"Right. Put it in those bushes to your left. They'll conceal it, won't
they?"

"I think so. Yeah." Stanton hid the rifle and then began making his way
up the talus slope.

Captain Greer flipped a switch. "Team One! He's coming in. Are those
alarms deactivated?"

"All okay, Barhop," said a voice. "This is Leader One. I'll meet him at
the hole."

"Right." Captain Greer reversed the switch again. "Are you ready,
Barbell?"

Stanton looked into the dark hole. It was hardly big enough to crawl
through, and ended in a seeming infinity of blackness. He took the
special goggles from the case at his belt and put them on. Inside the
hole, he saw a single rat, staring at him with beady eyes.

"I'm ready to go in, Barhop," Stanton said.

He got down on his hands and knees and began to crawl through the narrow
tunnel. Ahead of him, the rat turned and began to lead the way.

_[22]_

The big tunnel inside the cliff was long and black, and the air was
stale and thick with the stench of rodents. Stanton stood still for a
minute, stretching his muscles. Crawling through that cramped little
opening had not been easy. He looked around him, trying to probe the
luminescent gloom that the goggles he wore brought to his eyes.

The tunnel stretched out before him--on and on. Around him was the
smell of viciousness and death. Ahead ...

_It goes on to infinity_, Stanton thought, _ending at last at zero_.

The rat paused and looked back, waiting for him to follow.

"Okay," Stanton muttered. "Let's go."

The rat led him down the long tunnel, deep into the cliffside, until at
last they came to a stairway that led downward into the long tunnels
where the trains had once run. They came to the platform where
passengers had once waited for those trains. Four feet below the edge of
the platform were the rusted tracks that had once borne those trains.

He lowered himself over the edge to stand on the rail.

"Barbell," said a voice in his ear, "Barhop here. Do you read?"

It was the barest whisper, picked up by the antennas in his shoes from
the steel rail that ran along the floor of the dark tunnel.

"Read you, Barhop."

"Move out, then. You've got a long stroll to go."

Stanton started walking, keeping his feet near the rail, in case Greer
wanted to call again. As he walked, he could feel the slight motion of
the skin-tight woven suit that he wore rubbing gently against his skin.

And he could hear the scratching patter