The Dark Design (52 page)

“Either you are saved by now or you are not.

“I really don’t know what the truth is.

“Gentlemen, I was an atheist on Earth, a member of the Czechoslovakian Communist Party. But here I met a man who convinced me that religion has nothing to do with rationality. At least, its foundation, the basis for its existence, does not.

“After the act of faith comes, of course, the rationalization for the faith, its pseudological justification. However, neither Jesus nor Marx, Buddha nor Mohammed, Hindu nor Confucian, Taoist nor Jew were right about the afterworld. They were even more mistaken about this world than the one we were born in.”

He walked to the desk, sat down behind it, and placed the spiral bone on it.

“
Sinjoroj,
I was going to announce today my conversion to the Church of the Second Chance. And also announce my resignation as head of the state of Nova Bohemujo. Several days afterward, I would embark up The River to journey to Virolando, which, I am assured, does indeed exist. And there I would ask the leader and the founder of the Church, La Viro, some questions. If he answered them satisfactorily, or even if he admitted that he did not know all the answers, I would place myself under his jurisdiction. Go where he said, do what he said.

“But if my information is correct, and I have no reason to believe my informants are liars, Virolando is millions of kilometers away. It would take me half an Earthly lifetime to get there.

“Now, you suddenly come to me with a proposal. One that I am astounded I did not think of myself. Perhaps because I was really more interested in the voyage than in its end.

“Voyages are always more rewarding in self-discovery than in anything else, are they not? Perhaps that is why the obvious escaped me.

“Yes, gentlemen, I can build a blimp for you.

“There is only one stipulation. You must take me with you.”

After a long silence, Farrington said, “I don’t see how we could say no,
Sinjoro
Podebrad. I think I speak for all of us.”

Frigate and Rider nodded.

“You really got us by the short hairs. Not that I have anything against your coming along with us. In fact, I am delighted. Only… well, what if we can’t find any experienced blimp men? We’d be crazy to go up there if we don’t know how to handle the machine or what we might run into.”

“Of course. But it will take a very long time to build the airship. Unless we can find some engineers who know how to design such a ship, or at least can calculate the specifications, we will have to do it from scratch.

“Meanwhile, we can look for a pilot. Though they’re very rare, somewhere along The River, within two thousand kilometers either way, there must be the man we’re looking for.

“Or perhaps I might say, there could be one. Actually, the odds are high against finding one.”

“I was a balloonist,” Frigate said. “And I read a great deal about lighter-than-air craft. I was up in a blimp for two short flights. That doesn’t near make me an expert, of course.”

“Perhaps we’ll have to train ourselves,
Sinjoro
Frigate. In which case, any knowledge will be of help.”

“Of course, that was a long time ago. I’ve forgotten a lot.”

“You don’t exactly inspire confidence, Pete,” the Frisco Kid said fiercely.

“Confidence comes with experience,” Podebrad said. “Now, gentlemen, I will start at once. I’ll delay my announcement of my conversion until after the airship is ready to leave. No member of the Church, no one preaching total passive resistance, can be head of this state.”

Frigate wondered how deep the man’s conversion was. It seemed to him that anybody who really believed in the tenets of the Church would say so at once. No matter what the consequences would be.

“As soon as our conference is over, I’ll get the facilities for making hydrogen under way. I think the best method, considering the minerals available, will be by the reaction of dilute sulfuric acid and zinc. Our sulfuric acid industry has been operating for some time. We were fortunate in finding both platinum and vanadium, though not in large quantities.

“I do wish we could make aluminum, but…”

“The Schütte-Lanz airships were made of wood,” Frigate said. “A blimp wouldn’t need much wood, anyway.”

Farrington said, “Wood! You want me to go up in a wooden dirigible?”

“The only wood would be in the keel and the car,” Frigate said. “The envelope could be made from the intestinal lining of the dragonfish.”

“Which requires much fishing,” Podebrad said. He stood up.

“I have much work to get done today. But I’ll see you gentlemen tomorrow during lunch. We can discuss this in detail then. Meanwhile, good day.”

Farrington, looking grave, spoke to Rider as they left the building.

“If you ask me, this is crazy!”

“It sounds great to me,” Tom said. “To tell the truth, I’m getting pretty tired of sailing.”

“Yeah, but we could get killed while we’re bumbling around trying to learn how to fly that damned thing!

“And what if we find it won’t work then? We’ll have lost a lot of time!”

Frigate said, “That doesn’t sound like the man who ferried people through the White Horse rapids in Alaska, time and again, just to pick up a few bucks. Or the man who pirated oysters…”

He turned pale. Rider and Farrington had stopped, and their faces were hard.

Farrington said slowly, “I’ve told a lot of stories about the Yukon, but I never said anything about the White Horse rapids. Not to you anyway. Have you been eavesdropping?”

Frigate drew a deep breath, and said, “Hell, I don’t have to eavesdrop! I recognized you two the first time I saw you!”

Suddenly, Rider was behind him and Farrington had put his hand on the hilt of his flint knife.

Rider spoke in a low monotone. “Okay, whoever you are, just march on ahead of me. Right into the ship. And don’t try anything funny.”

“
I’m
not going incognito!” Frigate said. “You are!”

“Just do as I say.”

Frigate shrugged, and he tried to grin. “It’s evident you two are doing a lot more than just concealing your true identities. All right. I’ll go. But you wouldn’t kill me, would you?”

“That depends,” Rider said.

They walked down the hill and across the plain. At the dock the only crew member present was Nur, who was talking to a woman. Rider said, “Not a word, Pete. And smile.”

