said. "But personally, I would like to see the StatisticalistParty destroyed. If they succeed in their program of socialization,the Society would be finished. A socialist state is, in its finaldevelopment, an absolute, total, state; no total state can tolerateextra-legal and para-governmental organizations. So we have adoptedthe policy of giving a little inconspicuous aid, here and there, topeople who are dangerous to the Statisticalists. The Lady Dallona ofHadron, and Dr. Harnosh of Hosh, are such persons. You appear to beanother. That's why I ordered that fellow, Larnorm, to make sure youwere safe in his hotel."
"Where is the Lady Dallona?" Verkan Vall asked. "From your use of thepresent tense, I assume you believe her to be still carnate."
Klarnood looked at Verkan Vall keenly. "That's a pretty bluntquestion, Lord Virzal," he said. "I wish I knew a little more aboutyou. When you and your Assassins started inquiring about the LadyDallona, I tried to check up on you. I found out that you had come toDarsh from Ghamma on a ship of the family of Zorda, accompanied byBrarnend of Zorda himself. And that's all I could find out. You claimto be a Venusian planter, and you might be. Any Terran who can handleweapons as you can would have come to my notice long ago. But you haveno more ascertainable history than if you'd stepped out of anotherdimension."
That was getting uncomfortably close to the truth. In fact, it _was_the truth. Verkan Vall laughed.
"Well, confidentially," he said, "I'm from the Arcturus System. Ifollowed the Lady Dallona here from our home planet, and when I haverescued her from among you Solarians, I shall, according to ourcustoms, receive her hand in marriage. As she is the daughter of theEmperor of Arcturus, that'll be quite a good thing for me."
Klarnood chuckled. "You know, you'd only have to tell me that aboutthree or four times and I'd start believing it," he said. "And Dr.Harnosh of Hosh would believe it the first time; he's been talking tohimself ever since the Lady Dallona started her experimental workhere. Lord Virzal, I'm going to take a chance on you. The Lady Dallonais still carnate, or was four days ago, and the same for Dirzed. Theyboth went into hiding after the discarnation feast of Garnon of Roxor,to escape the enmity of the Statisticalists. Two days after theydisappeared, Dirzed called Assassins' Hall and reported this, but toldus nothing more. I suppose, in about three or four days, I couldre-establish contact with him. We want the public to think that theStatisticalists made away with the Lady Dallona, at least until theelection's over."
Verkan Vall nodded. "I was pretty sure that was the situation," hesaid. "It may be that they will get in touch with me; if they don't,I'll need your help in reaching them."
"Why do you think the Lady Dallona will try to reach you?"
"She needs all the help she can get. She knows she can get plenty fromme. Why do you think I interrupted my search for her, and risked mycarnate existence, to fight those people over a matter of verbalismsand political propaganda?" Verkan Vall went to the newscast visiplateand snapped it on. "We'll see if I'm getting results, yet."
The plate lighted, and a handsome young man in a gold-laced green suitwas speaking out of it:
"... where he is heavily guarded by Assassins. However, in anexclusive interview with representatives of this service, the AssassinHirzif, one of the two who seconded the men the Lord Virzal fought,said that in his opinion all of the three were so outclassed as tohave had no chance whatever, and that he had already refused an offerof ten thousand System Monetary Units to discarnate the Lord Virzalfor the Statisticalist Party. 'When I want to discarnate,' Hirzif theAssassin said, 'I'll invite in my friends and do it properly; until Ido, I wouldn't go up against the Lord Virzal of Verkan for ten millionS.M.U.'"
Verkan Vall snapped off the visiplate. "See what I mean?" he asked. "Ifought those politicians just for the advertising. If Dallona andDirzed are anywhere near a visiplate, they'll know how to reach me."
"Hirzif shouldn't have talked about refusing that retainer," Klarnoodfrowned. "That isn't good Assassin ethics. Why, yes, Lord Virzal; thatwas cleverly planned. It ought to get results. But I wish you'd getthe Lady Dallona out of Darsh, and preferably off Terra, as soon asyou can. We've benefited by this, so far, but I shouldn't like to seethings go much further. A real civil war could develop out of thissituation, and I don't want that. Call on me for help; I'll give you acode word to use at Assassins' Hall."
