The Final Nexus
by David Clarke
Chapter 14
I stared at Stefan. I couldn't begin to understand how he had got here: I'd thought him safely back in Orschwiller, or more probably back in our own world, at home in Milhüsa - after all, he had no travel documents, so it shouldn't have been possible for him to get to England. But that didn't matter right now: what mattered was making sure he didn't get hurt. I took half a step forward, and Sam threw his arms around me and held tight.
"No!" he said. "You can't go, Jake - they'll kill you!"
"They won't," I replied. "At least, not yet. I have to go, Sam: that's Stefan - my boyfriend, remember?"
"Then I'm coming with you," he said stubbornly.
"No! It wouldn't be safe... except..." I started to think. It was obvious that I was going to have to go with them, but maybe it would be sensible to think about things, instead of just rushing off blindly.
"All right," I said to Aarnist, "I'll come with you. But I need to go and pack first. Give me ten minutes."
"Take your time," he said expansively. "We'll just wait for you in the car."
I turned and ushered the band back to the crawler, and once we were inside I flung off the helmet and breastplate and ran back up to Deck Two, with Dec, Sam and Xan at my heels.
"General, I've got a problem," I said, once we got back to the control room. "He's got my boyfriend, so I'm going to have to go with him. But I'd like your permission to borrow Dec for a couple of days, just as I was going to if I'd gone back through this portal."
"Of course," said the general. "As far as I'm concerned you're still a member of my horde, so we'll support you any way we can. Are you sure you don't want us to attack that man for you?"
"No, I can't risk it. Maybe Aarnist himself might not do anything to Stefan, but I don't think Irfan would hesitate for a second, so I'm going to go with them. But even if they have found the correct world - and we already know that there is more than one reptile world out there - I don't think he has any chance of getting anywhere near Torth - that's the Grey boy he wants - by going through a portal here. It would mean travelling hundreds of miles - over a thousand li - through a reptile world, and I can't imagine for a moment that the Greys would let him do that. So even if he insists on going into the reptile world he'll have to come back to Stonehenge - assuming they don't just shoot us all on sight, of course - and travel through another world to reach the place where the Kerpians had their portal to the Grey world. If he goes through there he'll only be a couple of li from where Torth is now, and he might have a chance of travelling that far.
"I'm going to persuade him to travel back through my world. I think he'll go for it: he can't make the journey in his own world because there's no portal between his world and Kerpia - as far as I know we destroyed the only way out of Arvel other than Stonehenge. But there is one between my world and Kerpia, and once he's in Kerpia we'll be able to arrange for a portal into the Grey world to be set up. And travelling through my world won't give him any problems as long as Irfan comes with us, which I'm sure he will anyway.
"So why do you need me to come with you?" asked Dec.
"I need you to hang around at Stonehenge and find out which way we're going to be travelling. If everything works out and I manage to persuade him to go through my world I'll want you to come back here. Then you can set up a radio transmitter on the other side of this portal and try to broadcast a warning to the Kerpians. If you can warn them that we're on the way, maybe Mr Narj can set up an ambush inside the Hub and rescue us."
"But we don't speak their language," protested the general. "How are we going to make them understand the warning?"
"It'll be difficult, certainly," I said. "But if you use my name a lot - I'm Stone Jake in their world - and also use the name 'Narj Larzel' several times, hopefully any Kerpian listening will recognise it and get a message to him. And the Kerpians are really good at languages, too: they have computers that can translate loads of languages. With any luck they'll be able to translate your message."
"If we can find a wavelength they use, and if they hear it, and if they recognise the names, and if they can get hold of your friend," said Dec.
"Like I said, it'll be difficult," I said. "But I can't think of anything else to try right now."
"Well, I can think of something," said the general. "If we attack this place where their portals are and take it over, they won't be able to take you anywhere."
"That's true," I said. "I don't think they'll leave the portal open after we've gone through it, though."
"No, but if I come with you like you said I'll be able to persuade them to open it again," Dec pointed out. "Once you're off in the reptile world I'll get the portal reopened, and then by the time you come back we'll have control. You just have to make sure that Irfan goes with you - I won't be able to do anything if he's hanging around inside the circle."
"That shouldn't be a problem," I said. "I'm sure he'll want to come with us anyway. That sounds like a good plan to me... have we still got your chair, Dec?"
"Yes, I think so - nothing ever gets thrown away here, you know that."
