Last Enemy | Page 9

circumstances, I find that explanation unthinkable."
Marnik looked at him in open skepticism. Evidently, in his book, where an attractive man
and a beautiful woman were concerned, that explanation was never unthinkable.
"The Lady Dallona is a scientist," Verkan Vall elaborated. "She is not above diverting
herself with love affairs, but that's all they are--a not too important form of diversion.
And, if you recall, she had just participated in a most significant experiment: you can be
sure that she had other things on her mind at the time than pleasure jaunts with
good-looking Assassins."
* * * * *
The ship was passing around the Caucasus Mountains, with the Caspian Sea in sight
ahead, when several of the crew appeared on the observation deck and began preparing
the shielding to protect the deck from gunfire. Zortan Brend inquired of the petty officer
in charge of the 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 different parts of the city. Started yesterday afternoon,
when a couple of Statisticalist members of the Executive Council resigned and went over
to the Volitionalists. Lord Nirzav of Shonna, the only nobleman of any importance in the
Statisticalist Party, was one of them; he was shot immediately afterward, while leaving
the Council Chambers, along with a couple of Assassins who were with him. Some
people in an airboat sprayed them with a machine rifle as they came out onto the landing
stage."
The two Assassins exclaimed in horrified anger over this.
"That wasn't the work of members of the Society of Assassins!" Olirzon declared. "Even
after he'd resigned, the Lord Nirzav was still immune till he left the Government Building.
There's too blasted much illegal assassination going on!"

"What happened next?" Verkan Vall wanted to know.
"About what you'd expect, sir. The Volitionalists weren't going to take that quietly. In the
past eighteen hours, four prominent Statisticalists were forcibly discarnated, and there
was even a fight in 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 political faction fights are being carried on
entirely between members of the Society. In Ghamma alone, last year, thirty or forty of
our members were discarnated that way."
"Plug in a newscast visiplate, Karnil," Zortan Brend told the petty officer. "Let's see
what's going on in Darsh now."
In Darsh, it seemed, an uneasy peace was being established. Verkan Vall watched
heavily-armed airboats and light combat ships patrolling among the high towers of the
city. He saw a couple of minor riots being broken up by the blue-uniformed Constabulary,
with considerable shooting and a ruthless disregard for who might get shot. It wasn't
exactly the sort of policing that would have been tolerated in the First Level Civil Order
Section, but it seemed to suit Akor-Neb conditions. And he listened to a series of angry
recriminations and contradictory statements by different politicians, all of whom blamed
the disorders on their opponents. The Volitionalists spoke of the Statisticalists as "insane
criminals" and "underminers of social stability," and the Statisticalists called the
Volitionalists "reactionary criminals" and "enemies of social progress." Politicians, he
had observed, differed little in their vocabularies from one time-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 officers came down from the control deck, above.
"We're coming into Darsh, now," he said, and as Verkan Vall turned from the visiplate to
the forward windows, he could see the white and pastel-tinted towers of the city rising
above the hardwood forests that covered the whole Volga basin on this sector. "Your
luggage has been put into the airboat, Lord Virzal and Honorable Assassins, and it's
ready for launching whenever you are." The officer glanced at his watch. "We dock at
Commercial Center in twenty minutes; we'll be passing the Solar Hotel in ten."
They all rose, and Verkan Vall hooked fingers and clapped shoulders with Zortan Brend.
"Good luck, Lord Virzal," the latter said. "I hope you find the Lady Dallona safe and
carnate. If you need help, I'll be at Mercantile House 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 the Independent Institute of
Reincarnation Research when Verkan Vall, accompanied by Marnik, called there that
afternoon. Some of them carried submachine-guns or sleep-gas projectors, and they were

stopping people