Last Enemy by H. Beam Piper
cheerfully. "Discarnate. We won't getout of this in the body, Lord Virzal."
A submachine-gun hammered from above, the bullets lashing the fountainpool; the water actually steamed, so great was their velocity.
"All right!" a voice called down. "Assassins' Truce is over!"
Another burst of automatic fire smashed out the lights at the bottomof the ascent tube. Dirzed and Dalla struggled across the room,pushing a heavy steel cabinet between them; Verkan Vall, who washolding Olirzon's submachine-gun, moved aside to allow them to drop iton edge in the open doorway, then wedged the door half-shut againstit. Sarnax came over, bringing rifles, hunting pistols, andammunition.
"What's the situation, up there?" Verkan Vall asked him. "What forcehave they, and why did they turn against us?"
"Lord Virzal!" Dirzed objected, scandalized. "You have no right to askSarnax to betray confidences!"
Sarnax spat against the door. "In the face of Jirzyn of Starpha!" hesaid. "And in the face of his _zortan_ mother, and of his father,whoever he was! Dirzed, do not talk foolishly; one does not speak ofbetraying betrayers." He turned to Verkan Vall. "They have threemenservants of the family of Starpha; your Assassin, Olirzon,discarnated the other three. There is one of Prince Jirzyn's poorrelations, named Girzad. There are three other men, Volitionalistprecinct workers, who came with Girzad, and four Assassins, the threewho were here, and one who came with Girzad. Eleven, against the threeof us."
"The four of us, Sarnax," Dalla corrected. She had buckled on ahunting pistol, and had a light deer rifle under her arm.
Something moved at the bottom of the descent tube. Verkan Vall gave ita short burst, though it was probably only a dummy, dropped to drawfire.
"The four of us, Lady Dallona," Sarnax agreed. "As to your otherAssassin, the one who stayed in the airboat, I don't know how hefared. You see, about twenty minutes ago, this Girzad arrived in anairboat, with an Assassin and these three Volitionalist workers.Erarno and I were at the top of the dome when he came in. He told usthat he had orders from Prince Jirzyn to discarnate the Lady Dallonaand Dirzed at once. Tarnod, the gamekeeper"--Sarnax spat ceremoniouslyagainst the door again--"told him you were here, and that Marnik wasone of your men. He was going to shoot Marnik at once, but Erarno andI and his Assassin stopped him. We warned Marnik about the change inthe situation, according to the code, expecting Marnik to go down hereand join you. Instead, he lifted the airboat, zoomed over Girzad'sboat, and let go a rocket blast, setting Girzad's boat on fire. Well,that was a hostile act, so we all fired after him. We must have hitsomething, because the boat went down, trailing smoke, about ten milesaway. Girzad got another airboat out of the hangar and he and hisAssassin started after your man. About that time, your Assassin,Olirzon--happy reincarnation to him--came up, and the Starpha servantsfired at him, and he fired back and discarnated two of them, and thenjumped down the descent tube. One of the servants jumped after him; Ifound his body at the bottom when I came down to warn you formally.You know what happened after that."
"But why did Prince Jirzyn order our discarnation?" Dalla wanted toknow. "Was it to blame the Statisticalists with it?"
Sarnax, about to answer, broke off suddenly and began firing at theopening of the ascent tube with a hunting pistol.
"I got him," he said, in a pleased tone. "That was Erarno; he wasalways playing tricks with the tubes, climbing down against negativegravity and up against positive gravity. His body will float up to thetop--Why, Lady Dallona, that was only part of it. You didn't hearabout the big scandal, on the newscast, then?"
"We didn't have it on. What scandal?"
Sarnax laughed. "Oh, the very father and family-head of all scandals!You ought to know about it, because you started it; that's why PrinceJirzyn wants you out of the body--You devised a process by whichpeople could give themselves memory-recalls of previousreincarnations, didn't you? And distributed apparatus to do it with?And gave one set to young Tarnov, the son of Lord Tirzov of Fastor?"
