Prometheus: Even if together we can hold back the waves of the past, I fear we have less hold on the future.

Athena: Do not forget I understand Zeus better than you.

(an allusion to her birth which also implied her mind was as his except female in form and therefore more likely to have understood more of the subtlety of meaning and relationships between things than he would wish to acknowledge was in him) He likes all his life-forms and delights in the way they re-make themselves in their myriad ways. But, like us, he affects humans best. For all his irritation with them, he prefers their likeness to us and their need for us despite their forgetfulness. We remain deeply embedded in them, in their unconscious minds, secretly supporting and steadying them to maintain their correct place in the world. We must continue to trust Zeus to keep the past in its proper place, and keep it and the present working in harness to shape the future. Hades would have mortals stay in the past, constantly reworking what is gone, safe in the known and the knowable. Zeus holds the past and lets the future in, link by link. He will not have the future from Yhawhe for he takes it too far into an abstract nowhere. Yhawhe is in this much closer to Hades than He is to Zeus, whom he paradoxically professes to hate. Yahweh is wary of too much creativity in mortals for it challenges his supremacy. Nevertheless despite all His works, He will never be as real for mortals as we.

Hephaestos: I fear the big battalions of the long dead. We cannot enlist the unborn and those in the present are too few in number by comparison. If the barrier between the past and present is breached......

(Here Hep indicates that there is too much generality being communicated and that something more practical needs doing, and that soon, if Hades is to be stopped from believing he can take advantage of Zeus' apparent weakness.) Hades is making a deal with Chronos even now. I believe he has found a way to listen into the Chronosphere and may be able to follow our communication and...

Athena: What! How can he? There's no way to cross!

Hephaestos: I may be wrong but I am sure he has tried to tap into the human internet to follow their communications and he is probably seeking a way to enter the 'sphere as well. He may be using Persephone as his messenger, but I doubt it - she has always been loyal to Demeter. I agree it's unlikely he has broken in, but it's only a matter of time. We also have to consider that we may have a traitor in the camp somewhere.

Prometheus: I am using all the powers of foresight at my command and see Zeus and someone huge in a vital communication - it might be Yhawhe but equally it might be Hades and Chronos.

Athena: There is a great change ahead. I feel it. But what of Gaia - she is the cause of this...

Prometheus: No. She has to act for her own sake, she has no choice, but the cause is in mortals and Zeus knows it. I fear Hades sees this last chance he is giving them as betraying a great weakness. Gaia does not care who saves her. She would prefer it to be Zeus, but she is angry with him for risking casting her off to the very mortals that are doing her the harm. Hades brings her certain relief. Past realities are entirely predictable without the unexpected tumults of the living. He has mult.i.tudes enough and can maintain majesty over them for as long as he needs. He may even have plans to bring his mult.i.tudes back into our realm if Zeus' plan fails. If that happens time will stop and there will be no more moving forward. That will suit Gaia well enough. Then what of us? An interesting question.

Athena: What do you see Yahweh doing if this is true?

Prometheus: I cannot read Yhawhe. Zeus' challenge to Him is unprecedented. He is giving mortals the chance to be free of G.o.ds, to absorb our essence in them and take their own charge of Gaia for their own sakes and not for ours or Yahweh's. It cannot be known how the three elements of Hades, Zeus and Yhawhe will interact. Yhawhe has always been paternalistic, I doubt he will allow people to take control and deny his Heaven. For Europa's children to look the G.o.d of the Hebrews and His Christ full in the eye and say 'NO' to him with complete consciousness; is to court unknown effects on the human psyche. No, the effects on Yahweh are unknowable. Zeus has made his will and is determined to give mortals their freedom. Yhawhe has no concern for Gaia but only for His own hereafter...

Hephaestos: Enough of this speculation!

(What was communicated was more a sense of complete understanding of the historical relationship of G.o.ds to people in all their manifestations and a serious question of the future relationships of the external and internal worlds of the human mind. Hephaestos nuanced his input with an impatience which requested the meld turn its powers of communication to heading off what seemed to him to be an impending catastrophe for the Pantheon.) - We need evidence of Hades' activities on both the human and the divine levels and in particular knowledge about his relationship with Chronos. We need to get him here and negotiate. I want no more wars. There are stirrings in Tartarus which I fear will spill out of their dark confines into the light.

