x sheet. None of the others were visible.

Webber, Alan knew, was at this moment sitting in an office overlooking
the bank entrance, staring out the window at the scene below. At
precisely 1240, Webber was to throw the switch on the wave-damper that
would paralyze the four roboguards.

The instant the roboguards froze, the other conspirators would go into
action. Jensen, McGuire, Freeman, and Smith, donning masks, would leap
for the three human guards of the truck and pin them to the ground. Byng
and Hawkes, who would enter the bank a moment before, would stage an
impromptu fist-fight with each other just inside the main entrance,
thereby creating confusion and making it difficult for reinforcement
guards to get past them and into the street.

Just outside the door, Hollis and Kovak would lurk. As the quartet
pounced on the truck's guards, they would sprint across and yank the
driver out of the cab. Then Alan would enter quickly from the other side
and drive off, while the remaining nine would vanish into the crowd in
as many different directions as possible. Byng and Hollis, if they got
away, would head for the rendezvous to meet Alan and take the cash from
him.

If it went off properly the whole thing should take less than fifteen
seconds, from the time Webber threw the switch to the time Alan drove
away with the truck. If it went off properly.

The seconds crawled by. The time was 1235, now. At 1237 Hawkes and Byng
sauntered into the bank from opposite directions. Three minutes to go.
Alan's false calm deserted him; he pictured all sorts of possible
calamities.

1238. Everyone's watch was synchronized to the second.

1239. 1239:30.

Thirty seconds to go. Alan took his position in a crowd of bystanders,
as prearranged. Fifteen seconds to go. Ten. Five.

1240. The roboguards were in the act of directing the locking of the
truck; the loading had been carried out precisely on schedule. The truck
was shut and sealed.

The roboguards froze.

Webber had been right on time. Alan tensed, caught up in the excitement
of the moment and thinking now only of the part he was to play.

The three policemen glanced at each other in some confusion. Jensen and
McGuire came leaping out at them----

And the roboguards returned to life.

The sound of blaster shots was heard within the bank; Alan whirled,
startled. Four guards came racing out of the building, blasters drawn.
What had happened to Hawkes and Byng--why weren'