He was kicked in the back, hard. He gasped as the Air was forced out of his lungs, and he fell forward; then the rope fixing his cocoon on one side parted, and he was spun around.

He struggled out of his cocoon, ignoring the protests of stiff joints, and prepared to take on whoever had struck him. But it was impossible to tell. The Committee Box was full of panicking courtiers, their made-up faces twisted with fear, fighting free of cocoons and restrictive robes. Adda opened his mouth and laughed at them. So all their finery, and fine titles, offered no protection from mortal terror. Where was their power now?

Muub was struggling out of his own cocoon with every expression of urgency.

Adda said, "Where will you go?"

"The Hospital, of course." Muub gathered his robes tight around his legs and glanced around the Box, looking for the fastest way out. "It's going to be a long day's work..." Apparently on impulse, he grabbed Adda's arm. "Upfluxer. Come with me. Help me."

Adda felt like laughing again, but he recognized earnestness in Muub's eyes. "Why me?"

Muub gestured to the scrambling courtiers. "Look at these people," he said wearily. "Not many cope well in a crisis, Adda." He glanced at the upfluxer appraisingly. "You think I'm a little inhuman — a cold man, remote from people. Perhaps I am. But I've worked long enough as a Physician to gain a functional understanding of who can be relied on. And you're one of them, Adda. Please."

Adda was surprisingly moved by this, but he pulled his arm free of Muub's grasp. "I'll come if I can. I promise. But first I have to find Farr — my kinsman."

Muub nodded briskly. Without another word he began to work his way through the crowd of courtiers still blocking the Box's exit, using his elbows and knees quite efficiently.

Adda glanced down at the crowded Stadium once more. The crush there was becoming deadly now; he saw imploded chests, limp limbs, Air-starved faces like white flowers in the mass of bodies.

He turned away and launched himself toward the exit.

—

Farr could be in any of a number of places — with the Skin-riders outside the City itself, or up somewhere near the Surfer race, or down in the Harbor with his old work-friends — but he would surely make for the Mixxaxes' to find Adda. The Mixxaxes' part of the mid-Upside was on the opposite side of Parz, and Adda began the long journey across a City in turmoil.

It was as if some malevolent giant, laughing like a spin storm, had taken the City and shaken it. People, young and old, the well-dressed rich and drab manual workers alike, fled through the corridor-streets; screams echoed along the avenues and Air-shafts. Perhaps each of these scurrying folk had some dim purpose of their own in the face of the Glitch — just as Adda did. But collectively, they swarmed.