Eric jumped to one of the monitoring stations and grabbed a pad of paper and a pencil. The others gathered closer as he scribbled furiously. He turned and held it up. THEY CAN HEAR EVERYTHING WE SAY! ROD, MAKE NOISE. THE REST COME WITH ME. Then he spoke, “We can’t take a chance that they will move in on us while we debate. Block the doors with the furniture—anything you can move over there.” He picked up one of the vinyl chairs near the corner and hurled it toward the door.
As they stared at him for a moment, he turned to Rod and mouthed the words while he pointed, “Make noise! But don’t block the side door.”
Then he motioned to the others, and they went quickly into the room with the CPUs, leaving Nicole lying on the floor, watching them anxiously. As Eric shut the door, Loopes carefully set the blue box in a far corner, then grabbed a table and pushed it across the floor, banging it into the consoles along the wall.
“Is there a speaker in here?” Eric whispered.
Clayne peered up at the ceiling. “No.”
“All right,” Eric said grimly. “For now, let’s reject surrender as an option. Any ideas?”
Andreason spoke up first. “Nicole is the problem. If she was free, we could try and fight our way clear. But—”
“I could remove the implantation,” Chet said, “if I had something sharp and some time to work on her.”
“What if it won’t come out? What if you trigger it automatically or something?”
“I doubt it,” Chet replied. “They’re controlling it from out there, which means it must be an independent device. I’ll have to check once I see it, but my guess is it’s a simple receiving device with electrodes implanted into her spinal column.”
“I’ve got a pocketknife in my tool kit,” Andreason said. “It’s probably not very sharp though.”
“It’ll do,” Abernathy said.
“She’ll have to be kept absolutely quiet.” Clayne sounded dubious. “If the Major hears her cry out, that will be it.”
“And I’ve got to have time,” Chet said. “I can’t just start hacking away like a wild man. Three minutes isn’t enough.” He shook his head. “Two now.”
“I’ll get you the time.” Eric’s voice was hopeful again. “How much do you need?”
“Four minutes minimum.”
“You know what you’re asking of Nicole?” Andreason asked.
Eric’s eyes flashed. “Is the alternative any better?” He turned. “Clayne, can you keep her quiet?”
“Yes, but how are you going to get us more time? The Major and Travis are through with any stalling.”
“I’m going out in the hallway to negotiate with them.”
“They’ll cut you down.”
“Not if I have the detonator button in my hand.”
Before Clayne could answer, Eric spun back around to Andreason. “Dick, can you fix that control box so that it’ll detonate when you release the button rather than when you push it?”
Andreason looked puzzled for a moment. “Yes, I guess I could. It should be fairly simple.”
“Good, do it! Get me the back-up box and the extra roll of wire. I’ll take that out into the hallway. You can fix the main one while Chet operates on Nicole.”
“What are you going to do?” Clayne demanded.
“I’ve got an idea, a way to get the time we need, and maybe a way to get us out too.”
“What?”
Eric shook his head. “Don’t push me for details. I’m still working it out. But remember, if we can get out of here, we’ll have an army of people waiting to help us.”
“Who won’t be able to do a thing for us unless we blow these computers,” Andreason interrupted.
“I’m working on that too. But time is critical. Let’s get moving.” He jerked the walkie-talkie off his belt. “Stan, can you hear me?”
The building was interfering with the reception, and the answer was faint and full of static. “I’ve got you, Eric. Can you speak up? What’s going on in there? We saw Guardians going inside after you.”
“They’ve got us trapped,” Eric said, jamming the mouthpiece against his lips so he didn’t have to speak too loudly. “But we’re going to try to break free. Stay down, but the minute we come busting out of that door, open fire on any Guardian you see out there.”
“Roger. We’re ready and waiting for you.”
He looked back to the others. “Let’s go.”
They reentered the Monitoring Room just as Rod Loopes crashed a secretarial chair solidly against the door. “All right,” Eric said clearly, “that should do it. It’s time to make a decision. Let’s hear how you all vote.” He motioned vigorously with his hands for them to start speaking, even as he pointed to Chet to get ready.
