Part 11 (1/2)
”Bring the gang in; it's safe as far as we've gotten,” his father said ”We'll just have to string wires out”
Conn used his flashlight and found the power unit for the roohts ired to one unit, if wired were the word for gold-leaf circuits ce paint For the heavy stuff, like the ventilator fans, they'd have to find the central power plant He looked around the big roo into so Tools Arency rations All the vehicles were plated in shi+ in: the work-gangs selected for the first exploration work, ineers they had recruited; Moha of his own, the sa down the converter at Tenth Army; the stockholders and officials; the press And everybody else Towyn's police hadn't been able to keep out
The power plant was at the extre it over at once Above it they found the service facilities--air-and-water plant; pue disposal Then repair shi+ps, and a laboratory, and laundries and kitchens above that
”Where do you suppose it is?” Kurt Faas asking ”Up at the very top, I suppose Let's go up and work down; I can't wait till we've found it”
Like a kid on Christht And there was no Santa Claus, and Christmas had been abolished
The place was built in concentric circles, level above level Combat equipment nearest the tunnel exit and nearest the vertical shaft, and ambulances and deconta next Storerooms,he'd seen at Tenth Arht in in order, carefully piled or racked, and then left More stores for the next three levels up; then living quarters Enlisted ns of occupancy Enlisted kitchens and mess halls, untouched
Most of the officers' quarters were similarly unused, but here and there some had been occupied A sloppily made bed A used cake of soap in the bathroom An empty bottle in a closet Officers' commissary stores had been used from and replaced; the officers' mess hall and kitchen had been in constant use, and the officers' club had a comfortably scuffed and lived-in look There had been a few people there all the time of the War
”Men and women, all officers or civilians,” Klem Zareff said ”Didn't even have enlisted men to cook for the on it, or an inch of recorded sound-tape or audiovisual fily converters? Before they left, they disintegrated every scrap of writing or recording This is where Merlin is; they were the people orked with it”
And above, offices General Staff War Planning, with an incredibly coe Advocate General
Inspector General Service of Supply They were full of co the hopes of people like Fawzi and Dolf Kellton and Judge Ledue, but they were only special-purposebusiness office The Storisende Stock Exchange probably hadones, rank on rank of cabinets, long consoles studded with lights and buttons, progra machines
”It's Merlin!” Fawzi almost screamed ”We've found it!”
One of the reporters who had followed them in snatched his radio handphone fro that the collapsiu out with it, he replaced it and bolted away
”Hold it!” Conn yelled at the others, ere also beco”
They ed to calm themselves After all, he should knohat it asn't that why he'd gone to school on Terra? They followed him from machine to machine, first hopefully and then fearfully Finally he turned, shaking his head and feeling like the doctor in a fil the family that there's no hope for Grandpa
”This is not Merlin This is the personnel-file machine It's taped for the records and data of every man and woman in the Third Force for the whole War It's like the student-record ht have known it; this section in here's ; that's personnel Wouldn't have Merlin in here,” Kle for it till we do find it,” Kurt Fawzi said ”It's here somewhere It has to be”
The next level up was much smaller Here were the offices of the top echelons of the Force Command Staff They, unlike the ones below, had been used; fro or film or record-tape had vanished
Finally, they entered the private office of Force-General Foxx Travis
It had not only been used, it was in disorder Ashtrays full, arette ends lipstick tinted Chairs shoved around at random Three bottles on the desk, with Terran bourbon labels; two elasses
That bothered Conn Somehow, he couldn't quite picture the co bottles around and drinking from the neck Then he noticed that the wall across the roo his eye to the floor under it, he caught the twinkle of broken glass They had gathered here, and talked for a long time Then they had risen, for a final toast, and when it was drunk, they had hurled their glasses against the wall and s the broken glass and the e that they would never return
VIII
Before they returned to the lower level into which the lateral tunnel entered, Matsui and his gang had the power plant going; the ventilator fans were hu button, the escalators began to enerators, and the sewage disposal system Until the communication center could be checked and the relay station found, they ran a cable out to the _Lester Dawes_, landed in the canyon, and used her screen-and-radio equipment Before the Claims Office in Storisende closed, Rodney Maxwell had transh of a description for a final claim They also received teleprint copies of the Storisende papers The first story, in an extra edition of the _Herald-Guardian_, was headlined, MERLIN FOUND! That would have been the reporter who bolted off prematurely when they first saw the personnel record machines
Conn wondered if he still had a job A later edition corrected this, but was full of extravagant accounts of what had been discovered