CHAPTER 1

I POURED A GOOD MEASURE of whiskey over the ice, scowled at it-then added a splash more. But, as I lifted the glass and drank it with glugging pleasure, my raised eyes drifted across the clock that was set into the wall above the bar. It was just ten in the morning. "My, my, Jim, you are hitting the sauce a little earlier each day," I growled wordlessly. So what? It was my liver wasn't it? I gurgled the glass empty just as the house computer spoke to me in rich, educated-and possibly sneering?-tones. "Someone is approaching the front door, Sire." "Great. Perhaps it is the booze shop delivery?" Venom dripped from my voice; but all Computers are immune to sarcasm. "Indeed not, Sire, for Garry's Grog and Groceries delivers by freight tube. I identify the person approaching as Rowena Vinicultura. She has stopped her popcar on the front lawn and is emerging from it." My morale plummeted as the name slithered across my eardrums. Of all the beautiful bores on Lussuoso, Rowena was possibly the most beautiful-and certainly the most boring. I had to flee-or commit suicide-before she came in. I was already heading for the back of the house, to possibly drown myself in the swimming pool, when the housebot's computer voice stopped me in my tracks. "Ms. Vinicultura appears to have fallen down onto the plastic mat outside the door that spells Out WELCOME in six languages." "What do you mean fallen?" "I believe the description is an apt one. She closed her eyes and her body became limp. Then she descended slowly towards the ground and is now lying, unmoving, with her eyes still closed. Her pulse appears to be slow and irregular as detected by the pressure plate in the mat. Lacerations and bruises on her face..." The thing's voice followed me as I ran back through the house. "Open the door!" I shouted. It swung wide and I dived through. Her cameo face was pale, her dark hair tousled gracefully, her ample bosom rising and falling slowly. There was blood on her cheeks and a darkening bruise on her forehead. Her lips moved and I leaned close. "Gone she said, barely audible. "Angelina...gone..." It felt as though my body temperature had dropped thirty degrees. This did not slow me in the slightest. While I was still reaching down for her I managed to tap the number 666 into my wrist communicator. "Where is the home medical treatment center?" I shouted as I slipped my arms under warm thighs, soft back, and lifted her as carefully as I could. "The settee in the library, Sire." I ran, ignoring the cold knot of despair her words had punched into me. Since both Angelina and I were strenuously healthy we had never used the medical services in this house. I had glanced at the specs when I signed the rental agreement; with the price we were paying, the medical arrangements should equal that of a provincial hospital at least. By the time I had carried Rowena to the library the settee had vanished into the wall and an examining bed had risen in its place. Even as I laid her on the bed the detectors were snaking down from the medbot that had popped out of the ceiling. An analyzer fastened onto the back of my neck and I slapped it away. "Not me! Her, on the bed, you moronic machine." I stepped back out of reach while it set to work with mechanical enthusiasm. A glistening row of readouts sprang to life on the screen. Everything from temperature and pulse to endocrine balance, liver function, hair-follicle growth and anything else that could be measured or assessed was there. "Speak! Tell!" I commanded and there was a rustle of electronic activity as the various expert programs shuffled and sorted their input, compared and interacted and agreed on the results in a speedy microsecond. "The patient is concussed and contused." The computer-generated voice was deep, male and reassuring. "The bruises are superficial and have been cleansed and sealed," there was a scurry of flashing apparatus, "and the appropriate antibiotics injected." "Bring her to!" I snapped "If you mean, sir, that you wish the patient restored to consciousness that is now being done." If a computer can sound miffed-this one was miffed. "Whasha?" she muttered, blinking lovely purple eyes that were blurrily Out of focus. "You've got to do better than that with her," I said. "Stimulants, something. I must talk to her." "The patient has been traumatized.." "But not badly-you told me that. Now get her to talk, you overpriced collection of memory chips or I'll short-circuit your ROM, PROM and EPROM!" This seemed to do the job. Her eyes blinked again and looked at me. "Jim..." "In the flesh, Rowena my sweet. You're going to be fine. Now tell me about Angelina." "Gone.", she said. And fluttered her luxurious eyelashes. I felt my teeth grating together and forced a smile. "You said that before. Gone where? Gone why? Gone when-" I shut up since I was getting into a rut. "The Temple of Eternal Truth...", was all that she said as her eyes closed again. It was enough. I shouted to the housebot as I bolted out the door. "Cure her. Guard her. Call an ambulance." I did not mention the police since I didn't want their flatfooted presence interfering with my investigation. "Switch on!" I shouted to the atomcycle as I jumped into the garage. "Door open!" I landed in the saddle, hit full power and tore off the bottom half of the garage door, it wasn't opening fast enough, as we burst through it. I managed to miss a strolling couple on the pavement, shot between two vehicles and roared down the road, Shouting into the atomcycle's phone since it would be nice to know where I was going. "Adlufo. Emergency access. The Temple of Eternal Truth- coordinates." A street map was projected onto the now-cracked windscreen and I screeched tires around the first corner. As I straightened out I saw that the com light was blinking. It could only be an answer to my emergency call since only Angelina, James or Bolivar could access this number after that call went out. "Angelina is that you?!" I shouted. "Bolivar here. What's up, Dad?" I explained briefly and curtly, then repeated myself when James signed on. I had no idea where they were-I would find out later-but it was enough to know that they were informed and on the way. This was the first time we had used the 666 call. Major emergency. Drop everything and assemble. I had set it up when they had left home and both gone their individual ways. To help them in the future, I had imagined; now I was the one who was calling. They clicked off, not wasting my time or attention with needless comments. They were listening and would be here. I blasted around the last corner and stood on the brakes. Oily smoke was billowing into the air-already dying down as white spray from a fire copter played over the wrecked building. The cold clutch on my chest was physical now. I took a moment to regain control, to breathe carefully. Then ran towards the ruins. Two men in blue uniforms were in my way and both sprawled and bounced. Then there was a bigger one before me with lots of gold braid; massed minions closed ranks behind him. I got control of my adrenaline-zapped reflexes and put my brain into gear. "My name is diGriz. I've reason to believe that my wife is in there." "If you will step back and-" "No." I spat the word like venom and he recoiled automatically. "I pay taxes. Lots of taxes. To pay you. I am more experienced in police operations than you are." I neglected to add on which side of the law I had gained that experience. "What do you know about this?" "Nothing. Fire and police have just arrived. There was an automatic alarm call." "I'll tell you what I know. This is-or was-the Temple of Eternal Truth. A survivor just came to my house. Rowena Vinicultura. She said that my wife was here." I could hear the police computer buzzing in his earphone. "Admiral Sir James diGriz. We will do everything we can to find your wife. . . Angelina. I am Captain Collin and I note that your status permits you to accompany this investigation under your owncognizance and responsibility." Purely by reflex I had established my forged bona fides as an Admiral of the Fleet when we had first come to Lussuoso. Basic precautions always pay off. We followed a large and well-insulated firefightbot into the ruins. It plowed a careful path, occasionally spraying a smoking remnant, recording for later examination every movement that it made, every obstacle it put aside. A hanging door screeched and fell and we entered the smoking interior of what had been a good-sized meeting hall. Roblights suspended from whining blades floated by above us and illuminated the smoke filled interior. Destruction on all sides-but no bodies to be seen. The cold knot was still in my midriff. The room had been seriously decorated with carved wood paneling and-now smoking- draperies. Rows of pews faced towards the destroyed side of the room where the smoke was thickest. Precipitators soon cleared the air and the floating lights glinted from wrecked and twisted machinery. "We'll hold it here," Captain Collin said. "The disaster team takes over now." The disaster team was embodied in a single metallic gray robot. It was undoubtedly packed full of expert programs produced in collaboration with fire and forensic investigators, along with detectors and probes of microscopic efficiency. Logically I knew it would do an infinitely better job than we fumbling humans: I still wanted to kick it aside and rush in. "Do you see any. . . bodies?" I called out. "No living creatures. No corpses of humans or animals detected. No-yes. Correction. Red liquid on the floor. Detection processing. It is human blood." My throat was almost closed. My voice grated and I had trouble talking. "Primary test. Blood type?" "Testing. 0 positive, Rh negative." I didn't hear the rest-nor did it matter. Angelina was a sturdy type B-and Rh positive. I relaxed, but only so slightly. In a very few minutes two important facts were made clear. Other than the drops of blood, there were no visible human remains or traces of anyone living or dead. There was the ruined hail and next t9 it the burnt and crushed room that had held large amounts of electronic equipment. All of it now apparently-and deliberately-destroyed beyond any possibility of recognition. But where was Angelina?

I waited until the ruined building had been examined and reexamined. Nothing new was discovered and I was just wasting my time at the site. The police had vetted every spacer that had left the planet since the explosion and would keep on doing so. Neither Angelina-nor even anyone who resembled her in the slightest-had been recorded as being aboard any of them. There was nothing I could do here. I drove slowly home, obeying all traffic regulations. Stopping for pedestrians and waving them on. I rolled through the remains of the garage door and parked the bike. Went straight to the bar where I threw out the flat drink sitting there and prepared a small but stiff replacement before I dug into the E-mail printouts. The twins were on the way. Both were off-planet so it would be a few days at least before they arrived. They did not go into details but I knew that they were now buying, cajoling, bribing-perhaps stealing-the fastest means of transportation in the known universe. They would be here. Our little clan may have rejected the outside worlds and their values-but this made our own cohesion that much stronger. But now we had to wait for plodding technology to sift, examine and assess the ruins of the Temple of Eternal Truth-and present a coherent picture of what had happened there. There was nothing I could do until I got the police report. I tried to contact Rowena in the hospital but was given the brush-off. Querying her more would have to wait until she had recovered a bit. Lussuoso was rich and technically efficient and would do the search-and-analyze job as well as-or better than-any other planet we had visited. I hated this place but gave it all credit for technical competence. My mind kept trying to numerate all the terrible possibilities of Angelina's disappearance.... Don't dwell on it, Jim, I told myself firmly. You have chosen to lead what others might consider a strange and possibly criminal life. I began to wish I had stayed with crookery and away from the Special Corps. I was always uneasy on the right side of the law. Even more I regretted coming here. Yet it had seemed like a good idea at the time. This was a paradise planet and unbelievably expensive. To move here I had had to tap into bank accounts untouched for years. I even had to draw in some long-overdue debts and that had not been easy to do. I mean not easy in the sense of heavy weapons and a number of people in the hospital before the accounts were closed. A life of crime is not always profitable- particularly when I had some unwelcome assignments from the Special Corps. Certainly my saving the universe had been exciting, but not money-making in the slightest. The same thing happened when I ran for president of Paraiso Aqui. Good fun, but again no money involved. So between these kinds of legal jobs, Angelina and I had done a number of other jobs that filled our coffers while depleting those of others. Enough had been stored away for a rainy day that had proved to be a sunny one here. It had all been well worth it since Angelina was happier here than she bad ever been before. I even forgot how much I hated the place when she smiled and kissed me. It had all started simply enough. "Have you ever heard of Lussuoso?" she had asked. "A new drink-or something you rub onto the skin?" "Don't always play the fool, Jim diGriz. I mean every day there is something about it in the news-" "Vicarious thrills and sheer jealousy. There isn't one person in a trillion who could even afford a day's visit there." "We could. I'm sure." "Of course-" Of course. Famous Last Words. Springing to my lips engendered by relaxation and mental sloth. By hindsight it was obvious that every word of that simple conversation was planned and orchestrated by my dearest. She was a woman who, when she knew what she wanted done, got it done. Lussuoso. Famous in myth and legend and galactic soap operas. A paradise planet. Populated only by the very, very rich and those who were richer. I had been intrigued by this phenomenon at first and had done a bit of research. I was in an exotic enough income bracket to quickly discover why it was so attractive, It was the galactic center for rejuvenation treatments. These were so hideously expensive that you had to be a millionaire to even see their price list. The treatments were painless but time-consuming. Depending upon the degree of customer decay this could take years. Since a clinic would be a bore, and there was no shortage of money in the project, an entire planet had been terraformed into a holiday world. Luxury villas rivaled each other in exuberance. Operas, theaters and entertainments of all kinds abounded. All the sports from deep-sea diving and fishing to mountain climbing and hunting were there for the taking. But hidden away from all this consumptive capitalism were the clinics and surgeries where the rich got younger and, if possible, poorer. This was the taboo subject and never mentioned-but was the real reason why the planet existed in the first place. I had discovered all this and had instantly forgotten it. Angelina had not. I knew that my fate was sealed, my goose well-cooked, served and carved, when she stopped in front of the hall mirror one day just before we left for dinner. She patted her immaculately groomed hair as women are wont to do-then leaned closer. Touching the corner of one eye with a delicate fingertip. "Jim-is that a line, right here?" "Of course not. Just the way the light is falling." Even as I spoke these polite, truthful and simple words my thoughts were briskly whirring forwards. Years of happy marriage had taught me one important fact-if not a lot of important facts. Women speak with many levels of meaning. As simple a question as Are you hungry? can mean I am hungry. Or have you forgotten we have a dinner appointment? Or I'm not hungry but I'm sure you will be bothering me about lunch soon. Or any other of countless convoluted interpretations. So a possible line in the corner of an eye, following soon after a simple query about Lussuoso and the chance appearance of a gilt brochure on the end table could mean only thing. I smiled. "I am beginning to feel that this world has worn out its welcome and is starting to bore more than a little. Have you ever thought of passing a spell on, I don't know, some grander and more exciting planet?" She whirled about and kissed me enthusiastically. "Jim-you must be a mind reader! What do you think about..." I really didn't have much to think about. Other than remembering long-forgotten bank accounts. But it had been well worth it. For awhile. Angelina absented herself from time to time-but we never discussed the rejuvenation treatments. I am forced to admit that, after noting my touches of gray hair, as well as a slight tendency to be short of breath after serious exercise, I was not that adverse to a medical session or two myself. After all I was paying for it. And Lussuoso was as jolly and entertaining as the brochures had said. Our house was lovely and our friends lovelier still. I don't know how beautiful these people had been before they had become beautiful people-but they were sure good to look at now. Neither age shall wither nor time detract. They used to say that money couldn't buy everything, but this cliche had long been extinct. On Lussuoso they were all young, handsome and rich. Or rather rich first-therefore young and handsome. It did not take me long to discover that they were also boring beyond belief. Making a lot of money seems to produce people who care only about making money. Now I am not a snob-far from it. My circle of friends and acquaintances contains weird and wonderful examples from all walks of life. Conmen and connoisseurs. Forgers and foresters, police and politicians, scientists and psalm singers. All of them entertaining and good company in a variety of strange and interesting ways. Yet after a month on Lussuoso I was ready for anything but more of Lussuoso. Suicide perhaps, or back into the army again, maybe swimming in a lake of sulfuric acid; any of these would be preferable. But I bided my time and increased my drinking for two reasons. Firstly I had paid a satellite-sized bundle for the medical treatments and I was going to get my money's worth. Secondly, and more importantly, Angelina was having an incredibly good time. Our lifestyle had previously prevented her from having female acquaintances or close lady friends. Her early and murderous life, before the psych treatments that had turned her into a more civilized, though still criminal, person, was far in the past and hopefully forgotten. We never discussed those early years when I-for a rare change-was on the side of law enforcement. And she was a criminal on the run. A very nasty criminal indeed and I could not understand how one so beautiful could be so devious and cruel. Until she trusted me, perhaps she loved me even then, and had opened the locket with the secret of her past. Her beauty had been the product of the surgeon's knife. That had changed her from what she had been to how she looked now. Only her criminal existence had enabled her to pay for the operations. Because of this, and our extra-legal standard of living, we might have had a lonely existence in many ways. We had not led a solitary life, but it had-certainly been a different kind of life from the normal ones led by the other 99.99 percent of mankind. Having the twins had been a novel experience for both of us. One that I had not looked forward to with a great deal of enthusiasm. But I had changed, for the better Angelina always said, and she should know. When the boys were growing up we had seen that they had received the best education. We had discussed it a lot and had finally agreed that they could choose the style of, life that most appealed to them. In all fairness, when they were old enough, we had introduced them to some of the more interesting aspects of our lifestyle. I am happy to say that they took to it instantly. All of this kept us busy enough and. since Angelina had never had any close friends, she apparently had never missed the acquaintance of those of the fairer sex. Now she had them in abundance. They went out together and did things together. Just what I was never quite sure. But she-and they-did enjoy themselves. She had even mentioned lightly, and oh howl wish I had listened more closely, the Temple of Eternal Truth. She hadn't seemed terribly interested but had gone there at a friend's insistence. Now this. I sipped long and hard at my drink and resisted a refill. "DiGriz here," I called out at the instant the communicator buzzed. "It is Captain Collin, Admiral. We have some more-and very puzzling-infonnation about the Temple of Eternal Truth. Do you think you could come to my office..." I was out the door even while he was still speaking.

