R.W. III - The Dark Design

  "I hear her! What is the matter?"

  "Kazz! There's a bear in the hut, and it's going to attack Besst! Take your spear and go in there and kill the bear, Kazz! Save Besst!"

  Kazz stood up, and, his hand grasping the imaginary spear, sprang forward. Burton had to move swiftly to get out of his way. Kazz stumbled over the chair and fell upon his face.

  Burton grimaced. Would the shock bring Kazz out of his trance? No, Kazz was up on his feet and about to run forward again.

  "Kazz! You're in the hut! There's the bear! Kill it, Kazz! Kill it!"

  Snarling, Kazz grabbed the phantom spear with both hands and thrust it.

  '' Ayee! Ayee!'' And a gabble of harsh sounds followed. Burton, having learned his native language, understood them.

  "I am the Man- Who- Slew- The- White- Tooth! Die, Hairy- One- Who- Sleeps- All- Winter! Die, but forgive me! I must, I must! Die! Die!"

  Burton spoke loudly. "Kazz! It's run away! The bear has run out of the hut! Besst is safe now!"

  Kazz stopped thrusting the spear. He stood upright now, looking from side to side.

  "Kazz! It's a few minutes later. Kazz! Besst has left. You're in the hut now! Inside it. You've nothing to fear! You've entered the hut, and there is nothing to be afraid of! But who else is in there with you?

  "Kazz! You're in the hut a few minutes after you saw that Spruce had no mark on his forehead. Who else is in the hut with you?"

  The Neanderthal had lost his fierce expression. Now he looked dully at Burton.

  "Who? Why, Monat and Pete."

  "Very good, Kazz. Now . . . who first spoke to you there?"

  "Monat did."

  "Tell me what he said to you. Tell me what Frigate said, too."

  "Frigate never said anything. Just Monat."

  "Tell me what he said . . . . what he is saying."

  "Monat says, 'Now, Kazz, you will remember nothing that took place in this hut. We will talk a minute and then we will leave. After you leave you will not remember going into the hut or leaving it. Everything between that time will be a blank. If anyone should ask you about this time, you will say that you don't remember. And you will not be lying because you will have forgotten everything. Isn't that right, Kazz?' "

  The Neanderthal nodded.

  "Also, Kazz, just to make sure, you will not remember the first time I told you to forget that you had mentioned to me and Frigate that we had no marks. Do you remember that time, Kazz?"

  Kazz shook his head. 'No, Monat.'

  He gave a drawnout sigh.

  "Who sighed?" Burton said.

  "Frigate."

  It was evidently an expiration of relief.

  "What else is Monat saying? Tell me what you are saying, too.''

  "Kazz, when I talked to you that first time, the time just after you had told Frigate and me that we had no signs, I also told you to tell me whatever Burton said about meeting a mysterious person. By that I mean someone who might call himself an Ethical."

  Burton said, "Aah!"

  "Do you remember that, Kazz? ″

  'No.'

  "Of course not. I told you not to remember that. But I now tell you to remember it. Do you remember it, Kazz?"

  A silence of about twenty seconds followed. Then the Neanderthal said, 'Yes, I remember now.'

  ″Very good, Kazz. Now, forget it again, though what I told you then still is a command. Isn't that right? ″

  'Yes, that's right.'

  ″Now, Kazz. Has Burton ever said anything to you about this Ethical? Or about anyone, man or woman, who claimed to be one of those who brought us back from the dead? ″

  'No, Burton-naq never told me anything like that.'

  "But if, in the future, he does tell .you, you will come to me at once and tell me. You will only do this, however, when no one else is around. Where no one can overhear us. Do you understand that? ″

  'Yes, I understand.'

  "If for some reason I am not available, if you cannot get hold of me because I am dead or gone on a journey, you will tell Peter Frigate or Lev Ruach, instead of me. Do you understand?"

  Burton said, in a low voice, "Ruach, too!"

  'Yes, I understand. I will tell Peter Frigate or Lev Ruach instead of you.'

