thepresent civilization is about ten thousand years old, developed out ofthe wreckage of several earlier civilizations which decayed or fellthrough wars, exhaustion of resources, et cetera. They have legends,maybe historical records, of their extraterrestrial origin."
Tortha Karf nodded. "Pretty good, for consciously acquired knowledge,"he commented. "Well, our luck's run out, on that sector; we havetroubles there, now. I want you to go iron them out. I know, you'vebeen going pretty hard, lately--that nighthound business, on theFourth Level Europo-American Sector, wasn't any picnic. But the factis that a lot of my ordinary and deputy assistants have a little toomuch regard for the alleged sanctity of human life, and this issomething that may need some pretty drastic action."
"Some of our people getting out of line?" Verkan Vall asked.
"Well, the data isn't too complete, but one of our people has run intotrouble on that sector, and needs rescuing--a psychic-scienceresearcher, a young lady named Hadron Dalla. I believe you know her,don't you?" Tortha Karf asked innocently.
"Slightly," Verkan Vall deadpanned. "I enjoyed a brief but ratherhectic companionate-marriage with her, about twenty years ago. Whatsort of a jam's little Dalla got herself into, now?"
"Well, frankly, we don't know. I hope she's still alive, but I'm notunduly optimistic. It seems that about a year ago, Dr. Hadrontransposed to the Second Level, to study alleged proof ofreincarnation which the Akor-Neb people were reported to possess. Shewent to Gindrabar, on Venus, and transposed to the Second ParatimeLevel, to a station maintained by Outtime Import & Export TradingCorporation--a _zerfa_ plantation just east of the High Ridge country.There she assumed an identity as the daughter of a planter, and tookthe name of Dallona of Hadron. Parenthetically, all Akor-Nebfamily-names are prepositional; family-names were originally placenames. I believe that ancient Akor-Neb marital relations were toocomplicated to permit exact establishment of paternity. And allAkor-Neb men's personal names have -_irz_- or -_arn_- inserted in themiddle, and women's names end in -_itra_- or -_ona_. You could callyourself Virzal of Verkan, for instance.
"Anyhow, she made the Second Level Venus-Terra trip on a regularpassenger liner, and landed at the Akor-Neb city of Ghamma, on theupper Nile. There she established contact with the Outtime TradingCorporation representative, Zortan Brend, locally known as Brarnend ofZorda. He couldn't call himself Brarnend of Zortan--in the Akor-Neblanguage, _zortan_ is a particularly nasty dirty-word. Hadron Dallaspent a few weeks at his residence, briefing herself on localconditions. Then she went to the capital city, Darsh, in easternEurope, and enrolled as a student at something called the IndependentInstitute for Reincarnation Research, having secured a letter ofintroduction to its director, a Dr. Harnosh of Hosh.
"Almost at once, she began sending in reports to her homeorganization, the Rhogom Memorial Foundation of Psychic Science, hereat Dhergabar, through Zortan Brend. The people there were wildlyenthusiastic. I don't have more than the average intelligent--Ihope--layman's knowledge of psychics, but Dr. Volzar Darv, thedirector of Rhogom Foundation, tells me that even in the presentincomplete form, her reports have opened whole new horizons in thescience. It seems that these Akor-Neb people have actuallydemonstrated, as a scientific fact, that the human individualityreincarnates after physical death--that your personality, and mine,have existed, as such, for ages, and will exist for ages to come.More, they have means of recovering, from almost anybody, memories ofpast reincarnations.
]
"Well, after about a month, the people at this Reincarnation Instituterealized that this Dallona of Hadron wasn't any ordinary student. Sheprobably had trouble keeping down to the local level of psychicknowledge. So, as soon as she'd learned their techniques, she wasallowed to undertake experimental work of her own. I imagine she letherself out on that; as soon as she'd mastered the standard Akor-Nebmethods of recovering memories of past reincarnations, she beganrefining and developing them more than the local yokels had been ableto do in the past thousand years. I can't tell you just what she did,because I don't know the subject, but she must have lit things upproperly. She got quite a lot of local publicity; not only scientificjournals, but general newscasts.