Clayne spoke first. “I say no. Let’s see it through. The Major will kill us, or at least turn us into vegetables like Cliff Cameron.”
Andreason chimed in even as he got the pocketknife out of his small tool box and handed it to Chet. Eric tuned out the conversation, grabbed a pad of paper and a pencil from one of the monitoring stations, and wrote for almost thirty seconds. He dropped to his knee beside Nicole and gently raised her head so she could read it.
WE ARE STALLING. CHET WILL TAKE OUT THE IMPLANT. CLAYNE WILL COVER YOUR MOUTH. YOU CAN’T MAKE ANY SOUND. DO YOU UNDERSTAND?
Her eyes widened as she read and then looked up at him, seeing the anguish in his eyes. Finally she nodded.
He wrote again, I WON’T GIVE YOU UP, held it for her to see, then kissed her quickly. “Turn over,” he whispered into her ear.
With an effort Nicole rolled over onto her stomach. Chet knelt down and raised the back of her blouse, exposing the red scar just above the small of her back. Eric stood up and motioned to Clayne.
“Don’t be stupid, Clayne,” Chet said loudly, as he opened the blade of the pocketknife, wiped it on his pants, then ran the blade along his finger and shook his head. “We’ve lost. We have to face that.”
“We’ve got to surrender,” Rod Loopes was saying hotly, understanding what they were up to. “Otherwise what will they do to Nicole?”
“They’ll do it anyway!” Clayne shouted as he knelt down next to Nicole. His fingers gently touched Nicole’s cheek; then he clamped his hand over her mouth.
As Andreason finished connecting the roll of wire to the second control box and handed it to Eric, the loudspeaker over their heads blared.
“Eric, your three minutes are up. What’s your decision?”
Eric looked around at the four men. “Do you trust me to make our decision for us?”
“Yes.” It was spoken as one.
He pulled Andreason next to his mouth and whispered, “Dick, take the end of the wire into the computer room. Connect it to anything; then come out and shut the door. It’s got to look authentic. Then get the real button switched over as soon as possible.”
As Andreason jumped to obey, Eric looked up at the ceiling. “Major?”
“Yes, I’m still here, Eric. What is your decision?”
“The detonator button for the explosives goes off if it’s released. I’m holding it down at the moment. I’m coming out into the hallway.”
“No, Eric!” the Major said loudly. “Your time is up.”
“If I let go of the button,” Eric continued calmly, “it’ll close the circuits, and the whole place will go. If any of your men get jumpy and shoot me, it’s all over.”
“What is your decision, Eric?” the Major snapped. “No more talk!”
“I’m ready to negotiate,” Eric answered, turning his head away as he saw Nicole’s arms and legs stiffen and then start to tremble violently. “But I’m coming out to do it. Tell your men to hold their fire. If my thumb is knocked off this button, all negotiations will be over. There’s no way to reverse that then.”
Almost instantly, loudspeakers all over the building screamed out, “Hold your fire! Hold your fire!”
“Rod, clear me a way through to the door,” Eric called, concentrating on uncoiling the wire carefully so as not to look in Nicole’s direction.
“There’s nothing to talk about!” Travis screamed. “Surrender or we’ll terminate Nicole. We’re not playing anymore, Eric.”
“You’re a real sweetheart, Travis. Major, I’m coming out.” He stepped out of the door and into the hallway, tensing for the unseen blow. But the hallway was empty, and then a moment later, Travis and the Major stepped into view about thirty feet away.
Eric held up the box and uncoiled another foot or two of wire. “It’s rather a bitter irony, isn’t it?”
“What’s that?” the Major said, searching Eric’s face for any sign of surrender.
“You have a destructive device planted at the spine of something I treasure very much—” he paused long enough to note Travis’s look of fury—”and I have a destructive device planted at the heart of something you treasure very much.”
The Major’s nod was barely perceptible.
“I have a suggestion. Why don’t we trade boxes?”
The Major gave a short, humorless laugh. “I must admit, Eric, you don’t give up easily.”