Athena: Then we will fight them as before.

(She introduced a frisson of excitement into the mind-meld. Her warrior instincts were touched, and like Hephaestos, she pulled the communication round to a more active inclination. Prometheus introduced a philosophical dimension to the prospect of action and held them together with a vastly complex a.s.sessment of the relationship of G.o.ds, mortals and the prospects for the continuation of the human race in a psychological world without external G.o.ds in which mortals had to rely on their own devices. At this point in the meld the voice of Hera winged its way via the timelines.) Hera: Shh! You stir my husband with your thoughts. He hears you and knows you from old. He fears your speculations and will have you more practically bent. Athena - go arm our friends and their hordes but do it softly so neither Zeus or Hades hears of it. Hephaestos, see after Alexander. Prometheus, get you into the mind of Gaia I must know where she is placed in this. Know that Zeus pursues Yhawhe. We are in dangerous times.

The meld ended. It left merely a trace on the 'sphere, and only the keenest watcher would have noticed it had happened at all. However, watchers were getting more alert all the time. It would not be long before private communications on the timelines would be hard to accomplish in safety.

In a timeline nearer to us, Alexander and Marina stepped out of Phoenix airport into the bright, desert sunshine of Arizona. Half an hour later Marina was driving their hired Cherokee Jeep Northwards on Route 17 towards Flagstaff and the Grand Canyon. Just beyond Flagstaff they turned off on Route 89 and left the hurly-burly of the USA and entered the Navajo Dinatah - 'Land of The People.'

Alexander had been to the USA many times before. Marina too had learned much of her surveillance skill in New York and the cities of California. Neither however, had spent any time in the hinterland of the continent and they were new to the Southwest. As they drove, the contrast of the country with the England they left only that day was hard to take in. For speed they had used JNO's Lear jet for the flight to Phoenix. Even so Alexander was tired and a glance at Marina showed she too was less crisp than usual. Their fatigue however was somewhat overtaken by the unfolding country before them.

'It's like someone was unravelling a travelogue in front of the car - it's every cowboy film you ever saw!' Alexander was entranced by the sheer size and magnificence of the country as he watched the sun begin its spectacular evening performance with the supporting cast of mountains, mesa's and valleys. In particular he was as excited as a kid by the outstretched arms of huge cacti silhouetted against the arc of the sky.

'It certainly is something!' echoed Marina. They rode in silence for a while each watching the country, thinking their own thoughts. Alexander was simply relishing being alone with Marina. He kept stealing glances at her throughout the journey when he thought she was not aware. He was in danger of losing sight of his work. Marina was clearly aware of this and did nothing to encourage his amorous inclinations. His mind was in a turmoil, her lack of response made him wonder if they had a relationship at all. They had to have something after all. But she had paid him so little attention and had prevented him even touching her.

'We're at work.' She'd made it plain before setting off.

He did his best to be matter of fact, but her perfume, the crisp sheen of her hair, the fineness of her facial bone structure, in short everything about her made him want to grasp her at every opportunity and her resistance was causing him actual physical pain.

She for her part, was thinking that this couldn't go on, there was work to do and they needed to be highly concentrated if they were to succeed. Part of her was touched at his predicament and she was a little flattered that someone with his genetic structure was besotted with her. On the other hand she was used to male reactions to her s.e.xuality, which always set up a harsh reaction in her. Having suffered because of it at a time when she was innocent of her effect on men she now deliberately used her s.e.xuality as a weapon to get what she wanted. She had had enough pain from that source in her life and had learned to control it for her own ends. She had given him enough of herself to satisfy his urges and get his infatuation out of his system, and that would have to do until things were clearer. She was aware nevertheless she had some feelings developing for this son of her boss which she quickly dismissed as irrelevant to the task in hand.

'How far to Tuba City?' she asked.

