Gristle!
Adikor found his feet going out from under him, and he came slamming down on his back on the granite floor. The surface was covered with waterlots of water. Where had it come from? Ponter had been drinking from a tube earlier, but Adikor was sure hed finished it upstairs. And besides, there was much more here than could have fit in a tube; there were buckets of it, spreading out in a wide puddle.
The waterif thats what it waslooked clean, clear. Adikor brought his wet palm up to his face, sniffed. No odor.
A tentative lick.
No taste at all.
It was pure, apparently. Pure, clean water.
Heart pounding, head racing, Adikor went to get some containers to collect it in; it was the only clue he had.
Where had the water possibly come from?
And where on Earth had Ponter gone?
Chapter 5
What the?
Absolute blackness.
Andwater! Ponter Boddits legs were wet, and
And he was sinking, water up to his waist, his chest, the bottom of his jaw.
Ponter kicked violently.
His eyes were indeed wide open, but there was nothingabsolutely nothingto be seen.
He flailed with his arms while treading water. He gulped in air.
What had happened? Where could he be?
One moment hed been standing in the quantum-computing facility, and the next
Darknessso unrelentingly dark, Ponter thought perhaps he was blind. An explosion could have done that; rock bursts were always a danger this far underground, and
And an influx of subterranean water was possible. He swung his arms some more, then stretched out his toes, trying to feel for the bottom, but
But there was nothing, nothing at all. Just more water. He could be a handspan from the bottom, or a thousand times that much. He thought about diving down to find out, but in the dark, floating freely, with no light at all, he might lose track of which way was up and not make it back to the surface in time.
Hed taken in a mouthful of water as hed felt for the bottom. It was utterly free of taste; hed have expected a subterranean river to be brackish, but this seemed as pure as meltwater.
He continued to gulp air. His heart was racing, and
And he wanted to swim toward the edge, wherever that
A groaning sound, low, deep, from all around him.
Again, like an animal awakening, like
Like something under great stress?
He finally had enough air in his lungs to manage a shout. Help! Ponter called. Help!
The sound echoed weirdly, as if he were in an enclosed space. Could he still be in the computing room? But, if he were, why wasnt Adikor responding to his calls?
He couldnt just stay there. Although he wasnt exhausted yet, he soon would be. He needed to find a surface to clamber onto, or something in the water with him that he could use as a flotation aid, and
The groaning again, louder, more insistent.
Ponter started to dog paddle. If only there were some lightany light. He swam for what seemed a short distance, and
Agony! Ponter banged his head into something hard. He switched back to treading water, his limbs beginning to ache, and he reached out with one hand, fingers splayed, palm forward. Whatever he had hit was hard and warmnot metal or glass, then. And it was absolutely smooth, maybe slightly concave, and
Another groan, coming from
His heart fluttered; he felt his eyes go wide, but they saw nothing at all in the blackness.
coming from the hard wall in front of him.
He began to swim in the opposite direction, the noise now growing to earsplitting proportions.
Where was he? Where was he?
The volume continued to increase. He swam farther and
Ouch! That hurt!
Hed slammed into another hard, smooth wall. These certainly werent the walls in the quantum-computing chamber; those were covered with soft sound-deadening fabric.
Whooooooshhhh!
Suddenly, the water around Ponter was moving, rushing, roaring, and he was caught up in it, as if he were in a raging river. Ponter took a huge breath, drawing some water in with the air, and then
And then he felt something hard smash into the side of his head, and, for the first time since this madness began, he saw light: stars before his eyes.
And then, the blackness again, and silence, and
Nothing more.
Adikor Huld walked back up to the control room, shaking his head in astonishment, in disbelief.
Ponter and he had been friends for ages; they were both 145s, and had first met as students at the Science Academy. But in all that time, hed never known Ponter to be given to practical jokes. And, besides, there was no place he could be hiding. Fire safety required multiple exits from a room on the surface, but down here practicality made that impossible. The only way out was by walking through the control room. Some computing facilities had false floors to conceal cabling, but here the cabling was out in the open, and the floor was ancient granite, polished smooth.
Adikor had been watching the controls; he hadnt been looking out the window at the computing chamber. Still, there had been no flash of light to catch his eye. If Ponter had beenwell, what? Vaporized? If hed been vaporized, surely there should have been a smell of smoke or a tinge of ozone in the air. But there was nothing. He was simply gone.
Adikor collapsed into a chairPonters chairstunned.
He didnt know what to do next; he literally had no idea. It took several beats for him to focus his thoughts. He should notify the towns administrative office that Ponter was missing; get them to organize a search. It was conceivablebarelythat the ground had opened up, and Ponter had fallen through, maybe into another drift, another level of the mine. In which case he might be injured.
Adikor got to his feet.
Dr. Reuben Montego, the two ambulance attendants, and the injured man entered through the sliding glass doors to Emergency Admitting at St. Josephs Health Centre, part of the Sudbury Regional Hospital.
The E.R.s casualty officer turned out to be a Sikh in his midfifties with a jade green turban. What is it that is wrong? he asked.
Reuben glanced down at the mans nametag, which read N. SINGH, M.D. Dr. Singh, he said, Im Reuben Montego, the site doctor at the Creighton Mine. This man here almost drowned in a tank of heavy water, and, as you can see, hes suffered a cranial trauma.
Heavy water? said Singh. Where would you
At the neutrino observatory, said Reuben.
Ah, yes, replied Singh. He turned and called for a wheelchair, then looked back at the man and started making notes on a clipboard. Unusual body form, he said. Pronounced supraorbital ridge. Very muscular, very broad shouldered. Short limbs. Andhello!what is this, then?
Reuben shook his head. I dont know. It seems to be implanted in his skin.
Very strange, said Singh. He looked at the mans face. How do you feel?
He doesnt speak English, said Reuben.
Ah, said the Sikh. Well, his bones will talk for him. Lets get him into Radiology.
Reuben Montego paced back and forth in the emergency department, occasionally speaking to a passing doctor he happened to know. At last, Singh got word that the x-rays were ready. Reuben was hoping to be invited along, out of professional courtesy, and Singh did indeed beckon for him to follow.
The injured man was still in the x-ray room, presumably in case Singh decided to order more pictures. He was seated now in his wheelchair, looking more frightened, Reuben thought, than even a small child usually did in a hospital. The radiology technician had clipped the mans x-raysa front view and a lateral shotto a lighted wall panel, and Singh and Reuben moved over to examine them.