government.”

“But it will be suicide to go up to the penthouse,” Minourkos argued.

“Maybe,” I said. “But maybe not, with what I know of the place. And what you know.”

“When would you go?” he asked.

“This evening.” I glanced over at Erika. “Is that all right with you?”

“Anything you say, Nick.”

“About now Stavros is wondering why he hasn’t heard from his man. I think the chances are that Stavros will wait at the penthouse until he is positive something has gone wrong. So he should be there this evening.”

“You yourself spoke of the armed guards,” Minourkos said. “You may not get past the corridor entrance.”

“Possibly. But Erika and I will have a third man to help. I was in touch with my superiors before we went out to Kotsikas’ place. A fellow agent is in Athens on another assignment and will give us a hand.”

“Three of you?” Minourkos asked. “The odds may be two or three to one against you, even if you get into the place.”

“Mr. Carter thrives on long odds,” Erika said, smiling.

I returned the smile. “Besides, I have a plan that includes four.”

“Four?” Minourkos asked, confused. “If you are counting on me, your trust is misplaced. I do not even know how to fire a hand gun.”

“Not you,” I said. “On the plane here you mentioned something that stuck in my mind. You said that your murdered secretary Salaka Madoupas had a brother who looked very much like him.”

“Yes,” Minourkos said. “The poor fellow does not even know his brother is dead. He and Salaka did not see each other very often, but there was a great deal of affection between them.”

“How much does he look like Salaka?” I asked.

“Very much. They were only a year apart. Some say they look like twins, except that Salaka was about an inch taller and somewhat heavier than his brother.”

“We could fix that,” I said more to myself than to Erika and Minourkos. “Does this fellow live in Athens?”

Minourkos looked at me quizzically. “Just outside of town in a small village.”

“Call him and tell him about Salaka,” I said. “Then ask him if he would like to help avenge his brother’s death.”

Erika looked at me. “Nick, do you mean—”

“If Stavros can come up with an imposter, so can we,” I said. “Yianis Tzanni isn’t the only one who can speak for a dead man.”

“A third Salaka Madoupas?” Erika asked.

“That’s right. Maybe, just maybe, he can get us into the penthouse.” I turned to Minourkos. “Will you call him?”

Minourkos hesitated only a brief moment “Of course. And I will get him here.”

Two hours later, just at dusk, Sergiou Madoupas arrived at the hotel room. He appeared to be a meek, timid man, but under the surface was a grim determination to help get the man responsible for his brother’s death. I gave him elevator shoes and some padding and did a quick makeup job. When it was over, he looked almost exactly like the imposter I had seen at the penthouse. It was, after all, the imposter that Sergiou was impersonating in our scheme, not actually his brother. I wanted the men in the penthouse to accept Sergiou as Tzanni, the fake Madoupas.

When I was finished with him, I stood back, and we all took a long look. “What do you think?” I asked Minourkos.

“He looks very much like Salaka — and therefore like Tzanni,” Minourkos said.

Our own imposter grinned uncertainly at me. “You have done a good job, Mr. Carter,” he said. His voice was very much like Tzanni’s and his English had about the same quality.

“I think we’ll make it,” Erika said.

An hour later we pulled up at the Apollo Building. It was the dinner hour in Athens, and there was almost no traffic on the city streets. The building itself was dark except for the lobby and the far-off twinkling lights in the penthouse. We sat in the rented black sedan for about ten minutes, and then a tall man appeared around the corner of the building. He walked directly to the car and got in beside me in the front seat. Erika and Sergiou were seated in back. Minourkos had been left at the hotel.

“Hello, Carter,” the tall man said. He looked at the other two and his eyes lingered on Erika.

“Anything happening?” I asked.

“Not a thing. Nobody in or out since I got here.” He was Bill Spencer, my AXE colleague. He was new to the agency, and I had met him before only briefly. Hawk had assured me on the phone, in our brief conversation earlier, though, that Spencer was a good man. He had been watching the special elevator to the penthouse through the glass exterior of the building for almost three hours, according to my instructions.

I introduced him to Erika and Sergiou. “We get in by the service door to the lobby,” I said, “with this key. Sergiou goes first, and we act as if we own the place. If we get upstairs, we operate as I outlined earlier. Anybody have any questions?”

There was a pensive silence in the dark car. “All right,” I said. “Let’s get it over with.”

The four of us climbed out of the black sedan and walked in a tight knot to the front of the building. At the left of the main entrance was a locked glass service door. Sergiou stuck the key that Minourkos had given him into the stainless steel lock and turned it. In the lobby, the guard at the elevator turned toward us with a puzzled look.

Sergiou entered first, and we followed. I found myself wondering whether we would really catch Stavros by surprise. He should be pacing the floor, waiting to hear what happened at Colonel Kotsikas’ home. I hoped he had not sent a squad of his own men out there to investigate. There was also the possibility that he had tried to call Paracatu in the last day or two and had found that he could not reach anybody there. Not being able to get hold of anybody at the jungle plantation would tell Stavros that something was wrong.