'Please come this way.' Jeremy and Wili looked at each other.
Beyond the door was a wide stairway. By the light of their guide's electric flash, Wili saw that the walls were of natural rock. This was the cave system the winery signs boasted of. They reached the floor and walked across a room filled with enormous wooden casks. An overpowering but not unpleasant yeasty smell filled the cavern. Three young workers nodded to them but did not speak. The supervisor walked behind one of the casks. The back of the wooden cylinder came silently open, revealing a spiral stair. There was barely enough room on it for Jeremy to stand sideways.
'Sorry about the tight fit,' the supervisor said. 'We can actually pull the stairs downward, out of the cask, so even a thorough search won't find the entrance.' He pushed a button on the wall, and a green glow spread down the shaft. Jeremy gave a start of surprise. 'Tailored biolight,' the man explained. 'The stuff uses the carbon dioxide we exhale. Can you imagine what it would do to indoor lighting if we were allowed to market it?' He continued in this vein as they descended, talking about the harmless bioscience inventions that could make so much difference to today's world if only they weren't Banned.
At the bottom, there was another cavern. This one's ceiling was covered with glowing green. It was bright enough to read by, at least where it clumped up over tables and instrument boards. Everyone looked five weeks dead in the fungal glow. It was very quiet; not even surfsound penetrated the rock. There was no one else in the room.
He led them to a table covered with worn linen sheeting. He patted the table and glanced at Wili. 'You're the fellow we've been, uh, hired to help?'
'That's right,' said Rosas when Wili gave only a shrug.
'Well, sit up here and I'll take a look at you.'
Wili did so, cautiously. There was no antiseptic smell, no needles. He expected the man to tell him to strip, but no such command was given. The supervisor had neither the arrogant indifference of a slave gang vet, nor the solicitous manner of the doctor Paul had called during the winter.
'First off, I want to know if there are any structural problems... Let me see, I've got my scope around here somewhere.' He rummaged in an ancient metal cabinet.
Rosas scowled. 'You don't have any assistants?'
'Oh, dear me, no.' The other did not look up from his search. 'There are only five of us here at a time. Before the War, there were dozens of bioscientists in La Jolla. But when we went underground, things changed. For a while, we planned to start a pharmaceutical house as a cover. The Authority hasn't Banned those, you know. But it was just too risky. They would naturally suspect anyone in the drug business.
'So we set up Scripps Vineyards. It's nearly ideal. We can openly ship and receive biologically active materials. And some of our development activities can take place right in our own fields. The location is good, too. We're only five kilometers from Old Five. The beach caves were used for smuggling even before the War, even before the United States... Aha, here it is.' He pulled a plastic cylinder into the light. He walked to another cabinet and returned with a metal hoop nearly 150 centimeters across. There was a click as he slid it into the base of the cylinder. It looked a little foolish, like a butterfly hoop without a net.
'Anyway,' he continued as he approached Wili, 'the disadvantage is that we can only support a very few `vineyard technicians' at a time. It's a shame. There's so much to learn. There's so much good we could do for the world.' He passed the loop around the table and Wili's body. At the same time he watched the display at the foot of the table.
Rosas said, 'I'm sure. Just like the good you did with the plag — ' He broke of as the screen came to life. The colors were vivid, glowing with their own light. They seemed more alive than anything else in the green-tinted lab. For a moment it looked like the sort of abstract design that's so easy to generate. Then Wili noticed movement and asymmetries. As the supervisor slid the hoop back over Wili's chest, the elliptical shape shrank dramatically, then grew again as the hoop moved by his head. Wili rose to his elbows in surprise, and the image broadened.
'Lie back down. You don't have to be motionless, but let me choose the view angle.'
Wili lay back and felt almost violated. They were seeing a cross section of his own guts, taken in the plane of the hoop! The supervisor brought it back to Wili's chest. They watched his heart squeezing,
The supervisor continued for ten or fifteen minutes, examining all of Wili's torso. Finally, he removed the hoop and studied the summary data on the displays. 'So much for the floor show.
'I won't even have to do a genopsy on you, my boy. It's clear that your problem is one we've cured before.' He looked at Rosas, finally responding to the other's hostility. 'You object to our price, Mr. Rosas?'
The undersheriff started to answer, but the supervisor waved him quiet. 'The price is high. We always need the latest electronic equipment. During the last fifty years, the Authority has allowed you Tinkers to flourish. I daresay, you're far ahead of the Authority's own technology. On the other hand, we few poor people in bioresearch have lived in fear, have had to hide in caves to continue our work. And since the Authority has convinced you that we're monsters, most of you won't even sell to us.
'Nevertheless, we've worked miracles these fifty years, Mr. Rosas. If we'd had your freedom, we'd have worked more than miracles. Earth would be Eden now.'
'Or a charnel house,' Rosas muttered.
