Dr. O by Robert W. Walker

another guy came in a Comm Ed truck; two others came in a Coca-Cola truck, uniforms and all."
    "Well, thanks for filling me in, and thanks for the backup. What about Inspector Thorpe? Where's she?"
    "So far as I know she's back at HQ catching some sleep."
    "Sleeps like a baby, I'm sure."
    "Cold one, that's for sure."
    "Maybe she has to be."
    Harris bit his cheek and nodded, "Yeah, maybe. But I was a cop before I was FBI, and in my book, you don't keep secrets from your partners."
    Bucking for a promotion, Swisher decided, realizing the "partners" speech was bullshit with this guy. If he were involved in taking Dr. Maurice Ovierto out, Harris would get some gold stars stuck to his forehead. "Look, Swisher, I brought you up some coffee, too." He handed him a small coffee thermos, the remnants of the label still clinging to it.
    "Fresh, huh?" he asked.
    "I'm covering the East entranceway and the back stairways there. My other guys have the lower floors and the docks. You need anything, just buzz me, pal."
    "Sure, sure..."
    Swisher watched the tall, good-looking Jack Harris disappear. "Robyn, why am I blessed with you?" he asked the empty corridor, opening the coffee and pouring the hot liquid into the lid. From across the causeway, through the open space that would be a sheer fall of near fifty feet to the lobby, Harris waved from the elevator that took him away.
    Swisher was more grateful for the elevator than the coffee.

CHAPTER TEN
     
    Argonne National Laboratories, Eola, Illinois
    Dr. Maurice Ovierto entered the front door of Fermilab with the guided tour, doing so for the second time, dressed now as a woman. He had taken great pains to locate Oliguerri and Hogarth, his two intended targets for this evening. The last tour began at five-thirty and ended at six-fifteen. He had taken great caution in putting his plan into effect. In the tour also was Deter Fomichs. Deter was a former asylum patient and a friend. He made eye contact with Deter to register how the other man was doing. He seemed calm and capable, but who knew for sure with a man like Deter. Ovierto had worked hard on the other man all day long, explaining to him how he could become a national hero if he could stop the infiltration of the giant Fermilab by an agent of a foreign government, a spy.
    The tour guide's voice droned on about how the space program at NASA had given Americans far- reaching, important discoveries about the atom and atom smashing.
    "If you would care to sit here, there will be a short film, explaining what exactly our scientists do here," said the guide.
    Ovierto had earlier taken note of all key exits, stairwells, and elevators, as well as doors closed to the public; he had watched the approach and entry of the trucks and deliveries made, and he had noted their schedules. On his previous visit he had remained for hours, just watching. He had particularly liked the timing of the Coca-Cola truck and had since learned that it arrived promptly at six o'clock and was gone by six-thirty-five. It might be useful.
    As the others viewed the film, Ovierto quietly left the little movie theater, leaving Deter on his own with orders to shoot anyone who came at him in any threatening way. He would be fine for at least the length of the film, Ovierto believed, some ten minutes, enough time to get to Oliguerri.
    Earlier he had seen a Commonwealth Edison representative with uniform and hard hat, blueprints in his hands and a truck parked out back of the enormous facility. With those layouts of the building, Ovierto could gain even more information about the building. With a badge proclaiming that he was a man named James Early, he'd have no opposition. He went directly for a door marked Employees Only, where the Edison electrician had gone.
    The man on the other side looked over his specs rather casually when he saw who it was.
    "Lady, you can't come through this way... lady... you okay?"
    Ovierto, in wig and makeup, appeared to be faint and suddenly went