2012 Part 15

Alexander's thoughts found no place to rest as he swayed uncomfortably on his mule facing the gyrating rear end of Marina's mount, which from time to time seemed to disappear over the edge of precipitous cliffs as they rode in the nearest possible position to vertical able to be managed by the animals. He opened his mind to the noises of the 'sphere but there were no messages for him. He felt the presence of Thea 'on duty' but neither had anything worth-while to say and he was not in the mood for idle chatter. He was on his own at this moment and would have to do what he could. He was comforted by the Named being there if he needed them.

As they descended he felt he was being swallowed by the immensity of the canyon. The last rays of the sun played breathtaking games with the rocks in the foreground and set mountains into movement. He descended uneasily in the brilliant ruddy-golden glow of every possible hue in the yellow-red and indigo ends of the spectrum, relying on the sure footedness and experience of the mules to keep him from certain death on the rocks below.

It was almost dark when they reached the gra.s.sy plateau supporting Manny's hogan. His every bone ached from the unaccustomed ride, the permanent sense of danger from the steep descent and ascent from the track to the top of the promontory added to his fatigue. The relief of its ending was edged with the realisation that, the nature of his task meant he had no idea of when, or if he would return.

The journey, Marina, Barboncito, the incredible reality of the canyon and his task, settled heavily on his mind as tried to sleep. He had refused the light refreshment offered and seeing his obvious fatigue, Barboncito led him immediately to a small room in the shack where he settled his weary bones on a narrow truckle-bed. Myriad thoughts ran through his brain like trains in the Underground for most of the night.

The following morning he woke early with the sun - refreshed, ready for anything. A few minutes pa.s.sed before he realised where he was. He was aided by the glimpse of a bright slash of new sunlight on a distant outcrop of rock which created the feeling of flying he had since his descent. He made use of the wash-basin in the corner of the room, and ventured into the outside air. The sun of the early dawn skimmed the lip of the canyon bending shafts of light which vanished like arrows into pockets of rising mist, shattering into pallettes of colour on the facets of the rocky outcrops all round the hogan. Alexander walked in the same wonder of disbelief at the incomprehensible vastness he felt the night before. This was a place of unspeakable mystery which he would never grasp if he lived there for ever. It had the same effect on him as the 'sphere - there, real - but unfathomable in its sheer size and the conceptual turmoil it evoked by its mere existence.

He found a place to sit at the rocky edge of the rim supporting the hogan and leaning back against a boulder, felt the warmth of the sun in the cold of the morning mist, when he heard the sound of a human voice in incantation. At first he thought it came from within himself, such was the effect of the sound in that place. Unable to locate the sound, he rose to peer over the edge of the precipice. Some hundred feet below on an outcrop he saw Barboncito naked, arms outstretched to the sun intoning what Alexander thought were ancient verses, he was also scattering pinches of yellow dust. The young Navajo was otherwise quite still, like the world around, blending his muscle and sinew with that of the rock. It was the most natural sight in the world to see the limbs of the man combine with the wind-carved contours of stone. The sounds from his throat merged with the breathy whispers of air wafting into the vastness of the canyon through the spa.r.s.e vegetation struggling for life in its cracks and crevices.

Alexander watched bewitched, drawn into the song of the man and in turn drawn further into the folds of the canyon. A slow movement behind the young man broke the reverie, and Alexander made out the dark, slim arm of a woman followed by the head of Marina, who, also naked, pressed her body against his bare back, clasping him to her. The man, continued his song, apparently oblivious. Alexander did not wait to see more.

The spell broken, he did not know where to put himself. It was obvious that the outcrop was part of a cave reached from a descending ladder within the hogan, and Marina had spent the night there with Barboncito. Alexander cursed himself for leaving her alone and allowing his fatigue to get the better of him the previous evening. He felt betrayed, small, lost and angry. Like a small boy he wanted to lash out at something and also felt the intrusion of a new reality which had been absent since the meeting with Lucina. He had so absorbed himself in the other-worldliness of the 'sphere, Thea, and the rest; that his own real feelings in the present had been put aside. Even Marina's body had been in some way other-worldly until she offered it to another which broke the magic and put him in touch with his immediate feelings. He had no right to be as jealous as he was. It wasn't as if he had not been given notice that she would do what was needed to do her job. While he had been indulging his flights of fancy, she had gone to work. He realised at once that she was as independent as Barboncito. The driving thrust of carnality would have been shared in that night of lovemaking with hard-headed interrogation. He calmed down as part of him recognised, with relief, that Marina offered her true gentleness to few people and he was one of them. He hoped that she would have given to Barboncito only her body. At least Alexander had a little of her care. He had to reluctantly admit her body was her own to satisfy, and as yet he could have no exclusive claim to it. He would however make sure that was all the Navajo would ever receive. Not that he knew how to do it. He didn't know whether he was angry or sad with jealousy. He was certainly very jealous.

