The Hamlet Warning by Leonard Sanders Read Free Book Online Page B

chicken.”
    “I’ve had better offers, and from nicer people.”
    “All right,” Johnson said. “That was the first proposal. This is the second: There’s no reason we can’t work with you in your present capacity.”
    “That’s for me to say,” Loomis pointed out.
    “All you have to do is fly to Washington for a briefing. That’s what they really want.”
    “No. Washington can come to me.”
    “Christ!” Johnson exploded. “Who in hell you think you are? This is top-level. The White House. National Security Council. Joint Chiefs. Do I make myself clear?”
    Loomis thought out his answer carefully. “Anything Washington has to say to me, they can pass on through you or through someone else. I’m busy. I’ve got problems of my own. I don’t have time to play grabass in Washington.”
    “You’re crazy!”
    “Maybe. But at least I know who I’m working for.”
    “They’ll pull strings.”
    “Let them pull strings. I’m not going to Washington. That’s final.”
    “All right. I’ll deliver your answer. But I’m sure that won’t be the end of it. You’ll be hearing more from me.” Johnson fumbled to find the door release.
    “Wait,” Loomis said. He reached beneath the steering column and punched the emergency flasher button. After three flashes, he turned it off.
    “What the hell was that for?” Johnson asked.
    “That was permission for you and your men to leave,” Loomis told him.
    “You’re putting me on.”
    “Twelve men,” Loomis said. “A thousand-yard perimeter. They let you in. And they wouldn’t have let you out without my signal.”
    “In darkness?”
    “Sniperscopes,” Loomis explained. “We may run a backwater operation down here. But we run it right.”
    He punched the button opening the door latch for Johnson. The sound was loud in the silence of the night. Johnson stepped out and closed the door. Loomis wheeled the Olds around and headed back toward the highway, leaving him standing at the edge of the cane field. 

 
    Chapter 5
     
    Minus 11 Days , 11 : 48 Hours
    After the third assassination attempt against him, Ramón had developed sleeping problems. Each time he dozed off, he tended to relive the stark terror of that night when bullets and grenade fragments filled the house and he lay helpless on the floor, splattered with gore from what had been his brother. His insomnia was beyond solution. He would not allow himself the luxury of sleeping pills, heavy wine, or other conventional remedies. So, he was wide awake when the message came shortly after midnight.
    Ramón was certain that his year-long campaign to mount a successful revolution was near fruition. All signs pointed to it: growing unrest in the streets, increased repressions from the administration, mounting dissension in El Jefe’s own party. But Ramón knew, from his copious reading, that a revolution must be plucked at the right moment. A day too soon, or a day too late, and all might be lost.
    The message indicated that perhaps the moment had arrived. El Jefe’s hired gunman, Loomis the norteamericano , would be leaving for Santiago de los Caballeros within hours to bring the De la Torre family back to the capital. The information came from a good source and Ramón did not doubt it. He had thought, several times, of using the kidnaping of Manuel de la Torre as the kickoff for the revolution. From his studies, he had learned that the principal danger in any revolution is the rise of a third, moderate force as a haven for defectors from both combatant sides. Manuel de la Torre was a logical rallying point for such a group. He was personable, held the respect of many intellectuals, was well known from his writings, and was well separated, politically, from his brother. His kidnaping would at least delay the organization of a political haven for noncombatants. And Ramón was sufficiently imaginative to realize that the kidnaping of De la Torre’s film-actress daughter would make bigger headlines