The last of the tall city-units of Ghamma were out of as the ship passed over them—shaft-like that rose two or three thousand above the ground in of three or four or six, one at each of the landing set in series them. Each of these in the middle of a park some five miles square; no unit was much more or less than twenty miles from its nearest neighbor, and the land was the golden-brown of grain, with the of and here and there with farm-village and tall, granaries. There were a other ships in the air at the fifty-thousand-foot level, and below, of small and on different levels, upon speed and direction. Far ahead, to the northeast, was the of the Red Sea and the of Asia Minor beyond.
Verkan Vall—the Lord Virzal of Verkan, temporarily—stood at the of the deck, looking down. He was a different Verkan Vall from the man who had talked with Tortha Karf in the latter's office, two days before. The First Level had upon him with their art. His skin was a soft chocolate-brown, now; his was jet-black, and so were his eyes. And in his mind, available to consciousness, was a of knowledge about on the Akor-Neb sector, as well as a complete of the local language, all acquired.
He that he was looking upon one of the minor of a very civilization. A which its vertically, since it had learned to gravitation. A which still upon natural for food, but one which had learned to make the most use of its soil. The network of and which he saw was as good as anything on his own level. The wide of buildings, he knew, was a of a series of of thousand years before; the Akor-Neb people had come to love the wide inter-vistas of open country and forest, and had to their buildings, after the had passed. But the slim, only have been by a people who had and, with it, the threat of total war. He them with the ground-hugging of the Khiftan civilization, only a thousand distant.
Three men came out of the him and joined him. One was, like himself, a from the First Level—the Outtime Export and Import man, Zortan Brend, here as Brarnend of Zorda. The other two were Akor-Neb people, and the black and the winged-bullet of the Society of Assassins. Unlike Verkan Vall and Zortan Brend, who under their tunics, the Assassins openly pistols and on their belts.
"We that you were two days ago, Lord Virzal," Zortan Brend said. "We the take-off of this ship, so that you travel to Darsh as as possible. I also a for you at the Solar Hotel, at Darsh. And these are your Assassins—Olirzon, and Marnik."
Verkan Vall and with them.
"Virzal of Verkan," he himself. "I am satisfied to myself to you."
"We'll do our best for you, Lord Virzal," the older of the pair, Olirzon, said. He for a moment, then continued: "Understand, Lord Virzal, I only ask for useful in and protecting you. But is this of the Lady Dallona a political matter?"
"Not from our side," Verkan Vall told him. "The Lady Dallona is a scientist, nonpolitical. The Honorable Brarnend is a man; he doesn't with politics as long as the politicians him alone. And I'm a on Venus; I have troubles, with the natives, and the weather, and blue-rot in the plants, and roaches, and bugs, without into politics. But science is mixed with politics, and the Lady Dallona's work had to the of Statistical Reincarnation."
"Do you often make like that, Lord Virzal?" Olirzon grinned. "In the last six months, she's Statistical Reincarnation to splinters."
"Well, I'm not a scientist, and as I said, I don't know much about Terran politics," Verkan Vall replied. "I know that the Statisticalists complete and political of the whole economy, they want to have the same opportunities in every reincarnation. And the Volitionalists that as he pleases, and so they of the present of private of and private profit under a of free competition. And that's about all I do know. Naturally, as a land-owner and the of a title of nobility, I'm a Volitionalist in politics, but the issue isn't on Venus. There is still too much land there, and too many personal opportunities, to make to anybody."
"Well, that's about it," Zortan Brend told him. "I'm not of a to know what the Lady Dallona's been doing, but she's the from under Statistical Reincarnation, and that's the basis, in turn, of Statistical Socialism. I think we'll that the Statisticalist Party is for to her."
