“Really?” Nolan said, and he sounded as if he was working very hard to grasp a concept so alien to him that he almost couldn’t be sure it was possible. “I can’t imagine that anyone would be that interested in new machinery. I can’t imagine that anyone would be proficient enough at technology to be able to export it.”

“You mean, that a gulden would be smart enough to be proficient,” she said in a glacial voice.

He seemed surprised at her tone. “No, I—” He tossed his hands in the air. “I’m the first one to admit I don’t know a thing about machines. Electronics. I couldn’t begin to tell you how the Centrifuge works. And my computer back at the lab. I can turn it on. I can use it. I have no idea what went into it.”

She relaxed again. “Gulden technology, most of it,” she said. “But from what I hear, all computers are still pretty primitive. Compared to what the engineers hope to produce some day. But some of the existing technology truly is amazing. I mean, the Centrifuge. The cars are actually airborne. Do you think about that as you go diving through the lanes? How can you possibly be flying? But it’s not true flight, or so I’ve been told. There’s something about magnetic dissonance and an antigravity field that can only be used in a confined space. I’ve been told the real trick will be true flight in airborne vehicles that can cover hundreds of miles in a few hours.”

Nolan nodded. “I’ve heard that, too. I used to work with a guldman who would go on and on about marvels like that. We all used to ignore him.” He paused and seemed to brood a moment—remembering, perhaps, past conversations with that mocked visionary, and wishing he had been more receptive. “Well, he doesn’t work there anymore, so I guess I can’t ask him about any of this stuff.”

“Where do you work?” Kit asked curiously. “When it comes to that, who are you?”

“I told you. My name is Nolan. Nolan Adelpho.”

“Higher Hundred,” she said instantly. Which made this little kidnapping escapade all the more unbelievable.

He nodded. “Spent my whole life in Inrhio till five years ago when I came to the city. I’ll spend the rest of my life in-country once I’m married. You’re making fun of me for what I don’t know but—I know everything I was taught. Everything I needed to know for the life I was supposed to live.”

“And aren’t you living it?”

He glanced behind him at the carful of quiet guldmen. “I was,” he said. “Until today.”

He said nothing more so she prompted him again. “And you work where? Somewhere in the city.”

He nodded. “Biolab. In the Complex.”