Chapter 2

"WHAT HAVE YOU FOUND OUT?" I asked brusquely as I stamped into Captain Cohn's office. He was speaking on the phone and he raised his hand signing me to wait. "Yes. Thank you. I understand." He hung up. "That was the hospital. It seems that Mrs. Vinicultura is suffering from post-traumatic amnesia-" "She's forgotten everything that happened?" "Precisely. There are techniques that could get access to those memories but their application must wait until she has recovered from the shock." "That's not why you called me here?" "No." He ran his finger around inside his collar and-if it were possible for an overmuscled police captain to look embarrassed-he looked embarrassed. "Here on Lussuoso we pride ourselves on our security and the thoroughness of our records. "Which means," I interrupted, "your security has been penetrated and your records are doubtful?" He opened his mouth to rebut me. Then closed it and slumped in his chair. "You're right. But it has never happened before." "Once is once too often. Tell me about it." "It is this Temple of Eternal Truth. It appears to have been duly registered as a qualified religion. They kept accurate records and reported regularly on their financial position, though of course like all religions they pay no taxes. Everything seemed quite aboveboard. The directors are on record and, most discreetly of course, we know about all of its members." "All about? Would you like to explain that?" He looked uncomfortable. "Well, like any civilized planet we practice the galactic constant of complete freedom of religion. You have heard of the Interstellar Freedom of Religion Act?" "Vaguely, in school." "The Act is not vague. The history of religion is a history of violence. Only too often religion kills, and we have had enough killing. Therefore no state or planet can have an official religion. Neither can a state or planet make any laws controlling religion. Freedom of worship and assembly is essential to civilization." "What about nut cults?" "I was coming to that. Galactic law requires us not to interfere with any religion and to adhere to that rule sternly. But since the weak and the juvenile require protection so that, always legally and with the utmost caution, we do investigate all religions thoroughly. We make ongoing investigations to assure that religious rights are not violated, that each religion has the freedom to practice in its own way, that minors' rights are not violated, that parishioners have complete freedom of choice-" "What you are trying to say is that you keep tabs on who goes to what church and how often and you know what they are getting up to." "Precisely," he growled defensively. "The records are secure and can only be accessed at the highest level in case of emergency." "All right. We have an emergency and they have been accessed. Tell me." "Rowena Vinicultura is one of the first members of the Temple. She attends regularly. She brought your wife to exactly four seances or sessions or whatever they call them." "So?" He was beginning to look uncomfortable again. "So, as I have explained, our records are detailed and complete. Except, that the leader of the Temple of Eternal Truth, one Master Fanyimadu, is, well..." His voice ran down and he stared at his desktop. I finished the sentence for him. "Master Fanyimadu does not appear in any entry in any of your records." He nodded without looking up. "We know his place of residence and have documented his attendance at the temple. However to preserve religious freedom we have done no more than that." "No investigations? No cross-reference with Immigration or Criminal Affairs?" He shook his head in silence. I glowered. "Let me guess. You don't know how he came to this planet, or if he is still here-or if he has left. Is that correct?" "There has been. . . a certain failure of communication, an oversight." "Oversight!" I exploded, jumping to my feet and stamping the length of the room and back. "Oversight! Fire and blood and an explosion, a woman in the hospital and my wife vanished-and you call that oversight!" "There is no need to lose your temper-" "Yes there is!" "-we are proceeding with the investigation and have already made some progress." He ignored my sneer. "The blood found in the temple has been subjected to analysis down to the molecular and subatomic levels. These results have been compared to those of everyone on this planet. We keep complete health and hospital records as you might imagine. Computers are accessing this immense data base at the present moment. When I called you earlier the search had been narrowed to less than twenty possibilities. As we talked I have been following the progress on this readout." He tapped the screen on the desk. "The exacting comparison has now been reduced to five. No- four. Wait-there are only three now, And two of them are women! And that remaining man is..." As he tore the slip from his printout we turned as one and raced for the door. "Who?" I shouted as we ran. He read without breaking his stride. "Professor Justin Slakey." "Where?" "Under sixty seconds' flight from here." At least he was right about that. The copter was airborne even as we fell through its door. The military must have had the news the instant that the police did because a cover of military jets roared by above us. Even before we began our descent we could see that copcopters were already hitting the ground and unloading troops to surround the house. Rotors roaring we dropped down onto the stone-flagged patio. Cohn had produced a large gun and was a fraction of a second ahead of me as we kicked open the doors. The house was empty, the bird flown. A suitcase was obviously missing, a gaping hole like a missing tooth from what had been a row of four in the bedroom closet. The garage door gaped open. A commofficer strode in, saluting as he pulled a printout from his chest pack. "Gone, sir," he said. Collin snarled as he grabbed the sheet. "Professor J. Slakey, passenger on the stellar liner Star of Serendipity. Departed. . ." He looked up and his face was grim. "A little over an hour ago." "So they are already in warpdrive and cannot be contacted until they emerge." I considered the possibilities. "You will of course be in touch with the authorities at their scheduled destination. Which is an operation that might work normally-but this is not a normal situation. I have a strong suspicion that this suspect is ahead of us all of the way. Contacting the ship's destination will probably do no good at all because the spacer will arrive instead at some unscheduled chartpoint. If you ask me you've lost him, Captain. But you can at least tell me who-or what-he is supposed to be." "That is the worst part. He really is Professor Slakey. I started a search as soon as his name appeared. I have just received a report directly from the medical authorities. He is a physicist of interstellar repute who was requested to come here by the Medical Commission, no expense was too great to acquire his services. Something to do with retarded entropy as applied to our hospital work." "Sounds reasonable. Slow down entropy and you slow down aging. Which is what this planet is all about. Was he for real?" "Undoubtedly. I had the privilege of meeting him at a function once. Everyone there, the scientists, physicists for the main part, were greatly in awe of his talents and the work that he did here. lam getting reports now," he touched his earphone, "that they all refuse to believe he had anything to do with the Fanyimadu personality." "Do you?" Before he could answer there was a shouted exchange outside, then the door was- thrown open and a policeman ran in. Holding an insulated container. "The search team found this when they were going through all the debris in the Temple of Eternal Truth, Captain-crushed under the machinery in the temple. We had no idea it was there until the wreckage was lifted. It's a.. . human hand." He put it on the table and, in silence, we looked through the transparent side at the crushed and mangled hand inside. I had a long moment of panic before I could see by the size, the shape, that it was certainly male. "Did anyone think to take the fingerprints of this?" I said. "Yes, sir. They were sent for comparison.. He was interrupted by the ring of the phone. Captain Collin put it to his ear, listened, replaced it slowly. "Positive identification. This is-Professor Slakey's hand." I pointed. "If you need proof, there it is. They were one and the same person. The blood tests, now this. Slakey was Fanyimadu. Keep me informed of everything. Understand?" I did not wait around for an answer. Turned on my heel-and left. Called back over my shoulder. "I assume that all details on Slakey will be in my commhopper when I get home." So much for the police and the authorities. It was time to get to work. I radioed for a cab, told the driver to have my own car returned from the Central Police Station--one of the perks of the rich is letting the menials do as much as possible-and planned each step of the action that must be taken. "Let me off here," I ordered while we were still a kilometer from my house. I was too jumpy to be driven around in luxury. I wanted to walk-and think. I had the strong feeling that the police were not going to come up with any answers for this one. They had been out-thought right down the line. But could I do any better? The homes were luxurious, surrounded by brilliant gardens, the air rich with bird sound. I heard little, saw nothing. Though I was aware when I walked up the path to my home that the front door was slightly open. I had left it closed. Thieves? No way-at least they took care of the ordinary kind of crime on lovely Lussuoso. I was smiling as I banged my way in. James jumped to his feet and we embraced warmly. Or was it Bolivar? "It's James, Dad," he said, knowing my weaknesses. "One day you better learn to tell us apart." "I do. You usually wear blue shirts." "This one is green-you have to do better than that." He poured a drink for me, his already in hand, and I reported the progress or lack of it by the police. Then he spoke the words we had been both avoiding. "I'm sure Mom is all right. Disappeared, yes. In trouble, undoubtedly. But she is the toughest one in the family." "She is, of course, comes up aces always." I tried, to keep the gloom from my voice, could not. He grabbed my shoulder, very hard. "Something terrible has happened. But that Rowena women said gone--not dead. So we get to work to find her and that is that." "Right." I heard the roughness in my voice; a sentimental old gray rat. Enough. "We'll do it. If the diGriz clan can't do it-it can't be done." "Damn right! I have a message from Bolivar. He should be here very soon. He was in a spacer doing a lunar geological survey. Dropped everything and should be in faster than light drive by now." "Lunar geology? That's a change. I thought he had become a stockbroker?" "He was-found it too boring. When he had stacked away his millions, more profits than those of his clients I am sure, he burnt his business suits and bought a spacer. What do we do next." "Top up this drink, if you please." I dropped into a chair. "Fill it with one-hundred-proof Old Cogitation Juice. We have some work to do." "Like what?" "Like first forgetting about collaboration with the authorities. They have got this investigation completely wrong so far and can only get it worse." "And we can do better." He said it as a fact-not a question. "That's for sure. The bureaucrats are going to do an incredibly detailed and thorough search for this Slakey. We are not." I saw his eyebrows rise and I had to smile. "If their search is successful, which I doubt, we will bear about it quickly enough. Meanwhile we want to find out everything we can about the Temple of Eternal Truth. We go to the horse's mouth, so to speak. The church members will tell us what we want to know." I waved the membership list I had extracted from the police with not too much difficulty. "There are three of these ladies whom we are very closely acquainted with. Shall we begin?" "As soon as I dipil my face and get a clean shirt. I'm a handsome devil and have a way with women." I sighed happily. Some might have called this braggadocio, but I saw it as simply speaking the truth. In this family we do not condone false modesty. "You do that. Meanwhile I'll fire up the family car." An expression empty of meaning since this healthy planet had what was probably the most rigidly enforced clean air act in the galaxy. You would probably get clapped in jail for even thinking about an infernal combustion engine. Vehicles were powered by atomic or electric batteries. Or, like our luxurious Spreadeagle, they ran on the energy stored in a flywheel. It plugged into the electricity supply at night and the motor was run up to speed. During the day the motor became a generator and the spinning wheel generated electricity for the driving wheels. All six of them. A heavy flywheel made for a big car- I had stinted on nothing. The robot driver tooled the thing out of the garage when I whistled, nodding his plastic head and smiling inanely. The gold plated door to the passenger compartment lifted heavenward while soft, welcoming music played. I sat on the divan and the television came on. It was a news program with no news I wanted to hear. "Sports," I said and a high speed balloon race replaced it. The bar served me a glass of champagne just as James appeared. "Wow!" he admired. "Real gold?" "Of course. As well as diamond headlamps and a prescription windshield. No expense spared." "Where to?" he asked, sipping his drink. "Vivilia VonBrun is first on the list. On anyone's list I imagine. Incredibly rich, desirably attractive. I phoned and she awaits our pleasure." She swept out to greet us, smiling compassionately. She had permitted a tiny rim of red to remain around her gorgeous eyes, to express her unhappiness at recent events. Which of course had been described in gruesome detail by the news programs. She was wearing something diaphanous and gray, which revealed enticing glimpses of tanned skin when she moved. She looked too good to be true, twenty-five years old, going on twenty-six maybe, and she was. Too good to be true, that is. I didn't dare think of her real age; the number was too large. She extended a delicate hand to me; I took it and kissed it lightly about the knuckles. "Poor, dear Jim," she sighed. "Such a tragedy." "It will all end well. May I present my son, James." "What a dear man. How nice of you to come. My husband, Waldo, is away on one of those boring hunting things, blowing up wild animals. So if you need a place to stay..." Vivilia wasted no time. While Waldo was destroying robot predators she was doing a little predation herself. And she was probably old enough to be James's great-great-grandmother. Which meant she certainly had some experience-I put the thought from me and got to work. "Vivilia, you can help us find Angelina. You are going to tell us everything you know about the Temple of Eternal Truth." "You are so forceful, Jimmy. I'm sure that your son takes after..." "Facts first, lust later," I snapped. "Coarse but to the point," she smiled, uninsultable. "I'll tell you everything that I know." Enjoyable as that prospect was it would have taken far too long. I kept her memoirs to the point. A very interesting point as it turned out to be. With boredom at Olympic intensity on Lussuoso, sports, escapism and cult religions were going concerns. Master Fanyimadu had begun to appear at various soirees and parties, his fascinating beliefs excelled only by the intensity of his gaze. Ladies of leisure looked in on the Temple of Eternal Truth and most went back a second time. It was easy to see why. Vivilia explained. "It wasn't so much the consolation of his religion as the positive promise of eternal bliss. Not that he doesn't preach a good sermon, mind you, better than TV any day. It is what his sermons are all about. He tells you that if one attends often enough and prays with great intensity, as well as donating enthusiastically, one might get a little look-in on Heaven." "Heaven?" I asked, trying to remember some rudimentary theology. "Heaven, of course, you must have heard of it? Or perhaps your religion..." "Dad's an atheist," James said. "We all are." Vivilia sniffed meaningfully. "Well, I suppose most people are in this age of realism and social equality. But there is a down side to that, to worshiping the nitty-gritty of society. It is boring to be so practical. Therefore you can understand why some of us with more sensitivity search for a higher meaning." It was I who sniffed meaningfully this time but she graciously ignored me. "If you had studied more diligently in school and not ignored your Applied Theology class you would know all this already. Heaven is the place where we go after we die and if we have been good, there you will reside in happiness forever. Hell is where you go if you have been bad, to suffer intensely for eternity. I know it sounds very simplistic and illogical. I, as well as lot of the other girls, felt that way when we first heard of Heaven and Hell. But as I said, to add weight and gravitas to Heaven it is possible to visit the place, at least temporarily. So you see, having been there I have lost, shall we say, a certain amount of credulity." "Hypnotic suggestion," I suggested. "Jimmy, you sounded just like Angelina when you said that. She flared her nostrils and snorted lightly in exactly the same way. I told her that I bad felt exactly the same way when other of my friends had told me about their Heavenly excursions. But I know hypnotism when I see it-and this was no trance. I can't begin to describe the process of going to Heaven. But I was there, with Master Fanyimadu holding one of my hands and that incredibly stupid Rosebudd holding the other. I don't think she has enough mind to hypnotize. Yet we saw each other in Heaven, experienced the same things. It was simply wonderful and too beautiful to explain in mere words. It was very. . . inspirational." She had the grace to blush when she spoke the word; inspiration not being her usual line of work. "Had Angelina been to Heaven?" I asked. "She never mentioned anything about it to me." "I know nothing about that. I would never think of snooping into another person's personal secrets." She ignored my lifted eyebrow at this preposterous statement. Nor would she go into any more detail. Saying that if we had the faith we would see Heaven for ourselves. She was very determined and sure of that; a rock of belief. It was only after she had changed the subject and taken James by the arm to show him the house I knew that I at least had worn out my welcome. She was reluctant to let him leave, but a provident call from Bolivar from the spaceport supplied an inescapable reason to escape. As we drove towards the spaceport I found myself scowling as I grew more and more angry "Rrrrr ..." I finally said. "That was a pretty fair growl, Dad. You wouldn't care to expand upon it?" "I would-and I shall! I'm angry, James-and growing angrier by the minute. There are a lot mysteries here-but one thing is not mysterious at all. This con man and his fake church are raising the wrath in me." "I thought you had a soft spot for cons and scams?" "I do-~but only when it comes to bilking the filthy rich. I don't con widows or orphans or those who can't afford it. And I work for money. Good old green, the folding and golden stuff..." "I get you now," James said, his angry scowl matching mine. "You're for a good clean con, taking money from the rich and giving it to the slightly less rich. Namely you. But no one gets hurt in the process." "Exactly! There is money involved in this con, sure, but there is also belief. This fake guru is trampling about where he doesn't belong. In people's beliefs, their most intimate feelings. In the matter of religion it is live and let live, I say. I tell no one what to believe. I even listen carefully to sincere beliefs, no matter how nutsy they sound. But Slakey-Fanyimadu is playing with fire. Preaching fakery, using machines to con the unsuspecting into believing in an afterlife that in this case can't possibly be true. If Heaven is the place you go after you die,-well there is only one way of getting there. Guided tours for a quick inspection are just not in order. What is going on here is very dirty and could be very hurtful as well. If he were showing his unsuspecting marks a real Heaven they would go to, well fine. He would only be depriving them of their money, which is a wonderful and noble thing to do. But he is depriving them of their individuality and their trust. He is lying to them, preying upon their fear of death. When they discover what has been done to them they will be hurt, shattered, emotionally destroyed. Whatever else happens-he must be stopped." We growled in unison as we pulled up at the arrivals terminal. Bolivar waved and opened the door. Tanned by UV and still wearing his spacer's gear, we brought him up to date during the drive home. Once in the house I felt a twinge of appetite. I glanced through the autocook menu with little enthusiasm, unadventurously punched up three of my usual aardvark steak and fries. Silently wishing that I had been ordering for four- a banquet of exotica had that been the case. "Very well done, Dad, you're quite a cook," Bolivar said pushing away his plate and untouched glass of wine. "It has been dehydrated-rehydrated space rations for far too long. I have been thinking of eating their wrappings, which would probably taste better than their contents. So, time to get down to work.. At this precise moment as the clock struck the hour, the central computer terminal buzzed, while its screen lit up with Angelina's image. "I've left this recording for you, Jim," she said, and- my heart, which had leaped up into my throat, settled slowly back to its usual position. "I'm off to church soon, for what promises to be an interesting experience. I don't believe any of the guff this meandering idiot Fanyimadu has been feeding us-but I do know that something most interesting is happening. Physical travel of some kind and, I suspect, it may be offplanet. I can't tell you more right now since lam going mostly on guesswork and, don't laugh, intuition. It will be dangerous, but I'm going prepared. So if you lose track of me for a bit-don't lose hope. Bye." She blew a kiss in my direction and the recording clicked off. "Did she say offplanet?" Bolivar asked. I nodded. "Let's play it again." We did. And when it ended a second time my mind was made up. "She said offplanet-and she meant it. Any ideas?" "Plenty," Bolivar said. "Let us forget Slakey, as you suggested, Dad. The police can search the police files without our help. But this recording tells us things they don't know. Offplanet covers a lot of space-and so will, we. We must start searching the galactic records. We have to find this Temple of Eternal Truth when it surfaces again-under any other name or guise. We list the characteristics it must have and get our search agencies to digging into the records." "Exactly so," I agreed. "We will be looking for the modus operandi," "I'm not so great on the old dead languages, Dad," Bolivar said. "But if you mean we will track down this joker and that nutsy religion I am for it!" "That's the idea. It may very well have a different name, and different ways of bringing in the suckers-but the operating basis will be the same." "What is that?" "I haven't the slightest idea. You'll have to work it out as you go along." "And we search in the past as well as the future," James said. "There is no reason that this church should be confined to just this one planet, and every reason to believe that it isn't." "Too right," Bolivar agreed. "That goes into the searchplan." I was proud of my boys. They were taking over, plowing ahead without a moment lost. As for me, I wasn't that rusty an old rat-not yet. But it was nice to see a couple of shiny young ones sharpening their teeth. They started at once, putting the search operation into effect. Dividing up the planets between them and working out in an ever-expanding sphere of communication and interrogation. I left them to it. Found a cold beer, took it to my study and whistled at my computer terminal to turn it on. I sipped the beer while I surfed through various data bases, zeroing in on Religion. I needed to know more about this Heaven and Hell business. I found what I needed under Eschatology. It was all about future life after death and was all very confusing. Down through the ages there have been a bewildering variety of beliefs held by an even more bewildering variety of social groups. Sometimes future life was seen as a continuation of present life, under more or less favorable conditions. Though at other times retribution for sins or evil deeds made this future life the very opposite of the one we know. I boned up on Heaven and Paradise, then went on to Hell, Hades, and Sheol. All very complex and very much at loggerheads, one religion with the other. Though not all of them. A lot of them were very derivative and borrowed bits and pieces from each other. My head was beginning to ache. But out of all the confusing theorizing and philosophizing one thing was very clear. This was very heavy stuff. A matter of life-and then death. The earliest religions were obviously pre-science. They had to be because they made no attempts to consider reality, but were based purely on emotions. A desire to find some solutions to the problems of existence. When science finally appeared on the scene these religions should have been replaced by observation and reason. That they were not was sure proof of mankind's ability to believe two mutually exclusive things at the same time. It had been a very long day and I found my eyes first glazing then closing as the multicolored aspects of future life passed before me. Enough! I yawned and headed for bed. A well-rested rat would be of far more use than an exhausted one with wilting whiskers. I crashed and ten seconds-or ten hours-later I blinked up blearily at the figure shaking my shoulder. "James. . .?" "It's Bolivar, Dad. We've found another Temple of Eternal Truth." I was wide awake and standing next to the bed, almost in eyeball contact. "Not under the same name?" "Nowhere close. This one is The Seekers of the Way. No names, books, or characters are the same as in the Temple of Eternal Truth. But they are identical if you do a semiotic comparison." "Where?" "Not that far. Planet named Vulkanu. Mining and heavy industry for the most part. But it does have an attractive tropical archipelago that is devoted only to holiday making and retirement homes. Apparently so fascinating that it draws customers from all the nearby star systems." "We leave-" "As soon as you're packed. Tickets waiting at the-shuttle flight. One hour to liftoff." I checked my wallet and credit cards. "I'm packed. Let's grab some passports and go."

CHAPTER 3

EVER CAUTIOUS, WE TRAVELED UNDER new names with new passports; I had dozens of them, all genuine, locked away in the safe. The only equipment we took was a brace of electronic cameras-which I had improved far beyond their manufacturer's wildest dream. I of course had my diamond dress studs, as well as a few bits of jewelry and other innocuous items in a small sealed case. Our arrival on Vulkann was most dramatic. As we stepped out of the space shuttle, along with a gaggle of brightly tugged tourists, a brass band began to play lustily. Everyone cheered- and cheered even louder when the Corps of Guides marched up before us. Black-booted and high-heeled, skintight and most flimsy bright red uniforms graced their perfectly formed forms. At a barked command they stamped to a halt and broke ranks. Assignments had been made and a most attractive blonde with exquisite freckles on her nose marched up to us and gave a very nice salute. "Sire Diplodocus and Sons. I greet you. My name is Deveena De Zoftig, but my friends call me Dee." "We're your friends!" "Of course. I am your guide and at your service as long as you are on our wonderful world. May I be most informal and call you Jim, James and Bolivar?" "You may," the twins chorused, their smiles echoing her white-toothed one. "Wonderful! Be prepared for the holiday of a lifetime." "We're prepared," they breathed, and the warm radiance of passion flamed from their skins. "Then this way if you please. Kindly wave your health certificates in the direction of the doctor there, well done. And now to your luggage, which is awaiting you and being carried by that porterbot. Exit through this gate, thank you. The machine in the gate has X-rayed your wallets and verified your credit cards. You will have a lovely and expensive vacation on our planet." Such honesty was most refreshing and I was beginning to like Vulkann almost as much as the boys liked Dee. I hated to spoil our fun with business-but that was why we were here. "We need a luxurious hotel," I said. "We have thousands." "We would like one that is close to the Church of the Seekers of the Way where we are meeting some friends." "You are indeed in luck for also located on Grotsky Square is the Rasumofsky Robotic Rest. A fully automated hostelry without a human employee, that is wide open and wonderful both day and night and never closes." "Suits our needs," I said. "Lead the way." "Your rooms are ready and waiting," she said as our taxi stopped in front of the hotel. "Welcome! Welcome!" Irritatingly cheerful bellboybots chimed as they seized our bags. "These are for you," Dee said, placing a jeweled flower on each of our shirts. "I will leave you now but I will never forget you. You have but to speak my name into your flower and I will return as quickly as I can. I bid you only to enjoy! Enjoy!" "We will, we will!" we chorused in return and let ourselves be guided to our rooms. Before we went to work I checked for messages back on Lussuoso. Nothing discovered, no trace of Angelina. I had the gut feeling that we were right to take her advice and follow the trail offplanet. "Nice," Bolivar said as he spun the cutter against the window and removed a neat disc of glass. The glass cutter clicked back and became a pocketknife as he fixed the camera, that was more than a camera, with its lens projecting through the opening. "Now we can not only photograph them as they come and go, but we can get their voices on the record as well." "Very good," I said, peeking through the viewfinder. I set the controls, and turned it on. "All automatic now." "Memory?" James asked. "About ten-thousand hours at a molecular level. More than we are going to need. Now let us get a drink and a meal and some sleep and see what morning will bring." Morning brought more darkness instead of sunshine since Vulkann had a ten-hour-long day; daylight had come and gone while we slept. The sun was speedily rising again by the time we had finished our breakfast. We looked on unenthusiastically as the servbot cleared away the dishes while the beds made themselves. Since this was an all-robot hotel no notice was taken of our surveillance operations. Across the road the first parishioners were entering the church. None were familiar. By the time the church doors had closed I found myself nibbling my nails: I jumped to my feet. "I'm going to work out in the gym and have a swim," I announced. "Be there before you," Bolivar said, hurtling towards the door to his bedroom. When we entered the pool room and threw aside our towels we were delighted to see that our guide Dee had entered through the other door and had thrown aside her towel as well. Since there is no nudity taboo on Vulkann this was a serious towel-throwing. "I hope that you are enjoying your visit to our fair world," she said with a broad smile just as lovely as the rest of her. The answer to that question was obvious. I dived into the pool and swam a number of enthusiastic laps while the twins indulged in enthusiastic conversation with her, for such is the way of youth. I could see the attraction of this, particularly when I came up for breath and paused to admire the scenery. We met in the gym and the boys worked up a good lather of sublimation since we were here for work, not dalliance. All this mindless exercise cheered us greatly-and kept our thoughts off of the Seekers of the Way. Refreshed, and with lunch holding breakfast down nicely, we trooped back to our rooms. I fast-reran the recording, then played back some of the conversations. Then amplified the images of the parishioners so I could make prints of their faces. Spread them out on the table so we could look at them. With mutual feelings of glum depression. It was James who spoke for all of us. "One thing certain-none of us is going to be able to join up and make any investigations inside that church." "Not without some radical surgery," Bolivar said with a broad smile; we glowered back. Everyone who had visited the church so far had been a woman. "We need help," I said. "Still in touch with the Special Corps?" James asked. "There is no escaping them. Though I have not talked to our noble leader, Inskipp, for a long time. Which is all for the best." I glanced at my watch, then bit a few settings and smiled. "Very good news. It is now the middle of the night at Prime Base. I will be forced to wake that dear man up." His secretary answered first but I knew the code that bypassed its tiny robotic mind. After a number of rings, growing steadily louder since Inskipp was a heavy sleeper, a familiar and angry voice rustled in my ear. "If this isn't a major emergency you are dead, whoever you are," Inskipp growled. "Jim diGriz here, good friend. Did I awake you?" "I'm issuing an order now to seize all the assets in your bank accounts. Even the ones you think I don't know about!" "I need help. Angelina is missing." "Details," he said, voice calm, threats ended. I told him exactly what had happened. While I was doing this the boys were E-mailing copies of all the files including Angelina's recorded message. He did not waste time in commiseration and was calling in the troops even as I ta1ked. As head of the Special Corps, the most secret of secret forces that defended the peace and protected the galaxy, his powers were awesome. And he knew how to use them. "A cruiser is now on the way to Vulkann. Aboard it is a Special Agent who will be using the name Sybil. Up to this moment she has worked directly for me and for no one else. Now she is under your command. I will add that she is the best agent I have ever had." "Better than me?" "Everyone is, diGriz, everyone. Report to me when you learn anything." He hung up, and knowing him, was probably already back to sleep. At flank speed a Special Corps cruiser can outrun-or catch-anything else in space. Time still dragged. I kept busy for some hours as I hacked my way into the local police computer network, a terribly simple job. Once this was done we had no trouble discovering the identities of the church-goers that we had photographed. Nor, after cracking into their totally secret bank records, were we surprised to discover that all of them were filthy rich. The Seekers of the Way, like the followers of the Temple of Eternal Truth, were expected to part with a good few credits if they were to get the blessing of the church and peek in at the joys of the hereafter. We took turns at the monitor screen and tried not to drink too much when we weren't watching it. I had just returned from doing forty laps in the pool when Bolivar jumped to his feet and shouted "Wow!" James and I cracked our heads together as we jumped to look at the screen. "Wow is indeed right," I said. "Even double-wow. Not only is he not of the female persuasion but he looks very familiar." "Starkey-Fanyimadu?" "None other." "He has his right hand in his pocket," Bolivar said. "So would you," James answered with cold lack of compassion, "if your arm ended at the wrist." As if in reply the subject lifted his right arm to wave to a parishioner. "Pretty good prosthetic," I said. "And done pretty fast as well," Bolivar added with more than a trace of suspicion in his voice. "First chance I have I would like to shake hands with that particular villain."

Something caught my attention, a movement of air-a sound perhaps. I looked over my shoulder and saw that the hail door, securely locked and bolted, was now standing open. A woman stepped through and closed it behind her. "I am Sybil," she said in lush contralto. A tall, tanned redhead, poised and beautiful. Her dress was one of those spun diamond creations that were so popular, glinting and shining with an albedo like a searchlight. A woman had to have a perfect figure to wear something so outrageous and skintight. She had it. The twins turned at the sound of her voice-looked at her in appreciative silence. I appreciated that as well, but appreciated her arrival even more. "I'm Jim diGriz. These are my sons, Bolivar and James. Have you been briefed?" "Completely." "Good. What you don't know is that Slakey is here, in that church across the road." "And he has a new right hand," Bolivar said. "We're glad you're here." "I'll need to get inside the building as soon as possible. I am sure that you have already found out about the church members while I was on my way here. Which of them have you selected as the best possible contacts?" "There are three strong possibilities," James said, taking the photos and identification from the stack and handing them to her. "All rich, young, or young-looking after rejuvenation, all very social, attending plenty of parties and receptions, so they will be easy to meet," "I'll do that now. I'll contact you again after I have become one of the Seekers of the Way." The door closed behind her and we were all silent for long moments. "Pretty sure of herself," Bolivar finally said. It was a compliment and not a negative observation. "The best agent he ever had-isn't that what Inskipp said?" I nodded. "May he be right-just this once." Apparently he was, because three hours later we saw her walk through the carved marble entrance to the church, arm in arm with Maudi Lesplanes. The first name on the list that we bad given her. Almost two hours passed before she emerged from the church. This time we were all staring at the door when it opened and she came in. She looked at us and smiled. "Would one of you gentlemen mind getting me a drink? Tall, wet and alcoholic if you please." I stepped aside as the twins rushed the bar. She went to the couch, sat, and signaled me to join her. "I didn't mean to be brusque earlier, Jim. I was tired and I thought that you would appreciate action before conversation. I'm so sorry about Angelina. I listened to the message that she left for you and I believe, as you do, that she will be found. But not back on Lussuoso. We will find her. I promise." From anyone else these would have been polite words. But Sybil spoke with an authority that rang true. I wanted very much to believe her. "For you," my son said, holding out a glass. She took the drink, drank, smiled-and sighed. "Thank you, Bolivar. I needed that." "I have another one-if that's not enough." "Not quite yet, James." "You're sure you're not mixing them up?" I blurted out. "Impossible to do, as you well know, Jim. I imagine James has always had that tiny scar on his left earlobe." I blinked. It was almost impossible to see. "Since I was four years old. Bolivar bit me." "Believe that and you'll believe anything." She smiled at both of them. Then turned to me and was serious again; playtime over. "The service of the Seekers of the Way seems to be a near replica of the one described in the briefing for the Temple of Eternal Truth. Uplifting organ music, a good bit of incense to mask the smell of tylinyne. As you undoubtedly know that is a mild tranquilizing drug. No lasting effects, but it does relax the subjects, makes suggestion much easier. Not that it was much needed since everyone there was very convinced to begin with. The sermon was most inspiring and very strange to hear from a physicist of Slakey's reputation. Heavily mystical, plenty of guff about the hereafter and the good life and good deeds that pave the road to Heaven. After some more music some of the women spoke with great warmth about their visit to Heaven, after which they donated impressive sums for the furthering of the good works. Sounded very much like the recorded statement of Vivilia VonBrun that Jim made." "Different church, same scam?" I asked. She nodded. "If scam is the right word. These people sound absolutely convinced. I'll know more after I've made the trip myself. Inskipp will scream when he sees how much of his funds I have invested to hurry that day." "When?" Bolivar asked. "AS soon as possible without raising Slakey's suspicions. For the record, he is now called Father Marablis. There is another thing about him that I find particularly interesting. Before leaving I made a point of approaching him to gush over his sermon. He liked that. Nor did he mind when, in the heat of the moment, I seized him by the hand, the right hand, and squeezed it with heartfelt emotion." I leaned forward intently. As did the twins. We did not have to ask the question. She nodded. "A warm human hand-not a prosthetic." "But-" I stammered. "I saw the severed hand. It was positively identified." "I know. Interesting, isn't it? I look forward to coming events with great anticipation." The boys stared at her, smitten. Their kind, our kind of person. If anyone could find Angelina she could; I was sure of that now. Two days-and two very large donations-later she was told to prepare for her visit. "Do I look all right?" she asked, turning slowly. Women only ask that when they know the answer. She was wearing something black, tight, expensive, with matching hat and even more expensive jewelry. "Are you sure that this can't be detected?" she asked, touching the tiny diamond brooch pinned at her throat. "Only under a microscope-and you would have to know what to look for," I said. "The center diamond is the lens. I usually wear it as a shirt dress stud. I've added the jeweled setting to make it into a more exotic piece of jewelry so that you can wear it. The diamond lens focuses the image onto a series of nanoformed recording molecules that are carried beneath the lens by Brownian movement, which is energized by body heat so there is no detectable power source. Don't worry about the light level since, like the human eye, it can perceive as little as one photon of light energy. What you see, it will see-and record." "I've never heard of anything like it before." "Nor has your boss, Inskipp," James said proudly. "It's one of Dad's inventions." "However all this turns out you can keep it," I said. "I'll give you the developing and printing module later." "It's the only one in existence," Bolivar said. "I-I don't quite know how to thank you." The emotion in her voice was not faked, that was certain. She left quickly. Moments later we saw her stroll across the street and walk through the door of the church.

