Flasher signals on the wall began to blink rapidly.
They moved steadily onward, faster than before, into a still more
shadowy region. Light itself seemed to exist only at long intervals
where age-old radilumes performed a feeble service. The spongy floor
of rotten bedrock was scummed over with moss to make for slippery
footing. Formations of natural rock seemed like stage furniture
designed by elves and gnomes, in which stone mimicked monstrosities of
the vegetable world. Fat, knotted stalagmites suggested tree trunks,
and the darkness overhead appeared like shadowy densities of foliage.
Seepage had fretted the walls into lacy limestone traceries like a fern
forest. They went on, with tense silence savage between them.
Alarm blinkers flashed light codes of rapid pursuit.
"Your people must have had much contact with the police to have worked
out such a set-up," observed Torry.
Tharol Sen nodded. "We have been persecuted for centuries. Not many
Earthfolk have ever been here. Nor any others but my own people."
"Yet the police seem to be finding their way."
Tharol Sen frowned. "That puzzles me," she admitted. "How could they
come here at all unless someone has betrayed us?"
From close behind sounded the loud buzzing of a radiation detector. A
thin pencil beam flashed at them and splashed wetly over the cavern
wall ahead. Rock shattered in a brittle, crunchy explosion. Murderous
chips deluged the tunnel.
Torry lunged at the girl, dragging her down in a savage fall. More
beams of light licked out, this time from several directions.
Continuous thunders roared and reverberated, stunning ears and brains
with concussion and sound. Roughly, Torry thrust the girl into a wall
niche for shelter.
"The police!" wailed Tharol Sen.
"Looks as if we're trapped. We'd better give ourselves up."
She stared at him with contempt. "You still have your gun. If you're
afraid, give it to me."
"One gun against a dozen. No thanks."
Waiting for a lull in the blast uproar, Torry called out. His voice
rang hollowly in the cavern, still shuddering with echoes of the
explosions.
"Hold your fire. We're coming out."