Proteus in the Underworld (36 page)

It was long past time to go, and still he had not gone.

Bey, who claimed procrastination as a virtue, was taking it to extremes. Normally he dignified delay by saying that it was a way of keeping his options open. This time he had no real excuse. It was not that he was putting off joining Sondra on the mainland. He was keen to be with her again. After only a week together she was already a familiar presence in his life, and he had been sorry when she left two days earlier.

She had gone to find a place for them to live. She said she did not want him to be forced to share her cramped apartment with Dill and Gipsy. Actually, Bey knew she had a secret suspicion that he would take far too much interest in the progress of the Dill/Gipsy two-woman multiform. He was beginning to understand Sondra's obsessions—and she his.

She had called just that morning to tell him she had found a perfect house, ready to move into. He could fly to join her as soon as he was ready.

And he was ready. He was also oddly eager to see the Form Control office again, the place he had thought himself happy to leave forever. He was quite ready to leave, except for one or two last details; those, and a strange, nagging feeling that somehow he was missing something significant on Wolf Island . . .

"You know how the food dispensers work, the same as usual. Push these two at once, see?"

Jumping Jack Flash, watching as Bey operated the solid food delivery system, grunted his agreement. He reached past Bey and pushed the two buttons. The two hounds moved forward expectantly as a handful of solid pellets rolled down the chute and into the dishes.

"And don't let Janus and Siegfried push them with their noses, you know how greedy they are. They'll eat until they're sick. Just look at them."

The dogs had gobbled the food and were waiting for more.

"You can have all the fruit while I'm gone, Flash. The mangoes and papayas are nearly ready but let them get properly ripe, or you'll have the runs same as last time." Bey looked down at the chimp. "But I bet you don't, you dumb ape. You'll get as sick as you always do."

Jumping Jack Flash stared back at him reproachfully.

"I know, I know, you learned your lesson last time. Anyway, I'll be keeping an eye on all of you through the house remotes. And Sondra and I will come back in a couple of weeks. When we do, I'll fix you up for another session in the tanks. We've been neglecting that, and just when I thought we might be making real progress. Meanwhile, you're in charge. You've been on your own a lot recently, you know how everything works. Anything else you can think of that needs doing? If not. . ."

Bey prowled slowly around the whole house one last time, with the chimp and the two hounds trailing along behind.

"I guess that's it, then." Everything was clean, everythiing was in order. He had run out of every last thing that might need doing. "Come down to the beach and see me off."

Even the weather was obliging. It was perfect for the journey, blue skies overhead and the faintest breeze from the south. Bey crossed the sand and walked out onto the jetty.

"Stay there, all of you, unless you want to get wet. I'll miss you guys, but don't worry. I'll be back soon."

Bey waved as he stepped into the skimmer. Jumping Jack Flash waved back, one hound standing on each side of the chimpanzee. They all watched as the skimmer made a leisurely semi-circle in the little harbor. Then it accelerated rapidly in a great surge of spray, became airborne in seconds, and arrowed away to the northwest.

* * *

The little party on the beach stood silent and motionless until the skimmer was quite out of sight, even to the keen eyes of the hounds. Then Janus whined, pushing at the left hand of Jumping Jack Flash with her muzzle. When the chimp did not respond at once she did it again, more urgently.

He looked down at her with knowing brown eyes. After a few more seconds of waiting to make sure that the skimmer was far away, he led the hounds back across the sand, around the curving stone path and into the house.

They entered the main level, where the food and water dispensers were found; but they did not remain there. Jumping Jack Flash descended, until he was in the basement lab far below the surface.

Janus stepped forward at once into one of the specially constructed form-change tanks. She lay down there. Siegfried moved into another one next to her. Carefully and patiently, like someone who had done it many times before, Jumping Jack Flash made the connections for each of them. Both the dogs were quivering with eagerness when he at last closed the openings of both tanks.

The chimp grunted his criticism of their impatience. If he had to wait, so should they.

Finally they were ready and it was his turn. Jumping Jack Flash climbed into his own tank, carefully made all the necessary attachments and tank inter-connections, and slid the door closed.

There was a brief hum of drawn power. The dials and control panels on the outside of the form-change tanks came to life, then settled into stable readings. The lab became still and silent.

A visitor, walking in, would have judged it dark and empty. Three floors above, night was falling on Wolf Island.

In the basement lab it was close to dawn.

THE END