Illiance said, “You reason like a Locust. We have turned our backs to that. Instead of weighing niceties of risk and reward, should we not do what is straightforward?”

Her expression was weary. “My idealism died with my husband. The dream of simplicity is itself artificial. If you want to be simple, simply do what is simply right. The man pretending to be a Chimera spared me; let us spare the albino.”

Illiance turned to Menelaus. “Are you continuing to pretend you do not understand our language?”

Menelaus said, “It’s your thinking I don’t understand. You don’t act like archaeologists and you don’t act like Tomb-looters, trespassers, or thieves. Well, except for the Tomb-looting, trespassing, and thieving, of course. You keep acting like you are invulnerable, like nothing can hurt you. What the hell are you relying on to protect you? What the hell is driving you? Why not just come clean and tell me what you all are doing here? Who sent you? Who do you work for? Talk now, before you get hurt! As Preceptor Yndech might say, ‘eschew deception’!”

Illiance looked for a moment like he was bowing. But, no. He stooped and picked up a microphone wire, which he tossed lightly to Menelaus. “We are here to learn, not to instruct. Your question must go unanswered. Let us question Scholar Rada Lwa during the thaw process. If he is forthcoming to you, the matter of torment is moot, and I will acknowledge the moral obligation you impose. As a gesture of goodwill, a lagniappe, Aanwen and I further agree to compromise the dignity of our persons, by pretending no assault took place.”

“Fair enough,” said Menelaus with a sideways tilted grin. “I knew you were a bigger man than you looked!”

Menelaus clicked the microphone plug into its corresponding jack on the coffin hull. There was a crackle of static, and then a connection formed with the speech centers of the albino’s brain.

3. Interrogatory of Rada Lwa

Who are you?

I self-identify as Intermediately Evolved Learned Scholar Rada Lwa Chwal Sequitur Argent-Montrose. I am Psychoi, brain augment to level 257, artificially stabilized by partial emulation technique.

What do you know of the Judge of Ages?

No referent.

Who built the Tombs? What do you know of him?

Builder of Tombs is undesigned Highly Evolved Pneumatic Menelaus Illation Montrose, ancestor, mutineer, enemy.

Pneumatic? The guy operates on compressed air?

One who attains self-enlightenment is a pneumaticos. The three stages of evolution are hylic, psychic, and pneumatic. I am of the second stage; he is of the third. The Enlightened accomplish apolutrosis and, later, gnosis by partial or total brain emulation. Montrose, the enemy, accomplished his elevation without emulation, by adapting his brain via nerve path redaction to the coordinate system of the Omicron hieroglyph-group of the Monument notation. It resulted in the ongoing insanity that requires his reeducation or recycling.

Recycling?

Physical reduction of bodily elements into useful raw materials. Thrift is commendable.

Who are the Enlightened?

The secret masters of history. They are the ones who have defined the course of human evolution to come.

Does this refer to the crew of the NTL Hermetic?

Yes. However, the term is regarded as inexact, since the Hermetic was stolen by the Highly Evolved Pneumatic Rania Grimaldi and is now elsewhere in the unlimited not-here.

You mean she is in Outer Space?

The term is regarded as inexact. All that can be established with apodictic certainty is that she is not recognizably in the current and present perceptual frame of reference. I regard all event-objects outside my mind as speculative, including her location.

You mean Rania Montrose?

We must never refer to her by that name.

What is the course of human evolution to come?

Biological intelligence is insufficiently flexible or scalable to adhere to the Dominion of Hyades. Hence, postbiological life is preferred. The first level or stratum of postbiological life shall be computerized emulations of the Enlightened. All growth of emulation life must be taken strictly from templates imprinted by the Enlightened, so that the “memes” or mental-cultural self-reproducing valuation-data shall be passed on. All nonconforming information systems must be utterly destroyed. No nonconforming system can be tolerated anywhere, for any reason.

Why?

It is a clearly understood and unambiguous command from my Master.

But what purpose is served?

Oh. Emulations must emulate the thought-grammar and thought-content of the Enlightened in order that the postbiological life remain human, despite its new vessels.

Human? In what sense?

Whatever mimics human thought is human. We do not wish our unique intellectual heritage to be extinguished.

What is your unique intellectual heritage?

We are Those Who Know, the Men of the Mind! We have exploded all previous intellectual systems and philosophies as a tissue of superstition, cant, and rubbish.

So your unique intellectual accomplishment, the one you do not wish extinguished, is your propensity for extinguishing the intellectual accomplishments of other people, including your own forefathers?

I do not understand the question.

Never mind. Who is your Master?

He is highly evolved.

Does he have a name?

Yes.

What is his name?

Melchor de Ulloa.

A Hermeticist?

The term is inexact.

Why is the man who made the Tombs your enemy?

Menelaus Montrose is a mutineer who opposes the lawful chain of the command of the Hermetic expedition, ergo the only lawful world government, the World Concordat. He opposes the course of evolution. Even if we wished a peaceful reconciliation with him, no reconciliation is possible, because the course of evolution is scientifically determined. Also, on a more particular level, Menelaus Montrose murdered Melchor de Ulloa, thus depriving humanity of a superlative genius, irreplaceable.

Describe this murder.

4. Murder on Mount Ypsilon

I am the only person who obtained a clear view of all the events, either directly or through secure-line instruments.

The Highly Evolved Montrose stood on Mount Ypsilon and the Highly Evolved de Ulloa stood on Mount Chiquita in the Rocky Mountains, with a connecting saddle between them of more than a three-hundred-foot displacement.

They burned away or melted the intervening forests and snowbanks with their hand weapons, so as to afford a clear view of each other.

Each man, in addition to his hand weapon, had a long-range telescope-microphone array to allow him to address his opponent. Once done speaking, the two men were preparing to fire at each other.

There was no view of any celestial object in the sky during those years, because an eternal cloud cover raised by the Cetaceans smothered the atmosphere, and even the peaks of this mountain did not rise above it. Consequently, it came as a surprise to them when the wreckage of the platform of the orbital terawatt laser Surtur de-orbited and struck the north slope, near where Montrose was standing.

It should have struck the peak where Montrose was precisely, but an unexpected ranging and detection failure, whose cause I could not analyze, interfered with the guidance at the last moment.

If the cloud layer had been higher, I would have had time to correct, but for an unknown reason the cloud had expanded downward in defiance of the weather control predictions of the Cetaceans, who were cooperating in this venture.