The voice penetrated through layers of pain. Cadmus lay outstretched,
his eyes remained closed.
"The probers won't find anything more. I know his name. I know a little
about him. But very little. He is Cadmus, the son of the first Cadmus
who started the first revolt against our great System. The revolt
failed of course."
A whining voice answered. "I've revived him, my ruler. He feigns
unconsciousness."
"Open your eyes, Cadmus," said the heavy thick voice ironically. "Open
them and look at the destruction you have brought upon our nice stable
order."
Cadmus sat up, blinked back nauseous fog. An unbelievably fat man sat
before him on a golden throne, studded with precious stones. A cloud
of metallic birds piped a strange subdued song. Cadmus' eyes shifted
to the spidery little man standing beside the throne. But Consar III
gestured, and the spidery little man bowed out.
The room was bare except for several mind-probing machines, and
wire mesh cages with graph screens. There was little on the screens.
Johlan's amnesia injection had been very effective, thought Cadmus. Too
effective. He was helpless now unless he got his memory back. He knew
part of the answer. His father was the first Cadmus. And there had been
a reason for calling himself that. It was of vast importance. But that
threshold response word. The key word--it might never be heard now.
He was fully clothed but he was without weapons. The force-field
generator was gone. His antigrav belt had been taken from him.