"Good," she said. "There is nothing we can do now. We must wait for the right time."
There was no night in Tana and the inhabitants slept whenever so inclined, without set intervals. After several sleeping periods Barry lost all sense of time.
Whenever the girl was not attending to the routine tasks of daily life he bombarded her with questions. She asked in turn about Earth and the colony, and at some of his answers stared and giggled as though suspecting him of concocting fantastic lies for her benefit.
At her suggestion he did not wander alone, although most of the Venusians regarded him with suspicious curiosity rather than hostility.
"Trust no one," she warned him. "For the Chosen have spies everywhere. Komso may know or suspect that you come from the Above but the less he knows about you the better."
A small cave branched off from one wall of the great cavern. No houses were placed near its black mouth and the common Venusians gave it a wide berth.
"That is the Temple of the Chosen," Xintel explained. "To approach it means death."
Just outside the forbidden zone several huge baskets had been anchored to receive offerings from each inhabitant. Food, tools, clothing, a fourth of everything produced went to the Chosen and their master.
"What would happen if the people refused to pay tribute?" Barry asked.