Sex mates of a chess mistress by Ted Mark

Author:Ted Mark
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

8 . Moving the Queen

“Drastic measures will have to be taken!” On the long-distance horn, Angus MacTeague’s voice crackled concern in Regina Blue’s ear.

“Somebody’s already taking them,” she retorted glumly. “Only it isn’t us!”

“I meant drastic measures to put Barbie Flounder back in the running.”

“To be in the running, she’s got to stay alive,” Regina reminded him. “What are the bookmakers’ odds on that?”

“Our man in Sydney’s been making them better than even for her.”

“ ‘Our man in Sydney’? Who’s he?”

“One of ATOMICS’ top agents. His name doesn’t matter. I want him to work independently of you anyway. Your job is to get Barbie Flounder to function like a chess champion again. His job is the hoods hired by the Chinese checkers’ bigwigs.”

“Well, with four attempts on her life since we got here, our man in Sydney must be one lousy Chinese checkers player.”

“Judge not lest ye be judged,” MacTeague advised her pontifically. “For your information, he just reported that he wasted the source of your trouble. One Detroit specialist known as ‘The Electrocutioner,’ plus two thug assistants have taken a permanent dip in cement in the waters of Farm Cove at the base of the Harbour Bridge pylons. You shouldn’t have any more trou—Just a minute!” Mac-Teague interrupted himself. “Did you say four attempts on Barbie Flounder’s life?”

“That’s right. Why?”

“Our man in Sydney only reported two.”

“Which two?”

“The Electrocutioner’s specialty. A booby-trapped toothbrush, and a bed vibrator wired for murder.”

“What about the snake in the sack and the sleepytime pills?” Regina went on to explain.

“That couldn’t have been the work of The Electrocutioner. Not his style at all,” MacTeague decided when she’d finished.

“Who was it then?”

“I don’t know. Maybe the Chinese.”

“Then they’re two jumps ahead of our man.”

“No-no,” MacTeague corrected her. “Not the Chinese checkers interests. The real Chinese. The Red Chinese.”

“Why them? Even if it was on purpose, it could have been Occidental.”

“Regina! I’ve spoken to you about those puns before!”

“Sorry.”

“Puns aside,” MacTeague mused, “it sounds like the work of two different groups. The sleeping potion was intended to slow her down, but the snake sounds like it was meant to kill her. Now the Chinese would be satisfied if she loses the match and their grand master gets to play Spasstik. So the doctored pills might come from Peking. But the snake—”

“The Russians themselves,” Regina suggested.

“They had a three game edge before the snake incident. It doesn’t seem likely they’d resort to that sort of thing when they were already doing so well. Perhaps it’s some Australian group. The use of the tiger snake suggests that."

“Why would Australians want to kill Barbie?"

“When it was first announced that the opening games would be played in Sydney, the more militant aborigine civil rights groups persuaded one of the black African countries to lodge a formal protest with the United Nations. Aborigines are not permitted to play in Australian Chess Federation competitions. That a Yank--a woman to boot-—-and a Russian Communist would be permitted to compete under the auspices of the Federation was particularly galling to the aborigine firebrands.

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