"No," she said. "You better take a group up to hold off the police, Dirk. Just in case they get here before we can get underway."
Dirk frowned and then said, "Okay." Glumly, he led some of the men toward the shaft.
The girl motioned for one of the others to take Steel. "Bring him along with us. Come on, Dad." She took her father's arm. "We've got one hour to make our getaway."
Steel's appointed guardian, built like a bear with the hair shaved off, took his arm, twisted it behind him and dug a thumb into his elbow—torturous stop-and-go button. Another had finally brought the short-haired victim of Steel's punch back on duty. They all followed the Harmon family through the panel and down a long passageway.
IV
Steel was about ready to give up. He knew he wouldn't be even faintly surprised at anything else that happened here. He clung to one thought, a praying hope that the police could get here before whatever getaway the gang planned. But, with the crushing ice balls and those weapon-snatchers, Dirk could hold the police off indefinitely, and with this super-speed the gang apparently had at their disposal—the speed that could get Dirk back and forth from Venus in a matter of seconds—they'd be gone long before the police got started.
Steel was so deep in these thoughts, he barely considered what his own fate might be....
The passage ended in a place that made New York's central power plant look like a child's play room. Fifty-foot generators towered in the center of the huge room and along the walls were banks of vacuum tubes flashing like fireworks. The group halted before a master switch panel that equalled the Terminal's dispatch board.
"Check the coils, Tom. Get at those insulator switches, Joe." Dr. Harmon quickly assumed command here. "Lois and I'll finish keying in the main control group." Along the rows of tubes and moving in and out of the generator housings, Steel saw other scores of workers, busy as ants at whatever devil's work this was.