The First Team

Начало книги

When the alarm rang Hewlitt stayed in bed for a minute or two wondering if he should get up at all. The clock had not awakened him; he had been lying for some time with his eyes wide open, staring at the plaster ceiling that hung above his head. He had been a slave of the efficient little electric clock for so long that the idea of being able to ignore it had a certain hypnotic fascination. Then, carefully, he listened. Outside, through the open window of his bedroom, he could hear the familiar traffic noises; they told him that for the moment, at least, people were doing what they had always done.

Still he lay quietly, waiting. Then he caught the faint aroma of fresh bread from the Georgetown bakery close by. That settled it; things were at least normal enough that he would have to get out of bed without any more delay.

As he shaved he attempted to sort things out in his mind and formulate a plan of action for each of the several possibilities which he might have to face within the next two or three hours. Because he did not have enough in the way of hard facts to go on, he ended up with nothing except the awareness that in his line of work being late on the job was normally unthinkable. He wondered if he still had a job at all. Then he reasoned very simply that the only way to find out was to go and see.

Читать дальше →