"Then it would be a good idea for you to come back in it. You look completely harmless as a cripple in a chair, and that's how they'll expect to see you anyway. You can hang around the circle until we've gone and then spring into action!"
I thought this was as good a plan as any, and it would certainly solve the problem for us. If it worked and they managed to rescue me and Stefan I thought it might also be a good idea for the general to destroy Stonehenge completely, as this would at least make it difficult for Aarnist to go after my parents even if he was so inclined. It wouldn't stop him completely, of course, because they still had the Kerpian method of opening portals, but it might delay him for long enough that I could warn my parents to go and visit granny for a month or so.
So five minutes later one of the open-top tracked vehicles drove out of the back of the crawler. Xan was sitting next to the driver, still in his helmet and breastplate, and in the back were me, Sam, Dec and Dec's chair. Sam and I had brought our bags with us, too, although I was still hoping to persuade Sam not to come with us. The driver pulled the vehicle up next to Aarnist's Jeep.
"We'll follow you," I said. "I don't want to leave my friends here, and they belong in your world anyway, so they'll have to come back with us. I was fairly sure there wouldn't be room in your vehicle for all of us, especially with Dec's chair, so I've persuaded the people here to lend me this machine and its driver."
There was a muttered conversation between Aarnist and Irfan, who was sitting in the back of the Jeep next to Stefan again.
"Very well," said Aarnist. "But please don't try to do anything stupid."
His driver turned the Jeep around and headed off back the way we had come, and we followed. Looking up, I could see a couple of spotters overhead: presumably the general wanted to make sure he could find his way to Stonehenge once we were out of sight.
It took us about an hour to get back to the five arches that was all that existed of Stonehenge in this world, and when we arrived we saw that one of the arches had now grown an extension: there was a square metal archway attached to one of the uprights, looking exactly like a garage door frame but without the door. The Jeep stopped just in front of this, and the driver got out of the vehicle, stepped through the archway and disappeared, only to reappear a few seconds later with six armed cops and a couple of Konjäauml;ssiem: clearly Aarnist was taking no chances.
Sam and I unloaded Dec's chair and then lifted him out of the back of our vehicle, and he was doing a very good impression of a boy who was unable to move unassisted, which is another way of saying that he was damned heavy. We helped him into the chair and he gave us a wide grin.
"Don't forget your left arm," I whispered, and he lifted it against his chest, so that it looked exactly as it had when it was still atrophied and useless.
"Thanks," I said to Xan. "See you again very soon, I hope!"
"We'll be waiting," he promised me.
Sam and I picked up our bags and followed Aarnist through the archway, with Dec following us. This time we didn't go inside the circle straight away, but I could see that we had already crossed into Arvelan territory, because on this side of the 'garage door' I could see that the circle was complete. The Jeep drove through after us, and at once a couple of slaves come out of the circle and began very carefully to fold the arch in on itself; the crosspiece slid in on itself like one of those extending curtain-rails, and soon the garage door was no bigger than the inside of the stone arch to which it was attached. The slaves then swung it through ninety degrees so that it was actually tucked inside the stone arch, and at that point we walked through inside the circle, in time to watch the forklift truck driver removing the inner lintel stone. The portal flickered and disappeared.
"Do you like our little addition to the circle?" Aarnist asked me. "We thought fifty tuhacesu was a bit too far to walk, so Gordiss figured out a way to extend the interface and make it wide enough to get a vehicle through. Clever fellow, that Gordiss."
"He's not called Smarty-pants for nothing," I agreed. "So where do we find the reptiles?"
"Through Arch Thirty. It's a good thing we didn't try to open each arch in numerical order, or we wouldn't have got here for months... although maybe that wouldn't have been such a bad thing... anyway, we've found it now, so we might as well get on with it."
"Look, High Captain, you're not stupid," I said. "If we go through that arch accompanied by a platoon of cops bristling with weapons we won't get a hundred cesu from the arch. If we're going to survive at all we'll have to go in small numbers and peacefully, without weapons. That way at least I'll live long enough to talk to them, and if I can do that we might be okay."
"I'd already decided that would be best," he agreed. "We're only looking for information to start with, aren't we? After all, for all we know this might not even be the right reptile world, might it?"
"Exactly. So probably it would be best to send your cops back to the huts and just take me and the Konjäauml;ssiem with us. That way we'll look harmless."
Irfan looked at me and I tried really hard to think only about what I was going to say to the first Greys we met.
"Have you sent a tracker through?" I asked, wanting to change the subject.
