His eyes opened wide as his speedy thoughts leaped to the conclusion that I was slowly building towards. He smiled broadly, finished his drink, jumped to his feet, rushed over and seized my hand and pumped it enthusiastically.
"Brilliantly done! An idea that is as good, almost, as one I might have thought up. We take the time fixator to Hell—"
"Plug Slakey into it and take a recording. Then leave him there in the flesh—but bring back all of his memories!" Angelina had returned and heard this last. "If you are off on one more interuniversal trip you are not going alone this time."
Said without anger but with an unshakeable firmness. I opened my mouth to protest. Closed it and nodded.
"Of course. We're going back to Hell. Wear your lightest clothes."
"But no salamis this time."
"Quite right. That was an emergency measure—that succeeded I must remind you—that won't be needed now. We'll take the marines again, but well—armored and armed this time. To defend us while we make a memory recording of the Slakey in red."
"No troops," she said. "They would only get in the way. It will be just you and I in a fast armored scout tank. A lightning attack, find the old devil. Then I fight off anyone who gets in the way while you plug his brain into the memory fixator. After that it will be home in time for lunch. Tomorrow?"
"Why not? They want me in the hospital today. Some therapy for my bruises and cuts, and a broken rib or two that they are going to put right. Tomorrow morning will be fine."
It was. The body scan showed that two of my ribs were cracked. But microwindow surgery soon took care of them. The incision was so small that all that was needed was a local anesthetic. Since I am always very interested when someone fiddles around with my insides, I insisted upon having a hologram monitor, just like the surgeon's, so I could watch what was happening in glorious color 3D. The flexible needle snaked in through my skin and on into the bone of the rib itself. Once in place nanotechnology devices poured out of the tip of the needle, a submicroscopic crowd of molecular machines that grabbed the broken bone ends with their manipulators, then held tight onto each other. Micromotors whirred and the broken ends were neatly pulled together. Wonderful. The little machines would remain in place as new bone grew over them. I went right from the operating table to the laboratory where the interuniversal transporter and Angelina were waiting.
"I'm ready whenever you are," she said. She certainly was. Tastefully garbed in a black uniform, all metal studs and grenade clips, black boots—and a heavy weapon holstered on each hip.
"Very fetching," I said, slipping on the backpack that held the time fixator. "How was the test drive in your steel steed?"
"Very nice indeed," she said, patting the armor plate on the scout tank. "Fast, tough, with impressive fire power. More than enough weaponry to cover you in Hell. How was the bone operation?"
"Fast and efficient and I'm all mended and raring to go. Shall we?"
"In a moment. Before we leave I want to impress on Professor. Coypu a few important facts. Like the fact that we are not setting up housekeeping in Hell and want to be returned here soonest."
"Exactly."
Coypu strolled over from his control console looking decidedly miffed. "There will be no problems with the operation of the interuniversal activator this time, I can assure you of that."
"That's what you told me when you sent me to Heaven and I almost died with my boots off."
"Improvements have been made since then. Your vehicle has one activator built into the hull while you once again have one in your bootheel. And if worse comes to worse just clutch Angelina tightly—"
"Always a pleasant thought!"
"—and she will bring you both back."
"I feel relieved," I said, feeling relieved as I climbed into the scout tank and slammed the hatch. Angelina revved the engines and I gave Coypu the thumbs—up. His image scowled back at me from the communicator screen.
"You can turn the engine off," he said. "We have a small problem."
"How small?"
"Well …perhaps I should say big. I can't seem to find Hell."
"What do you mean you can't find it?"
"Just that. It appears to be gone."
Chapter 24
Angelina cut the power, I opened the hatch, and, quivering gently from actio interruptus, we slammed over to interrogate Professor Coypu who was laboring anxiously away at the controls.
"Why did you say not there…?" Angelina asked angrily.
"I said that because it isn't. Where the hell has Hell gone?"
"It is a little difficult to lose an entire universe?"
"I didn't exactly lose it. It's just not where it should be."
"Sounds the same as losing it," I said.
He gave me a surly scowl before turning back to his button pushing and switch throwing. Apparently with no good results. "I cannot access Hell with the former setting. I have checked it a number of times. There appears to be no universe at all there."
"Destroyed?" Angelina asked.
"Since that takes a great number of billions of years I doubt it very much."
"Is Heaven still there?" I asked.
"Of course." He made some rapid adjustments and pressed a button. Widened his eyes and gasped. Groped behind him for his chair and dropped into it. "Not possible," he muttered to himself.
"Are you all right, Professor?" Angelina asked, but he didn't hear her. His fingers were flashing across the keyboard now and the screen was filled with rapidly flowing mathematical equations.
"Leave him to it," I said. "If anyone can find out what happened it's him. We're just in the way now."
We went to the lounge area and I snapped my fingers for the barbot. Angelina scowled.
"Little early to hit the booze, isn't it?"
"No booze, just a simple glass of beer to slake my thirst. Join me?"
"Not at this time of day."
I sipped and thought. "We have to go back to the very beginning of events. Forget the other universes for the moment. When this entire thing started, when you disappeared from Lussuoso, I had Bolivar and James do a thorough sweep of all the planets, to see if there were any other operations run by a Slakey under a different cover. We didn't find another Temple of Eternal Truth, but we did uncover the same kind of operation under a different name. We went to Vulkann and located the fake church. Went in there—and you know what happened after that."
"From Glass to Hell to Heaven and back here. Where we are stuck since the good professor can't find any of them any more."
"We don't have to wait for him." I grabbed for the phone. "The search we instigated may have uncovered other Slakey operations on other planets. Let's see what the boys found out."
I heard the splash of water and shrieks of joy in the background when Bolivar, or James, answered the phone.
"Can I interrupt your jollities?" I asked.
"Just a day at the beach, Dad. What's up?"
"I'll tell you when you get here. But first, do you remember if there were any other Slakey operations uncovered by the original search, when we were on Lussuoso?"
"We dropped everything and got out of there so fast—I just don't know. But I do know that the computer was still running the search program when we left. We'll get onto it. See you there as soon as we have the records."
Professor Coypu was still hammering out equations, Angelina had a cup of tea, and I was thinking of another beer when the boys arrived.
"News?" I asked.
"Good!", they said in unison.
I flipped through the printouts, then passed them to Angelina.
"Very good indeed," I said. "A few remote possibles, a couple of maybe probables."
"And one dead certain," Angelina said. "The Sorority of the Bleating Lamb. A women—only congregation, and rich women at that."
"Did you note the name of the planet where this operation is now taking place?"
"I certainly did—Cliaand of all places. You boys are too young to remember the planet, in fact you were in your baby carriage at the time. There were certain difficulties on Cliaand, but your father and I sorted them out. We'll tell you about it when we have the time. The important thing is that now it is a museum world."