The Mysterious Ambassador (16 page)

"What does this man do?"

What does the Phantom do, she thought. A difficult question to answer. Then she remembered something.

"He works with the jungle people. Settling disputes. They call him the 'Keeper of the Peace'."

"An arbitrator? Perfect!" said the Secretary-General enthusiastically.

"Just the sort of man we want."

Diana and Cari looked at each other and grinned. The Secretary-General could never visualize this arbitrator clearing the decks of
The Belch
or mopping up the band of deserters. The Secretary-General wrote quickly, then handed the paper to Cari.

"Please cable this at once," he said.

"May I see it?" asked Diana.

Mr. Walker, Box 7, Mawitaan. Will you serve as UN Ambassador to Bangalla to bring peace and legality? Advise Sec. Gen. UN.

The Secretary-General looked at Cari and Diana shrewedly over his silver-framed glasses.

"I used the word 'legality' advisedly," he said. "It is not our function to interfere in the internal affairs of any nation. However, it is the hope of our interested member nations that the legally elected government of Lamanda Luaga be restored. I hope your Mr. Walker can read between the lines and understand this."

"I'm quite sure he can, sir," said Diana, knowing that the missing Luaga was in "Mr. Walker's" cave. As she turned to leave, she remembered something. "I haven't seen the papers for a few days. When we left Mawitaan, the congress was held prisoner by Bababu. He was forcing them to vote him president."

"You recall that incident of the farmer Jotando rescued from Bababu's execution squad," said Cari. "And the fighting that followed? In all the confusion, the legislators slipped out and went home. Right after that, news of your press conference reached Bangalla—that

Luaga was alive. Bababu denied this, but not many believed him."

"Do you think Luaga has a chance?" she asked, looking at the Secretary-General. He sighed, a veteran of many wars, civil and uncivil.

"Bababu has the power. Luaga has the people. Who knows! It is difficult. The odds favor Bababu."

He stood at his desk, indicating the meeting was over. Diana paused at the door.

"If you hear from Mr. Walker, I mean, when you hear from him, could you tell me what he says?"

The Secretary-General smiled and nodded.

Two days later, the answer came, a brief cablegram.

Sec. Gen. UN NY. I accept. Walker.

Cari read it to her over the phone.

"He's a man of few words," he said. "A man of action."

"Yes," said Diana.

When the Phantom left Diana at the airport, he hurried back to Ambassador Cari's hotel. Hearing it, he had to take a roundabout way, because the streets were filled with sporadic gunfire. As the medical team was to learn a few days later, the Phantom's rescue of Jotando from the execution detail had started it. A truckful of soldiers found the vehicle with the three unconscious soldiers in it. They began a house-to-house search for the missing prisoner. The area was filled with angry Luaga supporters. The sniping began from alleys, rooftops, and shuttered windows. The soldiers took cover behind cars, telephone posts, and doorways. And the battle was on. The street fighting spread from one district to another. Grenades and plastic bombs were added to the rifle fire. Crowds began to riot, smashing storefronts, looting shops known to support Bababu. It took a week for Bababu's troops to bring an uneasy quiet to the city.

During the confusion, the Phantom reached the farmer Jotando and got out of town with him. The Phantom sped their departure by "requisitioning" a military vehicle he found along the road. Two of Bababu's soldiers were in it at the time. He "evicted" them, leaving them peacefully sleeping in the grass at the side of the road. This was war, and the Phantom was in a hurry. With Jotando, he raced deep into the jungle, as far as the dirt road would permit, then went on by foot to a hidden corral. Here, the great white stallion Hero waited, tended by a faithful young friend, Loro of the Llongo. While the Phantom discarded his outer city clothes, Loro saddled and bridled Hero. Then they raced off into the jungle, with Jotando seated behind the Phantom on Hero's powerful back. Devil, the giant mountain wolf, ran alongside them. They

passed through Wambesi and Llongo country, on the shadowy narrow jungle paths.

Many heard the thundering hooves in the night and knew who it was, and in the early dawn a few lucky ones had a glimpse of the great white stallion and his riders. In the jungle, such sights can be exaggerated in the retelling, and soon some were describing Hero's flight above the treetops with his mighty master, who had assumed the guise of two men. Only the children really believed this, but their elders liked the idea and found it picturesque. It would go down in the folklore—a two-bodied Phantom sailing above the treetops on the flying horse, accompanied by the fire-breathing wolf.

