Eventually it was his turn. They rolled each finger in ink and made a card. They put him in front of a camera.
"This is a G-2," somebody said. "Henry, you got any Intelligence blanks?"
They didn't. A man went out and was gone a long time. He came back with the proper I.D. blanks for an Intelligence officer. They typed it out, put his picture and a thumbprint on it and laminated it. They gave him his I.D.
They pushed him over to another part of the armory. There was a row of typewriters along the wall. A single officer, a colonel, was sitting at a single desk in a cleared space. He was beefy and perspiring. His desk was piled two feet thick with loose sheets of paper. Men were sitting on their baggage all around. Aside from the colonel and the enlisted men at the typewriters, Heller was the only one in uniform.
Jet asked one of the waiting men, "What are we doing here?"
"We're waiting for our orders so we can be shipped off to camp." He waved a hand toward the single colonel at the single desk. "Fatty there might or might not get it sorted out tonight. You're in the army now. Hurry up and wait."
Heller glanced at his watch. It was well past midnight. Saturday was here. He had to find out about Izzy. He had to get out of this.
He looked at the colonel perspiring away at his desk. He looked at the typists along the wall.
It was terribly hot in the place. The only cooling they had was a huge fan on a column stand and it was idling away blowing air at an angle toward the ceiling.
Heller walked over to the typists. As he was in uniform, they didn't seem to mind his reading over their shoulders.
They were typing orders for drafts of men to this place and that. They were very backlogged.
Heller saw a corporal coming from the fingerprint area. He saw him put a sheaf of papers down beside the typewriter of an enlisted girl. Heller drifted over.
Heller hoped his own papers would be amongst them. Maybe he could intercept them and do something. He walked over to the girl but just as he was beside her, she got up and walked over to the colonel's desk and laid some papers down.
Jet looked at the file carbon of what she had just typed. It was a list of men being ordered to Camp Dix. The original had just been delivered to the colonel's desk. The name, WISTER, Jerome Terrance, 2nd Lieutenant, Army of the United States, headed it!
He was too late!
He hastily put the carbon in his pocket but that wouldn't solve it.
He looked around. He went over to one of the men sitting on their baggage. He said, "Look at that poor colonel. He must be dying of the heat. You're in the army now. You must learn to respect your officers and help them."
The man looked at him. "Well, yes, sir," he said doubtfully.
"See that fan?" said Heller, pointing to the stand. "Turn it off, move it in closer, point it at the colonel and turn it on again. Got that?"
"Yessir," said the inductee.
He went over, turned the fan off, and moved the stand up beside the colonel. He pointed the fan level. He turned it on.
AN EXPLOSION OF PAPERS FLEW EVERYWHERE!
The colonel slammed his arms down and tried to contain the blizzard. Then he came up like a raging bull.
The inductee who had done it scuttled off, instantly lost in the mob.
The colonel kicked the fan over with a raving curse. Papers were still flying about the armory.
Heller rushed up. "Sir, I'll give you a hand!"
He promptly began to gather papers up, his fast eye taking in every piece as he stacked it.
The enlisted men had rushed from their typewriters and were helping out and Heller had to work fast.
In five minutes all the papers had again been collected. But Heller had the one that sent him to Fort Dix. He also had the typist carbon.
He went over to a desk whose typist had stepped out for a coffee break. He rapidly retyped the draft order to Camp Dix, omitting his own name.
He put more paper in the typewriter and, using the format he saw on other orders lying there, typed a set of orders which sent WISTER, Jerome Terrance, 2nd Lieutenant, Army of the United States, to the "Anti-Saboteur Unit" as officer in charge, detached duty, on his own cognizance and to report only to the Secretary of War.
He put his own file and the carbons in the proper baskets. He went down the line of typists and collected other orders to be signed and took the lot to the colonel.
"These are urgent, sir," he said.
The colonel grunted, mopped his brow and signed the lot.
Heller took them back to the typists, put his own in his pocket, picked up his duffel bag and walked out.
Ten minutes later, he stepped into the Silver Spirit Rolls Royce.
"Are you in the army now, sir?" said the chauffeur.
"I've already fought my first campaign," said Heller. "But the Empire State Building must be swarming with saboteurs. Take me there at once!"
NOW to find out what had happened to Izzy!
Driving through the deserted streets of very late night New York, Heller removed his tunic and snipped the ROTC shoulder patch away. He polished up the gold castles which represented Intelligence and burnished his single rank bars. He redonned the tunic and slipped his orders and I.D. into his side pocket.
He stopped the chauffeur on 34th Street and went forward to the Empire State Building side entrance on foot.
Two New York policemen were there, lounging on either side of the door. They looked at him suspiciously. He went on in.
At the elevators, the boy on night duty let him into the car. Jet gave the number of his floor. The boy turned around to him. "I can take you up there but they might not let you out of the car."
"Who's 'they'?" said Heller.
"New York City Police," said the boy. "They've been blocking off half of that floor since last Tuesday."
"Take me anyway," said Jet, very curious.
The boy shrugged and they shot upwards. The car stopped and the door opened.
In front of nun, in the floor lobby, sat FIVE cops! Four instantly came to their feet, clubs alert. The fifth, a police captain, sat at a desk which blocked the hall that led to all of Jet's and Izzy's offices.
Heller walked up to the captain. He wanted to get into these offices and look around: maybe Izzy had left him a note. "I have to search the place," he said.
"No, no," said the captain. "Nobody gets in or out of this area."
"What's the matter?" said Jet. "A bomb alert or something?"
"Worse than that," said the captain. "A bunch of desperate criminals are holed up in the Maysabongo Legation right down that hall."
"What have they done?" said Jet.
"Littering," said the captain, "and a court injunction has denied them the use of sidewalks."
"Aha!" said Jet. "The very people I must interrogate." He held out his Army I.D. and his orders.
The captain waved them aside. "Listen, Army, these people have immunity inside their legation. So far it's just a civil matter. But we can't let you pass. Their phones are shut off, so don't try any funny business."
"I must see them," said Heller.
"Sorry, Lieutenant. That's quite impossible. We've got our orders. Nobody in or out and that means nobody, including you. Come Monday, after war is declared, army commandos will hit this place and clean it out. But up to then, no dice. That's the way it is, Lieutenant. The Maysabongo Legation is sealed off. Get lost."
Heller said, "Can't I even go into the other offices?"
"Nope," said the captain. "This whole half-floor is shut and there's cops on every entrance. So bye-bye, Army. Sergeant, escort him out of the building." On the street again, Heller walked back and got into the Rolls.
At least he now knew where poor Izzy was!
"Take me home," he told the chauffeur.
Balmor, despite the hour, met him at the door. "Oh, sir, how opportune. Miss Joy is just this minute on the phone."