Chapter 4 — Separator Resurgent

~ 1 ~ I am obsolete.

Georg Kiefer had been summoned to Marge Hemming’s penthouse office on the same day that Herbert, Het and Esther were having their first Calipers lesson. Closing the door of her office—the finest, most spacious office on the commercial side of the Keep—Georg had greeted Marge with a complaint: “Miss Hemming, I must inform you that Knox Aviation has done nothing since Miss Knox and her assistant removed the Separator’s first component almost half a year ago.”

Marge had waved him toward the chair facing her large desk, and he had sat stiffly.

“Dr. Kiefer,” she had said, “let me convey to you Dr. Kane’s advice of patience. I’ve called you to my office as a result of a recent long discussion with him about the Separator.” Then she had struck the blow: "Effective immediately, Georg, you are relieved of your responsibility for the Separator project, and you may return to New York. Your commute between coasts for this project has diminished your effectiveness as head of my chemical company. I may offer the Separator position to your nephew Eugene, who can consult with you about it as he requires.”

Georg’s lips had thinned as a chill pierced him. His obsolescence, which he had long suspected, was now confirmed.

Marge had smiled. “Dr. Kane would like to speak with you, Georg, now that you are free of that burden. I believe that he has a new and more important role for you in our Circle, having been favorably impressed by the organizational skills which you have shown at Hemming Chemical—especially concerning that chemical plant incident which so embarrassed the company.”

From this, Georg Kiefer had understood that he was being booted upstairs. He did not realize that his true usefulness to Mortimer Kane and Marge Hemming was in remaining alive and well so that the Clan would maintain its support of the Separator project. His ownership of the Separator, resulting from the death of his niece Ellie Herder in 1940, made him the one member of the Circle who was qualified to sign the agreement with Rhoda Knox for the Clan’s continuing support of their Separator restoration project.

In discussion with Mortimer Kane, Marge had come to feel that Herbert Schooner would work more capably with the Clan on the Separator project, than Georg had done. And, in any case, she had agreed with Kane that to press the Clan at this stage—as Georg would be likely to do—would be unwise.

For longer than a thousand years, Bauda (Marge)) had harbored a grudge against Gesalec (Herbert) for the failure of her scheme to control the Clan through a replica of Valkei’s crown, which she had instructed Gesalec to fabricate for the princess Liuva. The Friend had protected Herbert, so Marge had come at last to a decision to make use of him, rather than waste a resource.

Herbert had been looking for an opportunity to get close enough to Marge to learn more about her rejuvenation, of which the Comrade had informed him. Coming upon Marge in a corridor of the Keep, he had greeted her in a friendly manner which suggested an attraction to her. She had responded only by asking what he was up to in these days, now that he had been demoted from “the figurehead of Arch” (reporting to Giselle) to “a new Warren Gundersen" (reporting to Mortimer Kane). Marge had not mentioned his recently-acquired Workshop, about which she knew he was in high spirits.

Herbert swallowed his reaction to her snide inquiry. He replied, “Are you aware, Miss Hemming, that I am near to an understanding of the Elixir-making method?” He was hoping that the lie would goad her into talking about the means by which Thersa had worked her rejuvenation. He had been investigating the Elixir for millennia, and, in all of that time, he had discovered only that it broke down quickly when any attempt was made to manipulate it for a use other than the swallowing of one’s own single drop of it each lunar month. This restriction on its use indicated to him that it was a Device of some sort.

“‘Near to’, Dr. Schooner? Who, besides the goddess Thersa, could possibly produce the Elixir?” Marge walked away, leaving him thwarted and angry. She had set her hook.

Marge considered the advantages of possessing her own supply of Elixir—if Herbert ever truly succeeded in making it. If he did succeed, would she be able to achieve sufficient control over him to ensure that he would make it only for her? He had the Friend’s protection, so death threats would not move him. Well, she did have political power in the Circle. And, having been rejuvenated by Thersa, she now had the power of sex with which to beguile members of the Circle. He need not be able make the Elixir, for me to desire the fun of seeking control over him, as there are other useful Devices that he might make for me in his Workshop.

