Li Po had been listening in. He said, "Perhaps the killer likes the sight of blood. Or it may be that he wanted us to suffer or to think that we might survive. As it turned out ..."
"He won't stop," Burton said.
"He failed," the Chinese said. "All we have to do is raise our friends, and he will be ..."
His mouth fell open. "Ah! What if he has inhibited their resurrection?"
"Exactly," Burton said. "Well, we'll soon find out."
Frigate caught up with them. He looked behind, and Burton turned to see what he was staring at. Gull was far behind them, moving slowly up the slope.
"I could be overly suspicious," the American said, "but don't you think it's funny that he wasn't killed after he fell? I have no evidence for my suspicions, but, after all, he was Jack the Ripper. Maybe he played it safe, programmed the androids to spare him. He might even have fixed it so that one would knock him out or tap him lightly on the head if it looked as if we'd win. I hate to say these things, but we can't take any chances now."
"I've thought of the same thing," Burton said. "However, his story could be true."
They walked the rest of the way in silence. The sky was still blue, and the sun was about where it would be at six o'clock. He thought of what the Mad Hatter had said. "It's always six o'clock here."
The birds were singing again in the woods, and an angry squirrel was scolding something, probably one of Alice's cats. The wild animals must have been frightened into silence by the uproar, but now that that had ceased, they had resumed normal life. All the noise and the babel meant nothing to them after they had passed. Those innocent creatures lived only in the present; the past was forgotten.
He envied them their innocence and unawareness of time.
They paused to catch their breaths in the large and beautiful garden of flowers at the top of the hill. Burton scanned the sky, wondering if the chairs were pressing against the blue wall somewhere out there. They would keep doing that until their power supply weakened, and then they would settle down slowly into the trees.
They entered the huge empty house—he hoped it was empty—and they searched every room, their weapons ready. Satisfied that no one, human or android, was hiding in ambush, they showered. After putting on new clean clothes, simple robes, they met in the large library. By then the antishock pills given by the Computer were doing their work. They were still very tired and dispirited, however. The drinks did not seem to help much. Nor was anybody hungry.
"Well, there's no use putting it off," Burton said, and he seated himself in front of the computer console. Though he dreaded to ask the question, he did so. And what he did not want to hear was what the Computer, through the computer, told him.
The dead, Nur, Turpin, Sophie, de Marbot, Aphra, all the slain, could not be raised. Someone had inhibited the raising, and the Computer would not say who that person was.
"Oh, my God!" Alice said, and she moaned. "I had Monty for six days, and now he's gone forever!"
"I wouldn't say forever," Burton said. "We'll find a way to cancel the overrides. Some day."
"We should warn the others," Alice said.
"The others?" Burton said. "Oh, you mean those in Turpin-ville. And Netley and his people and the gypsies."
"Tell the gypsies," Frigate said. "Never mind those who threw Tom and me out of our places. They don't deserve to be warned. What they do deserve ... well ..."
"I understand your feelings," Burton said, "but, in a way, they're our allies. The Snark or whoever the killer is won't be attacking just us."
"How do you know that?" Frigate said.
"1 don't know that, but we must warn them."
He tried Turpinville first. Though the screen was activated, there was no reply, and they could see only a dim diffuse dark amber light.
Burton was about to try Netley when Li Po said, "Wait! I thought I saw something!"
"What is it?" Burton said, squinting his eyes—as if that would help.
"Something dark. Moving," Li Po said.
The others crowded around the console. They, too, squinted.
"I don't see anything," Burton said.
"You don't have my eagle eyes," Li Po said. He pointed. "There! Can't you see it? It's dark, and it's moving, though very slowly. Wait."
Presently, Burton could see a dark vague bulk. It swelled almost imperceptibly, taking a near-unendurable time to float nearer. Minutes passed, and then the outlines became more distinct. Alice gasped and said, "It's a man!"
Burton asked the Computer to make the area .brighter if it could. The fluid—it had to be a fluid since the man was floating in it—was illuminated a little. More minutes passed, and then they could see the face of a black man, eyes staring and mouth open.
"I don't know what's happened," Burton said, "but something horrible has. The screen for receiving messages from outside Turpin's world is in the room next to Turpin's office. Obviously, it's filled with water or some kind of liquid."
"That can't be!" Star Spoon said.
"Oh, yes, it can. The Computer can do almost anything."
"Try Netley's," Frigate said.
Burton did so. This time, the screen showed them a clearer fluid. They could not see very far into it, but they could distinguish a shadowy bulk that looked like a sofa. Near it was a small dark object too fuzzy to be identified. But it was floating. It could be a plastic bottle of some sort, partly full, perhaps, and buoyed by the air in it.
"Definitely another flood," Burton said.
"Ask the Computer if it knows what happened," Frigate said.
Burton glared at him. "Don't be a stupid ass. Whoever did this would command the Computer not to tell us anything."
"You don't know. Maybe the Snark doesn't care. Maybe he'd like us to know. Anyway, if he thought that we'd all be dead, no one around to question it, why conceal anything?"
"Anything is possible^ Sorry about the remark."
Burton asked the Computer if it had made recordings of the recent events in Turpinville and Frigate's world. It replied that it had. Burton then ordered it to run off the pictures of Turpinville, starting from the moment that the liquid had poured into that world.
They had thought that the only video-audio transmissions inside the worlds were made through the computer sets inside the private worlds, these being connected through cables to the floors of the worlds. But the Snark, the unknown, had found a way to break this communication and video-audio barrier. Selected areas of the world's wall had been made into screens, and Burton and his companions saw the deluge as a flying bird would see it. They watched as the waters of the fountains and the river and the marshes and lake were replaced by the amber liquid. Which, the Computer told them in answer to Burton's question, was bourbon.
"Bourbon?" Burton said, and he asked the Computer to repeat the statement.
It was bourbon.
The inlets for the various water sources had poured in the liquor under great pressure. The fountains had soared up until they almost touched the top of the Brobdingnagian chamber, and the river and lakes and marshes had spewed forth the swift raging floor of whiskey.
"No doubt, it was the best bourbon," Burton muttered.
The citizens of Turpinville had been panicked, but, after a few minutes, they had taken every means of transportation to the exit. They had fought each other for the hundred available flying chairs, hitting, knifing and shooting. Those left behind had fought for the automobiles, motorcycles, and horses and buggies. They had jammed into the railroad train and climbed on top of the cars. Those in the chairs had gotten swiftly to the exit, only to find that they could not open the door. The people f on foot and in the ground vehicles were drowned before they reached the exit.