The Lovers * Dark Is the Sun * Riders of the Purple Wage Page 4

  Suddenly, Hal felt hot all through his body, and his legs quivered.

  ‘Yes, abba?’

  His own voice sounded weak and distant.

  Olvegssen made a steeple of his hands and looked at Yarrow over the tip.

  ‘Much as I would regret it, I would be forced to take action. I can’t have a man with a low M.R. on my staff. I’m afraid that I …’

  There was a long silence. Hal felt the sweat trickling down from his armpits and the beads forming on his forehead and upper lip. He knew that Olvegssen was purposely hanging him in suspense, and he did not want to ask him anything. He did not want to give the smug gray-haired gimel the satisfaction of hearing him speak. But he did not dare seem to be uninterested. And, if he did not say anything, he knew that Olvegssen would only smile and dismiss him.

  ‘What, abba?’ said Hal, striving to keep a choking sound from his voice.

  ‘I’m very much afraid that I could not even allow myself the leniency of merely demoting you to secondary school teaching. I would like to be merciful. But mercy in your case might only be enforcing unreality. And I could not endure the possibility of that. No …’

  Hal swore at himself because he could not control his trembling.

  ‘Yes, abba?’

  ‘I am very much afraid that I would have to ask the Uzzites to look into your case.’

  ‘No!’ said Hal loudly.

  ‘Yes,’ said Olvegssen, still speaking behind the steeple of his hands. ‘It would pain me to do that, but it would be unshib not to. Only by seeking their help could I dream correctly.’

  He broke the steeple of his hands, swung around in his chair so his profile was to Hal, and said, ‘However, there is no reason that I should have to take such steps, is there? After all, you and you alone are responsible for whatever happens to you. Therefore, you’ve nobody to blame but yourself.’

  ‘So the Forerunner has revealed,’ said Hal. ‘I will see that you are not pained, abba. I will make certain that my gapt has no reason to give me a low M.R.’

  ‘Very good,’ said Olvegssen as if he did not believe it. ‘I will not hold you up by examining your letter, for I should have a duplicate in today’s mail. Aloha, my son, and good dreaming.’

  ‘See real, abba,’ said Hal, and he turned and left. In a daze of terror, he scarcely knew what he was doing. Automatically, he traveled to the port and there Vent through the process of obtaining priority for his trip. His mind still refused to function clearly when he got onto the coach.

  Half an hour later, he got off at the port of LA and went to the ticket office to confirm his seat on the coach to Tahiti.

  As he stood in the ticket line, he felt a tap on his shoulder.

  He jumped, and then he turned to apologize to the person behind.

  He felt his heart hammer as if it would batter through his chest.

  The man was a squat broad-shouldered potbellied fellow in a loose, jet black uniform. He wore a tall, conical, shiny black hat with a narrow rim, and on his chest was the silvery figure of the angel Uzza.

  The officer leaned forward to examine the Hebrew numbers on the lower rim of the winged foot Hal wore on his chest. Then he looked at a paper in his hand.

  ‘You’re Hal Yarrow, shib,’ said the Uzzite. ‘Come with me.’

  Afterward, Hal thought that one of the strangest aspects of the business was his lack of terror. Not that he had not been scared. It was just that the fear was pushed far down into a corner of his mind while the greater part devoted itself to considering the situation and how to get out of it. The vagueness and confusion that had filled him during his interview with Olvegssen and that had lasted long afterward now seemed to dissolve. He was left cold and quick-thinking; the world was clear and hard.

  Perhaps, it was because the threat given by Olvegssen was distant and uncertain, whereas being taken into custody by the Uzzites was immediate and certainly dangerous.

  He was taken to a small car on a strip by the ticket building. Here he was ordered into the seat. The Uzzite with him also got in, and he set the controls for his destination. The car rose vertically to about five hundred meters and then shot, sirens screaming, toward its destination. Hal, though not in a humorous mood, could not help reflecting that cops had not changed in the last thousand years. Even though no emergency warranted, the guardians of the law must make noise.

  Within two minutes, the car had entered a port of a building at the twentieth level. Here the Uzzite, who had spoken not a word to Hal since the initial conversation, gestured to him to get out. Hal had not said anything either because he knew that it would be useless.

