Thorn started with his two comrades in a run through the darker cross-streets, heading toward the huge pile of the distant citadel that frowned black against the stars.
"This is fine. This makes things perfect!” Gunner Welk was growling as they ran. “Now we've got all the secret police in Saturnopolis looking for us. That's all we needed."
"Shut up and keep running,” Thorn panted. “We've got to get into the citadel before the SP net picks us up."
"Get into the citadel?” cried the Mercurian. “Are you still crazy enough to think we can?"
"You talk too much, Gunner,” laughed Sual Av breathlessly. “Save your wind-you'll need it."
They were all gasping from the strain of their efforts against the greater gravitation when John Thorn halted at the corner of two dark streets of warehouses, a mile from the citadel.
Thorn looked swiftly around to make sure they were unobserved, then stooped and tugged at something in the cement paving. It was a chromaloy metal plate that came loose to reveal a dark, yawning cavity below.
"Quick, down with you!” he ordered.
Bewilderedly, the Venusian and Mercurian dropped down through the aperture. Thorn followed, quickly replacing the plate above them.
They were in dank, absolute darkness, bitterly cold. But Thorn got out his fluoric flash-lamp and its little red beam showed they stood in a big cement tube at whose bottom ran a stream of icy water.