Vance said, "I suppose a truth drug wouldn't do either?" Wilkes shook his head disdainfully, continuing to caress the wand.
"Ingenious little things," he went on. "Very powerful. The effect can cover a city block. You adjust the field-strength here." He fiddled with one end of the rod, which was ringed with a wide silver band. "This doodad here. The only drawback is that the effect can be thwarted by taking a simple tranquilizer. Of course, if the subject doesn't know that…"
"Tranquilizer?"
"Yes. You'd think the opposite would be true, wouldn't you? A high-altitude pill of some kind. An antidepressant. The way I understand it, that does almost no good at all."
"Almost," I said, feeling foolish.
"Why, are you on something? You did seem to be semiaware while you were under. Good try, Jake."
"Seemed like a hell of a good idea at the time."
"I'm curious, though. Did you actually know about the dream wand? Did you happen to be awake that night when we walked in at the commune?"
"Commune?"
"The religious — group's place. When a subject's already in normal sleep, there's no awareness of going under."
I looked at Darla briefly. She looked slightly confused, so I thought it would be better not to mention the wand's use at the Militia station.
Wilkes picked up the byplay and looked at Darla, then at me. "Something?" he asked.
"We do have the mystery of Jake's escape from the Militia station to explain," Vance reminded him.
"Oh, yes. Twrrrll was sure he detected another wand in operation there. But that was most likely the Ryxx, don't you think?"
"How did they get hold of a dream wand?"
"Oh, the Ryxx are master traders. They probably paid the right price to a renegade Rikki and got it. Or they may have a similar technique of their own. Besides, we did see two Ryxx nearby."
Vance grunted noncommittally.
"Who knows?" Wilkes conceded. "They may not have done it, but they have just as much reason as we do to keep the map secret. Granted, it's hard to understand why they didn't grab Jake as soon as he came out, or try to, anyway. But they didn't.
And I'm not going to waste time wondering why. Someone got him out of there, for whatever treason."
I said, "May I ask a question?"
"Sure," Wilkes said.
"Why did you come to the Teelies' farm that night?"
"You'd have to see to understand. Darla, would you call Twrrrll in here?"
Darla didn't get up. Vance rose and said, "I will." He went to the connecting hatch, opened it, and called the alien's name.
After a moment, Twrrrll came in. It struck me how tall he was, how sickly thin his limbs were, and how they contrasted with his seven-digited, powerful hands, hands that could envelop a human head and squeeze. His feet were huge as well. He wore no clothing except for crisscrossing strips of leatherlike material that wrapped his thorax like a harness.
"May I be of serrrvice?" the alien asked.
"Jake would like to see the mrrrllowharrr," Wilkes said.
"Verrry well."
It was a strange sensation to see him undrape an invisible something from his shoulders and cradle it in his hands. Stranger still to watch him stroke it with two fingers and trill to it softly. As he did so, something even more unsettling was happening to my perceptual apparatus. It wasn't like watching something flicker into existence out of thin air. No, not like that at all;
for the thing was there all the time. Everyone has had a similar experience. You look and look for a misplaced object, something you just had a minute ago but inexplicably misplaced, like a pennon a desktop. You search and search and can't find it, until someone points it out for you and it's right under your nose. The thing in the alien's hand existed, was there, but the fact simply had not registered in my brain. All at once the animal materialized, but I knew it had been there all along. I had seen it, but had not recorded it as a datum.
"It still amazes even me, Jake," Wilkes said.
It was a match for the caterpillar-snake thing Susan had accidentally killed at the farm, its pink brain-bud glistening moistly in the overhead light. I felt queasy, desperately hoping my worst fears were unfounded.
"It was with you all the time, Jake. On your jacket, most of the time. Probably right under your collar, tucked away safe and snug."
I felt like throwing up. "How?" I said in a strangled voice.
"Strange survival tactic. Marvelous, really. Not visual camouflage, but perceptual camouflage. God knows how it's done, but the animal makes its predators forget it's there. Some extrasensory power, no doubt. Your perception of it gets shunted directly to the preconscious, bypassing the primary perceptual gear. Is that basically the way it works, Twrrril?"
"Yes. We would use different terrrminology, perhaps. But yes."
'Trouble is, me mrrrllowharrr is very sluggish, which makes it vulnerable when it gets underfoot. Isn't that what happened at the farm?"
I took my eyes from it.
"Darla?"
"Yes. One of the Teelies accidentally stepped on it."
"We were hoping that's what happened, and that you hadn't become aware of it somehow. Its hold on the mind isn't absolute. We couldn't locate the carcass, but Twrrril convinced us to take a chance and plant another one, this one's mate. We put it on your jacket, which you conveniently left outside your sleeping egg."
"Why?" was all I could say.
"It leaves a psychic trace, Jake. The Reticulans can follow it anywhere. Even through a potluck portal."
The alien left and closed the hatch, leaving behind the smell of turpentine and almonds.
"All that nonsense at the restaurant," I said when my stomach had quieted down. "It was only to plant that thing on me?"
"Right, and I nearly ran out of chitchat before that thing finally made it over to you, crawling over the floor."
"Then why the gunplay?"
Wilkes triumphant smile dissolved. "That…" He grunted. "That was a mistake. Rory ― the one who drew on you ― is a little dim. Likable, but dim. I mentioned that we wanted to throw a scare into you. To Rory that meant he should wave his gun around. I, uh.had to let him go, of course. Luckily, Darla was there to save the day." He studied my face, as if watching a seed that he had planted take root.
"I didn't know, Jake," Darla said in a low voice. "Not about the mrrrllowharrr. I didn't see the thing."
"Corey, really," Vance said deploringly. "Jake's opinion of my daughter must be low enough. Do you have to rub it in?" To me he said, "Darla wasn't working for us then." He turned to her with a thin smile. "And I'm not even sure she's with us now. Are you, Darla-darling?"
"You know where my loyalties lie. Van," Darla said resentfully.
"I do? Maybe you'd like to remind me once again."
"It isn't important. The deal is that I hand over Winnie to you… correction. That was the deal before Winnie disappeared. The deal is now that I help you find her in exchange for leaving Jake alone. I go back to T-Maze with you, using your secret route through Rikki country." Darla looked at me. "You were right, Jake. There is a way back from here."