CHAPTER 4

A HEAVY TROPICAL RAIN WAS falling, lit by sudden flashes of lightning; thunder rumbled. The Church of the Seekers of the Way was blurred, its outline barely visible through the wet glass. The image from the camera was clear enough, but standing at the window I could see little or nothing. Sybil had been inside the building with Slakey for over an hour. The room was closing in on me. "I'm going out," I said, pulling on a billed cap with the logo Cocaine-Cola spelled out on the front. "You'll get soaked," Bolivar said. "It'll look suspicious if you lurk about near the church," James added. I twisted my lip in a sneer. "Thanks for the solicitude-but your old Dad is not quite senile yet. This cap not only advertises a repulsive drink, it also contains a hydro-repeller field-and I was lurking unseen near churches before you were born." When they didn't even smile at my strained witticism I knew that they were as uptight as I-was. I needed the air. The hotel lobby was empty-of human life that is. The managerbot bowed and dry-wiped its gloved hands for me. The doormanbot pulled open the door as I approached and drops of rain blew in dotting it's metal features. "A filthy night, sir," it smarmed. "But it will be a sunny day for sure tomorrow, begorra." "Is that what you are programmed to say whenever it rains?" I snarled. "Yes, sir, a filthy night, sir, but it will be a sunny day for sure tomorrow, begorra." My nerves must be going if I was trying to have a conversation with a mindless robot. I went out, bone-dry of course as the electrostatic field repelled the raindrops. Angelina.... The pain in my chest, my throat, was real. I had been putting all thought of her out of mind-or I wouldn't have been able to function. But she was there at the edge of my consciousness all of the time. I let her in for the moment, relished the memory. Remembering how many times she had saved my life; keeping weapons tucked in with the twins in their baby carriage had been most important more than once. With what joy we had held up banks, relished the excitement-not to mention the money. And the way we saved the universe together, defeating all of those slimy monsters! Memories, memories. We had had our low moments, but at this moment I wanted to be like the inscription on the sundial. And record only the sunny hours. And the fun... I cut off this train of thought. Feeling sorry would not help-only action could get her back. That was why I was here, the boys as well, and this was the reason why Sybil was possibly risking her life. This was going to work. It had to work. My walk was not without a purpose; I had seen a cafe just across the square from the Church of the Seekers of the Way. It had a row- of tables outside protected by an awning. And a hydro-repeller field as well I realized as I entered; this field and mine flickered with glints of light where they interacted. I touched the brim of my cap and turned mine off, sat at a table with a clear view of the church. "Welcome, welcome, sir or madam," the table candle said as its wick flickered and lit up. "Sir, not madam." "How can we be of service. . . sir not madam?" The world was full of moronic robots and computers tonight. "Bring beer. Big, cold." "Delighted to be of service, sir not madam." The table vibrated, then a hatch slid back and the beer emerged. I reached for it but could not lift it. "Two kropotniks, fifty," a colder mechanical voice said. I pushed three coins into the slot and the clamp on the glass was released. "Thank you for the tip," the voice said, keeping my change. I drowned my incipient growl with a swig of beer. The rain lashed down on the square, thunder rumbled in the distance. An occasional car swished by; the door to the Church of the Seekers of the Way remained closed. The beer was flat. I waited. Time passed. I finished the first beer and ordered another one. "Two kropotniks, seventy," the table said. "Why? The last beer was two fifty." "That was during the happy hour. Pay." I fed in the exact amount this time and the glass was released. "Cheapskate," the computer muttered and emitted an electronic- raspberry The rain finally slackened, stopped, and one of Vulkann's three moons appeared briefly through a gap in the clouds. Then there was flicker of movement across the way and three women emerged from the church. They talked together for a moment before separating. Sybil came towards me and I felt a certain relaxation; at least she was safe. She did not look at me but must have been aware of my presence because she turned and entered the cafe. I took a few minutes to sip my beer. She did not appear to have been followed. I finished my drink, put the glass down and went inside. She was in one of the rear booths with a cocktail glass before her; she nodded slightly and I went to join her. She took a large swallow, then a second one-and sighed. "Jim, that was an experience I find difficult to describe. There were three of us and we joined Father Marablis-or Father Slakey-I'm beginning to be unsure of a lot of things. There were no machines that I could see. He talked to us for a bit then touched his hand to my forehead. Something happened. I can't tell you what. I didn't black out or anything like that. I can only repeat what Viviia VonBrun said-it was indescribable. But I can clearly remember what happened next. We were walking through a field of very short grass, following Marablis. He stopped and pointed upwards and at the same moment I heard the sound of chimes, most distinctly. He was pointing to a white cloud that drifted towards us. The chimes, the music, was coming from the cloud and when I heard it I felt, well, an elation of some kind. Some sort of spiritual upwelling. Then-and don't laugh-I swear I saw a little flying creature behind the cloud. Just a glimpse." "A bird?" "No. . . a tiny pink baby with little wings on its shoulders. Then it was gone and it was over." "Just like that?" "I-I just don't know. I remember that Marablis touched my arm, turning me, and! was back in that room in the church again along with the other women. I felt, well just sad, as though I had lost something very previous." There was little I could say. She had a distant look in her eyes, looking at something I could not see. A tear ran down her cheek and she sniffed, wiped at it and smiled. "Sorry. I'm not being much help. I know it has to be a con of some kind. I don't believe in day trips to Heaven. But something did happen to me. My emotions, they are real." "I believe you. But there are, well, drugs that can affect the emotions directly." "I know that. But still She stood and smoothed down her dress, touched a finger to the brooch. "Instead of listening to me blathering on let's take a look at this recording." "You've done a great job. Thank you." The twins had seen us in the Street and had the door open as we came down the hail. I heard Sybil telling them about the experience, basically just what she had told me. But she was much more in control of herself now and beginning to get angry at being got to in some way. By the time she had finished her story I had the piece of electronic jewelry clamped into the activation module. The screen lit up with a view of the church moving closer. The pictures were silent and so were we as we watched her meet the other two women. They talked, then turned to face Slakey when he entered. He was certainly in his Father Marablis mode, brown cassock and unctuous gestures; I was rather glad I couldn't hear what he was saying. "Up to this point I remember everything," Sybil said. "He is telling us-about the joys to come and, see his hand, collecting a-few extra checks for the pleasure of our outing. There, that part is done. Here we go." Slakey must have said something for they all turned and walked after him. The screen went black. "Is the recorder broken?" Bolivar asked. "I doubt it." I fast-forwarded the machine and the image reappeared. "We are back in the room," Sybil said. "Without a record of what I saw. I'm so sorry." "Don't be." I ran a quick analytical probe. "You did everything that you could. So did the recorder. It worked fine-but there just is no record. I don't know why or how this happened. The electronics appear to have been operating but they, well, just didn't record anything." I scowled at the machine. "And I do not believe in miracles." "No one's thinking about miracles," James said. "We're thinking technology. Whatever field of force or electronic pervasion created the Heaven trip, well, could it have interfered with the recording?" "Pretty obviously," I said. "I have an idea," Bolivar said. "This was a good try-but it just did not work out. Next step. We need a long look around that place. You will remember that there was some kind of machinery that was blown up in the first church. I would like to see if there are any of the same kind of gadgets here..." "No," I said. "Why not?" "I don't mean no let's not do it. I mean no you don't do it. Because I do this particular job." I raised my hand to quiet their protests. "I say that not because I am older and wiser, which is true, but because I have had much more experience at this sort of thing Bolivar, I wouldn't think of making high-profit high risk investments if you were there to do it for me. After watching that last karate tournament I wouldn't dare face up to your brother in an even fight. It has always been the age of the specialist. Do any of you believe that you can do an unseen breaking and entering and searching job better than I can?" Silence was my only answer. "Thank you," I said-with some warmth. "But you will all have to help. This is the plan." We had that night and part of the next day to make our preparations. It was going to be a joint effort. The church service for the Seekers of the Way was due to begin at noon. We met for a final rehearsal an hour earlier. "You first, Sybil," I said. "I go in with the others. Talk, act naturally and keep my eyes open. If everything goes as it usually does, then I have only one thing to do. I know that the outer door is always locked before the service begins. So when Father Marablis begins his sermon, I squeeze this." She held up a tiny wafer of plastic. "That is a one-shot communicator," I said. "The battery shorts through the chip, which sends a millisecond-long signal before it burns out. It is undetectable both before and after use. I'll be waiting nearby. As soon as I get the signal I go in through the front door." I held up a modified lockpick. "Sybil took a close look at the lock-which is a make called Bulldog-Bowser. I know it well and it is very easy to open. James, you're next..." "I'll be driving the delivery van, a rental with new identification numbers and fake signs. When Dad goes through the door I drive around and park in front of the church. Bolivar." "I'm inside the van with passive tracking equipment, magnetometer and heat detectors. I should be able to follow people moving inside. I also have a warning alarm receiver." I nodded. "Which I can activate in one of four ways in case of emergency. Bite hard on my back tooth, tap one toe quickly two times or pull off the top button of my shirt." "That's only three," Sybil said. "The fourth I have no control over. It will be activated if my heart stops. Should the alarm go off, the boys break their way in with all guns firing~ Any remarks or questions?" "Stun grenades and blackout gas as well as the guns," James said. That was it. We had some tall and nonalcoholic drinks and discussed the Vulkann weather. After a time Sybil looked at her watch, stood and went out. We followed. I waited Out of sight around the corner, apparently looking at the gaudy items in a tourist shop window while I patted, one by one, the various lumps in my clothes; weapons, detectors, tools, alarms, that sort of thing. I had no idea of what I would find inside the church so I had visited a number of electronic stores and stacked up on everything I could or might possibly need. The phone taped behind my ear clicked sharply. I turned about, strolled around the corner and up the two steps to the church door. My left hand on the knob concealed the rapid twisting of the lockpick with my right. It was as fast as turning a key; I do have some experience at this sort of thing. The door opened and I went through without breaking pace. Closed and relocked it behind me. I was in a dimly lit vestibule with draperies covering the far side. I parted them a hairsbreadth and looked through. Father Slakey-Marablis was behind a high lectern and in full throat, unctuous vapidities washed over the attentive audience below. "...doubt shall be taken from you and will be replaced by reassurance. It is written in the Book of Books that the path to salvation leads through the Land of Good Deeds. Good deeds and love must be your guiding stars, the beckoning fingers of the hereafter. A hereafter that lies ahead of you, restful and satisfying, calm and filled with the effervescence that passeth all understanding." Very good. Not really very good, but really very bad. But good for me. For as long as he burbled on I could penetrate his holy of holies. The staircase was behind the door on the left, as Sybil had told me. She had no idea where it led; that was for me to find out. I went through and closed the door silently behind me, bit down gently on the microlight I held between my teeth. Dusty stairs wound upwards. I climbed them, walking with my feet close to the wail to prevent them from creaking. There was another door at the head of the stairs that opened into a large room, dimly illuminated by a single window. I was over the main hail and could hear the rumble of the sermon dimly through the floor. I walked silently between the boxes and stacked chairs to a door on the far wall. This was to the rear of the building and should be over the mysterious antechamber that might very well be the entrance to Heaven. This was also roughly the same location as that of the electronic equipment that had been destroyed in the Temple of Eternal Truth. As I opened the door the rumble of the voice on the floor below stopped. So did I. One foot still raised, Then I relaxed and stepped forward when the organ music began and the women began to sing. A spiral stairway led down. I took it, slowly and silently. Stopped before what I hoped was the last door. It was stuffy and warm and I was beginning to sweat from the temperature alone. My pulse rate was, normal and my morale high. No more waiting-a time for doing. I turned the light off and pocketed it, then opened the door into darkness and stepped through. Bright lights came on. Slakey was standing just before me. Smiling. I had only the briefest of glimpses because at the instant that the lights flared I had dived to one side. Biting down hard with my back teeth. At least I tried to bite. But as fast as I had been, something else was much faster. I could see and hear-but that was all. My body was flaccid, my eyes open and staring. At the greasy floor because I had landed heavily facedown. My jaw dropped open; I drooled. I felt the panic rising as I realized I could do nothing, could not control a single muscle. But at least I was breathing and my heart was still beating, pounding loud and strong in my ears. A shoe tip appeared in front of my eyes and my vision swirled, settled, staring up at the bright light. Slakey must have rolled me over; I could not feel a thing. His face blotted out the light. "You can see me, can't you? And hear me as well? My neural neutralizer allows that. I know all about you Jim diGriz. I know everything for I am all-powerful. I know how you invaded this holy place of worship. I know who you came with." His hands reached-down, my head turned. Sybil was lying next to me, sprawled and unmoving. My vision swirled again and Slakey was straightening up. Dressed in full regalia, I saw now. Bright robes with strange symbols covering them, with a high collar, a crown of some kind on his head. He raised his arms and shook his fists on high in a triumphant gesture. Both fists. The right one worked very well indeed and there was no sign of any scar on either wrist when his loose sleeves fell back. "You are a pitiful mortal and shall be destroyed. You seek enlightenment but you shall not have it. You and this female creature you sent to spy. You wish to see Heaven-then you will go to Heaven. You shall, you shall!" There was motion, my vision rocked. Stopped. My head was raised and I realized that he had dumped me across Sybil's unresistant body. "Go, both of you, go. Go to Heaven." He laughed, choked, laughed even louder. "Well-not quite Heaven as you shall discover."

Blackout

CHAPTER 5

SOMETHING HAPPENED. I couldn't remember it, could not begin to describe it. I did not want to think about it. I had far more important things on my mind. Like the fact that I was still paralyzed and lying facedown in red grit of some kind. I couldn't fee] it but I could smell it. A rotten, sulfury smell. Smell! Yes, it certainly was there, and growing stronger and stronger. Which meant something important. After I had been zapped couldn't smell or feel anything: I could now. Which must mean that the paralysis must be wearing off, because I was vaguely aware of a scratchy pressure on my cheek. I concentrated, struggled hard, harder-then felt my fingertips move ever so slightly. Recovery did not end quickly, not the way the onset of the paralysis had, but slowly and soon very painfully. Waves of red agony that ran through my reviving body that threatened to block my vision. My eyes were watering, tears ran down my cheeks as I writhed in agony. Slowly, very slowly it died away and I managed to roll over. Blinking away the tears to stare up at a gray rock ceiling above. There was a low moan and with a great deal of effort I turned my head to see that Sybil was lying oh the ground next to me. Her eyes were closed and her body twisted with pain as she moaned again. I knew what she was experiencing. Slowly and exhaustingly, with a great deal of grunting and gasping, I crawled to her, took her hand, "The pain," I managed to say, "it goes away." "Jim.~. ." Whispered so quietly I could barely hear it. "None other. You're going to be all right." This was a pretty pathetic reassurance but was about all that I could think of at the moment. Where were we? What had happened? If this was Heaven it was pretty different from the place that she had described. Sharp volcanic gravel instead of grass; rock instead of sky. Where was the light coming from? And what was the last thing that Slakey had said? Something about not quite being Heaven. With some effort I managed to sit up and saw the opening in the rock wall: we were in a cleft or a cave of some sort. And beyond the opening was a red sky. Red? There was a distant deep rumble and I felt the ground beneath me tremble; a cloud of dark smoke roiled across the sky. Clutching to the rock wall I managed to drag myself to my feet and stumble over to Sybil. I helped her sit up with her back to the wall. She tried to speak, starting coughing instead. Finally squeezed out the words. "Slakey-he was one step ahead of us all the time." "What do you mean?" "He was playing with us, and must have known that you were in the building. He cut his sermon short, made some kind of excuse about an unexpected meeting, turned the organ on instead, along with a recording of everyone singing. Asked us all to leave. Everyone except me. He took me aside, said that he had something most important to tell me. I was curious of course, besides the fact that I couldn't think of anything else to do except do as he had asked. Then, as soon as the others were gone he pointed something at me. I had only the quickest look at something like a silver spiderweb, before I fell down. It was horrible! I couldn't move a muscle, not even my eyes. I was aware of him dragging me into that back room in the darkness-and the worst part was that there wasn't a thing I could do about it. I couldn't move, do anything at all, couldn't warn you that was the worst part. Then the lights were on, and you were there, falling. I remember him talking to you. After that-nothing. "That's about all that I can remember-until I opened my eyes here." I patted my side pocket, felt the lump of the communicator, felt a slight touch of hope at the same time. I put it to my ear, turned it on. Nothing. The same went for every other device on my person. All dead. Batteries and power packs drained. I couldn't even open the blade on my Schweitzy Army Knife; it seemed to be welded into a lump. I looked at the small pile of metallic debris and felt the urge to kick it across the cave. I gave in to the urge and did just that. It clattered nicely. "Just junk now. All dead. Nothing works." I turned and stumbled towards the light. "Jim, don't leave..." "I'm not going far. I just want to look out, satisfy my curiosity, find out where we are." Leaning one hand against the rock so I wouldn't trip, I took step after shuffling step until I was at the entrance and staring out. I felt my jaw fall open with shock as I dropped to my knees. For long moments I could only stare. With an effort I turned away, managed to stand again and went back to Sybil. She was sitting up now and very much more in control. "What's out there, Jim?" "Certainly not Heaven. The sky is red, not blue, no white clouds and certainly no grass. A geologically unstable area with an active volcano nearby. Plenty of smoke, but at least no lava. And there is a big and swollen sun like no sun-or star-I have ever seen before. It is light red in hue, not white or blue, which explains the russet coloring of the landscape." "Where are we?" "Well-" I groped for something intelligent to say. "Well we know now that we're not on Vulkann," was the best I could come up with. "And..." She noticed my hesitation. "And?" "I just had a glimpse." "Some glimpse! You should see your face-you've gone all gray." I tried to laugh at this, but it came out as a pathetic gurgle. "Yes, I saw someone-or something. For just the shortest instant I could see sort of a figure, going away, fast. Biped, erect." My voice ran down and she looked very concerned. "Sorry. I'm just being stupid. It really moved too fast for me to see any details. But I think, no I'm sure, that it had a tail. And...it was bright red." There was a long silence before she spoke. "You're right. We're certainly not in Heaven. How is your theology?" "Not too good-but good enough to know that I should not be thinking what I am thinking. Before you arrived I did a little theological digging in the net about the Heaven concept and all the afterworlds and afterlife, to find out more facts, to get some insight as to what it was all about. I'm afraid that my early religious education was more than neglected. Here is how it goes. There are as many concepts of Heaven as there are different religions. What I did was outline the Heaven as seen by the attendees at the Temple of Eternal Truth and search for comparisons. I found a really interesting assortment of religions with a great variety of names. I narrowed these down to the ones that featured a dichotomy of Heaven and Hell, which are places that are occupied after you die. There is an object called a soul, which you can't see or find or anything like that. It comes from somewhere unspecified. The description was pretty vague at this point. This soul, in some undescribed manner, is supposed to be you. Or the essence of you. Don't look at me like that-I'm not making it up! Anyway, this soul wants to end up in Heaven. There is a mention also of a sort of halfway house called Purgatory. And, I'm sure that you have heard of it, a direct opposite kind of place called Hell." She looked shocked. "Then you think that.. perhaps we have ended up in this place called Hell?" "Well, until a better idea comes along-and I hope it will- that seems to be the conclusion There was a distant rumbling roar, the ground shivered beneath my feet. A sudden weight seemed to press down and I dropped to my knees, put my hands out to break my fall. I was heavy, suddenly very heavy; Sybil was sprawling on the ground again. Then the strange sensation passed, as quickly as it had come, and I stood again, shakily. "What-was that?" "I haven't the slightest idea. I never felt anything like it before. It was like, what? A gravity wave passing over us?" "There is no such thing as a gravity wave." "There is now!" She tried to smile, but shivered instead. "Don't," I said. "We're someplace strange, and it might very well be a place called Hell. But we appear to be alive-so let us get out of this cave and find out just where in Hell we are!" She pulled away and straightened up, running her fingers through her hair. And even managed a small smile. "I bet I even look like Hell," she said. "Let's go." Our little burst of enthusiasm did not last very long. As we walked on, the air grew hotter, uncomfortably hotter. We passed around a spur of rock and found out why. We recoiled from the blast of heat and looked on aghast at the scene before us. Directly ahead ran a wide river of turgid lava. Darkened slag formed on top, cracking and breaking apart as it flowed by to reveal the glowing, turgidly liquid stone below. We retreated. Retracing our steps. "We'll try the opposite direction," I said, then coughed. Sybil did not answer, just nodded in agreement. Her throat must have been as dry as mine; she would have been just as thirsty. Was there any water in this parched landscape? The answer did not bear thinking about. Something else did not bear thinking about. Angelina. Slakey must have sent her someplace just the way he had sent us. To Heaven I hoped. I hoped even harder that it was not to this terrible planet that she had gone. We retraced our path past the cave mouth from which we had emerged and stumbled on through a landscape of rolling gravel dunes. It was still hot, but not the ovenlike furnace that we had just left. "A moment," Sybil said, stopping and sitting on a wide boulder. "I'm a little tired." I nodded and sat beside her. "Not surprising. Whatever that paralysis web was it certainly didn't do us any good. Physically or mentally." "I feel beat-and depressed. If I knew how to quit I would." Looking at the despair in her face, hearing the echo of exhaustion in her voice-I grew angry. This fine, strong, attractive agent should not be reduced like this by one man. "I hate you Slakey!" I shouted, Jumping to my feet and shaking my fist at the sky. A rumble of a distant volcano was not much of an answer. I got even angrier. "You will not get away with this. We are going to get out of this place, yes we are. The air on this planet must have come from someplace, from living green plants. We'll find them-and you cannot stop us!" "You are wonderful, Jim," Sybil said, standing and smoothing down her wrinkled and filthy dress. "Of course we will go on. And of course we will win." I nodded angry agreement. Then pointed down the valley. "That way, away from the lava and the volcanoes. It will be a lot better." And it was. As we walked the air became cooler. After a bit, when the valley widened out, I caught a glimpse of green far ahead. I did not want to mention it at first-but then Sybil saw it as well. "Green," she said firmly. "Grass or trees or something like that ahead. Or is it just wishful thinking?" "No way! I can see it as well and it is a very cheering sight indeed. Forward!" We almost ran as the verdant landscape opened up ahead. It was grass, knee-high, cool and slightly damp as we pushed our way through it. There were clumps of trees farther ahead, then more and more of them, almost a small forest. "Good old chlorophyll," I exulted. "Bottom of the food chain and from whence all life doth spring. Capturing the sun's energy to manufacture-food..." "And water?" "You better believe it. There has to be water somewhere around here-and we are going to find it-" "Shhh," she shhhsed. "Do you hear that? A sort of rustling, like dry leaves." I did hear it, a light crackling sound that was coming towards us from the forest. Then something small came out from under the trees and moved hesitantly into the grass. "Well, Hello," I said to the tiny reddish-brown form that emerged. It looked up at me with button-black eyes and squealed with fright. The squeal was echoed by a louder and more angry squeal from the forest. There was a thunder of running hooves and a giant avenging form burst out from under the trees, snorting with massive maternal protectiveness. A good two meters from snuffling nose to twitching tail. Covered all over with protective spines now rigidly erect. Sybil gasped with horror. I smiled and cried out, "Sooooy, pig, pig, pig!" "Jim-what is it?" "One of the most endearing and lovely creatures in the galaxy, friend of my youth, companion to man. It is a- porcuswine!" She looked at me as though she thought I was going mad. "Endearing? Is it going to attack?" "Not if we don't threaten her swinelet." The tiny creature had lost its fright when its monster dam had appeared and had nosed aside the protecting quills to find some refreshing milk. I moved slowly, bending over to pick up a windfall branch. Beady and suspicious eyes followed my every movement. "That's a good girl," I said, stepping forward and making reassuring clucking noises. She quivered a bit but held her ground. Turning her head to follow me as I approached. A drop of saliva formed on a protruding, sharp tusk, then dripped to the ground. "There, there," I murmured. "Little Jimmy doesn't hurt porcuswine. Little Jimmy loves porcuswine." Reaching down I brushed a handful of quills slowly aside between her ears, reached out and prodded with the end of the branch, then rubbed it strongly through the thick bristles. Her eyes were half-closed as she burbled contentedly. "Porcuswine just love to be scratched behind the ears- they can't reach the spot themselves." "How do you know about these terrible creatures?" "Terrible? Never! Companions to mankind in his quest to the stars. You should read your galactic history more closely. Read about the strange beasts and deadly creatures that were waiting for the first settlers. Monsters that could eat a cow in a single bite. They learned fear from the faithful porcuswine, let me tell you. An artificial genetic mutation between giant pigs and deadly porcupine. Tusks and hooves to attack, spines to defend. Loyal, faithful and destructive when needs be." "Good pork chops too?" "Indeed-but we don't speak about that in their presence. I was raised on a farm and let me tell you, my only friends were our herd of porcuswine. Ahh, here's the boar now!" I shouted joyous greeting to the immense and deadly form that lumbered out of the forest. He glared at me with red and swiney eyes. Grunted aloud with pleasure as the end of my stick scratched and scratched at his hide. I grunted with the effort-and pleasure as well. "Where did they come from?" Sybil asked. "The forest," I said scratching away. "That's not what I mean. What kind of a place is this with volcanoes, lava flows, gravity waves-and these creatures?" "A planet that had to have been settled by mankind. We'll find out soon enough. But first let us follow the pigpaths into the forest and find some water. Drink first, cogitate later." "Agreed," she said leading the way. I followed her and our newfound porcine friends followed me. Grunting expectantly for more delicious scratching attention. We lost them only when the path led through a clearing surrounded by storoak trees. The boar slammed his tusks into the trunk of one heavy-laden tree and shook it mercilessly. Acorns as big as my head rained down and the little family munched on them happily. We emerged from the forest into a water meadow that had been stirred up muddily by sharp hooves. It bordered a small lake, The far side was shielded in mist that obscured any details. We left the muddy path and found a shelf of rock that led to the water. Sat at the water's edge and drank cupped handfuls of the clear and cool water until we had drunk our-fill. "Find a few dry sticks, rub them together and it could be pork for dinner," Sybil said, smacking her lips. "Never! They're friends." My stomach rumbled enticingly. "Well maybe later, much later. And only if we can't find another source of food. I think a little exploring is in order. This is-or was-a settled world. Mankind took the mutated porcuswine and storoak to the stars. There should be farms here." "I wouldn't even know what one looked like. I was a city girl, or rather a small-town girl. Food was something that you bought in the Shop. My mother and father-everyone there- worked at teleconferencing or programming or computing or whatever. No factories, no pollution, that sort of thing was confined to the distant robot construction sites. Our town was just low and ordinary, just a lot of landscaped buildings and green parks. Utterly and totally boring." I squinted across the lake where the mist appeared to be clearing. I pointed. "Like that place over there?"

