«Wait, sir!» The attendant leaned forward intently.
J reentered the room and closed the door. «What is it?»
«Blade is talking in his sleep.»
«If that's all…» J turned to leave.
«No, he's calling out, 'The Ngaa! The Ngaa!' and tossing and thrashing around. Give a listen.»
«No, I don't think… well, all right.»
J accepted the headphones and put them on.
He recognized Richard's murmuring voice, but could not understand what he was saying except for the one word Ngaa. The bedsprings were creaking and crashing violently.
Suddenly there was silence.
J was about to remove the headphones when he heard Blade speak again, this time clearly, like a man fully awake.
«The Ngaa,» Richard said calmly, without fear.
Then J heard a sound he would hear again and again in nightmares for the rest of his life, the voice of the Ngaa, like the wind, like rustling trees, like a vast multitude of voices whispering in chorus: «Yes, we are the Ngaa.»
«What do you want?» Richard challenged.
«Open the way for us. Let us come through.»
«Never!»
«You are our entrance. Let us come through.»
«No.»
«We have served you well. We have removed your rival, made everything as it was long ago when you were happy. Now you must fulfill your side of the agreement.»
«I made no agreement.»
«You did! With your subconscious mind. We read your desires, listened to your unspoken prayers, and, because we are much like the being you call your God, we have answered. Is there something else you want? Do not speak. We will see it in your mind and obey. We will grant your wish, whatever it may be. But as we serve you, so must you serve us. Escape! We will help you. Return to London. Activate the computer and come to us. Help us to invade your dimension in all our power, to make our home on your world. Our planet is dead and our sun dying. Your planet is green and tempting. Your planet has air and water and living things. Come to us! Come!»
«No.»
The multitude of whispering voices grew fainter. «All you desire, in waking life or in dreams, we can give you. Come. Come.» They were now scarcely audible.
Blade said, «Your time moves more quickly than mine, Ngaa, and your time is running out. I will not come to you. I will leave you in your crystal city in the sky, above the planet you have burned clean of life, leave you there to die.»
The Ngaa answered with a fading sigh. «You will change your mind, Richard Blade, and soon.»
When he heard nothing more, J removed the headphones. It was then he became aware that the hairs on the back of his hand were standing up and swaying. He glanced around, startled. The room was bathed for an instant in a dim blue glow.
The glow faded. The hairs on J's hand ceased moving. The Ngaa, as far as J could tell, was gone.
«Follow me,» J commanded.
The attendant followed him into the hall, and down the passageway to the door of Richard's room.
«Richard!» J called. «Are you all right?»
«Yes, sir,» came Richard's voice from inside.
J unlocked the door and, without waiting for an invitation, burst into the room. Blade had turned on the bedlamp and was sitting up, propped against his pillows, regarding J with amusement. «So, you did have my room bugged, didn't you?» Richard demanded.
«Of course I did!» J snapped. «Do you take me for an idiot? Was the Ngaa here just now?»
Richard nodded. «You heard the thing speak, didn't you?»
«I heard it,» J said, annoyed. «I also heard that you spoke to it as if your memory had completely recovered.»
«It has.»
«And you didn't tell me?»
«The last link has only now fallen into place. I know why I could not remember. The Ngaa! The Ngaa spoke to me softly, there in the crystal city, repeating things to me over and over, showing me visions, or dreams, making me believe they were real. The Ngaa hypnotized me! That's the answer. The Ngaa hypnotized me to forget, then tried to hypnotize me to obey, but I would not. The Ngaa sent visions of horror, frightful nightmares drawn from my own subconscious, to try to force me to do as I was told, but I resisted. Somehow I resisted it.»
J was puzzled. «You call the Ngaa it? Why not he or she?»
Richard chuckled. «Because the Ngaa is not a living being.»
«Then what is it?»
«There is nothing like it in our dimension, but it is something like a disembodied spirit simulated by artificial means, and something like a… a computer.»
Richard awoke with a feeling of smug satisfaction and lay a long time staring at the ceiling. Bright sunlight streamed in his window. Birds sang. Breakfast dishes clattered in the distance.
I've won, he thought.
Time was against the Ngaa. It would grow weaker and weaker, eventually losing its ability to manifest itself in the normal space-time continuum. Then, trapped in its own dimension where one Earth-minute was equal to many other-dimensional hours, the Ngaa would someday be destroyed by the nova of its sun.
Automatic victory!
A younger, more reckless Richard Blade might have been disappointed at the lack of «action» and adventure, but Blade had learned the value of a victory that did not deplete his resources, did not leave him less able to deal with the challenges of the future.
There was a knock at the door.
«Come in,» Richard called.
The key rattled in the lock. J entered, returning the key to his waistcoat pocket. «Good morning, Richard. You're looking well,» the old man said, eyeing Blade thoughtfully.
«I'm feeling well,» Richard replied, swinging his feet to the floor.
«Well enough to face a government examiner? Well enough to convince the fellow of your sanity?»
«A government examiner?» Richard stood up.
«Yes. Perhaps several. The Prime Minister has delivered an ultimatum: unless you are sane enough to pass his tests, he'll close down Project Dimension X for good. The deadline, I might add, is only four days away. In the meantime you are confined to quarters here. In particular you are under no circumstances to return to London or have anything to do with the KALI computer. Those are orders!»
Richard slipped on his usual white slacks and white T-shirt. «Sensible precautions, though hardly necessary. Why would I want to go near KALI? And even if I did want to, how would I escape from this snug little rabbit warren of yours? How would I transport myself all the way from here to England? Typically British of the PM to forbid me to do something I am both unwilling and unable to do.»
«Glad you see it that way, old chap.» J clapped Richard on the back. «You are completely recovered, aren't you?»
«Completely.»
«Excellent! After breakfast I'll phone Downing Street and tell them to send their examiners straight away. We'll snatch the project from the jaws of oblivion at the last possible moment, in the style of the very best Victorian melodrama.» J's usual reserve had been replaced by a surprising warmth and exuberance.
«And then it will be business as usual at the Tower of London, eh?» Richard frowned.
«Of course. What's wrong?»
«I don't think it would be wise to use KALI again for awhile. At least not with the same instrument settings.»
«No? Because of the Ngaa?»
«Exactly. The Ngaa is powerful, dangerous and… desperate. Can we risk opening a gateway for it to reenter our dimension?»
«Definitely not.»
The two men left the room together. Guards waited outside. Even now, though Richard was apparently his old self again, J took the absurd precaution of locking the door.
They went downstairs and entered the dining hall.
Richard looked around with a sudden uneasiness. «Where's Zoe?»