"See," Iimmi explained. "That roadway must have crashed into the wall and knocked it away." A twenty-foot ribbon of road veered into the room at an insane angle. The railing was twisted, but there were the stalks of street lights still intact along the edges. "Do you think we could climb that?" asked Geo. "It doesn't look too steep." "For what?" Urson wanted to know. "To get some place high enough to see if there's anything that looks like a temple." "Oh," said Urson in a reconciled voice. In general the walk was in good shape. Occasional sections of railing had twisted away, but the road itself mounted surely between the sheering faces of the buildings on either side of them through advancing sunset. It branched before them and they went left. It branched again and again they avoided the right-handed road. A sign, half the length of a three masted ship, hung lopsidedly above them on a building to one side. WMTH THE HUB OF WORLD NEWS, COMMUNICATION, & ENTERTAINMENT As they rounded the corner of the building, Snake suddenly stopped and put his hand to his head. "What is it?" asked Geo. Snake took a step backward. Then he pointed to WMTH. _It ... hurts._ "What hurts?" asked Iimmi. Snake pointed to the building again. "Is there someone in there thinking too loud?" _Thinking ... machine_, Snake said. _Radio ..._ "A radio is a thinking machine and there's one in there that's hurting your head?" interpreted Iimmi, tentatively, and with a question mark. Snake nodded. "How come the one he showed us before didn't hurt him?" Urson wanted to know. Iimmi looked up at the imposing housing of WMTH. "Maybe this one's a lot bigger." "Look," Geo said to Snake, "you stay here, and if we see anything, we'll come back and report, all right?" "Maybe it stops later on," Urson said, "and if he ran forward, he could get out the other side. It may just stop after a hundred feet or so." "Why so anxious?" asked Iimmi. "The jewels," said Urson. "Who's going to get us out of trouble if we should meet up with anything else?" They were silent then. Their shadows faded over the pavement as the yellow tinge in the sky turned blue. "I guess it's up to Snake," Geo said. "Do you think you can make it?" Snake paused for a moment, then shook his head. "Well," Geo said to the others, "come on then." Around them was a sudden click, and lights flickered all along the edges of the road. "Come on," Geo said again, and once more they started, passing the lights which wheeled double and triple shadows about them over the road and the opposite railing. When they reached the next turn off that led to a still higher ramp, Geo looked back. Snake's miniature figure sat on the edge of the road's railing, his feet on the lower rung, one pair of arms folded, one pair of elbows on his knees. The light above him. "Keep track of the turns," said Geo. "I'm keeping," Iimmi assured him.