"Yes. And the agents don't know what's going on any more than me and you."
"Which could mean that Pete here is an agent. He's just trying to get home."
'' You mean he might've found us but couldn' t do anything about it? So he went along for the ride? And he proposed this blimp idea because it'd help him, not us, get there faster?"
"Something like that."
"So that puts us back where we were. Pete could be one of Them."
"If he is, it's like I said. We won't be telling him anything he don't know."
"Yeah, but he could tell us plenty. Plenty!"
"You going to beat it out of him? What if he really is Frigate?"
"I wouldn't, anyway. Not unless I knew the stakes were really high.. Oh, hell, not even then."
"We could just sail on and leave him behind," Farringtbn said.
Tom smiled crookedly and said, "Yeah? You'd like that, wouldn't you? You wouldn't have to trust your quivering flesh and beating heart to a sky boat.''
"You're getting awful close to making me mad, Tom."
"Okay. I won't ever say another word about that subject. Besides, I know you ain't got a cowardly bone in your body.
"So, what'll we do? Remember, if we did sail on, by the time we got to the North Pole-if we ever did-Pete here would have the whole thing solved."
"Oh, hell," Farrington said. "How could he be one of Them? They're superior to human beings, right? And Pete sure isn't no superman. No offense, Pete."
Tom glanced narrow-eyed at Frigate.
"He could be pretending to be only human. But I don't think anybody could put up a front like that for twenty-six years."
"Let's tell him then. What do we have to lose? Besides, I'm tired of keeping a secret for twenty-nine years."
"You always did talk too much."
"Look who's talking, Old Chief Run-off-at-the-mouth himself."
Farrington lit another cigarette. Rider followed his example, then said, "You want to light up too, Pete?"
"You're trying to kill me with smoke," Frigate said. He drew a cigar out of his over-the-shoulderbag.
"I think I need a drink, too."
"We all do. Tom, you do the honors. Then we'll tell all. God, what a relief!"
55
" 'Twas a dark and stormy night," Tom said. he smiled to acknowledge that he knew he was deliberately imitating the classical opening line of ghost stories.
"Jack and I..."
"Keep it Martin, Tom. Remember? Even when in private."
"Sure, but you were Jack men. Anyway, I knew the Kid here, but we weren't good friends yet. Our huts were close together, both of us were sailors on a patrol sloop in the navy of a local warlord.
"One night, when I was off duty, sleeping in my hut, I suddenly woke up. It wasn't the thunder and lightning that woke me up, either. It was a tap on my shoulder.
"At first, I thought it was Howardine, my woman. You remember her, Kid?"
"She was a beauty," Martin said to Frigate. "A red-headed Scotchwoman."
Frigate stirred, and he said, "I'm anxious to get to the heart of the matter."
"Okay, no frills then. It wasn't her, because she was sound asleep. Then a flash of lightning showed me a dark figure squatting by me. I started to rear up, my hand going under my pillow for my tomahawk. But I couldn't move.
"I guess I was drugged or under a spell of some kind. I thought, Oh, oh! This guy has got it in for me, and he's paralyzed me somehow and now yours truly is going to get it.
"Of course, I'd wake up someplace else, but I didn't feel like leaving.
"Then a couple of flashes showed the outline of the guy in detail. I was startled. Not scared, you realize, just startled. His body was covered in a big black cloak. And the head! There wasn't any. I mean, it was covered by a big globe, like a fishbowl. It was all black so I couldn't see his face. But somehow he could see me.
"If I couldn't move, I could talk. I said, 'Who are you? What do you want?' I spoke loud enough to wake Howardine up, but she didn't stir during the whole parley. I figure she had been drugged, too, but worse man me.
"The stranger spoke in a deep voice, answering me in English.
" 'I don't have much time, so I won't go into much detail. My name doesn't matter. In any event, I couldn't tell you because they might find you and unreel your memory.'
"I wondered what that meant, unreeling my memory. The whole business was beginning to look bizarre. I knew I wasn't dreaming. I wished I was.
' "If they should, they'll know everything that is said and done here,' the hombre said. 'It's like taking a movie of your mind. They can clip out what they don't want you to remember, and you won't. But if they should do that,I'll talk to you again.'
"'Who's they?' I said.
" 'The people who restructured this planet and who resurrected you,' he said. 'Now, listen, and don't talk until I'm finished.'
"You know me, Kid. I don't take crap off nobody. But this guy spoke as if the whole world was a ranch he owned and I was just one of the hands. Anyway, what could I do?
" 'They,' he said, 'live in the tower set in the middle of the north polar sea. You may have heard rumors about this. Some men actually did get through the mountains that surround the sea.'
"Right there I would have asked him if he was the one who left that long rope so they could get up the cliff and bored that tunnel for them. But I didn't know about that story then.
"He continued, 'But they did not get into the tower. One of their party, however, died when he fell off a mountain into the sea. He was allowed to be translated back into the Valley.' "
Tom paused. "He must have had some way of knowing this.
"The stranger continued, 'But the others were not. They ... never mind.'
"So," Tom said, grinning, "he did not know everything about the Egyptians. What he didn't know was that one of them escaped. Or, if he did, he wasn't telling me, for some reason. I don't think, however, he found out about it. Otherwise, he'd have never let him get away. Still... maybe he did.
"Anyway, the stranger said, 'The swiftness of verbal communication in the Valley is amazing I believe you call it the grapevine. The man who fell off the mountain told his story after he was translated, and it has spread throughout the Valley. You may speak. Have you heard the story?'
" 'Not until now,' I said.
" 'Well, you will doubtless hear it in the future. You'll be going up-River and will surely encounter it in one distorted form or another. Its essence is true.
" 'Doubtless, you have wondered why you were raised from the dead and placed here?'
"I nodded, and he said, 'My people, the Ethicals, have done this purely as a scientific experiment. They have put all of you here, mixed the races and nations from different times, solely to study your reactions. To record them and to classify them.
" 'Then!'-and here his voice rose to a pitch of great indignation-'after they have subjected you to this experiment, after they have filled you with hope for an eternal life, they will close the project! You will die, forever! There will be no more resurrections for you! You will go down into dust, be dust forever!'
" 'That seems almighty cruel,' I said, forgetting he'd not given me permission to speak.
' "It is inhumanly cruel,' he said. 'They have the power to give you life everlasting! At least, it would last as long as your sun lasted. Longer even, since you could always be transported to another planet with a living sun.
' "But no! They won't do that! They say that you do not deserve immortality!'
" "That's downright unethical,' I said. 'In which case, how come they call themselves the Ethicals?'