"My folly, nothing!" Lafayette yelled. "Let's get out of here!"
"The abnormal density gradient in Boötes was first noted some decades ago," Allegorus said a bit breathlessly as Lafayette urged him up the disintegrating stair. "A clear case of a collapsed Schrodinger function on a vast scale, but as it was extragalactic in origin, nothing was done. Then, mere hours ago—but you know all about that."
"All about what!" O'Leary yelled.
."Consider for a moment, lad," Allegorus urged quietly, thrusting Lafayette toward the plank door to the lab. "Refresh your memory on the basics of quantum mechanics."
"I never got around to the higher physics," Lafayette protested. "I was too hung up with Getting Into Radio Now, and How to Speak Spanish Without Actually Trying , and Auto Repair Made Easy, and continental-style techniques of fencing, and my synthetic rubber experiments, and making sardine sandwiches."
"A full schedule, without doubt," Allegorus commiserated.
"If you knew how bad I hated those sardine sandwiches!" Lafayette said bitterly. "I liked taffy OK, up until I got myself stranded in the desert with nothing else to eat."
"Yours has been an adventurous existence," Allegorus agreed. "But just now we'd best take steps to ensure the present Adventure is not permitted to deteriorate into a Terrible Experience." Then they were through the door and in the comparative calm of the old laboratory, though the floor still vibrated underfoot. The walls, Lafayette noted, were now decorated with zebra-hide shields, voodoo masks, stone-tipped spears, a moth-eaten lion's head, and gaudy posters advertising a weekend tour to tropical Antarctica. He pointed out the changed decor to Allegorus, who waved it away. "A shift in locus of a few parameters can often produce extensive superficial modification. Not to fear, my boy. Our link to Central remains secure."
"What happened to Marv?" O'Leary inquired vaguely. "He was right behind us."
"Inasmuch as the fellow is indigenous to Aphasia II," Allegorus replied blandly, "it hardly matters."
"But he was the nearest thing to a friend I had in this nuthouse," Lafayette objected. He stepped out on the landing and looked down through dust into darkness. At that moment a despairing cry came from far below:
"Al—gimme a hand. It's me, Marv, your old sidekick—and it looks like they got me!"
"He calls you 'Al'?" Allegorus queried.
"He thinks I'm some spook," Lafayette explained briefly, then added, "I mean, they've got this superstition about some weirdo with your name who pops out of the tower every three hundred years and shakes everybody up. When I came out, they assumed I was him—or you, if you're really the one they were expecting."
Allegorus pulled at his chin. "Hmmm," he mused. "That's rather curious, actually, Lafayette, considering that this is, as I mentioned, a spurious locus. It entered on its quasi-existence less than an hour ago. Yet it has traditional memories of a long history. This suggests a meddling hand. It is a matter I shall take up with the Council on my return."
"Sure, do that," Lafayette replied absently, ducking as a dislodged stone fell past him to make a resounding smash far below, followed by yells.
"OK, Al, that did it. Thanks a bunch," Marv's now cheerful voice rang from below. "Oh-oh, here they come again!" Marv's voice died away in a wail.
"I've got to help him," Lafayette said, ducking back as other, smaller stones fell rattling down the steps.
"Stay here!" Allegorus said sharply. "The lab is the only stable fix in this entire locus, which seems to be on the verge of derealization. We'd best get back inside at once!"
"Well," Lafayette stalled, "it won't hurt to just sneak a look ..." As he took a cautious step sideways, an egg-size rock impacted heavily against his skull just above the ear; he pitched forward and tumbled down into the rolling dustcloud obscuring the stairway.
Out of the swirling dust a dim room materialized; this time Frumpkin was nowhere to be seen. But another figure, slim and graceful, hurried past.
"Daphne!" O'Leary yelled, and lunged after her. She seemed not to notice, pausing only to switch on a standing lamp which illuminated a bulky easy chair in the depths of which, Lafayette saw with a start, Frumpkin was curled asleep; he seemed to wake with a start, then waved a negligent hand in dismissal, at which Daphne turned away. Except for an expression of disappointment on her sweet face, she seemed just as O'Leary had seen her last. He started after her and tripped. When he looked up, she was gone.
"Look here, Lafayette," Frumpkin said testily, "this interference will have to stop!"
Lafayette peered into the dimness but saw nothing of Daphne; he tried to rise, but collapsed; his hands were painfully restrained, he realized as he fainted.
The dungeon, Lafayette reflected, is, as dungeons go, not too bad. No rats, and the straw is almost dry. The manacles, on the other hand—or on both hands—are large and rusty. Perhaps too large? He tried to slip his right hand through the broad iron bracelet; he winced as the scaly corrosion rasped his skin, but maintained the pressure; his hand was free, if a bit bloody—but the film of blood had helped lubricate it, no doubt. The other hand came halfway and wedged tight.
Perhaps, Lafayette told himself, thinking frantically, perhaps I left the flat-walker in this suit. I could have. I never got around to returning the gadget to Ajax, in all the excitement, and I haven't worn these britches since then, so it ought to be right here in my side pocket ... Reaching awkwardly around himself to check his left pocket, he felt a lump under the cloth, managed to get a finger into the mouth of the pocket, groped, felt cloth tear—and grasped the miniature device which had once enabled him to walk through the three-foot-thick wall of the cell under the palace of Duke Rudolfo in time to rescue the Lady Androgorre, as dear little Daph—or her alternate self—was known at Melange, a dreary locus indeed. But he had succeeded in his mission, and now, with the flat-walker in his hand (he had his old stuff back for sure now), he could do it again. But first he had to find out just where he was: It would be a pity to pass through the wall only to find himself treading air fifty feet above a paved courtyard. Perhaps if he just took a peek, without committing himself ... As to which wall to penetrate, there was no choice—not as long as he was still linked to one wall by his left wrist, which was far too tender from his earlier attempt to pull free even to contemplate submitting to that ordeal again. He turned to face the rough-hewn wall; as he fingered the tiny flexible flat-walker, his thoughts went back to the moment in Ajax's rough-hewn cavern lab when Pinchcraft, the research chief, had instructed him in the theory and practice of flat-walking ...
"... It generates a field which has the effect of modifying the spatial relationships of whatever it's attuned to, vis-à-vis the exocosm. It converts any unilinear dimension into an equivalent displacement along the perpendicular entropic axis, at the same time setting up a harmonic which produces a reciprocal epicentric effect. Or in other words, it reduces the user's physical dimensions to near zero and compensates by a corresponding increase in density in its quasi-two-dimensional state."
It sounded just as silly now as it did then, Lafayette reflected. Still, it had worked. All he had to do, he remembered clearly, was to orient the device with its long axis parallel with his own, and the smooth face aligned with the widest plane of his body. He adjusted the device as required, felt over the roughened surface, then found and pressed the small bump at its center.