ad it in his mind to see
Janith and tell her she had failed--that he was his own man again. She
would be at the office. He would tell her off, and leave. And then he'd
show Rusche some of the high spots of the low-number levels of
Appalachia.

The darkness came about them swiftly. To Duggan it was like a return to
the nightmare of sightlessness. Under their feet the racing strip
faltered and stalled. They were thrown off their feet and sprawled on
the fiber-ribbed squares of the checkerboarded way's surface.

"What is it?" demanded Rusche.

He fought back the panic. This was not true blindness.

"Criminals. They set off a few dozen 'midnight' bombs and try to rob
banks or stores. We get these attacks quite often."

"Last long?"

"Emergency ventilation will clear it out in a couple of minutes. And the
Squads will have them in half an hour. They never get very far."

They sat close together, to wait. From the walkways and stalled strips
shrieks and frightened cries sounded. The sounds seemed to increase from
behind them.

"This's my first time above the Twentieth Level," Rusche confided.
"Thirty-five years and I never saw the Outside. I don't think I like it
up this high."

"It will be over in a little while, Ted. Probably just a group of
teen-agers looking for thrills." He laughed drily. "They'll end up with
blanked memories and new faces like those who tried before them."

"Listen," muttered Rusche.

In the lightlessness, and above the wailing of the terrified people
about them, they could hear the scuff of running feet. They were coming
closer at a swift pace. In a moment the runners would collide with them!

* * * * *

Duggan's years of blindness had given him the ability to judge and gauge
distance from sound. At the proper instant he pounced, his hands
clamping around a body, and a second body crashed into the leader. They
went down in a tangle.

He heard Rusche shouting and fists battering and the tinkle of metal or
crystal on metal. He was fighting desperately, his super mech's strength
overtaxed. The unseen man's hands tore at his neck and shoulder, ripping
away the synthetic flesh and baring the complex framework beneath.

Then his hand caught an arm and he exerted the full strength of his mech
power, until now carefully subdued. The entire arm tore away from its
shoulder. And yet the wounded man continued to attack.

It was only then that he realized this must