But to his surprise, Scirio remained attentive. Although his face and manner gave away nothing, his reaction was not one of ridicule. The questions that came back through the interpreters were serious and probing.
The people who became possessed weren’t all cult—crazies? Many of them remained sane and found niches in society where they functioned normally, generally unrecognized and unsuspected? Correct, Hunt replied. Scirio was talking to one. Hunt indicated Nixie. Did she come across as insane or a cult—fanatic crazy?
A lot of these people were obsessed with power and control? Scirio asked again. They were the kind who were infiltrated into Terran society and had been causing some of its biggest problems throughout history, the way the Jevlenese had been hearing? “Yes.” Hunt waved an arm at the surroundings and was about to say that one could find them installed in just such a place as this; then he faltered as the implication hit him.
Murray saw it, too. “No point in worrying about it now,” he muttered in an aside to Hunt. “If this guy’s one of’em, we’re as good as dead anyway.” But Scirio showed no sign of having been leading them on, and carried on asking questions.
This condition wasn’t some kind of mental unhinging caused by addiction to JEVEX? It’s really what it says: a “possession” by a different being?
Yes.
And Hunt was saying that these beings had originated inside JEVEX somehow, in a different kind of world, in a way that Scirio didn’t pretend to understand?
Yes. A world in which insecurity and unpredictability were the norm, where there were strong motivations to escape. They could literally invade people using the couplers.
And that was what had happened to Nixie?
Yes. It was irreversible; they couldn’t go back. How they reacted varied from individual to individual and with circumstances.
“I think we’re getting through,” Murray whispered. “Don’t ask me how, because to tell you the truth I thought this had no chance. But he’s listening.”
And what was going on outside was all a smokescreen? The ones who were the real threat were all set to mount an invasion when JEVEX came on again?
“JEVEX is located on another planet: Uttan. That’s ‘why Eubeleus has gone there.”
And the only way to try and stop him activating JEVEX was by letting VISAR at it? And the only short-term way to do that was by getting access to one of the Ichena’s illicit channels into JEVEX?
“Yes.”
“You’ve got it,” Murray confirmed to Scirio via Nixie.
Scirio seemed satisfied, though still with the same, vaguely defined air of finding something amiss that had hung about him since their first entry. He directed his attention to Nixie again and began an exchange in which he didn’t pause for Murray to translate, at the same time drawing her away until they were standing by the curved window, looking out over the pool and the garden as if the other two had ceased to exist. Nixie answered in short sentences, sounding uncertain and puzzled.
“He’s saying he thinks the boss should hear about this,” Murray said in a low voice to keep Hunt informed. “name of Grevetz. lives outside the city someplace. He wants to know how Nixie feels about it.”
“What does she say?”
Murray shrugged. “Sure, if he thinks it’s a good idea. Why not?”
“Why’s he asking Nixie?”
“I don’t know.. . Neither does she. He’s saying we could get this guy Grevetz over here now, or maybe go see him. How’d she like to come along? She says okay. But she seems about as mystified by it as I feel.”
Hunt frowned, thought about it, and shook his head. “Does it make any sense to you?”
“No. . . but most things that Jevs do don’t make any sense to me, either. Who could make sense and run a planet like this one?”
Scirio was standing with his hands clasped behind his back, sounding casual and chatty now, and gesturing toward the window.
“What now?” Hunt asked.
“He’s talking about the pool, all the parties they have here .
Something about accidents that sometimes happen. Nixie’s just going along with it. She doesn’t know what it’s all about either. . . Now he’s going to call the boss man.”