15
(You can read the previous chapter HERE.)
Moments later, the door to the toilet opened and a pair of fiery eyes peered out. The corridor was empty. But it was bright with light and there were voices and the sounds of machines behind the closed doors of the corridor. A few seconds passed. The fiery eyes watched. The lights in the corridor slowly seemed to dim until they were almost out. There was a sound like a quick rush of wind, and a black shape seemed to float in silence along the dim corridor. The corridor lights came up full again. A CYPHER soldier came out of an office, looked around him for a moment, shrugged, and went back inside. The door from the corridor out into the night closed silently.
Out in the dark night in front of the low building, The Shadow stood for a moment listening.
His keen ears heard the sound of the firing squad still marching some distance to the left. Up the narrow side valley the giant rocket still towered, its base steaming with the condensed vapor of its cold fuel. The gantry was still attached, but men no longer worked around the tall space vehicle that reached like some great arrow into the dark mountain sky. Time was growing shorter. The Shadow raced off after the firing squad. Like a great night bird his black shape bounded through the night unseen and unheard with his great cape billowing. He reached the small open field. It was a simple clearing in the forest on the mountain side. It was open on three sides, and the fourth side was a tall cliff.
Margo, Stanley and Harry Vincent were lined up against the cliff wall.
A strong light shone on the three agents of The Shadow.
The firing squad was in position facing them. The Group Leader was looking at his watch, and looking back toward the building where he expected to see his men appear with Cranston.
The Group Leader was impatient. But this was a time when iron discipline did not help CYPHER.
Ordered to shoot four prisoners, to report the shooting-execution of four prisoners, the Group Leader did not want to shoot three now and one later, did not want to shoot three here and another somewhere else. So he hesitated, looked at his watch, and waited. He waited too long.
In the dark that bordered the field of execution, The Shadow’s eyes blazed as he concentrated all his powers on the Group Leader and the men of the firing squad.
The Group Leader rubbed at his eyes and looked up at the sky. He shook his head, looked at his watch. He looked back again toward the distant building where he expected to see Cranston brought out. He scowled and again looked up at the sky. He was looking for the thick fog that seemed to be obscuring his vision. The distant building was clouded in mist. The three prisoners seemed suddenly hazy. Then, all at once, something very strange seemed to happen to the Group Leader. He forgot why he was there in the field. He could not quite remember who the three people against the cliff wall were. He shook his head to remember, but a soft thick cloud seemed to enfold his brain and he could not recall what he was supposed to do with the prisoners. He suddenly seemed to feel that he knew them, that they were friends. A voice, his own voice, spoke to him and told him to release the prisoners. He nodded. Of course, that was what he had to do—
release the prisoners.
“Release the prisoners,” he heard his own voice say.
Vaguely to his surprise, and then to his approval, three men of his firing squad stepped out and walked to the prisoners. They released the prisoners and walked back to their firing squad line where they stood rigid staring into space. They all seemed to feel that all was in correct order. They made no resistance as the three prisoners walked to them. One of them, Harry Vincent, stepped to the Group Leader and took his pistol. The other two stood near the firing squad that did not move.
The great black shape of The Shadow appeared in the lighted clearing. His fiery eyes blazed toward the firing squad, and his voice was commanding.
“Ready! Aim! Fire!”
The volley rang out.
“Harry!” The Shadow said.
Harry Vincent fired shots into the air from the pistol of the Group Leader. Four shots.
“Four of you step out!” The Shadow commanded. Four of the firing squad stepped out.
“Remove your clothes.”
The four men undressed. Quickly, Margo, Harry Vincent and Stanley changed clothes with three of the CYPHER soldiers. The Shadow threw the clothes of Lamont Cranston to Harry who dressed the fourth guard in Cranston’s clothes, and the other three in the clothes of Harry, Margo and Stanley. The fourth uniform went beneath the great black robes of The Shadow.
“Go to the wall and lie down,” The Shadow commanded the four CYPHER soldiers now dressed in the clothes of the four prisoners. The soldiers went to the wall and lay down. The Shadow concentrated and rendered them unconscious. The Shadow turned to the Group Leader.
“Take the bodies of your prisoners for burial. Dig graves and fill them again. Do not bury the four. Merely hide them. Then return with your squad, report the executions completed, explain the four missing men, and then forget everything that has happened! You have carried out your orders. The four prisoners are shot and buried. All else is forgotten!”
