THE MAGIC LABYRINTH

Podebrad didn't talk much, seeming to be one of those bridge players who was all intent on the game. But since Behn and Spallanzani chattered back and forth, Alice was emboldened to ask him some questions. He replied tersely, but gave no outward signs of being a

Podebrad explained that he had been head of a state far far down-River called Nova Bohemujo, Esperanto for New Bohemia. He'd been qualified for the position since he'd also been head of a government post in Czechoslovakia and a prominent member of the Communist party. He no longer was a Communist, though, since that ideology was as useless and irrelevant as capitalism was here. Also, he'd been very attracted to the Church of the Second Chance, though he'd never joined. He'd had a recurring dream that there were large deposits of iron and other minerals deep under the area of Nova Bohemujo. After much urging, he'd gotten his people to dig for them. This was a long and wearisome task and wore out many flint, chert, and wood tools, but his zeal had kept them at it. Besides, it gave them something to do.

"You must realize that I am not at all superstitious," Podebrad said in a basso profundo. "I despise oneiromancy, and I would have ignored this series of dreams, no matter how sustained and compelling they were. That is, under most circumstances I would have. It seemed to me that they were the expressions of my unconscious, a term I didn't like to use, since I reject Freudianism, but useful here to describe the phenomena I was experiencing. They were, at first, only the expressions of my wishes to find metal, or so I thought. Then I came to believe that there might be another explanation, though the first was really no explanation. Perhaps there was an affinity between metal and myself, some sort of earth current that put me in its circuit, that is, the metal was one pole and I the other so that I felt the flow of energy."

And he says he isn't superstitious, Alice thought. Or is he kidding me?

Richard, however, would have gone for that sort of rot. He believed that there was an affinity between himself and silver. When he'd suffered from ophthalmia in India, he'd placed silver coins on his eyes, and, when he had gout in his old age, he'd put them on his feet.

"Though I do not believe in dreams as manifestations of the unconscious, I do believe that they may be a medium for transmission of telepathy or other forms of extrasensory perception," Podebrad said. "Much experimentation was done with ESP in the Soviet Union. Whatever the reason, I felt strongly that there was metal deep under the surface of Nova Bohemujo. And there was. Iron, bauxite, cryolite, vanadium, platinum, tungsten, and other ores. All jumbled together, not in a natural strata. Evidently whoever re-formed this planet had piled the ores there during the process."

All this was said between bidding, of course. Podebrad talked as if he hadn't been interrupted, picking up exactly where he'd left off.

Podebrad had industrialized his state. His people had been armed with steel swords and fiberglass bows and firearms. He'd built two armored steamboats, neither nearly as large as the Rex.

"Not for conquest but for defense. The other states were jealous of our mineral wealth and would have liked to possess it, but they didn't dare attack. My ultimate object, however, was to build a large boat with screw propellers to travel to the headwaters of The River. I didn't know at that time that there were two giant boats already coming up The River. If I had known, I would have built my own vessel anyway.

"Eventually I fell in with some adventurers who proposed to get to the headwaters by means of an airship. Their idea intrigued me and soon after I made the blimp and set out in it. But a storm wrecked it. I and my crew got out alive, and then the Rex came along."

The game was over a few minutes later with Podebrad and Alice wi

Before they parted, however, she said, "Sinjorino Behn forgot to say exactly when you were born and died on Earth."

He looked sharply at her.

"Perhaps that is because she doesn't know. Why do you want to know?"

"Oh, I'm just interested in that sort of thing."

He shrugged and said, "A.D. 1912 to 1980."

Alice hurried off to find Burton before she had to go on duty and learn to set bones and make plaster-of-paris casts. She caught him in the corridor on the way to their cabin. He was sweating, his dark skin looking like oiled bronze. He'd just finished two hours of stick-fighting and fencing and had half an hour before he fell in for drill.

On the way to the cabin, she told him about Podebrad. He asked her why she seemed so excited about the Czech.

"It's nonsense, that about his dream," she said. "I'll tell you what I think about it. I think he's an agent who got stranded and who knew where that deposit of ores was. He used the dream as an excuse to get his people to dig it up. Then he built the blimp and tried to get to the tower itself, not just the headwaters. He must have!"

"Oh, reeeally," Burton drawled in that infuriating ma

"That's what he said! But how do we know that some agents... you've said so yourself.. .haven't changed their story? Anyway..."

She paused, her whole being radiating eagerness.

"Yaas?"

"You described the council of twelve. He looks like he might be the one called Thanabur or maybe the one called Loga!"

That rocked him. But after a few seconds, he said, "Describe this man again."

When he'd heard her out he shook his head.

"No. Both Loga and Thanabur had green eyes. Loga was red-headed, and Thanabur was brown haired. This Podebrad has yellow hair and blue eyes. He may look much like them, but I suppose there are millions who do."

"But Richard! Hair color can be changed! He wasn't wearing those plastic lens that can change the eye color that Frigate told us about. But don't you think the Ethicals would have the means to change eye color without obvious aids?"

"It's possible. I'll take a look at the fellow."

After showering, he bustled down to the grand salon. Not finding Podebrad there he returned to the engine room. Later when he next met Alice, Burton said, "We'll have to see. He could be Thanabur or Loga. If one can be a chameleon, the other can. But it's been twenty-eight years since I saw them, and our meeting was very brief. I really can't say."

"Aren't you going to do anything about it?"

"I can't very well arrest him on John's boat! No. We'll just have to watch him, and if we get something to justify our suspicions, then we'll see what we can do.

"Remember Spruce the agent. When we caught him, he killed himself just by thinking a sort of code and released poison into his system from that little black ball in his brain. It'll be very tricky if we do act, and we can't until we're sure. Personally, I think it's just a coincidence. Now, Strube-well... there's someone we don't have any doubt about. Well, not much perhaps. After all, it's only a theory that anyone claiming to be post-1983 is an agent. It is possible that we just haven't met many."

"Well, I'll be playing bridge a lot with Podebrad, if I don't come a duffer. I'll watch him."

"Be very careful, Alice. If he is one of Them, he'll be very observant. In fact, you shouldn't have asked him about the dates. That may have put him on his guard. You should have found out from someone else."