My grandfather made provisions which were inelastic and have not worn well with time. It will require a court order to have Norris removed. In the circumstances, I shall seek it."
Nim contributed little to the discussion. Something, somewhere in his mind, was bothering him. He wasn't sure what.
* * *
Two days later, Harry London returned to Nim.
"Got some news you'll like about that Norris case."
Nim looked up from the latest draft of his NEI convention speech. "Such as?"
"Ian Norris has made a statement. He swears your friend Paul Sherman Yale knew nothing whatever about what was going on. So the old boy's story is confirmed."
Nim asked curiously, "Why would Norris make a statement?"
"Deals within wheels. I'm not sure the scales of justice are dead level, but here's the way it is: Norris' lawyer has been talking with the D.A.
First, it's been agreed GSP & L will be paid what's owing-or rather, what we estimate is owing, which is a helluva lot of money. After that, Norris will plead 'no contest' to a charge of criminal stealing under Section 591."
“What's that?"
'Part of the California Penal Code. Covers stealing from public utilities like us and the phone companies, and allows for a fine and a prison term of up to - five- -years. - Anyway, the- D.A. will -ask for the maximum fine but will agree not to press for imprisonment. Put it all together and there'll be no evidence presented in court, so the name of the Yale Family Trust won't be in the record."
Harry London stopped.
"Getting information from you," Nim complained, "is like drawing corks.
Tell me the rest of that under-the-counter deal."
"Some of it I don't know; probably never will. One thing that comes through is that our Mr. Yale has powerful friends. The D.A. bas been under pressure to get the case settled and keep the Yale name under wraps." London shrugged. "I suppose that's best for dear old GSP & L."
"Yes," Nim agreed, "it's best."
Afterward, with London gone, Nim sat, silent, thinking. It was true: there would have been harmful publicity for the company if one of its directors and its official spokesman had been intervened in a case of power theft, however innocently. Nim supposed he should feel relieved. Yet something continued to nag at him, as it had for two whole days, a burr in his subconscious, a conviction that he knew something important if he could only remember what.
There was something else. This time not subconscious.
Why should Mr. Justice Yale have made such a heavy-handed point -as he did at the meeting with Eric Humphrey, Harry London and Nim-about never having heard of power theft? Of course, it was entirely possible be hadn't. True, there had been reports in the press and an occasional mention on TV, but no one person could be expected to know everything in the news, even a Supreme Court judge. Just the same, the insistence had seemed-to Nim-overdone.
He returned to his first thought: the nagging doubt. What in hell was it that he knew? Maybe if he didn't try so Hard it would drop quietly into his mind.
He continued working on his speech for the National Electric Institute convention, only four days away.
16
A day of glory nears!
The valiant people's army, Friends of Freedom, fighting the vile capitalists who keep amerika in chains, will strike a blow to be acclaimed in history.
All preparations are A-okay for countdown.
Georgos Winslow Archambault, writing in his journal, hesitated.
Then, using his stub of pencil (it was getting uncomfortably short and the would have to discard it soon, Gandhi's precepts or not), he crossed out the last four words. They had capitalist overtones, he realized, as he substituted:
have been brilliantly executed by the Friends of Freedom high command.
Better. Much better! He went on writing.
The people's enemies, consorting under the infamous, fascist-front banner of the National Electric Institute, begin assembling in two days' time.
They are in for a grand surprise-and a deserved punishment.
Georgos smiled as he put the pencil stub down and rested from composing, which, as usual, tired him mentally. Standing, he surveyed the basement workshop, now jammed tightly with new supplies and equipment. He stretched his lean, lithe body. Then he dropped to the floor in a space he had deliberately kept clear and did forty push-ups rapidly. It pleased Georgos that he sailed through the exercise easily and his breathing was normal at the end. Three days from now he might be glad of his physical fitness.
He would get back to the journal in a minute. With significant history in the making, it must not be neglected because some day it should find an honored place in the archives of revolution.
He reflected: Everything for the impending operation was knitting together perfectly-planning, supplies, the logistics of getting explosive and incendiary bombs into the Christopher Columbus Hotel. The first set of bombs (containing high explosive) would detonate at 3 am during the second night of the NEI convention, the fire bombs from five to ten minutes later. Both sets of bombs, disguised as fire extinguishers, would be placed in position the preceding day-roughly sixteen hours before detonation.
Thanks to Georgos' resourceful leadership, all was proceeding like . .. he groped for a metaphor . . . like those excellent clockwork mechanisms Davey Birdsong bought in Chicago and delivered here.
Georgos had revised his earlier opinions about Birdsong. Now he felt admiration and love for the big, bearded man.
Not only was Birdsong's original idea sheer genius, but in helping implement it he was taking active risks. In addition to the shopping trip to Chicago, Birdsong had helped to buy up fire extinguishers locally, a few at a time from different sources. In the basement workshop there were now almost three dozen-ample for the Friends of Freedom plan. Georgos had been cautious in bringing them to the house, mostly after dark. He had taken one calculated risk in delivering six extinguishers in daylight-he urgently needed the space in his VW van to pick up more -but had surveyed the street carefully first- then moved quickly, and was satisfied afterward that he had not been observed.
As well as collecting the thirty-odd extinguishers, Georgos had already done the needed work on half of them. First he had emptied the original contents, then machined the insides of the casings to weaken them. After that, in those which were to be fire bombs, be inserted plastic bottles filled with gasoline, plus explosive charges with detonators, and timing mechanisms. In the case of the high explosive bombs, which would block off exits from the hotel, he substituted four pounds of dynamite for the gasoline.
Soon, when he had finished writing his journal, he would continue with the remaining extinguishers. It would be necessary to work steadily through the next forty-eight hours-and with great care because the amount of explosive now in the workshop was sufficient to wipe out the entire block if anything went wrong. But Georgos had confidence in his own ability and that he could finish in time.
His thin, ascetic face lighted in gleeful contemplation as be recalled Birdsong's words when they first discussed their plan to block off escape from the hotel, then start fierce fires on the upper floors: "If you do it right, not one person on those upper floors will leave that building alive."
A further plus for Birdsong: He had come through with all the money Georgos asked for, even though the cost of everything had been greater than expected.
Then there was the diversion Birdsong had planned. It would help Georgos, aided by the other freedom fighters, to get the bombs safely into the hotel.