"Shut up. You ain't supposed to be talking at all. Go to sleep."
"I want to speak to Mr. Morazzoni. It's very important and you are going
to be dreadfully sorry if you don't bring him."
"Larry can't be bothered. He's getting ready to go on down to the city."
"I know what he's doing, but if he doesn't listen to me, he's going to
be very unhappy and probably full of bullet holes."
The guard came over to her door and stared at her for a long moment. He
checked the lock on her door and then those of Dr. Braun and Ross
Wooley. "We'll see who's going to be sorry," he grunted. He turned and
left.
* * *
When he returned it was with both Larry Morazzoni and Paul Teeter, Dan
Crowley's political adviser. Morazzoni growled, "What goes on? You
squares looking for trouble?"
Patricia said testily, "I suggest you let us out of here, Mr. Morazzoni.
If you do, we pledge not to press kidnaping charges against you. I
believe you are aware of the penalty in this State."
"You trying to be funny?"
"Definitely not, Mr. Morazzoni," Patricia said icily. "Daniel Crowley
bragged to us of your plans for tonight."
The hoodlum muttered a contemptuous obscenity under his breath.
Paul Teeter, the heavy-set southerner said jovially, "But what has this
to do with releasing you, Miss O'Gara? Admittedly Dan is a bit
indiscreet but...." He let the sentence fade away.
"Yes," Patricia said. "I realize that he is a nonprofessional in your
ranks, and have little doubt that eventually you would have surmounted
whatever precautions he has taken to keep you in underling positions.
That's beside the point. The point is that by this time Daniel Crowley
has, ah, infiltrated the institution you expected to burglarize tonight.
He is inside, and you are still outside. There are four guards also
inside, whom he is expected to eliminate before you can join him."
"He told you everything all right, the jerk," Larry said coldly. "But so
what?"
"So Dan Crowley had us make up a new amount of serum tonight and tested
it on a chimpanzee in the lab. If you'll go and check, you'll
undoubtedly find the chimp is again visible."
The gunman looked at Paul Teeter blankly.
The other's reactions were quicker. "The serum lasts for twelve hours,"
Teeter barked.
"This batch lasts for three hours," Patricia said definitely. "Your
friend Crowley is suddenly going to become visible right before the eyes
of those four guards--and long before he had expected to eliminate
them."