# Singapore Sling4444444444

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"The worst part to me is the private burial grounds he

has for all those who don't make it. It could add up to

thousands," Samantha added.

"And this is the man who was going to control Quang

when Hue Yen gave up office," the police chief said. swig-

ging the last of his beer.

"Gave up office?" Carter said. "Why would a man like

Chen wait that long?"

Chief Windsor sat for a long minute digesting the

thought. "He wouldn't, of course. It's all so damned dia-

bolical. A great man like Hue Yen. He has no idea. It's

going to hit him hard."

"It's your job to tell him when we've finished our job,"

Carter said. "Play him the tape. Tell him about the House

and the Russians,"

"What about the Soo brothers?" Samantha asked.

"I think Chief Windsor will find their bones in Chen's

graveyard," Caner said. "My job was to find the Soo

brothers and make sure Hue Yen's position was secured.

When Chen is dead, it will be over."

"You can't bnng him in? Be much better," Chief Wind-

sor said.

"No chance as I see it. I've studied the plans for Chen's

fortress. We'll have to blast our way in and end it for him

any way we can," Carter explained. "It's the best way, you

know," he went on, sipping the last of his beer "If we were

able to turn him over to you, your troubles would just be

beginning."

"A bloody war," Chief Windsor muttered shaking his

head.

"And you keep clear no matter the pressure. It shouldn't

take more than a half hour if my plan works," Carter ex-

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plained. "But it will sound like all hell has broken loose

when it does go down."

When Chief Windsor had left, a sadder but wiser man,

Samantha was eager to get the show on the road.

"We have to check Quang's information on the Chen

mansion," Carter told her. "I don't want to go in without

being sure."

"And how do we do that?"

"Stakeout. I figure if we watch all three houses for an

hour each we can make a fairly good judgment."

"Which one first?"

€The obvious. The one Quang fingered on Telok Blan-

gah road. If we don't see any sign of life at all, we try the

one on Pioneer Road, then the one on Lady Hill Road."

"I've got an old Chevy with black glass windows I've

used for stakeouts. We'll take it," she offered.

"Sounds good. When we're sure, we come back here

one last time and I'll go over the plan with you."

They sat in the Chevy on Ayer Rajah Road, each with

strong field glasses, looking down at the mansion one

block south on Telok Blangah Road. Carter was still in the

black outfit. Samantha had dressed similarly and had put

black greasepaint on her beautiful face. The car smelled of

the beer and sandwiches she'd brought. It was hot through

noon and on to one o'clock. The car was like an oven.

"How's the wrist?" Carter asked during the boring wait.

"Not bad. It throbs a lot. I suspect it's getting more

action than the doctor prescribed."

"We'll be finished and back at the safe house in a couple

of hours. You can get all the attention you want then."

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"That a promise?" She leered at him through the

makeup.

Caner's smile Olkned some of the cracks in his lips and

gashes in his cheeks he'd brought back from the beating.

Samantha had treated his face as best she could, and had

applied a base coat of oil before putting on his camÖuflage

makeup. His face ached and called out for attention, but he

tried to ignore it. In the action to come, he knew it would

not be a handicap and that was all that mattered.

They sat. Nothing significant had happened until Carter

asked, "You see what see?"

"Right. Looks like a provisions truck."

They watched while the driver pressed a buzzer set in

the stone wall surrounding the main gate. After a conversa-

tion with someone, he was admitted. He drove to the back

of the house and a small Oriental man came out to help him

unload.

"There's enough there for a small hotel," Samantha

said. Her face was wreathed in smiles.

"Or one very fat man," Carter added. He, t(X), was de-

lighted with some final proof.

"So we're on to the next phase," she said.

"Back to the safe house," he ordered.

She drove with care through the midday downtown traf-

fic to the rooms behind the store. It was close to two when

she parked and they went in.

The place had been cleaned up. lhe body was gone.

Samantha's Ærople had cleared away the empty tEer bottles

and emptied the ashtrays.

Samantha brewed a pot of coffee and sat across the table

from Carter. "What now?" she asked.

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"Where are the shields?" he asked.

She produced two shields made of an oval mirror with a

layer of Lexan attached. Holes had been drilled through the

glass and Lexan, probably with diamond drills, and insu-

lated handles were bolted on the inside. Carter hefted one.

•mey were not too heavy, at least not for him.

' 'Try one," he suggested. "How does it feel?"

"Heavy. How long will I have to hold it?"

"Ten minutes if we're lucky. A half hour if we're not."

"l can handle that. What are they for?"

'The robots are equipped with both laser trams and

40mm machine guns," Carter explained. 'The Lexan will

deflect the bullets; the mirrors will take care of the lasers."

"We'll have to make sure we're not too close. We could

deflect the rays at each other."

"We have to work close together, so we'll have to be

very careful," he explained.

"We could work close together now." She smiled lasci-

viously. "Isn't that the line that soldiers use when going

into battle?"

He pecked on the lips. "There's nothing I'd like better,

Sam. But business first."

"Right," she sighed. "How are we going to strike

He moved to the closet where she'd secreted the cesta

and Howard Schmidt's case. He opened the case and took

out one of the grenades. "One of Howard's latest goodies,"

he said.

"He's always trying to get me to use things like those.

Not my style," she explained.

"l feel the same, but you have to adapt. How would you

tackle the robots?"

She thought for a moment.

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"How many rotY)ts? Six or seven along the perimeter?

Another half-dozen roaming the grounds?"

"Half and half. An even dozen," he replied.

"Impossible."

"J don't think so," he said, examining the cesta. "Do

you have a coat hanger and wire cutters?"

"DoesrCt every self-respecting spy?" she asked, dryly,

getting up and going to a closet.

Carter quickly fashioned a hook out of the coat hanger.

It was small, about three inches long. He secured it to the

inside of the cesta near the wrist bands and left one end to

act a.s a hook. Then he strapped on the cesta.

