Pathfinder (Pathfinder 1)

“It means that whatever you tell me to do, which it is within my power to do, I am required to do.”

“This is insane,” said Param. “He’s lying. Don’t any of you understand? He can’t obey all of us. What if we gave him contradictory orders?”

“She’s got a point,” said Loaf.

“I obey the first human to achieve the technology to pass through the Wall.”

“The first two through the Wall were Param and Umbo,” said Rigg.

“It was Param who did that,” said Umbo. “I was along for the ride.”

“We were not the first,” said Param. “We saw you three go through the Wall before we jumped from the rock.”

“I think we’re going to have trouble with the definition of ‘before,’” said Umbo.

The expendable hesitated for a moment. Now Rigg understood these hesitations. He was talking, somehow, with Father.

“Which of you has the stones?” asked the expendable.

Rigg looked at Umbo, then remembered that Umbo had given him the stones before they began the passage through the Wall. He reached into his trousers and drew out the bag of jewels. “These?”

“Nineteen stones?” asked the expendable in reply.

“Eighteen,” said Rigg, laying the bag open in front of him.

The expendable leaned over, looking at them but not touching them. “Why is one missing? You have not placed it.”

“It was in the possession of the Revolutionary Council. Or maybe General Citizen’s minions,” said Rigg.

“We were working on trying to get it back,” said Umbo. “But then we had to get out of the city.”

The expendable nodded. “Eventually you will need it,” he said. “Fortunately, the one that’s missing is your own.”

“Aren’t they all mine?” asked Rigg. “Or . . . ours?”

“I mean the one that will let you shut off the Wall around your own wallfold, the one where you were born.”

“The jewels shut off the Walls?” demanded Loaf. “We’ve been carrying around—”

“You could not have shut off your own Wall until all the others were shut off,” said the expendable. “You would have had to use it last in any case. So when the other Walls are down, you will return home, get the last jewel, and shut down the last Wall.”

“We will?” asked Param.

“Why else would you have passed through the Wall?” asked the expendable.

“To save our lives,” said Rigg. “There are people on the other side trying to kill us.”

Umbo leaned back so he could look through the Wall again at the place where Mother and General Citizen sat astride their horses. “You’d think they’d look over and notice that Param and I are already here,” said Umbo.

“It wouldn’t cross their minds,” said Param.

“You’re both on the other side of Loaf and Olivenko,” said Rigg. “They can’t see you unless you lean out to look.”

The expendable indicated for Rigg to put away the jewels. “So you are truly ignorant of what you’re here for,” he said.

Rigg gathered the jewels. “No,” he said. “We know exactly why we’re here. We just don’t know why you think we’re here, or why Father—the Golden Man—why he gave me the jewels and set us on this path.”

“We choose our own purposes now,” said Param.