One Of Our Dinosaurs Is Missing Read Online Free PDF Page A

nanny-ladies, undoubtedly it will reach the running dogs, and this must not happen. So, we must act as follows. We eliminate the nanny- ladies--tonight. You, Fat Choy, will deliver explosive packages to their apartments.” Lui Ho paused. “The remainder will attack the museum building with phosphorus grenades. It will be totally destroyed. Attacks are to be made simultaneously from all sides.”
    “So ... so ... so ... so . . .” said four of the spies. “Possibly not so . . .” said the fifth.
    “Not so, Sam Ling?” asked Lui Ho, coldly. His eyes forced themselves to narrow even more.
    “No, Comrade Leader,” said Sam Ling. He pictured Lui Ho playing a musical gong in Central Park, while half of New York burned. “Your original idea is much better.”
    “Original idea?”
    Sam Ling crossed his fingers beneath the table. “Yes, Comrade Leader. That idea you mentioned briefly earlier in the meeting--before you were distracted by Wo Dung. You suggested that the nanny-ladies did not have the message. You will remember that you asked me if I checked the Englishman’s timetable in the museum, and I told you that I had, and that there were just two minutes unaccounted for when the disastrous leadership of Wo Dung permitted the long-nose to escape our vigilance and dispose of the microdot”
    “I did?” said Lui Ho.
    “Yes,” continued Sam Ling. “You perhaps remember suggesting that, although the nanny-ladies might not have the information, they may know of its whereabouts.”
    “I believe that I begin to remember my saying this.” Sam Ling felt an inward relief. He wished, again, that his government would place the work of espionage in the hands of trained agents, rather than with political enthusiasts.
    “You suggested that we should recover the information and return it to our homeland. Thus bringing great credit to this department.”
    “Yes ...” said Lui Ho. “I remember the last bit quite distinctly. I also remember reading somewhere, and it can only have been in the works of our illustrious leader, that the enemy should always be attacked in its soft underbelly.”
    Fat Choy raised his eyebrows and looked at Pi Wun Tun.
    Lui Ho continued enthusiastically, “So we will attack the soft underbellies of the nanny-ladies.” Fat Choy giggled. Lui Ho stared at him coldly. “We will capture the nanny-ladies and their fat, overfed, delinquent spawn. We’ll show them a new way to dry nappies. We’ll put them in the spin-drier--still on the children. Twenty minutes should be enough. The nanny- ladies will make truthful confessions to alleviate their charges’ suffering.”
    “You certainly said that,” said Sam Ling. “But you had one much more brilliant idea.”
    “Go on,” said Lui Ho, “remind me.”
    “Yes. You said that we should remember the hated, imperialistic times in our beloved Motherland when the bloated families of the white devils who exploited us had such nanny-ladies attached to their families. You so wisely recalled that nanny-ladies were not delicate flowers, even though their complexions resembled the orchid. Orchids with pig-skin petals! Remember the whole battalion of Japanese troopers in the Maidok Mountains ... put to flight by one such orchid who resented the commander raping one of the housegirls?” “She probably desired the girl, herself,” grinned Fat Choy.
    “No. In times of stress, these strange, childless and husbandless women show an almost fanatical resistance to pressure. They’re not paper tigers.” Sam Ling switched his gaze from Fat Choy to Lui Ho. “You suggested we should follow the nanny-ladies at all times, and keep a very close watch on them. Tap phones ... check conversations. Let them give us the information we need without their even knowing we want it.”
    “So ...” Lui Ho beamed at his new deputy. “You are quite correct. I did say all that. Sam Ling, you will put electronic listening devices in the nanny-ladies* apartments. You will bug all