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Tunnel was one of their prime targets?”
    Ravagin made a face. “It could be just coincidence that this part of Threshold was bombed the most. It may have nothing at all to do with the Tunnel.”
    And as if on cue, the autocar topped a slight rise and the Tunnel came into view.
    It wasn’t particularly impressive, in and of itself, almost certainly by deliberate design of its unknown builders. A few small hills surrounding a longer mound, the latter with a small cave-like opening facing west. The prewar Threshold landscape had probably been riddled with similarly unremarkable hills, with these not worth a second glance … until after the war, when the mounds could be seen to have survived a near-direct nuclear blast. …
    Danae let out a long, wondering breath. “Incredible,” she murmured. “It doesn’t even look deformed.”
    â€œNot noticeably, anyway,” Ravagin nodded. “Have you ever read Reingold’s original log entry of its discovery? You’ll have to when we get back. Poor woman nearly went nuts trying to explain how it could still be standing out here—and the crewman who first figured out the Tunnel itself really did slip his programming for awhile.”
    â€œI don’t blame him. Shamsheer must have been a real shock.”
    The autocar negotiated the gentle ramp that had been built up to the mounds and rolled to a stop. “Last chance to change your mind,” Ravagin warned as they got out.
    â€œDon’t be silly,” Danae retorted, striding ahead of him into the Tunnel mouth. Ravagin took a careful look at the landscape behind them and then followed, feeling marginally better. Hart could still be skulking around the background somewhere; but from here on he’d have a hell of a time keeping up with them.
    For the first fifty meters or so the Tunnel went straight into the mound with only a slight slope downward, and by the time it began its lefthanded circular bend the last traces of light from the entrance had been left behind. The faint glow of Danae’s dimlight waited for him at the bend; lighting his own, Ravagin caught up with her. “Stay clear of the walls,” he warned her as he brushed past and took the lead. “They’re rough in places—and the material is just as unyielding as the stuff the outside is made of, so you can get a bruise you’ll long remember.”
    â€œIt would help if you people would give us decent lights,” she grumbled as they walked. “Even fire matches would be brighter than these things.”
    â€œAnd would be very noticeable to anyone from Shamsheer who happened to be wandering around the Tunnel. We try to discourage travel from that end.”
    â€œBut—oh.” She fell silent. Perhaps, Ravagin thought, the other reason for the dim lighting had suddenly occurred to her.
    The trip, taken in near-absolute darkness, always seemed longer than it really was, and Ravagin was beginning to sense restlessness in his client when the first of the marker dots came into view along the wall. Standard procedure was to immediately point them out to newcomers … but nothing yet about this trip had been particularly standard, and just for the hell of it he decided to give Danae a more direct introduction to what Reingold had dubbed the Unwelcome Mat. They passed the camouflaged lockers … the triangle marker loomed just ahead … Ravagin increased his lead a step—
    And abruptly he was five meters behind her.
    The shock of his disappearance kept her feet moving another two steps; and by the time she gasped and twisted around it was too late. Her motion brought her elbow across the invisible line of the telefold—
    And abruptly she was a meter behind him again.
    She spun again to face him, and he heard the breath go out of her in a wumph. “That was a rotten trick,” she muttered, sounding more awed than angry. “Your information packet