“That might be the least of your problems,” Gina said humorlessly.
“What about the others back there?” Murray asked.
“We’re not sure. We only just got out.”
“So . . . what happens next?”
“I don’t know. What do you think, Vic?” Gina looked over at Hunt. But he was sitting with a strange, faraway look on his face and hadn’t heard. “Vic, are you okay?”
“Recruiting fodder,” Hunt said, still distant. “That’s what it’s all about.”
“What?”
Hunt focused back on the present and looked at them. “It’s not over. It hasn’t even started.”
“What are you talking about?”
“I know why it’s so vital for Eubeleus and his cult to get to Uttan.” Hunt swallowed hard and paused to collect his words. “They were the ones who set you up through Baumer and put the fake memories in your head. Telling us about the Ichena’s operation wasn’t giving away anything that mattered. In fact it was the decoy. The Ichena were set up to be expendable—to direct attention away from what’s really happening. When JEVEX comes back on, everyone out there will be flocking back to the couplers, tens of thousands of them. The whole population has been caught on a hook, just like Baumer was.”
Gina nodded but looked puzzled. “Yes, I follow what you’re saying. But where’s it—”
“Don’t you see? They’ll have half the city on-line when JEVEX comes back up. And what do you think will be down there in the
Entoverse? Thousands of them, waiting to come pouring out. Legions of them.”
Gina put a hand to her mouth. “Oh my God!”
“What the hell are you two talking about?” Murray asked, looking from one to the other.
But Hunt went on. “They were the ones who put Earth back a couple of thousand years and dreamed up the scheme to shut the Thuriens up inside a space-time bubble and take over. And despite all the limitations of where and how they originated, they almost got away with it.” Hunt raised his glass and took a long swig. “We thought we’d stopped them then, but we were wrong. And now this
And right at this moment, unless we can prevent Eubeleus from getting to Uttan, I don’t readily see a way of stopping it.”
Before Gina could say anything in reply, a chime sounded from the panel.
“What is it, Lola?” Murray called.
“Nixie’s here,” the house computer announced. “She has a visitor.”
Hunt looked up in such surprise, trying to rise as he did so, that he spilled his drink. “Here? She made it? Christ, that’s bloody marvel—”
Then Nixie came in, looking pert, unflustered, and none the worse for wear. “Vic! Gina!” She rattled off something in Jevienese, so used by that time to having ZORAC at hand that it was instinctive. Then she stopped, realizing her mistake, said something else toward the COM panel, and looked puzzled when it failed to respond.
But Hunt’s eyes had widened even more as he saw the tall, lean, bespectacled figure who followed her in.
“Ah, yes, here they are,” Danchekker said approvingly. “ZORAC informed us that it had directed you to a way out, just before it was cut off. We assumed that you would make for here.” He gazed around and took in the surroundings, including Murray’s collection of provocatively displayed girls. “So I’ve finally been enticed home by a lady of Nixie’s profession. Well, it’s never too late for a first time in one’s life for anything, I suppose.”
CHAPTER FORTY-EIGHT
Del Cullen was led into Garuth’s office, where Langerif was waiting with several of his officers and other Jevlenese. Garuth was sitting numbly by one wall of the room, with Shilohin next to him. Also present were a couple of the Thuriens assigned to PAC, whom the Jevienese had brought up from elsewhere in the complex. Koberg and Lebansky were downstairs with the loyal majority of Cullen’s security force, whom the police had disarmed and locked away. They had put up a good fight, but the odds had been against them, and then a threat by Langerif to begin eliminating hostages had finished it.
Without ZORAC, the jevlenese had a communications problem, since human and Ganymean voices operated over completely different ranges. The small jevienese-Thurien translator disks were fixed-program devices that understood neither Terran languages nor the speech of the Shapieron Ganymeans, which was different from Thurien. Langerif therefore instructed that Cullen would convey any communications from Terrans to the jevlenese, which from the nature of his job he was used to doing, and they would then relay via their translator to the Thuriens, who in turn would talk to Garuth and his staff.