"They came knowing that we would kill them, and took the poison that they might die quickly and without pain," a Calera said.

"Or that your tortures would not wring from them the names and nation of those who sent them," an elderly man in the dress of a rancher from the southeast added. "If I were you, I would try to find out who these enemies are, and the sooner the better."

Gathon Dard was examining one of the knives--a folding knife with a broad single-edged blade, locked open with a spring; the handle was of tortoise sh.e.l.l, bolstered with bra.s.s.

"In all my travels," he said, "I never saw a knife of this workmanship before. Tell me, Coru-hin-IriG.o.d, do you know from what country these outland slaves of Nebu-hin-Abenoz"s come?"

"You think that might have something to do with it?" the Calera asked.

"It could. I think that these people might not have been born slaves, but people taken captive. Suppose, at some time, there had been sold to Nebu-hin-Abenoz, and sold elsewhere by him, one who was a person of consequence--the son of a king, or the priest of some G.o.d," Gathon Dard suggested.

"By Safar, yes! And now that nation, wherever it is, is at blood-feud with us," Cavu-hin-Avoran said. "This must be thought about; it is an ill thing to have unknown enemies."

"Look!" a Calera who had begun to strip the three dead men cried.

"These are not of the Usasu cities, or any other people of this land.

See, they are uncirc.u.mcised!"

"Many of the slaves whom Nebu-hin-Abenoz brought to Careba from the hills have been uncirc.u.mcised," Coru-hin-IriG.o.d said. "Jeseru, I think you have your sights on the heart of it." He frowned. "Now, think you, will those who had this done be satisfied, or will they carry on their hatred against all of us?"

"A hard question," Antrath Alv said. "You Caleras do not serve our G.o.ds, but you are our friends. Suffer me to go apart and pray; I would take counsel with the G.o.ds, that they may aid us all in this."

[Ill.u.s.tration:]

[Ill.u.s.tration:]

Part 2

It was full daylight, but the sun was hidden; a thin rain fell on the landing around at Police Terminal Dhergabar Equivalent when Vall and Dalla left the rocket. Across the black lavalike pavement, they could see the bulky form of Tortha Karf, hunched under a long cloak, with his flat cap pulled down over his brow. He shook hands with Vall and kissed cheeks with Dalla when they joined him.

"Car"s over here," he said, nodding toward the waiting vehicle.

"Yesterday wasn"t one of our better days, was it?"

"No. It wasn"t." Vall agreed. They climbed into the car, and the driver lifted straight up to two thousand feet and turned, soaring down to land on the Chief"s Headquarters Building, a mile away. "We"re not completely stopped, sir. Ranthar Jard is working on a few ideas that may lead him to the Kholghoor time lines where the Wizard Traders are operating. If we can"t get them through their output, we may nail them at the intake."

"Unless they"ve gotten the wind up and closed down all their operations," Tortha Karf said.

"I doubt if they"ve done that, Chief," Vall replied. "We don"t know who these people are, of course, and it"s hard to judge their reactions, but they"re willing to take chances for big gains. I believe they think they"re safe, now that they"ve closed out the compromised time line and killed the only witness against them."

"Well, what"s Ranthar Jard doing?"

"Trying to locate the sub-sector and probability belt from what the slaves can tell him about their religious beliefs, about the local king, and the prince of Jhirda, and the n.o.ble families of the neighborhood," Vall said. "When he has it localized as closely as he can, he"s going to start pelting the whole paratemporal area with photographic auto-return b.a.l.l.s dropped from aircars on Police Terminal over the spatial equivalents of a couple of Croutha-conquered cities.

As soon as he gets a photo that shows Croutha with firearms, he"ll have a Wizard Trader time line."

"Sounds simple," the Chief said. The car landed, and he helped Dalla out. "I suppose both you and he know how many chances against one he has of finding anything." They went over to an antigrav-shaft and floated down to the floor on which Tortha Karf had a duplicate of the office in the Paratime Building on Home Time Line. "It"s the only chance we have, though."

"There"s one thing that bothers me," Dalla said, as they entered the office and went back behind the horseshoe-shaped desk. "I understand that the news about this didn"t break on Home Time Line till the late morning of One-Six-One Day. Nebu-hin-Abenoz was murdered at about 1700 local time, which would be 0100 this morning Dhergabar time. That would give this gang fourteen hours to hear the news, transmit it to their base, and get these three men hypno-conditioned, disguised, transposed to this Esaron Sector time line, and into Careba." She shook her head. "That"s pretty fast work."

Tortha Karf looked sidewise at Verkan Vall. "Your girl has the makings of a cop, Vall," he commented.

"She"s been a big help, on Esaron and Kholghoor Sectors," Vall said.

