"McKie, explain what's going on here," Bildoon ordered.
"I . . . ahh, well, the nick of time was almost a fatal nick too late," McKie said. "What made Furuneo wait so long? He was told six hours, no more. Wasn't he?" McKie looked at Tuluk, who remained silent, stiff as a length of gray pipe against the Wreave support.
"Furuneo's dead," Bildoon said.
"Ahhh, damn," McKie said softly. "How?"
Bildoon made the explanation brief, then asked, "Where've you been? What's this about a Palenki with an ax?"
McKie, still sitting on the table, gave a neatly abbreviated chronological report. It sounded as though he were talking about a third person. He wound it up with a flat statement; "I have no idea at all where I was."
"They were going to . . . chop you up?" Bildoon asked.
"The ax was coming down," McKie said. "It was right there." He held up a hand about six centimeters from his nose.
Siker cleared his throat, said, "Something's wrong with Tuluk."
They all turned.
Tuluk remained propped against the support, his face slit closed. His body was there, but he wasn't.
"Is he . . . lost?" Bildoon rasped and turned away. If Tuluk failed to come back . . . how like the PanSpechi ego-loss that would be!
"Somebody down there shake up that Taprisiot," McKie ordered.
"Why bother?" That was a human male from the Legal Department. "They never answer a question about . . . you know." He glanced uneasily at Bildoon, who remained with face averted.
"Tuluk made contact with the Caleban," McKie said, remembering. "I told him . . . it's the only way he could've done it with Furuneo dead. "He stood up on the table, walked down its length to stand towering over the Taprisiot!
"You!" he shouted. "Taprisiot!"
Silence.
McKie drew a finger along an arm of speech needles. They clattered like a line of wooden clackers, but no intelligible sound came from the Taprisiot.
"You're not supposed to touch them," someone said.
"Get another Taprisiot in here," McKie ordered.
Someone ran to obey.
McKie mopped his forehead. It required all his reserves to keep from trembling. During the descent of the Palenki ax he had said goodbye to the universe: It had been final, irrevocable. He still felt that he had not returned, that he was watching the antics of some other creature in his own flesh, a familiar creature but a stranger, really. This room, the words and actions around him, were some sort of distorted play refined to blind sterility. In the instant when he had accepted his own death, he had realized there still remained uncounted things he wanted to experience. This room and his duties as a BuSab agent were not among those desires. The odd reality was drowned in selfish memories. Still, this flesh went through the motions. That was what training did.
A second Taprisiot was herded into the room, its needles squeaking complaints. It was hoisted onto the table, objecting all the way. "You have Taprisiot! Why you disturb?"
Bildoon turned back to the table, studied the scene, but remained silent, withdrawn. No one had ever been brought back from the long-distance trap.
McKie faced the new Taprisiot. "Can you contact this other Taprisiot?" he demanded.
"Putcha, putcha . . ." the second Taprisiot began.
"I'm sincere!" McKie blared.
"Ahseeda day-day," the second Taprisiot squeaked.
"I'll stack you with somebody's firewood if you don't get cracking," McKie snarled. "Can you make contact?"
"Who you call?" the second Taprisiot asked.
"Not me, you fugitive from a sawmill!" McKie roared. "Them!" He pointed at Tuluk and the first Taprisiot.
"They stuck to Caleban," the second Taprisiot said. "Who you call?"
"What do you mean, stuck?" McKie demanded.
"Tangled?" the Taprisiot ventured.
"Can either of them be called?" McKie asked.
"Untangle soon, then call," the Taprisiot said.
"Look!" Siker said.
McKie whirled.
Tuluk was flexing his facial slit. A mandibular extensor came out, withdrew.
McKie held his breath.
Tuluk's facial slit opened wide, and he said, "Fascinating."
"Tuluk?" McKie said.
The slit widened. Wreave eyes stared out. "Yes?" Then, "Ah, McKie. You made it."
"You call now?" the second Taprisiot asked.
"Get rid of him," McKie ordered.
Squeaking protests - "If you not call, why disturb?" - the Taprisiot was removed from the room.
"What happened to you, Tuluk?" McKie asked.
"Difficult to explain," the Wreave said.
"Try."