At the Narrow Passage (23 page)

"While you were here," Conners went on, "we also replaced your
augmentation control center. Apparently it was deactivated."
I nodded.
"And we replaced your missing fingers," he completed.
I looked down at my left hand and saw that I had a full set of fingers
on it. The grafting scars were either already healed or very skillfully
hidden by plastiskin.
"I'll send your friends in now," the doctor said.
"Thanks."
So I just lay there waiting for Kar-hinter and whoever else was with him
to come in and thought and wondered: How was Sally? And, in fact, where
was she? Had they really found her and taken her with me? And what had
happened to Staunton? Had it really blown up? Or was that just a part
of my nightmares? And . . .
The door opened, and Kar-hinter, Tracy, and Kearns came into the room.
The alien was naked, of course, and the two men were dressed in British
uniforms.
"I told you that he was too mean to kill," Tracy said, smiling. "How are
you, old man?"
"Bloody damned poorly," I said, trying to answer Tracy's smile.
"Hello, Eric," Kar-hinter said in his precise English that somehow reminded
me of Mica's. "Feeling better, I trust."
"Damned if I know," I said. "I don't feel much of anything right now."
"You must have given them hell, Mathers," Kearns said, a strangely
misplaced smile on his face.
"Not as much as they gave me," I told him.
"I don't know," Kearns said. "Tracy and I found at least two bodies that
you must have killed."
"That was my limit for the season," I said, wishing they'd get over the
small talk and that somebody'd answer some questions for me.
Kar-hinter must have sensed my feelings, for he said, "We have many
questions to ask you, Eric, but first we will answer yours."
"Okay," I said weakly. "What about Sally?"
"Count von Heinen's wife?" Kar-hinter asked, something that might have
been puzzlement in his voice. I wasn't sure. You can never be sure about
a Krith. "She is well. Hillary and Ronald found her when they rescued you.
She is now at an interrogation station on an adjacent Line."
Thank God for that, I said to myself. "What happened? From the beginning."
Kar-hinter gave me what passed for a smile, said, "As you know, Hillary
and Ronald crossed the Imperial lines to safety on the morning of the
raid on the villa. We then established contact with you. When your signal
ceased abruptly, we investigated as quickly as possible, found that you
and your captives were gone. We assumed that you had been taken by the
people in the strange skudder you had fought earlier. We could do nothing
but wait until you tried to contact us, though we were following up clues."
"You know who those people are, don't you?" I asked.
"We know now," Kar-hinter replied. "Countess von Heinen gave us that
information under the first mind probe."
"Had you suspected?"
Kar-hinter smiled. "Suspected, but nothing more. But, to go on, we had
nearly given you up for dead when your message was received at the Butt
of Lewis."
"Then you did get my signal?"
Kar-hinter nodded in a very human fashion. "Yes, we have had continuous
monitors on all frequencies with recording equipment attached. Computers
determined that you were using FM and demodulated accordingly. We came
as soon as we could get a fix on your signal."
"How did you get there so fast?" I asked Tracy.
He smiled back at me and said, "Kearns and I were working out of Victoria,
Virginia. Kar-hinter sent us there with a couple of platoons of men to
investigate a resurgence of Staunton-rumors. He thought that they might
somehow be connected with the -- er -- Paratimers who captured you.
We didn't know who they were then, of course."
"What about Staunton?" I asked. "Did you get inside?"
Tracy shook his head. "We only got as far as the hangar where we found
you. And we were damned lucky to get away from there. We lost most of
our men. They blew up the place, y'know."
"I thought they did," I said. "I thought I remembered it," I paused,
took a deep breath, then asked, "Was it with atomic weapons? They had
quite a stockpile of thermonukes."
"No," Kar-hinter said. "The explosives they used were chemical. Their
nuclear weapons did not go off, fortunately for this world. We are in
the process of recovering them now. They will be shipped Outtime at once."
I nodded, looked back at Tracy. "How many sautierboats -- skudders were
in the hangar?"
"Just the one," Tracy said. "The ruined one you must have been in.
Were there others?"
"One," I said. "Some of them must have gotten away in it."
"It would appear so," Kar-hinter said.
"Were there any captives?" I asked.
"A few," Kar-hinter answered. "But they were only locals and most of them
knew less than the countess. By the time we were able to get another force
in there, most of the survivors had fled and gotten into hiding."
