He couldn't blame them. There was no sign that the infected would return. They had lived in fear for such a long time that the chance to breathe freely once again must have been irresistible. The colloids and their slaves were gone; if there was an enemy among them, it was Alex.
Or possibly Jo. Where could she be?
Alex went over to the south wing and tried a few doors. On the third try, he found a most surprising sight. Claire and Samuel slept together on a mattress, their entwined limbs loosely covered by army blankets.
Gently, Alex closed the door, hoping that he had not disturbed them. He had missed a few things while he had been gone, apparently. But he found this unexpected union strangely appealing. It was a wedding of science and religion, after a fashion. He chuckled a little as he continued his search for Jo, opening one door after another until he came to the briefing room where they had once discussed the nature of the colloids hypothetically.
In the glow of a Coleman lantern, Jo and Ronnie sat talking in the large, empty room.
"Mind if I join you?" he asked.
They turned toward him.
"Alex," said Jo, "what are you doing out of bed?"
"I couldn't sleep. Nightmares."
Jo looked at him tentatively, as if she had heard something that recalled a memory she had believed lost to her. "Nightmares," she repeated.
Alex nodded. "Have you had them, too?"
"Yes. Ever since . . . "
Ronnie looked from one to the other questioningly.
"Ever since . . . ?" Alex had to hear her say it without prompting.
"Ever since I got sick."
"Me, too." He moved closer to her. "What are the nightmares like?"
"Like . . . like that thing left part of itself behind."
"Its memories? Maybe not all, but at least some of its memories?"
"Yes." She looked very frightened, and Alex put his arms around her.
"What are you two talking about?" Ronnie demanded to know.
Without looking at her, Alex said, "We were both infected, Ronnie."
"What?"
"It's true," Jo said. "It happened to me first, and we managed to get it out of my system, and then . . . "
"And then I got it," Alex said.
"The same one?"
"Yeah."
"Wow."
"Don't worry, Ronnie," Jo said. "We're not going to turn on you."
"I don't get it," Ronnie said. "I thought that once you were infected, that was it."
"It's a new strain," Alex replied.
"You both got infected, and you got better. I can't believe it."
"That's the trouble, Ronnie," Alex explained. "We don't know if we really are better."
"Well, you're not trying to kill anybody, are you?"
"Not yet."
"Look," Ronnie's pretty face frowned, "would you be telling me all this if you were planning to wipe this place out?"
Alex felt Jo's body quaking. He looked down at her face and saw that she was laughing. "She's right, you know. Why
would
we be standing here talking about it in front of her?"
"It would have to be an extremely subtle form of mind control, wouldn't it?" Alex agreed. "So subtle that the host not only reveals the nature of the parasite to every person he comes in contact with, but even reveals his doubts about being cured."
"Reverse psychology," Jo said, evoking a term Alex had not heard in many years.
"Besides," Ronnie said, "if you've got the colloid's memory, Alex, that means you've got its memories of Jo, too."
"You may be right," he said, hugging Jo. "We'll see if I can dredge it up a little later. Right now, I think we have some catching up to do."
"Well, I'll see you guys later," Ronnie said. Smiling, she stood up and left the briefing room.
"'Bye," Jo said.
As soon as the door closed behind Ronnie, they kissed long and deeply. Both of them knew that it would not end there, but neither of them wanted to take the time to find a more comfortable room for their love making.
The floor would have to do. Their clothes formed a cushion underneath Jo. Alex rubbed her all over, kissing her. He licked her ears, her face, her breasts, slowly working his way down. At last he found her sex and worked it with his mouth, revelling in her hot, sweet taste. He teased her with the tip of his tongue, until she began to quiver ecstatically. Her shuddering grew ever more intense, and he worked harder and faster, until Jo exploded into orgasm, bucking and writhing with the greatest pleasure a woman can know.
