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"What was it like to see
 The face of your own stability
 Suddenly look away
 Leaving you with the dead and hopeless."
                   Jimmy




You've begged! You've waited! Now its here!
Is this stuff getting to topical? Maybe I'll
cut down on the evil subliminal messages and
stick to good old blatant hyperbole.


www.geocities.com/aescension
much more than just fanfics- an erotic experience
(scary smoke guy has been replaced with scary fire guy)















    3

  It had happened so long ago that I had nothing but blurry 
memories at best from the whole incident. I knew it had been 
distant because I remembered that the city had still been in the late 
stages of constructing itself. I had been the son of a Mandate-
hopeful politician and his better looking sister-in-law. An 
embarrassing bastard child, I was sent to live at the Boy's 
Academy in the northeast side of the city. I was there until I 
graduated at 18, and was sent to the College to be trained in 
diplomacy. 

  During this time my mother had married my father after her 
sister, his wife, died in a strange manner. The media was not 
oppressive about this, because they were ordered not to be. Only 
the independent presses even published the fact, but even they 
were more concerned with recent civil rights violations. The 
problem that began to hang over our heads was the fact that the 
first time I tried to run for an office, my competitors would 
immediately dig up this little fact about my life. My own mother 
had never been an actual suspect in her sister's death, but she could 
be made to look very guilty if a PR team slanted it that way. For 
that reason she had begged me not to be a politician, and I had 
obeyed her. 

  The only other career choice for the son of an important 
man was the Special Forces. They did not accept applications from 
anyone under twenty-two, so I remained in College on Lanz Island 
until that time, studying eastern philosophy and literature. I was 
smart, healthy, and had few attachments aside from my friends, 
and that made me ideal Special Forces material. 

  When I finally joined, I was trained in everything that 
could possibly be used to hurt someone. It was not as much fun as 
philosophy, but I liked being good at things. I eventually threw 
away all my books and put all of my concentration and effort into 
dealing out punishment to people breaking the law. I was bound 
for medals, and eventually a seat behind the Director's desk. (Of 
course I died for the first time before any of that happened, and so 
my memories are mostly of the College.)

  Eventually becoming the son of a full member of the 
Mandate, as long as I went to my classes and practices, I was given 
no trouble by any authority figures. That was what they drilled into 
us, that we were special because soon the city would be in our 
hands. The Mandate did not try to cling to itself for dear life, but 
shed the aged with practiced ease. The bodies were always young 
even though the ideology had never changed. The young possess 
energy and zeal, and naturally make better rulers. And as long no 
one with an original idea was ever appointed, the system coughed, 
sputtered, and worked.

  Having resigned myself to life devoid of intellectual 
challenge, I read as much as I could while I still had the professors 
to instruct me. The ideas I came up with much later in time as 
Jansenius, Malte, and Das were all spawned from those five years. 
Not worried about my ever actually achieving anything, my deans 
allowed me access to their entire library. I learned about the other 
groups that had briefly existed before the fateful week that the 
Peoples Manifest Destiny party changed everyone's mind in one 
massive protest, and the government was completely rearranged. 
They did not have much on the earlier existence of the Mandate, 
but I was able to find a book on the early Technicization Age. It 
was from that revelation that my professors lost me, and I began to 
hate the royal blood in my veins.

  There are very hazy and obscure images I can recall of 
another student with whom I spent a year on the College's eighty 
four acres of land extending away from the industrial areas of the 
Island. He answered my add in the paper, and moved in above me 
a few weeks before classes started up again. I got the rent on time 
and so James Henry and I never had much to say to one another. 

  Then when I showed up for the first class in some unarmed combat 
style, he was told to sit right behind me. Since we were close to the 
same size, him just a few inches shorter than me, we were paired 
against each other often, and developed the natural rivalry.

  At first it was just the fighting, but then it spread to our 
other classes and our personal lives. We silently competed at 
everything; grades, athletics, and eventually women. He turned out 
to be just a little smarter than me, but I was stronger. I was able to 
handle him on the mat and outside in the field. But in a desk it was 
much closer. He had a way of forcing thought out of head and 
demanding it to dance for him on paper. He enjoyed it, even in the 
places where anyone with any personal style would have abhorred 
the narrow scope of possibilities. While I tried desperately to 
evolve my scholarly style to mediate between my desires and my 
duties, James just kept putting simple equations together and 
coming out on top. In short, he never feared that his creativity 
would be stunted by anything. He had no mental fear at all. So, 
machine like, at least in my own biased estimation, we both knew 
he had the edge. 

