Read Ebook: Aarne herran rahat: Kertomus by Lagerl F Selma J Ntti Jalmari Translator

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Ebook has 585 lines and 20694 words, and 12 pages

"I've never employed personal Assassins before," Nirzav replied, "but I think you're right. As soon as I get home, I'll call Assassins' Hall and make the necessary arrangements."

"Better do it now," Girzon of Roxor told him, lowering his voice. "There are over a hundred guests here, and I can't vouch for all of them. The Statisticalists would be sure to have a spy planted among them. My father was one of their most dangerous opponents, when he was on the Council; they've always been afraid he'd come out of retirement and stand for re-election. They'd want to make sure he was really discarnate. And if that's the case, you can be sure your change of attitude is known to old Mirzark of Bashad by this time. He won't dare allow you to make a public renunciation of Statisticalism." He turned to the other nobleman. "Prince Jirzyn, why don't you call the Volitionist headquarters and have a couple of our Assassins sent here to escort Lord Nirzav home?"

"I'll do that immediately," Jirzyn of Starpha said. "It's as Lord Girzon says; we can be pretty sure there was a spy among the guests, and now that you've come over to our way of thinking, we're responsible for your safety."

He left the room to make the necessary visiphone call. Dallona, accompanied by Dirzed, returned to her place at the table, where she was joined by Harnosh of Hosh and some of the others.

"There's no question about the results," Harnosh was exulting. "I'll grant that the boy might have picked up some of that stuff telepathically from the carnate minds present here; even from the mind of Garnon, before he was discarnated. But he could not have picked up enough data, in that way, to make a connected and coherent communication. It takes a sensitive with a powerful mind of his own to practice telesthesia, and that boy's almost an idiot." He turned to Dallona. "You asked a question, mentally, after Garnon was discarnate, and got an answer that could have been contained only in Garnon's mind. I think it's conclusive proof that the discarnate Garnon was fully conscious and communicating."

"Dirzed also asked a question, mentally, after the discarnation, and got an answer. Dr. Harnosh, we can state positively that the surviving individuality is fully conscious in the discarnate state, is telepathically sensitive, and is capable of telepathic communication with other minds," Dallona agreed. "And in view of our earlier work with memory-recalls, we're justified in stating positively that the individual is capable of exercising choice in reincarnation vehicles."

"My father had been considering voluntary discarnation for a long time," Girzon of Roxor said. "Ever since the discarnation of my mother. He deferred that step because he was unwilling to deprive the Volitionalist Party of his support. Now it would seem that he has done more to combat Statisticalism by discarnating than he ever did in his carnate existence."

"I don't know, Girzon," Jirzyn of Starpha said, as he joined the group. "The Statisticalists will denounce the whole thing as a prearranged fraud. And if they can discarnate the Lady Dallona before she can record her testimony under truth hypnosis or on a lie detector, we're no better off than we were before. Dirzed, you have a great responsibility in guarding the Lady Dallona; some extraordinary security precautions will be needed."

In his office, in the First Level city of Dhergabar, Tortha Karf, Chief of Paratime Police, leaned forward in his chair to hold his lighter for his special assistant, Verkan Vall, then lit his own cigarette. He was a man of middle age--his three hundredth birthday was only a decade or so off--and he had begun to acquire a double chin and a bulge at his waistline. His hair, once black, had turned a uniform iron-gray and was beginning to thin in front.

"What do you know about the Second Level Akor-Neb Sector, Vall?" he inquired. "Ever work in that paratime-area?"

Verkan Vall's handsome features became even more immobile than usual as he mentally pronounced the verbal trigger symbols which should bring hypnotically acquired knowledge into his conscious mind. Then he shook his head.

"Must be a singularly well-behaved sector, sir," he said. "Or else we've been lucky, so far. I never was on an Akor-Neb operation; don't even have a hypno-mech for that sector. All I know is from general reading.

Tortha Karf nodded. "Pretty good, for consciously acquired knowledge," he commented. "Well, our luck's run out, on that sector; we have troubles there, now. I want you to go iron them out. I know, you've been going pretty hard, lately--that night-hound business, on the Fourth Level Europo-American Sector, wasn't any picnic. But the fact is that a lot of my ordinary and deputy assistants have a little too much regard for the alleged sanctity of human life, and this is something that may need some pretty drastic action."

