THE MAGIC LABYRINTH by Philip Jose Farmer

The time came which Loga dreaded so much and hoped would not come. He had arranged for that, but he did not want to have to carry out his arrangements. It hurt him severely to do it.

“Monat decided that he would be picked up at night soon and return to the tower. At the same time, you, Burton, would be taken along for a complete scan of your time in The Valley. I think that Monat suspected that the renegade, I, had fixed it so that your memory of your questioning by the Council had not been removed. Also, the violence around him in The Valley was increasingly sickening him. He needed a vacation.”

51

LOGA WAS FLYING TO THE TOWER, HAVING JUST COMPLETED A legitimate mission, when the two hidden resurrectors were found. At the same time, the engineers had discovered more evidence of Loga’s tampering with the computer.

Monat, Thanabur, and Siggen were in The Valley then. The other Councilors sent out aircraft to pick them up and to give them the news. However, the Council had made an error in judgment. Instead of waiting until Loga arrived and then confronting him, they sent a message to him. He was told to expect arrest when he got home.

“It took me half an hour to work up my nerve to do what I’d long planned and had known that I must someday do. But I’d hoped I’d be in the tower when I had to do it.”

He’d sent out a signal which had activated the codeword in the little black balls in the brains of those in the tower and the sea around it. They had made a mistake when they used one code instead of individual codes.

“But I also made a mistake when I didn’t send the code down into The Valley. I’d thought of it, but I didn’t want to kill any more than I had to. Also, I thought that those Ethicals in The Valley would be helpless. They couldn’t get out to the tower, since I’d fixed it so that the signal also deactivated the aircraft. Those left in The Valley would have to try to get to the tower the hard way. By boat until they got to the headwaters and on foot over the mountains. Long before then, I’d have done what I had to do.”

“But what if the aircraft had fallen into The Valley?” Nur said.

“They wouldn’t. Before they hit the surface they’d have burned up. Those parked on top of the mountains along The Valley would have burned, too. I’d arranged that.”

“How did their pilots get down the mountain and back up to the parked vehicles?” Nur said.

“The ships could be directed by remote control. They’d drop the pilots off in the foothills during a storm or hard rain and return to the mountain top. The pilot would bury the control if he was going to stay in the area or he’d carry it in his grail. It looked just like one of the cups found in all the grails.”

There was nothing to stop Loga then from flying to the tower. But he’d underestimated the wiliness of Monat.

“At least, I believe it was he who took those countermeasures. He must have put into the computer all that had happened and had gotten a list of probabilities. The computer didn’t betray me; it was inhibited. But it did all that Monat asked it to do. I think it did. Possibly Monat thought of it himself.”

Loga was silent for so long that Burton had to jog him along.

“Thought of what?”

“Of their planting a device in my personal aircraft. When I sent out that signal, everybody in the tower and the sea area dropped dead, all other aircraft in flight were burned up, and the general resurrection machinery was shut down. It wouldn’t start again until I signaled it to do so.

“But my own vessel had had a device installed in it. I found that out when I could no longer control it. It was flying automatically. It headed toward the top of the mountain range no matter what I did. At the same time, a recorded voice told me to wait there until I’d be picked up.