  At the end of the school year we said our goodbyes, each of 
us content with what we had accomplished, and he moved out to 
his own place. I missed the competition in the later months but 
soon had other things on my mind. The College was merely 
nominally co-ed at this time and there were few women enrolled. I 
happened to stay with one I had been seeing through my first year, 
and we became involved. A lot of time went by pretty fast, and I 
never got in touch with James Henry. It would have riled him to 
hear I was serious with someone.

  I was not until a few months before my graduation that I 
finally heard from him. James called me one night and told me to 
meet him outside near the northern edge of the grounds where the 
rock dropped off a thousand feet down. This had been one place he 
and I had trained the year before. I smiled at this, it was exactly the 
place he would have taken me to try and scare me. But I had 
grown. When I got up the trail it was dark but I could see his small 
campfire a hundred yards off. I met him with enthusiasm and we 
shook hands. He passed me a bottle he had been working on, and 
we sat and talked about how it all used to be. I don't think I 
remember anything he specifically said, but I know it was good to 
reminisce and know we had no hard feelings lingering from our 
past.

  Yet alcohol and night air can do a lot to an unsettled 
rivalry. After only an hour or two James challenged me to a little 
sparring. I had stayed in good shape since our last match, and was 
more than ready for him. Then he showed me a gun he had 
brought, and we took turns shooting at tiny shrubs between the 
rocks far below us. He had improved too, but I still wound up 
winning more than I lost. James had never been satisfied with the 
outcomes of our matches, and had always insisted that we make it 
a little more specific and a little more serious. Tonight was no 
exception, and finally he threw the gun down and demanded that 
our dispute be settled forever.

  I never liked it when he got like this, and I had usually 
avoided his attempts to cross that thin white line. I didn't know 
what he had in mind, but we were outdoors and I was not 
intimidated in the least. We leaned over the edge of the cliff and 
looked down into the dark land below. Except for Lanz Island to 
the west, there were no lights of any kind out there. Outside the 
city, the rest of the world was a very desolate place. But not that 
night.

  James stepped thirty feet back from the edge, leaned 
forward and ran. I shouted as soon as he started, but with five feet 
to go he slid on his butt and stopped before going off. I asked him 
what the hell he was thinking, and he outlined the ordeal. Who 
ever had the balls to run as fast as he could before stopping at the 
edge would win. I thought he was crazy.

  He got back and did it again. This time he remained 
standing, and slid on his shoes stopping with less than a foot to 
spare. The gauntlet had been thrown. I wiped whiskey onto my 
sleeve, and got back. I ran, and then immediately fell over. I rolled 
a few feet and got pretty close to the edge. I looked up at him and 
laughed amiably. James shook his head.

  He went again and ran the fastest of either of us, finally 
skidding to a stop. I went again and actually almost fell off the 
edge. I had a hand hold and he yanked me back up. He promised 
that we each had one more to go, and then it would be decided. 
Fairly close to drunk, I agreed. He said I should go first, and I did. 

  I slipped partially over the edge again, and had to pull my legs up 
by hanging onto cracks. I called out to him to give me a hand, but 
this second time he did not come. The firelight shined off his eyes, 
which appeared as two tiny flames floating in the darkness. I 
looked up from the ground, and saw him run at top speed toward 
the edge. 

  He didn't slide this time, he jumped. He had mentioned that 
he had practiced here before, in anticipation of our reunion. Who 
knows what it might have got him. He was no longer with me on 
that tall vertical rock. He was million miles away, in his own place, 
his own dark soul, and he was daring me to make the sacrifices and 
show the bravery that he had.

  The large dark form of a spiderbat is the clearest memory I 
have of that night. It swooped up from below our sight line and 
grabbed him out of the air with its eight strong legs. The sudden 
acceleration into the air took him out of his shoes and he was 
unable to cry out. I shouted again and picked up the gun James had 
dropped. No longer able to see his form, I shot at the spiderbat as it 
flew around in a large arc and then back over the cliff. Soon I 
could not see its writhing, twisting body in the air at all. I was 
alone, and had to walk back to my room with a terrific onus 
weighing me down. I was never questioned by the deans, who 
eventually assumed James Henry had simply gone AWOL.