She watched, still puzzled, until he took one of the gre-

nades and carefully hung its release pin on the hook.

"You know how to use that thing?" she asked.

"I've had some lessons from an expert."

g Tell me atX)ut it."

"It's long story Take my word for it." He looked at his

borrowed watch: it was just past three. He had four hours

until dark and he wanted it ended by dark. "Do you know a

very private place on this island?" he asked.

"Sure. Why?"

"We're going to do some training, It couldn't hurt."

She carried the case and he the cesta. "Do you

have any submachine guns around here?" he asked.

"You want submachine guns too? Why?"

"Not for the house. For general use."

"In the Chevy There are two Uzi machine pistols in the

trunk."

"Put them up front. They can't do us any good sitting in

the Uunk."

She drove while he kept a lookout for unwanted com-

pany. She picked a spot in the Yishun area not far from the

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causeway. While she drove, he fashioned a few crude gre-

nades from material he'd brought along.

She pulled into dense brush and led him to an open area

that she'd obviously used for target practice.

"Perfect," Carter said, strapping on the cesta and mak-

ing sure the hook was secure.

He swung the basket around a few times, getting back

the feel of it. He thought of Eloise but forced her from his

mind. This wasn't the time or place.

He picked up a few rocks the size of the grenades and

used the cesta to toss them at the remains of shattered bot-

tles on a riddled log. His aim was true. Not a shard of glass

remained on the log.

"I'm impressed," Samantha said, watching the rocks

speed to their targets with unerring accuracy.

' That's the easy part," he said, handing her the substi-

tute grenades he'd made on the way there.

"What do I do?" she asked.

"Picture the house while standing at the front gate," he

said. "A double steel fence starts next to the stonework o

the gate. The two fences are about twelve feet apart, chain

link, electrified, almost impossible to cut."

"And the robots circling inside."

"Right. I'm going to be to your left with the cesta on my

right arm. You hook on the grenades and I toss them. I'll

tell you the time settings for each. We should be able to

toss one every five to ten seconds "

"Sounds simple enough."

'The robot will firing at us. So you have to hold you

shield on your right arrn and feed the grenades with you

left."

"Figures. Nothin's ever easy."

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"The forty-millimeter slugs will feel like ninety-mile-

an-hour baseballs hitting your shield."

"They'll knock me over," Samantha protested.

"You'll have to do your best. We have to protect our-

selves as well as we can. Even then, if the robots have

artificial intelligence or Chen can control them individu-

ally, they could aim at our feet and we'll be in big trouble."

"Shit, Carter, you're crazy. *Ihis isn't going to work,"

she grumbled dejectedly.

"It'll work if we can fight smoothly as a team. We'll

beat them to the punch," he said. "These little babies How-

ard gave us are so powerful they'll probably toss a robot

ten to twenty feet into the air. Their electronic circuits will

be destroyed immediately."

She looked at him skeptically, then assumed her posi-

tion. She held her shield in her right hand and he took his

in his left. She attached a phony grenade and he slung it.

They pitched a dozen or more until she was beginning to

feel confident.

"Now we try it from our knees," he said.

She looked at him as if he were insane but knew he was

right. If they attacked standing all the way, it would be a

miracle if they weren't cut down at the legs.

"We kneel and fire off a few. Then we assume another

attack zone and kneel again. Come on. We'll try one with a

live grenade, move to a new location, and try another."

"Okay. But I still think you're nuts."

Tat tree stump fifty feet to your left is a robot bearing

down on us and firing. You hook on a live grenade and we

move quickly twenty feet to the left. You hook on another

grenade and I destroy that oak tree fifty feet to my left.

"You ready?"

"Why not? We might as well give it a shot."

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"Set them both at five seconds. Ready? On the count of

three. One. Two. Three!"

She on the grenade and he tossed. They moved

twenty feet to their left and she hooked on again. Partway

to their new position the ground shook, almost throwing

them off their feet. But she hooked on again and he tossed

at the tree.

They clung to the ground, their shields in place in front

of them until all was still.

Samantha poked her head out. "Holy Mother of God!"

she breathed. Only a crater remained where the huge stump

had stood. The oak tree, two feet in diameter at the base,

was shattered, only a foot of ragged stump remaining in the

ground.

"What do you think?" Carter asked, brushing the dirt

and debris from his head.

"l think we need hard hats and something to cover our

ears. Hot damn! We can blow him off the map with these."

"With the robots firing at us, don't forget."

"l won't forget," she said, climbing into the Chevy, a

huge grin spread over her face. "I never knew how much

fun little-boy war games were," she joked.

"It's not fun in real life," he said as they pulled away.

"I've seen too many battlefields. Bodies scattered every-

where—blood and guts covered with clouds of flies—the

stink enough to drive you insane,"

"Hey. Don't scare me," she said in a softer voice.

"Just don't get too cocky. If we ait as a team, like we

did just now, we'll cream Chen's robots. If not, kiss the

world good-bye."

He felt the adrenaline pumping and knew she felt the

same way. He was so wrapped up in his thoughts that he

didn't see the car following until the glass of the Chevy's

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rear window was shattered by small-arms fire.

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"Head back for the bnlsh!" he shouted over the noise.

He grabbed for an Uzi, opened a window, and leaned

out. ne other car had gained on them but was swerving

from left to right. He emptied a clip without hitting any-

thing vital. He reached into Howard's case and mk out

one of the precious grenades. It was set for ten seconds. He

leaned out the window, waited for exactly the right moment

with bullets flying all around him, and pulled the pin.

He tossed the small ball to bounce once and land under

the pursuing car. The roar that followed was deafening.

They crashed through the brush for another fifty feet, then

circled back to the crater where the car had tEen, their

radiator blowing steam from a tree trunk that had punctured

it.

