She started off with an aggressive stride while the zuta watchers were still fitting themselves into places on the first wagon. A glance showed Salazar that Tchitchagov was perched atop a pile of baggage on the second wagon. As Salazar followed Alexis, walking fast to catch up, he became aware of two Kooks, each with a rifle slung across its back, following the pair. A glance told him that neither of the twain bore the painted insignia of the Sungecho constabulary; therefore, these had to be the Hatsa and Hagii she had spoken of, apparently bodyguards.
Alexis slowed her taxing pace. Salazar thought that Alexis was an athletic girl, too husky to be altogether cozy. Still, she was certainly one to arouse masculine lust, with the sun agleam on her coppery mop. He said:
"What did you hit George with?"
"Heft this!" She proffered her handbag.
"Jeepers! It must weigh over a kilo. What's in it? Lead sinkers?"
"Gold from the Kashanite treasury."
"Is 'Kashanites' what you call members of your cult?"
"Damn it, it's not a cult! It's a spiritual confluence of minds!"
"Sorry."
"But yes, we do call ourselves the Kashanite Society, after Rostam Kashani, our founder."
They walked silently for a few steps; Salazar had no wish to become entangled in a theological argument. At last he said:
"How come Dumfries and Cantemir walk in here with a mere nod to the chief, when the rest of us had to go through that kneeling rigmarole?"
"Dumfries owns the controlling stock in the Adriana Company and has the final say about paying the chief for his timber. Cantemir's just his flunky. I hear rumors of some big plan those two are cooking, but nothing definite.
"Not to change the subject or anything, but isn't there an odd story about your parents' having been divorced and remarried? It happened before my time, so I haven't any firsthand knowledge."
Salazar sighed; discussion of this quirk in the family history made him uncomfortable. He said: "Just one of those nutty things middle-aged men sometimes do—dump the spouse of their youth to run off with a much younger woman and then wish they hadn't. But it all happened before my time, too."
"Obviously," she said, "since you're the product of their second marriage. How are they getting along now?"
"They seem happy and devoted. She bosses him, and he spoils her; guess he's afraid she might trade him in on another spouse, the way he did to her. What's that structure?" Salazar jerked a thumb at the mushroom-shaped tower as they passed it.
"That's Mao Dai's revolving restaurant, or 'retsuraan' as he calls it in imitation of the Kooks. If you stand still and watch, you'll see it turn."
"What's its source of power?"
"Look over that fence."
Salazar rose on tiptoe to peer. At the base of the tower two large kyuumeis, yoked to two of the four ends of a cruciform whim, walked the device around. A Kook leisurely walked outside the circle, now and then flicking one animal or the other with a whip. A pen beyond held two more kyuumeis, eating from mangers.
Salazar squinted up. Behind him the two wagons summoned by Tchitchagov rumbled past on the waterfront street. "I should estimate four or five revolutions an hour. That implies a gear ratio of—"
"You scientists! Instead of being thrilled by the novelty, your first thought is to turn everything into numbers. Let's move on. You'll want to clean up for dinner, and I'm expecting a—a friend.
"That's Doc Deyssel's clinic on our right. He's the only Terran M.D. on the island, and thank Shiiko he's competent. And there is the library. It has a fine collection of tapes and even some real books."
Salazar joined the three Ritters at the entrance to Levontin's Paradise Palace to walk with them back to Mao Dai's. As he approached, he heard Alexis growclass="underline"
"If that bastard has stood me up again ..."
"Maybe he broke a leg or something," said Suzette Ritter.
"Then he could have left word with Levontin ..." She broke off as Salazar approached, and the four set out for the restaurant.
Mao Dai's servitors were all short, yellow-skinned, flat-faced, black-haired, slant-eyed Gueilin types like Mao himself. When the party had been plied with the Kukulcanian distillate that pretended, without great success, to call itself whiskey, Hilbert Ritter asked:
"Alexis, tell us about this cult of yours."
"Father! It's not a cult; it is a spiritual philosophy."
"Call it what you like. But tell me about Kashani. Immigrant from Iran, wasn't he?"
"Rostam Kashani was a man of great spiritual insight, in touch with intelligences other than those inhabiting visible bodies." Alexis stared into the distance, and her voice took on an oratorical quality, as if she were addressing a throng. Some of the other diners turned to look.
"Was?"
"Oh, didn't you know? He's ascended to a higher plane."
"Dead, you mean?"
"If you want to call it that. He sacrificed himself to Shiiko, the spirit of Mount Sungara."
"How? Diving into the crater?"
"Exactly. He held our mortal bodies of no account."
Ritter said: "Mine may be of no account from the cosmic point of view, but it's the only one I've got. Then who runs the cult—excuse me, the spiritual philosophy— now?"
"I do."
The jaws of the three other diners sagged. Suzette said: "You mean you're their high priestess?"
"If you want to put it that way. My official title is Supreme Choraga. I'm expected to set an example for my fellow seekers that shall give them an advantage in assignment to their next incarnations."
The older Ritters exchanged a long glance. Hilbert Ritter said: "Have you some sort of tract or textbook setting forth the theology of—"
"No theology, please!" Alexis interrupted. "We recognize spirits, those of our ancestors not yet reincarnated and spirits of places like Mount Sungara. But no all-powerful gods like those of—"
"Hel-lo, folks!" said George Cantemir, grinning with glass in hand. "Mind if I join you while waiting for my grub?" When the four at the table stared stonily, he added:
"Now, Miss Ritter, I want to apologize for the misunderstanding this afternoon. I was just bein' friendly, not meaning to go beyond the bounds of polite intercourse."
"Depends on what you mean by 'intercourse'," said Alexis. Salazar thought she gave the nearest feminine equivalent of a growl that he could remember hearing.
"I meant just ordinary good manners, miss. It was just a misunderstanding, and you came out of it better'n I did. I've still got a lump on my poor head. See, here? That's right, smile a little. Are you folks going with the rest of the gang to the Michisko Bush?"
"I suppose so," said Hilbert Ritter. "It's on our itinerary. We're to get up early tomorrow. But what we want is the straight goods on this deal between Yaamo and the Adriana Company."
"Just normal lumbering," said Cantemir. "I've got some of our machinery at the base of Sungara now."
"Are you planning to clear-cut the whole mountain?"
"Just the nanshin forest."
"But still clear-cutting?"
"Sure. That's the most efficient, profitable way."
Salazar asked: "How will you cope with the poison-spraying nanshin trees?"
"No problem. We'll wear protective suits."
"But you'll wipe out the local biota, which I'm here to study!"
"Sorry about that, but we can't hold up progress while you superdomes take a century to study the situation. Yaamo wants to uplift and modernize his Kooks, to catch up with the mainland nations, and we'll pay him enough to make it possible. As the boss Kook here, he has the right, by their laws and ours, to sell that stand of timber if he wants. Our population is growing, and people have to live somewhere. The nanshin tree has the best wood for houses on Kukulcan.