The light drove a lance through water ahead, revealing the sandy bottom, strange submarine creatures. He struggled on and on, the pitch of the sea floor becoming steeper. It was like a fairyland of grottoes and trailing seaweed. Then the rays from his torch struck the gaping mouth of a cave.
Only it wasn't a cave at all. It was more like a tunnel—a tunnel that the ancients had driven through the mountains.
Jupiter felt his heart leap into his throat. It was what he had been searching for—the mouth of one of the canals leading beneath the city by the Dra Dur.
He turned into it, his light revealing smooth composition walls, green and slick with algae. He must have gone a mile before he found a ramp leading to the surface.
As his helmet broke water, he saw that his luck was still holding. He was beneath the temple of the Radiant God. The ramp which continued on up into the temple proper was deserted.
He sat down, unwrapped the needle gun, then started up the ramp like some amphibious monster of the deep. Tabak and Reiloc, he was sure, were being confined in the temple. The breeding pens more than likely, since that was where most of the human guinea pigs were confined.
He didn't encounter a single Anolyn until he reached the central courtyard.
The courtyard was divided into runs like a dog kennel. It was dark with a pitch-like blackness. He hastily shut the air intake valve on the spacesuit. The stench was terrible. He could hear grunts, soft voices. Someplace in the darkness a girl was crying.
Jupiter was revolted to the depths of his being. When he thought of Tabak being shut up here, he could feel his blood run cold.
How was he going to find her in this mess? He didn't dare use the torch and time was running out.