"We would buy the machine," Illya said.
"Perhaps," Rand said, "but I cannot risk it, can I? No, I think U.N.C.L.E. is not a good organization to deal with. You are do-gooders, not businessmen. You wish to save the world, not to make money. I do not like people who think of others rather than their own interests."
Rand turned to Danton, "Now I think the THRUSH offer is legitimate and interesting. Of course, I have other offers already, and there are other factors. But I think we can talk, Mr. Danton."
"We can talk," Danton said. "What about them?"
The elegant THRUSH leader indicated Illya and Solo.
Rand shrugged. "We will probably have to kill them. But for now I think we will simply hold them. Who knows, Mr. Danton? I might just throw them into a deal and hand them to you as a sort of bonus."
"That would be most useful," Danton said.
Rand laughed. "Take them out and lock them up downstairs."
The armed men prodded Illya and Solo to their feet. Moments later they were marched out of the warehouse through an interior door and behind them they heard Danton laughing with Rand.
The machine itself stood silent in the vast warehouse.
ACT IV
WHAT YOU DON'T KNOW CAN KILL YOU
FOR THE FOURTH time in twenty-four hours or less, Illya Kuryakin and Napoleon Solo were marched away under guard. The four white-smocked armed men herded them along a narrow and dark corridor that slanted down beneath the electronics factory.
After a few minutes the corridor flattened out and rows of heavy doors began to appear along the walls. Some of the doors were open, and the two agents saw men busy in laboratories. Soon they passed a series of doors that all opened into one room—a small factory inside the room, where men worked feverishly assembling parts into what looked like other models of the deadly Mind- Sweeper.
"A secret factory under the regular plant," Solo said.
"It had to be something like that, Napoleon," Illya said.
One of the armed men hissed, "Shut up! No talking, you two!"
They marched on. The four guards walked behind, two abreast in the narrow corridor. They reached a darker section where all the doors were closed. Ramps led up alongside passages to what were obviously loading areas. They were clearly now in a storage area.
"Do you think we have one chance?" Illya said. "Or five?"
"Two-out-of-six," Solo said.
"I said shut up!" the white smocked guard cried.
But Illya and Solo had given their signals. The guards, uneasy at the calm talk of their prisoners, moved closer. Illya and Solo waited.
"Stop," the chief of the guards said.
They stopped.
"Open the door," the head guard said to two of his men.
Two of the guards stepped to the massive steel door and opened it. The two went into the room and turned with their guns ready.
"Inside," the head guard said to Illya and Solo.
Illya stepped in first. Solo followed behind. Suddenly Illya gave a hoarse cry.
"Why wait! We'll never get out! I can't stand it!"
With a quick motion of his hand the small Russian seemed to pick a button off his suit and thrust it into his mouth, biting down hard.
Illya screamed, choked, and pitched forward to the floor, exactly in the doorway.
"Poison!" a guard shouted.
"Stand back!" the head guard snapped to Solo.
Solo backed out into the corridor. Two of the guards bent over Illya. The other two guards stared at the fallen figure of the Russian. They all talked at once.
"He's dead!"
"One of his buttons! Who searched him?"
"Rand'll be mad as hell."
"Open his collar!"
"Get a doc—"
The last speaker never finished. One of the guards bending over Illya laid down his pistol. Solo was now behind all four, for a split second forgotten.
With a motion so fast no one saw it, Illya Kuryakin raised up. In the same motion he stabbed the guard with a long, thin steel needle—the needle from beneath the fake scar on his leg.
The man, stabbed to the heart, dropped with a low scream. Illya grabbed the gun of the second guard.
Solo jumped on to the backs of the other two. One of them went down. The other turned to shoot Napoleon Solo. Illya clubbed this one with the butt of the gun he had picked up.
An instant later the two agents stood with guns leveled on the other two guards. Both guards raised their hands in fear as they looked down at their fallen comrades.
"Not a sound!" Illya hissed.
The two terrified guards nodded. Quickly the two agents stripped clothes and belts from all four men and bound and gagged them tightly. Then they put them inside the door and locked it with keys they had found on the leader's belt.
"They'll keep," Solo said.
They listened in the dark corridor. But any sounds that might have been heard had been covered by the noise of machinery in the underground factory. No one had heard anything.
"All right. Now let's see what Rand and Danton are talking about," Solo said. "Put on a white smock. It might help."
"And this time let's try to stay free," Illya said.
"I'm not worried about us," Solo said, "I'm worried about that machine. In THRUSH'S hands?"
"It won't be," Illya said.
Solo nodded and led the silent way back along the underground passages. They reached the area of the large factory room and peered in through the open doors. The men at work were all busy with their tasks. One or two looked up to see the white-smocked men pass by, and returned to their work unconcerned. Laboratory workers were always passing.
They moved faster through the section where the doors stood open into laboratories. Once a man called to them, but they mumbled the name of Rand and passed on. The man, probably some supervisor, did not come after them.
At last they reached the ramp upward. They held their heads down and went up toward the warehouse level. Twice men passed them, but did not stop. They reached the door through which they had been taken, and Illya listened with his ear against the door.
"What do you hear?" Solo said.
"Rand and Danton, quite a way off. I don't hear anything else," Illya said.
"We could walk right into a hornet's nest," Solo said. "This time we've got to get that machine first."
"More than that, Napoleon. We can't just destroy the machine; we've got to find out who has the outer-space defense system data, too."
"That means we've got to get Rand alive," Solo agreed.
Illya suddenly looked along the corridor.
"Someone's coming, Napoleon!"
The two agents looked around for cover. There was no cover. Not even a door or a closet. At the far end of the corridor, in the opposite direction from the ramp that led down to the hidden under ground factory, two men suddenly appeared. They were both wearing the same white laboratory smocks—and each carried a tray.
"Quick, Illya!" Solo whispered, and began to walk openly straight toward the two men with the trays.
Illya followed Solo. They walked boldly along straight toward the approaching men. As they got closer they saw that there were sandwiches on one tray and a bottle of whisky, water, soda and glasses on the other tray. When they were only a few feet in front of the two men, one of the men suddenly spoke.