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.In an offhand voice, I called, "Oh, Ahmed.Would you like to come to the bank with me to get somemoney?"He sprang gladly upright.I knew he would.He yelled for Ters and then raced around and got in thefront seat of the big car.Ters ran out of the kitchen, putting on his old soldier's cap.He slid under thewheel.We were off.I scrunched way down so nobody could see I was riding in the back.We went tearing up the road to Afyon, scattering camels all over the place.I could tell from the gay, insouciant manner of both Ahmed and Ters that they had no slightest inklingthat this was their last day on Earth.We entered Afyon and started down the street toward the Piastre Branch Bankasi."No, no," I said smoothly from the back."You misunderstood me.I was talking about BIG money.Imeant the Piastre Bankasi in Istanbul.Go there."Happily, without the least suspicion they were driving their own hearse, they turned and we began to Generated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.htmlroar along the main highway to Istanbul.Glancing backward from time to time, I detected no pursuit.I had been too fast for them.I might getaway with this yet.Several camels looked at us suspiciously, however, and some of my anxiety returned.Never trust acamel.Ters was not driving very fast.But that was just as well.High speed would alert people that I wasescaping.The afternoon and the bleak February countryside moved along.Dusk came.We drove in thedarkness.Our headlights flicked now and then upon the ruins of the ages.I was leaving Asia.Let it rot.Itwasn't worth conquering anyway.Alexander's adventures had been but a waste of time.We crossed the Bosporus into Europe about ten.We finally crossed the Galata Bridge over theGolden Horn and wove our way through the dying streets of Istanbul.We came at last to the PiastreBankasi.The car came to a stop.I intended to have the inevitable night watchman call Mudur Zengin.I had gotten this far and I wassafe.But this was the end of the line for Ters and Ahmed.I slipped a time bomb with a plunger fuseunder the cushion of the rear seat.I depressed the plunger.Ten minutes from now, this car and itsvillainous occupants would spatter all over the landscape in bits of dismayed and burning flame.Bye-bye,you woman grabbers.I tossed my grip out onto the sidewalk.I got out.I said casually, "You can go home now.I won't beneeding you.""Don't you want us to take you to the airport?" said Ahmed."Airport?" I said."What gave you the idea I was leaving Turkey? I'm just going to be in town three orfour days, attending a convention of drug pushers at the Istanbul Hilton.You didn't think I would pay tokeep you two in a hotel all that time, did you? So bye-bye.You're homeward bound," to whatever Hells Generated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.htmlthey reserve for criminals who grab women first and then threaten to testify that it was all at my orders.Ahmed shrugged.Ters gave his evil laugh.And away they went.I watched their taillights fade out ofsight.It gave me a great deal of satisfaction.There wouldn't even be enough left of them to bury, for thatwas a Voltar maximum-destruction pocket bomb.A moving shadow called my attention suddenly back to my own peril.But it was just the watchman."Phone Mudur Zengin for me," I ordered."Have him come down to the bank.Say Sultan Bey wantsto see him."The watchman shined a flashlight in my face.Then he pointed to an upper window.It was lighted."He's already here," the watchman said."Came in half an hour ago and said he was expecting you."A chill went through me.Then I realized it was true.The credit companies kept an accurate,to-the-minute check on the whereabouts of the paying man.They had told Zengin.I must be fast.I raced inside.I entered his office.Coldly, Mudur Zengin remained at his desk eyeing me.He did not rise.He did not even say hello.Hejust sat there and looked at me.I stopped in the middle of the room."I've been requested to detain you," Mudur Zengin said.Terror surged through me.They knew.They were after me!I went down on my knees."Look, you were the boyhood friend of my father.Please don't turn mein! You've got to help me.I need money!" Generated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html"I can't give you any money.The vaults are closed.""Then let me into the safe deposit boxes.""I can't.They're closed tight.Nothing will be open until 9:00 A.M.tomorrow."Too late.Too late! They would have dragged me halfway back to Afyon by then."I need dollars!" I begged."Dollars?" he said coldly."Why don't you ask your concubine for dollars?""Mudur, please hear me.I need dollars and I need them right now.Tonight.FAST!"He fixed me with his cold banker's eye."The only dollars available at this time of night are not thebank's.They are my own.I keep some in my personal safe.""Give them to me," I begged, my ear cocked for any sound of footsteps on the stairs."Quick!""It would only be enough to tide you over," he said."And it would have to be at regular terms: 30percent interest per month."He pushed a piece of paper at me.I swiftly signed it.He went to his safe, opened it and took out some packets of U.S.dollars, counted off a hundredthousand and then tossed them on the floor and pushed them toward me with his foot. Generated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.htmlI bent to grab them.I stuffed them in my pocket.Then I saw the contempt in his eyes.It struck methat he was certainly behaving in an unfriendly way.Rushed as I was, I still said, "What have I done?""What you have done," he said, "is between you and Allah.It is not given to a mere mortal tocomprehend the actions of such as you
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