We didn't hear from the castle all evening, but Beanpole assured me they hadn't expected to. I awoke the next morning eager for news from Ruki, but there was none. I was desperate for information; I got supply detail instead.

So did Fritz, but at least he had been told what we were doing. All I had gotten was Andre's hurried order, "Parker, get to the river ASAP."

I headed toward the river and caught up with Fritz. I was about to ask what was going on when I saw a familiar sight, so instead, I asked, "What's the Erlkonig doing here?"

"Delivering supplies," Fritz said. "Including the freed slaves, we have hundreds of mouths to feed, and the nearest markets are dozens of kilometers away. We made contact with the towns upriver. They're feeding us." He gave me a wicked grin. "Unless you want to eat slave rations from the city for the next few weeks."

"No, thank you!"

I realized that the Erlkonig might take return cargo, or passengers. "Will we send the freed slaves back to their homes?" I asked.

"Eventually. The scientists want to debrief every one of them thoroughly before they leave, but I don't think they've started that process yet."

Fritz and I were happy to see Moritz again, who was leading the donkeys out to graze. He was now captain of the Erlkonig, and seemed more self-confident than when we had last met. Beanpole also came down briefly to say hello.

About fifty of us, mostly freed slaves, spent the next hour lugging one crate after another from the barge to the camp. In a light rain. Some crates were covered with tarps to keep them dry and were far heavier than they had any right to be. We had a couple of carts to use for those heavy crates, but we had to haul most of the supplies by hand. We received a large shipment of lye soap, which we badly needed. We also acquired an assortment of chickens, cows, and pigs. I was astonished all these things had fit in the Erlkonig's hold.

I spent the rest of the day helping to erect enclosures for our new livestock, next to the horse stables which others had built yesterday.

Camp Freedom was becoming a village.

 

At dinner, Beanpole placed five pieces of paper in front of me. "The flier," he said.

The papers had French text, written so neatly it was astonishing.

I was baffled about several things. "Do they fly?"

"No. Flier is just what it's sometimes called in English. I don't know why. I should have said pamphlet."

I had heard him and a few others speak of this pamphlet, but hadn't had the time or curiosity to inquire. I picked up the papers and scanned them. "How is the text so neat and straight?" I asked.

"Another invention of the ancients. It's called typesetting, and printing. Tiny pieces of metal are forged into the shapes of letters and fixed into position on a plate. The letters are dipped in ink, then stamped onto the paper all at once. And the real beauty is that the ancients made machines which repeat this process many thousands of times an hour. That was how they printed their books and newspapers. We discovered these machines last year, and Julius made use of them."

The pamphlet was a five-page explanation of the invasion, the caps, the resistance, and the new-found freedom everyone on this side of the world had suddenly experienced. It explained, very briefly in layman's terms, the invisible rays used to send commands to the caps. To explain where the aliens came from, the pamphlet first had to explain the stars. It explained that the Earth was round and that there were continents on the other side of the globe; two of the pages were simple maps of the eastern and western hemispheres. It told of the three alien cities, and how the resistance had sent spies into one. It explained that the cities in Asia and Europe had been overthrown, but the city in America still stood. It told of the Masters, how they lived, and their plan to poison our air. It told of the spaceship on its way, and that the Earth was still under threat. It explained that some people's minds had broken upon their sudden release from alien commands, which was a tragedy the resistance could not have avoided.

Most importantly, it explained that the caps could never come off, but also explained how to disable them so they would never receive commands again. Along with this explanation was a diagram to make it as easy as possible.

"Did these come this morning?" I asked.

"Those really heavy crates contained nothing but paper. Many thousands of copies of this pamphlet. In English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Greek, and Russian. The Asian resistance group will do the same in their languages."

"Why?"

"It's vital that people know what happened as quickly as possible. Remember, 99 percent of the people have no idea what happened to them, or why. They're still in their villages, or on their farms, free of the Masters' control, but confused, frightened, and completely in the dark. Julius was afraid of horrible repercussions, wars, violence, simply because people lash out and seek power when they're afraid. He foresaw the need to spread information quickly. The pamphlet has been carefully worded to give all the necessary information as succinctly as possible. Julius held off on printing until we knew the outcome of the attack on the cities."

"I meant, why bring the pamphlets here? We already know all this!"

"Oh!" Beanpole laughed. "So each former slave can take hundreds of pamphlets when they leave, and distribute them wherever they go. Others are already distributing them. Moritz gives them out in every town he passes. The cells we set up in the great-cities of the ancients are distributing them around their countrysides as fast as they can."

"Hmm. That's quite a plan. It's fascinating how many things you have to think of when overthrowing alien conquerors."

"There's always more to do."

Andre joined us. This time he brought his meal and sat.

