RAINBOW RUN by John F. Carr & Camden Benares Page A

I entered. I passed a few grays in the corridor, all strangers to me.
    I stood at the door to Lyonella's dwell. I wondered what kind of a reception I'd get as I pressed my wristlock against the dwell plate. Nothing happened. Either Lyonella was not home or was not answering her door. I waited in the corridor for a while and then tried again with no results.
    Finally, I left the urbode. Outside I went straight ahead and took a position across the walkway where I could watch the entrance, hoping that Lyonella would return soon. My waiting paid off. While it was still twilight I saw Lyonella, not entering the building but leaving it. I followed her. I told myself that I was following her in order to get more information for Clandine, but I knew that part of my motivation was the physical attraction I felt for her.
    Lyonella went to a portal slidestrip leading to the slideway. Her loose-limbed, hip-swinging walk was a pleasure to watch, so different from the tightly controlled movements of Clandine. I made certain that there were always several people between us. I was counting on that and the fading twilight to prevent her detecting that she had a follower. Lyonella changed slideways. I followed close behind, keeping an eye on her and keeping track of my changing location on my mental map. I was surprised when Lyonella got off the slidestrip in the autofactory section.
    There were few slide riders around. I tried to keep in the shadows as I followed her off the exit slideway and down a long passageway between two humming buildings. Ahead I could see the passageway ended at an entrance to a short, apparently square building with open doors. A giant of a man, more than a head taller than me, stood outside the door.
    Lyonella had a brief conversation with him. He handed her what looked like two strips of tunic cloth. I saw her tie one over her wristlock and the other around her head like a headband for her shaggy hair before she went through the door. I hadn't come this far to turn back. I walked up to the giant, wondering if there was a password or some other sort of identification required to enter. I wanted to know what Lyonella could possibly be doing in the autofactory sector. As far as I knew all the factories were automated.
    As I approached the giant, he said, in a rumbling bass, "The woman you are following said it was all right for me to admit you." He handed me a strip of tunic and said, "Tie this around your wristlock."
    I took it and covered my wristlock. He handed me another strip of tunic and said, "This is your mask." I saw the piece of tunic had two holes for my eyes and a triangular notch cut out between them for my nose. I put the mask on.
    The giant said, "Enter and enjoy freedom."
    Freedom! What adangerous word. Had I stumbled into a gathering of Freedom Crusaders? Maybe Clandine was partially right in suspecting Lyonella of involvement in a conspiracy. I looked at the entrance, obviously intended to admit machines larger than people, machines the size of walkway washers and slidestrip sweepers. I saw jumper wires attached to the alarm circuits.
    Someone had outsmarted the devices intended to keep people out of the factory buildings. It was too late to turn back. I went in. The lingering twilight didn't penetrate all of the building, an edifice that had obviously been designed strictly for machines. On each side of the wide center aisle there were bins the size of large rooms, which held varying amounts of material. The bin nearest me held a variety of metal parts, some of them obviously damaged. I recognized some bent pieces of a walkway washer, a broken Simulike headband, and a damaged wristlock machine. Maybe this was where Hushel's machine had come from—a broken machine repaired by human hands instead of mechanical ones.
    I walked down the wide aisle toward one of the room-like bins on the left where flickering shadows and rhythmic drumming indicated the presence of people. The drumming was pervasive. I