The older Dushau looked at the younger, and an immense chasm opened. "We can't do it without you."

Prey's eyes went to Krinata. "She hasn't agreed."

Fixing Krinata with his eyes, Jindigar asked, "Arlai, could your scurry insert a message in the food delivered to the other cells?"

Comprehension dawned on Arlai, who nodded and asked, "Could you? With just three?" Krinata was bewildered.

"If Frey agrees and Krinata is willing to try."

"What?" asked Krinata at last, sensing that the test she had just undergone was by no means ultimate.

"Zinzik is driving us all to the brink of the unthinkable," said Jindigar. "If there's any hope of saving Desdinda and, and everything, then this is the least immoral of our options."

"What?" demanded Krinata.

THIRTEEN

Predator

"Krinata," said Jindigar, twisting his long fingers together and contemplating the tangle, "the insights you experienced into Zinzik's attitude and function were no fantasy. I didn't realize ... I don't know how I could have missed it. But I did. It was very unprofessional."

She put her hand on his knee. "Jindigar," she prompted.

He searched her eyes. Storm and Frey watched silently. "I didn't feel you tie into us. Please believe, the first I knew of it was when you looked directly at me—something about weighing relative values. I don't know what you were evaluating. Right then, I sliced it off. I wouldn't endanger you, certainly not without your consent." He broke into some obscure Dushauni self-condemning invective.

It finally dawned on her. Not imagining that? It was real? It was the Oliat experience? But there was no time to think about it now. Jindigar had a plan to get them out of here, and he was disintegrating before her eyes. She gripped both his hands firmly, calmly.

"Jindigar, that little vision you gave me saved my life. I couldn't have—I couldn't. I'm sorry my cowardice put Desdinda on the spot, and I'm sorry she couldn't brazen it out. But being sorry won't get us out of this. Your plan—however wild—might. I'm willing to try anything. You can only die once, and I don't want to be meat for Zinzik's perverted tortures. I'd rather go down fighting." -

"You don't know what you're asking. Every time you've done something for me, you've nearly gotten killed in some gruesome way. This would be the worst of all."

She tried to be hard and commanding. "Let's hear your plan and let me judge whether I'll go for it. And let Frey judge whether he'll go for it. You're not our elected conscience, you know."

The Dushau looked at her strangely. Frey shrugged, a beautiful rendition of the gesture, that said Krinata had just made self-evident all the arguments against the scheme. "Jindigar, you can't be serious. No Ephemeral ever—"

"Do you know how many things I've done in my life that had never been done before?" asked Jindigar rhetorically. "Besides, she's right. We've nothing to lose but integrity and self-respect, and Zinzik will snatch those before killing us." He looked to Frey, leaving his hands in Krinata's possession. "You have the most to lose. You understand part of the theory, and some of the risks. Are you willing to become an Invert? It's a long life ahead of you, boy—"

"Not if I don't risk it." He returned Jindigar's look with a sudden fright. "You're only planning to invert a triad subform, aren't you?"

"Well, Desdinda could invade and tetrad. With her monumental lack of ability, that could leave us all insane. I doubt she even understands subform theory, let alone—"

"With Krinata as our weakest leg, that—"

"Krinata would be our strength in that case. She'll crumble if we drift, and she'd be especially vulnerable to disruption– remember how your first duad was? And if either of you get anywhere near the Archive, you'll be lost forever. I don't want to catalogue all the horrors. If we've decided to do it, let's not dwell on failure. There is one, narrow, path to success. Let's concentrate on that alone."

"That sounds sensible," agreed Krinata. "Now—"

"But first," interrupted Jindigar, "I must be sure you realize

you're risking not just your life, but your sanity, your health,

and your reputation—not to mention ethical principles—or

endangering your immortal soul"

"We don't have all night. Just tell us what we're doing!" demanded Krinata. She shuddered at the visions of horror he conjured. Nothing like that was going to happen. "You're acting as if you're seducing me into black magic!"

Jindigar flinched. "Allowing for cultural and species differences, yes, you could put it that way."

It was Frey who told her. "He's going to be anchor for an Inverted Triad. That's a subset of Oliat Offices used to affect the environment, not just perceive it. I've only done a few triads. I'm not at all well trained in it. I've never Inverted. You'll have to be Focus, of course—that's an Inverted Outreach—"

"No," said Jindigar. "She wouldn't last three seconds. She has a bit of talent, but has never balanced. She didn't invade and triad us, Frey, she was leeching us. Unchecked, she'd have had both of us episodic in a matter of minutes. You will have to Focus. If I can hold you steady, you've the strength to carry the energies, and you've experience as sub-Outreach. Krinata's a natural Conceptor."

To her, he explained, "That's an Inverted Receptor. The basic talent is a vivid visual imagination. You will conceptualize—imagine–the snapfield fading, the bars retracting. Frey will take the image, plus the raw energy I provide as Anchored Inverter, and focus it externally, making it happen. It's a terrible thing to do to him—"

"Not as terrible as letting Zinzik have his way," answered Krinata, finally beginning to understand this bogeyman they'd built up. And just as she'd thought, there was nothing to it. It was a form of group psychokinesis, something that some people could do under laboratory conditions, and a few species could do in the field. It wasn't any kind of magic, especially not "black."

"You're both determined, then?" asked Jindigar.

When they assented, he turned to Storm. "It will be like an Oliat that's lost its Outreach. You won't be able to communicate with us, and you'll have to protect us—Krinata most of all– from anything that might disrupt her concentration. If she wanders, she'll go down and we'll all go down. As soon as the doors open, I'll attempt to shift offices to Dissolver, that's an Inverted Protector, but that's what it takes to dismantle one of these triads. I'm not sure if I can do that on the move. You four will have to get us moving and keep us moving. Carry us, if necessary, all the way to the landing bay. If I can do it, we should be dissolved when we reach the yacht. If I fail, we may all be dead. If Desdinda invades..."

"We're not dwelling on negatives, remember?" interrupted Krinata. "When do we start?"

They began preparations, Jindigar arranging every detail. While the Lehiroh studied the route to the yacht, Jindigar entrusted Rita to Storm's care, composed messages to send to the other cells, gave Arlai specific instructions on enthralling the yacht's Sentient, woke Bell and briefed her, made Krinata get dressed and stare at the array of cells they could make out obliquely from their own until she could see it with her eyes closed, and gave Frey some exercises.

"All right, now," said Jindigar grimly, "let's see if we can work a proper subform: Krinata as sub-Receptor; you as sub-Outreach; me, sub-Center. We must know when the others get the messages. All the cells look just like this one. You know who is in each cell. Krinata, you're going to see for us, what is going on among the others."

He had them settle down, himself supine, one leg crooked, one arm thrown over his eyes. Frey sat against the wall, his legs arched over Jindigar's feet, and Krinata curled up by the snapfield, where she could see a bit of shaftway and other snapfields. Presently, she felt a slight pressure on her forehead—no, Jindigar's arm on his own forehead. Then there was a field of indigo darkness—no, Frey seeing the cell lights through closed eyelids.