  The two walked up a ramp and then through many corridors filled with hurrying people. Hal tried to keep the route straight just in case he was able to escape. He knew that flight was ridiculous, that he could not possibly get away. Also, he had no reason as yet to think that he would be in a situation where running was the only way out.

  Or so he hoped.

  Finally, the Uzzite stopped before an office door which bore no legend. He jerked his thumb at it, and Hal walked in ahead of him. He found himself in an anteroom; a female secretary sat behind a desk.

  ‘Angel Patterson reporting,’ said the Uzzite. ‘I have Hal Yarrow, Professional LIN-56327.’

  The secretary relayed the information through a speaker, and a voice came from the wall telling the two to enter.

  The secretary pressed a button, and the door swung open.

  Hal, still in the lead, walked in.

  He was in a room large by the his standards, larger even than his classroom or his whole puka in Sigmen City. At its far end was a huge desk whose top curved like a crescent or a pair of sharp horns. Behind it sat a man, and the sight of the man shattered Hal’s calm composure. He had expected a gapt of high rank, a man dressed in black and wearing a conical hat.

  But this man was not an Uzzite. He was clad in flowing purple robes with a cowl over his head, and on his chest was a large golden Hebrew L, the lamedh. And he had a beard.

  He was among the highest of the high, a Urielite. Hal had seen his kind only a dozen times in his life and only once before in the flesh.

  He thought, Great Sigmen, what have I done? I’m doomed, doomed!

  The Urielite was a very tall man, almost half a head higher than Hal. His face was long, his cheekbones protruding, his nose large, narrow, and curved, his lips thin, and his eyes pale blue with a slight internal epicanthic fold.

  Behind Hal, the Uzzite said in a very low voice, ‘Halt, Yarrow! Stand at attention! Do everything the Sandalphon Macneff says, without hesitation and with no false moves.’

  Hal, who would not have thought of disobeying, nodded his head.

  Macneff looked at Yarrow for at least a minute, meanwhile stroking his bushy brown beard.

  Then, after making Hal sweat and quiver inwardly, Macneff finally spoke. His voice was surprisingly deep for such a thin-necked man.

  ‘Yarrow, how would you like to leave this life?’

  4

  Afterward, Hal had time to thank Sigmen that he had not followed his impulse.

  Instead of becoming paralyzed with terror, he had considered whirling swiftly and attacking the Uzzite. The officer, though he wore no visible arms, undoubtedly had a gun in a holster under his robes. If Hal could knock him out and get the weapon, he might be able to take Macneff as a hostage. With him as a shield, Hal could flee.

  Where?

  He had no idea. To Israel or the Malay Federation? Both were a long way off, though distance meant little if he could steal or commandeer a ship. Even if he succeeded in doing that, he had no chance of getting past the antimissile stations. Unless he could fool the guards, and he did not know enough of military usage or codes to do that.

  Meanwhile, thinking of the possibilities, he felt the impulse die. It would be more intelligent to wait until he found out what he was accused of. Perhaps, he could prove that he was innocent.

  Macneff s thin lips curved slightly
in a smile that Hal was to know well. He said, That is good, Yarrow.’

  Hal did not know if he had been given an implication to speak, but he took a chance of not offending the Urielite.

  ‘What is good, Sandalphon?’

  ‘That you turned red instead of pale. I am a reader of selves, Yarrow. I can see into a man within a few seconds after meeting him. And I saw that you were not ready to faint With terror, as many would have done if they had just heard my first words to you. No, you became flushed with the hot blood of aggresiveness. You were ready to deny, to argue, to fight against anything I might say.

  ‘Now, some might say that that would not be a favorable reaction, that your attitude showed wrong thinking, a leaning toward unreality.

  ‘But I say, What is reality? That was the question propounded by the Forerunner’s evil brother in the great debate. The answer is the same, that only the real man can tell.

  ‘I am real; otherwise, I would not be a Sandalphon. Shib?’

  Hal, trying to keep from breathing noisily, nodded. He was thinking that Macneff must not be able to read as clearly as he thought he could, for he had said nothing about knowing Hal’s first intention to resort to violence.

