I was dimly aware of the scientists deliberating excitedly, but their words did not register. My entire world was Eloise. I collapsed to my knees, staring at her.

Fritz knelt beside me and touched my arm. "You know her?"

Dumbly, I nodded.

"Tell me about her." He said it kindly, and I knew he was doing it to draw me out of my shock rather than trying to be invasive.

"Her name is Eloise de Ricordeau," I said softly. "I...met her on my way to the White Mountains. Her family nursed me back to health after a brutal illness. We grew close. I even thought..." I swallowed hard, then looked at Fritz. "I almost gave up my freedom. I almost allowed myself to be capped so I could live a wonderful life with her."

Fritz looked at Eloise. "So what changed your mind?"

I felt the hardness take over my face and voice. "They did. They took her. She was already capped when we met, and her love for me was nothing but the wind compared to her devotion to the Masters." I almost spat the word. "When she gave herself up to them willingly, she saved my life, though she didn't know it."

Fritz nodded, understanding. "You saw her the day you came here."

Tears came. "Yes."

"And you kept your composure in front of your Master."

I nodded.

Fritz shook his head in wonder. "I would never have been able to do that."

"You were always smarter than me," I said. "You thought things through more logically, saw further than me, discovered more, kept your head on straight so much more than I did. You knew when to act exactly like a slave, while I let pride get the better of me and almost gave myself away. I would not have survived this city, nor escaped it, without you."

"All that is true. But in this one instance, you masked your feelings in a way I could never have done. In this room, standing in front of your beloved, you succeeded where I would have failed." Fritz nodded toward Eloise. "And with what you discovered that day, combined with what we've discovered today, we may be able to save more lives than we previously thought." He looked at me and smiled. "Not bad, eh?"

I smiled back, and I was never more grateful for his friendship than in that moment. "Not bad at all," I said.

Beanpole came to us. "Will, I know what this means to you," he said. "And we will figure out how to revive and free these women. But it's a delicate situation. Saving the world comes first. We cannot devote much time right now to solve this riddle."

Fritz and I stood. "What riddle?" I asked. "Just turn off the power and wake them again."

Beanpole blinked as if this thought had not occurred to him. "That could be dangerous. We might have to turn off the pool of fire longer than you did to wake them properly, which might allow the pool to cool beyond the point of no return. Just because you restarted the pool once is no guarantee we could do it again. And we have to have it."

I wanted to argue, but couldn't. Emotions, needs, logic, and duty crashed around inside me. I knew he was right.

"Take the women out of the city," Fritz said. "That might wake them."

Beanpole shook his head. "There might be a procedure necessary to their revival of which we are unaware. Our clumsiness could kill them. Even if they didn't wake, moving them might harm them further."

"But we can't just leave them here!" I exclaimed.

"Actually, we can," Beanpole said. "The first rule of medicine is do no harm."

"It could be years before you figure out the secrets of their captivity!" I said.

"Yes, it could," Beanpole said. "But I say again: do no harm."

I couldn't think any more. It was too much.

Beanpole put his hands on my arms. "Will. You're in shock, so now more than ever, you need to trust us. If we make a mistake because we don't think it through, you'll never forgive yourself. We will help them. Trust us."

I took a deep breath and nodded. "I have to get back to camp."

"We're not through with the tour," Beanpole said. "We must do our duty first. Let's finish this day."

I straightened my back and nodded again. He was right, as usual.

Beanpole turned to the other scientists. "Does anyone have any more questions for Will about this place?" They all shook their heads, so we moved on.

I took one last, longing look at Eloise.

 

Our final stop was the slave hospital. I had only been here once, to visit Fritz briefly, so he did most of the talking, for which I was grateful. I was forming ideas, and was anxious to get back to camp.

On the way back, the scientists quizzed me and Fritz about the cars, and about the city in general.

Finally the tour was over. I ran into camp and rounded up all the freed slaves I could find.

"Did any of you ever do any work in the Pyramid of Beauty?" I asked frantically. I got a lot of blank stares. Most of them didn't know what the Pyramid of Beauty was. I found no one who had worked there.

Deflated but not defeated, I glanced at the vagrants. Someone had erected a crude holding area so they wouldn't wander off and hurt themselves or anyone else. I wondered if any of them held the knowledge I needed, locked inside minds no longer accessible.

I found Beanpole. He, Fritz, Julius, Andre, and all the scientists were discussing the day's discoveries, including the biggest. I slid myself into the outer edge of their meeting, listening intently.

During a moment of quiet, while Julius pondered our options regarding the women in the Pyramid of Beauty, I spoke up.

"Ruki might know something."

He glanced at me. "I was thinking the same thing."

That was my only contribution. About ten minutes later the meeting broke up. I glanced at Beanpole, who gave the tiniest yes-come-with-us movement of his head, and I followed him, Julius, and Andre into a large tent at the back of the camp. This tent was permanently guarded. Few were allowed entrance, and this was my first time seeing inside.

