"I should imagine."

The truck hummed through the gate and across a track marked by tire ruts and an absence of scrub.

"All that chain link," Patricia said. "Once you prescreened everyone coming up here, you'd think that would be enough security. Must have cost a lot to have all that stuff shipped up here. Could have shipped up science, instead."

"The chain link wasn't shipped here. We found it."

"Chain link fence?"

"And figurines," Lanier said.

"What are you talking about?"

"Humans built the Stone, Patricia. People from Earth."

She stared at him, then tried to grin.

"Built it twelve hundred years ago. At least, it's about twelve hundred years old."

"Oh," she said. "Pull the other one."

"No, I'm serious."

"I don't expect to be made fun of," she said quietly, straightening in her seat.

"I'm not making fun. Do you think we'd ship eight or nine kilometers of chain link?"

"I'll believe that before I believe Charlemagne or whoever had the Stone made to order."

"I didn't say it came from our past. Before this goes any farther—please, Patricia, be patient. Wait and see."

She nodded, but inside she was furious. This was some sort of initiation. Take the young woman out on a ride, terrorize her, stick her hand into a spaghetti-worm mystery, bring her back and have a good laugh. She's now a true Stoner. Great.

She had never stood for that sort of treatment, even as a thirteen-year-old whiz-kid at UCLA.

"Look at the scrub," Lanier said. "It's grass. We didn't bring it with us."

"It looks like grass," she acknowledged.

The ride across the valley took thirty minutes. They approached the slate-gray cap. A silvery metal arch stood before the entrance to the tunnel, which was about twenty meters wide. A ramp rose from the dirt to the entrance. Lanier accelerated up the ramp.

"How is the air maintained?" she asked. The silence made her uncomfortable. Lanier switched the truck lights on.

"The middle three chambers have large ponds buried beneath them. The ponds are shallow and filled with several varieties of duckweed, water hyacinth and algae. Plus some other plants we're still identifying. The biggest pond is shaped like a doughnut and circles the fourth chamber. There are ventilation ducts in the caps at about three kilometers—you can see them with binoculars, or if you have sharp enough eyes—and the Stone is honeycombed with other shafts and ducts."

Patricia nodded, avoiding his eyes. She's going to be Stoned soon, Lanier thought. Resentment was the first sign. Resentment and disbelief were much easier than acceptance. And the most careful introductions to the Stone didn't prevent the cycle. Here, everyone came from Missouri. Everyone had to be shown first. All other learning and refinement came later.

Six minutes after entering the tunnel, they came to a heavy chain link hurricane fence completely covering the tunnel mouth. Lanier opened another gate with his key, and they emerged in the second chamber.

The ramp leading down from the tunnel had been fortified on each side with masonry walls. More fence had been strung between the walls, and a guardhouse stood to one side of the next gate. Three marines in black jumpsuits came to attention by the guardhouse as the truck rolled toward them, its tires grumbling on the ramp paving. Lanier braked the vehicle and shut it off, then swung down from his seat. Patricia remained where she was, staring at the vista before her.