Two days later, Marge summoned Herbert to her office. “Herbert, your remark the other day about the Elixir reminded me of my own "experiment" with it: I recently slipped some Elixir to Eugene Hemming in order to test a certain chemical on him. He was not made undesirable to me by having taken the Elixir, as it normally happens in our Circle. In fact, I found him quite enjoyable: Not knowing that I am truly in charge of Hemming Chemical, he behaved with delightful recklessness.” She smiled frankly at Herbert. “What Eugene knows about Circle matters, he has learned from his ‘Uncle Georg’, and so he is not very well informed.” She left dangling, her mention of a "certain chemical".

“Miss Hemming, I have met Eugene, and I know Georg from the Separator business in Germany. Having heard that Georg has been in the Keep occasionally, I’ve supposed that he has been working on the Separator.”

"Yes. And the Separator is still unfinished business, as you know. Now tell me, Herbert Schooner, why it is that the Friend has wanted the Separator to be fabricated.”

Herbert had not expected that question. His awkward ramblings were nevertheless shrewd: ”Well, Miss Hemming, I understand that you speak with the Friend, with whom I have never had a private audience. My only contact with him has been in Keep councils, in the company of others. I believe that the Friend used to tell you to send Witteric to me to assist in my work in the Friend's Temple. And sometimes I am aware of the Friend or his Powers being nearby, but they do not speak to me. Oh! Is the Friend here now?"

Marge saw that her question had given her the advantage. “No, Herbert; you may speak plainly. I'm sure that you have, in fact, given the Separator question considerable thought since your recent experience in Germany.”

“Yes, Miss Hemming. I have come to the conclusion that it is not primarily for atomic weapons production that the Friend wanted the Separator to be built—although it would be an excellent source of very valuable weapons material. With it, the German-Soviet alliance would have had ample time, without Clan help, to make atomic weapons as they are now made, and to be the first to use them.”

“Herbert, I know that you have acted as though the Separator certainly would make atomic weapons material.”

Herbert was caught off-guard again. Then he understood: Surely, her damned spies had been tracking his movements for years! Thinking that he had deceived her by pretending to have the Separator shipped to Havana right after Georg had purloined it from the Nazis, he had been unsuccessfully trying to have the Separator made operational. He had made bombers out of two Bush Hoppers at the Schneider Flight Works factory, with Field Marshal Herder secretly bankrolling his work. The two jet bombers were hidden in a warehouse near Lake Geneva.

Marge read his mind. “With your generous permission, I will arrange to have Field Marshal Herder’s bombers shipped to Long Beach for me. The poor man is dead and has no need of them now, but—with the Separator soon to be working—I do have need of them. The Friend has approved.”

Schooner swallowed his pride and his hatred. With a casual air he said, “I was wondering what to do with them. However, I am convinced that Ellie Herder’s Fire Baby—the Separator—was also meant to play some role in his Soma.”

“His Soma? That pipe dream? …Herbert, please call me ‘Marge’, not ‘Miss Hemming’. It sounds too much like ‘Mistress Bauda’. I am a new, modern business girl in these days—a free, civilized woman.”

It was true that Herbert had seen no trace in her of Bauda’s old evil spider’s stare. He eyed her. “Why, Marge, do you say ‘pipe dream’?” He suddenly felt a professional desire to taste Thersa’s rejuvenation work for himself, and the absence of Marge’s spider’s stare emboldened him to behave with the familiarity which she was encouraging.

She answered, “Because, Herbert, with his every attempt to vest in the Soma, something goes awry.”

“There may be interesting reasons for the failures, and it may be that the Friend sees all of them as aspects of one event of vesting.”

Marge smiled at Herbert’s pomposity. “Oh, I forget sometimes, that he is a god. Yes, I suppose that is possible.”

