“Damn it,” Fink said from behind him. “I forgot about that.”

“Did you lose anything?” Lewis asked.

“I don’t think so,” Fink answered. “But I can check when we get to the mines.”

“Mines?”

“Yeah, the train stops at a mine under the mountain,” Fink told Lewis. “They pretty much have a whole village there with lights and families and everything.”

“What are they mining for?” Lewis wanted to know.

“I don’t know, it’s all very hush-hush,” Fink replied. “You could get off there, but they won’t let you go into the tunnels. We rented a room in the town once and stayed a few days, but it was boring so we moved on.”

“Who is we? I thought you were a loner,” Lewis commented.

“About ten years ago, Tomas and me, we rambled all over this island by train,” Fink said. “It took a couple of months and we had a lot of fun.”

The train had been on a steady incline for half of an hour when it began to slow and level off. Light began filtering into the tunnel and a few minutes later the train suddenly popped out of a rock wall into a cavernous room that was brightly lit by electric flood lights. The part of the room that Lewis could see had an open, flat floor about thirty yards wide and two hundred yards long running parallel to the tracks. On the far side from the train was a wall built of square blocks and mortar that went from floor to ceiling. The floor level lead to a massive double door, and two standard doors set at least a hundred feet away on either side of the big door. Ten feet above each regular door were two windows that were three feet square.

The porter entered the car and told everyone that they could disembark here.

“We will be here for a half hour,” he said. “If you miss the train, there will be another tomorrow. Any train will carry you out of here; after all they know how you arrived here.”

Fink was searching the floor for a small spring, Victor stretched and yawned.

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“Should we get down and look around?” Victor asked.

“Probably won’t hurt,” Lewis replied. “As long as we don’t miss the train. Any luck there Fink?”

“No joy,” Fink said, sounding irritated. “Oh well, we have twenty eight minutes. If you want to look around we had better get going,” he stood up and headed toward the door.

They stepped down on the left side of the train and walked past two passenger cars and the engine. Several passengers exited out of each car, and everyone walked across the two sets of tracks together.

A few shops and a café stood closest to the tracks, small colored signs declaring their purpose. Fink walked straight into the café and ordered three shots of whiskey, which he banged down in quick succession. Lewis ordered cold tea and Victor wanted water. They were there for five minutes, by which time the café was completely full of people jostling around and shouting for a drink or snack. They gladly left the café to make more room for others.

The shop next door carried a wide assortment of items for living there, everything from heavy leather clothing to toilet paper. Lewis spotted a shelf full of electronics and went over to look at it. Victor was looking at a leather jacket and Fink was arguing with the store clerk over the price of something that Lewis couldn’t see because Fink blocked his view. The shelf contained a couple of old computers, some radios, and flashlights and, far at the end, a rifle scope with a battery in its right side. He took it down and examined it closely. On the bottom were two mounting screws, a panel on the left hid three buttons and three adjustment wheels. He pushed the green button and nothing happened, so he pushed the blue one. The optic end lit faintly. He pointed the other end at the window and saw a faint image of the window with an orange dot in the center. When he pushed the red button the image became ghostly red, he saw someone pass by outside the window. The image was clearly a woman many times brighter than the background; the dot had changed to a vivid green. He pushed the green button and the screen turned green and the dot became a deep blood red. The window was too bright to make anything out, but he could see things on the shelves inside the window.

He took it to the counter, where Victor was trying on the leather jacket. It fit pretty well and he handed the man a credit voucher.

Suddenly, a bell sounded, echoing throughout the cavern.

“You guys better get going,” the man at the counter said.

“How much?” Lewis asked, holding up the scope for the man to see.

“Ninety,” the man shot back.

Lewis dug through his pockets and tossed a hundred credit note on the counter, then hurried after Victor. Fink peeled himself off of the wall outside the door and joined them; they all strode across the tracks. Down the far side of the train the porter waited to hustle everyone back aboard. When they were aboard Lewis leaned over a seat on the far side of the aisle to look out the window. Folks were running toward the train as it slowly built up rpms. It looked like everyone would be able to board so Lewis took his seat.