The Death Dealers Read Online Free Page B

the drawer with the bug hidden behind a front leg. “Careless,” I said.
    “Interpol expects all conversations to be recorded if possible when we are on a case.”
    “Baloney. Try training your mind. One day you’ll get killed for showing your hand.” I snapped the wire from the bug and put it in her hand. “Maybe Interpol is scratching for help these days.”
    She dropped the smile then. It went easy and she was the same Lily I had in the phone booth a few hours back: hard, nasty, proud of what she was doing and thinking she was doing it well.
    “What are you trying to prove?”
    “Nothing with you, girl. I just have to watch myself when I get involved with overly dedicated personnel. Sit down.”
    “Why?”
    “You want me to make you lie down? I can talk to you even better then.”
    She sat down on the edge of the bed fast, her mouth back in that tight thin line, her eyes watching me closely. “You would, wouldn’t you?”
    “Damn right, sugar. I learned how to deal with broads a long time ago. Either they have something to protect or something to give away to make their points. There’s no middle ground. I can play it both ways from the middle with no trouble.” I settled back in the chair and looked at her. “Tell me more about Interpol’s bit with Tedesco.”
    “Why?”
    “You’re looking for it, kid.”
    “They said you were no good.”
    “And they were right. Let’s keep it all business. We’re on the same team for now, assigned to the same project. There’s trouble and it has to be stopped. Maybe you don’t like Marty Grady’s organization or its method of operation, but your orders are to play along and bring home the bacon. Okay, I’m feeding it to you. I’m his chief operative and a prime target for the Soviets. What hits us hits your bunch and someplace somebody dies, either singularly or en masse. If it has to happen, let’s hope it happens singularly. There are too many people who can go up in a big mushroom cloud otherwise. You chose your profession the same way I did mine. We don’t like the war makers and we hate the ambitious slobs who don’t mind walking over corpses just to be the last man in the world. That’s a hell of a way to be a dictator. So consider the odds, honey, and level; otherwise we don’t lose singularly, but plurally. It’s better than en masse but not as good as not at all singularly. Catch?”
    “I ... think I understand. How can I be sure?”
    “You read the files, girl.”
    “Then what should I say?”
    “Where does Interpol fit in?”
    We sat there for a full thirty seconds while she took her chances. Mentally, she was reviewing the reports, itemizing every detail she had seen on me and trying to place them in their proper niches. She knew the Martin Grady operation and wanted to see how far she could go without exposing her own operation and where it stood in relation to my own. When she decided she leaned back against the pillow and stared at the ceiling.
    “Interpol came in as a matter of course. It was an international police setup because certain nationals had been killed and there was a complaint from their embassies. Briefly, when we followed it through, we learned of your man’s presence. Teddy Tedesco was identified, tracked, and located. One of our people knew of his association with the Grady organization and all its ramifications, so until we could positively establish the case we walked easily.
    “Eventually the details of the thing came to light. They knew Tedesco and sent me in. It was he who passed your Skyline signal and had not our group known what you were doing we would have processed it in the usual manner with a direct arrest or a directive to hold him. Like you, he knew our procedure, covered himself and took the chance that it would go through. Our intentions are to hold Teddy Tedesco for the murder of several people and extradite him under international law.”
    “Balls,” I said.
    She lifted her head from the pillow.