* * * * *
A real civil war was developing even as Klarnood spoke; by mid-morningof the next day, the fighting that had been partially suppressed bythe Constabulary had broken out anew. The Assassins employed by theSolar Hotel--heavily re-enforced during the night--had fought apitched battle with Statisticalist partisans on the landing-stageabove Verkan Vall's suite, and now several Constabulary airboats werepatrolling around the building. The rule on Constabulary interferenceseemed to be that while individuals had an unquestionable right toshoot out their differences among themselves, any fighting likely toendanger nonparticipants was taboo.
Just how successful in enforcing this rule the Constabulary were wasopen to some doubt. Ever since arising, Verkan Vall had heard thecrash of small arms and the hammering of automatic weapons in otherparts of the towering city-unit. There hadn't been a civil war on theAkor-Neb Sector for over five centuries, he knew, but then, HadronDalla, Doctor of Psychic Science, and intertemporal trouble-carrierextraordinary, had only been on this sector for a little under a year.If anything, he was surprised that the explosion had taken so long tooccur.
One of the servants furnished to him by the hotel managementapproached him in the drawing room, holding a four-inch-square waferof white plastic.
"Lord Virzal, there is a masked Assassin in the hallway who broughtthis under Assassins' Truce," he said.
Verkan Vall took the wafer and pared off three of the four edges,which showed black where they had been fused. Unfolding it, he found,as he had expected, that the pyrographed message within was in thealphabet and language of the First Paratime Level:
Vall, darling:
Am I glad you got here; this time I really _am_ in the middle, but good! The Assassin, Dirzed, who brings this, is in my service. You can trust him implicitly; he's about the only person in Darsh you can trust. He'll bring you to where I am.
Dalla
P.S. I hope you're not still angry about that musician. I told you, at the time, that he was just helping me with an experiment in telepathy.
D.
Verkan Vall grinned at the postscript. That had been twenty years ago,when he'd been eighty and she'd been seventy. He supposed she'd expecthim to take up his old relationship with her again. It probablywouldn't last any longer than it had, the other time; he recalled aFourth Level proverb about the leopard and his spots. It certainlywouldn't be boring, though.
"Tell the Assassin to come in," he directed. Then he tossed themessage down on a table. Outside of himself, nobody in Darsh couldread it but the woman who had sent it; if, as he thought highlyprobable, the Statisticalists had spies among the hotel staff, itmight serve to reduce some cryptanalyst to gibbering insanity.
The Assassin entered, drawing off a cowllike mask. He was the manwhose arm Dalla had been holding in the visiplate picture; Verkan Valleven recognized the extremely ornate pistol and knife on his belt.
"Dirzed the Assassin," he named himself. "If you wish, we canvisiphone Assassins' Hall for verification of my identity."
"Lord Virzal of Verkan. And my Assassins, Marnik and Olirzon." Theyall hooked fingers and clapped shoulders with the newcomer. "Thatwon't be needed," Verkan Vall told Dirzed. "I know you from seeing youwith the Lady Dallona, on the visiplate; you're 'Dirzed, her faithfulAssassin.'"
Dirzed's face, normally the color of a good walnut gunstock, turnedalmost black. He used shockingly bad language.
"And that's why I have to wear this abomination," he finished,displaying the mask. "The Lady Dallona and I can't show our facesany
where; if we did, every Statisticalist and his six-year-old bratwould know us, and we'd be fighting off an army of them in fiveminutes."
"Where's the Lady Dallona, now?"
"In hiding, Lord Virzal, at a private dwelling dome in the forest;she's most anxious to see you. I'm to take you to her, and I wouldstrongly advise that you bring your Assassins along. There are otherpeople at this dome, and they are not personally loyal to the LadyDallona. I've no reason to suspect them of secret enmity, but theirfriendship is based entirely on political expediency."
"And political expediency is subject to change without notice," VerkanVall finished for him. "Have you an airboat?"
"On the landing stage below. Shall we go now, Lord Virzal?"
