He felt now that he lived in a flushed-out spirit.
Nooses, blades, gnashing jumpdoors - there was no mercy in the conflict which engaged them.
Nothing he did slowed the dark hurricane that hurtled toward the sentient universe. His nerves punished him with sensations of rough, grasping inadequacy. The universe returned a glassy stare, full of his own fatigue. The Caleban's words haunted him - self-energy . . . seeing moves . . . I am S'eye!
Eight enforcers had crowded into the small lab with Tuluk. They were being very self effacing, apologetic - evidence that Tuluk had protested in that bitingly sarcastic way Wreaves had.
Tuluk glanced up at McKie's entrance, returned to examination of a metal sliver held in stasis by a subtron field beneath a bank of multicolored lights on his bench.
"Fascinating stuff, this steel," he said, lowering his head to permit one of his shorter and more delicate mandibular extensors to get a better grip on a probe with which he was tapping the metal.
"So it's steel," McKie said, watching the operation.
Each time Tuluk tapped the metal, it gave off a shimmering spray of purple sparks. They reminded McKie of something just at the edge of memory. He couldn't quite place the association. A shower of sparks. He shook his head.
"There's a chart down the bench," Tuluk said. "You might have a look at it while I finish here."
McKie glanced to his right, saw an oblong of chalf paper with writing on it. He moved the necessary two steps to reach the paper, picked it up, studied it. The writing was in Tuluk's neat script.
Substance: steel, an iron-base alloy. Sample contains small amts manganese, carbon, sulfur, phosphorus, and silicon, some nickel, zirconium, and tungsten with admixture chromium, molybdenum, and vanadium.
Source comparison: matches Second-Age steel used by human political subunit Japan in making of swords for Samurai Revival.
Tempering: sample hard-quenched on cutting edge only; back of sword remains soft.
Estimated length of original artifact: 1.01 meters.
Handle: linen cord wrapped over bone and lacquered. (See lacquer, bone, and cord analyses: attached.)
* * *
McKie glanced at the attached sheet: "Bone from a sea mammal's tooth, reworked after use on some other artifact, nature unknown but containing bronze."
The linen cord's analysis was interesting. It was of relatively recent manufacture, and it displayed the same submolecular characteristics as the earlier samples of rawhide.
The lacquer was even more interesting. It was based in an evaporative solvent which was identified as a coal-tar derivative, but the purified sap was from an ancient Coccus lacca insect extinct for millennia.
"You get to the part about the lacquer yet?" Tuluk asked, glancing up and twisting his face slit aside to look at McKie.
"Yes."
"What do you think of my theory now?"
"I'll believe anything that works," McKie growled.
"How are your wounds?" Tuluk asked, returning to his examination of the metal.
"I'll recover." McKie touched the omniflesh patch at his temple. "What's that you're doing now?"
"This material was fashioned by hammering," Tuluk said, not looking up. "I'm reconstructing the pattern of the blows which shaped it." He shut off the stasis field, caught the metal deftly in an extended mandible.
"Why?"
Tuluk tossed the metal onto the bench, racked the probe, faced McKie.
"Manufacture of swords such as this was a jealously guarded craft," he said. "It was handed down in families, father to son, for centuries. The irregularity of the hammer blows used by each artisan followed characteristic patterns to an extent that the maker can be identified without question by sampling that pattern. Collectors developed the method to verify authenticity. It's as definite as an eye print, more positive than any skin-print anomaly."
"So what did you find out?"
"I ran the test twice," Tuluk said, "to be certain. Despite the fact that cell revivification tests on lacquer and cord attachments show this sword to have been manufactured no more than eighty years ago, the steel was fashioned by an artisan dead more thousands of years than I care to contemplate. His name was Kanemura, and I can give you the index referents to verify this. There's no doubt who made that sword."
The interphone above Tuluk's bench chimed twice, and the face of Hanaman from Legal appeared on it. "Oh, there you are, McKie," she said, peering past Tuluk.
"What now?" McKie asked, his mind still dazed by Tuluk's statement.
"We've managed to get those injunctions," she said. "They lock up Abnethe's wealth and production on every sentient world except the Gowachin."
"But what about the warrants?" McKie demanded.
"Of course; those, too," Hanaman said. "That's why I'm calling. You asked to be notified immediately."
"Are the Gowachin cooperating?"
"They've agreed to declaration of a Consent emergency in their jurisdiction. That allows all Federation police and BuSab agencies to act there for apprehension of suspects."
"Fine," McKie said. "Now, if you could only tell me when to find her, I think we can pick her up."
Hanaman looked from the screen with a puzzled frown. "When?"
"Yeah," McKie snarled. "When."
***
If you believe yourself sufficiently hungry, you will eat your own thoughts.
The report on the Palenki phylum pattern was waiting for McKie when he returned to Bildoon's office for their strategy conference. The conference had been scheduled earlier that day and postponed twice. It was almost midnight at Central, but most of the Bureau's people remained on duty, especially the enforcers. Sta-lert capsules had been issued along with the angeret by the medical staff. The enforcer squad accompanying McKie walked with that edgy abruptness this mixture of chemicals always exacted as payment.
Bildoon's chairdog had lifted a footrest and was ripple-massaging the Bureau Chief's back when McKie entered the office. Opening one jeweled eye, Bildoon said, "We got the report on the Palenki - the shell pattern you holoscanned." He closed his eye, sighed. "It's on my desk there."
McKie patted a chairdog into place, said, "I'm tired of reading. What's it say?"
"Shipsong Phylum," Bildoon said. "Positive identification. Ahhh, friend - I'm tired, too."
"So?" McKie said. He was tempted to signal for a massage from the chairdog. Watching Bildoon made it very attractive. But McKie knew this might put him to sleep. The enforcers moving restlessly around the room must be just as tired as he was. They'd be sure to resent it if he popped off for a nap.
"We got warrants and picked up the Shipsong Phylum's leader," Bildoon said. "It claims every phylum associate is accounted for."
"True?"
"We're trying to check it, but how can you be sure? They keep no written records. It's just a Palenki's word, whatever that's worth."
"Sworn by its arm, too, no doubt," McKie said.
"Of course." Bildoon stopped the chairdog massage, sat up. "It's true that phylum identification patterns can be used illegitimately."
"It takes a Palenki three or four weeks to regrow an arm," McKie said.
"What's that signify?"
"She must have several dozen Palenkis in reserve."
"She could have a million of 'em for all we know."
"Did this phylum leader resent its pattern being used by an unauthorized Palenki?"
"Not that we could see."
"It was lying," McKie said.
"How do you know?"
"According to the Gowachin juris-dictum, phylum forgery is one of the eight Palenki capital offenses. And the Gowachin should know, because they were assigned to educate the Palenkis in acceptable law when R&R brought those one-armed turtles into the Consent fold."