"have you ever been in an air-jet before, raych?" asked hari seldon.

raych shook his head speechlessly. he was looking down at upperside rushing beneath them with a mixture of fright and awe.

it struck seldon again how much trantor was a world of expressways and tunnels. even long trips were made underground by the general population. air travel, however common it might be on the outworlds, was a luxury on trantor and an air-jet like this-- how had hummin managed it? seldon wondered.

he looked out the window at the rise and fall of the domes, at the general green in this area of the planet, the occasional patches of what were little less than jungles, the arms of the sea they occasionally passed over, with its leaden waters taking on a sudden all-too-brief sparkle when the sun peeped out momentarily from the heavy cloud layer.

an hour or so into the flight, dors, who was viewing a new historical novel without much in the way of apparent enjoyment, clicked it off and said, "i wish i knew where weeeere going."

"if you cant tell," said seldon, "then i certainly cant. youve been on trantor longer than i have."

"yes, but only on the inside," said dors. "out here, with only upperside below me, im as lost as an unborn infant would be."

"oh well.--presumably, hummin knows what hes doing."

"im sure he does," replied dors rather tartly, "but that may have nothing to do with the present situation. why do you continue to assume any of this represents his initiative?"

seldons eyebrows lifted. "now that you ask, i dont know. i just assumed it. why shouldnt this be his?"

"because whoever arranged it didnt specify that i be taken along with you. i simply dont see hummin forgetting my existence. and because he didnt come himself, as he did at streeling and at mycogen."

"you cant always expect him to, dors. he might well be occupied. the astonishing thing is not that he didnt come on this occasion but that he did come on the previous ones."

"assuming he didnt come himself, would he send a conspicuous and lavish flying palace like this?" she gestured around her at the large luxurious jet.

"it might simply have been available. and he might have reasoned that no one would expect something as noticeable as this to be carrying fugitives who were desperately trying to avoid detection. the well-known double-double-cross."

"too well-known, in my opinion. and would he send an idiot like sergeant thalus in his place?"

"the sergeant is no idiot. hes simply been trained to complete obedience. with proper instructions, he could be utterly reliable."

"there you are, hari. we come back to that. why didnt he get proper instructions? its inconceivable to me that chetter hummin would tell him to carry you out of dahl and not say a word about me. inconceivable."

and to that seldon had no anseer and his spirits sank.

another hour passed and dors said, "it looks as if its getting colder outside. the green of upperside is turning brown and i believe the heaters have turned on."

"what does that signify?"

"dahl is in the tropic zone so obviously were going either north or south--and a considerable distance too. if i had some notion in which direction the nightline was i could tell which."

eventually, they passed over a section of shoreline where there was a rim of ice hugging the domes where they were rimmed by the sea. and then, quite unexpectedly, the air-jet angled downward.

raych screamed, "were goin to hit! were goin to smash up!"

seldons abdominal muscles tightened and he clutched the arms of his seat. dors seemed unaffected.

she said, "the pilots up front dont seem alarmed. well be tunneling."

and, as she said so, the jets wings swept backward and under it and, like a bullet, the air-jet entered a tunnel. blackness swept back over them in an instant and a moment later the lighting system in the tunnel turned on. the walls of the tunnel snaked past the jet on either side.

"i dont suppose ill ever be sure they know the tunnel isnt already occupied," muttered seldon.

"im sure they had reassurance of a clear tunnel some dozens of kilometers earlier," said dors. "at any rate, i presume this is the last stage of the journey and soon well know where we are."

she paused and then added, "and i further presume we wont like the knowledge when we have it."