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bythree-foot passage between and under the power and telephone cableswas undisturbed.
A little farther on, there was an opening on the left, and a powercable branched off downward, at a sharp angle, overhead. Ray was ableto turn about and get his feet in front of him; Yetsko had to crawl onuntil he had passed it, and then back into it after Ray had entered.Bracing one foot on either side, Ray inched his way down theforty-degree slope, hoping that the two hundred pound weight of DougYetsko wouldn't start sliding upon him.
Ahead, he could hear voices. He drew his hands and feet away from thesides of the branch conduit and let himself slip, landing in a heap inthe electricians' shop, above the furnace rooms. Two men, who had beenworking at a bench, trying to assemble a mass of equipment into aradio, whirled, snatching weapons. Ray knew both of them--SamJacobowitz and George Nyman, who serviced the store's communicationsequipment. They both stared at him, swearing in amazement.
"All right, Doug!" Ray called out. "We're in! Bring the gang down!"
* * * * *
Frank Cardon and Ralph Prestonby were waiting at the freight-elevatordoor when it opened and Russell Latterman emerged, a rifle slung overone shoulder. Cardon stepped forward and took the rifle from him.
"Come on over here, Russ," he said. "And don't do anything reckless."
They led him to one side. Latterman looked from one to the otherapprehensively, licking his lips.
"It's all right; we're not going to hurt you, Russ," Cardon assuredhim. "We just want a few facts. Beside rigging that business withBayne, and almost killing Chet Pelton, and forcing Claire to blow hercover, how much did you have to do with this business?"
"And who put you up to it?" Prestonby wanted to know. "My guess isJoyner and Graves. Am I right?"
"Graves," Latterman said. "Joyner didn't have anything to do with it;didn't know anything about it. He's in charge of the RetailMerchandising section, and any action like this would be unethical,since Pelton's is a client of the Retail Merchandising section. AllGraves told me to do was fix up a situation, using my own judgment,that would provoke a Literate strike and force either Claire or Frankhere to betray Literacy. But I had no idea that it would involve ariot like this. If I had, I'd have stood on Literates' ethics andrefused to have any part in it."
"That's about how I thought it would be," Cardon nodded. "Gravesprobably was informed by Literates with the Independent-Conservativesthat this riot was planned; he wanted to get our people out of thestore. Unfortunately for him, he wasn't present at the extemporarymeeting that reversed Bayne's action in calling the strike." He handedthe rifle back to Latterman. "I just took this in case you might getexcited, before I could explain. And you can forget about theGraves-Joyner opposition to Pelton. We had a meeting, right afternoon. Lancedale gained the upper hand; Joyner and Graves areco-operating, now; the plan is to support Pelton and get on the insideof the socialized Literacy program, when it's enacted."
"I still think that's a suicidal policy," Latterman said. "But not assuicidal as splitting the Fraternities and trying to follow twopolicies simultaneously. I wonder if I could put a call through toLiterates' Hall without some of these picture-readers overhearing me."
"You've been out of touch, down in the cellar, Russ." Prestonby toldhim. "Our telephone line's cut, and the radio is smashed." He toldLatterman about the rocket attack on the control tower, which alsohoused the store's telecast station. "So we're sandwiched, here; onegang has us blocked at the twelfth floor, and another gang's up on theroof, trying to get down at us from above, and we've no way tocommunicate with the outside. We can pick up the regular telecasts,but nobody outside seems to be paying much attention to us."
"There's a lot of equipment down in the electricians' shop," Lattermansaid. "Maybe we could rig up a sending set that could contact one ofthe telecast stations outside."
"That's an idea," Prestonby said. "Let's see what we can do about it."
They went into Pelton's office. The store owner was still lyingmotionless on his stretcher. Claire was fiddling with a telecastreceiving set; she had just tuned out a lecture on HomeBeautifications and had gotten the mid-section of a serial in whichthree couples were somewhat confused over just who was married towhom.