Travis held up a black panel with a dial on the face of it for Eric to see. “Tell your men to throw down their weapons and come out now, Eric.” His hand went up to the dial. “Now, or Nicole begins screaming again.”
Eric’s eyes remained riveted to the Major’s face. “You see, Major, I am willing to trade victory for Nicole, but you haven’t offered me that yet.”
“That’s exactly what I am offering you.”
“No. If we surrender, she will either be executed or at least put through a repeat of Cliff Cameron’s ordeal. I’d just as soon see her dead.”
The Major’s eyes narrowed, and Eric knew he believed him.
“Suppose I promise you I won’t do either.”
“Sorry, Major. Trust is not the going commodity today.”
“Suppose I promise nothing more than implantation. You know I’m a man of my word, just as you are.”
“Death is preferable to implantation,” Eric roared, suddenly angry.
“He’s bluffing!” Travis’s fingers flicked up and rested on the dial. “Tell them to come out, Eric. Now!”
Eric’s own hand came up slowly so the box and his thumb on the button were clearly evident, but again he refused to even glance at Travis. “Major, if I hear so much as a whimper from Nicole, that is it. Do you understand?”
The Major’s hand darted out and grabbed Travis’s arm. “Give the controls to me, Travis.”
Travis turned around in shock. “He won’t do it! Not with Nicole in there!”
“Give me the controls, Travis!” The two men stared at each other, eyes locked in anger, and then Travis finally lifted his fingers. The Major took the transmitter and turned away. He relaxed visibly, then turned to face Eric. “What is your proposal?”
“It’s simple. I have about two hundred to two hundred fifty feet of wire tied to this box.”
“Yes, go on.”
“Clear the side hallway of all your men. We’ll leave the Monitoring Room, unreeling the wire as we go. You and Travis can come around the corner into that side hallway and watch as I do it. One wrong move, one trigger-happy Guardian, and I let go of the button. But once I can see that my people are clear, I’ll walk back down the hall to you. I hand you my box, and you hand me the transmitting controls. You save your computers, I save Nicole.”
Both Travis and the Major considered for a moment. Finally the Major nodded. “Travis and I will confer on this for a moment to see if it’s acceptable.”
Eric shrugged. “Take whatever time you need. I’ll be inside.” Without a second glance, he went back in the room.
The Major turned and looked at Travis. “What do you think?”
“I don’t know. It sounds too pat.” His mind raced over the possibilities. “On the other hand, we’ve got a couple of surprises for him.”
“Exactly,” the Major said. “We can send our men out the front and still catch them outside. And I have another set of controls for Nicole in my office. I’m sure they plan to get the implantation out as soon as possible, but our transmitter has a range of ten to fifteen miles. That should give us plenty of time.”
“What if he’s pulling a fast one on us? Is there anything he can be doing in there right now?”
The Major frowned, then strode down the hallway to the door and pounded on it, leaning down to peek through the bullet hole in the upper panel. But someone was standing close to the door, blocking the view. “Eric, I want the door opened so I can watch you, see that you’re not up to something.” Then he whispered to Travis, “Clear the way to the fire door and then send Lieutenant Lowry and the men out the front.”
As he turned back to the door, he heard Eric’s muffled cry. “Open the door for him.”
The door swung open to reveal Rod Loopes with a rifle pointing directly at the Major’s chest. Eric was standing next to Nicole, holding her by the arm. Her face was chalky white, and the Major could see that she was leaning on Eric for support. Clayne was next to him and Chet Abernathy behind them.
“You can watch from there, Major,” Eric called, “but if you try to come in—” He left it unfinished. “What have you decided?”
As Travis moved up to stand next to him, the Major nodded. “All right, we agree.”
“Good.” Eric turned. “Chet, you and Nicole go first, Dick and Clayne next. Rod and I will bring up the rear so the Major can see me and the box clearly.” He looked up. “Is the way to the exit cleared, Major?”
“Yes.”
“Okay, let’s move out,” Eric said. “Keep together.”
