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In the darkness Phil&039;s spine stiffened to condensed steel and his hands clutching the claorilla He had time to think that if only Lucky ith him, tucked inside his jacket
The platfor His stomach rapidly scrambled over his heart and nestled just below his Adaiant snake hissed and he was acutely conscious of being inches froured he&039;d got a really firh the hassock, his heels cut into his rump, his vertebrae cut into his intervertebral disks, and various things inside hiily into a di, it occurred to him He dove out onto the floor, while behind him the platfored hi position and taken a few breaths there was a gust of air fro as the platfor out niinary audience
"You never did that before?" he asked her glumly
"Of course I have, but I knew if I said I hadn&039;t you&039;d take it more seriously" She tweaked him by the nearest ear "Come on, you&039;re not out of Father&039;s clutches yet"
Almost to his disappointment, he found he could scramble to his feet and follow her He almost felt calm "How did you push the button from the inside, anyhow?"
"Just taped it down, jumped in and shut the door The platform won&039;t move if any of the upper-floor doors are open"
"What&039;s your name, by the way?"
"Mitzie," she told him "Mitzie Romadka"
"Mine&039;s Phil," he said "Phil Gish"
She led hie, lined with ornate cars in stalls barred like prison cells Several of the cars had recharging cables plugged in He saw a ramp ahead that led upward Mitzie coded the barrier in front of a s little job, isn&039;t it?" she re to an undertaker" She hopped in When, with a sad shrug, Phil followed her, he was hardly surprised to find she had donned a full-length black evening-mask &039;It&039;s notit for Carstairs and the gang It&039;s hot"
And with that reassuring reuided it out toward the ra faintly A door rose at her voice Then they were outside in the ghostly yellow evening of the sodiu car sla the exit Two men jumped out of the car and sos and chubby tummy, hurried to meet them
"Look, if this is another tame-chicken chase -" he heard the first of the two in in heavy skeptical tones
"Don&039;t be absurd," the hurrier asserted crisply in a voice Phil recognized as Dr Roreen cat"
At thatat hied squeal turned to the rasp of plastics as Mitzie bullied the small black car between the ra of hooked bu out into the street, the little electric accelerating ot back in," he told Mitzie "They&039;re turning around"
"Like I said, you&039;re ih her oes," and she abruptly nosed the car toward the narrowdoard
"Hey, that&039;s marked &039;Exit Only,&039;" Phil yiped at her
"That&039;s why I&039; it," she informed him curtly
He closed his eyes as the car tilted sharply down, but the gods of probability seeht When the car leveled out, Phil opened his eyes to the brighter, nearer, fog-light sodiu ahead smartly Once more Phil looked back
"They&039;ve come down after us," he said onder perhaps a trifle mixed with pride
"Really i her head "Well, this little mouse was never meant to outrace that rhino Prepare for acceleration, and hope the cars at the next ten intersections are stacked right"
Phil felt himself crunched into the foalow just behind the hihts had become a molten yellow ribbon Their car flew past the hood of a truck entering froh their speedstill Some blocks ahead they shot between two cars which also seelow died They sailed up another "Exit Only" ra at a speed that soon became reasonable, they turned four successive corners
"That should do it," Mitzie said with professional nonchalance Phil nodded his slumped head
"Carstairs put in the rocket assist yesterday," she explained "He wasn&039;t altogether sure he had it lined up right Neat little trick, isn&039;t it? A great comfort when you&039;ve just knocked over a fat sales robot, say, and have three cop cars converging and maybe a cop copter up above Beats a smoke screen all hollow You&039;ll see"
"I have," Phil assured her with a rather absent," she said scornfully "I mean when you&039;ve really pulled a job and they&039;re closing in That&039;s the big thrill You&039;ll see, I tell you You know, Phil, I sort of like you You&039;re so darn scared and innocent, yet you play along I&039;"
Phil shivered again, but with even less of his mind on it Neither Mitzie Romadka&039;s criminal pastimes nor her sudden friendliness could hold his attention Staring out frowningly at the jaundiced street, he was thinking of Lucky and of the way he had felt when Lucky ith hireen cat, anyhow?" Mitzie was asking with an indifference that her mask intensified "A carved eed
"Well, let&039;s forget it then," Mitzie was saying, "and have soain to the electric&039;s unassisted lily Her eyes glearew quicker, her voice lighter "Carstairs has a bunch of sales robots lined up Got their after theater routes cased to a hair We can raut &039;em, one, two, ten! Jump for the curb, sisters!"
This last exuberant re platforms, and it was accompanied by a vicious swerve of the car toward the Mitzie cooed happily
Like so from a dream, Phil said sharply "No! I don&039;t want any part of it!" He went on, "You can drop me at 3010 Opperly Avenue, top level"
She looked at hiht," she said after a bit, "I&039;ll do it, if only because I got such a kick out of the look on your face when I shut the door of the chute" She spun the car illegally in a tight U-turn She said harshly, not looking at Phil, "I never hot rod at old people, you know They don&039;t have enough horirls were real funnies"
Phil made no couely aware that Mitzie was stealing glances at hie your ht possibly find us at the Tan Jet ht"
He still ht&039;s the only tiht in the city I love the pale yellow streets and the bright yellow tunnels They&039;ve taken the jungles away frohways, even space and the air They&039;ve abolished half of the night They&039;ve tried to steal danger But we&039;ve found it again in the city; ho&039;ve got nerve and hate the sheep!
"Well, here&039;s your 3010 Opperly," she said, jerking the car to a stop Phil opened the door and started out Only then did Mitzie seeht marquee and realize that the address was that of Fun Incorporated&039;s wrestling center She thrust herself across the seat as he reached the curb and turned to shut the door
"So this is what you were looking for!" she yelled at hi her mask puff away from and then huff to her mouth "You turn me down, you sniff at my friends and my ways, you&039;re above violence and sex, and all the while you&039;re planning to satisfy yourself vicariously, watching male-female!" For an instant before she sla seemed to shoot out of the lace-shirred eyeholes of the black in!"