They nodded.

"And one more thing," I said. "You, Raht, must shave off your mustache."

Horror went over him. "But it hides a knife scar that is very plain and identifies me!"

"All right," I said. "Then just trim it."

"My beautiful mustache!"

One must be firm. "It's better than trimming your throat," I said.

He got the point.

"Now, there are no taxis," I said.

"We just came in one."

"There are no taxis," I said. "So walk to the airport, spend the night in the waiting room and get a plane tomorrow morning."

They nodded glumly.

I swirled my glass and made the ice in it rattle and tinkle. "Any questions?"

"Those two devices you gave us with orders to keep them within two hundred miles of him are hidden on the television antenna of the Empire State Building," said Terb. "Is that all right?"

Hey, that was very all right. The units to relay the signals from Heller's bugs were right above him. "It will serve at the moment," I said, coldly. "Is that all?"

They nodded.

I gave the ice in the glass another tinkle. "Then get out. I'm busy."

They walked away in the boiling sun.

I rejoiced. I had them under control now. I would soon have the platen so that I could forge Heller's reports back to Voltar. And then BLOWIE! Dead Heller.

Life was sweet!

The following morning, suddenly, abruptly and deliciously, life became much sweeter.

The taxi driver came rushing in. "Quick! Quick! Utanc will be here in two hours!"

My new Turkish dancing girl!

I had been eating breakfast. I leaped up and ran about the patio. I had overturned the kahve service and my feet crushed the remainder of the fragile cups.

He seemed to want to say something else. I stopped in front of him.

"There's another five thousand U.S. dollars for the camel and truck drivers. They have to have it before they will deliver her."

I pushed the five thousand at him. He took it. "Now, where is her room?" he demanded.

I ran about a bit more. The villa had plenty of rooms. There was one huge one that opened on a private area of the garden and had its own bath. "That's her room."

He looked over the locks on the inside of the doors. "I'll have to call a locksmith to rush down and strengthen these," he said. "She's very shy and afraid of things."

He called a locksmith. He came back. "He'll be here at once. That's another ten thousand Turkish lira."

I gave it to him.

"You've seen her?" I demanded. "How is she?"

"I haven't got time to talk now," he said and rushed out and drove away at high speed.

I called Melahat Hanim, the housekeeper. "Get this room ready, quick."

"I prepared another smaller room," she said.

"No, no. Prepare this room."

The staff ran around and got the best rugs moved in and set the place all up.

The locksmith arrived in an old truck and promptly started drilling and hammering and pounding. He was fastening ornate Turkish iron bars across the inside of the doors. Two helpers arrived in another truck. They had brand-new, latest-style Yale locks and started putting these in place.

With me yelling at them, the staff ran around in circles and took out what they had brought in, brought in what had been taken out, forgot the towels, couldn't find the towels, took my towels and put those in the bathroom.

The gardener rushed around and cut flowers and stuffed them into vases.

We were finally all ready.

We waited.

I went out in the road several times to look. No Utanc yet. Four hours went by. I had just decided to go to my secret room to check up on things when one of the small servant boys came screaming in, "The truck is coming, the truck is coming!"

It was a huge truck. It couldn't get in the gate. It had eight laborers on it. It was piled with metal trunks!

The eight laborers jumped down in the road and one by one began to carry the big trunks in. Karagoz directed them and got them to put them down in various spots in the new room.

The taxi driver arrived.

The foreman of the laborers came over and demanded fifteen thousand lira. The truck driver explained to me that this was a local truck and not covered in the five thousand U.S. I paid.

The truck drove away.

The taxi driver went into the room and locked the garden door from the inside. Then he set the locks on the patio door. He demanded all the spare keys. He gathered them in his palm and then threw them into the room. He then shut the patio door so that it was locked and could only be opened from within.

"Wait a minute," I said. "Where's Utanc?"

"You've got to understand," he said. "She's a shy, simple, tribal girl from the Kara Rum desert. She knows nothing of civilization. She is also terrified after the whole Russian Army tried to rape her. She is also exhausted from her long, long trek and the terror of fleeing out of Russian Turkmen, and should be allowed to rest and wash up for a day."

"But where is she?" I demanded.

"Probably in one of those trunks," he said.

"You don't know?" I said, incredulous.

"When I was talking to her this morning, she said not to pry because it made her blush."

"You've seen her then! What does she look like?"

"You really can't tell through her veil but I'd say she looked just like the photograph I showed you when you bought her. She is very shy. She not only had a veil on but she was also just peeking out of a truck tarp. Oh, yes, here's her bill of sale."

It was all in Turkish and it had a lot of seals and a notary stamp. It said one Utanc was the property of one Sultan Bey. My hands trembled as I took it. I owned a real, live, Turkish dancing girl! Body and soul!

"Maybe she'll suffocate in one of those trunks," I said.

"My advice," said the taxi driver, "is just to let her rest. She is a flower of the desert. A wild thing, really. Fragile, frail. Unused to men and a total stranger to civilization. I would just let her rest." And he left.

About ten minutes later, there was a loud clank inside the room. Then another clank. I recognized what it must be: the iron door bars were being dropped into place. I sighed with relief. She had gotten out of the trunk and locked the doors.

Well, needless to say, I wasn't much good for anything the rest of that day.

I listened at the door and once I thought I heard the shower running.

I spent hours walking about the yard and patio.

It was late evening. I became concerned that the girl had had no food. I thought I could hear some stirrings from the room. I went and got Melahat Hanim and had her prepare a tray with nice things on it.

Melahat knocked at the door of the room. An iron bar slid aside. The door opened the tiniest crack and then slammed quickly.

The housekeeper turned to me, perplexed. Then she apparently heard a whisper from the other side of the door. Melahat left the patio. The iron bar clanked back in place.

Then there was another clank!

The garden door! She had let Melahat in the garden door! Oh, of course. When Utanc had opened the patio door, she had seen a man—me. And naturally, she had withdrawn.

There were whisperings in the room and it was hard to tell they were indeed whisperings, even though I had my ear pressed to the door.

The garden portal opened and closed. I saw Melahat in the yard. She was beckoning. Two of the small boys ran up to her. She bent over and whispered to them.

The boys ran to the other side of the house. There was a clank and the garden door opened and then a clank as it was closed and barred.

Melahat came to me in the patio. "She said..."

"You've seen her?" I demanded. "How does she look?"

"She was behind a drape," said Melahat. "She said there were no servants provided for her and she'd seen the two small boys through the garden window and she wanted them to be assigned to her as servants."