Run, Spy, Run

Hawk nodded. "We did too. That last touch-and-go in the Alps should have been his sign-off. But his body was never recovered in the wreckage of the Chalet Internationale. So, even though we thought we detected his hand in that business at Puerto Blanco and the revolution in Hidalgo, we couldn't very well pin it on him. But things have been boiling in the last day or two. Interpol and the combined security services have finally managed to put together enough data to convince Washington that we have a target. Miss Baron's story turned the trick. And your accidental involvement in the last explosion, Cane, brought everything to a head. Lucky you were there. Of course, we still can't be positive that it's Judas we're after, but everything points to it."

"Red!" said Nick suddenly.

"What?" Hawk stared at him.

"The cable from 'Red.' Judas-colored. The first Judas is supposed to have had red hair."

"You're not suggesting…"

"No, I haven't the faintest idea what Judas looks like. Maybe he's bald, I don't know. But for a code name meaning Judas, it's not bad. Especially for someone working for the Reds."

"Perhaps that's all it means. No, I think you're right." Hawk frowned thoughtfully. " 'Red' for 'Communist' is just a bit too pat. 'Red' for 'Judas,' though… I like that Yes, I like that. Judas is back, all right, and we have to get him."

Julia reached silently for another cigarette.

"Let's recap," Hawk went on. "Someone, almost certainly Judas, has now manufactured four aeronautical coups, under cover of accidental occurrence, to eliminate four powerful enemies of Red China." He ticked them off on his leathery fingers. "Burns, Tal Barin, La Dilda and Valdez. Four staunch allies of the U.S. and all peace-loving countries, at least one of which is now in turmoil. But the accident theory doesn't wash any more. The CIA has come through with information unavailable to CAB and local officials. Those disasters were not crashes. All four were almost certainly deliberate explosions. On that premise, we can move ahead. Four planes were somehow bombed, and there may be more."

"Three planes," Nick reminded. "Valdez blew up. Not the plane."

Hawk's eyes hardened. "I was coming to that. Who bombs a man if he's the prime target? Suppose you take it from there."

"Well, if we begin with the premise that all the so-called accidents were caused by planted explosives, and that three took place on planes and one took place after a passenger debarked, we could assume that passengers have been used to take explosives aboard. Probably unknowingly, and certainly unknowingly in the case of Valdez. What a wicked bit that would be! Having your victim carry his own death around with him." He was silent for a moment as he sorted out the facts. "On the other hand, Rita Jameson's story would indicate that, in one case at least, explosives were sent on board, not carried. Who uses bombs on airplanes? Somebody who doesn't give a damn about human life as long as he gets his own victim. Why make an exception in the case of Valdez? It wasn't supposed to be an exception. He was also supposed to take the plane with him. And why — to kill everybody with him? I don't think so. To destroy the plane and, with it, evidence that the explosion was aimed at any particular individual."

"I think you've got it there, Cane. The break from the pattern is the very thing that made us certain there is a pattern." Hawk started pacing. "We only suspected foul play in the other three crashes. Valdez's ill-timed death takes the accident out and puts the design in. The fact of your presence on the scene helped, too." He shook his head and made a futile gesture. "I'm sorry about that girl, I really am. I wish she could know that she's helped us. Because her story to you about her pilot friend and the unexplained baggage tag helped us extract some information from London that they hadn't realized was important. Then we were sure of two deliberate, wholesale murders. And the attacks on you, because of your association with the girl, perhaps because of your mere presence on the scene, have been of inestimable help."

"Glad to be of service," murmured Nick ironically.

Hawk ignored that. "But it looks as though Valdez is the main key. He has to be. If we know how that bomb was secreted on his person, and how it was possible to do that without his knowledge, then we'd know a lot. It might be, as you say, that he was tricked in some way. Still, your account of the explosion does seem to indicate the blast originated in that steel hand…"

Nick shook his head slowly.

"I could be mistaken, sir. It happened pretty fast. Perhaps it had something else to do with his hand. Maybe when he raised it, the movement acted as some sort of signal to — well, perhaps to Seersucker on the observation deck. Or maybe it activated some land of remote control device."