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any comment she went on, 'Of course, I'll have to give up and start back some time, but I know they'll dispose of me when I do. That's assuming they did the same thing with Joey, and I'm very sure they did. If I do find him alive, of course, what I do will depend on him.' She fell silent, and after a moment to make sure she had finished I wrote again. 'But you'd like me to find him for you.' She looked at me with what I hoped was a tender and sympathetic expression, though I couldn't be quite sure through the port. She knew how I felt about her, of course. I'd never made any secret of it, and even if I'd tried to, a woman would have had to be a lot more stupid than Marie to miss the evidence. Most of the girls in our section are more stupid than she, and it's a standing joke with them. Marie didn't answer for several seconds, and I decided I still had the conversational ball. I resumed writing. 'Of course, he's part of the job anyway. I came down to find out what I could about the three, of you. I know about Bert and you, now, but the job's not finished. There are other things here to learn. I've got to pick up the technical information that makes this place possible, especially its ability to ignore power rationing, and there's a little question which talking to you has brought up. If you're so sure they've disposed of Joey, and are planning to do the same with you when you leave, why do you think you're still alive? They could have holed your sub without the slightest difficulty - or for that matter spared themselves the considerable trouble of supplying you with food and air.' 'I've been thinking about that last,' Marie answered, this time without hesitation. 'When I first staged this sit-down, it was meant to test them on that point - ' She saw me start writing and stopped while I finished. 'Weren't you taking some chances with that sort of test?' I asked. 'Suppose they'd failed it. Would you have lived to report the results?' 'Well, no. I wasn't really caring what happened to me about that time, but I did think I stood a chance of driving out of here and making a decent try for the surface, with something really worthwhile to report.' 'Marie, I've always thought as much of your brains as of your other qualities, but for the last few minutes you've been dithering. You must know it. Are you going to give me straight data, or do I have to work here even more alone than Page 44 ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html I'd hoped? I repeat, why do you think they haven't killed or at least starved you?' That was taking a chance, I realized, but it worked. She started to frown, then fought it off with a visible effort, thought for a moment with her lips pursed and then began talking more quietly. 'All right. I didn't trust any of the juice-breathers out there, and I'm not sure I trust even you' I was grateful for the 'even' 'but I'll take a chance. I've been doing a lot of thinking here; I've had nothing much else to do. I've come up with one explanation, and I haven't been able to think of any others or find any holes in it. It accounts for their not killing me and their letting you and Bert join them. It sug- gests that Joey might possibly be alive, though if he is it doesn't explain why he hasn't come to see me the way you and Bert have.' She paused to think for a moment and then went on. 'It's quite simple in principle, but it could do with some detailed facts. That's one reason I'm telling it to you.' She paused again, and looked at me hard before going on. 'They must need us. There's something they're short of that you, and Bert, and Joey, and I, and maybe anyone else from the surface can supply. It's the only sensible answer.' I pondered that. It was a possibility I hadn't thought of, though I was not ready to accept it as the only sensible one. 'You don't think they might just be so pleased with their way of life - freedom from power rationing, they'd probably call it - that they just want recruits on general principles? That sort of thing has happened.' 'I know it has,' she replied. 'But I don't believe it has this time. You got that sort of thing back in the days of nations and political parties before the Board's necessity was realized.' 'If you think we've outgrown politics,' I retorted as quickly as the stylus would let me, 'you're less alert than I thought you were around our own office. And what's wrong with regarding this bunch as a nation? It's the picture I've been forming of them.' 'Nation? You've a short circuit between the ears. They're just another bunch of power-wasters. There aren't enough of them to be a nation.' 'Do you know how many there are?' 'Of course not. I've been in no position to count. A few hundred, I should think.' 'You think a few hundred people could build a place like this? Or even a small part of it? There must be miles of tunnels here. I swam for the best part of an hour to get from where they worked on me to this place, and it was a maze. I haven't seen any part of their power unit yet, but it must be huge to supply all this volume with light, and there's that big tent area outside - you must have seen that. How could a few hundred people possibly do such a job? On the surface, with unlimited time and normal construction machinery, sure; but what standard machinery could have been used here?' Marie had wanted to cut in a little way back, but waited for me to finish. There's no point in trying to quote the next few minutes verbatim; they boiled down to the fact that she hadn't seen the lighted area outside. She'd spotted a work sub while she was prowling around searching for Joey, had followed it, and wound up at an entrance apparently out of sight of the 'tent'. Apparently there were a lot of entrances. She had no opinion to offer on the lighted area, and I couldn't help feeling that she didn't entirely believe my account of it. She hadn't been captured. She'd followed the sub to the entrance, found she lacked ballast enough to get through the interface between the liquids and simply stayed there, blocking traffic, until they'd loaded her down and towed her inside out of the way. Women are interesting creatures, with interesting powers. I wasn't sure believed Page 45 ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html I [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ] |