"Obviously. There's a settlement about eight tuhacesu south of here, roughly where Sarutaale is in our world. It won't take long to get there in the Jeep. We just need to wait while they open the portal for us. You might guess that we don't leave any of them open when they're not in use any longer - for some reason kids seem to keep sneaking through them when we're not looking!"
He grinned at me and went to talk to Gordiss, and Irfan strolled over to join them. I wondered if he'd caught a glimpse of Dec's plan, and very much hoped that he hadn't, because that was my best chance of getting home again. But the discussion was a short one, and soon the slave with the fork-lift was at work again, then the necessary connections were made, and then the portal under Arch Thirty sprang into life. The slaves had already set up the metal arch inside the stone one, and once the portal was open they set about swinging it out and extending it to make it big enough for the Jeep.
"Keep this one open, but make sure the rest stay closed," said Aarnist to Gordiss. "We won't be too long: this is just a preliminary visit, after all."
He shepherded me towards the Jeep. Sam tried to come with me.
"No, Sam, stay here with Dec," I said. "You heard the High Captain: we won't be gone long."
I didn't want Sam to be exposed to any more danger than could be avoided, and this was likely to be a dangerous journey, even if we were unarmed and harmless-looking: I suspected that even adult Konjäauml;ssiem wouldn't be able to control the Greys mentally. Besides, I wanted a chance to talk to Stefan. So far he'd been kept away from me, and I was fairly sure from his movements and silence that he was under the control of Irfan - a free Stefan would have run to my side the moment we were inside the circle. And it would be much easier to talk to him freely without Sam literally hanging onto my arm.
Sam wasn't happy, but Aarnist backed me up, and soon I was sitting in the back of the jeep with Stefan beside me and Irfan on Stefan's other side. Aarnist was going to drive himself this time, and that left room for another Konjäauml;ssi in the front passenger seat. Once we were all aboard Aarnist put the Jeep into gear and drove us slowly through the portal, and we emerged into the Grey world, which looked at first glance very like the one we had just left, except that here there was only a single arch standing in the middle of a field.
"Excuse me," I said politely to Irfan, as Aarnist started looking for a gate out of the field, "but can I have my friend back, please?"
"I suppose so," said the Konjäauml;ssi. "You'd have to be insane to try running in this world."
Stefan stirred and turned to look at me, and then his face lit up with a big smile and he flung his arms around me. I hugged him back, equally hard.
"I thought he was never going to let me go," he said. "Obviously I was controlled a few times at the school, but not for as long as today. It's horrible having no control over what your body is doing, especially when I saw you over in that other world. I wanted to run to you, but I couldn't even twitch."
He paused. "Who's the little cutie with the freckles, and why has he been hanging onto you like a limpet since the moment I clapped eyes on him?" he asked.
"That's Sam. I met him a couple of worlds ago and he's got sort of attached to me."
"Oh, really? And are you attached to him?"
"Well, yes, but not like that! I like him a lot, but we're friends, that's all."
"So you've never done anything sexual with him?"
"Well..."
"Ah, so you have? Great! I've been sitting around tearing my hair out with worry, and you've been gallivanting about hither and yon having it away with pretty boys!"
"It's not like that at all! And we never 'had it away', either! Okay, so we rubbed each other a couple of times, but..."
"Oh, thanks, Jake! So how many other boys have you been doing things with since I last saw you?"
I was silent, but it didn't do me any good not to answer.
"Seven," Irfan told him, smirking, and I almost fainted, not because I'd forgotten that a Konjäauml;ssi could follow what I was saying even if I was speaking a foreign language (Kerpian, in this case) but because I hadn't actually realised it was as many as that. But of course it was: Dec, Godfrey, Peter and the twins in Sarutaale and Xan, Vanya and Sam himself on the crawler. Mercifully Miro hadn't been around the evening we had played cards for forfeits, or the answer would have been eight. Not that seven wasn't bad enough...
Stefan stared at me, and I could see the hurt in his eyes.
"I'm really sorry, Stefi," I said. "But it wasn't like you're thinking: we just played cards for forfeits a couple of times, that's all. You can ask Dec when we get back to the circle - he's the boy in the chair. He'll tell you it was just games. And as for Sam, he can tell you that he wanted me to do more stuff with him, but that I said I couldn't because you were the only one I wanted to do that with. Ask him, Stefi - or ask Irfan. He knows I'm telling the truth."
