NORTHWORLD

the shudder which remembering the Matrix induced in him. "A man." "You'll kill
him?" Dawson asked, carelessly, uncaringly. "His name is Hansen," said north. "And
he will serve my purposes." Chapter Three Hansen's car was speeding toward a
large building on what had been the outskirts of the capital twenty years before.
Now it was a bland residential district, not dissimilar to the one from which
Solbarth had spun his webs of theft and murder. The building was marked as
Consensus property on the maps Hansen had viewed in the course of his duties, but
there were many Consensus buildings in any planetary capital. A warehouse,
Hansen had thought; and he would still think the great three-story block was a
warehouse, except— Except that two creatures had ordered the Commissioner of
Special Units into an aircar that they were driving straight into the front wall of
the building. Hansen opened his mouth to protest—and closed it again, because
there was nothing he could say that the spindles didn't know already. The
warehouse was an old one, built of clay and a plasticizer which hardened after
extrusion. That technique created a solid structure of surpassing ugliness even
when new. The aircar was about to hit the dark dun building at 200 kph. The
smear Hansen made would scarcely be distinguishable from the stains and earth
tones already an indelible part of the wall's texture. He forced his muscles to relax.
So be it. A pedestrian in the street looked upon amazement. The aircar shot
through the 'wall.' Hansen felt a momentary chill. They were in a lighted tunnel
whose circular sides made the drive fans rumble. "Where are we?" Hansen
demanded. The noise of the damaged car was even worse in this enclosure than it
had been in the open air, but he knew the spindles could hear him if they wanted
to. No answer rang in his wind. They shot past a pair of cross-tunnels. Half a
dozen workmen carrying unrecognizable tools glanced up at the aircar. One of the
faces turned toward Hansen was inhuman: blue, scaled, and as expressionless as
those of its companions. "Where are waging?" Hansen cried. He didn't even expect