Marnik, the of the two Assassins, for a moment, then Verkan Vall:
"Lord Virzal, I know none of the in this matter, and I speak without to give offense, but is it not possible that the Lady Dallona and the Assassin Dirzed may have gone together voluntarily? I have met Dirzed, and he has many which attractive, and he is by no means to the opposite sex. You understand, Lord Virzal—"
"I all too perfectly, Marnik," Verkan Vall replied, out of the of experience. "The Lady Dallona has had with a number of men, myself among them. But under the circumstances, I that unthinkable."
Marnik looked at him in open skepticism. Evidently, in his book, where an man and a woman were concerned, that was unthinkable.
"The Lady Dallona is a scientist," Verkan Vall elaborated. "She is not above herself with love affairs, but that's all they are—a not too of diversion. And, if you recall, she had just in a most experiment: you can be sure that she had other on her mind at the time than with good-looking Assassins."
The ship was around the Caucasus Mountains, with the Caspian Sea in ahead, when of the appeared on the and preparing the to protect the from gunfire. Zortan Brend of the officer in of the work as to the necessity.
"We've been reports of trouble at Darsh, sir," the man said. "Newscast every of minutes: in different parts of the city. Started yesterday afternoon, when a of Statisticalist members of the Executive Council and over to the Volitionalists. Lord Nirzav of Shonna, the only of any in the Statisticalist Party, was one of them; he was afterward, while the Council Chambers, along with a of Assassins who were with him. Some people in an them with a machine as they came out onto the landing stage."
The two Assassins in anger over this.
"That wasn't the work of members of the Society of Assassins!" Olirzon declared. "Even after he'd resigned, the Lord Nirzav was still till he left the Government Building. There's too much illegal going on!"
"What next?" Verkan Vall wanted to know.
"About what you'd expect, sir. The Volitionalists weren't going to take that quietly. In the past eighteen hours, four Statisticalists were discarnated, and there was a in Mirzark of Bashad's house, when Volitionalist Assassins in; three of them and four of Mirzark's Assassins were discarnated."
"You know, something is going to have to be done about that, too," Olirzon said to Marnik. "It's to a point where these political are being on members of the Society. In Ghamma alone, last year, thirty or of our members were that way."
"Plug in a visiplate, Karnil," Zortan Brend told the officer. "Let's see what's going on in Darsh now."
In Darsh, it seemed, an peace was being established. Verkan Vall heavily-armed and light ships among the high towers of the city. He saw a of minor being up by the blue-uniformed Constabulary, with and a for who might shot. It wasn't the of that would have been in the First Level Civil Order Section, but it to Akor-Neb conditions. And he to a series of angry and by different politicians, all of the on their opponents. The Volitionalists spoke of the Statisticalists as "insane criminals" and "underminers of social stability," and the Statisticalists called the Volitionalists "reactionary criminals" and "enemies of social progress." Politicians, he had observed, little in their from one time-line to another.
This up all the while the ship was over the Caspian Sea; as they were up the Volga valley, one of the ship's officers came from the deck, above.
"We're into Darsh, now," he said, and as Verkan Vall from the to the windows, he see the white and pastel-tinted towers of the city above the that the whole Volga on this sector. "Your has been put into the airboat, Lord Virzal and Honorable Assassins, and it's for you are." The officer at his watch. "We at Commercial Center in twenty minutes; we'll be the Solar Hotel in ten."
They all rose, and Verkan Vall and with Zortan Brend.
"Good luck, Lord Virzal," the said. "I you the Lady Dallona safe and carnate. If you need help, I'll be at Mercantile House for the next day or so; if you to Ghamma I do, you know who to ask for there."
A number of in the and offices of the Independent Institute of Reincarnation Research when Verkan Vall, by Marnik, called there that afternoon. Some of them submachine-guns or sleep-gas projectors, and they were stopping people and them. Marnik needed only to give them a quick and the words, "Assassins' Truce," and he and his client were allowed to pass. They entered a and up to the office of Dr. Harnosh of Hosh, with Verkan Vall had an appointment.
"I'm sorry, Lord Virzal," the of the Institute told him, "but I have no idea what has the Lady Dallona, or if she is still carnate. I am worried; I her extremely, as an and as a scientist. I do she hasn't been discarnated; that would be a to science. It is that she as much as she did, while she was with us."
