"But about Ultrablack," Bob said, frowning. "I know you people have meetings after Light-of-Day goes off. How you do it is beyond me, with the streets alive with Goons, and darkness everywhere, even indoors."
"If there were a chance of rescuing Andra when tonight's Ultrablack came on, I'd tell you, Bob," Frank said sincerely. "It'd give you the chance you didn't have yesterday to do something for her. I think you can be trusted. I trusted you enough, just now, to tell you about the tapped phone."
"You had to," Lennick said with a shrug. "Or else I'd be leery about believing you knew so much about Stanton's private call."
"We set that up ever since Stanton started appearing in our Hive-located scripts. He's always so busy, keeping in touch with his office between takes, that we've kept one jump ahead of the Goons, on occasion. It must drive him nuts, wondering about the raids that never came off."
Lennick got to his feet. "I wish we didn't have to just sit here this way! At this very moment, Andra may be still uncaptured. If she could be warned—"
"She could, if top-level privilege didn't entitle young Bodger's fiancee to an unlisted number. You can go up there if you want, but—I know too much about the movement to risk it. If you're caught, it's unimportant—insofar as the sum of your knowledge, I mean. But I don't dare let myself be taken."
Frank paused, and cocked his head, listening. Lennick, seeing him, did the same. A keening wail penetrated into the depths of the office. "Sirens!" Frank said. "It means there'll be an emergency Ultrablack in fifteen minutes. Or even less, if we did not hear them from the very beginning...."
"You think it has to do with Andra?" asked Lennick.