Before Vyrl Guerlan had time to do else but tighten the broad straps and lean back against the mullioned seat, the girl had touched a series of knobs. Suddenly the craft began to wheel with meteoric speed, then dived with a violence that sent the landscape spinning into a fantastic pattern that quickly blurred. Guerlan felt as if the very marrow in his bones had liquefied, an intolerable pain lanced at the back of his brain like an atomic needle, and his face was contorted into a spasmodic grimace he was unable to control. He tried to close his eyes but couldn't, tried to shout and suddenly plummeted into an abyss. They were diving downward into the outskirts of the immense city, down a secret inter-communicating passage that connected the various levels, past the third, fourth and finally into a yawning chasm where all was darkness. The hurtling craft sped on unerringly as if drawn by a magnetic beam. When Guerlan finally awoke, he found himself in intense darkness. Only his labored breath disturbed the silence. Motionless, his body a living pain, he tried to adjust his thoughts and piece together the jig-saw puzzle of the last few hours. Groping into his tunic he brought out an atomo-torch. By its discreet illumination, he saw that the girl was quivering like a being in torture. Gently he massaged her temples and the base of her neck then her soft, white throat; with infinite care he opened her mouth and inserted a pellet of _alphaline_ to stimulate her heart, then stroked the gleaming red-gold hair back from her forehead until the girl showed signs of coming to. "Have you any stimulants aboard?" he asked her, when Perlac opened her eyes. "I feel drained, but that's nothing to what you must feel, Perlac!" She gave him a pallid smile. "There," she pointed weakly, "to the left of the instrument panel." Guerlan pressed the combination lock and found in the compartment a full kit of surgical instruments and bandages in a superb _Jadite_ case. A priceless flask of _Sapphirac_ filled with sterile water, and, to his intense surprise, a Platino-plastic bottle, encrusted with tourmalines more brilliant than emeralds and filled with the utterly proscribed _Sulfalixir_! "That ... that's it," Perlac gasped and reached for the bottle in Guerlan's hand. "But, it's deadly!" Guerlan was aghast. "How can you risk addiction to that dreadful drug?" "You're a victim of conditioning." Even as weak as she felt, Perlac managed a low laugh, "_Sulfalixir_ is a miracle drug--not what you've been taught to believe." She drank sparingly and offered him the bottle, but Guerlan drew back in categorical refusal. "As you wish. Now we must leave the plane."