"Some of our people getting out of line?" Verkan Vall asked.

"Well, the data isn't too complete, but one of our people has run into trouble on that sector, and needs rescuing--a psychic-science researcher, a young lady named Hadron Dalla. I believe you know her, don't you?" Tortha Karf asked innocently.

"Slightly," Verkan Vall deadpanned. "I enjoyed a brief but rather hectic companionate-marriage with her, about twenty years ago. What sort of a jam's little Dalla got herself into, now?"

"Almost at once, she began sending in reports to her home organization, the Rhogom Memorial Foundation of Psychic Science, here at Dhergabar, through Zortan Brend. The people there were wildly enthusiastic. I don't have more than the average intelligent--I hope--layman's knowledge of psychics, but Dr. Volzar Darv, the director of Rhogom Foundation, tells me that even in the present incomplete form, her reports have opened whole new horizons in the science. It seems that these Akor-Neb people have actually demonstrated, as a scientific fact, that the human individuality reincarnates after physical death--that your personality, and mine, have existed, as such, for ages, and will exist for ages to come. More, they have means of recovering, from almost anybody, memories of past reincarnations.

"Well, after about a month, the people at this Reincarnation Institute realized that this Dallona of Hadron wasn't any ordinary student. She probably had trouble keeping down to the local level of psychic knowledge. So, as soon as she'd learned their techniques, she was allowed to undertake experimental work of her own. I imagine she let herself out on that; as soon as she'd mastered the standard Akor-Neb methods of recovering memories of past reincarnations, she began refining and developing them more than the local yokels had been able to do in the past thousand years. I can't tell you just what she did, because I don't know the subject, but she must have lit things up properly. She got quite a lot of local publicity; not only scientific journals, but general newscasts.

"Then, four days ago, she disappeared, and her disappearance seems to have been coincident with an unsuccessful attempt on her life. We don't know as much about this as we should; all we have is Zortan Brend's account.

"It seems that on the evening of her disappearance, she had been attending the voluntary discarnation feast--suicide party--of a prominent nobleman named Garnon of Roxor. Evidently when the Akor-Neb people get tired of their current reincarnation they invite in their friends, throw a big party, and then do themselves in in an atmosphere of general conviviality. Frequently they take poison or inhale lethal gas; this fellow had his personal trigger man shoot him through the head. Dalla was one of the guests of honor, along with this Harnosh of Hosh. They'd made rather elaborate preparations, and after the shooting they got a detailed and apparently authentic spirit-communication from the late Garnon. The voluntary discarnation was just a routine social event, it seems, but the communication caused quite an uproar, and rated top place on the System-wide newscasts, and started a storm of controversy.

"After the shooting and the communication, Dalla took the officiating gun artist, one Dirzed, into her own service. This Dirzed was spoken of as a generally respected member of something called the Society of Assassins, and that'll give you an idea of what things are like on that sector, and why I don't want to send anybody who might develop trigger-finger cramp at the wrong moment. She and Dirzed left the home of the gentleman who had just had himself discarnated, presumably for Dalla's apartment, about a hundred miles away. That's the last that's been heard of either of them.

"This attempt on Dalla's life occurred while the pre-mortem revels were still going on. She lived in a six-room apartment, with three servants, on one of the upper floors of a three-thousand-foot tower--Akor-Neb cities are built vertically, with considerable interval between units--and while she was at this feast, a package was delivered at the apartment, ostensibly from the Reincarnation Institute and made up to look as though it contained record tapes. One of the servants accepted it from a service employee of the apartments. The next morning, a little before noon, Dr. Harnosh of Hosh called her on the visiphone and got no answer; he then called the apartment manager, who entered the apartment. He found all three of the servants dead, from a lethal-gas bomb which had exploded when one of them had opened this package. However, Hadron Dalla had never returned to the apartment, the night before."

Verkan Vall was sitting motionless, his face expressionless as he ran Tortha Karf's narrative through the intricate semantic and psychological processes of the First Level mentality. The fact that Hadron Dalla had been a former wife of his had been relegated to one corner of his consciousness and contained there; it was not a fact that would, at the moment, contribute to the problem or to his treatment of it.