'I have to return to Markham straight away.'

Marina dropped her bombsh.e.l.l after a simple breakfast of fry-bread and some kind of honeyed syrup, taken out of doors later, on a patch of green outside. They were alone for a while as Manny and Barboncito went to see to the mounts.

'You are to stay here with Barboncito. He wishes to take you deeper into the canyon where there are things he says you must see. While you slept, I have been working. He is the hacker we came here to identify. I know because he told me. Manny knows too, he didn't want the boy to tell us for fear we would take reprisals. I told him this was not my problem and that you had come here to deal with the hacker and my job was your protection until he had been discovered. Manny is relieved the truth is out and that Barboncito means no harm to you personally and is quite prepared to be honest about the hacking business. I'm glad it has been this simple so far. I envisaged more danger in the finding of this hacker, more opposition, more subterfuge needing my skills. So now my job in this place is done. Yours, whatever it is, begins. I got that from JNO on email this morning. By the way - I was with Barboncito last night - I said I would need to get close to him; and I did. Keep your feelings about that to yourself my lad, I am only doing my job.' Alexander gestured as if to interrupt.

'Just listen, there's not much time they'll be back soon, Barboncito it seems is something of a computer buff of some ability, and Manny was a cryptologist for the US Army in the last war, so they know their onions. In case you don't know, Fourthworld is one of JNO's key switchboards for information pa.s.sing between first and third-worlds and co-ordinator of Latin America's counter-activity. But that's only by-the-by; what's important for both of us to know is that Manny told me privately that he thinks Barboncito has links with another Firm. This is the first JNO has heard of any rival in this business and he is very worried both about its existence and of another Firm getting onto the linkage. Penny and Ric have taken great pains to be concealed as you know. It seems that Barboncito has been using his computer knowledge to try and get information from JNO not usually available to his operation and which is not part of Manny's brief. Manny is worried about the lad and thinks he is getting a bit above himself, and says he seems to think he's invincible. He said Barboncito believes by setting this new Firm against JNO he will gain great advantage for his people. Manny is less sure and doesn't want to upset anyone at JNO. So both Manny and JNO want you to stick with Barboncito to see where this leads and report back as soon as possible. I have to get back to make sure there are no other links with this new Firm from any of the others on the third-world network. I'll be in Fourthworld for about twelve hours working on their security systems and then back to Markham. Barboncito was arrogant enough to be quite open with me about these other links, and while he susses them out he is happy we should know he is trying to play us against them - he thinks it'll up the stakes for him. I told him what he is up to is terribly risky, and at the same time I pretended to be bowled over by his cleverness and the power this is giving him. He is susceptible to flattery, at least from me, but make no mistake he is clever and dangerous; but he may, and I repeat, may, be quite genuine for all that. He has enough faith in this other group to believe their powers are at least equal to ours and he is playing both ends against the middle quite candidly. I told him I admired his bravery and his hopes, but said I was worried about the effects, which he chose to consider as my, rather JNO's problem,' she paused.... 'So there you are my laddo. You're on your tod. I'm told senior people from JNO will contact as and when. I'm also told you're not to worry about your physical safety, stick to your guns and you'll be okay.'

There was no time for more discussion, Barboncito and Manny were ready and almost in earshot. They indicated the prepared mounts and Manny and Marina set off back the way they had come the previous day towards Supai village and the long trek upwards.

Barboncito, dressed in blue jeans, chaps and a large white stetson, set off wordlessly down-hill gesturing for Alexander to follow. The trail was not wide enough for them to ride abreast and forced to ride in the rear Alexander's mind was full of Marina, and his mission. As they progressed, the back of Barboncito remained as irritatingly enigmatic to Alexander as the rest of him. Unable to talk, only to follow, Alexander's thoughts were soon overwhelmed by the sheer spellbinding qualities of the canyon itself.

