'They deal out death rather easily here, do they?'
The shoulders of the other man rose and fell contemptuously.
'What is death? That, too, is the will of Allah.'
'You know what you have to do?'
'I know, Sidi. I am to take you to the roof after dark. Also I am to put in your room clothing such as I and the other servants wear. Later – there will be other things.'
'Right. You'd better let me out of the lift now. Somebody may notice we're riding up and down. It may give them ideas.'
III
There was dancing going on. Andy Peters was dancing with Miss Jennsen. He held her close to him, and seemed to be murmuring in her ear. As they revolved slowly near where Hilary was standing he caught her eye and immediately gave her an outrageous wink.
Hilary, biting her lip to avoid a smile, averted her eyes quickly.
Her glance fell on Betterton who was standing just across the room talking to Torquil Ericsson. Hilary frowned a little as she watched them.
'Have a turn with me, Olive?' said Murchison's voice at her elbow.
'Yes, of course, Simon.'
'Mind you, I'm not very hot at dancing,' he warned her.
Hilary concentrated on keeping her feet where he could not possibly tread on them.
'It's exercise, that's what I say,' said Murchison, panting slightly. He was an energetic dancer.
'Awfully jolly frock you've got on, Olive.'
His conversation seemed always to come out of an old-fashioned novel.
'I'm glad you like it,' said Hilary.
'Get it out of the Fashion Department?'
Resisting the temptation to reply: 'Where else?' Hilary merely said, 'Yes.'
'Must say, you know,' panted Murchison as he capered perseveringly round the floor, 'they do you jolly well here. Said so to Bianca only the other day. Beats the Welfare State every time. No worries about money, or income tax – or repairs or upkeep. All the worrying done for you. Must be a wonderful life for a woman, I should say.'
'Bianca finds it so, does she?'
'Well, she was restless for a bit, but now she's managed to get up a few committees and organise one or two things – debates, you know, and lectures. She's complaining that you don't take as much part as you might in things.'
'I'm afraid I'm not that kind of person, Simon. I've never been very public spirited.'
'Yes, but you girls have got to keep yourselves amused one way or another. At least I don't mean amused exactly -'
'Occupied?' suggested Hilary.
'Yes – I mean the modern woman wants to get her teeth into something. I quite realise that women like you and Bianca have made a definite sacrifice coming here – you're neither of you scientists, thank goodness – really, these scientific women! Absolutely the limit, most of them! I said to Bianca, 'Give Olive time, she's got to get tuned in.' It takes a little time getting used to this place. To begin with, one gets a kind of claustrophobic feeling. But it wears off – it wears off…'
'You mean – one can get used to anything?'
'Well, some people feel it more than others. Tom, now, seems to take it hard. Where's old Tom tonight? Oh yes, I see, over there with Torquil. Quite inseparable, those two.'
'I wish they weren't. I mean, I shouldn't have thought they had very much in common.'
'Young Torquil seems fascinated by your husband. He follows him round everywhere.'
'I've noticed it. I wondered – why?'
'Well, he's always got some outlandish theory to get off his chest – it's beyond my power to follow him – his English isn't too good, as you know. But Tom listens and manages to take it all in.'
The dance ended. Andy Peters came up and claimed Hilary for the next one.
'I observed you suffering in a good cause,' he said. 'How badly did you get trampled?'
'Oh, I was fairly agile.'
'You noticed me doing my stuff?'
'With the Jennsen?'
'Yes. I think I may say without undue modesty that I have made a hit, a palpable hit in that quarter. These plain angular short-sighted girls respond immediately when given the treatment.'
'You certainly gave the impression of having fallen for her.'
'That was the idea. That girl, Olive, properly handled, can be very useful. She's in the know about all the arrangements here. For instance, tomorrow there's a party of various V.I.P.'s due here. Doctors and a few Government officials and a rich patron or two.'
'Andy – do you think there might be a chance…'
'No, I don't. I bet that's going to be taken care of. So don't cherish false hopes. But it will be valuable because we'll get an idea of the procedure. And on the next occasion – well, there might be something doing. So long as I can keep the Jennsen eating out of my hand, I can get a lot of miscellaneous information out of her.'
'How much do the people who are coming know?'
'About us – the Unit, I mean – nothing at all. Or so I gather. They just inspect the settlement and the medical research laboratories. This place has been deliberately built like a labyrinth, just so that nobody coming into it can possibly guess its extent. I gather there are kinds of bulkheads that close, and that shut off our area.'
'It all seems so incredible.'
'I know. Half the time one feels one must be dreaming. One of the unreal things here is never seeing any children about. Thank goodness there aren't! You must be thankful you haven't got a child.'
He felt the sudden stiffening of her body.
'Here – I'm sorry – I said the wrong thing!' He led her off the dance floor and to a couple of chairs.
'I'm very sorry,' he repeated. 'I hurt you, didn't I?'
'It's nothing – no, really not your fault. I did have a child – and it died – that's all.'
'You had a child?' he stared, surprised. 'I thought you'd only been married to Betterton six months?'
Olive flushed. She said quickly,
'Yes, of course. But I was – married before. I divorced my first husband.'
'Oh, I see. That's the worst of this place. One doesn't know anything about people's lives before they came here, and so one goes and says the wrong thing. It's odd to realise sometimes that I don't know anything about you at all.'
'Or I anything about you. How you were brought up – and where – your family -'
'I was brought up in a strictly scientific atmosphere. Nourished on test tubes, you might say. Nobody ever thought or talked of anything else. But I was never the bright boy of the family. Genius lay elsewhere.'
'Where exactly?'
'A girl. She was brilliant. She might have been another Madame Curie. She could have opened up new horizons…'
'She – what happened to her?'
He said shortly:
'She was killed.'
Hilary guessed at some wartime tragedy. She said gently,
'You cared for her?'
'More than I have ever cared for anybody.'
He roused himself suddenly.
'What the heck – we've got enough troubles in the present, right here and now. Look at our Norwegian
