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'The window's open,' Graves said. 'It must be hot as hell in there.'

'That's right,' the man said. 'The window has been open ever since Wright showed up. An hour ago.'

'What're those wooden things on the floor?'

'Sawhorses,' the man said. 'We figure they had paperhangers in there. Paperhangers use sawhorses. But there's something funny going on.'

'How do you mean?'

'Well, look at the sawhorses closely. They have indentations cut in them.'

Graves looked. He could see a broadly curved, U-shaped cut in each sawhorse. 'Why?'

'Beats me. They just cut them a while back.'

'You mean, specially?'

'That's right. They've been doing a lot of unusual things in there. Every so often Wright sticks his hand out the window, and he's got this whirling thing, like a kid's whirling top... He sticks his hand out there for a minute, then pulls it back.'

Graves looked away from the window. 'Describe it exactly.'

'It has four arms,' the man said, 'and at the end of each is a cup, to catch the wind. Sort of a weathervane. But there isn't much wind today.'

'Anemometer,' Graves said.

'A what?'

'It measures wind velocity.' Why should Wright want to know the wind velocity outside the window of his girl friend's apartment?,

'Why does he care about that?' the man said.

Graves shook his head and turned back to the window, examining the sawhorses through the binoculars. Each sawhorse with its single indentation in the crossbar.

Four sawhorses.

Two tanks. Of course! The crossbars would have indentations so that the tank wouldn't roll off. 'You seen any tanks in there?'

'Nothing like that,' the man said. 'All we've seen is a lot of mechanical equipment.'

'What kind of mechanical equipment?' Graves peered through the binoculars. He didn't see any equipment at all.

'It looks like pumps and stuff,' the man said. 'It was right in the middle of the floor.' He glanced through the binoculars, then shook his head. 'They must have moved it to another room. They had some electronic equipment, too.'

'What kind?'

'Looked like a hi-fi, maybe.' Graves thought of several nasty remarks, but said nothing. A hi-fi, for Christ's sake. 'That guy in there must be pretty weird,' the man said.

Graves turned on him. 'He is not weird. He is a brilliant and a dedicated man. He is engaged in a complicated plot and he is daring -' He broke off. The man was staring. 'He's not weird,' Graves finished, and returned to the binoculars.

As he watched, John Wright stepped to the window and extended his hand. He held an anemometer; the cups spun lazily. After a moment Wright withdrew the instrument and returned to directing the other men in the room.

Graves turned away from the window and made some calls.

'Department of Defence.'

'Public Information, please.'

'Just a minute, please.' There was a clicking.

'Public Information, Miss Conover speaking.'

'I'd like to talk to Lieutenant Morrison, please.'

'One minute, please.' More clicking.

'Lieutenant Morrison's office.'

'John Graves calling for Lieutenant Morrison.'

'Just a minute, I'll see if he's in.' Still more clicking.

'Morrison here. What is it?' As usual, Morrison sounded harried.

'Pete, this is John Graves at State. I'm in San Diego, and I need some information.'

'Shoot.'

'Pete, I need to know what a code word represents. The code word is Binary 75 slash 76.'

Morrison coughed in surprise. 'Where'd you hear that?'

'Pete, just tell me what it means.'

'Jesus, this is an open line.'

'I know it's an open line. Tell me what it means.'

'Where are you calling from?'

'San Diego.'

'Jesus, you must be out of your mind.'

'I need the information, Pete. And I need it now.'

'Look,' Morrison said, 'if you don't mind me saying so, this is pretty irregular. You've just popped a -' He broke off again. 'Honestly,' he said, in his most honest, public-information officer's voice, 'I'd have to obtain clearances and confirmation of need-to-know from your department, and then I'd have to pass it on to the Army, and then -'

'Okay, fine.