Dizzily, I reached.
I rose from the heap, refreshed, wearing the body of Lars, the Etruscan warrior. Quickly, I moved back toward the entranceway where Adam was banging my Alf body against the tabletop.
Coming up to him quickly, I clipped his jaw with a left, as hard as I could, knocking him back toward the doorway. Then I pushed my Alf-self into the space beside the work area.
"Not fair! Not fair!" Adam cried. "Switching bodies in midstream!"
"To quote you again," I said, "fuck you."
An elephantine dick lumbered by as Adam ran up the wall and onto the ceiling, racing toward me upside down.
He began striking as soon as he was within reach. I didn't have to worry about kicks, though, as he had slowed and lost some measure of control. I stood there ducking and swinging. I felt his nose break beneath my fist. His jaw seemed already broken. A company of bright red cocks passed through us singing "It's a Long Way to Tipperary." I caught him inside both elbows and forced his arms back beyond his shoulders. He bit at me as I did, but I avoided his teeth. .With a downward jerk and a full transfer of my weight, I pulled him from the ceiling, which immediately began to drip come upon us. A posse of aggressions raced by, mounted on tired-looking repressions. They pursued the most unusual unicorn I'd ever seen.
Adam landed on his feet, but he was turned partly away from me and he swayed. I nailed him twice on the face again before he adjusted his stance and raised his arms. Then his left hand lashed out with something of his old speed, and his claws took away most of my right cheek.
I kicked him in his right thigh again—same place as earlier—and the leg gave way.
Off to my right, a burning man flickered into existence, looked around, shook his head, and vanished.
I drew several deep breaths. "Somewhere down the line," I said, "I'm going to look up the Kaleideion-makers and tell them what a jerk you've been."
"It took two of you to take me down," he said.
Then, suddenly, his right hand shot forward, resting lightly on the inner surface of my shin bone. His grip was only as strong as it needed to be. The bones at the base of his index finger had fallen unerringly upon the spot about a third of the way up, where a minuscule movement of his hand was about to cause excruciating pain, taking me over backwards, and there wasn't a thing I could do about—
Well, I did a breakfall as I hit, during which time he had also caught hold of my other ankle. He pulled and surged forward. "Most fights do wind up on the ground, don't they?" he said.
Then he drew himself higher and began savaging my big right thigh muscle with his teeth.
I sat up quickly, seized hold of him by the hair, tore his head free of my leg, then bashed it downward against the floor between my legs. As he went still I turned him over and drew him up toward me. I fitted my legs about him from the rear and locked my ankles, holding him in a scissors while I slipped my arms beneath his own and interlocked my fingers on the back of his neck in a full nelson. "All right. On the ground then," I said. "Wake up quick so I can talk to you. It's important."
Suddenly, there was more light than there had been, and I realized that the door had been opened.
I started to turn in that direction, but she moved quickly. I felt her presence at my back, her hands upon my shoulders. "Release him, Alf, or I'll bite," she said. "Ssso help me, I will." Her mouth touched the left side of my neck.
"Glory," I said, "I have to hold him like this long enough to explain things. Otherwise he'll go wild again. Believe me. Please."
She raised her lips from my neck. "Release him," she repeated.
The light came again, and a voice reached us from the threshold. "Interesting threesome," he said. "Can anyone join in?"
She drew away to look back. I looked, also.
The sharpened studs on his wristbands gleamed, and the colored stripes on his shirt were fluorescent. His hair was the color of blood. Glory rose and stood beside me, facing back. I felt Adam beginning to stir, and I released him. "He is one of the things I wanted to warn Adam about," I said, rising, turning.
He moved forward and I advanced to meet him. At my back, I heard Adam groan.
"It's not nice to jump claims, Orion," the newcomer stated.
I halted before him and raised my right hand, moved it toward him. He raised his right hand and advanced it, also. Protocol gave him the initial pattern. He was my senior, though hardly by much. Immediately, he struck ten death blows at me. I was not allowed to move from my position. I could only block or parry. He was done in an instant, and I threw ten at him. To most normal eyes it would appear as if we had only fluttered our hands by each other in weak salute. This is how colosodii shake hands.
There came a sharp intake of breath from Adam, followed by several coughs.
"I haven't jumped your claim, Eryx," I said.
He gave a brief laugh, then dropped his gaze to my feet and raised it slowly. Then he studied Adam. "Looks as if he actually gave you a good fight," he said. "You would deprive me of everything, wouldn't you?"
He turned and walked on back, then stood looking at Adam. "Can you hear me, Macavity?" he asked.
Adam coughed again, then nodded. "Yes," he said.
"You are under arrest," Eryx said. He drew a sheet of shining white material from his pocket and unfolded it. "This is a copy of the warrant. Care to see it?"
Adam extended his hand. His gaze moved to one place on the sheet. Then he smiled and said, "It hasn't even been written yet."
"Come on. Look at paragraph three. The last great crime in the history of the universe and you think they wouldn't throw in a temporal clause?"
"Always worth a try," Adam said, passing it back.
"I can bring you in alive. I can bring you in dead. Your choice. It's nothing to me."
Adam studied him, then looked at me.
"This is the box and you're Schrodinger's cat," I said. "You're dead, you're alive, you've been arrested, and you've escaped. Nobody outside will know till it's opened again. Whatever happens, though, you go out of business today. We do know that."
Adam drew himself slowly to his feet and leaned heavily on the bench. Eryx faced me again. "As you must know, his is the biggest bounty ever offered in the history of the known universe," he said. "I don't really want to share it. I'd like to know your intentions."
"I'd no intention of getting involved in this thing," I told him. "I was hired by a lady named Pranda Rhadi to locate her boyfriend, who'd skipped town."
Glory hissed and Adam took a deep breath.
"I followed the time-trail to Etruscan Italy," I went on, "and I'd no idea till I ran the ID after I'd found him that it was the same guy who'd stolen the last singularity from the people in the box. When I learned that, I'll admit I was tempted. Who wouldn't be? But I didn't know of your involvement then, and I was curious as to why he'd done it. So I ran the time-line on the Buoco Nero, and I learned that it closes today. He stuck with it for damn near three millennia. How come? What was he up to? I wanted to find out. So I decided to create a full identity here—hypnotic memory suppression and the generation of a totally new personality—that would permit me to fit in with the times and be in a position to observe just what happened in the final days."
Eryx nodded. "I was curious, too, but not that curious," he said. "I ran the time-line, also, and decided it would be just as easy to pick him up at the end as at the beginning. So, did you discover what's going on—learn why he drove off in the singularity to open a psycho hockshop?"
I shook my head. "Still not sure," I said. "I learned of your involvement while I was running the line, and I took measures to conceal myself from you. I wasn't sure what I wanted my part in things to be."