  "And you will tell them only when no one is around, where no one else can overhear you two. Understand? ″

  'Yes, I understand.'

  "And you will not tell anyone else about this, you will only tell Frigate, Ruach, or myself. Understand? ″

  'Yes, I understand.'

  "Very good, Kazz. That's fine. We will go now, and when I snap my fingers twice, you will not remember this or the first time. Understand? ″

  'Yes, I understand.'

  "Kazz, you will also . . . oh, oh! Someone's calling for us! No time for an excuse now. Let's go!"

  Burton had to guess what this last remark meant. Monat must have been about to tell Kazz what he should say if anyone asked him what the conversation had been about. That was a lucky break for Burton. If Kazz had had a reasonable story, then Burton would never have become suspicious.

  Chapter 26

  * * *

  Burton said, ″Sit down, Kazz. make yourself comfortable. You sit there for a minute. I'm leaving. Monat will be coming in, and he will talk to you."

  "I understand."

  Burton walked out of the hut and stood for a minute. He should have posed as Monat when he first started the session. That might have overcome Kazz's resistance more quickly, and Burton would not have had to resort to the trickery of the bear and Besst.

  He re-entered, and said, "Hello, Kazz. How are you?"

  "I'm fine, Monat. How are you?"

  "Great! Very well, Kazz. I'll take over from where your friend, Burton, left off. We'll go back to that first time I talked to you, just after you had noticed that Frigate and I had no marks on our foreheads. You now remember that time, Kazz, because I, Monat, tell you to do so.

  "You will go back to the second after you had told Monat. Are you there?"

  "Yes, I am there."

  "Where are you, Monat, and Frigate?"

  "We are near a grailstone."

  "What day, or night, is that?"

  "I do not understand."

  "I mean, how many days was it after Resurrection Day?"

  "Three days."

  "Tell me what happened after you spoke to them about the lack of the mark."

  Kazz, speaking in a monotone, described the events immediately after. Monat had said that he and Frigate wanted to speak to him privately. They had walked across the plain and gone into the hills. There, behind a giant irontree, Monat had fixed his eyes upon Kazz's. Without the use of any mechanical devices, without even informing Kazz what he was doing, Monat had hypnotized him.

  "It was as if something dark flowed from him to me, something dark and overpowering."

  Burton nodded. He had seen Monat demonstrate this power, this "animal magnetism" as it was known in Burton's time. He was a stronger mesmerist than Burton, which was one reason why Burton had never permitted the Arcturan to attempt hypnotizing him. In fact, Burton had taken precautions against getting caught unawares by Monat. In an elaborate self-hypnosis, he had told himself that he must never allow himself to be mesmerized by Monat. However, Monat could be powerful enough to break down that command, so Burton had been extremely cautious about being alone with him.

  That forearming had been based on the fear that Monat might stumble across the time when he had been visited by the Ethical. That was Burton's secret, one he wanted no one to know. He had had no idea then, of course, that Monat was one of Them.

  He wondered if Frigate was also an expert hypnotizer. The fellow had never given any indication that he was. However, he had refused to let Burton try mesmerism on him. His plea had been that he could not endure the thought of losing his self-control.

  Kazz remembered that, during the course of the session, Monat had remarked to Frigate about the Neanderthal's ability to see the
symbols.

  " 'We never knew about that. We'll have to tell HQ as soon as we get a chance.' "

  So, Burton thought, Monat and Frigate were in communication from time to time with the Ethicals. How did they manage that? Were prearranged landings of the flying machines, which Burton had once glimpsed, one method of communicating? Those machines which flickered into and out of visibility as they flew along?

  Those two must have been watching him closely. That was one of the reasons the Mysterious Stranger had visited him at night during a storm. The Ethical must have known that Monat and Frigate were in Burton's party. But he had never mentioned them, had not put him on his guard.

  Perhaps he had meant to do so, but he had been hurried. He'd said that the Ethicals were coming soon in their flying machines. And he had left abruptly. Even so, he surely would have mentioned so grave a matter. A few words would have warned him. Why had he not done so? Was it possible that he did not know that Monat and Frigate were with him? And Ruach, too. He must not forget Ruach.

