hurried out, the writing machine started again.
_And to my son, Girzon: I will not use your son, Garnon, as areincarnation-vehicle; I will remain discarnate until he is grown andhas a son of his own; if he has no male child, I will reincarnate inthe first available male child of the family of Roxor, or of somefamily allied to us by marriage. In any case, I will communicatebefore reincarnating._
_To Nirzav of Shonna: Ten days ago, when I dined at your home, I tooka small knife and cut three notches, two close together and one alittle apart from the others, on the under side of the table. As Iremember, I sat two places down on the left. If you find them, youwill know that I have won that wager that I spoke of a few minutesago._
"I'll have my butler check on that, right away," Nirzav said. His eyeswere wide with amazement, and he had begun to sweat; a man does notcasually watch the beliefs of a lifetime invalidated in a few moments.
_To Dirzed the Assassin_: the machine continued. _You have served mefaithfully, in the last ten years, never more so than with the lastshot you fired in my service. After you fired, the thought was in yourmind that you would like to take service with the Lady Dallona ofHadron, whom you believe will need the protection of a member of theSociety of Assassins. I advise you to do so, and I advise her toaccept your offer. Her work, since she has come to Darsh, has not madeher popular in some quarters. No doubt Nirzav of Shonna can bear meout on that._
"I won't betray things told me in confidence, or said at the Councilsof the Statisticalists, but he's right," Nirzav said. "You need a goodAssassin, and there are few better than Dirzed."
_I see that this sensitive is growing weary_, the letters on thescreen spelled out. _His body is not strong enough for prolongedcommunication. I bid you all farewell, for the time; I willcommunicate again. Good evening, my friends, and I thank you for yourpresence at the feast._
The boy, on the other screen, slumped back in his chair, his facerelaxing into its customary expression of vacancy.
"Will you accept my offer of service, Lady Dallona?" Dirzed asked."It's as Garnon said; you've made enemies."
Dallona smiled at him. "I've not been too deep in my work to knowthat. I'm glad to accept your offer, Dirzed."
* * * * *
Nirzav of Shonna had already turned away from the group and washurrying from the room, to call his home for confirmation on thenotches made on the underside of his dining table. As he went out thedoor, he almost collided with the upper-servant, who was rushing inwith a book in his hand.
"Here it is," the latter exclaimed, holding up the book. "Larnov's'Splendor of Space,' just where he said it would be. I had a couple ofservants with me as witnesses; I can call them in now, if you wish."He handed the book to Harnosh of Hosh. "See, a strip of message tapein it, at the tenth verse of the Fourth Canto."
Nirzav of Shonna re-entered the room; he was chewing his mustache andmuttering to himself. As he rejoined the group in front of the nowdark visiplates, he raised his voice, addressing them all generally.
"My butler found the notches, just as the communication described," hesaid. "This settles it! Garnon, if you're where you can hear me,you've won. I can't believe in the Statisticalist doctrines afterthis, or in the political program based upon them. I'll announce mychange of attitude at the next meeting of the Executive Council, andresign my seat. I was elected by Statisticalist votes, and I cannothold office as a Volitionalist."
"You'll need a couple of Assassins, too," the nobleman with thechin-beard told him. "Your former colleagues and fellow-party-membersare regrettably given to the forcible discarnation of those who differwith them."
"I've never employed personal Assassins before," Nirzav replied, "butI think you're right. As soon as I get home, I'll call Assassins' Halland make the necessary arrangements."
"Better do it now," Girzon of Roxor told him, lowering his voice."There are over a hundred guests here, and I can't vouch for all ofthem. The Statisticalists would be sure to have a spy planted amongthem. My father was one of their most dangerous opponents, when he wason the Council; they've always been afraid he'd come out of retirementand stand for re-election. They'd want to make sure he was reallydiscarnate. And if that's the case, you can be sure your change ofattitude is known to old Mirzark of Bashad by this time. He won't dareallow you to make a public renunciation of Statisticalism." He turnedto the other nobleman. "Prince Jirzyn, why don't you call theVolitionist headquarters and have a couple of our Assassins sent hereto escort Lord Nirzav home?"
