The Avenger 35 - The Iron Skull Read Online Free PDF Page A

important.” She walked to the door.
    “I know, I know, but—”
    “Big black car out in the drive,” said his wife from the hall.
    “More security stuff. They said I’d have an escort this morning.”
    “Wonder if their windshield’s bulletproof.”
    “Probably is.” Nichols got a jacket out of his wardrobe closet. His favorite pipe was in the pocket. Putting on the tweed coat, he went out into the hall.
    His wife was standing with her fingertips on the sill, looking down through the frosted window pane.
    Nichols put an arm around her and looked out. “Yep,” he said, “that has to be a car full of government agents.” He kissed her cheek, went downstairs and toward the front door. From the hall closet he grabbed his overcoat and hat.
    He went out the front door and walked along the freshly snowplowed drive toward his detached garage.
    He went in the side door, as was his habit each morning. As he bent to catch the handle of the big garage door he chanced to glance at his coupé.
    “What the hell?”
    He was already sitting in his car.
    That is, a man who looked exactly like him was behind the wheel, dressed in an overcoat and hat identical to his.
    “Don’t open the door just yet, Professor Nichols,” said a voice from a dark corner of the garage.
    “What?”
    Another voice, much closer, said, “We’ll kill you if we have to.” This was Nevins, holding a .45 automatic trained on Nichols.
    “Now, wait a minute,” said the professor. “There’s a carload of government men parked not a hundred yards from here. You don’t seriously think you can—”
    “Of course we can,” Nevins assured him.
    “And how did you get in here without their spotting you?”
    “We’ve been awaiting you since before dawn,” said the frail old man, stepping out of the shadows. “It’s much easier to skulk about in the dark.”
    “But they’ve got guards posted.”
    “The one we encountered passed out for a few minutes,” explained Nevins. “Something he has absolutely no recollection about.” He took a small vial from an inside pocket of his coat. “But the G-men are going to wonder why you aren’t opening the garage. So we’ll save any further talk for later.”
    Nevins pushed the vial toward the professor’s face.
    Bang!
    The vial splintered in his hand. Crying out in pain, the plump Nevins went stumbling back away from the bluish gas released from the vial.
    “Now drop the automatic,” ordered a calm voice from above them.
    Nevins blinked, raising his eyes. “I—”
    “Drop it, or I’ll shoot it out of your hand.”
    The Avenger was up there in the rafters. In his hand was the unique blue-steel tube which was actually a .22 pistol. “I mean you, too,” he said, nodding at the older man.
    In that instant Nevins acted. He lunged and grabbed the stunned professor. He clutched him in front of himself as a shield. “We’re taking off,” he shouted at the Avenger overhead.
    The old man came running toward the coupé, watchfully.
    Benson could not fire again without risking hitting Nichols. He let his gun hand fall to his side.
    “Hey, Professor Nichols!” called a chesty voice from the other side of the garage door. “You okay in there?”
    The old man scrambled into the car.
    Nevins backed to the driver’s side, keeping Nichols between him and the Avenger. “Shove that mechanism out of the way.”
    The old man pulled the simulacrum of George Nichols over closer to him and Nevins, shoving Nichols away, got in and started the engine.
    “Professor! What’s going on?”
    When Nevins released the brake and gunned the gas, the coupé went roaring straight back. The door splintered, exploding white slivers and chunks of wood out into the chill morning.
    The government agent who’d been asking after Nichols had to leap to avoid getting hit by the coupé.
    As Nevins took the machine around the drive, the agent pulled himself out of a drift of crusted snow. He waved at the others in his big black