  Or did Macneff know but was wise enough to forgive?

  ‘When I asked you how you would like to leave this life,’ said Macneff, ‘I was not suggesting that you were a candidate for H.’

  He frowned, and he said, ‘Though your M.R. suggests that if you keep on your present level, you may soon be. However, I am certain that if you volunteer for what I propose, you will soon straighten out. You would then be in close contact with many shih men; you could not escape their influence. “Reality breeds reality.” So said Sigmen.

  ‘However, I may be rushing things. First, you must swear on this book’—he picked up a copy of The Western Talmud—’that nothing that we say in this office will be divulged to any person under any circumstances. You will die or undergo any torture before you betray the Sturch.’

  Hal put his left hand on the book (Sigmen used his left hand because of the early loss of his right), and he swore by the Forerunner and all the levels of reality that his lips would be locked forever. Otherwise, he cut himself off forever from any hope of the glory of seeing the Forerunner face to face and of some day having his own universe to rule.

  Even as he swore, he began to feel guilty because he had thought of striking an Uzzite and using force on a Sandalphon. How could he have given in to his dark self so suddenly? Macneff was the living representative of Sigmen while Sigmen was voyaging through time and space to prepare the future for his disciples. To refuse to obey Macneff in any degree was to strike the Forerunner in the face, and that was a thing so terrible he could not bear to think of it.

  Macneff put the book back on the desk, and he said, ‘First, I must tell you that your getting that order to investigate the word woggle in Tahiti was a mistake. Probably because certain departments of the Uzzites were not working as closely together as they should. The reason for the mistake is even now being researched, and effective measures will be taken to make sure similar errors do not occur in the future.’

  The Uzzite behind Hal sighed heavily, and Hal knew that he was not the only man in the room capable of feeling fear.

  ‘One of the hierarchy noticed, while going over his reports, that you had applied for permission to travel to Tahiti. Knowing how high a security rating the island has, he investigated. As a result, we were able to intercept you. And I, after examining your record, concluded that you might be just the one we needed to fill a certain position on the ship.’

  By now, Macneff had walked from behind his desk and was pacing back and forth, his hands clasped behind him, his body stooped forward. Hal could see how pale yellow Macneff’s skin was, much the same color as the elephant tusk Hal had once seen in the Museum of Extinct Animals. The purple of the cowl over his head brought out the sallowness.

  ‘You will be asked to volunteer,’ said Macneff, ‘because we want none but the most dedicated men aboard. However, I hope you do join us, because I would feel uneasy about leaving on Earth any civilian who knew the existence and destination of the Gabriel. Not that I doubt your loyalty, but the Israeli spies are very clever, and they might trick you into revealing what you know. Or kidnap you and use drugs to make you talk. They are devoted followers of the Backrunner, those Israeli.’

  Hal wondered why the use of drugs by the Israeli was so unrealistic and by the Haijac Union so shib, but he forgot about that when he heard Macneff’s next words.

  ‘A hundred years ago, the first interstellar spaceship of the Union left Earth for Alpha Centaurus. About the same time, an Israeli ship left. Both returned in twenty years and reported they had found no habitable planets. A second Haijac expedition came back ten years after that and a second Israeli vessel twelve years after it. None found a star with any planets human beings could colonize.’

  ‘I never knew that,’ murmured Hal Yarrow.

  ‘Both governments have kept the secret well from their people, though not from each other,’ said Macneff. ‘The Israeli, as far as we know, have sent no more interstellar craft out since the second one. The expense and time involved are astronomical. However, we sent a third vessel out, a much smaller and faster one than the first two. We have learned much about interstellar drives since a hundred years ago; that is all I can tell you about them.

  ‘But the third ship came back several years ago and reported—’

  ‘That it had found a planet on which human beings could live and which was already inhabited by sentient beings!’ said Hal, forgetting in his enthusiasm that he had not been asked to speak.

  Macneff stopped pacing to stare at Hal with his pale blue eyes.

  ‘How did you know?’ he said sharply.

