Cade’s first view of the world’s highest capital city came as he, Hudro, Evita, and Miguel drove down off the Altiplano along a concrete boulevard of wide, sweeping curves overlooking an immense, tightly packed labyrinth of streets and terraces sprawling across the slopes of a river-gouged canyon cutting into the edge of the tableland. In front of them as they descended, dwellings, business premises, and office buildings clung to the steep, red, slide-prone slopes, while beyond the plateau line above, the snow-capped triple peaks of Illimani rose to 21,000 feet. Cade was taking a stint up front in the cab with Evita and Hudro. Miguel was in the rear. The drive southward had passed without incident, although news of sabotage attacks in the Uyali area and consequent tightening of security made the prospect of journeying farther in that direction worrisome.
* * *
The chief inspector in the city’s police headquarters had received instructions to contact military security immediately if anything was heard concerning the American man and woman who were being hunted, and the two missing Hyadeans, again a male and a female, believed to have been involved. Hence, the oaf responsible for sifting intelligence reports had been looking for couples, and a whole day had slipped by before it occurred to someone else that the tipoff from a disaffected rebel in a remote village to the north might refer to the two males in question. If so, then what had happened to the females was anyone’s guess. But it appeared that half their quarry might be on its way to the city right now.
“My information is that they are traveling in one of your vans,” the chief inspector said over the phone to the general manager of the telephone company. “The driver is known as Evita. I don’t know if that is her correct name, but I have a description. . . .”
* * *
“You can never get lost in La Paz,” Evita said as she swung the wheel first one way, then the other to negotiate the series of downward bends. “Just keep going downhill. The whole city is a funnel that comes together onto one big main street that runs out the bottom.” She lifted a hand momentarily to indicate two boys doing something to the wheels of an upturned coaster wagon. “They can go twelve miles without a break in that. Twenty-three hundred feet drop vertically. Good sport for boys, yes?”
Inguinca had given them instructions for contacting a highway construction foreman who could make arrangements to hide them in one of the robot trucks returning southward. However, as they came onto the main thoroughfare that Evita had mentioned—a tree-lined mall of shops, offices, and restaurants, called El Prado—the phone in a receptacle on the dash panel rang. Evita took it as she drove, listened for a moment, then passed the handset to Cade. “It’s for you,” she told him. “Neville Baxter again, from New Zealand.”
“Hi, Neville.”
“Roland. Is it all right to talk?”
“Sure. What’s up?”
“Are you anywhere near the city yet?”
“Just coming into it now.”
“Good. Look, this might be short notice, but I think we can do better than that schedule you talked about. I’m going to give you a number for somebody there—a business associate of my company. His name’s Don. Call him right away. He’ll tell you what it’s all about. If you move fast, we might be able to swing something your time tonight.”
They pulled off and stopped in a side street. Cade called the number. Don was with a shipping office at El Alto Airport, a few miles from the city, that handled local dealings for Baxter’s business. He arranged to meet Cade and Hudro in town within the hour.
* * *
The general manager of the telephone company called the chief inspector back. “Okay, I have it. Her name is Carla Mayangua. She is one of our area service technicians.” He gave a description of the van and its license number.
The chief inspector wrote down the details and passed the slip to his assistant. “Get a call put out to all units to look out for this vehicle. It is believed to be in the possession of a woman and man who go as Evita and Miguel, harboring two fugitives who are wanted for questioning: Roland Cade, alias Professor Arthur Wintner, an American, and Gessar Hudro, a Hyadean military officer who has gone missing. The occupants are to be apprehended immediately. Have any units sighting them call for full backup.”