“Yeah. Most Jevs never learned to ask questions, so they believe anything anyones tells ‘em. It’s Madison Avenue’s dream out here. I’m telling ya, if them Thuriens don’t wise up and start limiting the
tickets, there’s gonna be every con artist and snake—oil salesman from home comin’ in by the shipload once the news gets around.”
Nixie finished her conversation. She examined her nails, then opened the front of the top she was wearing and began painting one of her nipples.
“So what’s going on everywhere today?” Hunt asked. “Who are these people with the purple spiders, or whatever it’s supposed to be? One of the guys who met us said something about a big guru arriving in town.’’
Murray nodded with a weary sigh. “You remember they used to call California the Granola state: full of nuts, fruits, and flakes? Well, I’m tellin’ ya, it’s like a convention of judges and bishops compared to this place. They’ve got every brand you can think of here. Magical forces, mystical dimensions, mind-power, faith-power, psychic messages—if you can think of it, somebody believes it.”
“And the Thuriens were never able to change it,” Hunt commented, drawing on his cigarette.
Murray turned up his empty hand. “That’s the way it is .
Anyhow, one of the biggest outfits calls itself something that translates roughly as the ‘Spiral of Awakening’—that’s what the purple spider is. They’re into some kinda reincarnation crap. It’s leader is a guy called Ayultha: a kind of Hitler that’s got religion.”
“Ayultha, he make lots crazy people,” Nixie said, catching the name. “Not good. Terrans not so crazy. Think I go live Earth. Terran men like Shiban girl, you think, Vie?”
“I think they’d find them quite . . . passable,” Hunt told her. Murray translated. She looked pleased and transferred her attention to the other nipple.
“Ayultha says it was the old regime that caused all the problems,” Murray went on, “and JEVEX had nothing to do with it. He wants the Ganymeans out and the system restored. But then, all of the cults have got some reason for wanting JEVEX back. With all those junkies out there, they can’t lose. They know when they’re onto a good thing.”
“So who are the ones with green sickles?” Hunt asked.
“Axis of Light: another of the same-except their guiding genius thinks he’s a computer. Basically they’re all as bad, but the leaders carve up the territory by getting everyone hyped up over details that don’t matter—you know, like whether you make the sign with this hand or that hand, or whether some book said a line this way or that way, and that kind of garbage. But it isn’t exactly something I’ve spent a lot of time worrying about.”
“I imagine not.”
An off-key chiming sound came from the room system. Nixie acknowledged it, and what sounded like two laughing female voices replied. Leaving her handiwork displayed, she got up and went into the hall to open the door. Murray raised his eyebrows. “You’ll have quite an escort,” he told Hunt, draining his glass and standing. “That sounds like Osaya plus one of the others. They’re curious to meet the Terran.”
“I’m not complaining,” Hunt said, rising to follow. “And thanks again for the help. I’ve got to hand it to the U.S. Cavalry again, eh—you showed up just in time.”
Murray handed him a card, printed in Jevlenese. “This has our address and call code. Stop by again when there’s more time to talk.”
“You can count on it.” Hunt went through to the hall, where the three girls were waiting. Osaya turned out to be six feet tall, with a skirt not more than twelve inches long. Her companion was a redhead in pants that went transparent to light at certain angles, causing devastating things to happen as she walked.
“My God,” Hunt muttered. “I’ll never explain this. I hope Chris isn’t around when we get there.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
Hunt and his three escorts reached the Planetary Administration Center after a fifteen—minute walk through more streets and arcades and across a pedestrian flyover spanning a moving beltway that carried freight. The base of the PAC complex merged into the general plan of the lower city, but as was clear from the fact that the Shapieron at Geerbaine was visible from higher up, its upper parts formed a tower facing west over the city.