They entered the huge empty house—he hoped it was empty—and they searched every room, their weapons ready. Satisfied that no one, human or android, was hiding in ambush, they showered. After putting on new clean clothes, simple robes, they met in the large library. By then the antishock pills given by the Computer were doing their work. They were still very tired and dispirited, however. The drinks did not seem to help much. Nor was anybody hungry.
“Well, there’s no use putting it off,” Burton said, and he seated himself in front of the computer console. Though he dreaded to ask the question, he did so. And what he did not want to hear was what the Computer, through the computer, told him.
The dead, Nur, Turpin, Sophie, de Marbot, Aphra, all the slain, could not be raised. Someone had inhibited the raising, and the Computer would not say who that person was.
“Oh, my God!” Alice said, and she moaned. “I had Monty for six days, and now he’s gone forever!”
“I wouldn’t say forever,” Burton said. “We’ll find a way to cancel the overrides. Some day.”
“We should warn the others,” Alice said.
“The others?” Burton said. “Oh, you mean those in Turpin-ville. And Netley and his people and the gypsies.”
“Tell the gypsies,” Frigate said. “Never mind those who threw Tom and me out of our places. They don’t deserve to be warned. What they do deserve … well …”
“I understand your feelings,” Burton said, “but, in a way, they’re our allies. The Snark or whoever the killer is won’t be attacking just us.”
“How do you know that?” Frigate said.
“1 don’t know that, but we must warn them.”
He tried Turpinville first. Though the screen was activated, there was no reply, and they could see only a dim diffuse dark amber light.
Burton was about to try Netley when Li Po said, “Wait! I thought I saw something!”
“What is it?” Burton said, squinting his eyes—as if that would help.
“Something dark. Moving,” Li Po said.
The others crowded around the console. They, too, squinted.
“I don’t see anything,” Burton said.
“You don’t have my eagle eyes,” Li Po said. He pointed. “There! Can’t you see it? It’s dark, and it’s moving, though very slowly. Wait.”
Presently, Burton could see a dark vague bulk. It swelled almost imperceptibly, taking a near-unendurable time to float nearer. Minutes passed, and then the outlines became more distinct. Alice gasped and said, “It’s a man!”
Burton asked the Computer to make the area .brighter if it could. The fluid—it had to be a fluid since the man was floating in it—was illuminated a little. More minutes passed, and then they could see the face of a black man, eyes staring and mouth open.
“I don’t know what’s happened,” Burton said, “but something horrible has. The screen for receiving messages from outside Turpin’s world is in the room next to Turpin’s office. Obviously, it’s filled with water or some kind of liquid.”
“That can’t be!” Star Spoon said.
“Oh, yes, it can. The Computer can do almost anything.”
“Try Netley’s,” Frigate said.
Burton did so. This time, the screen showed them a clearer fluid. They could not see very far into it, but they could distinguish a shadowy bulk that looked like a sofa. Near it was a small dark object too fuzzy to be identified. But it was floating. It could be a plastic bottle of some sort, partly full, perhaps, and buoyed by the air in it.
“Definitely another flood,” Burton said.
“Ask the Computer if it knows what happened,” Frigate said.
Burton glared at him. “Don’t be a stupid ass. Whoever did this would command the Computer not to tell us anything.”
“You don’t know. Maybe the Snark doesn’t care. Maybe he’d like us to know. Anyway, if he thought that we’d all be dead, no one around to question it, why conceal anything?”
“Anything is possible^ Sorry about the remark.”
Burton asked the Computer if it had made recordings of the recent events in Turpinville and Frigate’s world. It replied that it had. Burton then ordered it to run off the pictures of Turpinville, starting from the moment that the liquid had poured into that world.
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