by John F. Carr
As I ate some food cubes, I pondered about what I could do to aid the Alliance. I could recognize Errox on sight but I had no idea where to find him. I didn’t want to see him, just locate him so I could tell the Alliance where he was so they could arrest him for the murder of Boget. Errox wouldn't be in the Simulike Palace because VIS personnel were searching it for the Cainenol supply.
He wouldn’t be at Dreena’s place because he would have no difficulty discovering that she had been arrested and her dwell was under surveillance. Maybe he was out looking for Ozerta, hoping to learn when the next shipment of Cainenol was coming in. I didn't think he knew that the Cainenol had been stopped at the source.
I mentally reviewed all the people I had met who were acquainted with Errox. Only one, other than Dreena, seemed to know much about him. That person was Kahalyton of the Counter Colors. I remembered him saying to me about Errox, "Someday when I've drunk my fill of jarva, I will tell you about him."
I needed to find Kahalyton, but I had no idea of the location of his dwell or how to get in touch with the Counter Colors who would know. I wished that I could access the Delphic method techniques and get some direction, some oracular information full of sage advice. Sage! Kahalyton had appeared in my Simulike experience as a sage. Maybe there was something I could recall from that episode that would lead me toward Kahalyton.
I stopped pacing, sat down, and took deep, even breaths. I reviewed the entire encounter in my mind. I remembered meeting the sage at a bend in the path. He told me that death didn't lie and gave me a vision to help me understand, a vision in which a rainbow turned upside down. I couldn't identify any rainbow that had been turned upside down although the Alliance was working toward ending the rainbow status of Flantel, Ozerta, and Wanklurm. Boget had been upended in the sense that he had died, verifying the sage's statement that the apparition representing death did not lie.
The bend in the path where I found the sage, what did it represent? All the walkways were straight. There were no bends. Then I remembered walking through the Medical Complex where I'd seen an outdoor pavilion and a path that curved around it. Was I reading more into my Simulike experience than it contained? I didn't know but I was going to find out.
I took two jars of jarva from the supply cabinet in the dwell, put them in my waist pouch, and went to the Medical Complex pavilion in search of Kahalyton. Twilight was deepening as I walked along the curving path. I could hear a voice but I could not understand the words. It wasn't Kahalyton's voice. It was a woman's voice. As I got closer I could see her, a gray-haired woman speaking to a small group who gave her their attention. I realized that she was one of the gray storytellers I had heard of. I sat down in the back of the group.
The storyteller noticed me joining the group but she didn't stop telling the audience her tale. When I heard her next words I realized that she was winding up her story. She said, "So many ages ago on a world called Arth, four people—Dotto, Scarow, Tinmun, and Lineguy—penetrated the illusions of the wizard and found a new reality that enabled them to live happier and more fully, cherishing what they had learned and sharing it with others."
I joined in the applause when she stopped speaking. Some of her audience left. Others clustered around her, expressing their appreciation of the entertainment. When I got a chance to speak to her I said, "I regret that I didn't arrive in time to hear the entire tale."
She looked at my white wristlock and said, "I'm surprised that you showed up."
"Do you know me?"
"No. It's just that my audience has always consisted only of grays. How did you learn about our gathering?"
"I didn't. I came here looking for a way to contact a friend named Kahalyton. Can you help me?"
"Who are you?" she asked.
"My name is Rathe. Kahalyton befriended me when I was a blanc."
"You were a blanc and now you wear a white wristlock?" She studied me curiously out of owl-like eyes.
"Yes. I'm now a member of the Alliance."
"Is your friend Kahalyton also a member of this Alliance?"
"No, he's a member of the Counter Colors. I want to give him some information I've learned from the Alliance and get his help in locating someone the Alliance wants to find."
Most of the members of the audience had drifted away, having recognized that the storyteller and I were engaged in a serious discussion that precluded small talk interruptions. I wanted the storyteller to trust me. I said, "I know from Yondoka and Nordel that the Alliance is promoting folk tales intended to help prepare people for the changes that must take place in this culture. I want to help the Alliance and the Counter Colors communicate with each other."
"Wait right here," she said, before walking over to a man and woman who had been listening to her story. I was unable to overhear what she said to them. They talked briefly.
Then the three of them came over to where I was waiting. The storyteller said to me, "These people will take you to a meeting place. Perhaps you'll find someone there who will help you."
She hadn't introduced me to the couple nor had she told me her name. It was just another indication of the rising level of tension in the society—not telling strangers your name as a way of preserving anonymity, a way of keeping distance between yourself and the people who might have power over you if they knew who and where you are.
The storyteller left.
The woman took a strip of tunic out of her waist pouch and said, "You'll have to be blindfolded if you want to go with us."
I nodded my agreement.
She put the cloth over my eyes. I tried to keep a surge of paranoia from overpowering me. I was giving my trust to strangers, but I felt I had no other option that would lead me anywhere.
"What do you have in your waist pouch?" It was the deep voice of the man who hadn't spoken previously.
"Just some jarva for Kahalyton." I felt his hands search my waist pouch and establish that I had told the truth.
