“I think we’re going to have trouble with the definition of ‘before,’” said Umbo.
The expendable hesitated for a moment. Now Rigg understood these hesitations. He was talking, somehow, with Father.
“Which of you has the stones?” asked the expendable.
Rigg looked at Umbo, then remembered that Umbo had given him the stones before they began the passage through the Wall. He reached into his trousers and drew out the bag of jewels. “These?”
“Nineteen stones?” asked the expendable in reply.
“Eighteen,” said Rigg, laying the bag open in front of him.
The expendable leaned over, looking at them but not touching them. “Why is one missing? You have not placed it.”
“It was in the possession of the Revolutionary Council. Or maybe General Citizen’s minions,” said Rigg.
“We were working on trying to get it back,” said Umbo. “But then we had to get out of the city.”
The expendable nodded. “Eventually you will need it,” he said. “Fortunately, the one that’s missing is your own.”
“Aren’t they all mine?” asked Rigg. “Or… ours?”
“I mean the one that will let you shut off the Wall around your own wallfold, the one where you were born.”
“The jewels shut off the Walls?” demanded Loaf. “We’ve been carrying around-”
“You could not have shut off your own Wall until all the others were shut off,” said the expendable. “You would have had to use it last in any case. So when the other Walls are down, you will return home, get the last jewel, and shut down the last Wall.”
“We will?” asked Param.
“Why else would you have passed through the Wall?” asked the expendable.
“To save our lives,” said Rigg. “There are people on the other side trying to kill us.”
Umbo leaned back so he could look through the Wall again at the place where Mother and General Citizen sat astride their horses. “You’d think they’d look over and notice that Param and I are already here,” said Umbo.
“It wouldn’t cross their minds,” said Param.
“You’re both on the other side of Loaf and Olivenko,” said Rigg. “They can’t see you unless you lean out to look.”
The expendable indicated for Rigg to put away the jewels. “So you are truly ignorant of what you’re here for,” he said.
Rigg gathered the jewels. “No,” he said. “We know exactly why we’re here. We just don’t know why you think we’re here, or why Father-the Golden Man-why he gave me the jewels and set us on this path.”
“We choose our own purposes now,” said Param.
“We’ll see how that works out for you,” said the expendable. He stood up and started to walk away.
“Wait!” called Loaf.
The expendable kept walking.
“You say it,” said Loaf. “You make him wait, Rigg.”
“Wait,” said Rigg. “Come back.”
The expendable came back. “I hate this,” murmured Rigg as the expendable approached. “I don’t want to command anybody.”
“If it’s any consolation,” said Umbo, “you don’t have any authority at all over us.”
“We need your help just to survive here,” said Rigg. “We don’t speak the languages.”
“Yes you do,” said the expendable.
“We didn’t understand a word you were saying before,” said Rigg.
“Nevertheless, all the languages ever spoken in the world are contained within the Wall. If it were not so, it could not speak to you.”
“So the Wall knows the languages,” said Rigg.
“And having passed through the Wall, so do you,” said the expendable. “It may take time for any particular language to recognize itself and waken in your memory, but it will be there.”
“I’m hungry,” said Loaf. “I’ve had enough talk.”
“Let’s get out of sight of General Citizen and his clowns,” said Olivenko. “I’m done with them.”
“For now,” said Param. “Till we go back.”
“And why would we go back?” asked Loaf.
“To get the last jewel,” said Param. “To shut off this last Wall.”
“So you think we should do what these expendables intend for us to do?” asked Rigg.
“I think they’ll give us no peace until we do,” said Param. “I think his supposed obedience is a fraud, and they’re going to keep controlling us the way they’ve been doing all along.”
“In case anyone’s forgotten,” said Olivenko, “not all the people in other wallfolds are nice. Not even the people in our wallfold are nice. What would General Citizen do, if this Wall disappeared right now?”
“Come over here and kill us all,” said Umbo.
“Not if I killed him first,” said Loaf.
“Wars of conquest,” said Olivenko. “Until now, the great achievement of the Sessamoto was to unite the entire wallfold under a single government. But if the walls disappear, how long before we try to conquer the world? Or the people of some other wallfold try to conquer us? Humans are humans, I assume, in every wallfold.” He turned to the expendable. “Or has human nature changed in any of them? Is there a version of the human race that has abandoned predation and territoriality?”
“I wouldn’t know,” said the expendable. “We pretty much stick to learning about our own wallfold.”
Rigg said, “Then ask the others. Find out. If you want us to take down the Walls, we have to know the consequences.”
“I think that’s something that you’ll need to discover for yourselves,” said the expendable.
“So much for obedience,” said Param.
The expendable turned to her. “The Walls have never been shut off before, or crossed, until the five of you. We don’t know how the human beings of each wallfold will react. I cannot tell you what I do not know. I told you that I would obey any command that I had the power to obey.”
“So the responsibility for the whole world is in our hands,” said Rigg.
“Your hands,” said Umbo. “You have the jewels.”
“Come on,” said Rigg. “We’re in this together. Please.”
Umbo laughed. “Lighten up, Rigg. What else have we got to pass the time, if not taking down all the Walls in the world?”
“And finding out what they’re not telling us,” said Param. “Count on it, they’re still lying to us. You notice he’s not even denying it.”
The expendable regarded her calmly. “I’m not agreeing, either.”
“Which is just another form of lying,” said Param.
“You cannot lie,” said the expendable, “if you do not know the truth. You can only be wrong, or silent. I prefer silence to error, and since I do not know when I am in error, silence is the best choice unless I am forced to speak.”
“Not just a liar,” said Param, “but a philosopher.”
“Tell us the truth when we ask you questions,” said Rigg, “or whatever you believe to be the truth based on current information. And answer everybody’s questions, not just mine.”
“All right,” said the expendable.
“What is your name?” Rigg asked the expendable.
“I don’t have a name,” said the expendable.
“But I need a name for you. And a name for the one I called Father.”
“The active expendable is referred to by the name of the wallfold in which he serves,” said the expendable.
“So what is the name of that wallfold? The one we were born in? The one we just left?”
“We call it Ramfold,” said the expendable. “So we call your active expendable ‘Ram.’”
“And this wallfold?” asked Umbo. “And your name?”
