Part 19 (2/2)
How had they come here, really? Who had left the aperture projector so conveniently? It smelled of a trap. As did the blizzard. But for Tamme's strength and resourcefulness, it could have been a death trap.
Yet death would have been more certain if the aperture had opened over the brink of a cliff or before the mouth of an automatically triggering cannon.
No -- that would have been too obvious. The best murder was the one that seemed accidental. And of course their immediate peril might well be accidental. Surely this storm was not eternal; this world must have a summer as well as a winter and be calm between altercations of weather. Tamme had said the projector could have been left five days ago. This storm was fresh. So maybe another agent had pa.s.sed this way, leaving his projector behind as Tamme had left hers at Cityworld.
That meant the other agent was still around here somewhere. And that could be trouble. Suppose the agent overcame Tamme and stranded Veg here alone? She was tough and smart -- and mighty pretty! -- but another agent would have the same powers. Unless --
Veg straightened up, banging his head against the curving roof wall. Suddenly a complex new possibility had opened to his imagination -- but it was so fantastic he hardly trusted it. He didn't want to embarra.s.s himself by mentioning it to Tamme. But he could not ignore it. He would have to check it out himself.
He wriggled out of the igloo. The wind struck him afresh, chilling him again, but he ducked his head, hunched his shoulders, and proceeded. This would not take long.
He counted paces as he slogged through the snow. At a distance of twenty steps -- roughly fifty feet since he could not take a full stride in two-foot-deep snow -- he halted. This was a tissue of guesswork, anyway, and here in the storm it seemed far-fetched indeed.
He tramped in a circle, backward into the wind where he had to, eyes alert despite being screwed up against the wind. His face grew stiff and cold, and his feet felt hot: a bad sign. But he kept on. Somewhere within this radius there might be --
There wasn't. He retreated to the igloo, half disappointed, half relieved. He didn't regret making the search.
Tamme returned. ”What have you been doing?” she demanded. ”Your tracks are all over the place!”
”I had a crazy notion,” he confessed. ”Didn't pan out.”
”What crazy notion?”
”That there might be another projector here, part of a pattern.”
She sighed. ”I was hoping you wouldn't think of that.”
”You mean that's what you were looking for?” he asked, chagrined.
She nodded. ”I suspect we are involved in an alternate chain. We started from the city alternate -- but others may have started from other alternates, leaving their projectors behind them, as I did. One started from the forest. Another may have started from here. In which case there will be a projector in the area.”
”That's what I figured -- only I didn't really believe it. Projectors scattered all through alternity.”
”Alternity! Beautiful.”
”Well, it's as good a name for it as any,” he said defensively. ”Anyway, if it's all happening like that -- what do you care? No one's trying to torpedo Earth.”
”How do you know?” she asked.
”Well, I can't prove anything, but what about the Golden Rule? We're not trying to do anything to them, so -- ”
”Aren't we?”
He faltered. ”You mean, we are?” He had thought she was just going after one agent, not the whole universe.
”Our government is paranoid about Earth-defense. We're out to destroy any possible compet.i.tion before it destroys us. Remember Paleo?”
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