“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.
Believe me, you don’t, Lois: [“How did you get us up to this level in the first place? It was the insomnia, wasn’t it?”] Lachesis, cautiously: [Essentially, yes. We’re able to make certain small changes in Short-Time auras. These adjustments caused a rather special form of insomnia that altered the way you dream and the way you perceive the waking world. Adjusting Short-Term auras is delicate, frightening work. Madness is always a danger.] Clotho: [At times you may have felt that you were going mad, but neither of you was ever even close. You’re much tougher, both of you, than you give yourself credit for.] These assholes actually think they’re being comforting, Ralph marvelled, and then pushed his anger away again. He simply had no time to be angry now. Later, maybe, he could make up for that. He hoped so. For now he simply patted Lois’s hands, then turned to Clotho and Lachesis again.
[“Last summer, after he beat his wife up, Ed spoke to me of a being he called the Crimson King. Does that mean anything to you fellows?”] Clotho and Lachesis exchanged another look, one which Ralph at first mistook for solemnity.
Clotho: [Ralph, you must remember that Ed is insane, existing in a delusional state-” [“Yeah, tell me about it.”] “but we believe that his “Crimson King” does exist in one form or another, and that when Atropos cut his life-cord, Ed Deepneau falls directly under this being’s influence.] The two little bald doctors looked at each other again, and this time Ralph saw the shared expression for what it really was: not solemnity but terror.
A new day had dawned-Thursday-and was now brightening its way toward noon. Ralph couldn’t tell for sure, but he thought the speed with which the hours were passing down there on the Short-Time level was increasing; if they didn’t wrap this thing up soon, Bill McGovern wouldn’t be the only one of their friends they outlived.
Clotho: [Atropos knew that the Higher Purpose would send someone to try to change what he has set in motion, and now he knows who. But you must not allow yourselves to be sidetracked by Atropos,you must remember that he is little more than a pawn on this board.
It is not Atropos who really opposes you.] He paused and looked doubtfully at his colleague. Lachesis nodded for him to go on, and he did so confidently enough, but Ralph felt his heart sink a little, just the same. He was sure the two bald doctors had the best of intentions, but they were pretty clearly flying on instruments, just the same.