Stan Mason - Stopping World War Three

Devon chewed thoughtfully on his beard for a moment pressing the hair into the corners of his mouth ‘Hm..we might have trouble there. We won’t need a plastic entry card for identification but the security system will operate a whole range of electronic beams at night. You can’t see them. They’re invisible to the naked eye. If you touch any one of them, the place will light up like a Christmas tree. Everything will go crazy.’

‘How do we overcome that?’

‘Leave it to me. I’ll sort it out.’

‘After that, I drove to a small building and was taken by jeep to the research area about a mile south.’

‘Jesus’’ muttered Devon with anguish showing on his face. ‘A mile south! Do you realise what that does?’

I racked my brains to try and find an answer. ‘What does it do?’

‘It reduces the chances of escape if anything goes wrong. If we trip off one of the alarms, we have to run a mile northwards to get back to the trampoline. We’d be shot down or captured before we got that far. Did you notice whether the electrified fence was close to the research area a mile south?’

I thought hard for a moment trying to remember the layout of the place. ‘I think so. I really can’t remember.’

‘You’d better remember, man! Your life may depend on it!’

‘I don’t understand what difference it makes.’

He pointed to the drawings on the table. ‘If the fence runs along here, we take the trampoline with us. If we trigger an alarm, we can exit quickly. I’d rather chase the mile to the car outside the complex than to try to outpace the security guards on the inside. It’s a pity you can’t define where the research area’s located because it might be possible to drive the car nearby and trampoline straight to it.’

‘Can’t we work it out from these plans?’ I asked pointing to the designs. ‘If that’s the entrance then there’s the building I drove to. The jeep took me along this route to here. Look… there’s the fence… about two hundred yards away. We could park the car outside the fence here so we wouldn’t have to chase back to the entrance if something went wrong and we would avoid all the security at the main gate.’

‘That’s providing they don’t have any close-circuit cameras on the perimeter. If they do, the infra-red rays will pick up our parked car.’

I had always considered Chris Devon to be the lowest form of life. However his review of the situation was so concise and so expertly assessed I was forced to review my opinion of him. I knew one thing for sure. The security guards would have caught me within two minutes of cutting the wire of that ten foot high electrified fence.

‘Okay, man! Read me what happens next!’ he continued with interest. I could see that he was welcoming the challenge despite the fact that if he were caught he would be incarcerated in prison for many more years.

‘The weaponry research centre is guarded by a computer. It has to be fed a plastic card before the door will open. The door, by the way, is made of solid steel. Once the pass-card is used, it’s useless for at least twenty-four hours. They do that to ensure maximum security so that people can’t walk in and out at random.’

‘No sweat!’ he muttered stroking his beard.

‘Then we went down a corridor with a sloping floor until we came to a dead end, By the side of the wall was another computer terminal. It operated by means of handprints. The only ones it recognises are those of John Packman and his supervisor.’

‘Oh that’s bad news… bad news!’ added the computer genius.

‘I though the handprint would floor you,’ I responded.

‘No… it’s not the handprint,’ he uttered. ‘That’s easy enough. The bad news is the slopin’ floor and the dead end. I came across something like that once before. As soon as that door opens, the joint will be jumpin’. I’ve a suspicion it has a built-in electronic beam operatin’ from the base of the door into a sensitive eye fitted into the floor beneath it. When the door opens, the beam breaks and the alarm goes off. It’s a fail-safe method designed to beat burglars.’

‘Does this mean we can never get into the research room without triggering the alarm?’

‘By normal standards that’s right.’ He bent forward slighting, resting his face in his hands as he concentrated on the problem. I stood by idly looking around the room at the miscellany of electronic equipment scattered there. It took him about a minute to come to a conclusion. Then he released a long sigh and allowed his hands to fall to the table. ‘There might be a way, man. I don’t like it but if we could find an electric point in that corridor we may be able to pull it off. I don’t suppose you noticed if one was there.’

I shook my head sadly. ‘No… I’m afraid I didn’t.’

‘Man!’ he shouted in frustration. ‘I’ve never known anyone to look over a place and not see anything! You really are somethin’. Do you know that?’

‘The laser gun’s located in the centre of the room.’

He moved back away from the table and stared at me coldly. ‘Just hold on a minute before you get carried away. That laser gun’s connected to so many alarms that if you breath on it from ten yards away the whole country will know about it. You told me we only had to steal the plans from the computer system… not the gun itself!’

‘Yes… yes,’ I confirmed, ignoring his animated actions. ‘It’s only the plans we want. As soon as we take a copy off the printer we can…’

‘No… no!’ he interrupted sharply, throwing his hands in the air. ‘There you go again! We’re not taking any copies off printers! Every time you press a switch or a button in there you risk being detected. If we’re going to get those plans, we need a microfilm camera to photograph the designs and details on the computer screen. Let me guess, man… you don’t have a camera of that kind either!’

‘I haven’t,’ I admitted shamefully.

‘How could Penny team up with a rookie like you?’ he complained bitterly. ‘Okay… it’s no sweat! I’ve got a camera that can take microfilm. Is there anything else you wanna tell me? I don’t care whether you think it’s important or not. I’d rather know now than later. Do they have security guards patrolling the perimeter fence?’

‘I don’t think so.’

‘You don’t think so! Man… they could have your balls and you’d still be in dreamland! When you’re out on a survey mission you gotta find out all the details… the smaller the better. If you don’t, you’re runnin’ blind.’

‘My information is that they rely on an electronic alarm system at night. The only other thing I can think of are the boys in ‘Block B’.’

He looked at me with a confused expression. ‘The boys in ‘Block B’? He was quite contemptuous. ‘Who the hell are they?’

The security men who act as the television crew. They sit in front of television screens watching every part of the complex.’

‘I know what a television crew does ‘ he snapped irately. ‘Do you have a diagram of the camera locations throughout the building?’

‘As it happens I do,’ I replied, causing him to look rather relieved. ‘Penny managed to get it. Here it is!’

He pored over the diagram for a long time and then released a painful sigh. ‘Okay,’ he said finally. ‘I’ll take this along with us. But first I need a whole range of equipment if we’re going to have any chance of getting those plans.’

‘How are you going to get the equipment over the electrified fence?’ I was thinking of large pieces of electronic ir onmongery.

‘Throw it over, of course. It won’t walk on its own! Make yourself a cup of coffee while I get to work. And while we’re on the subject, man, I don’t want you to move a muscle tonight without askin’ my permission first. Not a muscle… get it! That complex is alive with electronics. If you even sneeze you’ll bring the security guards down on your neck like a ton of bricks. You do nothing without my agreement and you go nowhere without me. Do I make myself clear?’