Blade nodded in satisfaction. Drunken Gnomen would be easier to elude and trick. Dork licked his lips and said, «They will drink it all, the fylfot desecrating bastards, before I can join them.»

«Then hurry,» ordered Blade. He poked Dork with his bar. «Up the stairs.»

The stairs and some of the hallways were littered with Morphi sleepers. The males butchered behind the ears, the power stud gone, and the females stripped and well used.

Dork licked his thick lips again. «They have been here right enough, many of them. Now I must take their leavings.» He made a move toward one of the females.

Blade cuffed him hard. «Not before me. Try again and I will forget my promise and kill you. Up-to the top floor.»

There was a vacant apartment on the sixth floor. There were no sleepers-either male or female-though there were several in the corridor. Blade made Dork stand at a window and explain the city layout to him. As the man talked, Blade drew a crude map on the reverse side of the plastic parchment Wilf had given him.

Dork, in a frenzy to be gone, spoke rapidly and pointed out place after place, answered questions, chafing and grumbling as Blade insisted on a complete orientation. He pointed out the circular Government Building far across the city. «Jantor is certain to make his headquarters there,» he said. «He is cunning. He will de-stud the Morphi leaders before he does anything else.»

Blade agreed. In any case he must return to the Government Building sooner or later. The chute was there, and the chute was his only means of communication with Wilf and Sybelline waiting down in the power complex.

He prodded Dork. «Where is the Hall of Entertainment?»

The man pointed. «Yonder, to the left. It is not far. But if you think to save your Norn from the mole rats, let me warn you-for you kept your word and did not kill me-that she will be heavily guarded.»

Blade studied the structure. It covered several blocks, and was but four stories tall. It was a square building. From each corner colored pennants appeared to stand out in a breeze, but this was deceiving. They were of reinforced plastic. There was no wind in the plastic city.

He kept Dork yet a moment. «Where would the mole-rat pit be?»

«That I cannot say. I have never been there, though I know what it is. And I do not like mole rats enough to go looking for them. Can I go now? I have told you all I know.»

Blade gave him leave. «Go. Keep your mouth shut about me. If I am taken and see Jantor through any doing of yours, I will tell him how you deserted your trust.»

Dork made the sign of the fylfot on his shiny head. «Never fear. I have never seen you, man Blade.»

Blade watched as the Gnoman stalked into the kitchen. He came out carrying two cans of intoxicant and drinking from a third. He grinned at Blade. «Good. The first time in all my miserable life that I have tasted it. Ho-hah-I think I am going to like living the Morphi life.»

Blade gave him a curt farewell. «Go carefully or you will not enjoy it long. And keep my warning in mind, Dork.»

«I will, man Blade. Farewell.»

Blade, as near the window as he dared, watched Dork leave the building. He was already staggering. Blade shook his head. The Gnomen were not used to the canned intoxicant. Probably more than half of Jantor's troops were drunk by now, drunk and useless.

The street below was quiet. From afar, toward the Government Building, came a hubbub of drunken, looting Gnomen. This quarter of the infinite city, Blade thought, had been pretty well sacked and it was not likely that they would return in force. The city stretched to the horizon and beyond, forever as far as Blade knew, and there would be always new loot and fresh Morphi females to rape. Another hazard that Jantor faced-before long his forces were going to be spread thin, would lose contact with him and each other as they ranged farther and farther afield.

For a few moments Blade lingered at the window. He found an angle from which he could observe the Moon. Even with his naked eye, he could discern great activity among the Selenes and he wondered what it meant. More of the great searchlights were trained on the city; there was a great bustle and movement of vehicles; a huge fleet of what appeared to be small and oddly formed aircraft were hovering over landing ports. Blade watched all this and pondered what Sybelline had confessed to him-the Selenes knew about him and were anxious to keep him alive so their scientists could study him. Blade smiled faintly. He, too, was anxious to stay alive. Just how this was to be accomplished he could not at the moment say. He had a plan of sorts, but implementing it was another matter. As he stared out at the drab buttermilk sky, at the eternal twilight, at the Selene Moon and the monstrous searchlights, he knew it would take all his guile, strength and luck to get out of this one.

Norn? He really did not want to think about the girl, but his conscience nagged. Ridiculous, for one could not afford a conscience in Dimension X. But there it was. She was of no importance to him. She loved, not he. Good sense bade him make for the Government Building and a parley with Jantor. It might even be the easiest and best way of assuring Norn's life.

Blade sighed and damned himself. He had accepted the girl's love, and in so doing he had incurred responsibility.

He searched the other apartments on the top floor. In the last one, near the stairs, he found a female sleeper naked on her bed, well raped but otherwise unharmed. On the floor beside her there was a male sleeper with his power stud hacked out. Blade, studying the gruesome scene, realized for the first time that the Morphi sleepers bled a bit when wounded-not much, in all cases, only a seepage of dark blood, but they did bleed.

Near the bed was a pair of Gnomen denim breeches. The clothes of the male sleeper were missing. Blade got out of his own clothes and stepped into the denim breeches. They were tight but he managed. He had enough chest and body hair to fool the Gnomen, but he also had a full head of hair, which would give him away immediately. He went into the kitchen and found soap but no water. Using a can of sweet drink, he lathered his head and began to shave. It was a slow and painful process.

When his head was bald he was still not satisfied. He was not bald enough. Gnomen had no hair roots.

He went back into the bedroom, meaning to smear some of the blood from the Morphi male sleeper on himself, when he noticed the door set back in an alcove. It was locked. Blade went to glance down into the street. It was quiet, deserted but for mutilated and raped sleepers and a few overturned cars. The building was quiet. He had to strain to hear the rampaging of the Gnomen hordes far off across the endless city. By direction and the faintness of the sounds, the main body of Gnomen had moved well beyond the Government Building.

He went back to the locked door and attacked it with his spear bar. The plastic panels were tough but in less than a minute he had it down. He stepped in.

It was a small lab of some sort. For a moment he could not figure it out, then he remembered that the Morphi, when active, changed their blood once a month.

There was a naked Morphi female sleeper on a table. Beside her on a wheeled stand was a tall plastic flask somewhat resembling a water cooler back in HD. Tubes led from the flask to the sleeper on the table. Blade stepped nearer and studied her carefully. She had been in the act of changing her blood when the power stopped, and because of the locked door she was untouched by Gnomen.

As he bent over her Blade was aware of a reaction in his loins. He knew it for what it was, quite apart from the physical fact of an erection. He had been in Dimension X long enough, too long, and he was beginning to overadapt. She was lovely, this sleeper, so far inviolate, and as he gazed down at the slim body and perfect small breasts, the sleek texture of the skin and the sweet curve of thighs, he could not deny the urge to mount her.