agility, a blur in the corner of Roland’s fixed eyes. He dropped the cap over the fluorobulb. The room was plunged into pitch blackness.

Roland saw a high, narrow column of shimmering phosphorescence dart about the room. He couldn’t tell whether the thing was attacking or in flight. Something about its alien contortions suggested panic.

But then he felt a hand grasping at his. It gripped hard and pulled. The voice was a hurried whisper, either that of Berti or Frances. It had to be Frances. “Follow me! Keep running!”

He followed blindly. The hand was soft and small. Berti? Frances? Frances had to be with him. That was the only thing that really mattered. They plunged through the thick blackness and onto a levitation platform and down. They paused once, briefly. Roland heard a panel opening. Then they were in a room, smaller even than the first one. A slight glow bathed the room in a soft blue haze. It was light enough for him to see that Frances wasn’t with them.

He grabbed Berti’s arm, noting how frail and weak he was. “Where is she? Where is she?”

But Berti seemed more interested than concerned. “Do you really feel that way about her?”

“Where is she?” He said it louder this time. He shook Berti harshly.

Berti smiled thinly. “The Martian menace got her. They were bound to get her sooner or late. They’ve gotten us all, one by one.”

Roland backed the thin bony outline up against the glowing wall. “Why did we go off and leave her there? Why?”

“To save you. You’re more important than any one or all of us. She wanted it this way.”

“No!” yelled Roland. “What’s more important than Frances? Nothing is—to me.”

“Are you sure?” asked Berti. “Remember her faith in you, Prometheus. The destruction of World Brain’s more important. Relax.”

Roland stepped away, breathing painfully. “No. You haven’t told me yet. Why am I so important? What am I, Berti?”

“What are—!” Berti’s eyes shot wide open, narrowed quickly. “The scientists even prepared for the eventuality that some organism might defy the conditioning processes and try to attack World Brain. It’s surrounded by an area of ultrasonic radiation. All around it, under the ground, in the air. No living organism can step into that field without its cellular 

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