Havasu Canyon towered behind them, the jagged rock chiselling chips of early sunlight from ledges and outcrops. Majestic cottonwoods lined the creek and led by degrees past several water-falls each more beautiful and magnificent than the last. Maidenhair ferns and mosses, lined plunging rills and spouts of turquoise green, filling pools of travertine rock. The trail followed the river along limestone b.u.t.tes, columns, and boulders. At points the trail climbed up parched ledges studded with cactus and scrubby vegetation high above the creek bottom. Compressed rocks squeezed the wind into tunnels and together with the noise of the falls all conversation was impossible.

How far they rode Alexander was quite unable to say. The state of his knees and the bony parts of his rear told him they had been going for at least three hours if his experience of the previous day was anything to go by. It was nearly lunch-time judging by his stomach. The trail led precipitously to the creek floor. It arrived at a kind of dry, sandy beach which undercut the towering wall of the canyon and it seemed as if the great weight of rock above might sink the opening to the floor under its own ma.s.s, were it not for the giant natural pillars of sandstone at each side. The roof actually bowed with the strain and dipped dangerously inch by inch as they rode into its cooling shade.

Barboncito dismounted and pulled lunch from his saddle-bags. Alexander a.s.sumed this would be some exotic local food and was surprised to be offered beef and pickle sandwiches wrapped in polythene. A flask of coffee followed. Only the slip-slip of the water bubbling round the rocks broke the absolute stillness exemplified by the black comma's of three ravens wheeling acutely slowly, suspended high against the slash of clear-blue sky between the towering walls. They sat and ate in the stillness for what seemed too long a time. Barboncito broke the silence which had built up like the walls of the canyon itself.

'We're in a side canyon, the Havasupai call it Matkatamiba,' said Barboncito. We'll eat and then go on to the Sipapu. That's what you came here for - isn't it?' He did not give Alexander time to answer before going on. 'She told you, the black woman, she told you I hacked into your system. It was you she said found me out. You must be good, as good as me to do that. How did you do it?'

Alexander found it hard to speak to Barboncito. The sound of his voice echoed as unreal and too loud, amplified by the cave walls and contrasting with the enormous stillness that was around and between them. He also realised with a shock which rendered him almost speechless, that all his doings of the 'sphere had so far been with people or beings who were sympathetic. The net he wore indicated this man knew more of those things than he admitted. He mostly felt that by responding he would start something he would not know how to finish. The clear planes of his companion's face offered nothing and he was unable to read anything in the tone of voice. Added to which he had been a lover of his love and he was a probable traitor to JNO, so there was no communication that could be other than confrontational.

'How did you know it was me? Barboncito repeated, a new hard edge to his tone.

'I read the numbers on the entry nodes, it led to Fourthworld - I didn't know it was you until Marina told me this morning.'

'How? How can you do that!' It was more of a shout than a statement. As he spoke, Barboncito turned to face him fully for the first time since they met - it was a direct challenge. Alexander felt for the first time that the Navajo was rattled. Could it be that this young man was as disturbed by his own poor mystery, as he was himself disturbed by his? His instinct was to say he had no idea how he did it, that it was done by - what? - magic? Maybe as a Navajo Brave, Barboncito believed in magic, he certainly seemed to believe in ritual if the morning intonation and sprinklings of yellow dust was anything to go by. Though to a computer expert of some ability, he thought the idea of magic would be unconvincing. Anyway, the net told him things were not as they seemed. If Barboncito thought he had computer abilities too he could play on this without hopefully giving anything away and await developments. He was also now very curious about where they were and how Barboncito knew he had knowledge of the Sipapu as being significant for JNO.

'You wouldn't expect me to tell an expert hacker how JNO combats them would you? What I really want to know is why you would compromise Manny's contract with the Firm and seek information to which you are not ent.i.tled? I thought you wanted to advance your nation, not put it at jeopardy by making enemies of people like Richard Trefoil.'

He was about to go on about the Sipapu since this was more important than the hacking. The hacking was history, Marina was handling the consequences - the Sipapu was the critical thing now. How did Barboncito know of his mission?

