“I don’t know what I think about that. You’ll call me if you find out anything.”

“Mr. Solo and Mr. Kuryakin may appear somewhat unconventional, Miss Sirrocco, but I assure you they are among my most competent and consistently successful agents.”

“Well, somebody at the office told me about an affair here a few years ago…”

“I’m sure even Joe Namath strikes out, occasionally. You understand that Mr. Stevens’ security is of paramount importance to us for very practical reasons. and as soon as you disconnect I shall personally investigate the situation with every facility at hand. Now if you will permit me. , .”

“Well…okay. Call me if you find anything out?”

“Goodbye. Miss Sirrocco.” Mr. Waverly’s finger dropped on the cutoff button. lifted, and signaled the terminal test area.

“Mr. Gold? Waverly here. Can you read from local records of Thrush?

Good. I need to know as quickly as possible the present location and/or disposition of an employee of the San Francisco satrapy, one Henry Eugene Stevens —Stevens with a V. Thank you.”

Again the gnarled finger depressed the cutoff and released it. then switched to the paging channel. He called, “Mr. Solo, Mr. Kuryakin -report to my office at once. please.”

Upstairs in a lounge Napoleon looked up from bleak contemplation of some report or another, and the light was suddenly back in his eyes.

CHAPTER EIGHT

“Oh, We Had To Carry Harry…”

“Mr. Stevens was taken into the Medical section about two o’clock this afternoon for ‘extensive psychological testing,’ according to their own confidential records,” said Mr. Waverly. “This means he will be checked over this evening, kept under deep sedation overnight, and then tomorrow morning —”

“They begin to take his head apart,” said Illya.

“We cannot afford this. Dr. Grayson assures me that while her implants are proof against any standard technique short of a really perceptive Rorschach test, deep hypnoprobing could lay the entire substructure bare in a matter of hours. In shorts gentlemen, you must recover Mr. Stevens.”

“Where is he?”

“Inside Thrush’s San Francisco office under Alamo Square.”

“1nside —?”

“Mr. Gold had acquired the full security layout of the Alamo Square complex, and a full-color printout is bein9 prepared for you at the moment.

You will doubtless have some locks to pick and some alarm systems to contend with, but I’m told that every wire, every sensor and every warning signal is indicated along with its parameters and limitations.”

“You’re kidding~”

“Mr. Solo, I am no such thing. If you are to have any hope of success on this impossible mission you must know every detail of the fortress you must breach.”

“But sir,” said Illya, “at the very least, kidnapping Harry will tell them we have the gamma laser. And it could make them suspicious of such little coincidences as the loss of Baldwin’s old terminal.”

“If he talks tomorrow, they will have knowledge instead of suspicion and this project will be aborted in a matter of minutes. We have just begun tapping this store of data on the world-wide operations of Thrush and .

scarcely a measurable fraction of a percent has been subjected to analysis; already three specific commercial operations as well as several public movements in California alone have been discovered to be directly operated by local Satraps. Beyond a doubt, if we are allowed to continue Thrush will be rooted out and totally destroyed as a functioning entity before the end of the year. We can afford to lose the gamma laser, we can afford to lose individuals’ lives if necessary —we can afford to lose a 9reat deal s but we cannot afford to lose the security of this tap into the Ultimate Computer.”

“Have you considered that their suspicions of him might extend to their holding him as bait for a rescue attempt?”

“No. Without our terminal, we wouldn’t have any idea what had happened to him. Thrush therefore would have left us a trail to follow. Also his Psychfile indicates they are more concerned with his mental condition than suspicious of it. The most recent entry, ten days ago, states that he is ‘unusually disturbed and emotionally exhausted by the pressures of his job.’

It was on the basis of this report that he was placed under surveillance.

Tomorrow he is scheduled for an intensive probing to find what is interfering with his efficiency.”

“And Dr. Grayson thinks they’re likely to find it.”

“Yes.”

Napoleon looked at Illya and Illya looked at Napoleon.“In that case I suppose we’d better get in there tonight and get him out.” said Solo resignedly. “Okay, where are those blueprints?”

It didn’t sound easy, and it wasn’t going to be as easy as it sounded.

Just knowing that the corridors around the medical detention area were filled with ultrasonics which made movement impossible didn’t help to get through them, nor was the knowledge of a CCTV camera which monitored all twenty-four doors in Harry’s ward in a straight view down the hall particularly encouraging. Nevertheless. any security device can be bypassed.

given the technology and the incentive. U.N.C.L.E. had both.

The difficult part was the ultrasonic. The alarm sensor was cheap and simple: it generated a modest number of decibels at forty or fifty KiloHertz and reacted to the echoes of everything within its area of coverage. Any change in the waveform, causable by the appearance.

disappearance. or movement of anything which reflected or absorbed soundwaves at any place in range would upset the echo pattern and tri9ger the alarm.

The detector unit was smaller than a table radio and cost about $50; its only countermeasure on the west coast strapped around the waist and fed a spiral cord to a light aluminum baton. Mr. Simpson introduced Napu1eon to the lights and switches above the hand grip.

“Don’t turn it on until you’re ready to use it —the batteries are good for six hours. but not under a steady drain. You’ll hear the ultrasonics before they can detect you. of course —or this neon pip will.

That part you can leave on all night: it has a penlight cell which should last most of a year.”

“That tells us when we’re coming close?”

“Yes. When the pip is glowing steadily, stop and set this switch to Monitor. This blue light will go on. probably for ten or fifteen seconds.

When it goes out. you might want to wait another second or so before you put your full weight down. so to speak; then you move the switch back past rut to Source and these two pink lights will go on. Then you’re sonically invisible. When you have only half your time left on the batteries. one of them will go out. When you have ten minutes left, the other turns orange and starts to fade.”

“How does it work?”

“I was just coming to that part. During the first phase, it is analyzing the wave patterns in the room; when you switch it over it duplicates them. As long as you walk slowly, not over ten feet per second or so. and carry the wand with this knob above you like an umbrella, you’ll probably be pretty well protected.”

“Pretty well?”

“Well, under some circumstances it might not be adequate. If this green light goes on it means the unit isn’t quite matching. If that happens, stand absolutely still until it goes out. It’ll usually be three or four seconds. The air conditioning system moves a lot of warm air through this corridor, so the ultrasonic alarms are not set to their greatest sensitivity.”

“Of course,” said Illya. “Moving air could refract the waves and set off a false alarm. Now what do we do about the television camera? I see there is a relay box here in corridor four, the second sound-guarded one, but that’s five or six minutes away from Harry’s room and if a camera went out they’d have someone up to see about it within five minutes.”