The Scorpia Menace by Lee Falk

finally stood up.
"I'm going to get something to eat," he said. "I'll bring you some coffee."
Cringle nodded. He was evidently pleased with his toy.
"I'll make a note if anything important happens," he said.
He flipped a row of switches and inclined his head toward the hissing speaker as the other man went out. The door slammed heavily behind him.
Koch came back in half an hour with coffee and sandwiches. Cringle held up his hand for silence. He was scribbling rapidly on a pad. Diana Palmer's voice was coming through on the speaker.
"I've got more research to do tonight."
"Diana, I do wish you'd forget that Scorpia nonsense," said her mother.
"But Mama, I don't think it's nonsense," Diana replied.
"That's just it," said Mrs. Palmer's voice. "I don't like it at all. You've been warned. It may be dangerous to go on."
"But don't you see, Mother, that is just why I must go on," the girl replied. "There must be something in it. Otherwise, why would anyone want to stop my investigations?"
"Uncle David thinks it's a crank," Mrs. Palmer went on.
"In that case, it won't do any harm to complete my thesis," Diana said.
Otto's cigar burned steadily in his mouth as he fixed his grey eyes on the ceiling. He sat impassively, as though the conversation meant no more than a casual radio program he'd happened to tune into. The noise of the door slamming came through the loudspeaker. Cringle took the opportunity of the lull to pass his notes over to Koch. Otto studied them without saying anything.
David Palmer's voice was coming through the speaker now.
"You're still on that, Lily, are you?"
There was a brief silence, then his voice continued.
"The more I think about that Scorpia business, the more it baffles me."
"Me too, David," said Mrs. Palmer. "But it's frightening as well. I wish she wouldn't go on with this."
"You know Diana," said David Palmer.
"You're both the same, but you realize I've made up my mind," Diana went on.
"Maybe I'm on a wild-goose chase, but I intend to find out what Scorpia really is, Uncle Dave."
"Well, my dear, I'll back you in everything you want to do," said David Palmer. "But I think that it's simply an isolated crank trying to grab a little of your limelight."
"I'm not saying you're wrong, Uncle Dave," the girl answered. "But I've got to go on until I find the answer, or until I've proved that the entire business is nonsense."
"Well, there's obviously no more to be said," came Lily Palmer's voice.
"I think we've had enough of Scorpia for one evening. We'd better go into dinner, Diana, if you want to go down to the library later."
"I promise I won't talk any more about it—tonight," said Diana mischievously.
There was a burst of laughter on the speaker and then the faint sound of a door slamming.
Cringle turned off the switch and silence descended again.
"Well, that's it," he said to the silent walls. "She's obviously determined to go on with it. The girl's a nut."
Koch turned his strange grey eyes on his subordinate with that penetrating gaze that filled Cringle with such foreboding.
"Here, I strongly disagree with you, Cringle," Otto said. "This girl has courage, tenacity, resilience, many qualities you lack. Above all, she is highly educated and intelligent. The two do not necessarily go together. That is what makes her dangerous."
He bent over the message pad Cringle had given him and read the contents through once more.
A brief smile flickered across his plump face.
"So the Baron thinks the situation deserves only an Amber, does he?"
He looked sharply at Cringle, who brought his chair up opposite the Morse key.
"Prepare another transmission to Center." He smiled again as he bent over a signal pad, composing his message.
"And make it Red Alert!"
10
THE BARON MAKES A DECISION
Castle Toeplitz frowned above an azure sea. Baron Sojin stood staring intently out the great curved window until Colonel Crang began to feel that he had forgotten his presence. His silence was so profound that the ruler of Scorpia seemed