It was not hard to get free, and Lamont did get his wash. He also got a fish.
“I don’t believe it! I’ve got a fish! I’ve got a fish! I never catch fish!”
It was a monumentally ugly fish. Black and large-mouthed.
Liz snatched the line, allowing the fish back into the water. “Careful with that thing! It looks like sea catfish. Their spines are toxic.” She led it through the water back to the shore, and dispatched it expertly with a piece of driftwood.
“Pity we can’t eat it,” said Lamont, admiring his catch from a good safe distance. “That’s the only fish I’ve ever caught. Never had much luck fishing.”
Liz looked puzzled. “They’re nice eating. You’ve just got to avoid the spines.”
They were so busy admiring the catch of the day, that they failed to notice the arrival of Hermes.
* * *
As Lamont later said, it was a pity—because it was worth watching.
The pictures of the winged, sandaled and helmeted messenger are well known. Only . . . well, as Liz later said—it was asking rather a lot of very small wings.
“Why are you not going to the castle of Circe?” demanded Hermes, messenger of the ancient Greek gods, while rubbing his jaw with both hands.
“How come you can speak English?” demanded Jerry in reply.
Hermes looked down his long nose at the mythographer. “Is it not written that ‘the gods, after all, can do anything.’ Come. I must give you the moly, the herb which will protect you from the goddess Circe, so the legend can be fulfilled.”
“But what . . . ”
“Enough talking. My jaw hurts from that cursed helmet.” Hermes led the way to the forest margin where he pulled up an herb and handed it to Jerry. “This will protect you. It is called ‘moly.’ And when she offers her favors to you, you must not refuse. Now I must go. I am needed in Boeotia.”
Hermes took up a stance as if running. The wings on the sandals began to flap furiously. So did those on the helmet. When they’d reached hummingbird speeds, Hermes took off and flew away rather like an oversized bumblebee.
Jerry stared at the herb in his hand. “There is something wrong with all this,” he said quietly.
“You’re telling me! There is no way that should be able to work. He’s just too damn big for those wings.”
“No. I mean with this.” Jerry held out the herb.
“Looks like wormwood,” said Liz, inspecting it.
“Well, it’s supposed to be ‘moly.’ But that is supposed to have a black root and a milk-white flower. The authorities more or less agree it was some species of alliam.”
“Allium,” corrected Liz. “The onion family. Like that wild garlic.”
Jerry cocked his head sideways. “So why did he get it wrong? And the instructions he gave me weren’t complete.”
“I thought he said you were to bed Circe,” said Liz. Her smile was a little tight-lipped.
Jerry flushed. “Yes . . . That is what he is supposed to have said to Odysseus. But first he had to make her swear by the gods not to try any more tricks on him. Whatever is going on is trying to make the legend happen. And it’s cheating. It wants Circe to bespell us.”
* * *
The Krim device had no teeth to grind in frustration, or it would have ground them. The humans must believe. Their legends must enmesh them. Yet these ones were filled with doubt. They must be killed. They must be removed from the Ur-legend dimension. But these once-human gods were amazingly intransigent. Just like this species. Obstinate and doubting.
19
Get a bigger hammer.
Miggy Tremelo blew desperately on his too-hot coffee. Caffeine he must have before he talked to anyone. He sipped cautiously, slurping off the top. Then he picked up the phone and called Colonel McNamara of the 82nd. “The men who were in the advance group. Are they being used today?”
There was a pause. “Yes. We’ve tried to redeploy them away from the snatch zone.”
Tremelo took a deep breath. “Colonel, I want to ask you to undo that. Let me explain. The more I think about it the more convinced I become that the alien device is selecting people of a certain type. If they weren’t selected yesterday they won’t be selected today. I could be wrong; but the only way we’ll ever know is to offer it the same choice.”
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