"I know the world we live in--nothing more."
"But you're guessing--"
"Later, Captain, after you start putting some facts together on your
own." She pulled away from him. "If you want to find me again--and I
think you will--look for me in Number thirty-four on the amusement
level. Ask for Dawn."
Suddenly, for no reason that he could explain, he had for her a great
sympathy. She was no ordinary woman. Her discernment was
extraordinary, and she possessed, in addition, a strangely elusive
charm.
They rode the lift as it moved up through the city level in its
transparent, fairy-world shaft. Dawn got out first, at the mid-city
walk-way where the cheapest shops and the gaudiest entertainment
houses were crammed together. Dazzling in the glare of colored lights,
the mid-city never slept. It was always thronged. It was the only area
of the heartland--except for the top level casinos--open to every
citizen without restriction.
On the levels immediately above it were the specialty shops, dealing
in luxuries for the suburbanites who had fought, schemed and bribed
their way out of the minimum housing. Higher still was the sector
given over to the less expensive commercial hotels.
The upper levels were occupied by cartel executive offices and at the
top, high enough to escape the smog and feel the warmth of the sun,
were the fabulous casino resorts, the mansions built by the family
dynasts who controlled the cartels, and the modest, limestone building
housing the mockery which passed as government.