FEDERAL BUILDING,
SACRAMENTO, CALIF.
(DECEMBER 1, 1962)
* * * * *
Colonel Robert H. Phillips shook hands with Inspector Tom Stewart of the FBI, after SAIC Moses Ramsay had made introductions.* Then, all three of them sat down. Following which, the army intelligence officer got right to the point.
"Tell me, inspector. How is it I have to hear about the Bureau's investigation, of a current DOD contractor, from a retired NYPD medical examiner?"
Inspector Stewart grimly smiled.
"I understand if you're a little miffed, colonel. But, first of all, it wasn't us who initiated the investigation. We were approached by 'Bronco Jack' Barrett, who was in trouble with both the IRS and the Vegas Mob! And he thought notifying us of how the latter had sold his gambling markers, to a Los Angeles trucking racketeer, might persuade us to intercede on his behalf with the former."
"I see. And, this racketeer's name?"
"You might've heard of him," replied Ramsay: "Adriano Greco. He got his start back in the Midwest. Hijacking whiskey-smuggling trucks, from rivals of the Taliaferro Syndicate, during Prohibition. Since then, he's branched out into interstate drug trafficking...and chemical waste disposal."
"We think it was the latter activity," continued Stewart: "...that inspired him to take up arms dealing. Hence, his purchase of Barrett's casino markers! He evidently figured that Barrett's role, as Interchem's pitch man, might make him privy to all kinds of company gossip. Like, say, the upcoming missile test the Air Force is about to conduct?"
Phillips' posture noticeably stiffened. There was just such a test scheduled to occur within the next twenty-four hours. A remote-controlled BOMARC drone was going to be launched from Isla Santa Rosa, in the Gulf of Mexico, towards Kwajalein Atoll in the Pacific. And, two of those new Nike-Artemis missiles were to be launched from there in an attempt to intercept it, mid-flight!
But, of course, he was not at liberty to officially confirm such a test.
"Even if what Barrett heard was more than gossip," Phillips hedged: "...why not inform Washington about that development? As well as your investigation?"
"Because Greco has a lot of Congressmen in his pocket," replied Stewart: "Some of whom have drinking buddies at the Pentagon! If one of them inadvertentely spilled the beans...? Well, you get the idea. Besides which; I, personally, am still a little peeved over the deal the Armed Forces made with Luciano just to insure a successful invasion of Sicily during the Big One."
Ten minutes later, Phillips was back in his government-issue sedan, talking on the back seat radiophone with Captain Ross down in San Diego.
"Bart? It's me. I think I know where Comrade Rusalka is headed next. And, if your first officer realized the same thing, while shadowing her, it might explain why your sub 'disappeared.' "
MEANWHILE, IN HONOLULU, AT THAT SAME MOMENT...
The two men met at a Shinto shrine in Little Tokyo. One of them was retired U.S. Army Ranger Anjiro Watanabe. The other (who was about five years younger) merely introduced himself as "Kusanagi."
Watanabe smiled: "Nice shave and haircut. But, I recognize the voice! Enjin-san, the Osaka Ape-Man. Ex-sumotori-turned-AAWF bad guy-of-the-week."
"Flattery will get you nowhere," replied the wrestler: "Do you have the money?"
Watanabe took off his knapsack, and opened its top.
"You don't get to touch until I see the artifact."
Enjin-san unzipped a leather bag of the type usually used for transporting pool cues. Only, what he withdrew from the interior was definitely _not_ a pool cue!
It was the Golden Dagger-axe of Hsia Jie.
tbc
Giantess World
Author's Chapter Notes:
The retro spy-fi continues.
Chapter End Notes:
*SAIC: Special Agent In Charge. The head of all FBI field offices in each of the fifty states.
Luciano, Charles: the Prohibition-era gangster better known as "Lucky." He was more-or-less pardoned by the Federal government, during World War II, so he could supply Allied intelligence officers with the names of native Sicilian Mafiosi who might prove usefully anti-Nazi.
All-American Wrestling Federation: strictly fictional.
Luciano, Charles: the Prohibition-era gangster better known as "Lucky." He was more-or-less pardoned by the Federal government, during World War II, so he could supply Allied intelligence officers with the names of native Sicilian Mafiosi who might prove usefully anti-Nazi.
All-American Wrestling Federation: strictly fictional.