CHAPTER 6

"WHAT PLACE? SHE ASKED, STANDING and shielding her eyes with-her hand. I pointed in silence. "Seen one, you've seen them all," she muttered, frowning. "They must be factory-produced, stamped out like cereal packages. Fold the thing and glue it and plop it down, hook up the electricity and it starts to work. I couldn't even bear to go to school in Hometown-that is really what it was really called, would you believe it? I graduated first place in my kiddy class, got a scholarship, went away to school and never came back. Knocked around a bit, got involved with police work, liked it. Then I was recruited by the Special Corps and the rest is history." "Do you want to take a look at this hometown?" "No, I do not." "It might be fun-and there should be food there. Unless you want a pork roast so badly that you want to kill a porcuswine with your bare hands?" "No jokes, please. We'll take a look." It was not a large lake and the walk was a short one. Sybil who had started out in good spirits, grew quieter and quieter as we approached the low buildings. She finally stopped. "No," she said firmly. "No, what?" "No it's not a place I really want to visit. They all look exactly alike, I told you, central design, central manufacture. Plug the thing in and watch it go to work. I hated my childhood." "Didn't we all? But the porcuswine, they were the best part of it. Probably the only part that I remember with any feeling. Now let's go see if we can find a McSwineys and get a sandwich in this bijou townlet." There was nothing moving in the streets or the buildings ahead. A single road came out of the hamlet and ended abruptly in the grass. There was a billboard sign of some kind beside it, but it was end on and we couldn't read it until we got closer. We walked at an angle as we approached so we could see what it said. Sybil stopped suddenly and clasped her hands so tightly together that her knuckles turned white. Her eyes were closed. "Read it," she said. "I did." 'What does it say?" "Just a coincidence..." Her eyes snapped open and she bit out the words. "Do you believe that? What does it say?" "It reads, in serifed uppercase red letters on a white foreground, it reads- - - "'Welcome to Hometown.' Are we mad or is this whole planet mad?" "Neither." I sat down and pulled a blade of grass free, chewed on it. "Something is happening here. Just what we have yet to discover." "And we are going to discover what by sitting on our chunks and chewing grass." She was angry now-which was much better than being frightened or depressed. I smiled sweetly and patted the grass beside me. "To action, then. You sit and chew the grass while I scout out the scene. Sit!" She sat. Because of the force of my personality-Or because she was still tired. I climbed to my feet creakily and wearily and strolled forward into Hometown. Found out everything I needed to know in a very short time and went back to join her sitting and chewing. "Strangest thing I have ever seen," I said. "Jim-don't torture me!" "Sorry. Didn't mean to-just trying to come to grips with this particular reality. Firstly, the town is empty. No people, dogs, ears, kids. Anything. One of the reasons that it is empty is that everything seems to be in one lump. As though it was made that way. The door handles don't turn and the doors themselves appear to be part of the wall. The same with the windows. And you can't look in. Or rather it looks like you're looking in but what is inside is really in the glass of the window. And nothing really seems right or complete. It is more like an idea of Hometown instead of being Hometown itself." She shook her head. "I have no idea of what you are talking about." "Don't worry! I'm not so sure myself. I'm just trying to pick my way through a number of very strange occurrences. We arrived here in a sort of a cave. With volcanoes and lava streams and no grass or anything else." I glanced up at the bloated red sun and pointed. "At least the sun is the same. So we went for a walk and found green grass and porcuswine, the porcuswine of my youth." "And the Hometown of mine. It has to mean something. . "It does!" I jumped to my feet and paced back and forth in a brain-cudgeling pace. "Slakey knew where he was sending us and it wasn't to Heaven he said. So he must have been here before. Not quite Heaven, that's what he said. Maybe he thought he was sending us to Hell. And the spot where we arrived was very Hellish what with the red creature, the volcanoes and lava and everything. Could it have been Hellish because he expected it to be? Because this Hell is his idea of Hell?" "You lead, Jim-but I just can't follow you." "I don't blame you, because the idea is too preposterous. We know that someplace named Heaven exists someplace, somewhere. If there is one place there could be others. This is one of the others. With certain unusual properties." "Like what?" "Like you see what you expect to see. Let us say this planet or whatever it is was a place that was just a possibility of a place-until Slakey arrived. Then it became the place he was expecting to find. Maybe the red sun got him thinking about Hell. And the more he thought the more Hellish it became. Makes good sense." "It certainly does not. That's about the most flaky theory I have ever heard." "You bet it is-and more than that. Absolutely impossible. But we are here, aren't we?" "Living in another man's Hell?" "Yes. We did that when we first came here. But we didn't like it and wanted to leave it. I remember thinking that the barvolcanic world was just about the opposite of the one where I grew up. It was my turn to wonder if this whole thing wasn't just institutionalized madness. But Sybil was more practical. "All right then-let us say that was what happened. We arrived in this Hellish place because Slakey had come here first and everything...-what can we say-lived up to his devilish expectations. We didn't like it and you wished very strongly we weren't there but in a place with a better climate. You got very angry about that, which may have helped shaped what we wanted to see. Then we walked on and came to it. We drank, but we were still hungry. Rather I was, so much so I must have thought of my earliest gustatory delights. Which just happened to be in Hometown. Given that all this is true-what do we do next?" "The only thing that we can do. Go back to Hell." "Why?" "Because that is where we came in-and where we must be if we want to get out. Slakey is the only one that knows how to pass between these places. And another thing. My voice was suddenly grim. "What, Jim? What is it?" "Just the sobering thought that Angelina may have been sent to this place before we were dispatched. If so, we won't find her in my youth or your youth. She would have to be in Slakey's particular Hell." "Right," she said, standing and brushing the grass from her dress. "If we are thirsty we can always find our way back here. If we are hungry-" "Please save that thought for awhile. One step at a time." "Of course. Shall we go?" We retraced our steps back through the field and into the forest. A distant, happy grunting cheered me up a good deal. As long as there were porcuswine in existence this galaxy would not be that bad a place. Out of the trees and across the field of grass. That grew sparser and shorter until it disappeared. Volcanic soil again and more than a whiff of sulfur about. The mounds were getting higher as we walked and we labored to climb an even higher one. When we reached the summit we had a clear view of a smoking volcano. It appeared to be the first of very many. And behind it the red sun, which was hovering just above the horizon. The dunes ended in foothills of cracked and crumbled stone. Red of course. The cleft of a small canyon cut into them and we went that way. A lot easier than climbing another hill. We both heard the scratching sound at the same time; we stopped. "Wait here," I whispered. "I'll see what it is." "I go with you, diGriz. We are in this together-all the Way." She was right of course. I nodded and touched my finger to my lips. We went on, as slowly and silently as we could. The scratching grew louder-then stopped. We stopped as well. There was a slurping wet sound from close by, then the scratching started again. We crept forward and looked. A man was standing on tiptoes, reaching above his head with a shard of rock, scratching at something gray on the cliff face. A piece of it came away and he jammed it into his mouth and began chewing noisily. This was most interesting. Even more interesting was the fact that he was bright red. His only garment a pair of ancient faded trousers with most of the legs torn off. There was obviously a hole in the seat of these ragged shorts because his red tail emerged from them. That was when he saw us. Turned in an instant and gaped open a damp mouth with broken black teeth-then hurled the piece of rock in our direction. We ducked as the stone clattered into the stone wall close by. In that instant he was gone, swarming up the sloping cliff face with amazing agility, vanishing over the rim above. "Red," Sybil said. "Very red. Did you notice the little red horns on his forehead?"- "Hard to miss. Shall we go see what he was doing?" "Doing-and eating." I picked up a sharp fragment of stone and went over to the spot where he had been working. There was a gray and rubbery looking growth protruding from a crevice in the canyon wall. I was taller than our rosy friend and could easily reach it; sliced and chopped at it until a piece fell free. "What is it?" Sybil asked. "No idea. Vegetable not animal I imagine. And we did see him chewing it. Want a bite?" "I wouldn't think of depriving you." It tasted very gray and slimy, and was very, very chewy. With all the taste and texture of a plastic bag. But it was wet. I swallowed and a piece went down. And stayed down. My stomach rumbled a long complaint. "Try some," I said. "It's pretty foul but it has water in it and maybe some food value." I tore off a chunk and held it out. Very suspiciously she put it into her mouth. I looked up- jumped and grabbed her and pushed her aside. A boulder thudded into the spot where we had been standing. "Angry at losing his dinner," I said. "Let's move out away from the rocks, where we can see what's happening." We had a quick glimpse of him climbing higher still and finally moving out of sight. "You stay here," I said. "Keep an eye out for Big Red. I'll get more of this gunge." The sun did not seem to be appreciably higher in the sky when we had finished our meal. Stomachs full enough, and thirst slaked for the moment, we rested in the shade because the day was growing measurably warmer. "Not good, but filling," Sybil said, working with her fingernail to dislodge a gristly bit that had lodged between her teeth. When it came free she looked at it disparagingly, then dropped it to the ground. "Any idea what we do next?" "Put our brains into gear for starters. Since we woke up in this place we have been stumbling from one near-disaster-to another. Let's cheek off what we know." "Firstly," she said, "we've gone to Slakey's version of Hell. We'll call it that until we learn better. We are in another place- on another planet-or we have gone mad." "I can't accept that last. We are someplace else. We know that machines are involved in this-because they were carefully destroyed in the building on Lussuoso. Angelina was sent someplace from that temple. We were sent someplace from the one on Vulkann. We know that for certain-and we know something even more important. A return trip is possible. You went to Heaven and came back. And we must consider the possibility that Angelina could have come here before us." "Which means that we need some intelligence-in the military use of the word." "You bet. Which in turn means we have to find Big Red with the horns and tail and find out all that he knows. About Angelina, about this place, how he-and we-got here. And how we are going to leave.." - A sound intruded, a soft, shuffling sound that grew slowly louder. Coming up the canyon floor towards us. Then we could hear the susurration of muttered voices. "People-" I said as our recently departed devilish friend walked into- view. He was followed by a small group of companions, at least twelve of them. Men and women. All bright red. All carrying sharp rocks. I had never seen any of them before-and one glance told me that Angelina was not in this motley crowd. They stopped when they saw us-then started forward when their leader waved them on. "You can flee, should you wish, but we'll come after you. Run or stay, it makes no difference." He shook the rock at us. "We are going to kill you. Kill you and eat you. "Hell is a very hungry place."

Chapter 7

I HELD MY HAND UP to them, palm Out, the universal sign of peace. Maybe. "Wait," I said. "If you attack us we will be forced to defend ourselves. And we are very dangerous. You will all be hurt, killed if you dare resist us. We are not normal humans but are ruthless killers.. "Dinner!"-Red Leader foamed. "Kill!" I cupped my raised hand, raised the other in defense-offense position, balanced forward on the balls of my feet. Sybil was at my side, hands held in the same way. "You didn't mean that about killing them-did you?" "No-but I want them afraid so we can finish this quickly. Now!" We screamed loudly in unison and attacked. Big -Red shrieked and dropped his weapon when I chopped his wrist with the edge of my hand, following through with stiff fingertips into his solar plexus. Went on without stopping and kicked the legs Out from under the two people behind him. I was aware that Sybil had moved to the side to take her antagoni~ts off guard and off balance. Two sharp kidney punches sent two women screaming to the ground. The stone swung down and I went under it and hit the wielder on the side of the neck, stepped aside as he fell. A few more brisk blows and it was all over. The ground was covered with writhing, moaning, red figures. A hand reached out for a rock and I stepped on the wrist. That was the last resistance. "They are a sorry and feeble lot," Sybil said, dusting of her hands disgustedly. "No other way to handle it. No broken bones that I can see, and no blood." We picked up the stone weapons and threw them aside. Looked more closely at our battered assailants. They were dressed, if it could be called that, in a tattered and faded collection of clothing fragments. Bits of anatomy, normally concealed, poked out. All of them were bright red with neat little horns and, now flaccid, tails. They drew cravenly aside as I walked between them and picked up their unconscious leader, propped him against the rock wall and waited for him to come around. He groaned and opened his eyes-shrieked and fell over and tried to scrabble away. I straightened him up again. "Look," I told him. "All the killing and eating was your idea. We were just defending ourselves. Can we call it quits? Just nod your head, that's better I think we started off on the wrong foot so let's try again. My name is Jim-..." There was a thud and a cry of pain from behind me, proof that Sybil was covering my back. "My name is. . . Cuthbert Podpisy, Professor of Comparative Anatomy, University of Wydawnietwo." "Please to meet you, Professor. Aren't you a long way from home?" He rubbed at his sore midriff, looked up at me with bleary red eyes. And sighed. "I suppose I am. I haven't thought about that very much of late. The hunger and thirst tend to dominate one's consciousness. All we wanted was a bit of protein." He whimpered a bit, feeling very sorry for himself "The diet is monotonous and not very filling. Lacks many amino acids I am sure. As well as minerals and vitamins." "The gray stuff you were eating off the rock. That's your diet?" "The same. It is called colimicon. I don't know what it means. I was told the word when I first came here." "How did you get here?" Sybil asked, coming over to stand beside me-but not taking her eyes off the battered execution squad. "I have no idea. I was on term leave, I went to this holiday world. To enjoy myself on the Vulkann beaches. It was all very nice and I had a good tan, not red like this, and I was putting on weight from overeating, destroying my liver with overdrinking, you know. . . . All I can remember is that I went to bed one night-and woke up here." "How about the others?" "The ones I have talked to say just about the same thing. The others are mad, they don't talk. It seems that the longer you are here. . . are you going to kill me?" "Don't be foolish. I've eaten some strange meals in my time but draw the line at professors." "You say that now, but-" "I promise, all right? And speaking of professors-have you ever heard of a Professor Justin Slakey?" "No. Rings no bells. Mine is a small university." "All right. Now tell me about your red relations here. You said that people arrive here. Do any leave?" "Only as dinner!" He cackled and drooled a bit around his blackened teeth, not as sane as he had first appeared to be. I changed the subject. "If you are an anatomy professor perhaps you can explain your interesting skin color. Not to mention your little horns and tail." He pinched a handful of loose skin at his midriff and blinked at it. "Very interesting," he said in a distant voice. "I used to study the phenomena, take notes, tried to take notes. Not pigmentátion at all. I believe the color change to be due to enhanced capillary growth beneath the skin. Ahh, the tail." He groped for his and caressed it. "Might be added bones to the coccyx. Not possible, bone growth though, yes, or cartilage..." I left him mumbling there and waved Sybil to one side where we could keep an eye on the others. Not that they appeared to be any threat. Some were still unconscious while the others sat or lay placidly as though drained of energy. One young man dragged himself to his feet and looked at us with obvious fear. When we did nothing he stumbled away, around the bend in the canyon and out of sight. "I don't like this at all," Sybil said. "I never liked it-and I like it even less the longer we stay here. These people aren't natives. They've been brought here. Dumped in this place for some unfathomable reason. At least we know who is responsible. We've got to find our way back- before we end up like these. Am I beginning to turn red yet?" "No-but you're right. We've got to resist. -But what can we do? Is there any point in going back to Hometown-or to your porcuswine?" "None that I can think of at the moment..." The sky darkened for an instant and we staggered, suddenly heavy. The phenomenon passed as quickly as it had begun. Gravity waves? I didn't let my thoughts dwell on it. What could we possibly do to save ourselves? "Collect as much of the colunicon as we can carry," I said firmly. "Food and drink will keep us alive, give us a chance to take the next step. ..." Inspiration failed me, but Sybil was thinking too. "Go back to the cave where we woke up. We were in such bad shape we didn't search it well. Looking for what-I have no idea." "But you have a good idea. Whatever brought us here dumped us on that particular spot. It needs a much closer look." I pointed to the sprawled, scarlet figures. "What about this lot?" 'There is nothing we can do for them-not now. Perhaps when we get back, get some answers. Maybe then we can do something. They are alive, so at least they know how to survive. And they did try to kill us." "Point taken. Let's get moving." We found some more colimicon and pried rubbery chunks from the rock crevasses. They were difficult to carry until Sybil turned her long skirt into a mini by ripping off a great length of the fabric. "And it's cooler like this," she said as she neatly knotted our food and drink into a bundle. I took it from her and pointed. "Lead the way." I did not dare think how long the days here were since the sun appeared to be just as high in the sky as it had been when we first saw it. Perhaps the planet did not rotate on its axis at all and this day was a million years long. We plodded on. Back towards the opening in the rocks where this whole depressing action had begun. We started up one of the gravel dunes and I stumbled over a largish fragment, fell forward. Saw the eruption of fragments from the sudden, small pit, heard the missile ricochet away. "Move!" I shouted. "Someone's shooting at us!" Sybil was running towards some broken boulders as I did a sideways roll and scrambled to my feet. More shots followed us, but a fast-moving target is hard to hit. I slid, gasping, into the lee of a giant boulder, saw that Sybil had reached shelter as well. "Where's the sniper?" she called out. "Top of the slope we were climbing. I had a quick glimpse, just something moving." "Any particular color?" "The local favorite." "Next?" "Get our breath back. Then spread out and hunt the hunter. Sorry but I dropped our supplies. We'll worry about that later. After we find this redskin. All right with you?" "Agreed. Whoever it is I want him in front of me rather than behind." I made the first rush, slanting across the hill then sheltering behind a boulder. A shot hit the rock, sending fragments clattering; another hit the ground. But even as our ambusher was firing Sybil was running just as I had done. In rushing spurts we slowly made our way up the hill. Our attacker kept shooting; he appeared to have plenty of ammunition. We were approaching the summit when I saw him. Big, red, running for better cover, a sack over one shoulder, carrying a long-barreled weapon of some kind. I sprinted in his tracks, going fast. I dived again for the shelter of a boulder when he turned and fired. I saw Sybil angle away around the top of the hill while he blasted shot after shot in my direction. The end came suddenly. I heard him fire in the other direction; he must have seen her. I put my head down and plowed up the slope as fast -I could. There he was a few meters away, turning the gun towards me-when a fast-thrown rock caught him in the back. He squealed, jumped-tried to aim. And I was on him. Twisting the gun away and kicking him hard in the chest. He shrieked again as he fell; the sack dropped from his shoulder, spilling out shiny tubes. Sybil stumbled up, as exhausted as I was, and looked down at our fallen adversary. He was fat and he was red, with the now normal horns and tail. But he was very familiar. He scrambled backwards, turned to look for a way to escape and I saw his profile. "It can't be! But he looks like-" Sybil finished the sentence for me. "It could be Slakey!" "Or Master Fanyimadu or Father Marablis." He was that familiar. But of course this could not he. He looked at us with wide eyes, trembling, frightened. Spoke. "Have we met before?" "Perhaps," I said, "My name is diGriz. Is that familiar?" "Not really. Any relation to the Grodzynskis?" "Not to my knowledge. And your name is...?" "That's a good question. It might be-Einstein?" He looked hopeful, then stopped smiling when I shook my head no. "Wrong answer. Do Mitchelsen or Morley sound familiar? Epinard?" "Yes, those names are familiar," Sybil said. "They were all physicists. They're all dead." "Physics!" He brightened up at that and pointed in the direction of the bloated sun. "Burning continues always. But the nucleus isn't stable, you see. The core, a Fermi sphere. Then the nucleus, lithium not stable.. "Professor... ?" I called out. "Yes? What? But those nuclei simply break up again." He closed his eyes and swayed slowly back and forth muttering to himself softly all the time. "He's mad," Sybil said firmly. I nodded agreement.

"Like the others-only more so. But he's saying something about physics. And he did respond when I called him professor." "There are a lot of professors around." "Too true." I picked up the gun and turned it in my hands. "And where did he get this? It's in good condition, fires all too well." I tapped a dial on the butt, fully charged, then pointed to the spilled tubes on the ground. "You recognize the weapon?" "Of course. Linear accelerator gun. The military calls them Gauss rifles." "Exactly. No moving parts, lots of juice in the nuclear battery-with plenty more steel slugs in these tubes. How did it get here? Do you remember what happened to all that gear that I brought with me, mechanical and electronic? None of it would work. We've seen no other artifacts-until this." Our demonic friend stopped muttering, saw the gun and jumped to grab it. Sybil put out a foot and he sprawled onto his face. I held the gun up so he could see it. "Professor-where did you get this?" "Mine. I gave me the He looked around bewilderedly. Lay down and closed his eyes and appeared to be asleep. "Not exactly a bubbling font of information," Sybil said. "I think this madness is catching-or grows on you the longer you stay here." "Agreed. So let's go back to the original plan. The cave." "The cave." I retrieved and shouldered the bag, seized up the gun and ammunition. We looked back as we walked but he never stirred. "Do you get the feeling that the longer we are in Hell the more questions there are to ask-and the fewer answers?" Sybil nodded glum agreement. Then pointed. "Isn't that it ahead? The-opening in the rocks?" "Looks like it." I felt more depressed than I had ever been before in my life. Which says a lot since I have been in some very depressing situations. This search for the cave was a token gesture born of desperation. If there had been any device, any machine-anything at all in the cave-we would have seen it before we left. This was a dead end. As we approached the cave entrance there was a cracking explosion of sound inside, accompanied by a sudden burst of bright light. Sybil dived aside and I raised the gun, flipped on the power. Scraping footsteps sounded from inside the cave, something horrible coming towards us. I sighted along the barrel, put steady pressure on the trigger as a man appeared in the entrance. "Throw that away and come with me-quickly!" my son said. "Coming, Bolivar!" Sybil shouted as she ran. "We're right behind you!"

