[Magazine 1966-­08] - The Cat and Mouse Affair - Davis Robert Hart (версия книг .txt) 📗

"We're through," Illya said.

"Then let's get moving," Solo said. "They'll figure it out sooner or later, then they'll have to make their move."

The two agents slid down to the downward slope of the mountain, moved swiftly off down toward the jungle again. At the base of the mountain they reached, and passed through, a continuation of the narrow canyon. The mouth of the canyon opened into the flat land of the jungle that stretched unbroken toward the sea and San Pablo.

It also opened into the trap!

As Illya and Solo came out of the canyon they saw the troops facing them. There were troops up on each side of the small canyon. Troops moved down from the mountain behind them.

For a long minute they stood there. Ahead, behind his troops, they saw the colonel himself. They had been neatly lured into a trap. The two agents glanced at each other and prepared to make one last attempt to escape.

At that instant the firing exploded all around them!

Firing from the jungle, from the mountain, behind the troops!

Illya and Solo dove for cover. They began to open fire with their own puny weapons. But it was enough. Caught between two fires, the troops broke and ran for cover. Four men dressed in ragged black uniforms appeared from nowhere and leaped down the canyon side to Illya and Solo.

"Quick! They will be back!"

Solo and Illya did not stop to argue. They scrambled up the side of the canyon with their rescuers. They all went over the crest and ran down into the jungle. They ran perhaps a quarter of a mile. Behind them there was firing again as the regiment had regrouped and was coming on again. The ragged rescuers did not even look back, but ran through the jungle with Illya and Solo.

They reached a small clearing. From all sides ragged men in black uniforms were pouring from the jungle into the clearing. Illya faced the leader of the four who had rescued them.

"We can make it alone now. We have to reach San Pablo."

The ragged man in the black uniform raised his weapon, snapped an order. The ragged men stood all around Illya and Solo with their weapons leveled.

"You go nowhere. You are our prisoners!"

Illya and Solo looked slowly around at all the rescuers who now pointed their weapons.

Hours passed, and it was dark night, when the march ended in a box canyon among the mountains. Illya and Solo, their weapons once again taken from them, marched into the box canyon and saw the two men seated on boulders and waiting for them.

One of the men was Mr. Smith! The other was the small, wiry man with the thin wisp of beard on his chin. This bearded man waved the two agents to seats on other stones. His large, deep eyes stared at them. Illya nodded at the two men with a weary recognition. Solo stared at the small, wiry man with the wisp of beard.

"Steng!" Solo said softly. "Max Steng!"

"You know me, sir," Steng said. "Yes, I am Max Steng. Now I must know who you are."

The bearded Stengali leader looked at Illya Kuryakin. "We captured your friend once before, but he escaped us most ingeniously. You two are not local agents. You belong to some larger group. The OAS, perhaps? United States CIA?"

Mr. Smith leaned and whispered to Steng. Steng nodded, his fanatic's eyes on Illya Kuryakin.

"Mr. Smith suggests there is much more than meets the eye about you two. You, the taller one, are obviously an American. The small, blond one is not American. Mr. Smith says that he mumbled in Russian when we had him earlier. What organization employs American and Russians together? Perhaps Interpol?"

"No," Mr. Smith said. "That is a police organization. These men are not policemen."

Steng nodded. "True. Who are you and who sent you to Zambala?"

The two agents sat on their boulders and watched the Stengali leaders. All around the Stengali stood and sat in the box canyon in the jungle night. Illya studied the bearded guerilla leader from under his brows.

"Perhaps you will tell us why you killed Mura Khan and tried to kill Premier Roy?" Illya said.

Mr. Smith answered. "We did not kill Mura Khan, or try to kill Roy. We gave no such orders."

"Then what were your men doing there?" Solo said.

Max Steng looked at Solo. "That we would also like to know. We want to know how Tavvi got into that room."

"You don't know?" Illya said quickly.

"We do not. Tavvi was in San Pablo on a routine observation. He vanished. The other man, the one arrested at the scene of Mura Khan's death, was supposed to be with Tavvi. Both men vanished. How or why they were where they were we do not know."

Illya and Solo looked at each other. The two Stengali leaders watched them. At last Napoleon Solo turned to Max Steng.

"It appears that someone was out to start trouble, to make it look like the Stengali were ready to begin a civil war," Solo said.

"Why?" Mr. Smith said.

"Obviously to cover a real coup," Illya said.

Max Steng pulled on his wisp of beard. "You were being pursued by the second regiment. They were in full battle gear."

"They were," Solo said.

"Then it is Colonel Brown," Steng said. "But not alone. The colonel is a soldier, a loyal one. He would not attempt a revolt."

"How about with Jemi Zamyatta?" Illya said softly.

Max Steng shook his head.

"It is probable, yet hard to believe. For years I have tried to convince Zamyatta that Roy was hurting the country, that his deals with the West are not for our benefit. Deals that make a few Zambalans rich and the majority poor. He always refused to join me. He always said he was tired of violence."

"We saw him with the colonel," Solo said.

Steng smiled sadly. "What do we do, then? We would not want to stop the ending of Premier Roy. But we would not want to see Zamyatta come to power on a military coup."

Mr. Smith laughed harshly. "We will oppose them all as we have always done! Until Zambala is truly free!"

Smith's voice echoed down the box canyon and a sudden silence fell over the Stengali.

It saved their lives.

In that sudden silence the falling boulder was heard. The boulder fell down from the rim of the canyon, bouncing from rock to rock loud in the silent night.

FOUR

The sound of the falling boulder was like the end of the world. The Stengali all froze. The rock bounced down and down and down. Then there was no more noise.

"Move!" Max Steng shouted.

The Stengali moved. They seemed to vanish like wraiths in the night. Silent, barely making a sound, the whole band of swift guerillas vanished. Solo and Illya followed the two leaders.

In an instant, they were all in among the giant boulders of the box canyon in a move that was obviously so well-trained into the Stengali that it was a reflex action.

From above, on the rim of the canyon, a voice now called down.

"You cannot escape, pigs!"

The Stengali were silent among their rocks.

"We cover both sides, the open end! You are boxed in the canyon. Surrender, dogs!"

On the floor of the canyon no one moved or spoke.

Up on the rim a figure appeared. It shone a light on itself. It was a tall man wearing the uniform of a major. The major stood there with the flashlight in his hand trained on himself.

Nothing happened. Illya and Solo watched upwards. The Stengali could have been a hundred miles away, they were so silent and so unseen from above. The major turned to speak behind him.

"They must have escaped," the major said.