"I was in a squad car on a drunk and disorderly charge. The story came over their radio. They brought me here."
"All right, go ahead."
"General Mosby was smart, sir. He brought along some sleep gas."
"So? Not surprising." Bennington knew sleep gas was standard precaution for riot control.
"The mess hall is the center of the compound. Because of that, in its cellar are the furnaces which heat the other buildings."
"What does that mean?"
"You have a forced-draft, hot-air system here, sir—"
The telephone rang, the intercom spoke. "Warden, those governors are on the line."
"Our only chance," Bennington said, "and now is the time. They'll all be listening to this phone call over there."
He hoped the man with the rifle trained on him was very susceptible to sleep gas.