“The four prisoners are shot and buried. I have sent four men to the squad room to replace their digging tools,” the Group Leader said.
“Go now!” The Shadow commanded.
The firing squad picked up the four unconscious men dressed in the clothes of the prisoners and marched off in the night toward the burial ground with the Group Leader smartly counting cadence. The Shadow watched them go. He turned to his three agents.
“Now, Margo and Stanley, you will get off this base and go to find General Rogers, Farina and Bryan. You will tell the General what has happened, and also report to General Broyard. It should be simple to leave the base in those uniforms, you must commandeer some kind of vehicle. Ask General Broyard for help!”
“Yes, Chief,” Margo and Stanley said together.
The Shadow’s eyes blazed. “Harry, come with me. We have very little time!”
The Avenger, followed by Harry Vincent in the CYPHER uniform, faded into the dark mountain night in the direction of the same building he had just left.
Some five minutes later, the enormous room where the farcical trial had been held was empty and dark. The eyes of The Shadow glowed in the doorway. Harry Vincent stood guard behind him, a CYPHER sub-machinegun in his steady hands. The eyes of The Shadow studied the empty room and the door behind the line of tall throne chairs.
“Come, Harry,” the Avenger said softly.
Like a wraith, The Shadow crossed the enormous and empty room in the dark and reached the row of throne chairs. Harry trotted behind him almost as silently. The agents of The Shadow were trained in silence. At the door which the Commandant and his Sub-Commanders had gone through, The Shadow stopped. His burning eyes examined the door while Harry watched the room.
“It is electronically operated, Harry, as I thought,” The Shadow said. “I did not see the Commandant use a key or a door knob. Are you ready?”
Harry took a position behind one of the throne chairs from where he could cover the opening behind the door when The Shadow opened it.
“Ready,” Harry said softly.
The Shadow nodded. His glowing eyes looked at the door as he focused his powers on the electronic circuit that operated it. There was a faint hum and the door slid open without a sound.
A narrow and dark passage stretched out behind the door. The passage was deserted. The Shadow motioned for Harry to follow him and the two men plunged into the passage. The door closed behind them with a sigh.
Ten minutes passed in the silent bowels of the mountain stronghold. The narrow passage had branched into other passages. All were empty. The Shadow and Harry Vincent explored all passages and all the rooms. They found no living person. Then they came to the end of the last passage and entered a room they knew at once was the headquarters of the Commandant. The Shadow’s eyes glowed and his finger with the red fire-opal girasol pointed to the corner of the room above the large metal desk.
“Look!” The Shadow said.
On a tall hat tree a uniform hung neatly on a coat hanger.
It was the uniform of the CYPHER Commandant! The golden mask hung with it.
“He’s not in his uniform!” Harry said.
“No, Harry,” The Shadow said grimly. “I expect he is in the disguise he assumes to show the world. I wondered why he did not wear any national insignia. Unlike all the others, or most of them, he is undoubtedly not a known defector from his country. He is still in good standing in some high position. I think many of the top CYPHER leaders are.”
“Where do you think he has gone?” Harry said.
The Shadow’s eyes blazed. “I think, Harry, that the rocket will soon blast off. I think he has gone to be with the man or men who hired him—and I think that will be someone in either NASA or Federal Cybernetics! Quick, Harry, there must be some other way out of these passages!”
“Another way?” Harry said, “but why … . .”
The Shadow’s fiery eyes shone grimly above the high black collar of his cloak, beneath the wide brim of the black slouch hat. “Because it has not escaped me, Harry, that while the way to this valley by the road is long, the valley is actually just on the other side of the mountain from the Federal Cybernetics plant! I think there is a way from here to the plant!”
“Through the mountain?”
The Shadow nodded. “If I am right, these caves and passages were natural and have only been modified by men. I think the area was chosen for this reason. And if I know CYPHER, the passage will be somewhere near this office of the Commandant. We must… .”
The Shadow held up his hand for silence. His eyes flickered. He had heard a faint sound.
Silently, he motioned for Harry to follow him, and the two men faded into the corner of the office behind four tall filing cabinets. They waited crouched there behind the cabinets.
There was a whirring sound, and a section of the office wall slid open. A man stepped through. Harry Vincent only watched the man who went straight to the desk of the Commandant and seemed to be looking for something. The man opened drawers like a man who knew what he was looking for and how to find it in the desk as if it were his own desk!
Harry only watched.
But The Shadow’s eyes blazed with a certain triumph. He recognized the man at once.
