It was dirt. Earth. Soil. Sand. The stuff that planets were made out of, that this planet was made out of, it was the surface of Helior, on which the incredible weight of the world-embracing city rested. He looked up, and in that unspeakable moment was suddenly aware of that weight, all that weight, above his head, pressing down and trying to crush him. Now he was on the bottom, rock bottom, and obsessed by galloping claustrophobia. Giving a weak scream, he stumbled down the hallway until it ended in an immense sealed and bolted door. There was no way out of this. And when he looked at the blackened thickness of the door he decided that he really didn’t want to go out that way either. What nameless horrors might lurk behind a portal like this at the bottom of the world?
Then, while he watched, paralyzed, with staring eyes, the door squealed and started to swing open. He turned to run and screamed aloud in terror as something grabbed him in an unbreakable grip.
V
Not that Bill didn’t try to break the grip, but it was hopeless. He wriggled in the skeleton-white claws that clutched him and tried futilely to pry them from his arms, all the time uttering helpless little bleats like a lamb in an eagle’s talons. Thrashing ineffectually, he was drawn backward through the mighty portal which swung shut without the agency of human hands.
“Welcome…” a sepulchral voice said, and Bill staggered as the restraining grasp was removed, then whirled about to face the large white robot, now immobile. Next to the robot stood a small man in a white jacket who sported a large, bald head and a serious expression.
“You don’t have to tell me your name,” the small man said, “not unless you want to. But I am Inspector Jeyes. Have you come seeking sanctuary?”
“Are you offering it?” Bill asked dubiously.
“Interesting point, most interesting.” Jeyes rubbed his chapped hands together with a dry, rustling sound. “But we shall have no theological arguments now, tempting as they are, I assure you, so I think it might be best to make a statement, yes indeed. There is a sanctuary here-have you come to avail yourself of it?”
Bill, now that he had recovered from his first shock, was being a little crafty, remembering all the trouble he had gotten into by opening his big wug. “Listen, I don’t even know who you are or where I am or what kind of strings are attached to this sanctuary business.”
“Very proper, my mistake, I assure you, since I took you for one of the city’s deplanned, though now I notice that the rags you are wearing were once a trooper’s dress uniform and that the oxidized shard of pot metal on your chest is the remains of a noble decoration. Welcome to Helior, the Imperial Planet, and how is the war coming?”
“Fine, fine-but what’s this all about?”
“I am Inspector Jeyes of the City Department of Sanitation. I can see, and I sincerely hope you will pardon the indiscretion, that you are in a bit of trouble, out of uniform, your plan gone, perhaps even your ID card vanished.” He watched Bill’s uneasy motion with shrewd, birdlike eyes. “But it doesn’t have to be that way. Accept sanctuary. We will provide for you, give you a good job, a new uniform, even a new ID card.”
“And all I have to do is become a garbage man!” Bill sneered.
“We prefer the term G-man,” Inspector Jeyes answered humbly.
“I’ll think about it,” Bill said coldly.
“Might I help you make up your mind?” the inspector asked, and pressed a button on the wall. The portal into outer blackness squealed open once again, and the robot grabbed Bill and started to push.
“Sanctuary!” Bill squealed, then pouted when the robot had released him and the door was resealed. “I was just going to say that anyway, you didn’t have to throw your weight around.”
“A thousand pardons, we want you to feel happy here. Welcome to the D of S. At the risk of embarrassment, may I ask if you will need a new ID card? Many of our recruits like to start life afresh down here in the department, and we have a vast selection of cards to choose from. We get everything eventually you must remember, bodies and emptied wastebaskets included, and you would be surprised at the number of cards we collect that way. If you’ll just step into this elevator …”