Because Marge usually paid little attention to Makers’ talk, being interested only in the usefulness of Makers’ Devices, Herbert was—as a Maker—pleased by her curiosity about the causes of past failures to vest. “I think,” he said, “that Mortimer Kane wants to use my Wagon Workshop for a serious attempt to fabricate a new Soma. If the Clan agrees to fabricate a new Soma, I am the one who can best follow their progress, because I own the Workshop. I may do some of the fabrication myself.”

“Herbert, you know that the Clan has offered to restore the Separator’s functionality; they made the offer a half-year ago. That is the reason for Georg Kiefer’s occasional presence here in the Keep. So far, little progress has been made… Is its failure to work for me due to its being saved for use in the Soma?”

“I doubt it; the Soma’s Design is different each time,” lied Schooner. “When the Separator is functional, you will be able to make and sell the explosive material for atomic bombs. In fact, Marge, I have in my possession the German military’s plans for making atomic bombs.”

“Can you build the factory, Herbert?”

Herbert nodded a matter-of-fact affirmative.

Returning a similar nod, Marge told him, “It was the Friend himself who suggested to me that the Clan would renew work on the Separator. He told me that the Separator would create a new weapons business for me, and perfume for him.”

“Perfume?” I am making progress with this ancient bitch.

“Yes. Dwight Hemming's poison—which Ellie Herder used on that Krüger witch—is the source of the perfume. That is, the perfume is made from the poison, which is a chemically-altered product of the first stage of the Separator’s action. Ottilie Krüger used the small apparatus called ‘Dwight’s Dog’ to demonstrate to Ellie Herder the first stage of the Separator's action.

“Dwight’s Dog makes the poison?” Herbert asked quickly, unable to conceal his immediate interest. He had not found the time to investigate the poison used by Ellie Herder. He knew now that Marge knew of his inability, decades earlier in Switzerland, to make the Separator work again to make explosive material for atomic bombs. Dwight’s dog? That thing? It had been shipped with the Separator.

“Poison to perfume? Perfume for the Friend? Marge, what is that all about?”

“The poison breaks down—over a period of a few years—into a perfume. The scent of that perfume causes a Circle member to become erotically attracted to the Friend—intensely so! That is why he said: ‘perfume for me.’" Marge smiled ironically, saying, "At last, the Friend’s people in the Circle would be able to love him.”

Herbert stared at her. "How do you know that it has that effect?"

“I know, Herbert, because I have experienced it myself. It is the 'certain chemical' that I have tested on Eugene Hemming and on his mother, Minnie, who is one of us. As I have said, I gave a drop of Elixir to him without his knowledge, and then the perfume’s scent worked to attract him to me."

"I see. …So it seems that a person who is affected by this perfume seeks the object of his desire—the Friend—wherever he or she senses the Friend's active presence. Eugene sensed the Friend in you.”

“Yes. That is what I think. The Friend told me not to share this little secret with Mortimer Kane, but he did not say not to share it with you, Herbert.”

If the Comrade had known about this, he would have told me. “My lips are sealed, Marge.”

“On this, we are in bed together, Herbert. Can you learn more about the Elixir from the perfume? I know that the first component of the Separator—if it ever works—will produce a great quantity of the poison’s precursor. Poison made from some of this precursor will decompose eventually into perfume for the Friend. But Dwight’s dog, too, can make sufficient poison precursor for making the perfume, and Minnie knows the chemistry for making the perfume. If you can make the poison’s precursor, even small quantities of the poison would be useful to me, aside from the perfume.”

Herbert saw no sign of Bauda’s evil look in Marge, even while she was expressing delight in the poison. In fact, Marge seemed almost to be treating all of this lightly.

“Marge, does Eugene know only about the poison? Not about the perfume and its effect on him?”

“Yes, Herbert, he knows only about the poison. Eugene even takes pride in his father’s death at the bench while working with that poison—as if he had died courageously in battle.”

“It is possible, Marge, that I can learn about some aspects of the Elixir’s Design by analyzing the perfume and the poison. I do know that the Elixir is a Makers’ Device, because I’ve seen that it is effective only when the person taking it knows why he is taking it. Because the perfume affected Eugene and the Elixir did not, I think it may be a secondary Device of the Elixir that makes the perfume effective—or it may be simply a chemical component of the Elixir that does it.”

