Watchers of the Dark (24 page)

“The more I learn,” Darzek muttered, “the less I know.”

The Dark’s weapon, for example. The idea of a force that twisted minds was absurd, and yet—surely the natives of so many worlds should not have succumbed to the agitators’ crude lies. There had to be
something
that aroused them to frenzies of hatred.

Darzek opened the door and summoned
urs
Gwalus into the room. The servant of Supreme had taken his appointment as Darzek’s assistant as a license to haunt him. He camped out in Darzek’s apartment, waiting expectantly for the reports to Supreme that Darzek had no intention of entrusting to him.

“Have you ever heard the word, ‘Grilf’?” Darzek asked him.

“Grilf, grilf, grilf,”
urs
Gwalus ruminated. “No, I do not think so.”

“Ask Supreme about it. I’d like a report on its etymology.”

urs
Gwalus departed happily, and Darzek resumed his pacing.

Later that day
urs
Qwor, one of Miss Schlupe’s younger detectives, came with a strange tale to tell. “I was resting at home during the
tompl
—” he began.

Darzek nodded. Among the natives, the
tompl
was the time of day’s end relaxation and casual visiting.

“A stranger called and invited me to attend a
sef.”

“What’s a
sef?”
Darzek asked.

“I don’t know. That is, I didn’t know then, and I’m not sure that I know now. He was very friendly about it. He assured me that I’d find it interesting and enjoyable, so I went with him. He led me to an apartment. There were thirty-seven people present when we arrived.”

Darzek whistled, and
urs
Qwor added apologetically, “I counted them.”

“Good for you.”

“Seventeen more arrived shortly.”

Darzek whistled again. “Where did they put them?”

“In all of the rooms. Then we were spoken to—the way the agitators speak in the parks. When it was over I reported to
urs
Dwad, my team leader, and he went with the others of my team and took possession of the place and the three who were in charge of it. They were already starting another
sef.”

“Is this the first you’ve heard of these
sefs?”

“It’s the first that any of us have heard of them.”

“I see. You’ve done a good job of work. Congratulations.”

urs
Qwor demurely murmured his thanks.

“Have you told Gula Schlu about this?”

“She was out, and
urs
Dwad thought the matter sufficiently important for your attention.”

“Quite right. Tell
urs
Dwad to call everyone in. There’ll have to be a general briefing on this.”

Miss Schlupe returned, took one glance at Darzek’s face, and asked, “What’s the matter now?”

“We have a crisis on our hands. The Dark has gone underground on us. While we were concentrating on the parks, it subjected the entire population of Primores to an indoor lecture course.”

Miss Schlupe chased her detectives into action, and when finally they reported back they’d been unable to find a single citizen of Primores who hadn’t attended several
sefs.
Some had attended a dozen or more.

“So why haven’t we heard about them?” Darzek demanded.

“I’ve been working my detectives too hard. Today was the first time in ages that any of them have been free when these
sefs
were going on.”

Darzek regarded her stonily. “The Dark isn’t very inventive, but it certainly is ingenious about adapting its techniques to local conditions.”

“If only these Primorians weren’t so confoundedly polite,” she wailed. “When they’re invited somewhere, etiquette demands that they accept. What can we do? We can’t police every private dwelling and apartment on the planet.”

“Raid the
sefs
just as fast as you can locate them.”

She threw up her hands despairingly.

“We’re too late to stop it anyway,” Darzek said. “The entire native population has already been exposed. But we have to try, and there’s always a chance that we might stumble onto a really important agent.”

“We should have thought of something like this. Maybe the Dark’s mental weapon
is
working on us.”

“I’d like to blame the Dark, but I’d have to admit that it would be a strange kind of weapon that could induce stupidity. But carry on. The only thing left for me to do is take charge of the traders’ army and try to protect Supreme.”

The traders’ purportedly vast army had dwindled to a mere ten thousand potentially active traders and undertraders. Gul Meszk was humiliated, but Darzek said grimly, “We haven’t the time to train half that many. Let’s get on with it.”

