The Hydra Monster Page 12

  "Poor Cisco was of no further use, since you'd seen him."

  "And what about that business of your being dumped into the Bay?"

  "Fat Learman knew I was more than simple Mumm, though Cisco did not," said V. "I was deposited in the Bay as a ruse, to convince you I was a good but misguided fellow at heart. Learman saw to it that nothing serious was done to

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  me.

  "Then I was sure to walk into the death trap you had set for me, once I trusted you."

  "Exactly," said the man who'd once been Mumm. "Though you were not the original reason for my masquerade. Like the king in the ARABIAN NIGHTS, I am fond of keeping a personal eye on our far-flung activities. It doesn't do, however, to have everyone know who I am. I adopt a variety of PERSONAS. In Cairo recently, for instance, I was a highly-convincing rug merchant. You wouldn't have recognized me."

  The Phantom watched the man for several, long, silent seconds. "Why have you brought Hydra back to life?"

  straightened in his chair. "Hydra never dies, Phantom. It has a tradition as ancient and venerable as does the Phantom," he said. "Though instead of wasting time on good deeds, Hydra has obtained its satisfactions across the centuries through the pursuit of personal gain."

  "A polite description of what you do. Your late friend, V2, talked in much the same way."

  let out an amused snort. "Even though he was all wrapped up in our traditions, he was not a top caliber man. His people had been connected with Hydra for generations, but rarely in positions of authority."

  The Phantom reached for the rest of the record books; there were five of them altogether. "You and I and these lists must now leave your villa."

  The broad man gave an amused shake of his head. "You were able to escape the Death House, the guns of the warehouse and even the waters of Lake LaPaz," he said. "You won't escape Hydra again. This is the final encounter, Phantom."

  Gesturing with his automatic, the masked man ordered, "Get up."

  "When you closed those drapes" .said V, not moving, "You sealed your fate. My men know that if they don't see me in here for any reason when I'm at work, it means an emergency. Right at this moment, behind the walls of this study, six separate guns are aimed at you."

  "A nice bluff," said the Phantom.

  "Not a bluff at all," the leader of Hydra assured him. "I am above such cheap tricks. Let me give you a convincing demonstration. He waved his hand toward the wall on his right. "Station 2, fire a warning shot into the floor."

  A second passed, a small hole in the wall slid open. A bullet came singing into the room to dig into the hardwood flooring.

  "It goes without saying that the next bullets will be a good deal closer to you, Phantom," V told him. "Drop that automatic of yours."

  The Phantom held out his hand, letting the gun fall.

  "Take the other one out. Drop it beside the

  first. I don't understand why you favor such a heavy weapon. To me . . . but I'm straying from the main point which is your death."

  A light tapping sounded on the office door.

  V smiled. "A few of my men are here," he explained to the Phantom. "To help me dispose of you. Yes, come in."

  The door opened. Captain Miranda, gun in hand, stepped in. "We're getting much better at these surprise attacks," he said to the Phantom. "This time we made hardly any noise at all. I think it's that course in guerilla warfare we all had to take last year."

  CHAPTER THIRTY

  V asked the Captain of Police, "Was that one of your men behind the wall with the gun?"

  "Yes, I could not resist," replied Miranda. "I hoped it would add to the surprise." He turned to the Phantom. "And did I surprise you, too?"

  "No, the hour was just about up," replied the masked man.

  "This gentleman on the sofa is the one we seek, V himself?"

  "That he is." The Phantom bent to retrieve his

  automatics. The captain's glance swung down toward the floor for an instant.

  V moved. He flung a sofa pillow at Miranda, knocking his gun from his hand. Then he ran for the French window, pulled it open and ran onto the terrace.

  The Phantom, holstering his guns, ran after him.

  The big Hydra leader ran across the terrace and leaped to the fence.

  "Come back," called the Phantom. "You can't get away."

  "There's one place I can go where ?no one can follow." He climbed for the top of the six-foot, wrought iron fence.

