I waited. Over an hour went by, and still I waited, watching her. She began to breath. Her eyes opened at last, and for a long time she did not see. Then her bluefire fell on me. “Whitey,” she said. “Yes.” “Where am I…?” “In the damnedest place I could possibly have found anyone.” She frowned. “I remember,” she said and tried to sit up. It didn’t work. She fell back. “What is your name?” “Linda,” she said. Then, “I dreamed of you, Whitey. Strange dreams….How could that be?” “It’s tricky,” I said. “I knew you were coming,” she said. “I saw you fighting monsters on a mountain as high as the sky.” “Yes, we’re there now.” “H-have you the cure?” “Cure? What cure?” “Dawson’s Plague,” she said. I felt sick. I felt sick because I realized that she did not sleep as a prisoner, but to postpone her death. She was sick. “Did you come to live on this world in a ship that moved faster than light?” I asked. “No,” she said. “It took centuries to get here. We slept the cold sleep during the journey. This is one of the bunkers.” She gestured toward the casket with her eyes. I noticed her cheeks had become bright red. “They all began dying–of the plague,” she said. “There was no cure. My husband–Carl–is a doctor. When he saw that I had it, he said he would keep me in extreme hypothermia until a cure was found. Otherwise, you only live for two days, you know.” Then she stared up at me, and I realized that her last two words had been a question. I moved into a position to block her view of the dead man, who I feared must be her Carl. I tried to follow her husband’s thinking. He’d had to hurry, as he was obviously further along than she had been. He knew the colony would be wiped out. He must have loved her and been awfully clever, both–awfully resourceful. Mostly, though, he must have loved her. Knowing that the colony would die, he knew it would be centuries before another ship arrived. He had nothing that could power a cold bunker for that long. But up here, on the top of this mountain, almost as cold as outer space itself, power wouldn’t be necessary. Somehow, he had got Linda and the stuff up here. His machine cast a force field around the cave. Working in heat and atmosphere, he had sent her deep into the cold sleep and then prepared his own bunker. When he dropped the wall of forces, no power would be necessary to guarantee the long, icy wait. They could sleep for centuries within the bosom of the Gray Sister, protected by a colony of defense-computer. This last had apparently been programmed quickly, for he was dying. He saw that it was too late to join her. He hurried to set the thing for basic defense, killed the force field, and then went his way into that Dark and Secret Place. Thus it hurled its birds and its angels and its snakes, it raised its walls of fire against me. He died, and it guarded her in near-death–against everything, including those who would help. My coming to the mountain had activated it. My passing of the defenses had caused her to be summoned back to life. “_Go back!_” I heard the machine say through its projected angel, for Henry had entered the cave.
“My God!” I heard him say. “Who’s that?” “Get Doc!” I said. “Hurry! I’ll explain later. It’s a matter of life! Climb back to where your communicator will work, and tell him it’s Dawson’s Plague–a bad local bug! Hurry!” “I’m on my way,” he said and was. “There _is_ a doctor?” she asked. “Yes. Only about two hours away. Don’t worry….I still don’t see how anyone could have gotten you up here to the top of this mountain, let alone a load of machines.” “We’re on the big mountain–the forty-miler?” “Yes.” “How did _you_ get up?” she asked. “I climbed it.” “You really climbed Purgatorio? On the outside?” “Purgatorio? That’s what you call it? Yes, I climbed it, that way.” “We didn’t think it could be done.” “How else might one arrive at its top?” “It’s hollow inside,” she said. “There are great caves and massive passages. It’s easy to fly up the inside on a pressurized jut car. In fact, it was an amusement ride. Two and a half dollars per person. An hour and a half each way. A dollar to rent a pressurized suit and take an hour’s walk around the top. Nice way to spend an afternoon. Beautiful view…?” She gasped deeply. “I don’t feel so good,” she said. “Have you any water?” “Yes,” I said, and I gave her all I had. As she sipped it, I prayed that Doc had the necessary serum or else would be able to send her back to ice and sleep until it could be gotten. I prayed that he would make good time, for two hours seemed long when measured against her thirst and the red of her flesh. “My fever is coming again,” she said. “Talk to me, Whitey, please….Tell me things. Keep me with you till he comes. I don’t want my mind to turn back upon what has happened….” “What would you like me to tell you about, Linda?” “Tell me why you did it. Tell me what it was like, to climb a mountain like this one. Why?”