Chapter 16
Deadly Encounter
Renny Renwick stared into the black eye of the gun barrel. Then he focused on the face behind the revolver. A disreputable-looking hat, an apparently hairless face, a terribly fake and bedraggled mustache, and goggles. He matched perfectly Doc's description of Curly Wolf.
"Another big galoot," Curly said. "That Savage character runs with quite a crowd of specimens. I wouldn't move too much there, fella." Curly called out to someone on the other side of the car: "Well?"
"He's not here!" A woman's voice. Renny turned. The woman was a dark-haired beauty whose looks took his breath momentarily. This must be the Black Cat Jackson Doc told him about.
Curly swore. "What now?"
"I don't know where any of the other places are," she said. While it was clear from the quality of her voice that this was a strong and determined woman, Renny detected the slightest note of despair when she spoke.
Curly swore again. Renny thought the leaves on the surrounding trees might dry up and fall to the ground. He also feared momentarily that Curly might accidentally twitch his trigger finger enough to send a bullet roaring into the engineer's brain.
"How 'bout one of them uglies?" Curly finally asked.
"Here. Maltone might know." Renny saw the woman indicate the hardcase that Doc called Gravel Voice.
Curly poked his gun at the giant engineer. "You. Out of the car."
Two of Curly's silent helpers tied Renny to a nearby tree. The knots weren't tight, but it would take a bit of effort for him to get loose.
The two helpers and Curly then pulled Gravel Voice, still unconscious, from the car. The group carried him out of sight, then the sounds of car doors slamming, then an engine starting and driving away let Renny know he was alone with a carload of sleeping thugs.
Renny started working at his bonds.
*
Doc Savage darted through the tunnels like a born-and-bred cave creature, quick but wary. He avoided contact with the few groups of armed men he encountered by employing the same trick he'd used earlier -- suspending himself near the roof of the tunnel, hidden in the darkness by a supporting beam.
He followed the main trunk to its end, where his way was barred by a heavy steel door. But a small square window set at eye level let him peer into a laboratory where three lab-coated men operated the machinery that apparently mixed the bleeding sun chemicals and stored the mixture in large metal tanks that the airplanes used for spraying the Navy's ships. An armed guard also stood in the lab.
Doc withdrew upon hearing the approach of heavy feet. The bronze man hid while a group of five men pased, each carrying a machine pistol, then he backtracked to begin checking out other side tunnels.
A few of the tunnels dead-ended as if work had been suspended before the project had reached completion.
Others led to hideouts like the one Doc and Renny had taken over. These tunnels ended at doors opening into cellars or basements. Doc did not enter further into these places, leaving that duty to the well-armed squads that Renny would summon. Those military squads would then have numbers and surprise on their side.
Doc wondered that the squads hadn't begun their arrival already. He didn't know that Renny had run into trouble with Curly Wolf's gang.
Doc flashed like a bronze ghost through the pools of dim illumination spaced along each passage. As soon as one of his tunnel searches was successful he rushed back to the point that the secondary tunnel branched from the main tunnel and made a mark with a piece of chalk. This was the special chalk Doc and his crew used that fluoresced under ultraviolet light. The bronze man had instructed Renny to direct the Navy squads to come prepared with small black light projectors.
Doc paused when the overhead lights began to flash on and off. There was no siren or other alarm. Then the lights returned to their usual uninterrupted glow.
Within moments, the bronze man scrambled into hiding within the darkness of the recesses of the tunnel roof when he heard the rapid thudding of feet approaching. Ten armed men passed beneath him in the secondary tunnel, hurrying toward the main trunk.
After the gunmen passed, Doc dropped to the floor and cautiously advanced. Men were crowding from the side tunnels, some heading to the laboratory end of the main passage, others darting into the tunnel that led to the farmhouse Doc and Renny had emptied, and most heading toward the tunnel entrance below the barn where Doc started his exploration of the underground network.
After a few minutes, the scrambling settled down. The main passage appeared empty except for a couple of guards patrolling separately.
Doc moved quiet as a bronze shadow, gliding through the main tunnel with lightning speed. He avoided the passing sentries by ducking into a side tunnel as necessary.
He made his way undetected to the beginning of the tunnel. Warily, this ghostlike apparition of bronze made his way back to the barn through which he had originally entered the tunnels. The doors gaped open. The big sedan was gone. The radio glowed with life but uttered no sound except for a monotonous low hum.
Doc stood in the middle of the floor, scanning the view beyond the open doors. The coughing and gargling roar of starting and warming aircraft engines came to his ears. But no one was in sight.
He stepped forward to study the radio. Before the bronze man reached it, a voice commanded from above: "Stop right there!"
Doc whipped around. The barrels of half a dozen machine pistols were tilted toward him from the barn loft. More than a dozen men swiftly piled into the barn through the open doors and surrounded Doc. All carried guns pointed at the bronze man. The menacing looks that each man directed his way were unmistakable.
Two more figures stepped through the barn doors and made their way to the fore of crowd. One was the obviously insane Smalley, who casually tossed a grenade into the air, catching it and tossing it again and again.
The other was the towering Barlowe. His sharp, ugly face glared at the bronze man with undiluted hatred. He sneered and flexed his muscles, took a step closer to Doc.
"So you're the high-and-mighty thorn in my side," Barlowe said.
Doc stood silently, seemingly at ease and undisturbed by the turn of events.
"You've been in my tunnels," Barlowe continued. "You've been pretty blasted busy, I suspect."
Smalley giggled while still tossing the grenade. Still no response came from Doc.
"Well, mister bronze boy," Barlowe said, "today it's time for you to die."
Written By:
Duane Spurlock
based on notes by:
Kenneth Robeson
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