'Trefoil isn't the only ally we have in your world. There are others, in our world, just as, possibly even more powerful.' He paused. 'That's the problem with you people, you hold us in such poverty of esteem you think we are bound to believe in your superiority.'

Alexander picked up the edge of hatred mixed with a deep contempt. He began to get some insight into the intensity of feeling that was part of the gulf between them. It was true he had no real knowledge of what it meant to be a Native American in his traditional surroundings. The need for the well controlled emotions he sensed in his companion came from deeply held beliefs. Alexander remained puzzled and alert. He knew the next few minutes were important. That he had mystery of his own for his adversary was a revelation, and he knew maintaining it was the only thing that made him relevant to Barboncito. Were it to be lost, Barboncito was perfectly capable of abandoning him alone in the depths of the canyon to fend for himself.

'So you think yourself clever enough to play one firm off against the other. But we got to you pretty quickly.'

Barboncito laughed. 'I calculated on that. I didn't think I'd get away with it for long. I admit you're better than I predicted, faster than they thought too. Maybe they are less clever than JNO after all.'

This other firm?'

'Yes, well you'll soon find out who is the cleverest. They're closer than you think.'

At this Barboncito turned from him and carefully stowed the remains of the lunch in his saddlebag and walked down to the creek to wash the coffee cups. When Barboncito turned from the creek to face him, Alexander thought to take an initiative of his own.

'Why did you admit hacking to Marina?' he asked. But Barboncito was ahead of him, he knew why they were together in this place, which was more than Alexander did. He thought Barboncito had sensed his lack of bearings and thereby kept the advantage.

'What have I got to lose? You already knew a hacker was loose in Fourthworld, we're not so big nor so well endowed with technical experts that it would take you long to finger me. In any case this other firm wanted to get someone from JNO out to meet them, especially the one who found me out. It was just a matter of flus.h.i.+ng you out, I have nothing to lose - like I said you're all exploiters, setting you against each other can only benefit us, you'll have to up the ante to keep us in the game.'

'What game?' Alexander realised as soon as he spoke that his false innocence was easily detected. Barboncito sadly raised an eyebrow at him.

'You're actually none of you any of my business, except that when you've all stopped fighting each other, I'll still be here and I'm going to take advantage of the aftermath. Once your race tried to wipe us out, now you need us to learn how to survive and heal your rift with the Earth. Our price for co-operation is high and we won't be sold so cheaply a second time. Your rivals want old defeats revenged and a new and different order that will not challenge the Earth. Well; you'll have to work it out between you and we'll be waiting on the sidelines and this time you'll all pay dearly for the prize. I'm not so stupid as to take you on and think I can win, put I can make either or both of you - pay!'

Barboncito stowed the utensils in the bags and sat on an outcrop of rock, smoothed into a seat by the ancient action of water, and stared at Alexander.

'We don't want anything but this and the country beyond.' He swept the canyon with his hand. 'Neither do we want to own it. We will share it with anyone else who will cherish it as we do. Otherwise you will lose it - it's beginning to withdraw from you already and in the end, as we have always known it will literally kill you, your attempt to own it. We already have our covenant with the Earth. Our work with JNO now includes many indigenous nations who still have good enough relations with the Earth to ensure its survival. This is not as one-sided as Trefoil might think. The more we control the less you can exploit. Don't tell me - Trefoil and his ilk at JNO know this - but if they think they can maintain their hold of it and simply allow us our share - that's not what it's about. If you can't work that out then you're doomed to fight over it, and you can only lose. We on the other hand can only win, the land is on our side, and it recognises our worth and rejects you. We are growing fast and Fourthworld will soon be as powerful in our sphere as JNO is in theirs. The child is nearly a strong as the parent. You should watch out. We'll soon make our own alliances on our own terms.'

'What if you are wrong about us? What if we are with you - fully. What then?'

'Perhaps. But I don't believe it, why should I? I say prove it. I have seen the powers of the other firm and they rival yours. I will work in both camps, but the Earth will be ours in the end and you will pay for its use.'

'You've done a deal with them?'

'No need, our deal with the Earth was done centuries ago, that covenant has not changed. She waits for us to return to our proper place, the one taken by you. You, both of you: JNO and this other firm are rivals for a power over that which cannot be owned: for us that is the ultimate irony. All attempts at owners.h.i.+p will destroy you both. So far the other firm says that's okay, we can regain the land since they do not want it themselves they merely wish to prevent your domination. I don't believe either of you, so I bring you together to work out between you what you can. The unintended consequences of a war between you will hurt us more, so we are patient and prefer diplomacy.' He turned to his mount and placed a foot in the stirrup.

