Trumps of doom

«Check.» Random faded. I sat up, swung my feet over the side of the bed, and rose. I crossed the room to the window and flung it wide. I inhaled the crisp evening air of autumn. Spring on the shadow Earth, fall here in Amber - my two favorite seasons. I should be heartened, uplifted. Instead a trick of the night, the tag-end of the dream - it seemed for a moment that I heard the final note of the howling. I shuddered and closed the window. Our dreams are too much with us.

I hiked down to the designated room and took a seat on one of its sofas. Random let me get through half a cup of coffee before he said, «Tell me about the Ghostwheel.»

«It's a kind of paraphysical surveillance device and library.»

Random put down his cup and cocked his head to one side.

«Could you be more specific?» he said.

«Well, my work with computers led me to speculate that basic data-processing principles could be employed with interesting results in a place where computer mechanics themselves would not operate,» I began. «In other words, I had to locate a shadow environment where the operations would remain pretty much invariant but where the physical construct, all of the peripherals, the programming techniques and the energy inputs would be of a different nature.»

«Uh, Merlin,» Random said. «You've lost me already.»

«I designed and built a piece of data-processing equipment in a shadow where no ordinary computer could function,» I replied, «because I used different materials, a radically different design, a different power source. I also chose a place where different physical laws apply, so that it could operate along different lines. I was then able to write programs for it which would not have operated on the shadow Earth where I'd been living. In doing so, I believe that I created a unique artifact. I called it the Ghostwheel because of certain aspects of its appearance.»

«And it's a surveillance device and a library. What do you mean by that?»

«It riffles through Shadow like the pages of a book - or a deck of cards,» I said. «Program it for whatever you want checked out and it will keep an eye on it for you. I was planning it as a surprise. You could, say, use it to determine whether any of our potential enemies are mobilizing, or to follow the progress of Shadow-storms, or -»

«Wait a minute,» he said, raising a hand. «How? How does it flip through shadows that way? What makes it work?»

«In effect,» I explained, «it creates the equivalent of multitudes of Trumps in an instant, then -»

«Stop. Back up. How can you write a program for the creation of Trumps? I thought they could only be done by a person who had an initiate of either the Pattern or the Logrus.».

«But in this case,» I said, «the machine itself is of that same class of magical objects as Dad's blade, Grayswandir. I incorporated elements of the Pattern itself into its design.»

«And you were going to surprise us with this?»

«Yes, once it's ready.»

«When will that be?»

«I'm not sure. It had to gather certain critical amounts of data before its programs could become fully operational. I set it to do that a while back, and I haven't had a chance to check on it recently.»

Random poured some more coffee, took a drink.

«I don't see where it would save that much in the way of time and effort,» he said a little later. «Say I'm curious about something in Shadow. I go and investigate, or I send someone. Now, say that instead I want to use this thing to check it out. I still have to spend the time going to the place where you keep it.»

«No,» I told him. «You summon a remote terminal.»

«Summon? A terminal?»

«Right.» I unearthed my Amber Trumps and dealt myself the one off the bottom. It showed a silver wheel against a dark background. I passed it to Random and he studied it.

«How do you use it?» he asked.

«Same as the others. You want to call it to you?»

«You do it,» he said. «I want to watch.»

«Very well,» I answered. «But while I've set it to gathering data across the shadows it still won't know a whole lot that's useful at this point.»

«I don't want to question it so much as I want to see it.»

I raised the card and stared, seeing through it with my mind's eye. After a few moments, there was contact. I called it to me.

There followed a small crackling sound and a feeling of ionization in the air as a glowing wheel about eight feet in diameter materialized before me.

«Diminish terminal size,» I ordered.

It shrank down to about a third of what it had been and I ordered it to halt at that point. It looked like a pale picture frame, occasional sparks dancing within it, the view across the room constantly rippling as seen through its center.

Random began to extend a hand.

«Don't,» I said. «You might get a shock. I still don't have all the bugs out.»

«It can transmit energy?»

«Well, it could. No big deal.»

«If you ordered to transmit energy…?»

«Oh, sure. It has to be able to transmit energy here to sustain the terminal, and through Shadow to operate its scanners.»

«I mean, could it discharge it at this end?»