"They aren't around. They may be in detention or dead."

"You think it's gone that far?" Hoffman asked.

"They're acting very Russian," Rimskaya said, spreading his hands.

"I'll be in this conference for another hour or so. Get them to meet with us in an hour and a half."

"Better to let them suggest the time, and then make them wait a while," Rimskaya suggested.

"You take care of it."

She watched the tall, dour mathematician walk out the door and then stared at a blank space on the wall over Ann's empty desk. The secretary was in the cafeteria on lunch break.

"Just thirty seconds," Hoffman said, focusing on nothing. She stood alone, breathing steadily, one finger tapping lightly on the corner of the desk, beating time to some internal meditative clock. When half a minute had passed, she closed her eyes tightly, opened them wide, took a deep breath and turned back to the hallway and the conference room door.

Chapter Forty

Chapter Forty

The tuberider slid slowly past the second wall. On the opposite side, beginning about a kilometer from the wall and paralleling it around the circumference of the corridor, a series of dark brick-colored structures squatted on the bare bronze floor. Each sat on a square base about two hundred meters on a side, rising in a series of steps, each step-level twisted slightly, creating a rounded, half-spiral pyramid.

"Bingo," Heineman said, pointing down the throat of the corridor. The floor was alive with moving lights channeled into lanes, the lanes piled many layers deep like a super-dense freeway system. "We are not alone."

"How far have we come?" Carrolson asked.

"Seven hundred and seventy thousand kilometers, give or take two," Heineman said. "Garry, could you pilot for a bit? I'm going to run more tests."

"We'll just keep moving ahead slow, ninety or a hundred kilometers an hour," Lanier said.

"That's about right. I don't feel very easy about meeting the inhabitants, whatever they may be," Heineman said, shaking his head as he climbed out of the seat. They were weightless again, moving at a steady velocity.

"Why would we worry, I mean, besides the obvious reasons?" Farley asked.

"The obvious reason would be bad enough, but frankly, I'm not happy about coming along the singularity. It's just occurred to me whoever's down there might not like people traveling this way. Maybe there are other vehicles—authorized vehicles. Maybe there's something else. Whatever, if we were to come zipping along at eight or nine klicks a second, anything we hit would be in serious trouble. That's enough to get us a moving violation, wouldn't you say?"

"I hadn't thought of that," Lanier said, settling into the pilot's seat.

"Yes, well, now that your head is more clear. . .” Heineman glanced at him sternly and then patted him on the shoulder. "Girls, let's find out what all the fuss is."