"The package was delivered while she was at this suicide party," he considered. "It must, therefore, have been sent by somebody who either did not know she would be out of the apartment, or who did not expect it to function until after her return. On the other hand, if her disappearance was due to hostile action, it was the work of somebody who knew she was at the feast and did not want her to reach her apartment again. This would seem to exclude the sender of the package bomb."

Tortha Karf nodded. He had reached that conclusion, himself.

"Thus," Verkan Vall continued, "if her disappearance was the work of an enemy, she must have two enemies, each working in ignorance of the other's plans."

"What do you think she did to provoke such enmity?"

"Well, of course, it just might be that Dalla's normally complicated love-life had got a little more complicated than usual and short-circuited on her," Verkan Vall said, out of the fullness of personal knowledge, "but I doubt that, at the moment. I would think that this affair has political implications."

"So?" Tortha Karf had not thought of politics as an explanation. He waited for Verkan Vall to elaborate.

"Don't you see, chief?" the special assistant asked. "We find a belief in reincarnation on many time-lines, as a religious doctrine, but these people accept it as a scientific fact. Such acceptance would carry much more conviction; it would influence a people's entire thinking. We see it reflected in their disregard for death--suicide as a social function, this Society of Assassins, and the like. It would naturally color their political thinking, because politics is nothing but common action to secure more favorable living conditions, and to these people, the term 'living conditions' includes not only the present life, but also an indefinite number of future lives as well. I find this title, 'Independent' Institute, suggestive. Independent of what? Possibly of partisan affiliation."

"But wouldn't these people be grateful to her for her new discoveries, which would enable them to plan their future reincarnations more intelligently?" Tortha Karf asked.

"Oh, chief!" Verkan Vall reproached. "You know better than that! How many times have our people got in trouble on other time ett? he ovat vaan hevosen ja reen upottaneet avantoon, mutta ett? he itse ovat pelastuneet.'>>

>>Miksi sin? sit? tahdot, Elsa neiti?>> uteli vieras.

Silloin hento Elsa neitonen keikautti p??ns? pystyyn, ja h?nen silm?ns? v?lkkyiv?t. >>Tahtoisinpa heid?n olevan elossa, jotta voisin l?yt?? heid?t ja vangita heid?t. Tahtoisin heid?n olevan elossa, jotta saisin riist?? heilt? syd?men rinnasta. Tahtoisin heid?n olevan elossa, jotta saisin n?hd? heid?n ruumiinsa hakattavan nelj??n osaan ja naulattavan kaakinpuuhun.>>

>>Mist?h?n sin? saisit voimia t?h?n kaikkeen?>> sanoi vieras. >>Olet vaan tuommoinen hentonen neiti.>>

Vaan kun pieni hento neiti noin kiihkoisesti n?ytti vihaansa, niin skottilaiset soturit purskahtivat nauruun. Heit? nauratti niin hillitsem?tt?m?st?, ett? l?htiv?t tiehens?, jottei Elsa neiti siit? pahastuisi. He nousivat kapeata satamakujaa torille. Vaan viel? sielt?kin Elsa kauan aikaa kuuli heid?n pilkallisesti nauraa hohottavan t?ytt? kurkkua.

>>Jos he olisivat elossa>>, sanoi Elsa, >>niin min? kyll? toimittaisin heille rangaistuksensa. Ennemmin menisin kuolemaan kuin p??st?isin heid?t. Kyll? tied?n, ett? he ovat suuria ja v?kevi?, mutta eiv?t he minun k?sist?ni p??sisi.>>

Vieras naurahti h?nelle, mutta silloin Elsa polki jalkaa.

>>Jos he el?isiv?t, niin kyll? muistaisin, ett? he ovat minulta riist?neet kotini, jotta nyt olen k?yh? tytt?, jonka pit?? kylm?ll? laiturilla v?rj?tt?? kaloja perkaamassa. Kyll? min? muistaisin, ett? he ovat surmanneet kaikki minun omaiseni. Ja enimm?n min? muistaisin sit? miest?, joka veti minun kasvinsisareni uunilta alas ja surmasi h?net, joka minulle oli niin armas.>>

L?hetti.

