![]() The sin itself might be forgotten, but the darkness, the stifling closeness, the Scuttlers in the Shadows - these things he remembered. The cupboard under the stairs, the spiders which he had known inhabited that place, the unknown or forgotten sin (against what or whom he could not say) which had prompted his punishment. He remembered it now, remembered how it frightened him. And so on, chasing his thoughts in a circle - but only for a few minutes, until common-sense took over.Īs a boy he had been shut in. How could it possibly be Terri? She had been right here with him when things started to go wrong. He cursed himself for his mind's illogical processing of data. ![]() Perhaps this was her get-out, her escape route from actions she could neither control nor tolerate. Or could it be Terri herself, half-crazy with guilt, perhaps even schizoid? Wyatt remembered thinking to himself that she was taking all of this very well. And as the machine had followed the stream through the great and rambling V of the deep cleft, so Garrison had once more slept upon its broad back. And after that, if he found nothing and no one - which he suspected would be the case, for if there were a human adversary at work here he must be extremely clever and unlikely to let himself be discovered - then Wyatt must simply deny him access to the room of the machine, which he could do easily enough.Īfter that he had climbed aboard the revitafized Machine to ride it out of the desert into a green and beautiful valley, and for some little time - though time as a real concept did not have a great deal of meaning here - he had followed a tinkling stream to where it cut a cleft through a range of high, domed hills. One sure way to check for outside interference would be, quite simply, to search the house from top to bottom. Not only was there no one there, there were nq signs that anyone had been there. Up and downstairs, the cellar, the attic, all the larger cupboards. But if he was here, and if he knew what was going on, why didn't he just come right on out of the woodwork, free Garrison and make an accusation? He could be here right now, looking after his master's interests as always. He could have gone to Germany, turned around and flown straight back. Koenig? The German manservant seemed most eligible, Wyatt had to admit. Also, something of Psychomech's feeding on him: that is to say, he knew that the Machine had somehow drawn on his strength, or that he had applied his strength so as to 'make repairs' in the Machine. ![]() Now Garrison could only remember the food and drink (though not the actual sensation of eating and drinking), and something of the feeling of well-being which had come afterwards. The desert had been just such a crisis an episode which, like the others before it, had now all but passed into the limbo of lost memories. Then, leaving the room, he padlocked the door and pocketed the keys. Wyatt returned to the machine room, gave Garrison an opiate booster, turned up fear-stimulation to the full and jammed the controls firmly in that position. It seemed that Psychomech could only help him - and conversely that he could only help the Machine - in a real crisis. But between times, in the room of the machine.ĭraining feeling which came whenever the Machine suffered a power loss and he had been powerless to do anything about it.
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