“That’s correct, sir,” Curt said. “This is a nonscheduled visit to check up on the violation noted on the last inspection involving the grill downstairs. But as long as we’re here, we’d like to run down the normal list and check the stand pipes, extinguishers, sprinklers, hoses, smoke detectors... you know, the usual.”

“The Ansul unit was installed immediately,” David said. “We sent the paperwork to the fire department directly.”

“We’d like to check the unit itself,” Curt said. “Just to be on the safe side.”

“Will it be all right if I send one of my maintenance workers with you?” David asked. “I’m in the middle of a meeting.”

“That would be fine,” Curt said agreeably.

Five minutes later Curt and Steve were accompanied by a tall, thin, taciturn individual who was dressed in the coveralls Curt had expected to see on David Wilson. The maintenance man’s name was Reggy Sims. He was an electrician’s assistant.

The first thing they checked was the grill in the sandwich kiosk on the ground floor. It was full of sizzling franks and burgers, since the noontime lunch rush was about to begin. It took about two seconds for Curt to declare that the Ansul unit was fine.

For the general inspection Curt and Steve just went through the motions, and they certainly didn’t try to see everything. If the maintenance man was suspicious, he didn’t show it in the slightest. Nor was he in any hurry to get back to his shop.

“What about the HVAC system?” Curt asked.

“What about it?” Reggy questioned.

“We should take a look at it,” Curt said. “We’ve got to know how to turn it off or at least isolate areas if need be. If there was a fire, we wouldn’t want to spread the smoke all over kingdom come. Where’s the main control console?”

“It’s in the machinery spaces on the third floor,” Reggy said.

“How about the main air induction. Where’s that?”

“Same place,” Reggy said.

“Good,” Curt said. “Let’s take a look at it.”

“How come?” Reggy asked.

“There’s supposed to be smoke detectors both for the new air coming in and the recirculated air,” Curt explained. “We’ve got to at least eyeball them. Actually, we’re supposed to give them a test.”

Reggy shrugged and led the way.

The noise level in the machinery spaces was horrendous. It was a huge room that was filled with all manner of equipment, including massive electrical panels, huge boilers, compressors, and pumps. A bewildering array of pipes, ducts, and conduits angled off in all directions. Few people ever paused to think of what it took to warm and cool a building the size of the Jacob Javits Federal Building or for the elevators to function or even for water to come out of a faucet on the thirty-second floor. It all required a lot of power and machinery, and it ran twenty-four hours a day.

The main air ducts were so large they didn’t look like ducts. They ran along one wall of the oversized room before branching off like a large, felled tree. At intervals there were hatchlike doors that were dogged like those on a ship.