All that was left of their attackers was a twisted hunk of

metal buming furiously. They couldn't find a body, but

Samantha found out what he'd meant about a battleground.

Flies swarmed in by the thousands. Small pieces of flesh

and bone could be found over a fifty-foot area. She stared,

her mouth one tear coursing down her cheek.

"The battle's begun," he said.


THIRTEEN

The Chevy left behind at the site of the afternoon skir-

mish, Samantha Trail drove a GMC Jimmy along Keppel

Road and turned off at the Ayer Rajah Expressway. She

was scared. In all the years she'd worked for Hawk, noth-

ing she'd done had approached this. For the first time she

was aware of her mortality, and the thought sent a chill up

her spine.

Carter sat calmly beside her. He had the cesta across his

lap and was smoking a cigarette. She wondered if he, too,

was frightened. Maybe not. He'd been through this kind of

thing many times, she was sure. No wonder the whole

intelligence community looked on him as their top gun.

Chen sat in his chair, a huge platter of steaming food in

front of him. His hands were at his sides, the chopsticks

still on the table. For once in his life, his mind wasn't on

food when it was there for the taking.

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They had told him that Quang was dead. Quang, the

simple fool who had defied him, was dead. He didn't

mourn for the stupid man, but he mourned the loss of op-

portunity. It had taken him more than three years to insinu-

ate Quang into the position of power he'd occupied.

He could have had it all. Singapore first, then the Malay

Peninsula and Penang, then Sumatra and the rest of Malay-

sia. All of it was lost to him. And all because of one man.

Who was this gnat that buzzed around him, taking a bite

here, a nibble there? The man was the most persistent an-

tagonist Chen had ever had, And now the nibbles had be-

come huge chunks. The loss of Quang had been critical.

He'd had this man Carter in his power twice and lost

him. How could that happen? How could the man be taken

by the Russians and come away unscathed and all the Rus-

sians dead? He wasn't a superman. He was flesh and

blood. He's seen his men beat the man's face almost to a

pulp and still he'd escaped. He'd escaped to carry on and

finally kill Quang.

Something else haunted him. What had Quang told the

man Carter before he died? The American devil man prob-

ably knew about the headquarters house. He even had an

architect's plan of the house's layout.

Fear grabbed at him for the first time in years and he

shook it off. Carter could not get to him. He had too many

layers of defense, some that only he knew atx)ut. Ihe men

who had built them for him were in a common grave, silent

and cold.

As he thought of the foolproof defenses, some hidden

and very secret, his confidence returned and he began to

eat. Let the foolish Carter come. Even if he knew about the

layout of the house, even if he knew of the robots and the

fences, even if he knew about all of these things and could

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somehow destroy them, he couldn't know about the sec-

ondary defenses and the third. He would never break

through, not all the way.

The thought of the intruder's death brought him pleasure

and he ate with gusto. He knew how to manipulate the

robots, how to override the automatic sequences pro-

grammed into them and control them with the series of joy

sticks built into his massive console. He'd spent countless

hours manipulating the robots and, like the teen-agers of

the city in the video game arcades, he could defeat anyone

who stood against him.

The system had only one weakness. Jf he took over the

robots and fought his battle using his own wits, he also

overrode the protection programs that guaranteed the

robots would never fire on each other: No matter. In all the

hours of practice, he had never come close to firing on his

own robots.

Death was an aphrodisiac for the fat man. Sex had been

impossible for him for years, but the death of a stubborn

enemy or a beautiful woman gave him gratification, almost

a sexual thrill. Carter's death would be the ultimate joy.

Carter, the Killmaster, ready to go into action, sat un-

moving, his cigarette long since crushed in the Jimmy's

ashtray, his mind tuned to the teachings of his yoga guru of

long ago. His thoughts were not fogged by emotion or fear.

They were tuned to the tools he brought into battle: the

superbly conditioned body; the experience that could be

matched by no other man alive; the weapons he'd devised

for this particular encounter. Back at the safe house he'd

gone over the battle in his mind a score of times

and found a glaring weakness in his defenses. Always con-

scious of having the best defense possible, at the last mo-

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ment he'd asked Samantha to have her craftsmen prepare

large sheet of Lexan backed up by a mirror. Now it w

secured to the top of the Jimmy on a carrying rack, a she

similar to their shields but measuring six feet by ten.

"Drive to within a hundred feet of the main gate an

park the vehicle parallel to the fence," he ordered calmly.

Samantha seemed to pull herself out of a trance an

followed his orders. As soon as the vehicle had stopped, h

jumped out and used Hugo to slash the bindings holdin

the large sheet of Lexan. It was heavy and awkward t

handle. Samantha came around to his side and helped hi

ease it down so that it- leaned against the Jimmy on the f

side facing the fence.

The two agents, now fully prepared, worked behin

their barrier. Carter slipped on the cesta and tied it as he'

been taught. He checked the small hook and found that i

was secure.

Samantha Schmidt's case and filled the pocket

of a carpenter's apron she'd borrowed from one of her

ple. It held all the high-explosive grenades in the larg

pocket on the left side, and the phosphorous ones in th

smaller pocket on the right.

Carter picked up one of the shields. He held it with hi

left hand and stood on Samantha's left.

Samantha held her shield in her right hand and palmed

grenade in her left.

They moved away from the prohection of the Jimm

staying close together.

"Set the first one for fifteen seconds. I'll lay it at th

base of the fence."

Samantha's hand shook as she set the dial. It was diffi

cult to do with one hand, but she'd practiced incessantl

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and managed it in a second or two. "Loaded," she said. It

was the signal they had agreed on earlier.

Carter was in no hurry. They were out in the open now.

Their purpose had to be obvious, but there was no special

action from the rotk)ts who continued to patrol the entire

perimeter as usual, Perhaps they weren't programmed to

react to Ikople outside the fence unless attacked.

