Hawk finished flipping through the thick stack of typed
pages, then rapped the edge of the pile against his
desktop to straighten them before replacing the paper
clip and returning them to the folder.. He wrote his ini-
tials 'in a rubber-stamped square on the cover and
looked up at me.
"Well, Nick, was it really necessary to be all that
hard on our friends in the military? They did their best,
vou know. It appears that you've ruffed their feelings
somewhat."
"Yes, sir," r said. "Their feelings, sir."
Hawk picked up a half-smoked cigar from the nearly
filled ashtray and held it up to his eyes, rolling it be-
tween thumb and forefinger, giving it all his scrutiny. I
don't know why he always does that. Maybe once upon
a time someone gave him a loaded cigar. "You know,"
he said at last, "these things do happen. Unfortunately;
but they do. I remember during the war—no, skip that.
All I'm saying is that you shouldn't take it so person-
ally. It was a natural mistake. When the Pentagon
people routed orders to their Canal Zone operations
chief, that part about the timing somehow got lost.
There was just a hole there, but it didn't show. Their
man in Panama thought thcy wanted him to use his
own judgment. And he thought—logically enough—full
speed ahead as soon as they got your homing signal.
Anyway, there'll be a court of inquiry on it. The best
laid plans of mice and men go... go ."
"Aft a'glay, sir:"
"Thank you. Now knock it off, would you, please?
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It's over and done with. I know you're teed off. Me,
I've been around Washington too long. You can't al-
ways expect the level of competence and initiative I try
to squeeze out of this department from er, other
departments. You learn to live with it after a while. So
cut it out."
I couldn't help grinning then. He was right, of
course. That's exactly the way it was. I just wanted to
make sure my official displeasure got on record. I said,
"Then speaking off the record, I assume someone in
the Pentagon is getting all the flak about losing Steyer,
and not us and not Fred Dey."
"Off the record, you bet your ass someone is."
Hawk cleared his throat and swiveled in his chair to
face the big window looking down over Dupont Circle
and out toward Maryland. I never found out how the
old man had managed to get the best offce in all of
Washington for himself.
"No great loss to anyone except the politicians. And
Fred Dey told me he's a little sorry he never got to
meet the old buzzard face to face. You know how it is.
After you build up a thick file on your target, put every
little detail in, after a while you get to feeling like you
know the man. And you're dying to see if the picture
you've built up in your mind is anything like him."
"I know what you mean," I said. "Anything else
from the narcotics people?"
"Fred said that if I ever get tired of you here, you
can go see him about a job. He also said that you're
the only man he's known who would stoop to fix a
deck for gin rummy. And it seems he has doubts about
how much you were really trying to keep Steyer alive."
"He does, does he."
"Oh yes. Not that it's any big deal for him. It's his
idea that you had it in for Steyer all along. No inten-
tion of letting him walk out of it alive. Because of that
girl—what was her name? The one who died in the
mountains. Dey reads something going on there be-
tween the lines of your report."
"I usually put all the relevant facts in my reports."
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203
"Yes," Hawk said. "That's what I told him. But you
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"Yes," Hawk said. "That's what I told him. But you
do have to admit that Steyer's death did come about a
little strangely, considering the circumstances."
The circumstances had been strange enough, all
right. I hadn't even known he was dead until the last of
the Cubans had been rounded up and Subarov and I
had been taken aboard the landing craft and were head-
ing to Pensacola, direct, after a rendevous with the
mother ship. I hadn't believed it at first. He had been
alive and well the last time I saw him, back in the house,
just before I ran out to chase after Subarov.
Then they showed me the body, and I believed it.
And when I heard the story, I almost had to laugh.
Steyer had died because of his own final mistake—in
not telling the truth to his two business partners who
were with him that night. One of them was the dark
man with the Beretta who saved my life. He was a
Corsican named Auguste Richard, and he thought that
Steyer was selling them out to the Russians for real.
For money. People like that take betrayals very seri-
ously. As soon as I was gone, he had apparently man-
aged to find the Beretta I'd kicked aside, confronted
Steyer, and shot him dead....
I took out a cigarette and lit it and said, "Tell Dey,
why don't you, that if he thinks I was careless in leav-
ing that Beretta around—deliberately or not—helping
out Fate, he ought to remember one thing: There were
four or five dead Cubans in that room, all with
machine guns. And one with a sidearm—I didn't see
what kind, because he never got it out of his holster.
Then there was the Luger I shot out of Subarov's
hand. There was an arsenal there to choose from, if
that Corsican character wanted to. Not taking the
Beretta away from him didn't make a bit of difference.
I didn't bother to spell that out in my report because it
was so obvious. If he wants to read between the lines,
he should have at least seen that."
"Don't get mad at him, Nick. He's just playing Mon,
day-morning quarterback."
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NICK CARTER: KILLMASTER
"He should worry some more about picking up all
those people whose names I got for him from Carla."
"He is. I understand they've got the opening at the
U.S. end of the pipeline covered and have nabbed a
bunch of them already. FBI's in on it too. It's a little
difficult getting the other countries involved to cooper-
ate or clamp down, but they're working on it."