In the center of the tent, several folding tables had been shoved together to form a large table, surrounded by chairs. Another table and two chairs stood along the right wall. On this smaller table were two strange contraptions, similar in appearance.

Julius stood before the contraption on the left and picked up an object which fit snugly in his palm. A spiral cord connected this object to the contraption. He raised the object to his mouth, pressed a button on its side, and said, "Camp Freedom to Base. Over."

From the contraption came a bizarre, discordant sound, which abruptly cut off to be replaced by a strange-sounding voice which said, "This is Base. We read you Camp Freedom. Over."

My eyes must have been as big as saucers. I looked at Beanpole, who just smiled at me.

"Mildly urgent," Julius said into the object. "Ask Ruki for all information regarding the Pyramid of Beauty. In particular, ask how to free dormant human captives. Over."

"Roger," the voice from the contraption said. "Ask Ruki for all information regarding the Pyramid of Beauty. In particular, ask how to free dormant human captives. Wilco. Over."

"Confirmed," Julius said. "Answers ASAP. Camp Freedom over and out."

"Let's get dinner," Beanpole said to me. "There's nothing to do now but wait."

 

Beanpole explained as we ate. "It's called radio. We keep it secret because it's one of our greatest assets."

"It's how the Masters talk to each other over distance?" I asked.

He nodded. "It's how we know the Asian city has fallen and the American city has not. We listen to their transmissions."

"Doesn't that mean they can listen to ours?"

"Not now they're all dead on this side of the world. We use lower frequencies, which won't reach the western hemisphere. But there's always a risk, even a small one, which is why Julius spoke with care. You'll notice that he used the word Base instead of Castle, so if the Masters are listening somehow, they won't learn anything."

"Frequencies?"

"Yes. The Masters use higher frequencies because only a saddle light allows radio waves to go far around the Earth. This is the only way their cities could talk to each other, or to any Tripods which traveled a vast distance from a city. It's also the only way they could send signals to the Capped who lived far away."

"A saddle light? You mean something to allow a horseman to ride at night?"

"No, not a saddle light, a satellite." He spelled it for me. "Any object which orbits another object in space is a satellite. The moon, for example, is a satellite. We believe the Masters have small machines orbiting the Earth, artificial satellites, to relay their radio waves to each other over the horizon."

"But Julius just talked to the castle over a hundred kilometers away, and we don't have satellites." I paused. "Do we?"

"No, but radio waves of a lower frequency bounce off the top of the atmosphere and can go for some distance over the horizon. Not enough to reach the other side of the world, but enough to reach the castle.

"You saw we have two radios. That's because each radio is configured to listen to one set of signals. We never speak over that second radio; we only use it to listen to the Masters' higher frequencies."

"Waves," I said, feeling lost. "Frequencies." I shook my head.

"Someday, I'll explain it in more detail."

"I'm not sure you can."

"Oh, I can."

"I'm not doubting your ability to teach, I'm doubting my ability to learn."

Beanpole laughed. "Challenge accepted, Will Parker."

"How do the radios have electricity?" I asked. "I didn't see a generator." The castle had electricity because Ruki's airlock and prison required it. I had seen the source of that electricity a couple of times: a large generator which burned wood 24 hours a day.

"We built batteries for these radios. We want to build a generator for them, but we don't have time. Luckily, we've got a good supply of a batteries to last a while."

I thought for a moment. "If the Masters' invisible rays can go around the world...and the same invisible rays were used to control the caps..."

"Yes?

"...doesn't that mean the third city can regain control over the caps on this side of the world?"

"An excellent question, with the most obvious answer being they can't because they have not done so. So the real question is, why not? Perhaps each city was responsible for transmitting to any caps which came from that city; that would make sense if a cap's orders depend on the victim's language. Or perhaps the caps don't reactivate at all once communication is severed; this would explain why the Capped here in Europe didn't return to a state of mind control when you relit the pool of fire. The Capped in the western hemisphere are still under mind control, which tells us that the American city controls all the people there. So my best guess at the moment is that cap control is regional, and they never prepared for the contingency of an entire city failing."

Andre came over to us. He didn't sit. He just said, "Henry's alive."

My heart soared! Beanpole looked just as ecstatic as I felt.

"How do you know?" I asked frantically.

"We have radio relay stations across the ocean. Henry got a message through. Their mission failed, but some of them made it out alive. I knew you would want to know."

"Thank you so much for this news!" I said. "Can we speak to him?"

Andre shook his head. "We only use the radio for crucial information. We don't use it to chit-chat. Henry will give us a thorough debriefing when he arrives. He's already in transit, so he should be at the castle within a couple weeks."

I suddenly felt like anything was possible.