“No questions today even when you had the tape off?”
“No, sir. The man knows how to keep his mouth shut.”
“A truly rare talent in this day and age. Find anything in his room?”
Toad took the pill bottle from his shirt pocket and handed it to Jake. “There’s four of each left in the bottle — eight pills.”
“Get my pill bottle from my bag.”
Rita asked, “Admiral, do you want me here?”
“Yep. You and Toad and Jack and Spiro Dalworth. But everyone keeps their mouth shut, no matter what. Toad, take Jack into the bedroom and tell him if he says one word, he’ll be ejected. Then rig up Jack’s cassette tape recorder just out of sight under the couch.” Toad went and Jake turned to Rita. “Call Captain Collins and ask him to send Dalworth up.”
“Aye aye, sir.”
In the bedroom Toad delivered the message to Yocke, who merely nodded. Toad popped the magazine from the Browning and removed a handful of cartridges from his pocket. He pushed the shells into the clip one by one.
“Why didn’t you have your pistol loaded today?” Yocke asked.
Toad was tired, emotionally drained. His mind wasn’t working fast enough to come up with a quip, so for once he told Jack Yocke the unvarnished truth. “Jake Grafton wanted him alive. Sitting there looking at him with a loaded gun, waiting…I don’t know if I could have resisted the temptation to kill him.”
Yocke watched as Toad finished loading the magazine and snapped it into the handle of the pistol. He worked the slide, thumbed the safety into position. Then he slid the pistol into the small of his back.
“Why are you loading it now?”
“Maybe I’ll get lucky.”
In the bathroom Jake filled a dirty glass with water and examined the white tablets from Herb’s bottle. He selected one marked Aspirin on both sides and dropped it into the water.
It all came down to this. If Herb knew Jake had substituted aspirin for half the binary cocktail, he was too many steps ahead for Jake to catch him now.
He held the glass up to the light and swirled the water as the tablet slowly disintegrated. Into a pile of white powder.
Aspirin.
Thank God!
Out in the living room Herb Tenney was back on the couch. Jake Grafton emptied the pill bottle onto the table. He picked up each tablet and examined the markings. When he was finished he had two small piles of tablets.
“General Shmarov died last night,” he remarked conversationally. “Tell us about that.”
Herb had watched Jake examine the white tablets. Now he looked at the faces of the other people in the room, then back at Jake. “I don’t have anything to say.”
“Tenney, I don’t think you understand how tight the crack is that you’re in. You are going to talk or we’re going to force these pills down your throat. All of them.”
“Now you listen, Admiral. I don’t know what the fuck you think you’re doing, but I know my rights. I have the right to an attorney and I have the right to remain silent. You’re an agent of the government.”
“You think there’s going to be a trial? You’re joking, right?”
Jake Grafton hitched his chair closer to Tenney and leaned forward so his face was only a foot or so from Herb’s. “Let me say it again — either you answer my questions with God’s truth or I’m going to stuff these pills into your mouth and tape it shut. The pills will dissolve in your mouth even if you don’t swallow.”
Herb Tenney looked at the tablets and he looked at Jake Grafton. He was perspiring. Everyone was looking at him except Jack Yocke, who was staring at the tablets on the table.
Herb cleared his throat. “Get these other people out of here.”
“They stay.”
“All this is classified.”
“Yeah, and if you tell me your pals will have to kill me. I’ve heard that crap before.”
“What do you want to know?”
“Who made the decision to kill Nigel Keren?”
Herb Tenney licked his lips. Sweat formed a little rivulet down his cheek and a drop coalesced on his chin. Then it fell away.
“Who?” Jake repeated. He picked up a tablet and examined it. Finally he placed it back on the table and stood up.
“Toad, Spiro, hold him down. Rita, get the tape and tear off a strip.”
Toad came flying across the room like a linebacker. He slammed into Tenney and knocked him flat on the couch, then sat on his chest. Dalworth was just a step behind. Rita charged for the bathroom to get the tape roll.
Herb tried to scream. He couldn’t get air with Toad sitting on his chest. Then Jake held his nose until his mouth popped open. Herb’s skin was slippery with sweat and he was still trying to scream. Jake stuffed the tablets in as Herb bucked and writhed, even with Toad on his chest and Dalworth on his legs. Jake used both hands to hold his jaw shut.
“Where’s the damn tape?”
“Jesus H. Christ, Grafton!” Yocke’s voice, from somewhere behind.
“Let me in there,” Rita said, elbowing her way into the pile. She slapped a strip of tape over Tenney’s mouth. Then they released him.
The naval officers stood back, breathing hard. Herb was snorting through his nose, his eyes wild.
“Can you feel them dissolving, Herb?” Jake leaned over until his eyes were only a few inches from those of the CIA agent’s. “The poison will be absorbed through the sides of your mouth into your bloodstream. You know more about the effect than I do. How long will it take? How long before your heart stops? An hour? Five hours? Twelve? Maybe you have a whole day. I hate to see you die like this, Herb, but it was your choice.”
Tenney was moaning in his throat.
Jake let him moan. Now Herb managed to get into a sitting position. He was bobbing his head.
“You want to talk now?”
Tenney’s head bobbed vigorously.
Jake reached over and ripped the tape away from Herb’s mouth.
Herb spat the pills onto the floor. He sobbed convulsively. Then he vomited.
“Who?”
“Let me wash my mouth out.”
“Who?” Grafton roared savagely.
“Schenler.”
“Harvey Schenler? Deputy director of the CIA?”
Herb Tenney nodded.
“Answer me, goddamnit!”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“I don’t think—”
“I don’t give a fuck what you think! Why?”
“Keren was giving the Israelis money to get Soviet Jews to Israel. The Arabs don’t want them there. We’re trying to stabilize the Mideast.”
“So you poisoned Nigel Keren. How’d you do it?”
Tenney rubbed his mouth, then bent at the waist and wiped his tongue on his trousers. When he straightened he looked from face to face. “It was in his aspirin bottle,” he said finally.
“You murdered a man and stabilized the Mideast. Everything’s okay down at the corner gas station. Congratulations.”
“Now look here, Admiral,” Tenney said heatedly. “The world is a cesspool and you know it. We need oil. The Arabs have it. We have enough troubles with the ragheads without idiots like Nigel Keren using their fat wallets to cause more. The situation is volatile.”
“Albert Sidney Brown? Did he stick his fat wallet somewhere it didn’t belong?”
“I don’t know anything about General Bro—”
“Don’t lie to me!” Jake thundered. He could really roar when he wanted to; this time he rattled the windows. “You are one answer away from the grave. I’ve killed four men today, maybe five, and believe me, I won’t lose any sleep if I have to kill you.” Jake Grafton paused, then shook his head with annoyance. “In his aspirin bottle! Well?” he demanded.