"Son-of-a-gun!" Zen said. "Why all the fol-de-rol?"
"To deceive curious intelligence agents," West said, with no humor in his voice.
Zen ignored the ironic threat. He was inside, this was what mattered. Also the idea of one of the world's foremost scientists—and Jonner had been exactly that—hiding himself away here where he could work undisturbed with others who shared his dream, intrigued him. Or had that dream been a grim prognostication of the way things were to be on the surface of the third planet out from the sun? Had the work here been an effort to escape that future? Was this underground cavern really a modern Ark, dug into the heart of a mountain so that at least a few humans might escape the deluge by fire?
Had a modern Noah appeared and not been recognized?
The thought shocked Kurt Zen. Somewhere he had read a prediction that Earth would be destroyed by fire. Here was evidence that possibly at least one human being had taken that prediction seriously enough to build a bomb-and-radiation-proof shelter!
"You seem to be thinking seriously," West observed.
"Perhaps for the first time in my life, I am doing exactly that. My brain seems to be trying to spin."
"Ah? Are you surprised at what you find here?"
"No. That is, not much. Mostly, I'm pleased."
"Good." West seemed satisfied. "Here comes John to greet us."