They rode for two days and nights, stopping only at brief intervals to rest the men and animals. All the beasts of the jungle gave them a clear path. None, including the big cats, wished to test themselves against the sharp hooves of Hero and the long fangs of Devil. Soon the distant sound of the waterfall grew louder and louder, and they were home. The
Deep Woods.

Luaga and his delegation, and the pilots Lanston and Osborne, greeted him with mixed happiness and anxiety. The pilots were relieved to hear their families knew they were alive and safe. Luaga and his three friends had followed the news reports on the radio in the Skull Cave. Luaga was anxious to return to Mawitaan to lead his followers against Bababu. The Phantom was against that idea. Bababu's troops were smashing the city rebellion. The tyrant held the country ^in a strong, if hated, grip.

"You are a healer, not a soldier," the Phantom told Luaga. "When the time comes, you will be needed to heal what Bababu has torn and destroyed."

Luaga agreed, but believed the time had come, that the longer he waited, the stronger Bababu's hold would become and the weaker his own followers would become. Onato Omu, the lawyer, agreed with the Phantom. Wait. The other delegations agreed with Luaga. So they argued and discussed. It was then that a message arrived from the outside world that tabled the argument. The UN Secretary-General's cablegram to the Phantom.

Messages from the outside reached the Phantom by various means. First, there was the postal box in the post office in Mawitaan. Box 7. Each day, a young man wearing sneakers, trousers, and a shirt arrived on his bicycle at the post office. At the postal window, he would inquire about mail for "Mr. Walker" in box 7. For years, the postal clerks had wondered about this Mr. Walker. None of them had ever seen him, as far as they knew. On this day, there was a message for Mr. Walker, a cablegram from New York.

"Who is Mr. Walker?" asked the clerk, handing the envelope to him.

"He is—Mr. Walker," said Loro grinning. This was the same young man who tended the hidden corral.

"But where does he live?" shouted the clerk, leaning over the counter and Loro ran to the door.

"Out there," called Loro, waving his hand at the outside world. The clerk cursed mildly as Loro ran out laughing.

Loro then bicycled to the edge of town, at the fringe of the jungle, to his father's chicken farm. His father, Lorando, was a long-time friend of the Phantom, who had helped him start this prosperous hatchery. Lorando judged the importance of the message and the speed required for delivery. Some messages were relayed by talking drums. This was fairly fast, but sometimes inaccurate. Errors could occur in the transmission from one drum to another. A slower, surer method was by relay runner or pigeon to the edge of the Big Swamp. Here, an old man tended a half-dozen chimpanzees who were trained to carry a pouch over one shoulder and to swing through the trees over the Big Swamp to the
Deep Woods.
This was the Monkey Mail, a slower but surer method. There was one more method, the fastest, but used only rarely. Fraka, the Phantom's falcon. Lorando the chicken farmer recognized that this cablegram from afar required Fraka. The fierce, medium-sized hawk lived in his own quarters among the chicken houses. The message was rolled in a light tube, and affixed to Fraka's leg. The cage

was opened and Fraka leaped into the air, gaining speed like a rocket. In a few moments, he was gone, out of sight beyond the treetops. There was nothing in the sky that dared an encounter with Fraka, and he sped on, soon diving to his perch near the skull throne.

Mr. Walker. Box 7. Mawitaan. Will you serve as UN Ambassador to Bangalla to bring peace and legality.

Advise. Sec. Gen. UN.

The Phantom handed the message to the others.

"This must have been Cari's idea," said the Phantom. "With Diana's help. No one else knows my address."

"That word 'legality' gives you a good deal of room," said Lanston.

"I imagine that was the intention," said Luaga. "Will you accept?"

"You are the President," said the Phantom. "What do you want me to do?"

"Thank you for that," said
Luaga,
smiling bitterly. "The title is almost meaningless now."

"Not to millions of people who trust you as their best hope," said the Phantom.

"Yes," said Luaga. "And how am I answering that hope? Hiding here."

"The wise man picks his own time to fight, on the battlefield of his own choosing. I think that is what you will do," said the Phantom.

