"Nuts to that. Some of them are amazingly accurate. There are a hell of a lot of non-Government people in here from year to year, and some of them aren't here just on business. Let's get going." Hillary pulled Glen through the door, and then locked it. Glen raised his eyebrows at this. "Oh, sure," his co-worker said wryly. "Gives the People something to work off steam on." He patted the flimsy door. "This will cave in under a few hard shoulders. Not like the safety-hole panels. We hope." "But they don't unlock for another half hour in this area." "Thirty-eight minutes, to be exact," Hillary said, glancing at his watch. "And of course the ones deeper in and higher up open even later. We're supposed to give them a run for their taxes." * * * * * The corridor was emptying out rapidly. Glen could hear smashing noises from the ground floor. Apparently the People were already in the building, beginning their day of destruction. He thought gratefully of his private apartment, tucked away in the impregnable heart of Government House. Of course, it was closed off to him too on this day; but at least it was safe from the mob. They would get mainly the chaff to destroy. "I'm heading for the upper levels," Hillary said. "Even if the safeties open later up there, it takes longer for the mob to penetrate. There's enough breakable and burnable stuff at the first few levels to keep them busy for a while. Coming?" Glen had just seen Joan Bourne emerge from her office and lock the door. He headed toward her. "I'm going to stay near some out-of-the-way safety in this area and hop in when it first opens. I don't feel like running from the People," he called back with a bravado he did not really feel. "Suit yourself." Hillary was already at the stairs. He paused for a moment. "And good luck." "Thanks," Glen said. "Good hiding." Joan had been listening, and met him in the middle of the corridor. "I think you've got the right idea, Glen. Want some company?" He smiled, and brushed her cheek with his lips. "You know the answer to that, Joan. For life." "This is _hardly_ the day to bring that up again." She took his arm, and they turned off down a side corridor. "Besides, I thought our relationship was very nice as it is," she pouted. "It is. I'm just greedy." The side passageway took them deeper into the labyrinth that was Government House. Glen had hardly ever been out of it. He had been born and brought up in the great central area that surrounded Government Park, now sealed off from both the People and the Civil Servants. Apart from a vacation trip to another city's Government House, this had been Glen's entire world. And two years ago he had passed the Examinations and become a full-fledged CS, with all the privileges--and perils, he was now realizing--that that entailed.