He was in the shelter under the river.
An instant later he was back by the wall, a glider and the control helmet in his hands. He clipped a transceiver to the glider and guided it toward a huge, dark-stained building with the look of a fortress. He sent the glider around to the front of the building and saw two huge bronze doors, one of which stood open. There was a totally still, motionless look about the place that Dan did not care for. But the glider had come to a closed inner door and that was as far as it could go. Dan took off the control helmet, drew a deep breath and said a key word.
He was standing in the huge hall, before the closed door. He opened the door.
Before him was a room with tall slit windows, and as Dan went in, he could see dimly, but, like a man in a hall of mirrors, what he saw did not make sense.
Distorted shapes and forms, with bright points and blots of light, shifted as he moved, and shifted again as he moved closer, to see one leg of what looked like a very old, faded table. A heavy cable ran up the leg to the top, where there was a switch, and a bronze plate with the words, "Open Switch."
Dan reached for the switch, and hesitated. If Kielgaard's theory was right, he would now be electrocuted, or otherwise disposed of.
He swallowed hard, reached the rest of the way, and opened the switch.
A pall of choking dust spread over the room, with the sound of coughing all around him and the rustle of clothing and stamping of feet.
Dan wiped his streaming eyes, and saw a man in uniform behind the desk, all but one corner of which looked new.
The man stared at Dan and said, "So soon? What's happened?"