"You think she is no longer carnate, then?"
"I'm so. The political of her discoveries—" Harnosh of Hosh sadly. "She was devoted, to a degree, to her work. I am sure that nothing but her have taken her away from us, at this time, with so many still uncompleted."
Marnik to Verkan Vall, as much as to say: "You were right."
"Well, I acting upon the that she is still and in need of help, until I am positive to the contrary," Verkan Vall said. "And in the case, I out who her, and send him to for it in person. People don't my friends with impunity."
"Sound attitude," Dr. Harnosh commented. "There's no positive that she isn't still carnate. I'll give you all the I can, if you'll only tell me what you want."
"Well, in the place," Verkan Vall began, "just what of work was she doing?" He already the answer to that, from the reports she had sent to the First Level, but he wanted to Dr. Harnosh's version. "And what, exactly, are the political you mentioned? Understand, Dr. Harnosh, I am of any scientific to culture, and so of Terran politics. Politics, on Venus, is mainly a question of who how much out of what."
Dr. Harnosh smiled; he had about Venusian politics. "Ah, yes, of course. But you are familiar with the main Statistical and Volitional theories?"
Illustration
"In a way. The Volitionalists that the is conscious, and is of something to sense-perception, and is also of choice in the of vehicles, and can or in the as it chooses. They also that can with one another, and with at least some individualities, by telepathy," he said. "The Statisticalists all this; their opinion is that the is in a more or less state, that it is by a to to the nearest available vehicle, and that it must in and only in that vehicle. They are Statisticalists they that the of is purely at random, or by unknown and causes, and is as to aggregates."
"That's a good summary," Dr. Harnosh of Hosh grudged, to give a too much credit. He a spoon into a tobacco humidor, the tobacco with zerfa, and it into his pipe. "You must that our modern Statisticalists are the of those who the possibility of any existence, or of any mind, or of perception. Since all these have been to be facts, the has been to them, but always the of materialism.
"We have proven, for instance, that the can in a state, and that it into the of an infant, after birth. But the Statisticalists cannot accept the idea of consciousness, since they of purely as a of the physical brain. So they an personality, or, as you put it, one in a state. They have to memory to this personality, since it was by of memories of previous that and were proven to be facts. So they picture the as a material object, or physical event, of but mass, in which an number of memories can be as charges. And they picture it as being to the of the nearest non-incarnated infant. Curiously enough, the vehicle is almost always of the same as the vehicle of the previous reincarnation, the being cases of who had a previous history of sex-inversion."
Dr. Harnosh the pipe in his hand, it into his mouth, and it. For a moment, he sat with it out of his black beard, until it was to his satisfaction. "This in leads the Statisticalists, when they or perform discarnation, to do so in the neighborhood of hospitals," he added. "I know, personally, of one memory-recall, in which the subject, a Statisticalist, by lethal-gas in a private room at one of our local hospitals, and twenty years later in the city of Jeddul, three thousand miles away." The square black as the scientist laughed.
"Now, as to the political of these theories: Since the Statisticalists that they will at random, their is to create an social and economic order, in which, theoretically, each will into a condition of with else. Their political program, therefore, is one of complete of all means of production and distribution, of titles and wealth—eventually, all private wealth—and total government of all economic, social and cultural activities. Of course," Dr. Harnosh apologized, "politics isn't my subject; I wouldn't to judge how that would in practice."
"I would," Verkan Vall said shortly, of all the different time-lines on which he had like that in operation. "You wouldn't like it, doctor. And the Volitionalists?"
"Well, since they that they are able to choose the of their next for themselves, they are the party of the quo. Naturally, almost all the nobles, almost all the and families, and almost all professional people, are Volitionalists; most of the and are Statisticalists. Or, at least, they were, for the most part, we announcing the results of the Lady Dallona's work."
"Ah; now we come to it," Verkan Vall said as the clarified.
