The eyes of bolsk, p.7
The Eyes of Bolsk, page 7
But Randil had made a mistake. She herself stood on the arc between Rai's former location and where Kane now crouched. It happened in a moment's flicker. The beams "took" her in their unbroken movement toward him. He watched her vanish just before the heat and light crashed together somewhere inside his head. He felt his fingers lose their hold on the Magnum.
And then he felt nothing.
EIGHT
« ^ »
TO: Area subsection staff member Abr-Dorrek
FROM: Imparter section staff Supervisor Clav Io Yre
Your memorandum 567-32 to Imparter Third Class Aylan Rodens has been presented to me in protest. I am taking the liberty to respond as a result of discussions with this staff member, whose record is without blemish, as is the record of my entire section.
Your allegation that Imparter Rodens failed in a certain respect in his mission regarding your area—to wit, that he did not specifically inform your Agent Number Two that an Agent Number One existed—is contested. Imparter Rodens argues that you, as project coordinator, did not charge him with relating the disputed information to Agent Number Two. Nor, he alleges, did you charge him with pointing out to Agent Number One that another would be working with him. His argument is convincing to me, in light of his spotless record, mentioned above, and his recording of his conversation with yourself. If, however, you wish to issue a formal complaint in this matter, I will be happy to take our differences to the next higher level.
C.I.Y.
[On separate note:]
It occurs to me that since two agents assigned to the same task is a situation quite extraordinary in my memory (which takes in a long period of service), you might not wish to carry this issue further than ourselves. If I am correct in this thought, I will expect to receive back from you the attached memo initialed by yourself, at which time I will destroy it, plus all carbons, which at this moment I am addressing to your supervisor, his supervisor and my supervisor. As you see, the memo is not numbered and so may disappear conveniently. Also I trust you will recognize that should I need a similar favor in the future— to retain my spotless record—you will oblige in similar manner.
C.I.Y.
The smell of fried eggs and bacon.
Emerging from the blackness of wherever his mind had been, that was the first sense impression he was conscious of.
"You should be hungry," she said.
He opened his eyes and found he was lying on a kind of Danish modern couch, except that it was more comfortable than those he was familiar with. The room, small and low ceilinged, was well lighted, and somebody had made an attempt to make it look cheerful with bright colored paints. There was one door and no windows. It reminded him of a doctor's waiting room.
But first things first.
Before him on a blue metal tray was a plate of eggs and a baconlike, but thicker meat. Hungrily he wolfed down the food, while Randil watched appreciatively. When he'd finished, his senses had returned enough for him to feel something wrong. It was his left wrist—his watch was gone. He reached down along his body until his hands came to his calves. His knives and their sheaths had also been taken. His right hand shot to this throat. The amulet still hung from the chain around his neck.
"What happened to us?" he asked.
Randil shrugged her shoulders slightly. "They took us. The eyes."
"Took us." Kane repeated. "Took us where?"
"The place name is Uin," came the answer, voiced from the now open doorway. Kane had to crane his neck to see the speaker. He was in for a surprise.
"They needed me," Rai said, stepping into the room. "So they restored me. They can do things like that."
"They?"
"They being the rulers of this world. If you have nourished yourself enough, we are scheduled for an audience with the man they call the Chairman." Turning toward the door, he called cheerfully, "Warden!"
The figure who appeared at the call was grotesque. Wearing only a strangely styled breechcloth, the man was built like a Japanese Sumo wrestler. His skin was ash gray, his hairless head bulleted down to facial features contorted into an empty grin. The total impression he made was one of walking destruction, which made the needle shaped device —some sort of gun, Kane decided—he carried seem superfluous.
"We shall be accompanied by my friend here," Rai said. "He's been my constant companion since my revival. For some unaccountable reason, the leaders of this world don't yet have complete faith in my character."
As the Sumo herded them through the halls and corridors of the building, Kane marveled at the barrenness of the place.