"She wants to stay with it and help me; I"ll be very glad to have her with me."

Tortha Karf nodded. He knew, too, that Dalla wouldn"t want to have to go back to Home Time Line and wait the long investigation out.

"Of course; we can use all the help we can get. I think we can get a lot from Dalla. Fix her up with some kind of a t.i.tle and police status--technical-expert, a.s.sistant, or something like that." He clasped hands, man-fashion, with her. "Glad to have you on the cops with us, Dalla," he said. Then he turned to Vall. "There was almost twenty-four hours between the time I heard about this and when this blasted Yandar Yadd got hold of the story. Of all the infernal, irresponsible--" He almost choked with indignation. "And it was another fourteen hours between the time Skordran sent in his report and I heard about it."

"Golzan Doth sent in a report to his company about the same time Skordran Kirv made his first report to his Sector-Regional Subchief."

Vall mentioned.

"That might be it," Tortha Karf considered. "I wish there were another explanation, because that implies a very extensive intelligence network, which means a big organization. But I"m afraid that"s it. I wish I could pull in everybody in Consolidated Outtime Foodstuffs who handled that report, and narco-hypnotize them. Of course, we can"t do things like that on Home Time Line, and with the political situation what it is now--"

"Why, what"s been happening, Chief?"

Tortha Karf swore with weary bitterness. "Salgath Trod"s what"s been happening. At first, after Yandar Yadd broke the story on the air, there was just a lot of unorganized Opposition sniping in Council; Salgath waited till the middle of the afternoon, when the Management members were beginning to rally, and took the floor. The Centrists and Right Moderates were trying the appeal-to-reason approach; that did as much good as trying to put out a Fifth Level forest fire with a hand-extinguisher. Finally. Salgath got a motion of censure against the Management recognized. That means a confidence vote in ten days.

Salgath has a rabble of Leftists and dissident Centrists with him; I doubt if he can muster enough votes to overturn the Management, but it"s going to make things rough for us."

"Which may be just the reason Salgath started this uproar," Vall suggested.

"That," Tortha Karf said, "is being considered; there is a discreet inquiry being made into Salgath Trod"s a.s.sociates, his sources of income, and so on. Nothing has turned up as yet, but we have hopes."

"I believe," Vall said, "that we have a better chance right on Home Time Line than outtime."

Tortha Karf looked up sharply. "So?" he asked.

Vall was stuffing tobacco into a pipe. "Yes. Chief. We have a big criminal organization--let"s call it the Slave Trust, for a convenience-label. The people who run it aren"t stupid. The fact that they"ve been shipping slaves to the Esaron Sector for ten years before we found out about it proves that. So does the speed with which they got rid of this Nebu-hin-Abenoz, right in front of a pair of our detectives. For that matter, so does the speed with which they moved in to exploit this Croutha invasion of Kholghoor Sector India.

"Well, I"ve studied illegal and subversive organizations all over paratime, and among the really successful ones, there are a few uniform principles. One is cellular organization--small groups, acting in isolation from one another, cooperating with other cells but ignorant of their composition. Another is the principle of no upward contact--leaders contacting their subordinates through contact-blocks and ignorant intermediaries. And another is a willingness to kill off anybody who looks like a potential betrayer or forced witness. The late Nebu-hin-Abenoz, for instance.

"I"ll be willing to bet that if we pick up some of these Wizard Traders, say, or a gang that"s selling slaves to some Nebu-hin-Abenoz personality on some other time line, and narco-hypnotize them, all they"ll be able to do will be name a few immediate a.s.sociates, and the group leader will know that he"s contacted from time to time by some stranger with orders, and that he can make emergency contacts only through some blind accommodation-address. The men who are running this are right on Home Time Line, many of them in positions of prominence, and if we can catch one of them and narco-hyp him, we can start a chain-reaction of disclosures all through this Slave Trust."

"How are we going to get at these top men?" Tortha Karf wanted to know. "Advertise for them on telecast?"

"They"ll leave traces; they won"t be able to avoid it. I think, right now, that Salgath Trod is one of them. I think there are other prominent politicians, and business people. Look for irregularities and peculiarities in outtime currency-exchange transactions. For instance, to sections in Esaron Sector _obus_. Or big gold bullion transactions."

"Yes. And if they have any really elaborate outtime bases, they"ll need equipment that can only be gotten on Home Time Line," Tortha Karf added. "Paratemporal conveyer parts, and field-conductor mesh. You can"t just walk into a hardware store and buy that sort of thing."

Dalla leaned forward to drop her cigarette ash into a tray.

"Try looking into the Bureau of Psychological Hygiene," she suggested.

"That"s where you"ll really strike it rich."

Vall and Tortha Karf both turned abruptly and looked at her for an instant.