He chose ten competent leaders, told each of them to select a hundred of the youngest, sturdiest and most agile types available, and moved the whole contingent to Meszk’s Primore II Plantation. He ordered Gud Baxak to keep a ship standing by, just in case—as he expected—he needed emergency transportation back to Primores O.

Rhinzl located a stock of light but sturdy metal piping, and Darzek had this cut into suitable lengths for weapons and trained his troops as he had the shock troops on Yorlq. The promise of action worked wonders for their morale, and they drilled tirelessly.

Darzek added another thousand troops as quickly as Gul Kaln could obtain housing for them, and then a third thousand. He drove them mercilessly during the day, held a night school for his officers, and tried to convince himself that at last he was doing the right thing. Rhinzl put together two companies of nocturnals and trained them himself, and several dozen times each night disturbed everyone’s sleep with his screeching order, “Charge!”

They had been at it for ten days when Miss Schlupe came to look on. She watched two battalions stage a sham battle, and announced cheerfully, “They look
good!”

“Better than on Yorlq,” Darzek agreed. “We had a better selection of troops, and we’ve had more time to train them.”

“Then why are you so gloomy?”

“I still don’t know what to do with them. If there was one vital area to defend, I think I could do it. But Supreme is everywhere. It said so itself.”

“If you can’t find a vital area to defend, maybe the natives won’t be able to find one to attack.”

“No.” Darzek shook his head emphatically. “That won’t do. Who charges Supreme’s batteries and polishes its transistors? There have to be natives who know all about Supreme—thousands, probably, but if even one knows, Supreme is doomed.”

“Tsk. Any moment, now, you’ll have me believing in that mental weapon. Cheer up. Things are going well, or at least no worse than they were. I have a packet of news for you.”

“Let’s have it.”

“Your
urs
Gwalus is still haunting the place, waiting for you to report to Supreme. He says Supreme knows nothing about the word ‘Grilf’ except that it appears in reports on the Dark.”

“Supreme knows only what it’s told, and no one has been able to tell it much about the Dark.”

“The Chief of Proctors is haunting me,” Miss Schlupe went on. “Someone tipped him off that I’m responsible for the
sef
raids, and he’s against them.”

“Did you tell him the
sefs
were threatening the public safety?”

“Not in those words, but I tried to get the idea across. He wouldn’t believe me. It seems that I’m violating a whole list of unwritten regulations. He ordered me to turn everyone loose and not do it any more.”

“Refer him to me.”

“I did. I told him I was following your orders, and you were working directly for Supreme. He retired to think it over. Probably he’ll ask Supreme about it.”

Darzek shrugged. “What about the
sefs?”

“We’re raiding them as fast as we can locate them. Gud Baxak’s shipped off another thousand agitators. He’s complaining again about our tying up his ships.”

“Tell him to buy more ships.”

“I did. E-Wusk wants to see you. He keeps sending messages.”

“I’ll go back with you, and see him and have another heart-to-heart talk with Supreme. What else?”

“Did you know that the Dark was running a courier service? It is. One of Gud Baxak’s captains intercepted it. The person in charge—this will slay you—claimed he was working for Supreme.”

“That’s very interesting. They’re bringing him back, of course.”

“Gud Baxak was indignant when I suggested it. Worlds are starving, he’s building a trading empire, and how can he get any work done if he has to reroute a spaceship because of one lousy agent of the Dark? This is what comes of not letting your left hand know what your right hand is doing. No, it’s all right. I convinced him, but I’m afraid he’ll take his own time about it.”

“Schluppy, what would I do without you?”

“Work harder, probably. You certainly wouldn’t have any time for playing soldier.”

urs
Gwalus escorted Darzek to a different consultation room, one that did not require him to run the gamut of Supreme’s identification system, and Darzek thanked him sincerely. As soon as he was alone he began to describe the
sefs.
“The situation is hopelessly out of control,” he said. “Every native on Primores has been exposed to the Dark’s propaganda. We have to assume that the planet will be lost whenever the Dark decides to move.”

