The Black Mountain

233 "You exaggerate. But I have never flouted their rightful authority or tried to usurp their lawful powers, and being temporarily in the domain of dictatorial barbarians gives me no warrant to embrace their doctrines and use their methods. Marko was murdered in New York. His murderer is accountable to the People of the State of New York, not to me. Our part is to get him there." "Hooray for us. The only way to get him there legally is to have him extradited." "That isn't true. You're careless with your terms. Extradition is the only way to get him there by action of law, but that's quite different and of course impossible. The point is to get him under the jurisdiction of civilized law without violating it ourselves." "I see the point all right. How?" "That's it. Can he walk?" "I should think so. I heard no bones crack. Shall I go and find out?" "No." He got to his feet with only a couple of grunts during the operation. "I must speak with that man -- Stan Kosor. I don't want to leave you here alone, because if someone should come you couldn't talk except with the gun, so I'll try this first." He faced the direction of Montenegro and beckoned, using the whole length of his arm, again and again. I booked it as a one-to-ten 234 shot, because first, Kosor might not be up in the niche at all, and second, if he was there I doubted if he trusted Wolfe enough to cross the border to him. I lost the bet. I don't know how the man got down from the crag so quickly unless he just let go and slid, but I hadn't even begun to look for him in earnest when my eye was attracted by movement, and there he was on the bend in the trail where it emerged from a defile. He strode along until he reached the spot where the trail began to widen for the space in front of the fort, stopped abruptly, and called something. By then I had seen that it wasn't Kosor but Danilo Vukcic. We had been honored. Wolfe answered him, and he came on. They jabbered. Danilo sounded and looked as if he didn't believe what he heard, got persuaded apparently, and looked at me with a different expression from any he had had for me before. Deducing that I was being admired for my prowess with small arms, I yawned to show that it was nothing out of the ordinary. Then they got into a hot argument. After that was settled, Wolfe did most of the talking, and there was no more arguing. Evidently everything was rosy, for they shook hands as if they meant it, and Danilo offered me a hand and I took 235 it. He was absolutely cordial. When he went he turned twice, once at the far edge of the wide space and once just before he disappeared into the defile, to wave at us. "He's a different man," I told Wolfe. "Report, please?" "There isn't time. I must talk with that man, and we must get away. I told Danilo what happened. He insisted on going down to look at them, but I said no. If he had gone alone he might have come back with a collection of fingers, including Zov's, and if we had gone along and Zov had been conscious he would have seen us together on friendly terms, which wouldn't do. We're going to take Zov out the way we came, and Danilo is going to try to stop us and fail." "I'm not going to shoot Danilo." "You won't have to, if he does as agreed, and he will. I would prefer not to go back down there. Will you go? If he can move, bring him here." "Leave his wrists tied?" "No. Free him." I entered the fort by the door, crossed to the entrance to a narrow passage, and after a couple of turns was in the long corridor. At the top of the fifteen steps I turned on my flashlight. Why I got a gun in my hand 236 as I approached the door of the room I don't exactly know, but I did. The lantern on the shelf was still burning. I made the rounds of the three casualties, checked that they still weren't shamming, and then went to Zov. He was stretched out, in a different position from when we left him, with his eyes shut, motionless. I took my knife and cut the rope on his ankles, and then the cord on his wrists, which were red and bruised and swollen, and when I let go of them he tried to let them fall dead to the floor but botched it. I stood and looked down at him, thinking how much I could simplify matters if I forgot doctrines for just two seconds. Another thought followed it. Was it possible that Wolfe had had that in mind when he sent me down alone, on the chance that I would come back up and report that Zov had kicked off? Let Archie do it? I decided no. I had known him to pull some raw ones, but no. "Nuts," I told Zov. "Open your eyes." No sign. I kicked his shoulder, just gently, but the shoulder had had a hard day, and he winced. I stooped and grabbed an ear and started to lift him by it, and his eyes opened and focused on me. I let the ear go, hooked