"Will, we heard from the castle," he said. "Normally I wouldn't be telling you this because it's not your place to know, but..." He glanced at Beanpole before continuing. "Ruki claims he knows nothing of the Pyramid of Beauty, or how the women are held dormant. He claims he never had any interest in humans, either as slaves or as objects of study, and never went to that pyramid. I'm sorry."

I nodded glumly. "Thanks for letting me know."

"In fact..." Andre toyed with his food for a moment, as if contemplating some deep mystery. "They were astonished they got any answer out of Ruki at all. It seems...well, it seems as if he felt the city die."

Beanpole and I looked at him in amazement.

"At almost the exact moment the dome collapsed, he screamed, then fell into a stupor. He was completely unresponsive for 48 hours, then just sat brooding in silence until some time yesterday afternoon, and even then he spoke a lot less than usual."

"That can't be a coincidence," Beanpole breathed. "Yet, how is it possible?"

"It's a puzzle," Andre said. "But it might explain why all the Tripods stopped moving. If they can somehow feel each other die, the mass death may have struck all of them."

"But Ruki recovered!" Beanpole said. "Which means the Tripod drivers might recover soon, also!"

I nervously glanced at the Tripods standing above the camp.

"Ruki recovered in two days, and almost died because of a lack of water intake," Andre said. "But it's been four days since the city died and every Tripod we know of is still unmoving. Dan and Amelia believe no Master could ever be in a stupor that long and live." Dan and Amelia led the team of scientists studying Ruki. "At the very least, a Master would die from lack of water intake within 72 hours, so they're pretty confident that any Tripod drivers who haven't recovered by now will never be a problem again."

"I wonder if some percentage of Tripod drivers withstood the shock, but we just haven't heard about them," Beanpole said.

"If so, it would be a small percentage, indeed," Andre said. "We can't claim to know where every Tripod is, but if one so much as twitched, we'd hear about it soon enough."

"If all the Tripod drivers are dead, how did Ruki live?" I asked.

"We think Ruki's long separation from his fellows may have softened the impact on him," Andre said. "We've asked him about all this, but he won't speak of it."

Beanpole had a hand on his chin, pondering. "Could they share a telepathic empathy?"

"We know they're not truly telepathic, or they wouldn't need radios," Andre said. "But they obviously have some kind of group empathy."

"How extraordinary!" Beanpole said.

"All the more so that they would have such an empathy with each other, but none for any intelligent species besides themselves," Andre said.

 

I spent the evening on patrol with four others. On horse, we traveled east, made a wide circle to the south, and returned. We saw nothing.

The resistance was terrified of Tripods counterattacking – and until we heard the probable explanation from Dan and Amelia, we frankly had been astonished they hadn't – so we regularly sent out patrols.

We had a plan in case Tripods did attack. In the ultimate irony, this plan was to take refuge in the city. As far as we knew, no Tripod could penetrate the inner wall of the Hall of Tripods, and with no alien atmosphere, docking and disembarking would do them no good. They could wear a breathing mask, of course, but they would be terribly vulnerable.

In addition to this plan, I had a feeling we had some weapons Julius was keeping secret. I hadn't heard anything; it was just an intuition borne of my familiarity with Julius's cleverness, and his ability to stay several steps ahead of the enemy.

 

Supply detail, construction, and patrol, all in the same day. Now all I craved was sleep. But just before I lay down, a freed slave approached.

"Are you Will Parker?" he asked.

"I am."

"The others told me you were asking for anyone who worked in the Pyramid of Beauty. Is that correct?"

My heart started to pound. "Yes."

"My Master once worked in the Pyramid of Beauty for several days. I assisted him."

"What's your name?"

"Karl."

"Can you tell me anything about the women imprisoned there?" I asked anxiously.

"I think so."

He started to tell me his experience in the Pyramid of Beauty. After one minute, I stopped him and said, "Come with me."

I immediately rounded up Beanpole, Julius, and Andre. Silas, Francois, Evelyn, and Abner, who happened to be nearby, overheard and joined us. I introduced everyone, then said to Karl, "Please tell us everything you know."

Haltingly, Karl told his story. His Master had been of a gentle and genial nature, like mine, and was therefore very chatty and forthcoming with information. In fact, he liked to brag about their technology to Karl, so he could constantly hear Karl tell him how brilliant they were.

That Master's vanity was our blessing.

Karl's Master had once participated in a small project at the Pyramid of Beauty for several days, and Karl had accompanied him each day. The project was in the room containing the women. Of course, his Master had called them specimens. At first, Karl assumed the women were dead.

The Masters had acquired more women than they had room to show. Some of the Masters wanted to cull the women, others wanted to expand the display. They all agreed they didn't want to build another pyramid. They eventually agreed to rearrange the display to include all the women and some extra space for the future, and if that didn't work, they would cull.