"Your confidence is marvelous, a real tonic," said Luaga. "Yes, I want you to accept the UN appointment. Also, I wish to return and lead my followers."

The Phantom considered for a moment. A daring plan was forming in his mind. The others watched. It was hard to know what was going on behind his mask.

"Wait a little while longer," he said at last. "I will go back to Mawitaan, for a quick survey, then return here for you."

"Yes, if that is what you wish," said Luaga. "But I don't know how a quick survey can change anything."

"You never know," said the Phantom.

After a meal on the ground before the skull throne, he leaped up on Hero and sped off, followed by Devil.

"He's got some plan. I wonder what?" said Onato Omu.

"Whatever it is, we'll be leaving here soon," said Luaga.

"I can hardly tear myself away," said Lanston, grinning.

"I wonder what the mighty General Bababu is thinking about these days," said Osborne. "After announcing that we were all dead, Kirk told the world we're alive and kicking. Bababu must feel kind of foolish."

"Not him," said Onato. "He's got the hide of a rhinoceros."

"And the gall of a brass monkey," added Lanston.

They were wrong about "the mighty General Bababu." He was worried as he paced the thick rug of his palatial office, smoking cigarette after cigarette, breaking holder after holder, and downing brandy to still his jumpy nerves. It wasn't Dr. Kirk's announcement that bothered him. He knew that both Luaga and the crew were probably alive somewhere. There'd been no evidence that they were dead. He could simply call Dr. Kirk a liar and let it go at that. As for the local uprisings that followed the announcement, he didn't mind them either. It gave him an excuse to send out troops, to crack down hard, and to keep his execution squads busy. No, something else bothered him. Those marks.

First, there had been that skull mark on the field telephone. Then the marks on those three soldiers in the riverboat. Then, that gold medallion on the neck of the girl that bore the other symbol known as the "good mark," the sign of protection. And lastly, the violent stranger and those skull marks in his command tent, on the soldier, and on the broken table. They all meant one thing—the
Phantom.
Or did they? Were they some kind of giant hoax? Was someone using this ancient symbol to frighten him?

"Frighten me?" he roared aloud. "Frighten me, Bababu? Idiotic, stupid, ridiculous!" And he downed another slug of brandy.

Who was that stranger with the sunglasses, who seemed to carry death in each iron fist? Bababu's men had made inquiries. Nobody in Cari's entourage knew anything about him. Records showed there'd been no one like him with the medical team. He'd been seen briefly at the airport. He hadn't boarded the plane with them, and was not seen again. Some said he was accompanied by a large animal, something like a dog. Not a dog. "Something like a dog," was the report. Was this mysterious stranger the Phantom? Were all the jungle tales true? Bababu had known people who said they'd actually seen the Phantom, or said their fathers or grandfathers had seen him. Or farther back than that. But one was never sure about such reports. People were such liars.

But there were those skull marks everywhere. They seemed to float in the air, swim before his eyes. Skulls, skulls....

He shivered and looked around the huge room. Too many places to get in. Though his palace was surrounded by guards, though guards filled the corridors just outside these doors, there were still too many openings in this palace. Dozens of windows and doors, where somebody could slip in. He considered having all the doors and windows boarded over. But that would look odd. Besides, suppose somebody did get in? How would Bababu get out fast if everything was boarded over? Yes, there were guards just outside these doors. He pictured opening the double door of his office, of seeing the guard tumble in, eyes closed, a skull mark on hi^jaw. He shuddered at the thought, then walked slowly to the doors, and suddenly threw them open. The two guards turned and looked at him in surprise. He glared at them and slammed the door shut, then returned to his desk for another slug of brandy. He walked to the windows. A guard walked past outside in the garden. It was a big garden, thick with bushes and trees. Somebody could hide there and await his chance. He considered tearing out all the bushes and trees and leaving the entire lawn cleared to the high picket fence. But that would look odd. People might guess he was afraid. Besides, he told himself, I'm just imagining all this. Nothing can happen. I am General Bababu. I rule this country. I have the power of life and death. I am the law. He sat in his leather chair, consoling himself with this thought. There was a loud noise outside the door. Bababu jumped a foot out of his chair. He listened to the mumbling outside.