the crowd. It
was good to have Hawkes at his side, even if he didn't fully trust the
older man.

"The Directory Building's way across town," Hawkes said. "We can't walk
it. Undertube or Overshoot?"

"What?"

"I said, do you want to take the Undertube or the Overshoot? Or doesn't
it matter to you what kind of transportation we take?"

Alan shrugged. "One's as good as any other."

Hawkes fished a coin out of his pocket and tossed it up. "Heads for
Overshoot," he said, and caught the coin on the back of his left hand.
He peered at it. "Heads it is. We take the Overshoot. This way."

They ducked into the lobby of the nearest building and took the elevator
to the top floor. Hawkes stopped a man in a blue uniform and said,
"Where's the nearest Shoot pickup?"

"Take the North Corridor bridge across to the next building. The
pickup's there."

"Right."

Hawkes led the way down the corridor, up a staircase, and through a
door. With sudden alarm Alan found himself on one of the bridges linking
the skyscrapers. The bridge was no more than a ribbon of plastic with
handholds at each side; it swayed gently in the breeze.

"You better not look down," Hawkes said. "It's fifty stories to the
bottom."

Alan kept his eyes stiffly forward. There was a good-sized crowd
gathered on the top of the adjoining building, and he saw a metal
platform of some kind.

A vender came up to them. Alan thought he might be selling tickets, but
instead he held forth a tray of soft drinks. Hawkes bought one; Alan
started to say he didn't want one when he felt a sharp kick in his
ankle, and he hurriedly changed his mind and produced a coin.

When the vender was gone, Hawkes said, "Remind me to explain rotation to
you when we get aboard the Shoot. And here it comes now."

Alan turned and saw a silvery torpedo come whistling through the air and
settle in the landing-rack of the platform; it looked like a jet-powered
vessel of some kind. A line formed, and Hawkes stuffed a ticket into
Alan's hand.

"I have a month's supply of them," he explained. "It's cheaper that
way."

They found a pair of seats together and strapped themselves in. With a
roar and a hiss the Overshoot blasted away from the landing platform,
and almost immediately came to rest on another building some distance
away.

"We've just travelled about half a mile," Hawkes said. "This ship really
moves."

A jet-propelled omnibus that travelled over the roofs of the buildings,