CHAPTER 8

I DROPPED THE GUN AND the bag of ammunition, the colimicon, and ran-with Sybil right behind me. Bolivar led the way, stumbled to a halt towards the rear of the cave. He looked around, shuffled his feet. "No, more to the left," he mumbled. "Back, back. Good." "Fast!" he shouted, raising his arms. "Take my hands!" We weren't arguing. He seized our hands and, with a powerful muscular contraction, pulled us tight against his chest. I opened my mouth to speak- - It was a completely indescribable sensation. It was like nothing I had ever experienced before, had no relation to heat or pain, cold, emotions, electrocution. Then it ended; bright light flared and there was a thunderous sound. "Get down!" someone shouted and Bolivar dragged us after him to the floor of the room. Rapid explosions sounded, gunfire. I had a quick glimpse of a man firing a hand weapon, clumsily, for when the gun recoiled he dropped it. From his left hand; his right arm was bandaged. He turned then and ran, followed by other running footsteps. "James!" Bolivar cried out. "Fine, fine," a muffled voice answered. He came out from behind the ruins of the burning machine. His face was smeared black and he was brushing glowing embers from his shirt. "Very close. Good thing he wasn't shooting at me. He did a good job on the electronics though." "Thanks, boys, for getting us back," I said, then coughed raspingly. "My throat hurts like Hell." There was a hiss of white fumes and the fires were blotted Out by the automatic quenchers. An alarm was ringing in the distance. "Explain later," James said. "Let's get out before anyone else shows up." I didn't argue. Still numb from the events of the past day. Day? We ran out of the church, it was night, the van was parked at the curb just where we had seen it last-how long ago? "Into the back," James ordered. He started the engine as the rest of us struggled in through the open rear doors. Barely had time to close them before he kicked in the power. We sprawled and rolled and heard the sound of sirens getting louder-then dying away as the van broadsided around a corner. He slowed after that, drove at what must have been something like normal speed. Turned a few more times and stopped. James spun his driver's seat around to face us and smiled. "Drinks, anyone?" Through the windshield a large rotating sign was visible. RODNEY'S ROBOT DRINKING DEN with CHEAPEST AND MOST ALCOHOLIC DRINKS IN TOWN in smaller lettering below. A robotic face appeared at the window. "Welcome to this drunkards' paradise. Orders, please," it grated. "Four large beers," I told it, then coughed uncontrollably. "Tell us what happened," Sybil said when I had gasped into silence. "Sure," Bolivar said. "But first-are you guys all right?" Looking at us intently, relaxing only when we had nodded our heads. "Good, great. You gave us a scare, Dad, when the alarm went off" "I didn't think that I had time to actuate it." "You didn't. We only knew something was wrong your heart stopped. We hit hard then." "It never stopped!" I said defensively, grabbing at the pulse in my wrist. A nice solid thud-thud. "That's good to hear. But we didn't know that at the time. We must have broken in just seconds after you went to Hell. Marablis wearing some kooky outfit, was still working the controls. Bolivar got him with the stunner as he was turning around." "I dropped him-but you were both gone. That explained the stopped heartbeat. You had been moved, transported, sent-to Hell as we found out. James took care of that. Advanced hypnotism, he's very good." "Been a bit of a hobby for some years. Marablis was an easy subject. Stress and shock. I eased him under and took control. He told us that he had sent you both to Hell. Bolivar said that he would go after you. I had Marablis work the machine and you know the rest. It was a long five minutes but it worked out fine in the end." I should have been immune to surprises by this time. I wasn't. "Five minutes! We were in Hell for hours-most of a day at least." "Different time scales?" Bolivar said. "And I'll tell you something else just as outrageous. When I was in Hell I was here at the same time, I mean I could see what Bolivar was seeing, hear him speaking." "And vice versa-" "Beer," a tinny voice said and Sybil and I leaped forward. "Four more," Bolivar said as we drained our glasses. He handed us the two remaining full ones. The cold liquid helped. Gasping with pleasure, my brain got back into gear and I remembered something else. "James! The shooting when we arrived-what happened?" "Just that. As you were coming back through, this guy burst in waving a gun. I dived for cover while he shot up the machinery. Then he and Marablis ran for it."

"I had a quick look at him," I said. "It couldn't have been, but.." James nodded solemnly. "I could see him very clearly. It was Professor Slakey-with a bandage on the stump of his right wrist." "Then who, who-?" I said, doing a stunned owl imitation. "Who was at the controls, you mean? Who sent you to Hell and brought you back? That was also Professor Slakey. Working the controls with his good right hand." "I have more news," I said. "There is a bright-red, long tailed and behorned Slakey in Hell." The silence got longer and longer as we considered the implications, or lack of them, in this information, until Sybil spoke. "James whistle for the waiter if you please. Order up a bottle of something a bit stronger for the next round." Nobody argued with that. Everything had happened so fast-and so incomprehensibly-that I had trouble puffing my thoughts together. Then memory struck hard. "Angelina? Where is she?" "Not in Hell," James said. "That was the first question I asked Marablis when I put him under. He admitted that much under stress. Fought bard not to answer where she was, almost surfaced from the trance. I put him deep under to bring you two back from Hell. When you were back safe I was going to press him really hard for an answer. But-you know what happened. Sorry. . "No sorry!" I shouted happily. "Angelina is not dead-but has been sent somewhere. Maybe Heaven. We'll find out. Meanwhile, you got us back. Sorry is not the word to use. We'll have to try and work out what happened, what all these puzzles and paradoxes mean. But not right now. There are two things that we must urgently do now. We have to get help. And we've been compromised enough. Slakey knew about Sybil and me when he knocked us out. Now he knows the whole family is after him. He might try and fight back so we have to stay away from the hotel room. And- we must contact the Special Corps at once." "All I need is a phone," Sybil said. "I have a local contact number that will be spliced through directly to Inskipp." "Perfect. We outline what has happened. Tell him to order a tight guard around that church. No one is to go either in or out. Then tell him to get Professor Coypu here soonest. Anyone who can build a working time machine as well as many other scientific miracles certainly ought to be able to figure out just what is going on with these Hell and Heaven machines. We'll stay out of sight until the professor has arrived-along with the Space Marines. Never forget-we have been to Hell and we came back. We're going to find Angelina and get her back with us the same way."

I suppose that I should have enjoyed the days of forced relaxation at the Vaska Hulja Holiday Heaven, but I had too much to worry about. Always lurking behind all the pleasures of swimming and sunbathing, drinking and eating, was the knowledge that Angelina was still missing. There was some reassurance in the fact that her kidnappers had admitted that she was alive, though not where she was. Small consolation; she was still gone and that could not be denied. A dark memory that would not go away. I knew that the twins shared these feelings, because behind all the horseplay and vying for Sybil's attention was that same memory. I would catch a bleakness of expression when one of them did not know he was being watched. Nor was it all fun and games. We went to work. The first thing that we had done after checking into this hotel, with false identities, was to list everything we knew, had seen, had experienced. None of it seemed to make sense-yet we knew that it must. We forwarded all of this material to the Special Corps where, hopefully, wiser heads than ours might make sense of it. They did. Or it did, a wiser head I mean. Our little trip to Hell seemed to have had a scrambling effect on my brain so at times my thoughts would dribble away. I also kept looking in mirrors to see if I was turning red. After awhile I stopped doing this but I still felt the base of my spine when I was showering to see if I was growing a tail. Disconcerting. This feckless state of affairs ended next morning when I came down early for breakfast and saw a familiar figure at our table. "Professor Coypu-at last!" I called out in glad greeting. He smiled briefly with his buckteeth popping out between his lips like yellowed gravestones. "Ahh, Jim, yes. You're looking fit, skin tanned but not red. Any signs of a tail?" "Thank you, no, I have been keeping track. And you?" "Fine, fine. On my way here I examined the remains of the destroyed machines at the church and have analyzed all your notes, examined the clothing you wore in Hell, thank you. It all seems fairly straightforward." "Straightforward~ I see nothing but confusion and obfuscation where you.. "See the forest as well as the trees. I can inform you in full confidence that inventing the temporal helix for my time machine was much more difficult." His teeth snapped off a piece of toast and he chewed it with quick rodent-like enthusiasm. "You wouldn't care to chop some of that metaphorical wood for me-would you?" "Yes, of course." He patted his lips with his napkin, giving his protruding teeth a surreptitious polish at the same time. "As soon as I discovered that Jiving Justin was involved in this matter, the shape of future things to come became clear." "Jiving Justin7' I burbled with complete lack of comprehension. "Yes," he cackled, flashing his teeth at me. "That's what we used to call him at university." "Who, who?" I was in owl overdrive again. "Justin Slakey. He used to play the slide trombone in our little jazz quartet. I must admit to being fairly groovy myself on the banjo as well." "Professor! The point of it all, please-would you kindly return to it?" "Of course. Even when I first met him, Slakey was a genius. Old beyond his years-which considering the state of geriatrics might have been far older than he appeared. He took the theory of galactic strings, which as you undoubtedly know has been around as theory for a long time. No one had ever come close to tackling it until Slakey invented the mathematics to prove their existence. Even the theoretical wormtubes between galaxies were clear to him. He published some papers on these, but never put everything together into a coherent whole. At least, until now, I thought he hadn't completed his theory. It is obvious that he has." He washed some more nibbled toast down with a quick swig of coffee. I resisted more owl imitations. "Stop at once!" I suggested. "Start over since I haven't the slightest idea of what you are talking about." "No reason that you should. The reality of the worm holes between one universe and another can only be described by negative number mathematics. A nonmathematical model would be only a crude approximation-" "Then crudely approximate for me." He chewed away, forehead furrowed in thought, unconsciously brushing away a strand of lank hair that floated down in front of his eyes~ "Crudely put. "Yes?" Very crudely put, our universe is like a badly cooked fried egg. In a pan of equally badly cooked and stringy eggs." Breakfast had obviously inspired this imagery; I had eaten the eggs here before. "The frying pan represents space-time. But it must be an invisible frying pan since it has no dimensions and cannot be measured. Are you with me so far?" "Yoke and all." "Good. Entropy will always be the big enemy. Everything is running down, cooling down towards the heat death of the universe. If entropy could be reversed the problem would be easy to solve. But it cannot. But-" This was a big but since he raised an exclamatory finger and tapped his teeth. "But although entropy cannot be reversed, the rate of entropic decay can be measured and displayed, only by mathematics of course, and can be proven to proceed at a different rate in different universes. You see the importance of this?" "No." "Think! If the rate of entropy in our universe were faster than the rate of entropy in universe X, let us say. Then to a theoretical observer in that universe our universe would appear to be decaying at a great rate. Right?" "Right." "Then, it also becomes obvious that if an. observer in our universe were to observe universe X, the entropy rate there would appear to be going in the opposite direction, what might be called reverse entropy. Though it does not exist it would be observed to exist. Therefore the equation is closed." He sat back and smiled happily at his conclusions. I hadn't the slightest idea of what he was talking about. I told him that and he frowned. "I do wish, diGriz, that you had taken a little more mathematics instead of playing hooky from school. To put it even more simply, a phenomenon that is observed to exist does exist and can be mathematically described. And what can be described can be affected. What can be affected can be altered. That is the beauty of it. No power source is needed to manipulate the wormholes between the universes, although energy is of course needed to establish the interface. The wormholes themselves are powered by the differences in their entropy rate. Justin Slakey has discovered that and I will be the first man to take my hat off to him." He lifted an invisible hat from his head, then patted it back into place. I blinked quickly and cudgeled my brain hard, trying to understand just what he was talking about. With great difficulty some sort of order began to emerge from his flights of physical fancy. "Tell me if I have this right. Different universes exist, right?" "Yes and no.. "Let's settle for the yes-just for a moment. Different universes exist, and if they exist they could be connected by wormholes in space. Then the difference of entropy between these universes might be used to travel through the wormholes from one galaxy to another-and Slakey has invented a machine to do just that. Okay?" He raised the finger, frowned, shook his head in a very negative no. Thought a bit more, then shrugged. "Okay," he said in a most resigned manner. I hurried on before he changed his mind. "Hell is a planet in a different universe, with different laws of physics, maybe a different chemistry, where time passes at a different rate. If that is so then Heaven is a different universe connected to ours by wormholes in space and time. There could be more.. "The number of theoretical universes is infinite." "But with Slakey's machine they can obviously be contacted, over and-over again. And what he can do-you can do?" "Yes and no." I resisted the temptation to rip out a handful of my hair. "What do you mean yes and no?" "I mean yes it is theoretically possible. And no, I cannot do it. Not without the mathematical description of the entropy relationships that was recorded in the machine. The one he destroyed." "There will be other machines." "Get me one and I'll build you an intergalactic wormhole subway." "I will do just that," I promised. Not rashly but because I had to do just that to get to Angelina. Which led to the next obvious question. "Who has these machines?" "Slakey." "Which Slakey?" "There is only one Slakey." "I can't believe that. -I saw three at least. One bright red with a tail. Another with no right hand-and a third with a good right hand." "You saw the same man-only at different times. Just as if you were to take a time machine to visit a baby being born, then went on in time to see the same baby grown-then saw him again as an old man. The mathematics is quite clear. In some manner he has managed to duplicate himself at various times during his existence. He, they, him, are all the same individual, just observed at the same time though he is from various different times. Since they are all the same person they have to share the same thoughts. That's how-Slakey no-hand knew that Slakey right-hand was in trouble and came to the rescue. You saw this same phenomenon with your own Sons, the twins. Since they are biological twins and divided from the same original egg, they were at one time exactly the same person, or egg. So when they were in different universes they shared the same thoughts. It is all very obvious." "What's obvious?" Sybil asked as she came into the breakfast room. "What is obvious," I said, "is that we now know how to get to Heaven and Hell-or wherever else we want to go. The good professor appears to know all about these various universes." She nodded. "If you know that Professor-do you know how Jim found his porkuswine in Hell?" "I do. I read your notes concerning that visit and I agree completely with your first conclusions. Hell is obviously a malleable and unformed universe. It must have been geologically active when Slakey first found it. He mistook it for Hell-so it became Hell. You both found his Hell, but also formed a little bit of your remembered worlds there as well." "Then a question, please?" Sybil asked. "If we did that-why didn't the other people we found there do the same thing?" "Also obvious," the professor pontificated, always happy with an expectant audience. "They were normal people-not supernormal Special Corps agents. The force of your personalities and your mental strength enabled you to force your memories upon the fabric of that universe, to bend it to your will. Where normal people might run in fear you turn and growl savagely and rend your enemies." - "You make us sound like feral terriers, wild dogs!" I growled savagely, "You are. Any more questions?" "Yes. What-happens next?" Sybil said. "I can answer that," I answered. "With Professor Coypu's help we will build a machine to travel to these distant universes. And we will get Angelina back." "That is wonderful news. But let us not do any of that until after breakfast," she added with womanly practicality. "I'm sure that we will need all our strength to do all of that."

CHAPTER 9

I WAITED UNTIL JAMES AND Bolivar had joined us at the breakfast table, and had eaten their stringy eggs, before I brought them all up to speed. "Meeting come to order." They all looked intently at me-with the exception of Professor Coypu who was muttering to himself as he scrawled mathematical equations onto a large scratchpad. "The professor will not mind if I simplify drastically what he revealed to me this morning. Heaven and Hell are in different universes and we can get to them. Plus there are other universes we can reach-and Angelina is in one of them. With a little help from us he can build a machine that we can use to get her back. Understood?" Everyone nodded and smiled. Except for Coypu, who sniffed miffedly. He could apparently do two things at one time because, while still noodling his equations, he spoke. "Your simplification is utter nonsense. These equations prove..." "That you know what you are doing," I broke in before everything got murky again. "And we know what we are going to do. We are going to find one of the Slakey clones. Unless they used their machine to leave this planet, they must still be here. I had the Special Corps put the pressure on the local military to seal this planet tight. Like a roach motel they can come in but they can't go out. An intense and thorough search has been going on at this moment..." "Let the Slakeys go," Sybil said. Silence descended. Even Coypu stopped writing. Sybil smiled sweetly at her stunned audience. "Think latterly," she said. "Think subtly. The trouble with you men is that all the testosterone and other hormones you have whizzing around your systems tend to make your actions very predictable. So try to be a little more devious, just this once. These men you are looking for, Slakey and Company, are just as masculine as the rest of you and will be expecting you to do what you are planning to be doing." "Then what should we do?" I asked. "Ease up, allow for loopholes and human error. Let them test the doors until they find one unlocked. When they get out have them followed." "That won't be easy..." "Yes it will," Coypu said. "I have been considering a new and unique theory about the effects of inter-universe travel;" he held up his pages of equations, "that I have now proved to my satisfaction is true. It is called entropic delimitation." He smiled with scientific satisfaction, so pleased with himself that he tapped happily on his teeth with his fingernails, looked around at our glazed stares. "I will elucidate. When you were in Hell you observed that certain changes occurred to people there. Skin color became encarmined, new appendages grew, insanity progressed. These equations prove positively that the changes are not physical in the sense that they are made by chemicals in the atmosphere and so forth. No indeed. These changes are caused by entropic delimitation, the basic incompatibility of material taken from one universe to another. Once I had realized this it was simplicity itself to construct an E-meter. A machine that embodies immense possibilities while remaining simple in construction. Here it is." He dug around in his shirt pocket, took out something small and placed it carefully on the table. We all leaned close. "It looks like a stone tied to a piece of string," I said. "It is. When I analyzed your reports and saw the direction in which my researchers were going, I took the precaution of obtaining some Hell-matter. From your discarded clothing, Jim. There were bits of gravel in your pockets, from all that slithering about on the ground I imagine. Now-the proof of the pudding is in the eating." He picked up the string by the loose end, stood and walked over towards me. Stopped and held this complicated scientific device out so that the stone was suspended just before my nose. I looked at it cross-eyedly. "Is it moving?" he asked. "It seems to be swinging towards me!" "It is. You were in Hell long enough for entropic delimitation to affect your body, if ever so slightly." He held the thing out over Sybil's hand and nodded happily. Then walked to the twins, held it in turn behind one head and then the other. He pointed at James. "You are the brother who operated the machine and did not pass through to Hell." James could only nod in silence. Coypu admired his invention. "If I can get this strong a response after such a brief transit-1ust think how Jiving Justin will light up in the dark! As soon as I have manufactured a few thousand meters, simple enough to do, all the restrictions on free movement will be lifted. No attempt will be made to apprehend the miscreants or stop them from leaving-" "Great!" I cried aloud gustily. "They can run but they cannot hide. Every train, bus, spaceship, scooter, rickshaw, every form of transportation, will have a meter close by. We'll follow them and they will lead us to another of their machines and we will grab it and the good guys will win!" Of course it didn't happen that easily. Instead of-trying to run, Slakey and Slakey had apparently gone to ground. When they didn't walk into any of our traps, the good Professor Coypu went back to the workbench and improved upon his original model. Which, all things considered, was pretty crude. He built larger ones with amplifying circuits that would work over greater distances. Then military jets quartered the skies over the islands-and had a trace within hours. "Here," the Special Corps technician said, opening up a large map and tapping his finger on a red-marked site. We all leaned close. "The pilot of the search plane took off, circled for altitude-and all the bells went off." "That is right in the middle of a city," I said. "It certainly is. In fact it is the center of the capital of this planet, Hammar City. The first reading we had almost blew the needle off its bearings. And it hasn't moved since we spotted it. But there are two other, weaker traces in the city-and one of them is moving." "Is it possible that there could be another machine, which would explain the strong trace? And the other contacts might be a couple of Slakeys?" "Professor Coypu is of the same opinion. He says if you plan to take any offensive actions you must speak to him first." "No problem. Where is he?" "In the nightclub downstairs doing research." "Research ...?" It was mind-boggling time again. "But which club? There are seven in this hotel." "The Green Lizard. Very ethnic." I wondered what could be ethnic about lizards; I soon found out. The sound of jungle drums filled the hot, moist air, while the screams of nocturnal animals cut through the semidarkness. I ducked under the low leaves of the trees and almost choked myself on a vine. "May I be of service, human visitor?" a large green lizard said, smiling faugedly before me. While the head was that of a lizard the green body was human and enthusiastically female. Painted green I realized, this fact was visible even in the dim jungle light. Also visible was the even more interesting fact that paint on skin was all that she was wearing; nothing else. I wondered just what kind of research the professor was doing here. "Coypu," I said. "I'm joining him. Small man, gray hair, good teeth..." "This way, please, dear human visitor." She led me through the jungle-a fine figure to follow to a log table. Coypu sat on a chair stump just as naked, though not as attractive, as my leading lizard. He was sucking at the straw of a tall drink in a section of bamboo while he scribbled equations on a large leaf. "I'll have whatever he has," I said, then forced my gaze back on the professor when she slithered away. "Ahh, Jim, sit down." "I don't want to interrupt your work." "You're not. I have just finished with all of my research. So that tomorrow I'll be able to finalize my scientific paper titled 'Saunan Substitutions for Reenhancing Subliminal Sexual Inhibitions.'" "Sounds fascinating." "Indeed it does. I'm also writing a shorter and more popular version for the Internet called 'Chicklist for Hungry Hunters.'" "You're onto a winner. What did you want to talk to me about?" "Plans. We must find a fail-safe way of getting our hands on an intact model of Slakey's universal differentiator. My research cannot proceed until that has been done. Twice now his machines have gone up in flames before they could be examined. Let us try not to let that happen again. I have constructed a device that will make that possible." "What is it?" "A temporal inhibitor. An intellectual offspring of my temporal helix. Which you will remember, since you traveled on it, when you traveled back in time and had some interesting adventures while you were busy saving the world. You deserve some credit in this invention as well. You will also remember that when you saved the Special Corps from time attack you met those time travelers from the future, who gave you a machine. It froze everyone around you with a time stasis. Once I knew it could be done the rest was easy." "You're a great man, Professor" "I know that. Finish your drink and sally forth. You'll find the temporal inhibitor, or TI for short, on the table in my room. It works just like the one you used before. Turn it on and everything around you freezes in time. Except for you, of course. Go, Jim, go forth with the TI and use it to get the dimensional machine. Leave me now for I have important research to do here and you are a married man." I went. Picked the lock on his suite and looked at the flashlight on the table. I picked it up and turned it on. Instead of lighting up it hummed industriously. Nothing else appeared to have happened that I could see. I turned it off, dug a coin out of my pocket and threw it into the air, turned on the flashlight. The coin hung in midair, dropped only when I turned the TI off. "Next stop Hammar City!" I used the room phone to call the suite where the boys were staying. There was a recorded message for me suggesting that I join them in Waterworld, the most popular nightspot in the hotel. I slipped the TI into my pocket and left, and found the nightspot easily enough, following the sound of wet music and splashing waves. But I hesitated at the entrance, having had more than enough of nightclubs after the Green Lizard. This one was better lit and provided more clean-cut fun. With the lighting effects and almost nul gravity field, the illusion of being underwater was very good. The waitresses had mermaid tails and swam laden trays of drinks and food to the floating tables. The happy customers danced a few feet off the floor, twining themselves sinuously about to the happy beat. I could see Bolivar dancing with Sybil, both enjoying themselves greatly. He didn't seem to mind when James cut in-or was it the other way around? Not that it mattered. They were young and in high spirits and deserved every bit of relaxation they could get. I could take care of getting the machine myself while they danced the night away. I was picking up some needed devices from my room when the phone pinged and turned itself on. Inskipp glared out of the screen at me. "What do you think you are doing, diGriz?" "Just running a little errand. Picking up something for Professor Coypu," I said innocently. A scowl replaced the glare. "No you're not-at least not alone. I know everything, remember. Including exactly what it is you are getting for Coypu. There have been too many mistakes made of late. Sloppy work. That practice ends now. Captain Grissle of the Space Marines has his squad waiting for you in the lobby at this very moment." "Thank you, thank you, you are kindness itself. I'll join him right away." I would of course exit from the back entrance of the hotel and avoid the noxious military presence of the marines. There was a loud hammering on the door. "While the squad is waiting in the lobby that will be the captain coming for you now. Go." I seized up the TI and thought of using it on the marine, but the snarl from the phone changed all that. "I'm watching you, diGriz-no games!" I muttered a few favorite profanities under my breath as I opened the door. A burly marine with nasty tiny red eyes and a jaw like an anvil was standing outside. He saluted a quivering tense salute. I touched the flashlight-TI to my brow~ "Transportation to the airport is waiting," he shouted. "After you, sir" It was all very well organized; at least the Special Corps could get this kind of thing right. Marines stamping, guns waving, sirens wailing; the usual. Captain Grissle briefed me on the way, ticking off the points with a raised finger. "One. The Hammar City police have the area where we are going under close observation. Investigation has shown that the machine you are looking for is in a meeting hail owned by an organization called the Circle of Sanctity. Very exclusive, bigwig politicians and industrialists. Some of the members of this group are being interrogated right now." "Do you know what this whole operation is about?" "I do, Agent diGriz. I have been in on this investigation from the very beginning. Point two. Unlike the other churches involved in this investigation, this operation appears to be all male. Instead of looking forward to Heaven, this lot is into money-and power. An industrialist named Baron Krummung seems to be in charge." "They get rich, he gets richer." "That's it." "Identification?" "Positive. A bit older, fatter and balder. But he's Slakey, no doubt at all." Another incarnation. How many of them were there knocking around the galaxy? Depressing thought-there could be any number, armies of the same man, images clicked at different points in time. And all of them sharing, the same thoughts and memories. That didn't seem possible-I decided not to even think about it. "How do you want to handle this operation?" the captain asked. "Am I in charge?" "Completely. Orders received from the highest level." "Inskipp?" "None other." "He's getting mellow in his old age." "I doubt that. We follow your instructions exactly. As long as I and my two sergeants are with you at all times."