The cells holding the women were designed with protrusions and slots on their sides, so they could connect to each other in a neat, straight line. Karl helped his Master disconnect some of the cells, move them into different positions, and reconnect them. Basically, they were creating new rows of cells, and narrowing the aisles between them.

They used small wheeled carts to move the cells around, but since the cells were so heavy, the Masters themselves loaded and unloaded the cells on and off the carts.

One of the Masters pushed some cells together too hard and damaged one, so Karl and his Master took the damaged cell, with the woman still inside it, back to some kind of service and holding area.

This area included a special room to one side filled with human air, and actually kept somewhat cool. It had a large window facing the main service area. Inside that room, Karl could see about half a dozen women, all in beautiful gowns, awake and waiting patiently. The recent arrival of these women was the reason for the sudden need to reconfigure the display.

Karl's Master took the damaged cell to this room, but did not enter it. He pushed the cell, front first, into a special alcove beside the window. The alcove had a flexible seal which fit around the front of the cell and stuck to it. Karl's Master pressed some buttons on the wall to secure the seal, pressed a button on the back of the cell to open its door, then waited.

Karl, mildly curious (for the cap did not remove all curiosity, especially if the subject wasn't sensitive), asked what was going on.

Never one to waste an opportunity to show off their technology, Karl's Master told him all about it. "The specimen in this cell will slowly wake, after which we will give her a new cell, and she will resume her place. I'm afraid we'll have to dispose of this cell. The way we make things nowadays, it has become easier to throw something away than to repair it. I strongly disapprove of this laziness, but they didn't ask me, did they?"

"So all the women are merely asleep?" Karl asked.

"Yes. We tried embalming, but it leaves a distasteful yellowish hue. Dormancy preserves their natural aspect."

"But how can the women be asleep and seem dead?" Karl asked.

"Because we are brilliant!" his Master crowed triumphantly. "Through the cap, we instruct their brains to shut down and their bodies to stop aging! Think of it, boy! Your ancestors desperately sought chemicals and machines to halt aging, but they never suspected it could be done entirely through the brain. It's so easy, if one has technology and genius such as ours. We instruct the brain to suppress aging, and all biological processes are suspended without killing the specimen, even the need for food or water. Even breathing! To wake them, we merely stop the suppression, allowing the brain to return to normal! Its simplicity is pure elegance. Indeed, some of our specimens have been here nearly a century, unchanged from the day they arrived, frozen in their youth! Isn't it grand, boy? Isn't it grand?" At which point Karl had dutifully said that yes, it was grand.

Then he asked, "And you provide the women this special room instead of ordering them to wear masks?" He wasn't jealous, just curious.

"We provide the specimens with this special waiting room, with its cold temperature, because otherwise, their sweat glands would operate and ruin their beautiful clothing. We permit the specimens to breathe their atmosphere in this room because the slave masks leave red marks which, although slight, are still a blemish. Also, it makes it easier for a specimen to transition from this room to her cell, since her cell must also contain her own air."

"Why does her cell have to contain human air if she no longer breathes?"

"Our air is corrosive to human skin over a period of decades. Also, if the cell ever malfunctions and the specimen revives, there is a greater chance of preserving her if she does not choke on bad air, which is why we make the air in each cell extra rich in the specific element your species needs."

"The Masters are brilliant, and truly think of everything."

"Indeed!"

Karl's Master then pressed a button beside the window, activating a mechanism which allowed him to speak to the women inside the waiting room. "You! New specimens. Have you already been culled?"

One woman stood and made the bow of reverence. "Yes, Master. Two who were with us were deemed unworthy. One had a crooked nose. The other was simply plain of face and body, and far too thin. They have been disposed of."

Karl's Master turned to him and said, "Enter the waiting room, boy. The pedestrian airlock is around the corner. I had not intended to install the new specimens into their cells until we were finished with the reconfiguration, but since we're here, we might as well do this now."

Karl entered the waiting room, grateful for the cool air and the opportunity to remove his mask for a while. True to what his Master said, the air in this special room seemed richer and more invigorating than any he had ever breathed.

After about another fifteen minutes, the woman in the damaged cell was entirely awake, whereupon Karl untacked her gown and she stepped into the waiting room. Karl's Master brought a new cell to the airlock, and the woman stepped into it. Karl tacked her gown to the back wall of her cell in several places. Then the woman's cell door closed and she fell once more into stasis.

One by one, each woman in the waiting room stepped into her own cell. There was only one airlock for cell transition, so the process took a while. Karl tacked the gown of each woman to the back wall of her cell before she, too, became essentially lifeless and her cell door sealed her inside.

Then Karl and his Master returned to the display area and resumed their task of reconfiguring the display. This they did successfully, so the women were not culled any further.

Karl had our complete attention, none more so than me.

