But they hit the doors again and again. Suddenly, two of the officers in black commando suits appeared, ran to him. The blond man threw himself against the doors.
Green and the officer stood side by side, pushing back the doors. The other officer — the bullnecked Latin man with gray in his black hair — traced the line of monofilament, peeling the tape off the far wall, letting the line go slack.
The officer went to the center of the corridor and whipped a knife from his boot to cut the det-cord. He threw the ends of the det-cord apart. Then he went to the black nylon bag, and very, very carefully cut the det-cord where it emerged from the bag.
The doors burst open and a wide-eyed mob of people poured into the corridor, some of them continuing to run in all directions as if from a fire.
'There's another bomb in there!' yelled a middle-aged woman. 'Up in the projection room.'
The blond officer disappeared into the cavern of the now-empty auditorium, as his partner attempted to control the disorder of the escapees with instructions for their calm descent to the ground floor.
Within a minute, he returned with the bomb. As he came by the alarmed Charlie Green, he said, 'It's a fake. Just a transistor radio.'
'Oh, man, what a relief,' gasped Charlie.
'Mr. Green, you deserve a medal,' said Carl Lyons.
Green laughed. 'I already have medals. All I want to do is find a missing employee and then go home. I really wish I hadn't come to work today.'
'We're glad you did,' shouted Blancanales above the babble of the three dozen overjoyed people milling about him. 'It's good to have the assistance of a concerned citizen.'
Blancanales disentangled himself from the men and women lining themselves up to go downstairs.
'Now we must rescue Gadgets from that mess on the roof,' he suggested to Lyons, who was inspecting the crates of C-4, 'and let the three of us get the hell out of here. The cops can clean up the garage — it'll take them a week at least.'
Mr. Green had disappeared in search of Sandy Robinson, and a pall of silence descended on the floor.
'You have never spoken truer words,' murmured Lyons. 'This building stinks. Let's get out of here.'
