And why was he a renegade?
Burton didn't believe X's story about why the other Ethicals had resurrected the Terrans.
Indeed, he wasn't sure that he hadn't been allied with someone whose true goals he would loathe if he knew them.
Perhaps that was why the Mysterious Stranger had been so mysterious, why he'd not told them the truth, why he was still in disguise.
If he were.
Whatever the truth was, it was long past time for the Ethical to reveal himself. Unless... unless X knew that some of this party were agents or other Ethicals. He would then believe that he had to keep his disguise until they were in the tower. Why in the tower? Because there he had means to overpower or kill his enemies. Or anyone else who would try to keep him from carrying out his schemes, beneficent or malignant.
These might require that his recruits be among the removed. He'd needed them only to get to the tower.
Why would he ever have thought that he might have to have their help?
Well... when Spruce had been interrogated, he'd said something about the Operator of a giant computer. Burton didn't know who the Operator was, but a computer might have been used secretly by X when, or before when, the resurrection project began. He might have put into it all the probabilities he could think of regarding his unlawful project and asked for an estimate of their happening. Perhaps, the computer might even have been able to come up with some that X couldn't think of.
One of the items offered by the computer was a situation or situations in which X might need recruits.
Burton couldn't imagine what it was, unless it was the present one.
Good enough.
And so X had gotten his recruits, and he'd erased all his questions and the answers from the computer. Somehow, he'd done it without the Operator's knowing about it. That is, all this had happened if Spruce hadn't lied and there were indeed such things as an Operator and computer.
As of now, Burton's big problem was that X hadn't told him who he was. Which meant that very soon X would be acting, not for his recruits but against them.
Burton thought that they should get some sleep before they ventured out on the boats. All agreed, and so they laid out their heavy cloths on the floor and rolled up others for pillows. Since it was warm here, they didn't even have to cover themselves with their eskimo-suit-type garments. The hot air came from slits along the bases of the walls.
"Probably powered by nuclear energy," Frigate said. "The same goes for the lamps."
Burton wanted to set two-hour watches with two guards each.
"Why?" Tai-Peng said. "It's evident that we're the only ones around for twenty thousand miles."
"We don't know that," Burton said. "We shouldn't get careless now."
Some agreed with the Chinese, but it was finally decided that they should take no chances. Burton picked the sentinels and appointed Nur to be Gilgamesh's partner and himself as Ah Qaaq's.
The Moor wasn't likely to be taken by surprise; he had extraordinary perceptions of others' attitudes and feelings; he could often tell by subtle body language what others intended to do.
It was possible that Nur was an agent or that Gilgamesh and Ah Qaaq were in cahoots. One might pretend to sleep until his colleague who was on watch attacked his partner.
The possibilities were numerous, but Burton had to take chances. He couldn't do without sleep all the time.
What worried him most, though, was that X, if he was here, might take a small boat during the night and get to the tower ahead of the others. Once there, he would make sure that the entrance at the base couldn't be entered.
Burton gave de Marbot, Alice's partner for the first duty, his wristwatch. Then he lay down on his cloths, which were near the entrance to the tunnel. His loaded pistol was under his pillow. He had trouble getting to sleep, though he wasn't the only one if the sighs and mutterings he heard were any indication. It wasn't until the first two hours were almost over that he slid into an uneasy sleep. He kept starting awake; he had nightmares, some of them recurrences for the past thirty years. God, in the garments of a late Victorian gentleman, poked him in the ribs with a heavy cane.
"You owe for the flesh. Pay up."
His eyes opened, and he looked around. Tai-Peng and Blessed Croomes were on guard now. The Chinese was talking in a soft voice to the black woman not ten feet from Burton. Then Croomes slapped his face and walked away.
Burton said, "Better luck next time, Tai-Peng," and he went back to sleep.
When Nur and Gilgamesh were on watch, Burton roused again. He slitted his eyes so that they would think he was still sleeping. Both were in one of the big boats, sitting on the raised deck by the controls. The Sumerian seemed to be telling a funny story to the Moor, if Nur's smiles meant anything. Burton didn't like their closeness. All the very strong Gilgamesh had to do was to reach out and seize Nur's throat.
The Moor, however, seemed very much at ease. Burton watched them for a while, then nodded off. When he awoke again, with a start, Nur was shaking him.
"Your watch."
Burton rose and yawned. Ah Qaaq was standing by the shelves, eating bread and stew. He gestured at Burton to join him. Burton shook his head. He didn't intend to get any closer to him than he had to. Stooping, he withdrew the pistol from under the pillow and placed it in his holster. Ah Qaaq, he noted, was also armed. There was nothing significant in this. The guards were supposed to carry their weapons.
Burton got within six feet of Ah Qaaq and told him he was going outside to urinate. The May an, his mouth full, nodded. He'd lost weight during the hard journey and now seemed determined to make up for it.
If he's X pretending to be a compulsive eater, Burton thought, he's certainly an excellent actor.
Burton went through the tunnel with frequent looks behind him and stops now and then to listen for footsteps. He didn't turn on his lantern until he reached the cave. The lantern, set in the mouth on the sloping floor, beamed past him. The cold fog pressed wetly. Having finished his business quickly, he went back into the cave.
Now would be a good time for Ah Qaaq to sneak up on him. But he neither saw nor heard anything except the crash of waves against the rocks some distance away. When he cautiously returned, he found Ah Qaaq sitting with his back against the wall, his eyes half closed, his head drooping.
Burton moved over to the opposite wall and leaned against it. After a while, the Mayan stood up and stretched. He signaled that he was going out to the cave. Burton nodded. Ah Qaaq, his heavy dewlap bouncing, waddled out through the tunnel. Burton decided that he'd been overly suspicious. A minute later, he thought that he hadn't been suspicious enough. What if the Mayan was X, and he had another cave nearby in which was a boat? It might be behind a narrow fissure, an opening to which Ah Qaaq could wade through the shallow water on the shelf.
Ten minutes went by, not an unreasonable time for the absence. Should he go after Ah Qaaq?
While Burton was trying to make up his mind, he saw the Mayan enter. Burton relaxed. The watch was half over, and the others would be in the more shallow phase of sleep and thus more easily awakened by noise.
Also, it would be logical for X to wait until the tower was entered. Here, he would have to deal with many. There, he would be on familiar ground.
When the six hours had passed, Burton aroused everybody. They went out to the sea in two groups according to sex and returned complaining about the cold. By then Burton and Ah Qaaq had poured water from the canteens into the cups provided by the grails and were ready to add the instant coffee which also heated the water. They drank and talked softly for a while and then ate breakfast. Some left for the sea again. Croomes insisted that it was a shame to, allow skeletons to lie unburied. She made such a fuss that Burton thought it would be better to mollify her. A delay wasn't going to make any difference anyway.