Supreme’s flat voice announced, “Primores is not in danger.”

Darzek counted to ten—slowly—and went on, “I am training a small force drawn from the staffs of traders. I can’t defend Primores with it, but I think I could effectively protect Supreme’s vital areas if I knew where they were. Where should I deploy this force?”

“Supreme’s vital areas are protected.”

That gave Darzek pause, for it could easily have been true.

Then he reminded himself that Supreme’s protective devices would be useless against the Dark’s subversion. Supreme had no way of knowing when a trusted servant had gone mad.

“Supreme,” Darzek announced, “is a damned fool.”

And left.

E-Wusk, looking a bit more shriveled, a bit more faded, did not speak when Darzek entered. He unrolled a seemingly endless strip of inditing material and moved it past Darzek’s face. Gradually the wavy lines straightened out, moved closer together, and in a final, jagged swoop, merged.

“I think I understand,” Darzek said. “You’re able to project these statistics of yours, and when the lines intersect the Dark should move. When will it be?”

“Yesterday,” E-Wusk said hoarsely. “The Dark moved yesterday.”

“Right,” Darzek said, peering into the gloom of the tunnel. “This looks like a job for Rhinzl’s nocturnals. Would you pass the order for me? I want Rhinzl to bring both of his companies immediately. Tell Gul Kaln and Gul Meszk to place my entire force on alert and report to me here. As soon as Rhinzl arrives—but let’s get away from this place before someone sees us.”

They separated in the park’s shrubbery, Gul Isc to deliver the orders and Darzek to pick his way to the opposite side, where Miss Schlupe and
urs
Dwad were gazing about them in shocked disbelief.

The park thronged with agitators. They seemed to have materialized out of the air, so suddenly had they appeared, and the ferocity of their shrieking vituperation startled even Darzek, who had thought himself inured to their ranting.

Miss Schlupe looked on helplessly, shaking her head,
urs
Dwad was watching them as a constrained cat might eye a scurrying horde of mice.

“Are you sure you don’t want them picked up?” Miss Schlupe shouted.

“There are too many of them,” Darzek shouted back. “It would take an army.”

“So? You have an army.”

Darzek nodded. “And I have something better for it to do—I think.”

He could take some small measure of satisfaction from the fact that he
had
upset the Dark’s schedule. The Dark had moved, the entire center of the galaxy had fallen, and Primores and its sister planets were still resisting. They were isolated islands of light in a sea of darkness; but the Dark had craftily thrown in its reserves, and its tide was running strongly. The end might come in a matter of hours.

Darzek beckoned
urs
Dwad away and told him to keep an unobtrusive watch on the air vent. Then he went back to wait for Rhinzl.

Night had fallen before Rhinzl’s nocturnals finally arrived. Darzek waited uncomplainingly; he could not fairly expect his makeshift army to perform with lightning reflexes, and in truth, the situation on Primores always seemed less critical under a comforting blanket of darkness. Most of the agitators subsided at sunset and went their separate ways, and the parks were quiet.

Rhinzl led Darzek down the sloping tunnel, guiding him with a hand’s gentle touch. Ranks of nocturnals followed smartly, and as Darzek felt his way forward in total darkness he could hear only the measured thump of marching feet echoing behind him.

At the bottom they came upon a heavy grating, beyond which the tunnel made a vertical plunge to infinity, or at least beyond Rhinzl’s sight. Rhinzl turned to one side, opened a door, and led Darzek through it. The dark passageway took an abrupt turn, and a long, red-lit tunnel lay before them.

“Wait!” Darzek snapped, as Rhinzl stepped forward. “I wouldn’t want to walk through there unless Supreme itself invited me.”

“Really? What would happen?”

“I don’t know. I’ve experienced it twice when I
was
invited, and I don’t remember either occasion with pleasure. I doubt if it would be worth the risk, because the tunnel will end at a transmitter that won’t work if Supreme doesn’t like you.”