Free A Korean Tiger by Nick Carter

important.
    "Tell him to be in the alley in an hour. Be sure he is not seen, or missed. He should be able to arrange that. Say that he is to smoke
two
cigarettes at once and, when he has smoked them, to flip the butts in opposite directions. He is not to say anything. Not to speak to me. I will see him before he sees me. I will identify myself with one word —
Feldwebel.
Got that?"
    "Feldwebel?
You will speak so? He is to say nothing until you speak first?"
    "Good girl. When he hears me say
Feldwebel
he is to answer:
'Das Wasser ist kalt.'
The water is cold. Got that now?"
    "Ja.
I have it all. But he will want money, this one. Perhaps much money."
    Killmaster gave her a steely glance. "He will be well paid. Tell him that. Tell him also that if he double-crosses me, makes trouble for me in any way, he will also be paid. But not in marks. Do not tell him this until after he agrees to meet me, then make sure he understands it. And be sure
you
understand it."
    "Ja, schon Mann.
I know. You must not worry." Her fingers stroked timidly at the stubble on the AXEman's cheek. "Perhaps — you can stay just for a moment or two longer?" She took the 100-mark note from her pocket and let it drift to the floor. "I... I would not need that."
    Nick gave her a sweet and knowing smile that was nearly genuine. To spare her feelings he said, "It would be nice, Helga. Thank you, but I cannot. There is no time. Maybe later, when this is over. Goodbye."
    As he felt his way down the dark staircase he remembered what she had called him.
Schön Mann.
Beautiful man! Killmaster shook his head a little sadly. Somewhere within the diamond-hard casing of him there was a twinge of pity. She must know a loneliness that exceeded even his own.
    Then he shook it off and stepped out into Ladenstrasse. There was work to do. Killing, if all went well. It would be nice to end this thing tonight and be back in the States tomorrow.
    In any case the AXEman had never been much of a one for prostitutes. And when he did consort with them it was only with the most beautiful and the most expensive.

Chapter 5
    When he left Ladenstrasse Nick Carter went, by back streets and narrow by-ways, to Cathedral Square. His manner was not furtive; he hunched his shoulders and shambled, hands in pockets, weaving now and then, a workman who was a little drunk and did not give a damn who knew it. The few passers-by paid him no attention. He did not encounter another policeman. He found a shadowed bench in the lee of the Erzbischofliches Museum, the length of the gardens from the cathedral, and waited. The Hotel Dom was a short two blocks away. He would allow himself ten minutes for the walk.
    The alley running behind the Dom was narrow and dark. Nick went cautiously, as stealthily as the shadows themselves, avoiding the garbage cans and dustbins of the shops adjoining the Dom. He interrupted a conclave of cats and was soundly hissed. "Quiet, grimalkins," Nick told them. "Beat it. Take off. Your men friends are waiting."
    He found a niche in the rear of a garage across the alley from the back area of the Dom. It was well after two now, but lights still burned in some of the rooms. Night lights glowed dimly in the kitchens and other service areas on the ground floor. Directly across from where he stood was a sizable parking area, asphalted and lined on one side with cans and trash receptacles. There was a small unloading dock. Three cars, two Volkswagens and a Mercedes, glinted beneath a single dull arc light.
    Killmaster had been waiting barely two minutes when he heard a door softly open and close somewhere across the way. His keen eyes caught movement in the heaviest shadows clotting near the line of garbage cans. A match flared yellow for an instant, went out. Two red dots punctured the gloom. Nick waited patiently while the man smoked. Then, at last, one butt was flipped to the left, the other to the right.
    Nick moved across the alley into the darter part of the parking lot. He