Eric’s own hand came up slowly so the box and his thumb on the button were clearly evident, but again he refused to even glance at Travis. “Major, if I hear so much as a whimper from Nicole, that is it. Do you understand?”

The Major’s hand darted out and grabbed Travis’s arm. “Give the controls to me, Travis.”

Travis turned around in shock. “He won’t do it! Not with Nicole in there!”

“Give me the controls, Travis!” The two men stared at each other, eyes locked in anger, and then Travis finally lifted his fingers. The Major took the transmitter and turned away. He relaxed visibly, then turned to face Eric. “What is your proposal?”

“It’s simple. I have about two hundred to two hundred fifty feet of wire tied to this box.”

“Yes, go on.”

“Clear the side hallway of all your men. We’ll leave the Monitoring Room, unreeling the wire as we go. You and Travis can come around the corner into that side hallway and watch as I do it. One wrong move, one trigger-happy Guardian, and I let go of the button. But once I can see that my people are clear, I’ll walk back down the hall to you. I hand you my box, and you hand me the transmitting controls. You save your computers, I save Nicole.”

Both Travis and the Major considered for a moment. Finally the Major nodded. “Travis and I will confer on this for a moment to see if it’s acceptable.”

Eric shrugged. “Take whatever time you need. I’ll be inside.” Without a second glance, he went back in the room.

The Major turned and looked at Travis. “What do you think?”

“I don’t know. It sounds too pat.” His mind raced over the possibilities. “On the other hand, we’ve got a couple of surprises for him.”

“Exactly,” the Major said. “We can send our men out the front and still catch them outside. And I have another set of controls for Nicole in my office. I’m sure they plan to get the implantation out as soon as possible, but our transmitter has a range of ten to fifteen miles. That should give us plenty of time.”

“What if he’s pulling a fast one on us? Is there anything he can be doing in there right now?”

The Major frowned, then strode down the hallway to the door and pounded on it, leaning down to peek through the bullet hole in the upper panel. But someone was standing close to the door, blocking the view. “Eric, I want the door opened so I can watch you, see that you’re not up to something.” Then he whispered to Travis, “Clear the way to the fire door and then send Lieutenant Lowry and the men out the front.”

As he turned back to the door, he heard Eric’s muffled cry. “Open the door for him.”