by John F. Carr
"What problems?"
"I had a problem with my first love slave. After several doses of Cainenol she developed a psychic connection with me that enabled her to sense my presence whenever I was within hailing distance. She could locate me in a blackout orgy. She took to following me everywhere, eager to provide whatever services I needed. It handicapped my style."
"What happened to her?"
"She's at the Clergy Training Center. You talked with her. She was in the role of Mistress Trainer. Once she stopped taking Cainenol she remained eager to please me without being obsessive about it."
Clandine shook in puzzlement. "Are you telling me that once she became drug free she switched from submissive to dominant?"
"Not necessarily. The relationship between trainer and trainee is more complex than it appears to be. The trainer learns from the trainee what actions the trainee gets satisfaction from performing. Then the trainer creates mutual pleasure by commanding the trainee to perform those actions."
Clandine took a minute to absorb the concept that Flantel had just presented. Then she continued with, "You said that Boget at first just wanted the names of violent prone grays. What were you asked for after that?"
"Boget and Ozerta wanted my help in getting other rainbows to join the conspiracy. They said we had to have more people involved or Wanklurm would soon control everything."
"Were you able to add more rainbows to the conspiracy?" she asked.
"No. I'm a great planner of orgies and a fair administrator, but a poor conspirator. I couldn't get the Game overseer to listen to my pitch. People who get deeply involved in the Game tend to lose their interest in the more sensual aspects of life. I talked a bit with Jonter, who was Listener Overseer at the time, but before I could make my pitch he told me about the bad Cainenol experience that Lyonella, one of his best Listeners, had."
Flantel got my full attention when he said the name of Lyonella. I made eye contact with Clandine and made motions with my hands indicating I wanted more details. Clandine, who had suspected Lyonella of being involved in the conspiracy, was as eager for more information as I was.
She said, "Tell me about Lyonella's experience."
"Part of the original shipment of Cainenol fell into the hands of a petty criminal named Vargan, a gray I never met. According to Jonter, Vargan wanted to turn Lyonella into his love slave. He wanted her to tell him the secrets of her clients so he would have power over them. He gave her too many doses of Cainenol and she had bad reactions, including a love/hate psychic connection to Vargan. She became unable to function as a Listener and Vargan dropped her."
That was useful information to me. It established that Lyonella was not part of the conspiracy but a victim of it. It also explained why Lyonella, in our first encounter, mistook me for Vargan. Errox, whom she had known as Vargan, was nearby in Hushel the smitty's dwell arranging to get his wristlock put on me. Lyonella's psychic connection told her he was near. Her confusion, probably caused by Cainenol in her system, led her to believe I was Vargan. The love and hate she had felt for him was directed toward me while he was in the area.
When my attention returned to Flantel, he said, "Jonter knew the Cainenol effects would wear off in time, even if drug use continues, but he was appalled at what had happened to her and what might happen to others. I reported my failure with Jonter to Boget and Ozerta. One of them must have told Wanklurm because shortly thereafter Jonter was killed. I knew then that I wanted nothing more to do with the conspiracy."
"Did you tell Boget or Ozerta that?"
"No. I was afraid they'll tell Wanklurm and I'd be killed."
Clandine looked at me and then asked, "What do you know of a man named Tannet?"
"He was Ozerta's lover. She never introduced us. I think she was grooming him to be Jonter's replacement, but it could have been me she wanted to replace. He was scheduled to become a rainbow. I think Ozerta told him more about what was really going on than any non-rainbow knew. When I heard that he was missing. I suspect that Wanklurm, who was possessive of Ozerta, had him killed."
If I needed any further confirmation that Wanklurm was my enemy, this was it. The late Ozerta, who had been my lover when I was Tannet, had inadvertently put me in a position that ended my life as Tannet.
Clandine gave me a questioning look. I interpreted it as asking me if I had enough information about Tannet. I nodded to her that I was satisfied.