For a ghastly moment I thought Irfan was going to lie to him and tell him I'd been sleeping with every boy I had met - after all, I'd always had the impression Irfan didn't like me much, and I knew he didn't trust me. But I suppose that Konjäauml;ssiem are trained to look for the truth...
"Don't think I wasn't tempted, Jacob," he said to me, demonstrating once again that he could see exactly what I was thinking when he tried to, "but... yes, Stefan, that's the truth. He enjoyed himself doing what he did with the little one, mind."
I could have done without that rather catty last sentence, but at least now Stefan knew I hadn't actually done anything more serious with anyone else. He still didn't look entirely happy, though. I wanted to find a way of changing the subject, but I didn't want to ask him how he had got here while Irfan was around, because I suspected that he probably had things to tell me that would best be kept private. He had sat back in his seat when I'd told him about Sam and was now sitting hunched up with his arms folded, so I put my arm around his shoulders and gave him a little hug. He didn't respond, but he didn't throw my hand off, either, and I supposed that was perhaps better than I deserved.
I still couldn't think of anything to say, so I looked out of the window. We were on a road now, driving through countryside that didn't look very different from the Arvelan version of this route, which I had taken several times on the bus. I knew that Greys almost all lived in towns and cities, so it was no surprise to see no houses alongside the road until we reached the edge of a town. Aarnist pulled the car over and then, after a moment's thought, turned it round so that it was pointing back the way we had come.
"Just in case we have to leave in a hurry," he explained.
We got out of the car and walked into the town. It was around four in the afternoon according to Stefan's watch, which was on Arvelan time. I'd stopped wearing mine lately - I'd put it in my bag before the battle with Khan and hadn't got around to putting it on again: crawler time was a fairly elastic concept most of the time. I'd left my bag with Dec, so there was no question of going back for my watch now. In any event, the streets were empty: this was a residential district, and I supposed that everyone would be at work.
A little further in, however, we came to an area with a couple of typical Grey snack bars and some shops, and here there were people around - and their reaction to us was more or less what I had expected. I can imagine what would have happened if a quintet of fully-dressed, man-sized bipedal lizards had walked into Abingdon, and it was much the same here: shock, some screams, a lot of staring and a rush to call the authorities. We just stood and waited for the authorities to arrive, and it didn't take long before a Grey electric car appeared at high speed with a flashing red light on the roof. It stopped three or four metres away from us, and a pair of uniformed Greys jumped out and pointed guns at us.
I raised my hands to show that I was unarmed, took a step forward and, suppressing the urge to say, "We come in peace - take me to your leader!" I settled for the rather less hackneyed, "Good afternoon."
The cops - at least, I assumed they were cops - looked at each other and then looked back at me, and then the one on the left opened his mouth and addressed me in total gibberish.
"I'm sorry," I said. "I'm afraid I didn't understand a word of that. Could you say it again, please?"
I don't know whether he said it again or whether he said something completely different, but I still didn't understand a single word of it. Something was obviously wrong here: in both Grey worlds I had seen so far they spoke the same language. Did that mean that this was a third Grey world?
One of the cops was now speaking into something that was either a radio or a mobile phone. I was starting to get a really bad feeling about this, and when a couple of minutes later a closed van, also sporting a flashing red light, appeared, the feeling got even worse: I'd been here before, of course, when Aarnist's own cops had called up a similar van to take us to the police station in Arvelan Sélestat, and I wondered how he would feel about being on the receiving end for once.
Another cop got out of the van and spoke briefly to the first two, who pointed at me. The new cop took a couple of steps towards me and stood there, apparently waiting for me to say something.
"Good afternoon," I said again. "Can you understand me?"
"Hello. I understand," said the cop. "How are you speak language of Region Two?"
So that explained it: all the Greys I had met previously came from the same area, which in our world was the Black Forest. I suppose I should have realised that Greys had different languages, just as we did, but somehow it had passed me by.
"I have visited Region Two," I said. "I was taught to speak the language by some of the people who live there. Which region is this?"
"This is Region Five. Why are you come here?"
"This man is a policeman," I said, indicating Aarnist. "He is investigating a murder, and he wants to interview one of your people, who witnessed the murder."
I thought describing Torth as a 'suspect' would probably be a bad idea.
"How is this possible? Took this place here in our land?"
I unscrambled that mentally. "No, it was in our world," I said. "Three young Greys... I mean, three boys of your people were with us when the murder took place."
"This I understand not. Come with us you must."
