Because he had nothing else to do, he went into a public phone booth on a gas station lot and dialed Cambring’s number. The phone was picked up so swiftly that Kickaha felt, for a second, that Cambring was still alive and was waiting for his call. It was Cambring’s wife who answered, however.
Kickaha said, “Paul Finnegan speaking.”
There was a pause and then, “You murderer!” she screamed.
He waited until she was through yelling and cursing him and was sobbing and gasping.
“I didn’t kill your husband,” he said, “although I would have been justified if I had, as you well know. It was the big boss who killed him.”
“You’re a liar!” she screamed.
“Tell your big boss I want to speak to him. I’ll wait on this line. I know you have several phones you can use.”
“Why should I do that?” she said. “I’ll do nothing for you!”
“I’ll put it this way. If he gets his hands on me, he’ll see to it that you get your revenge. But if I don’t get into contact with him, right now, I’m taking off for the great unknown. And he’ll never find me.”
She said, “All right,” sniffled, and was gone. About sixty seconds later, she was back. “I got a loudspeaker here, a box, what you call it?” she said. “Anyway, you can speak to him through it.”
Kickaha doubted that the man he was going to talk to was actually the “big boss” himself. Although, Mrs. Cambring had revealed that she now had information that she had not possessed when he had drugged her. Could this be because the Lord had calculated that Kickaha would call her?
He felt a chill sweep over the back of his scalp. If Red Orc could anticipate him this well, then he would also know Kickaha’s next step.
He shrugged. There was only one way to find out if Red Orc was that clever.
The voice was deep and resonant. Its pronunciation of English was that of a native, and its use of vocabulary seemed to be “right.” The speaker did not introduce himself. His tone indicated that he did not need to do so, that just hearing him should convince anyone immediately of his identity. And of his power.
Kickaha felt that this was truly Red Orc, and the longer he heard him the more he identified certain characteristics that reminded him of Anana’s voice. There was a resemblance there, which was not surprising, since the family of Urizen was very inbred.
“Finnegan! I have your friends Wolff and Chryseis and your lover, my niece, Anana. They are well. Nothing has happened to them, nothing harmful, that is. As yet! I drugged the truth from them; they have told me everything they know about this.”
Then it is good, Kickaha thought, that Anana does not know where the Horn of Shambarimen really is.
There was a pause. Kickaha said, “I’m listening.”
“I should kill them, after some suitable attentions, of course. But they don’t really represent any threat to me; they were as easily caught as just-born rabbits.”
A Lord always had to do some bragging. Kickaha said nothing, knowing that the Lord would get to the point when he became short-winded. But Red Orc surprised him.
“I could wait until I caught you, and I would not have to wait very long. But just now time is of the essence, and so I am willing to make a trade.”
He paused again. Kickaha said, “I’m all ears.”
“I will let the prisoners go and will allow them to return to Jadawin’s world. And you may go with them. But on several conditions. First, you will hand over the Horn of Shambarimen to me!”
Kickaha had expected this. The Horn was not only unique in all the universes, it was the most prized item of the Lords. It had been made by the fabled ancestor of all the Lords now living, though it had been in the possession of his equally fabled son so long that it was sometimes referred to as the Horn of Ilmarwolkin. It had a unique utility among gates. It could be used alone. All other gates had to exist in pairs. There had to be one in the universe to be left and a sister, a resonant gate, in the universe to be entered. The majority of these were fixed, though the crescent type was mobile. But the Horn had only to be blown upon, with the keys of the Horn played in the proper coded sequence, and a momentary way between the universes would open. That is, it would do so if the Horn were played near a “resonant” point in the “walls” between the two worlds.