“I said more important, girls, not more enjoyable.”
“Why should we help you?” Jerri asked. “You won’t even be nice to us.”
It was plain that patriotism and humanitarianism were words that wouldn’t register inside their pretty blonde heads. But without their help, my chances were nil.
“As the old saying goes,” I told them with a poker face, “You scratch mine, I’ll scratch yours.”
A pair of radiant smiles lit up the room. “You mean you will?” the twins chorused.
“If you’ll help me get into Warnow’s lab.”
Nodding in happy agreement, they each took a hand and led me toward a stack of multi-colored cushions where they quickly peeled their flimsy coverings. In a flash they were naked, striking various seductive poses among the cushions. I discovered that Terri had a tiny mole just below her left breast, and by this alone I was able to tell the twins apart.
It was the one time in my life that I was in a hurry to complete what is perhaps the mast fascinating of all human transactions. And so I set a new world’s record for removing the most clothing in the least time.
“Mmm, delicious,” Terri commented.
“I knew he’d have more than that old professor,” Jerri approved.
“Come lie here,” Terri directed, “right between us.”
Swiftly I kneeled and arranged myself in the classic position above Terri’s eager little body.
“I didn’t mean between me, but between us,” she said with a sighing little groan that seemed anything but a complaint.
“Are you objecting?” I asked her as I entered the gateway to paradise.
“Ohhh — nooo,” she moaned.
“Then hereafter, I’ll call the plays,” I told her, and plunged on, into the tunnel of love.
That was how it began, though in a very short time, we assumed an endless variety of gymnastic positions, most of them not covered in the marriage manuals.
After awhile we got so wrapped up in each other that Jerri said in a small, woeful voice, “I don’t really like playing seventy.”
I had been placed in an awkward position for conversation, but turning my head with a mighty effort I asked innocently, “What does that mean, Jerri? — playing seventy.”
“Lord, everyone knows that,” she answered peevishly. “Seventy is sixty-nine with one watching.”
I reached out to her and, with little coaxing, she became a third partner in one of the most complex, exotic and exhausting performances I can remember. And I remember quite a few.
Afterwards, as I began to dress quickly, the twins eyed me with happy expressions, punctuated by little smiles and winks of gratitude. It was Jerri who said with a long, happy sigh, “You know, I think we three would make a fantastic couple.”
But my thoughts were already absorbed with the problem of Warnow and company. “All right,” I said, “the fun and games are over. Now let’s see if we can’t find a way into Knox Warnow’s sanctum.”
They nodded, almost in unison. But their faces expressed no real interest.
“You do remember our little bargain?” I asked them.
“Yes,” said Terri with a frown. “But it might be dangerous to help you.”
“Besides,” Jerri added. “We have a lot to lose. They’re paying us more money than we’ve ever seen in our lives. When we leave here, we intend to use it to open a little dress shop.”
At that moment I had the decided impression that the twins were not nearly so dumb as they pretended to be.
“So you’re going to open a dress shop when you leave here,” I said. “And what makes you think that you ever will leave here? You’re prisoners, don’t you know that?”
Terri shook her head “We’re not prisoners at all. We come and go as we like. When we’re tired of being cooped up, we take walks all over the. place. And nobody stops us.”
“Of course,” I said. “You can go where you like because there’s no way out of this rock fortress except by air. But tell these people you want to quit and ask them to fly you out of here. That’s when you’ll find out what you should’ve guessed long ago — that you might as well be slaves in chains.”
Now I had their undivided attention. Their cute lit-tie faces had grown solemn, and they exchanged fearful glances.
“I didn’t risk my life to come here for laughs,” I went on hastily. These people intend to take over America and the whole world by atomic force. Their bombs are already placed in key cities of the U.S., ready to explode one by one if our country fails to meet their demands.”
I looked at my watch. “If I can’t get to Warnow, who is the only one who can trigger the devices, the first atomic bomb will destroy New York City and all its people in just over two hours.”
I nodded as they gaped in astonishment. “Yes, those are the facts. And so you gals can stop putting me on with the dumb blonde act, and get on with it. Because, aside from Warnow, who has denounced his country, we are the only three Americans in the midst of the enemy camp.
“And without me, you’ll never make it out of here alive.”
“Oh Jesus God,” said Terri. “What can we do to help?”
“I want the procedure used to get you two in and out of Warnow’s lab, living quarters and whatever. I want you to tell me anything you’ve seen in there that might give me a clue to his operation. And make it fast; the time to move is now!”
They both started to talk at once. “Hold it,” I said, “Terri, you begin.”
“There’s a relief guard,” she said. “But Marcus is on duty most of the time. He sleeps in that little room outside the professor’s door, which seems to be made of solid steel. And he alone escorts us back and forth. He presses a signal button and Warnow comes to the other side of the door, opens a flap and speaks through a kind of iron grill. There’s no key to that door; it opens from inside — and the professor never leaves for any reason.”
“Okay. What else?” I snapped. “What’s inside?”
“As you go in,” said Jerri, “there’s an office with a desk and a phone. The place is bare, no other furniture. But there are filing cabinets. And a large framed map of the U.S. that hangs on a wall near the desk. There’s another door leading from the office to—”
“Wait a minute!” Terri interrupted. “Behind that map, there’s a wall safe. Well, not really a safe. But a square cubbyhole.”
“How would you know that?” I asked her.
“Because one time, as I was going in, I saw it. The map had been taken off its hook and was sitting on the floor below this hole in the wall about a foot square. Warnow had papers spread over his desk that he must’ve been reading while he waited for me. I guess he’d forgotten to put the papers away and cover the space with the map.”
She chuckled. “Or else he thinks I’m too dumb to know a hole in the wall from you-know-what. Anyway, I pretended I didn’t notice, and at the time I wasn’t especially curious. Next time he sent for me, the map was in place, no papers around.”
“How does he tell you apart?” I asked, merely to confirm my educated guess.
“I have a mole right here,” Terri said with only the hint of a smile as she pointed to the area below her left breast. “And as you see, we wear different costumes to distinguish us.”
“All right, Jerri, go on. What’s in the room next to the office?”
“Well, it’s really one big room divided by a curtain. On one side is the bed, a couple of pieces of furniture, and a bathroom that connects to the office. On the other — don’t ask me. I’ve never seen it I think it contains some kind of equipment. Oh yes, and next to the bed there’s another of those inside phones.”