"Yes." Verkan Vall made a two-handed gesture to his Assassins, asthough gripping a submachine-gun; they nodded, went into another room,and returned carrying light automatic weapons in their hands andpouches of spare drums slung over their shoulders. "And may I suggest,Dirzed, that one of my Assassins drives the airboat? I want you on theback seat with me, to explain the situation as we go."
Dirzed's teeth flashed white against his brown skin as he gave VerkanVall a quick smile.
"By all means, Lord Virzal; I would much rather be distrusted than tofind that my client's friends were not discreet."
There were a couple of hotel Assassins guarding Dirzed's airboat, onthe landing stage. Marnik climbed in under the controls, with Olirzonbeside him; Verkan Vall and Dirzed entered the rear seat. Dirzed gaveMarnik the co-ordinate reference for their destination.
"Now, what sort of a place is this, where we're going?" Verkan Vallasked. "And who's there whom we may or may not trust?"
"Well, it's a dome house belonging to the family of Starpha; they owna five-mile radius around it, oak and beech forest and underbrush,stocked with deer and boar. A hunting lodge. Prince Jirzyn of Starpha,Lord Girzon of Roxor, and a few other top-level Volitionalists, knowthat the Lady Dallona's hiding there. They're keeping her out of sighttill after the election, for propaganda purposes. We've been hidingthere since immediately after the discarnation feast of the LordGarnon of Roxor."
"What happened, after the feast?" Verkan Vall wanted to know.
"Well, you know how the Lady Dallona and Dr. Harnosh of Hosh had thistelepathic-sensitive there, in a trance and drugged with a_zerfa_-derivative alkaloid the Lady Dallona had developed. I was LordGarnon's Assassin; I discarnated him, myself. Why, I hadn't even putmy pistol away before he was in control of this sensitive, in a roomfive stories above the banquet hall; he began communicating at once.We had visiplates to show us what was going on.
"Right away, Nirzav of Shonna, one of the Statisticalist leaders whowas a personal friend of Lord Garnon's in spite of his politics,renounced Statisticalism and went over to the Volitionalists, on thestrength of this communication. Prince Jirzyn, and Lord Girzon, thenew family-head of Roxor, decided that there would be trouble in thenext few days, so they advised the Lady Dallona to come to thishunting lodge for safety. She and I came here in her airboat, directlyfrom the feast. A good thing we did, too; if we'd gone to herapartment, we'd have walked in before that lethal gas had time toclear.
"There are four Assassins of the family of Starpha, and sixmenservants, and an upper-servant named Tarnod, the gamekeeper. TheStarpha Assassins and I have been keeping the rest under observation.I left one of the Starpha Assassins guarding the Lady Dallona when Icame for you, under brotherly oath to protect her in my name till Ireturned."
The airboat was skimming rapidly above the treetops, toward thenorthern part of the city.
"What's known about that package bomb?" Verkan Vall asked. "Who sentit?"
Dirzed shrugged. "The Statisticalists, of course. The wrapper wasstolen from the Reincarnation Research Institute; so was the case. TheConstabulary are working on it." Dirzed shrugged again.
The dome, about a hundred and fifty feet in width and some fifty inheight, stood among the trees ahead. It was almost invisible from anydistance; the concrete dome was of mottled green and gray concrete,trees grew so close as to brush it with their branches, and the littlepavilion on the flattened top was roofed with translucent greenplastic. As the airboat came in, a couple of men in Assassins' garbemerged from the pavilion to meet them.
"Marnik, stay at the controls," Verkan Vall directed. "I'll sendOlirzon up for you if I want you. If there's any trouble, take off forAssassins' Hall and give the code word, then come back with twice asmany men as you think you'll need."
Dirzed raised his eyebrows over this. "I hadn't known theAssassin-President had given you a code word, Lord Virzal," hecommented. "That doesn't happen very often."
"The Assassin-President has honored me with his friendship," VerkanVall replied noncommittally, as he, Dirzed and Olirzon climbed out ofthe airboat. Marnik was holding it an unobtrusive inch or so above theflat top of the dome, away from the edge of the pavilion roof.