"You'll notice," Rai said, "that there are no windows anywhere here. I'm told that this structure is far below the surface of the ground; Life exists on the surface, but the rulers choose to inhabit this place, though I cannot say why. The warden here cannot say either. He has not the ability to speak, being a mute."
But Kane was hardly listening. What fascinated him about the place was not its appearance. He'd seen places like it before. Sterile, expensively constructed, the endless seeming maze of corridors with their knobless doors spelled high security. Whoever built the structure had done so because there was something here to be protected—people, implements or information. If they were in fact underground, this would fit.
What still fascinated Kane was his being here. There was the question of how. And the overriding question: If he had been brought here so easily, would it be as easy to get back to Trovo? That's where the eyes were. That's where his task remained. An impossible task, it seemed, now more than ever.
The gray hulk touched a spot on an unmarked door to their right. It swung open to a scene Kane immediately compared with something from a space opera movie.
On the farthest wall was a screen about half the size of a theater screen. Lights pulsated on it in a variety of patterns—at least, Kane surmised there were patterns. Before the screen were a young man and a young woman, both uniformed, both sitting at what looked like small computer consoles. In the middle of the room, about fifteen yards from the screen, was a chest high chromium tripod upon which rested a long horizontal device that from the rear resembled a television tube. At the point nearest the screen, the implement came to a needle nose adorned with a bright yellow ball. Kane realized that the weapon held by the Sumolike mute featured a similar ball at its front, this one red.
Two curved divans, each large enough to accommodate two people, fanned out from each side of the tripod forming a half-circle with the screen as the diagonal. The geometry suddenly changed, however, when the couches turned on hidden swivels to face the group that had just entered the room.
The contrast of the two men, one on each of the couches, was startling. Both appeared to be in their sixties, but that was the only similarity. One looked kindly, with a white haired saintliness Kane compared to a mental picture of a bust of Aristotle he'd once seen. Adorned in a flowing white robe, he appraised the three visitors with an air of gentlemanly curiosity.
The other man's face reflected unhidden malice. He was a misshapen dwarf, and his dress looked military, yet was not a uniform in the ski suit fashion of the man and woman who attended the consoles. The outfit was made of a tough leathery kind of green material and was composed of two pieces, a vest and a kiltlike skirt through which protruded powerfully thick arms and legs. Upon a thigh high neck sat a huge head topped with full, close cropped red hair. Looking into this face, Kane recalled that he'd first thought of Rai as an embodiment of pure evil. Next to the dwarf, Rai looked like a caricature of a bumbling Satan drawn by a cartoonist who didn't believe in devils.
It was the kindly looking man who spoke. He spoke to Kane.
"You have been unconscious longer than the others. No doubt you are confused as to where you are and why you're here. You yourself are a confusion to us, but let us dispel your curiosity first."
He gestured to the screen behind him. "You have, of course, seen the windows—the eyes—from the other side, from the world known as Balik Trovo."
"Trovo," Rai corrected. "Balik Trovo is but one province."
The man in leather glared at Rai. The speaker nodded acceptance of the correction. "Trovo, then. You've seen the eyes there. Here, in this room—that screen, to be exact—is the other side. We are the seers who use the eyes of Trovo as windows to that world."
Windows, Kane thought. Aylan had spoken of windows.
"We have much to learn of Trovo," the speaker continued. Till now we have not had a good source of information, but the Philosopher Rai has consented to be our guide. We brought him here with that intent in mind. That is why he lives—to help us in our vital work, to teach us to manipulate the eyes with more control. The woman Randil was brought here because she held the device that the Philosopher tells us controls the movement. She lives at Rai's request."
"My sweet love," Rai said with a bow to Randil.