He took me by one arm and she by the other. They led me away from the pavilion, taking many turns and sometimes doubling back part way over the previous route. By the time we reached a slidestrip I had no sense of what direction we were going in or where we were in relation to the mental map I had put so much effort into making. Once on the slideway the couple kept me between them. I saw nothing because of the blindfold. I wondered if any other slidestrip travelers noticed my blindfold. Then I remembered that it was twilight time and unless we approached someone no one would notice.
Even if they did, they would probably assume we were playing some kind of a game or conducting an initiation. It didn't feel like a game to me. Eventually we got off the slideway. They led me to a walkway and then to a dwell in an urbode.
I was still wearing my blindfold when I heard Kahalyton's voice say, "Yes, that's my friend Rathe. You can leave us alone."
I heard several people leave. Then Kahalyton spoke, "Welcome, Rathe. You can take off the blindfold."
The light was dim, but it still hurt my eyes briefly. When they had adjusted, I looked at Kahalyton. He didn't look quite the same, a bit tired perhaps, as if he hadn't slept well for several days.
"Hello, Kahalyton. I'm glad to see you."
He looked down at my wrist. "Rathe, I see you have a white wristlock. I was hoping that you had come to join the Counter Colors but you seem to have taken a different path."
"I think our paths may converge." I took the jarva out of my waist pouch and handed him a bottle. "You once told me that sometime when you had your fill of jarva you would tell me about Errox. I'd like for you to tell me now. I need to find him."
"Errox will be hard to find these days. Wherever he is, you can be positive that he will be protected by his brainwashed Freedom Crusaders. Dealing with them can be dangerous. They are true believers who can't hear or understand any questions that the rhetoric they'd been fed doesn't answer. I think it would be dangerous for anyone other than a Crusader to approach Errox right now."
"I don't wa
nt to approach him. I want to locate him to report his whereabouts to the people who are interested in stopping him from distributing Cainenol. I want to know anything you can tell me about Errox."
Kahalyton and I both drank some jarva. Then Kahalyton said, "I'll tell you what I know about Errox, but in exchange you must tell me what you know about Cainenol. You seem to have information that confirms some of my suspicions. Is it a deal? Do we trade information?"
"Yes, we've got a deal," I replied.
"I first met Errox when he was seeking personal power among the permanent grays. Several of the Counter Colors had heard about him and suggested that I meet him to see if he might be an asset to our organization. I met and talked with him on several occasions. I never told him of the Counter Colors because I suspected that he was the kind of person who would not join any organization unless he wanted to take it over and run it. I got reports on his associates and activities. I say associates because he had no friends—only people he could use.
"His activities, which included riplocking, showed that he had a flawed character. The man has no moral center. His style is expediency without ethics, maneuvers without morality, reactions without respect." Kahalyton paused, took a sip of jarva, and continued. "He tried running multiple-player schemes in unsuccessful efforts to outsmart the Game, using a smitty so that each player wore the same wristlock when he or she played the Game. When those projects failed he abandoned his cohorts, leaving them in the hands of the VIS. He takes only those lovers who might be useful to him and when their usefulness ends, he discards them like worn out sandals. Have I told you enough or do you need more details?"
"Do you have any information that might help me locate him?"
"No, Rathe, I don't. Tell me what you know about Cainenol. I know that Errox has used it to indoctrinate and control his Crusaders and others."
"Errox entered into a conspiracy with several influential rainbows to import Cainenol so they could use it to increase their power, create love slaves, and turn people into pawns—"
Kahalyton interrupted by asking, "How did you learn of this conspiracy?"
"I was arrested by the VIS who thought I was Errox because I was wearing his wristlock. When they discovered that I was a blanc, one VIS officer convinced me to become an undercover agent who would try to find Errox."
"Are you working for Wanklurm?"
"No, he's part of the conspiracy. I'm working for the Alliance for Cultural Transformation, a group consisting mostly of rainbows and non-corrupt VIS personnel. They called in two off-world rainbows as investigators."
"Off-worlders! Kahalyton exclaimed. "How do they fit in to all of this?"
I quickly told him what little I knew about the off-worlders, and what they had told me.
"Do you trust them?"
"No, I don't. Although they cut off the Cainenol supply at its off-world source, I think they want to downplay the conspiracy and minimize or ignore the problems of this culture."
"So there will be no more Cainenol?" he asked.
"The last shipment hasn't been distributed. Errox probably has it. He's wearing a rainbow wristlock that he took from the Simulike Palace overseer Boget who was dealing in unauthorized wristlocks."
"What's being done about Boget?"
"Errox killed him to take over the Cainenol trade. I was unconscious when he broke Boget's neck, but I have no doubts that he was responsible."
"Then you should keep your distance from Errox. He would have no compunctions about killing you as well."
"I know,” I said, taking a deep breath. “That's a major motivation for finding him and getting him arrested by members of the Alliance. Do you know that Alliance members are the principal suppliers of the folk tales your storytellers relate?"
"I didn't know where their stories came from. I always thought they were just old tales and fables that were useful for instituting change. How did you learn that the storytellers are Counter Colors?"
