Sight Unseen Read Free Page A

it—at night, with no moon or stars.”
    Lockwood whistled. “But who would—that’s something! But who would want it besides the government?”
    “America has enemies,” Myra said.
    “And they’d love to get their hands on it. It could put them a couple years ahead in their own programs,” Greer said. “And
     put us six months behind.”
    “And you think maybe they got it last night?” Lockwood asked.
    “We are sure
one
of them got it last night,” Myra answered.
    “We’ll expect our reimbursement at once, Mr. Lockwood,” Dzeloski said. “Or you might say, since they had a hand in negotiating
     the insurance contract, the G-men will expect it.”
    “They’re on their way up from Washington now,” Myra said.
    “We’re out of funds till July 1, the beginning of the fiscal year,” Greer said. “You will pay in ninety-six hours, won’t you?
     We were ready to make delivery to the Air Corps, when we were to receive $125,000.”
    Lockwood held his hand up. “Look, we don’t want to hold up America’s military affairs, but we have our procedures. First,
     I have to make sure there was a product, and then that it was in fact stolen—not misplaced in a closet someplace. And then
     that perhaps someone here, a member of this firm, didn’t steal—hold it! hold it!—misplace it, let’s say—”
    “Mr. Lockwood,” Dzeloski interrupted. Lockwood saw that he was flustered and shaky. “We
have
to have that money—it’s not just that
we’ll
be wiped out in weeks without it—although we will. If we fold, this country will go from being a year or two ahead of certain
     European countries to being twelve to eighteen months behind.”
    “We’ve
got
to build a replacement,” Myra said, “At once.”
    “Or get the bombsight back,” Lockwood countered.
    “That’s the G-men’s job,” Greer said.
    “Well, if Transatlantic finds it,” Lockwood said, “then we save ourselves a lot of money, don’t we?”
    Lockwood paused to let this sink in. He had been in this spot a thousand times before with clients, and he could see from
     the way they set their faces and snapped glances at each other that they were furious with his failure to pay at once.
    He stood up and said, “Would one of you show me where a bombsight sleeps when its keepers go home for the night?”
    With ill-concealed anger, Myra Rodman and Stanley Greer took Lockwood to Area C on the third floor, from which the bombsight
     had been stolen.
    Area C was a long room, thirty by sixty feet, with design tables at one end and a full machine shop at the other. This morning
     it was deserted, but Myra said it was usually full of engineers and machinists. “The G-men asked me not to let them in and
     trample down the evidence.”
    “What evidence?” Lockwood asked.
    She shrugged. “Got me.” She led the way to a metal table about three feet high. “Here’s where the Northstar 3 Bombsight sat
     when we left last night at 7:00. When the machinists came in this morning at 8:00, it had disappeared.”
    “How can you get in and out of here? Besides the elevator we came up in?” Lockwood asked.
    Greer said, “That’s just it. The elevator’s the only way.”
    Lockwood frowned. “The
only
way! What about the fire codes? An elevator isn’t a fire exit.”
    Myra smiled a thin smile. “Patchogue doesn’t have a fire code. We built Areas A, B, and C according to the government’s notions
     of security.”
    “So, no windows and just the elevator to get in and out,” Lockwood said. “This thing had to go down the elevator. How’s it
     operated? You used a key when we came up?”
    “That’s right,” Myra said. “It’s run off a key switch.”
    “Who has keys?”
    “Well, Myra and I do,” Greer said. “We give our keys to the elevator operator during the day.”
    “One of us has to be here on duty whenever the operator’s running the elevator,” Myra said.
    “And those are the only two keys?” Lockwood pressed.
    Myra and