Grinning, Alex lifted his head. Jo took his face in her hands and drew him toward her, kissing him lovingly. He mounted her then, lying still between her smooth thighs for a few sweet moments. And then he moved, kissing her neck. He thrust, at first very slowly. At last he drew back, his movements almost imperceptible, like those of a minute hand on a clock, and then he pushed his loins into hers, and she moaned appreciatively. Building and building toward his own climax, the tempo faster and faster, reaching new heights of ecstacy with each thrust. They were locked in a sensuous dance that seemed as if it would never end.
And then it happened. All of Alex seemed to well up and escape through this tiny part of him, like a hot flood through the eye of a needle. It was eternal, exquisite.
He closed his eyes. And yet he could see, looking down at him,
his own face
.
"Alex!" Jo cried, from somewhere inside
him
. "Alex, I'm . . . I'm you!"
She was right. He was inside her, too. Seeing with her eyes, tasting with her tongue, feeling with her tactile sense. He knew how she felt at that moment, encircled in warmth with this big man between her legs, secure in the knowledge that she was giving all of herself to the one she loved.
It was fleeting, but they both knew that it had really happened. There had been some sort of psychic exchange, a visitation one to the other. A brief, unfocussed moment had followed, and then they were back inside themselves.
They collapsed, gasping and touching one another as if they were both part of the same person. In fact, they both realized at that moment that
they were the same entity
.
"Jo," Alex said, breathlessly, "the colloid did leave part of itself in us."
"Yes," she replied, "but we've turned it into something beautiful." She smiled at him in a way that he could only have described as beatific.
"It was wonderful." He kissed her.
"Let's see if we can do it again," Jo said, kissing him back. "For the purpose of scientific study only, of course."
Alex laughed. "Seems as if it's our duty, doesn't it?"
"Mm, hmm."
She drew his face toward her again and kissed him passionately. Alex responded, his heart full of a love that he had never known before, not even toward his mother, or toward Sharon, or not even Billy. This was love to the nth power.
As they made love for the second time, they went even deeper inside one another than before.
The third time, they knew that they would never be separated again.
"This is too good to be true, Alex," said Claire Siegel. "Once you two figure out how to schematize the knowledge inside you and combine what you've inherited from the colloid . . . well, there's no telling what we'll learn."
The guerrillas were gathered in the briefing room, listening intently to the exchange between Alex, Jo, and Siegel. Samuel stood next to Claire, and Ronnie sat in the front row next to Riquelme, Liz, and Polly. Clearly, none of them knew quite what to make of this new development; not even Siegel, though she tried to make some sort of sense out of it, good biologist that she was.
"Well, we seem to be limited to certain moments for the mind link," Alex said.
"Oh," Siegel looked a little disappointed.
"But we don't mind stimulating each other to get results," Jo added.
Siegel looked puzzled. "Stimulating each other?"
"You see, Claire, we are linked at the moment of orgasm."
Dr. Siegel's face registered consternation. "At the moment of . . . "
"Orgasm," Jo repeated happily.
"I see." Siegel seemed a little disappointed. "Well, perhaps we can still compile some data."
"Be glad to help," said Alex.
Many of the guerrillas were laughing now, in spite of Claire's sense of desuetude.
"There's more to it than that," Jo said. "We both have dreams, too."
"Dreams?" Siegel brightened a little.
"Yes, dreams which seem to be some sort of residue left by the infection."
"What are these dreams like?"
"They seem to be about the experiences of the colloids. Mostly about the one that infected us, but there are others involved, as a result of their telepathic network."
"I see."
"It's my guess," said Alex, "that they opened up parts of the brain that aren't usually used. They broadcast with these—for lack of a better term—psi centers, never imagining that any of their hosts would escape their domination."
"And now you and Jo are able to use those centers," Claire said cautiously. "Surely this can be useful."
Alex shrugged. "Hard to say."
"Well, at least we can be sure that the colloids didn't intend for you to have this power," Claire said.
"If it is a power. We still don't know for sure what good it is."
"Surely the Lord has provided us an opportunity to strike back at the heathen," Samuel said.