"Well, what about the Imperial Baltic plant?" I asked. "We didn't get
the count for you."
"An alternate plan was used," Kar-hinter said, though he did not tell me
what the plan was. "When we raided the plant, we discovered evidence of
Outtime activities."
"But you've shut down the plant?" I asked.
"Quite completely," Kar-hinter said. "One of their experimental weapons
went off 'accidentally' and totally destroyed the installation."
Before I could ask anything more, Dr. Conners stuck his head in the door.
"Gentlemen, Kar-hinter, I suggest that you let Captain Mathers sleep now.
He needs the rest."
"Of course," Kar-hinter said, rising. "I will be seeing you again
tomorrow, Eric."
And in a moment they were gone, and I drifted off into a long drugged
sleep punctuated with hellish dreams of monster Kriths and equally
monstrous Micas and Scotis, and I wondered if those two had escaped the
destruction of Staunton.
When Kar-hinter came back the next day, accompanied by the tall, swarthy,
black-uniformed Pall, his bodyguard, I was more nearly able to carry on a
decent conversation, though now it was his turn to do most of the talking.
Pall, as was his custom, said nothing at all.
Mind probes had been used on Sally, Kar-hinter told me, and her every
memory was now recorded in tiny molly cubes that were being scanned
by computer, extracting important data about the Paratimers and their
operations. Already Kar-hinter knew more about them than I did, though
he did ask me a few questions to confirm certain things that Sally had
believed to be true.
"You have done us a great service, Eric," Kar-hinter said at length,
"a truly great service to both mankind and Krith. We now know who our
true enemies in this Timeline are."
I just nodded.
"Tell me, Eric," Kar-hinter said slowly, peering into my eyes, you were
there six weeks, under their eyes, constantly bombarded with their
propaganda. What has that done to you?"
I had the sudden feeling of fear, as if Kar-hinter were about to uncover
some deep, hidden guilt.
"What do you mean?" I asked.
"Sally von Heinen deeply believes that we Kriths are monsters involved
in some great, elaborate plot to conquer and enslave mankind on all the
Timelines. Has any of that belief rubbed off onto you, Eric? What
has
the experience done to you? Do you doubt us?"
"For God's sake, Kar-hinter," I said, trying to convince myself as much
as him, "I sent those messages, didn't I? I called you there."
"I know that," Kar-hinter said, "but that is not the answer I want.
Are there
any
doubts about us in your mind?"
"Run a mind probe on me," I said defensively. "Then you can tell if
I'm lying."
"Eric," Kar-hinter said slowly, "you know that we cannot run a mind
probe on you. You are a Timeliner. You are conditioned. A mind probe
would kill you."
"Oh," I said weakly, foolishly. "That's right, isn't it?'
"It is, Eric. I will have to trust you. I will have to believe what you
tell me."
Pall's dark eyes gazed at me with a cold look that seemed to cut through
my skin. I didn't feel that he would trust me no matter what I said or did.
I looked back at Kar-hinter. "Then it's this," I said slowly and knew
that I was lying even as I said it, but there wasn't anything else
I could say, "I'm the same man I was six weeks ago. Nothing has changed.
I still believe in what we're doing, we, all of us, Kriths and Timeliners.
Those people -- the Paratimers -- have made some kind of terrible mistake.
They're the ones who are wrong."
"I believe you, Eric, and I am glad of it. You are too valuable a man to
lose." He paused. "Now tell me, what is this von Heinen woman to you?
We must assume that she is a widow now, if that helps you any."
"I don't know what she is to me, Kar-hinter," I said, and this time I
was speaking the truth. "I really don't know. Maybe she just reminds
me too much of someone I knew a long time ago." I shook my head. "But
I can assume that she hates my guts now."
"For betraying Staunton?"
I nodded. "She trusted me. She thought I had been converted to their side."
Kar-hinter was silent for a few moments. "We are finished with her,"
he said. "We have gained all the knowledge we can from her. You may have
her if you wish. I am sure that our technicians could see to it that she,
ah, felt differently about you."
"No!" I said vehemently. "Don't tamper with her mind."