  The point, I guess, is that he was so sure that he was 
smarter, and therefore superior to me, that the lure of a final truth 
pushed everything else out of his head. The gunshots obviously let 
the spiderbats know where we were, and it was a simple matter for 
one to swing by, and see who could be eaten. I was damn lucky 
there weren't two of them. But I did learn something from it all, to 
know my own, low, arbitrary place, even if I had to merely 
pretend. Pride, the gift and curse of Zeus, plays more tricks with 
reality than any drug. Never think you were made to cheat chance 
at any game. Especially the ones deep in your mind. The die of 
entropy will never be cast in your favor. 

  I only learned to understand that shortly before I was killed 
myself two years later, at last a matured man.





------------








  It was partially his look, and partially that old memory that 
made me take my hand off my gun. I gave away nothing in 
expression, but closed my jacket and looked back. Chris's hands 
came away from the arsenal strapped to his waist, and crossed in 
front of him. I breathed silently and pushed the hair out of my 
eyes.

  "...Screw..."

  "I've been going by 'Rick' lately."

  Chris walked a few steps toward me up the wide dome. He 
was moving like a snake, constantly and dangerously. He was a 
much faster draw then I and was in a position to kill me without 
much of a struggle. 

  I tried to look confident. "How did you know it was me?"

  "There's a bug in your head."

  "Another one?"

  "No, it's the same one. Just that now it's me who knows 
where you are and not Wells. You know, your cute little lady 
friend told me something about you. I think you would be 
surprised to hear the things she knew. Stuff I'm sure you never told 
her yourself."

  "Like what?" I said.

  "She said you have a thing about dying, that it doesn't seem 
to completely work on you. Every time your life is in danger, you 
somehow find a way to eek back into existence. Is that true?"

  "She said that to you?"

  "'Unbelievable' was the word she used. I think I'd choose 
'Unnatural.' I know about her experiment on frostbite. Cryogenic 
stasis fluid poured into your merusion chamber on naked skin. Not 
even a spiderbat would last two seconds. She said that when she 
pulled out the duct, you were completely dead. Yet you are here 
now. With that large gun. What's going on?"

  "When the hell did you talk to Alethea? I haven't seen her 
for more than twenty four hours! Rufius has her."

  Chris was a few steps closer again, and he was eyeing me 
intently. I don't know why he even bothered, he could kill me from 
there. Which meant maybe he still thought I had the psionics.
"Alethea? I talked to her earlier today."

  "How?! Is she alright? What did she say?"

  "Just that she was going to be staying in the Apothecary for 
the rest of the week. She wanted to know if I could tell her 
anything about you or Zig. I said I couldn't help her."

  "Wait," I said. "Did she call you?"

  "Yes."

  "Why? She doesn't even know you!"

  "Sorry 'Rick', I've known her a lot longer than you. For ten 
years now, ever since I've worked for her mother. I knew White 
pretty well too until he went totally psycho on everyone. We all 
saw it coming though."

  I tried digesting that. "But I thought the Cabal was an 
insurrectionist faction? Since when did you care about White, or 
even Wells for that matter? One or both were actual Mandate 
Directors. Your enemies."

  Chris sighed and walked in a small circle while he thought. 
"Let me try and explain something. The White family has been 
around for centuries in this city. They have always been wealthy 
and influential, although often holding eccentric political views 
bordering the radical. For years the elder two Whites were 
obsessed with merusion. Their bloodline reacts favorably and they 
can all use psionics. Or 'could' in the case of the old man. Rufius 
had him so far under his spell that I don't think he could sleep at 
night without taking a stroll around his lab. As you know, it's very 
bad for you in the long term."

  "Yes, Rufius explained it to me once before. Controlled 
nuclear radiation in the form of magnetronic impulses. Turns your 
own tissue and cells into iron."

  "The most nuclear unreactive element. I had heard the term 
'cardioliths' used in description. Imagine that; guts filling to burst 
with iron chains. But you've already seen it up close."

  "I have," I said without reserve.

  "Killing our former boss was a gutsy move. I think you 
may have angered a few people you care about though."

  "He wasn't our boss."

  "Oh yes he was. While you and he worked on the Yuma 
machine years ago, the old woman and I were stealing all the 
equipment to build it. When I wasn't training the men, all my time 
was spent robbing the rest of Ventiss bare. That's the whole reason 
we based our front company in that part of the city. I had been told 
White intended to fully restore you memory, but if this is still hazy 
to you, you have a very long way to go."

