Project Pope

— We understand, said Whisperer, and as he spoke the words, the answer he had given appeared as a brief and simple equation on the surface of the rose-red equation person, printed there, thought Jill, so that the other cubes might know the answer that Whisperer had made.

It's all damn foolishness, thought Te

Now another equation was forming slowly on the rose-red blackboard and Te

They stood in a central plaza, and all around them reared the soaring towers. Celestial music came down upon them from the towers, enveloping them so that all the world seemed music. The paving of the plaza was gold, or at least gold color, and the towers were shining white, so shining and so white that they seemed illuminated by a light within them. There was a holiness, or what appeared a holiness, and it all was sanctified.

Te

'What's the matter? asked Jill. She stepped away from Te

'There is something wrong, isn't there? she asked. 'For one thing, there is no one here.

'For another, said Te

It was true, she saw. And there weren't any windows. In all the soaring height of the towers, there weren't any windows.

'There are no windows, she said. 'You'd think there would be windows.

A chill breeze came blowing down the plaza and Te

There were, he saw, between the towers, what seemed to be narrow streets. Here, he thought, they must stand at the heart of the city, if it was a city. He looked up at the towers and realized that they were much taller than he at first had thought they were. They rose high into the blue, so high that the last glitter of them was lost in the blueness of the sky. At first, too, he had thought that there were many buildings, each one supporting its individual tower, but now it appeared possible that there might be only one building, enclosing the sprawling square in which they stood, with the towers placed at regular intervals. What he had thought of as narrow streets between the separate buildings might be no more than tu

The building (or buildings) was of flawless white that did not have the look of stone. It had the look of ice, ice frozen from the purest water, ice with no air bubbles or other imperfections in it. That couldn't be, he told himself. If this great structure was not stone, neither was it ice.

All the time the music poured in upon them, engulfing them, seeping into them — an indescribable music that made one think it was more than music, or music raised to a poignancy no human composer had ever quite achieved.

Whisperer spoke to them.

— This place, he said, is not as empty as it seems. There are many here. This place teems with life.

As if on signal, life appeared.

Out of one of the narrow streets (or tu

The worm emerged — it continued coming out, the long, thick body tracking behind the armored head. Once a fair length of it was out, it began to elevate its front end higher off the ground. Slender jointed legs that had been flattened to enable it to pass through the tu

As more of it emerged, it began to turn toward those who were standing in the plaza. Te

Then all the worm was out of the tu

The worm changed its direction again, angling away, back toward the structure of towering white. Its movement appeared to be purposeful. It gave no indication it had noticed those who were in the plaza.

It cams to a halt under one of the eight-foot-high mouse holes and reared up. Its forward legs caught hold of the edge of the hole and began to lever itself into it. They watched as the worm drew its entire body through the hole and disappeared.

Te

'Let's have a look, he said. 'Let's see what we can see.

They found out very little. The narrow streets did turn out to be tu

'They're tension doors, said Te

'The worm came through it, said Jill.

'The worm probably is much stronger than the two of us. They may be exclusively worm doors. The worms may be the only things that have the strength to open the doors.

'We're fairly sure, said Jill, 'that this place is not Heaven. But we have no proof. We can't just go back and say it isn't Heaven. Before we go back, we must have proof. If I only had a camera.

— We had to hold down weight, said Whisperer. We knew not what we'd find. We travel light and fast.

— What think our equation friends of this? asked Te

— They stand much amazed.

— So do we, said Jill.

'Maybe photographs alone, said Te

They made a circuit of the square and found nothing else. 'We're trapped in here, said Jill, 'with only one way out, those mouse holes that the worms use. We could have Whisperer float over all of this and see what's on the other side. There must be another side.

'So could the equation folk, said Te

Far down the plaza another worm came out of a tu

'I'm not certain I would want to use one of those holes, said Jill. 'All that ever seems to go through them are worms.

'The worms seem to have little interest in us.