I tried to sound cocky through all this, but really I was worried half-sick. Those steel doors had been put there by one of us, and I was pretty sure I knew who it had been. These doors had been put there by people from the other side.
How did I know that? Simple, everything showed it. Those others had not been much different from the lid of a strongbox or the door of a safe. This one was hardwood and the wood wasn’t ponticwood, oak, walnut, or any other wood I knew, wood as hard and heavy as iron and so thick the boards made me think of timbers; its four hinges were two-piece (meaning no separate hinge pins), a design I’d never seen before. The screws that held them had five-sided heads and no slots.
So had Dr. Fevre hired himself a carpenter and had that door put in? No way! Colette Coldbrook’s dad had put in those other steel doors; these doors were from the other side. We had gone through those first ones and messed around in somebody else’s world; somebody else was coming through these to mess around in ours. I was one of the natives he was studying, or maybe just one of the natives he was less than eager to meet. It was a concept I had a tough time accepting, but I knew it was the truth.
After an hour or so of hard work, Katrine wanted to know whether I was sniffing or just breathing hard. I explained that I was doing both.
“Just what do you mean by that, Ern?” She sounded as though she were really interested.
“Sniffing because the air coming in smells different and good. You want to fill your lungs with it.”
She came over and sampled it herself. “Not like sea air,” she said.
I agreed.
“Have you ever smelled jungle air, Mr. Smithe?”
“I don’t believe I have.”
“It smells of leafy green things growing and growing, and rich damp mold that is heaven to plants. This isn’t like that.” She went quiet.
“Or like the sea, you said.”
“Right. This smells empty, or almost empty. Sun and leaves.”
I was glad she had pinned it down for me. I said, “Sort of like jungle air, only not warm or wet.”
“You said you’d never smelled that.”
“I haven’t, but I’ve read about it. I know what it’s like, or anyway I think I do.”
I had been prying at the boards, and a minute later one of them broke, letting me see in.
It took me a couple of blinks to sort out what I was seeing. The room was round and almost empty; no ceiling, just a funnel-shaped roof with no smoke-hole at the top. After that I tried to figure out the walls: they were dark brown wood with whitish stuff in the vertical cracks between the boards that might have been caulk or plaster or almost anything. No windows, but an open doorway with thick walls and bright sunlight showing through it.
“Are you going out there?” She was pushing past me.
I shook my head. “No way.”
“Why not?”
“Somebody doesn’t want us to. The door I broke was there to stop us. They won’t like it if we go outside.”
Katrine was quiet for a minute; then she said, “I’m going and you’re coming with me.”
“No way!” This time I made it just as solid as I could. “No, I’m not!”
“Yes, you are. Bring that axe.”
I told her to go to hell.
“We’re going out there, both of us.” That was the first time I’d seen her pocket rocket; now I saw it, head-on.
“Each missile carries a pinch of high explosive. It goes off inside you.”
I told her I knew that.
“Fine. Go in there or you’ll find out how it feels. Bring the axe.”
I wanted to tell her she wouldn’t do it, but the words never got out of my throat. Her eyes said she’d shoot me as soon as I said she wouldn’t, and she was fully human and a Continental cop. Who was going to arrest her for smoking a reclone? Nobody!
I stepped inside, and after I’d caught my breath I went over to a window. Behind me she muttered, “Shakes you up.”
I wanted to say it did, every time; but I had sense enough to swallow it. Besides, just going to that window and looking around gave me a dozen other things to think about.
Over my shoulder Katrine said, “No violent storms here.” It was close to a whisper, and I looked back at her.
“High winds would blow down these trees, so no trees or twisted trees no bigger than bushes. That’s how it is with us.”
I hadn’t known that.
“These trees are bigger than…”
She had paused; I just waited.
“Do you know where we are, Mr. Smithe?”
“In a useless kind of way, yes.”
“Tell me!”
“We’re on the Earth-type planet of some other sun. Next you’re going to ask me how I know.”
“No. I’d ask you why you think so, but I can guess the reasons. That doesn’t mean I’m buying the idea.”
“Your doubting doesn’t change the fact.”
Katrine caught up with me. From then on we walked side by side. “I take it you’ve been here before?”
I shook my head.
“But you know anyway.”
“Right.” I nodded.
“Well, I don’t; but I’ll keep it in mind. How do we get home?”
“Just turn around and walk back through the door.”
I started to turn, and she caught my arm. “Wait up, Mr. Smithe! The man who murdered Dr. Fevre came from here? Is that what you’re telling me?”
“Yes. He did.”
“And presumably he came back here, went home.”
I saw where that was going and shrugged.
“A big man wearing a pointed cap, you said.”
“It wasn’t a pointed cap. It was more like a helmet, only with earflaps.”
“Right. Now tell me something, else, Mr. Smithe. Why did someone come from here into—into the place where we live and kill Dr. Fevre?”
“Maybe Dr. Fevre came in here first and did something people here didn’t like—killed one of them or ticked off the wrong person.”
There was more after that, but none of it is worth writing down.
16
AMONG THE LEAVES
When she had asked half a dozen more questions and I had explained that I had no idea, we looked out of a window together. Sure, I should’ve gone down the steps with or without her; but I wanted that missile pistol with me. If she’d have given it to me, I’d have left her behind and walked away whistling. As it was, I felt I’d have to take it from her cold, dead hands. Maybe I could have gotten behind her and choked her, only the consequences of that looked really bad if I stopped before she died, and they could have been even worse if I had killed her. (Not that I was sure I could bring myself to do it.) Should I leave her body here, so the big guy who shot Dr. Fevre would know straight off that I was a murderer too?
Shove it back through the door where somebody from our boat would find it?
We groped and stumbled down the dark wooden stairway that wound down the inside of the hollow tree I still thought of as a building. I kept expecting to run into somebody, but we didn’t. When we finally got to a door, I said, “From what I saw up there, this area is full of trees and brush. Are we going to try to find our way through them?”