The Dark Design by Phillip Jose Farmer

Besst said, “I am not a Neanderthal man but a woman, and I, too, have this ability.”

Burton grinned and said, “Women’s lib has penetrated into the Old Stone Age. However, let me point out that events will show that Whoever made this world and stamped us with, in a manner of speaking, the mark of the beast, did not know that Homo neanderthalis had a special visual ability. This means that Whoever is not omniscient.

“To resume my narrative. I asked for the identity of the person who lacked the symbol. Frigate replied, ‘Robert Spruce!’

” Spruce had also been a grail slave. He claimed to be an English­man born in 1945. That was about all I knew of him.

“I said that we would get him and question him. Frigate told me that we’d have to catch him because he was probably long gone. It seems that Kazz told Spruce he’d noticed Spruce lacked the mark on his forehead. Spruce had turned pale, and a few minutes later he left hurriedly. Frigate and Monat sent search parties out, but at the time they reported to me he hadn’t been found.

“It seemed to me that his flight was an admission of guilt, though I didn’t know what he was guilty of. A few hours later, he was discovered hiding in the hills. He was brought before the newly formed council of our newly formed state. Spruce was pale and trembling, though he looked us straight in the eye defiantly enough.

“I informed him that we suspected that he was an agent for the Ethicals if not an Ethical himself. I also told him that we would go to any lengths, including torture, to get the truth from him. This was a lie, since we would have been no better than the men who’d enslaved us if we had resorted to torture. Spruce, however, did not know that.

“Spruce said, ‘You may be denying yourself eternal life if you torture me. It will at least set you far back on your journey, delay your final goal. ”

“I asked him what that final goal was, but he ignored that question. Instead, he said, ‘We can’t stand pain. We’re too sensi­tive.’

“There was some more exchange, but he would not answer our questions. Then one of the councillors suggested that he be suspend­ed above a fire. Monat spoke up then. He told Spruce that he was from a culture somewhat more advanced than that of Earth’s. He felt he was more qualified to make guesses about the truth than the rest of us, and no one argued with him about this. Monat said that he would like to spare him the pain of the fire and also the pain of betraying his trust. Perhaps Monat could make some speculations about the Ethicals and their agents, and Spruce could merely affirm or deny the speculations. In this way, Spruce would not be making a positive betrayal of his trust, whatever that was.”

Bill Owain said, “That was a peculiar arrangement.”

“True. But Monat hoped to get him to talking. You see, we were not going to use any brutal methods of inquisition. If we couldn’t scare him, then we were going to try hypnosis. Both Monat and I are skilled mesmerists. However, as it turned out, we didn’t have to resort to that.

“Monat said, ‘It’s my theory that you are a Terrestrial. You come from an age chronologically far past 2008 a.d. In fact, you are a descendant of the few people who survived the death beam pro­jected from our orbital ship.’ Monat guessed that the technology and energy required to reconstruct this planet into one vast Rivervalley was very advanced. He suggested that Spruce was born in the fiftieth century A.D.

“Spruce replied that he should add two thousand years.

“Monat then said that not everyone had been resurrected. There wasn’t enough room on this world. It was known that no children who had died before the age of five were here. And though it couldn’t be proved, it seemed likely that no imbeciles and idiots had been resurrected here. Nor was anyone who lived after 2008 a.d., with the exception of Spruce here.