Blade saw. It was a single small black button set in a red plaque. He measured the distance with his eye and saw that it could be done. The position was right and her slim arms long enough. He nodded.
«I believe you.» He examined the black button closely. «This shuts off the power. What turns it on?»
Sybelline pointed to a switch on a nearby console. «That was explained to me. I coaxed it from them. I had to know, you see, for part of my bargain with the Selenes was that when the time came I would be the one to turn on the power.»
Blade pondered a moment, nearly gave the command to activate the power, then decided against it. He pointed to a tunnel-like opening in one wall of the bunker. «What is that?»
«What it seems. A passage to the power cube. I was also shown that.»
«Show me now.»
With her torch high she stepped into the narrow tunnel. Blade followed, concentrating fiercely so the thoughts could be transmitted via the brain crystal. He could send only facts and his own thoughts relevant to them; Lord L must work out the rest for himself if he could. It amused Blade to think that if the crystal was working, the scientific world back in HD would be buzzing in a matter of minutes, at least that part of it connected with Project DX.
The tunnel ended in a vaulted chamber no larger than an ordinary bathroom in HD. There was a pit in the center and the plastic floor sloped to it. From the pit, a circle as large as a common auto tire, there protruded a single metal rod. From the visible end was a mobile-like structure somewhat reminiscent of the filament in a light bulb.
Stacked around the walls of the chamber were plastic bags. Blade ripped one with the hook end of his bar and a fine powder seeped out. He caught some in his palm and tested it with his fingertips. It was white, fine as talcum, and had no odor. He looked at Sybelline.
«Ditramonium,» she said. «Rock powder. How it works or why, I do not know. No one knows but the Select Five of the High Morphi Council.»
Blade nodded upward. «Those who meet in the circular building up there?»
«Yes.»
Blade started back through the tunnel to the main bunker. «Come,» he told her, «and obey me exactly.»
When they were in the bunker he went to the table and moved the sleeper who had been making love to Sybelline when she pressed the OFF button. He motioned to her.
«Lie on the table exactly as you were. Say nothing, do nothing. Observe and listen.»
Sybelline balked. «I do not like this, Blade. Not at all. I will lie on the table gladly, but only if you are atop me. What use is a sleeper-«
He gave her a grim stare. «Do as you are bid. I am going to turn on the power.»
Her jaw dropped and her green eyes widened. For the first time she seemed more Gnomen than Morphi. She made the sign of the fylfot over her left breast. «Have you gone mad, Blade?»
«I do not think so,» he said calmly, «but I am very curious. I will turn on the power for the count of ten. On that count of ten you will turn it off again. Be sure you can reach the button. Now get ready.»
Sybelline most unwillingly clambered on the table. She lay with her gown up and Blade replaced the sleeper between her outflung thighs. The sleeper's head nestled on her shoulder. Blade went to the entrance and looked back. «I will remain here. I want to observe both inside and out. I will bid Sart do likewise. All you have to do is listen to my count and press the button at ten. Are you ready?»
She glared at him. «This is a fool's trick. If something goes wrong we lose everything.»
«I will take that risk,» Blade told her. He gave the startled slave instructions and then went back into the bunker. He went to the ON switch and reached for it. «Be ready,» he said. «Do exactly as I ordered.»
He pressed the switch and ran for the door.
There was no sound, no humming, no machine noises, just the light. Sourceless light that was in the air itself, soft, limpid, the glow of a billion candles. Blade began to count aloud.
«One-two-«
He stood squarely in the doorway, his glance swiveling in and out with each count.
The four sleepers did not see him at first. They did not know they had been asleep. Each, in smooth continuity, went about completing the act in which he had been caught.
The plastic-turfed complex stretched for miles. The dome top glittered nearly out of sight. Dozens of mole rats scampered in panic for dark holes gnawed in the base of the dome. Millions of lights blinked on the endless banks of computers lining the complex. Faraway figures moved, hauling something on a cart. Nearer to Blade a man crawled toward them on his hands and knees. He looked Gnomen and he was bleeding.
The sleeper on the cot stirred and tossed restlessly. The sleeper at the drawing board made a line with his stylus and looked at the sleeper atop Sybelline. «Good, eh? For an old one.»
The sleeper at the console adjusted the toggle and laughed. «We had better keep her down here with us. If she talks we have had it. We can turn her over to the new crew and-«
«Three-four-five-«
The sleeper atop Sybelline groaned and rolled off her. «Yes, you are right. We will keep her for our private needs.» He smiled down at Sybelline. «What of that, woman? You agree? We will treat you well.»
Sart had dropped his bar and fallen to his knees, his eyes rolling in terror. Blade pointed to the man crawling toward them, the bleeding man. He whispered. «Get him. Help him.
«Six-seven-«
The sleeper on the table with Sybelline slapped at her arm in sudden alarm. «Get away from that button, you whore.»
The sleeper at the console whirled toward Blade, staring in astonishment. «Who counts? Who are you?»
«Eight-«
The sleeper at the drawing board leaped toward a square box on a wall. «Something is wrong here-the all-points alarm. I-'
«Nine-«
Sybelline lost her head. She pulled away from the Morphi and tried frantically to reach the OFF button. The Morphi slapped her hard and pushed her off the table away from the button. The man on the cot woke and stared, rubbing his eyes. «What in the name of all the fylfots goes on?»
Sart did not obey Blade. He crept into the doorway to be near his master. The former sleepers saw him and yelled in unison. «Gnomen. Attack-attack-«
«Ten!»
Sybelline screamed and lunged for the OFF button. She was knocked down. Blade went plunging into the knot of struggling Morphi. One held Sybelline and three leaped at him. He laid about him with the bar, drove them to retreat and reached with the hooked end of his bar to press the button. They were coming at him again. The power failed. Darkness.
Blade took his torch from a sconce and waved it about. The four Morphi men, sleepers once more, lay huddled on the floor of the bunker.
Sybelline recovered her torch and did not conceal her anger. «I told you, Blade. They nearly overcame us. You are too bold. We will take no more chances like that.»
He could have told her that only boldness plus guile had kept him alive through a procession of DXs, but all he said was, «Be quiet.»
He was content. He knew what he had to know. When he turned on the power again the Morphi would resume the continuity of their lives with no sense of lost time. The sleepers would never know they had slept. This, he hoped, would give him the element of surprise, an opening wedge, a way to baffle and puzzle them until he could sway them to his thinking. But that must wait.
Blade led the way out of the bunker and pointed. «I saw a Gnoman crawling this way. He was hurt. Hold your torches high.»