ped. "We've got to get out of here.
Better try and get the girls loose now."

We wasted no further time on Wyk. Snap snatched several of his weapons
and mechanical devices. We stowed them hastily in our pockets. One was
like another to us; we could only guess at their uses.

"His shoes, Gregg. I can't get the damn things off him."

"Here are shoes."

A small pile of shoes was in a corner of the room; wide, resilient
suction soles, built like sandals. They were very large, but the
things were so placed that it seemed we could fasten them to our
boots.

"But not now, Snap."

We snatched up four pairs of the shoes.

There seemed nothing else to do. Could we get the door open? Snap was
already fumbling at it. "Accursed thing! It won't give."

Then it slid open. The dim corridor was visible. No one, nothing, out
there. "Come on, Gregg! In a rush!"

We went like bouncing rubber figures up the incline ladder.

"Snap, watch out!" He all but cracked his head with an upward leap.
Every instant we expected to be set upon. There was a terraced upper
hall, black with shadow; dark ovals of doorways led into rooms.

No one here. As yet we were not discovered.

We stood at the intersection of two corridors. One went almost
vertically up, like a chimney extending into the dome peak of the
globe. Its sides were latticed; we could go up it hand over hand, like
monkeys. The other sloped at an angle downward.

"Which way?" Snap whispered. "What do you think? Got to find them."

It still lacked about five minutes of our designated time, but it
would not do to burst in upon the girls, perhaps to find Molo and
guards there.

"Let's wait a minute, listen, see if we can't get some idea."

We were backed against the corridor wall, almost in darkness. From the
dark length of the descending corridor came a thump, the sound of a
struggle, and then a muffled scream. Venza! And we heard her words:
"Anita! Look out for her! She's got a knife!"

As though diving into water, Snap and I plunged head first into the
blackness of the corridor.

12

Later, we learned that Anita and Venza had tried much the same tactics
on Meka that we had used on Wyk, but their task was more difficult.
She was suspicious of them. Venza asked her where the control station
was, but she wouldn't answer.

"Your brother said it was just beyond the dark forest," Anita said.
"What is the dark forest?"

"A place with trees where no one lives."

"