"As you wish," Kar-hinter said, rising, his short tail lashing the air
behind him. Pall rose with him. "You may decide whether you want her and,
ah, as she is. Tomorrow or the next day you will be debriefed at length
concerning your stay in Staunton. Routine formality, you understand. But
when that is over and Dr. Conners releases you from the hospital, you
may take a rest. I am sure that you have earned it."
"Thanks," I said.
"I thought that you might like a cabin in one of the Eden Lines,"
Kar-hinter said. "You and Sally."
"I'll think about it."
"Please do, Eric. A long rest is prescribed for you."
And I did think about it for the next few days.
20
With Sally in Eden
I didn't really know exactly where the Eden Lines were located. Somewhere
to the far T-West of RTGB-307, beyond the Carolingian Lines. Why the worlds
there were uninhabited I'm not sure either. Chemical warfare seems to be
the most likely thing since the Earth there shows no signs of thermonuclear
craters, nor does its air carry any deadly bacteria. So, I guess, on those
worlds men had developed deadly gases which they had used to destroy
themselves. In a way I was glad of that since that left maybe half a dozen
Lines that the Kriths had taken over and cleaned up, using automated
equipment to transform them into virtual earthly paradises. They were
rest and recuperation stations for weary human Timeliners of rather high
status. I was honored in being offered a cabin in one of them.
Sally didn't feel quite so honored, though she accepted her fate with
stoic calm. She hardly spoke to me from the time we boarded the airship
in Bakersville, South Africa, to when we stepped out of the skudder
somewhere in North America in one of the Eden Lines.
"Here you are, Captain Mathers," said the tall, dark-skinned skudder pilot
who reminded me a little of Pall. "Eden. You know the rules. You're not
allowed to bring in any Outtime artifacts. Everything you will need is
provided by the cabin."
"I know," I said.
"Then, ah, would you both please undress and give me your clothing."
He smiled awkwardly. "This is Eden, you know."
I remembered the Judeo-Christian myth that had given the Eden Lines
their name.
"Yeah," I answered and began stripping.
Sally stood silently staring at us both, hate and defiance in her eyes.
So must Kristin have stood when the governor's men approached her.
When I had removed my clothing and handed it to the pilot, I turned to her.
"Come on, Sally," I said. "You've got to play it by the rules."
"I'm your prisoner," she said. "I'll do as you say. I have no choice."
"I wish you wouldn't take that attitude," I said, trying not to look at
the skudder pilot.
"Well, it's the truth, isn't it?"
"Only partly. Oh, damn it, get undressed."
Sally did, without expression, quickly and efficiently. In a moment her
blouse and shorts and panties were a bundle wrapped around her shoes,
and she handed the bundle to the skudder pilot.
It's funny. I don't think I've ever really described Sally to you.
I suppose it's about time.
I had really only seen her naked once before, back when I was trying to
get to the radio transceiver in the sautierboat in Staunton and then I
didn't have time to appreciate the view. Now I did -- not that I hadn't
appreciated how she looked from the moment I saw her. But that's all
beside the point, isn't it? I was going to tell you how she looked.
Sally appeared younger than her twenty-six years, fresh and almost innocent.
She had blond hair and a funny color of green to her eyes; she was five feet
five inches tall, and her measurements were something like 37-22-36. So much
for statistics. What can they really tell you?
Maybe she didn't have the tremendous proportions of G'lendal, but what
she did have was perfect. Like her breasts, for example: high, round,
firm, tipped with small, round nipples, and if she had ever worn a bra
in her life I couldn't imagine why. Her waist was slender, flaring out
to perfectly rounded hips and the neatest set of buttocks I've ever
seen. The clump of hair between her thighs was so pale and blond as to
be almost invisible.
Her face was midway between being oval and triangular, and her eyes seemed
almost too large for her face, but that wasn't bad at all. Her lips,
even when she was angry, seemed to have a tendency to want to smile,
and when she really did smile, she showed teeth that could hardly have
been better formed. Her face was surrounded by the blond hair that
was very long, though she usually kept it piled high atop her head,
with bangs curling down across her forehead almost to her eyebrows,
while another bunch of hair cascaded down her back to her shoulder blades.
If there were anything wrong with the appearance of Sally Beau von Heinen,
I don't know what it was, unless you'd be foolish enough to say that she
wasn't
quite
as beautiful as G'lendal. But then maybe G'lendal was a
little bit too perfect.