More Than Fire

Suddenly, he stopped rotating. He lay on his back, his mouth gaping like a fish out of water. His legs and arms were extended to form a crude X, and he was staring at the ceiling.

Kickaha waited until the Thoan's massive chest was no longer rising and falling so quickly. Then he said, "Are you over your tantrum?"

Though Red Orc did not reply, he did rise to his feet. His face was composed under the blood covering it. After a minute, during which he stared at Kickaha, he spoke calmly.

"I know what you are going to propose. If I am to stay alive, I will have to tell Anana the truth about what I did to her."

Kickaha nodded.

"I need some time to think about it," the Thoan said. "Okay," Kickaha said. "You have ten seconds."

For a moment, Kickaha thought that Red Orc was going to rocket off in another rage. He had pressed his lips together, and his eyes began looking crazy again. But then he breathed out deeply and smiled.

"I was thinking about a week to make up my mind. Very well. No, I will not tell Anana the truth."

"I didn't think you would," Kickaha said. "However, I have another offer. If you accept it, you'll escape lifelong imprisonment. But the offer depends upon an answer to my question. Did you store Anana's memory? If you did, can you give it back to her?"

19

RED ORC SAT STILL, HIS EYES FOCUSED ON A POINT A FEW inches from Kickaha's head. That he did not answer at once showed that he was going to be very careful about what he would say.

Kickaha tried to think as the Thoan was thinking. Red Orc knew whether or not he could give Anana's memory back to her. He was wondering if he should lie. If he was able to restore her memory, he would say that he could not do so. Though a no from him would confine him for life in a seemingly escape-proof cell, Kickaha had found a way to get out of Dingsteth's cages. What the leblabbiy could do, he, Red Orc, could do.

If he said yes, only he would operate the machine. Anana would be in his power, and he could kill her with a jolt of electricity or whatever else was available. He would not enjoy his revenge long. A few seconds later, he would die.

Finally, he said, "No. I ca

"You should know," Kickaha said. "You have taken Anana's memory from her. What's been done to her can be done to you. How would you like to be stripped of your memory?"

The Thoan shuddered slightly.

"I'll see to it that the memory-uncoiler takes you back to when you were only five," Kickaha said. "You were, if my informants are to be believed, a loving person at that age. That way, I don't have to kill you-I hope I don't-and you'll be given a second chance. You'll not be confined to a cell, but you won't be allowed to go out of this palace. Or wherever you're kept. Not until I'm one-hundred-percent satisfied that you'll stay on the right path, that you're a real pussycat.

"Maybe it'd be better to take you back to the age of three. Or even two. That'd make it easier for us to help you form a different persona, or at least reshape you. Your destructive tendencies could be cha

"Thousands of years of knowledge and experience lost," Red Orc murmured.

Kickaha had expected that the Thoan would go into another rage. But the first one seemed to have exhausted him.

"It happened to Anana."

The Thoan breathed deeply, looked at the ceiling, then into Kickaha's eyes.

"But you forget something. Only I know how to operate the memory-uncoiler."

"I haven't forgotten," Kickaha said. "You'll be injected with a hypnotic that'll make you answer all questions."

"That won't do anything to me," the Thoan said. He smiled. "I have taught myself certain mental techniques that will automatically block out the effects of any hypnotics available to you."

"I won't hesitate to cause you such pain you'll be happy to tell me much more than I want to know about operating the uncoiler. I've seldom tortured a man before this, only when it was absolutely necessary to save lives. Do you doubt that?"

"You're a man of your word," Red Orc said sarcastically. "But whose life are you saving if you torture me?"

Kickaha gri

It was the Thoan's turn to grin. "I anticipated long ago that someone with the Khringdiz's knowledge might be available. The machine will not turn on until it has identified me as the operator. It must read my voice frequencies and pattern of intonation. It also requires my handprint, my eyeprints, my odorprint, and a small patch of my skin so that it may read my DNA. It also must receive a code phrase from me, though you will be able to get that out of me by torture. That will not be necessary. I'll give you the code phrase, much good it will do you."

"And?" Kickaha said.

"Ah! You have anticipated another barrier to operating the machine. You are right in doing that. Certain numerous components of the machine, after a certain delay, will explode unless I am the operator. That will disintegrate the machine and a

"That's a lot of trouble," Kickaha said. "What you did, you set up the self-destruction system to keep your clones from being able to use it, right?"

"Of course, you idiot!"

"This idiot will find a way to fool the machine," Kickaha said. "You're holding back one item of information about how the machine identifies you. It's something that marks you as different from your duplicates. I can get that out of you if you hurt enough. I don't like the idea, but as I said, I'll use torture. It's a tool that almost always works."

"It would get you what you want. But that information would not aid you one bit. The machine would explode even if you used Ashatelon or Wemathol."

Red Orc paused, then said, "My sons could be the operators if it were not for one insurmountable factor. I may as well tell you what it is since I don't care to be disintegrated, and it is the factor that makes it impossible to use the memory-stripping on me. Not even I can cancel it. If I am the person whose memory is to be stripped, the machine will blow up. It will know that I am the subject, because it can detect my age. The clones are much younger than I. Therefore, the machine will be triggered when it reads the age difference."

"How can that be?" Kickaha said. "Your body cells are replaced every seven years. It won't be any older, within a seven-year limit, than your clones' bodies."

"True. But the machine will scan my memory before it starts the stripping process. That will determine that I am indeed the original person, because my clones have shorter memories. There is nothing that I can do about that. I ca

Red Orc stood up. "I'm tired of this. Gate me back to my cell."

Kickaha also rose from his chair. "You're leaving when I'm having so much fun?"

Red Orc was now standing inside the circle on the floor, waiting to be transmitted to his cell. He called out, "Take my advice, Kickaha! Watch Khruuz! Do not trust him!"