wine bottle longer upon the shelf....

Riverside Club, where Hyrel arrived by bus and a hundred yards of
walking, was exclusive. It catered to a clientele that had but three
things in common: money, a desire for utter self-abandonment, and a
sales slip indicating ownership of a telporter suit. The club was of
necessity expensive, for self-telportation was strictly illegal, and
police protection came high.

Herbert Hyrel adjusted his white, silken mask carefully at the door and
shoved his sales slip through a small aperture where it was thoroughly
scanned by unseen eyes. A buzzer sounded an instant later, the lock on
the door clicked, and Hyrel pushed through into the exhilarating warmth
of music and laughter.

The main room was large. Hidden lights along the walls sent slow beams
of red, blue, vermillion, green, yellow and pink trailing across the
domed ceiling in a heterogeneous pattern. The colored beams mingled,
diffused, spread, were caught up by mirrors of various tints which
diffused and mingled the lights once more until the whole effect was an
ever-changing panorama of softly-melting shades.

The gay and bizarre costumes of the masked revelers on the dance floor
and at the tables, unearthly in themselves, were made even more so by
the altering light. Music flooded the room from unseen sources.
Laughter--hysterical, drunken, filled with utter abandonment--came from
the dance floor, the tables, and the private booths and rooms hidden
cleverly within the walls.

Hyrel pushed himself to an unoccupied table, sat down and ordered a
bottle of cheap whiskey. He would have preferred champagne, but his
depleted finances forbade the more discriminate taste.

When his order arrived, he poured a glass tumbler half full and consumed
it eagerly while his eyes scanned the room in search of the girl. He
couldn't see her in the dim swirl of color. Had she arrived? Perhaps she
was wearing a different costume than she had the night before. If so,
recognition might prove difficult.

He poured himself another drink, promising himself he would go in search
of her when the liquor began to take effect.

A woman clad in the revealing garb of a Persian dancer threw an arm
about him from behind and kissed him on the cheek through the veil which
covered the lower part of her face.

"Hi, honey," she giggled into his ear. "Havin' a time?"

He reached for the white arm to pull her to him, but she eluded his
grasp and reeled away i