CHAPTER 10

THE FLIGHT IN THE BALUSTIC-ORBIT SST did not take very long at all. Plenty of G's at each end, acceleration and deceleration, with free fail in between. I slept when we were weightless, found it to be very relaxing indeed. And I had plenty of sleep to catch up with. Ground transportation, and another marine officer, a lieutenant this time, were waiting for us. There was a lot of snapping of stiff salutes, so dear to the military heart. I waited impatiently until all thumbs were back on seams on trouser legs. "Tell me. Lieutenant, has anything changed since the last report?" "Negative, sir. The detectors are keeping track of the two individuals just as before. They have not moved again and we have kept our distance from them. Neither of them is in the vicinity of the machine." "Do they have any idea they are being tracked?" "Negative. We have never approached them-never even seen them in fact. Our orders were to keep distant observation until you had secured the machine." "I'll do that now. Lead the way." I was keeping this operation as simple as possible since I didn't want a third goof-up. The front door to the building was already open and secured; more marines were keeping out of sight inside. My armed guard trotted behind me when I trotted, stopped when I stopped. "Tell me again," I whispered. The lieutenant pointed to high, double doors at the end of the hail. "That's it, where they meet. It is a conference room, circular, about twenty meters across." He handed me a small metal box with a collection of dials on it. "Your detector, sir." "Give it to the captain to carry. Is the door unlocked?" "Don't know, we haven't been near it. But I have the key here." "Good. Here's what we do. We walk quietly up to the door. You put the key into the lock. You try it. If it is locked then you unlock it. As soon as you are sure it is unlocked you give the nod-and pull the door open." I held up the TI. "This is not a flashlight but is a temporal inhibitor. You open the door and I turn it on. Everything in that room will be fixed in time. Nothing there, human or mechanical, will be able to move until 1 turn it off again. Which I will not do until the machine is secured. Do you all understand?" Their eyes were glazed-and with good reasons. I shrugged. "You don't have to. Are you all ready?" They nodded enthusiastically. "Then let's do it." They all saluted again and at least they were quiet about it with no stamping boots this time. Grissle and his two sergeants were breathing on my neck as we crept forward I readied the TI. The lieutenant put the key in the keyhole, turned it slowly-then pulled hard and the door flew open. "Zapped!" I shouted as I switched on the TI. It was pitch dark inside and I couldn't see a thing. "Can you turn on the lights?" I asked. There was no answer. Frozen in time. The lieutenant was strangely off balance and still pulling on the door handle. My glassy-eyed squad were as still as statues. I stepped back a bit and as soon as the field enveloped them they could move. "We're going in there," I said. "But I can't see a thing-and I don't dare turn this device off to find a light switch. Suggestions?" "Battle torches," Captain Grissle said, shifting the detector to his left hand and unclicking his torch from his belt. A bright beam flared out, followed by the others. "Stay close," I said. "Hold hands, hold my arms-or you'll look like him." I pointed to the crouching and immobile lieutenant; they all cuddled together. We shuffled forward slowly like competitors in an eight-legged sack race, towards the far end of the room. "Reading steady," Grissle said, "and the needle is pointing at that door over there." The door was open scat least I didn't have to worry about that. Shuffle-shuffle we went, lighting up the interior of the adjoining room. Revealing the rack of electronics. A duplicate of the last one I had seen-except that this one was intact. "There!" I pointed.. "That's what I want. Cuddle, clutch and shuffle. All right, stop here. Because we have a problem. I will have to turn this TI off if we are going to disconnect this thing." I pointed at a glowing light on the control panel. "We'll have to turn its power supply off as well if we are going to take it away with us. Any suggestions?" "The sergeants will draw their weapons to protect us," Grissle said, "You and I grab the machine, move it, look for any switches, power lines, whatever. There's nothing else we can do." I thought about it for a bit and could not think of any alternatives. "Let's do it. Get your guns out. Shout if you see anything. Or better yet-try to shoot first. I'll turn the time-freezer off and restore the status quo. Ready?" Grim nods of agreement; the sergeants with guns pointed, the captain taking a firm grip on the machine. "Here goes..." I touched the switch. And everything happened at once. The machine burst into life, lights flickering in quick patterns. With a terrible shriek someone appeared next to me, seized me and pulled me off balance. I grabbed him with my free hand.... We were going. Going someplace, somewhere, the sensations that weren't sensations again. Going. All I was aware of was my heart thudding louder and louder in an empty silence. Fear? Why not? Back to Hell? Or Heaven... White light, strong, warmer air. And the tinkling, clanking, crash of broken glass. I was on the ground, sharpness under my back, with a fat and older version of Slakey stumbling away from me. The temporal inhibitor was still in my hand. "Got you, Slakey," I called out, pointed and pressed the switch. He ran on, stopped and turned, swaying dizzily, laughing. "That weapon, whatever it is, won't work here. No imported machine will. You fool, haven't you learned that yet?" I was learning, but very slowly. And my punctured legs hurt. I put the inoperable TI against the broken crystal on the ground, used it to push against the sharp shards as I stood up. I pulled a sliver of glass from my leg and watched blood stain the fabric. "We're not in Hell," I said, looking around me. "Is this your Heaven?" It might very well have been because it was incredible. I gaped, very much in awe. But not so much that I didn't keep Fat Slakey inside my field of vision. What I saw was like, well, like nothing I had ever seen or imagined before. A world of transparent beauty, crystalline, exuberant, colored and transparent and rising up around me. Shrubbery of glass, analogs of trees and leaves, transparent and veined, reaching out on all sides. But not where I was standing I realized. Here it was all broken shards, a circular area of destruction. Broken and fragmented. "No, not Heaven," Slakey said. "Where then?" When he did not answer I took a step towards him and he raised his hands. "Stop there! No closer. If you stay where you are I'll answer your question. Agreed?" "For the moment." I was making no promises. But I knew so little that anything that kept him talking would be of help. "If not Heaven then where are we?" "Another place. I don't come here often. It is of little or no use. Whimsically I used to call it Silicon Valley. Now-I call it Glass, just Glass." "You're Professor Slakey. And perhaps you might also be the one who runs the operation we just left-Baron Krümmung." "If you like." Surly, looking around. I took a tentative step which got his attention. "No!" "I'm not moving, relax. And tell me what this is all about.. "I tell you nothing." "Not even about yourself in Hell?" He slumped when I said that. "A tragic mistake. I won't make that kind of mistake again. I can't leave of course, too long in Hell. Too long. Certain death if I left now." "The gun? Why the gun?" "Why? What a stupid question. To live of course, to eat. The colmicon contains little or no nutrition. A slow death that way. A gun to hunt with, a gun for a hunter." It was a sickening thought, for there was only one other food source in Hell. I was in the company of a madman-and I understood so little of what was happening. But he was talking and I had kept the important question aside, spoke it now as casually as I could. "That woman on Lussuoso. Where did you send her?" "That woman?" He laughed, a laugh devoid of humor. "Come now, diGriz, do I look that stupid? Your wife? Your Angellna-and you call her That Woman." He saw the expression on my face, turned and ran. Down a path of broken crystal through the magic forest. And I was right behind him and gaining. But he knew where he was going. Running-then stopping, looking down, shuffling sideways. I reached for him. Just as he vanished. Saved by himself, pulled out of this universe. I was very much alone. Stranded on an alien planet in an alien universe. And not for the first time. I tried to cheer myself up with the thought that I had been in Hell and had come back. "You'll do it again, Jim. You always win. You're the original good guy and good guys always win." Thus cheered, I looked around. The crystal forest glinted in the sunlight; nothing moved in the warm silence. The path of broken shards led away from the clearing. Where it went to I had no idea. I walked slowly down the path beneath the glass foliage. It turned and skirted the edge of the cliff now. There was water below, stretching away to the horizon. Off to the left, in the direction the path led, there were some offshore islands. Above me crystalline branches reached out over the water; waves were breaking over the rocks below. There was scud on the water, foam roiling and surging. I stopped. Slakey was gone and I was very much alone. This was not a very nice thought and I rejected it. It would just be a matter of time, that's all. Captain Grissle and his marines would have the machine disconnected by now and rushed to that dear genius Coypu. Who would analyze and measure and operate the thing to come and find me. I hoped. What next? Alone in this crystalline universe was very alone indeed. I smiled at the thought and started to laugh. At what? Nothing was funny. I shook my head, suddenly dizzy. "Oxygen-lots of it," I said aloud to reassure myself. There was no reason at all that the atmosphere on this alien planet should match the atmospheres of the terraformed and settled planets. Quite the opposite, if anything. Slakey was obviously seeking out and visiting worlds where humans could live and breathe. I held my breath for a bit, then breathed shallowly. The oxygen high died away and I looked around at the glass forest-with the trampled path through it. The path that now led along the cliff edge. Should-I really follow it? I was not used to indecision, so was undecided about it. But it really was decision time. My trip to Hell had proven that there was a cartographic coordination between leaving and arriving positions when flitting between universes. Sybil and I had arrived in that cave-and gone back from it. So should I go back to the place where I had arrived? Or try to find out more about Glass? "The answer to that one is obvious, diGriz," I said to myself. I believed in taking advice from someone very intelligent whom I trusted. "Sit on your chunk and wait to be rescued. And quietly die of thirst and/or starvation. Get moving and find out more about this place. For openers-is that ocean fresh water or is it loaded with chemicals? Or is the liquid really water? Go forth and investigate." I went. Along the glass-sharded path. Happy that the soles of my shoes were made of seringera, an elastic compound that is supposed to be as strong as steel. It had better be. The crystalline trees were higher along the coast, with meadowlike areas of bluish grass between them. I came around a bend in the path and in the middle of the next meadow was the statue of a glass animal. Up to this point I had just accepted the presence of crystalline growths. Too much bad happened since I arrived here to question the landscape. I did not query their existence; they just were. Maybe natural mineral structures, or perhaps some living creature like coral had secreted them. Or had all of this been made by some incredible artist? The orange and yellow little creature in the field certainly was a work of art. Glassy fur covered it, each hair separate and clear. The open mouth had two rows of tiny and precisely formed teeth. I looked beneath the tree next to it and jumped back. An animal, twice as big as I was, stood poised to jump. Unmoving. I relaxed. Admired the knifelike teeth with their serrated edges; giant claws stretched out from each foot. Glass grass crunched underfoot when I walked closer to it. Looked up and admired the artistic construction. The thing's eyes were on a level with mine and were certainly most realistically formed. Particularly since they were moving ever so slowly to look at me. These creatures were alive! I went back and bent over the smaller one, the hunted. Yes one foot was definitely lower, the one on the other side raised a fraction. I wasn't looking at sculpture or artifacts. I was in a world of slow-moving crystalline life. "Well why not?" I reassured myself. "You're not mad, Jim, you have just finally used your exquisite powers of observation to observe what should have been obvious from the first." I tried to remember my chemistry. Glass was neither basically a liquid nor a solid when in a disordered state. And wasn't water glass a liquid? As we are carbon based, so-there could be-there certainly were!-life-forms based on silicon. There would surely be some exotic chemical compositions and reactions involved. But all around me was living proof that it could happen. With the side of my shoe I cleared away enough broken fragments from the path to make a space to sit down. I rested my chin on my arms, braced on my kneecaps, held the position as long as I could. Yes-the two animals were moving. Slow metabolism and slow life. Entropy obviously moved at a different speed here, at least with these glass creatures. Too bad I couldn't stay and see who won the race. Maybe if I came back in a day or two I would find out. But exploring had better take precedent over sight-seeing; it was hot and I was already beginning to feel thirsty. The path along the cliff edge was dropping down towards the ocean below, until it eventually ended on a glassy beach. With all the fancy glass this planet sure had great sand. The water-if it were water-was clearer here. It was a tidal sea and the tide was going out. Ahead, in a finger of eroded rock, were sparkling tide pools. I went and bent over the first one-and something scurried into a crack. It wasn't the only thing living in the pool. Tiny fishlike creatures with trailing appendages flitted away from my shadow. And they didn't look like glass. They were living in the water, which maybe wasn't water. "Try it, Jim, you might like it," I advised myself. I scooped up a handful and sniffed. Smelled like water. Took a drop on my fingertip and touched my tongue to it hesitantly. Water. Slightly tangy-but still water. I sipped a bit of it and it went down well with no obvious ill effects. But that would be enough for now. That tang could be anything-and I wasn't terribly thirsty yet. I would wait and see if there were any bad reactions. I walked on along the beach towards the small islands just offshore. These were little more than sandbars. There were larger ones, also green and farther out, but these were close enough to see in some detail. There was growth of some kind on them. Green, unlike the crystalline forest and plants. Chlorophyll? Why not-anything was possible. Water and possibly food. Things were beginning to look up. They looked like bushes-and something was moving in them...Not the wind, there was scarcely any to speak of. Living creatures? Animals of some kind? Edible or intelligent? I would settle for either or both. I strode Out knee-deep in the sea towards the closest one. The water was very shallow and I might be able to reach it without swimming. "Hello!" I called out. "Anyone there? I am a kind and peaceloving stranger from far away and mean you no harm. Mi vidas yin. Diru min-parolas Esperanto?" The figure moved out of the shade, waved and called out. "About time you showed up." "Angelina!"

CHAPTER 11

I WAS PARALYZED BY JOY, petrified by pleasure. Standing stock-still, shouting her name aloud. Smiling foolishly while she waved and blew me a kiss. Then she dived into the water, being far more practical than I was and not just standing there shouting and waving. A half dozen strong strokes and she rose up out of the water beside me like a goddess from the sea. Damp and solid with her clothing dripping wet and in my arms. Laughing aloud with pleasure, kissing me with an excess of loving enthusiasm. Forced to stop from lack of breath, still holding to each other, not wanting to be separated. "You feel all right-feel great," I finally said. "You are all right, aren't you?" "Couldn't be better, particularly now with you here. Bolivar and James-?" "They're the same. We've all been working hard to find you. I won't lie to you and say we weren't worried. I'm sure that you can well imagine our feelings." "I certainly can! But you got here so fast. It hasn't been much time at all. How long have I been away? It can't be more than two, maybe three days at the most. The days are so short here that it is hard to tell." We started back to the beach. I shook my head. "You were here only a few days-from your point of view. I'm glad of that because that means that you didn't have much of a chance to really get worried. But we are beginning to find out that time seems to move at a different rate in each different universe. Different entropy rate, that's what Professor Coypu says." "I don't understand-different rates? And different universes?" "That is what this whole thing appears to be about. Slakey has found a way of moving between these universes. So while only a few days went by here for you-it has been well over a month that has gone by since you vanished. I'll tell you in great detail what fascinating things have gone on during that time, but first, please, what happened to you?" She was no longer smiling. "I made a mistake, Jim, and I'm so sorry that I got everyone all worried and involved. I thought I could do this on my own. I really thought that the Heaven thing that the other girls believed in was all some kind of crooked scam. And I know all about crooks and scams. Master Fanyimadu seemed such a greasy slimeball I never thought he would react like he did-~or that he would be helped by his twin brother..." "Wait, my love-please start again, and from the beginning-I beg of you. Sit beside me in the sand, that's right, arms entwined. Big kiss or two, right. Now from the very beginning if you will. All I know about what happened is that message you left for me in my computer." "I was pretty cocky when I recorded it. Rowena and all the other girls were so excited about seeing Heaven that, I, well, wanted to see for myself. It took a good deal of convincing-as well as a lot of money-to set up the trip. I didn't want go unarmed so I had my gun, a grenade or two, the normal items. I planned to take a look at Heaven-then find out what kind of con job Fanyimadu was playing. But it never got that far. We met him at the temple and he gave us a theological pep talk, then told us that it was time to go. He took us by the hands and Rowena and I were following him when there was some kind of movement, some kind of thing happening, I can't describe it." "Neither can I. It's the going through or over or to a different universe." "Then you'll know what I mean. But it ended suddenly and we were still in the temple when this stranger appeared, looked just like Fanyimadu, and was shouting some kind of warning and pointing at me. Well, you understand, I just worked by reflex then-" "Reflex involved a certain amount of gunfire, some explosions, a little self-defense?" "Of course, you know how it is. Rowena was screaming and fainting, I was knocked down, but I still did plenty of damage you will be happy to hear. Then, I don't know how it happened, we were here in this crystal world, the three of us. The two men and me. They ignored me; one of them seemed to be hurt and the other was bandaging him. I was just diving towards them when they were gone. Just like that. Bang. When I found myself alone I, well, just looked around." "Was anyone else here?" "No one that I could see. It was lonely of course, and I missed you, and it was sort of frightening and depressing at first. But that was easy enough to ignore once I started exploring. There was really nothing else that I could do, I followed that broken-glass path to the ocean-isn't this the most incredible place you have ever been! I drank the ocean water and it seemed all right. There is a kind of grass and some shrubs on the little islands. They bear tiny orange fruity things too-but they are poison. I found that out the hard way. "But-you're all right?" "I am now. I was getting hungry so I sniffed the fruit, it seemed all right. That was when I took one little bite and was very sick for a very long time. So I just stayed there on the island and took it easy until I felt a little better. I was thinking about seeing what was on the bigger islands as soon as I had the strength. There is the ocean of water here, but no food. I was beginning to get a little worried-and that's when I heard you calling. Now tell me what is happening, what it all means." A little worried! Any woman other than my Angelina would be a basket case left alone like this. I kissed her passionately which was very good. "Things have been very busy since you vanished. The boys helped me, but we couldn't get the job done alone. So we called in the Special Corps and Inskipp sent in the troops. As well as Professor Coypu and an agent named Sybil Who penetrated another fake church with still another Slakey. He seems to have multiplied- himself over and over again. We had a plan to find the machine he uses but Sybil and I were caught before we even got started. We ended up in a place called Hell. It's Coypu's theory that each of these places is in a different universe. Heaven is one, and Hell and this Glass are others. Then we set up a plan and I managed to get into another one of Slakey's front operations, trying to lay my hands on one of the machines for the Professor to examine. It didn't quite work Out as planned- which is how I ended up here." "You have been busy. Now tell me more about this Hell place and your companion, what was her name? Sybil?" I recognized that tone of voice and told her in greater detail about my visit to Hell. Sybil had only a brief mention and I think that I came out of it pretty well, certainly Hell had not been the time or the place for romance of any kind. "Good," she finally said. "And the last time you saw the boys they were enjoying themselves with this female agent. How old is she-about their age, you think?" There were daggers behind her words and I walked ever so carefully. Yes, would you believe it, exactly the same age as the boys. Mutual interests, nice to see. But it was even nicer to be with her here. Which led to some enthusiastic cuddling and no more talk of Sybil. "Enough," she said finally, standing and brushing the sand off her clothes. "With James and Bolivar in good health and enjoying themselves, Inskipp in charge of the investigation and Coypu busy inventing his brains out, we have no need to worry about any of them." "Correct-we worry about ourselves. Only we don't worry. One can die of thirst in three days, but we have an ocean full of water so that's not going to happen." "Yes-but you can also die of starvation in a month. And I'm beginning to get hungry." She pointed out at the larger islands. "There could be food out there. Why don't we take a look? I have had plenty of time to think about the situation here and I was going to do just that. Did you notice how all the crystal life-forms stay away from the shore?" I hadn't but I did now. "I'll bet you know why." "I do. I made a simple experiment. Whatever the living crystals are, they are not glass. They dissolve in water. Not right at first, it takes awhile. Then they get sort of soft and swell up, and eventually melt completely." "What happens when it rains?" "It never does. Look-no clouds." "And the water doesn't bother the other kinds of life here? I saw things swimming around in a rock pool." "Some of the green growths extend roots or something into the water. Meaning they are a water-based life-form like we are. "And might very well be edible," I said with growing enthusiasm. "While we can't eat the glass creatures, we might find something we can nosh on the islands." "My thinking exactly" I rubbed my jaw and looked over at the sandy beach on the nearest island, no more than two hundred meters away. Beyond the beach there were green growths of some kind, much bigger than the shrubs that covered the small island that Angelina had explored. "But we also have to think about leaving Glass," I said. "We should go back to that spot where I appeared. So Coypu can find us when he gets his machine working." "He can only get it working after he invents it and builds it," she said with great practicality. "I suggest that we leave a message there telling him where we are. Then do a little exploring. If we are going to be here any length of time we are going to need food." "My genius," I said, kissing her enthusiastically. "Rest and save your strength. I'll trot back and do just that." While I trotted, then slowed down as the oxygen got me giggling, I considered a vital problem-how was I going to leave a message? By the time I reached the clearing I had the problem solved. My wallet was still in my pocket and was filled with unusable money and valueless credit cards. With my current name on each one. In the clearing I used my shoes to kick and scrape clear a circle in the sand. In the middle of it I placed the wallet. Then, picking up the pieces of glass, with great delicacy using a fragment of shirttail, I constructed an arrow of colored fragments that pointed back down the path. With other pieces I spelled out the single word ISLANDS. "Very artistic, Jim," I said, stepping back to admire my handiwork. "Very artistic indeed. When our rescuers arrive they will figure that out instantly." I stepped over my announcement and went back to join Angelina. It was growing dark and she was sound asleep. It was warm and the sand was soft-and it had been a busy day. I sat beside her and must have fallen asleep as well, for the next I knew it was daylight and she was lightly patting my shoulder. "Rise and shine, sleeping beauty badly in need of a shave. Rise and drink your fill from the ocean, then let's swim over and see if we can find some breakfast." "Let me show you something," I said, removing the cloth bundle from my pocket. "Used my shirttail. Wrapped another piece of shirt around it to make a handle." "You are so practical, my darling," she said, taking up the glass dagger and admiring it, then handing it back. "But won't it dissolve when you go into the water?" "Not if I hold it over my head and swim with one arm." "My husband, the athlete. Shall we go?" It took her only a few strokes to reach the first, smaller island, where she waited patiently while I thrashed over to join her. When we started across to the other side she stopped and pointed. "There," she said, "under that thing that looks like a cross between a sick octopus and a dead cactus. Those are the shrubs I told you about. The ones with the orange fruit. Pure poison." "Let's see if we can find something better on that larger island. It was a tiring swim for me but I did it without getting a drop of water on the blade. I emerged from the water panting and puffing and looked around. "There may be other berries or fruits or such that aren't too obnoxious," I said. "That looks like a path over there." "If there is a path-then something made it. And that something could be dangerous." "Remember my trusty knife," I said, unwrapping it and brandishing it happily. "In that case you may lead the way" The path really was a path, trodden flat and turning and twisting through the strange growths. There were analogs of trees, shrubs and bushes, even a green groundcover halfway between grass and moss. But nothing was in any way familiar. Or looked in any way edible. It was Angelina who saw a possibility first. "There," she said, parting the fronds of a feathery growth. "Those bluish bumps on the trunk." The bumps had a nasty resemblance to blue carbuncles. I bent and prodded one with my fingernail; a thin skin split and blue juice oozed out. "Possibly edible?" Angelina asked. "Possibly," I said with deep suspicion. "And there is only one way to find out. It's my turn to be guinea pig." I reached out gingerly and poked my finger into the juice. Brought it to my nose and sniffed. "Yukk!" I said. "Even if it is edible it will come up even faster than it went down. Press on." I wiped my finger in the soil until it was filthy but cleansed of the juice, then started warily down the path again. It wound around the larger growths but always continued in the same direction. Uphill and away from the shore. "Wait," Angelina said. "Do you hear anything?" I stopped and cocked an ear, then nodded. "A sort of booming sound, coming from up ahead." "Jungle drums. Perhaps the natives are restless." "We'll soon find out." I tried to sound more cheerful than I felt. Stranded on an alien planet in an alien universe. No food to eat, unknown dangers to face. Most depressing. But at least I had Angelina again and that was incredibly cheering. I grabbed the mood swing as it went up and tried to hold onto the good feeling. I still walked slowly and silently with the knife probing out before me. The booming was louder and the beat most irregular, slowing then quickening in an unpredictable manner. Well why not? We couldn't expect a big-band sound here. Now the larger growths were thinning out and I could see what appeared to be a clearing beyond the bole of the last, much larger, one. The path turned there and appeared to go on, skirting the clearing and not crossing it. "Very suspicious," Angelina said. "Whatever creature made this path it appears that it didn't want to cross that clearing." "It might be shy-or nocturnal or something like that." "There also might be something in the clearing that it didn't want to get near. And that's where the sound is coming from." We stopped behind the big, bulging growth that appeared to be covered with thick green hair; then cautiously looked out. "Wow!" Angelina gasped. Wow indeed. In the very center of the clearing was a single grayish, lumpy thing like a great pile of slumped mud. A long growth emerged from its summit and hung down almost to the ground. Growing on this, like fruit on a branch, were glistening red spheres. "Fruit maybe," I said. "Possibly edible." "Possibly dangerous," she said. "I don't like the way that thing is out there alone-and the way the path circles around it." I did not like it either. "Two choices then. We follow the path and stay away from the thing. Or we get closer and find out more about it." "Knowing you, Jim diGriz, your mind is already made up. But I'm going with you." "A deal-as long as you stay behind me." When we stepped into the clearing the drumming sound stopped. It knew we were there. In a moment the sound started again, faster and not as loud as before. This continued as I walked slowly in its direction. Stopped and looked at it closely and shook my head. Indeed, I thought, it sure is ugly. - A wet orifice opened in the center of the bloated form and a deep and rasping voice spoke. "It... sure is ugly," it said.

