No! He hadn’t played that position at all. That piece was an automatic, some of the pieces had to be. Himself had burned off that piece’s lingers, though it seemed real at the time.
It was always like this on first waking up. It was always a little hard to remember which position Himself had played, forgetting that he had played all of the parts. Well, that was the game; it was the only game in town, and there was nothing else to do. Could he help it if the game was crooked? Even if he had made it up and played all the parts. But he would think up another game the next time. Next time…
His eyes didn’t work right. They were open but he couldn’t see anything. A hell of a way to run things-some mistake.
“Hey! What’s going on here?”
It was his own voice. He sat up, the cloth fell from his eyes. Everything was too bright; his eyes smarted.
“What’s the trouble, Felix?” He turned in the direction of the voice and strove to focus his aching eyes. It was Mordan, lying a few feet away from him. There was something he wanted to ask Mordan, but it escaped him.
“Oh. Claude. I don’t feel right. How long have we been dead?”
“We aren’t dead. You’re just a bit sick. You’ll get over it.”
“Sick? Is that what it is?”
“Yes. I was sick once, about thirty years ago. It was much like this.”
“Oh — ” There was still something he wanted to ask Mordan, but he couldn’t for the life of him recall what it was. It was important, too, and Claude would know. Claude knew everything-he made the rules.
That was silly. Still, Claude would know.
“Do you want to know what happened?” Mordan asked.
Maybe that was it. “They gassed us, didn’t they? I don’t remember anything after that.” That wasn’t quite right — there was something else. He couldn’t recall.
“We were gassed, but it was done by our own monitors. Through the conditioning system. We were lucky. No one knew we were under siege inside, but they could not be sure that all of the staff were out of the building-else they would have used a lethal gas.”
His head was clearing now. He remembered the fight in detail. “So? How many were left? How many did we fail to get?”
“I don’t know exactly, and it’s probably too late to find out. They are probably all dead.”
“Dead? Why? They didn’t burn them after they were down, did they?”
“No…But this gas we took is lethal without an immediate antidote-and I’m afraid that the therapists were a little bit over-worked. Our own people came first.”
Hamilton grinned. “You old hypocrite. Say! How about Phyllis?”
“She’s all right, and so is Martha. I ascertained that when I woke up. By the way, do you know that you snore?”
“Do I really?”
“Outrageously. I listened to your music for more than an hour. You must have had a heavier dose of gas than I had. Perhaps you struggled.”
“Maybe. I wouldn’t know. Say, where are we?” He swung his legs out of bed, and attempted to stand. It was a foolish attempt; he just missed falling on his face.
“Lie down,” ordered Mordan. “You won’t be fit for several hours yet.”
“I guess you’re right,” Hamilton admitted, sinking back on the cushion. “Say, that’s a funny feeling. I thought I was going to fly.”
“We’re next door to the Carstairs Infirmary, in a temporary annex,” Mordan continued. “Naturally, things are a bit crowded today.”
“Is the party all over? Did we win?”
“Of course we won. I told you the issue was never in doubt.”
“I know, but I’ve never understood your confidence.” Mordan considered how to reply to this. “Perhaps,” he said, “it would be simplest to state that they never did have what it takes. The leaders were, in most cases, genetically poor types, with conceit far exceeding their abilities. I doubt if any one of them had sufficient imagination to conceive logically the complexities of running a society, even the cut-to-measure society they dreamed of.”
“They talked as if they did.”