"I'd like to talk to you and Tam right away," he said. "Something new's come up. And I'd like to bring Amid with me, unless there's an objection to it."
"I'll ask Tam." Ajela's face looked at him curiously out of the screen. "But I can't imagine any objection. Why don't you just bring him along to Tam's suite? If there's any problem with that, I can meet you at the door and explain to Amid."
"I'll be there as soon as I can collect him, then," said Hal.
When the two of them reached the suite, Ajela was waiting, holding the door open. Inside, Tam waved them to chairs.
"I'm afraid this is going to disrupt things," said Hal, sitting down. "I'm going to have to leave for a while - "
He glanced at Amid.
" - Taking Amid if he'll go."
He had said nothing of this to the old Exotic. Amid raised his eyebrows, very slightly, but said nothing.
"Also, I'm going to suggest we tighten security on the Encyclopedia right away. I'm afraid that means all visitors - visiting scholars included - should leave."
Tam frowned.
"The Encyclopedia's never been closed," he said. "Even back when it was on Earth's surface, down in St. Louis, it was always open to those who needed to use it and were qualified to come in."
"I don't think there's any alternative now, though," said Hal. "Otherwise, one of these days a human bomb is going to be walking through an entry port. Bleys can find people willing to give their lives to destroy the Encyclopedia. Closed, we're invulnerable. Only, we'd have to look to the supply situation."
"That was taken care of long ago," said Ajela. "Even in the beginning Mark Torre considered the chance that the Encyclopedia, being what it is, might be isolated one day. We're an almost perfect closed system, ecologically. The only thing we'd lack for the next half century is enough energy to see us through that much time. Closed up, we might go half a year to a year on stored power… but at the end of that time, we'd have to open irises to collect a fresh supply of solar energy. Of course, I can put Jeamus Walters to work on a way to get solar energy through the shield without opening up…"
"I don't think we need to worry about obvious physical attack from outside for some time, yet," said Hal. "But for everything else, the available time looks a lot shorter than I'd thought."
"That's what you found out from Bleys, was it?" Tam asked. "What did he say?"
"What he told me, effectively, was that he'd like me to resign myself to the fact that his people had already won - "
"Won!" said Tam.
"Unfortunately," Hal went on, "what he had to say about it agrees with what Amid came to tell me. Amid, why don't you tell Tam and Ajela?"
Amid did. When he was done, Tam snorted.
"Apologies, and all that," he said to Amid. "But I don't know you. How can I be sure you're not someone who belongs to Bleys Ahrens?"
"He isn't, Tam," said Ajela, softly. "I know who he is. He's the kind of Exotic who wouldn't be able to work on Bleys' side."
"I suppose," Tam growled, looking from her to Amid and back again. "You Exotics should know each other, of course. But as far as the Others already having won goes, though - well, what did you have in mind to do, Hal?"
"I'm going to have to go back to Harmony, to Mara or Kultis, and the Dorsai. It's become time to get our forces organized," said Hal. He turned to the small Exotic. "Amid, you were going to help me with communication. Can you get a message, now, to Harmony ahead of our own landing there? A message arranging a meeting for me with a Leader of one of the resistance Commands, named Rukh Tamani?"
Amid frowned.
"The Encyclopedia can put me in phone communication with the Exotic Embassy in Rheims, down on Earth, can't it?"
"Of course," said Ajela.
"Good. Let me see what I can do, then," Amid said. "If you'll excuse me, I'll go to that room you gave me and do my calling from there."
"Thank you," said Hal.
Amid smiled a little grimly, and went out.
"He's a sensitive listener," said Hal, after the door had closed behind the small man in the gray robe. "I think he understood I needed to talk to the two of you, alone."
"Of course he did," said Ajela. "But what was it you didn't want him to hear?"
"It's not exactly that I had a specific reason for not wanting him to hear," said Hal. "It's just that there's no particular reason for including him, yet; and until there is - "
"Very good. Quite right," said Tam. "When we know him better maybe it'll be different. But for now, let's keep private matters among the three of us. What was it you were going to tell us, Hal?"
"My conclusions about Bleys, and his visit," said Hal. "Bleys said he came here to see if I couldn't be brought to accepting the fact that his side had won; and I believe that actually was one of his reasons for coming. From which I judge that he's now ready to move against Earth; and that's why I feel the Encyclopedia's now in danger."
"Why?" demanded Tam. "What makes you suddenly think he's ready to move against Earth; and why should that suddenly put the Encyclopedia in danger?"
Hal looked from one to the other of them.
"I thought it was obvious. You don't see it?" he said. Ajela, beside Tam, shook her head. "Well, to begin with, you've got to realize that Bleys is completely honest in anything he says; because he feels he's above any need to dissimulate, let alone lie outright. He told me he'd hate to waste what I could do for the race; and since that's what he said, that's the way he must feel."
"How," demanded Tam, "do you know he's above any need to dissimulate?"
Hal hesitated.
"In some ways I understand him, instinctively," he answered. "In some ways, even, I think he and I are alike. That's one of the things I was forced to recognize in the Militia cell on Harmony, when I came to understand other things. I can't prove it to you - that I understand him. All I can do is ask you to take my word for it. What I'm sure of, in this instance, is that if he ever needed to dissimulate, he'd cease, in his own eyes, to be Bleys Ahrens. And being Bleys Ahrens is the most important thing in the universe to him. "
"Again," said Tam, "why?"
Hal frowned a little.
"Because he's nothing else. Surely that much has always been obvious about him?"
Tam was silent.
"Yes," said Ajela, slowly, "I think it always has been."
"So," said Hal. "Since he doesn't dissimulate and therefore he really was interested in saving me if he could, we're faced with the fact that that reason alone isn't strong enough to bring him here, now. Also, his main reason for coming, whatever else it is, isn't likely to have to do with the Encyclopedia, which he respects but doesn't fear. So it must have to do with Earth. Earth's always been the one world where the Others have been inexplicably ineffective with a majority of the populace."
"As opposed to the Exotics, the Friendlies and Dorsai, you mean?" said Ajela, "where the reasons are plain why most of the people there manage to resist that charismatic talent of the Others?"
"Exactly," said Hal. "The people of Old Earth as a whole never have had the sort of commitment to the ideals of their cultures as members of the three great splinter groups have. But in spite of this a majority of the people on Earth seem to be able to shrug off the charisma. The Others know they'll have to control Earth, eventually; but in spite of this mobilization of theirs for what looks like an orthodox military movement against their enemies, their natural preference isn't for that way of doing things. Neither Bleys nor any others of his kind want to spend any large part of their lifetimes playing at being generals. What they really want is to sit back among worlds already conquered and enjoy themselves. So, since Bleys is here now, it has to mean two things at least. One, that he's planning to move soon on Earth, in a non-military manner - since any military effort they could mount is at least logistically unready; and two, Bleys, himself, wanted a first-hand look at the situation there before that effort got under way."