She continued by asking, "Who else was involved in the conspiracy?"
Flantel said, "Boget, Ozerta, and Wanklurm were the only ones I was aware of. They may have had some minor minions, but if there were other rainbows, I never heard about them."
He paused and then asked, "What's going to happen to us?"
Clandine answered, "Boget was killed by an associate. Ozerta chose suicide rather than being brainwiped and reconfigured. Wanklurm hasn't been captured yet but he will be. When he is he'll be given the choice of brainwiping with reconfiguration or suicide. You get the same options."
Flantel said, "I want to live even if I lose my memory and have my looks changed."
I was not surprised that Flantel took the option he did. He obviously wanted another existence. I suspected that he had hopes for a hedonistic life after the conspiracy was ended. I felt sympathy for this man who had gotten in over his head and was now going to have his head emptied of memories. I had endured that and survived it, but I was angry with Wanklurm, the would-be dictator of the planet, the man who tried to kill me.
I knew that brainwiping and reconfiguration would destroy his present life but somehow that didn't seem enough.
The next questions were about the religion, True Faith Forever. Flantel acknowledged that it was a sham. He said, "True Faith Forever was intended to keep the grays from asking unanswerable questions. Blancs sent here had been brainwiped to remove their memories of ever having a previous existence. They came to life knowing the language, able to walk and talk, capable of dealing with this culture after an imprinting session. Everyone entering this world was told this happened through reincarnation. That wasn't true but it was believable. People developed faith in the religion because they were in a highly gullible state and had no conflicting information. I didn’t create the system—I just fit into it as best I could."
The session reminded me of my Simulike experience in which I'd seen the trial of the pink-faced religious leader who had tried to defend a religion created to control rather than benefit its followers.
Clandine finished her interrogation and asked if anyone else had questions for Flantel. I didn’t so I excused myself from the session. I had a plan of my own. If I could locate Errox, I might be able to have him and his Crusaders arrested by the VIS. Once Errox was out of the action, we could use all our resources to deprive Wanklurm of his power. The first step of my plan was to reestablish contact with Lyonella. I wanted to use her psychic connection with Errox to locate him.
TWENTY-ONE
After Flantel’s interrogation was over, I had a private conversation with Clandine. She showed me a pixcube of Wanklurm because I was one of the few people involved with the Alliance who didn't know what he looked like. He was a stern-faced, black-haired man with small eyes and a prominent jaw. As I had suspected, he had been represented in my Simulike experience as the male of the bickering couple.
That couple represented Ozerta, who had been my former lover, and Wanklurm, who had become my enemy. Seeing the pixcube made him more real to me. At last I had seen a face that I could identify if I saw my nemesis.
I still found it a very strange feeling to know that someone wanted to kill me, kill me for knowledge that I had lost and for actions that I would never remember.
I asked Clandine if she had any lingering suspicions about Lyonella being part of the conspiracy.
"I no longer suspect her. I had previous reports that she was observed under the influence of Cainenol and I thought she might be part of the distribution setup. I sought but never found any confirmati
on that she gave Cainenol to anyone. From what Flantel said I'm sure that she was an innocent victim of that man named Vargan."
"Good,” I said. “Kahalyton introduced me to a reliable member of the Counter Colors who told me that Vargan dropped his identity as Vargan and assumed the identity of Errox by wearing his wristlock. Nobody knows for certain what happened to the original Errox but we safely can assume he's dead. Whether by natural causes or murder we don't know and probably can't find out until we put Errox under the vericator. But the important thing is that Lyonella has a psychic connection with the man she knew as Vargan and we know as Errox. I want to see Lyonella and enlist her aid in finding Errox. I'll need a stun gun to protect myself on the slideway that will take me to Lyonella's dwell. Will you help me?"
Clandine asked me if I thought Lyonella would help. My enthusiastic, positive response seemed to tell Clandine something that was not inherent in my words. She arranged for me to be issued a stun gun.
