Dick Stivers - Deathbites

"Although we mix the sexes for training," Nogi announced, "I usually make it a practice to match training partners of the same sex."

He grabbed Lyons by the collar and flung him into the arms of the surprised platinum blonde.

"You two are partners, because women should train with women," Nogi said.

The blonde looked angry. The rest of the class tried to hold back laughter.

"Why do I get stuck with a woman who can't take care of herself?" the blonde demanded.

Nogi's tone was heavy with sarcasm. "You have showed me how great a warrior you are. I'm afraid to give you anyone more valuable. You might damage someone that matters."

When the laughter died down, Nogi added, "Take this worm and teach him fundamental manners and how to stand up. He seems to spend too much time on the floor."

The blonde shrugged and headed for one corner of the room. Lyons followed, content to be inside and in one piece.

July 12, 1004 hours, Santa Clara, California

Gadgets dropped the half-eaten doughnut back onto the table and stared morosely into his third cup of coffee.

"One of us should have gone with her," he told Politician for the fourth time.

"There's a chance someone in that building saw us in Atlanta," Pol said. "It's better if she cases the layout first."

Gadgets did not look convinced. He looked around the doughnut shop. No one was particularly interested in them. They both wore suits and ties and looked like two businessmen having a long meeting.

A soft voice spoke as a hand touched Gadgets's shoulder.

"I'm back," Lao Ti said. Gadgets shifted over in the booth and Ti slid in beside him.

"WAR has the second, third and fourth floors of that old office building," she reported to Pol and Gadgets. "The computer room is on the south side of the fourth floor. Excellent security. The building is full, but the tenants on the sixth floor, south side, are just moving in. Some sort of sales firm for personal computers. No one in this branch of WAR was in Atlanta at the time of the raid on Elwood."

"How did you find out all that?" Gadgets asked.

"It wasn't difficult. First, I went to the building superintendent and asked about renting. I learned from him that CompuSales had taken the last vacancy and were in the act of moving in.

"I went to CompuSales and applied for a job. From that I learned the location of the office and the fact that they're new and can't afford to hire anyone.

"Next, I applied for a job as programmer at WAR. I learned the location of the computer area from the way the security is set up. Being an organization for the unemployed, WAR takes workers from its own ranks. I was invited to join. When I told them that I had worked last across the road from Elwood, they were full of questions. From the nature of the questions, I'm sure that no one has come from Atlanta to that office since the battle."

She ended with a small shrug. "So I spent all this time just applying for jobs and talking to people."

"Terrific job," Politician told her.

"What's next?" she asked.

"Next," Pol said, "we move into that office instead of CompuSales. Ti, you've been in there once and know the approximate setup. Go to a prestigious location and rent something that would suit them much better."

She nodded and waited for the rest of the plan.

"As soon as you have the location, telephone us at the new CompuSales office. Gadgets and I will be there waiting to tell them where they'll be moving to."

Ti left the booth without another word. Pol and Gadgets started down the block to meet the owners of the new computer business.

A young man in jeans and a T-shirt that read Love Bytes straightened up from the case he was unpacking and stared at Politician.

"You want us to do what?" he asked.

"Move to a better location where you'll have a better chance of making your business really work."

"We can't afford a better location," the only other member of the business, a bearded youth, said.

"Wrong. We'll give you the same lease you have here at the same price. We put up the difference, plus the moving costs. You won't be out anything more than the delay of half a day moving."

"Why this dump?" the youth with the beard asked.

Pol proceeded to feed them a story about how the people they worked for had set their sights on that location, and that no other location would do.

Pol talked to Ti, then to the young businessman. "How's downtown sound? Same price."

The two men grinned at each other.

"What are you guys?" the man with the T-shirt asked. "Tooth fairies?"

"Deal," said the other.

Able Team was in business.

"Where is this better location?" the youth in the T-shirt asked.

The telephone rang.

"If that's for me, I'll tell you where," Politician answered.

That night Lao Ti looked around the empty office. "We could use some furniture," she commented.

"Order some in the morning," Gadgets replied. "In the meantime, what's the first step?"

"The telephones," she answered. She stooped and rummaged in an open case. "I brought a switchboard along."

Gadgets looked at his watch. "The super and the cleaning staff will be gone by now. Let's get it done."

There were still people moving around in some of the WAR offices. Otherwise the building was deserted. The trio found the door to the basement. Its lock yielded to Gadgets's hands and a piece of spring wire. Soon they were in the basement, examining the junction boxes and spaghetti that controlled telephone service to the building.

Ti quickly clipped a handset to one pair of wires after another.

"No action on the lines," she reported. "We'll have to do something about that. Pol, if you can, find a place where there are five pay phones close together. Go down the line and dial the first six digits of WAR's telephone number. Then go down the line a second time and dial the last digit. That should light up all their lines and speed up the process."

Gadgets and Ti hurried to connect small light bulbs and circuit testers to the wire sets.

Ten minutes later, lights flashed and needles moved. Both Ti and Gadgets moved quickly, tagging the active lines with bits of tape.

"I've found the trunk," Ti announced. "Two of the lines in it didn't light up. I'll bet one of those is hooked up to the computer."

Half an hour later, the three were back in their new offices. Ti pointed to a compact switchboard that she had just hooked up.

She explained to Politician: "All their calls go through that board. We can record everything that goes through the lines, but I still want to patch directly into their mainframe. Otherwise someone is bound to notice the increased activity through the modem."

Pol shook his head. "We'll never get through that security and back out without them knowing we've been at their computers."

"So, they'll have to invite us in."

"Sure."

"We monitor those two unknown lines until one starts to transmit to the computer. As soon as the transmission starts, whoever's monitoring throws the switch that opens the line, cutting them off in the middle. After that, it should be easy."

Pol shrugged. "If you say so."

They dragged sleeping bags out and settled in on the bare floor. Gadgets took the first four-hour watch on the telephone lines.

Nothing came into the computer modem until shortly after noon the next day. Ti was monitoring at the time. Her hands fluttered over the small switchboard, breaking open telephone lines, routing outgoing calls to the three telephones she had spread around the floor of the empty office. At 12:25, an outgoing call rang one of the telephones. An automatic LED display showed the number that had been dialed.

"This is it," she said calmly as she picked up the telephone. "Repair service," she said into the mouthpiece.