Hearing Herbert speaking again like a pompous Maker, Marge—knowing that he was on her hook—made her move: “Herbert, I have dismissed Georg from his position as head of the Separator project. With your Workshop, maybe you can speed along the Clan’s work, assisted by Eugene, who has been providing his uncle with some help on the Separator.”

Herbert replied at once, “I’m certain that I can expedite work on the Separator.” Then he was silent for a moment, appearing to be thinking. “It would be useful,” he said, “for us to retest Eugene for any diminishment or alteration in the perfume’s effect.”

“Ah, my good and cunning Maker! I will assist you by personally testing Eugene, and I will take the opportunity to inform him that he is to begin reporting to you.”

~ 2 ~ "Eugene dear, has your uncle given you a full account of the Separator project and of our Friend’s Circle?” Marge was greeting Eugene at the same French restaurant where—months earlier—Reginald and Arlene Steuben had dined with Ricardo and Rhoda. Marge and Eugene both experienced an immediate resurgence of the intense erotic desire which the Fire Baby's "perfume" had earlier unleashed in them.

“Marge, I should tell you that Uncle Georg has always called it the Circle of the Friend. He told me that no one ever says, ‘our Friend’ or ‘my Friend’. He told me also that, ‘The Friend is a cipher for the boss, who is probably Dr. Kane or that strange woman, Thersa.’ Sipping his champagne, Eugene caressed Marge’s body with his eyes. Because he had learned, by visiting Marge’s office, that she was much higher in the Circle than was his Uncle Georg, he had been doubly thrilled by her invitation to dinner. To him ‘the Circle’ meant those in the highest sphere of Hemming Chemical. His mother, Minnie, had often intimated that there was a level of Hemming Chemical higher than any known to him: “The powers above Uncle Georg.”

Marge’s smile communicated to Eugene her reciprocation of his desire. “The Friend and I have a special relationship, Eugene—a kind that you may have with him someday soon. I’ll tell you only that he is neither of the two people named by your Uncle Georg. Now, before we drink more, let’s talk business: I’m offering you a chance to work on the Separator officially. Because your uncle is really too old-fashioned and slow for the Separator project, I’ve placed the project under the direct control of a good German engineer, Dr. Herbert Schooner, who heads the larger project of which it is a part. You will be second to him in charge of the Separator project.”

Eugene’s eyes, having drifted to her breasts, returned now to Marge’s glowing face. “But what will Uncle Georg do?”

“We are developing a cooperative venture with Arch Company, from whom we rent our workspace in this Keep. Your uncle’s executive skill will be well-used there. Don’t you agree that his knowledge of chemistry has failed to keep up with developments in that discipline?”

Marge relished Eugene’s naiveté. She was studying him with mounting enjoyment as he nodded in reluctant agreement, his look almost soft and boyish. Yet there was shrewdness in his handsome, very masculine, partly Asian face, and he possessed the poised look of athletic prowess that delighted her also in Herbert, whom she planned to enjoy on a later occasion.

“Good. Eugene, I’m sure you will do well in your new position. Well dear, that’s enough business for the evening. Let’s look at the menu.”

“My test on Eugene has yielded interesting results, Herbert: Last night he manifested a controlled erotic passion, rather than the frenzy which had possessed him in my earlier experiment.”

Smiling, Herbert said, "Tell me, Marge, if you will: In those earlier Dionysian orgies of yours—against which I have once or twice barricaded myself within my Wagon Workshop—did you give yourself up completely to the frenzy?"

"Certainly. That was the point of it all.” The old evil of Bauda flickered in Marge’s eyes, and Herbert knew that he had sensed correctly that the Friend was near.

"It is likely that the perfume is a stable ingredient of the poison," Herbert said slowly, looking away from her face as though in thought. "I will attempt to isolate this ingredient, quickly opening the door for making the perfume.” He looked again at Marge’s face, and it seemed to reveal the Friend’s understanding and his approval of making the attempt.