'Enough talk - mount and follow, we go to the Sipapu.'

'Wait, I'm going nowhere yet. I want to finish this conversation. For a start, I want to know how you know I want to find the Sipapu? Marina couldn't have told you. Who did?'

'Marina is good at getting people to talk,' grinned Barboncito. Alexander ignored the intended taunt 'Answer my question! Whatever Marina got out of you, she knows nothing about the Sipapu, at least no more than the general knowledge that it is a holy place kept in the hearts of your ancient people as the point from which your ancestors believed they emerged from the nether-world into the light...'

'But we, Alexander Conway, know it is a real place do we not? And you want to know how I know you know this.' Disarmed, all Alexander could do was nod lamely.

'You have information about the ancient Havasupai people. I a.s.sume you have read something of it.'

Alexander nodded.

'You know then they are the cousins of the Hopi through the ancient Anasazi line. Over time the ancient powers of these peoples mixed and merged with the Navajo belief systems in which the black underworld of spirit people first emerged from a fissure in the earth into the light of the world...'

Alexander felt the strength of Barboncito's belief give stature to the young Navajo leader which gave him his splendour. His own belief in the Pantheon brought him closer to this youth as he listened. This they had in common. The dissonance between them gave way to a potential comrades.h.i.+p of understanding. He listened without interruption to Barboncito.

'...The eventual emergence of our people from darkness and chaos into the glittering world of now was a continuous marvel that lasted for centuries to be spoilt utterly by the coming of the Europeans.' Barboncito stood and spoke as if to gathered mult.i.tudes of his people. 'Do not wonder my people, there will be a re-visitation through the Sipapu and we will re-emerge in a world without the presence of the white-men who are without appreciation, whose G.o.d demands they use everything in the now for his gratification in the future and who want everything for themselves. The very Earth will destroy the white-man as our new-world folds over and absorbs the old. This I know for I have found the Sipapu and have entered.'

He gazed down at Alexander. 'I have entered and found people who know you Alexander Conway. They know JNO and what it does.'

This unexpected p.r.o.nouncement made Alexander gasp.

'You see I know things. They know of you on the other side, and I have been asked to bring you there, for we are close by. Maybe you are the leader to come of your people as I am of mine. Understand me, I will win the 'game' and I fear nothing on either side of the Sipapu. My hope is that you will reconcile your differences, and avoid the destruction of war in which you both will be weakened while I and mine will prosper. This a better way, there is always a better way than war. Come we will meet the guardian of the Sipapu, it is guarded of course - entry is not for anyone.'

Alexander felt the stuffing knocked from him. A tightening of Zeus' net reminded him that he was not totally alone. Thea 'on duty' communicated her presence and referred to his training which revived him a little. Physically he was at the mercy of the Navajo, in his country with no way out, and mentally he was seriously perturbed by the revelation that he was known about by this other firm. Were they also linked into the Chronosphere?

'Part of my task, like yours,' continued Barboncito. 'You see I know your mission, is to bring the time of the ancestors into the present to safeguard the future without armed conflict. We share this, since it is the only way, why else do we accept J.N.O.'s support? For us it is easier, for we did not abandon our ancestors like you. We connect where you have broken with the past through indifference and inattention. I go through the Sipapu to meet the remembered, with faith in the ancestors of my past to maintain and strengthen the links. You will go through without knowledge and with fear of ghosts. You have no bearings in an alien past, and you are in too great a hurry to leave the uncomfortable present for a future you cannot know or control. We the indigenous peoples of the world live with satisfaction in the past and in the present. Those on the other side know this and use me against you. You are right, I am against you - but I am less an adversary than a critic. I do hate what you have done to us, but things are not over yet. I will not harm you, I am merely a constant reminder that you cannot keep the thing you desire most and over which you will lose control. I currently embody what you cannot achieve. I am the torment of your race. But you can join us and re-link yourself. Together we will re-live with the earth as before.'

He felt Thea's sigh of exasperation flow through the net round his shoulders rather than heard it. It was a warning not to be taken in by this man.

