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Now I had to find Ruiz and Pilar. But the Opera
Security guards had come up to me and looked
ready to pounce on me once again.
"I'm from Spanish Intelligence," I said tersely,
hoping that would keep their paws off me.
"Are you here with General Rodriguez?" one of
them asked, eyeing me suspiciously.
"General Rodriguez is up on the roof," I said.
"He's dead." Before they had time to compose
their faces and close their open mouths, I headed
off down the corridor.
Backstage, on the stage's left wing, I found a
group of performers and stagehands gathered
around a figure lying on the floor. As I came
closer, I noticed the hem ofa white satin dress. The
person lying there was Pilar! My heart leapt up
into my throat as I pushed my way through the
crowd. The skirt of Pilar's white dress was streaked
with blood. Her face was pale and her eyes were
fighting back tears, but she was alive. The house
doctor was beside her. I knelt down and took her
hand.
"Pilar, what happened?"
"It's nothing, Nick," she said, although it was
obvious she was in pain. "Ruiz shot me in the thigh
as I was chasing him down the stairs from the roof.
I followed him as far as I could, but eventually it
became too hard, my leg just gave out. I couldn't
keep up with him any more. But it's only a surface
wound. I'll be okay." The doctor beside her
nodded his head to reassure me.
"Which way did he go, Pilar?"
"Up that way," she said, pointing to a set of nar-





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row iron stairs to our right. A bystander volun-
teered the information that the stairs led up to the
backdrop area, which was above and behind the
opera's stage. Once someone was up there, the only
way to get back down was to return down these
stairs. So it looked like we had Ruiz trapped. I told
the stage manager to post several security guards at
the foot of the stairs. If anything happened to me,
they were to shoot Ruiz as he came down.
"Nick," Pilar said. "Ruiz is unarmed. I shot his
gun out of his hand as he went up those stairs."
*'Good," I said. "That means we can fight man
to man." I dropped my gun to the floor and bent to
kiss Pilar.
Then I began my climb up the metal staircase.
This was it: either I was going to kill El Conde
Ruiz now, or he'd have to kill me. Rodriguez was
already gone, and with Ruiz dead, El Grupo
Febrero would be out of operation. Their men
were hired criminals and disenchanted psychopaths.
Leaderless and without Ruiz's money and re-
sources, they would flounder.
When I reached the top of the staircase, I found
myself in an enormous, three-sided room. The
room had no fourth wall; instead there was a steel
railing where the room's wooden floor abruptly
ended, Beyond the railing you could see the light-
ing banks and the catwalks above the stage. Large,
thick ropes, used to lower scenery, hung just on the
other side of the railing. The only illumination up
here was provided by the stage lights in the dis.
tance. The last scene of Tristan and Isolde is played
in low blue light. Up here the blue was even dim-
mer, and the ropes beside the railing cast eerie
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shadows across the room's floor.
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Enormous panels, backdrops for various operas,
leaned against the walls. Large, free-standing struc-
tures that on stage would represent country inns
and taverns and caves were scattered about the
room. Ruiz could be behind any of them. Smaller
props lay about, here and there: the Lady of the
Camillia's fan. Othello's dagger, the horned head-
dresses of the Valkyrie. I moved slowly to the cen-
ter of the room, keeping my eyes on the shadowed
structures around me. I stood beside the front wall
of a Renasssance Palace fashioned out of wooden
beams and papier-mache. From the darkness at the
end of the room, I heard some movement. I turned
and peered in that direction, and slowly I made my
way toward the area I'd heard the noise come
from. Then, there was a flurry of movement and
suddenly I saw one of the enormous wood and can-
vas backdrops come crashing down toward my
head. I turned and fled away from the backdrop,
but its wooden edge hit my shoulders and the back
of my neck. I staggered forward from the tremen-
dous force of the backdrop's weight, and I heard it
crash to the floor at my heels. Had it fallen directly
on top of me, I would have been dead.
Turning back around, I saw Ruiz running to-
ward me from the darkness. Stretched out before
him was a long spear, like the ones the servants
carry in Aida. The spear's sharp-pointed tip was
aimed at my chest. I jumped in time to miss its
thrust. Ruiz quickly turned around and came at me
again, yelling, "I'll kill you yet Carter."
