the day, and the clarity of the air which had led Minnow to fear that a bad one was happening since the beat sucked in more juice when the skies were cleared, the whole thing shut down with the sun.
Minnow, along with everyone else, dropped half dead to the pavement when the dance ended, and fell asleep on the spot. The human body was not made for punishment like this—sixteen hours of uninterrupted movement. Sometimes Minnow would try to fall asleep while dancing—the heat roasting into her and all—but sleep hardly ever came or, when it did, didn't stay long. And sometimes the beat knew this, and responded in kind...
Minnow awoke and pulled herself to her feet. The soles of her boots were still humming. Unsteadily, she hurried to where the others would gather—it would be best to get there first. But when she pulled herself up the five flights of steps and pushed the flap of the door aside, she realized that she had slept longer than she'd thought. They were all there already.
'We've got to do something tonight,' said Cave, not waiting for Minnow to say anything. His mouth was as grim as the rest of him, and almost as hugely wide: Minnow remembered that there had been a time when Cave had laughed with that mouth but that was before the girl — Ginny? Rava? Whatever—had been pulled under by the beat. He wasn't a laugher anymore.
'We thought you were dead, Minnow,' said another voice from the corner. Minnow peered that way; it was Goat—a half-treacherous bastard who, it was rumored, had done as much killing during the night as the beat did during the day. It had been obvious for a long time that Goat had set his eyes on Minnow's position, if not her body; and Minnow knew, along with everyone else, that there was only one outcome of that silent challenge: one less set of limbs for the beat to jerk around.
Minnow flexed her legs, pointing her toes out at Goat's dark corner. 'Sorry to disappoint you.'
There was uneasy laughter.
From the other side of the room another voice spoke up. A new one. Soft and careful, and the face that did the talking was, like Goat's, hidden in shadow.
'If you don't do something tonight there won't be another chance.' All eyes swiveled toward the stranger.
'And who are you?' asked Minnow in a neutral voice.
The stranger leaned forward into a patch of weak light, and there was a gasp.
'Call me Skull.'
His head was like his words. At first it looked to Minnow like it really was a skull, skin and organs stripped bare to bone: but, on a more careful look in the dimness she saw that he wore a mask, a tight-fitting death's head over his own.
'Why the theatrics?' Minnow asked, in a tone more defensive than neutral now.
'I have my reasons,' the stranger said curtly. 'I've been traveling a long time, started out from the other side of the continent, and I can tell you that things have already fallen apart over there. Have been, all across the country.'
'This destruction been following you, by any chance?' This from Goat.
Skull worked his head slowly towards the other. There was a moment of silence.
'Can't say. But I know what I saw.' He turned back to Minnow, his voice softened again. 'And what I saw was this. That thing below, that you call the beat here—it's called a lot of different things—it seems to have completely lost control, and is slowly and methodically killing off everything. I think it's eating itself alive, looking for something it wants. Have things been getting progressively worse lately?'
There was a pause before Minnow answered, 'Can't say they've gotten better.'
'It's what I've seen everywhere.'
Again a pause. 'And you think it's going to happen here?'
The stranger spoke very softly.
'Tomorrow or the day after, at the latest.'
'Then what?'
It was hard to tell whether the light in Skull's eyeholes came from real or reflected fires.
'And then nothing. Nothing left.'
A short, bright redheaded man at her left looked at an ancient time piece on his wrist. He shook it, cursed, 'Wait a minute,' he said, and scampered out of the room, returning a few minutes later.
'By the stars, I'd say six hours.'
'Six hours.' Minnow seemed to mull this over. 'You say you don't think we have another day?'
'I'd say no,' replied Skull.
'All right. We have a vague plan, you can come along if you like. We know how to get in down there, that's all. From then on we're on our own. You have anything to add?'
'I've been down there once. All the way.'
Again a gasp.
'You've been all the way down?'
Softly. 'Yes.'
'You'll lead with me. Copper and Cave behind. Goat and the rest after. Take whatever tools we have. Think you can get us all the way through, using our entrance?'
Skull leaned back into his shadow. 'No doubt. The system is a continuous grid; there's no one major focal point. Break them all, break any one, it all goes apart like a broken chain.'
Minnow couldn't help keeping the awe out of her voice; she feared her mouth was hanging open.
'What is it like? What is the beat like?'
There was quiet.
'You'll see,' he said, and then his death's head was silent.
They found the hole with no trouble. Minnow had been afraid it would be covered, or worse yet, gone; but apparently the beat had not detected their advent the first time she and Copper had stumbled onto it after a day of fevered dancing, or, if it had, had not thought it worth its while to do anything about it.
When she told Skull all this he merely grunted and led on.
They had a few crude lights that Copper had wired together, ancient acid batteries goosed into life and connected to unbroken
They went down steeply for awhile, first descending a vertical greasy ladder and then, after traversing a short tunnel, a long staircase that led down in a slow arc. There were puddles at intervals, and the smell of dead matter: Minnow turned to Skull but his head only seemed to grin at her in the sour light. There were rats, too, large ones; with red tight eyes like small laser tracks. They were bigger than the ones on the surface, some a good three feet long: Minnow commented that the reason the ones on the surface didn't grow bigger was that the beat got to them there.
'I saw one dance itself to death one day, just before twilight,' she said in hoarse whisper. 'He was squealing like mad up on his hind legs, blood and spittle coming out of his mouth. You could see the strength seeping from his limbs. He kept dancing till the beat stopped. And then he seemed to fold up and blow away.'
'They have the beat down here, too,' was all Skull said as they pushed on.
They wound downward for about a half mile before Minnow motioned for them to halt. 'Copper, how much time left?'
The redhead gave his wristwatch a bang. 'I'd estimate four hours, give or take a half hour.' His eyes were huge with fear. 'The way I see it, we'd barely have enough time to get back to the surface again. If we get caught under—'
'We die, just like above,' Skull cut in. 'Let's move.'
They continued for another mile. The walls were slicker now, and there was an acrid smell in the air, like burning metal or wires.
'Are we close?' Minnow asked.
'I can't say. I think so.'
'I thought you said you were down here?'
'Only once,' Skull replied.
