The Avenger 32 - The Death Machine by Kenneth Robeson Page B

with Richard Benson?”
    Early looked again at Nellie. “You two have been trying to bamboozle me.”
    “Back in New York last week,” said the little blonde, “a boy scout got a medal for saving a cocker spaniel from drowning. I didn’t actually expect we’d get a medal for saving your life, but I—”
    “You’re just like him.” Early pointed from the girl to the grinning Cole.
    “You can mail us the medal.” Cole took Nellie’s arm and the two left the unhappy Early.
    “He’s not really a bad guy,” said Nellie as they were descending in the elevator.
    “For a white collar type, no.”
    “You did manage to plant that tracking bug on the girl’s clothes?”
    “Of course. Richard and Smitty should be following to the spy’s lair this very minute.”
    “Let’s hope she doesn’t get picked up.”
    “Unlikely, pixie,” Cole answered her. “Early didn’t snap out of his stupor for nearly ten minutes, and we stalled him another good ten. That should give the lass a good chance of not getting caught. Caught by somebody other than our team, that is.”
    “I get the feeling Don Early was fond of her.” Their elevator landed and they stepped into the lobby. “What did she look like? I never got a good look at her from the Skylight kitchen.”
    “Oh, she was attractive enough, if you go for large women,” answered Cole. “This year, though, the fashion is all for diminutive blondes.”
    “Let’s get going,” said Nellie. “We still have another job to take care of.”
    “Lead on.”

CHAPTER XX

The Talking Bug
    Smitty said, “I sympathize with Early. I bet he kind of liked this dame.”
    “Quite probably.” The Avenger sat in the front passenger seat, his eyes on the directional box which was tracking the tiny device Cole had attached to Emmy Lou Dennim’s dress.
    “Sure, and why not?” He gestured at the red-painted girders of the Golden Gate Bridge. “You save a skirt from doing a brodie off this span, you’re naturally going to take an interest in her.”
    “She’s staying on the main highway.”
    “How you figure she got the car she’s using . . . swiped it?”
    “Most likely it was left there near the hotel for her, in case of just such an emergency.”
    “Boy, I guess you’d class her a regular Mata Hari, huh?” They left the bridge and continued on the highway. “Trying to work secret stuff out of Early.”
    “I imagine he’s a tough man to worm anything out of.”
    “Where you figure she’s heading?”
    “Let’s hope it’s to the place where they’ve got the original death machine,” said Benson as they drove through the Marin County night. “She’s just turned off, Smitty.”
    “That’d be the Baytown road, wouldn’t it?”
    “Yes, that’s it.”
    Nodding, the giant stuck his arm out the window to signal for a right turn. “Must be this dame is working for somebody else. I mean, she ain’t the brains of the whole operation.”
    “From what we’ve been able to find out about her she’s not highly enough placed in the government operation,” said Benson. “Whoever’s running this has to be in a position to have found out the names of those people working on the various segments of the operation. The men who’ve been killed weren’t all working in the same place, as you know.”
    “Huh,” said Smitty. “Fact means there’s a rotten apple pretty high up.”
    “Looks that way, yes,” said the Avenger, his eyes still on the tracking box. “She turned onto a side road about a half-mile ahead.”
    “We’ll do likewise.”
    The road was narrow, ill-paved. It cut through grassy fields and worked its way, in no great hurry, down to the Bay.
    “Those buildings there, where the lights are showing,” said Dick Benson. “She’s there.”
    Smitty swiveled his head around. “How about I park under them trees over there? Then we can use our dogs the rest of the way.”
    The Avenger gave a nod of agreement.

    Emmy Lou had parked her car in the large