my fingers in his armpits from be237 hind, raised his torso, and hauled him on up. He clutched at my sleeve and said something, and I took hold of his belt in the rear and started him for the door, and he did fine. I was afraid I might have to carry him up the steps, but he made it on his own, though I kept a good hold on the belt for fear he might tumble and break his neck and Wolfe would think I had pushed him. After that there was nothing to it. Halfway down the corridor I shifted from his belt to his elbow, and when we got to the door, in sight of Wolfe, I broke contact. I had some vague feeling that I preferred to have him go on to Wolfe without my touching him. He went to the rock and sat down, and Wolfe moved over a little. "Well, Mr. Zov," Wolfe said, "I'm glad you can walk." "Comrade Zov," he said. "If you like, certainly. Comrade Zov. We'd better be moving. Someone might come, and my son has done enough for one day." Zov looked at his wrists. It was just as well he didn't have a mirror to look at his face. The flat nose and slanting forehead would never have been a treat, but with the sun on them, and still twitching from spasms, they were something special. 238 He looked at Wolfe. "You were in Titograd yesterday afternoon. How did you get here?" "Surely that can wait. We must get away." "I want to know." "You heard me mention the Spirit of the Black Mountain. I had been told that one of its leaders could be found here near the border, and we came to find him. We did so, and talked with him, and we were disappointed. We decided to cross into Albania, and saw this fort, and were about to enter, when we heard a scream. We went in to investigate, and you know what we found. We interfered because we disapprove of torture. Violence is often unavoidable, as it was on your mission to New York, but not torture. If that's how --" "How do you know of my mission to New York?" "We heard that Russian talking to you. If that's how the Russians do things, we are not their friends. We intend to return to Titograd and see Gospo Stritar. He impressed us." Wolfe stood up without grunting. "Let's go. But did they take anything from you? Weren't you armed?" "We can't go through the mountains in the daytime. We'll have to hole up -- I know a place -- until dark." 239 "No. We're going now." "That's crazy. We'll never reach the valley alive. It's risky enough at night." Wolfe tapped him on the shoulder. "It's your nerves. Comrade Zov, and nc> wonder. But I'm in charge momentarily, and I insist. You have seen my son in action, and you may rely on him to get us through? as I do. I will not undertake that trail again at night, and I refuse to leave you here in your present condition. Were you armed?" "Yes." "With a gun?" "A gun and a knife. They put them in a table drawer." He put his hands ort the rock to push himself up. "I'll go get them." Wolfe halted him with a hanfi on his shoulder. "You have no energy (o waste. My son will go. Alex, a gun and a knife they took from Comrade Zov are in a drawer in a table. Bring them." "What kind of gun?" He asked him and didn't have W relay it. The word "Luger" is neither SerboCroat nor Albanian, and I had heard it before. After entering the fort, I went to the first room on the right, which seemed the most likely because I had seen a big table there, and hit it at the first try. At the front of the drawer, with a Luger and a big clasp knife, 240 were a stainless steel wristwatch and a leather fold containing papers, one of them with a red seal and a picture of Peter Zov. He was not photogenic. I went back out with them. As I approached, Wolfe spoke. "Keep the gun. Give him the knife." "There's a watch and a fold with papers." "Give him those." He turned to Zov. "My son will keep the gun for the time being. If an attempt is made to stop us you might be overhasty with it after what you've just gone through." Zov took the other things and said, "I want the gun." "You'll get it. Is it an old friend?" "Yes. I took it from a dead German in the war." "No wonder you value it. I suppose you had it on your mission to New York." "I did, and other missions. I want it." "Later. I assume the responsibility for our safe passage through the mountains, and I don't know you well, though I hope to. You're about my son's age, and it's a pity you can't communicate. Do you know any English at all?" "I know a few words, like 'okay' and 'dollar' and 'cigarette'." "I'm sorry I didn't teach him Serbo- 241 Croat. We've been here long enough. I'll lead, and my son will bring up the rear. Come on." If Zov had had his gun he might have balked, and we would have had either to go on without him or find a place to spend the day. He did try to argue, but Wolfe got emphatic, and I had the gun, so he came. We went