Halsey merely stared at me as though he had no intention of answering. And then the audiphone on the desk buzzed.
"This is Halsey," he said. "Yes, I have them here. Bring them—did you say bring them?"
We could not hear the answering voice, for Halsey had the muffler in contact.
"No, I would prefer not to come. I'm watching something. I'm at the Red Spark Cafe. Well, I'm going back to my office presently to wait there."
He continued in code. Like Snap, I had never had occasion to learn it. The words were a strange sounding staccato gibberish. He ended, "I will send them, Grantline. Very well, I'll tell them to locate him. At once, yes." He closed off the audiphone.
Halsey swung on us. "You're all right now?"
"Yes." I stood up, drawing Snap up with me. "What is wanted of us Colonel?"
"That's better, Gregg." He smiled, but he was still grim. "I wanted you here to wait for this call from the Conclave of Public Safety. It met at midnight. They have ordered both of you there."
"That's a secret meeting, isn't it?" asked Snap. "There was no report of it over the air tonight."
"Yes. Secret." He was leading us to the door. "They won't need you for more than half an hour. When they finish, come back to my office. You can come openly." He stood with his finger on the door lever. "Good-by, lads. Foley will lead you to the service room. You are to take a mail cylinder for Postal Switch-station 20. They'll re-route you from there to the conclave auditorium."