"Yes. In form, the is like this," Dr. Harnosh of Hosh said. "The Lady Dallona a number of and some into our of memories of past reincarnations. Previously, it was necessary to keep the in an trance, which he or she would what was of past reincarnations, and this would be recorded. On from the trance, the would nothing; the tape-recording would be all that would be left. But the Lady Dallona a by which these memories would in what might be called the part of the subject's mind, so that they be to the level of at will. More, she was able to memories of past existences, something we had been able to do heretofore." Dr. Harnosh his head. "And to think, when I met her, I that she was just another sensation-seeking lady of wealth, and was almost about to her enrollment!"
He wasn't the only one little Dalla had surprised, Verkan Vall thought. At least, he had been surprised.
"You see, this the Statistical Theory of Reincarnation. For example, we got a set of memory-recalls from one subject, for four previous and four intercarnations. In the of these, the had been a on the of a noble. Unlike most of his fellows, who into other families almost after discarnation, this man waited for fifty years in the for an opportunity to as the son of an over-servant. In his next reincarnation, he was the son of a technician, and a education; he a researcher. For his next reincarnation, he the son of a by a as his vehicle; in his present reincarnation, he is a of a family, and married into a family of the nobility. In five reincarnations, he has from the to the next-to-highest of the social ladder. Few of the class from he this so much or determination. Then, of course, there was the case of Lord Garnon of Roxor."
He on to the last in which Hadron Dalla had participated.
"Well, that all conclusive," Verkan Vall commented. "I take it the of the Volitionalist Party here are pleased with the result of the Lady Dallona's work?"
"Pleased? My dear Lord Virzal, they're with over it!" Harnosh of Hosh declared. "As I pointed out, the Statisticalist program of is on the that no one can choose the of his next reincarnation, and that's been to be nonsense. Until the Lady Dallona's were announced, they were the party, a majority of the seats in Parliament and on the Executive Council. Only the Constitution them from their entire program long ago, and they were about to which would remove that barrier. They had to be able to do so after the elections. But now, social has desirable: it people something to look to in the next reincarnation. Instead of wanting to and and nobility, the want to into them." Harnosh of Hosh laughed happily. "So you can see how the Statisticalist Party organization is!"
"There's a catch to this, somewhere," Marnik the Assassin, speaking for the time, declared. "They can't all as princes, there aren't to go 'round. And no is going to as a driver to make room for a driver who wants to as a noble."
"That's correct," Dr. Harnosh replied. "There is a catch to it; a catch most people would admit, to themselves. Very the will power, the or the for by the of the case I just quoted. The man's are almost on the physical side; he actually painful, and makes as little of it as possible. And that is the only of a can exert. So, unable to the fifty or so years needed to make a good reincarnation, he in a year or so, out of pure boredom, into the vehicle he can find, one nobody else wants." Dr. Harnosh out the of his pipe and through the stem. "But nobody will admit his own inferiority, to himself. Now, every machine and hand on the thinks he can as a or a millionaire. Politics isn't my subject, but I'm to that since Statistical Reincarnation is an theory, Statisticalist Socialism has been in the blast area and along with it."
Olirzon was in the room of the hotel when they returned, on the middle of his in a chair, a pipe, the of his knife with a pocket-hone, and at a woman in the visiplate. She was an well-designed woman, in a costume, and she was her at the audience in anger, sorrow, scorn, entreaty, and other emotions.
"... this crime," she was declaiming, in a contralto, as Verkan Vall and Marnik entered, "foul for the who and it!" She pointed an finger. "This of the Lady Dallona of Hadron!"
Verkan Vall stopped short, the possibility of something having been of which he was ignorant. Olirzon must have his thought; he reassuringly.
"Think nothing of it, Lord Virzal," he said, his knife at the visiplate. "Just political propaganda; for the sparrows. Nice propagandist, though."
"And now," the woman with the natural her voice reverently, "we you the last image of the Lady Dallona, and of Dirzed, her Assassin, taken just they vanished, to be again."
