The Hydra Monster by Lee Falk

remarked the Phantom.
"Told you before, Walker, earthquakes make good copy, but they don't amount to much alongside a secret conspiracy," said Sumter. "People love to read about mysterious societies of criminals. If I can dig up enough material, I can get a book out of this, besides the N EWS piece."
"Sounds like a valid motive."
"Speaking of motives, I'm still not very clear about yours."
"I told you as much about that as I'm going to."
    "If you'd like to confide a little more in me,
Walker, I could make sure you'd get a nice play in my article. Some publicity wouldn't . .
Captain Miranda returned to his temporary office. "Good morning, Senor Walker, we're . . . Senor Sumter, I must ask you to leave us now."
The reporter hopped to the floor. "Okay, I'll go off and tap some other news sources. Good hunt-
E -37
mg.
When the door closed on the reporter, the Federal Police Captain moved to his desk and picked up a pen. "While I was combing my hair, I thought of one more possible target for the Vultures. Ill add it to . . ."
The Phantom stayed his hand. "Don't write it down," he said. "And don't send any men there." "But why, senor?"
"Tell me what place you have in mind. I'll look after it."
"Very well," said Captain Miranda. "What makes you desire to take an active part in this operation?" "A hunch," the Phantom told him.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
The city of Zurrapa was thirty miles inland and north of the port city of Lanza. Because of the fault pattern, Zurrapa had been much harder hit. AH its civic buildings, which had stood around the
     
plaza in the center of town, had now collapsed. Fissures cut across the plaza; palm trees lay on their sides, as though they'd been uprooted by a giant hand; a large pack of wild dogs, more than fifty of them, roamed the ruins of the square.
Most of the central core of Zurrapa had been evacuated. The buildings which hadn't toppled were leaning at odd angles, all out of kilter. The understaffed army had approximately two hundred men in the city. Only about fifty of the blue-uniformed soldiers were actually guarding anything. The rest, along with several hundred civilians, were in the rubble digging.out bodies. There was still a strong possibility of plague.
On the west side of the central area was a business district. Most of the buildings here had remained upright. It was here that Zurrapa's jewelry row was located. A line of ten shops, each dealing in retail and wholesale gems. The owners of the shops had had to vacate and leave much of their stock behind. The gems, mostly diamonds and rubies, were valued at over two million dollars. This was why a dozen armed soldiers patrolled the street which housed the jewel dealers' shops.
At twilight, three black shapes appeared over the tallest of the buildings. A harsh whirring filled the air. Then three dark helicopters, swaying, dropped down closer to the street.
Five of the soldiers aimed rifles at the lowering airships.
From one of the copters, cannisters began dropping. The black containers snapped open on hitting the paving stones, releasing wisps of a yellowish gas.
The rifles fell from the soldiers' hands. They began scratching at their throats, tearing at their tunics. Then they were lying sprawled on the street. In less than two minutes, eleven of them were down.
The twelfth man had run, trying to Keep ahead of the spreading yellow gas but it soon caught up with him, and yellow streamers tangled around him. He ran a few more wobbling paces before falling over into a stone bench.
The copters landed, waited for the gas to dissipate. Then black clad Vultures spewed out of the ships, armed and watchful.
"Too easy," said V306 when his booted foot hit the ground. "This is probably some kind of trap, too."
His companion said, "This is one target we know isn't on the police list. You can relax."
"Who can relax on one of these damn raids? I'm always waiting for some trigger-happy cop to pop out from behind a lamp post and start blasting away."
The two of