"Anyway, the wathan furnishes all the data we need to make a new body, and then it attaches itself to the duplicate."
Burton wondered how many times this information would have to be repeated to some of the group before it was finally accepted.
"Why did you decide to carry out your own project?" Nur said.
Loga grimaced.
"I'll talk about that later."
The planet was re-formed into a Rivervalley many millions of miles long. The tower and the underground chambers were constructed at the same time. The wathans were fed into the duplicate bodies made in the underground places. The physical defects of the bodies were rectified. Any metabolic disturbances were corrected. Dwarfs and midgets were given a normal height, but pygmies retained their original height. The wathans were attached to the bodies during this process, but the bodies had no self-awareness since the brains of the duplicates were kept unconscious. Nevertheless, the wathans were recording changes. Then, the duplicates were destroyed and, on general resurrection day, the bodies were duplicated again but along the banks of The River.
"My premature awakening in the chambers?" Burton said. "Was that an accident?"
"Not at all," Loga said. "I was responsible for that. You were one of those I'd picked to help me in my plan—if it ever became necessary that I'd need your help. I caused you to be awakened so that at least one of the group would have some inkling of what was being done to you people. It would also fire your determination. You have a vast curiosity; you would never be satisfied until you got to the bottom of this mystery."
"Yes, but when you visited us, you lied to us," Nur said. "You told us you'd picked only twelve. As it's turned out, you must have chosen many more than that."
"In the first place, I wasn't the only one who visited you. Sometimes, Tringu did. He was completely with me in my objections to some features of this project. He was the only one I could trust. I couldn't even tell Siggen what I was doing.
"In the second place, I couldn't limit the group to twelve. Chance alone was against that few ever getting to the tower, if I needed them for what I had in mind. So, I actually chose one hundred and_ twenty-four. I lied to you about the number because, if you were ever caught by my people, you'd not be revealing the full truth.
"That is also why I didn't reveal everything to you and why I lied about some things. If you'd been caught and your memories were read, you'd not be able to give them the complete plan. And you'd have contradictory stories.
"That is why, posing as Odysseus, I told Clemens that the renegade who'd visited me had claimed to be a woman."
Loga had awakened only one of his chosen group because that could be read by the Ethicals as an accident. More than one would arouse suspicion. But he'd made a mistake in arousing even one. Monat had investigated Burton's case, and, while he couldn't prove that someone had tampered with the resurrection machinery, he was on the lookout for more "accidents."
Loga had become very anxious when Monat said that he meant to be resurrected near Burton and to accompany him for a while. Monat also wished to study the lazari closely, and to do this he had to make up an acceptable story to account for his presence. Why not do both at the same time?
Loga hadn't warned Burton about this. He was afraid that Burton, knowing Monat's real story, might be self-conscious and act peculiarly. Or, even worse, try to take matters in his own hands.
"I would've," Burton said.
"I thought so."
"I don't like to interrupt," Nur said. "But do you know what happened to the Japanese, Piscator?"
Loga grimaced again, and he pointed to the wrecked equipment along the wall and the skeleton near it.
"That's what's left of Piscator."
He swallowed, and he said, "I didn't think that any Valleydweller would ever get to the top of this tower. The odds against it made it very improbable, though not absolutely impossible. I knew that the Parolanders might build an airship, but even so, how would they get into the tower? Only a highly advanced ethical person could enter. That wasn't likely, but it was possible. As it happened, one man from the Parseval did get in.
"So, just to make sure, or try to make sure that if someone like Piscator did enter, I put bombs in the cabinets along the wall and also in the cabinets in the revolving platform. Not just in this room. There are more in another control room past the apartments in the opposite direction. The bombs were explosives which were formed into instrument panels. Whichever direction the intruder took, he'd see a control room and go in. His curiosity would drive him to do so. He'd see screens still operating and the skeletons of those who'd been working in it.
"The sensors in the bombs would allow the bombs to go off only if the intruder's brain didn't contain the little black ball, the suicide mechanism."
"Piscator wasn't one of your recruits, was he?" Nur said.
"No."
"If I'd been on the airship and had gotten in, I'd have been killed."
Burton wondered briefly why Loga hadn't planted bombs in the secret room at the base. Then he realized that if Loga had done so and he'd been with the expedition, as he had, he, too, would've been killed.
"Did you deactivate the bombs when you came here?" Burton said. He was thinking of the control room with the open door they'd passed before arriving at the apartments.
"I did in this room."
Loga continued his narrative. He had made a wathan distorter to enter the tower and also to deceive the scanner satellites. And he had fixed the computer so that it couldn't notify the Council when Burton died and a duplicate body was being made for him.
"That's why you were able to kill yourself so many times and still elude the Council. But Monat sent word via an agent to inspect the place where your preresurrection duplicate would be made so that your fatal wounds could be repaired. The circuits were traced back to the inhibit I'd installed. That's why, the last time you committed suicide, you were caught."
In the frantic search to find out the identity of the renegade, the Council had agreed to submit themselves to the memory scanner. Loga had anticipated this, and he had fixed the computer so that it would show a false memory track.
"You understand that I couldn't do this for my entire track by any means. Only those memory sections for the times when we had to account for our absences were scanned. Even that took much time and hard work, but I did it."
The time came which Loga dreaded so much and hoped would not come. He had arranged for that, but he did not want to have to carry out his arrangements. It hurt him severely to do it.
"Monat decided that he would be picked up at night soon and return to the tower. At the same time, you, Burton, would be taken along for a complete scan of your time in The Valley. I think that Monat suspected that the renegade, I, had fixed it so that your memory of your questioning by the Council had not been removed. Also, the violence around him in The Valley was increasingly sickening him. He needed a vacation."
51
LOGA WAS FLYING TO THE TOWER, HAVING JUST COMPLETED A legitimate mission, when the two hidden resurrectors were found. At the same time, the engineers had discovered more evidence of Loga's tampering with the computer.
Monat, Thanabur, and Siggen were in The Valley then. The other Councilors sent out aircraft to pick them up and to give them the news. However, the Council had made an error in judgment. Instead of waiting until Loga arrived and then confronting him, they sent a message to him. He was told to expect arrest when he got home.