But what about Chen? Carter wondered. Surely he knew

they were out there. Ihen the answer hit him. Chen could

only an observer for the moment. He was at the mercy

of the software that controlled his electronic guards.

Whether or not he had manual override, they'd probably

learn later.

What would he do if he were Chen? The answer was

simple. He'd do nothing. Not for the present. Nothing had

really happened except a threat and it could tr a bluff.

It was time to show him they weren't bluffing. He

swung the cesta around in a perfect arc, the timing just

right, and let the grenade drop at the bottom of the outer

fence about ten feet to the left of the rock wall.

They both knelt and waited for the concussion, remem-

bering the practice session in the woods.

The explosion was deafening and was followed by the

crackle of severed high-tension wires. Debris and earth

showered down on them from above. Samantha shook her

head, a habit she'd always had to dislodge foreign objects

from her hair, forgetting that she was not only bald, but

protected by a steel helmet. She grinned sheepishly and

hooked on a grenade set for ten seconds as previously

agreed.

"Loaded," she said.

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ne explosion shook the house slightly. Chen jumped

and cried out as if the grenade had gone off trside him.

The steel chair tmring his weight groaned but held him.

He had been watching Carter and the woman on his moni-

tors. Their preparations had comic and he'd enjoyed a

chuckle as he saw them place what looked like a giant

mirror in place.

Now nothing was amusing. When the smoke cleared, a

gaping hole had been torn in the fence at least a dozen feet

across and the lasers in the area were out of commission.

The robots had reacted as programmed and were wheeling

toward the intrusion from both directions. lhe big man

decided to let them handle it for the present. 'Ihey had

never been tested under actual conditions, but had met

every possible threat thrown at them in hundreds of simula-

tions.

In the kitchen above the control room, Chen's man

screamed as the roar shook the house. A pot of boiling eels

toppled from the stove and spilled over his sandaled feet.

He around in pain not knowing what was happen-

ing. Despite his scalded feet, he ran down the long narrow

flight of stairs to his pantry two floors below. If the attack

he'd expected ever since coming to work for the fat man

was about to start, he wanted to be close to an exit.

Carter poked his head around one side of the huge

shield and saw the robots coming toyard the opening at

high speed. When the first one reached the hole in the

fence, the Kilimaster moved out into the open and let fly

with a grenade. It landed under the nearest robot and lay in

the dirt for all of five seconds before going off.

The robot flew into the air and a massive shock wave hit

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the two out in the open. They scrambled to their knees and

held the shields in front of them.

Three robots drawn to the scene obeyed preprogrammed

orders and opened fire with lasers and automatic weapons.

The laser beams were reflected off their shields at odd

angles, but the 40mm slugs rained against the Lexan, al-

most knocking Samantha over,

The woman recovered, set a grenade to fire at seven

seconds, and shouted, "Loaded. Seven seconds."

Two of the robots were at the opening and a third was

close by. Carter aimed the third grenade between the two

electronic guards, then ducked as another shock wave hit

them.

"Get tEhind the Jimmy!" he shouted at Samantha.

They moved from their knees and stayed low as they

eased to the right and back behind the wall of Lexan,

small-arrns fire bouncing off their shields, almost knocking

Samantha over again.

Carter peeked around the side of the Jimmy on one side

and Samantha followed his lead at the other. 'Ihe two

robots they had attacked lay on their sides, panly de-

stroyed, aflame, their lasers aimed harmlessly at the eve-

ning sky.

"Did we get them?" Samantha shouted over her

shoulder.

"I think so. The first was a perfect hit. The other two

are damaged and will probably poop out altogether as their

circuits cook."

"So that's three down and nine to do," she said.

"As far as we know. Set the next one for fifteen sec-

onds. I want to try something."

Carter heard her call out that she was ready as he eased

to his left again. This time two robots were waiting for

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them and let fly with everything they had as soon as the

two humans were in the open. Steel-jacketed 40mm projec-

tiles rained against their shields as they moved to the left

on their knees.

The Killmaster swung the cesta in a graceful arc, using

more loft. The small round explosive was in the air for

three seconds and landed beneath a robot that was standing

off about fifty yards waiting to attack.

The explosion destroyed the robot, but the shock wave

didn't disturb Carter and Samantha as much as the others

had. While they crept back to the safety of their mirrored

barrier, Carter found he could direct the reflection of lasers

from his shield at specific targets. Before they were back

behind the Jimmy, his deflections had destroyed the two

damaged robots. Four down for sure and only two left be-

tween the perimeter fences.

lhe sound of the first four grenades could be heard all

across the city. The disciplined citizens of Singapore were

conditioned to law and order. They huddled in small

groups wondering why they had not heard police sirens.

'Ihe noise had been going on for three or four minutes. It

sounded as if they city were under attack. Where were the

B)lice who were normally very visible?

The man who knew what was going on sat in his office,

a look of anguish on his face. Twice in the past minute or

two, his aides had interrupted to implore him to take some

action and twice he had shouted at them to follow orders.

No official action was to be taken.

The phone rang. He picked it up. "The prime minister is

on line two," a disembodied voice told him.

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He reached out wearily to push a button. "Windsor,"

was all he said.

"Hue Yen. What is happening, Chalkie?"

The prime minister was a man who always came right to

the point.

S' You'd find any explanation difficult to believe, Mr.

Prime Minister," Chief Windsor said.

'Try me."

"I'd prefer to let it run its course and cover the whole

story with you when it's over."

' When what is over?"

"I'd prefer not to say."

"Are your men involved?"

"No? Then who?"

"I'd prefer not to say right now."

"You will tell me right now or I will order out the

army," Hue Yen said, his voice rising for the first time.

"Sir, believe me, it's best to leave it alone for a few

more minutes."

"Tell me what you know, Windsor, or I swear—

"It will be finished before you can muster the troops,

Mr. Prime Minister. Believe me."