  ‘Forgive me, Sandalphon,’ said Hal. ‘But it was inevitable! Did not the Forerunner predict in his Time and the World Line that such a planet would be found? I believe it was on page five seventy-three!’

  Macneff smiled and said, ‘I am glad that your scriptural lessons have left such an impression.’

  How could they not? Hal thought. Besides, they were not the only impressions. Pornsen, my gapt, whipped me because I had not learned my lessons well enough. He was a good impresser, that Pornsen. Was? Is! As I grew older and was promoted, so was he, always where I was. He was my gapt in the crêche. He was the dormitory gapt when I went to college and thought I was getting away from him. He is now my block gapt. He is the one responsible for my getting such low M.R.’s.

  Swiftly came the revulsion, the protest. No, not he, for I, and I alone, am responsible for whatever happens to me. If I get a low M.R., I do so because I want it that way, or my dark self does. If I die, I die because I willed it so. So, forgive me, Sigmen, for the contrary-to-reality thoughts!

  ‘Please pardon me again, Sandalphon,’ said Hal. ‘But did the expedition find any records of the Forerunner having been on this planet? Perhaps, even, though this is too much to wish, find the Forerunner himself?’

  ‘No,’ said Macneff. ‘Though that does not mean that there may not be such records there. The expedition was under orders to make a swift survey of conditions and then to return to Earth. I can’t tell you now the distance in light-years or what star this was, though you can see it with the naked eye at night in this hemisphere. If you volunteer, you will be told where you’re going after the ship leaves. And it leaves very soon.’

  ‘You need a linguist?’ said Hal.

  ‘The ship is huge,’ said Macneff, ‘But the number of military men and specialists we are taking limits the linguists to one. We have considered several of your professionals because they were lamedhians and above suspicion. Unfortunately …’

  Hal waited. Macneff paced some more, frowning. Then, he said, ‘Unfortunately, only one lamedhian joat exists, and he is too old for this expedition. Therefore—’

  ‘A thousand pardons,’ said Hal. ‘But I have just thought of one thing. I a
m married.’

  ‘No problem at all,’ said Macneff. ‘There will be no women aboard the Gabriel. And, if a man is married, he will automatically be given a divorce.’

  Hal gasped, and he said, ‘A divorce?’

  Macneff raised his hands apologetically and said, ‘You are horrified, of course. But, from our reading of The Western Talmud, we Urielites believe that the Forerunner, knowing this situation would arise, made reference to and provision for divorce. It’s inevitable in this case, for the couple will be separated for, at the least, eighty objective years. Naturally, he couched the provision in obscure language. In his great and glorious wisdom, he knew that our enemies the Israelites must not be able to read therein what we planned.’

  ‘I volunteer,’ said Hal. ‘Tell me more, Sandalphon.’

  Six months later, Hal Yarrow stood in the observation dome of the Gabriel and watched the ball of Earth dwindle above him. It was night on this hemisphere, but the light blazed from the megalopolises of Australia, Japan, China, Southeast Asia, India, Siberia. Hal, the linguist, saw the glittering disks and necklaces in terms of the languages spoken therein. Australia, the Philippine Islands, Japan, and northern China were inhabited by those members of the Haijac Union that spoke American.

  Southern China, all of southeast Asia, southern India, and Ceylon, these states of the Malay Federation spoke Bazaar.

  Siberia spoke Icelandic.

  Hal’s mind turned the globe swiftly for him, and he visualized Africa, which used Swahili south of the Sahara Sea. All around the Mediterranean Sea, Asia Minor, northern India, and Tibet, Hebrew was the native tongue. In southern Europe, between the Israeli Republics and the Icelandic-speaking peoples of northern Europe, was a thin but long stretch of territory called March. This was no man’s land, disputed by the Haijac Union and the Israeli Republics, a potential source of war for the last two hundred years. Neither nation would give up their claim on it, yet neither wished to make any move that might lead to a second Apocalyptic War. So, for all practical purposes, it was an independent nation and by now had its own government (unrecognized outside its own borders). Its citizens spoke all of the world’s surviving tongues, plus a new one called Lingo, a pidgin whose vocabulary was derived from the other six and whose syntax was so simple it could be contained on half a sheet of paper.