The Thinking Machine Affair - Bernard Joel - Страница 5

On the third floor of the whitestone is a sedate suite of offices, the entrance to which bears the engraved letters U.N.C.L.E. And in this suite of offices a rather ordinary group of people handle mail, meet, and do business with visitors, in general giving the appearance of some normal organization engaged in a special charity project, or perhaps a Fund Foundation Headquarters.

If one were to investigate (but thoroughly), he might learn that all these buildings are owned by U.N.C.L.E. It is doubtful that he would ever discover that all the personnel involved in the activities of the garage and the key-club are also in the employ of U.N.C.L.E., that many of "The Mask Club" are affiliated with U.N.C.L.E. that even the frowsy tenants of the brownstone, including old Del Floria, the tailor, are actually members of the organization.

If it were possible to peel away the outer, decaying, brownstone skin of the four old buildings in the middle of the sandwich (as it were), a surprising edifice would be revealed. For behind the walls is one large building consisting of three floors of a modern, complex office building—a steel maze of corridors and suites containing brisk, alert young personnel of many races, creeds, colors and national origins—as well as a complex mass of modern machinery for business and communications. There are no staircases in the building. Four elevators handle vertical traffic. Below the basement level an underground channel has been cut through from the East River, and several cruisers (the largest being a sixty-footer) are bobbing at the underground wharf beneath the brownstone complex. If one could ascend to the roof and examine the large neon-lighted advertising billboard rearing up there, a trained eye might ascertain that its supporting pillars conceal a high powered shortwave antenna, as well as elaborate electronic receiving and transmitting gear.

This is the heart, brain and body of the organization named U.N.C.L.E. The personnel of the organization is peculiarly multi-national, its line of work so tending to cross national boundaries, and with such nonchalance, that a daily shortwave message from the remote Himalayas fails to flutter any eyebrows, even though there is no recorded wireless in this Himalayan area according to the printed international codebooks.

On making one's way through the building, one would find it highly discomforting to stray from within certain prescribed boundaries, which are measured by the color of the badge the "Admissions" clerk has pinned upon one's lapel. A chemical on the tips of the receptionist's fingers would have set up a reaction on each badge as she pinned it in place. Any persons passing through certain areas of the building will trip up an alarm unless they are wearing a badge which has been properly activated. On every desk in the building a small red light would begin to flash and a signal is heard beating in a repeating tempo of alarm. Steel doors would then start to slide shut all over the building, forming cabinet-like pockets in which to trap any unwanted intruders.

The Red Badges will admit you to the ground floor which contains personnel and equipment for day in, day out routine operations. Should a Red Badge manage to rise above this floor, the entire unpleasant sequence of events described earlier would occur.

The Yellow Badge will carry one anywhere on the ground and second floors. The second floor contains communications equipment of all sorts as well as various electronic code devices and, in general, any machine equipment necessary for the organization. By now you understand what occurs should a Yellow Badge venture onto the floor above.

The third floor is White Badge territory, with the Policy and Operations offices, the interrogation rooms, the armory, and the various cubicles occupied by the elite of this organization, the Enforcement Agents, during their infrequent visits to this, their home base.

If such a thing as an Organization Chart of U.N.C.L.E. were to exist, it might be found to break down the personnel into five Sections—each Section subdivided into two Departments, with one Department overlapping the Department below it. Thus:

SECTION I: Policy and Operations

SECTION II: Operations and Enforcement

SECTION III: Enforcement and Communications

SECTION IV: Communications and Security

SECTION V: Security and Personnel

There are four entrances to the Headquarters Area. The basic personnel enter through the public garage they drive their cars into the garage, along with the general public, and park them. At this point the paths of these (for the most part, attractive) men and women diverge from that of the "ordinary" patrons. The men make their way into the "Men's Locker" room, the women into the "Women's Locker" room. Behind a wall there is an elevator which descends to a subterranean passage leading to the brownstone area. Here an "Admissions" clerk sits at a desk scanning her closed circuit television receivers, which beam in the findings of hidden cameras in each locker room. "Admissions" will fix the Red or the Yellow Badges and the Admittee moves on to his (or her) respective work area.

The Enforcement Agents will enter through the second entrance, which is located in Del Floria's tailoring shop. Each Enforcement Agent will enter the shop and usually hand Del Floria his jacket for pressing. The tailor will then push a small button on the side of his pressing machine. This releases the "lock", and the Agent will enter the third "try-on" cubicle and draw the curtain. He will turn the hook on the wall (really nothing but a door knob), swing open the back wall and walk through to the "Admissions" desk. "Admissions" would by now have seen his entrance on her closed circuit television viewer. She will fix the White Badge and the Agent is then free to move to an elevator and rise to his floor.

The third entrance is to be found in the general offices above the restaurant in the whitestone building. Here is where the non-U.N.C.L.E. members may be brought in the brownstone area. At the rear of the suite of offices is an elevator. If you are permitted to, you may enter the elevator, which will take you back down to the first floor. A door at the rear of this elevator will open there, admitting you directly into the brownstone building. "Admissions" would, of course, have been watching you in her closed circuit television viewer as the elevator was traveling down and she will fix the proper colored badge to your visitor's lapel.

There is a fourth entrance through the underwater channel in the basement of the building. Of course this entrance can only be used either by boat or a scuba suit—both methods inadvisable unless you are expected. "Admissions" waits for you here, too, with her badges. This entrance (and exit) is generally only used for extremely top-secret movement of the personnel.

The top man at the U.N.C.L.E. organization is Mr. Alexander Waverly of SECTION I. The Policy Department of this section consists of five men of various nationalities, Mr. Waverly being one of them. His office is on the third floor of the brownstone enclave. The only window in this entire fortress is in this office. It lends itself to a panoramic view of the East River with the United Nations Building centered in the middle of the frame...

At this point the Ultimate Computer stopped pouring out the information, and its signals indicated that the "machine with a brain" was ready to be fed with additional questions.

"Having now all the necessary details on U.N.C.L.E. Headquarters," said the Chief of the Special Tasks Department with satisfaction, "we need to know ways and means to penetrate the fortress, where exactly the live nerves of U.N.C.L.E.'S electronic communications systems are situated, and how and where U.N.C.L.E.'S closed circuit and other alarm systems can be put out of action."