She asked, “Will the perfume help you learn how to make the Elixir?”

“Marge, I must confess that its details still elude me.” It’s the details of your rejuvenation which truly elude me.

“Well, Herbert, some things take time. The Friend has a great interest in his perfume.”

Ah! I’m right: He’s near. Herbert’s eyes were drawn to the bracelet on Marge’s arm. “That bracelet looks good on you, Marge.”

She held up her arm, looking at it. “It was a gift to me from Thersa, ages ago; I always wear it. She's such a dear.” Herbert recalled clearly that Marge’s arms had been bare of jewelry when they had first discussed the Elixir and the perfume in her office. He had sensed that the bracelet was a Device; now he knew that it was a Calling Beacon for the Friend.

~ 3 ~ Rhoda and Ricardo were working with Yohanna, thinning beet plants in the upper garden of her family’s Scion ‘s Garth, on a day several weeks after Eugene had begun working under Herbert.

Rhoda was saying, "Eugene came over today and sat down at my table in the Student Union like he used to do in the days before I confronted the Foe at the biologists’ party. He asked me, ‘Is Knox Aviation dragging its feet on our agreement about the Separator?’ I was more than a little surprised.”

“What did you tell him, Rhoda?”

“I asked him what he’s doing in the Keep these days, Yohanna, and he said he’s working for Herbert Schooner now on the Separator project—not with his uncle Georg. (I hadn’t known until then that Eugene even knew about the Separator project.) Georg is no longer involved in the Separator project, and I think Eugene imagines that he, himself, is in charge, even though it’s clear that Herbert is his boss. Herbert must have given him permission or encouragement to speak with me. Eugene seems gratified by his ability to do chemistry now without Georg leaning over his shoulder. He knows about Herbert Schooner’s Workshop, but he didn’t show much interest in it or understanding about it. But I’m sure Herbert wants to move the Separator to his Workshop from its location in the chemistry lab where I’ve done some work on it. Eugene said he’s been told to keep the Separator project secret from Het and Esther, for now.”

Yohanna was frowning. “Oh, Rhoda! I do not like to think of a Maker’s Workshop in that infernal Keep!”

“I know, Yohanna dear. But in a real way, the Workshop actually does belong to Herbert, who is a genuine Maker.”

"Yes. I am aware of that, Rhoda, having been—as you know—secretly with you and Ricardo when you discovered the secrets of the Workshop of Ingundis the Maker in Switzerland. I know that Workshop is a necessary evil with which you and Ricardo must cope, yet….”

Yohanna’s mind filled with her recollection of Rhoda as Miss Wilberforce in her Swiss villa, releasing the Wagon Workshop to Mortimer Kane and Herbert Schooner. She shook her head at Rhoda and Ricardo. “You two! I hope you know what you are doing. Ricardo, everyone foolishly thinks that you are a moderating influence on Rhoda.”

Hearing herself, Yohanna recalled her own reckless entry into Rhoda’s Inner Sanctum, and how it had led to her receiving the Ultimate Shift. Am I one to scold about rash moves?

Ricardo objected, “Yohanna, I am a moderating influence! Without me, Rhoda might have volunteered herself, instead of Esther, to work with Herbert and Het in that Workshop. That would have been extremely rash and dangerous.”

Yohanna shrugged, thinking that Rhoda, too, must be thinking about their recent adventure in the Commons, in which Rhoda had saved Yohanna’s life and then had given her a place in the Histories as Yohanna Ingundis, Keeper of the Watch.

Ricardo suspected that Yohanna had exaggerated her indignation over their risky style. He asked Rhoda, “What does Eugene actually know?”

“Well, honey, he knows of the Workshop’s existence, but he doesn’t really know what it is. Eugene has been told that Het and Esther are going to help Herbert on another project, using the Workshop, which is an industrial secret like the Separator. I learned that Eugene has just begun working with the secondary Device that came with the Separator, which Ellie Herder derisively called ‘Dwight’s dog’.”

“Dwight Hemming is Eugene’s father, is he not?”

