'Hello?' came Arthur's voice from the communicator, which I held in my hand. 'Hell-o-o?'
'Yeah, Arthur?'
'Um… want me to make fried chicken out of them?'
I glared at the two ungainly bird creatures. Their faces were impassive behind transparent atmospheric- assist masks. The one holding the weapon lowered his winglike arm.
'No,' I said.
'Upsy daisy.'
We rose into the air. On the way up, Sam said, 'I've always wanted to start a religion, and God forgive me, if this keeps up, I just might:'
We tacked against the wind of time once more. The displacement was about eight months this time. We directed Arthur to a farm planet on the outskirts of Terran Maze. People I knew and trusted lived here.
Arthur landed on a deserted road, and I backed the rig out of the ship.
'Time to say good-bye,' Arthur said. 'It's been interesting, to say the least.'
'Yeah,' I said. 'Thanks for everything, Art, old boy.'
'Boy? You know I'm sexless. They say I'm missing a lot, but what the hell. Anyway…' He put his absurdly small hand on my shoulder. 'Listen, I'm sorry you lost so much. There wasn't much I could do about it….' He seemed to drift off into thought.
'Here,' I said, handing him the communicator.
'Uh, no. No. You go ahead and keep it. The ship has plenty. Keep it as a souvenir. Besides, you might want to call me someday.'
I shrugged and put it in my pocket.
We watched the ship rise and become an olive drab dot in the sky. Then it was gone.
Sam slapped me on the shoulder. 'Let's go see if Gil Tomasso is home. I hope his heart is strong.'
Gil's heart was plenty strong, but he fainted when he saw Sam.
Our next few months weren't very busy. It was just a matter of laying low and waiting for the paradoxical crease in our universe to work itself out. Right now my double was on our farm back on Vishnu. On or about the fourth day of April, he would pick up a small shipment of astronomical equipment from an importer on Barnard's III and set off on a trip to deliver his cargo to Chandrasekhar Deep Space Observatory on a planet called Uraniborg. He would never deliver that equipment.
Actually, that was wrong. We would deliver it for him, more or less on schedule, and, we would do that when my double disappeared through a potluck portal on Seven Suns Interchange.
I had a duty to perform as soon as possible, though. I had to get rid of the cube. I still had it. (Was there a single person who coveted it now? Depends on what now means.)
Darla said that I had given the cube to a member of the Colonial Assembly by the name of Marcia Miller. She said I had simply walked into her office and plopped the cube down on the assemblywoman's desk.
I disguised myself, borrowed Gil's four-roller, got on the Skyway and drove to Einstein, the capital planet.
The Assembly Office Building was big and neoclassical and cost too much money, just like every other governmental barn in the cosmos. I strode down a carpeted, marble-walled corridor, looking at nameplates on doors. Most of the names were eastern European, a few oriental, one or two or three Anglo-Saxon.
'The Honorable Marcia B. Miller, Member of the Assembly,' I read aloud, then opened the heavy blond wooden door.
There was a human receptionist, a young woman. I smiled as I stepped past her desk.
She looked up from her console and did a double take. 'Kamrada? Sir? Do you have an appointment?'
'Honey, I've had an appointment for ten billion years.'
'Sir, you can't go in there!'
I was through the inner door before she could extricate herself from her huge work station. I clucked at the lack of security in the place.
An annoyed Marcia Miller looked up from the screen she was reading. 'Who the devil are you?'
'Does the name Daria Vance Petrovsky mean anything to you?'
Her face tightened, then slowly relaxed.
'Marcia, I'm sorry!' the receptionist wailed. 'I've called Security!'
'No! No, cancel the call.'
'But-'
Miller rose from her desk, still looking at me. 'It's okay, Barb. Cancel the call.'
Mystified, Barb retreated, closing the door.
Miller sat back down. 'Of course I know of Daria Vance Petrovsky. Why shouldn't I recognize the name of the lifecompanion of a high-ranking Militia officer?'
'One who is a subversive and a fugitive from justice?'
'That is none of my-'
'Listen,' I said, 'I'll make this short. You'll think I'm a crank at first, but in time you'll. know I'm not. I'm Jake McGraw, and I've lived what most people dream. I've driven to the end of the Skyway and met the Roadbuilders. They gave me a map. Here it is.' I drew the cube out and held it in my hand. 'It's the key to the Skyway system. You'll be hearing about it, and me. Roadbuzz, road yarns, stories, rumors. They're all true. You'll hear my name spoken in bars and roadhouses. They'll say I drove into the fireball of the birthing universe, and they'll be right. It's true, and I even got a bit of a sunburn doing it. Everything they'll say about me will be true-so damn true it'll drive you crazy. And here's what I'm going to do. I'm going to give you this map, and I won't be doing you a favor. What you'll have to do is see that the dissident network protects Darla-Daria-at all costs. She is the key to this whole affair. Exactly how, I can't say. But you must do all in your power to protect her.'
She began to lose patience, and I silenced her. 'I know all about the dissident network,' I went on, 'and I know all about your involvement in it. Don't worry, I was told this office is debugged. It makes no difference if it isn't. I'm just a crank, right? So, forget it. Here.' I dropped the cube on her desk. 'Happy birthday, honey.'
And then I left. The security guard at the front entrance smiled at me on my way out.
It was a pleasant few months. Gil Tomasso was a gracious host, and then Red Shaunnessey offered to put us up, so we drove over there. Sam and I passed the time repairing the trailer. John recuperated from his burns, and Zoya fell in love with Sam. It was inevitable, I thought. I remembered how well they had hit it off thirty years ago.
But eventually it became time to perform another duty, one I both dreaded and craved.
The trailer was fixed. I climbed in, and Sam saw me off.
'Do you know where?' he asked. 'Exactly?'
'No, but there are only a few places on the starslab where hikers can hope to get a ride.'
'True. Well, good luck.'
'There's no such thing, Sam.'
I found her on a planet called Monteleone. She was standing in front of a Stop-N-Shop on the Colonial highway, looking very pickupable. She was wearing her silver Allclyme survival suit and stood with her backpack parked at her feet.
She was beautiful, young, thin, unpregnant, and I was a total stranger to her.
I slid back the port. 'You look like you're going somewhere,' I said.
But she knew who I was. In fact, she was here for the specific purpose of getting picked up by me. I had acquired a shadow two days back, a blue-seater driven by a dark-haired young man. One of Darla's dissident comrades, probably. The dissidents were probably very confused by now, because they were getting conflicting reports that made it look as though I could be in two places at one time. They were also following my double. But I made it easier to follow me. And so I had swung by this Stop-N-Shop a few times over the past few days. And sure enough…
'Matter of fact, I am,' Darla said, picking up her pack. 'Are you going where I'm going?'
'Where is that?'
'To the other side of T-Maze. Here, there… everywhere.' She smiled, and my heart melted.
'Sure. Hop aboard.'
There was nothing strange about it. It was something I had to do. I had to meet Darla, for we had never
