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Шкловский Лев Переводчик
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MCK CARTER: KILLMASTER
someone. I'd play it cool for another day and then try
the same stunt again with another member of the hotel
staff. I doubted that it would get me any leads, but it
would sure as hell set a lot of tongues wagging.
The room wasn't too bad. I dialed downstairs and
ordered a bottle of Jack Daniels with plenty of ice.
I cleaned up a little while waiting for them to bring
it up. My faith in my old high school science teacher
got a boost for the hundredth time when I confirmed
that, just as he had said, water runs clockwise down
the drain when you're south of the equator. Aside from
one more phone call to place, I had the rest of the
night to myself to try to figure out why.
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CHAPTER THREE
There are days and even weeks on the job when a Kill-
master earns his pay simply by killing time. Not very
often, but sometimes it can't be helped. It looked as if
this would be one of those times.
When I called him from the hotel, Patrick Finley
muttered something under his breath and said he
couldn't meet me the next day. Absolutely out of the
question. I had given him a deliberately vague explana-
tion of who I was and what it was all about, so rather
than give my hand away at this point, it was easier just
to drop a twenty-megaton threat. My voice was angry.
'Tve never run across anyone so busy that he couldn't
spare half an hour for a dead friend, to say nothing of
the dead friend's lady friend, presumably living. What
is it with you, Finley? Anything special that you're try-
ing to cover up, or is it just everything?"
I could hear a gasp at the other end. Then his thin,
piping voice came through the receiver. "You said you
were U.S. government, right?" Another pause. "Look
here, it's nothing like that. Tomorrow I have a big in-
terview on the docket with a certain government minis-
ter. Lunch, and then a session at the congress build-
ing."
"Cancel it," I snapped.
"You don't understand. You can't just not show up
for a thing like that. Not in my business. Besides, it
would only call a lot of attention to me and probably
to you. You don't want that, I suppose."
So he had guessed that I was on some kind of un-
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CARTER: KILLMASTER
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NICK CARTER: KILLMASTER
dercover job. People think they know everything from
watching the movies.
"All right, when?"
"I guess I can make it tomorrow evening at the op-
era, if that's okay with you. Let's say in the mezzanine
bar at intermission, around 11:30. I'm going with my
wife."
The opera, for Christ's sake. "Oh, sure." I started to
cut him off, but then something clicked in my mind.
Finley's reluctance to cooperate, the hesitation in his
voice, and now his coming up with a place like the op-
era to make contact—they added up to something
more than just his trying to be nice to the new spy in
town. Finley was frightened. Either someone had threat-
ened him already or he knew or felt that he was being
tailed.
It made sense that way. If I was right, it meant a
break for me, one well worth waiting an extra day for.
Assuming the opposition knew their business, they
would have no problem keeping a tail on Finley and
thereby getting on to me. That was exactly what I was
hoping for. I couldn't let Finley know it, though. I told
him we had a date.
The next "day dragged. I felt tired and edgy and had
a lousy night's sleep—I think there's something about
flying north to south six thousand miles that plays hell
with the body's metabolism much worse than ordinary
jet lag.
I spent the greater part of the moming just walking
around and getting familiar with the city. The hotel
was about ten minutes' walk from the enormous Aven-
ida de Mayo, an eight-lane conversation piece linking
the city's two most important big plazas, Mayo and In-
dependencia. I walked up to the Palace of Congress at
the Independencia end, past four-star hotels and em-
bassy buildings, and stopped to buy a street map at a
tarpaulin-shrouded newsstand near the Callao subway
entrance. I sat down for a while on a nearby bench to
study it, idly watching the enormous, ice-cold disc of
the sun climb through the struts of a neon sign.
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the sun climb through the struts of a neon sign.
PLOT FOR THE FOURTH RETCH
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Tt was a few minutes past ten that evening when I
showed up in front of the imposing carved portals of
the Teatro C016n, freshly shaved and dapper-looking in
my rented tux. My first sampling of Argentine beef at
lunch had put me in a better mood, and my walk
around the city had made a further improvement. I
looked around the Plaza Lavalle to get my bearings.
Lit up from top to bottom by colored spotlights, the
opera house by night was a minor spectacle in its own
right, a dazzling neo-classical tribute to the art of over-
doing it. By day, I suspected, it would bear an uncanny
resemblance to the Treasury Building in Washington.