“Yes, dear.”

Yohanna asked, “Are you suggesting that Eugene is a dog on Herbert’s leash?”

“Not Herbert’s. The leash is Marge Hemming’s, in a relationship between Marge Hemming and Herbert Schooner that’s complex and very ancient. Anyway, the last time I saw Georg, he was in charge of the Separator project, and he told me that he had found Dwight’s dog to be worthless. So I told him I could restore Dwight’s dog much more easily than I could restore the Separator. And I’ve recently finished restoring Dwight’s dog, as a token of further progress on the Separator, but Georg may not have learned of its restoration before Marge Hemming replaced him with Herbert. The Dog can be used to make a modest amount of the product which is made by the Separator's first stage, and from that product can be made the same poison that killed Ottilie Krüger—and also Dwight Hemming, years later, when he was accidentally exposed to it.

"Well, Yohanna, I removed the first and second components of the Separator earlier this year, and I haven’t yet re-fabricated and reinstalled them, so what Eugene said is true: I’ve been dragging my feet. It’s because I’m awaiting developments.”

”Rhoda, I recall that Martha says in the Histories that the Foe thought the Separator was the whole Soma. My intuition is that he did not mistake a part of the Soma for the whole; rather, his aim to vest himself in the Soma was deflected. Have I interpreted correctly?”

Rhoda shared a quick inquiring look with Ricardo, and they nodded affirmatively to Yohanna.

"Very well. Also, Rhoda, I have spoken at length with Martha concerning the subject of your conversation with her while you were riding horseback from Home Ranch to the Old Barracks for your confession to Fr. Damian. Therefore, I know with certainty that you share in the Foe’s Heart Weight.”

Rhoda’s eyes twinkled. “I can see the wheels turning, Yohanna; you’re beginning to think like a Maker.”

“Never! Dear sister, I am thinking like a Word Wise who is thinking about Makers’ things: Would not this Heart Weight have enabled him to vest himself in the Separator Device, making it his Soma?”

“We think so.”

“Then, why did he fail?”

“Principally, Yohanna, because Ellie Herder died. The Soma’s Design requires that a quartet of selected humans—of whom Ellie seems to have been one—become its organic foundation in Earth’s Province.”

“Who were the other three?”

Ricardo answered her: “We think they were Herbert Schooner, Gabrielle von Klopstock, and Mortimer Kane.”

Yohanna considered for a moment. “But, of the four,” she said, “only Ellie was with the Separator when the Foe’s vestment was imminent—and she died in the act of killing Ottilie. Herbert Schooner was nearby at the time, Gabrielle von Klopstock was on the other side of Berlin, and Mortimer Kane was in southern Germany, to which Thersa had sent him.”

Rhoda touched her hand to Yohanna’s. “Yohanna, have you forgotten our excursions into the Commons? Spatial distance often counts for much less than you might think in a such a relationship.”

“I do see that, Rhoda, but I am wondering: Had Ottilie been expecting that she and Ellie would deal death blows to each other?”

“No, Yohanna. She had been feeling much the same as I've been feeling in these days. She was dragging her feet, awaiting developments. She foresaw that a major move by the Foe was imminent in Berlin, and that she would have to deal with it. She hadn’t expected an attempted vesting on that day. The events unfolding in Moscow were on her mind, although they were out of her hands. The move I’ve been waiting for is Eugene’s recent contact with me, but the action I’m taking won’t cause my death.”

“I dearly hope not, my sister. What is the action that you are taking?”

“I’m acting in accord with the obligation placed upon me by the Pact between Thiuderieks and the Friend: I’m aiding in making Herbert’s Workshop functional, by giving lessons in Calipers use to Herbert, Het and Esther. Because this is less than we could do, I will—after Herbert comes to fully appreciate my Maker’s skill—offer to twin the Antechamber of his Workshop so the Separator can be worked on there in the Keep, independently of the project that I'm fairly certain he has in mind for Het and Esther to assist him in.”

“Ricardo, do you agree with Rhoda’s plan?”