CHAPTER l2

"IT CAN TALK!" ANGELINA SAID, "Not only talk-but it can read minds too. That is just what I was thinking before it spoke." "I wonder if it can read my mind too?" the thing said hoarsely. Angelina stepped back. "That is what I was thinking. I don't like this thing, not at all. Let's get Out of here." "In a moment. I would still like to find out what those globes are." I did find out-far faster than I really wanted to. With incredible speed the branch-like growth whipped towards me. Before I could jump back it wrapped around my neck and pulled me forward. "Grrkk...", was all I could say as I sawed at the thing with the glass knife. Yellow ichor dripped from the wound; the thing was incredibly tough to cut and I was still being pulled forward. "Hack it off!" Angelina shouted, seizing me around the waist and pulling back as hard as she could. It helped a bit, but I was still being pulled towards the opening that had emitted the voice. It had stopped speaking now as the opening gaped wider and wider, moist and filled with sharp, dark edges. I sawed and choked. I couldn't see very well. I kept on sawing. The opening was just in front of my face when I cut the last fibrous strand and fell backwards. I was vaguely aware of Angelina dragging me along the ground away from the thing which was now booming Out loudly and hoarsely. "I wonder if. . . it sure. .. read my ugly..." I sat up and rubbed my sore throat. "That was ... too close." "How do you feel?" "Bruised-but all right." I looked down and realized that the knife and my right hand were covered with the thick and sticky liquid. And I was still clutching the severed end of the stalk, with a red globe attached to it, in my other hand. "Let's go back to the ocean," I said, as hoarsely as our opponent who was still talking, feeding back a mixture of our thoughts to us. "I want to wash off this gunk-and see what this red thing is." "I'll carry it," Angelina said. "Move-before this monster pulls itself out of the ground and comes after us." She meant it as a jest, but I did walk that much faster. Back to the shore where I scrubbed and cleaned off the congealing liquid. Angelina was beside me dunking the globe into the water. "Let me have the knife," she said. "It's my turn to try the local cuisine." "The knife is getting soft." "I'll be quick." Before I could stop her she had sliced the thing open to reveal wet and even redder tissue inside. It looked uncomfortably like flesh. She cut off a sliver and sniffed it. "Doesn't smell too bad." "Don't!" I said, but I was too late. She had popped it into her mouth, chewed quickly-and swallowed it. "Not too bad," she said. "Tastes sort of like a cross between seafood and candy." "You shouldn't have done that..." "Why not? Someone had to. And as I said-it was my turn to do the testing. And I still feel fine." "Well, at least we know why the path went around the clearing, Ouch!" I had touched my sore neck. "We stay on the path from now on. You were right about that. That thing, it's like an angler fish." "A what?" "A fish that lives at pelagic depths in the ocean. It has sort of a fishing-pole organ growing out of the top of its head that dangles in front of its mouth-hence the name. It has a lump at the end that glows in the dark and attracts other fish. They snap at it-and get eaten." "But why the mind-reading stunt?" I sighed and shrugged. "Anyone's guess. It must work well on the local life forms-what are you doing?" She had cut off another piece of the red globe and was chewing on it. "Eating, of course. I still feel fine, and I am more than a little hungry." I watched the shadows move and tried to estimate how much time had elapsed: Angelina looked at my face, then reached out and patted my hand. "Poor Jim. You look so worried. I'm fine, but still hungry." "Let me try some before you eat any more of it. Maybe it is a sex-specific poison." "What a charming thought," she said and scowled fiercely. "Sorry, shouldn't say things like that. This place must be getting me down." I cut, chewed and swallowed. "Not bad. But after we finish this fruit I'm not going back for a second try at that thing." "Agreed. And you have noticed that it is getting dark again?" "I have. I suggest we doze here until dawn and then press on along the path. Second the motion?" "Absolutely." When the sun woke us we were alive and well and hungry. We divided up the fruit and ate it all. Washed off the juice, yawned and stretched and looked at the path. "Can I have the knife today?" Angelina asked. "So I can break trail." "Gone," I said, pointing to a damp knife-shaped spot in the sand. "I'll see if I can find a rock that will do." She found one shaped not unlike a hand ax, traditional tool of mankind. I looked for another one, then put a few more rocks in my pockets. Angelina led the way since she was as strong and fit as I was, possibly with better reflexes. And I was not about to start discussing the equality of the sexes with her at any time. With our stomachs full, our bodies rested, we made good time. And followed the path around the clearing. I stopped just long enough to throw a rock at the creature there; I had carried it all the way from the beach just for this moment. It thudded nicely and the tentacle thrashed violently. "I wish... I had a power saw the thing said. "Did you think that?" I asked. "You better believe it." We struggled up the last and steepest part of the path to the ridge at the top. And stopped. "Quite a change," Angelina said. All the green growth ended sharply. As though a line had been drawn along the summit. A bowl in the hills stretched out ahead of us. Completely devoid of life. Sand and rock and nothing more; an empty, barren desert. "You said that it never rains on this planet?" I asked. "Never." "If it did that would also be a sloppy end for the glass life forms. It also means that the carbon and chlorophyll life can't get too far from the ocean. I'll bet they dip their roots into it or get dew from the air. So up here-no water, so no life." "But the path goes on," she said, pointing. "Interesting. So I guess that we do too." We followed it as it twisted and turned between boulders as big as houses, on to a central flat desert of sand. "What on earth is that?" Angelina asked. I could not think of an answer. In the sand was a small pyramid apparently made of rock. It was seamless-but hollow. That was obvious because the top was broken off and we could see inside. It was empty. But what was most interesting was the slightly larger pyramid close by. Also with an opening in the top. And the next and the next. Stretching out in a straight line across the desert. Each one with an opening in the top, each larger than the one before. "An alien enigma," I said brightly; Angelina just sniffed, not considering this worth an answer. We left the path and walked along the line of pyramids. There were over thirty of them, the final one taller than we were. "The last one," Angelina said, pointing. "The top. It comes to a point-and it is solid. Any explanations?" For a rare moment I was silent. "Shall I tell you what is happening?" she said. "Speak, I beg of you." "This has obviously been constructed by a silicon life form. It digests sand and excretes rock thus building a pyramid around itself. When it grows too big for the pyramid it cracks out, moves along and builds another one." "Highly interesting," I said, dazed by her logic. "But how did it get to build the first one in the first place-and how does it build a pyramid from the inside?" "You can't expect me to know everything," she said, with impeccable logic. "Let's get back to the path." "Let's not quite yet," I said pointing. "Isn't that something following the path and moving towards us?" "Some things not a thing." "You're right. Any reason we shouldn't stay out of sight until we see what they are?" She nodded and we stepped into the shadow of the largest pyramid where we might see and possibly not be seen. Angelina cocked her head, then pressed her ear to the side of the pyramid. "Listen," she said. "Isn't there a kind of crunching sound coming from inside?" "Please, not now. Possibly later. One alien mystery at a time if you don't mind." The marching file of creatures was surely mystery enough. There were eleven of them and they were roughly man-size. But the resemblance ended right there. A fringe of legs or tentacles or something twitched quickly against the ground and carried each creature along. These moving parts supported a solid trunk the color and texture of tree bark-it could be a tree trunk for all we knew. A single stalk, very much like the one on the creature that had tried to eat me, emerged from the top of the trunk with what looked like a bulbous eye at the end. The eyes bobbed and looked about, apparently not seeing us pyramid lurking in the shadow. They shuffled by in silence, stirring up a quickly settling cloud of dust, climbed over the rim and vanished down the ridge on the other side. "Now will you listen to the pyramid?" Angelina asked. "Yes, of course, sure." I listened and perhaps I did hear a distant crunching. "I can hear something..." "They're coming back," she said. And so they were. Whether it was the same bunch or a different lot it was of course impossible to tell. Different ones, surely, because in the brief time they had been out of sight they had changed completely. The ribbed trunks had become globeshaped and transparent, expanded from within so the ribbing now formed irregular stripes on the surface. "They're filled with water," Angelina said, and I nodded dumb agreement. "Possibly, possibly,' I muttered. "They march out of the desert and fill with water from a spring or from the ocean. Then march back with it. Why?" "There is only way to find out-follow them." Perhaps it was not wise. Possibly dangerous. But there were too many curious and unsolvable puzzles on this planet. We both had the desire to see if we might possibly solve at least one of these. When they were out of sight we followed them down the path. Nor did we have far to go. The path led to a row of large boulders and vanished between two of them. "Suspicious," I said. "Those rocks have been placed there." ~'It could be a natural formation." "It could, but the problem is the same. Do we stay out-or go in to investigate. And you will recall what happened the last time I got nosy. . "Behind you!" I took one look and jumped aside. Another string of water carriers was approaching-and they were almost upon us. We stood by the path tense and ready to fight. And while they were aware of us, our presence was completely ignored. The string shuffled on by in silence, each eye focusing on us in turn as they passed. "They don't seem too interested in us," I said. "Well I'm interested in them. Let's go." We did. Slipping between the large boulders, then following the path between a second row to walk inside a circular, rock-girt area. Where we stopped-and did our best not to gape and bulge our eyes as though we had a joint IQ about that of body temperature. It was so alien that it was hard to make out just what was happening here. One thing at least was certain-we knew where the water was going. The creatures we had been following wandered through a green labyrinth spraying water and shrinking their bodies at the same time. When this was finished, one walked away from the growth, then another and another. They milled about in a little group until, with sudden decision-or obeying some unseen signal-a line formed and they shuffled through the exit and were gone. We walked closer to the confused growth, stopped when we saw movement under the broad, leaflike structures. In the semidarkness, spiderlike creatures were climbing about, apparently tending the growth. Fragments of green fell down to the ground where other creatures cleaned them up. Another dropped down on the end of a cord or tentacle clutching something red. "Very much like that fruit you got your neck squeezed for," Angelina said. "Could be, could be-and look where it's going." A tall opening in the rock led to some kind of cavern beyond. I bent to try and look inside when there was a light pulling at my leg, a feathery touch. "What is that?" Angelina asked. As always on this world there was no easy answer. It was like a soft bundle of sticks, or a complex insect made of twigs. Whatever it was it was plucking at my trouser leg. Then it stopped and shuffled towards the cave. Stopped and waited. Then returned and rustled the fabric once again. "It's trying to communicate," I said. "I think it wants me to follow it. Well--why not?" "No arguments. We've come this far." When we started forward it scurried ahead. Stopped and waited, then moved ahead again. Sunshine filtered through the mouth of the cave, more than enough to see the sprouting creature that sprawled inside. That was the only way to describe it. It was covered with complex structures that were apparently growing from its green hide. Some I recognized; there was the top half of a water carrier. Another was a bristle of growths bundled together like our guide. And there were others that were totally incomprehensible. Then one of the working creatures hurried by with a red globe which it dropped into an opening in the thing's side. "It's looking at us," Angelina said, pointing. A group of whip-like tentacles, each ending in a bulging eye, had turned towards us. "Hello," I said. "Hello," it boomed out in return.

CHAPTER 13

"TALKING-OR MIMICKING" ANGELINA SAID. "Talking-talking-talking." Which wasn't much of an answer. The eye-stalks still swayed in our direction-as did another organ or mushrooming growth that started to form under the eyes. It began as a swelling, then opened up into a sort of trumpet-shaped flower. This moved back and forth as though searching for something, then turned and pOinted directly at me. I stepped back- Color, sound. movement, terror. Pain and red sounds, sharp memories. A scream. . . a shout... Then it ended and I realized that the person shouting was me. Hands on my arms, I blinked my eyes clear, saw that Angelina was holding on to me. "What happened?" she asked. "I.. . don't know. What did you see?" "You closed your eyes and, well, just dropped to the ground. Then you just sort of scrunched up, shouting and twisting. It only lasted a moment." "That thing, I said, my breathing rough. "It was in my brain, trying to communicate or something. Big and strong-" "Did it try to hurt you?" "Not at all, quite the opposite. There was curiosity there but I had no sensation of threat or menace. Whatever it wanted it, well, didn't find. It just pulled out. Perhaps I'm not in its intellectual league." While .1 was talking the flower growth closed and disappeared. Next to it the water-carrier that had been growing larger stopped and began a sort of twisting motion. Then, with a plopping sound, it pulled free of the surface. Jumped to the ground and hurried away. "It's the queen thing." Angelina said. "Growing parts of the colony." "Or maybe it is the colony." After that one attempt to communicate the creature never tried again. The eyes were withdrawn as though it had lost all interest. But it knew we were there because one of the leg creatures came hurrying into the cave with two of the red fruit we had seen growing outside. It plopped one into an opening in the giant creature's hide-then dropped then other one in front of us before rushing outside again. "Thanks, Queenie," I said. "Very kind of you. Is it chow time? Looks like the one we ate before-and our friend here just ate one. Shall we give it a try?" I squatted down to look more closely at it. I prodded it with my finger and it split open. I licked the juice from my hand. "Tastes very much like the other one we had to fight for." "Why not? If that murderous thing in the clearing is offering tempting goodies I suppose they must be edible. Give me a piece, if you please." We finished it between us. Then, feeling very much ignored, we went back out of the cave into the alien garden. "What about another One?" I asked. "You're on." None of the scurrying creatures came near us-nor took any notice when I reached up high and plucked another red fruit. We sat comfortably against the rock wall and ate it. It was very pulpy and liquid, food and drink at the same time. "Now what?" Angelina asked, licking the last drop of juice from her fingers. "A good question. And I suggest that we sleep on it." "One of us at a time though. I still don't trust this queen-of-the-hive creature." "Then we'll get out of here, find a secluded spot away from the path. We can always come back when we get hungry." Angelina yawned gracefully. "You are on, husband mine. It certainly has been a long day." We did this for two of the short days and nights. Sleeping, then going back for more fruit, mulling over our options, very limited indeed, and trying to figure out just what we should do next. With great effort at cogitation, we managed to never reach any important conclusions. Then we would sleep and start the whole process over again. On the third daylet Angelina came up with an observation that finally forced us to make a decision. She had been on this exotic world longer than I had-and had gone much longer without a decent meal. "You are losing weight, Jim. And so am I." Which was true, but I just did not want to mention it to her. "The fruit is filling all right-but do you notice how quickly you get hungry again after eating?" "I have been thinking about it, wondering really." "Stop wondering. Water is water, hydrogen and oxygen. Since we don't get thirsty we must have been getting enough to drink from the fruit. But the food is a different matter. Who knows what kind of elements and molecules make up this fruit. I don't think we are ingesting any nourishment at all. If we stay here and keep on eating this stuff-we are just going to curl up and die of starvation in the end." I sighed unhappily. "I'm forced to agree. The idea was tickling at my brain but I thought I was being stupid. It's been sort of fun here in a completely alien way. Back to Glass land?" "Nothing else to do. And you have strange tastes if you think our stay here was fun. I say back to civilization and some good food and a hot bath. Let's head for that clearing where we arrived. We'll see if anyone has found your message yet." I waved as we left. "Bye. Thanks for the hospitality." Of course there was no response. We went down the hill, skirted the killer angler, and swam back to the mainland. "Onward-to the glass forest," I said, trying to be as cheerful as I could. "Coypu will have the machine analyzed by now and will quickly build one of his own. Which he will then use to track us down and rescue us. We'll be settling down to a steak dinner before you know it." After three more of the local days had gone by I wanted to eat those words-since there was nothing else to eat on this world of Glass. My wallet was just where I had left it, my glass arrow and message undisturbed. I ground the crystal fragments to smithereens, growling darkly. After that-it was just waiting. The crystal glade in the forest remained empty. No one came, nothing happened at all. We stayed there, making only the briefest of forays back to the ocean to drink. Time dragged by so sluggishly that we felt we were making about the same progress as the crystalline carnivore. It was catching up on its fleeing prey, but so slowly, slowly. Another night fell and was followed by another sunny day. And another. I took a second notch in my belt and tried to ignore the growing thinness of Angelina's face. By the fifth day I began to worry. "There must be something else we can do," I complained. "I don't see what. You're the one who told me that all we had to do was wait. You must be patient." "I'm not!" "You never were. But you must make the effort or you will worry yourself into an ulcer." "I would rather drink myself into an ulcer!" The thought of strong spirits and cold beer got my spittle flowing. I spat into the forest and watched a stem of grass dissolve. Good thing it never rained here. I awoke with the sun on the morning of our sixth day of waiting, watching its green-striped disk shining through the multicolored foliage. It was no longer exciting to look at, nor did I wonder anymore what made the stripes. Angelina was pale and drawn, moaning under her breath as she slept. I didn't want to wake her; sleep was our only escape from hunger. And the endless waiting. I walked down the path a bit and looked out over the ocean. The waves surged turgidly against the cliffs; nothing else moved. Depression struggled onto the back of depression. I sighed mightily and went back to the clearing. When Angelina did wake up we talked a bit. I was thirsty but she wasn't, so I walked down to the beach to drink. There was nothing that we could carry water in. Therefore we took turns drinking so that someone would always be in the clearing. Waiting. The walk was tiring-but it had to be done. I drank my fill, then a little more. Filling the stomach helped for awhile with the hunger. The walk back, uphill part of the way, was particularly exhausting. And I had to walk slowly or I would have an oxygen jag. "Home is the drinker, home from the sea!" I called out. A feeble attempt at humor. "Hello!" Maybe she was asleep again. I shut up but walked faster. Stopped. Frozen. The cleared area was empty. "Angelina!" This was the blackest of blackest moments that I had ever experienced. If Coypu had his machine working-he could have saved her. That had to be it. Coypu had done this, not Slakey. Could that be it? But Coypu was an unknown. If the marines had grabbed a machine, and if it were intact, and if Coypu had built a machine An awful lot of ifs. But Slakey had plenty of machines and knew that we were here. He could have returned and seized Angelina and left me here to starve quietly. Was it Slakey who got here first and grabbed her off this world? "Who did this? Where are you?" I shouted aloud, brimming over with frustration and anger. And fear. It must be Coypu. It had to be him. I hoped. But if it had been him why had he taken just Angelina and left me here? There should have been a message, at least a message. I frantically kicked about among the broken crystal. No note, no traces of anything. For a very, very long time nothing happened. I was giggling with fear. Too much oxygen. Slow down, Jim, take it easy. I sat in the cleared area where we slept and breathed more slowly. With one last snicker the laughter died. Depression took over. The days on Glass were short-but this was the longest one I had ever lived through. It was growing dark and I must have nodded off with my head slumped on my chest. Fear, worry, hunger, everything. Too much, far more than too much. "Dad-over here!" Bolivar said. I blinked my eyelids, still half asleep, dreaming. "Are you all right? We have to move fast." No dream! I set a new record for the broken glass sprint. Slammed into him and almost knocked him from his feet. We were falling-backward into a brightly lit hotel room, onto a soft, carpeted floor. I just lay there, looking up at Professor Coypu seated before a great mass of bread boarded electronics. And Angelina smiling down on me. "I hope they gave you something nice to eat," I said, inanely, still not believing that it was all over and she was all right. She knelt and took my hands in hers. "Sorry it took so long. The professor says that he has trouble aligning the machine." "Calibration errors, cumulative, entropy slippage," Coypu said. "Gets better each time though." "Something to eat, Dad," Bolivar said, helping me to my feet and handing me a giant roast meat sandwich. Saliva sported as I growled and tore off an immense bite, chewed; paradisical. I took the proffered beer bottle by the neck and drank and drank until the back of my nose hurt from the cold. "Here, sit at the table," Angelina said, pulling out a chair. "And don't eat so fast or you'll make yourself sick-" "Warfle?" I said. "-and don't talk with your mouth full. Eat slowly, that's better, while I tell you what happened. It was Bolivar who came for me. No time to wait, he said. The alignment was difficult- just seconds. I held back but he grabbed me and that was that. It took so long to get through to you again, I knew what you were feeling. But it is all all right now. We are all together this time. The end of worrying." "The beginning of a lot of big worrying for some of us," Inskipp snarled in his friendly and ingratiating way as he walked into the room. He dropped into a chair and glared menacingly. "All right for you people to relax and cheer each other up with stories of your strange adventures. You forget that the rest of us are weighed down with responsibilities. Since this whole mess began we have been behind the eight ball, stuck in the mud, up the creek paddleless and getting nowhere as fast as a turgid turtle." Instead of pointing out the tangled syntax of his mixed metaphor I reached for another sandwich. Priorities exist. He chuntered on. "We have been tottering from calamity to calamity, our hand forced at every turn. Not one of the Slakeys has been apprehended. As soon as we close in on one of them another pops up and whips him away. All of our efforts so far have been spent in getting you out of trouble, diGriz. And the costs keep growing. I imagine it was your smart idea to rent this entire hotel, the Vaska Hulja Holiday Heaven, as center of this operation. Do you know how many millions of credits it has cost so far?" "More than the gross annual income of a rich planet-I hope!" I belched rotundly. "Sorry. Ate too fast. Another beer? Thanks, James. And every credit well spent, Inskipp, you old skinflint. Rockets have roared, Space Marines have exercised furiously, news broadcasters have been working overtime, the galaxy is an exciting place and zillions of happy citizens have been entertained delightfully. You should bless me as a galactic asset instead of whining about your overdraft. Nothing but good has come Out of this operation." He turned bright red and bulged his eyes, opened his mouth. But Angelina spoke first. "You are both right and wrong, Jim. It looks like Slakey has been put Out of business. The search is still on, but it has been a long time since the detectors found any trace of him--on any civilized planet that we have contacted. The search is now spreading to every recorded world, as our great leader, H. P. Inskipp, has kindly pointed out." She smiled but Inskipp was immune to the kind word and the gentle touch. "I'm going to pull the plug and cut our losses," he said. I was suddenly very angry. "No you are not, you monetarial moron! All of the civilized planets pay large sums to keep the Special Corps in business- and they never ask you for any kind of accounting. We are now faced with one of the biggest threats that mankind has ever faced-and you want to cut and run." "What threat? What can one man do that can threaten a thousand worlds?" "Think!" I said, grabbing up another beer to hold down the sandwiches. "Professor Justin Slakey may have started out as a top scientist and a genius. But this popping back and forth between universes has not only addled his mutual brains but in some way has multiplied his numbers. Do you want these madmen to go on multiplying and causing more and more trouble? We know he has sent people to Hell to provide lunch for his insane personification there. At the very least Slakey is a mass murderer. Who will go on committing murder and who knows what other forms of insane evil until he is stopped. And more than that..." I really had their attention now. All eyes were on me. All mouths mute as I raised the bottle and drank in dramatic silence. Then raised a hortatory finger. "Much much more than that. Look at all the lengths he went to, all the churches and organizations he created. All the masses of money he has collected. And why did he do all this? For the money, that's obvious. The sums involved are staggering. So ask yourself-what does he want the money for? What are his plans? "Anyone who thinks they are for the mutual benefit of mankind may leave the room. All who stay will have the pleasure of hearing how we can find Slakey and stop him. "Now-would you like to know how that can be done?"

