"Doc Savage Adventure 1938-12 The Devil Genghis" - читать интересную книгу автора (Doc Savage Collection)

The young woman found an unlocked door, stepped through it into an empty office. Her first glance was to see if there was a window. There was.

A small flashlight came out of her bag. She went to the window, got her bearings and centered her attention on a second-story window in the building across the street.

She began blinking her flashlight, spelling out words in code.

"You fools," she flashed. "He is already inside."

The building across the street was of brick, many stories high, the first floor being occupied by a used-car show window. Adjoining the showroom, and also a part of the used-car establishment, was a doorway through which cars could be driven across the sidewalk into the building - or from the building to the street.

The girl stopped sending.

A light flashed from the window of the used-car building which she was watching.

"He could not be," the light signaled. "We have watched the entrance."

The girl's light replied in a long string of flashes that meant nothing but rage.

"Keep watching," her light ordered. "We may be able to get him when he leaves."

"OK," the man signaled from the used-car building window.

He shoved his flashlight in a coat pocket. He
б was a squat man with long arms, a reddish face and a tangle of blond hair. He was very well dressed. The tips of all ten of his fingers were masses of scar tissue - they had been burned with acid sometime in the past to destroy his fingerprint identity.

"Now what do you know about that?" he said disgustedly.

He had spoken to himself; there was no one else in the bar room with him. The one door stood open.

The man ran a hand absent-mindedly over the military type of machine gun which stood, squat and blue and ugly on its spraddled tripod, on a low table in front of the window, the muzzle pointing down into the street. The ammunition belt of the gun was draped across the table like a snake of brown canvas with lead-and-brass striping.

The cartridges in the belt were "mercy" bullets, a type of slug consisting of a hollow shell which contained a powerful drug that would cause unconsciousness rather than death.

On the other end of the table lay a gas mask.

The blond man with the marred fingers picked up the gas mask and dangled it from one hand as he descended the stairs.

An armored truck stood inside the closed doors which led to the street. The truck was painted white. Lettered on each of its sides was:

AMBULANCE

The white paint and the name on the armored truck gave it enough resemblance to an ambulance to fool casual observers.

"What's the word, Cautious?" greeted one of the men in the ambulance-fortress.

Cautious scowled at the men. There were four of them, assorted sizes. They wore white coverall suits to disguise their clothing. Bulletproof vests made their bodies bulky. Gas masks hung ready from their necks.

"Savage got in the Hall, somehow," Cautious explained sourly.