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'What are you talking about? What plan?'

'Fontana made it clear that he intends to put you in charge of the Foundation.'

Sierra's intuition kicked in again. 'You've been skimming money from the Foundation, haven't you?'

'I have always looked upon the Foundation's assets as my private retirement fund. So much more lucrative than the usual Guild benefits. I knew that as soon as you took over, it would be only a matter of time before you discovered that someone had been embezzling for years.'

'Namely you.'

'It was just too much. I felt something snap inside me. All I could think of was getting rid of you.'

'Something snapped, all right. This is a really stupid plan. Fontana will figure out what you've done.'

'You said it, yourself, Miss McIntyre. No one ever suspects an accountant. Or an executive assistant, for that matter.'

She felt a little rush of psi. A few steps farther down she saw the faint green glow that marked one of the jagged tears in the tunnel walls. She knew very little about mag-rez guns, but the one thing she did know was that they did not function properly in the tunnels. Once she was through the hole in the quartz she would make a run for it.

When she reached the bottom of the stairwell, she stepped out on a floor of packed earth and moved toward the glowing opening.

'Stop,' Harlan ordered.

She halted a couple of feet away from the entrance.

'What now?' she asked.

'The mag-rez is useless with all the psi inside the tunnels.' He put the gun into his pocket.

Oh, yes, please. This was it, the chance she had been hoping for.

She took a step back, preparing to leap through the opening into the catacombs.

'From now on, I'll use this, instead,' Harlan said.

There was a flash of ultraviolet ghost light. A three-foot-wide beam of energy shimmered into existence directly in front of her. It was so close that the storm of psi stirred her hair. She moved back hurriedly.

'The sixth generator,' she said. 'You had it all along.'

'This one belonged to Jenner. Now, into the tunnels, Ms. McIntyre. I want to make sure you go so far in that you cannot possibly find your way out.'

'Don't worry, I'll go into the tunnels without a fuss.' She retreated toward the glowing entrance. 'But I'm warning you, Fontana will find me.'

'No one escapes the catacombs without tuned amber, Ms. McIntyre. You won't be able to find your way out without it, and Fontana won't be able to locate you, because you don't carry amber. You have no use for it.'

She edged through the hole in the quartz. Relief, a sensation she had never expected to experience inside the catacombs, made her feel wired and jittery. Either Harlan had not seen the photo that Phil had taken on her wedding day, or else the little creep had failed to notice one very significant detail in the picture.

Feeling much more confident now, she watched him come through the opening. The ultraviolet energy beam came first. She retreated a few steps, keeping as much distance as possible between herself and the dangerous psi ray.

'Start walking, Ms. McIntyre,' Harlan said.

She took a step back and then another, trying not to look too eager. After all, as far as Harlan was concerned, he was sending her to a certain death. She did not want to exhibit any actual enthusiasm.

'Go on, go on, move, you stupid woman.' Harlan did something to the generator. The beam got stronger and larger. 'Think of it as walking the plank.'

She retreated more quickly. There was a vaulted tunnel entrance to her right. Spinning on her heel, she turned and dove for it.

'Wait, Where's your ring?' Harlan yelled. 'Where's the damn ring you were wearing in that picture on the cover of the Curtain?'

She heard his footsteps pounding down the adjoining corridor.

'Come back here,' Harlan screamed.

'Oh, sure, like that's going to happen,' she whispered.

She ran harder, clutching her purse with the ring inside like the life preserver it was. The seal ring thai Fontana had given her on their wedding day was set with a large chunk of amber that simply had to be tuned. No self-respecting Guild man would carry the untuned variety. More to the point, no Guild boss would give his wife untuned amber. True, she didn't know how to use it to find her way out of the tunnels, but as long as she held on to it, Fontana would be able to find her.

A dizzying maze of vaulted corridors stretched out before her. She chose one at random and ran flat- out.

She did not want to think about the dangers of illusion traps and stray ghosts. She just kept going. Fleeing into the maze was her only chance.

But when she risked a glance back over her shoulder, she saw the bobbing beam of ultraviolet energy rounding the corner. Harlan was somehow managing to keep track of her. Panic threatened her breathing. It wasn't supposed to work like that down here. Once you lost visual contact, you were lost, period. How was he keeping up with her?

Unwittingly, Harlan answered her question.

'You can't escape me,' he shouted, coming toward her with the energy ray. 'Jenner made sure that every Guild man was issued one of the new locaters, even those of us who work in the accounting department.'

So much for her brilliant plan to lose him. Her only hope now was to keep running. He was older than she was. Maybe he would tire sooner.

Unfortunately, Harlan appeared to be in excellent physical condition. She turned several more corners but always, always, the ultraviolet beam followed a short time later.

She almost missed the faint shadow in the doorway. It was barely perceptible. But it rezzed an alarm somewhere in her brain. What was it Fontana had said? The ambient psi light in the tunnels creates no natural shadows.

She stopped, gasping for air and stared at the doorway. The slight shift in the light could easily have been a trick of her imagination, but her intuition told her otherwise. She was looking at an illusion trap.

There was only one way to lure Harlan into the snare. She hurled her purse, the ring inside, through the entrance into the chamber beyond. She was now without amber. If she lost sight of the purse, she was doomed.

Never taking her eyes off the leather shoulder bag, she stepped back into the opening of a room directly behind her.

She heard Harlan's hard breathing and the soft thud of his shoes. Then the beam of ultraviolet appeared.

'You bitch,' Harlan gasped. 'You crazy, interfering, stupid bitch of a woman.'

He came into view. He had the generator in one hand and a locater in the other. His attention was fixed on the locater's screen. If he looked up and to his right, he would see her standing in the doorway. But if he followed the locater, he would look to the left and see her purse on the floor just inside the chamber.

Harlan looked to the left.

She did not know what he was thinking at that moment, but it was obvious that he was winded and desperate. He was not paying attention to small details like faint shadows where there should not be any. Whatever the case, he was unable to resist the bait.

He went through the chamber doorway, triggering the trap. Sierra did not see anything; the energy released by the illusion snare was invisible to the naked eye. But Harlan stiffened violently as though he had stumbled into a ghost.

She knew that the sound of his horrified scream would follow her into her nightmares for a long time to come. She clamped her hands over her ears and continued to stare hard at her purse.

A few seconds later the high, keening wail of anguish ended abruptly. Harlan fell, unconscious, to the floor.

She waited a few tense seconds and then stepped over him to collect the handbag. She reached inside, took