Compleat Crow

V

'There was a sharp intake of breath. Then: "Mr Titus Crow," he said You are a most resourceful man. Where are you?"

' 'On my way to see you, Magruser," I answered. ' "And when may I expect you?"

"Sooner than you think. I have your number!"

'At that he -gasped again and slammed the 'phone down; and now I would discover whether or not my preliminary investigation stood me in good stead. Now, too, I faced the most danger-fraught moments of the entire business.

'Henri, if you had been Magruser, what would you do?'

'Me? Why, I'd stay put, surrounded by guards - and they'd have orders to shoot you on sight as a dangerous intruder.'

'And what if I should come with more armed men than you? And would your guards, if they were ordinary chaps, obey that sort of order in the first place? How could you be sure to avoid any encounter with me?'

I frowned and considered it. 'I'd put distance between us, get out of the country, and—'

'Exactly!' Crow said. 'Get out of the country.'

I saw his meaning. 'The private airstrip inside his plant?'

'Of course, Crow nodded. 'Except I had ensured that I was closer to the plant than he was. It would take me fifteen to twenty minutes to get there by taxi. Magruser would need between five and ten minutes more than that . . .

'As for the plant itself — proudly displaying its sign, Magruser Systems, UK — it was large, set in expansive grounds and surrounded by a high, patrolled wire fence. The only entrance was from the main road and boasted an electrically operated barrier and a small guard-room sort of building, to house the security man. All this I saw as I paid my taxi fare and approached the barrier.

'As I suspected, the guard came out to meet me, demanding to know my name and business. He was not armed that I could see, but he was big and heavy. I told him I was MOD and that I had to see Mr Magruser.

"'Sorry, sir," he answered. "There must be a bit of a flap on. I've just had orders to let no one in, not even pass-holders. Anyway, Mr Magruser's at home."

' "No, he's not," I told him, "he's on his way here right now, and I'm to meet him at the gate."

' "I suppose that'll be all right then, sir," he answered, "just as long as you don't want to go in."

'I walked over to the guard-room with him. While we were talking, I kept covert watch on the open doors of a hangar spied between buildings and installations. Even as I watched, a light aircraft taxied into the open and mechanics began running to and fro, readying it for flight. I was also watching the road, plainly visible from the guard-room window, and at last was rewarded by the sight of Magruser's car speeding into view a quarter-mile away.

'Then I produced my handgun.'

'What?' I cried. 'If all else failed you planned to shoot him?'

'Not at all. Oh, I might have tried it, I suppose, but I

doubt if a bullet could have killed him. No, the gun had another purpose to serve, namely the control of any merely human adversary'

'Such as the security man?'

'Correct. I quickly relieved him of his uniform jacket and hat, gagged him and locked him in, a small back room. Then, to make absolutely certain, I drove the butt of my weapon through the barrier's control panel, effectively ruining it. By this time Magruser's car was turning off the road into the entrance, and of course it stopped at the lowered barrier. There was Magruser, sitting on my side and in the front passenger seat, and in the back a pair of large young men who were plainly bodyguards.

'I pulled my, hat down over my eyes, went out of the guard-room and up to the car, and as I had prayed Magruser himself wound down his window. He stuck out his hand, made imperative, flapping motions, said,' "Fool! I wish to be in. Get the barrier—"

But at that moment I grabbed and held onto his arm, lowered my face to his and said, "Sturm Magruser, I know you – and I know your number!"

' "What? What?" he whispered – and his eyes went wide in terror as he recognized me.

'Then I told him his number, and as his bodyguards leapt from the car and dragged me away from him, he waved them back. "Leave him be," he said, for it's too late now." And he favoured me with such a look as I shall never forget. Slowly he got out of the car, leaning heavily upon the door, facing me. "That is only half my number," he said, "but sufficient to destroy me.- Do you know the rest of it?"

'And I told him- the rest of it.

'What little colour he had drained completely from

him and it was as if a light had gone out behind his eyes. He would have collapsed if his men hadn't caught and supported him, seating him back in the car. And all the time his eyes were on my face, his pink and scarlet eyes which had started to bleed.

"A very resourceful man," he croaked then, and, "So little time." To his driver he said, "Take me home . ."

'Even as they drove away I saw him slump down in his seat, saw his head fall on one side. He did not recover.'

After a long moment I asked, 'And you got away from that place?' I could think of nothing else to say, and my mouth had gone very dry.

`Who was to stop me?' Crow replied. 'Yes, I got away, and returned here. Now you know it all.'

'I know it,' I answered, wetting my lips, 'but I still don't understand it. Not yet. You must tell me how you—'

'No, Henri.' He stretched and yawned mightily 'The rest is for you to find out. You know his name and you have the means to discover his number. The rest should be fairly simple. As for me: I shall sleep for two hours, then we shall take a drive in my car for one hour; following which we shall pay, as it were, our last respects to Sturm Magruser V.'

Crow was good as his word. He slept, awakened, breakfasted and drove — while I did nothing but rack my brains and pore over the problem he had set me. And by the time we approached our destination I believed I had most of the answers.

Standing on the pavement outside the gardens of a quiet country crematorium between Landon and Oxford, we gazed in through spiked iron railings across plots and head-stones at the pleasant-seeming, tall-chimneyed building which was the House of Repose, and I for one wondered what words had been spoken over Magruser. As we had arrived, Magruser's cortege, a single hearse, had left. So far as we were aware, none had remained to join us in paying 'our last respects'.

Now; while we waited, I told Crow, 'I think I have the answers.'

Tilting his head on one side in that old-fashioned way of his, he said, `Go on.'

'First his name, I began. 'Sturm Magruser V. The name Sturm reveals something of the nature of his familiar winds, the dust-devils you've mentioned as watching over his interests. Am I right?'

Crow nodded. 'I have already allowed you that, yes,' he said.

'His full name stumped me for a little while, however, I admitted, 'for it has only thirteen letters. Then I remembered the "V", symbolic for the figure five. That makes eighteen, a double nine. Now, you said Hitler had been a veritable Angel of Death with his 99999. . . which would seem to make Magruser the very Essence of Death itself!'

'Oh? How so?'

'His birth and death dates,' I reminded. 'The 1st April 1921, and 4th March 1964. They, too, add up to forty-five, which, if you include the number of his name, gives Magruser 9999999. Seven nines!' And I gave myself a mental pat on the back.

After a little while Crow said, 'Are you finished?' And from the tone of his voice I knew there was a great deal I had overlooked.