I suppressed a snort of laughter: the cop was turning into Yoda. But of course the situation really wasn't funny: once we were inside a police station it might not be easy to get out, as I had discovered after Aarnist's men had arrested me over a year previously. But I really couldn't see a way out, so I turned to the rest of the party and explained what was happening.
"I think I might be able to talk him into letting us go," I said, "but I don't think there's any chance of being allowed to travel all the way to Germany in this world - and even if the cops here allowed it, we'd run into trouble almost all the way, because I can't speak the local language. Anyway, I think it would help if we show willing, so let's just go and get in their van."
The adults didn't look entirely convinced, until Irfan said, "I think he's right. We can't start anything here while they've got guns pointed at us and while there are enough people around to lynch us. Inside their station we might be able to do something."
So I told the Grey cop we'd be happy to come with him and we went and got into the back of the van. The cop closed the door and got back behind the wheel, and we drove away, the police car following us.
"Can you get inside his head?" I asked Irfan.
"Barely. His brain structure is nothing like ours - it's like trying to coerce a horse."
"Would it help if you had more mental strength?"
He stared at me. "Is this the time to start insulting me?" he asked.
"No, you misunderstand. I meant to say that you can draw on outside help to boost your brain-power. If you get into physical contact with your colleague here and he keeps still and relaxes, you'll be able to use his mental energy as well as your own. It's something Harlan was working on: he found he could even make use of an ordinary person's mental energy, but it worked a lot better with another Konjäauml;ssi. Look into my mind and I'll try to show you what happened - it'll be quicker than trying to describe it in words."
I showed him how Harlan had borrowed my mental energy to help him defeat the older boy at the school, and how he and Terry had combined their energy to try to get past my metal band. I wasn't particularly keen to make Irfan stronger, but in this situation we needed every advantage we could get.
"Harlan said that he and Terry working together were just starting to be able to see into Torth's head the evening before the portal reopened," I said. "So maybe the two of you can do better than just seeing and actually manage to persuade him to let us go."
"That's a pretty revolutionary idea," said Irfan, staring at me. "We generally work alone, so in the normal way of things the opportunity wouldn't arise, and it's so unorthodox that it wouldn't occur to us to try even if we were working together. But it could work."
"Then try it," I urged. "It'll take a while to answer his questions, because he's bound to want to know how we got here and how we found out about portals in the first place, and that should give you time to try a few things. And when you're ready, I'll suggest that he should let us go, and you do everything you can to persuade him to obey - and then maybe we can actually get out of here today. If it doesn't seem to be working, the rest of us will join the chain so that you can use everyone's energy. I know we don't have much to offer compared to one of you, but I made a difference to Harlan, and so maybe the three of us can give you enough to make this work."
The van pulled up and the doors were opened again, and we found ourselves in an enclosed courtyard. The cop who spoke Region Two - after a fashion - told us to follow him inside the building that took up one side of the yard, and once we were inside he led us to an interview room. His colleagues found some extra chairs for us, and once we were all seated I began to try to decipher his questions through a thick veil of mangled syntax and aberrant vocabulary.
I explained briefly - or as briefly as he would let me - what a portal was and how one had been opened between Kerpia and this world, albeit a long way away from here, more than two years previously, and how that had come to me learning the local (as it turned out) Grey language. I further explained that on another journey we had met Torth and his two colleagues, and that they had witnessed the death of the son of the Sanöljan Chancellor the previous summer, which was why Aarnist wanted to question them now. And finally I explained that we had succeeded in opening another portal only a short distance away - "Around fifteen khirokubs, I think, if you use that system."
And then I had a moment of inspiration.
"Get him to agree to this," I said over my shoulder to Irfan, and then I turned to the Grey again and said, "Perhaps you ought to come and see for yourself? After all, once you've seen that the portals really exist you'll understand the rest of what I've been telling you far more easily."
There was a pause, and I really hoped that Irfan was doing his stuff. Someone behind me took hold of my wrist and I tried to relax in order to allow Irfan to use my energy... and then the cop said, "I think this portal we should see."
He turned and spoke to his colleagues, and they seemed to argue for a moment. But our guy was insistent, and soon everyone except me was in the back of the van again. I was in the front sitting next to the driver, so that I could give him directions. Once again the other cops followed us in their car, though they recruited two others to accompany them this time: clearly they weren't sure that it would be wise to do this. Certainly if I'd been in charge I'd have arranged for all except one of our party to stay behind at the police station, but then maybe Grey cops aren't as suspicious as I am. Or perhaps he was just so eager to see this doorway into another world that he didn't stop to think it through.