"You, Jared Kane, live for two reasons. The first is that you are a mystery to us. You are not of Trovo, and you seemed bent on destroying the eyes. You are a soldier of some type, we imagine, judging from the knives we removed from your legs—a precaution—and from the strange weapon you attempted to use against the eyes. A pity you dropped it before we could rematerialize you here. I would have liked to have Weaponer Chez Ebec"—he gestured toward the dwarf on the other couch—"examine it more closely."
Kane noticed a grin on the dwarf's face. It did not look pleasant.
"For information purposes, my name is Incony Venytys," said the speaker. "It is the custom here that I be addressed only as Honored Chairman. You are called Jared Kane, I am told by the wizard from Trovo. More than that he cannot tell, except that he believed you to be a fulfillment of a prophecy. This explanation leaves us nowhere, since prophecy and magic are things in which we place absolutely no trust."
"It was I who fulfilled the prophecy, Honored Chairman," Randil said softly.
Rai scowled. "But I live, my love. Therefore, the prophecy is not yet fulfilled. I shall, however, long remember your try. I trust you shall also." He smiled.
Incony Venytys raised a hand. "Quarrel among yourselves when you are among yourselves. In the present moment, I wish information from Jared Kane. First you will tell me of your world. Is it different from Trovo?"
Kane considered. "Not very. Trovo has one more moon than my planet, which in our language is called Earth."
The simple statement had an unusual effect upon the Chairman. His head jerked to the side, showing a disturbed expression to the Weaponer.
"A trick of the language translation devices, Honored Chairman," Chez Ebec said quickly. Kane now noticed that all of them—Rai and Randil included—wore the little earplugs like his, each with their little golden rings. No, not all. The mute wore no translator.
"Jared Kane," Chez Ebec continued, "this word 'earth.' Is it not also the word you apply to the ground? Does it not also mean dirt and soil?"
Kane nodded, still focusing on the questioning face of the Chairman. "It's also used in that meaning, yes."
The Chairman looked satisfied with the answer, but not entirely. "Jared Kane, I will not continue this interrogation until I have thought more about what you've said already. For the present, you may recall that earlier I told you that you were alive because of two reasons. The first is that you are a curiosity. The second derives from that fact. Because your presence in Trovo is difficult for us to assimilate, and because what technical knowledge your world may have may be of use to us, we offer you an opportunity to work with us."
"I know nothing of your work," Kane said.
"Perhaps. Perhaps not. In any event, you must make your choice now."
"And if I choose no?" Kane asked.
Incony Venytys shrugged. "We do not have an overabundance of rations here. Unhappily, therefore, dungeon and death await your refusal."
It sounded familiar to Kane somehow. Long ago—long, long ago—there had been a bullet fired at him…
"I accept your offer. Heartily," he said, not heartily.
"See that you keep your word," said the Chairman. "In the event that you do not, I have assigned Gron here"—he gestured toward the mute—"to stay by your side in order to report your transgression. He would first, of course, have to halt that transgression in any manner which occurred to him. Which might prove unpleasant."
Kane reflected that it might indeed.
The Chairman rose, "Now I have business elsewhere. I leave your further orientation to the trustworthy hands of Chez Ebec, who will explain to you our work and mission here." The Chairman turned on his heel and left. All but Kane and Randil bowed until the door had closed behind him.
"Sit," Chez Ebec directed.
Randil and Kane sat on the couch Incony Venytys had just vacated, while Rai joined the Weaponer. A hidden control became operative, and the couches swung 180 degrees, to face the screen again. Chez Ebec quietly gave the man and woman at the consoles orders to begin activation, then nodded to Gron, the mute, who left his position behind Kane and walked to a panel in the wall to their left. He grunted, and the panel swung open.
Randil screamed. Rai gasped. Kane was incredulous as whatever it was strode into the room.
"Two of you have met the lord Bolsk before," Chez Ebec said in introduction.
