Last Enemy Read online

fullness of experience. "The Lady Dallona has had affairs with anumber of men, myself among them. But under the circumstances, I findthat explanation unthinkable."

  Marnik looked at him in open skepticism. Evidently, in his book, wherean attractive man and a beautiful woman were concerned, thatexplanation was never unthinkable.

  "The Lady Dallona is a scientist," Verkan Vall elaborated. "She is notabove diverting herself with love affairs, but that's all they are--anot too important form of diversion. And, if you recall, she had justparticipated in a most significant experiment: you can be sure thatshe had other things on her mind at the time than pleasure jaunts withgood-looking Assassins."

  * * * * *

  The ship was passing around the Caucasus Mountains, with the CaspianSea in sight ahead, when several of the crew appeared on theobservation deck and began preparing the shielding to protect the deckfrom gunfire. Zortan Brend inquired of the petty officer in charge ofthe work as to the necessity.

  "We've been getting reports of trouble at Darsh, sir," the man said."Newscast bulletins every couple of minutes: rioting in differentparts of the city. Started yesterday afternoon, when a couple ofStatisticalist members of the Executive Council resigned and went overto the Volitionalists. Lord Nirzav of Shonna, the only nobleman of anyimportance in the Statisticalist Party, was one of them; he was shotimmediately afterward, while leaving the Council Chambers, along witha couple of Assassins who were with him. Some people in an airboatsprayed them with a machine rifle as they came out onto the landingstage."

  The two Assassins exclaimed in horrified anger over this.

  "That wasn't the work of members of the Society of Assassins!" Olirzondeclared. "Even after he'd resigned, the Lord Nirzav was still immunetill he left the Government Building. There's too blasted much illegalassassination going on!"

  "What happened next?" Verkan Vall wanted to know.

  "About what you'd expect, sir. The Volitionalists weren't going totake that quietly. In the past eighteen hours, four prominentStatisticalists were forcibly discarnated, and there was even a fightin Mirzark of Bashad's house, when Volitionalist Assassins broke in;three of them and four of Mirzark's Assassins were discarnated."

  "You know, something is going to have to be done about that, too,"Olirzon said to Marnik. "It's getting to a point where these politicalfaction fights are being carried on entirely between members of theSociety. In Ghamma alone, last year, thirty or forty of our memberswere discarnated that way."

  "Plug in a newscast visiplate, Karnil," Zortan Brend told the pettyofficer. "Let's see what's going on in Darsh now."

  In Darsh, it seemed, an uneasy peace was being established. VerkanVall watched heavily-armed airboats and light combat ships patrollingamong the high towers of the city. He saw a couple of minor riotsbeing broken up by the blue-uniformed Constabulary, with considerableshooting and a ruthless disregard for who might get shot. It wasn'texactly the sort of policing that would have been tolerated in theFirst Level Civil Order Section, but it seemed to suit Akor-Nebconditions. And he listened to a series of angry recriminations andcontradictory statements by different politicians, all of whom blamedthe disorders on their opponents. The Volitionalists spoke of theStatisticalists as "insane criminals" and "underminers of socialstability," and the Statisticalists called the Volitionalists"reactionary criminals" and "enemies of social progress." Politicians,he had observed, differed little in their vocabularies from onetime-line to another.

  This kept up all the while the ship was passing over the Caspian Sea;as they were turning up the Volga valley, one of the ship's officerscame down from the control deck, above.

  "We're coming into Darsh, now," he said, and as Verkan Vall turnedfrom the visiplate to the forward windows, he could see the white andpastel-tinted towers of the city rising above the hardwood foreststhat covered the whole Volga basin on this sector. "Your luggage hasbeen put into the airboat, Lord Virzal and Honorable Assassins, andit's ready for launching whenever you are." The officer glanced at hiswatch. "We dock at Commercial Center in twenty minutes; we'll bepassing the Solar Hotel in ten."

  They all rose, and Verkan Vall hooked fingers and clapped shoulderswith Zortan Brend.

