“No, I suppose not. Well, the best for him, the worst for me. I’m on my way to the morning slop at the mush bucket.”
I hurried back down the corridor the way I had come. Now that I knew where to find Warnow, I had to scheme a way to reach him. As I pondered this problem, I rounded a curve and, too late, saw a figure approaching in the distance. I could see by the uniform that it was one of the soldiers.
Casually, as if I had forgotten something, I turned back. He called after me but I played deaf and dumb. Around the curve, out of the soldiers view, I sprinted back toward Warnow’s sanctum. But “footsteps approached from that direction. I paused. That would be the food-carrying workman returning, another soldier behind him at Warnow’s door.
I made a fast decision and bolted for the one door I had seen leading off the corridor.
The door was locked, so I dug under the workman’s coveralls into my own pocket and came up with a thin springy strip of steel. Stronger and more flexible than the traditional piece of plastic, this device quickly sprung the simple lock.
With the workman still approaching from one direction and the soldier from the other, I shoved the door open and darted inside.
Twenty
It took a few seconds for the plush interior of that room to register. There were no rough surfaces, no drab colors. In soft textures, there were cushions, divans, beds, lounges — all in a carnival of rainbow hues.
“You might knock at least,” came a definitely female voice from somewhere off to my left
“The great scientist must be up early today,” said another voice from the other direction.
When my eyes had adjusted to the dim light, I discovered that the voices came from an area of satiny beds and furry cushions in recessed ovals at each side of the room. As I watched, tousled blonde heads appeared left and right, followed by bodies like college cheerleaders. Blonde number one wore a pink nightgown short enough to leave no doubt that she was born a blonde. Number two wore harem pajamas transparent enough to confirm that she was also a genuine blonde.
“Hope I’m not intruding,” I said.
“I’m Terri,” said blonde number one in the pink shorty.
“And I’m Jerri,” said number two in the harem pajamas.
“Both spelled with an ‘i’.” Terri explained
“An essential bit of information,” I said.
“We’re twins,” Jerri offered.
“Another startling revelation,” I said.
The girls left their beds and came to look me over.
“I’ve never seen you before,” said Terri.
“You don’t really belong here, do you?” Jerri added.
“You blew in like a storm,” said Terri. “I think you’re being chased and you want us to hide you. How exciting!”
“You’re not a policeman, are you?” said Jerri. “We don’t hide policemen.”
“I’m not a policeman,” I assured them. “What I am and what I do — it’s too much to explain in less than an hour, and I don’t have thirty seconds. But you might say that I’m one of the good guys — and no kidding at all — I need your help.”
Just then we heard voices and went to listen at the door.
“Why did you turn and go back when I called to you?” This was the voice of the soldier who had shouted at me in the corridor.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about. I just dropped off the professor’s breakfast. I didn’t see you until just now,” the workman answered.
“You were coming this way a minute ago, then you turned around and went back.”
“Not me.”
“No one came in with you?”
“No. You can ask Yuri at the professor’s door.” “I will. I’m on my way to relieve him now. And if you’re lying — never mind. On your way, comrade!”
Sound of the workman’s footsteps moving off down the corridor. A jangle of keys outside the door.
I flattened against the wall on the hinged side of the door, the Luger in my hand. The twins stared at the pistol with wide cornflower eyes, then looked at each other with suppressed giggles. What passed through their tiny brains at that moment could mean life or death for a whole lot of people.
The guard unlocked the door and pushed it partly open.
“Well, well, you girls are up early,” he said.
“What of it?” Terri said.
“We can get up any time we want to,” Jerri added.
“Up and down, up and down, that’s your whole life,” the guard said with a snort of laughter.
“Which one of us does the professor want this morning?” Terri asked.
“Or is it both of us again?” Jerri put in.
“Neither yet. He just got his breakfast, and with him, work is first. Then food — and women for dessert.”
“Then what are you doing here, Marcus?” Terri said. “You are not supposed to enter our room unless the professor sends you for us.”
“I’m looking for a man,” he said with an air of apology.
Giggles from the girls answered him.
“I thought I saw a workman in the corridor,” Marcus went on in a stern voice. “One who didn’t belong. I thought he might have come in here.”
“We haven’t seen any man,” Terri said innocently.
“It’s such a disappointment,” Jerri added disgustedly.
“I’m not one to see phantoms,” Marcus said. I heard him take a tentative step forward. “It will be awhile before the professor finishes his breakfast and sends for one of you. Since I am already here, perhaps we could amuse each other with a little—”
“Absolutely not!” Terri broke in. “Our contract says we are here for Dr. Warnow exclusively. We’ve been warned not to play games with any others.”
“But well think it over,” Jerri said mischievously.
“Teasers,” the guard said. He backed out and the girls closed the door. The lock snapped.
“Now we really are in trouble,” Terri giggled.
“But what fun,” said her sister.
“Big thanks,” I said, and slipped the Luger back into its holster. I grinned. “Maybe I’ll find time to repay you. Is it true that you are here only to… uh… service “Warnow?”
“You heard what we told Marcus, we’re just wind-up toys for the American scientist,” Terri answered.
“And considering the kind of a man he is, that doesn’t take up much of our time,” Jerri said, and moved closer to me.
“How did you get into this?” I asked.
“You mean what are nice girls like us doing in a place like this?”
“Something like that.”
“We answered an ad in a San Francisco underground paper,” Jerri said. “ ‘Congenial girls wanted for travel, excitement, adventure.’ ”
“And obviously, you got the job.”
“Sure. There must have been fifty other girls, but we had the advantage of being twins.”
“That isn’t all you had,” I said, taking note of their generously displayed endowments.
“I like you,” Terri said.
“I’ll bet you’re a lot more man than the professor, too,” Jerri added.
“His sexual talents, or lack of them, don’t interest me,” I said seriously. “But he happens to be the most dangerous man alive, a threat to the U.S. and the whole world. I’ll spare you the gruesome details, but believe me, at this moment there is nothing more important to the future of the human race than for me to get into Warnow’s laboratory. And I want you girls to help me.”,
“You mean that silly old laboratory is more important to you than this?” Terri said, lifting her shorty nightgown even higher.
“And this?” Jerri chimed in, thumbing the waistband of her pajama bottoms and sliding them halfway down her rounded hips.