At length the launch clamped against the side of his ship and he passed through his airlock and into the cramped cabin of the launch. Quickly it cruised over to the Game Ship and eased sideways into a receiving bay. The great outer doors closed down swiftly and Asquiol stepped out to be greeted by Lord Mordan.
'Perhaps,' he said, 'with your aid, Asquiol…'
But Asquiol shook his iridescent head. 'I have little special power,' he said. 'I can only hope that my aid will help the Gamblers to hang on a little longer.'
'There is something else. Selinsky wants to see you. It appears that all four of those people who came in from the Shifter have some kind of group-power…'
They were striding along the corridors, their boots clanging on metal.
Asquiol said, 'I'll speak to Selinsky now.'
He stopped as Mordan paused beside a door. 'This is Selinsky's lab.'
'Is he in?'
Mordan turned a stud and entered. Selinsky looked up, blinking as Asquiol followed Mordan in.
'An honour…' he said, half-cynically.
'Lord Mordan tells me, professor, that you are on to some new development?'
'Yes, that's so. The woman - Mary Roffrey. She's not only sane now, she's… what? Super-sane! Something was done to her mind on Roth. The whole nature of it altered. It is very different from anyone else's - except, perhaps…'
'Mine?' Asquiol felt excitement creeping through him. 'Is she, then, like me - as you see me?'
Selinsky shook his head. 'She seems perfectly normal - until you analyse her brain structure. She's what we need, all right.'
Asquiol was beginning to see the pattern now. Was this woman the missing piece in his existence? Had the Originators done something to her brain in order to form her into what she potentially was - a weapon? He could only guess.
Selinsky said: 'She wasn't a product of the alien attack at all. She was a product of more than just a series of madness-inducing hallucinations on Roth. Something or somebody had actually tampered with her brain. It's the most delicately balanced thing I've ever seen!'
'What do you mean?' Asquiol asked.
'One way - utter madness; the other way - unguessable sanity.' Selinsky frowned. 'I'd hate to be in her position. We've got her doing a quick training course with O'Hara at the moment. But playing the Game could ruin her mind for good, tip the balance once and for all.'
'You mean she'd be completely insane?'
'Yes.'
Asquiol pondered. 'We must use her,' he said finally. 'Too much is at stake.'
'Her husband is against the idea, but she seems to be taking it all right.'
'He's the trouble-maker - Roffrey,' Mordan interposed.
'Will he give trouble in this business?'
'He seems resigned,' Selinsky said. 'A strange mood for him. Playing the Game seems to have wrought a change in him. Not surprising…'
'I must see her,' Asquiol said with finality, turning to leave the laboratory.
They began the long walk down the corridor to the Game Chamber.
Now Asquiol wanted to see Mary Roffrey - wanted to see her desperately. As he strode along, his mind worked quickly.
Ever since he and Renark had gone to the Shifter, their paths had crossed indirectly. He had never met her - yet she had been the person to supply Renark with a lot of important information without which they might never have reached the Originators. What was she? Some puppet of the Originators which they were using to aid the race? Or was she something more than a puppet?
She must be the missing factor in his own existence. Yet obviously she had no direct contact with the multiverse. She had the power to strike devastatingly back at the aliens - and he had no comparable power. There were things that linked them, yet there were qualities that separated them also. It was as if they both represented certain abilities which Man was capable of possessing. She had something he didn't have - he had something she didn't have. How similar were they?
This, perhaps, he would find out in a moment.
He went over in his mind the information he had. Mary's mind had been primarily responsible for disorientating the aliens in a wild round of the Game. At that stage she had acted as a conductor for the rest. All of them having been on Roth, they were probably that much more capable of fighting the aliens than anyone else in the fleet. Therefore they would use the other three as well as Mary.
But uppermost in his mind was what Selinsky had just told him.
Mary's mind could improve - or snap irreparably under the stress of this last round.
He knew what he would have to do now. But it was a heavy weight. As he contemplated it, the light around him seemed to fade, become colder and less frenetic in its movement. Sadness, such as he had never thought to experience again, filled him, and he fought it unsuccessfully.
He might, in essence, have to murder a woman - and cut himself off from the power she possessed. The power that was part of him as well as of her.
It was getting late - too late for anything but immediate action. The time of the last round was approaching.
They reached the door of the Game Chamber…
EIGHTEEN
In the main chamber, Mary was seated between Willow and listening to the man's briefing. Around them, the other Gamblers were readying themselves for the last round. They looked ill at ease and weary. Many of them did not look up even when Asquiol came in, flinging the door of the chamber open and striding quickly across the great room. The light flowed about the many facets of his body and streamed away behind him. Mary turned round and saw him.
'You!' she said.
A look of puzzlement crossed Asquiol's face. 'We've met?' he said. 'I don't remember.'
'I saw you with Renark several times - on Roth.'
'But we left Roth ages ago!'
'I know - but Roth is a strange planet. Time is non-existent there. Anyway, it wasn't only that.'
'Then how else did you recognise me?'
'I've sensed you've been here all the time. Even before we reached the fleet, I think.'
'But obviously you do not exist, as I do, in the entire multiverse. What could the link be, I wonder?' Then he smiled. 'Perhaps our mutual friends the Originators could tell us.'
'Probably it's simpler than that,' Mary replied. The sense of empathy with Asquiol was like nothing she had ever experienced before. 'Because we have seen them and gained from the contact, we recognise it in each other.'
'Very likely.' He nodded, then suddenly noticed that Willow was staring at him, her eyes full of tears. He took control of himself and said briskly: 'Well, we had better get ready. I'm going to be in control of this project. You, Mary, will work under my direction using - as power, as it were - the other three, Roffrey, Talfryn and Willow. It's quite simple - a sort of gestalt link.'
She looked at the others, who had crossed the room from where Selinsky and his team were working on a mechanism. 'Did you hear that?' Adam had the look of a dumb beast in pain as he stared at her for a moment before dropping his eyes.
'We heard it,' he said. 'All of it.'
She glanced at Asquiol as if seeking his advice, but he couldn't help her. Both of them were now in a similar position - Mary with Roffrey and Asquiol with Willow.
The time was nearing, Mary felt, when she would have to sever her ties with her husband.
The time had passed, Asquiol reflected, when he and Willow could have been united by the common bond which he and Mary possessed.
As they looked at one another, they seemed to convey this without need of speech.
O'Hara interrupted them:
'Get ready, everyone! Remember, we need an overwhelming win in the round that is to follow. This round will be the last we have to play. Winning it must be decisive!'