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.I had been more interested in whether it would be useful for a temporaryhiding place I had to believe.Wade couldn't plan for every eventuality or that somehow I would find a way toupset the plan The.alternative was that Tara and I were living the last few hours of our lives.Tara slid open the door to the tunnel We filed into the empty yellow-flooredPage 187 ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.htmlcorridor and followed Tara.as she turned to the right Some of the echoes of our footfalls were longdelayed so the tunnel felt more., comfortable than the stairwell had I walked by Tara's side and Wade's groupcame along behind two by., , two.Tara had been right about people retiring for the evening We encountered noone for the first fifteen.minutes of rapid walking.The walk gave me a chance to wonder what was in Daniel's briefcase Whatever itwas they considered., it valuable enough to risk appearing slightly unusual I glanced back andrealized that the blonde must be.carrying the briefcase under her robe Her left arm was tucked inside her robeand as the robe swished., , along the outline of the case occasionally showed,.Infrequent doors broke the tunnel walls Some were labeled with people's namesprobably indicating., tunnels leading directly to cottages Other doors were labeled with numbersand letters that, from Tara's.earlier description made them seem to be short side tunnels leading toclusters of cottages Once in a,.while we passed a door that bore no designation When I asked Tara about theblank doors she told me., they too led to maintenance equipment storage or so she had been told Iirritated Wade twice by trying, , ,.the doors One door was locked; the other door opened to reveal nothing but amotionless yellow-orange.autoscrubber silently charging its batteries.Near an intersection ahead, we almost had to pass a solitary walker but heturned into the side tunnel,just as I rounded a curve We slowed down to give him plenty of space before wepassed through the.intersection It turned out we gave him more space than necessary There was nosign of him at all Down.the side tunnel I could see a door The door was too far away to see whateverPage 188 ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.htmllegend it bore.Against one wall of the intersection chamber there was a wall screen with thelist of residents Marj,.Lendelson's name was still missing.As we neared the Tower of Worship Tara proved more and more valuable as aguide Three- and,.four-tunnel intersections made navigation progressively more difficultparticularly with the tunnel twists, and turns that also grew more pronounced I felt as if I were in the enormousburrow of a drug-crazed.monster rabbit.Finally our tunnel dead-ended into the side of a straight tunnel On theoutside wall of the tunnel were.numerous other tunnels the space between them hardly wider than the tunnelmouths themselves Along,.the inside of the perimeter were doors spaced to match up with each tunnel,."This is it " Tara said softly "The Tower of Worship " She stopped at the edgeof the tunnels and said to,.Wade "You still have time to change your plans They'll know if somethinghappens in there We'll never,.get away "."Then you don't really have anything to feel bad about If we're caught allyou'd have to do is explain But.,.they're not going to catch us Let's move ".Tara led the way to the door I wondered not for the first time if my realpurpose here was to be a decoy., ,.I was also amazed that we hadn't met one insomniac.When Tara got close enough to the door to let the elevator know we wanted touse it a voice came from, the adjacent elevator ten meters down the hall "No waiting at this station "the smoothly modulated voice., said.We crowded into the elevator The elevator itself was the most mundane articleI had seen here so far It.Page 189 ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.htmlwas fancy but could easily have been transported directly from some officecomplex built centuries ago,.Mirrors covered everything except the control panel The voice said "Pleasestep to the rear and make., room for me to close the door ".The control panel was simplicity itself A lighted touch panel adorned with theoutline of a seven-pointed., star indicated we were at the main tunnel level the higher of the twounderground levels Above us were, ,.about a dozen discrete floors beginning with the main floor of the Tower Abovethose floor indicators,.was a bar graph that indicated we could travel almost all the way to the topof the Tower Below us was a.maintenance level with the inscription, , Authorized ersonnel OnlyPNo doubt it was key- or password-protected.Tara was about to touch the indicator for the main level when Wade grabbed herhand."No Let's get a look from one of the upper floors before we try it " Hetouched.three.The elevator said "Going up to the third floor " and began to rise at aleisurely pace Wade touched the, ,.indicator again for a second and the elevator tripled its acceleration.On the third floor everyone but Tara was facing the wrong direction when theelevator said "The interior, , door is about to open " The opposite side of the elevator opened wide andI finally began to appreciate.how immense the Tower of Worship must be In the distance I could see the farwall lined with several., , tiny rectangular elevator doors The wall was so far away the air itselfblurred fine details A large hole in.the center of the floor was cut away surrounded by a protective railing Therailing gleamed like polished,.gold even in the artificial lighting Over that hole was a similar hole cut inthe ceiling During the day the.place must have been even more spectacular If thePage 190 ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html.Redshift had contained a room this large you could, probably have seen a sizable fraction of a minute into the past.The elevator said nothing after the door opened probably because it wasprogrammed to be quiet inside, the Tower of Worship.On Wade's command we filed out of the elevator and stayed near the door I keptthinking about day
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