I hoped there was nothing important in our Jeep, because we drove straight past it: somehow I didn't think the cop would have allowed us to drive it back to the portal if I'd asked him to. The only thing that mattered to me was getting out of this world as quickly as possible.
"It's by that arch," I said, as soon as the solitary arch that was this world's Stonehenge came into view. "I think there's a gate into the field just up here."
And there was, though it was more of a hole in the hedge than a proper gate. We drove through it, but this van wasn't designed to run off-road the way our Jeep had been, and we got stuck in the mud about halfway between the gate and the arch.
The police car wasn't doing any better, and by the time the driver and I were out of the van, three of the cops had got out of the car and were pushing it back towards the gate. Once it was able to move on its own again the driver parked up, got out and came to join his colleagues. I went and stood by the back door of the van, but by now apparently the cops had started to use their heads, because the van driver told me that my colleagues could stay where they were for now: one person would be able to show them the portal perfectly well on his own.
I led them across the field to the arch. The arch extension was still deployed, though there appeared to be nobody guarding it. Of course, if our plan had worked Stonehenge would now be under the control of the Horde, and they would obviously not put guards outside the portal so as not to scare Aarnist off when he returned. So I stepped through the portal feeling confident that everything was going according to plan, only to realise almost immediately that it wasn't: there were half a dozen of Aarnist's cops in the circle, and Gordiss and his crew of scientists and slaves, and Dec and Sam - but they were the only members of the Horde present. I looked at Dec, and he nodded off to his right, and I saw that there were a couple more Konjäauml;ssiem talking to the scientists. Of course if they had been there all along there would have been no opportunity for Dec to get the portal reopened.
"We've got a problem," I told the nearest cop. "There are reptile cops with us, and they've got the High Captain and the others. Grab your guns!"
The officer stared at me, but a couple of seconds later the Grey cop followed me into the circle, and that galvanised the cops into action. Within a couple more seconds all of them had drawn a firearm.
"Don't shoot!" I yelled. "We need him alive to get the others back!"
Of course if Stefan hadn't been in the van I'd have been a bit less worried, but the last thing I wanted was for shooting to start while he was still in Grey hands.
"Keep still," I told the Grey. "We don't want a fight, and we're not interested in harming you or invading your country. We just wanted information, like I told you. All we want now is for you to release my colleagues, then you and your colleagues can go in peace."
I could see him thinking about it, but I wasn't too worried: after all, he was the one the guns were pointing at, and I knew from experience that Greys valued self-preservation above everything.
"If you don't get them released," I went on, "you'll be the first to die."
That was enough to convince him, and so when I told him to come forward away from the portal, he complied.
"When your colleagues get here," I said, "tell them not to fight. There's no reason for anyone to die here."
And that worked, too: even though for a moment it looked as though a couple of the Greys at least were about to run back through the portal, which would have meant that our cops would have had to go after them and possibly shoot them, the first cop called to them to stay were they were, and that made life a lot easier. We got the Greys to hand over their weapons and sit on the ground while one of the Arvelan policemen took the keys from the first Grey, went out through the portal and released the others, and once everyone was back on our side of the portal there was no need to detain the Greys any longer. At least, I didn't think so, but Irfan disagreed.
"We need to practise getting into their heads," he told me. "We just about managed it in the town, but I'm sure that if we work on it we'll find an easier way."
"I'm sorry," I said, "but I promised them that if they surrendered quietly we'd let them go once you were back with us."
"You didn't have the authority to make that promise!"
"I'm the only one who can talk to them, so I had to make a decision," I said. "Otherwise they might have started shooting in here, or worse, run back to the van and tried to hold you and the others hostage. Besides, if we're really going to go ahead with this mission, the last thing we want is the authorities here telling the ones in Region Two that mammals are dangerous, treacherous and untrustworthy. We want them to give a good report of us - that way we might actually manage to persuade the ones in Germany to let us into their territory."
"That won't do any good if we can't control them!"
"But you already know you can, and if we take four of you with us instead of two, and if you practise working together on the way, by the time we get there you should be able to handle them easily."
"It won't be the same as practising with a live specimen!"
"No, I can see that. But I couldn't see any other choice. The Greys I've met all seemed to keep to their agreements, and I really think it's important that we show them that we can, too - even if it was an agreement I shouldn't have made."