Aarne herra haudattiin kahdeksantena p?iv?n? kuolemansa j?lkeen Solbergin kirkkoon, ja samana p?iv?n? pidettiin k?r?j?paikalla Braneh?giss? tutkintoa murhan johdosta.

Aarne herra oli ollut hyvin tuttu mies Bohusl??niss?, ja h?nen hautajaisiinsa saapui niin paljon v?ke? sek? sis?maasta ett? vesipuolelta, kuin olisi sotajoukko kokoontunut p??llikk?ns? ymp?rille. Ja Solbergin kirkon ja Braneh?gin v?lisell? kent?ll? kulki v?ke? niin taajasti, ettei siin? illalla ollut tuuman leveydelt? tallaamatonta hankea.

Vaan my?h??n illalla, kun kaikki olivat h?vinneet hautajaisista, ajeli kalakauppias Torarin kuormansa p??ll? Braneh?gist? Solbergin kirkolle.

Torarin oli p?iv?n kuluessa puhellut monen ihmisen kanssa. H?nen oli t?ytynyt yh? uudestaan kertoa heille Aarne herran kuolemasta. Hyvin h?nt? oli kestittykin k?r?j?talolla, ja h?n oli tyhjent?nyt monta olutruukkua pitk?matkalaisten kanssa.

Torarin tunsi ruumistaan raukasevan ja oli asettunut pitk?kseen kuorman p??lle. H?n oli ik?viss??n siit? ett? Aarne herra oli poissa, ja nyt tullessaan pappilan l?heisyyteen h?n alkoi mieless??n hautoa yh? raskaampia ajatuksia. >>Grim koirani>>, h?n sanoi, >>olisinpa min? uskonut enteeksi sen puukonhiomisen, niin olisin voinut torjua koko onnettomuuden. T?t? min? monesti ajattelen, Grim koirani. Mieless?ni on sellainen tuska, kuin olisin itsekkin ollut syyllinen Aarne herran kuolemaan. Muista nyt mit? m? sanon, ett? ensi kerralla kun saan kuulla jotakin sellaista, silloin min? sen uskonkin ja toimin sen mukaan!>>

Vaan kun Torarin silm?t puoli-ummessa torkkui kuormallaan, niin hevonen sai kulkea oman p??ns? mukaan, ja Solbergin pappilan luona se vanhasta tottumuksesta k??ntyi kujasille ja seisahtui tallinoven eteen. Torarin ei tiennyt mit??n, ennenkuin hevosen pys?htyess? nousi ja katseli ymp?rilleen. H?nt? alkoi v?risytt??, kun n?ki olevansa sen talon pihalla, jossa vasta viikkokausi sitte niin paljon ihmisi? oli saanut surmansa.

H?n tarttui heti ohjaksiin. H?n tahtoi k??nt?? hevosen ja ajaa takasin tielle, mutta samassa joku l?i h?nt? olalle ja h?n k??ntyi katsomaan. Silloin h?n n?ki vieress??n hevoshoitaja Ollin, joka oli palvellut pappilassa miesmuistin ajan.

>>Onko sulla, Torarin, t?n? y?n? niin kiire>>, renki kysyi, >>ett'et voi pirttiin poiketa? Aarne herra sinua siell? vartoo.>>

Torarin p?? kuohahti ajatuksia t?yteen. H?n ei tiennyt, nukkuiko vai oliko valveilla. T?m? hevoshoitaja Olli, jonka h?n nyt n?ki terveen? ja el?v?n? edess??n, eik? h?n viikko sitte maannut kuolleena toisten vieress?, kaulassa iso haava?

Torarin kiinnitti ohjaksia. H?nest? tuntui viisaimmalta l?hte? tiehens? niin pian kuin suinkin. Mutta hevoshoitaja Ollin k?si painoi yh? h?nen olkap??t??n, ja ukko houkutteli h?nt? yh? edelleen.

Torarin koetti keksi? jos jonkinlaista estett?. >>Ei minulla ollut aikomusta tulla h?iritsem??n Aarne herraa n?in my?h??n illalla, hevonen t?nne osui minun tiet?m?tt?ni. Pit?? t?st? nyt l?hte? etsim??n itselleen y?majaa. Jos Aarne herra tahtoo tavata minua, niin voinhan huomenna tiedustaa.>>

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