  Sprinting, the Phantom came up to the iron bars and lunged. He caught V by the ankle.

  The other man twisted, kicked out. The point of his shoe smashed into the Phantom's fingers.

  The masked man let go for a second.

  That was enough for V. He made it to the top of the fence. He jumped.

  He fell silently, not crying out, down and down through the night. Three hundred feet to the rocky surf. The black water foamed in to touch at his broken body.

  "The end of Hydra," said the Phantom as he turned away.

  Captain Miranda crossed the tiles. "V held to the code to the end. Suicide before capture," he observed. "You think the Vultures and Hydra are trulv finished now?"

  The Phantom returned to Vs den and lifted the

  five record books from the mantle. "Names and addresses of all the members throughout the world," he said. "Plus the locations of every Hydra base."

  "Yes, that should finish them."

  The Phantom nodded, tucking the volumes under his arm.

  It was a sharp, clear day in San Francisco. Lt. Gores stood beside his desk, frowning down at the barbell beside it. He scratched at his grizzled head. "Funny, I can't seem to lift this thing anymore," he said to himself. "After all those trophies I got for body building, you'd think . . ."

  "See the EXAMINER this morning?" asked Sgt Pronzini as he strolled in.

  Gores straightened, went behind his desk and shuffled through some of his papers. "I heard something on the radio driving in."

  The young sergeant sat down, unfolded the newspaper. He tapped the front page. " 'Smash International Crime Ring in S.A.,'" he read. "That's the headline. Then 'Mystery Man Aids Police.' You know who that mystery man is, don't you?"

  "Yeah, yeah." Gores lowered himself into his swivel chair. "I can guess."

  "Sure, it's our mystery man. Walker, the guy who tried to give you all the information on Hydra."

  "That mystery man, yeah. I know."

  " 'Representatives of Interpol and the UN state

  the crime ring, known as Hydra, may have been the largest in the world, rivalling even . .

  "I heard it all on the radio," cut in the lieutenant.

  "They don't give you all the details on the radio," Pronzini said. "Which is why I like to read the paper first thing every day. For instance, it says right here, 'the looting of quake-ravaged Santa Florenza was carried on by a group of Hydra members called Vultures.' That's what that tattooed V stands for. Remember when Walker was here? I was the one who suggested . . ."

  "I remember, I remember."

  "Now over here on page 13," continued the sergeant as he unfurled the paper, "is an interesting follow up. Seems like they think there were possibly two mystery men involved in the caper down there."

  Twor

  "That's what they think," said Pronzini. "See, it's positive our boy Walker was in Santa Florenza helping out the national police. But there are also rumors floating around about a mysterious guy in a costume and a mask, who..."

  "A guy in a costume?"

  "Right. A couple of the captured scavengers swear they saw this guy. Wore a mask over his eyes like this." The sergeant drew an imaginary mask on his face. "Had a skull design on his belt buckle." He tapped his own belt.

  Gores sighed through his nose. "You got a theory on this, too?"

  "Sure," replied Pronzini with a grin. "I figure

  maybe this guy Walker and this mystery guy with the mask are one and the same. And I figure the guy with the mask must be..."
>
  "Good morning, Lieutenant. Good morning, Sergeant."

  Gores blinked. "You did it again. You got in here without anybody knowing about it."

  The Phantom, once again in trench coat and dark glasses, came into the Police Lieutenant's office. "I had something I wanted to deliver to you," he said. "Since I had to return to San Francisco to pick up some luggage and my car, I thought I'd do it in person."

  "We were right," said Pronzini to the Phantom, "about Hydra and the ..."

  "What do you have for me?" asked Gores, his eyes not quite meeting the Phantom's.

  "I found the Hydra membership lists when I was in Santa Florenza," he said as he reached into a coat pocket. "The newspapers haven't made any mention of the fact, though by now the gang is surely scattering. At any rate, here's a photocopy of the California section of the list. I think you can still put it to good use."

