He did as she advised. She turned her face downward, too, and plucked idly at blades of grass as if they were exchanging only words of love and discussing the most blissful of futures. “We’ve a chance to get away,” Deva said, “if you have the courage to risk it.” “I’ve already made one try,” Rick told her. “It failed because I didn’t prepare far enough ahead.” He described his desperate, last-minute attempt to get the plane ready. Deva looked up in surprise, and then quickly lowered her head again. “You’re a bigger boy than I thought,” she said. “Gerald wouldn’t take the chance either. He had that much in common with Barie.” “Gerald?” “The man I worked with and loved.” Rick looked at her. “Where did you want to go?” he asked. “Tell me, Deva.” “There are ten thousand square miles of open country outside the cities. They aren’t patroled very well, because the Machine doesn’t consider the area a vital factor. You’d be surprised how many have escaped and are living in perfect freedom between the cities. Gerald and I could have joined them if he had possessed the nerve--and had loved me enough.” “Why did he back down?” Rick asked, knowing in advance what her answer would be. “He said there was no future for us out there. We were civilized citizens of a great community, and had an obligation to do our part. If that obligation included bowing to the superior wisdom of the Machine our only alternative was to obey. Can you imagine a weak-kneed evasion like that from a man who _knows_ Mech theory and operation. But of course _you_ wouldn’t understand how that knowledge should have made him scorn the Machine. Gerald said he had his work to consider.” “It hit pretty hard?” said Rick. “Yes--I can see that it did.” “When he heard I’d been scheduled to pair with an Agro Sixth he acted as if he’d just had a very narrow escape--as if I’d suddenly become unclean. I’d loved him since I was a little girl. But I could have killed him then.” “You’d take him back, though--if you had the chance?” Deva nodded. “I’d be fool enough to take him back in a minute if he had the courage to go with me.” “But he hasn’t,” Rick said, thinking of Barie. “And you haven’t answered my first question. Just what do we do?” “_We_ can go out there,” Deva said fiercely. “We can help each other escape from the city. After that, we can split up and go our separate ways. I haven’t quite figured out what I’ll do with the rest of my life. But I’d rather be a wilderness outcast than remain chained here, forced to obey every life-denying whim of the Machine.” “Married to an Agro Sixth, of course.” Deva nodded. “Married to an Agro Sixth. Do you know what you’ll do? Have you given it serious thought?” He shook his head, thinking suddenly of all the blank years ahead, without Barie, without home or land or friends. But what Deva said was true. Anything would be better than a life of blind obedience to the whims of the Machine.