"Then, four days ago, she disappeared, and her disappearance seems tohave been coincident with an unsuccessful attempt on her life. Wedon't know as much about this as we should; all we have is ZortanBrend's account.
"It seems that on the evening of her disappearance, she had beenattending the voluntary discarnation feast--suicide party--of aprominent nobleman named Garnon of Roxor. Evidently when the Akor-Nebpeople get tired of their current reincarnation they invite in theirfriends, throw a big party, and then do themselves in in an atmosphereof general conviviality. Frequently they take poison or inhale lethalgas; this fellow had his personal trigger man shoot him through thehead. Dalla was one of the guests of honor, along with this Harnosh ofHosh. They'd made rather elaborate preparations, and after the shootingthey got a detailed and apparently authentic spirit-communication fromthe late Garnon. The voluntary discarnation was just a routine socialevent, it seems, but the communication caused quite an uproar, and ratedtop place on the System-wide newscasts, and started a storm ofcontroversy.
"After the shooting and the communication, Dalla took the officiatinggun artist, one Dirzed, into her own service. This Dirzed was spokenof as a generally respected member of something called the Society ofAssassins, and that'll give you an idea of what things are like onthat sector, and why I don't want to send anybody who might developtrigger-finger cramp at the wrong moment. She and Dirzed left the homeof the gentleman who had just had himself discarnated, presumably forDalla's apartment, about a hundred miles away. That's the last that'sbeen heard of either of them.
"This attempt on Dalla's life occurred while the pre-mortem revelswere still going on. She lived in a six-room apartment, with threeservants, on one of the upper floors of a three-thousand-foottower--Akor-Neb cities are built vertically, with considerableinterval between units--and while she was at this feast, a package wasdelivered at the apartment, ostensibly from the ReincarnationInstitute and made up to look as though it contained record tapes. Oneof the servants accepted it from a service employee of the apartments.The next morning, a little before noon, Dr. Harnosh of Hosh called heron the visiphone and got no answer; he then called the apartmentmanager, who entered the apartment. He found all three of the servantsdead, from a lethal-gas bomb which had exploded when one of them hadopened this package. However, Hadron Dalla had never returned to theapartment, the night before."
* * * * *
Verkan Vall was sitting motionless, his face expressionless as he ranTortha Karf's narrative through the intricate semantic andpsychological processes of the First Level mentality. The fact thatHadron Dalla had been a former wife of his had been relegated to onecorner of his consciousness and contained there; it was not a factthat would, at the moment, contribute to the problem or to histreatment of it.
"The package was delivered while she was at this suicide party," heconsidered. "It must, therefore, have been sent by somebody who eitherdid not know she would be out of the apartment, or who did not expectit to function until after her return. On the other hand, if herdisappearance was due to hostile action, it was the work of somebodywho knew she was at the feast and did not want her to reach herapartment again. This would seem to exclude the sender of the packagebomb."
Tortha Karf nodded. He had reached that conclusion, himself.
"Thus," Verkan Vall continued, "if her disappearance was the work ofan enemy, she must have two enemies, each working in ignorance of theother's plans."
"What do you think she did to provoke such enmity?"
"Well, of course, it just might be that Dalla's normally complicatedlove-life had got a little more complicated than usual andshort-circuited on her," Verkan Vall said, out of the fullness ofpersonal knowledge, "but I doubt that, at the moment. I would thinkthat this affair has political implications."
"So?" Tortha Karf
had not thought of politics as an explanation. Hewaited for Verkan Vall to elaborate.
"Don't you see, chief?" the special assistant asked. "We find a beliefin reincarnation on many time-lines, as a religious doctrine, butthese people accept it as a scientific fact. Such acceptance wouldcarry much more conviction; it would influence a people's entirethinking. We see it reflected in their disregard for death--suicide asa social function, this Society of Assassins, and the like. It wouldnaturally color their political thinking, because politics is nothingbut common action to secure more favorable living conditions, and tothese people, the term 'living conditions' includes not only thepresent life, but also an indefinite