GODS OF RIVERWORLD

It was possible to keep Loga drugged. Burton, however, doubted that the Ethical could survive thirty-three years in that state. It was useless to ask the Computer to display Loga's memory so that Burton could locate Loga's hidden-body recordings. The Computer would have orders from Loga not to reveal these.

Burton stopped, and he smiled. There was a way out.

Working out the plan took two days, since he had to be very careful. One mistake, and Loga might win out after all.

He ordered the Computer to make a modified android that looked exactly like Loga and had a voice exactly like his. Inside the skin, the android matched Loga except for the brain structure, which was much simpler than Loga's. If the android had been a one hundred percent duplicate, it would, in many respects, have been the Ethical and would have behaved as he would. The only difference, and it was a great difference, was that the android would have lacked self-consciousness.

Burton verbally programmed it in the speech of the Ethicals and then had it transmit his orders to the Computer. The Computer matched the voiceprints, electric skin field, face and body shape, skin, hair and eye color, ear shape, and the chemical composition of the odors of perspiration with Loga's prints. It also sca

Unfortunately, despite everything else, the Computer refused to obey the android unless the proper codeword was given.

"That's very frustrating," Burton told the others. "One word or perhaps a phrase is all that's blocking it. It might as well be a million words."

No one said anything; all looked gloomy. Even Li Po was silent for once.

After two minutes, Alice, who had been frowning and biting her lip, said, "I know that none of you believe in feminine intuition. I don't either, not as it's usually defined. I think it's a form of logic that doesn't follow the rules of logic, Aristotelian or symbolic. I don't think that feminine intuition, call it that or something else, is confined to women. Oh, what am I talking about?"

"Yes, what are you talking about?" Burton said.

"It's such a silly idea, so wild. I'd be making an utter ass of myself!"

"Anything will be appreciated," Burton said. "I promise not to laugh."

"None of us will," Frigate said. "Anyway, what's the difference if we do?"

"It's just that there's no rhyme or reason to it," she said. "Well, perhaps there is some reason to it. Loga is such a trickster, and he does like to play games, rather childish, I think, but there it is."

"There is what?" Burton said.

"It's such an improbability. The odds against it are fantastically high. But ... I don't know. It couldn't hurt to try. It wouldn't take much time."

"For God's sake, what?" Burton said.

"Well, do you remember what Loga cried out just before he cracked? Seemed to crack, I mean."

" I tsab u,' " Burton said. "Ethical for 'Who are you?' "

"Yes. Could Loga have been giving us a clue, the real codephrase? He would have been very amused doing that because there was no chance that we would ever use it. We just simply could not ever find out that it was the open-sesame, the most important identification. Yet he couldn't resist saying it. We'd think that he was addressing the person who had killed him, a person we now know didn't exist. And at the same time ..."

"He'd have to be crazy to play with us like that," Burton said.

"Well?"

"It's nuts, but it'd only take a minute," Frigate said. "What do we have to lose? Besides, Alice may be rather quiet, but she does have a keen insight into individual psychology."

"Thank you," Alice said. "I wasn't very good at reading people's characters when I came to the Riverworld, but I had to develop that talent to survive."

They went into the room where the android was sleeping. Burton awoke it gently and gave it a cup of coffee. Then he slowly and carefully told the android what it must do. Once more, it stood in front of the screen on the wall, and it said, " I tsab u."

The screen flashed the characters of the Ethical alphabet.

"That means 'ready,' " Burton said.

The android then told the Computer that it was transferring prime control to Burton. But the Computer refused to do that.

"Now what?" Frigate muttered.

Burton called the android to him and told him to go into the corridor with him. Though he did not know if that precaution was necessary, he could not afford to take chances. Having instructed the android what to say, he watched from the doorway as it relayed his commands. And the Computer obeyed.

They cheered and hugged each other, and Li Po did a little dance.

The android had ordered that all persons in the records, except for certain ones, whose names and record numbers it gave, be resurrected in The Valley. Henceforth, the process of resurrection would continue until the project was closed down.

The android also said that it wanted its, that is, Loga's, security measures canceled. Immediately, the Computer replied that it had done so. And it displayed diagrams showing where Loga had hidden his body-records.

"Very good," Burton said, smiling. "If we have to deal with the Computer through the android, so be it. I can endure that."

It took them an hour to collect the thirty-nine records cached in rooms at different levels.

"I'd be completely confident now that Loga can't be resurrected without our knowledge," Burton said, "if he wasn't so ca

"In that case," Frigate said, "he couldn't be resurrected because the Computer would not be co

"He might have put the record in a converter unco

"Then we'll tell the Computer to notify us of any power demands that are unusual. Loga's orders to the Computer to suppress the indications resulting from his use of the power have been nulled."

"We'll have to risk it. We can't just not act because of the very slight chance that Loga might get loose."

The others agreed with Burton that they could start repopulating the tower. They would do this, though, after the three private worlds had been cleaned up. They unanimously supported his suggestion that the Valleydwellers be told the truth, in fact, the whole story from the begi

"The Ethicals thought it necessary to spread half-truths through the Church of the Second Chance because of their belief in the strength of the religious impulse. But I believe that the whole truth, palatable or not, should be given. We'll resurrect some people in the tower, let them live here for a while, then transport them to The Valley in the aircraft. We'll give them photographs and powerpack-operated film projectors. That should convince the skeptics. The truth will spread very slowly because of the enormous population and the length of The Valley, but it will get to all eventually. Of course, some will refuse to believe. That'll be their misfortune."

Loga was placed in the cryogenics chamber.

Li Po resurrected his companions; Alice, Monteith Magle

Six months passed, and Burton invited all the tenants, now numbering over two hundred, to his castle for a di