Ryan caught sight of Nara in the doorway ahead. She smiled, then turned her back to him, and along with a crew of heavily armed and armored nonscientists, apparently sec men, began to push the crowd of whitecoats out of the way.
The windowless hall beyond the door was jam-packed with scientists, all of them cheering, waving their hands, yelling at him. In the frenzy of enthusiasm, their words were a jumble of ecstatic nonsense. Ryan found himself jostled and pushed through a sea of bobbing heads and outstretched arms. The furor combined with the low ceiling to make the quarters feel smotheringly close. The contingent of sec men kept the whitecoats back with batons, plowing through them in wedge formation. Those knocked to the floor by the sec men were unceremoniously kicked and trampled by then- excited colleagues, who seized the opportunity to get a little closer to Ryan.
Following the wedge, with Nara on one side and Huth on the other, Ryan was rushed around a corner and into a waiting, open elevator. Half of the sec men remained outside to keep the whitecoats from pushing into the car. Ryan, Nara and Huth moved to the back wall, their protectors crushing in behind them. The interior of the car was gray, like the concrete walls outside, and well-worn. There was even less airspace to the ceiling. As the elevator doors slowly closed, Ryan noticed the grittiness underfoot.
“Better get used to this kind of attention,” Nara told him. “You are a celebrity now.”
“Don’t know that word,” Ryan admitted.
“Means you are famous. Important. People will want to know you, to know all about you.”
The elevator started to drop.
“Of course we will have to control the flow of information,” Huth said, “and the access. In your initial interview you will only speak to a small, select group, representatives drawn from each of the FIVE. Then we will to see to your medical needs.”
“FIVE, like your insignia?”
“That’s right.”
“What does it stand for?”
“Five global conglomerates,” Huth said. “After the Big Shakedowns of the nineties, the controlling international economic powers were reduced to just fiveas it turned out, the perfect number for efficient management of Earth’s resources. The FIVE are linked by treaties to compete peacefully and provide troops to protect mutual interests and defend individual freedom. This reorganization has allowed us to put an end to war.”
Ryan looked around the packed car as it plummeted. “Lot of blasters in here for such a peaceful place.”
“Your safety is paramount to us. You’ve seen how excited people get at the sight of you. I assure you their affection is genuine, but we can’t take any chances of your being accidentally injured.”
Nara nodded in agreement, but there was something behind her eyes, something cloaked, as if Huth were leaving something important unsaid. When she realized that Ryan was reading her expression, or attempting to, she turned her face away.
Ryan noticed that there was no floor indicator above the doors. “Long way down,” he said. “No stops in between.”
“That’s right,” Huth said. “This is an express. It will let us out at road level.”
Even without stops, the trip took six or seven minutes.
When the car doors finally opened, it was onto a narrow, apparently dead-end corridor that was practically filled with a black war wag. The fit between wag and hall was so tight that entry to the vehicle’s red-lit interior had to be made through its rear double doors.
Ryan was directed to one of the small jump seats spaced along the passenger compartment’s side walls. The seats were jammed between the wag’s girders. Behind them, the walls were a solid mass of gray pipe and wiring conduit. Inside the compartment, the odor of burned plastic was as sharp as a razor. There were no windows, in either the passenger or driver areas, and it soon became clear there were not enough seats to go around. Some of the sec men had to sit on the floor by the rear doors. They were packed shoulder to shoulder, and shoulder to knee with those who’d found seats.
In the front of the vehicle two men sat facing forward in what looked like much more comfortable chairs. Ryan watched as the one on the left pulled on an opaque visor.