Once back inside the office, Babette reported. "My two friends who escorted me up here are sitting in the computer room. They seem to be alone, but they have a walkie-talkie nearby. I would guess that they're waiting for us to leave before they start to search the building."
"We have to get them out of there before they lose patience," Politician pointed out.
"How?" Ti asked.
"The perfect solution is to distract them while the bodies go in the window, and then just leave," Pol said after a moment's silence. "Let themexplain how the bodies got into the computer installation they were guarding."
There was another long silence.
Babette suddenly brightened. "If I secure the hook in the window, can you three move the bodies down? And if I unhook the window from the inside, can you move quietly enough to hide the bodies?"
"I can handle that," Ti said.
Babette turned to Gadgets. "I need a portable tape recorder and some slow sexy music."
Gadgets looked at his watch. "There's still time to get that from the corner store."
"I'll go," Ti volunteered.
"Okay," Babette said, "get those. When you get back I will go down to the goons' office and distract those two. You'll stash your garbage and get back out. Make sure you get me a tape player with lots of volume."
As Babette went back out the window, Lao Ti went to make the purchases. She moved through the halls quietly and met no one. She was relieved to see that the cleaners were still in the building. It meant that the HIT operatives would not start to search until the cleaners left.
Once more Babette was lowered two floors to the ledge on the fourth floor. She carefully crabbed along the ledge to the window of the computer installation. After checking the inside of the room, she crossed over the window and made her way farther along the ledge. It was a tricky operation that had the two men sweating. They had to slack the rope away off so it would not dangle in front of the window. If Babette slipped, she would fall a long way before the slack was out of the rope. They did not know if they could hold on.
Once she was sufficiently past the WAR offices so that the noise would not be heard inside, Babette drove the pitons into the brickwork, working slowly, carefully, concentrating on keeping her center of gravity within the narrow limits of the ledge. Then she had to lean forward enough to free the loose rope from over her shoulder. The next job was to tie the end to the pitons. The job had to be done well, but could be done only with one hand. It was slow work and the concentration required was similar to what she needed as an Olympic gymnast — which she was as a youth — or an Olympic-caliber coach, which she was now.
On the way back along the ledge, Babette had to check the computer-room window with the mirror in her right hand. She saw two heads turned toward the clock on the wall. A sense of urgency gripped her. She began to pick up the pace. The result was that she held her arms too far from her body as she passed the mirror from her right hand back to her left. Her center of gravity shifted beyond the edge of the thin ledge. She almost fell. Babette shot her arms out in front of her as quickly as her highly trained muscles could react. She then continued the motion until her hands hit the wall over her head.
The momentum of pushing her arms out pushed her back against the wall. Before her body could lose balance again, the arms were against the wall over her head. She breathed deeply and slowly slid her arms down along the wall to her side. It was then that she realized that the mirror had dropped out onto the street. She watched carefully for a moment, but no one had noticed.
Pol and Gadgets pulled Babette in the window. They all breathed deep sighs of relief.
When Lao returned, everyone got back to business. Babette pawed through the half-dozen tapes that Lao had bought. Gadgets put the batteries into the portable stereo. Pol dragged bodies from the closet.
"I don't see why they call this portable," Gadgets remarked. "It must weigh twenty pounds."
Lao shrugged. "She wanted lots of volume. This one can break eardrums."
"Hey. This is it. This is exactly what I wanted!" Babette exclaimed, holding up a cassette.
"What are you going to do with it?" Pol asked.
"I'm going to deliver a message, a message that will keep those two downstairs totally occupied for over four minutes."
"Can we get two bodies down there in four minutes and then get out?" Pol asked.
"It should be easy," Gadgets figured. "We'll already have a rope sling on them. We'll tie the rope off and use it to slide the bodies down to the other window. I'll catch them there and haul them in. If Ti watches my back, it should be easy."
Pol turned to Babette. "How will we know when to start?''
"When you see the window open, start down there. When you hear the music, get moving. I'll play it loudly. It'll cover any sound you make."
Gadgets stared at her for a moment. Her electric-blue eyes met his without flinching.
"You'll be taking a bigger risk than walking narrow ledges," he told her. "How will you get back out of there? I imagine they'll want you to stay and play."
"If she isn't out of there one minute after the music stops, I'll go in after her," Ti said. "I can get her out without anyone associating us with their main problem."
Gadgets grinned at the small woman. "Do that," he agreed.
"Give me a couple more tapes to drop into my handbag," Babette said to Gadgets.
"Which ones?"
"Doesn't matter. It just wouldn't look right if I carried a monstrosity like this and didn't have several tapes to paw through."
Pol grinned. "This lady knows role camouflage."
"Let's put the show on the road," Gadgets said.
Babette hefted the oversized portable and let herself out of the bare office. Ti waited a few seconds and then followed. Pol and Gadgets were already preparing to move the bodies down two floors.
Gadgets looked up from the grisly task and chuckled. "Good thing the streetlights don't reach this high and that there's no moon yet. I'd hate to have to explain to some cop what we're doing right now."
Pol tied off the rope, being careful to get the slack exactly right so that the line would take whoever was on it to the fourth-floor ledge just outside the correct window.
"You ready for your space walk, commander?" he said when he was finished.
"As long as I have firm footing," Gadgets replied, looking out the window.
Babette knocked timidly on the door to the WAR computer room. In a moment it opened a crack.
Babette put on an easy grin. "Hi," she said. "Can I use your telephone?"
"Don't you have one upstairs?" The voice was curt, impatient.
"I don't know. I wouldn't use it anyway. Some calls a girl doesn't want another girl to hear."
The HIT man was curious. "If you used our phone, we'd hear you," he probed.
Babette made a gesture with her left hand, dismissing the thought. "That doesn't count. You don't even know me."
The eye made an up-and-down movement. At least that much of the man was trying to get to know her better. After a couple of seconds the door swung open.
"Sure, come in and call," the guy decided.
As Babette entered, the other hardguy glanced up from a desk where he had been playing showdown with his partner. His eyes fixed on the cassette player.
"You didn't have that when you came in here," he said.
"Nah," Babette answered. "I loaned it to my friend, but I need it back. I use it for my work."
"You must be popular with the boss if you take that damn thing to work."