"I'll do that immediately," Jirzyn of Starpha said. "It's as LordGirzon says; we can be pretty sure there was a spy among the guests,and now that you've come over to our way of thinking, we'reresponsible for your safety."
He left the room to make the necessary visiphone call. Dallona,accompanied by Dirzed, returned to her place at the table, where shewas joined by Harnosh of Hosh and some of the others.
"There's no question about the results," Harnosh was exulting. "I'llgrant that the boy might have picked up some of that stufftelepathically from the carnate minds present here; even from the mindof Garnon, before he was discarnated. But he could not have picked upenough data, in that way, to make a connected and coherentcommunication. It takes a sensitive with a powerful mind of his own topractice telesthesia, and that boy's almost an idiot." He turned toDallona. "You asked a question, mentally, after Garnon wasdiscarnate, and got an answer that could have been contained only inGarnon's mind. I think it's conclusive proof that the discarnateGarnon was fully conscious and communicating."
"Dirzed also asked a question, mentally, after the discarnation, andgot an answer. Dr. Harnosh, we can state positively that the survivingindividuality is fully conscious in the discarnate state, istelepathically sensitive, and is capable of telepathic communicationwith other minds," Dallona agreed. "And in view of our earlier workwith memory-recalls, we're justified in stating positively that theindividual is capable of exercising choice in reincarnation vehicles."
"My father had been considering voluntary discarnation for a longtime," Girzon of Roxor said. "Ever since the discarnation of mymother. He deferred that step because he was unwilling to deprive theVolitionalist Party of his support. Now it would seem that he has donemore to combat Statisticalism by discarnating than he ever did in hiscarnate existence."
"I don't know, Girzon," Jirzyn of Starpha said, as he joined thegroup. "The Statisticalists will denounce the whole thing as aprearranged fraud. And if they can discarnate the Lady Dallona beforeshe can record her testimony under truth hypnosis or on a liedetector, we're no better off than we were before. Dirzed, you have agreat responsibility in guarding the Lady Dallona; some extraordinarysecurity precautions will be needed."
* * * * *
In his office, in the First Level city of Dhergabar, Tortha Karf,Chief of Paratime Police, leaned forward in his chair to hold hislighter for his special assistant, Verkan Vall, then lit his owncigarette. He was a man of middle age--his three hundredth birthdaywas only a decade or so off--and he had begun to acquire a double chinand a bulge at his waistline. His hair, once black, had turned auniform iron-gray and was beginning to thin in front.
"What do you know about the Second Level Akor-Neb Sector, Vall?" heinquired. "Ever work in that paratime-area?"
Verkan Vall's handsome features became even more immobile than usualas he mentally pronounced the verbal trigger symbols which shouldbring hypnotically-acquired knowledge into his conscious mind. Then heshook his head.
"Must be a singularly well-behaved sector, sir," he said. "Or elsewe've been lucky, so far. I never was on an Akor-Neb operation; don'teven have a hypno-mech for that sector. All I know is from generalreading.
"Like all the Second Level, its time-lines descend from theprobability of one or more shiploads of colonists having come to Terrafrom Mars about seventy-five to a hundred thousand years ago, and thenhaving been cut off from the home planet and forced to develop acivilization of their own here. The Akor-Neb
civilization is of afairly high culture-order, even for Second Level. An atomic-power,interplanetary culture; gravity-counteraction, direct conversion ofnuclear energy to electrical power, that sort of thing. We buy finesynthetic plastics and fabrics from them." He fingered the material ofhis smartly-cut green police uniform. "I think this cloth is Akor-Neb.We sell a lot of Venusian _zerfa_-leaf; they smoke it, straight andmixed with tobacco. They have a single System-wide government, asingle race, and a universal language. They're a dark-brown race,which evolved in its present form about fifty thousand years ago;
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