Universe Twister - Keith Laumer [208]
Stop reminiscing! He commanded himself. You were going to focus your Psychical Energies, remember?
"I can't," he muttered. "Central put an end to all that with their blasted Suppressor. Let's face it, I'm stuck."
That's what you thought when you were in Melange, too—but you were wrong!
"Sure—but that was a special case. I was in another Locus, the rules were changed . . ."
Try! This is no time to give up!
"Well . . ." Lafayette closed his eyes, pictured a sharp-bladed pocket knife lying in the corner of the cage. Under some litter, he specified, in a spot where I wouldn't have seen it. I haven't actually scraped around over there; I don't KNOW there isn't a knife . . . So BE there, knife! A nice little Barlow with a bone handle . . .
If there was a small quiver in the even flow of entropy, he failed to detect it.
"But that doesn't mean it didn't work," he said bravely. "Take a look . . ." He went to the corner in question, scraped away the drifted leaves and bird droppings and straw, exposing bare planks.
"No knife," he mumbled. "It figures. My luck's run out. I didn't have a chance from the beginning. I can see that now."
Sure. But why? Maybe if you could figure out why, you'd have a chance of fighting back.
"Why? How do I know? Because somebody wanted me out of the way, I suppose."
Why not just knock you in the head, in that case? Why all this business of turning you into Zorro?
"Maybe . . . maybe that was just a side effect. If it wasn't just you that was turned into Zorro; if Zorro was also turned into you—and it seems like a logical assumption—if you can call any part of this insanity logical . . ."
Then—the whole idea might have been to get Zorro into my body—and I was just dumped into his to get me out of the way.
"It's a possibility."
But why? What would that accomplish?
"For one thing—assuming Zorro's the culprit—it would put him in the palace right now, occupying your place, using your clothes, your toothbrush, your bed—"
Let's drop that line of thought for the moment! OK, so Zorro found a way to steal bodies. He conned the Red Bull into handing me the Mark III Shape Changer, and I was boob enough to push the button. Then what? It still doesn't explain things like the Stasis Pod, and the old geezer in blue robes . . .
"Ye gods!" O'Leary blurted. "That's who the photo was, back in Belarius' office! The old man in the tank—but without the beard!"
6
Now we're getting somewhere, Lafayette assured himself. We've established a connection between Central and Artesia—that Central, or at least Belarius—doesn't seem to know anything about.
"Right—and if you recall, he got a bit paranoid as soon as he caught you staring at the photo of . . . what did he call him? Jorlemagne. Wanted you to rat on him, spill the beans—implying you were in it with him—whatever 'it' is."
But that doesn't explain why this Jorlemagne was lying around in a cave like Sleeping Beauty in an electronic bunk bed making strange noises at anybody who disturbs him.
"Wait a minute; let's see what we've got: Back at Central, there's been some skullduggery. Belarius is upset about something done by Jorlemagne, who's dropped out of sight. This may or may not tie in with the Focal Referent, which Belarius may not know anything about, probably the latter, since he's under the impression it weighs umpteen tons . . ."
Wait a minute. It seems I remember him correcting me when I called it a Mark III. He insisted it was a Mark II. So . . .
"So—maybe what you had was a new model, miniaturized. But—why wouldn't Belarius know that? After all, he's Chief of Research, and the Focal Referent was his baby."
I don't know. But at the same time he's having trouble with this Jorlemagne absconding—presumably with a newer model FR than even Belarius knows about—funny things started happening in Artesia. And Artesia is where Jorlemagne is. So—
"So all I have to do is get to a phone and dial my special number, and tell them where to pick up their boy!"
Fine—except you'll still be