nearly eight in the morning
But the thought stuck in his mind . He kept telling himself not to panic as Willows had done . And several minutes later , chuckling to himself in a half demented fashion , he opened the firewall door and went in to let the helium do the job . * * * It was nearly eight in the morning , Greenwich time , when the three surface vehicles , with their wide Caterpillar treads lumbered to a halt near the kiosk that marked the entrance to the underground site of the laboratories . `` O.K. , '' said one of the men in the first machine , holding a microphone to his lips , `` let 's go in . If what Willows said is true , the whole place may blow any minute now , but I 'm not asking for volunteers . Nobody will be any safer up here than they will down there , and we have to do a job .