  "Good luck, Lord Virzal," the latter said. "I hope you find the LadyDallona safe and carnate. If you need help, I'll be at MercantileHouse for the next day or so; if you get back to Ghamma before I do,you know who to ask for there."

  * * * * *

  A number of assassins loitered in the hallways and offices of theIndependent Institute of Reincarnation Research when Verkan Vall,accompanied by Marnik, called there that afternoon. Some of themcarried submachine-guns or sleep-gas projectors, and they werestopping people and questioning them. Marnik needed only to give thema quick gesture and the words, "Assassins' Truce," and he and hisclient were allowed to pass. They entered a lifter tube and floated upto the office of Dr. Harnosh of Hosh, with whom Verkan Vall had madean appointment.

  "I'm sorry, Lord Virzal," the director of the Institute told him, "butI have no idea what has befallen the Lady Dallona, or even if she isstill carnate. I am quite worried; I admired her extremely, both as anindividual and as a scientist. I do hope she hasn't been discarnated;that would be a serious blow to science. It is fortunate that sheaccomplished as much as she did, while she was with us."

  "You think she is no longer carnate, then?"

  "I'm afraid so. The political effects of her discoveries--" Harnosh ofHosh shrugged sadly. "She was devoted, to a rare degree, to her work.I am sure that nothing but her discarnation could have taken her awayfrom us, at this time, with so many important experiments stilluncompleted."

  Marnik nodded to Verkan Vall, as much as to say: "You were right."

  "Well, I intend acting upon the assumption that she is still carnateand in need of help, until I am positive to the contrary," Verkan Vallsaid. "And in the latter case, I intend finding out who discarnatedher, and send him to apologize for it in person. People don't forciblydiscarnate my friends with impunity."

  "Sound attitude," Dr. Harnosh commented. "There's certainly nopositive evidence that she isn't still carnate. I'll gladly give youall the assistance I can, if you'll only tell me what you want."

  "Well, in the first place," Verkan Vall began, "just what sort of workwas she doing?" He already knew the answer to that, from the reportsshe had sent back to the First Level, but he wanted to hear Dr.Harnosh's version. "And what, exactly, are the political effects youmentioned? Understand, Dr. Harnosh, I am really quite ignorant of anyscientific subject unrelated to _zerfa_ culture, and equally so ofTerran politics. Politics, on Venus, is mainly a question of who getshow much graft out of what."

  Dr. Harnosh smiled; evidently he had heard about Venusian politics."Ah, yes, of course. But you are familiar with the main differencesbetween Statistical and Volitional reincarnation theories?"

  ]

  "In a general way. The Volitionalists hold that the discarnateindividuality is fully conscious, and is capable of somethinganalogous to sense-perception, and is also capable of exercisingchoice in the matter of reincarnation vehicles, and can reincarnate orremain in the discarnate state as it chooses. They also believe thatdiscarnate individualities can communicate with one another, and withat least some carnate individualities, by telepathy," he said. "TheStatisticalists deny all this; their opinion is that the discarnateindividuality is in a more or less somnambulistic state, that it isdrawn by a process akin to tropism to the nearest availablereincarnation vehicle, and that it must reincarnate in and only inthat vehicle. They are labeled Statisticalists because they believethat the process of reincarnation is purely at random, or governed byunknown and uncontrollable causes, and is unpredictable except as toaggregates."

  "That's a fairly good generalized summary," Dr. Harnosh of Hoshgrudged, unwilling to give a mere layman too much credit. He dipped aspoon into a tobacco humidor, dusted the tobacco lightly with dried_zerfa_, and rammed it into his pipe. "You
must understand that ourmodern Statisticalists are the intellectual heirs of those ancientmaterialistic thinkers who denied the possibility of any discarnateexistence, or of any extraphysical mind, or even of extrasensoryperception. Since all these things have been demonstrated to be facts,the materialistic dogma has been broadened to include them, but alwaysstrictly within the frame of materialism.

  "We have proven, for instance, that the human individuality can existin a discarnate state, and that it reincarnates into the body of aninfant, shortly after birth. But the Statisticalists cannot accept