The man turned to the bed. In the faint light, Barrent saw a very tall,
thin, stooped old man with a wispy moustache.
"I'm glad you're awake," he said. "My name is Swen Eylan. I'm in command
of Group Two."
"What's Group Two?" Barrent asked. "How did you get me out of the Arena?
Are you agents of The Black One?"
Eylan grinned. "Not exactly agents. We'll explain everything to you
shortly. First, I think you'd better have something to eat and drink."
* * * * *
A nurse brought in a tray. While Barrent ate, Eylan pulled up a chair
and told Barrent about The Black One.
"Our Group," Eylan said, "can't claim to have started the religion of
Evil. That appears to have sprung up spontaneously on Omega. But since
it was there, we have made occasional use of it. The priests have been
remarkably cooperative. After all, the worshipers of Evil set a high
positive value upon corruption. Therefore, in the eyes of an Omegan
priest, the appearance of a fraudulent Black One is not anathema. Quite
the contrary, for in the orthodox worship of Evil, a great deal of
emphasis is put upon false images--especially if they are big, fiery,
impressive images like the one which rescued you from the Arena."
"How did you produce that?" Barrent asked.
"It has to do with friction surfaces and planes of force," Eylan said.
"You'd have to ask our engineers for more details."
"Why did you rescue me?" Barrent asked.
Eylan glanced at Moera, who shrugged her shoulders. Looking
uncomfortable, Eylan said, "We'd like to use you for an important job.
But before I tell you about it, I think you should know something about
our organization. Certainly you must have some curiosity about us."
"A great deal," Barrent said. "Are you some kind of criminal elite?"
"We're an elite," Eylan said, "but we don't consider ourselves criminal.
Two entirely different types of people have been sent to Omega. There
are the true criminals guilty of murder, arson, armed robbery, and the
like. Those are the people you lived among. And there are the people
guilty of deviational crimes such as political unreliability, scientific
unorthodoxy, and irreligious attitudes. These people compose our
organization, which, for the purposes of identification, we call Group
Two. As far as we can remember and reconstruct, our crimes were largely
a matter of holding different opinions from those which prevailed upon
Earth. We were nonconformists. We probably constituted an unstable
element, and a threat to the entrenched powers. Therefore we were
deported to Omega."
"And you separated yourselves from the other deportees," Barrent said.
"Yes, necessarily. For one thing, the true criminals of Group One are
not readily controllable. We couldn't lead them, nor could we allow
ourselves to be led by them. But more important than that, we had a job
to do that could only be performed in secrecy. We had no idea what
devices the guardships employed to watch the surface of Omega. To keep
our security intact, we went underground--literally. The room you're in
now is about two hundred feet below the surface. We stay out of sight,
except for special agents like Moera, who separate the political and
social prisoners who belong in Group Two from the others."
"You didn't separate me," Barrent said.
"Of course not. You were allegedly guilty of murder, which put you in
Group One. However, your behavior was not typical of Group One. You
seemed like good potential material for us, so we helped you from time
to time. But we had to be sure of you before taking you into the Group.
Your repudiation of the murder charge was strongly in your favor. Also,
we questioned Illiardi after you had located him. There seemed no reason
to doubt that he performed the murder you were charged with. Even more
strongly in your favor were your high survival qualities, which had
their ultimate test in the Hunt and the Games. We were badly in need of
a man of your abilities."
"Just what is your work?" Barrent asked. "What do you want to
accomplish?"
"We want to go back to Earth," Eylan said.
"But that's impossible."
"We don't think so," Eylan said. "We've given the matter considerable
study. In spite of the guardships, we think it's possible to return to
Earth. We'll find out for certain in six days, when the breakout must be
made."