to the brook for a drink and then hit the trail, with Zov in between us. His gait was more of a shuffle than a walk, but he didn't seem to be in any great pain. It could have been as much from lack of enthusiasm as from the condition of his legs. WTien we had passed through the defile and topped a rise, and Wolfe stopped for breath, I asked him, "Where will the charade be? You didn't tell me." "It isn't necessary. We'll keep colloquy at a minimum. Statements about linguistic proficiency may be equivocal. I'll tell you when to draw a gun." "You might tell me now about the colloquy you just had." He did so, and then turned and proceeded. As I padded along behind I was thinking that we certainly had the bacon -- not only the murderer but the weapon, and I knew the rest of the evidence was on file because I had seen the assistant medical 242 examiner getting it from Marko's corpse. I remembered the first sentences of a book I had read on criminology. In criminal investigations, it said, the investigator must always have in mind the simple basic requirements. Once he gains possession of the person of the criminal and of evidence adequate for conviction, the job is done. It is, like hell, I thought. If I had that book here, and the author, I'd make him eat it. I was supposed to forget about being stopped and leave it to Wolfe, but as we approached the point where one left the trail if one was ass enough to want to walk the ledge to the cave, I kept close behind Zov and had my eyes peeled. We went on by without sight or sound of anyone. If you wonder why Wolfe didn't let me know, which he could have done in ten words, I can tell you. I would have had to put on an act for Zov's benefit until I reached the spot that had been agreed on, and he thought I might overdo it or underdo it, I don't know which. He thought that, not knowing, I would just act natural. You may also wonder why I didn't resent it. I did. I had been resenting it for years, but that was my first crack at resenting it in the mountains of Montenegro. With the sun nearly straight above us, 243 blazing down, I wouldn't have recognized the trail as the one we had climbed the night before with Danilo. We went down rock faces on our rumps, skirted the edges of cliffs, slithered down stretches of loose shale, and at one place crossed a crevice ten feet wide, on a narrow plank bridge with no rails, which I didn't remember at all. My watch said ten minutes past one when we stopped at a brook for a drink and a meal of chocolate. Comrade Zov ate as much chocolate as Wolfe and me together. Half an hour later the trail suddenly spilled us out at the edge of a wide level space, and there was the house Wolfe had been born in. I stopped for a look. Apparently its back wall was the side of a cliff. It had two stories, with a roof that sloped four ways from the center, and eight windows on the side I was looking at, four below and four above. The glass in three windows was broken. The door was wooden. I was just starting to turn to tell Wolfe I was going to step inside for a glance around when his voice snapped at my back, "Gun, Alex!" I whirled, drawing the Colt from my hip. Danilo, Josip Pasic, and two other men were grouped at the far edge of the space, evidently having come from behind a massive 244 boulder. Danilo had a gun, but the others were empty-handed. "Don't shoot," Danilo said. "You can go wherever you're going. We only want Peter Zov." Wolfe had put himself in front of Zov. "He's with us, and he's going with us." "No, he's not. We're taking him." Wolfe's attitude was perfect for saying "Over my dead body," but he didn't say it. My own attitude was no slouch, with my feet planted apart and my Colt steady at Danilo's belly. Wolfe said, "He's under our protection, and you can't have him. We're American citizens, and if you harm us you'll regret it." "We don't want to harm you. Zov is a traitor to his country. He crossed the border to the Albanians. We have a right to him." "What do you intend to do with him?" "I'm going to find out what he told the Albanians." They must have been ad libbing, for there hadn't been time to write a script during their brief talk at the fort. "I don't believe it," Wolfe said. "After the hours I spent with you, I don't believe anything you say. Heaven only knows where your allegiance lies, if anywhere. If you are a true son of Yugoslavia, come with us -- 245 you alone, not the others. If Zov has betrayed his country the proper person to deal with him is Gospo Stritar in Titograd, and that's where we're taking him. If you want to come, drop your gun and start down the road. You others stay where you are." "We'll deal with him here." "You will not. Are you coming?" "No." "Then touch us at your peril. Comrade Zov, I'm going to