  "Alethea told me her parents have hated each other since 
before she was born. That's why she ran away to be with her 
mother rather than the old man. I don't think you're telling the 
truth, Chris."

  He started. "Aren't I? Am I fucking lying to you? I'm the 
only one who's been straight with you yet! I have news for you 
man, Alethea is not the little angel she pretends to be."

  "Bullshit." 

  "I'm serious. I know you are wondering why she called me 
and not you. Or why she is staying in the Apothecary with Rufius 
when she could be here, safe in your bed."

  "No. She has to deal with Arkoff and that woman from the 
news. Sarah Wheeler. She is going to blow Rufius' whole 
operation to the police and I wouldn't be surprised if you were 
next. I'm going back to the Apothecary tonight to get her back."

  "If she comes home with you willingly, I will be very 
surprised." He laughed. "She's doing the work for Rufius now 
since her father is dead. I'm telling you, that woman is daddy's 
little girl at heart. She hasn't spoken to her mother since she 
dropped out, ran away, and caught up with you and Zig."

  "Now I know that's a lie," I said raising my voice and 
stepping back. "They were talking easily back in Ventiss while I 
was getting put into the merusion chamber. You were there too, all 
four of us."

  "No. That was only because both of them were worried 
about you. This was before White had given up on your power 
maturing, and it was still a high priority to keep you alive. The old 
woman would have given you her kidney if you needed it. That's 
the only reason she and Alethea talked."

  "But Alethea wanted me dead! Hence all the cold air and 
goodbye-kisses! That makes no sense."

  "Listen to me, it does. Up until four years ago, when we 
released you back into society, Mr. and Mrs. White both worked 
for Rufius. They were a group that came together before I was 
born apparently for some other original purpose entirely. But 
during that time Rufius showed them his psionic power and thus 
were the two Whites taken in by him. It was almost like a cult at 
first, them serving him hand and foot and he taking them to places 
and showing them things they had only dreamed possible. Much 
like what he later tried to do to you and me, though clearly the 
novelty of it by that time had been spent. 

  "Some of what Alethea may have told you is true. Her 
father worked directly on the chambers, trying to get you all 
maturing properly. When it worked on him and his then-devoted 
wife, they tried it on Alethea. She did not have nearly the potential 
they had hoped for, so they gave up and looked for another student. 
Though her cellular reactivity was perfect, she seemed some how 
predisposed to bad concentration and inability to focus properly. 
Then Rufius decided to use you. He had had you working under 
White for longer than I could remember and we were all surprised 
when he decided to give this little lab rat a chance to use the full 
power. But this was Rufius we're talking about, and no one ever 
doubted him for a second. So you were prepped and tested. You 
passed, though at first only to some small degree. We decided you 
needed to trained more fully."

  "Ah. So Alethea must have been the one student that 
Weirham had told me about."

  "Weirham? You believed that sick sack of shit? They 
didn't dig him up until a few months ago, along with Geese, the 
man who eventually attacked you as Guy Jinn. Weirham was doing 
life underground for a molestation charge. I don't know what else 
he told you, but he was crazy as balls."

  "What happened to him?" I asked.
  
  "Cardioliths got him too. Wells had been directly feeding 
off of his energy once he turned out to be unresponsive. And 
because of that fact, Weirham couldn't keep his own body alive. 
The chains tore themselves right out of his body soon after Wells 
died. It was an awful sight from what I hear."

  "So then if White didn't train Alethea, who did? And who 
was his only student?"

  "Who, indeed..." 

  He watched me. Oh. There were so many things I needed to 
know, and now even more people I needed to see. "What about 
Alethea?" I said.

  "It was her mother at first. White wanted Alie in and out of 
the chamber all day long, but her mother was far less demanding. 
Many arguments were had over that subject, and this is when the 
old woman left the Apothecary and took Alethea and I with her. It 
was around that time that your girl really went crazy."

  "Alie's not crazy."

  "Yeah, I guess you would see it that way. The eyes of 
affection. As if you had ever really known the Whites; we 
wouldn't be having this little talk."

  "Why do you hate her so much?"

  "You would've had to be there."

  "Wait a minute!" I said, suddenly remembering thoughts I 
had the last time I had seen Chris and Alethea together. During that 
gurney ride to the merusion chamber at the Eichenger Industries 
building. What was it I had heard? "You..." I said after a pause. 
"You...wouldn't be trying to get me off Alethea because..." I 
paused again in thought. "Would you?"

