She brushed back a handful of filthy hair. "And from your people, wherever they are... Anyway, if the beams do hit us directly, it will be mischance. The purpose of the Xeelee is obviously to disrupt the Core; they wouldn't waste effort on a tiny, helpless construct like a City."

"Yes. So much for Hork's expedition into the underMantle."

"Perhaps. But, Adda, that brave and foolish expedition was the only hope any of us had. I have clung to it far beyond any rational point." She smiled thinly. "In fact I still cling to it. Why not? As long as it keeps me functioning."

He surveyed the thin trails of Air-cars and people dispersing into the roiling Air. In the distance the larger cars showed up as silhouettes, fleeing insects against searing Xeelee light.

Deni rubbed her chin. "You may not understand this, Adda, but most of the City's people have never strayed outside Parz before. To them, the City has always been the safest place in the world. Now that it's falling apart around them, they feel — betrayed. Like a child abandoned by its parents." She hesitated. "We're talking of hope. But in a way, for many the worst has already come to pass."

"Do you think we're doing any good here?"

She looked strained. "Well, we're shoving the patients out of this improvised port as fast as they are coming in — crushed in the Stadium, or burned and sliced open by that Corestuff berg incursion through the Midside... But whether they are any safer out there than in what's left of the City, I don't care to judge." She smiled without humor. "But at least it makes us feel better to help them. Don't you agree?"

Another patient was shouldered past them and out into a waiting car. Farr was in this latest work party, and as soon as the patient — an unconscious child — was delivered, Farr turned to make his way back into the chaos of the ward. Adda laid a hand on his shoulder, restraining him. There were deep bruises around the boy's eyes; his shoulders were hunched and his mouth was working as if he was mumbling to himself.

Adda shook him gently. "Farr? Are you all right, lad?"

Farr focused on the old man. "I'm fine," he said, his voice high and thin. "I'm just a little tired, and..."

"Listen, you don't have to carry on with this."

Farr looked offended. "Adda, I'm not a kid."

"I'm not suggesting you are, you damn..."

Deni moved smoothly between them, something of her old sheen of competence returning to her. "Farr, you're doing a marvelous job... and I need you to keep on doing it. So I agree with Adda; I think you should take a short break — find something to eat, a place to rest."

Farr looked ready to protest further, but Deni pushed him gently in the chest. "Go on. That's an order."

With a thin smile the boy complied.