eternity.'
'Exactly,' I said. 'Ragna? Would you and Oni like to put your two cents in?'
Not counting George and Winnie, who were what exopologists would label 'borderline-sapient quasi- hominids' looked like apes to me, funny ones, with long floppy ears and big wet eyes-Ragna and Oni were the only alien members of our party. They had joined us in the rig during our rest stop, abandoning their cramped vehicle, and had since taken pains to be as unobtrusive as possible, keeping to themselves and generally trying not to be an added burden, which they weren't. I liked them a lot.
Ragna blinked, translucent nictitating membranes sliding up to cover the eyeballs before the lids came down. He put his hands up to adjust his blue headband, which was a linguistic translating interface. 'The reference to outmoded monetary units is understood denotatively, but not colloquially. However, I am getting the gist of your nub. Yes, we are having a contribution to be making, which is this…' He glanced at Oni, who nodded consent. 'We, being the nonhuman minority of this band of intrepid explorers-note irony-are hardly in a position to be saying anything yea or nay, since, by the same token, we have not been invited along, but more or less have crashed this party, if you are following my rhetoric. Be that as it may-and by the life of me, it very well may-we say yes, by gosh, let us by all means go to the fortress of this Prime fellow and ask him to put his two cents into the bargain as well!' He smiled sheepishly. 'If you get what I am meaning.'
'I get what you are meaning,' I said. 'Who else? Sean? Liam?'
'I'm hungry,' Sean said. 'Let's go and eat.'
'He's always hungry,' Liam said, 'but count me in, too.'
'I'm bored,' Roland said. 'Let's get moving.'
'Sam?' I said.
'Oh, I have a vote?'
'Sam, you always have at least a kilocredit's worth to put in,' Susan said, 'and you know it.'
'Thank you, m'am. What I say is, I'd be wary of this Prime dude.'
I waited for more, then. 'That's it?'
'Yup. I guess you have change coming, Suzie.'
'Oh, come on, Sam,' I said. 'Spill it.'
'Nothing to spill. I'm a computer, remember? Give me data to analyze, numbers to crunch, I'll give you a readout. But don't ask me to make anything out of recent events. It's all too crazy for me. Emerald cities, fairy castles, crazy planets, some guy who thinks he's God… Forget it, I'm shutting down. Wake me when it's over.'
'Oh, come off it,' I said. 'Every time you're put on the spot you go into that `I'm just a computer' routine.'
'Seriously, I think this is a human-judgment situation. It calls for acting on a hunch, an intuition, a feeling in your belly. Computers don't have bellies to get feelings in, boys and girls.'
'Sam, when are you going to admit to yourself that you're human?'
'Son, I was human for seventy-two years. That was enough.'
'But your Vlathusian Entelechy Matrix,' John put in, 'makes your responses absolutely indistinguishable from those of a human mind fully possessed of every faculty. It's enough to fool anybody. Sometimes I half believe you're really a person hidden away in this lorry somewhere, speaking into a microphone and putting us all on.'
'Well, you've found me out, John. You're right, I'm a fraud. Thing is, I'm only one decimeter tall. You'll never find me.'
'You see? Computers don't usually have a sense of humor. Jake's right. You are undeniably human, Sam, whether you like it or not.'
'Be that as it may,' Sam said. 'Getting back to the issue at hand, though, I think you've made your decision already.'
'We haven't heard from everybody yet,' Susan said.
'Who's that?' I asked.
'You, Jake. What do you think?'
I sat back and exhaled. 'Well. Just on general principles… like Yuri said, we need some answers. I have a few questions to put to Mr. Prime myself. And if I don't like the answers, I might just take a poke at him, too. But I have other reasons for wanting to visit Emerald City. Moore and his gang are out here somewhere. We might be safer inside the city.'
'Maybe Prime invited them to lunch, too,' Roland said.
'When? Did I miss something? Or did they get here before us? I thought Moore and his crew took off in the other direction.'
'Maybe Prime contacted them by radio… or telepathy or some such wonder.'
'He didn't contact us that way.'
'True,' Roland admitted. 'But he might still do that thing — invite them.'
'Okay,' I said, 'I'll buy that, but we'll have to inform Prime that under no circumstances will we remain under the same roof with those birds.'
'I'll drink to that,' Sean said. 'Which reminds me, I've a god-awful thirst.'
Our beer reserves also had been under strict rationing. Susan said, 'Do you really think they're still after us? I mean, what do we have that they want? The Black Cube?'
'I'd give them that,' I said. 'Nobody seems to want the damn thing,'
'One good thing,' Sam said. 'Old Corey Wilkes won't be giving us any trouble. He was behind it all, and now that he's gone, I think Moore might have a hard time thinking up reasons to give us grief.'
'Except that he has a score to settle with me,' I said.
'Well, maybe. You'd think he'd've had just about enough by now.'
'Not our Mr. Moore,' Liam said. 'You don't know him, Sam.'
'I think I do,' I said, 'and I'm worried.'
I looked out the side port. The 'sun' was declining toward
the horizon. It looked to be late afternoon, the sky having turned a slightly deeper shade of blue-violet. The green of the grass-carpeted hills was iridescent-a psychotic, delirious green. The neat shrubbery was variously colored-here pinks and reds, there browns and oranges. This place had the feel of a park, a playland.
I turned and yelled, 'Winnie! Where are you?'
'Probably getting it on with George,' Roland said. 'Those two are a pair.'
Winnie came scurrying out of the aft-cabin, threading her way through the thicket of human legs and bodies. George followed her.
'Winnie here, Jake!'
'C'mere, girl.'
She jumped up into my lap. I rubbed the bony, fur-covered knot between her floppy ears.
'What do you think, Winnie?' I said.
Winnie thought, knitting her low brow. She put a lot of effort into it. Then she asked, 'What think about?'
'Huh? Oh. About that man we met. The one with the pretty clothes. Did you like him?'
She shrugged. I wondered if the gesture were learned or innate.
'Big man,' Winnie said. 'Big.'
'Big?' If anything, Prime had been on the short side. 'You mean, important? Powerful?'
'Yes, that. Big man. 'Portant.' She groped for elaboration, then said, simply, 'Real big man.' Then, an afterthought. 'Many.'
'Many? You mean much? Much big?'
'Many,' she said flatly.
'Many? More than one? He has friends?'
She considered it. 'No. He many. More-than-one.'
'I see.' I looked to the group for comment. None. Turning to George, who was no taller but a little more bulky about the midsection, I asked, 'What's your opinion, George, old bean?'
George gave me a puzzled look.
'Do you think Prime-that man-is big and many?'
He nodded. 'Many-more-than-one.' He continued nodding emphatically for a moment, then stopped and
