"Eric Frank Russell - With a Strange Device" - читать интересную книгу автора (Russell Eric Frank)

granite blocks sealed by and faced with satin-smooth aluminous cement. There was not a toe-hold on it,
even for a spider. Beneath the base of the wall, thirty-six feet down, ran a sensitive microphone system,
wired in duplicate, intended to thwart human moles who might try to burrow their way in. Those who had
designed the wall were firmly convinced that fanatics werecapable of anything and that nothing is too
far-fetched to justify counter-measures.



In the great length of this quadrilateral wall were only two breaks, a narrow one at the front for the entry
and exit of personnel, a wider one at back for trucks bringing supplies or removing products. Both gaps
were protected by three forty-ton hardened steel doors, as massive as dock gates, mechanically
operated and incapable of standing open more than one at a time. Each door was attended by its own
squad of guards, big, tough, sour-faced men who, in the opinions of all those who had dealings with
them, had been specially chosen for their mean, suspicious natures.



Exit from this place was less difficult than entry. Theoutgoer invariably armed with a pass-out permit,
merely suffered the delay of waiting for each door behind him to close before the one in front of him
could open. Movement in the opposite direction, inward, was the real chore. If one were an employee
well-known to theguards one could get through subject to tedious waits at three successive gates and a
probable check on whether one's pass - which was changed at unpredictable intervals - was of the
current pattern.



But the stranger had it tough no matter how important his bearing or how authoritative the documents he
presented. He suffered a long and penetrating inquisition at the hands of the first squad of guards. If the
questioners were not thoroughly satisfied, or in no mood to be satisfied with anything in heaven or on
earth, the visitor was liable to be searched, which search included close inspection of his physical
apertures. Anything found that was deemed suspicious, superfluous, unreasonable, inexplicable, or not
strictly necessary for the purpose of the visit, was confiscated in spite of all protest and returned to the
owner on his way out.



And that was only the first stage. The second guard squad specialized in concocting objections to entry
not thought up by the first squad. Nor were they above belittling the search proficiency of the first guards
and insisting upon a second search. This could and sometimes did include removal of the dental plates
and examination of the naked mouth, a tactic inspired by the known development of a camera half the
size of a cigarette.



Guard squad number three was composed of chronic sceptics. Its members had an infuriating habit of
detaining any incoming stranger while they checked with squads one and two as to whether this, that or
the other question had been asked, and, if so, what reply had been given. They had a tendency to doubt
the truth of some replies and throw scorn upon the plausibility of others. Full details of searches were also
demanded by them and any omission in search-technique was made good then and there, even if the
victim had to strip to the skin for the third time. Guard squad number three also possessed but seldom