Suddenly he was tired of being her agent or that of Lucina or even Zeus himself. Like Barboncito he wanted to be himself. Barboncito was his own man - he made his own decisions from his own certainty of understanding.

His mission to bring the past into the present was not a task he did for himself. The Named required it, and until now that had been enough. Great things were afoot and he was part of it. To have a role was more than just something. Nevertheless he felt small and not a little used.

He wanted to cast the net from his shoulders and join Barboncito a free man, but felt too unsure of himself and too exposed to go so far in one go. Spontaneous action without certainty, while melodramatic, was dangerous, even if he was right in the end, there was at this point enough of the unforeseen billowing around him without his adding unnecessarily to the store. He would keep the net of Zeus around his shoulders, but secretly start thinking about making his own decisions. He began by failing to respond to Thea's injunction not to argue with the lad and go with the flow.

'I can understand why you hate Europeans, but you use our technology and gain greatly from your contract with JNO. Isn't that a bit cynical. Don't you have any faith in JNO to help your people without ulterior motives?'

'Of course I do. We're still signed up through Manny aren't we? But you miss the point. There is not enough you can do in the present to solve the problem, JNO is doing its best. But it won't be enough, nor will it be in time. We 'natives' are poised for 2012 and beyond but you righteous conquerors have too far to go. The other firm knows this. It doesn't fight the past - it is the past. But come, there is little point in continuing this, you will have to experience it for yourself.'

Alexander's attention was wrenched away by a blast from Thea. He watched Barboncito mount and go on into the cave through the tension of a mind-meld with his sister which left him limp and obedient. In a daze he too mounted and followed deep into the gloom. For a good deal of the way the extreme brightness of the light from outside illuminated the vast interior, darkening by degrees as they penetrated further.

Soon they came to a shack of the kind Alexander expected to find on the outside but not in the relatively sheltered interior of a cavern. They had been following a track which led directly to the door of the ramshackle wooden construction framed against the lowering roof of the overhang, hardly visible against the increasing darkness. Alexander was astonished to see the figure of a man sitting on the veranda, apparently snoozing in a creaking rocking chair. He was for all the world the archetypal prospector like Gabby Hayes in an old Western. They approached as a far as the tie-rail of the boarded porch and without dismounting, Barboncito called out to the sleeping man.

'Hey old-timer, we want to go through!' The old man slowly lifted his head revealing the unmistakable features of Pannie Ljeschi. Alexander, utterly astonished, recognised him. Pannie immediately engaged Alexander on L1 while holding a different conversation with Barboncito. With the Navajo he entered into a complex question and answer rigmarole, at the same time Pannie was remaking his acquaintance with Alexander.

'Hi there pardner, I gotta do the stuff with the Navajo, he likes the mumbo-jumbo. Funny how things sorta have their place. Didn't expect ter see me huh? I tol' yer I wouldn't be so far away. So pilgrim, yer wanna join the ancestors huh? Happy huntin' grounds of yester-year an' all. Only jestin' pardner, cep'n I gotta tell yer sump'n important. This brave here, this Barb'ncheeta kin come 'n go as he pleases through the Sipapu.'

Pannie stopped to light an old cob-pipe over which he to his time, spitting elegantly twice into a spittoon on the floor by his creaking chair. 'T'aint so easy fer you. 'S'a one way ticket fer the likes of you boychik. Don't s'pose they tole' yer that upstairs. Which ain't ter say there ain't no way out nohow. Better folkern you made it outta there. But it warn't easy no sir! So git used ter staying fer a bit. Maybe y'all will wanna git out, maybe not. Cep'n it's not yer time fer to be in there, not yet it ain't. Y'all still wanna go?'

'What are you doing here? Turning up like the Ches.h.i.+re cat!' said Alexander.

He began to wonder if the experiment with reality and Barbonchito was merely another illusion, except for the fact that this far into the cavern it was becoming decidedly chilly, so it was real to that extent. He was however concerned at Pannie's communication. His mission meant he had to enter. Only in the halls of Hades would he find what he was sent to seek.

'Jest fer now I'm the guardian of this partic'lar portal, pardner. I says who goes in an' who or what comes outer there. An' I says you ain't ready ter go in. The Navajo laddie, 'e kin go but you ain't ready boychik.'

'I thought you were on our side - and that your job in this was to keep an eye on me'.

