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The screen filled with a honeycomb of small rooms against the outer wall of the first level. Cattermole tapped it with his finger.
"This was never built. It's like a cave. The support pillars are in and there's a floor but that's it. Nothing else was ever built. It was supposed to be some kind of store for vehicle spares but I guess they never got around to finishing it. There's no light in there but it's warm enough. There're a few oddities living in there. Now and again they send some soldiers up there to frighten them but for the most part they're left alone."
"Oddities?"
"Winos, crazies, maybe a couple of dozen of various individuals who crawled away because they couldn't stay afloat in the bunker population."
"And they live there?"
"Sure. They've got to live somewhere but they're not what we're concerned with. See this?"
Cattermole pointed to a pair of parallel lines that ran out from the complex of rooms, through the wall of the bunker and out for some distance beyond.
"You know what this is?"
"What?"
"It's a tu
"It's a way out, damn it!"
Cattermole gri
"That's right."
"But isn't it sealed or at least alarmed?"
"No, that's the beauty of it. Since the wiring was never put in, there are no cameras. It only appears on their scans as a dead area. The tu
"How do we know that the tu
Cattermole shook his head.
"No, it's there. It has to be. It goes through the bunker wall, it's an integral part. It stands to reason that it would have to be constructed at the same time as the wall."
"But how come it's the only one?"
"They must have thought that one was enough."
"And then it got lost in the shuffle?"
"You'd be surprised what got lost in the shuffle when this place was being put together."
"It's certainly worth checking out."
Vickers could feel an excitement. He could feel the breeze and see the open space and sky. The idea of being outside again was almost frightening. Cattermole poured out the last of the wine. He raised his glass in a toast.
"Out."
Vickers also raised his glass.
"Yeah, out."
"What will you do?"
"I need to think about this for a couple of days. I'll try and set up a situation where I won't be missed if I slip out for a while." He looked around the ceiling, again at imaginary microphones. "And talking of setups, I take it you have some way to neutralize the eavesdroppers."
"Sure. I've had the system patched in to my computers. When I think a conversation is going to get them excited, I have my computer send a nice relaxing simulation."
Vickers finished his wine.
"I'll let you know what I'm going to do before I do it."
Cattermole ushered him to the door of the i
"This should prove particularly interesting."
Yoko was waiting for him by the outer door to Cattermole's kingdom.
"I thought you'd forgotten about me."
"I must confess that I had."
The idea of there being a way out had put everything else to the back of his mind. Yoko, however, was enough to bring a few things hopping forward as she stood smouldering at him.
"That's not particularly flattering."
Vickers did his best to look contrite.
"If I stuck around and flattered you for a half hour or so would it make it up to you?"
"Just a half-hour?"
"An hour?"
Yoko glanced around. Cattermole had vanished back inside his nest of computers. She took hold of Vickers' hand.
"Let's see how flattering you can get."
It looked like they were heading into another confrontation with the military. Vickers and Fenton mingled with the crowd of workers going on shift. They were on the third level and moving toward the heavily guarded entrance to the power plant. Security around the plant was some of the tightest in the bunker. The power plant was, without a doubt, the most vulnerable spot in the underground installation. If the fusion reactor went out of control, it would vaporize the bunker and the land for miles around. Through its life it had specifically been guarded from saboteurs, Reds, anarchists and now Wantouts. Any second, Fenton and Vickers would discover how well it was defended against them. On the plus side, there was their reputation, on the minus side, there was the fact that they had absolutely no authority. The power plant was the only place that Vickers was going to get a radiation suit, though, and he didn't intend to venture outside without one. He wanted to see the sky again but he definitely didn't want to set himself up for cancer, radiation sickness or worse.
It had only been after a good deal of deliberation that Vickers had told Fenton about the tu
The first test of this bluff was rapidly coming up. The regular power workers had to use a thumbprint check to pass through a combined body scan and ID gate. Each gate was ma
"What do you two want?"
"There's something we have to check out in the jumpers' locker room."
"You got passes?"
"We don't need passes."
The guard's face hardened. "I never heard that."
"You know who we are."
"Sure I know who you are but I still never heard that I should let you into the plant without passes."
Fenton glanced back at the line of plant workers who were backed up behind them.
"Why don't you let us just step inside and we'll talk about it. We're holding up the line here."
The woman put a hand on the strap of the M90 slung over her shoulder.
"I can't let you do that."
"Suppose you called the officer who can talk to us."
The guard thought about it.
"I suppose I could do that."
She pushed a button beside the thumbprint sca
"What seems to be going on here?"
The guard looked at the captain with scarcely veiled contempt.
"These two want to get in without passes."
"But you know who they are?"
"I don't have authority to let anyone through without a pass."