The Thinking Machine Affair - Bernard Joel (читаем книги онлайн .txt) 📗
"They will be too late to save you, Mr. Solo," the THRUSH executive replied. "Before they have the chance to reach you, you'll be beyond help. You won't get out alive. Our technicians have jammed your door, but should you succeed in opening it, explosive charges will deal with that eventuality."
A moment later the entire internal communications system went dead; then the light went out in the work-room.
"Try to condition their minds to surrender, Professor Novak, by aiming your apparatus in all directions where the enemy can be," Napoleon ordered. Then he helped Illya to seal the air conditioning inlets to stop the threatened gas from entering, realizing all too well that their efforts might be insufficient to succeed in doing this.
CHAPTER NINE
HEADING FOR THE LAST ROUND-UP
THE special U.N.C.L.E. forces, reinforced by battalions of uniformed and plainclothes Czech State Security commandos, encircled the area of THRUSH European Center E. Units penetrated the underground water channel from the Moldau, while at the same time other detachments went through the entrance Illya had already found. Further units broke into the well-camouflaged passageway behind the stables of the mansion house on the hilltop. It was a full-scale military operation.
When the detachments that entered the Center through the underground water channel reached the platform at the end, the voice of the Chief of THRUSH'S Special Tasks Department shouted through an amplifier:
"Lay down your arms and surrender! Your escape route is cut off and you are trapped!"
The combined U.N.C.L.E. and Czech State Security officers ignored the surrender warning and continued to penetrate into the stronghold.
Machine-gun fire brought down some of the advancing men. A high-explosive plastic missile was thrown among the THRUSH guards who barred the way into their Headquarters.
Meanwhile the U.N.C.L.E. and Czech State Security forces that had penetrated the fortress from the camouflaged entrance on the top of the bill reached the battle area and cut off the escape route of the THRUSH guards there. Caught between the two detachments, these were disarmed and handcuffed.
The way was now open to search the Center for the remaining executives, officers and men, and liberate Napoleon, Illya, the Novaks, and possibly other unknown prisoners as well. The vastness of the underground stronghold and the need to open so many heavy steel doors with explosives made this a very slow operation.
Napoleon, Illya, the Professor and his daughter pressed wet handkerchiefs over their nostrils and mouths as a precaution against the gas seeping into the room. They all knew that if help didn't come soon, it would be too late to save them.
Napoleon and Illya made several attempts to blow a hole through the wall near the door to let fresh air in, but their attempts were futile. They did not dare fix strong charges, otherwise they might be killed by the blast.
The situation was desperate. Breathing was be coming almost impossible in the by now gas-filled room.
"I am going to blow the door lock," Napoleon decided. "If there are explosive charges outside and blowing the lock tears us all to pieces, well, it's just another and quicker way of dying."
"You are right. We have nothing to lose—the gas will kill us slowly anyway," Professor Novak agreed weakly.
Illya helped Napoleon position the explosive charge and then they crouched with the Professor and Vlasta in a corner, using the bodies of the three THRUSH officers as well as the metal workbench as extra protective cover against the blast.
"Here we go!" said Napoleon, and detonated the charge.
It sounded like a whole battery of explosive detonating in rapid succession. The heavy steel door disintegrated and the blast flattened almost everything in the workroom, but miraculously seemed to miss the corner where they crouched.
Napoleon and Illya helped Professor Novak and Vlasta from the shattered room and pulled them into the corridor and its cool fresh air. They stood there gulping in the air, trying to cleanse their lungs of the gas.
"The apparatus!" Vlasta cried. "We left it behind!" The two U.N.C.L.E. men went back into the room, looking everywhere for the thought-transference machine. They saw fragments of it scattered everywhere and knew that it had been destroyed by the explosion.
"I don't know how my father will take it," said Vlasta, who had followed them into the room. "I only hope its destruction won't break his heart..."
"What is it, my child?" asked the Professor from the corridor.
Vlasta stepped back into the passage and cried anxiously: "Are you all right, father?"
Napoleon and Illya saw the scientist sitting with his back against the wall. Illya loosened his collar and tie and said: "Breathe deeply, Professor."
"I am all right," the scientist said. "I only feel a little weak. It's not surprising, after all the excitement I'm not as young as you are..."
Vlasta knelt beside her father and caressed his head lovingly, fighting to keep back her tears.
"What did you say in the room, my child?" the Professor asked.
"Not now, father…"
"It's the apparatus, isn't it?"
She didn't answer.
"Don't worry," he said, and looked into her eyes. "I pray that the apparatus is destroyed beyond recognition."
"Why? Why?" Vlasta exclaimed. "It was your life's ambition."
"Yes—until I came here," he admitted. "When I discovered how it could be abused, I hated ever having devised and perfected it. I am happy it has gone."
Napoleon wandered off, searching for the office of the Chief Organizing Officer. He had a bill to settle, and he also wanted to recover his transmitter-receiver.
When he reached the deserted corridor in which the THRUSH executive's office was located, he found the steel door shut. Indeed, it appeared as though this whole part of European Center E had been abandoned.
He removed an electronic opening device from its hiding place in his left heel and unlocked the steel door. He entered the office, to find the Chief Organizing Officer with his back towards him, busily engaged in disguising his appearance before a cabinet mirror. Napoleon locked the door behind him to cut off the escape route.
"I've already told you it was time to surrender," Napoleon said.
The THRUSH executive whirled round. "Solo! How did you get out?"
"Through the door," he answered teasingly, enjoying the other's bewilderment. "All your explosive charges and other friendly ideas, like gas being pumped into the room and so on, were quite ineffective against our protective and combat devices."
"Well, let's see how effectively you can protect yourself against this, Mr. Solo," the THRUSH executive said threateningly, pointing the gun in his right hand at Napoleon. "It was obliging of you to come to my office. I am sure U.N.C.L.E. and Czech State Security will gladly trade you in for my freedom."
"Throw your toy gun away; it's useless," Napoleon bluffed. In that moment he aimed the electronic opening device he had been holding in the palm of his hand ever since he had entered the office at the THRUSH executive. "With this ray gun I can wipe you out and burn your body to cinders."
The Organizing Officer's hand trembled as he pulled on his automatic. The noise of the shot filled the room. His nervousness made the bullet miss Napoleon by a fraction of an inch, enabling the latter to jump at the THRUSH executive and knock the weapon from his hand, his left foot kicking the automatic out of reach.
