Temple Trouble | Page 9

five or six priests of Muz-Azin. They haven't, of course, got into the House of Yat-Zar;
the door's of impervium steel, about six inches thick, with a plating of collapsed nickel
under the gilding. It would take a couple of hours to cut through it with our best atomic
torch; there isn't a tool on this time-line that could even scratch it. And the insides of the
walls are lined with the same thing."
"Do you think our people have been tortured, yet?" Verkan Vall asked.
"No." Stranor Sleth was positive. "They'll be fairly well treated, until the sacrifice. The
idea's to make them last as long as possible on the triangles; Muz-Azin likes to see a slow
killing, and so does the mob of spectators."
"That's good. Now, here's my plan. We won't try to rescue them from the dungeons.
Instead, we'll transpose back to the Zurb temple from the First Level, in considerable
force--say a hundred or so men--and march on the palace, to force their release. You're in
constant radio communication with all the other temples on this time-line, I suppose?"
"Yes, certainly."
"All right. Pass this out to everybody, authority Paratime Police, in my name, acting for
Tortha Karf. I want all paratimers who can possibly be spared to transpose to First Level
immediately and rendezvous at the First Level terminal of the Zurb temple conveyer as
soon as possible. Close down all mining operations, and turn over temple routine to the
native under-priests. You can tell them that the upper-priests are retiring to their
respective Houses of Yat-Zar to pray for the deliverance of the priests in the hands of
King Kurchuk. And everybody is to bring back his priestly regalia to the First Level; that
will be needed." He turned to Brannad Klav. "I suppose you keep spare regalia in stock
on the First Level?"
"Yes, of course; we keep plenty of everything in stock. Robes, miters, false beards of
different shades, everything."
"And these big Yat-Zar idols: they're mass-produced on the First Level? You have one
available now? Good. I'll want some alterations made on one. For one thing, I'll want it
plated heavily, all over, with collapsed nickel. For another, I'll want it fitted with antigrav
units and some sort of propulsion-units, and a loud-speaker, and remote control.
[Illustration:]
"And, Stranor, you get in touch with this swordmaker, Crannar Jurth, and alert him to
co-operate with us. Tell him to start calling Zurb temple on his radio about noon
tomorrow, and keep it up till he gets an answer. Or, better, tell him to run his conveyer to
his First Level terminal, and bring with him an extra suit of clothes appropriate to the role

of journeyman-mechanic. I'll want to talk to him, and furnish him with special equipment.
Got all that? Well, carry on with it, and bring your own paratimers, priests and mining
operators, back with you as soon as you've taken care of everything. Brannad, you come
with me, now. We're returning to First Level immediately. We have a lot of work to do,
so let's get started."
"Anything I can do to help, just call on me for it," Brannad Klav promised earnestly.
"And, Stranor, I want to apologize. I'll admit, now, that I ought to have followed your
recommendations, when this situation first developed."
* * * * *
By noon of the next day, Verkan Vall had at least a hundred men gathered in the big
room at the First Level fissionables refinery at Jarnabar, spatially co-existent with the
Fourth Level temple of Yat-Zar at Zurb. He was having a little trouble distinguishing
between them, for every man wore the fringed blue robe and golden miter of an
upper-priest, and had his face masked behind a blue false beard. It was, he admitted to
himself, a most ludicrous-looking assemblage; one of the most ludicrous things about it
was the fact that it would have inspired only pious awe in a Hulgun of the Fourth Level
Proto-Aryan Sector. About half of them were priests from the Transtemporal Mining
Corporation's temples; the other half were members of the Paratime Police. All of them
wore, in addition to their temple knives, holstered sigma-ray needlers. Most of them
carried ultrasonic paralyzers, eighteen-inch batonlike things with bulbous ends. Most of
the Paratime Police and a few of the priests also carried either heat-ray pistols or
neutron-disruption blasters; Verkan Vall wore one of the latter in a left-hand belt holster.
The Paratime Police were lined up separately for inspection, and Stranor Sleth, Tammand
Drav of the Zurb temple, and several other high priests were checking the authenticity of
their disguises. A little apart from the others, a Paratime Policeman, in high priest's robes
and beard, had a square box slung in front of