And the Devil Will Drag You Under

by Jack L. Chalker

  "But Mogart said he shaped and trained us," Jill pointed out.

  "False," exclaimed the demon leader. "One cannot teach an idiot to read, or a blind man color, or a deaf man a symphony. Mogart is all three. You are not. You are pupils who transcended your teacher."

  Jill had a sudden thought. "The others-the ones between the planes, the alien enemy. They were active, very active in the world we left last. Something must be done to stop them."

  "We have already considered the information, hav­ing drawn it from your minds and from a check of the five planes you visited. They are active every-where, even here. You can never be rid of them or their threat. We are on guard, rest assured. But we learned other things from reading your accounts. A special quality you possess that is the prerequisite for true wisdom. You, McCulloch, upset over the stagnancy of one society and remorseful in the extreme over the deaths of innocents you were forced to carry out. And you, Walters, upset at us for retarding a world that means nothing to you-and taking precious time to get one of our own, whom you had no cause to like or to help, to safety on another plane. That quality is com­passion."

  The demon looked around once, as if surveying the scene. "It grows late. This is business that takes up far too much of our time. There are over six thousand Alternatives and over seventy trillion projects. We can dwell here no longer. It is time. A consensus is easily reached."

  Mac and Jill looked at the nine expectantly, a little hesitantly.

  "Hear our words. What if the trajectory of the object had been altered, not for collision, but in the same manner opposite to collision? It would have been cap­tured by the sun at a slower speed and drawn inward to burn. We reach back to that point and make the adjustment so!"

  Nothing seemed to happen, except that the nine froze for a moment, as if suddenly turned to stone. That state lasted only a few seconds, and then they were once again filled with life.

  "It will take weeks for the temporal ripple to reach us here in the present and make the correction," the demon leader explained. "Time is variable but moves in each Alternative in a prescribed manner. I fear you will have a few weeks to yourselves here, unclothed and alone. The castle, I fear, must go." As the creature uttered the words, the castle with its columns, foun­tains, and flowers vanished.

  The creature looked around. "In the ruins here you will find enough food and shelter to keep you until the temporal adjustment is made."

  "Then we are to go back," Jill sighed.

  The leader nodded. "Back, yes, but not as you were. Never as you were. If these bodies please you more than the ones you had, you may keep them. The only valuable things in a human being are his mind and soul."

  Mac laughed. "They won't even recognize us like this," he thought aloud. "But I guess, looking like this, we won't have any trouble finding some kind of place."

  "You have a place," the demon replied. "And a job, too. As I told you, Asmodeus is unrepentant. He for­feits his right to a jewel. The others-well, we must see. But this is now too interesting and valuable a world to abandon. There is too much potential here. You have demonstrated your courage and your resourceful­ness. You know the danger and the true enemy. You know how to use the jewel. You are now our repre­sentatives here-and you will have to observe and report to us. You will be busy. The social scientists in particular will be coming in and out of here in droves after this report is filed, and they will need assistance."

  Both of them gasped. "You're giving us jewels?"

  "Not jewels-one. One shared between you. Asmo­deus's former jewel, once we get this Eye broken up and retune its sensitivities from him to you. Once it is returned-in about a month or so, your time-one of us will be back to give it to you and instruct you in its fine points. It will be attuned so that only the two of you together can use it, neither of you separately. It is quite a responsibility. Do you accept it?"

  Jill gripped Mac's hand tightly in hers and looked into his face. "Well? What do you say?"

  He grinned at her. "What a team we're going to make!"

  They turned back to face the nine, but the creatures were gone. There was only the warming sun, the gentle breeze, and the ruins of Reno.

  Mac looked at the bar, which had, miraculously, remained standing through it all.

  "I think I need a drink," he said lightly. "Shall we celebrate?"

  Jill laughed and linked her arm into his. "Let's!

  We've got a little time to get to know each other bet­ter!"

  They had only a few more minor problems. One was that reality caught up with them in a little under three weeks, and another was that the University didn't get around to them for almost three months.

  The demons never did have a proper concept of time.

  Epilogue

  Naked Couple Arrested on I-80

  by Michael Walsh

  Reno Sun-Times Correspondent

  RENO, Oct. 4. Tourists and locals were startled early today when a nude man and woman appeared in the median strip of I-80 just off the Sparks exit. The cou­ple "just seemed to appear out of nowhere," rush-hour eyewitnesses swore.

  "They seemed as surprised as we were," averred Joe Mayhew, a former Catholic seminarian. "That's true enough," agreed Trooper L. Fred Ramsey, who was giving Mayhew a ticket at the time. "They just sort of appeared, kerplop, in the median and looked around, kinda dazed. Then they started laughing and hugging and kissing each other like mad. Needless to say, I got out there in a hurry. Damn near got run down. Traffic was tied up for miles."

  At least seven fender-benders are attributed to the exhibitionist couple.

  Neither of the two could explain why or how they were there, and both refused to identify themselves other than by their first names, Mac and Jill. "They were stinko on something," Trooper Ramsey told the Sun-Times.

  Both the man and woman were described by everyone as stunning in appearance, almost like classical Greek sculptures of the gods by Michelangelo. This reporter can attest to that fact, having attended their preliminary hearing.

  Chemical tests proved negative, and the pair are now being held for psychiatric evaluation. Several ca­sino owners have offered them bail and a job, and they are said to be considering the offers.

  About the Author

  JACK L. CHALKER was born in Norfolk, Virginia on December 17, 1944, but was raised and has spent most of his life in Baltimore, Maryland. He learned to read almost from the moment of entering school, and by working odd jobs had amassed a large book collection by the time he was in junior high school, a collection now too large for containment in his present quarters. Science fiction, history, and geog­raphy all fascinated him early on, interests which continue.

  Chalker joined the Washington Science Fiction Association in 1958 and began publishing an amateur SF journal, Mirage, in 1960. After high school he decided to be a trial lawyer, but money problems and the lack of a firm caused him to switch to teach­ing. He holds B.S. degrees in history and English, and an M.L.A. from the Johns Hopkins University. He taught history and geography in the Baltimore public schools between 1966 and 1978, and now makes his living as a freelance writer. Additionally, out of the amateur journals he founded a publishing house, The Mirage Press, Ltd., devoted to nonfiction and bibliographic works on science fiction and fan­tasy. This company has produced more than twenty books in the last nine years. His hobbies include esoteric audio, travel, working on science-fiction con­vention committees, and guest lecturing on SF to institutions like the Smithsonian. He is an active conservationist and National Parks supporter, and he has an intensive love of ferryboats, with the avowed goal of riding every ferry in the world. In fact, in 1978, he was married to Eva Whitley on an ancient ferryboat in midriver. The Chalkers live in the Ca­toctin Mountain region of western Maryland.

 

 

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