'S'right pardner, so I ain't lettin y'all go in until you're ready. S'posin' I did? S'posin y'all got lost in there and met up with some bad folks. There's all kinda folks in there'll make clam-chowder of a kid like you.'

'I get my orders from your mistress, Lucina, and I am sent here to enter. I don't see where you get your authority to prevent me when I am here on a far higher authority than you!' Alexander was becoming anxious and as part of the meld on L1 with the little manikin he confronted, he allowed his anger to come to the surface. 'According to the legends there are more dangerous guardians than you to the Underworld. What if I merely set off after Barboncito into the Sipapu?'

'That's jest it, pard, an' there's no need to get yer dander up, it's his Sipapu, this partic'lar entrance belongs really to the Hopi, an' they'll let in another Navajo like this Brave here. But what's it ter do with y'all. No place for you in there - too dangerous boychick. Stay where y'are is my advice. The dark side of human experience is no place fer a lonesome whipper-snapper the likes o' you! Ain't no link to our 'sphere works in there like to 'elp yer git out.'

Alexander had come too far to identify and follow Barboncito into this realm of the past to be prevented by this play-acting fellow complete with comic voice. He remembered Lucina's injunction to pay heed to Ljeschi as someone who would have things to teach him. His new inclination to be his own man overcame her scruples in that regard. In any case this little creature was a decided nuisance, popping up whenever he felt like it. He had enough to worry about without him. Given the ways of the 'sphere he was not particularly surprised to find him here in this underground cavern. He did however expect a friendlier demeanour and was unprepared for direct confrontation and blank denial.

Barboncito, in real-time, had meanwhile answered the questions put by Pannie and having made his peace with the prospector gained his way past him. The Navajo bent low to untie the gate through which the path led deeply into the canyon wall, and ambled his mount through. His form diminished by stages along the steeply descending trail until only the crown of his hat was visible. Alexander undecided, was unable to move and remained in the mind-meld with Pannie. Seeing Barboncito's hat disappear from view he simply panicked and charged his animal through the open gate without heeding the cry from Pannie. Barboncito was about already some two-hundred yards ahead of him, when he seemed to disappear into one of a number of tunnels in the cave wall. As Alexander approached the place at speed, he became increasingly aware the wall of the cave was honeycombed with entrances and it was impossible to know exactly through which Barboncito had pa.s.sed. He was by now going too fast to stop and choose a particular entry as the ground was falling precipitately away in front of his mount. It was all he could do to hold on. The terrified beast made for nearest opening and plunged headlong into pitch blackness.

Chapter 5.

Alexander stuck in his meld with Pannie on L1 was in a state of terror no less total than the mule's. The thunder of hooves in the confined s.p.a.ce of the plunging tunnel added to the panic of animal and rider. A hundred times worse were the screams of Pannie on the meld, searing Alexander's mind.

Notwithstanding his blind terror, he made sudden contact with a part of his brain which was acutely aware that he had done something supremely stupid. A piece of Pannie's mind seemed to have torn from its owner and had lodged in his own - an internal banshee intent on driving him witless. This was no mind-meld of the kind he had so far experienced, it was a personal attack on his sanity.

The rest of him was busy trying to stop from being violently dashed against the walls of the tunnel or thrown under the flying feet of his crazed animal which hardly touched the steep, rock strewn floor of the descent. In the narrow darkness of the tunnel all sound and movement was hugely magnified. For what seemed like a life-time, he plunged downwards so far into a blackness from which he was certain he could never emerge. Sheer reflex action alone kept his grip on the animal and prevented him from death by trampling. This irony was not lost on the hugely amused maniac in his head, much taken with the double absurdity of a human heading through the Sipapu to the lands of his ancestors and killing himself before entering where he was ultimately destined to go.

He was vaguely aware that to arrive dead was not the purpose of his mission and that to enter alive into the halls of Hades, to bring the past squarely and honestly into the present, was the key to the whole enterprise. That the future of his race somehow depended on his coming out with Hades himself. Lodged in his mind Pannie proceeded to lecture him on the idiocy of tackling obstacles without first thinking through the consequences. Thus with his mind fully preoccupied he exploded, like a cork from a champagne bottle, into a bright light and on to a wide and sandy, canyon floor where his mule ran until exhausted on the soft-going of a bank of a deep and fast flowing river, rus.h.i.+ng through a gorge.

