Part 32 (1/2)

The panel of the cell slid across behind them. ”Okay, boy,” Citizen Purple said. ”We're private now. This is n.o.body's business but ours. My serfs don't know what I want from you, but you do. Let's play a game, you and me. Let's see who can stand the most heat.”

”I be in a robot body,” Bane reminded him. ”I can endure more heat.” He wondered why the Citizen should wish to have this encounter private; did he fear betrayal by his own serfs? Or was he afraid that Citizen Translucent would spy on him, and take over just the way the Translucent Adept had in Phaze? That did seem more likely; it was evident that neither the Contrary Citizens nor the Adverse Adepts fully trusted their own a.s.sociates.

”Well, we'll just see about that.” The man brought out a tiny instrument. He touched b.u.t.tons.

Immediately the heat began. It radiated from the walls, in the manner of an oven, raising the temperature of the air.

Agape made a m.u.f.fled whimper.

Then Bane remembered: she was vulnerable to heat. It melted her. That was the true thrust. He could withstand more than could the Citizen-but surely Agape could withstand less.

The Citizen was fat. The heat affected him quickly. Sweat broke out on his forehead. He removed his jacket.

Agape tried to remain firm, literally, but her flesh was already melting. She tried to be silent, but a moan overtook her.

What should he do? Bane knew that the Citizen would not relent. He wanted Bane's cooperation, and he would gladly sacrifice Agape to obtain it. Yet if Bane cooperated, men he didn't like and didn't want to support would use him and Mach for their benefit.

Purple removed more clothing, baring himself to the underwear. ”Sure is hot in here!” he remarked. Indeed, he looked most uncomfortable.

Bane realized that the man was doing it to show that there was no bluffing about the heat. If it had this effect on a living man, it was having worse effect on Agape's less-solid tissue. Indeed, her face was becoming shapeless, and her b.r.e.a.s.t.s were sagging deeply.

Purple glanced significantly at her. ”Now I don't know the exact tolerance the amoebas have for heat,” he said. ”But I'd guess that first they settle into a puddle, then they expire. Seems we're about to find out.”

”Nay!” Bane cried.

The Citizen looked at him. ”Ready to give me your word, boy? No more tricks, full cooperation?”

”No commitment given under duress is valid!” Bane protested.

”Suit yourself, boy. You know how to stop it, before we all fry.”

Agape staggered. Her head was now a hideous ma.s.s of flesh, and her body was barely human. She stumbled against the Citizen.

”Get away from me, you jellyfis.h.!.+” Purple snapped.

But Agape wrapped her melting arms about him. ”I'm going to consume you!” she hissed through the slit that was all that remained of her face.

Horrified, the Citizen shoved her away with all his strength. But she clung, smearing her dripping surface against him. The two of them spun about in that loathsome embrace, and fell heavily to the floor.

Then Agape came up with the control unit. She touched a b.u.t.ton, and the radiation ceased. ”Let's conclude this charade,” she said, her voice abruptly changing.

”What?” Purple demanded, hauling himself up.

Agape put her free hand to her face and sc.r.a.ped the flesh down and off. Other features appeared beneath. ”Do you know me now, fat stuff?” she asked.

”Blue!” the Citizen exclaimed with renewed dismay.

Citizen Blue! Now Bane recognized the likeness of his own father, Stile, emerging from beneath the sagging covering of pseudoflesh.

”Did you think I was stupid enough to leave your monitor in my premises without reason?” Blue asked. ”Or to s.h.i.+p the girl unguarded?”

”You suckered me!” Purple said.

”You suckered yourself. Now let's complete our business, shall we?”

Purple grabbed for his control panel, but Blue held it clear. Purple, considerably larger than his opponent, lunged. ”Give me that, you midget!”

Blue seemed only to touch the man, stroking the fingers of his left hand across the right side of Purple's neck. But Purple stiffened, then collapsed, unconscious. ”A duffer should never charge a Gamesman,” Blue said.

”Thou art a Gamesman?” Bane asked. ”I thought my father Stile was that.”

Blue came across, releasing the fastenings that held Bane to the wall. ”So you exchanged again,” he said. ”Does that mean my son is now the captive of the Purple Adept?”

”Nay; Translucent won the wager that he could obtain my cooperation voluntarily, and now leads the Adverse Adepts, and he gave his word that either of us would be free.”

Blue nodded. ”I daresay things have changed in twenty years, but I knew Translucent and his young son to be men of their word.”

”The one thou didst know as the son be the current Adept, and aye, he be a man of his word. But his purpose be not my father's.”

”But if we free thee,” Blue said, reverting to the dialect of Phaze that he had known when young, ”then the Adverse Adepts will have neither thee nor my son, and neither Agape nor-”

”Nor Fleta,” Bane concluded.

”Fleta?”

”She be the filly of Neysa, and I believe Mach loves her. As I love Agape.”

Blue pursed his lips. ”He loves a unicorn?”

”I think he knew her nature not, at first. She be a most fetching person, vivacious and feeling, in human form.”

”Neysa seldom took the human form, and spoke little then,” Blue said. ”I knew her through mine other self. Yet was she the most worthy of persons.”

”She be still,” Bane said. ”Gray of forelock, now past breeding, but well respected in the Herd her brother governs. But Fleta be expressive in all the ways her dam be not. An Mach took her for human-”

”Here in Proton we are practicing tolerance,” Blue said. ”I feel not the dismay for such liaison that I might have when young.” He went to bend over the fallen Purple. Bane noticed that he did not bend his knees, and remembered that his father said he had been injured in the knees, in his original body. The body that had sired himself, Bane, before returning to Proton. Blue was, physically, his father.

”But when we return to our own frames,” Bane said, ”I love not the unicorn, friend as she may be, and Mach loves not Agape.”

Blue nodded. ”There be matters yet to consider. But now we needs must spring thee free of this hole.” He had stripped Purple's remaining clothing, leaving him naked, and under his busy hands Purple had a.s.sumed the appearance of a blob. Pseudoflesh covered his face, leaving only nose-holes for breathing, and his genital region now looked female.

”The Citizen's minions will think he is Agape!” Bane exclaimed, catching on.

”Aye. And I shall play the part of a Citizen,” Blue said, donning Purple's clothing. He had to wad and tie some of it underneath, to give the appearance of greater girth, and the loose-fitting shoes did not elevate him to the other man's height, but the resemblance was becoming striking enough.

”The Game!” Bane exclaimed. ”Thou didst learn such mimicry for the Game!”

”Aye. Mine other self was the expert, but I thought it meet for me to study it somewhat also, and teach it to my son.”

”Would I could learn that Game,” Bane said wistfully.