Satisfied, Ore had ordered the robots, One and Two, to seal up the control room door with impervium flux. Then he had stepped through.
“Apparently,” Ore said, “that wily shagg (a sort of polecat) had counted on the robot being used as a sacrifice. So he had arranged it that the robot would not be affected.”
“Urthona always was a sneaky one,” Anana said. “But he had depended on his technological defenses too long. Thrown on his own resources, he was not the man he should have been.”
She paused, then added, “Just like you, uncle.”
“I haven’t done so badly,” he said, his face red.
Kickaha and Anana burst out laughing.
“No,” she said. “Of course not. Just look where you are.”
Ore had been whisked away when he was only a few feet from leaving the cave or what he thought was a cave. The next second he was standing in the cube.
Kickaha drew Anana to a corner of the room to confer quietly. “Somehow, that mysterious Englishman discovered a gateway to another universe in the wall at the end of the corridor,” he said. “Maybe he had found Urthona’s codebook. Anyway, where one can go through, others can. And the Horn can get us through. But we can’t get to the Horn.
“Now, what’s to prevent us from getting Ore to blow the notes for us? Then we can make a recording of it and use it to open the gate.”
Anana shook her head. “It doesn’t work that way. It’s been tried before, it’s so obvious. But there’s something in the machinery in the Horn that adds an element missing in recordings.”
“I was afraid of that,” he said. “But I had to ask. Look, Anana. Urthona must have planted gates all over this place. We’ve probably passed dozens without knowing it because they are inside the walls. Logically, many if not most of them will be quick emergency routes from one place in this building to another. So Urthona could outsmart anyone who was close on his heels.
“But there have to be a few which would gate him to another world. Only to be used in cases of direst emergency. One of them is the gate at the end of the corridor next door. I think …”
“Not necessarily,” Anana said. “For all we know, it leads to the control room or some other place in the palace.”
“No. In that case, the sensors would have shown Ore that the Englishman was in the palace.”
“No. Urthona might have set up places without sensors where he could hide if an enemy had possession of the control room.”
“I’m the Number One trickster, but sometimes I think you sneaky Lords put me to shame. Okay. Just a minute. Let me ask Ore a question.” He went to the cube. The Lord, looking very suspicious, said, “What are you two up to now?”
“Nothing that won’t help you,” Kickaha said, grinning. “We just don’t want you to get a chance to get the drop on us. Tell me. Did the sensor displays in the control room indicate that there were hidden auxiliary sensor systems?”
“Why would you want to know?”
“Damn it!” Kickaha said. “You’re wasting our time. Remember, I have to spring you if only to get the Horn.”
Hesitantly, Ore said. “Yes, there are hidden auxiliary systems. It took me some time to find them. Actually, I wasn’t looking for them. I discovered them while I was looking for something else. I checked them out and noted that they were in rooms not covered by the main system. But since nobody was using them, I assumed that no one was in them. It was inconceivable that anyone in a room where they were wouldn’t be trying to find out where I was.”
“I hope your memory’s good. Where are they?”
“My memory is superb,” Ore said stiffly. “I am not one of you sub-beings.”
Kickaha grimaced. The Lords had the most sensitive and gangrenous egos he’d ever encountered. A good thing for him, though. He’d never have survived his conflicts with them if they hadn’t always used part of their minds to feed their own egos. They were never really capable of one hundred percent mental concentration.