Frigate, looking straight at the little Moor, grimaced. He hoped that Nur would detect that something was wrong—he was so sensitive to expressions—but Nur only waved at them. When they were in the captain’s cabin, Frisco shut the door and made Frigate sit on the edge of the bunk.

Frigate said, “I’ve been with you twenty-six years. Twenty-six! And I’ve never told anybody what your real names were.”

Farrington sat down in the chair at his desk. Toying with his knife, he said, “That seems against human nature. How could you keep your mouth shut that long? And why?”

“Especially why?” Rider said. He stood near the door, a hornfish stiletto in his hand.

“It was evident that you didn’t want it known, for one thing. So, being your friend, I didn’t say anything. Though I will admit I wondered why you were so secretive.”

Farrington looked at Rider. “What do you think, Tom?”

Rider shrugged, and said, “We made a mistake. We should have just laughed it off. Admitted who we are and made up some tall tale to account for it.”

Farrington put the knife down and lit a cigarette.

“Yeah. That’s hindsight. What’ll we do now?”

Rider said, “After all this mysterious folderol, Pete must know we got something to hide.”

“He already said that.”

Rider sheathed the stiletto and lit a cigarette. Frigate wondered if he should make a break for it now. His chances for success were small. Though both men were smaller, they were very strong and quick. Besides, trying to escape would make him look guilty.

Guilty of what?

Tom said, “That’s better. Forget about getting away. Relax.”

“With you two thinking of murder?”

Rider laughed and said, “After all these years you ought to know we can’t kill in cold blood. Even a stranger, and we’re sort of fond of you, Pete.”

“Well, if I were what you think I am, whatever that is, what would you do?”

“Work up a passion so I wouldn’t have to kill you in cold blood, I reckon.”

“Why?”

“If you aren’t really Peter Frigate, then you know.”

“Who in hell else could I be?”

There was a long silence. Finally, Farrington ground out his cigarette in an ashtray clamped to the desk.

“The thing is, Tom,” he said, “he has been with us longer than any of our wives. If he was one of Them, why would he stay around so long? Especially since he claims he recognized us the day he met us.

“We would have been scooped up that night, if he’s one of Them.”

“Maybe,” Tom said. “We don’t know more than one-quarter of what’s going on. One-eightieth, maybe. And what we do know may be a lie. Maybe we’ve been played for suckers.”

“Them? Scooped up?” Frigate said.

Martin Farrington looked at Tom, and he said, “What’ll we do now? There isn’t any way of identifying Them. We’re fools, Tom. We should’ve just told him a big lie. Now we got to go all the way.”

“If he’s one of Them, then he already knows,” Rider said. “So we wouldn’t be telling him much he doesn’t know. Except about the Ethical. And if he is an agent, then he wouldn’t have been put on our trail unless They suspected we’d been contacted by Him.”

“Yeah, we jumped the gun. And there isn’t any gun in the first place. You know, if Pete’s an agent, why would he have suggested the blimp? Would an agent want us to get to the tower?”

“That’s right. Unless…”

“Don’t keep me hanging.”

“Unless there’s something haywire, and he’s as much in the dark now as we are.”

“What do you mean?”

“Listen, Tom, lately I’ve been doing a lot of thinking when I should’ve been sleeping or screwing. I’ve been thinking that there’s something mysterious going on. I don’t mean what the Ethical told us. I mean this business of there suddenly being no more resurrections.

“Has it ever occurred to you that maybe stopping them wasn’t the original plan—whatever that is?”

“You mean, somebody threw a monkey wrench in the machinery? And that blew the fuse and left everybody in the dark?”

“Yes. And the agents don’t know what’s going on any more than me and you.”

“Which could mean that Pete here is an agent. He’s just trying to get home.”

“You mean he might’ve found us but couldn’t do anything about it? So he went along for the ride? And he proposed this blimp idea because it’d help him, not us, get there faster?”

“Something like that.”

“So that puts us back where we were. Pete could be one of Them.”

“If he is, it’s like I said. We won’t be telling him anything he don’t know.”

“Yeah, but he could tell us plenty. Plenty!”

“You going to beat it out of him? What if he really is Frigate?”

“I wouldn’t, anyway. Not unless I knew the stakes were really high. Oh, hell, not even then.”

“We could just sail on and leave him behind,” Farrington said.

Tom smiled crookedly and said, “Yeah? You’d like that, wouldn’t you? You wouldn’t have to trust your quivering flesh and beating heart to a skyboat.”

“You’re getting awful close to making me mad, Tom.”

“Okay, I won’t ever say another word about that subject. Besides, I know you ain’t got a cowardly bone in your body.

“So, what’ll we do? Remember, if we did sail on, by the time we got to the North Pole—if we ever did—Pete here would have the whole thing solved.”

“Oh, hell,” Farrington said. “How could he be one of Them? They’re superior to human beings, right? And Pete sure isn’t no superman. No offense, Pete.”

Tom glanced narrow-eyed at Frigate.

“He could be pretending to be only human. But I don’t think anybody could put up a front like that for twenty-six years.”

“Let’s tell him then. What do we have to lose? Besides, I’m tired of keeping a secret for twenty-nine years.”

“You always did talk too much.”

“Look who’s talking, Old Chief Run-off-at-the-mouth himself.”

Farrington lit another cigarette. Rider followed his example, then said, “You want to light up, too, Pete?”

“You’re trying to kill me with smoke,” Frigate said. He drew a cigar out of his over-the-shoulder bag.

“I think I need a drink, too.”

“We all do. Tom, you do the honors. Then we’ll tell all. God, what a relief!”