When he finished his story, I turned to Julius. I knew I was staring, but I didn't care. I wanted him to say the words.

Julius had his hand on his chin, pondering.

Francois said softly, "When the pool of fire was extinguished, the women must have woken in total darkness and panicked."

"And resumed breathing, using up their oxygen!" Evelyn said, pain and grief on her face. "The transmitter to the Capped did not reactivate when the pool was restarted. Without the signal to return to dormancy, the women would have breathed all the air in their cells. Those poor girls suffocated! They really were dead when we found them!"

"At the risk of sounding crude, corpses have a distinct look," Silas said. "Especially after being dead for four days. We saw no signs of death or decay."

"That is correct," Francois said. "So we must assume the women returned to dormancy, even if we don't yet understand why."

"Even if they did, they were still awake for eighteen hours!" Evelyn said. "Is there enough oxygen in each cell to last that long?"

"There must have been," Silas said. "Again, they did not look dead."

"The fact that the Masters provided them an oxygen-rich atmosphere for the very contingency of power failure gives us hope," Francois said.

"We must assume they're still alive, until proven otherwise," Andre said.

"Agreed," Julius said.

Beanpole said, "If what Karl says is true – not that I doubt you, Karl! I only mean that your Master may have omitted some crucial detail. But if this information is accurate, taking the women out of the city will accomplish nothing. Their caps will still receive the order to sleep."

"Why are their caps receiving any orders at all?" Abner asked with evident frustration. "All the other Capped are free, and we destroyed the transmitter!"

"That mystery disturbs me, as well," Julius said quietly, looking at the ground, still pondering. "But – we know how to disable the caps." He finally looked up. "Do we dare?"

I held my tongue. I knew Julius wasn't asking me.

Andre said slowly, "As morbid as it sounds...we could choose one woman and try it."

"Use her as a guinea pig?" Julius asked.

Andre shrugged. "It would minimize the danger."

"We would be acting solely on the words of Karl's Master," Beanpole said. "We would not be acting on the results of our own research. And we do not know why these women are still under mind control while everyone else is free. Mysteries are dangerous. I am not comfortable with this."

"Karl, did your Master ever tell you his job?" I asked.

"I think he was one of their cap experts. At least, his work had something to do with studying the way people think. He often asked about my life outside the city, and talked about our brains. Almost every night he spoke of how humans would hurt each other unless we were capped. He told me all about bias, conditioning, personal space, and someone named Oedipus, and described the ways the cap dealt with all these things. He even taught me the word psychology. Does that have any meaning to you?"

It didn't to me, but the scientists all nodded eagerly. Silas said, "Karl, we're about to become great friends! You've got a gold mine of information in your head!"

I looked at Beanpole. "It sounds to me like Karl's Master knew his stuff."

"You're biased, Will," Beanpole said. "I fully admit you have a point, and that you could even be correct. But that doesn't negate the fact that you're too eager to make this situation what you want it to be instead of what it is."

"I agree with Jean-Paul about your rashness, Will," Julius said. "But I also agree with you."

To the entire group, he said, "We have evidence the women woke temporarily, and that they had free will during that time. If that period of wakefulness occurred before we attacked the city, then there would be no signs of them trying to escape because they still would have been mind-controlled, and the Masters would have fixed the disturbances in the display after the women became dormant again. But the women did try to escape, and the Masters did not fix the display. Therefore, it seems reasonable to assume that the time period in which the women were awake was during the eighteen hours the power was off."

Julius looked at Karl and said, "We've also just heard Karl's account, for which we deeply thank you, Karl. It was invaluable." Karl nodded.

Julius continued. "So, we have two things: our observations, and Karl's information. Either of these alone would not be enough evidence to support taking action. But these two things agree and reinforce each other, and together, I think they support taking a risk."

He nodded at Andre. "Tomorrow, we'll disable the cap of one woman and see how it goes. That's my call, and my responsibility, no one else's. If she dies or becomes vagrant, that's on me; I'll carry the guilt to my grave, and we leave the remaining women alone until we know more. Karl, you'll accompany the team that does this, please." Karl nodded.

"Does anyone have anything to add?" Julius asked. "I welcome objections."

I waited long enough for anyone to voice one. No one did, so I asked, "Why wait until tomorrow? We could do this now."

"Because we're tired, Will," Julius said. "And in the morning we might see something, or think of something, that we're missing tonight. I don't want to rush this."

I nodded. "Understood. But sir – I will be there."

He gave me an odd look. I had never spoken so assertively to Julius, and before that moment, would never have dreamed of doing so in front of others. If he had crushed me like a bug and assigned me to KP for a week, I would not have blamed him. But he saw something in my eyes, or maybe the knowledge of what Eloise meant to me had gotten around. Either way, he just nodded, and that was the end of it.