"I've trusted you through the years. You know that. You

know the opposition I've had to keep you .. ."

"I know and I appreciate it, sir. Just go with me one

more time," Chief Windsor pleaded. "This is very impor-

tant, life or death for your government, perhaps for all of

Southeast Asia. Please, sir, leave it with me. Give an-

other half hour."

"All right. But my phone is ringing off the hook. You'd

better be right, Chalkie. And you'd better have one hell of

a story for me."

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Chief Windsor sat at his desk for what seemed like long

minutes, agonizing over the situation. "Ihen he poured

himself another scotch but dropped it on the floor when

another explosion rocked the city.

All the remaining robots were concentrated not far from

the hole in the fence now. They had been programmed to

stay far enough apart to avoid grenade attacks and multiple

losses. Carter started to ease out for the next attack. He had

learned something from his earlier forays and was deter-

mined to try out a theory this time.

He'd heard Samantha's cry of "Loaded!" as soon as

they'd reached the saftey of the shield. With a live grenade

in the cesta and his shield in his other hand, he was ready

for the worst.

And the worst was what he got. Ihe two remaining

first-line robots were close to the hole in the fence and the

other half dozen were ranged inside the second fence, all

firing at him as he moved out. He felt a steel projectile crease

his shoe as he launchéd another grenade at the closest robot.

This time he didn't move back to safety. Samantha

pulled at his cesta arm before she realized he intended to

stay out. She remained beside him, her shield in place,

waiting.

Three robots fired from the right, inside the grounds,

and three from the left. The fifth robot in the fence perime-

ter was a smoldering ruin. Ihe last of the front-line robots

was concentrating on Samantha.

Carter deftly manuevered his shield with his left hand

until he had a feel for how the laser beams reflected from

the mirrored surface. fie streams were almost constant.

He watched the deflected beams move to the left until they

were directed at the group of three inside the fence, far to

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the left. Just before he motioned Samantha to duck back

inside the bamer, he saw the beams converge on one of

the distant robots but he didn't see if the maneuver had

helped.

Samantha let out a triumphant whoop. "You got one of

the bastards!" she shouted.

"Reflected lasers?" he asked.

"It was tRautiful! Blew the damned thing to bits!" she

said delighted.

"Six down. That's half. And we've got most of our gre-

nades left," he said, almost as excited as she.

'The rest of it's going to be harder, isn't it?" she asked.

"l'm afraid so. We can't retreat behind the big shield

much longer."

"Can't we move it closer? Maybe if we propped it up

between two wrecked robots?"

"Good thought. But it's too heavy. We'd be vulnerable,

couldn't hold out small shields. There's no way it could be

done."

"What do we do now?"

"One more sortie to get the last of the outer group. One

more to blow the inner fence. Then we'll have to play it by

ear," he said. "Make the next one seven seconds."

"You're wounded!" she said, spotting the crease across

his boot that had nicked his toes and produced blood. It

looked a lot worse than it was.

He looked her over. She had two laser bums: one on her

right arm, the other on her left ankle. "Not a problem.

What about the burns? How do they feel?" he asked.

"I can't feel them yet. Maybe later. Let's get this over

with."

He moved out and let fly the grenade she'd set for seven

seconds. Without waiting for instructions, she set another

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for seven seconds and shouted its readiness over the first

explosion.

Carter tossed another grenade through the opening in the

fence. It landed at the base of the second fence and ex-

ploded immediately.

The concussion of two closely spaced explosions

knocked them both over. For a moment they were both

vulnerable, flat on their backs, their shields held skyward.

Carter couldn't help Samantha. He had both hands full.

She had her left hand free. She'd have to make it on he

own.

Samantha had-never experienced anything like this in

her life and never wanted to again.

Her arm hurt and so did her ankle. She had lied abou

the laser burns. lhey hurt so much it was all she could do

to keep from screaming.

fte second fence had been breached and seven robot

had been destroyed. She'd been skeptical that it could

done, but now she knew better. She knew now that the

could defeat Chen, then he wasn't invulnerable, but sh

also knew that the worst part was yet to come.

The specter of death was back with her. Ihe last time i

had been merely a feeling of danger, a concem for he

mortality. But this time she felt a cold chill run down h

spine as the hooded man with the scythe was standing i

the field of battle and he was lookink directly at her.

The fat man couldn't believe what was hapÆrning to hi

defenses. Seven of the robots were destroyed. The inne

barrier had been breached. He was a shaking mass of blub

ber, his hands almost out of his control as he switched ove

to manual override and brought the five remaining rotK)

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to the hole in the inner fence, positioned in a semicircle,

their awesome weapons pointed at the gaping hole.

'Ihe two in black couldn't stay behind the big shield

forever. They had to come out and fight if they to

enter the second bamer. He held on to the joy sticks of the

two leading robots, his hands a little more steady, and

watched the video screen with bloodshot eyes.

The grounds outside the mansion smelled of cordite and

electronic fires. Caner thought he could smell burning

flesh but he wrote it off as imagination. The worst. was yet

to come. They had to move out into the open and stay

there, fighting every inch of the way. He turned to his

"It's going'to be twice as bad from here on in. I'm not

sure I want to expose you to it."

"You don't have a choice. Load!" she called out. "Ten

seconds!"

He moved out. The rays and bullets of five robots met

him in an almost overwhelming assault. He stole a glance

at Samantha. She was undergoing the same wicked bar-

rage.

Something unusual was happening. In a semicircle, a

battle formation that had never been programmed for them,

the robots were coming under as much fire as their targets.

Five sets of lasers aimed at the two shields were

Immed directly back at them. Before the monster inside

could react and go back on automatic defense, three of the

robots had been melted down and the other two, pro-

grammed to regain automatic sequencing, were turning to

take up new

Carter heard a war whoop beside him as he let fly with

another grenade. He could see the last two robots as they

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maneuvered into new defensive positions. "Ihe small round

ball dropped with deadly accuracy under the wheels of one

and blew it twenty feet into the air, spinning, a twisted

piece of metal filled with smoking wires.