"I deduced it from the information I had. The storytellers are using their tales to prepare the grays for change, a cause that is dear to your heart. The Alliance has uncovered some of the truth about this society and intends to transform the culture."
"Will you tell me what those truths are?" Kahalyton asked hesitantly, as if he were afraid of what he might learn.
"Yes. I'm sure you suspect many of them already. First of all, this world is one of twenty-three known worlds—"
Kahalyton interrupted again. "Twenty-three worlds? I had heard old tales about other worlds, but I wasn't sure how much truth was in them. Are the other worlds like this one?"
"There are differences, but I don't know how extensive the differences are. The other twenty two are members of the Universalist Council. This world is not; it was set up as a service organization for the Council. This culture and the Game are artificial constructs designed to serve the Council."
"What is the purpose of the Game?"
"The Game produces forecasting information that the Council uses for administering the other twenty-two worlds. The culture of this world is filled with deceit and beliefs that can't be verified."
"Like the religion?" he asked. "I found little value in spiritual exercises that are supposed to make the next reincarnation better."
"Reincarnation is unproven. The humans that emerge from the House of Rebirth are blancs, brainwiped people, sent here from the twenty-two worlds; they are not reincarnations of people who have died on this world."
"Why are they brainwiped?"
"I don’t know, but I mean to find out. I’m beginning to suspect they’re subversives or political outcasts of some sort. People who don’t conform to the norms of their world."
Kahalyton nodded as if that assessment agreed with his own.
I continued, "Getting people to compete in the Game for rainbow status is a cruel hoax. Rainbows are not reincarnated. They just get periodic rejuvenation treatments."
He looked at me with newfound respect in his eyes. "You've learned in a short time much of what we Counter Colors either knew or suspected. You must have been someone special before you were brainwiped. What does the Alliance you belong to intend to do about it?"
"They are going to arrest the other conspirators and transform the culture as best they can. Their plans aren't final. There are still too many questions to be answered."
"Who are the other conspirators?" he asked.
"So far we've identified Errox, the late Boget, Ozerta of the House of Rebirth, Flantel who oversees the clergy and Wanklurm."
"How are they going to deal with Wanklurm?"
"I'm not sure but the Alliance has ascertained that most of the VIS personnel, other than the elite guard, have not been corrupted and will cooperate in neutralizing Wanklurm. When that happens, I hope there can be a closer relationship between the Alliance and the Counter Colors."
"I hope so, Rathe. In the meantime, I'll get the Counter Colors looking for Errox discretely. If I learn anything, how do I contact you?"
"My dwell is in the overseers' urbode. There's always someone there to take messages if I'm out. How do I find you, if I have more information for you?"
"I'll let all the storytellers know that you can be trusted. At twilight every evening, storytellers can be found outside most public buildings and on the front walkway of almost every urbode section. Any storyteller can arrange another meeting like this."
I talked with Kahalyton a while longer and we both drank a bit more jarva before he left with Counter Color friends.
A tall, lean man with piercing gray eyes told me that he would escort me from the meeting place to a location I would recognize. He put the blindfold on again before we left. When my guide took the blindfold off and bid me goodbye, I was on a slidestrip that was near the Simulike Palace. I was checking my mental map to determine the best route to the overseers' urbode when two of Wanklurm's elite guards, wearing their distinctive white caps, began moving from the adjacent slidestrip to the slowstrip I was on. They w
ere looking all around, as if seeking suspects or trouble.
As I attempted to look as innocent and trouble free as I could, a group of five or six grays clustered around the white caps and a scuffle ensued.
I got off the first exit slidestrip, but not soon enough to miss seeing two white-capped bodies thrown over the side as someone yelled, "Freedom forever!"
I saw other white caps moving over to the slowstrip I had just left. One of them said in an authoritative voice, "Officers down. Search the area. Arrest anyone you see. Kill anyone who looks like a Crusader."
I scrambled under the slidestrip, knowing my life was in danger. I had to find a safe place. I could hear the white caps but I couldn't tell whether they were pursuing me or someone else. Then I heard an explosive sound, not as loud as a wristlock exploding. I saw a body fall just to my right. I realized that the sound I heard was made by an illegal bolt gun, a device I'd heard about from Kahalyton but had never seen. I tried to get back on the slideway but I was on the far side, next to the fast strip. I jumped on, trying to run as I hit. I tumbled, lost a sandal, and felt my tunic rip as I fell off the strip.
I hadn't traveled far enough to be out of danger. I had to get away from public places and open spaces. Where could I go? The answer suddenly came to me—Boget's dwell. It was in the right neighborhood and my wristlock would open the door.
I kicked off the other sandal hoping I'd look like a barefoot enthusiast rather than someone who'd lost a sandal. I tucked part of my tunic into the waist pouch to conceal the rip. I stayed in the shadows, moved cautiously down the slideway, and kept alert. Only when I was safely inside Boget's dwell was I able to resume normal breathing.
I put my torn tunic in the recycle slot. I cleansed myself and put antiseptic new skin on my knees and elbows. I took a new tunic and a pair of sandals from Boget's closet. I started to put them on and then realized that I was safer from the elite guards here than I would be traveling to the overseers' urbode. The sleep platform looked very inviting.