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creative frenzy of an artist. The way an athlete surpasses himself un-der
pressure, it takes a complete, whole-hearted commitment to the idea that you
can do what you want to do."
She went on talking; butChaz ' at-tention slipped slightly from what she was
saying. He had just become aware that the vibration of the belt beneath them
had gradually in-creased, and the air coming through the crack in the carton
was now a breeze moving fast enough to cause a whistle. Holding up a hand to
in-terrupt Eileen, he leaned over to put his eye to the crack and look
outside.
What he saw were concrete walls now flickering past rapidly. The belt had
increased its speed several times over. Just how fast they were going now, he
had no way to estimate; but it was certainly enough that any at-tempt to get
off the belt on to the narrow service walkway running along one of its sides
would mean se-rious injury or even death. He brought his head back and looked
at Eileen in the glare of the limpet light.
"Where are we?" he asked,
"Getting close to Central Dis-tributing," she said."Almost to the place where
we get off."
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"Get off?"
"You'll see," she said. He thought, but could not be sure, that he caught the
gleam of a secret satisfaction in her eyes at seeing him sweat out the descent
from the belt, without know-ing how it was to be done. He clamped his own jaws
shut; and for the next few minutes, neither of them said anything.
Abruptly, she and Tillicum moved together, spreading the carton wide open, so
that they sat exposed on the belt. Eileen rose from a sitting posi-tion into a
crouch.
"Get ready," she said. "There'll be an overflow belt swinging in along-side
this one in a few seconds. When it's parallel, get ready to jump."
"At this speed?"Char said. But she did not answer. He got into a crouching
position himself; and a moment or two later saw a dark spot on the right side
of the tunnel up ahead, which grew rapidly to reveal itself as the mouth of a
connecting tunnel, A belt ran through this, too, curving in as Eileen had
said, toparalell the one they were on. But it was several feet below the
surface of their present carrier.
"Ready . . ." said Eileen. They flashed toward the point where the two belts
ran side by side."Now!"
Chazjumped, a little behind Ei-leen. Behind him, out of the corner of his
eye, he could see Tillicum fly-ing through the air as gracefully as a cat.
Then they hit.
He had braced himself against the landing. But it was like coming down onto a
barely-filled waterbed. There was none of the impactChaz had ex-pected; and no
tendency whatever for the momentum they carried from the former belt to send
them sliding or rolling.
It was then he realized that this second belt was also moving. Natu-rally, he
thought, disgusted at his own lack of imagination, the speeds of the two belts
had been matched or almost at the point where they changed over. They could
possibly even have stood up to make the transfer . . .
No, on second thought standing up might not have been so wise. Because, Char
realized even as he was thinking this, the second belt was decelerating
sharply. It had curved away from the main belt into a further tunnel; and now
he saw the end of that tunnel, ex-panded into a fair-sized room half-filled
with sorting tables leading to smaller belts disappearing off into further
tunnel ports.
"This is a secondary sorting cen-ter for when the main belt gets overloaded,"
Eileen was saying; and then they reached the end of the belt where it turned
down abruptly to disappear into a slot in the floor. It tumbled them gently
onto the floor at a good deal less than slow walking speed.
"A variable-speed belt," saidChaz , marveling, picking himself up. "How do
they do that "
He broke off, having glanced back along the belt and seen how they did
that.Every five meters or so they had been passed on from one belt to
an-other, each traveling at a slightly slower speed.
"However," Eileen was saying, now back on her feet also, "in sum-mer, like
this, it never gets over-loaded. After holidays, when a lot of people come
back to their apart-ments at once, is the only time you can be sure to find it
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working. So it's pretty safe here right now."
"I'm supposed to hole up here?"Chaz asked, looking around him. "No," said
Eileen. "Come along." She led the way, Tillicum beside her, past the sorting
tables toward two doors, one marked Men and oneWomen . She beckonedChaz to
fol-low and led him through the door marked Women. The first room was a
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