As he jostled past the door attendant, he thrust a sovereign into the man’s hand and hissed: “I wasn’t here. Understand?”

“No one is ever here, Mr. Reich.”

He made a quick circuit of the frab rooms. Tenser, said the Tensor. Tenser, said the Tensor. Tension, apprehension, and dissension have begun. He brushed past the girls who variously solicited him, then locked himself into the phone booth and punched BD-12,232.

Church’s anxious face appeared on the screen.

“Well, Ben?”

“We’re in a jam. Powell’s here.”

“Oh my God!”

“Where in hell is Quizzard?”

“He isn’t there?”

“I can’t locate him.”

“But I thought he’d be down in the cellar. He—”

“Powell was in the cellar, peeping Chooka. You can bet Quizzard wasn’t there. Where in hell is he?”

“I don’t know, Ben. He went down with his wife, and—”

“Look, Jerry. Powell must have found the girl’s location. I’ve got maybe five minutes to beat him to her. Quizzard was supposed to do that for me. He isn’t in the cellar. He’s nowhere in the Frab Joint. He—”

“He must be upstairs in the coop.”

“I was going to figure that for myself. Listen, is there a quick way to get up to the coop? A short-cut I can use to beat Powell to her?”

“If Powell peeped Chooka, he peeped the shortcut.”

“God damn it, I know that. But maybe he didn’t. Maybe he was concentrating on the girl. It’s a chance I’ll have to take.”

“Behind the main stairs. There’s a marble bas-relief. Turn the woman’s head to the right. The bodies separate and there’s a door to a vertical pneumatique.”

“Right.”

Reich hung up, left the booth, and darted to the main stairs. He turned to the rear of the marble staircase, found the bas-relief, twisted the woman’s head savagely and watched the bodies swing apart. A steel door appeared. A panel of buttons was set in the lintel. Reich punched TOP, yanked the door open and stepped into the open shaft. Instantly a metal plate jolted up against his soles and with a hiss of air pressure he was lofted eight stories to the top floor. A magnetic catch held the plate while he opened the shaft door and stepped out.

He found himself in a corridor that slanted up at an angle of thirty degrees and leaned to the left. It was floored with canvas. The ceiling glowed at intervals with small flickering globes of radon. The walls were lined with doors, none of them numbered.

“Quizzard!” Reich shouted.

There was no answer.

“Keno Quizzard!”

Still no answer.

Reich ran halfway up the corridor, and then at a venture tried a door. It opened to a narrow cubby entirely filled with an oval bed. Reich tripped over the edge of the bed and fell. He crawled across the foam mattress to a door on the opposite side, thrust it open, and fell through. He found himself on a landing. A flight of steps led down to a round anteroom rimmed with doors. Reich tumbled down the steps and stood, breathing heavily, staring at the circle of doors.