  After hesitating for a second, the grizzled lieutenant accepted the proffered pages. "I like to do my own work, Walker, but I guess we can use this." He read part of the first page, nodding to himself. "Huh," he said after a moment, "some very interesting names on here."

  "You think Hydra's really done for?" Sgt. Pronzini asked the Phantom.

  The Phantom moved to the window, looked

  out at the clear sky. "Its leader is dead," he said. "Right now, throughout the world, its branches are being destroyed. Yes, Hydra is dead at last."

  "But," persisted the young sergeant, "it might flare up again, like it did this time."

  "It might," concluded the Phantom. "Then it would have to be smashed again."

  Pronzini folded his paper to page 13. "There's a story here about a guy with a mask who was . . ."

  Smiling, the Phantom said, "As of now I'm on vacation, Sergeant. No more questions will be answered." He nodded at each policeman in turn and left the office.

  "I bet he is," said Pronzini, his eyes oh the door.

  "Is what?"

  "The Phantom," said Pronzini.

  "Who's the Phantom?"

  "You never heard of the Phantom?" asked Pronzini. "Well, I'll tell you about him . . "

  He went on for some time.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

  "We're actually here," said Diana, stopping in the center of the lodge-like living room of the Eyrie.

  "I promised you a vacation," said the Phantom. 155

  He set their suitcases down against the rustic wall.

  Devil made a circuit of the room, then trotted back out into the bright dry afternoon.

  "Of course," said the pretty, dark-haired girl, "a lot of people would consider a trip to South America a vacation."

  The Phantom shed his trenchcoat and dark glasses. "By the way," he said, "just before we left San Francisco, I heard the police had picked up the amiable young man who arranged your sudden departure from Golden Gate Park."

  "Agent Lumbard as he called himself," said Diana. "Where'd they find him?"

  "Well," said the Phantom with a smile, "it seems he had a cover identity and a cover occupation. He was working as a travel agent in Maiden Lane."

  "The perfect man for the job." The girl laughed. "Then he couldn't have been the one who took me all the way to Santa Florenza?"

  "He undoubtedly turned you over to other Hydra agents, who flew you down there in a private plane."

  The girl hugged herself. "I won't forget how I felt in that citadel of theirs," she said. "When the quakes started." She moved toward the open doorway. "I hope the earth tremors are over for the people of Santa Florenza."

  "Captain Miranda told me his country has frequent quakes. Though usually not so severe."

  "He seemed a competent man, and likeable."

  "A good man, yes," agreed the Phantom.

  Diana watched the desert sky outside. "Your

  job is through then, Kit? Hydra is wiped out, isn't it?"

  "According to the reports coming in from round the globe," he replied, "a good many of the Hydra members are being rounded up. Nearly all their permanent bases have been located and smashed. Yes, the job is finished."

  "I can't quite understand their leader," Diana said, 'Tolling himself like that."

  "Pride perhaps," the Phantom said. "A kind of twisted pride which made him prefer death to capture. As I said before, Hydra was an almost mystical thing to many of its members, despite its highly materialistic objectives."

  The girl said, "I'd better get into the kitchen and start thinking about fixing dinner. I had the menu all worked out when we were here last and never got the chance to so much as put a pan on the stove." She crossed the room, entered the compact, white kitchen.

  While Diana busied herself there, she was aware of the Phantom moving about the other rooms. He carried the luggage to their respective bedrooms, then turned on the radio.

  The girl heard the voice of the newscaster but couldn't catch any of the actual words. After a few moments, the Phantom got suddenly out of his chair and snapped off the broadcast.

  Something made Diana turn from the sink and go back into the living room. "What did you hear, Kit?" she asked.

  The Phantom was standing before the radio,

  his hands locked behind his back. "Something, he said, a frown creasing his forehead.

  "Something to do with Hydra?"

  "No," answered the masked man. "This is some- think entirely new, Diana."

  "And you'll have to leave again?"

  "I'm not sure," he said. "I'll have to check up on a couple of things first."

  "I see." She returned to the kitchen and began putting everything away again.