Dalla nodded. Sarnax continued:
"Well, last evening, Tarnox of Fastor used his recall outfit, and whatdo you think? It seems that thirty years ago, in his lastreincarnation, he was Jirzid of Starpha, Jirzyn's older brother.Jirzid was betrothed to the Lady Annitra of Zabna. Well, his youngerbrother was carrying on a clandestine affair with the Lady Annitra,and he also wanted the title of Prince and family-head of Starpha. Sohe bribed this fellow Tarnod, whom I had the pleasure of discarnating,and who was an underservant here at the hunting lodge. Between them,they shot Jirzid during a boar hunt. An accident, of course. So Jirzynmarried the Lady Annitra, and when old Prince Jarnid, his father,discarnated a year later, he succeeded to the title. And immediately,Tarnod was made head gamekeeper here."
"What did I tell you, Lord Virzal? I knew that son of a _zortan_ hadsomething on Jirzyn of Starpha!" Dirzed exclaimed. "A nice family,this of Starpha!"
"Well, that's not the end of it," Sarnax continued. "This morning,Tarnov of Fastor, late Jirzid of Starpha, went before the High Courtof Estates and entered suit to change his name to Jirzid of Starphaand laid claim to the title of Starpha family-head. The case has justbeen entered, so there's been no hearing, but there's the blazes of anargument among all the nobles about it--some are claiming that theindividuality doesn't change from one reincarnation to the next, andothers claiming that property and titles should pass along the line ofphysical descent, no matter what individuality has reincarnated intowhat body. They're the ones who want the Lady Dallona discarnated andher discoveries suppressed. And there's talk about revising the entiresystem of estate-ownership and estate-inheritance. Oh, it's an utterobscenity of a business!"
"This," Verkan Vall told Dalla, "is something we will not emphasizewhen we get home." That was as close as he dared come to it, but shecaught his meaning. The working of major changes in out-time socialstructures was not viewed with approval by the Paratime Commission onthe First Level. "_If_ we get home," he added. Then an idea occurredto him.
"Dirzed, Sarnax; this place must have been used by the leaders of theVolitionalists for top-level conferences. Is there a secret passageanywhere?"
Sarnax shook his head. "Not from here. There is one, on the floorabove, but they control it. And even if there were one down here, theywould be guarding the outlet."
"That's what I was counting on. I'd hoped to simulate an escape thatway, and then make a rush up the regular tubes." Verkan Vall shrugged."I suppose Marnik's our only chance. I hope he got away safely."
"He was going for help? I was surprised that an Assassin would deserthis client; I should have thought of that," Sarnax said. "Well, evenif he got down carnate, and if Girzad didn't catch him, he'd still beafoot ten miles from the nearest city unit. That gives us a littlechance--about one in a thousand."
"Is there any way they can get at us, except by those tubes?" Dallaasked.
"They could cut a hole in the floor, or burn one through," Sarnaxreplied. "They have plenty of thermite. They could detonate a chargeof explosives over our heads, or clear out of the dome and drop onedown the well. They could use lethal gas or radiodust, but theirAssassins wouldn't permit such illegal methods. Or they could shootsleep-gas down at us, and then come down and cut our throats at theirleisure."
"We'll have to get out of this room, then," Verkan Vall decided. "Theyknow we've barricaded ourselves in here; this is where they'llattack. So we'll patrol the perimeter of the well; we'll be out ofdanger from above if we keep close to the wall. And we'll inspect allthe rooms on this floor for evidence of cutting through from above."
Sarnax nodded. "That's sense, Lord Virzal. How about the liftertubes?"
"We'll have to barricade them. Sarnax, you and Dirzed know the layoutof this place better than the Lady Dallona or I; suppose you two checkthe rooms, while we cover the tubes and the well," Verkan Valldirected. "Come on, now."