He motioned Samantha to move forward through the gas

as she hooked on another grenade and called out, "Loaded!

Ten seconds!"

They moved in on the last robot. Caner knew they'd

been lucky so far. Every one of the robots had been a

deadly killing machine and they still had one to go. Who-

ever had programmed them had allowed for any possible

scenario, even this one. The robot was cagey. It didn't

show itself but stayed behind one of the wrecks and fired

constantly.

This would be one of the toughest shots he'd ever made.

Unlike tennis, the lob shot in jai alai wasn't common. He

thought about the shot until it was firm in his mind, then let

his brain direct his arm and the cesta in a higher arc that

sent the small ball in the highest pitch he'd ever tried.

Everything from that point on seemed to be in slow

motion. The ball flew away to move slowly through the

air. The 40mm slugs still rained on their shields. The

robot, hull down but with enough clearance to allow for

full firepower, was etched against the fading light to their

right.

The grenade exploded. It had landed five feet in front of

the robot, not a perfect hit but enough to toss the ingenious

machine backward a dozen feet and mtralize its electronic

circuits.

The battlefield was quiet for a few minutes, then the

silence was broken by Samantha's happy laughter as she

dropped her shield and danced around Carter in a victory

celebration that was born out of pure joy and relief. It was

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a release from mortal fear. It was an escape from the Grim

Reaper. It was the of the new life she had

dreamed of.

Smoke rose from the broken hulks. Craters had changed

the carefully tended grounds to a moonscape. The smell

was of electronic, not human death. At last Carter permit-

ted himself a smile as he watched Samantha dance with

He put down his shield and unstrapped the cesta, and

couldn't help but laugh with her.

While he grinned at her and held out his arms; a beam

of red light flashed from a dead robot, a freak discharge

from a loaded condenser. It caught Samantha in one eye

and exited out the back of her skull, sending her helmet

flying and frying her brain in the passing.

Carter stood, frozen, then he ran to her as she crumpled

to the ground. He held her for a moment, looking at the

smoke drift from inside her skull, feeling for a pulse but

owing none would be there.

Something snapped inside the usually disciplined brain.

e untied the apron from her waist and tied it around his

own, all the while raining curses on the head of the man

ho lived in the big stone house.

With rage taking the place of reason, and with a searing

atred coursing through his body, he tossed one of the re-

aining high-explosive grenades at the building, knocking

uge chunks of rock from the solid wall but not penetrating

e citadel of Fat Chen.

fien he fell to his knees and rocked back and forth,

olding Samantha's bcxiy as if it were a child he were

ning to sleep.


FOURTEEN

As Carter sat amid the debris, maniacal laughter

boomed out from the house. Chen was celebrating his vic-

tory, and the sound of his voice filled the man from AXE

with loathing. Men like Chen were uncommon. The man

on the street almost never encountered them, never read

about them in the palErs, but Carter knew of them. He had

met many and the experience was beginning to weary

him, drain him of his usual steel resolve to rid the world of

them. You couldn't make demands on your mind and body

as Carter had for so long without some burnout.

lhe voice boomed on, laughing, cursing, using English,

Mandarin, Cantonese, and a half-dozen other languages.

The sound attacked Carter like a bombardment from the

robots. He raised his head from the lifeless body he held and

looked at the mansion. Chen stood behind a huge plate

glass window, his huge bulk filling the space, his caver-

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nous mouth open, his voice still booming out his victory

speech, his eyes laughing at the man kneeling on the

ground.

Carter stared at Fat Chen. So this was the monster who

was responsible for it all. At last they were face to face.

The expression on the Killmaster's face slowly changed

from sadness to hatred and finally to resolve. The spirit of

revenge grew to fill him almost to bursting as he looked at

the man who had sent thousands to die and three times that

number to live in slavery.

Carter stood up shakily. He was cut and bleeding in a

score of places from the shrapnel his own mad attack had

produced. He should have felt weak, a candidate for a hos-

pital bed, but he seemed to be infused with an inner

strength that was built on a glowing ember of hatred he

could never extinguish until Chen was dead.

With the efficiency of long practice, the Killmaster's

right hand slipped his Luger from its holster and, in a sin-

gle fluid motion, put three shots in a close triangular pat-

tern at the monster's massive forehead.

The laughter continued. The window was bulletproof,

just as Carter's shield had been. For a moment, the anger

and frustration he'd experienced at Samantha's death re-

turned, and he emptied Wilhelmina at the man behind the

transparent wall.

While he looked at his gargantuan enemy, the hidden

speakers that sent out the man's voice boomed out a mes-

sage:

'Good-bye, Carter. I'm going to throw out one more

challenge for you and I'll be gone. Do you hear me,

Carter? I won't be here when you finally figure out how to

get to me."

A cold determination had taken the place of rage. The

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Killmaster had come close to irrational action but that had

passed. Carter looked up at the enemy who still stood

hind his barrier, then watched as Chen moved toward the

massive wcxxien door at the front of the house.

"One more deterrent, Caner," the monster's voice

boomed out.

Carter saw him reach for a lever beside him and pull it.

In an almost deafening clatter of sound, steel bars fell from

concealed to cover every door and window. The

whole house was ccxooned in steel and stone, the walls

three feet thick, the bars too strong for his weapons, the

windows undoubtedly all of I.„exan.

Chen's man sat on a stool in the pantry next to the

kitchen and held his hands over his ears. He had almost

gone insane while the bombardment was going on outside.

He'd thought the house was going to tumble around him as

the madman outside tossed explosives at the house. Thank

God their attacker had not aimed one at a door, or by this

time he would inside.