I put it in my pouch and prepared to see Lyonella. I was excited by the idea of seeing her again, an intense excitement that I recognized as being unrelated to locating Errox.
I ate a few food cubes and waited until Incate and Prevance were busy eating before I left. I didn't want those two following me again. The slideways remained almost deserted. I saw one VIS patrol but I didn't see any of the elite guards until I reached the urbode where Lyonella lived. The sentry I'd seen there before was not in sight. Instead there were two white-capped elite guards standing near the portal. They looked at me, saw my white wristlock, and evidently decided that I was of little interest to them. They probably thought I was a Cleric or a Listener.
I took the elevator to Lyonella's floor. In the corridor there was another white cap standing beside the dwell that was adjacent to Lyonella's. When he saw that my interest was in her dwell and not the one he appeared to be guarding, he relaxed but kept his eyes on me.
Lyonella answered her door. She looked at me as if trying to place my face and asked, "Are you seeking a Listener?"
The white cap was making sure he heard every word. I said to Lyonella, "Yes, I need you to listen to me again.”
She admitted me. When I was inside she asked, "How long has it been since I last listened to you?"
I recognized this as her professional manner rather than any kind of recognition or remembrance of me. I said, "It was just after last Transit Day in the autofactory section where the drummers played. I was the man who followed you. I was the masked man who made love with you. My name is Rathe."
"I remember the man who had little memory. It was an encounter I couldn't forget. You told me of being brainwiped. Did you follow my advice?"
"Yes. I got a new wristlock as soon as possible and I have not played the Game. You were quite right in saying that the Game is not what it seems."
"You’ve learned that for yourself?" she asked.
"Yes. That, and many other things which I'll tell you about."
"Tell me. I'll listen."
"The first thing I must tell you is that our previous encounter was not the first time we met. Just before Transit Day, I was in the urbode where you lived previously. I had been brought there by a man called Errox who was arranging for the smitty Hushel to install a wristlock for me. While Errox was talking to Hushel, I waited in the corridor. You opened your door and mistook me for a man named Vargan. Your manner was very confusing to me."
"I have vague memories of that. I was having a Cainenol flashback. I don't have them anymore. I'm not sure why I mistook you for Vargan. You don't look like him."
"Vargan himself was in the building. You sensed it. You do know whenever he is near you, don't you?"
"Why do you want to know?" she asked, backing away.
"I'm working with a group called the Alliance for Cultural Transformation. We want to locate him so he can be arrested. The man you know as Vargan assumed the identity of a man named Errox. He has killed at least one man in an attempt to take over the Cainenol trade. I’m sure he’s killed others. He is also responsible for much of the conflict going on now and is the guiding force behind the Crusaders. We want to find him and stop him."
"I'd like to help. I've managed to recover from the effects of the Cainenol that Vargan dosed me with. He needs to be stopped. What can I do?"
"I suspect that he may be in the Simulike Palace. He knows the place well and has unlimited access. I'd like for you to accompany me there and see if you can sense his presence. We won't go inside. That could be dangerous. I have a stun gun to protect us from elite guards and Crusaders."
Lyonella opened a drawer next to her sleep platform and removed a stun gun. My surprise must have shown on my face. She said, as she put it in her waist pouch, "A good Listener learns how to get whatever she needs. I'm an equal partner in any campaign to thwart the man who tried to change my life with a dangerous drug for his petty purposes. Let's go."
We stepped out into the corridor and summoned the elevator. While we were waiting for it, two elite guards emerged from Hushel's dwell. Hushel looked as if he'd been beaten. We heard one guard say to the other, "He'll tell us where Errox is once we get him into the back room at headquarters."
Just then the elevator arrived. The door opened and a white cap with a reddened face hurried out. He didn't glance in our direction because he was intent on getting the attention of the other two guards. He yelled, "Come on. Errox and his Cainenol-crazed Crusaders are attacking our headquarters."
One guard answered, "Do we bring the prisoner?"
