Part 8 (1/2)
”Look over there, on the slope below it; there's one entrance to the shelters” There was a clearing as, and raw earth, and a couple of big scows grounded near
”They bulldozed rock and earth over the end of the tunnel Then, there's another one down on that bench, a couple of hundred feet below the edge of the plateau They blasted rock down over that The main entrance is a vertical shaft under that pre-stressed concrete do They just covered it with sheet metal and poured a foot of concrete on top”
They floated down above the broken roofs and crurounded in the area between theand the offices, back of the shi+p docks Once, he supposed, it had been a lawn Then it had been a jungle Noas a scuffed, littered, bare-trodden work-yard Men were straggling out of the adarettes; they all wore new but work-soiled infantry battle dress All of thee, approached As he got out, Conn saw the resenized Anse Daho had been one of his closest friends six years ago
They shook hands and pounded each other on the back
”Hey, you're looking great, Conn!” They all told hiin to believe it pretty soon ”Sorry I couldn't make the party, but somebody had to sit on the lid here, and Jerry Rivas and I cut cards for it and Jerry won”
”You didn't tell me Anse ith you,” he reproached his father
Rodney Maxwell said he'd been saving that for a surprise
When Conn asked Anse as the matter with the bank, he said: ”For the birds; I'd as soon count sheets of toilet paper as this stuff we're using for , and this paperhere isn't worthelse the Maxwell Plan would have to take care of
Gresha-wild on Poictesme A Planetary Government sol orth about ten centisols, Federation, and aside from deposit boxes, woolen socks under the mattress, and tin cans buried in the corner of the cellar, Federation currency was nonexistent
”Had breakfast yet?” Rodney Maxwell asked
”Oh, hours ago I was out and shot another spikenose; it's hanging up back of the kitchen, waiting for the cook to skin it and cut it up”
He grinned at Conn ”You don't get this kind of hunting in a bank, either”
”Jerry still inside? I want to see hihts And don't worry about hiht extra jobs you'll have to do besides your own, from now on”
Conn and Anse crossed the yard and entered one of the office buildings, through a big breach in the wall Anse said: ”I did that un When ant a wall out of the e get it out of the way” Inside were a lot of lifters and skids and power shovels and things; laborers were assenments
Most of theo and he knew the up in the meantie of the plateau, letting down past the sheer cliff to where the lower lateral shaft had been opened
A great deal of rock had been shoveled and bulldozed away to expose it; it enty feet high and forty wide Anse simply steered the jeep inside and up the tunnel
There were occasional lights on at the ceiling Anse said they were all powered from their own nuclear-electric conversion units ”We don't have the central power on here; there's a bigit down to shi+p out”
That was soood price for Maybe even one-tenth of what it orth At least they wouldn't have to sell it by the ton
The tunnel ended in an enorh There was a wide aisle up the ravity equipuns Cole-h for a uns in front and flaainst radiation; decontamination units; mobile workshops; mobile kitchens Troop carriers, jeeps, staff cars; power shovels, , for forty years, to swar
They floated the jeep along hallways beyond, and got down to look into roo under a sli repair-robots to get canisters of live plutonium out of a reactor
Workshops Laundries Storerooms Kitchens, some stripped and a few still intact A hospital Guardhouse and lockup
More storeroo to the vehicle hangar and lifting to an upper entrance By this tiravity skids in empty and out loaded
”The CO here must have had squirrel blood,” Anse said ”I think when the evacuation orders ca there was topside and crammed it down here, any old way Honest to Ghu, this place was packed solid e found it nobody'd believe it”
”Wait till you see the next one”