wolf's eyes narrowed.

"Listen," he said. "I'm not a fiction hero. We've got an Army, a Navy, an air force, and a secret service. They're getting paid for risking their necks. Let them worry. I had a hunch, which may not be worth a dime. I passed it along. Now I'm going to clear out, before anything more happens to me."

Joan's face was cut, sharp and bitter, from brown wood. Her eyes had fire in them, way back.

"Your logic," she whispered, "is flawless."

"I saved your life," said Fallon brutally. "What more do you want?"

The color drained from the brown wood, leaving it marble. Only the angry fires in her eyes lived, in the pale hard stone.

"You're remembering how I kissed you," said Fallon, so softly that he hardly spoke at all. "I don't know why I did. I don't know why I came here. I don't know...."

He stopped and turned to the door. Bjarnsson, very quietly, was picking up the phone. Fallon took the knob and turned it.

"I am sorry," said a quiet, sibilant voice. "You cannot leave. And you, sir—put down that telephone."

A small neat man with a yellow face stood on the threshold. He was holding a small, neat, efficient-looking automatic. Fallon backed into the room, hearing the click of the cradle as the phone went down.

"You are Einar Bjarnsson?" The question was toneless and purely rhetorical. The black eyes had seen the whole room in one swift flick. "I am Kashimo," said the man, and waited.

"Fallon," Webb said easily. "This is Miss Daniels. We just dropped in for a chat. Mind if we go now?"

"I am afraid ..." said Kashimo, and spread his hands. "I have been discourteous enough to eavesdrop. You have an inventive mind, Mr. Fallon. An inaccurate mind, but one that might prove disturbing to our plans."

"Don't worry," grunted Fallon. "I have no business whatsoever, and I attend to it closely. Your plans don't matter to me at all."

"Indeed." Kashimo studied him with black, bright eyes. "You are either a liar or a disgrace to your country, Mr. Fallon. But I may not take chances. You and the young lady I must, sadly, cancel out."

"And I?" Bjarnsson 

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