He grabbed Berti’s arm, noting how frail and weak he was. “Where is she? Where is she?”
But Berti seemed more interested than concerned. “Do you really feel that way about her?”
“Where is she?” He said it louder this time. He shook Berti harshly.
Berti smiled thinly. “The Martian menace got her. They were bound to get her sooner or late. They’ve gotten us all, one by one.”
Roland backed the thin bony outline up against the glowing wall. “Why did we go off and leave her there? Why?”
“To save you. You’re more important than any one or all of us. She wanted it this way.”
“No!” yelled Roland. “What’s more important than Frances? Nothing is—to me.”
“Are you sure?” asked Berti. “Remember her faith in you, Prometheus. The destruction of World Brain’s more important. Relax.”
Roland stepped away, breathing painfully. “No. You haven’t told me yet. Why am I so important? What am I, Berti?”
“What are—!” Berti’s eyes shot wide open, narrowed quickly. “The scientists even prepared for the eventuality that some organism might defy the conditioning processes and try to attack World Brain. It’s surrounded by an area of ultrasonic radiation. All around it, under the ground, in the air. No living organism can step into that field without its cellular structure dancing itself madly to death in seconds. A lot of the Underground have tried it. In the last one we—we developed, we’d built up resistance that let him into the field about a hundred meters. That was all. But we’ve learned. You can make it.”