  Why had three agents been assigned to him? Wouldn't one have been enough? Also, why was one so conspicuous as the Arcturan given the job?

  Whatever the reasons for this, the matter of the lack of signs on the heads of the three agents was more pressing. Evidently, Ethicals, first-order or second-order, did not have such marks. Now that they were aware that Neanderthals could observe this, they had made sure that Kazz would not say anything about it.

  Moreover, Monat had then told Kazz that from that moment on he would see the marks on the foreheads of himself and his two colleagues.

  Why had he not then installed a command that Kazz would see these signs on everybody who did not have them?

  Perhaps he thought that it would not be necessary. The chances of running across other Neanderthals, never a numerous people, were slight. Still, it would have eliminated any exposures of agents from then on.

  The explanation might be simple. Monat would have had to describe the marks of every agent in the valley. Inasmuch as there might be hundreds, or thousands, for all Burton knew, that would have been impossible.

  Monat had not been too wrong in thinking that encounters with Neanderthals would be rare. In fact, Burton had never seen more than a hundred. All of these except Kazz and Besst had been passed by swiftly and at a distance during the day.

  Yet, they had come across Besst.

  He tried to recollect the exact circumstances under which she had been met. It was three years ago that they had come ashore at evening. This was an area populated largely by fourteenth-century A.D. Chinese and ancient Slavs. Besst was living with a Chinese, but she had made it evident from the first that she wished to go on the boat with Kazz. It was dark, so she would not have noticed anything unusual about Frigate and Monat – aside from the latter's being nonhuman, of course.

  The two had gotten together and talked until late that night. When her hutmate had ordered her to come with him, she had refused. There was a tense moment when it looked as if the Chinese were going to attack Kazz. Discretion won. He realized that, though he was bigger than the Neanderthal, he was also much weaker. Though very short, Kazz's massive bones and muscles made him stronger than any but the most powerful of modern men. In addition, his brutal face was enough to scare anybody.

  The two had gone aboard to spend the night together. Yet they must have gone to sleep before dawn. Could Monat have gotten to her then? Probably. Burton did not know how he had done it. But Besst had never said anything about Frigate's and Monat's marks.

  Kazz finished his account of the session. It was short and what Burton had expected.

  He sent Kazz after Besst, telling him to be very quiet. In a few minutes he was back with her. Burton told her he would satisfy her curiosity later. For the time being, would she let him hypnotize her? Sleepily, she agreed, and she sat down on the chair Kazz had occupied.

  After telling her he was Monat, he took her back to the mesmerizing by Monat. As he had thought, it had been done after she and Kazz had gone to sleep. Monat had simply described to her the marks which he had hypnotized her mate into seeing on the three agents' foreheads. Then he had ordered her to see the same marks. The whole process would have been done very quietly and quickly.

  Monat and his colleague had been lucky. Before Kazz had encountered Spruce, he had seen two other people without the marks. However, the first time had been on Resurrection Day. He had called out to the man, asking him why he had no mark. The man had fled, probably not because he understood what Kazz was saying but because he had misunderstood the Neanderthal's intentions.

  Later, after meeting Burton, Kazz had tried to tell him what he had seen, but neither could speak the other's language yet. And Kazz had simply forgotten about it in the days following, when they were all busy trying to survive.

  The second person he'd seen lacking a mark was a woman, a Mongolian. This had happened at high noon, and the woman had just come out of The River, where she was bathing. Kazz had tried to talk to her, but her hutmate, who did have a mark on his head, had taken the woman away. Evidently, he was jealous. Once more, Kazz's intentions were misunderstood.

  At that time, Burton and the others had been talking to the local headman in the council house. Kazz had stayed behind to watch their boat. After the woman had gone, Kazz was offered some drinks of lichen-alcohol by several people who wanted to talk to him. These had never seen a Neanderthal before, and the liquor was an inducement to get him to talk. Kazz, easily induced and seduced by free booze, was half-drunk by the time his crewmates returned. Burton had reproached him so harshly that Kazz had never again drunk while on guard duty.