Through a chandelier-decked lobby just slightly smaller
than a football field, I made my way up a wide, carpet-
ed staircase lined with busts of the composers to the
mezzanine bar. Inside was red velvet and Brazilian
rosewood, giving an aura of more stuffy charm and
faded elegance than a Dublin tearoom.
I went up to the bar and ordered a Chivas Regal.
Hell, as long as I was dressed up in a monkey suit and
all, r felt entitled to go all the way.
The barman couldn't understand what T wag up to. I
had arrived late for the curtain and was giving no sign
that I had anv intention of going into the auditorium.
After my third drink, he put down the glass he was pol-
ishing and asked if by any chance I was displeased
with the performance.
"l don't know," I said. "l haven't been in to see it.
What's playing tonight, by the way?"
He looked shocked. "Don Giovanni," he answered
in a half whisper.
"Oh, that's all right then," I told him. 'Tve seen
that one already." The barman gave me an unabashed
some-kind-of-nut look and quickly turned his back.
Around twenty minutes later a rumble of applause
shook the old building to its distinguished foundations
and people began to stream through the double doors,
lighting up cigars. One of the first people out was a
short, thin, nervous-looking man of around fifty whose
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n ottnenrstpeopte
short, thin, nervous-looking man of around fifty whose
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NICK CARTER: KILT-MASTER
eyes scanned the room and settled directly on me. He
hurried over and asked, "Carter?" in a low voice.
I nodded.
"Then let's get a table somewhere in back where we
can talk." He asked the waiter to bring over a Cam-
pari, and I got up and followed him to one of the far
corners.
"I hope you didn't mind waiting," he began. "Did
you catch that Spanish tenor in the second act? They
really do a first-rate job of it here. The whole city's op-
era mad, partly because of the heavy Italian population
and partly because the Argentine people are the biggest
snobs in the world."
"Uh-huh," I said, not really caring one way or the
other. "At the moment I'm more interested in another
kind of uplift. Are you ready to tell me what you can
about Ross?"
His face sagged with disappointment. "Of course, if
you insist. But I don't know what you're after. There's
a long statement I gave to the police here, which I re-
peated in essence to a man they sent over from the em-
bassy."
"l know about that. I read it before I left the States.
That's not the point. You and I both know why Ross
was killed, and we both know who's responsible. Ross
knew it himself, only he wasn't expecting them to catch
up with him so soon. What I'm interested in is figuring
how it was done, so I can get a line on the girl who
was with him. The U.S. government wants her back
alive if it's at all possible."
Finley seemed to be thinking that one over. "And
you have no indication that she is still alive, other than
the fact that she apparently wasn't killed when Ross
was?"
"None at all."
Finley fished a pack of cigarettes from an inside
pocket and played with them a minute. "Maybe you're
right. I hope you are. She was a nice-looking girl. I
made her tell me how she got mixed up with Steyer
and what it was like. Testing her credibility. No won-
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erna unnute.•vtay
right. I hope you are. She was a nice-looking girl. I
made her tell me how she got mixed up with Steyer
and what it was like. Testing her credibility. No won-
PLOT FOR THE FOURTH REICH
45
der she wanted out. Ross was her knight in shining ar-
mor, a one-way ticket to the faraway. At least that. I'm
not sure how much of the emotional thing was for
real."
"If you're right," I said, "it was probably real
enough. Damsels in distress have a way of falling hard
for knights in shining armor." I figured I could cross
off one possibility—that it had been the girl who had
betrayed Ross. My assignment wouldn't have changed
any if she had been. Hostile or not, she was still the
only one who could give Frederick Dey in Washington
the key picture of Steyer's organization.
"I'm wondering how I should tell you this," Finley
said in a matter-of-fact tone. "l don't want you to get
the wrong idea. I think I may be able to help you out.
I hate to say it, but after Ross was killed I hadn't given
the girl very much thought. Ross was dead, and that
meant the end of the story he was going to do and,
really, the end of my involvement. But I wanted to find
out about Ross. He'd been working for me for three
years. That much, I owed him.
"I have an in with most of the local newspaper
people. The press here is one of the best in the world. I
asked various people on La Naci6n and a couple of
other dailies with close contacts to the police to keep
an ear open. So I found out. Two days ago, it was. The
police think they know who did the killing. But they