Except for one. The gentle giant who was Raines's husband—Sam'l. He was listening to their talk with interest, but a part of his mind kept free. To soar with the flying creatures.
"Discovery is a remarkable thing," he said, a little dreamily. "There are stirring tales of beings who have dared and suffered much to succeed in their quest. I read those tales when I was a boy. It's probably why I became an archaeologist. So I could have adventures of my own."
Sten smiled. He quite liked this big, shambling man. And he had learned to listen with patience. Because Sam'l always had a point.
"And did you?" Sten asked.
"Oh, yes. Many. I shall bore you with them some night over more wine than is good for me. Because that's all they are good for... polite conversation.
"In fact, some of the greatest discoveries are found in museum basements. Incredible things. Astounding thoughts. Dumped in a heap to wait for several centuries until some bored student happens to paw through the mess."
"You're saying the answer is probably right in front of us," Sten said.
"Something like that," Sam'l answered. "Perhaps we just have to hold up what we already know. Turn it this way and that. Until we find the proper light to view it in."
"Where should we start?" Cind asked.
"Why not start with the element itself?" Sam'l said. "Anti-Matter Two."
"If it were gold, or iron, or even Imperium X," Cind said, "we'd have a pretty good idea where to look. We'd have the laws of planetary geology and three or four other sciences to go by."
"That's interesting all by itself," Haines said. "In other words—Anti-Matter Two has no counterpart in nature."
"Possibility one," Cind said, "is that AM2 comes from someplace in the universe that has yet to be found. By anyone except for the Emperor, that is. But that's sort of the assumption I've been going on. And that hasn't gotten me anywhere except very old, very cold trails."
"What about another universe?" Sam'l the dreamer suggested. "An alternate universe? That would explain why its structure has no counterparts in nature as we know it."
"I don't mean to be a wet blanket," Sten said, "but it was my impression that everyone who's dabbled in alternate-universe theory was pretty much of a strange-o. And that modern science agrees no such thing exists."
Haines stirred. "Mahoney had something in his files about that," she said. "I didn't pay much attention at the time."
"What did he have to say?" Sten asked.
"Nothing specific," Haines said. "Except he thought it was pretty interesting that the Emperor has always seemed to go out of his way to quash any research on alternate-universe theory. According to Mahoney, some very prominent scientists had their wings clipped for venturing into that area."
"Maybe I'd better wake up," Sten said, "and start paying more attention to some of lan's weirder ideas."
"Like the immortality business?" Haines laughed.
"Yeah. Exactly like that. Maybe one has something to do with the other."
"I like it," Sam'l said. "One answer for two. That always makes for an elegant solution."
"That's what Kyes was after," Cind said. "And he came pretty close."
"I don't know what hat the Emperor pulls his rabbit out of," Sten said. "He dies. He comes back. I'll ignore Haines's bit of intelligence that this time around maybe we're not dealing with exactly the same person. Just for a time, we'll put that aside, and stick to what we know.
"One... Each time he disappears, according to Mahoney, he's gone for about three years. It was six this last time, but I think we should put that aside as a one-time break in the record.
"Anyway, for three years no one hears or sees anything of him. Which means he must have a hideout. A hideout so secure that no one has found it for—I hate to say this—a couple of thousand years.
‘Two... Anti-Matter l'tvo comes from a place equally secure. Equally hidden. The privy council found out how well hidden it was, to their extreme bad luck."
"It would be stupid to use two different places to accomplish pretty much the same thing," Cind said.
"One thing the Emperor isn't," Haines said, "is stupid."
"So if we find one," Sten said, "then that should give us the other."
"Are we still considering the possibility of an alternate universe?" Sam'l asked.
Sten shrugged. "Good as anything else."
"Actually, for our purposes it's far better than most things," Sam'l said. "The Emperor would need an entrance and an egress. A door, so to speak. A gateway between universes."
"Yeah?" Sten looked at him. Blank.
"If I recall my undergraduate physics," Sam'l said, "the kind of gateway we are discussing would cause a disturbance in the cosmic background. A discontinuity, I believe it is called."
Sten got it. He said, "Finally, we're talking about something you can measure. Instead of never-never lands and spooky supposition. If there's a blip in the cosmic background, we have a chance of finding it."
"Except, we don't know which way to look," Haines pointed out. "It's a big sky. We could spend a lot of forevers checking it out, bit by bit."
"I'm not so sure about that," Cind said.
They all looked at her. Praying for a break.
"There were several places Kyes was interested in he hadn't checked out yet," she said. "They were areas Kyes suspected might be safehouses on the path the Emperor takes when he returns. All my own progs confirm he was correct to suspect them. They fit the profile."
"I think we should correlate your stuff with Mahoney's," Haines told Cind. "Ian was working a lot of the same angles."
"Good idea," Cind said. She smiled at Haines. She quite liked her. And as Sten's former lover, Haines reflected well on Cind's own good taste.
"If this were a homicide case," Haines continued, "which this is, in an awful sort of way—once I figured out where the crime was plotted, I'd tie into die com lines. Bug the clot out of the place. And wait for the suspect to call. When he did, all I'd have to do is trace it."
"Sticking to your analogy, my love," Sam'l said, stroking his wife's hand, "I'd guess you wouldn't have to wait. The line would be continuously open, assuming that everyone's theories dovetail. The Emperor would need to maintain communication with his hideout... and, Darling, have you ever noticed you've now got me talking like some kind of livie cop? Also, wouldn't there be some kind of open link to a relay station, like the one Kyes evidently came to grief at? There must be more than one of those—the Emperor doesn't depend on chance any more than, say, Schliemann did."
Sten forced calm. He didn't want to jinx the moment. "It's at least worth checking out," he said.
"It's better than that," Cind said. "All my instincts are ring-big bells that this is the way to go."
"Go with them, then," Haines said. "Instinct is what separates the rookies from the pros."
Sam'l broke into the flow in his hazy, dreamy way. "I keep wondering," he said, "what our lives would be like if AM2 could be copied and manufactured—like many of the common elements. How different things might have turned out, if you could brew it up as easily as our hosts, the Bhor, brew stregg."
His lips curved into irony. "But I suppose it's highly unlikely such a thing is possible. To actually synthesize AM2, I mean. My college text, if I recall correctly, said even if this were a possibility, the expense would make the whole thing an exercise in futility."
"Mahoney didn't think so," Haines said.
Sten jumped. "What?"
"I said, Mahoney didn't think so. He had a lot of stuff in his files on synthetic AM2. Under the heading of
Disinformation. I've only just started to go through them."
She tapped her head, shaking her memory. "There was something in particular in one of the files. Something Mahoney wanted to bring to your attention."