Temple of Fear Read Online Free PDF

will be permitted to talk all you like — after you have heard what I have to say."
    Nick sat down. Under his breath he muttered, "Banzai!" He crossed his long legs, realized that the dressing gown was gaping and hastily closed it. The girl with the pistol noted it and smiled faintly. "No false modesty is necessary with us, Mr. Carter. We are not
really
Girl Scouts."
    "If I were permitted to talk — I'd say that was beginning to dawn on me."
    "Quiet!"
    He shut up. He nodded wistfully toward a box of cigarettes and a lighter on a nearby taboret.
    "No!"
    He watched in silence. They were a most efficient little group. The door was checked again, the drapes, the room flooded with light. Kato came back to report that there was no back door. And that, Nick thought with some bitterness, had been to provide additional security. Well — nobody could win 'em all. But, if he got out of this one alive, his biggest problem was going to be keeping it quiet. Nick Carter taken in his own apartment by a bunch of Girl Scouts!
    Things were quiet now. The girl with the Nambu sat opposite Nick on a sofa with the other three seated primly nearby. They were all staring at him gravely. Four little maids from school. This was a real weird
Mikado.
    Nick said: "Tea, anyone?"
    She didn't tell him to keep quiet and she didn't shoot him. She crossed her legs, showing a fringe of pink panty under the mini-skirt. Her legs, all their legs — now that he really noticed — were a bit more developed and shapely than those usually found on Girl Scouts. He suspected they were wearing pretty tight bras, too.
    'I am Tonaka," said the girl with the Nambu pistol.
    He nodded gravely. "Pleased."
    "And these," she indicated the others, "are..."
    "I know. Mato, Sato and Kato. The cherry blossom sisters. Glad to know you, girls."
    All three of them smiled. Kato giggled.
    Tonaka frowned. "It pleases you to be facetious, Mr. Carter. I wish you would not. This is a very serious matter."
    Nick knew that. He could tell by the way she held the little pistol. Most professional. But he needed time. Badinage got you time — sometimes. He was trying to figure the angles. Who were they? What did they want with him? He hadn't been in Japan for over a year and as far as he knew he was clean. What then? He kept drawing blanks.
    "I know," he told her. "I know it's serious. Believe me I do. It's just that I have this gallant manner in the face of certain death, and..."
    The girl called Tonaka spat like a wildcat. Her eyes narrowed and she was not at all pretty. She pointed the Nambu at him like an accusing finger.
    "You will be quiet again, please! I have not come all this way to make stupid jokes."
    Nick sighed. Flunked again. He wondered what had ever happened to "prease?"
    Tonaka fumbled in a pocket of her Girl Scout blouse. It concealed what the AXEman could see,
now
he could see, was a very well-developed left breast.
    She spun a coin-like object at him, "Do you recognize that, Mr. Carter?"
    He did. Instantly. He should. He had had it made in London. Had it made by an expert workman in an East End curio shop. He had given it to a man who had saved his life in an alley fight in that same East End. Carter had been very near to cashing in that night in Limehouse.
    He hefted the heavy medallion in his hand. It was of gold, the size of an old-fashioned silver dollar, and inset with jade. The jade was worked into letters, forming a scroll beneath a tiny green hatchet. AXE.
    The letters were:
Esto Perpetua.
Let it endure forever. The
it
had been his friendship for Kunizo Matu, his old friend and long time judo-karate teacher. Nick frowned at the medallion. That had been a long time ago. Kunizo had returned to Japan long ago. He would be an old man now.
    Tonaka was watching him narrowly. The Nambu was doing the same.
    Nick tossed the medallion and caught it. "Where did you get this?"
    "My father gave it to me."
    "Kunizo Matu is your father?"
    "He is, Mr. Carter. He has spoken of you