"Nobody seems to realize what's happening to us!" she said, turningthe knob again. Then she froze, as Elliot C. Mongery--this timesponsored by Parc, the Miracle Cleanser--appeared on the screen.
"... And it seems that the attack on Chester Pelton has picked up newcomplications; somebody seems determined to wipe out the whole Peltonfamily, because, only ten minutes ago, some twenty armed men invadedthe Mineola High School, where Pelton's fifteen-year-old son, Raymond,is a student, and forced their way to the office of Literate FirstClass Ralph N. Prestonby, in an attempt to kidnap young Pelton.Neither Literate Prestonby, the principal, nor the Pelton boy, who wassupposed to be in his office, could be found. The raiders were put toflight by the presence of mind of Literate Martha B. Collins, whopressed the button which turned in the fire alarm, filling the hallswith a mob of students. The interlopers fled in panic after being setupon and almost mobbed--"
Prestonby looked worried. "I left Ray in my office, with Doug Yetsko,"he said. "I can't understand--"
]
"Maybe Yetsko got a tip that they were coming and got Ray out of theschool," Cardon suggested. "I hope he took him home." He caughthimself just in time to avoid mentioning the platoon of Literates'guards at the Pelton home, which he was not supposed to know about."Don't worry, Claire; if anything'd happened to Ray, Mongery'd havebeen screaming about it to high heaven. That's what he's paid to do."
"Well, I'll stake my life on it; if anybody tried to do anything toRay while Yetsko was with him, you'd have heard about it," Prestonbysaid. "It'd have been a bigger battle than this one."
"... Can't seem to find out anything about what's going on atPelton's store," Mongery continued. "Telephone and radio communicationseems to be broken, and, although there is continuous firing going oninside the building, the city police, who have a cordon completelyaround it, say that the situation in the store is well in hand.Considering Chester Pelton's attacks on the city administration andparticularly the police department, I leave to your imagination whatthey mean by that. We do know that a large body of unidentifiedplug-uglies whom Police Inspector Cassidy claims are 'specialofficers' are holding the conveyor line into the store at the downtownManhattan terminal, and nobody seems to know what's going on at theother end--"
"They have the sections of both belts at the store entrance endwedged," Latterman said, coming up at the moment. "Coccozello has abarricade thrown up across the store end of the tunnel, and they havea barricade about fifty yards down the tunnel. That's where I wasfighting when you called me up."
"Anything being done about gold-berging up a radio sending-set?"Prestonby asked.
"Yes. I just called Coccozello," Latterman said. "Fortunately, theinter-department telephone is still working. He's put a couple of mento work, and thinks he may have a set in operation in about half anhour."
"... And if, as I much fear, Chester Pelton has been murdered, then Iadvise all listening to me to go to the polls tomorrow and vote thestraight Anarchist ticket. If we've got to have anarchy in thiscountry, let's have anarchy for all, and not just for Grant Hamiltonand his political adherents!" Mongery was saying.
* * * * *
There was a series of heavy explosions on the floor above. Everybodygrabbed weapons and hurried outside, crowding onto the escalators. Thefloor above was a shambles, with bodies lying about, and thedescending escalator was packed with white-robed attackers, who hadapparently prepared for their charge by tossing down a number ofheavy fragmentation bombs. Cardon had a burp gun, this time; heemptied the fifty-shot magazine into the hooded hoodlums who werecoming down. Prestonby, beside him, had a heavy sono gun; he kept ittrained on the head of the escalator and held the trigger back untilit was empty, then slapped in a fresh clip of the sm
all blankcartridges which produced the sound waves that were amplified andaltered to stunning vibrations. Still, many of the attackers gotthrough. More were dropping down the lift-platform shaft. Cardon'ssubmachine-gun ceased firing, the action open on an empty clip. Hedropped it and yanked the heavy pistol from his shoulder holster.Then, from the direction of the freight elevator, reinforcementsarrived, headed by a huge man in the black leather of the Literates'guard, who swung a three-foot length of