“Thanks much. Can’t you at least point out to me on the map where they are?”
“Wish I could-but they’re nomads.”
“Wonderful.” I smiled insincerely. Twenty days to deadline. Deadline! it would be. I shook off the dark feelings just one more time, looked around at my band.
“Ask questions if you have any because this is your last chance,” Tremearne said.
“Do you have a map?” I asked. “I would like to know just what we have to face when we go out there.”
Tremearne reached to the holo projector and switched it on. A three-dimensional contour map appeared in midair over the table. “This is a fair-sized continent as you can see. There are other continents on this planet, some inhabited, but they have no contact with this one. The artifact has to be somewhere here.”
That really simplifies things, I thought to myself. Only one continent to search and about three weeks to do it in. I shook off the depression that was depressing my depression.
“Do you know who and what are out there?”
“We have a good idea. We plant bugs where we can, fly spyeyes pretty often.” He tapped the plain at the center of the continent. “Here is the Pentagon with the Machmen close by outside it. The Fundamentaloids could be anywhere here on the plains depending on the season. It is subtropical most of the year, but rainfall varies. They have herds of sheots, a very hardy ruminant, some kind of cross between a sheep and a goat. Now over here in the foothills is the closest thing that passes for civilization in these parts. An agricultural society with light industry that looks almost decent until you get close. There is a central city, right here, surrounded by farms. They mine and smelt silver and produce a coin called a fedha. It is the only currency on the planet and is used by almost everyone.” He pulled a heavy bag out of a drawer and dropped it onto the table. “As you can well imagine they are easy enough to forge. In fact ours have more silver than the originals. Here’s a supply for you. I suggest that you share it around and hide it well. A lot of types out there would be happy to kill you for just one of these. The people who mine the silver call their city Paradise-which is about as far away from a true description as you can get. Stay away from them-if you possibly can.”
“I’ll try to remember that. And I want to copy this into memory in my computer. Here.”
I took off the small black metal skull that hung on a chain around my neck. When I squeezed it the eyes glowed greenly and a pressure-sensitive holoscreen blinked into being; I copied the map, thought about what Tremearne had said-and realized for the first time what a sinkhole we were being dropped into. I had another question.
“So everyone out there is a nutcase or a weirdo of some kind?”
“The ones that were sent here for various crimes are. The ones who were born here grow up and fit in just as well.”
“And you feel no compassion for them? Doomed by an accident of birth to existence in this world-wide spittoon.”
“I certainly do-and I am glad to hear you express yourself so clearly on the subject. I never even heard of this world until the emergency. I got the professors off safely then looked around. Which is why I now head the committee that is working to clean up the operation here on Liokukae. It has been ignored for too long by too many stupid politicians. I took this assignment to see for myself. Your reports to me, along with your complete report when you return, Arifl be just what we heed to make this prison world a thing of the past.”
“If you mean that, Captain, I’m on your side. But I hope you are not feeding a line of old cagal just to get the job done.”
“You have my word on it.”
I sure hoped that he was telling the truth.
“I have a question,” Floyd said. “How do we contact the Captain here if we need some help or such?”