The Code Read Online Free Page B

reaction when I told him someone must have entered my quarters on the AXE base, rifled the Sheila Brant file, and used our information to get a line on the girl. He'd blow up like a sabotaged missile.
    The events of the day had changed the situation radically. I couldn't play my cards slowly and patiently as Hawk had recommended. Sheila's life was in jeopardy. I had to make contact and win her confidence fast.
    I was standing outside the hotel when she arrived at the restaurant. I watched her open the door of a red Volvo, and caught a glimpse of sleek thigh as she slid out of the car. The legs were as good as I remembered, the sexy walk even better.
    She took note of me as she moved around the car with long, graceful strides. Apparently the sight of any stranger tensed her up. She paused, eyed me briefly, and I returned her gaze with my most winning smile.
    After she'd vanished into the restaurant, I smoked a cigarette. I wanted to give her time to shed her coat and start waiting on tables. As I stalled, three motorcycles roared into town. The cyclists were as out of place in Bonham as I was. They wheeled past the hotel, looking me over through goggles clamped to their bearded faces. They wore jackets with leering devils painted on the backs. Their destination was the bar. Talking loudly, they dismounted and went inside. I knew they didn't live in Bonham. The town didn't hold enough excitement for their kind.
    "Outlaws and bums," said the hotel clerk disgustedly. He was leaning in the doorway behind me. "They're part of a gang that comes through here a couple of times a year. Call themselves Satan's Brood. They camp out on the old fairgrounds. Folks in town would like to run them off the property, but the police don't want to stir up a riot."
    I threw my cigarette away. If the bikers were regular visitors, that meant they were no concern of mine. I crossed the street to the restaurant, where business was picking up. I counted a total of four customers. All were men, and three of them couldn't take their eyes off Sheila. The fourth, I thought, must have been half-blind.
    I took a corner table away from the other diners. Even before Sheila moved toward me, I caught her gaze drifting in my direction, sizing me up.
    "Welcome to Bonham. Plan to stay long?" she said when she reached my table.
    "That depends on you, Sheila."
    The expression to her fragile face froze. "My name is Susan."
    "It's Sheila Brant and until Frank Abruze was killed, you were his mistress." My hand flashed across the table and I pinned her wrist. "Don't get up-right. Plaster a smile on that lovely face and pretend we're talking about what's on the menu,"
    "The smiling part won't be easy. You're about to crush the bones in my wrist."
    I loosened up on my grip, but didn't let her go. "The people you're running from know where you are. I can't imagine why they'd want to eliminate you, but that seems to be what they have in mind. You need help."
    "And you're going to give it to me?" Her pretty mouth twisted. That's the story of my life. Men are always going to help me. And the more help I get, the more trouble I find myself in."
    "I'm the man who's going to change all that."
    "I was wondering who you are. Now I know. You must be Mandrake the Magician."
    "The name is Ned."
    "Well, Ned the Magician, it'll take a couple of miracles to clear up the complications in my life." Despite what she said, there was a stirring of interest in the dark eyes. "You want something in return for your help, of course."
    "We'll discuss the terms later."
    "Oh, I'm sure we will," she said in a sardonic voice.
    Business or no business, I was hungry. I told her to bring me a thick steak and black coffee.
    "You trust me not to make a run for it?"
    "Cinderella didn't run out on her fairy godmother, did she?"
    She laughed. "I'm no Cinderella."
    She could have played the part, I thought. She looked like a girl a prince would bring a slipper to, and carry away even if the slipper didn't fit.