Gods of Riverworld Read Online Free PDF Page A

has simply worn out? It’s an artificial thing, but its life may end naturally, just as all synthetic things … and natural, too … end. The wathan is not a material entity, as we know material things, but that’s the point. We don’t really know if it’s material or not. It may be a form of matter unknown to us. Or a thing of pure energy. If so, a form of energy unknown to us. But how do you know that it may not change into another form, which your instruments cannot detect?”
    “It does! It does!” Loga had said. “Into the Undetectible! How else could you explain that the wathan only passes beyond the instrument range when the owner has reached a certain stage of ethical advancement? Those who don’t reach this stage may die again and again, but always, always, the wathans return to their resurrected bodies!”
    “There may be an explanation you haven’t thought of.”
    “Hundreds of thousands of minds greater than yours have tried to find another explanation, and they have failed.”
    “But one may yet come along who won’t fail.”
    “You’re depending upon faith now,” Loga had said.
    “No. Upon history, logic, and probability.”
    Loga had been upset, not because he was beginning to doubt his beliefs but because he feared that Burton would not Go On.
    As it had turned out, Loga was not going to Go On. His body-record had been destroyed, and he would no longer have the opportunity to attain that final goal. Yet … it was Loga’s own fault that he did not have that chance now. If he had not set the project on a different course, he would still be alive, and his body-record would insure that he could keep striving for that mysterious event known as Going On.
    Was the unknown who had committed Loga to oblivion an Ethical who had somehow survived Loga’s mass slaughter of his fellows? If he was, why didn’t he show himself? Was he afraid of the eight lazari ? Was he biding his time until he could kill them and raise them in The Valley where they could no longer interfere with the original design?
    Anyone who knew how to input override commands in the computer should not be afraid of the eight. But then perhaps the unknown knew something that the eight did not know yet but might find out. If that were so, the unknown would try to get rid of them as quickly as possible.
    However, it was possible that one—or more—of the eight might have made Loga vanish.
    Burton was thinking of this when Nur’s head appeared on a wall-screen. “I’d like to speak to you.”
    Burton gave the codeword that allowed Nur to see him.
    “What is it?”
    Nur was wearing a green turban, indicating that he had made the pilgrimage to Mecca. The choice of color was probably accidental, though, since the little Moor was not one to set store by such things. His long, straight black hair fell from under the cloth onto skinny brown shoulders. His narrow face was intense.
    “The inhibit input against resurrecting Monat and all the Ethicals and their agents still holds. I expected that. But something even more momentous has occurred!”
    He paused.
    Burton said, “Well?”
    “You know that Loga told us three weeks ago that he’d told the Computer to start resurrecting the eighteen billion in the records. We all assumed that it had been done. But it’s not so! Apparently, Loga changed his mind for some reason. Perhaps he intended to wait until we were out of the tower. Anyway, not a single person has been resurrected since then.”
    The shock silenced Burton for a moment.
    When he recovered, he said, “How many bodies are on hold now?”
    “As of now, eighteen billion, one million, three hundred and thirty-seven thousand, one hundred and ninety-nine. No. Now … two hundred and seven.”
    “I suppose you…?” Burton said.
    Nur, anticipating him, which he did with annoying frequency, said, “Yes. I ascertained that the Computer now has a reinforcing override from the unknown. The hold is still on.”
    “Just