CHAPTER 14

"OF COURSE WE WANT TO hear your plan, darling." Angelina said, then leaned over and kissed my cheek. "My husband the genius." Facetious or not it was heartwarming. Bolivar and James were giving me cheerful thumbs-up signs, Sybil did the same and even Coypu was nodding in reluctant agreement. The only glum one was Inskipp, still counting his mounting debts. I rapped on the table with my beer bottle. "I hereby declare this meeting of the Galactic Salvation League to be open. Who is taking the minutes?" "My recorder is running," Sybil said, sitting down and putting it on the table before her. "Welcome home, Jim diGriz. You had us all very worried." "I had myself very worried. What Slakey did to you and me in Hell-or to Angelina and me on Glass-is reason enough to pursue him to the edges of the galaxy and put him out of business. But we have more reason to go after all the hims other than simple vindictiveness." Inskipp sneered lightly. "And just what is that?" "I never thought that you would ask. I notice that while I was away you managed to lose track of him completely. Is that correct?" "Loosely speaking, why possibly, yes." "Speaking very tightly I would say that now is the time for a plan that cannot miss. Professor-how goes your universe machine?" "Very well, thank you. The little matter of calibration will soon be licked." "I'm cheered to hear that. How-many universes do you have access to?" He clattered his fingernails against his teeth, forehead furrowed in thought. "Theoretically of course the number is infinite. Perhaps we even create these universes-when we enter them, as you suggested when you came back from Hell. But, as of this moment, we have investigated or entered a little over forty-one." "Is one of them Heaven?" "No-but we are still looking. While the machine we captured has settings for different destinations I have no way of identifying them without activation and entry" "What about Hell?" "We very definitely can go to Hell. You will remember that your son James hypnotized a Slakey and made him send Bolivar there to find you." "Well that's, it, then." I sat back and sighed with satisfaction. "I could do with just a bit more to eat, if the sandwiches aren't all gone." "Stop toying with us, Jim diGriz, or you'll get more than a sandwich in your gob!" Angelina suggested. "Sorry, my love. I don't mean to make light of the situation. But it has been pretty grim of late and I was indulging myself." "You're forgiven. What's so important about Hell?" "Slakey is there. In his red, fat, insane, well-armed condition. Don't you think that if the other Slakeys could get him out of there-that they would? But they don't. Probably because it would certainly kill him, that's what Slakey on Glass told me. So we launch a little expedition to find him. And talk to him. An expedition in force because what one Slakey knows they all know. They won't kill him-that would be too much like committing suicide. But they will have no compunction about polishing the rest of us off when we try to talk to him. But if we get there fast, maybe use a bit of hypnotism on him, ask a question or two, right, James?" "A piece of cake, Dad." "We will then ask him to answer two incredibly important questions. Where is I-leaven-and what is the overall plan? It is imperative that we find out what the snakey Slakeys want all the money for." "Do it," Inskipp said, a man who always makes his mind up quickly. "What are you going to need for this job?"

It was a good plan, and a tight one. As soon as Slakey found out what we were up to he would react. Violently. And he was well ahead of us technically. Coypu still-had not found a means of getting any operable machines into another universe. But Slakey in Hell had a working gauss rifle. I just hoped that there wasn't any more universally transportable weaponry in Slakey's hands. Our advantage would have to be speed of attack. And numbers. But our primary hit team had to be small so it could move fast. I would go because the whole thing was my idea. Then James had to be with me since he had to hypnotize the old red devil. And Angelina of course, she would not let me go alone. And of course Bolivar, who naturally would not permit a family outing without being present himself. We would go in fast and hit hard. But our flank would be protected by two hundred very mean and obnoxious Combat Marines. They would be armed only with their hands and feet and combative know-how. Which should be enough. They would be guided by Sybil, who certainly knew her away around Hell. Also, I had caught a number of dark looks from Angelina whenever she saw me talking to the female agent. Which meant that life would be a lot smoother if Sybil led the troopers. My old companion, Marine Captain (3rissle, would be in charge of the troops and I received a message that he urgently wanted to see me. I sent for him. "No guns?" he asked as he stamped through the door. "A marine is not a marine without a weapon." "Unarmed combat, they're supposed to know all about that kind of thing." "They do. But they would do better with a grenade or two." "They would fuse into lumps and would not go off. I couldn't even open the blades on my pocketknife in Glass." "Bayonets?" "They will get stuck in their scabbards. And don't say leave the scabbards behind. I do not relish the thought of two hundred marines popping through into Hell and falling all over each other with naked bayonets in their hands. But, yes, I have thought about it and think that something can be done. We will all be carrying weapons." "What?" "I will work out the details and you will see just before we leave. Dismissed." It took a few days to make all the preparations, which gave us a useful breathing period. Angelina had had a chance to put some weight back on, four good meals a day helped, and we were all raring to go. Coypu had been fiddling with his equations and his circuits and had built a superior model of his dimensional doorway. "Basically its just a matter of power," he explained. "Slakey had to conceal his machines, keep them small and out of sight. We have no such restrictions." The new machine was most impressive. At great expense he had tapped directly into the planetwide and international electrical grid. A large, red, insulated cable, over a meter in diameter, led into the main ballroom of the hotel, now converted into an electronic jungle. In the middle of the dance floor was a full sized garage door mounted in a frame. I admired it-from the front only of course. Since it had no back. That is if you walked around it you couldn't see it or it wasn't there or something. But it looked sound and solid from the front. "Take a peek and see what we have got," Coypu said, making some adjustments on his operating console. I turned the garage-door handle and opened the door a crack-then slammed it when the air began to whistle through. "-All black-with stars. And lower pressure. That's not Hell." "But I'm very close, that's the adjoining one. Try it now." A red sun burned down from the red sky. I sneezed when a whiff of hydrogen sulfide drifted out. "That's it," I said closing the door again. "Shall I call in the troops?" "I'm ready when you are." They were all waiting expectantly for the signal. Sybil and Angelina were the first to get there. Moments later the tramp of marching feet heralded the arrival of the marines. They stamped in, marched in position, faced front and thundered to a halt. "Great," I said. "Stand them at ease and be prepared for issue of weapons." "Weapons!" Captain Grissle's great jaw cracked into a unaccustomed smile. "There!" I said as James and Bolivar drove in with the laden freight wagons. I opened one of the boxes and pulled out a bloated red form and waved it on high. "A salami?", Grissle gasped. "Very observant," I said. "A both deadly and edible weapon. Issue them to your men." "You're not playing the fool again, are you?" Angelina said as she and Sybil looked on dubiously. "Never, my love. This is a very serious decision and one that was worked Out with impeccable logic. Instead of fighting with the inhabitants of Hell, we feed them. If they have been resorting to cannibalism, a redolent salami will make Hell a paradise for them. However, since most of them are a little insane we must expect trouble. Then, in any emergency, you will discover that a ten-kilo salami can wreak fearful damage. And if we overstay our leave we can always eat them ourselves." The marines were issued one salami each. "And no nibbling!" I warned. Sybil and the twins took theirs, but the look in Angelina's eyes warned me not to even wave one in her direction. I took mine and held it aloft. "Are we ready, Professor?" "Locked on." "Then here we go!" I shouted, throwing open the garage door to Hell and pointing my salami. "Attack!" It was a lovely sight. With their salamis at slope arms and in perfect step, the marines charged straight into Hell behind Sybil. My family followed. As instructed, the marines had spread out in a long skirmish line. Sybil waved her salami and indicated the direction for them to take. Away from the lava lake and towards the foothills. "This is a terrible place," Angelina said. The ground trembled as flame and smoke shot from a distant volcano. "We'll get out as fast as we can. But it has to be done." "Some trouble over there," Bolivar said. One of the marines had been ambushed by two of the locals who had leaped out of hiding and tackled him. He swung his salami with trained skill and bowled them both over. This broke the salami in two which must have released a deliciously garlicky smell that brought instant attention from the sprawled men. They scrambled in the- sand, the marine forgotten, seized up their booty and fled. "Well done," Angelina said, lifting her face and giving me a quick kiss on the cheek. "Man down!" the captain shouted. "Take cover." "Let's go," I shouted and led the rush. Everything went according to plan; red Slakey would be easier to capture with so many marines involved in stalking him. It would be faster too. Two of the marines carried their wounded comrade by. 'Flesh wound," one of them called out. "Back through the door, the hotel doctor is waiting," I called after them. We slowed to a walk, panting and perspiring. By the time we reached the scene the marines had done their job and Slakey had been captured and disarmed. He was being held fast by two of the largest marines. Bolivar and James grabbed the prisoner while the marines fanned out in a wide circular formation around us. "We meet again, Professor Slakey," I said. He foamed a little and writhed in the twins' unbreakable grip but did not speak. I grabbed his arm so James could do his hypnotizing. Which, unhappily, did not seem to be working. "I can't get his attention, sorry," James said. "I've never worked with anyone in this insane state before." "Let me try," I said, breaking off a great chunk of salami and holding it close to the prisoner's nose. He stopped struggling and gaped; his nostrils twitched. Then he snapped at it and his teeth clacked together when I jerked it back. I handed the redolent salami to James. "You've got his attention now." "You're hungry," James said, "hungry and sleepy. Bite, eat, chew, that's it. Swallow, good man. Want more, nod, that's it." "Quiet!" a dark-suited Professor Slakey said, running up the hill towards us. An attacking marine swung a powerful salami and felled him. He rolled down the hill and vanished from sight. It was a good thing we had brought so many marines. One Slakey after another appeared-until at one point there were twelve attacking at the same time. The important thing was that they were all unarmed; apparently they had made only the single gun for Hell and we had caught them unprepared. Try as they might they never made it through the perimeter of muscular guardians. One of the Slakeys appeared almost on top of us, reaching for the now silent devilish form, but Angelina caught him and twisted and hurled him back down the hill. Then the attack was over as swiftly as it had begun. Our prisoner was now sitting on the ground happily chewing his rations. "They've stopped," I called out. "But stay alert-it could be a ruse-be ready for anything." "They won't be back," James said around a chewy mouthful. 'What one knows they all know. So they all know now that the prisoner let me down on the Slakey motivation for this entire thing. His brain is so addled that he had no idea of what I was talking about or what all that money is needed for. But he remembers Heaven, clearly, knows its importance. Once I had the information, the code sequence, the other Slakeys stopped the attack." "You've memorized it?" "Better than that." He held up the remaining half of his salami. "I scratched it on this with my fingernail."

CHAPTER 15

I WORKED OUT IN THE hotel's health club every day. The first day I was exhausted after an hour, the aftereffects of starvation on Glass saw to that. But the trainer sweated with me full time; weights, bike, hydrotherapy, 2G sprints and all the rest. It wasn't too long before I was able to put in a five-hour day and I was feeling fit and perky. My morale was also cheered on by the fact that I had put all of my lost weight back on as muscle. The layer of fat on my love handles, product of all dissolute and boozing living on Lussuoso no doubt, was gone. I jogged and I swam and realized I could no longer put off the moment of truth. Because I was sure that Angelina would not like it. "I don't like it," she said very affirmatively. "No." "My love-light of my life," I said clutching her hands in mine. The bar was empty and only the robot bartender was observing this digital act-of passion. With a lithe twist she slipped her hands free, picked up her glass and sipped. I tried logic. "H' you look at the question from all sides you will see that this is the only possible answer" "I can think of a lot more possibilities." "But none that will work. We need to know what is happening in Heaven. The more people that go bumbling around there, the more chance there is of someone being spotted. One person must go in alone. One super-agent of superlative talent and experience, a lone wolf, he who slinks by night, lithe, handsome, unbeatable-the galaxy's best agent. And I can give you a hint about his name. Some call him 'Stalowy Szczur,' others 'Ratinox,' and even 'Rustiniuna Stairato'-" "You?" "How nice of you to say so! Now that you have spoken the truth aloud-can you think of anyone who is better qualified?" She frowned and sipped her drink in silence, with perhaps the slightest gurgle from her straw when the last drop vanished. Stirred to life by this sound, the barbot whistled its wheels along the rails behind the bar and juddered to a stop. It spoke in a deep and sensual voice. "Does madam require a refill of her delicious drink, a Pink Rocket-popsy?" "Why not?" A metal tentacle snaked out, curled around the stem of the glass and zipped it away out of sight. A door in the thing's chest opened and a new chilled glass appeared, brimming with drink. "And for Sire? Drinkey7' I was in training and not ready to get smashed to the eyeballs on booze. "Diet-whiskey with a slice of fruit." "I can't argue with that," she finally said. "You are the best agent that Inskipp has. You know it and I can't deny it. Mostly because you are not an effete trainee new to the job, or a dogooder officer of the law. Instead, you are basically a bent and twisted crook with a lifetime of experience-in crime." "You make it sound so good." "I should know. But that still doesn't mean you go to Heaven alone. I'll go with you." "No, you will not. You will keep the homefires burning, guard my back and.. "One more word of that male chauvinist pig dreck and I will claw your eyes out." When she used that tone of voice she meant it. I leaned back when I saw her fingers arch. "I apologize, I'm sorry, I didn't mean it. Misplaced attempt at levity. I grovel at your feet," I said, dropping to the floor and doing a nice grovel and writhe. She had to laugh and the air was cleared and I took her hands in mine again. "I have to go, and I have to go alone." She sighed. "I know that, although I hate to admit it. But you will take care of yourself?" "A promise-that I will keep." "When do you leave?" "I'll find out this afternoon. Our dear friend Coypu thinks he has finally licked the communication problem between us and the next universe." "I thought he said that it was impossible." "That was on a bad day. Today is a good one." "I'll go with you." The professor had tidied up all the breadboarded devices and looping wires that had made up his machine. Everything had now been integrated into a hulking black console that was all readouts and twinkling lights, tesla coils and glowing screen. Only the giant electrical cable was the same. "Ah, James," he said when we came in, turned and rattled through a file drawer. "I have something for you." He proudly produced a featureless flat black disk with a hole in the middle, dusted it off and passed it over. "A music recording?" I asked, puzzled. "You must not act like you have the intelligence level of plant life," he miffed. "What you are holding is a singularly remarkable invention. It is solid-state, has no moving parts, and even the electrons are pseudo-electrons, so they move at zero speed. It is impossible to detect it or affect it in any way. I've tried it in a number of universes and it works fine." "What does it do?" "When activated it signals the mother machine here. Which reaches out and brings you back. Simple." "It certainly is. But how do I activate it?" "Even simpler. It detects brain waves. You think at it and it takes you home." I stared at the disk with admiration. What a wonder. I spun it on my finger. All I had to do was to think "Take me home..." Then I was across the room and slammed up tight against the machine, my hand held to its surface by the disk, my finger through the hole feeling as though it had been amputated. "Can't. . . breathe I choked out. Coypu hit a switch and I dropped to the floor. "A few little adjustments will take care of that." I stood up, rubbing my sore ribs, still clutching the disk as I pulled my swollen finger out of the hole. "Very impressive, " Angelina said. "Thank you, Professor. I'll have less to worry about now. When does he leave?" "Whenever he wants to." He threw another switch and bolts of lightning coruscated deep inside the machine and the tesla coil snapped out loud sparks. "But there are a few other factors that must be considered before he departs. I managed to poke the tip of a universal analyzer through into Heaven. Some very interesting results. See." A screen lit up filled with rolling numbers and wiggling graphs. "See what?" I said. "Makes no sense to me." Coypu snorted with disgust and sneered with superiority. In that order. Then tapped the screen of the spectral gas analyzer. "It is obvious." "Only to a genius like you, Professor. Explain, please." I was sorry I asked. He explained at great and boring length. Gravity, air pressure, oxygen tension, speed of light, all that was okay. But there was too much more of electron spin, chaos dispersion, water quality, sewage disposal, fractal fracture and such. When he got on to analysis of atmospheric components I stopped him. "What was that you said about some kind of gas?" He pointed to the analysis bar on the screen. "This. A compound I have never seen before, so it has no name. I call it nitoxcubed. Because it acts somewhat like nitrous oxide." "Laughing gas?" "Correct. But with the pleasure factor cubed. So everyone goes around half-stoned. Then, if they leave Heaven, they get withdrawal symptoms, as is noted in the interviews in the record." "I don't like that," Angelina said. "Could be habit-forming and Jim has enough bad habits right now. Can you do anything about it?" "Of course." He held up a vial of purple liquid. "This will cancel the effects, an antidote. Roll up your sleeve, diGriz." He filled a subdermal injector and gave my arm a spritz, blasting the antidote through my skin and right into my bloodstream. "This is the only precaution you need take. Are you ready to go now?" He pressed a button and power surged through the machine. "No rush!" I said, suddenly feeling rushed. "I need a good meal and a night's sleep first. We'll do it tomorrow morning, nice and early, at the crack of dawn. I will be off to Heaven." We went out on the town that night, savoring the pleasures of this holiday world for the first time. Angelina and I held hands while Sybil had each of the lads by the arm and it was a great evening. The sound and light display was something else again, with an aurora borealis in the sky above and a two thousand-piece orchestra in the pit below. Food, the best. Drink, better. Except for me; with morning getting ever closer I stuck to the diet-whiskey. At dawn, leaving Angelina smiling in her sleep, I tiptoed out of the bedroom and headed for my appointment with destiny. "You're late," Coypu said belligerently. "Getting cold feet?" "Kindly knock off the pep talk, Prof. I'm ready whenever you are." "Do you have the interuniversal activator?" "Sealed inside my bootheel. We shall not be parted." "Good luck, then." He threw more switches and the chine buzzed ominously. "The door is unlocked." I opened the garage door and peeked. It looked good. I threw it wide and stepped through. Nice. A warm yellow sun shone in the blue sky above, very different from the bloated red one in Hell. A small white cloud floated by at shoulder height. I poked it with my finger and it bounced away, giving off a pleasant chiming sound. The landscape was most serene, low rolling hills covered with short grass. A grove of trees nearby shaded what looked like a paved road. I walked over and poked it with my toe. It was indeed a road, paved with soft cobblestones, It wound out of sight among the trees to the right. To the left it curled up a valley into the hills. Which way should I go? There was a distant rumble like thunder from the direction of the hills. Curiosity, as always, won. I went that way. Curiosity paid off pretty quickly when I saw the road junction ahead with pointing-finger signs. I approached them with great interest. "Three ways to go," I said, peering up at the boards. "I have apparently come from the direction of RUBBISH DUMF-Which does not sound too exciting so I shall not retrace my steps. But, problems, problems, how do I choose between VALHALLA and PARADISE?" Paradise sounded Paradisical, and brought to mind that fine planet named Paraiso Aqui. Which indeed did become Paradise Here after I had been elected president. I had dim memories of Valhalla from my religious research, something to do with snow, axes and horned helmets. Paradise sounded much better Then I noticed the piece of paper that had been nailed to the pole supporting the signs. It read PARADISE CLOSED FOR REPAIRS. Which, as you might imagine, made my decision much easier The road wound up into the hills and through a small valley. It ended at what appeared to be a high and crudely constructed wall. Large tree trunks, still covered with bark, were set into the ground. There was a metal door waiting invitingly, set into the wood. It was a false invitation. It had a handle that would not turn. I pushed against the metal, which resisted strongly. I was about to try my luck in Paradise when I noticed the sign above the door. SERVICE ENTRANCE it read. Which implied strongly that there had to be another entrance. Which I would have to find. There was a path trampled in the grass and I followed it along the wall until it turned a corner. "Now that's more like it," I said with sincere admiration. No service entrance this! What looked like solid gold pillars held up a jewel covered pediment above a massive golden door. The precious stones glowed with inner light. There was the sudden blast of unseen horns, followed by loud and heroic music. Marching to its very enthusiastic beat I approached the entrance with great interest. When I came closer I saw that the Jewels spelled out a message that I was unable to read. Probably because it was in some unknown language made up of strangely shaped letters that looked very much like crossed sticks. Not only strangely shaped but in an unknown alphabet, unknown that is, at least to me. Above the jewels was an immense golden ax crossed with a golden hammer. "Looks great, doesn't it?" a voice said. I jumped, turned, landed ready for action. The music had covered the sound of his approach. But there appeared to be no threat from the newcomer. He was middle-aged and plump, wearing an expensive business suit and a white lace shirt with a blood-red necktie, and was smiling in the most friendly man- "You here same as me? Take a look at Valhalla." "Sure am," I said, relaxing. And taking note that woven into his tie with gold thread was the same crossed axe and hammer that hung above the entrance. "Valhalla here we come..." "Not yet!" he said quickly, raising his hand. "A look, sure, that's what I'm after. A quick look to see what the afterlife holds. Not quite ready for the real thing quite yet-" His voice was drowned out by a blasting blare of horns and a tremendous drumroll as the golden door slowly swung open. As the music died away a woman's voice bid us welcome. "I bid you welcome. Enter, good followers of the League of the Longboat and Life Friends of Freya. Enter and behold that which one day will be yours for eternity. As long as you pay your loyal tithe. Here is Valhalla! The mead-hall at rainbow's end. Come-forward-and don't trip over the snake." Some snake! It must have been a yard thick and vanished out of sight in both directions. It writhed slowly as we stepped over it. "Uroboros!" my companion said. "Goes right around the world." "Be quick," our invisible guide called out. "for you do not have much time. I shall part the veil, but can do this only briefly. Only by special dispensation of the gods is this possible. Thor always smiles upon warriors of the League of the Longboat, and Loki is away in Hell right now, so Thor, in his generosity, permits your presence for a quick peek at that which is yet to come. So look, breathe deep and enjoy for someday, one day; this will be yours The interior was veiled in darkness which slowly lightened. I stepped forward for a closer look and slammed my nose into an invisible barrier. It went down to the ground, stretched higher than I could reach. My companion rapped it with his knuckles. "The Wall of Eternity," he said. "Glad it's there. You have to be dead to pass it." "Thanks. I'll pass on passing. Zowie!" The exclamation was pulled out of me by the bizarre scene that was suddenly revealed on the other side of the bather. A fire roared in a massive stone fireplace and some entire giant beast was being cooked over it. At long wooden tables lots of big men with long blond hair and beards were really living it up. There was plenty of mad drinking and eating. Great mugs of drink were slopped onto the wooden tables, to be seized up and guzzled down. With one hand, because in the other hand most of the men held steaming meaty bones or the legs of very large birds. Their voices could be dimly heard like distant echoes, shouting and swearing. Some were singing. Great blond waitresses with mighty thews and even mightier busts were passing out the food and drink. An occasional shrill cry cut through the roar of masculine voices as buttocks were clutched; occasionally there was a thud as quick female action slammed a mug into a groper's head. Yet the large ladies laughed and tweaked many a Viking beard with more than a hint of orgies to come. In fact, dimly on a table in the distance, a meaty couple appeared to be doing just that, giggling in distant laughter. Which died away as darkness descended again. "Isn't that something!" my companion said, eyes staring with admiration. "Not for a vegetarian," I muttered, but not loud enough to spoil his fun. "I wonder if we belong to the same church?" I asked smarmily. There was no answer-because he was no longer there. Opportunity missed; I should have been prying information out of him instead of goggling the joys of Valhalla. I went outside, but he really had gone back to wherever he had come from. Behind me the door slammed shut and the glowing jewels stopped glowing. The show was over-and what had I found out? "A lot," I reassured myself. "But this is surely not the Heaven as Vivilia VonBrun described it. Valhalla looks like a man's idea of a night out with the boys going on forever. Which means there must be more than one heaven in Heaven. Perhaps she saw the other one, Paradise. Which means I should take a look at it-even if it is closed." Prodded by this stern look, I retraced my steps to the signboards, turned and followed the path to Paradise. It twisted its way through a thick stand of trees and brush. Then I stopped as I heard the rumble of a vehicle's engine ahead. Putting caution before boldness I dropped to the ground and crawled forward through the bushes. Parted the last one and looked out.

CHAPTER 16