Ocean on Top

I pondered that. It was a possibility I hadn’t thought of, though I was not ready to accept it as the only sensible one.

“You don’t think they might just be so pleased with their way of life — freedom from power rationing, they’d probably call it — that they just want recruits on general principles? That sort of thing has happened.”

“I know it has,” she replied. ‘But I don’t believe it has this time. You got that sort of thing back in the days of nations and political parties before the Board’s necessity was realized.”

“If you think we’ve outgrown politics,” I retorted as quickly as the stylus would let me, ‘you’re less alert than I thought you were around our own office. And what’s wrong with regarding this bunch as a nation? It’s the picture I’ve been forming of them.”

“Nation? You’ve a short circuit between the ears. They’re just another bunch of power-wasters. There aren’t enough of them to be a nation.”

“Do you know how many there are?”

“Of course not. I’ve been in no position to count. A few hundred, I should think.”

“You think a few hundred people could build a place like this? Or even a small part of it? There must be miles of tu

Marie had wanted to cut in a little way back, but waited for me to finish. There’s no point in trying to quote the next few minutes verbatim; they boiled down to the fact that she hadn’t seen the lighted area outside. She’d spotted a work sub while she was prowling around searching for Joey, had followed it, and wound up at an entrance apparently out of sight of the ‘tent’. Apparently there were a lot of entrances. She had no opinion to offer on the lighted area, and I couldn’t help feeling that she didn’t entirely believe my account of it.

She hadn’t been captured. She’d followed the sub to the entrance, found she lacked ballast enough to get through the interface between the liquids and simply stayed there, blocking traffic, until they’d loaded her down and towed her inside out of the way. Women are interesting creatures, with interesting powers. I wasn’t sure I believed her, but decided not to tell her so.

“All right,” I finally summed up on the pad. ‘The jobs for me seem to be to find Joey or reliable word of him; to find a specific, convincing reason why they are so willing or eager to have us join them; to get reliable information about the size and population of the place; and to get the technical information about their power plant.”

“Right,” she nodded. ‘I won’t demand that you do all that without confiding in Bert, because I have no way of enforcing such a request. I’ll just say I don’t trust him, myself.”

“I still don’t see why not. He’s changed over to this high-pressure scheme, but so have I, and you’ve decided to trust me, I gather.”

“Don’t remind me of it. It’s a point against you. Still, I’m hoping that with you it’s just a cover-up. After all you seem to believe it’s a reversible change, even if I don’t, judging by your expression when I said it wasn’t. I hope for your sake you’re right.”

“Why shouldn’t Bert have believed the same and had the same motive?”

“If that’s the case, why has he been down here a year? If he can come back, he must be up to something, because he hasn’t. If he can’t he’s up to something because he must have told you it was possible. Think it over.”

I did and found myself with no good answer. The best I could say was, ‘All right. I’ll be careful.” I had started to swim away when she called my name. Irritated, I turned back and saw her face pressed close to the port. As I looked she spoke again, much more softly, so that even immersed in the liquid I could barely hear.

“You’re a pretty good egg. If it weren’t for Joey —”

She broke off, and her face disappeared from the port.

I swam away, listening to my own heartbeat and trying to organize my thoughts.

Chapter Fourteen

There was no sign of Bert in the corridor outside, and I didn’t dare wander in search of him. I did remember the way back to the near-the-ocean entrance and swam there in the hope that it was a logical place for him to be waiting.

There were at least a dozen people in the big chamber, and more could be seen dimly in the darker water above, but none of them was Bert. I could think of nothing to do but wait for him, as far as the main program was concerned. But it did seem a good time to pick up a little local education.

I swam up to the interface and hesitated. Other people were going through from time to time. I decided I’d better watch their technique before I tried it myself.

It was simple enough. All one did was cling to a ladder, remove one’s ballast belt and hang it on one of the numerous hooks lining the rim and swim through. However, everyone who did this was wearing helmet and coveralls, presumably to keep the special liquid in their mouths, ears and so on. Maybe ocean water would hurt lungs, for all I knew. Anyway, no one stuck an unhelmeted head through the boundary, and I decided to play safe myself even though I couldn’t see what the danger, if any, might be.

Several of the people around were watching me, I noticed. One or two of them had expressions of concern on their faces. One gestured at me, but of course I couldn’t read her signs. She watched me for a moment, saw that I didn’t answer, made another flickering series of hand motions to those around her and then swam over to me. She pointed to the water and then to me and raised her eyebrows quizzically. The nature of her query was easy to guess, though the girl herself commanded more attention than her signals.

She might have been the one I had seen outside, though there was no way to be sure. There were several others in the group who were just as likely to be that one. She had straight blonde hair, cut short in a bob which could easily be accommodated in one of the swimming helmets. She was about five feet three in height and would have weighed about a hundred and ten pounds out of water. She was wearing a two-piece affair which was a long way from being a coverall, but protected much more acreage than a bikini. Her face was rather harrow, and I could make no guess at her regional origin.

In response to her question, or what I assumed to be her question, I raised an arm toward the water surface, very slowly, watching her with raised eyebrows as I did so.

She gave a violent negative headshake, wrapped her arms tight around herself and shuddered realistically. I could also interpret that and was a

I held up one finger and joked it toward the boundary, asking the girl the same question with my eyebrows. She shrugged, as though to say it was my finger, so I pushed it on through.

The temperature was bearable, but I could see why the swimmers wore coveralls. I thought I could stand it for a short time if I had to, but saw no reason to make a test of the matter just then.