Part 101 (1/2)
He shuddered.
Chapter 34 Thomas stood on the far end of the Eighty-sixth Street subway platform. He looked anxiously at his watch, seeing that it was ten minutes past five A.m. His eyes were !*inging with fatigue. Two subway trains had come and gone. He'looked up and down the platform and did not see the two men he awaited.
He'd been there half an hour. He'd reached them by telephone.
They were late. What, he wondered, was wrong? Nothing? Everything.
”Come on'” he addressed them in their absence.
”Arrive, d.a.m.n it, arrive!”
A downtown express train rumbled into the station. A pair of transit patrolmen watched Thomas from within the end car, idly wondering why, if he was standing in the station, he wasn't boarding the train.
The train began again. One of the patrolmen reached to a walkie talkie at his waist. The platform was clear again. A man dropped an early edition of the Daily News on a bench. Thomas glanced at a headline' A huge Soviet fis.h.i.+ng fleet was in the North Atlantic off Ma.s.sachusetts, it said. Thomas glanced away.
Hurry up, d.a.m.n it, he thought again.
He wandered toward the far end of the platform. Then he froze in thought. Footsteps approached and he looked up. He saw the tall, lean man first, then the shorter, stronger one, the one with the beard.
Whiteside and Hunter.
”You look surprised,” said Hunter.
”Not at all.” Thomas glanced at his watch.
”You're late. Punctuality is next to G.o.dliness. Didn't your keeper here ever teach you that?”
”Where's Sandler?” asked Hunter.
”And the girl?” asked Whiteside.
”Around.”
”Don't be coy, Mr. Daniels,” intoned Whiteside gently
”It doesn't become you.” He s.h.i.+fted weight from one foot to another, c.o.c.ked his head, and glinted at Thomas.
”Why did you call us?”
”I told you ” said Thomas, folding the newspaper beneath his arm.
”I'm going to give you the' new Leslie McAdam, the source of the bogus British pounds, and Sandler in the bargain. In return, I want the entire background story on Sandler. Everything” ”I already agreed”
said Whiteside with cunning.
”I agreed an hour ago on the hone Hunter glared at Thomas, then looked around the platform, clearly unsure of his ground.
”I just wanted to be sure that we understood the ground rules,”
said Thomas.
”Obviously we do,” Whiteside snorted with impatience.