  Chris looked at me and then let his jaw drop a little. 
"Because *I* want her?! Are you insane? Me and her? How did you 
dream that up??"

  "I don't know." And I didn't, it appeared. 

  "She represents everything I hate about this whole 
situation! She is the dirty, guilty pleasure that keeps guys like you 
and her father so off track! If Alethea hadn't been born, Rufius 
would have taken over the city ages ago like he promised and I 
wouldn't have to plan out this damn revolution!"

  "I vaguely remember--"

  "No, damn it, you don't."

  Alright, whatever.

  "What's your real story, then?"

  He looked away. "You and White had finally completed 
your work on Yuma, and since he needed more new talented test 
subjects, they tried the big black box on you and Wells. During this 
time I was still working for the old woman and I was damn serious 
about it. But I also spent a lot of time being her liason to Rufius' 
brood. Even if the Cabal, which is really just the old woman and 
her multiple personality syndrome, did not care about the Yuma 
machine or Rufius' personal plans, she did need them for one 
thing. Our new plan to overthrow the Mandate rested heavily on 
our having one or more psionics users. We thought we had you, 
but then Alethea flipped out and ruined it when she tried to kill 
you. She was actually under her old man's orders. Why she left us 
for him in the first place is beyond me. She's too unpredictable."

  I swallowed hard. Chris had just all but admitted he knew I 
couldn't use the power anymore. The rest of this little chat 
suddenly became very tricky.

  "I guess she didn't want you to have to suffer the way she 
did, being someone else's tool" he said idly.

  "So you're saying she does love me?"

  "I don't really know. It didn't come up in our conversation. 
Confused?"

  "Yeah, more than a little," I said.

  "Don't let it bother you. I don't think any of us knows the 
complete story of how Rufius and the clan of White got started. 
Back when the old woman first told me that I had to hunt down 
Wells before he killed you, I was just as much in the dark. I mean, 
I had worked with the man years before when we were both grunts, 
and it was hard to believe that White had made such a monster out 
of him. But then half the reason the old woman left was because 
she saw the breakup between her and her husband coming. I should 
have too." 

  "I wish someone would have told all this to me," I said. 

  "You could have warned me about all three of them, months before 
Wells actually chased me down."

  "I didn't have months. By the time the old woman had 
finished setting up the operation in Ventiss and I had gotten Das 
Uberdog into fighting shape, all ties with Rufius' group had been 
cut. We didn't know what the hell they were planning, only that it 
had to be stopped before we launched our coup on the Mandate. 
We didn't want to have to deal with a rival revolution at the same 
time, if that's was part of their plan. They probably would have 
won." He looked at me. "And I hope you don't have any hard 
feelings, because you really were my prot�g�. It was me who 
trained you underground. White provided the merusion and the 
warm bodies, and I taught them how to fight. A lot of the stuff you 
think you learned from the Special Forces, or wherever White said 
you used to work, you got straight from me."

  That was something anyway. It meant Chris obviously 
didn't know about my long, long life. In fact, the only one of them 
who probably knew was Rufius himself. Man, it had been along 
time since I had connected to him. But my luck was running out.

  Chris was pacing closer to me and seemed overly involved 
in the dialogue. It suddenly occurred to me that I might be able to 
whip out my own gun before he drew on me, as long as he stayed 
occupied. But trying to keep up with him was getting frustrating 
because the only question I wanted answered was who's idea it had 
been to betray me.

  "What really baffles me is you," I said while I watched his 
eyes. "What about your cause? Those freaks can't have your 
interests at heart."

  He laughed a little. "Yes, I know. Don't doubt that I'm 
using them too. I have more military strategy in my cock than that 
sweet old woman does in her whole body. My army and my intent 
are what the Mandate really loses sleep over. But the Cabal had the 
funding we happened to need. I was able to get my hands on guns, 
cars, and a headquarters much closer to the Plaza than the stadium. 
She was also the one who taught me about psionics, and how her 
husband was raising some sort of super-soldier. It was an offer I 
couldn't refuse, especially since they promised to get me out of an 
earlier prison sentence."

  "I can't believe they let you into Das in the first place."