The mule, as if he had had enough of all this, stopped abruptly so that Alexander sailed gracefully over its bent head to land winded at the feet of Pannie who was sitting cross legged on a boulder tamping his pipe angrily.

'Now then, boychik,' he barked when Alexander finally sat up, brus.h.i.+ng sa from his clothes and was sufficiently in his wits. Maintaining the L1 connection he continued, 'How'se about us gittin' back to where we wus up ter? First off, don'cher ever do anythin' so dumb agin'. You ain't got no idea where you is now, 'as yer? So you gonna need me ter put yer on the trail agin ain't yer? If'n you'd a' paid a bit more attention back there you wouldn't be in this fix. I really dunno how I'm a' goin' ter git yer skin outer'n it.'

'Where's Barboncito? Where's the Navajo I was with?' Alexander stayed seated in the sand and dusted himself down some more as he spoke. Barboncito was important to his mission and Alexander was fully aware that Pannie knew perfectly well what he was doing at the entrance to the Hopi Sipapu. Pannie was beside himself with frustration.

'You was trained weren't ya, ya big dope! Well weren't ya?'

'Don't you yell at me! You...you...joke of a...a...whatever you are! What I'm doing here... It's not easy!'

'That's as maybe boychick. Ya'll knows there's a bunch 'a entrances to the underworld known ter the ancient G.o.ds of many peoples. Don'cher?'

'What's it to you what I know or don't know?'

'Oh it's like that is it me boychick. Well if'n y'all don't want me around it's no problem pardner! I'll jest git along an' leave ya'll ter fend fer yerself.'

'No!' Alexander said alarmed. 'No, really, I'm sorry. It's just that I've a lot on my plate and don't know what I'm doing. I feel it's too much for me and I don't know what it's all about.' He felt like crying but knew he couldn't in front of this p.r.i.c.kly figure.

'Jeeze, whatta dude! Yes you sure do know what it's about. Mnemosyne she larned ya, over'n'over. Till she'd had enough of ya and 'ad ter leave y'all alone ter git on with it on yer lonesome. Okay, okay, so yer know don't yer?'

'Yes I know that a few entrances to the underworld are known by some mortals who still have effective connections with their ancestors when everywhere else they've been either broken or totally devalued. So it's not really surprising Barboncito has knowledge of the location of the Sipapu.'

'Right, boyo, an' yer gotta remember that the Named are s.h.i.+t scared of the possibility of two-way traffic. From down 'ere ter up there. They're a s.h.i.+ttin' their breeks that mebbe them in'abitants of the underworld wus goin' ter find a way back upstairs via them self-same trails and swamp the present with the past and stop 'istory in its tracks. So what yer gotta do boychick?'

'I gotta - I mean I've got to stop and reverse any attempts at that happening'. By the G.o.ds, listen to me. What the h.e.l.l am I talking about?'

'What yer talkin' about is the deal Hades signed up ter with Zeus after that there 'orrible battle of the t.i.tans corralled up Hades and sent i'm down 'ere out of the way. Olympus and Hades separate like fer ever. Zeus made a clear break between 'em and it's worked real well so far. But that was then. Things 'ave moved on. In partic'lar the balance of power's changed so Hades is stronger'n he used ter be. Probl'y stronger'n Zeus 'imself if'n yer counts up the souls each of them's got over all. So yer knows don't'cher they got separate zones in different, 'cept parallel lines. Sure some partic'lar folks done the crossin' over like, and gotta lotta publicity. Some folks tried and got inta a lotta trouble. So's yer knows them parallel zones can be got through in special cases.'

'That's me, I'm a special case I suppose. Just because Zeus is my father, that makes me a special case does it? Well I don't want to be a special case thank you. I never asked to be a special case. By what right do I get put in this unreal, stupid, fantastic, situation! Eh? Answer me that you little goat!' Alexander sat on the sandy ground and hung his head. 'I want to go home,' he said weakly. I don't want to play any more. It's all just too fantastic.'

'So yer don't care if'n the forces of the past git stronger than the present. An' I s'pose yer don't care that the longer mortal 'istory lasts, the greater'll be the numbers on Hades' side. Yer knows I s'pose that nowadays fer every mortal on earth there's at least thirty of them thar dead 'uns in Hades.