A car moved rapidly through the streets of the city. At the wheel was a man dressed in a captain's uniform. The machine whirled onto the highway that led toward the factory. A barricade, lighted by torch-lanterns, barred his path. A sentry with a bayoneted gun stood to one side, signaling a halt.
The car slowed.
"Captain Ted Taylor, ordnance department!" the captain said, extending his pass toward the sentry.
The sentry signaled him on.
The car came within a stone's throw of the factory, where it turned into a parking lot. The officer climbed out, noiselessly, and moved into the shadows.
Once Captain Taylor had been a scientist, but that was long ago, before wars had made biology very unexciting.
Out of the shadows a second figure moved. He was a short, stocky man, compared with the slender, graceful figure of the captain.
"Ps-st! Captain!"
"Masters!"
"You got my short-wave call, I see. I was afraid you would be asleep. He came late, but he's in the tunnel now."