We had a very private meeting. The Venezuelan President, the American Vice-President, Hawk, and I went to the security annex, and everyone else was asked to leave. The chief of the Venezuelan Security Police had already been taken to the headquarters for a treatment. In a few minutes I was alone with the two dignitaries and Hawk.
"You acted very quickly in there, young man," the Venezuelan President said, his hands clasped behind him as he spoke.
"Thank you, sir," I said.
"Nevertheless, Carter," the Vice-President spoke up, "you've got a lot of explaining to do. Someone told me it was you who brought the carafe into the room."
"I'm afraid that's right, sir," I answered.
Hawk grimaced. "It seems that Carter was kidnapped and persuaded to believe that he was a Venezuelan revolutionary intent on assassination," he said sourly. He lit up a long cigar and began pacing the room, hunched down in his tweed jacket.
"Very interesting," the Venezuelan President said. "And now your normal faculties have returned, Señor Carter?"
"Yes, sir."
The American Vice-President sat down on the edge of a desk. "That's all very nice for us here in this room. But when the press gets wind of this, they'll be screaming that an American agent sabotaged the conference and tried to assassinate the President and me."
"I agree," said Hawk. "This wont be easy to explain."
"That occurred to me, too, sir," I said to the Vice-President. "But we do have a couple of leads to the people who are really responsible."
"And who are they?" the President asked.
I remembered what Tanya had said that night in her apartment just before the drug knocked me out. I looked over at Hawk for clearance to tell them, and he nodded. "KGB," I said.
"Qué demonio!" muttered the President.
"Stall the press for twenty-four hours," I said, "I'll try to find them. After that we can see that the entire world press gets the story. The real story."
Hawk studied my face for a minute, then looked at the Vice-President. "Can we have that much time?"
The Vice-President raised his eyebrows. "With the help of the Venezuelan government," he said, turning to the President.
The President looked at me soberly. "I trust this young man. You will have my full cooperation. Please keep me advised. And now, señor Vice-President, I must see my staff before the conference resumes. I will see you in the conference room. Mr. Carter, if you can vindicate yourself, you will receive my country's highest honors."
Before I could protest, he was gone. The Vice-President got up from the desk and came over to me. "Now that it's all in the family, Nick, I feel I must voice one last thought."
"I think I know what it is," I said. "I have the twenty-four hours on trust. Because I could really be a defector. Or maybe just a lunatic. After my time is up, I'm on my own."
"Something like that, Nick. You seem all right to me now. But security is security. There has to be some doubt in my mind. I hope you don't mind my speaking so frankly."
"I understand. I'd feel the same way, sir," I said.
"I'll stake my job on Carter," Hawk said suddenly, not looking at me. "I trust him implicitly."
"Of course," the Vice-President said. "But get moving on this one, David. The press won't wait forever."
The Vice-President left the room. Hawk and I were alone. After a long silence, I finally spoke.
"Look, I'm really sorry about all this," I said. "If I'd just been more careful with the girl…"
"Cut it out, Nick. You know that we can't guard against all eventualities. Anyway, I had you check her out. She was counting on that. Nobody could have avoided the trap you fell into. It was very well planned, and it was conceived by experts. Now, let's reconstruct what happened."
"Well, my best guess is that I was drugged and then… maybe hypnosis, I don't know. I really can't remember anything since that evening in the girl's apartment. The drug was in her… lipstick."
Hawk managed a small grin. "That's why you blame yourself. Don't be silly, my boy. But assuming this girl was a KGB agent and they took you to some secluded place to hypnotize you — why did they keep you for two days. Hypnosis would only take a few hours, at most. And how could they get you to do anything that went against your moral code? Hypnosis doesn't work that way."
"Well, I'm just guessing, but if they could have managed to change my whole personality, my entire identity, then my moral code would be altered along with it. If I really accepted the fact that I was a revolutionary who believed in the forcible overthrow of his government, the idea would work. And we know that the Russians are using behavior-control techniques that can completely break down a man's morals and integrity and make him a slave to conditioned response. A combination of hypnosis and behavior control could have convinced me I was Chávez."
"Yes," Hawk said thoughtfully. "And a damned clever idea it was. Take a top American agent, turn him into an automaton killer, and turn him loose to do some dirty work for you. Then let him and his country take the blame. I'm beginning to appreciate the threat in that warning note now."
"Which was written just to get us over here," I said.
"Exactly. And I fell for it — hook, line, and sinker. If anybody is to blame, Nick, it's me."
"I read the note, too," I said. "Maybe we'd better quit trying to place blame and start thinking about bringing this assignment to a close. We've destroyed their grand plan, but now we have to nail them." I looked at the floor. "I have an idea they're patting themselves on the back over this one and maybe getting a good laugh out of it. Well, the fun at my expense is over. When I find them, they won't be laughing."
"I suspect you've sobered them up some already," Hawk said, "since you aborted their multiple assassination attempt. How do you know the girl is KGB?"
"Because she told me," I said. "Or at least she admitted it when I asked her. That was just before the drug knocked me out. Anyway, her real name is Tanya Savitch, and she has a hint of Russian in her German accent. I couldn't quite identify it before the drug."
"Is that all you can remember about her?"
"At the moment. I have an apartment to check out and the German Embassy and a restaurant where I saw her. Also, I have a memory of a clinic and white-coated men and Tanya giving me instructions about all this. I can't remember their names or the things they did to me there. They blindfolded me when I left the clinic, so I have no idea where it is."
Hawk grimaced. "Well, at least you avoided the tragedy they had planned, Nick. You say you came out of your trance prematurely?"
"The jets going over made a sound similar to the one I was supposed to hear from the machine. That sound, along with the warning messages my subconscious had been sending for the past two days, made me to go to the window to hear the jets again. The KGB must have wanted me to return to my real identity after the assassination was over. If I denied I was Nick Carter, that might have confused the reporters. They wouldn't have known who was really responsible. Or they might have just figured I'd gone berserk. The KGB didn't want that. They were out to humiliate us, and they damn near succeeded."
"Are you all right now, Nick?" Hawk asked, watching me closely.
"I'm fine," I assured him. "But then, I'm supposed to be."
He grunted. "Okay. Is the girl our only lead?"
"The only good one. I remember something about that mystery man. Something new. I think he was at the clinic."
Hawk puffed at his smelly cigar and blew a smoke ring. "That figures. Well, you should probably have some tests first, but we don't have time for that now. Get on with it if you feel up to it."
"I'm up to it," I said. "But keep the police and the other agents away till my twenty-four hours are up. That's all I ask. I don't want to be stumbling over assistants."