[“I hope you mean it. Because if you don’t, I think we’d better call this horse race off ’ right now and go our separate ways.” Clotho and Lachesis didn’t bother with the exchanged glance this time; they both nodded eagerly. Lachesis spoke, and he did so in a defensive tone of voice. These fellows, Ralph suspected, were a lot more pleasant to deal with than Atropos, but no more used to being questioned-to being put on their mettle, Ralph’s mother would have said-than he was.

[Everything we told you was true, Ralph and Lois. We may have left out the possibility that Atropos has a slightly greater understanding of the situation than we would really like, but-Ralph: [“What if we refuse to listen to any more of this nonsense?

What if we just turn and walk away?”] Neither replied, but Ralph thought he saw a dismaying thing in their eyes: they knew that Atropos had Lois’s earrings, and they knew he knew. The only one who didn’t know-he hoped-was Lois herself.

She was now tugging his arm.

[“Don’t do that, Ralph-Please don’t. We need to hear them out.

He turned back to them and made a curt motion for them to go on.

Lachesis: [Under ordinary circumstances, we don’t interfere with Atropos, nor he with us. We couldn’t interfere with him even if we wanted to,-the Random and the Purpose are like the red and blac squares on a checkerboard, defining each other by contrast. But Atropos does want to interfere with the way things operate-interferring is, in a very real sense, what he was made to do-and on rare occasions the opportunity to do so in a really big way Presents itself Efforts to stop his meddling are rare.”

Clotho: [The truth is actually a little stronger, Ralph and Lois,never in our experience has an effort been made to check or bar him.” Lachesis: [-and are made only if the situation into which he intends to meddle is a very delicate one, where many serious matters there is balanced and counterbalanced. This is one of those situations.

Atropos has severed a life-cord he would have done well to leave alone.

This will cause terrible problems on all levels, of to mention a serious imbalance between the Random and the Purpose, unless the situation is rectified. We cannot deal with what’s happening; the situation has passed far beyond our skills. We can no longer see clearly, let alone act. Yet in this case our inability to see hardly matters, because in the end, only Short-Timers can oppose the will of Atropos. That is why you two are here.] Ralph: [“Are you sayting that Atropos cut the cord of someone who was supposed to die a natural death… or a Purposeful death?”] Clotho: [Not exactly. Some lives-a very few-bear no clear designation. When Atropos touches such lives, trouble is always likely.

“All bets are off,” you say. Such undest’gnated lives are like-” Clotho drew his hands apart and an image-playing cards againflashed between them. A row of seven cards that were swiftly turned over, one after another, by an unseen hand. An ace; a deuce; a joker; a trey; a seven; a queen. The last card the invisible hand flipped over was blank.

Clotho: [Does this picture help?] Ralph’s brow furrowed. He didn’t know if it did or not. Somewhere out there was a person who was neither a regular playing card nor a joker in the deck. A person who was perfectly blank, up for grabs by either side, Atropos had slashed this guy’s metaphysical airhose, and now somebody-or something-had called a time-out.

Lois: [“It’s Ed you’re talking about, isn’t it?” Ralph wheeled around and stared at her sharply, but she was looking at Lachesis.

[“Ed Deepneau is the blank card.”] Lachesis was nodding.

[“How did you know that, Lois?”] [“Who else could it be?”] She wasn’t smiling at him, precisely, but Ralph felt the sense of a smile.

He turned back to Clotho and Lachesis.

[“Okay, at last we’re getting somewhere. So who flashed the red light on this deal? I don’t think it was you guys-I have an idea that on this one, at least, you two aren’t much more than the hired help.

They put their heads together for a moment and murmured, but Ralph saw a faint ocher tinge appear like a seam at the place where their green-gold auras overlapped and knew he was right. At last the two of them faced Ralph and Lois again.

Lachesis: [Yes, that is basically the case. You have a way of putting things in perspective, Ralph. We haven’t had a conversation like this in a thousand years-] Clotho: [If ever.] Ralph: [“All you have to do is tell the truth boys.”] Lachesis, as plaintively as a child: [We have been!] Ralph: [“The whole truth.” Lachesis: [All right,-the whole truth. Yes, it is Ed Deepneau’s cord Atropos cut.

We don’t know this because we have seen it-we’ve passed beyond our ability to see clearly as I said-but because it is the only logical conclusion. Deepneau is undesignated, neither of the Random nor of the

Purpose, that we do know, and his must have been some sort Of master-cord to have caused all this uproar and concern.

The very fact that he has lived so long after his life-cord was severed indicates his power and importance. When Atropos severed this cord, he set a terrible chain of events in motion.] Lois shivered and stepped closer to Ralph.

Lachesis: [You called us hired help. You were more right than you knew. We are, in this case, simply messengers. Our job is to make you and Lois aware of what has happened and what is expected of you, and that job is now almost done. As to zvbo “flashed the red light, “we can’t answer that question because we don’t really know.] E “I don’t believe you.”] But he heard the lack of conviction in his own voice (if it was a voice).

Clotho: [Don’t be silly-of course you do Would you expect thee, directors of a large automobile company to invite a lowly worker up to the boardroom so they could explain the reasons behind all the company’s policies? Or perhaps give him the details on why they decided to close one plant and leave another one open?] Lachesis: [We’re a little more highly placed than the men who work on automobile assembly lines, but we’re still what you would call “workingjoes,” Ralph-no more and no less.] Clotho: [Be content with this: beyond the Short-Time levels of exIstence and the Long-Time levels on which Lachesis, Atropos, and I exist, there are yet other levels. These are inhabited by creatures we could call All-Timers, beings which are either eternal or so close to it as to make no difference.

Short-Timers and Long-Timers live in overlapping spheres of existence-on connected floors of the same building, if you like-ruled by the Random and the Purpose. Above these floors, inaccessible to us but very much a part of the same tower Of existence, live other beings.

Some of them are marvelous and wonderful,-others are hideous beyond our ability to comprehend, let alone yours. These beings might be called the Higher Purpose and the Higher Random… or perhaps there is no Random beyond a certain level,we suspect that may be the case, but we have no real way of telling.

We do know that it is something from one of these higher levels that has interested itself in Ed, and that something else from up there made a countermove. That countermove is you, Ralph and Lois.] Lois gave Ralph a dismayed look that he hardly noticed. The idea that something was moving them around like chess-pieces in Faye Chapin’s beloved Runway 3 Classic-an idea that would have infuriated him under other circumstances-went right by him for the time being. He was remembering the night Ed had called him on the telephone. You’re drifting into deep water, he’d said, and there are things swimming around in the undertow you can’t even conceive of Entities, in other words.

Beings too hideous to comprehend, according to Mr. C and Mr. C. was a gentleman who dealt death for a living.

They haven’t really noticed you yet, Ed had told him that night, but if you keep fooling with me, they will. And you don’t want that.