Claire looked a bit embarrassed, but said nothing. Alex was confident that she would remain resolutely rational, even if she were having an affair with Samuel. Perhaps she would be even more rigorously logical, in compensation for his religiosity. In any event, she might not have wanted the others to know that she and the street prophet had become an item.
"We'll try to find something," Alex said. "But this psychic linkage might not lend itself to a military application."
"If they don't come back," said Elvin, "it won't matter."
"They'll be back," Jo said with certainty. "And when they do, they'll be more dangerous than ever."
The room became very quiet. Alex knew that Jo was right, but he didn't know
why
he knew it. It was more than just a deduction. There was something left in her mind that told her the colloids were not yet through with the remnants of the human race.
"What do you mean, Jo?" Claire asked.
"It's the fourth stage you predicted," Jo replied, looking both frightened and distant at the same time. "They're almost at that point now."
And Alex knew that it was true. He had been witness to the colloid migration; more than a witness. He had been a part of it, and their purpose had been entrusted to the colloid who had ridden his nervous system. He knew what Jo knew, though it was hard to dredge up the memory.
"I can't tell you any more now," Jo said. "Alex and I will have to concentrate."
Smirks and sexual innuendo were not forthcoming now. All of the guerrillas sensed that something was happening, something that might be of the greatest significance. They disbanded, leaving Alex and Jo alone.
Jo and Alex looked at one another, with a far deeper understanding than they could have ever known before.
"They're counting on us," said Jo.
"I know, but it's all so . . . so inchoate," Alex said. "I can't make much sense out of it."
"Not yet, anyhow." Jo smiled at him, and he thought at that moment that things might work out. But the next moment, his doubts returned.
"Claire is excited because I managed to throw off the colloid," Alex said. "But for all we know, it was weakened when it was forced out of your body. She seems to think that we can shake them through sheer will. I have my doubts about that."
"Oh ye of little faith," Jo said, laughing. "You've got to admit that we're better off than we were just a few days ago, Alex."
"Immeasurably."
"Well, let's just do what we can to help the war effort."
He put his arm around her. "Okay."
They walked to a room which they'd been staying in, with mattresses covering much of the floor. It seemed a good place for them to work on their new "powers."
Alex shut the door and they lay down. They were still for a little while.
"There's something I haven't told you," Alex said. "When I was infected, the colloids brought my loved ones back from the dead."
Jo's eyes widened. "Yes, they did it to me, too. My father and mother, and my husband. It was horrible."
"How can we fight them, knowing that our loved ones are alive in them?"
"We saw them die, Alex. They're not alive."
"But they are. Their memories, their emotions."
"That's all it is, just memory."
"No, there's more. They reached out to me, to what I thought."
"Impossible."
"No, it happened. I told myself that they were dead, too, but they're not. They're in Limbo."
Jo looked deeply into his eyes. "It's our responsibility to put them to rest."
She was right, of course, but Alex was hurt to think that these last remnants of his wife and child must be destroyed. "Why do you think the colloids preserved them?" he asked.
"Isn't it obvious? They had analyzed human emotional states thoroughly enough to realize the value of keeping these pitiful bits of our loved ones alive. It's nothing but a dirty trick."
Softly, Alex wept. Jo held him tight. "I'm sorry, Alex," she whispered.
"When you were infected," he said, "I thought that you didn't love me anymore. I know that you were being manipulated. Still, the memory of it is very painful."
"Oh, Alex, I'll always love you."
They made love, slowly, tenderly. And at last, as they came, Alex saw through Jo's eyes once again. This time he held onto the dark, round image of his own shoulder as she pressed her face against his chest. Determined to see more, he squeezed her so tightly that she cried out.
The image became clearer.
"Jo," gasped Jo.
She was not only seeing through his eyes, now she
was
Alex, making love to herself. And there was nothing for Alex to do but to become Jo. He filled that place in her that had been vacated, while she simultaneously entered him.