Now the voice of his master was driving him mad. It

was all too much. And it wasn't fair. He was the only one

who would look after the fat pig. He'd been promised

riches beyond his wildest dreams if he would stay. He'd

also been threatened with a life of slavery if he left.

The bars slid into place with a loud metallic clanging.

Curse all the gods! He was trapped! He had to get out

somehow. What was the madman outside doing? He

couldn't see a thing for the dirt on the pantry windows.

He'd been meaning to clean them, but he had too many

other things to do.

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Chen left the huge window and waddled on swollen feet

to a steel chair in a room he sometimes used for sleeping. It

was time to get out. A portion of the floor in the next room

would lower him to the basement and the escape tunnel

that led to another house and ultimate safety. He had an

armored car waiting that would take his weight. A loyal

employee was on hand every hour of the day and night to

drive for him.

A loud chuckle bubbled up in his throat as he thought of

the futile efforts of the man outside. He might have tRen

outraged at the loss of his robots, but he could operate

from another headquarters. He'd made arrangements for

the future. He'd set up decoy mansions that were identical

to this one. But his real ace in the hole was a stronghold

he'd built on Penang, off the coast of Malaysia, the para-

dise island in the Strait of Malacca.

But what was the hurry? He'd not be able to eat in

transit. He pulled the cord for his man and waited, but

nothing happened. That damned Heu Choy was probably

petrified with fear. No matter. He pushed a button and a

large tray swiveled out of a concealed closet. It was filled

with cold meats, chilled seafood, raw vegetables, pickles,

and fresh and preserved fruits.

Let the damned American drive himself mad trying to

find a chink in my armon While the thought occurred, a

missile of some kind bounced off the window and exploded

in a burst of flame outside.

*Ihe monster that was Arthur C&il Chen roared with

laughter, bits of half-chewed food falling from his mouth.

Carter had circled the mansion, carefully, like a preda-

tory jungle cat in the night. He was unable to find one

place in the mansion that looked more vulnerable than an-

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other. In frustration, he pulled the pin on one of the half-

dozen phosphorous grenades he camed and flung it as hard

as he could at a lighted second-floor window. It bounced

off and explcxied not far from him.

Fingers of fire reached out in every direction. Pieces of

phosphorous burning at more than a thousand degrees

Fahrenheit started fires in a score of places. Two small

fragments caught in his clothing and he had to roll over and

over in the deep grass to extinguish them. Where they had

been, three-inch holes still smoldered in Carter's clothes

and his skin was badly blistered.

In the pantry, Heu Choy, Chen's man, stood on the stool

and frantically pulled on the pantry window, desperate to

see what was going on outside.

It moved from the top, so he had to stretch as far as he

could to get his fingers around the edge. He was in a panic,

all reason gone, the only emotions left directed at survival.

He had to get out! At the very least, he had to see what

was going on.

Carter stood in front of the massive wooden doors and

thought.

Where was Chen? Did he have another escape route? If

he did, he'd long gone now. Carter moved to the side of

a garden lily pond and slumped on a marble t*nch. What

would he have done in the circumstances? Assuming he

was rich beyond reason, and Chen was, he'd have had an

elaborate escape route planned. It wouldn't found until

he was long gone.

Next, he'd set up a headquarters in a new location and it

would be business as usual. And what was worse, since

Chen had totally dependent on electronics, he

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didn't have to be in Singapore or anywhere near it to con-

frol and expand his empire.

Carter shrugged, shook himself, fought off the pain

from his wounds, shrapnel holes and burns that would have

stopped a lesser man, and stood looking at the house.

One more try. He had to give it one more uye

He examined every door and window as he started from

the front door and moved to the back. It was dark now.

Examination of the structure was difficult. Lights were on

in only a few windows but that didn't mean that anyone

was inside.

At the back of the house, a light shone in a small win-

dow. It looked different somehow. A shadow appeared be-

hind it, but the window was so grimy that Carter couldn't

be sure of what he was seeing.

Suddenly he knew. He was looking into the face of a

frightened Chinese man through a slightly opened window.

Caner's heart lurched as he reached for a grenade. lhe

face in the window disappeared. Fingers clawed at the

windowframe and it started to close.

ne grenade was in Carter's hand. He had to move

quickly, t(X) fast to take careful aim. He wished now that

he'd kept the cesta on his arm.

He pulled the quick release pin and let it fly. It hit the

side of the frame and bounced back at him. His heart was

in his mouth. He didn't have time to reach for another and

the one on the ground at his feet could explode at any

second.

Instinct took over. He picked up the grenade and tossed

it underhand at the slight opening. Miraculously it passed

between the bars, through the narrow opening, and ex-

ploded as soon as it was inside the structure.

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Chen put down the cold lobster tail he'd just cracked

and cocked an ear, Had the explosion been inside the

house? Impossible.

But he smelled smoke. It didn't smell the same as the

one that had exploded outside.

It was inside!

He threw the food on the tray and heaved himself up to

a standing position, then he lumbered toward the room next

door and the elevator that would take him to safety.

Heu Choy fell from the stool bounced to the far corner

of the pantry as the small object exploded. He didn't see all

the pieces of flaming material because he was blinded by

the ball of fire that had appeared over his head.

But he felt the heat and smelled things burning. It was

the tiles tEside him, the table in the comer, and something

else. He'd smelled it after a fire in town. Burning flesh.

He was on fire!

He smelled the burning flesh just seconds before he felt

the excruciating pain. He screamed and scrambled to his

feet. He ran from the pantry and down the back hall to the

main dining room, lighting the way with his own body.

The heavy dining room drapes caught his eye first. He

pulled them down and tried to roll in them to put out the

fire. Some of the pieces of phosphorus dislodged and

caught in the cloth. Heu Choy had to let one of the drapes

go as it became a flaming torch.

lhe front doors. He had to get out.