The two Assassins greeted him, and a man in upper-servants' garb andwearing a hunting knife and a long hunting pistol approached.
"Lord Virzal of Verkan? Welcome to Starpha Dome. The Lady Dallonaawaits you below."
Verkan Vall had never been in an Akor-Neb dwelling dome, but adescription of such structures had been included in his hypno-mechindoctrination. Originally, they had been the standard structure forall purposes; about two thousand elapsed years ago, when nationalismhad still existed on the Akor-Neb Sector, the cities had been almostentirely under ground, as protection from air attack. Even now, thedesign had been retained by those who wished to live apart from thetowering city units, to preserve the natural appearance of thelandscape. The Starpha hunting lodge was typical of such domes. Underit was a circular well, eighty feet in depth and fifty in width, witha fountain and a shallow circular pool at the bottom. The storerooms,kitchens and servants' quarters were at the top, the living quartersat the bottom, in segments of a wide circle around the well, back ofbalconies.
"Tarnod, the gamekeeper," Dirzed performed the introductions. "AndErarno and Kirzol, Assassins."
Verkan Vall hooked fingers and clapped shoulders with them. Tarnodaccompanied them to the lifter tubes--two percent positive gravitationfor descent and two percent negative for ascent--and they all floateddown the former, like air-filled balloons, to the bottom level.
"The Lady Dallona is in the gun room," Tarnod informed Verkan Vall,making as though to guide him.
"Thanks, Tarnod; we know the way," Dirzed told him shortly, turninghis back on the upper-servant and walking toward a closed door on theother side of the fountain. Verkan Vall and Olirzon followed; for amoment, Tarnod stood looking after them, then he followed the othertwo Assassins into the ascent tube.
"I don't relish that fellow," Dirzed explained. "The family of Starphause him for work they couldn't hire an Assassin to do at any price.I've been here often, when I was with the Lord Garnon; I've alwaysthought he had something on Prince Jirzyn."
He knocked sharply on the closed door with the butt of his pistol. Ina moment, it slid open, and a young Assassin with a narrow mustacheand a tuft of chin beard looked out.
"Ah, Dirzed." He stepped outside. "The Lady Dallona is within; Ireturn her to your care."
Verkan Vall entered, followed by Dirzed and Olirzon. The big room wasfitted with reclining chairs and couches and low tables; its wallswere hung with the heads of deer and boar and wolves, and with racksholding rifles and hunting pistols and fowling pieces. It was filledwith the soft glow of indirect cold light. At the far side of theroom, a young woman was seated at a desk, speaking softly into a soundtranscriber. As they entered, she snapped it off and rose.
Hadron Dalla wore the same costume Verkan Vall had seen on thevisiplate: he recognized her instantly. It took her a second or two toperceive Verkan Vall under the brown skin and black hair of the LordVirzal of Verkan. Then her face lighted with a happy smile.
"Why, Va-a-a-ll!" she whooped, running across the room and tossingherself into his not particularly reluctant arms. Afte
r all, it hadbeen twenty years--"I didn't know you, at first!"
"You mean, in these clothes?" he asked, seeing that she had forgotten,for the moment, the presence of the two Assassins. She had evencalled him by his First Level name, but that was unimportant--theAkor-Neb affectionate diminutive was formed by omitting the -_irz_- or-_arn_-. "Well, they're not exactly what I generally wear on theplantation." He kissed her again, then turned to his companions. "Yourpardon, Gentlemen-Assassins; it's been something over a year sincewe've seen each other."
Olirzon was smiling at the affectionate reunion; Dirzed wore a look ofamused resignation, as though he might have expected something likethis to happen. Verkan Vall and Dalla sat down on a couch near thedesk.
"That was really sweet of you, Vall, fighting those men for talkingabout me," she began. "You took an awful chance, though. But if youhadn't, I'd never have known you were in Darsh--Oh-oh! That was whyyou did it, wasn't it?"
"Well, I had to do something. Everybody either didn't know or weren'tsaying where you were. I assumed, from the circumstances, that youwere hiding somewhere. Tell me, Dalla; do you really have