As they moved toward the door, he stopped next to the dark form on the floor. He dropped to one knee and turned the body halfway over. “Major, will you give this man a decent burial? We are obviously in no position to do it.”
“Of course.”
“Thank you. I’m going out now. You and Travis move around to the side hallway where we can watch each other.”
As they backed out into the hallway, Eric moved out of the Monitoring Room through the side door, unreeling the wire. “I might suggest, Major, that even though I can’t see into the room now, if someone slips in and cuts the wire, you’ll have the automatic detonation.”
“I won’t run that risk,” the Major said evenly. “We’ll play it your way.”
Eric backed up the hallway as swiftly as he could unreel the spool, following the others. When he ran out of wire, he was about five feet short of where the hallway turned the corner and went out the door. He stopped. “Clayne,” he called, “are you at the door?”
“Roger. We’re set to go out.”
Eric returned slowly, coiling the wire in big loops, and approached the two men. Halfway down the hall, the Major stepped forward to meet him. Five feet away from each other they both stopped. The Major studied Eric for a moment.
“Well, it comes to this, I guess,” he said.
Eric nodded. “Yes.”
“I thought I had planned so carefully, considered every factor. I was so sure that I finally had a foolproof system for creating the ideal society.”
Eric shook his head. “This time you captured the wrong fools.” He held out his hand with the box and the wire.
“You know we can’t let you get away,” the Major said, extending his own hand with the transmitting controls.
“I know,” Eric responded. “But once we’re clear of this building, we’ve got a chance. Out in the open, so far we’ve held our own pretty well.”
Travis, still standing at the end of the hall, laughed derisively. “We’ll see.”
“Keep your thumb firmly on the button,” Eric said as he transferred the box to the Major’s hand. He held onto the wire until the Major handed him the control panel with the small dial. Both he and the Major backed away from each other slowly. Suddenly a fury gripped Eric, and he whirled, hurling the transmitting control against the wall with all his strength. It hit and shattered, spraying pieces across the hallway. Then he turned and darted down the corridor and around the corner.
“We have another one, you fool!” Travis screamed after him. “We’ll still get your precious Nicole.”
“Travis,” the Major commanded, “get inside. Make sure no one bumps this wire until we can defuse it.”
Moving quickly but carefully, the Major stepped inside the Monitoring Room, holding the red button firmly. As Travis moved over to join him, the sound of rifle fire came faintly down the hallway.
“We saved it, Major,” Travis said, his eyes following the Major’s as he looked round. “And we’ll get them too.”
“Let Lowry handle it for now,” the Major said. “You stay right here until we get this thing unhooked.”
He turned and surveyed the room with its scattered furniture, letting his free hand run lightly over the keys of one of the computer consoles. “We came so close, Travis,” he murmured. “So close to losing it all.”
“I know.” As Travis turned, his eyes fell on the body near the side door, and he moved over to it. “Which one of them did we get?”
He dropped to one knee, grabbed the dead man’s shoulder, and turned him over as the Major came in closer to look.
“No!” The Major’s cry and Travis’s stunned gasp of surprise echoed in the Monitoring Room simultaneously, but it was not the face of Donald Brownley they stared at. A blue box was lying on the floor beneath the body—a blue box identical to the one held in the Major’s hand, except that when they turned Donald Brownley over, the red button on that box popped up into its full position.
For several moments they both stood rooted to the spot, frozen with shock. Then Travis leaped to his feet. “Run!” he screamed, shoving the Major. He had barely cleared the doorway when the ten-second delay switch closed a fraction of an inch, sending the voltage from two small flashlight batteries racing down the wires to the detonators. With a stupefying roar of yellow and orange fire, the computer banks and monitoring consoles, the tracking screens, and most of the lower level of Central Control disappeared in a shattering blast of flying glass, broken bricks, shards of red-hot metal, and shredded silicon boards speckled with circuitry.
And in a time span so small as to be almost incomprehensible to the mind of man, two hundred fifty thousand silicon chips in the necks of the residents of the Alliance of Four Cities became nothing more than harmless disks.