comforting to me. The dogs didn't care. I looked at those contented huskies curled up in the snow and thought, It's just the way it is.
The bus pulled into a covered area full of other vehicles. Hot-air blowers were running, and it was slightly less freezing than outside. Our bearlike driver got out and waved us after him, sauntering down an aisle between repair bays. There weren't any other people around, and I had the feeling they had scattered like mice at our approach. We came to the edge of the motor pool and paused. This was the inner circle of the compound. Only a bare strip of no-man's-land separated us from the gigantic domes in the middle, which rose from the permafrost like an archipelago made up of thousand-foot-wide fungi, with smaller polyps branching off. But if its outward structure was organic, its skeleton was geometric: visible through the milky surface membrane was a hexagonal web of supporting members, fine as capillaries in the human eye-at least from a distance.
'Valhalla,' grunted the driver, pointing. 'You go.'
This was apparently the closest he dared approach.
'I don't like this,' said Jake, looking skittish.
'Take it easy. You're okay,' said Albemarle.
Shawn, standing apart, turned on him. 'Dude, I wish you would stop saying that. Every time you say that, somebody gets wasted.'
'Cut it out,' said Hector.
'Oh, like you're okay?'
'Come on, man,' said Lemuel.
'Hey, all I'm saying is we're all fucked, and I don't need somebody telling me I'm okay! Unless there's the rave of the century in there, I'm not okay! Unless there's a poetry slam going on under there, and they're calling for entries, I'm not okay! Unless there's a phone in there and my mom is on the line telling me my spoken-word CD is in heavy rotation on college stations across the country, I'm not okay! None of us is okay! The only person I know who's probably okay is Tyrell, and that's because he's in fucking Canada! Which is where we should all be!'
'Cut it out,' I said miserably. 'This isn't helping.'
'I'm okay,' said Jake.
We left the driver and ventured into the open, heading for a large portal directly across the way. Our perception of distance was off-it took us longer to get there than we expected, and the nearer we got, the more peculiar the whole thing appeared. It was a colossal brood sow with prefabricated structures around its base like feeding piglets.
'What is this?' I wondered aloud.
'It's an inflatable building,' said Albemarle. 'I've heard of something like this. It's supported by air pressure, so there's no limit to how big it can be.'
The entrance we were approaching was certainly a huge thing, a raised loading dock wide enough for a dozen semitrailers. It had a modular, impermanent look. As we climbed to the platform and pushed through clear insulating flaps, we could hear Muzak coming from inside: the noodlings of a generic saxophone. It was such a perversely ordinary sound that we were rapt, listening. Then a prerecorded voice-over cut in:
'Welcome to Valhalla. You are now entering a wholly owned subsidiary of the Mogul Cooperative, a transnational partnership dedicated to preserving and restoring the benefits of civilization. But we can't do it without you. When you give your allegiance to MoCo, you are protected by the largest coherent military power in the world today; you are cared for by a Medical Research Division with all the resources of a major hospital-and which alone pursues a cure for Agent X-and you join an organization with branches in over thirty countries, where a network of export professionals tirelessly combs the Earth in search of the Things You Need. Isn't this reason enough to say, 'MoCo Is My Future'?'
'You've gotta be shittin' me,' Albemarle scoffed.
Then the tape was turned off, and a testy male voice came on, flat as the order taker at a drive-thru. 'We've been informed that one of you was killed at the perimeter wall, and I'd like to offer our very sincere condolences. I'm afraid we operate within a very strictly enforced boundary here, and our defense system does not distinguish between friend or foe. Without being forewarned of your arrival we had no way of preventing what happened.'
'Well, what was the idea of stranding us out there in the goddamn boondocks?' Albemarle shouted to the air.
As if correcting a petulant child, the voice said, 'Your people at Thule are being briefed right now, as a matter of fact. If you had only waited at billeting, the tragedy would have been avoided. We were getting to you as quickly as we could. Since you were provided with the basic necessities of survival, we didn't think a one-day wait was excessive, certainly not by ordinary bureaucratic standards, and particularly in light of the fact that we are dealing here with a worldwide disaster of such extreme proportions that the only previous event it can be compared to is the extinction of the dinosaurs.'
I have to say this speech made me feel very small, but Albemarle was unfazed. 'And what about the remains we found outside?' he said. 'Were they impatient, too?'
There was silence from above.
'Oh man,' muttered Cole. 'What'd you have to say that for, man? That shit was not necessary.'
Tentatively, the voice said, 'If you are speaking of the bodies at the perimeter, I can only reiterate that survival dictates everything we do. Those men chose to be billeted outside this compound because they objected to a legal transfer of authority that was taking place. They were informed of the risk. At some point the contagion must have appeared among them, and they rushed the automatic defenses. It was over before anyone here even knew what was happening. Could you enter the air lock, please?'
There was a pneumatic hiss, and a big door rumbled aside. Inside was a brightly lit room that reminded me of a racquet-ball court. High in the ceiling was a glass booth, and behind its windows we could make out the man speaking. He was young, clean-shaven, and wore a dark baseball cap. He waved.
''Legal transfer of authority' my ass,' Albemarle muttered.
'Come on, Ed,' Hector hissed at his stepfather. 'You're drunk. Save the complaints for later.'
'Listen, smart-ass, once we go through that door, there may be no later. We don't know what they've got waiting for us in there.'
'It can't be any worse than what's waiting for us out here.'
Annoyed by our hesitation, the man in the booth said, 'There's no danger if that's what you're worried about.'
'What happens if it gets a hole in it?' Mr. Albemarle asked. 'Does it all go flat?'
'No, but it won't have what we call 'optimal rigidity.' There are helium cells and heated air to provide backup suspension. A hole would be unlikely anyway-the envelope is an extremely robust Vectran composite developed by NASA-but if there was one, it would trigger sensors in the fabric, and we'd be right on it. Step inside, please.'
'Beautiful,' Albemarle grumbled, as we went in. The door thundered shut and rubber valves wheezed tight around the frame.
The man said, 'You may experience a little discomfort as the pressure equalizes.'
Warm air came rushing in through vents as if blow-drying us. It pressed on our ears and sinuses, some more than others. Hector and Lemuel winced, but for me it was no worse than being stuffed up from a cold. The breeze slackened, then stopped. We waited for the inner door to open, but it remained sealed.
Albemarle asked, 'What now?'
'Now comes the trickiest part.' Electric motors came on, driving a grappling system that ran on tracks in the ceiling. I realized the glass booth was the crane cockpit. Suspended from cables was a metal box, a freight car, and it began slowly descending to the floor. When it touched down, the man said, 'Go inside and leave your clothes in the container to be sterilized.'
'What are we gonna wear in the meantime?'
'Nothing, until you go through decon. It's standard procedure for all newcomers: decontamination, health screening, and civic preparation. Nothing too complicated, I assure you.'
Albemarle opened the sliding door. Inside was a chamber containing a large empty bin with a biohazard symbol stenciled on it, then a narrow tunnel to a second chamber at the opposite end. There were cartoon