The plate darkened, and there were of slow, music; then it again, a view of a hallway, with men and in costumes. In the foreground, a tight skirt of and a red jacket, was Hadron Dalla, just as she had looked in the taken in Dhergabar after her by the First Level to to the of the Malayoid Akor-Neb people. She was the arm of a man who the black and red of an Assassin, a of the Akor-Neb race. Trust little Dalla for that, Verkan Vall thought. The were moving with slowness, as though a very picture were being out as as possible. Having already his wife's appearance, Verkan Vall on the man her until the picture faded.
"All right, Olirzon; what did you get?" he asked.
"Well, of all, at Assassins' Hall," Olirzon said, up his left sleeve, his to the light, and a from it to test the of his knife. "Of course, they tell one Assassin anything about the client of another Assassin; that's practice. But I was in the Lodge Secretary's office, where nobody but Assassins are admitted. They have a big in there, with the names of all the Lodge members on it in light-letters; that's in all Lodges. If an Assassin is and free to accept a client, his name's in white light. If he has a client, the light's to blue, and the name of the client goes up under his. If his are unknown, the light's to amber. If he is discarnated, his name's entirely, unless the of his are such as to an to the Society. In that case, the name's in red light until he's been properly avenged, or, as we say, till his blood's been up. Well, the name of Dirzed is up in light, with the name of Dallona of Hadron under it. I out that the light had been for two days after the disappearance, and then had been to blue. Get it, Lord Virzal?"
Verkan Vall nodded. "I think so. I'd been that as a possibility from the first. Then what?"
"Then I was about and around for a of hours, drinks for people—unattached Assassins, Constabulary detectives, political workers, people. You me fifteen System Monetary Units for that, Lord Virzal. What I got, when it's all out—I it in detail, as soon as I got back—reduces to this: The Volitionalists are moving to out who was the at Garnon of Roxor's feast, but are doing nothing but nothing at all to the Lady Dallona or Dirzed. The Statisticalists are making all of to out what to her. The Constabulary the Statistos for the package-bomb: they're in that of the of the three by an illegal of effect. They that the of Dirzed and the Lady Dallona was a hoax. The Volitionalists are preparing a line of to this."
Verkan Vall nodded. "That in with what you learned at Assassins' Hall," he said. "They're out somewhere. Is there any of Dirzed through the Society of Assassins?"
Olirzon his head. "If you're right—and that's the way it looks to me, too—he's just called in and the Society that he's still and so is the Lady Dallona, and called off any search the Society might be making for him."
"And I've got to the Lady Dallona as soon as I can. Well, if I can't her, maybe I can her to send word to me," Verkan Vall said. "That's going to take some doing, too."
"What did you out, Lord Virzal?" Olirzon asked. He had a piece of soft leather, now, and was his lovingly.
"The Reincarnation Research people don't know anything," Verkan Vall replied. "Dr. Harnosh of Hosh thinks she's discarnate. I did out that the work she's done, so far, has the of Statistical Reincarnation. The Volitionalists' is established."
"Yes, what do you think, Olirzon?" Marnik added. "They have a case on record of a man who up from hand to in five reincarnations. Deliberately, that is." He on to repeat what Harnosh of Hosh had said; he must have an almost memory, for he gave the psychicist's verbatim, and in the and voice-inflections.
Olirzon grinned. "You know, there's a for the easy-money boys," he considered. "'You, too, can Reincarnate as a millionaire! Let Dr. Nirzutz of Futzbutz Help You! Only 49.98 System Monetary Units for the Secret, Infallible, Autosuggestive Formula.' And would it sell!" He put away the and the of leather and his knife into its sheath. "If I weren't a Assassin, I'd give it a try, myself."
Verkan Vall looked at his watch. "We'd something to eat," he said. "We'll go to the main room; the Martian Room, I think they call it. I've got to think of some way to let the Lady Dallona know I'm looking for her."
