- Paris switches identities with Nicolai during a magic show and the real sovereign is taken to safety. Francesca, cooperating with the IMF plan, fakes her own suicide cutting off Sabattini's route to power. The theft of the royal vault is discovered, and Phelps contacts Sabattini as a former partner of Stephan's claiming that he can force the prince to reveal the location of the royal treasure.—EEM
- For the mission parameters and intricate dynamics among villains and victims in this story, see the synopsis for Part One.
Part Two finds Paris (Leonard Nimoy) hanging by his hands above a courtyard, with a sentry patrolling below. Paris almost loses his grip before someone calls the sentry in. Now alone and unobservable, Paris manages to climb back onto the ornamental stringcourse he has used as a ledge and make his way back to his room.
The wedding is severely delayed, because Willy Armitage (Peter Lupus) has rigged an explosive charge in the road to blow out both front tires of the car carrying the country's bishop (Marcel Hillaire) to the palace, where he is to perform the wedding-of-state of Princess Francesca (Diane Baker) to General Ramon Sabattini (John Vernon). Willy offers to help, of course, but none too quickly.
Paris, identified as "Zastro the Great," noted illusionist, threatens to leave if his performance is delayed any longer. Thus his entertainments, scheduled to begin *after* the wedding, now will take place *before* it. That is according to plan, of course. What is not according to plan is that Barney Collier (Greg Morris), who has been crawling under the floors of the palace to steal the crown jewels (see Part One synopsis), has met with disaster. Some underflooring has given way as he is making his way to the Royal Crypt, and he falls and hits his head. When he comes to himself, he realizes that he literally cannot see a foot in front of his face.
Frantically, Barney calls Jim (Peter Graves), saying that he will never be able to reach "Francesca's tomb" in time. Jim refuses to call off the plan, because it is set in motion. Instead, Jim will talk Barney through to the crypt.
Paris/Zastro, meanwhile, prepares his first trick: for himself and a volunteer to enter two booths, and then reappear, each in the other booth. He selects Nicolai (Noel Harrison), who, child-like, readily agrees. But waiting for Nicolai is Sebastian (also played by Leonard Nimoy), who hand-gags Nicolai and injects him with a knock-out drug. Then Paris puts on a disguise to "become" Nicolai, and Sebastian emerges as "Zastro," and continues the performance. The performance includes a special effect showing the face of the presumed-dead Prince Stefan (Joseph Reale) in a cloud of smoke, and the appearance of "Madame Vinsky" (Tracey, played by Lee Meriwether). "Madame Vinsky" is a psychic, able to "read" handwriting without actually laying eyes on it, and to "know" when the long-delayed Bishop has finally arrived. But "Mme. Vinsky" has also issued a dire prediction: of men running about, and red on a field of white.
The wedding, according to the IMF's plan, ends in disaster, and apparent tragedy. Francesca enters, carrying a bouquet--and a derringer at the bottom of it, that no one can see. (See Part One.) Two quickly for anyone to follow, Francesca swallows a pill. Then she starts to breath heavily. Paris, portraying Nicolai, rushes to her side, saying, "She's got a gun!" As they "struggle" over the gun, Francesca squeezes off a single round, which takes out a table lamp next to the wall. Then she turns the gun on herself and squeezes off the second round--which actually is a blank. As Francesca falls, Sabattini is shocked to see blood on her white dress. Furious, he orders the room cleared. But Vargas (Logan Ramsey) has seen (or thought he has seen) everything. He is now thoroughly impressed, if not smitten, with "Mme. Vinsky" and wants to talk with her further.
Sure enough, Tracey, as "Mme. Vinsky," says that she foresees that General Sabattini's plans will fail, and he has no future. Vargas orders Mme. Vinsky kept at the palace and given permanent quarters. Sebastian, playing the "Zastro" part, loudly objects, but feigns helplessness to do anything about it.
Meanwhile, Paris, as Nicolai, orders Francesca buried at once. He even orders the tomb sealed before the Bishop has completed the full funeral service.
Francesca wakes up sealed in a tomb, with stuffy air.She cries out for help, but no one hears. Then she loses consciousness as a single votive candle, starved for oxygen, goes out.
Barney, with Jim's help, reaches Francesca barely in time to give her some pure oxygen. Then Barney gets his eyesight back and can more quickly take out a section of the wall, reach Francesca, and wake her up. He lifts her out of the tomb and gives her some coveralls to change into. Together they make their way back to the palace foyer, where Barney has left the crate that he entered the palace in. He seals himself in, repairs the floor (see Part One for that detail), and lets Willy carry them both out to "Zastro's" truck. There Francesca smiles knowingly when she perceives that Nicolai is with them.
Now the IMF puts two more pieces of the plan into play at once. First, Jim shows up, playing a gem dealer, and sends in the stolen diamond. That one "discovery" prompts Sabattini to check out the crown jewels, and he is horrified to discover that all of the crown jewels in the jewel room are fake! Jim tells him that someone approached him with a fortune in jewels to get rid of, and gave him just that one diamond as a sample. Then Jim heard that the man had died in an automobile accident. "Putting two and two together," Jim "concluded" that the shadowy jewel fence was actually Prince Stephan. This is yet another complication that Sabattini never thought about--but, given his own penchant for corruption, he thinks he recognizes it in Stephan. He tells Jim that he will conduct him to Angrim Prison and let Jim interrogate Stephan to find out what he did with the real jewels.
The second part involves "Madame Vinsky." She summons Vargas to her rooms, and there tells him that Sabattini has prepared a proscription list that he keeps in his safe, and that Vargas' name is on it. In fact, Paris has let himself into Sabattini's rooms (Sabattini is in his office talking to Jim about fake crown jewels), broken into the safe, and started to plant the lists. But Paris does not count on Vargas, with "Mme. Vinsky" (Tracey) in tow, walking rapidly to Sabattini's room right then. Will the two of them catch Paris in the act? How will Paris be able to talk himself out of this one?
TO BE CONTINUED NEXT WEEK.
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