upevery now and then till you retire."
"We have Council and the Management with us, now," Vall said. "Thiswas the first secret session of Executive Council in over two thousandyears. And I thought I'd drop dead when they passed that motion tosubmit themselves to narco-hypnosis."
"A few Councilmen are going to drop dead before they can benarco-hypped," Dalla prophesied over the rim of her glass.
"A few have already. I have a list of about a dozen of them who havehad fatal accidents or committed suicide, or just died or vanishedsince the news of your raid broke. Four of them I saw, in the screen,jump up and run out as soon as the news came in, on One-Six-Five Day.And a lot of other people; our friend Yandar Yadd's dropped out ofsight, for one. You heard what we got out of those servants of SalgathTrod's?"
"I didn't," Dalla said. "What?"
"Both spies for the Organization. They reported to a woman namedFarilla, who ran a fortune-telling parlor in the Prole district. Heroccult powers didn't warn her before we sent a squad of plain-clothesmen for her. That was an entirely illegal arrest, by the way, but itnetted us a list of about three hundred prominent political, businessand social persons whose servants have been reporting to her. Shethought she was working for a telecast gossipist."
"That's why we have a new butler, darling," Vall interrupted."Kandagro was reporting on us."
"Who did she pass the reports on to?" Dalla asked.
Tortha Karf beamed. "She thinks more like a cop every time I talk toher," he told Vall. "You better appoint her your Special Assistant.Why, about 1800 every day, some Prole would come in, give therecognition sign, and get the day's accumulation. We only got one ofthem, a fourteen-year-old girl. We're having some trouble getting herdeconditioned to a point where she can be hypnotized into talking; bythe time we do, they'll have everything closed out, I suppose. What'sthe latest from Abzar Sector? I missed the last report in the rush toget to this Council session."
"All stalled. We're still boomeranging the sector, but it's about fivebillion time-lines deep, and the pattern for the Kholghoor and EsaronSectors doesn't seem to apply. I think they have a lot of these Abzartime lines close together, and they get from one to another via someterminal on Fifth Level."
Tortha Karf nodded. It was impossible to make a transposition of lessthan ten parayears--a hundred thousand time lines. It was impossiblethat the field could build and collapse that soon.
"We also think that this Abzar time line was only used for theCroutha-Wizard Trader operation. Nothing we found there was more thana couple of months old; nothing since the last rainy season in India,for instance. Everything was cleaned out on Skordran Kirv's end."
"Tell him to try the Mississippi, Missouri and Ohio Valleys," TorthaKarf said. "A lot of those slaves are sure to have been sold to SecondLevel Khiftan Sector."
"Well, it looks as though our vacation's out the window for a longtime," Dalla said resignedly.
"Why don't you and Vall go to my farm, on Fifth Level Sicily," TorthaKarf suggested. "I own the whole island, on that time line, and youcan always be reached in a hurry if anything comes up."
"We could have as much fun there as on the Dwarma Sector," Dallasaid. "Chief, could we take a couple of friends along?"
"Well, who?"
"Zinganna and Kostran Galth," she replied. "They've gotten interestedin one another; they're talking about a tentative marriage."
"It'll have to be mighty tentative," Vall said. "Kostran Galth can'tmarry a Prole."
"She won't be a Prole very long. I'm going to adopt her as my sister."
Tortha Karf looked at her sharply. "You sure you know what you'redoing, Dalla?" he asked.
"Of course I'm sure. I know that girl better than she knows herself. Inarco-hypped her, remember. Zinna's the kind of a sister I've alwayswished I'd had."
"Well, that's all right then. But about this marriage. She was in lovewith Salgath Trod," Tortha Karf said. "Now, she's identifying AgentKostran with him--"
"She was in love with the kind of man Salgath could have been if hehadn't gotten into this Organization filth," Dalla replied. "Galth isthat kind of a man. They'll get along all right."
"Well, she'll qualify on IQ and general psych rating for Citizenship.I'll say that. And she's the kind of girl I like to see my boys takeup with. Like you, Dalla. Yes, of course; take them along with you.Sicily's big enough that two couples won't get in each others' way."
A phone-robot, its slender metal stem topped by a metal globe, slidinto the room on its ball-rollers, moving falteringly, like a blindman. It could sense Tortha Karf's electro-encephalic wave-patterns,but it was having trouble locating the source. They all satmotionless, waiting; finally it came over to Tortha Karf's chair andstopped. He unhooked the phone and held a lengthy whisperedconversation with somebody before replacing it.
"Now, there," he explained to Dalla. "That's a sample of why we haveto set up this duplicate organization. Revolution just broke out atFtanna, on Third Level Tsorshay Sector; a lot of our people, mostlytourists and students, are cut off from their conveyers by streetfighting. Going to be a pretty bloody business getting them out." Hefinished his drink and got to his feet. "Sit still; I just have tomake a few screen-calls. Send the robot for something to eat, Vall.I'll be right back."
THE END
Time Crime Page 24
