GODS OF RIVERWORLD by Philip Jose Farmer

Burton turned the alarm off.

“The unknown could learn what the combination for the alarm is from the Computer. So I asked for one that I could set myself. There’s no way the Computer can know which I chose, not as long as I blocked the line of sight from its screen with my body when I set the alarm.”

“Admirable,” Frigate said. “But our bedrooms are soundproofed. How are we going to hear the alarm from there?”

The walls, floor and ceilings were several inches thick and packed with circuits and power lines, most of them unused. Burton could have ordered the Computer to set up a circuit that would set off alarms in all rooms when the door alarm went off. But the unknown could override these circuits.

Burton was thinking about what to do when Frigate spoke.

“We could have the Computer make mass detectors. These could be set inside the bedroom doors so that, even if we didn’t hear the apartment door alarm, we’d hear anybody trying to get into our bedrooms. These should be activated and deactivated by some sort of hand signals. The unknown can eavesdrop on us ] through the Computer. He’s probably doing it now. But, as far I as I know, he can’t see us unless he turns on a screen. And we can see that.”

“You say, as far as we know,” Burton said. “Isn’t it possible that he could turn on a screen but make it invisible to us?”

“I suppose so. I don’t really know enough about Ethical science to be sure of what can or can’t be done.”

“Then the unknown may be also watching us.”

“Yes. What we should do is erect some sort of tent in this room and write communications to one another inside it. Or the Computer could make us a soundproof cubicle. Even the floor would be soundproof. The trouble with that is that its walls might contain detectors put in by the order of the unknown. We’d have no way of checking that. Come to think of it, a tent made of cloth could contain detectors, too.”

Burton became angry. “Is there nothing we can do?”

“We can do the best we can and hope that it’ll be enough.”

“We’ll keep the door alarm,” Burton said. “I’ll write the combination on paper. You’ll memorize it, and I’ll make sure that the papers are destroyed.”

“Destroy the papers with a beamer,” Frigate said. “If you just burned them and crumbled the ashes before dropping them in a disposal hole, the Computer might be able to reconstruct the combination.”

Burton said that they would have to make hoods to put over them when they reset the combination. They could make sure that the hoods did not contain detectors by using their bed-sheets.

“We can’t trust the mass detectors,” he added. “The Computer will make them for us, but the unknown might hide turn-off devices in them.”

“True,” Frigate said. “He may have installed a turn-off in your burglar alarm, too.”

“Then anything the Computer makes for us could betray us?”

“Sure. Including the food. The unknown could order poison put in it.”

“By God! There must be something we can do to fight this devil!”

Nur, who had been standing near them and smiling slightly, spoke.

“If the unknown had planned to kill us, he would have done it before now. I suggest that if the unknown can override even Loga’s commands, then he or she must be an Ethical. If so, why hasn’t he resurrected Monat and the others? That would be his first thought and his first duty, after he’s immobilized us, of course. Which, I don’t have to point out, he’s accomplished. The only thing is …”

He hesitated so long that Burton said, “Yes? What is it?”

“Would any Ethical erase Loga’s body-recording? I think not. So … the unknown can’t be an Ethical. Unless …”

“Unless what?”

“Patience, my friend. We are not on schedule. Unless … it is Loga who’s behind all this.”

Burton exploded. “We’ve been through that line of reasoning! Why would he do this?”

Nur shrugged skinny shoulders and raised the palms of his long hands.