Alexander consulted the map. 'About a hundred miles, a couple of hours, it'll be pretty dark when we get there.'

'I've got reservations at the Tuba City Motel, Manuelito Kanuho is expecting us the day after tomorrow. We meet him at 'Fourthworld' at nine. He has asked us to stay with him in his home in the Grand Canyon, imagine that, he actually lives down there! I thought a day first alone in Tuba City to check out the ambience would be a good idea, to acclimatise a bit. Okay by you?'

Alexander was in a state of suspended animation. Internal and external phenomena were becoming more and more blurred and he was treating them together as a whole. The membrane that divided tangibility and illusion was breaking down in him, and on top of everything there was Marina. There, but not there.

Behind him was the collective history of the earth. In front of him was the aggregated potential of mortals; between them, the world lay open, naked and vulnerable - Gaia was calling him and he felt the pang of her hurt and sensed the work of the G.o.ds as a busyness on the 'sphere. The net under his shirt quivered slightly on his arrival in Phoenix. Like a dousing rod it seemed to sense changes of activity on the 'sphere both within him and when it occurred outside. Arizona had something in its atmosphere which registered as he entered the Navajo and Hopi tribal lands. He and Marina had read-up the history and current situation of these nations and Nemmi had supplied information about their cosmology and world view.

Nemmi too was enthusiastic about the way these Native Americans faced their origins and continued their own relationship with the earth, despite the genocide they had suffered at the hands of the invading citizens of the land of the free, intent on the destruction of them and their land. Through the net around his shoulders he felt he could hear her voice separate itself from the background static, communicating on L2. She re-enforced the message; 'They share the Pantheon's understanding of Gaia and keep their respect for her in spite of all they have suffered. Even through the impact of modern life they keep her with them always. They have her inside them and they live for her well-being, which increases their own. They suffer as she suffers and will continue to do so while those who afflict her, try and force them to weaken their roots in her. Their story-tellers weave the strands of their people's past into a complex but unified whole which can be read in the designs of their rugs and jewellery. 'Fourthworld' represents the last of four worlds of creation - the fourth glittering and bright where all people coexist with all forms of life including that of the earth mother herself. None has dominion and there is no hierarchy. The all has intrinsic value in its parts. Despoliation is unthinkable and punishable by the inevitable reaction of the despoiled. They wait for the children of Europa to be educated and despair of her offspring's intemperate behaviour. The Earth will have her revenge in due time and they, The People, know they will be virtuous in her eyes when this occurs.'

The setting sun splintered the resplendent horizon and they stopped to fully admire the light play with the palette of the Painted Desert. They watched the changing colours until the light dimmed.

Alexander was conscious they had left the USA somewhere behind them. The land of the Din The People, was free of the h.o.a.rdings, and other clutter which normally decorate the American roads. Here the road shot ahead clear and straight for miles and where it bent, it merged with looming bluffs and again shook itself into line once past. The road marked by telegraph poles marched in steady ranks into the far distance.

A low double-wire fence at the roadside kept travellers off the land. Here the road was the intruder to be fenced in bounds. Smaller, unmade tracks went off at crazy angles, and were lost behind hillocks of dense mesquite and the occasional clump of alders and pinion pine, marking the presence of mostly dry, water courses. An arid land needing its vastness intact to sustain life. Occasionally he glimpsed in the gloom a lazy, rising plume of smoke denoting the presence of a family dwelling or hogan.

There was little traffic, no more than three other pick-up trucks shared the route after the turn-off to Tuba City. They arrived at the motel in the dark. There were no outskirts of the kind he expected of the USA, no string of out of town filling-stations, no Taco-Bells, pharmacies or shopping malls. One minute they were in the open country and next they were in town. In the gloom, 'town' seemed to be no more than an overgrown crossroads.

