“Including you,” Marquoz noted.
He nodded sourly. “Yeah, that, too. Did him precious little good, though. Did him in, maybe—almost me, too. Well, anyway, Obie was once hooked into the Well, so he knows how it works—how it’s programmed, anyway, which is more than I do. He decided to run the entire population of Olympus through the big dish to meet his specifications and some others, too, ourselves included. We got the treatment—somehow, Obie reconstructed you and Mavra and Yua, for example, to come out as certain specific creatures when put through the Well. Also the rest of the Nautilus crew, most of whom were sent ahead here to make the initial preparations. We had to buy the ships, scout the terrain, that sort of thing. The key to the plan turned out to be Gypsy, who, among other things, could somehow make himself into the spitting image of anybody he wanted.”
“Who—or what—is Gypsy, Brazil?” Marquoz wanted to know. “I thought I picked him up on a backwater, even though there were always a lot of odd things about him.”
Brazil slowly shook his head. “I know, I know. But, to tell you the absolute truth, I haven’t the slightest idea as to the answer. I’d love to know myself. I think Obie knew, but he didn’t tell anyone. At least Gypsy’s on our side and is a key to the plan. His power, if that’s the best word for it, is the ability to somehow use the Well powers by sheer force of will. I’ve figured out that much, anyway. Like a little Obie, he can tap the whole thing, but only in regards to himself. He can’t zap you or me other places or alter our appearances.”
“Like a little Markovian, you mean,” Asam put in. “Sounds to me like he’s just exactly what they had in mind.”
Brazil considered that. “In a way, I guess you’re right. He can do just about what any average Markovian could have done, and if he had a full Markovian brain around to tap, to use as an amplifier for that, he could probably do whatever they did.”
“He has the whole damned Well of Souls,” Marquoz pointed out.
Brazil shook his head. “Uh uh. That isn’t the way it works. It’s a different kind of machine, run in a different way and for a different purpose.”
“Mavra figured, when we learned that it wasn’t you that dropped her off on that Markovian planet, that Obie had made a double of Gypsy while Gypsy played you,” Asam told him.
“Wouldn’t work,” he replied. “Oh, Obie could make a construct that looked like Gypsy, but not one that would hold up among friends and associates for any length of time. No, I suspect that when you saw Gypsy you were seeing what Gypsy wanted you to see and hear. I think he has that much power. And when he reached the Markovian planet he had enough reserve force from its own computer brain to maintain the illusion even after he left.”
“You’re supposed to be a Markovian,” Asam noted. “Couldn’t you spot another one? If there’s one, why not two?”
He shook his head. “No, I don’t think that’s the answer. It’s possible, but highly unlikely. Somehow I have the gut feeling that the answer to Gypsy’s mystery is right in front of us, simple, logical, obvious, but we can’t see it. It really doesn’t matter, except that it’ll drive me crazy someday. The fact is that he can do what he can do and Obie used that.”
Marquoz looked at the small man strangely. “If Gypsy can do those things, why can’t you?”
“Because I’m not a Markovian and I don’t have the slightest idea how the system works,” he replied quickly. “That doesn’t mean I can’t fix the problem— I know which buttons to push, so to speak. Except for that I’m really not much different from either of you. I can’t see the Markovian energy, can’t feel anything special, nor can I use the power. I have power only inside the machine—and, even there, I’m the computer operator, not a designer. There’s a big difference.”
“Sounds like you’re runnin’ yourself down, son,” Asam commented. “A whole lot of people have fought and died for you.”
“Or something,” he responded glumly. “No, there’s nothing particularly special about me, Asam. I couldn’t even accept responsibility in Mavra’s case. I palmed off this inconvenient child on others. She’s really got a case against me, I guess.”
“Not feelin’ a little guilt on that, are you?” the centaur prodded.
Brazil chuckled. “No, Asam, not really. The truth is, if I let guilt get to me, I’d be truly insane. Maybe I am, anyway, but I just can’t feel much anymore. I have simply been alive too long. Much too long.”
“Bitter?” Marquoz asked him.
“Not bitter. Just tired. Very, very tired, Marquoz. You can’t believe what it’s like to live day after day, year after year, century after century, for uncounted centuries. I’m a foolish, foolish man, Marquoz. I did this to myself. I chose it, freely, without turning a hair or doubting a second. But nobody, nobody can imagine how horribly lonely it is. Lonely and dull. Races don’t mature overnight; they do it over thousands of years. And you wait, and you watch everybody you cared about grow old and turn to dust, and mankind goes forward maybe a millimeter or less every century or two. Finally you decide you want out, decide you can’t take it any more—and you can’t get out. You’re trapped, absolutely.”
“Gypsy told us you might kill yourself once you fixed the Well,” Asam said uneasily. “Sounds like he wasn’t far off the mark.”
Brazil smiled bitterly. “It all depends, Asam. That’s the only place I can do it, but I can’t unless there’s somebody to take over the watch, assume the responsibility.”
The Dillian suddenly reached down and gripped Brazil tightly in iron fists. “Not Mavra! You won’t do that to Mavra!” he growled.
Brazil reached up and peeled the angry centaur’s hands from his shoulder. “I won’t do that to anyone, Asam,” he said gently. “I couldn’t do it. All I can do is offer choices. That’s all anybody in this life gets— choices. I’m the only one in the whole damned universe with no choices, really, at all.”
There wasn’t much to say to that, so Marquoz brought him back to the original subject. “Well, so what’s the plot of this crazy business?”
Brazil looked up at Asam and rubbed his shoulder a little. “Look, Colonel, got one of your cigars? I’ve been going crazy with these damned cheap bastard cigarettes trying to convince you I was Gypsy.”
Asam went over to his pack, rummaged around, found two, threw one to him and stuck the other in his mouth. Marquoz watched them light up mournfully, wanting nothing more than to join them and no longer having the suction in his mouth to manage it.
“I’ll just sniff yours,” he moped.
Settled down again, Brazil continued the story, explaining things up to this point. “Now, two nights hence, Gypsy’s going to deliberately expose himself as me,” he told them. “That’ll lead them to the correct conclusion that the one they know about is the real one. And I’ll still be here—sort of.”
Marquoz nodded. “I think I see. Gypsy will use those powers of his to come here instantly. Brazil will make his usual appearances—only you’ll be gone. They’ll think they have the correct one and they’ll move in for the kill.”