  He also forgot about the woman.

  After bringing Besst out of the trance, Burton sat for a while in thought. Besst and Kazz shifted uneasily and gave each other wondering looks. Finally, he made a decision. There was no longer any use keeping them in the dark. Nor would he exclude Alice from now on. He owed the Stranger nothing, and the fact that he had not reappeared again could mean that he, Burton, had no reason to keep silent. Besides, though he was naturally secretive, he longed now to share his experiences.

  Though he gave only a bare outline, he took over an hour. Both Besst and Kazz were amazed, and they had many questions. He held up his hand for silence.

  "Later! Later! As of now, we must question them. The Arcturan's a much tougher customer, so we'll tackle Frigate first."

  He told them what they must do. Kazz said, "But wouldn't it be best to knock out Monat and tie him up? What if he wakes up while we're getting Frigate?"

  "I don't want to make any more noise than we have to. If Loghu and Alice hear us, we'll have a brouhaha."

  "A what?"

  "An uproar. Let's go."

  The three of them made their way through the fog. Burton thought of some more questions he would ask Frigate. For instance, Monat, Frigate, and Ruach must have known that Spruce was an agent. There had been plenty of opportunity for them to talk to him while they had been grail slaves. And Monat had had opportunities after the revolt to hypnotize Kazz so he would see a mark on Spruce. Why had he not done that?

  If Monat had not been able to get to Kazz after the revolt, he should then have told Spruce to leave the area at once. Or, at least, to wear a cloth around his head when conditions were favorable for seeing the mark.

  Could Spruce not have known that they were his fellow agents? They might be so numerous that each was familiar only with a few others. But surely all would know of Monat.

  He stopped, and drew in his breath.

  The Mysterious Stranger had never said anything about having his own agents. Yet, he was a renegade, and he might have enlisted a few highly trusted people. Could Spruce have been one? And could Monat somehow have found this out? And so gotten rid of him by not telling him about Kazz's visual abilities?

  That did not seem probable. If Monat had found out that Spruce was on the Stranger's side – and how would he ever be able to do that? – would he not then
have hypnotized Spruce? That would enable him to identify the Stranger, supposing, of course, that Spruce knew who he was.

  There was another possibility. Monat knew of Spruce's ability to kill himself by means of the sphere on his forebrain. Thus, he was not worried that Spruce would be forced to divulge any information at all.

  Also, he may have used Spruce as a messenger. He would have given him some information to pass on when Spruce was resurrected at HQ – if HQ meant headquarters.

  Monat had taken part in Spruce's inquisition. How amused he must have been at that. Also, it was Monat who had given Spruce some leading questions.

  Had Spruce been prepared by Monat to give the answers he had made? Were they all lies?

  If so, why should he lie? Why were all resurrectees kept in the dark?

  It was quite possible that Spruce, acting on Monat's orders, had deliberately ensured that Kazz would notice him.

  By then, the three had boarded the Snark. The Neanderthals stayed above. Burton felt his way to the cabin, down the companion way, and, counting the compartment doors, stopped outside Frigate's and Loghu's. He opened the door slowly and stepped inside. It was a very small space, just large enough to hold two bunks against the bulkhead and room to climb down from them. The bunk-chambers were the only places where any privacy was available. Even defecation was done in them, in the bamboo chamber pots which were stored in a rack to one side.

  Frigate usually slept in the top bunk. Burton moved forward, his hand outstretched. He would wake him gently, whisper that it was his watch, and then he would follow him to the deck. There Kazz would knock him out, and he would be carried to the hut.

  Since it would be impossible to keep him from killing himself once he was fully conscious, Burton had decided to try to mesmerize him as he was regaining his wits. It would be a chancy procedure, but he would have to try it. Frigate, unlike Spruce, might not be so willing to commit suicide now that there were no more resurrections.

  However, Burton was not sure that the Ethicals' agents were not resurrected.

  His fingertips felt the smooth sideboard of the bunk. They moved up onto the cloths that served as a mattress. They stopped.