She took him by the hand and led him deeper into the park. During the
year he had been an unofficial member of the underground, supplying
them with blueprints, he had never seen their headquarters, but he
suspected it was close by, right under the noses of the authorities,
and Julie did not disappoint him. She led him to a stone-block
monument commemorating heroes of the Last War, and effortlessly pushed
aside one of the blocks to reveal the darkness of a tunnel.
"Follow me," she directed and disappeared.
Arthur did, but first he dropped the silver disc a few feet away. When
they were in the tunnel, Julie closed the entrance again and produced a
flashlight. By its beams, they made their way downward.
They walked for perhaps a half-mile, when the tunnel broadened into
what seemed a cavern. Their footsteps echoed from the opposite wall
with a click-click-click, click-click-click.
"The old subway," Julie explained, her voice hollow, and Arthur nodded.
With the coming of the helibus system many years ago, the subways had
been discarded and their entrances sealed and checked periodically. Of
course, they couldn't know about the monument entrance. At least, they
hadn't, Arthur amended, thinking of the silver disc whose emanations
could now be easily picked up by the robots.
"Here we are," Julie said, after awhile, coming to a halt before
a door. She tapped carefully with the flashlight according to a
prearranged signal. The door slid open slightly, emitting a finger of
light from the room's glowtube. A man's face appeared to survey the
corridor briefly, then the door went wide.
They entered a large room and the door slid into place behind them.
Arthur strained his eyes, blinded temporarily by the light. Unfamiliar
faces stared at him, about twenty of them. Men and women of all ages.
He started suddenly. There, grinning pleasantly at him, was Austen, the
young fellow from the office.
"Are we all here?" Julie wanted to know.
"Yes, we were waiting for you," a voice said.