"Jacob's right," said Aarnist, and I breathed a sigh of relief - after all, it was my word that had been given, and I didn't want to have to break it, even if it was due to something I had no control over. "If we're going back into that world we have to be careful what sort of impression we make now. Tell them they can go, Jacob."
So I did that. The Greys looked a little surprised, but they didn't stay to argue. I went with them to the portal and watched as they examined the view from both sides: here a full Stonehenge, there a single arch.
"Thank you for bringing us back," I said to the 'German' speaker. "We won't open this portal again - I'll make sure of that - so there's nothing to worry about."
Of course, that didn't mean that they might not try to come back and open a portal themselves, but I was virtually certain that they wouldn't be able to do that. So, provided Aarnist agreed to keep his side of the portal closed, there wouldn't be any problems with Greys here.
The Greys set off back across the field, and as soon as they were ten metres away the slaves came out and folded the portal back inside the arch, and ten seconds later it had been deactivated.
"So, are you really still intending to go to Germany and try to talk to Torth?" I asked Aarnist.
"I don't see why not."
"But...why? I really don't understand why you'd bother going all that way on a fool's errand. Even if you do get to speak to him, you must be aware that the Greys will never let you take him out of their country - so what's the point?"
"Let's go for a little walk," said Aarnist, leading me out of the circle and into the field, where we were out of earshot of everyone else.
"Jacob, you're a bright boy," he said. "Obviously we're not going to try to bring the boy out. Even if I'd been thinking about it, I'm certainly not after that little trip we just took. If Irfan can't do his stuff I'd have to be insane to try, and I can assure you I'm far from insane."
"Why, then?"
"Because fate has dropped the biggest thing to hit our country in hundreds of years right into my arms, and I'm not about to let it slip. See, I'm just a provincial cop: I come from an unimportant fishing town at the southern end of the kingdom, and I'm usually stationed about as far from Laztaale as it's possible to get, over on the German border. I don't have any influence, I haven't got any rich relatives, and I don't know anyone important, all of which means that I was likely to spend the rest of my career at the back of beyond.
"Then you fell into my lap. Nobody really believed all that stuff about other worlds at first - at least, nobody except me and Irfan, because we spoke to you in person. Everyone at headquarters thought it was either fantasy, or that if such a thing did exist it was just a passing freak of nature, something nobody could control or direct. The senior scientists in Laztaale said it was impossible, and so officially it was impossible.
"And then the Chancellor's son got killed and you and your friends escaped, and it happened under my jurisdiction. I can assure you that I didn't ask for this mission: it was dumped on me by HQ as a punishment, because they were convinced it was impossible. But once I saw the transcripts of your interrogation at the school I changed my mind completely. I became convinced that, not only do the portals exist, but that it would be possible for us to create our own. I recruited Gordiss - he's from the provinces, too, and he was as quick to see a future in this as I was. I was able to use the death of the Chancellor's son as the perfect excuse to investigate portals and to try to find a way to use them, and the result is this place. And already this is enough to get us recognised.
"But... you probably don't know this, but far too many of the portals that have been opened here go to places that are useless to us. There are deserts, radioactive wastelands, worlds apparently suffering from permanent darkness, worlds where there is nothing but ice... and most of the inhabited worlds are controlled by people who have modern civilisations like ours, which makes them impossible to exploit unless we're prepared to go to war. Now, I don't believe the circle is really cursed, but maybe we're doing something wrong. And so obviously the next move is for us to talk to the experts, and that's the Kerpians. Unfortunately we haven't found a direct way into their country, but you know how to get there, and so you can show us the way.
"I'd still like to talk to the Grey boy, just to get a statement from him, because that'll be one in the eye for all the bastards in Laztaale who said I was on... what did you call it? A fool's errand? But really it's just an excuse for us to go east. Today we proved that we can't travel through the Grey world, so if I want to complete my mission I'll have to go to Kerpia and use their portals. And maybe while we're there we'll be able to talk to their experts and find out what we're doing wrong."
"So... you never intended to arrest Torth?"
"Gods, no! Like you said, I'd never be able to. No, Torth is simply a means to an end. Ideally I'll take his statement and then spend a while in Kerpia learning about their portal technology."
I was by no means sure that the Kerpians would be ready to give the technology to someone from another advanced race without a lot of evidence as to their bona fides - in fact I was fairly sure they wouldn't. But this hardly seemed to be the time to say so.
"What about me?" I asked. "Once I've done the interpreting for you, do I get to go home, or will it be back to Laztaale?"
"Do you think I'll answer that truthfully?"