“I do agree, Yohanna, although I, too, have just now learned about it.”

Rhoda’s face glowed with a big smile as she quickly transferred the basket of beet greens to Yohanna’s hands. After warmly hugging and kissing Ricardo she said to him, “I love you, honey. I knew you would have agreed, if we had talked it over.”

Yohanna, knowing that Eugene was growing deeply involved in Herbert’s schemes, recalled the relationship between Eugene and Evelyn, and she feared that Evelyn, too, would be drawn into those schemes.

She said nothing, however, as Rhoda’s burst of feeling for Ricardo had propelled some of Rhoda's recent Living Memory into Yohanna’s awareness. She understood then that Rhoda had been planning on twinning that Workshop ever since they had discovered the Telling Leaf! “Rhoda,” she said, “must you not end the dragging of your feet, if you cooperate in this way with the Circle?”

“Yes, Yohanna, but once Herbert gets his Maker’s hands on the Separator, he will make much slower progress than I would have made, and he doesn’t know that the Soma's Design now limits isotopic output to a quantity below the yields needed for nuclear weapons manufacture, until shortly before the crisis of the Friend's vestment in the Soma is at hand. By removing the components, I’ve given myself an opportunity to tweak the Soma’s Design in light of the current situation—which Georg's signature on the agreement has implicitly allowed me to do.” Rhoda’s smile hinted at some self-satisfaction.

"Are you not obliged to inform him of it?"

"Yes, Yohanna—if he asks. I'm sure he plans to tweak the Design in some way favorable to his own interests. Since he has brought Eugene into his work on the Separator, I'm sure his plans are to use Het and Esther in fabricating a co-Device which would be another Arm of the Soma alongside the Separator. The joining of these two Arms in the last step of the Soma’s fabrication would give him latitude for tweaking the Soma's Design regardless of any tweak that I may have made."

"So, Rhoda, you suspect that he suspects you of tweaking it."

"Of course, dear."

A look between Ricardo and Yohanna acknowledged their increasing understanding of the situation.

Relieving Yohanna of the beet greens, Rhoda said, “I’ve brought several dozen eggs from my place, Yohanna, so I’ll mix some of these greens into a frittata for tonight’s supper. Theresa Rose’s chickens have been on an egg-laying binge.”

With those light-hearted words, another strand of Rhoda’s recent Living Memory came to Yohanna. In it, she experienced Rhoda’s reaction, earlier, to Ricardo saying, “Yohanna, I am a moderating influence. Without me, Rhoda might have volunteered herself, instead of Esther, to work with Herbert and Het in that Workshop. That would have been extremely rash and dangerous.”

When Ricardo had said that, Yohanna had thought that he was teasing. Now she was feeling, in Rhoda’s Living Memory, the guilt that Ricardo’s words had stirred up in Rhoda—for Rhoda had been seriously tempted to work with Herbert Schooner, who was a Maker of the Circle!

To find out why she had been tempted, Yohanna followed Rhoda's Living Memory into the past…to the time when Rhoda was receiving Ottilie’s Living Memories…and recalled Rhoda’s Living Memory of the moment when Ottilie, having destroyed the false crown of Liuva, had realized at once that Makers must exist who serve the Foe and who had fabricated that evil Device. Ottilie had been horrified!

The young Rhoda, however, had, in contemplating Ottilie’s Living Memory of that event, experienced a thrill of attraction to those Makers! She had fantasized that their aid would enable her to deceive the Foe in some way so that she would reign as a goddess for eons! Rhoda had shaken off the notion almost immediately, but it had been lying dormant in her mind since then. Recently it had been brought to life by Ricardo, sharing with her his first meeting with Herbert Schooner, who had given him a tour of the Keep. That old thrill had emerged in Rhoda, and she had been deeply tempted, because she had seen a way in which she and Herbert Schooner would be able to deceive and constrain the Foe.

Now, as Rhoda was setting off toward the kitchen carrying the greens, Yohanna heard her mind-speaking to herself: Oh, dear God! Does Ricardo know that I can be like that?