Free The Case of the Vanishing Boy by Alexander Key Page A

southwest corner by the theatre. He is to be in the phone booth next to the theatre by exactly eleven o’clock to receive a call. Have you got it?”
    â€œI’ve got it, blast you! But what about Ginny?”
    â€œYou’ll be told where to find her in the morning. The Plaza is a twenty-minute drive from your house, so you’d better start immediately. When you have dropped the boy at the theatre, you are to drive on to the northwest corner of the parking area and wait under the last light for a half hour. Don’t leave before then, and don’t make the mistake of bringing another person with you.”
    There was a click as the caller hung up.
    For seconds after the connection had been broken, Heron stood clutching the receiver, his face white and drawn, his free hand clenched. He seemed caught between fear and explosive fury. Then slowly he replaced the receiver and his haunted eyes stabbed around the room.
    â€œWhat in God’s name am I to do?” he asked bleakly.
    â€œTake me to the Plaza!” Jan cried instantly. “Can’t you see? It’s our only chance!”
    Heron turned and tried to speak, but before words could form Otis gave a small cry and scrambled from the chair where he had been sitting so long.
    â€œThe fuzz!” he gasped. “An’ the Bureau man’s with ’im!”

8
    EXCHANGE
    The small, slender, gray-haired man that Sergeant Bricker brought into the library and hurriedly introduced was quiet of voice, steely-eyed, and had a mouth so thin that it seemed only a bloodless slit across the lower part of his face. He carried a black bag, and his manner was that of a person who had all the time in the world. But his narrow eyes darted quickly from face to face, and then swept the room and fastened instantly on the recorder.
    Jackson Lane said, “Thank heaven you’re here, Martin! We’ve just had a call from one of the kidnappers. They’re holding Ginny and demanding that we turn Jan over to them in exchange. It has to be done immediately!”
    â€œBut those devils will keep them both!” Heron Rhodes bit out. “I’m sure of it!”
    â€œSo this is a hostage deal,” Nat Martin said in his low voice. “Let me hear the recording.”
    Bill Zorn played it for him.
    The State Bureau man listened carefully, his eyes closed. When it was over he stood a moment in thought, then looked at Heron.
    â€œThis doesn’t give us much time, Doctor. Can you tell me why Jan is so valuable to them?”
    â€œThey want him because he has an extremely rare ability that would make him immensely valuable in espionage to a foreign power.”
    Nat Martin’s only reaction was to close his eyes slowly, then open them. “I see. Has your granddaughter also a rare ability that would make her valuable in the same way?”
    Heron’s jaws knotted. “She has. And I pray everyone present will treat this as a top-secret admission, and forget you ever heard it.”
    Nat Martin nodded. “Then there’s no question that they’ll keep her. And from the tone of the recording, I’d say she won’t be kept in this country long. Surely not long enough to trace her by the usual methods. So there’s only one thing to do.”
    Martin came over and touched Jan on the shoulder. “Bricker’s told me a little about you,” he said in an almost gentle voice. “I realize you’ve had it rough. Are you game for this?”
    â€œOf course I’m game!” Jan said impatiently, and glanced nervously at the clock. “But we’ll have to hurry!”
    â€œRight.” Martin calmly zipped open his bag, and with quick fingers took from it a thin disc and a roll of adhesive tape. “Lift your shirt,” he ordered. “I’m going to tape this little transmitter to the small of your back. It hasn’t much range, but it gives a signal I can follow if I can manage to