* * * * *
They pushed the door wide-open and went out past the cabinet. Huggingthe wall, they began a slow circuit
of the well, Verkan Vall in thelead with the submachine-gun, then Sarnax and Dirzed, the former witha heavy boar-rifle and the latter with a hunting pistol in each hand,and Hadron Dalla brought up in the rear with her rifle. It was she whonoticed a movement along the rim of the balcony above and snapped ashot at it; there was a crash above, and a shower of glass and plasticand metal fragments rattled on the pavement of the court. Somebody hadbeen trying to lower a scanner or a visiplate-pickup, or something ofthe sort; the exact nature of the instrument was not evident from
A submachine-gun hammered from above, the bullets lashing the fountainpool; the water actually steamed, so great was their velocity.
"All right!" a voice called down. "Assassins' Truce is over!"
Another burst of automatic fire smashed out the lights at the bottomof the ascent tube. Dirzed and Dalla struggled across the room,pushing a heavy steel cabinet between them; Verkan Vall, who washolding Olirzon's submachine-gun, moved aside to allow them to drop iton edge in the open doorway, then wedged the door half-shut againstit. Sarnax came over, bringing rifles, hunting pistols, andammunition.
"What's the situation, up there?" Verkan Vall asked him. "What forcehave they, and why did they turn against us?"
"Lord Virzal!" Dirzed objected, scandalized. "You have no right to askSarnax to betray confidences!"
Sarnax spat against the door. "In the face of Jirzyn of Starpha!" hesaid. "And in the face of his _zortan_ mother, and of his father,whoever he was! Dirzed, do not talk foolishly; one does not speak ofbetraying betrayers." He turned to Verkan Vall. "They have threemenservants of the family of Starpha; your Assassin, Olirzon,discarnated the other three. There is one of Prince Jirzyn's poorrelations, named Girzad. There are three other men, Volitionalistprecinct workers, who came with Girzad, and four Assassins, the threewho were here, and one who came with Girzad. Eleven, against the threeof us."
"The four of us, Sarnax," Dalla corrected. She had buckled on ahunting pistol, and had a light deer rifle under her arm.
Something moved at the bottom of the descent tube. Verkan Vall gave ita short burst, though it was probably only a dummy, dropped to drawfire.
"The four of us, Lady Dallona," Sarnax agreed. "As to your otherAssassin, the one who stayed in the airboat, I don't know how hefared. You see, about twenty minutes ago, this Girzad arrived in anairboat, with an Assassin and these three Volitionalist workers.Erarno and I were at the top of the dome when he came in. He told usthat he had orders from Prince Jirzyn to discarnate the Lady Dallonaand Dirzed at once. Tarnod, the gamekeeper"--Sarnax spat ceremoniouslyagainst the door again--"told him you were here, and that Marnik wasone of your men. He was going to shoot Marnik at once, but Erarno andI and his Assassin stopped him. We warned Marnik about the change inthe situation, according to the code, expecting Marnik to go down hereand join you. Instead, he lifted the airboat, zoomed over Girzad'sboat, and let go a rocket blast, setting Girzad's boat on fire. Well,that was a hostile act, so we all fired after him. We must have hitsomething, because the boat went down, trailing smoke, about ten milesaway. Girzad got another airboat out of the hangar and he and hisAssassin started after your man. About that time, your Assassin,Olirzon--happy reincarnation to him--came up, and the Starpha servantsfired at him, and he fired back and discarnated two of them, and thenjumped down the descent tube. One of the servants jumped after him; Ifound his body at the bottom when I came down to warn you formally.You know what happened after that."
"But why did Prince Jirzyn order our discarnation?" Dalla wanted toknow. "Was it to blame the Statisticalists with it?"
Sarnax, about to answer, broke off suddenly and began firing at theopening of the ascent tube with a hunting pistol.
"I got him," he said, in a pleased tone. "That was Erarno; he wasalways playing tricks with the tubes, climbing down against negativegravity and up against positive gravity. His body will float up to thetop--Why, Lady Dallona, that was only part of it. You didn't hearabout the big scandal, on the newscast, then?"
"We didn't have it on. What scandal?"
Sarnax laughed. "Oh, the very father and family-head of all scandals!You ought to know about it, because you started it; that's why PrinceJirzyn wants you out of the body--You devised a process by whichpeople could give themselves memory-recalls of previousreincarnations, didn't you? And distributed apparatus to do it with?And gave one set to young Tarnov, the son of Lord Tirzov of Fastor?"
