But the bonus meant he wouldn't need to work again for a couple of years. He specialized in large jobs. He'd done two skyscrapers in New York, an oil refinery in Delaware, an amusement park in Ohio, and two huge housing projects elsewhere, earning a reputation for bringing things in early and under budget not a bad rep for someone in his business. He parked his Jeep Cherokee, and checked notes for the things remaining this afternoon. Yeah, the window-seal tests in Building One. He used his cell phone to call ahead, and headed off, across the landing strip, as he called it, where the access roads came together. He remembered his time as an engineer in the Air Force. Two miles long, and almost a yard thick, yeah, you could land a 747 on this road if you wanted. Well, the company had a fleet of its own Gulfstream business jets, and why not land them here instead of the dinky little airfield at Ellsworth? And if they ever bought a jumbo, he chuckled, they could do that here, too. Three minutes later, he was parked just outside of One. This building was complete, three weeks early, and the last thing to be done was the environmental checks. Fine. He walked in through the revolving door-an unusually heavy, robust one, which was immediately locked upon his entry.
"Okay, we ready, Gil?"
"We are now, Mr. Hollister."
"Run her up, then," Charlie Hollister ordered.
Gil Trains was the supervisor of all the environmental systems at the project. Ex-Navy, and something of a control freak, he punched the wall-mounted controls himself. There was no noise associated with the pressurization the systems were too far away for that-but the effect was almost immediate. On the walk over to Gil, Hollister felt it in his ears, like driving down a mountain road, your ears clicked, and you had to work your jaw around to equalize the pressure, which was announced by another click.
"How's it holding?"
"So far, so good," Trains replied. "Zero point-seven-five PSI overpressure, holding steady." His eyes were on the gauges mounted in this control station. "You know what this is like, Charlie?"
"Nope," the superintendent admitted.
"Testing watertight integrity on a submarine. Same method, we overpressure a compartment."
"Really? It's all reminded me of stuff I did in Europe at fighter bases."
"What's that?" Gil asked.
"Overpressurizing pilots' quarters to keep gas out."
"Oh yeah? Well, I guess it works both ways. Pressure is holding nicely."
Damned well ought to, Hollister thought, with all the hell ire went through to make sure every fucking window was scaled with vinyl gaskets. Not that there were all that many windows. That had struck him as pretty odd. The views here were pretty nice. Why shut them out?
The building was spec'd for a full 1.3 pounds of overpressure. They'd told him it was tornado protection, and that sorta-kinda made sense, along with the increased efficiency of the HVAC systems that came along with the seals. But it could also make for sick-building syndrome. Buildings with overly good environmental isolation kept flu germs in, and helped colds spread like a goddamned prairie fire. Well, that had to be part of the idea, too. The company worked on drugs and vaccines and stuff, and that meant that this place was like a germ-warfare factory, didn't it? So, it made sense to keep stuff in - and keep stuff out, right? Ten minutes later they were sure. Instruments all over the building confirmed that the overpressurization systems worked-on the first trial. The guys who'd done the windows and doors had earned all that extra pay for getting it right.
"Looks pretty good. Gil, I have to run over to the uplink center." The complex also had a lavish collection of satellite communications systems.
"Use the air lock." Trains pointed.
"See you later," the super said on his way out.
"Sure thing, Charlie."
It wasn't pleasant. They now had eleven people, healthy ones, eight women and three men-segregated by gender, of course-and eleven was actually one more than they'd planned, but after kidnapping them you couldn't very well give them back. Their clothing had been taken away in some cases it had been removed while they'd been unconscious-and replaced with tops and bottoms that were rather like prison garb, if made of somewhat better material. No undergarments were permitted-imprisoned women had actually used bras to hang themselves on occasion, and that couldn't be allowed here. Slippers for shoes, and the food was heavily laced with Valium, which helped to calm people down somewhat, but not completely. It wouldn't have been very smart to drug them that much, since the depression of all their bodily systems might skew the test, and they couldn't allow that either.
"What is all this?" the woman demanded of Dr. Archer.
"It's a medical test," Barbara replied, filling out the form. "You volunteered for it, remember? We're paying you for this, and after it's over you can go back home."
"When did I do that?"
"Last week," Dr. Archer told her.
"I don't remember."
