"Sam?" I asked.
Gogarty nodded slowly. "All right, Tom. I guess you're the boss now.
And I think I'm even glad of it. I always liked you. I'll answer about
Slovetski."
Defoe snarled and swung, then saw my rifle coming up, and straightened
again. "You win once more, Thomas. Your great international rebel
cooperated with us very nicely after we caught him. We arranged for
him to receive all calls to his most secret hideout right here in this
room. It netted us his fellow conspirators--including your father,
Miss dell'Angela!"
She gasped faintly, but her head came up at once. "Nikolas was no
traitor. You're lying!"
"Why should I lie?" he asked. "With the right use of certain drugs, any
man can become a traitor. And Dr. Lawton is an expert on drugs."
"Where is he?" I asked.
He shrugged. "How should I know? He wanted a radioactive world, so I
let him enjoy it. We put him outside just before we closed the doors
permanently."
Gogarty nodded confirmation. I turned it over. He might even have
been one of the men waiting outside. But it wouldn't matter. Without
his organization and with a world where life outside was impossible,
Slovetski's power was finished.
I turned to Zorchi. "The men who broke in will be going crazy soon,"
I told him. "While Rena finds the paging system and reassures them
they'll all be treated in the reception room, how about getting Lawton
to locate and revive a couple of the doctors you know and trust?"
* * * * *
Rena came back from the paging system, and Zorchi prodded Lawton with
the gun, heading him toward the files that would show the location of
the doctors. Gogarty stood up doubtfully, but I shook my head. Zorchi
was able to handle a man of Lawton's type, even without full use of his
legs, and I couldn't trust Gogarty yet.
"You can give me a hand with Defoe, Sam," I suggested. "We'd better
strap him down first."
Gogarty nodded, and then suddenly let out a shocked cry, and was
cringing back!
In the split second when both Rena and I had looked away, Defoe had
whipped out an automatic and was now covering us, his teeth exposed in
a taut smile. "Never underestimate an opponent, Thomas," he said. "And
never believe what he says. You should have searched me, you know."
The gun was centered on Rena and he waited, as if expecting me to make
some move. All I could do was stand there, cursing myself. I'd thought
of everything--except the obvious!
Defoe backed toward the door and slipped around it, drawing its heavy
weight slowly shut until only a crack showed. Then he laughed. "Give my
love to Millen," he said, and laughed softly.
I jumped for the door, but his feet were already moving out of the
passage. The door began opening again, but I knew it was too late.
Then, it was open. And amazingly, Defoe stood not ten feet away.
At the other end of the passage, a ragged bloody figure was standing,
swaying slowly from side to side, holding a rifle. I took a second look
to recognize Nikolas Slovetski. He was moving slowly toward Defoe. And
now Defoe jerked back and began frantically digging for the automatic
he must have pocketed.
Slovetski leaped, tossing the gun aside in a way that indicated it must
have been empty. A bullet from Defoe's automatic caught his shoulder
in mid-leap, but it couldn't stop him. He crashed squarely on Defoe,
swinging a knife as the other went down. It missed, ringing against the
hard floor.
I'd come unfrozen by then. I kicked the knife aside and grabbed the gun
from Defoe's hands. Slovetski lay limp on him, and I rolled the smaller
man aside.
* * * * *
Defoe was out cold from the blow of his head hitting the floor. Gogarty
had come out behind me and now began binding him up. He opened his eyes
slowly, blinked, and tried to grin as he stared at the bonds. He swung
his head to the figure on the floor beside him. "Shall we go quietly,
Nikolas?" he asked, as Gogarty picked him up and carried him back to
the private vault.
But his sarcasm was wasted on Slovetski. The man must have been dying
as he stumbled and groped his way toward the place where he knew Defoe
must be. And the bullet in the shoulder had finished him. Rena bent
over him, a faint sob on her lips.
Surprisingly, he fought his way back to consciousness, staring up at
her. "Rena," he said weakly. "Benedetto! I loved him. I--" Then his
head rolled toward me. "At least, I lived to die in a revolution,
Thomas. Dirty business, revolution. When in the course of human events,
it becomes--"
He died before he could finish. I went looking for Lawton, to make sure
Defoe was suspended at once. He'd be the last political suspendee, if
I had anything to do with it, but there would be a certain pleasure in
watching Lawton do the job.