  "Think of me as your distant successor, Screw." Chris 
smiled as he thought back. "Your did a lot of talking in the last few 
days before Rufius put you through the chamber and I must have 
heard most of it. You must have been feeling damn sorry for 
yourself on the operating table because you wouldn't shut up about 
what a hero you used to be. Das Uberdog, the one animal. Bravo. 
Seriously. I knew there had to be a reason Rufius kept you so 
close. The original Das Uberdog gang's 'sacred codes' foretell the 
resurgence of a perfected military leader. I ultimately stole that 
prophesy from you, but it's not like you were heading in that 
direction at the time. You loved nothing but yourself, and Rufius 
had given you a way to further those ends. And the best thing is 
that all the power I have is unconditional, thanks to you. I'm in 
charge of every insurrectionary operation. You must have trained 
them well because its still their most passionate cause."

  "Well, you can't blame me for thinking ahead."

  "Of course I don't. As long you see how it left the whole 
gang there for the taking."

  "Do you make the little thugs salute you, too?"

  "Ha! Yes, I feel it gives them dignity, a sense of purpose. 
You know, I've got to say. The brotherhood in blood thing was 
stroke of genius."

  But I wasn't listening. "Chris, if you were really pulling for 
yourself all this time, why did you give Zig and I to White while 
we were most vulnerable? You said you already knew by that point 
those two were nuts. We were going to help you take care of 
them!"

  Chris walked forward, and put his hands around my 
shoulder. "But you couldn't have. When you were prematurely 
jerked out of that merusion bath, it drained your psionics down to 
nothing. You would then have certainly succumbed to Rufius, and 
he would take his revenge on the old woman and me immediately. 
That meant death and something worse, failure. So under her 
orders, I contacted White and told him where you would be. I am 
sorry Zig was involved, White broke our deal. We truly did not 
intend for him or the Chinese woman to be hurt."

  "What about me?! You knew they wanted me dead back 
when they tried to get Alethea to do the job. I was locked in a 
mirrored cage for three days, and then hunted like an animal when 
Zig and I got free! You said I was your prot�g�; why deliver me to 
the hands of the enemy? Just so Rufius wouldn't be angry with 
you?"

  Chris grimaced. "I told you before, that alone is enough. 
The old woman lost Linn, who was closer to her than her own 
daughter. I didn't want my boys to get hurt either. But by that time 
you were either going to get killed attacking him directly, or I 
could let you get close to him without letting it seem like we 
supported you. You got free, right? It's just that this way he didn't 
come after us."

  "Well, maybe I don't approve of your decision. It was my 
life on the line, *my* body that had to suffer whatever White wanted 
to do to it. You threw me to the wolves."

  "I don't care what you think, I had to."

  "You're a soldier! You were trained to fight people like 
him, and protect the citizens who can't fight themselves! You 
didn't even try!"

  "Friend, listen to me. Rufius is not just some old scientist 
who figured out how to make himself smarter. He's a genius, a 
demigod. His psionic power is a thousand times anything White or 
Wells had. Even at your peak, you couldn't have stood up to him 
in any contest. 

  "The original plan called for a hundred or so heavy gunners 
to concentrate fire on him all at once after you engaged him. We 
would have been following you without your knowledge waiting 
for the instant of confrontation. We figured you would at least be 
able to last until the bullets got there. But afterwards I realized it 
would not have worked even then. I felt it and my feelings never 
lie. He is impossible to resist. We have no idea how old he is or 
where he came from. We don't know how he is able to use 
psionics without ever having been merused. And we really don't 
know how he and White were able to live without tissue in their 
living bodies. But we do know that our past efforts have all been 
futile. Best to do what he orders and stay out of his way. We can 
take this city without super powers." 

  I shook my head. "I know there's more behind it than that."

  He said nothing, but I caught the hint of recognition in his 
eyes.

  I shook his hand off my shoulder. "And you can do it 
without me. I'm tired of being shoved around. I won't help you 
anymore and if Rufius comes after you too, then you get what you 
deserve. The same thing you did to me and Zig."

  He frowned even more. "I'm sorry to hear you say that. I 
had hoped I would not have to do this. You understand that I can 
no longer let you live. Like I said, no one but Rufius himself 
knows what his real goals are, though they are probably just some 
ploy to make him truly immortal. He likes that idea and that's what 
I hear the Yuma machine was designed for. His plan may conflict 
with ours and it may not. But I'm not taking any chances; the fact 
that Rufius thinks you left him for us jeopardizes my revolution. I 
won't have any more of my men die because of a little loose end 
like you."

  Well, there went my hopes for a peaceful ending.

  "I understand." I shook my head a little. "It's never 
personal with you, is it?"

  "No," he said. "With this much on the line it can't be."
	







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next time- big fight

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