The following morning they set out to explore. If Alexander had expected a 'city' he was mistaken. His surmise of the previous night was correct. Tuba City was an overgrown crossroads. They saw Fourthworld sited behind the motel, a collection of wooden pre-fabricated huts. Apart from the visitor's centre and the motel itself, all the buildings were single story higgledy-piggledy wooden huts or mobile homes. There was a gas station and a small minimart in its precincts. The dusty township, sprouted usefully where roads met to encourage travellers to stay awhile, spend some money, refresh themselves and make or remake acquaintance. Were it not for electricity and telephone lines, mobile homes and asphalt, he might be in the last Century. Nearly all the people abroad were Navajo. His most potent thought was that he really was not in the USA but truly in another, an original landscape. He also felt particularly ashamed and guilty of being European. From the moment he became aware of the countryside spread before him, he sensed dimly what he supposed every Navajo he saw carried in their genes. Strolling like tourists in this place, he felt acute embarra.s.sment from the way his own race had treated them and, he also reflected, Marina's forebears. He felt acutely face to face with the genocide committed by his race. He turned to his companion self-consciously aware of her African origins.

'To have had all this land, as it were, within you, and to be dispossessed by an incoming horde of alien invaders. They must be sick at heart.'

'Oh my little Eurocentric! My, but it was a long time before you got it!' she replied, sarcastically.

'Sorry, but well...I didn't think it through properly before. I know it of course, but being here, seeing this land and these people, as themselves in this country, this crazy USA...well...this isn't the USA. This is Navajo land, truly belonging to the Navajo. But not really after all, the reservation is only a poor attempt at something given back. What a terrible irony it must be for them to be given back a bit of what was theirs as a kind of consolation for being overwhelmed by a genocide that is quite ignored.'

'It's far worse than that...it's not even as if it were theirs - the land - it is something they share with all life-forms. Every life taken of any form was apologised for before, after or during the event. Killing was never justified for its own sake, only in necessity is it allowed. Your race of total barbarians have to own everything, and what you own you can destroy without conscience. This land was never the Navajo's to own, so how could it belong to white people? Its destruction was and is utterly unjustifiable. These people know it so far into their roots and the crime is so immense, their cries of despair flow back to creation and forward into the vastness of the universe to be heard by life-forms everywhere. As for me my lovely boy: I was born in Streatham.'

'Don't you feel dispossessed, from your own roots I mean?'

'You feel for their dispossession and so do I. But it's more to do with the utter insensitivity of your people to anything they can control. Europeans are such control freaks that they miss the intrinsic value of everything. Why do you suppose I fetched up in JNO. Penny, Rick and the Dodona's are the only Europeans I have ever met who feel deeply about this relationship between people and the Earth. I know others do as well, but the Dodona's are doing something practical about it and I am helping. But just feeling is not enough although it's a beginning. Humpty has had his great fall and no one has yet put him back together. It's not just the Native American who has been dispossessed, we all are. If you think I yearn for a lost Africa of my soul as the Navajo mourn for their lands - I don't know about that - perhaps somewhere I do, but I think it's more global, more to do with the loss of a world where I can be myself, in relationship with it. More whole...somehow...where things are less fragmented.'

It did not take long for them to walk round the whole of Tuba City and they had walked in a circle back towards the motel.

As they entered the foyer a short, stocky, weather-beaten, Navajo man of about sixty, in a large dazzlingly white straw Stetson, jeans, colourful waistcoat and dusty, tooled, patent leather boots was waiting by the desk to greet them.

'Mr Alexander Conway and Miss Marina...er...I'm sorry I don't know your second name...they are important...names...they tell a story. Forgive me...I am Dr Manuelito Kanuho MA Oxon, Ph.D. Please call me Manny. I'm sorry to accost you thus before our scheduled meeting tomorrow, but your being in Tuba City is of course noticed, and I am too impatient a man to see you and not introduce myself. It would be rude for you to know I had been watching you from afar and not to acknowledge the fact. Please sit and take refreshment with me in my office before I take you round Fourthworld.'

Marina thought he spoke as if taking care to be what he seemed, and in so doing she found him pompous. Alexander was struck by the n.o.bility which belied his apparel and immediately forgave his manner of speech. English was probably not his first nor favoured language. He was aware that he too did not know Marina's second name. She made no reference to this omission and did not help him out.

