Nick Carter: The Omega Terror

“Oh, yes,” she said. “But I’m afraid Mr. Li is in conference with Dr. Zeno at the moment. May I ask what you wish to see him about?”

I searched for a plausible answer. “The computer found a small discrepancy in data. Li Yuen asked me to come directly to him in such a situation.” I was implying that Zeno was being by-passed.

“Yes, I see,” she said, her face impassive. “Well, Mr. Li will be finished shortly, I believe. You may wait if you wish to.”

“Yes, thank you.”

I sat down on a hard chair, planning my next move. The first problem was removed without any action on my part.

“Bomboko,” the Chinese secretary said, “would you please deliver this file to Department C? Mr. Kruger and I shall guard the inner sanctum during your brief absence.” She gave me a small smile.

The big black man glanced sourly at me and took the manila folder she handed him. “Yes, memsahib.”

He gave me another look as he passed, and disappeared out the door. As soon as the door closed behind him, I pulled out Wilhelmina and aimed it at the woman’s head.

“I’m sorry to take advantage of your misplaced trust,” I said. “But let me assure you that if you make the slightest sound or attempt a warning of any kind I will shoot you.”

She sat rigid at the desk as I walked quickly around in back of her to be sure she had no warning buzzer. I noticed a large metal cabinet with full doors on it. I opened it, and there was little in it except for a first aid kit on a high shelf. I got it out, put it on the desk and opened it. There was a roll of tape inside.

“Tear a six-inch length off and place it over your mouth,” I told her.

She followed orders carefully. In a moment she had the tape across her mouth. “Now get into the cabinet.”

She got in, and I turned her back to me, grabbed her wrists and wrapped some tape around them, binding them together. “Try to stay quiet in there,” I said. I closed the door as she squatted on the cabinet floor.

I moved over to the door to Li Yuen’s office. I put my ear against it and could hear the two voices inside quite distinctly. The first voice was American; it obviously belonged to Damon Zeno.

“You don’t seem to understand, colonel; my work is not yet complete.” There was undisguised irritation in the voice, which had a nasal tone to it.

“But you have accomplished what we brought you here for, surely,” the high, slightly metallic voice of Li Yuen came through. “You have created the Omega Mutation.”

“My experiments are not yet proved to my satisfaction,” Zeno argued. “When we send our report to Peking, I want to be sure of what we have done.”

“You do not accept the findings of your own difficult labor, doctor,” Li Yuen said in an unchanging, unmodulated voice. “One can be too great a perfectionist”

“The Omega Mutation will be the most effective biological weapon ever created,” Zeno said slowly.

“It will make the hydrogen bomb obsolete.” There was a short pause. “But I will not send unfinished work to Peking!”

“Peking thinks you go too carefully, Dr. Zeno,” Li Yuen said in a tougher voice. “There are those who wonder whether you are reluctant to deliver the weapon now that you have created it.”

“That is utter nonsense,” Zeno protested harshly.

“Laboratories are standing ready all over China to start work,” Li Yuen went on. “They will be able to culture a significant quantity in a matter of weeks, thanks to your change in the genetic structure that allows rapid reproduction.” There was a rattle of paper. “I have a message from my superiors, doctor, suggesting that you forward your findings and cultures immediately and allow our laboratories to begin the breeding while you continue to work on the final proofs here.”

“But that’s not the way it should be done!” Zeno protested loudly. “If I find a flaw in the present mutation, the work they do in the meantime will go for nothing.”

“Peking is willing to take the chance,” Li Yuen’s flat voice came through the door. “They ask, doctor, that you have your report ready to send to them within twenty-four hours. They will have Chinese biologists check your findings in Peking.” The last remark was said acidly and was intended as an insult.

There was a brief silence in the room. Then Zeno’s heavy voice resumed: “Very well I’ll get something ready for them.”

“Thank you, doctor.” Li Yuen’s tone was sugary.

I moved away from the door just in time. Zeno came out of the inner office stiff-backed and angry. He looked at me briefly, standing in the middle of the waiting room, and then strode through the outer door into the corridor. I moved after him and watched the direction he took, which I presumed was to the laboratory. I stepped back inside the waiting room. I had to decide whether to go directly after him, or make a stop in Li Yuen’s office. I decided on the latter because I figured that at least some of the papers that recorded Omega’s ugly development would be located with the L5 man. Perhaps he even had a copy of everything Zeno had written down.

I turned back to the partially open door to Li Yuen’s office. I took the Luger out and walked through the door just as Li Yuen was opening a wall safe. I let him open it, then spoke up:

“Your worries about Peking are over, Li.”

He whirled about quickly, surprise on his round face. He was young, in his thirties, I thought. He focused narrowly on the Luger just as I squeezed the trigger.

The gun barked out loudly in the room and Li Yuen spun back against the open safe door, smacking his face into its edge. As he slid downward, he grabbed at the door with both hands and left a dark red stain on it.

I kicked the body and it did not move. I hoped the sound of the gunshot had not carried far outside the room, but I had had little choice because of time. I reached into the safe and drew out a sheaf of papers and two black files with silver stripes across their covers. One was lettered in Chinese OMEGA PROJECT. The other, in English, read simply DAMON ZENO.

I glanced through the file on Zeno and threw it onto the floor. When I opened the other file, I knew it was part of what I was after. There were some early notes of Zeno’s on the project, communications between Li and Zeno, and charts of letters and digits tracing the development of the Omega bug. I closed the file, turned, and left the room.

In the waiting room there was a muffled noise and some feeble kicking from the cabinet where I had put the Chinese woman. It didn’t matter now. Just as I turned to leave, the outer door opened, and the big black man stood there.

He looked at the empty desk and then at the file under my arm. I started to walk past him.

“Where is Madame Ching?” he asked.

I pointed to the inner office where Li Yuen lay dead. “She’s in with Li Yuen,” I said. There was a sound from the cabinet, and he looked toward it.

I brought the gun out again and chopped down against the base of his skull. He groaned and hit the floor.

“Count your blessings,” I said to the unconscious figure. Then I moved through the doorway and down the corridor in the direction Damon Zeno had gone.

The tall, husky Almohad mountain man in the Moroccan army uniform barred the doorway to the laboratory. He wore a thick, black beard and earrings in his ears. His shoulders and chest stretched his uniform. His neck was as thick as some men’s waists. He looked down about an inch into my eyes, with what could only be described as arrogant hostility. Above his head over the closed door were painted several warning signs in English and Arabic. DEPARTMENT “A” RESEARCH. Entry Strictly Forbidden. Violators Will Be Punished.