Oh, Gods, I could be vaporized for this!

Black Jowl was still talking. "You see there is an embarrassing point in all this. For you. The amount was so trifling and the security so huge that we trusted you and never gave it a second thought. And then we found out that you didn't own it!"

Of course I didn't own it. It belonged to the government of Voltar!

"Now really," said Closure, "we are being very nice to you. If we had exposed this crime we could have had you and your yacht rounded up wherever you were because you were still under the Turkish flag even if you were at sea. The state would throw you in prison and I need not call to your attention that a Turkish prison means death."

Oh, how well I understood that!

"And we are really a very humane institution and we didn't want you to have to suffer that."

I blinked. This was the first time I had ever heard of Grabbe-Manhattan being humane! I became wary.

"So we contented ourselves with simply hounding you homeward. The young woman was cooperative, within the limits of her own greed."

"Wait a minute," I said. "That yacht was worth more than two million! If you seized it, that cancels the debt."

"Oh, I'm afraid not. It was mortgaged and you had very little equity in it. And this land mortgage is overdue. You made no payments on this mortgage. You are overlooking something. If we got the Turkish government to cooperate in this, they could prefer charges. They would have no choice but send you to prison for mortgaging a property you did not own. But don't be so disturbed. We have a perfect out for you. Now that you are here and in reach of funds and friends, you can get out of this entirely."

"How?" I said in desperation.

"Why, all you have to do is buy these lands and villa and mountain out of your own money and turn them over to us and we will stamp this document paid and you will be in the clear."

So that was why they had hounded me home. They had not dared kick up a fuss or they would lose these properties. But my position was completely impossible. I could not tell these bloodsuckers that the property in question belonged to the Voltar Confederacy. It would be a Code break beyond all Code breaks. There was no possible way to acquire it for them even if I would. The doors of the Turkish prisons yawned.

But he was dealing with an officer of the Apparatus. He was threatening the Code break of all time! If they ever found out what was underneath that mountain... Yikes! Voltar would execute me. Even a temporary solution was better than none!

I looked up at the secret spot on the gate where I had installed the alarm bell that would alert the staff.

In a steady voice I said, "I know when I am beaten. Come in and I will make the final arrangements."

Under cover of steadying myself, I pushed the bell.

Black Jowl, all smiles now, walked forward through the gate.

I led him across the yard toward the patio.

Cat-footed, Musef and Torgut came behind him.

A flurry.

THONK! went Torgut's lead pipe.

Black Jowl crumpled without a sound.

I whispered to Musef, "There is an old Phrygian tomb under my bedroom floor. Dump him in my sleeping quarters, tie him up and leave him. I will do the rest."

They carried him in there and lashed him up. They left.

How incautious I had been to go around unarmed!

I put a Beretta and a gas bomb in my pockets. Then I approached him.

I went through his pockets. I found his office phone.

I carried him through the closet into my secret room.

I opened the tunnel door and dragged him by the heels down the passage to the hangar.

A security officer came up. "Throw him in a detention cell," I said. "And do not let him speak to anyone."

He made a motion to two guards. They bore Black Jowl off. I heard the cell door clang.

I went back up the tunnel, through my secret room and out into the yard.

I gave the card to Musef. "Call this number," I said. "Tell them that you have a message from Mr. Forrest Closure. Say that things are proceeding very well but that it may take another week or two to finish things off."

He touched his shoulders and nose in a sign of obedience. He went away. He came back shortly. "They accepted that," he said.

I had bought time. I did not know exactly what I was going to do. I had a week or so to handle this. I must think of something.

I was halfway down the chute to the very worst of Hells, but actually, at that moment, didn't know it.

The beauties of spring were on the villa garden: appearances are so deceptive. The shrubs and flower beds were all in bloom, the songs of birds filled the air, the fountains plashed in a peaceful undertone.

The raucous snarl of a jeep blasted through the calm. Faht Bey, the base commander, came roaring through the gate. He sprang out, his overpoundage quivering with rage down to the last ounce. He saw me.

"Bombed mosques!" he roared. "A stranger dragged into detention! WHAT NEXT?"

He came to stand before me. He raised his hands in supplication to the sky. "Oh, Gods, we were doing so great without him!"

It was irritating. He hadn't said "Hello" or "Did you have a nice trip?" I was not his senior, exactly, but I was his Section Chief and Inspector-General Overlord for Voltar's Earth base here at Afyon. I decided to put him in his place. I used the name the police knew him by on the planet Flisten. "As you were, Tirnyjo Faht. You forget to whom you are speaking! Have a care!"

"Listen," he said, "the space freighter Blixo is arriving tomorrow night. Is there any chance of your going home on it?"

He had opened a new vista of horror. Suppose I returned to Voltar and they then discovered the Earth base had been foreclosed on over my signature? Faht Bey obviously didn't know about it yet but unless I handled it, he would soon enough. And then he'd have every possible weapon he needed to bring an abrupt end to my career. I decided to be polite. "I am sorry for the com­motion. It was all in the line of duty."

He glared at me. "Your idea of duty can get too (bleeped) confused with your personal appetites! I would give a year's pay to get something on you that would end your career forever, Officer Gris. And the next insane idea you get that threatens this operation is going to be reported to Lombar Hisst in the most painful detail. There isn't a single person in this area that would befriend you. And I have had too much more than enough!"

He stomped away to his jeep and drove off.

If he only knew it, he already had adequate grounds to put me under arrest. His crack about my having no friends left bit deep.

Mournfully, I wandered back in to the patio. I was getting depressed.

Utanc's door opened. There was a rush of slippered feet. As I started to walk around the fountain to my room, my way was barred.

Utanc was on her knees before me.

She raised her beautiful black eyes to me. "Master, I have sinned. I was by the gate and could not help but overhear what that man said. When I signed your name to that paper, I had no idea what I was doing."

"You forged that mortgage?" I roared.

She nodded. "When you cut off all my credit cards, I did not know which way to turn. I had some small expenses I could not meet. And when I asked their advice at the Grabbe-Manhattan branch in Istanbul, they told me I should ask you to sign a mortgage paper. I was far too frightened of you to ask you to do so and I signed your name to it. I did not understand it would bring disaster upon you."

Suddenly I realized that Grabbe-Manhattan had taken advantage of this shy desert girl from the Kara Kum in Russia.

From her side she drew a curved knife. Reaching up, she extended the hilt. "Kill me."

I looked at her, stunned. The idea of those beautiful black eyes going dead made my own blood run cold. I cried, "NO!" and thrust the knife aside.