'Dr Kanuho - Manny, what a pleasure, Alexander and I thought to acclimatise a little. We are far from home and...'

'My dear friends, you are at home here in Tuba City. I have taken the liberty of checking you out of this motel, fine though it is, and have arranged for your valises to be taken to my place. In the meantime I would like to show you our little operation here at Fourthworld.'

Before they were able to comment, Manny had them walking briskly behind him the few hundred yards into the pre-fabricated huts of his empire. He spoke continually as they walked, and maintained his monologue within the fake-panelled walls of his office as he arranged coffee and cookies.

'So you see, without the a.s.sistance of Ric at JNO and the Biteasy Corp., we might not exist here. Anyone from JNO is welcome as a friend. We gain in strength, we The Din through your help. We do a new long march back from the darkness that has befallen our own land and our own way of life. There are of course some among us who want the American way, but they are confused. Here at Fourthworld, linked now with JNO we can begin to re-connect with our ancestral voice and regain confidence in our relationship with the Earth.' At this he stopped and smiled.

Once more Alexander began to lose his bearings. He felt through the net round his shoulders a renewed sense of omen flow from the land, from this man and from Marina whom he sensed as on the alert. He felt very close to her and he wished he could read her on L1. She had no link to him other than the simply human but, and maybe it was his training or the net or both, he seemed to pick up her scanning mind. Not as clearly as he could now hear other voices on the 'sphere, but real enough.

Mannuelito Kanuho, MA Oxon, Ph.D. continued. 'I speak of the new dawn of my people. You will be surprised at the sophistication of our little operation here Mr. Alexander. Mr. Ricardo has given us, the Navajo Nation, the tools to outwit the Federal Office of Indian Affairs. And not only them,' Manny giggled infectiously. 'They have no notion of our holdings or our real wealth. That is thanks to our connections with JNO and the foresight of your mother Mr. Alexander. We have immensely broad connections here through the JNO/GRADE programme. Did you know my friends, we are directly and indirectly connected to most of the indigenous peoples all over the globe. We are not so simple as we seem. Hey Mr. Alexander? You are of course representatives of JNO and I am frank with you. Here, I have maps. They show you the depth and breadth of our liaisons between peoples, unknown to world authorities who still think of us as backward, downtrodden. Some think the peoples we connect with may be dangerous nationalists, or religious fanatics or all of these. This is the face we show to confuse. But we have through JNO, bought up loans from international banks and the World Bank. This way we get leverage in international business and slowly we will turn the tables in favour of the economies of so called third-world peoples. As yet the process is marginal and hardly noticeable. But you wait and watch, my friends, first world controlled cash crops will soon give way to local planting for local needs and we will create the means for raw materials to be processed locally. Then, Mr. Alexander, then we will be able to bargain with big chips my friend. With the help of JNO we will withhold our produce from your white exploiters. The most wonderful thing is that the centre of operations for all this for the central Americas is here. In little Tuba City, in this muddle of buildings at Fourthworld. All we do here is also part of the growing information data bank of HIGO at Markham. I astound you do I not my friends. I too astound myself every day. What do you think? We turn the tables at last.' The flash in Manny Kanuho's eye surprised Alexander and made him uncomfortable. Nonetheless he really was astonished. He wondered if Marina knew the true reach of Penny and Ric. If she did, she showed no sign. He knew JNO was large but was continually being surprised that he had no real conception of the scope of its myriad tentacles. Manny's eye gleamed even more malevolently and Alexander's mouth dropped further as he peeled back layer upon layer of information.

'You see how we take back what is ours. Revenge is a meal to partake of cold, isn't it so my friends? Are we not subtle, do we not work insidiously to right the wrongs of centuries against the insane and criminal damage inflicted by Europe over centuries? See how they will suffer and diminish as we strengthen. It is no more than justice!'

