КатеринаК

→“Then....” Steel whined as the steel blade left its scabbard and Tharg rested the point against his throat. “If you are right I cannot die.” Slowly he began to press the needle tip against his skin. Kalgan shook his head.

→Outside on the empty plain Leedora waited in the control room of the starship and watched the tower, staring with enigmatic eyes, her mind writhing with a turmoil of thought. She thought of Kalgan, of his magnificent height and strangely old-young features. She thought of Tharg, of his youth and strength and gay indifference and bold admiration. Both men loved her, each after his own fashion, and she knew that she could love either were the other away.

→“Perhaps I am. Mad as you will be mad, your brain numbed by the slow passing of countless years. Enough! Outside this tower waits the ship, the girl, wealth and immortality. One of us will win them, Tharg—and one of us will die.”

→“So this is your gamble?” Tharg shook his head. “You must be insane.”

→“I wish to die, Tharg,” said Kalgan, and a great bitterness weighed his voice. “In the normal universe I cannot die, and there you could not kill me or I you. Here it may be possible, maybe I say, for I cannot be certain, but one thing I do know. Never will that door open while both of us remain alive.”

→“But why?” Tharg flexed his great hands as he stared at the tall figure of the Golden One. “What is it you intend?”

→“No, Tharg, they are not.” Kalgan unstrapped his blaster and threw it on top of the cloak. “For if it is probable that a man can jump from a high tower and land unharmed, then it is equally probable that the tower itself could collapse in a pinch of dust. Leedora’s father showed me the road I intend to take. For here, Tharg, we are man to man, not immortal against mortal. Here we meet on even terms—and only one of us may leave this tower.”

→“They are surely the same.”

→“You are wrong, Tharg. It is true that you are immortal but so am I, and there we rest at a point of no-interference There is none to come between us, and we are equal in every respect. Both of us have been through the machine. And here, in the heart of the tower, the probability factors are isolated and unaffected by externals.” The tall man slipped his cloak from his shoulders and threw it into a corner. “Forget not what our immortality is, Tharg. It is not a positive thing, but a negative. There is nothing to save our lives; only an avoidance of things injurious.”

→“No, but you forget, I am immortal and so cannot die.”

→“Even so,” said Kalgan, and smiled as the door refused to open. “Your bargain, Tharg,” he whispered. “Have you forgotten your bargain?”

→“You will not kill yourself,” he said with conviction. “That would be too easy a solution. No. You will pause, hesitate, and try as you will, never will you be able to end your own life. That is the easiest probability factor to adjust, and the strongest to break.”

→“Then let’s go back to the ship. Leedora....”

→“Have patience, Tharg. The machine is working, have no fear of that, but it takes a little time for your probability factor to be assessed.” The tall man stared at the intricate coils. “The Old Race must have touched Earth in their wanderings,” he mused. “How else to account for the Legends? The helmets, swords and shields of invulnerability, the wearing or using of which protected the user against all harm. Fragments perhaps of the Old Race’s armor? For both they and their equipment would have been steeped with a high probability factor against harm or damage.” He smiled as a red light shone and from a great distance a bell chimed a soft muting.

→He grunted, made as if to step out again, then paused as Kalgan smiled.

→Nothing happened.

→Tharg hesitated, biting his lip and staring at the tall figure. Then he shrugged and stepped within the glowing helix.

→“No.” Kalgan gestured to the soaring helix. “I think that you are a man of your word, Tharg, and even if you are not, yet there are things beyond your control. Outside lies the ship, Leedora, my gold. Here lies immortality which I have and which you may have if you wish. A gamble, Tharg. Step into the machine and become one with me.”

→“Yes, Tharg, that is all. But there is one other thing, a bargain you made, and a bargain that you must keep. You may enter the machine, but it will not be as easy to leave the tower.”

→“Is that all?”