redoubled in volume and fervor, and the saluting became a bone-snapping frenzy. The joy of the moment buoyed Feric's soul to undreamed heights of racial glory. Ten thousand and more Helder had become fanatically loyal to the Party. As a torch had ignited the great swastika of wood that blazed behind him, so had his words and will ignited the swastika in the souls of these good Helder. As the swastika of flame lit up the night sky with tongues of orange fire, so would the swastika of the Helder soul light up the darkness of the spirit and emblazon the ensign of the New Age across the heavens.
7
The Sons of the Swastika occupied the fourth floor of a ten-story stone building, the rest of which was rented out to an assortment of tradesmen, small businesses, physi-cians, and the like. At Feric's order, Haulman had selected a situation in which the Party was the landlord's most important tenant; in fact he had gone Feric one better and rented the suite from a crony who was deep in his debt.
As a consequence, although the Party occupied only one floor of ten, Feric had been able to dictate a redecoration of the entire facade of the building.
The upper six stories of black stone had been painted red, and upon this enormous red field was emblazoned a black swastika in a white circle of suitable proportion, making the upper half of the building's facade into a gigantic Party flag. Immediately below this was a large bronze plaque proudly proclaiming: "National Headquarters of the Sons of the Swastika." Two large Party flags overhung the street. All in all, Feric had been able to make the facade of this ordinary building suit his style and purpose.
Since Party headquarters was quite literally a giant red flag in the face of the Universalist scum, suitable security precautions had been taken. A squad of uniformed Knights armed with pistols and truncheons stood along the walkway, screening the entrance from the street at every 95
hour of the night and day. Four more guards stood by the door itself at all times. On the roof of the building were four machine-gun positions, constantly manned, and covering every approach. Patrols of six Knights each marched regularly around the building in short intervals, day and night. Inside, every floor was constantly patrolled by armed Knights, and the fourth floor itself could only be entered by two staircases, both of which were protected by machine gunners.
Across a side street from the headquarters, a vacant lot had been surrounded by a high wire fence through which coursed a powerful electric current generated by a steam engine within the perimeter. The headquarters garrison of Knights lived inside this compound in a series of low wooden barracks. Two hundred motorcyclists and their steeds were included in this complement. In the event of an attack on Party headquarters, the scum would be caught between the men in the building and these motorized storm troops and crushed utterly. It might even be possible to fend off an attack by elements of the regular army for an extended period.
The fourth floor itself had been divided up into a series of offices, meeting rooms, and bedrooms. While Stag Stopa bunked with the Knights in the compound, and the other Party officials dwelled in then" own private homes, Feric himself slept in a bedroom adjacent to his office, and Bogel too occupied similar accommodations. In addition, Ludolf Best, a keen young fellow whose intelligence and devotion both to the cause and to Feric's own person made him the ideal personal assistant, also slept within the headquarters, where he could be instantly at his master's service at any hour.
Feric's office, though of course the largest in the Party headquarters, was kept deliberately austere. The walls were of rough-hewn wood like those of a military barracks; ceiling and floor were of plaster and tile respectively, both painted red, with the black swastika in the white circle at their geometric centers. There were three rows of wooden benches facing Feric's plain oaken desk so that he could easily brief fair-sized groups here when necessary.
On the desk itself, the Great Truncheon of Held lay on a tray covered in black velvet. This, the black drapery around the two windows, the large Party flag hung as a tapestry behind Feric's desk, and a huge oil painting of the Battle of Roost were the office's only decorations.
96
At considerable expense a private television set had been purchased at Bogel's insistence. This was a plain steel box with a glass face that sat inconspicuously in one comer of the room. Now Feric and Bogel sat on one of the benches utilizing this expensive device for the first time.
"You see, Feric, the expense is well worth it," Bogel insisted for the tenth time. "With this receiver, we can see every public television broadcast; valuable information can be gained in this manner."