But I stepped aside just as the weapon neared my
head, and its tip sunk into the papier-mache wall of
Ruiz tried to pull the
the palace beside me. As
NICK CARTER
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spear out of the fake building, I came on him from
behind and landed a sharp blow against his solar
plexus that left him gasping. I picked him up and
threw him over my head. He landed on his back on
the hard wooden floor. He cried out in pain, but he
immediately scrambled back up to his feet.
We now stood face to face in the center of the
room. "You've done your best to destroy my
plans," Ruiz said. "but now I'm going to destroy
you. I'll triumph in spite of you. You forget that I
still have nuclear weapons at my disposal, once I
get out of here." I hadn't forgotten, and that's why
I was up here, to keep Ruiz from ever leaving this
building. To destroy the madman once and for all.
I went after him. I grabbed him around the waist,
and, putting my foot behind his heel, I wrestled
him to the floor. We rolled around in the dust for
awhile, and finally I managed to get him under-
neath me.
I pummeled his handsome face with my fist
again and again. I pummeled him for Maria and
for Pedro and for the men he'd held captive. I pum-
meled him for his kidnap victims and for the peo-
ple who had died as a result of his bombs. His
nose broke beneath the force of my blows and
blood oozed out of his cut-up mouth. But then he
got his hands between my legs and squeezed my
balls with such force that I winced. His other fist
came up suddenly and collided against my jaw with
such impact that I fell backwards.
Ruiz jumped up and ran toward me. He jumped,
with the force of his entire body, on top of my rib
cage. I felt a bone or two crack and the air rushed
out of my lungs. Ruiz's heavy military boots
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kicked out at my face. I felt the taste of blood in my
mouth where one of his kicks had landed. Taking
advantage Of my temporarily breathless condition,
Ruiz came down on top Of me, straddling me and
pinioning my arms to my side with his heavily
muscled legs. Then he placed his hands around my
neck and began squeezing. Above me, Ruiz's
mouth opened in a diabolical grin. His blood-
drenched face, with its now broken nose, was no
longer handsome. It had becor,
distorted devil's
mask. A hysterical cackle rose trom Ruiz's throat
as he pressed his hands against my throat, harder
and harder. I felt the blood rush to my head and
my breaths becoming shorter and shorter.
I struggled, trying to free my arms from the vise
of Ruiz's thighs, Finally I managed to slide my left
arm out from under him. I put all the strength I
could muster into my fist and struck out at him.
My blow landed just below his right rib cage. Ruiz
reeled slightly backwards, and the pressure against
my neck decreased. I knew that this slight braking
of his strength was the last chance I'd have to get
away from him. J heaved myself up and strained
with all my strength against Ruiz's body. His
muscles gave way before mine and eventually I
freed my neck from his hands and threw him off of
me. Ruiz rose from the floor as I lay panting, spent
from the struggle. Catching my breath I pulled my-
self to a standing position and advanced on Ruiz.
Then unexpectedly Ruiz turned and ran toward
the railing above the opera stage. He climbed over
the railing, and for a second I thought he was going
to jump. Instead he reached out and grabbed one
of the heavy ropes hanging nearby. I ran after him,
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NICK CARTER
but just as reached the railing, Ruiz, clinging to
the rope, propelled himself away from my grasp.





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the railing above the opera stage. He climbed over
the railing, and for a second I thought he was going
to jump. Instead he reached out and grabbed one
of the heavy ropes hanging nearby. I ran after him,
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NICK CARTER
but just as reached the railing, Ruiz, clinging to
the rope, propelled himself away from my grasp.
He sailed out across the area directly above the
opera's stage. He managed to land on a narrow
catwalk above the center of the stage. After he'd
secured his footing, he let go of the rope. From the
catwalk he looked back at me, grinning trium-
phantly. Ruiz glanced to his right, and it was then
that I realized that the catwalk had to lead off to
the right wing, and that there would be a ladder
there to the ground. He might escape after all. I
considered grabbing a rope and propelling myself
to the catwalk. But then I thought of something
else.
I ran back to the center of the scenery room and
grabbed Othello's gold dagger. Back at the railing,
I saw Ruiz cautiously making his way across the
narrow catwalk. I yelled at him, and he turned toe
ward me, still smiling victoriously.
The smile did not have time to fade before the
gold dagger sunk straight into Ruiz's evil heart.
Blood spurted from his chest and his body swayed
backwards and plunged to the stage far below. The
final note of the opera sounded as I looked down.
The real corpse lay among all the opera's fake
corpses, center stage. And then the curtain fell.