turn around. You turn also, to face the road entrance. Keep against me, away from them, and we'll make the road slowly, and on down. Alex, cover us. You'll have to back out, steering by my voice." He turned and had his back to the enemy. Zov turned likewise, and Wolfe put his hands on Zov's shoulders. I sidestepped and was directly behind Wolfe, back to back, with the Colt still focused on the group. As Wolfe and Zov moved forward, and I backward, Wolfe gave me his voice to guide by. " 'Preamble. We, the People of the United States, in order to form a more perfect Union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this 246 Constitution for the United States of Amer ica.' " We had left the open space and started down the road. Since Zov couldn't possibly see me, I had a strong impulse to grin at Danilo and to wave to him as he had waved to us when he left the fort. I had to bite my lip to control it. He might misunderstand and ruin everything. Wolfe was guiding me. "I skip to the ten original amendments, the Bill of Rights. 'Article One. Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof, or abridging the freedom of speech or of the press, or the right of the people peaceably to assemble and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances. Article Two. A well-regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed. Article Three. No soldier shall, in time of peace, be quartered in any house without the consent of the owner, nor in time of war but in a manner to be prescribed by law. Article Four. The right --' " "Hold it," I cut in. "I'm not going to back clear to Titograd." "I'll finish Article Four. It's Article Four that has us in this mess. 'The right of the 247 people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.' " "Is that all?" "That will do." I turned around. 248 Chapter 14 We arrived in Titograd in style, in an old Ford truck that Zov requisitioned at the first farm we came to that had one, and pulled up in front of police headquarters at twenty minutes past three, just twenty-two hours after Jube Bilic had delivered us there the day before. As we piled out, Wolfe told me to give the driver three thousand dinars, and I obeyed. I was stuck again with the knapsacks, which we had taken off when we boarded the truck, and with the sweaters. We followed Zov into the big old stone edifice, along the dingy corridor, up the stairs, and into the room where the two clerks sat on stools. Zov spoke to Wolfe, and Wolfe told me we were to wait there and went to a chair and sat. Zov didn't go on in. He sent one of the clerks, who entered the inner room, returned in a moment, and motioned Zov to come. I put the luggage on a chair beside Wolfe and myself on another one. 249 It was a long wait, so long that I began to nurse the possibility that Gospo Stritar was going to relieve us of our problem. Evidently Zov had been completely confident that his loyalty would not be questioned, but Stritar might not see it that way. The idea had its attractions, but it led to another, that if a visit to the Albanians was enough to do for Zov, what about Tone Stara and his son Alex? That wasn't so attractive. I would have liked to ask Wolfe a couple of pertinent questions, but his head had fallen forward until his chin touched, his eyes were closed, and he was breathing as if he were a week behind on oxygen, so I let him alone. I became aware that someone was yelling at somebody named Alex, and wished Alex would answer. Also someone had hold of my shoulder. I opened my eyes, saw Wolfe, and jerked upright. "You were sound asleep," he said testily. "So were you. First." "We're wanted. Bring the knapsacks." I gathered them up and followed him between the counters and across to the inner room. Zov, holding the door for us, shut it and went to a chair at the end of Stritar's desk and sat. Stritar waved us to chairs without getting up. He hadn't got a haircut. 250 His underhung jaw didn't seem quite as impressive as it had the day before, but I had seen a lot of underhung rocks in the meantime. After giving Wolfe a sharp glance, he concentrated on me as I went to the chair, and after I sat he looked me up and down. Not knowing what our line was going to be, or his either, I neither grinned nor glowered at him but merely looked selfreliant. He turned to Wolfe. "It's too bad your son doesn't speak our language. I'd like to talk with him." Wolfe nodded. "I was wrong not to teach him. I would be glad to interpret for you." "That's not the same. Comrade Zov has told me what happened today. You and your son have acted boldly and bravely. It is appreciated by me and will be appreciated by my superiors. You can add to that appreciation by giving me a full account of your movements since you left here yesterday."