Again Reith was puzzled. "How can you be sure? You're young yet."
The girl's face twitched with what might have been embarrassment. "Can't you see? Do I look to be a mother-woman?"
"I don't know what your mother-women look like."
"They bulge at the chest and hips. Aren't ghian mothers the same? Some say the Pnume decide who will be mother-women and take them to the creche. There they lie in the dark and spawn."
"Alone?"
"They and the other mothers."
"What of the fathers?"
"No need for fathers. In the Shelters all is secure; protection is not needed."
Reith began to entertain an old suspicion. "On the surface," he said, "affairs go somewhat differently."
She leaned forward, and her face displayed as much animation as Reith had yet noticed. "I have always wondered about life on the ghaun. Who chooses the mother-women? Where do they spawn?"
Reith evaded the question. "It's a complicated situation. In due course I suppose you'll learn something about it, if you live long enough. Meanwhile, I am Adam Reith. What is your name?"
"'Name'? I am a female."
"Yes, but what is your personal name?"
The girl considered. "On the invoices persons are listed by group, area and zone. My group is Zith, of Athan Area, in the Pagaz Zone; my ranking is 210."
"Zith Athan Pagaz, 210. Zap 210. It's not much of a name. Still, it suits you."
At Reith's jocularity the girl looked blank. "Tell me how the Gzhindra live."
"I saw them standing out on the wastelands. They pumped narcotic gas into the room where I slept. I woke up in a sack. They lowered me into a shaft. That's all I know of the Gzhindra. There must be better ways to live."
Zap 210, as Reith now thought of her, evinced disapproval. "They are persons, after all, and not wild things."
Reith had no comment to make. Her innocence was so vast that any information whatever could only cause her shock and confusion. "You'll find many kinds of people on the surface."
"It is very strange," the girl said in a vague soft voice. "Suddenly all is changed." She sat looking off into the darkness. "The others will wonder where I have gone. Someone will do my work."
"What was your work?"
"I instructed children in decorum."
"What of your spare time?"
"I grew crystals in the new East Fourth Range."
"Do you talk with your friends?"
"Sometimes, in the dormitory."
"Do you have friends among the men?"
Under the shadow of the hat the black eyebrows rose in displeasure. "It's boisterous to talk to men."
"Sitting here with me is boisterous?"
She said nothing. The idea probably had not yet occurred to her, thought Reith; now she considered herself a fallen woman. "On the surface," he said, "life goes differently, and sometimes becomes very boisterous indeed. Assuming that we survive to reach the surface."
He brought out the blue portfolio. As if by reflex Zap 210 drew herself back.
Reith paid no heed. Squinting through the dim light he studied the tangle of colored lines. He put his finger down, somewhat tentatively. "Here, it seems to me, is where we are now." No response from Zap 210. Reith, aching, nervous and exhausted, started to reprimand her for disinterest, then caught his tongue. She was not here of her own volition, he reminded himself; she deserved neither reprimands nor resentment; by his actions he had made himself responsible for her. Reith gave a grunt of annoyance. He drew a deep breath and said in his most polite voice, "If I recall correctly, this passage leads over here" he pointed-"and comes out into this pink avenue. Am I right?"
Zap 210 looked down askance. "Yes. This is a most secret way. Notice, it connects Athan with Zaltra; otherwise one must go far around, by way of Fei'erj Node." Grudgingly she came closer and brought her finger to within inches of the vellum. "This gray mark is where we want to go: to the freight-dock, at the end of the supply arterial. By Fei'erj it would be impossible, since the route leads through the dormitories and the metalspinning areas."
Reith looked wistfully at the little red circles which marked the popouts. "They seem so close, so easy."
"They will certainly be guarded."
"What is this long black line?"
"That is the freight canal, and is the best route away from Pagaz Zone."
"And this bright green spot?"
She peered and drew a quick breath. "It is the way to Foreverness: a Class Twenty secret!" She sat back and huddled her chin into her knees. Reith returned to the charts. He felt her gaze and looked up to find her studying him intently.
She licked her colorless mouth. "Why are you such an important item?"
"I don't know why I'm an 'item' at all." Though this was not precisely true.
"They want you for Foreverness. Are you of some strange race?"
"In a way," said Reith. He heaved himself painfully to his feet. "Are you ready?
We might as well be going."
She rose without comment and they set off along the dim passage. They walked a mile and came to a white wall with a black iron door at the center. Zap 210 put her eye to the peep-lens. "A dray is passing ... persons are near." She looked back at Reith. "Hold your head down," she said in a critical voice. "Pull the hat lower. Walk quietly, with your feet pointed straight." She turned back to the peephole. Her hand went to the door-catch. She pressed, and the door opened.
"Quick, before we are seen."
Blinking and furtive, they entered a wide arched passage. The pegmatite walls were studded with enormous tourmalines which, excited to fluorescence by some means unknown, glowed pink and blue.
Zap 210 set off along the passage; Reith followed at a discreet distance. Fifty yards ahead a low dray loaded with sacks rolled on heavy black wheels. From somewhere behind them came the sound of hammers tapping at metal and a scraping noise, the source of which Reith never learned.
For ten minutes they plodded along the corridor. On four occasions Pnumekin passed, shadowed faces averted, thoughts exploring areas beyond Reith's imagination.
The polished pegmatite altered abruptly to black hornblende, polished back from veins of white quartz which seemed to grow like veins over the black matrix, the end-product of unknown centuries of toil. Far ahead, the passage dwindled to a minute black half-oval, which by insensible degrees grew larger. Beyond was black vacancy.
The aperture expanded and surrounded them; they came out on a ledge overlooking a void as black and empty as space. Fifty yards to the right a barge, moored against the dock, seemed to float in midair; Reith perceived the black void to be the surface of a subterranean lake.
A half dozen Pnumekin worked listlessly upon the dock, loading the barge with bales.
Zap 210 sidled into a pocket of shadow. Reith joined her, standing somewhat too close for her liking; she moved a few fastidious inches away. "What now?" asked Reith.
"Follow me aboard the barge. Say no word to anyone."
"No one objects? They won't put us off?"
The girl gave him a blank look. "Persons ride the barges. This is how they see the far tunnels."
"Ah," said Reith, "wanderlust among the Pnumekin; they go to look at a tunnel."