“We’re in another, bigger elevator,” Nara explained. “It will take us to the top level.”
Lingering fumes from the wag’s exhaust filtered into the compartment. Evidently the hull wasn’t airtight. It took so long for the elevator to reach its destination, Ryan figured that had the driver left the engine running, they’d all have turned purple and suffocated.
Shortly after the upward motion ceased, the sec men cracked the wag’s rear exit. Between the back bumper and the elevator doors, there was a distance of about two yards. Huth, Nara and Ryan climbed out of the vehicle, but the sec crew remained inside.
“We don’t need protection here?” Ryan asked.
“They have their own,” Huth said.
When the elevator doors slid back, they revealed wall-to-wall sec men. The situation was similar to what Ryan had faced outside the transport chamber.
The hall was low-ceilinged, windowless and lined on both sides with very excited people. Men and women cheered and waved, pressing against the barrier of sec men as they attempted to reach out and touch him. The people at this location wore different uniforms. Dark blue jackets and slacks for the men, the same jackets and short, tight skirts for the women. All of the garments looked threadbare and shabby.
“Who are all these people?” Ryan asked Nara. “They’re not wearing white coats.”
“Upper-level management,” she replied. The sec men treated the managers with the same courtesy as their counterparts had treated the white-coats. Using batons and armor-clad elbows, they beat back the throng.
To Ryan’s right, a sec man’s straight-arm sent a tall woman with brown hair flying back into her colleagues. As she slid off them and hit the floor, her long legs spread wide. The woman wore nothing underneath the tattered miniskirt, and she made no attempt to close her thighs. Ryan couldn’t help but stop and stare at what was on offer. Before he turned away, she scrambled to her feet and jerked open the lapels of her worn navy-blue blazer, treating Ryan to an even more startling sight.
Under the jacket she wore a flimsy white plastic bib. On the front of the bib was a full-color likeness of a man with a black eye patch, longish dark hair and a dark shadow of beard. Under the photo were the words Hope Lives.
“That’s me!” Ryan said in astonishment. How the image had been produced seemed much less important to him than why it had been produced. “What’s going on?” he asked Nara.
“Like I said, you’re a celebrity now. The first man from Shadow World. You’ve stimulated the imagination of everyone who knows about you. You’ll be seeing a lot more of this kind of thing as time goes on. Word hasn’t gotten out to the general public yet.”
He noticed many others in the hallway were wearing the Hope Lives shirts. Still others had buttons with his likeness on them clipped to their lapels. It gave him an odd feeling to see his own face looking back at him, affixed to the clothes of strangers.
The sec men cleared their access to a doorway, then escorted them through to an anteroom that ended in another door. Huth ushered Ryan into the room beyond. Inside, there was no crush of people. There were no people at all. Ryan could actually see the four walls, which were gray, unfinished concrete. The room wasn’t overly large, and it was made to feel even smaller by the size of the conference table that dominated it, and by the low ceiling and lack of windows. The sense of physical oppression that Ryan had felt since his arrival persisted.
As he stepped farther into the room, a video camera mounted near the ceiling panned along with him. Inset on one wall were five big video screens, and under each screen was a plaque with a name on it. Invecta, Mitsuki, Hutton-Byrum-Kobe, Questar, Omnico.
The screens winked on simultaneously. Four men and a woman looked down at him, each from his or her own monitor. They all wore gold blazers and white turtlenecks.
“Good afternoon, Ryan,” said the man whose screen was marked Hutton-Byrum-Kobe. He had a kindly face and a leonine mane of white hair. “I hope you don’t mind our getting together in this impersonal and disembodied way. But it really isn’t necessary that we all meet you in person today. There will be plenty of time for that later. Right now, we want you to take a seat and relax.” He pointed at the chair at the head of the table.