"Yes," said Tyler. After a moment, "I despise melodrama but if you
don't cooperate you're going to get the works. And we've got Tighe
too, never forget that. One of you ought to break down if he watches
the other being questioned."
_We're going to the same place! We're going to Tighe!_
The effort to hold face and voice steady was monstrous. "Just where
are we bound?"
"An island. We should be there soon. I'll be going back again myself
but Mr. Bancroft is coming shortly. That should convince you just how
important this is to us."
Dalgetty nodded. "Can I think it over for awhile? It isn't an easy
decision for me."
"Sure. I hope you decide right."
Tyler got up and left with his guards. The big man who had handed him
the drink earlier sat where he had been all the time. Slowly the
psychologist began to tighten himself. The faint drone of turbines and
whistle of jets and sundered air began to enlarge.
"Where are we going?" he asked.
"CAN'T TELL YOU THAT. SHUDDUP, WILL YOU?"
"But surely...."
The guard didn't answer. But he was thinking.
_Ree-villa-ghee-gay-doe--never would p'rnounce that damn Spig name ...
cripes, what a God-forsaken hole!... Mebbe I can work a trip over to
Mexico.... That little gal in Guada...._
Dalgetty concentrated. Revilla--he had it now. Islas de Revillagigedo
a small group some 350 or 400 miles off the Mexican coast, little
visited with very few inhabitants. His eidetic memory went to work,
conjuring an image of a large-scale map he had once studied. Closing
his eyes he laid off the exact distance, latitude and longitude,
individual islands.
Wait, there was one a little further west, a speck on the map, not
properly belonging to the group. And--he riffled through all the facts
he had ever learned pertaining to Bancroft. Wait now, Bertrand Meade,
who seemed to be the kingpin of the whole movement--yes, Meade owned
that tiny island.
_So that's where we're going!_ He sank back, letting weariness overrun
him. It would be awhile yet before they arrived.
Dalgetty sighed and looked out at the stars. Why had men arranged such
clumsy constellations when the total pattern of the sky was a big and
lovely harmony? He knew his personal danger would be enormous once he
was on the ground. Torture, mutilation, even death.
Dalgetty closed his eyes again. Almost at once he was asleep.
IV
They landed on a small field while it was still dark. Hustled out into
a glare of lights Dalgetty did not have much chance to study his
surroundings. There were men standing on guard with magnum rifles,
tough-looking professional goons in loose gray uniforms. Dalgetty
followed obediently across the concrete, along a walk and through a
garden to the looming curved bulk of a house.
He paused just a second as the door opened for them and stood looking
out into darkness. The sea rolled and hissed there on a wide beach. He
caught the clean salt smell of it and filled his lungs. It might be
the last time he ever breathed such air.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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