ENTOVERSE

Across the square, the carousel started up again, and the music resumed. Danchekker looked on and gave a satisfied nod. “No, Dr. Hunt. I, I rather think, am the better judge of organic psychology,” he said.

CHAPTER FIFTY-SIX

“Generator complexes three and five are now up to full power and can be switched into the system,” an aide reported from another part of Uttan. “Seven is being brought up to standby as a backup. Every­thing is on schedule.”

From behind the supervisor’s chair in the real JEVEX primary control center, Eubeleus returned a curt nod. “How does it look at this end?” he asked Iduane, who was standing a short distance away, checking reports and status indicators.

“Matching positive. We can initiate reintegration at any time.”

Eubeleus leaned back and surveyed the other consoles and operator positions around the floor. Everything was under control and orderly. Across the planet, the Thurien fools who thought they were in control of the Uttan system because JEVEX was shut down and isolated far away on Jevlen didn’t even know they were standing right on top of it. They would very soon find out.

“And how are events inside?”

“The last time I contacted our Prophet, they were progressing well,” Iduane answered. “They’re rounding up all the heretics for the great auto-da-fé. They should be all fired up to do a fine job on Jevlen for us when they start coming out.”

Eubeleus nodded again, distantly. None of it was real, of course. It was simply an elaborate software simulation that JEVEX had cre­ated to train and orient the software identities that it had devised to extend itself into the outside universe. But those identities became real when they overwrote the personalities of physical users coupled into the system. Such was JEVEX’s method for externalizing its dimensions of existence—a solution which Eubeleus had no hesita­tion in acclaiming as a feat of genius. After all, wasn’t he a manifesta­tion of it?

“When the time comes for the Prophet to announce the Great Awakening, I would like to be in control of him myself,” Eubeleus said. “It would be gratifying to participate in the culmination of the project—personally, as it were.”

“As you wish,” Iduane agreed.

Eubeleus stared at the console with a distant look, slipping into one of his rare reflective moods. “It’s difficult to believe that we, our­selves, originated like that. I look for any hint of nostalgia every time I connect into one of them, but there really isn’t any. I don’t recall anything of what I was down there before my emergence. There must be—” His words were interrupted by a priority tone from the console. He nodded toward the video pickup. “Yes?”

One of the screens came to life to show the face of another of his aides, elsewhere in the complex. “My apologies. We have a grade one coming in from Shiban PAC, on Jevlen.”

“Very well.” The image changed to show the face of Langerif. He looked worried. “What?” Eubeleus demanded.

“News has just come in here that Grevetz has been assassinated,” Langerif said.

Eubeleus came around the chair and sat down, glaring at the screen. “When did it happen? Do you know who did it?”

“At his villa in the Cerberan, just over an hour ago. His man who runs the north side did it: the one they call Scirio.”

‘‘How?’’

“They came down in a flier and wiped out him and a bunch of his people on the pad. Then they demolished virtually the entire place. There was no provocation or warning. It was a massacre.”

“I always thought Scirio was reliable. What was it, another of their family squabbles?”

“We’re not sure. There’s more. The hooker from the city, the one who was here at PAC—she was with them. We have the video record from the house surveillance system.”

“She’s the one who’s been helping the Terrans,” Iduane mur­mured. He had moved across from where he had been standing and was watching from beside Eubeleus’s chair.

Langerif nodded from the screen. “There has to be some kind of

connection, but right at this moment we don’t know what.” Eubeleus’s frown deepened with suspicion. “What kind of opera­tions does this Scirio specialize in?” he asked.

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