Dr. Max Ernest, Research Chief of Federal Cybernetics! The Shadow watched Ernest. The Federal Research Chief found what he wanted, an envelope that was thick with some documents, and closed the drawer he had found it in. He then walked quickly across the room and back through the secret door. The instant the door closed The Shadow came out of hiding and glided swiftly to the wall. Harry Vincent followed him. The Shadow turned to Harry.
“Remain here, Harry, after we go through the door. I think we will find our passage through the mountain, and I want you to cover this end. I don’t know where this passage will lead, and it may be a false start. You remain here, and if the Commandant returns, capture him if you can. Let no one back through the passage.”
“Right, Chief.”
The Shadow concentrated his powers on the panel and the wall slid open. The two men passed through.
They stood in a natural rocky cavern with dim light. Water dripped from some underground source. The cavern was not large, and seemed to extend into a cave at the rear toward the heart of the mountain itself. The Shadow glided swiftly ahead with Harry behind him. They crossed the cavern and entered the cave. Lights lined the walls of the small cave. Just ahead there was a sudden noise. The Shadow bounded forward. Harry hissed as he ran behind.
“Chief!”
Harry pointed down. There was a deep, ditch-like trough in the center of the small cave floor.
The trough ran off into the dim and dark distance around a sharp curve. At the bottom of the trough was a single shining steel rail!
“Some kind of monorail train!” Harry panted as he ran. Ahead the noise turned into a loud whine that grew higher and higher in pitch.
“Stop here, Harry! Be alert! Let no one back this way except myself!” The Shadow commanded.
Harry stopped and blended into the dark against the wall. The Shadow bounded silently ahead with his great cloak flying. The whine had become almost a scream now. The Shadow rounded the curve and his eyes blazed as he saw Dr. Max Ernest standing beside a small torpedo-shaped vehicle that rested on the single rail. The torpedolike car shivered as the whine of its. special jet engine rose into a steady scream and then vanished from a sound that could be heard by human ears! The car shivered but became silent to all but the ears of The Shadow.
Dr. Max Ernest stepped into the cockpit of the torpedo-shaped vehicle without seeing the shape of The Shadow that rushed toward him. The jet car began to move. Small, intense flame shot out the rear. In an instant The Shadow estimated the entire situation. The cockpit of the car was in the nose and was blind to the rear. The torpedo back of the car sloped gently down to the engine. The tunnel directly ahead was low, but there was some three feet of clearance. All this The Shadow saw as he bounded up to the slowly moving car.
The car gathered speed.
In seconds it was moving at an incredible rate.
It plunged into the tunnel guided by its single rail.
On its back, out of sight from the cockpit, and between the cockpit and the flaming engine, the black-shrouded shape of The Shadow clung grimly as the car vanished into the tunnel.
Only the steel strength of The Shadow’s fingers held him on the smooth back of the torpedo-shaped car on its wild ride through the black tunnel. The walls skimmed by a foot away. The rocky ceiling seemed inches above his clinging form. The jet car raced at a speed close to half the speed of sound. Even at the incredible speed, and clinging precariously, The Shadow saw everything around him and knew that the long tunnel was really a series of natural caverns connected by a few man-made tunnels. Suddenly the sound of the engine fell to the range of human hearing. The car began to slow. It glided into a bright room of concrete walls. It came to a stop at a kind of platform like a miniature train station. Four guards in the uniform of the security force of Federal Cybernetics stood on the platform! They stepped forward to help Dr. Max Ernest from the car. The jet car was in full view, but the guards saw nothing unusual.
There was nothing unusual.
The Shadow, who had slipped off moments before, lurked in the shadows of the lighted room at the mouth of the tunnel. He watched the security guards, and he knew that they were not simple security guards—they were men of CYPHER as he had guessed when he had seen them at the gate earlier that day. They did not see him. They followed Dr. Max Ernest up a flight of stairs without a glance behind. The eyes of The Shadow blazed. Once again CYPHER showed the fatal defect of all iron-discipline organizations—they had no imagination, they did not think for themselves. They had orders and no one had told them to be alert unless they actually saw something suspicious. They took orders, they did not think, and that would be the fatal flaw in CYPHER!
The instant they vanished up the stairs, The Shadow came out of the tunnel and glided silently after them like a wraith from the heart of the towering mountain.
To Be Continued
THURSDAY
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by James Patterson and Brian Sitts
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