Dalla nodded. Sarnax continued:
"Well, last evening, Tarnox of Fastor used his recall outfit, and whatdo you think? It seems that thirty years ago, in his lastreincarnation, he was Jirzid of Starpha, Jirzyn's older brother.Jirzid was betrothed to the Lady Annitra of Zabna. Well, his youngerbrother was carrying on a clandestine affair with the Lady Annitra,and he also wanted the title of Prince and family-head of Starpha. Sohe bribed this fellow Tarnod, whom I had the pleasure of discarnating,and who was an underservant here at the hunting lodge. Between them,they shot Jirzid during a boar hunt. An accident, of course. So Jirzynmarried the Lady Annitra, and when old Prince Jarnid, his father,discarnated a year later, he succeeded to the title. And immediately,Tarnod was made head gamekeeper here."
"What did I tell you, Lord Virzal? I knew that son of a _zortan_ hadsomething on Jirzyn of Starpha!" Dirzed exclaimed. "A nice family,this of Starpha!"
"Well, that's not the end of it," Sarnax continued. "This morning,Tarnov of Fastor, late Jirzid of Starpha, went before the High Courtof Estates and entered suit to change his name to Jirzid of Starphaand laid claim to the title of Starpha family-head. The case has justbeen entered, so there's been no hearing, but there's the blazes of anargument among all the nobles about it--some are claiming that theindividuality doesn't change from one reincarnation to the next, andothers claiming that property and titles should pass along the line ofphysical descent, no matter what individuality has reincarnated intowhat body. They're the ones who want the Lady Dallona discarnated andher discoveries suppressed. And there's talk about revising the entiresystem of estate-ownership and estate-inheritance. Oh, it's an utterobscenity of a business!"
"This," Verkan Vall told Dalla, "is something we will not emphasizewhen we get home." That was as close as he dared come to it, but shecaught his meaning. The working of major changes in out-time socialstructures was not viewed with approval by the Paratime Commission onthe First Level. "_If_ we get home," he added. Then an idea occurredto him.
"Dirzed, Sarnax; this place must have been used by the leaders of theVolitionalists for top-level conferences. Is there a secret passageanywhere?"
Sarnax shook his head. "Not from here. There is one, on the floorabove, but they control it. And even if there were one down here, theywould be guarding the outlet."
"That's what I was counting on. I'd hoped to simulate an escape thatway, and then make a rush up the regular tubes." Verkan Vall shrugged."I suppose Marnik's our only chance. I hope he got away safely."
"He was going for help? I was surprised that an Assassin would deserthis client; I should have thought of that," Sarnax said. "Well, evenif he got down carnate, and if Girzad didn't catch him, he'd still beafoot ten miles from the nearest city unit. That gives us a littlechance--about one in a thousand."
"Is there any way they can get at us, except by those tubes?" Dallaasked.
"They could cut a hole in the floor, or burn one through," Sarnaxreplied. "They have plenty of thermite. They could detonate a chargeof explosives over our heads, or clear out of the dome and drop onedown the well. They could use lethal gas or radiodust, but theirAssassins wouldn't permit such illegal methods. Or they could shootsleep-gas down at us, and then come down and cut our throats at theirleisure."
"We'll have to get out of this room, then," Verkan Vall decided. "Theyknow we've barricaded ourselves in here; this is where they'llattack. So we'll patrol the perimeter of the well; we'll be out ofdanger from above if we keep close to the wall. And we'll inspect allthe rooms on this floor for evidence of cutting through from above."
Sarnax nodded. "That's sense, Lord Virzal. How about the liftertubes?"
"We'll have to barricade them. Sarnax, you and Dirzed know the layoutof this place better than the Lady Dallona or I; suppose you two checkthe rooms, while we cover the tubes and the well," Verkan Valldirected. "Come on, now."
* * * * *
They pushed the door wide-open and went out past the cabinet. Huggingthe wall, they began a slow circuit