Image of the Beast

"Pardon me, but how did that energy embryo develop? Did it becomea separateentity or...?"

"It fuses with the nervous system and becomes one with thecorporeal entity. Not identical but similar. It survives after the death of the body.

"However, this creation of an energy baby requires muchoutpouring of energyon our part. At the same time that we were concentrating our metalenergies, wewere fucking like mad corporeally. It was probably the biggest gang- bang inhistory, if you will pardon such language, Forry dear. I know youdon't like to use dirty words or especially to hear them.

"Unfortunately, though the baby grew up to have some remarkabletalents, itdid not develop the psychic abilities of a Captain. Not that thatwould have done much good, anyway, because we did not have a Grail. But we hopedto make the metal for one; we had been creating the metal, bit by bit, overthousands of years. On Toc we could have done it in a year, but here, where theminerals are scarce and the materials for building the potentializers are evenmore rare, wetook an agonizingly long time getting what we needed. Then the Ogsmade a raid and stole what metal we had.

"They knew that Byron was to be our Captain. They moved in, became acquainted with him, and we could do little about it. Then theyabandoned him when they found out that he lacked the Captaincy.

"We were in despair for a while. But Byron still had the geneticpotentiality for a Captain, and we decided to take advantage of that. If he couldn't be a Captain, perhaps his child could be."

"Childe?" Forry said, ever alert for the chance to pun. Shenodded and said, "Exactly. We got specimens of his sperm by a method I won't go intoand froze it. Not with ice or liquid hydrogen but with an energy configuration. And we waited.

"We waited while our enemies, the Ogs, obtained more metal, enough to make aGrail. Then we chose a woman with suitable genetic qualities, humanlyspeaking, because those have to be considered, too. You wouldn't want theCaptain to be aninferior physical or mental specimen. And we deliberately settled on

Mrs. Childe because of the name. And its association with Byron, too. After all, we use human languages and so we think something like humans. Only like, notexactlyas."

"Thus, the Herald Childe from the Childe Harold?"

"If you said H-E-R-A L-D, yes. Herald. The Child that Heralds therebirth of our Toc energy ghosts, their rematerialization. And our return to thePromised Land of our native planet. The dead shall rise and we shall cross theriver Zion into the land of Beulah, if I can mix up a few quotations. You getthe idea."

"And what about Childe and the Grail?" Forry said.

Alys Merrie opened her mouth to reply, but she shut it whensomeone beat at the door and shouted

CHAPTER 35

At noon, the ringing of the doorbell awakened Childe. Hestaggered out intothe front room, past Sybil, who was still sleeping, and threw openthe door. A gust of rain wet him and covered the three men standing on his porch. He realized immediately that he should have been more cautious, but bythen it was too late. The first man stepped inside, holding a spray can. Childeheld his breath and ran towards his bedroom, where he kept a gun. He stoppedwhen the man called, "Childe! Your wife!"

The second man was by Sybil with a knife at her throat. Thethird, Fred Paoor his twin, held an air gun.

The first man sprayed a gas over Sybil just as she opened hereyes and said, "Wha...?"

She fell back asleep, and Pao said, "It won't hurt her. Now yourturn, Mr. Childe."

He could still run for the bedroom, he thought. But these menwould cut Sybil's throat if they thought they had anything to gain by it. Ofcourse, hemight be able to kill all three of them with his gun, but what goodwould that do Sybil? On the other hand, if he surrendered, wouldn't he and Sybilbe as goodas dead?

He did not know. That was the paralyzing factor. He did not know. And from what had passed between Vivie

"All right," he said. "I surrender." The man with the spray can approached him and shot the vapor inhis face. He wanted to hold his breath, but it was foolish putting off theinevitable. After glancing at his wristwatch, he breathed in.

It was thirty minutes later when he awoke. He was lying on acomfortable bed and looking up at a canopy. He turned his head and saw Sybil besidehim. She was still unconscious. He got out of bed with some effort, noting that hehad a slight headache and a brassy tongue and gums. His teeth feltenlarged.

Their prison was a single bedroom and a bathroom. There was onedoor for entrance.

Sybil woke up. She lay there for a while and then got out of bed. She went to him, and he put his arm around her and said, "I'm sorry aboutthis. If I had made you leave, you wouldn't be in this mess."

"That can't be helped," she said. "Do you think that we'll everget out ofthis? I wish I knew what these people wanted."

"We should find out sooner or later," he said. He released herand prowledaround the room. There was a large mirror fixed in the wall above thedresser and another wall-high mirror on the opposite side of the room. Hesupposed thatthese were one-way windows.

An hour passed. Sybil had quit trying to talk and had started toread, ofall things, a mystery novel she found in a bookcase. He investigatedagain withthe idea of using something to help them get out. He observed thatthe door was heavy steel and was set tightly against the wall. It swung outward.

An hour and a half after awakening, the door was opened. Pao andtwo men entered: Sybil spoke to one. "Plugger!"

Plugger was a tall, well-built, dark-ski

"Our enemies--and yours--were moving in fast," Pao said. "That iswhy we hadto take you two away. I am sorry; we're all sorry. But it had to bedone. Otherwise, you would have fallen into the hands of the Tocs."

"Tocs?" Childe said.

"Everything will be explained," Pao said. "Very quickly. Meanwhile, werequire your presence elsewhere."

"And Sybil?" "She will have to stay here. But she won't be harmed." Childe kissed Sybil and said, "I'll be back. I don't think they

intend us any evil. Not now, anyway."

He watched Plugger shut the door. There was a button in itsmiddle; whenthis was pressed, an unlocking mechanism was activated. Childereached out and pressed the button, and the door swung out swiftly.

Pao said, "What are you doing?" and pressed the button to shut the door. "I just wanted to see how it worked," Childe said. They started down the hall, which was wide and luxuriously

carpeted andfurnished. He stopped after a few steps. He had been right. Themirror was a one-way device. He could see Sybil still standing in the middle ofthe room, herhands clenched by her side.

He decided to see how valuable he was to them. "I'd like that mirror turned off," he said. "I don't like being

spied on." Pao hesitated and then said, "Very well." He pressed a button on the side of the mirror and it darkened. "I'd like the other mirror turned off, too," Childe said. "I'll see it's done," Pao said. "Come along now." Childe followed him with the other two men behind him. At the end

of the hall, they turned left into another hall and halfway down that turnedright intoa very large room. This looked like the salon of a millionaire'shouse as constructed for a movie set. There was a magnificent concert piano atthe far end and very expensive furniture, perhaps genuine Louis XV pieces, around the room. A peculiar feature, however, was the glass or transparent metalcube set in the middle of the room. Inside this was a slender-legged dark-redwooden table on top of which was a silvery goblet. Or half a goblet. Oneside seemed to be complete, but the other was missing. It was as if a shears had cutthroughthe cup part of the goblet at a forty-five degree angle,