The Grand Wheel

Rising, Scarne stared down at him, feeling pity but also indignation. ‘You tricked me,’ he accused the dying man. ‘Tried to sacrifice my life for your own ends.’

From his doubled-up position Dom peered up at him. ‘But your life is mine, Cheyne,’ he groaned. ‘You owe it to me. Don’t you remember? A gambling debt. I told you I would remind you of it.’

Remembering the duel, Scarne stepped back. Was Dom trying cynically to justify his treachery, or did he really believe in such a system of morality?

His inner debate was cut short. Dom gave a great groan of agony and fell from his chair. Neither Scarne nor the alien went to his assistance, and while they watched his body began to disintegrate, to dissolve.

In a few seconds not a trace of it remained.

‘He has been drawn into pure randomness,’ the galactic told Scarne. ‘It is sometimes a consequence of the process he was using.’

‘You knew about it?’

The alien rose, put away the cards, and moved the table to one side. ‘It quickly became evident. Were we generous, we might have warned him of the dangers of trying to force luck. If it is manipulated, then it is no longer luck in the proper sense; it becomes a physical force, involving, like all physical forces, action and reaction. The swing of the pendulum can come swiftly.’

‘His good luck turned to bad, in like proportion,’ Scarne observed.

‘That is why we never use any luck-manipulating process.’ While he spoke, the alien seemed to be tidying up the hut, as if preparing to leave. ‘Luck is perhaps the most powerful force that exists, and for that reason the most dangerous. It is in fact the basic force, or glue, that forms entities out of the preternatural randomness. Probability came later.’

‘What happens now?’ Scarne asked.

‘Your master lost; therefore all holdings known as the Grand Wheel become ours. We shall use them, naturally, for our own benefit.’

‘Will people be aware of it?’

‘I can’t say.’

The galactic opened the door and went outside. Scarne followed him.

His arm should be hurting more, he thought. He was scarcely aware of the ache. But then he saw his severed arm, lying on the ground, and turned aside in nausea.

The galactic spoke again. ‘You seem to have come out of all this rather well,’ he said. ‘When the process reversed itself the good luck which Marguerite Dom concentrated on himself passed to you. Luck is magic; practically anything can be achieved with it, simply by wishing.’

Scarne gestured back to the hut. ‘Is that going to happen to me, too?’

‘I would think not. You didn’t initiate the sequence; the charge will simply seep from you gradually. Goodbye, then. Use your good fortune well.’

With a loping gait the galactic left him and set off towards the horizon. Scarne closed his eyes.

Simply by wishing.

SIXTEEN

There had been changes made at the camp site when the travel globe set him down on the desert again. The Disk of Hyke had returned, accompanied by a Legitimacy battle-cruiser. Legitimacy troops patrolled both camps; all Wheel personnel were under armed guard.

As soon as he made his appearance Scarne was picked up. He found himself facing Hakandra, Shane’s stern-faced guardian.

‘What happened to your arm?’ the official asked, glancing at the stump which now had solidified as efficiently as if it had been cauterized. Scarne still felt no more than a dull ache from it.

‘I had an accident. I’ll get a new one grafted on as soon as there’s time.’

Hakandra nodded. ‘I’ll get someone to attend to it. Where’s Dom?’

‘He’s dead. Probably.’

‘Probably? What do you mean by that?’

‘He’s dead,’ Scarne said with finality.

‘I see … well, we’ll take a full statement from you later. We already know something of why the Wheel came to the Cave. Illicit contacts with an alien race. Were you a party to that?’

‘Not really. Dom kept it to himself. It’s over now, anyway.’ Scarne wanted, if possible, to extricate himself from the whole question of galactic involvement. Otherwise he would never be free of the Legitimacy.

The SIS would want a report out of him, too. He would have to try to convince them that the luck equations didn’t work. Dom’s demise was probably a chilling enough lesson.

Hakandra was speaking again. ‘You’ve heard the latest news? We’re going to have to leave here. There have been major losses in the big battle at the far end of the Cave. The positions we’ve set up won’t hold the Hadranics back now. They’ll sweep through the Cave and into our star arm.’ He looked grave and distraught. Pityingly he looked at Shane, who sat in the corner of the tent; the two were hardly ever separated. ‘All our work here has been for nothing.’

‘What about the randomness machine?’

‘We’ll take it with us. But it can’t be of any use to us now.’

‘It can help you. Make another test run with it.’

The Legitimacy official looked at him closely. ‘What do you know about it?’