“Almost certainly.”
Alvin meditated for a while.
“So you think that even if we do find the system, it will only lead to a lot of ruined cities?”
“I doubt if it will even do that,” replied Rorden. “When they were abandoned, the machines were closed down and the desert will have covered them by now.”
Alvin refused to be discouraged.
“But Alaine must have known that!” he protested. Rorden shrugged his shoulders.
“We’re only guessing,” he said, “and the Associator hasn’t any information at the moment. It may take several hours, but with such a restricted subject we should have all the recorded facts before the end of the day. We’ll follow your advice after all.”
The screens of the city were down and the sun was shining fiercely, though its rays would have felt strangely weak to a man of the Dawn Ages. Alvin had made this journey a hundred times before, yet now it seemed almost a new adventure. When they came to the end of the moving way, he bent down and examined the surface that had carried them through the city. For the first time in his life, he began to realize something of its wonder. Here it was motionless, yet a hundred yards away it was rushing directly towards him faster than a man could run.
Rorden was watching him, but he misunderstood the boy’s curiosity.
“When the Park was built,” he said, “I suppose they had to remove the last section of the way. I doubt if you’ll learn anything from it.”