Marion laughed. “I’m not worried. And I know why I can’t sleep. It feels so wonderful to be awake—Isaac, thank God you saw his blood on the net. But what made you think he cut the ropes? I’d have thought he would have run for his life, particularly if he was so badly wounded as to be bleeding like that.”

“He’s a killer. He calls himself a soldier, but he is first a killer. In fact, I’ll bet he waited to watch us hit bottom.”

“When he finds out you tested the net with a sandbag, he’s going to be badly disappointed.”

“He’s going to be more than disappointed,” Bell promised grimly, climbing out of bed and kissing her good night. “Sleep tight.”

“Where are you going?’

“New York.”

“Why New York?”

“Christian Semmler’s got what he came for. He’s going back to Germany.”

“How do you know?”

“He asked me, mockingly, ‘Looking for something?’ I was searching Clyde’s body because Clyde told me as he died that he had kept the real plans. Doesn’t ‘Looking for something?’ sound like Christian Semmler already found them?”

Marion sat up. “And since he asked when he saw you searching Clyde, that means he found them in Clyde’s clothing.”

“Meaning he can carry them in his clothing.”

Bell dressed hastily. He filled his pockets, holstered his spare Browning in his coat and a fresh throwing knife in his boot, and reloaded the empty derringer he had managed to palm without the Acrobat noticing.

“From the sound of his scream, I’d say he’s sporting a good-sized bandage. In fact, I’m hoping he needed stitches. Lots of them.”

“But how do you know he’s going to New York?”

“I don’t for sure, but it’s a good bet. If Clyde’s plans were on his person, then Semmler’s traveling light. And if he’s traveling light, the fastest way home to Germany is a train across the continent and a boat from New York.”

46

JOSEPH VAN DORN WELCOMED ISAAC BELL TO the New York headquarters with words that Bell could have construed as compliments were it not for the thunderclouds on the boss’s face.