"We don't need him anymore," was the reply from the red-faced white cap.
The guard who had asked the question pointed his bolt gun at Hushel and fired. Hushel dropped to the floor, the life gone from his body. The red-faced man, as if noticing us for the first time, pointed and said, "Kill them. We don't need witnesses."
Lyonella and I leaped into the elevator. The door closed before the guards fired. We got off on the bottom floor. There was no one in sight. We made a fast exit and ran to the nearest exit slidestrip and jumped on. When it joined the slideway, we began moving toward the fastest slidestrip, headed in the opposite direction from Wanklurm's headquarters. We were soon out of sight of the urbode where Hushel had died.
I turned to Lyonella, saying, "I want to go to the overseers' urbode and tell the Alliance that Errox and the Crusaders are attacking the home base of the elite guards."
She said, "Do you want me to go with you? You don't need me to locate Vargan—I guess I should call him Errox now—since you know where he is."
"It could be dangerous to go back to your dwell. The white caps who saw us might return to try to find us and kill us since we’re witnesses to murder. I think you should stay for a while in the overseers' urbode where I've got a dwell, stay at least until the danger is past."
Lyonella gave me a bold look and asked, "Are you saying that you want me with you?"
"Yes." I wanted to say more but my tongue seemed thick in my mouth. I remembered the night of drumming and sexual satisfaction. My knees seemed a little weak and I felt feverish. Lyonella was watching me intently.
"Are you remembering the night of the freedom of the masks?"
"It's the best memory of my life." With an enigmatic smile, Lyonella said, "Our lives aren't over yet." She touched me on the arm as she spoke and looked into my eyes. I smiled, not trusting myself to speak, enormously pleased that she had said our lives, as if we shared more than a one-night stand, perhaps a lot more, maybe a mutual destiny.
Her spontaneous touching of me had sent quivers of sensations throughout my body. I don't know how I knew it but I was certain that the touch was an indication of emotions shared, perhaps even an emotional bond. When we arrived at the overseers' urbodes, I immediately went to the room that was serving as the communications center. I reported to Nordel that I'd overheard an elite guard say that Errox and the Crusaders were attacking Wanklurm's headquarters.
Incate said, "Let's send out a runner to get confirmation.
"
"We've previously received a report of bolt blasts and explosions in that area,” Nordel said. “I've already sent armed VIS to investigate. Now we know the conflict has begun. Errox has used the last of the Cainenol to inflame his Crusaders. The battle has begun."
Incate cried, "It's a war! Let them fight it out. Then we can arrest the survivors."
Prevance looked at Incate as if he wanted to say something but his mouth remained closed.
I said, "I saw a white cap kill the smitty Hushel with a bolt gun because they didn't need him any more to try to locate Errox. It was murder."
Kahalyton said, "That's what war is, a series of murders."
Incate looked at me with daggers in his eyes, asking, "Who is the woman with you who's hearing all of our plans?"
I introduced Lyonella to the group. I explained that she was a Listener whom Errox tried unsuccessfully to corrupt with Cainenol when he was known as Vargan.
Yondoka asked Lyonella, "Do you have any information that will help us capture Errox?"
Lyonella answered, "The overdose of Cainenol gave me a psychic connection with him. If he survives the attack on Wanklurm, I should be able to help locate him. I have my own reasons to be eager to help take him out of the action."
There was a lot more conversation about the armed conflict between the Crusaders and the elite guards. Kahalyton mentioned that his Counter Color scouts had reported that all of the known Crusaders had left their urbodes and none had returned. He also reported that various knowledgeable Counter Colors were prepared to help in the coming transmogrification of the culture.
Quenlu added that all the storytellers had been told to cease outdoor operations until further notice but that their roles would be expanded once hostilities ended.
Arvon reported that the Color Wheel remained sealed but the Simulike Palace was open since the search for Cainenol there hadn't turned up anything. Obviously Errox had found the last of the Cainenol.
