A scuffling sound at the entrance to the room brought Twisp's attention around. He stared hard as two of the escort brought Chief Justice Ward Keel into the room, supporting him as he shuffled stiffly along.
Twisp was shocked. Keel looked near death. Where his skin was visible it was pale and moist. There was a glazed look in his eyes and they did not track together - one peering back toward the passage, the other looking down where he placed each painful step. Keel's neck, supported by that familiar prosthetic framework, still appeared unable to support the man's large head.
Nakano brought a low chair from the side and placed it carefully behind Keel. The escort eased Keel gently into the chair, where he sat a moment, panting. The escort departed.
"I'm sorry, Justice Keel," Gallow said, his voice full of practiced commiseration. "But we really must use what time we have. There are things that I require."
Keel raised his attention slowly, painfully to look up at Gallow. "And what Gallow wants, Gallow gets," Keel said. His voice came out faint and trembling.
"They say you have a digestion problem," Twisp said, looking down at the familiar figure of the Islander who had served so long as a center of topside life.
One of Keel's oddly placed eyes moved to take in Twisp, noting the long arms, the Islander stigmata. Twisp's Islander accent could not be denied.
"You are?" Keel asked, his voice a bit stronger.
"I'm from Vashon, sir. My name's Twisp, Queets Twisp."
"Oh, yes. Fisherman. Why're you here?"
Twisp swallowed. Keel's skin looked like pale sausage casing. The man obviously needed help, not this demanding confrontation with Gallow. Twisp ignored Keel's question and turned on Gallow.
"He should be in a hospital!"
A faint smile tugged at Gallow's mouth. "The Chief Justice has refused medical help."
"Too late for that," Keel said. "What's the purpose of this meeting, Gallow?"
"As you know," Gallow said, "Vashon is grounded near one of our barriers. They have survived a storm, but took severe damage. For us, they are now a sitting target."
"But you're trapped here!" Twisp said.
"Indeed," Gallow agreed. "But then, not all of my people are with me. Others are placed strategically throughout Merman and Islander society. They still do my bidding."
"Islanders work for you?" Twisp demanded.
"The C/P among them." Again, that faint smile touched Gallow's mouth.
"That's remarkable after what he did to Guemes," Keel said. He spoke almost normally, but the effort of sitting upright and carrying it off was apparent. Perspiration dotted his wide forehead.
Gallow pointed a finger at Twisp, eyes glittering. "You have Kareen Ale, fisherman Twisp! Vashon has Vata. I will have both!"
"Interesting," Keel said. He looked at Twisp. "You really have Kareen?"
"She's out there in our foil, just within the kelp line where Gallow and his people can't go."
"I think Nakano could go there," Gallow said. "Nakano?"
"Perhaps," Nakano said.
"The kelp passed him unmolested coming in here," Gallow said, smiling at Twisp. "Doesn't it appear likely that Nakano has immunity from the kelp?"
Twisp looked at Nakano, who once more stood passively at one side, obviously listening but not focusing his eyes on any of the speakers.
It came to Twisp then that Nakano did, indeed, belong to the kelp. The big Merman had made some kind of pact with the monster presence in the sea! To Twisp, Nakano appeared the embodiment of Merman killer-viciousness, all of it concealed within a warmly reasonable mask. Was that Nakano's value to the kelp? There could be no missing the fanatic's tone when Nakano spoke of the kelp.
"The kelp is my immortality." That was what Nakano had said.
"Really, there should be no need for violence and killing," Gallow said. "We are all reasonable men. You have things you want; I have things I want. Surely there must be some common ground where we can meet."
Twisp's thoughts darted back to that odd topside encounter with the carpenter, Noah. If that was really the kelp projecting hallucination into his mind, what was the purpose? What was the message?
Slaughter was wrong. Even if Ship commanded it, slaughter was wrong. Twisp had felt this strongly in Noah's manner and words.
The ark has grounded and the land no longer will be cursed by Ship. Twisp knew vaguely of the ark legend ... was there a message from Ship here, sent through the kelp?
Gallow, on the other hand, represented treachery, a man who would do anything to gain his ends. Did the C/P really work for him? If so, an evil pact had been forged.
And what if Noah was just hallucination? Nakano could be right: I might have been narced.
Nakano focused abruptly on Twisp and asked: "Why aren't you nauseated?"
It was such a startling question, suggesting Nakano had read Twisp's mind, that Twisp was a moment focusing on the possible implications.
"Are you also sick?" Keel asked, peering up at Twisp.
"I am quite well," Twisp said. He tore his gaze away from Nakano and looked more closely at Gallow, seeing the marks of self-indulgence in the man's face, the sly twist of the smile, the frown lines in the forehead, the downturned creases at the corners of the mouth.
Twisp returned then to the knowledge of what he had to do. Speaking slowly and distinctly, directing his words at Gallow, Twisp said: "The imagination of your heart has been evil from your youth."
Ship's words as reported by Noah came easily from Twisp's mouth and once he had said them, he felt their lightness.
Gallow scowled, then: "You're not much of a diplomat!"
"I'm a simple fisherman," Twisp said.
"Fisherman, but not simple," Keel said. A chuckle turned into a weak, dry cough.
"You think Nakano has immunity from the kelp," Twisp said. "I was his passport. Without me, he would have joined the others. He has told you about the others that the kelp drowned, hasn't he?"
"I tell you the kelp is out of control!" Gallow said. "We have loosed a monster on Pandora. Our ancestors were right to kill it off!"
"Perhaps they were," Twisp agreed. "But we'll not be able to do it again."
"Poisons and burners!" Gallow said.
"No!" The word was torn from Nakano. He glared at Gallow.
"We will only prune it back to manageable size," Gallow said, his voice soothing. "Too small a number to be conscious but large enough to preserve our dead forever."
Nakano nodded curtly but did not relax.
"Tell him, Nakano," Twisp ordered. "Could you really return to the foil without me?"
"Even if the kelp passed me, the crew probably wouldn't let me aboard," Nakano said.
"I don't see how you're going to sink Vashon when it's already aground," Keel said. A painful smile curved the edges of Keel's mouth.
"So you think I'm helpless," Gallow said.
Twisp glanced back at the open hatchway into the passage, the guards clustered there trying to make it appear that they were not listening.
"Don't your people know how you've trapped them?" Twisp demanded, his voice loud and carrying. "As long as you live, they're prisoners here!"
Blood suffused Gallow's face. "But Vashon -"
"Vashon is in a perimeter of kelp that you can't penetrate!" Twisp said. "Nobody you send against Vashon can get through!" He looked at Keel. "Mr. Justice, isn't that -"
"No, no," Keel husked. "Go on. You're doing fine."
Gallow made a visible attempt to control his anger, taking several deep breaths, squaring his shoulders. He said: "LTAs can -"
"LTAs are limited in what they can do," Nakano interrupted. "You know what happened to the one I was on. They are vulnerable."
Gallow looked at Nakano as though seeing the man for the first time. "Do I hear my faithful Nakano correctly?"