What might once have been a man stepped heavily to a place between the two couches. The body looked sick, withered, but the horror was where there should have been a head. A head was there—but not a human head. It was a brass colored metal of some kind, Kane decided, egg shaped and positioned vertically as if the bottom part of the egg was resting deep within the shoulders. There were no facial features, just a large circular lens, the outer edges of which converged on two three inch protrusions whose functions were not clear by their position.
Bolsk it might be, Kane thought, but what the thing looked like was a hideous space age Humpty Dumpty.
"The dead, headless body of Bolsk was the first thing to rematerialize on this side of the screen," Chez Ebec said. "Luckily, most of the equipment was already here as you see it. We were trying to force our own breakthrough when, miraculously it seemed, it was given us through the ever-seeing eyes."
"Breakthrough?" Kane repeated.
Chez Ebec explained. Uin's theories of the universe contained the notion of dimensional warp. The words struck a bell with Kane. Had Aylan used them? "The lengths and widths of time and space are fluid," the Weaponer continued, "emanating one from another in patterns difficult to trace except through higher mathematics. Visually, one normally does not become aware of such phenomena. On this planet we know of only one area where a flow from somewhere else travels through, though there may be others. The place is here, where you see that screen."
Chez Ebec went on to explain that the spot might never have been discovered had it not been for a war. "Uin Two, which is a civilization on our moon, declared its independence from Uin more than a hundred years ago. Uin Two was a colony, and naturally the government of Uin could not allow such a move. War resulted, which caused our government to seek safehaven below the surface of the planet. Deep in the earth new headquarters were constructed and strongly fortified. Shortly after the final phases of building, the warp spot was noticed."
Things began appearing from nowhere, Chez Ebec said. At least, it seemed that way. Strange artifacts were suddenly seen lying in this room, which had originally been slated to be a supply processing center. Finally a day round watch was put on the area, and when the next item came through, the spot was marked and a wall moved to accommodate the screen. Things continued to come through, but until Bolsk arrived, work to make the screen a viewer was to no avail. But upon Bolsk's coming, the reception screen suddenly flickered with images from Trovo. A light cannon rematerializer was installed so that things could be brought through at will.
"We still, however, lacked control over the movement of the eyes," Chez Ebec said. "We had hoped that the revitalized Bolsk might provide this—with some mechanical additions to his physical form. While we've not yet been successful with this approach, the work will continue. Another avenue of control—and one that offers much more hope of success—is the hand device brought here by the charming ex-mistress of Bolsk." He turned to the metal headed figure. "Greet the lovely lady, noble Bolsk!"
The robotic Bolsk moved toward Randil.
"No—keep him away from me!" Randil pleaded.
"Halt, Bolsk," commanded Chez Ebec. As the robot responded, the Weaponer smiled. "It appears the lord Bolsk no longer holds you in high regard after all these years. Somewhat unjustly, perhaps, he may blame you for his fate. But no harm will come to you, my lady, as long as the Philosopher Rai remains your sponsor."
"My sweet love," said Rai.
That day and the next Kane did not see the screen room, nor did he see anything of Rai and Randil. His companion for the most part—besides the nonspeaking Gron, who had now become a constant in his existence, even sleeping at night between Kane and the door to his room—was Chez Ebec, who insisted on showing Kane through the underground fortifications and pointing out its strengths in some detail. The Weaponer, though he seemed pleasant enough, appeared to be preoccupied with something.
Kane found out what that something was the night of the second day. That was the night Kane accompanied Chez Ebec to the surface of Uin.
At a number of locations the underground headquarters of the planet's government were connected with topside by metal tubes. Those cleared to ascend could use one of several pedestrian tubes for the purpose, or if they desired to travel some distance after they reached the top, they could use one of the three roomier tubes that accommodated the two man vehicles Chez Ebec referred to as aircars.
"I have two reasons for taking you up," the Weaponer said as their aircar rose through its tube. "The first is that the surface is the only place I can question you without the presence of the mute. Since he is not cleared for top secret information, he does not and cannot have access to the knowledge of how the surface is reached."