He pulled at the latch of the doors and flung them open

only to find himself trapped by steel bars.

He knew something about the bars. What was it? He'd

been ordered to feed the contractors who had put the bars

in. What had they told him?

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"O God that looks over small Chinese men, let the pai

go away so I can think!" he shouted to the night sky.

Power. They'd told him about the power: The doo

were controlled by electromagnets that held them in place

He dropped the piece of drapery material, ran to a base

ment door. smoke trailing after him as the tiny bits of phos

Phorus ate into his flesh. The main power switch was ju

inside the basement door.

It was big and it was installed above his head. Franti

cally he ran to the hall for a chair and placed it beneath th

master switch. Screaming from pain unlike anything he'

ever imagined, he swung from the large handle until

gave way and everything was plunged into darkness—ex

cept for the phosphorus eating away at him. It gave off a

eerie glow that illuminated the cellar stairwell.

Heu Choy picked up the cloth again and ran to the fro

doors. He hadn't heard the metallic clang of all the s

bars as the magnets let go and the fingers of steel we

yanked back into place by massive springs.

Facing the open sky and freedom, the little Chinese se

vant ran like a man possessed until he stumbled into th

arms of a tall man he hadn't seen in the dark. Cradled i

strong ams, the fiery pieces of chemical were pried fro

his flesh, and he was wrapped in the luxurious drapery.

It was the last thing he remembered before a darknes

that was not of the night enfolded him.

Carter couldn't believe the luck {hat had come his wa

After his lucky toss at the rear of the house, he'd made hi

way back to the front doors. He'd been there when th

small Chinese man flung them open.

He reached into his apron pocket for another grenad

when something told him to give it a moment. He held th

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grenade at the ready, not about to duplicate the near miss

he'd just In less than a minute every set of

steel bars clanged upward and the house was cast into

complete darkness.

A feeling of triumph welled up in him. The knowledge

that it might not be too late to carry out his mission made

the adrenaline rush and he felt like a new man.

He had to act, decisively, and now. While the thought

(Ecurred, the small Chinese came flying out of the house

and literally fell into his arms.

A servant. Probably one of Chen's slaves, Carter sup-

The little man smelled of burning flesh. He'd been the

one at the back of the house. Carter flipped Hugo into his

hand and pried all the bits of phosphorus he could find out

of the man's hide and wrapped him in the material

clutched in the man's hand. It was the best he could do and

he couldn't afford one more minute.

Chen could be gone, probably was gone. Carter was

glad now that he hadn't tossed more phosphorus grenades

right away. If Chen had escaped, Carter knew he would

have to find the escape route before the fire at the back of

the house consumed everything.

He entered the front hall with care. He'd pulled the

empty clip from his Luger and slap!Hi in a fresh one. He

held the Luger in his left hand and a grenade in the other.

He could pull the quick-release pin with his teeth.

He heard nothing but the roar of flames from the back of

the house. ney were not loud yet but soon would be. He

could feel the heat and smell the burning wood.

"Chen!" he called up the stairs. "Are you up there?"

He waited a minute and it seemed like an hour as smoke

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started to pour from under the doors leading to the back of

the house.

S Chen! If you're in there, I can take you out!"

"Help Carter! I've fallen and sprained my ankle.

Some glass ... I can't walk," the voice came back at him.

It wasn't the booming, confident voice Carter had heard

before, it was like the voice of a small, frightened child,

but it was indeed Chen.

So he hadn't made it to an escape route. Carter quickly

went through all possible scenarios in his mind. He

couldn't lift Chen. The man would have to be able to help

himself. While he helped Chen, he would be vulnerable.

And if Chen were armed, the madman might after a

final revenge. In the few seconds he went over the possibil-

ities, the fire at the back of the house raged out of control

and lessened his options.

The fire broke through a door from the back of the

house, making the decision for Carter. He pulled the pin

from the grenade with his teeth and tossed it to the top of

the stairs. He holstered his Luger and emptied the apron of

grenades, tossing the small white explosives indiscrimi-

nately up the stairs and into adjoining rooms. Then he

stumbled outside and sat on the marble next to the

lily pond. The flames from the house changed the white

lilies in the pond to red and orange. A kaleidoscopic night-

mare of color filled the grounds around him.

One by one the bulletproof windows were blown out by

the intense pressure from within. Wiqd tore at his clothing

as a whirling column of fire drew air toward it from ground

level. The heat intensified until it was almost unbearable

but still he sat.

It wasn't over. It wasn't over until he knew, until he

really knew.

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An animal howl was torn from deep down in the lungs

of the man inside. It was impossible that he could still be

alive. No human could survive the inferno that sent flames

a hundred feet into the sky.

He could hear the sirens now over the roar of the

flames. The hair at the back of his hands curled and disap-

peared as he started to rise from the bench and meet Chief

Windsor at the front gate.

From the heart of the fire a figure emerged. It lurched

from side to side, blinded, its senses gone, a monster al-

ready dead but still on its feet.

Carter stared, fascinated, unable to take his eyes from

the vision and unable to move from the heat that was in-

tensifying.

It shuffled toward him, a tower of walking flame that

peaked at the top and gave off smoke like some huge,

round candle.

It came straight at Carter as if it had a destiny or some

mad purpose. The Killmaster held his ground until Chen

was within ten feet, then, with most of the hair singed

below the edges of his helmet, he had to stand aside or be

consumed.

The torch that had once been a human being stumbled

on, tripped over the marble edging around the lily pond,

and toppled in. Steam rose from the pool and gave off a

stench that Caner would smell in his subconscious for

many months to come. Every fire, every lighting of his

Dunhill, every time he saw a lighted candle, would remind

him of the monster of Singapore and the death of a very

special lady.

He back from the heat, moved no more than a

dozen paces, saw the first police car, then allowed himself

to collapse: