The Mind-­Twisters Affair - Stratton Thomas (книга читать онлайн бесплатно без регистрации TXT) 📗

Flavia was still reluctant, but eventually agreed to aid them. Meanwhile, Napoleon had been digging through the weapons compartment; now he backed out of the U.N.C.L.E. car with an armload of weapons. He kept an U.N.C.LE. Special for himself and gave one to Lem, handed a riot shotgun to Professor Curtis and a revolver loaded with tear gas cartridges to Rita. Illya carried the Mercox.

"What now?" Rita asked.

"Since our prime object is to capture Jabez Whateley," Napoleon said, "and since Illya has the only weapon we can use for that, we'll have to stick together. All we could accomplish by splitting up would be for one of us to run into a Thrush and give advance warning that we'd escaped."

"While we're waiting for Whateley to come back, we might do some damage to his lab," Illya suggested.

"No, if we capture Whateley, the lab is automatically rendered useless, since he is the only Thrush who knows how to manufacture the drug. Similarly, destroying the existing supplies won't help much if Whateley escapes to start over again somewhere else," Napoleon thought a moment. "We'd better contact Mr. Waverly. He can get reinforcements sent in from Chicago; the more men we have, the easier it will be to make a capture without having to kill anybody." He turned to Flavia. "Do you have any idea where your father put our communicators?"

Flavia shook her head. "Maybe in his study, but I don't know."

"All right, the study it is. If we can't find the communicators, we can use the car's computer to transmit the message. The trouble is that it will transmit it to the New York data banks and not to Mr. Waverly personally and we can't tell when the message will reach him. But we can try as a last resort."

"There's a signal transmitter with printed readout in the car," Illya said.

"Not now there isn't. I tried that when I was getting the weapons. Thrush has been at it. I suppose we might be able to repair it, but finding the communicators would be easier."

Napoleon led the way to Whateley's study, where Lem was posted to watch the hall and Professor Curtis to watch the secret entrances while the rest of the group searched. There were no communicators. Illya found a file of Thrush records and extracted a few of the more valuable papers, but there was nothing in the room which would aid them in capturing Jabez Whateley.

Finally Napoleon gave up the search. "They aren't here. We'll go back to the car. I'll try the computer link while Illya sees if he can repair the transmitter. Be careful; there may still be some Thrushes around and we don't want to give Whateley advance warning that we're loose."

After a cautious look around, they slipped out into the back yard and headed for the garage. They were halfway there when they heard the crunch of tires on gravel and a pair of brilliant headlights swept around the corner of the house and fell directly on them.

Chapter 16

"It's A Little Late To Call Mr. Waverly"

"THE GARAGE!" NAPOLEON SHOUTED as he lunged forward. "The car's our best chance."

The driver apparently anticipated their destination., for the engine roared and the tires spun as it raced for the garage itself. The sound of a gun came from somewhere behind the headlights and Napoleon heard something thunk into the ground just ahead of him.

He skidded to a halt as he realized they were cut off. "Back to the house!" he shouted and started for the back door himself, herding the others in front of him.

Before they had covered half the distance, the back door started to open. Illya, now in the lead, fired the only thing he had, the Mercox with a tear gas load. It crashed into the wall next to the door and burst into a cloud of white. The door slammed shut on a cough.

Casting about desperately, Illya detoured to the right toward the only available cover he could see: a rickety fence and an area of rank grass, bushes, a few old trees, and what might, except for their regular shapes, have been occasional boulders peering through the grass. Napoleon followed Illya's lead and herded the others ahead of him toward the fence.

Another shot sounded from behind him and Napoleon loosed some hasty shots over his shoulder as he ran.

They were at the fence now. Illya vaulted it easily, then reached back to yank Rita over bodily. At the same time, Sascha and Lem clambered over, a bit less athletically; Napoleon boosted Flavia and hurriedly dived over himself. There was another flurry of shots from the vicinity of the garage, and a slight groan from somewhere ahead of Napoleon, followed by some colorful cursing.

In another second, they were all out of sight in the grass, behind either trees or stones. What had looked like boulders in the dim light now turned out to be tombstones. Napoleon found himself sharing an extra large stone with Lem Thompson, who was clutching his right shoulder and muttering to himself. Before Napoleon could say anything, Lem glared at him accusingly.

"Nothin' busted, I don't think," Lem said. "You boys better have some damn good insurance! First my truck, and now me!"

"Here, let me -" Napoleon started to reach toward Lem's injured shoulder, but Lem batted his hand away.

"Never you mind! If you need as much help doctorin' as you do secret agentin', I'd as soon take my chances."

Napoleon got a brief glance at the wound when Lem batted at him with his left hand, and he decided that Lem was right. He'd be fine - if they could get out of here.

The shooting from the garage had stopped when they reached cover, so Napoleon risked a quick look over the top of the stone. There was no immediate fire. He looked around to locate the other members of the group. He spotted Illya behind a tree to his right; Flavia was crouching behind another tombstone a few yards to his left.

"Where are we?" he whispered loudly to Flavia.

"The Whateley cemetery," she said. "Although the only Whateleys in it are my grandparents. It was on the land when he got it, and - well, until now I thought it was just more of his and father's sense of humor, with all the wild trees and grass they planted to make it look moldering. Grandfather's vault is over there."

Flavia gestured toward a dark stone structure twenty yards behind them. Napoleon hadn't noticed it before, since it was half-hidden among the trees and bushes. At first glance it seemed an ideal defensive position, but he quickly saw that this was deceptive. There were no windows, the door was the only exit, and once inside, the defenders would be bottled up while Thrush readied enough high explosives to blow the place down around their ears.

Napoleon crouched down and made a short dash to the tree and joined Illya.

"What do you think?" Illya asked. "Can we hold out?"

"Probably," Napoleon replied. "I don't think they have enough manpower to rush us over that open ground. But we're low on ammunition. And besides, holding out isn't enough. We have to get Whateley somehow. If he gets away, he can set up shop somewhere else. We might never find him until too late."

Illya nodded. "I don't quite see how we can stop him, though. They can't get at us, but at the same time, we can't get at them."

Napoleon suddenly smiled. "What about the vault?"

Illya glanced around in the direction Napoleon was looking. He spotted the massive structure, and the same idea occurred to him. "A secret passage, you mean? But if there is, we'd better hurry or Whateley will be popping out of it himself."

"You keep a watch on the garage and house. I'll check with Flavia." Napoleon ducked down into the grass again and scurried over to Flavia's tombstone.