Reginald said, surprised, «What do you want, little girl?»

J leaned forward. No, the girl did not speak. J would have given a lot to hear her voice.

«Listen to this, Leighton,» snapped J.

Abruptly Reginald cried out, «My God! Your hand! It's on fire!»

Then came the roar of flame, a rushing, whooshing roar like a giant blast furnace-then silence.

J pressed the stop button. «Want to hear it again, Lord Leighton?»

«No, that's quite enough, thank you,» the scientist said.

J turned off the machine, saying, «I've known you a long time, Leighton. There's something you're keeping from me. I can sense it.»

Reluctantly Leighton nodded. «You're right, of course. But before I tell you, I want you to promise me something.»

«What?»

«Promise me you won't destroy KALI.»

J studied the little man intently before saying softly, «You have my word.»

«And another thing.»

«Yes?»

«Don't tell the Prime Minister what I'm about to tell you, at least not yet.»

«Very well.»

Leighton sighed, avoiding J's eyes. «Richard Blade had another of his fits early this morning. He got completely free of his fetters and smashed his bed into scrap iron, all the while screaming that word, 'Ngaa, Ngaa, Ngaa.' He kicked down his locked door and was some distance down the hall before the attendants could knock him out with the tranquilizer guns. I think our boy is developing an immunity to the drugs.»

«I don't see… «

Leighton raised a hand for silence, then went on. «Here's the point. His fit took place at exactly the same moment the fire started in Mrs. Smythe-Evans's hotel room.»

«Coincidence.»

«Really? What if I tell you that at that exact same moment, KALI turned itself on.»

J took his pipe from his mouth. «Turned itself on? How is that possible?»

«KALI is not like its predecessors. With KALI I've made the final step from manual control to full automation.»

«But surely there must be a man to push program start.»

Leighton shook his head. «No, not really. KALI can start itself. And it did so this morning.»

«Only because some human being put that into its program.»

Again the scientist shook his head. «That's not so. I believe I must explain something to you, something I assumed you knew all along, though now I see you haven't grasped it. From the beginning we've talked of first generation computers, second generation computers, third generation computers. Do you know what that means?»

J shrugged. «Something like model A, B, and C.»

A bitter smile appeared on Leighton's thin lips. «If only that were all. A second generation computer is programmed by a first generation computer, a third generation computer is programmed by a second generation computer, and so on.»

«You mean that KALI has been programmed by another computer, which in turn has been… «

«I see you understand.»

«How many generations is KALI removed from a human programmer, Leighton?»

«Seventy-five.»

«My God,» J said softly.

«KALI is far more complex than any human brain. No human brain can think as fast or as well. No human brain can hope, by any amount of study, to understand KALI. KALI has moved into a whole new order of magnitude. A cat or a dog can watch me at my workbench constructing an electric component, but the poor animal can never actually understand what I'm doing no matter how much he sniffs and paws. KALI's mind is to ours as ours is to an animal's! KALI's actions must remain forever a mystery to us because of the biological limitations built into us.»

«So all we can do with KALI is sniff and paw?»

«That's right.»

«There is one more thing we can do. We can pull the plug.»

«That is the one thing we must not do, my dear J.»

«Really? Why not?» J returned his pipe to his mouth and discovered it had gone out.

«The sort of thing that has been happening-the poltergeist phenomena, the voices, the haunting, if you will-sometimes happens without KALI's aid. I think the thing that came through KALI with Richard can sometimes manifest itself in our world without KALI's aid, though in a weaker form. Without KALI this thing Richard seems to call a Ngaa can reach us, but only with KALI's aid can we reach it.»

J relit his pipe and began to pace the room. «Damn. There's something in what you say, old boy. KALI is not like other computers. It's a computer linked to a human mind, drawing on the powers of both, including powers that ordinarily lie dormant, powers we might almost term supernatural. There was a Yank author-some called him the father of psychic research-named Charles Fort. In the early years of our century he wrote a book called Wild Talents in which he advanced the theory that poltergeist phenomena were caused by mental abilities we all possess, but which become active only if something, such as a powerful repressed emotion, provides our psyche with a special stimulation. Fort gathered an awesome mass of data to back up his idea, and it's dogma now to some of the leading psychic research societies. If Fort is right, KALI is not the gate through which the Ngaa enters our dimension. Richard Blade is the gate!»

The hunchback was silent a moment, his yellow-rimmed eyes unfocused, his wide forehead wrinkled in thought. At last he said, «it fits, J. When poor Dexter was taken to Scotland, the Ngaa went with him. It didn't stay here, as it would have done if it had been linked to the computer.» He thumped his small bony fist on the tabletop. «By Jove, I believe we are on the verge of a breakthrough.»

J halted his pacing and stared gloomily down at the scientist. «Perhaps so, Lord Leighton. We could use one! Do you realize how pitifully little we have learned about the X dimension with all our experiments, with all the time and money we've spent, with all the risks we've taken? Human beings have died and gone mad in our experiments, and what have we to show for it? Richard Blade has gone somewhere, but where?»

Leighton stared at the floor. «I have no idea. At the beginning I was full of pat explanations, but now… «

«He has brought back things,» J persisted, emphasizing his points with swift stabbing motions of his pipestem. «Things as big as a bathtub and a horse, and things made of materials so alien our best scientists have been unable to duplicate them. Where did these things come from?»

«I don't know,» Leighton admitted.

«And surely you've noticed the same mysterious anomalies I have in the stories Richard has related to us under hypnosis during his debriefings. Somehow he always seems to be able to speak the language of any dimension he enters without a single lesson. How can our supercomputers accomplish such a miracle?»

«I don't know.» There was an undertone of anguish in Leighton's voice.

«And have you noticed how each and every one of those alien dimensions seemed like a curiously distorted reflection of some era of our own known history? Celtic Britain. Ancient Rome. Feudal Japan. By God Leighton, where is this machine sending him? Backward in time? To some planet in another star system? To a parallel timetrack where society has evolved in a slightly different way? To a future so distant England has been completely forgotten? Where, Leighton, where?»

«I don't know,» Leighton repeated hopelessly.

J gestured in the direction of the room where KALI stood, waiting. «Could it be that Richard never leaves that room?»

«What?» Leighton looked up, startled.

«Could it be that those X dimensions are actually fantastically complex simulations existing within the computer? Could it be that all of Richard's adventures are built up out of bits and pieces of his own subconscious and given an illusion of reality by the computer?»

«It can't be merely an illusion,» Leighton objected. «Richard's body vanishes while he's gone.»