"Well, goody for him. What about Subarov? Are
you getting anything out of him yet?"
Hawk struck a chunky, old-fashioned kitchen match
across the sole of his shoe and held it to the cigar in
his mouth. He never uses lighters and won't let anyone
offer to light his stogies for him. It's a part of a ritual, I
guess.
"Ah, yes, your Russian friend. You should hear
what he has to say on the subject of you. He's a tough
bird,.but the interrogation boys are cracking him. You
know, that really was an unexpected bonus, you nailing
him for us. There's no end to the stories he's going to
tell us. Some of them, no doubt, will mean more work
for you. All in due time, however. In the meantime,
you have some time off. Let us know where you're
headed."
I shook my head. "I think this time Ill stay at home
and enjoy good old New York City before she goes'
bankrupt again. I've done enough traveling up and
down on this assignment to last me for a while. The.
idea of going anywhere just now, on an plane, boat,
bus, or even subway—but especially on a plane-—just
doesn't appeal to me."
Hawk nodded understandingly. "No plans then, I
take it."
"Not really. I thought I might spend some of the
time down on Hudson Street with Chris Howard. Still
could use a little more practice on the sabers, if that'S
still going."
"I don't see why not. I'm sure it will do you a lot 0
good," Hawk answered dryly.
As I walked past the smiling secretary in the outer
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NICK CARTER: KILLMASTER
"He should worry some more about picking up all
those people whose names I got for him from Carla."
"He is. I understand they've got the opening at the
U.S. end of the pipeline covered and have nabbed a
bunch of them already. FBI's in on it too. It's a little
difficult getting the other countries involved to cooper-
ate or clamp down, but they're working on it."
"Well, goody for him. What about Subarov? Are
you getting anything out of him yet?"
Hawk struck a chunky, old-fashioned kitchen match
across the sole of his shoe and held it to the cigar in
his mouth. He never uses lighters and won't let anyone
offer to light his stogies for him. It's a part of a ritual, I
guess.
"Ah, yes, your Russian friend. You should hear
what he has to say on the subject of you. He's a tough
bird,.but the interrogation boys are cracking him. You
know, that really was an unexpected bonus, you nailing
him for us. There's no end to the stories he's going to
tell us. Some of them, no doubt, will mean more work
for you. All in due time, however. In the meantime,
you have some time off. Let us know where you're
headed."
I shook my head. "I think this time Ill stay at home
and enjoy good old New York City before she goes'
bankrupt again. I've done enough traveling up and
down on this assignment to last me for a while. The.
idea of going anywhere just now, on an plane, boat,
bus, or even subway—but especially on a plane-—just
doesn't appeal to me."
Hawk nodded understandingly. "No plans then, I
take it."
"Not really. I thought I might spend some of the
time down on Hudson Street with Chris Howard. Still
could use a little more practice on the sabers, if that'S
still going."
"I don't see why not. I'm sure it will do you a lot 0
good," Hawk answered dryly.
As I walked past the smiling secretary in the outer
ГЛАВА ПЯТНАДЦАТАЯ
Хоук закончил пролистывать толстую стопку отпечатанных страниц, затем постучал краем пачки по столу, чтобы выровнять листы, после чего вернул скрепку на место и положил их обратно в папку. Он вписал свои инициалы в проштампованный квадрат на обложке и поднял на меня взгляд.
— Ну что ж, Ник, так ли необходимо было столь сурово обходиться с нашими друзьями из военного ведомства? Они старались, как могли, знаешь ли. Похоже, ты изрядно задел их чувства.
— Да, сэр, — ответил я. — Их чувства, сэр.
Хоук взял наполовину выкуренную сигару из почти полной пепельницы и поднес её к глазам, перекатывая между большим и указательным пальцами, подвергая её тщательному осмотру. Не знаю, почему он всегда так делает. Может быть, когда-то давно кто-то подарил ему сигару с сюрпризом.
— Знаешь, — сказал он наконец, — такие вещи случаются. К сожалению, но случаются. Я помню, во время войны... нет, пропустим это. Я лишь хочу сказать, что тебе не стоит принимать это так близко к сердцу. Это была естественная ошибка. Когда люди из Пентагона передавали приказы начальнику операций в зоне Канала, та часть, что касалась времени, каким-то образом потерялась. Там просто образовалась дыра, но её не заметили. Их человек в Панаме решил, что от него хотят, чтобы он действовал по собственному усмотрению. И он решил — вполне логично — полный вперед, как только они получат твой сигнал. В любом случае, будет назначено служебное расследование. Лучшие планы мышей и людей всегда... всегда...
— Идут прахом, сэр.
— Благодарю тебя. А теперь, пожалуйста, прекращай это. Всё кончено и сделано. Я знаю, что ты взбешен. Что до меня, то я слишком долго вращаюсь в Вашингтоне. Не всегда можно ожидать того уровня компетентности и инициативы, который я пытаюсь выжать из этого ведомства, от... э-э... других ведомств. Со временем учишься с этим жить. Так что завязывай.