Dr. Death Read Online Free PDF

"Where did they take him after Tangier?"
    A spasm seized his body. His hand scrabbled along my arm. The mutilated mouth made a last desperate effort to speak.
    "…leopards…" he seemed to say."…leopards… pearl…"
    Then: "The volcano, Carter… volcano…"
    His head fell to one side, and his body relaxed.
    Akhmed Djoulibi, my friend, was dead.
    He had repaid my favors. And then some.
    And he'd left me with a legacy. An enigmatic set of words.
    Leopards.
    Pearl.
    And, the same word that Remy St. Pierre had last spoken on this earth:
    Volcano.

Three
    When I brought the girl through the dummy wine barrel and into the cellar, she was shivering. I could tell from her eyes that it was as much from fear as from cold.
    "What happened?" she pleaded, pulling at my arm. "I heard shots. Is anyone hurt?"
    "Four," I said. "All dead. Two were my friends. The others were scum. Scum of a particular kind."
    "A particular kind?"
    I guided her down the hall, to the room where Akhmed and his wife lay dead alongside their torturers, their murderers. I wanted her to see what kind of people we were dealing with — just in case she hadn't been sufficiently educated by the massacre in the club.
    "Look," I said grimly.
    She looked inside. Her mouth fell open and she went white. An instant later she was halfway down the hall, bent over, gagging.
    "See what I mean?" I said.
    "Who… who are they? Why…"
    "The two Moroccans are my friends, Akhmed and his wife. The other two are the men who tortured and killed them."
    "But why?" she asked, her face still white with shock. "Who are they? What did they want?"
    "Just before he died, Akhmed told me that he'd been trying to get in touch with me for several weeks. He'd gotten wind of something going on here in Tangier. Somebody had been kidnapped, and brought here. Ring any bells?"
    Her eyes widened.
    "Kidnapped? You mean — it might be my father?"
    "Remy St. Pierre must have thought so. Because when Akhmed couldn't contact me, he got in touch with St. Pierre. Which is undoubtedly why Remy brought you and me here."
    "To talk to Akhmed?"
    I nodded.
    "But before Akhmed could talk to anybody, these two men got to him. They posed as being messengers from St. Pierre, which means they knew Akhmed had been trying to contact Remy. They wanted to find out how much Akhmed knew, and what — if anything — he'd passed on."
    "But who were they?"
    I took her by the arm and guided her down the hall. We started up the stairs that led to the bar.
    "Akhmed referred to them as 'our old friends, " I said. "But he didn't mean friendly friends. Just before he was killed, Remy St. Pierre used those same words to refer to the people who might be behind the disappearance of your father. He also said something about these people being in a position to infiltrate RENARD, and to know enough about your father to kidnap him at the right moment."
    The girl stopped. "They also were able to find St. Pierre and kill him," she said slowly. "Kill him at a time when they might have been able to kill the two of us also."
    I nodded. "Inside information from a lot of sources in the French government. What, and who, does that suggest?"
    Our gazes met.
    "OAS," she said simply.
    "Right. The Secret Army Organization that had led a revolt against President De Gaulle and tried several times to assassinate him. Remy and I worked against them together. Akhmed had a son working as bodyguard for De Gaulle, a son who was killed in one of the assassination attempts. We foiled those attempts, but we didn't destroy the OAS. We've always known that. It's very much alive…"
    "And still has highly placed sympathizers," she finished forme.
    "Right again."
    "But what would they want with my father?"
    "That," I said, "is one of the things we're going to find out."
    I climbed the rest of the stairs, went through the bar, and opened the door to Akhmed's living quarters in the rear.
    "But — how?" said the girl, in back of me. "What information do we have? Did