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.International Mid-America Airlines, which ran into problems with passenger deaths last week, dropped another two points and is now trading at thirty-seven and a half cents a share, and inside talk along Wall Street is that the firm will declare bankruptcy this week.Bucking the trend continues to be just Folks Airlines.Its stocks opened today at sixty-seven, up two from yesterday's close, and an increase of more than forty-one points since the company began its new campaign of promoting itself as 'Just Folks, the Friendly, SAFE Airline.' In other stock activity, U.S.Steel-"Smith switched off the radio.He felt his breathing speed up.Impatiently he crumpled the unfinished letter to his wife and tossed it into the wastebasket.He turned on the computer console at his desk and went to work.He had been at the business of learning people's secrets for most of his life, and one of the things he had learned was that at the core of most mysteries was money.If you found something unusual going on, and if you stayed at it long enough and you dug into it deeply enough, sooner or later you would find somebody with a monetary interest behind it all.When the airline deaths had affected only just Folks Airlines, he had been inclined to think it might have been the work of cultists or lunatics, attracted by the airline's low fares and willing to settle for the few dollars they might get from economy-minded passengers.But suddenly just Folks had been moved off the passenger kill list and International Mid-America and Air Europa had been savaged, and in a different way.The Just Folks killings had been small, one at a time, small family groups.But the two other airlines had been hit in such a way as to maximize the impact of the killings on the airlines' reputations and stability.Money was involved somehow.Smith knew it.He had the computers roll up an ultrarapid scan of all U.S.airline ticket sales during the past month, and concurrently had the machines check for any sizable cash withdrawals from any airline official with IMAA or Air Europa.As an afterthought, he included just Folks.Then he sat back and let the computers permute for all they were worth.It was the great beauty of the computers-which he called the Folcroft Four and which he had personally designed - that their exteriors looked like oversize scrap heaps, obsolete in their technology, and excessively dependent on exotic maintenance systems.But inside, each one was a masterwork, with much of the technology invented by Smith himself when he could not find it available through commercial channels.And for years, into the four computers had gone the information gathered by a network of people who reported all the bland and mediocre details of their Page 67ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.htmljobs.For this work, they got a small stipend from Smith.Of course, none of them had ever heard of Smith or CURE and did not know who was sending them money.They just assumed it was the FBI or the CIA and didn't really care who it was as long as the small monthly checks kept coming.These reports were organized by Smith's computers, indexed and cross-indexed, cataloged and cross-cataloged, so that they were able to answer within minutes almost any kind of question about any kind of activity in the United States.And now they answered his questions, and from the answers Smith extracted one glaring, blinding detail:A.H.BAYNES, PRESIDENT OF JUST FOLKS AIRLINES, REMOVED FIVE THOUSAND DOLLARSFROM PERSONAL ACCOUNT 7/14.On 7/15 TWENTY-ONE TICKETS ABOARD INTERNATIONALMID-AMERICA AIRLINES PURCHASED BY UNKNOWN BUYER FOR $4,927 CASH.A.H.BAYNESSOLD STOCKS WORTH $61,000 7/23.On 7/24, 120 TICKETS ABOARD EUROPA FLIGHT TOPARIS PURCHASED FOR $60,000.PROBABILITY OF CONNECTION, 93.67 PERCENT.Smith felt like whooping for joy.Instead he pressed the intercom button on his desk and said in his usual dry, lemony voice, "Hold my calls for a while, Mrs.Mikulka."Then he called just Folks Airlines and got a cheerful recording saying that if he really wanted to talk to someone, he should hold.He waited through three long selections of Muzak, made even longer because it was the music of Barry Manilow, before a female voice broke through with a crackle."Just Folks, the friendly, SAFE airline," she said."I'd like to speak to Mr.A.H.Baynes, please," Smith said."I'm sorry, but Mr.Baynes is unavailable.""Is this his office?""No, this is the reservations desk at the airport.""Then how do you know he's unavailable?""Do you think a millionaire like A.H.Baynes would be standing here getting varicose veins and hawking tickets for poverty wages?""Would you please connect me with his office?" Smith said."Mr.Baynes's office," another female said.Her voice had the steel edge of the executive secretary."Mr.Baynes, please.This is the Securities and Exchange Commission calling.""I'm sorry, Mr.Baynes isn't in.""Where can I reach him? This is an urgent matter.""I'm afraid I can't tell you," she said, the flinty voice mellowing with a kind of desperation."He's away on personal business.""Now? With the crisis in air travel?" Smith said."At Just Folks, there is no crisis," the secretary said levelly."Does he call in for messages?""Occasionally.Do you want to leave one?""No," Smith said, and hung up.He realized he was alone.No Remo.No Chiun.And the clock was ticking away on CURE.But he knew Baynes had something to do with the airline killings.He knew it.He would have to find Baynes.And he would have to do it alone.Chapter SeventeenRemo sat on the edge of the bed in the New Orleans motel room, his elbows braced on his knees, his hands covering his face.Why was he in New Orleans?He didn't know.He had come on his own, walking, hitchhiking, following road by road, following something he could not explain or understand.Where was Chiun? Chiun would understand.He knew about the Kali business.It had seemed to Remo like a fairy tale when he had first heard it-the hopeless fantasy of an old man who believed too strongly in legends-but Remo wasn't sure anymore.Something had brought him to this shabby room on this dark street.Something had pulled him all the miles from Denver to here.The worst of it was that he could feel its influence growing inside him [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]