The cold gnawed at him. He rubbed his ears, unsure about frostbite. Odd how fast you got tired—It was hard to think.
"I'd better get back to my lab and put things away before they turn off the electricity to it," he said.
"Good idea. Might as well tidy up in my own place." Something flickered darkly in the girl's eyes. "It'll take our minds off—"
Off gloom, and cold, and the domes turned to blocks of ice, and a final night gaping before all men. Off the chasm of loneliness between the Hill and the Earth.
They were back in the chemical section when Alemán came out of his lab. The little man's olive skin had turned a dirty gray.
"What is it?" Gilchrist stopped, and something knotted hard in his guts.
"Madre de Díos—" Alemán licked sandy lips. "We are finished."
"It's not that bad," said Catherine.
"You do not understand!" he shrieked. "Come here!"
They followed him into his laboratory. He mumbled words about having checked a hunch, but it was his hands they watched. Those picked up a Geiger counter and brought it over to a wall and traced the path of a buried heating pipe.