"Actually, yes. I'm fairly sure everything else you've just told me is true."
"If you help me out with the Greys, and with the Kerpians, I'll let you go," he said. "I'm not sure that Irfan will be happy about it, though, so you might have to watch out. But if I get what I want I'll make sure you do, too."
That sounded as if my freedom would depend on him getting co-operation and information from the Kerpians, and I didn't think they'd do that even to bail me out.
"So," he went on, "what would be the best way to get from here to Kerpia?"
"Through my world," I replied. "It's fairly stable, and there's a direct portal to Kerpia in the Vosges."
"Yes, thought you'd suggest that. But you need to be careful, Jacob: just because I like you, it doesn't mean that I'm going to let anything get in the way of my mission. I won't have the least hesitation in killing your friend if you try to slip away, or you either, if I catch up with you again. If I agree to travel through your world I want your parole, otherwise I'll get Irfan or one of the others to keep you under close control until we get to Kerpia. Understand?"
I'd just been starting to think of him as a reasonable man, too. The idea of travelling for six hundred miles unable to move or speak was terrifying, which I thought left me with no choice. Besides, I was quite happy to be heading for Kerpia: a few hours earlier I'd been on the point of doing exactly that under my own steam.
"All right," I said. "I'll come with you to Kerpia, and I won't try anything on the way. But... please could we stop at my parents' house on the way? They must be going frantic with worry."
He thought about that. "I don't see why not. But only you go inside. Stefan stays with Irfan in the car. Agreed?"
"Fair enough," I said, because I thought that if I could once set foot in my parents' house it would give me another opportunity to get a message to Mr Narj.
"Then do we have an agreement?" he asked.
"Yes, I think so."
"It's obvious that you don't trust me," he said. "Like I said before, I can understand that. And I don't entirely trust you, either. But if we work together we can both get what we want: I'll become the recognised authority on portals, and you'll get back home. You know I need you to translate for me, so that gives you a partial guarantee, anyway - though never forget that I don't need Stefan, which gives me a partial guarantee, too. So let's see if we can work together for a while."
He turned and headed back to the circle, and I followed him.
"So are we leaving straight away?" I asked.
"No, I don't think so. It's a bit late - we'd never get all the way to the German border without an overnight stay somewhere. Instead we'll stay here tonight and leave first thing tomorrow. I'm afraid that means you'll be back in our cell, but it will only be for one night. And of course you won't be on your own this time."
Once we were back in the circle he announced that we would be staying here for the night and then went into a huddle with Irfan, Gordiss and one of the other cops. While he was doing that I made my way over to where Dec, Sam and Stefan were waiting.
"I'm going to try to get back in here first thing tomorrow," Dec said. "With any luck they'll come over bright and early to open the next portal, and then I'll be able to get them to open the one back to the Horde world instead. By the time you've finished breakfast we'll be in control. I can't see any reason why they'd send a Konjäauml;ssi to oversee the opening: we know the scientists usually do that on their own."
"With the slaves," I pointed out. "But you're right: they'll do what the scientists tell them to. Okay, Dec, that sounds like a good idea."
Certainly it would be better for us to go back to Kerpia unescorted, even though if we went through the Horde world into Kerpia I wouldn't get a chance to see my parents. But I could always phone them once we got back to the Hub - I'd just need to pop down to Orschwiller in my world to do that.
Dec and Sam headed for the nearest arch, but before they got there Aarnist stopped them.
"Where are you going?" he asked.
"Back to Sarutaale," said Dec. "Now we know Jake is safe we might as well go back home."
"No, I don't think so," said Aarnist. "Young Jacob has this knack of recruiting friends everywhere he goes, and I really don't want you to go back there and then rally all your friends into some sort of crusade to rescue him. Some of my men prefer not to have to shoot kids. Tonight you can stay here. You can go back home tomorrow, once we're safely on our way."
Irfan was standing about ten feet away, so Dec didn't dare try to compel Aarnist to let him go, and instead he had to fold. He and Sam were shepherded over to the huts with Stefan and me, and once we got inside we were packed into the cell and the door was closed.
"We'll find you another mattress," Aarnist promised, and about fifteen minutes later one arrived. We would still be sleeping two to a mattress, but since I would be sharing with Stefan that didn't bother me at all. At least we were together again, though it remained to be seen if he'd forgiven me for Sam. But our situation was still very worrying, and I barely dared to contemplate what would happen if the Kerpians told Aarnist to get lost...
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