"Avenger - 4303 - Calling Justice, INC" - читать интересную книгу автора (Avenger)

She heard grunts of acknowledgment and then, a moment later, the clang of the elevator door as
the man who had spoken to her departed. In the dark, she moved over to the window. She waited, and
then saw the man in the tan sport coat crossing the street toward the convertible. It was he, then,
with whom she had fenced verbally. She watched while he talked for a moment with the driver. Then
the convertible drove off, leaving him at the curb.

She stood at the window and watched the street, waiting. After twenty minutes the green
convertible reappeared. Two men came over to assist the one in the tan sport jacket. The chauffeur
handed each of them several small, round black objects which they put quickly into their pockets.
Then they all crossed the street toward the hotel.


CHAPTER III.
THE KING OF KILLERS.

Nellie Gray knew now that she was beaten. Those small round objects were tear-gas bombs.

But she wasn't going to remain on the defensive, to let herself be smoked out of here like a
hunted animal. She hurriedly moved toward the dresser. By dint of pushing and pulling at it she
finally managed to jockey it over to the door. Just as she got it in place she heard the elevator
door opening, then the voice of the man in the tan jacket.

"All right, let's not waste any more time. Lob one in!"

Nellie scrambled up on the dresser and got a clear view of the corridor. She saw two of the men,
each with a tear-gas bomb, their arms raised to hurl.

Nellie's face was tense and set. She smashed out the pane and thrust the pistol's snout out. She
pulled the trigger twice, swiftly, and both of those men went down as the little weapon barked
spitefully. She hadn't had time to aim with too much care, but she got one of those men just over
the heart, and the other in the shoulder. The tear-gas bombs rolled away down the corridor and
exploded, one after the other. A dense cloud of acrid smoke rose from them.

The wounded man screamed out, "Get me out of here, Haggard! It's choking meЛ-"

And the voice of the man in the tan jacket cut sharply into that cry for help: "Shut up, you
fool, I told you never to use that name!"

Standing on the dresser with her face back from the transom, Nellie Gray felt a sudden wild
thrill course through her body. Haggard! She should have known it before! Only Royce Haggard could
be so ruthless, so deadly swift in action. It was barely four months since Royce Haggard had brought
off the most daring jail break in the history of the country. Together with nine other lifers, he
had made a clean getaway from a Midwest penitentiary. They had shot their way across the country
into hiding, leaving a pitiful trail of corpses behind. Huge rewards were posted. But the Haggard
gang had seemed to disappear from the face of the earth. Here, then, was where they had turned up.
But Nellie had seen pictures of Haggard. His face must have been changed by plastic surgery. That
was why his expression was so wooden, so fishlike.