“He was interested in the poster? Did he say anything about the tournament?” Nancy asked urgently.

“Nope. Just stared. And he touched it.” The shop owner scratched his head. “That was weird, too, come to think of it. Seemed like it was the poster itself he was interested in, not what it said. I had to tell him to take his big hands off it. We don’t let people mess the airport up with graffiti or anything,” he added smugly.

Take his hands off the poster… Nancy moved toward it as if hypnotized herself. Her eyes swept over it. Then, delicately, her hand reached out to touch one word. Semi-Pro.

The dot over the i seemed ever so faintly larger than the dot over the i in the word International, which was set in the same type.

Nancy’s index finger touched the dot, her nail scraped against it-and the dot came off in her hand.

She knew what it was even before she heard one of the agents breathe the word behind her shoulder. “Microdot!”

Chapter Sixteen

Nancy knew she would never forget that frightful night. The stretch limousine must have had a souped-up motor, because the ride away from the airport was a blurred montage of headlights, nightlit monuments, and the Capitol dome glowing like a beacon in the distance.

The federal agent at the wheel did not volunteer where they were headed. Nancy didn’t ask. She was well aware that if time hadn’t been so urgent, she and her friends wouldn’t have been allowed to go along.

Sometime during the evening, a light rain had begun to fall. The dark streets gleamed, and raindrops streaked the windshield. Nancy stole a glance at her watch. Time was running out!

The limousine tore past the White House. A group of demonstrators huddled forlornly with umbrellas and banners on the far side of the street, under the watchful eye of police.

“Protesting the dictatorship in my country,” Teresa said emotionlessly. Her hands were clasped tightly, her face like stone.

At last the limo turned into the entrance to a garage. An armed guard at the entry booth checked the driver’s ID. They parked in a cavernous, almost empty enclosure that was brightly lit. Their footsteps echoed as they walked across the concrete, and Nancy noticed that their escorts held guns in their hands.

The driver punched a coded sequence of numbers into an electronic device beside a heavy steel door. For a moment a tiny beam of red light swept their faces. Then, noiselessly, the door slid open.

Surrounded by their armed guard, Nancy and her friends stepped inside into a bright, hospital-white corridor. The steel door slid shut again, and another door concealed in the opposite wall slid open.

Then they were crowded together into a small, futuristic elevator car, which sped upward.

When they stepped out, Nancy fought back a giggle. Unconsciously she’d been expecting a science-fiction laboratory of some kind. But the room they entered was a cross between a drab office and her high school chemistry lab.

The electronics technicians who were waiting for them, though, were all business. As soon as the federal man produced the tiny i dot from the poster, it was whisked beneath a high-powered microscope.

Nancy, Teresa, Bess, and George were ushered into a small office and told to stay there.

“Make yourselves some coffee if you want to. There may be something around here to go with it,” the man in the lab jacket added. He went out, shutting the office door behind him.

“None of us has had any dinner yet, come to think of it,” George said in a flat voice. “Not that it matters.”

Bess tasted the coffee that was left in the glass pot and made a face. “This is awful.” She emptied the pot, washed it, refilled it, and turned on the machine. Nancy rummaged in the small cupboard for the “something” the scientist had referred to. Her stomach felt like lead, but she had to keep her hands busy. She found a box of crackers and a jar of cheese spread and began making snacks for everyone.

George paced between the window and the door. Teresa sat on a plaid daybed, looking like a statue.

The coffeepot steamed, sending out the strong, comforting smell of brewing coffee. The clock ticked away. Eleven-thirty. Midnight. One a.m. Two a.m.

“Why don’t they tell us something?” Nancy exclaimed at last.

“Remember the old saying, no news is good news.” Bess pressed a third mug of coffee into Nancy’s hand.

Nancy set it down so hard that the scalding liquid splashed her wrist. “I can’t stand this. I have to know!”

She opened the office door. At once a young woman in a lab coat appeared. “I’m sorry. It’s really much better if you stay in there.”

“Tell me something!” Nancy pleaded.

“You were right. It was a microdot-a piece of film. The list is on it. We still haven’t been able to crack the code, but all the mechanics of protection have been set up. Agents in all the major cities of the U.S. are standing ready to provide protection for the people on that list as soon as the names are decoded. And now I must get back to my computer!”

She vanished again.

“A lot of good protection will do if it comes too late,” George muttered as Nancy made her report.

Teresa’s eyes were closed, and her lips moved silently.

Three a.m. Four.

Bess had fallen asleep. Even George was drowsing. Nancy struggled against the heaviness in her eyelids.

She thought she was awake, but all the same the faint creak as the office door opened made her jump. Dan stood silhouetted in the doorway, his face one broad grin.

“It’s okay. They’ve cracked the code. The FBI has gone to everybody’s rescue.” Dan went over and kissed Bess awake. “Come on, honey. I’m taking you girls home.”

As they headed for the elevator an older man came toward them. He was dressed in an immaculate navy-blue suit, but his tie was askew. “Which one of you is Nancy Drew?” he asked.

Nancy stepped forward, and he shook her hand firmly. “A fine job. Senator Kilpatrick said you were good, and she was right. Thanks to you, a lot of people are going to sleep better from now on.”

“Has El Morro been caught?” Nancy asked at once.

“You’ll be hearing all about it in the morning. I understand the senator’s planning a news conference.” The agent smiled warmly and went back to his office.

The limousine repeated its ride through the Washington streets. “Stop a minute,” Dan ordered as it passed an all-night fast-food restaurant. He went in and returned with bags of hamburgers, french fries, and sodas.

When they reached the hotel, they carried them up to their suite. Dan intended to sleep on the sitting-room sofa again, and Teresa would have the other bed in Nancy’s room. Her chaperon was still being detained for questioning.

By the time they finished eating, the first streaks of light were in the eastern sky.

“I can’t go to sleep now! Can you find out-have all the people on the list been warned in time?” Nancy asked Dan.

Dan telephoned Senator Kilpatrick’s office and in a few minutes turned back to Nancy jubilantly.

“It’s okay! We got to ’em in time! So far El Morro’s escaped capture, but there’s a dragnet out for him. At eight o’clock this morning the senator’s going to go on the air to announce that San Carlos’s president-for-life has fled his palace. The revolution is underway, but Senator Kilpatrick has been able to help those political leaders she’s been meeting with work out a coalition government.”

“So there’s no reason for El Morro to hang around here, especially if he’s just a hired assassin,” George commented.

“Right. There are a lot of people watching for him at the airports. He’ll probably head for home, wherever that is, as soon as the senator announces that all five people on the hit list are now under U.S. government protection. Then we’ll nab him.”