The Dark Design by Phillip Jose Farmer

The two had gone aboard to spend the night together. Yet they must have gone to sleep before dawn. Could Monat have gotten to her then? Probably. Burton did not know how he had done it. But Besst had never said anything about Frigate’s and Monat’s marks.

Kazz finished his account of the session. It was short and what Burton had expected.

He sent Kazz after Besst, telling him to be very quiet. In a few minutes he was back with her. Burton told her he would satisfy her curiosity later. For the time being, would she let him hypnotize her ? Sleepily, she agreed, and she sat down on the chair Kazz had occupied.

After telling her he was Monat, he took her back to the mesmeriz­ing by Monat. As he had thought, it had been done after she and Kazz had gone to sleep. Monat had simply described tp her the marks which he had hypnotized her mate into seeing on the three agents’ foreheads. Then he had ordered her to see the same marks. The whole process would have been done very quietly and quickly.

Monat and his colleague had been lucky. Before Kazz had en­countered Spruce, he had seen two other people without the marks. However, the first time had been on Resurrection Day. He had called out to the man, asking him why he had no mark. The man had fled, probably not because he understood what Kazz was saying but because he had misunderstood the Neanderthal’s intentions.

Later, after meeting Burton, Kazz had tried to tell him what he had seen, but neither could speak the other’s language yet. And Kazz had simply forgotten about it in the days following, when they were all busy trying to survive.

The. second person he’d seen lacking a mark was a woman, a Mongolian. This had happened at high noon, and the woman had just come out of The River, where she was bathing. Kazz had tried to talk to her, but her hutmate, who did have a mark on his head, had taken the woman away. Evidently, he was jealous. Once more, Kazz’s intentions were misunderstood.

At that time, Burton and the others had been talking to the local headman in the council house. Kazz had stayed behind to watch their boat. After the woman had gone, Kazz was offered some drinks of lichen-alcohol by several people who wanted to talk to him. These had never seen a Neanderthal before, and the liquor was an inducement to get him to talk. Kazz, easily induced and seduced by free booze, was half-drunk by the time his crewmates returned. Burton had reproached him so harshly that Kazz had never again drunk while on guard duty.

He also forgot about the woman.

After bringing Besst out of the trance, Burton sat for a while in thought. Besst and Kazz shifted uneasily and gave each other wondering looks. Finally, he made a decision. There was no longer any use keeping them in the dark. Nor would he exclude Alice from now on. He owed the Stranger nothing, and the fact that he had not reappeared again could mean that he, Burton, had no reason to keep silent. Besides, though he was naturally secretive, he longed now to share his experiences.

Though he gave only a bare outline, he took over an hour. Both Besst and Kazz were amazed, and they had many questions. He held up his hand for silence.

“Later! Later! As of now, we must question them. The Arcturan’s a much tougher customer, so we’ll tackle Frigate first.”

He told them what they must do. Kazz said, “But wouldn’t it be best to knock out Monat and tie him up? What if he wakes up while we’re getting Frigate?”

“I don’t want to make any more noise than we have to. If Loghu and Alice hear us, we’ll have a brouhaha.”

“A what?”

“An uproar. Let’s go.”

The three of them made their way through the fog. Burton thought of some more questions he would ask Frigate. For instance, Monat, Frigate, and Ruach must have known that Spruce was an agent. There had been plenty of opportunity for them to talk to him while they had been grail slaves. And Monat had had opportunities after the revolt to hypnotize Kazz so he would see a mark on Spruce. Why had he not done that?