Spartan Planet - A. Bertram Chandler [27]
"But I don't know anything about refrigeration, sir."
"Alessis should be able to teach you all that a common laborer should know this afternoon."
"But the other helots, sir. They'll know that I'm not a regular member of the gang."
"They won't. Alessis has just recruited green labor from at least half a dozen outlying villages. You'll be the one big-city boy in the crowd. Oh, this will please you. Your friend Heraklion will not be in the crèche. He has been called urgently to his estate. It seems that a fire of unknown origin destroyed his farm outbuildings."
"Unknown origin, sir?"
"Of course."
"But what has the Andronicus warehouse to do with the crèche?"
"I don't know yet. But I hope to find out."
Brasidus returned to the barracks in Diomedes' car, changed there into civilian clothes. He had been given the address of Alessis' office, walked there briskly. The engineer—a short, compact man in a purple-trimmed tunic—was expecting him. He said, "Be seated, Lieutenant. And I warn you now that tomorrow, on the job, I shall be addressing you as 'Hey, you!' "
"I'm used to plainclothes work, sir."
"As a helot?"
"Yes. As a helot."
"As a stupid helot?"
"If that is what's required."
"It will be. You're going to wander off by yourself and get lost. You'll be tracing the gas-supply main—that will be your story if anybody stumbles on you. I was supposed to be giving you an afternoon's tuition in refrigeration techniques, but that will not be necessary. All I ask of my helots is that they lift when I tell them to lift, put down when I tell them to put down, and so on and so forth. They're the brawn and I'm the brain. Get it?"
"Yes, sir."
"Good. Can you read a plan?"
"I can."
"Splendid." Alessis got up, opened a drawer of his desk and pulled out a large roll of tough paper. He flattened it out. "Now, this is the basement of the Andronicus warehouse. Power supply comes in here," his stubby forefinger jabbed, "through a conduit. Fans here, compressors here—all the usual. The cold chambers are all on the floor above—with the exception of this one. Deep freeze—very deep freeze, in fact."
"There's no reason why it shouldn't be in the basement."
"None at all. And there's no reason why it shouldn't be up one floor, with the other chambers. But it's not its location that's odd."
"Then what is?"
"It's got two doors, Brasidus. One opening into the basement, the other one right at the back. I found this second door, quite by chance, when I was checking the insulation."
"And where does it lead to?"
"That is the question. I think, although I am not sure, that there is a tunnel behind it. And I think that the tunnel runs to the crèche."
"But why?"
Alessis shrugged. "That's what our mutual friend Diomedes wants to find out."
Chapter 13
A BLACK, WINDOWLESS CUBE, ugly, forbidding, the Andronicus warehouse stood across the cobbled street from the gracefully proportioned crèche complex. To its main door, a few minutes before 0800 hours, slouched the gang of workmen employed by Alessis, among them Brasidus. He was wearing dirty, ill-fitting coveralls, and he was careful not to walk with a military stride, proceeded with a helot's shamble.
The other men looked at him, and he looked at them. He saw a bunch of peasantry from the outlying villages, come to the city to (they vaguely hoped) better themselves. They saw a man like themselves, but a little cleaner, a little better fed, a little more intelligent. There were grunted self-introductions. Then, "You'll be the foreman?" asked one of the workmen.
"No," admitted Brasidus. "He'll be along with Alessis."
The engineer arrived in his hovercar, his foreman riding with him. They got out of the vehicle and the foreman went to the