[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
prisoners and two guards standing stiffly outside the door with everything in the corridor seeming normal.
Hanlon took Wellesley, Borftein, and Lechat to a storeroom near the Communications Center where
they could remain out of sight. Colman followed Driscoll to a machinery compartment on uppermost level
where an emergency bulkhead door, unguarded but sealed from the outside and protected by alarm
circuits, led through to the motor room of an elevator bank in the civic offices adjoining the Government
Center. Colman traced, checked, and neutralized the alarms. Then he double-checked what he had
done, and nodded to Driscoll, who was waiting by the door; Driscoll opened the latches and swung the
door outward while Colman held his breath. The alarms remained inactive. Sirocco was waiting on the
other side with Bernard Fallows, who was wearing engineer s coveralls and carrying a toolbox.
Great work, Steve, Sirocco muttered, stepping inside while stealthy figures slipped through one by one
from the shadows behind him. How did the Amazing Driscoll go over?
His best performance ever. Everything okay out there?
It seems to be. How about Borftein and Wellesley? Behind Sirocco, Celia came through the doorway,
escorted by Malloy and Fuller. Stanislau was behind, carrying a field compack.
Colman nodded. Gone to the storeroom with Hanlon and Lechat. Everything was quiet upstairs when
we left
Sirocco turned to Malloy, while in the background the last of the figures came through. Okay, you
know where to go. Hanlon should be there now with the others. Malloy nodded. We ll make a soldier
out of you yet, Sirocco said to Celia. You re doing fine. Almost there now. Celia returned a thin smile
but said nothing. She moved away with the others toward the far side of the compartment. Meanwhile
Stanislau had set up the compack and was already calling up codes onto the screen. He had practiced
the routine throughout the day and was quickly through to the schedule of SD guard details inside the
Government Center,
The next part was going to be the trickiest. The information obtained by Stanislau had confirmed that the
outside entrances to the complex, which had already been bypassed, were the most strongly guarded,
and the three inner access points to the Communications Center itself the main foyer at the front, the
rear lobby, and a side entrance used by the staff were covered by less formidable, three-man security
teams. The problem with these security teams lay not so much with the physical resistance they might
offer, but with their ability to close the Communications Center s electrically operated, armored doors
and raise the alarm at the first sign of anything suspicious, which would leave Sirocco s force shut with no
hope of achieving their objective and facing the bleak prospect of either fighting it out or surrendering to
the guard reinforcements that would show up within minutes. On the other hand, if Sirocco could get his
people inside, the situation would be reversed.
Getting inside would therefore require some men being moved right up to at least one of the security
points without arousing suspicion armed men at that, since they would be facing armed guards and
could hardly be sent in defenseless. Malloy had again discouraged ideas of attempting to impersonate
SD s. The only alternative came from Armley a bluff, backed up with information manufactured by
Stanislau, to the effect that regular troops were being posted to guard duties inside the complex as well as
SD s, and providing reliefs from D Company. Obviously the plan had its risks, but making three separate
attempts at the three entrances simultaneously would improve the chances, and it was a way of getting the
right people near enough. In the end, Sirocco agreed. Once they got that far it would be a case of playing
it by ear from there on, and the biggest danger would be that of SD reinforcements arriving from the
guardroom behind the main doors of the Government Center complex, which was just a few hundred feet
Generated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html
away on the same level, before the situation was under control. That was the part that Bernard Fallows
had come along to handle.
Stanislau stood back from the compack and announced that the changes were completed. Sirocco
peered at the screen, checked the entries in the revised schedule that Stanislau had produced, and
nodded. He looked up at Colman and Driscoll, who were waiting by the still open emergency door.
Okay, the last ball s rolling, he told them. On your way. Good luck.
[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]