"Uhhh, clothes. No one ever thought I might be some other kind of stripper. You're the first who ever asked me a question like that."
"So what happened?"
"You ever notice how many fewer burlesque houses there are over the last five years? It's the video games that do it. Even the Roxy where I worked for years, is now a video-game parlor. If it weren't for those damn computers and all those silly games, I'd still be employed."
Lyons continued to feed himself and stare straight ahead.
"You really believe that crap?" he asked.
"You haven't told me about yourself," she said, changing the subject. "Do you know that you're the first man I've been with who hasn't told me how important he is?"
"Then you've been with assholes," Lyons snapped.
They finished eating in silence.
"Great food," he said. "Now, it's time to get to work."
"How do you plan on getting into Elwood and searching around?" Devine asked.
"I've got a plan," Lyons replied.
He led the way to the street in a leisurely pace. Immediately he spotted a tail in a battered pickup. A scrawny character with a scar over one cheek was at the wheel. Lyons proceeded until he came to a pay phone. He looked up the number to the building department in city hall and placed a call, asking for a building inspector.
In a hoarse voice, he conned the inspector. "Hey, I'm a straight Gyproc man. I don't go for this cheating on buildings. I don't want no part of it."
"What are you talking about?" the inspector asked.
"Having to pull every second stud out of walls, before putting the Gyproc up."
"Where is this happening?"
"Ah, hell. Never mind. With my luck you'd use a magnet or something. Forget it."
"What do you mean use a magnet?"
"Those stud finders you use actually are small magnets. They don't find the wood. They find the nails. Whenever a stud is pulled, some nails are put through the Gyproc anyway." Lyons hesitated. "Hell, if you meet me right away, I'll go to the site with you and show you which walls to inspect, but no one can see me. I got to work for those people again, and I gotta keep my union membership."
The building inspector was all fired up to be a hero. He took the location and said he would be there in twenty minutes.
"What the hell are you up to?" Deborah asked when Lyons hung up.
"We need identification and transportation. The city is about to provide it. When that inspector gets here, I want you to distract him."
Twenty minutes later, the city inspector pulled his two-year-old Ford up to the curb alongside a large blond man, who stood with his back to the road and refused to turn around. The city employee honked his horn. When that produced no noticeable reaction, he climbed from the car and approached the man.
Before he reached Lyons, he was intercepted by a stunning blonde with a blockbuster figure.
"Could you tell me where Parsons Street is?" she asked.
He turned to her to direct her. At that moment the large blond man turned and struck him under the ear. The inspector's knees buckled. Before he could fall, the blond man had him by the coat collar and the belt. The beautiful woman opened the back door of the car and the man dumped the unconscious city employee inside. They then climbed into the car and drove away.
"This is better," Lyons said. "Do you know how to find Smyrna?"
"Take 285 to the Cobb Parkway. What are you going to do with that inspector?"
"We should kill him, but for now just get me his wallet," Lyons, playing the role of Carl Leggit, said.
Deborah leaned over the back of the front seat and fished into the unconscious man's jacket pocket.
"I want a cut of this guy's money," she said.
"I want the entire damn wallet, but first check to make sure the id is there and it doesn't have a photograph attached. That id's going to get us into Elwood."
"There's a photograph," she reported.
"Then I'm going to have to flash it only once and so damn fast no one can see a thing. That's okay, though. If there's a photograph, people assume you wouldn't dare use someone else's id."
"You're kidding."
"Just watch."
They arrived at Elwood Electronic Industries twenty minutes later. As they climbed out of the car, Deborah nodded her head toward the back seat.
"What about him?" she asked.
"He'll sleep for another half hour. By then, we'll be gone."
The receptionist looked up politely. Her smile was warm, but her eyes held the calculating look of a prospective mother-in-law sizing up the engagement ring.
"Who's in charge here?" Lyons demanded in a gruff voice.
"Mr. Brognola, but if you've no appointment..."
"Would you please tell him that John Ironman is here to do the annual building inspection?"
"Do you have identification, Mr. Ironman?"
"Of course I have identification, and I'll show it to Brognola. Now, buzz him."
The receptionist looked as if she was tempted to move around her desk and personally eject John Ironman, but she restrained herself and placed a call instead.
"Mr. Brognola will be right out."
"Thanks."
Hal Brognola appeared in the reception area twenty seconds later. He wore a gray suit.
"Mr. Ironman?"
"I'm here to do the annual building safety inspection," Lyons said. He passed the stolen wallet in front of Brognola's eyes so quickly that no one could have discerned a thing.
The new manager of Elwood Electronic Industries seemed more interested in the inspection than the inspector.
"I'm fairly new here. Just what are you looking for? And will you require any assistance?" Brognola probed, hoping Lyons could slip some clues into the conversation.
"Just looking for anything that might constitute an immediate safety violation. Don't worry, our function is to advise you of unsafe conditions, not to issue a summons or anything. If we find things unsafe we return today or tomorrow and see if you've remedied the situation. We always figure that cooperation is better than attack."
"That seems very logical. What can I do to cooperate?"
"Not much. I certainly don't need three or four shadows following me around. Your people can stick to their own jobs. Miss Devine, my assistant, is the only observer I need."
Brognola nodded, his face bland except for a slight hardening of the muscles around his mouth.
"Then I'll tend to business. Let me know what you find. I'll be in my office in about half an hour. I'll wait until I see you again."
"Okay," Lyons answered.
"By the way," Brognola asked, "how's traffic along the parkway?"
"Not bad. I have one of those Fords that the city provides. I managed to get here without putting a ding in the fender. It's hard to explain that you totaled another car because of some battered GMC pickup that you didn't see."
The acting chief-executive officer of Elwood Electronics shook his head as he left the reception area. "Amazing," he muttered.
"What's so amazing about getting here without an accident?" Deborah wanted to know.
"With you to look at, it's a miracle that I could spare any attention for the road," Lyons told her.
She ignored his flattery. "Weird," she commented. "What do we do now, Mr. Inspector."
Lyons led her out of earshot of the receptionist, before answering. "We inspect. We go through every square foot of the place until we're certain that this scientist is either here or not here. You have her description?"
"Of course. I was given it at the same time you were, remember?"
"Just barely."
"Then let's start inspecting, inspector."
Hal Brognola hurried away from Lyons. He had been uncertain how the big blond would handle the undercover work. No one ever really knew what Lyons would do next. However, there was no doubting the communications, in spite of the witnesses who were watching and listening.
Brognola went over the points in his mind. "Advise you of unsafe conditions" and "return today or tomorrow" could only mean that Lyons had come to scout the place for another attack by HIT, but what were the conditions? Hopefully Lyons could clarify that before he left the building.