Alexander felt a sudden and profound sadness at what seemed a lack of concern for the hardships awaiting the victims of the retribution to come and was suddenly less enthusiastic about Manny Kanuho's intentions. Also there was something in the eyes of the man which prevented Alexander from making a direct challenge. The proud Din chief wanted his pound of flesh to put the record straight and he no doubt had the right. But Alexander felt there was more to it and he was very disturbed but unable to put his finger on why. Manny was in every respect convivial and charming so what was it that made Alexander feel there was something sinister in the background? Something it was imperative to conceal .

He caught a sense of Marina professionally skimming the atmosphere for discrepancies in the normal routine of the busy office. He followed her with his mind and found by using Zeus' net he thought he was able not only to follow her general train of thought but also move ahead of her into other rooms. He was the first of the three of them to register the presence of the dissonant factor Marina was seeking and Manny was at pains to conceal. He remembered the origin of the hacker had to be somewhere in this ramshackle, tumble of buildings.

Manny had left the office door open and the coffee was brought in by a young man of over average height. He was a striking individual. Alexander noted with distinct jealousy Marina's appraising glance convey approval. He was over six feet, long boned and slender but well built, with the strength of the cheetah rather than the lion. His face was a hawk similarly beautified by a strong gaze. The wide planes of his cheek bones, spoke of an ageless calm. The jet-black hair was cut in a fringe, then combed hard and chopped sheer at the level of his cheekbone, the rest of his considerable mane was combed back and tied in a chignon at the nape with a fastener of many coloured beads. The way he moved indicated his total awareness of his own presence and he knew exactly the effect he had on the people present. His hard, smooth male s.e.xuality exactly matched Marina's feline feminine and Alexander was right to be jealous. This man was a natural rival. Of similar age but seeming to carry more wisdom about him, offering a maturity gained from his people and the world. He was the scion of his people, the youth destined to lead them to greatness again.

He gracefully set down the tray of coffee cups as if it were a prize of the hunt. The pride of his race was in this simple gesture to drink and take hospitality. All three had their own reasons to admire this powerful youth.

'This is my son Barboncito, he welcomes you to the land of the Din,' observed Manny with obvious pride.

Alexander noted that without doubt he was the source of the dissonance. It seemed to him Marina had not yet picked up that it came directly from him. His obvious charm must have deflected her. She was not on the 'sphere, although in Alexander's mind she ought to have been. As he considered this, he heard Thea on the 'sphere amplified by the golden net.

'Concentrate on the boy, Marina can take care of herself!'

Alexander attempted to shrug her off as the interfering sister. He was shocked by the fierceness of the rebuke lanced via a flash of L3. The sting of her mind brought him back to the purpose of his visit and he began to use his training.

He was not surprised to receive such messages, subliminally he was continually monitoring noises on the 'sphere and quickly linked into anything that commanded his attention without losing any concentration for what was happening in real time. It needed an effort, but he could do it. Losing his bearings was dangerous. It was one of the caveats used by Zeus to Hera about his being placed on the 'sphere. The sphere was not designed for mortals and even the slightest inkling of its existence was apt to send people mad. His origins and training had lessened the likelihood, but nevertheless he found the constant skipping between parallel worlds and telescoped timelinks hard to hold onto. Dissonance in the ordinariness of the human world was another new twist. It made sense when he thought of it, heightened awareness would logically point out the unexpected. Although he felt discord in the young man, he knew neither its cause nor intention. Was it innocent or malevolent? He now registered Marina's concern, so she was not being fooled either. She still found the youth attractive despite her misgivings. Still, he would take his twin's advice and a.s.sume Marina would take care of herself, he hoped this would not mean she would take less good care of him!

At a signal from Manny the youth bowed graciously and left the room. Manny then hustled them in the friendly manner of a broody hen on a tour of the complex of buildings.

Alexander continued to be surprised at the sophistication of the operation. Ric had certainly given the Navajo Nation the tools to outwit the Federal Office of Indian Affairs who nominally monitored the reservation. It was clear they had no notion of the holdings or real wealth of Fourthworld thanks to their connections with JNO. A twinge of the net suddenly made clear the enigma of the Navajo youth. While Manny Kanuho had set up the process using JNO's technical help, the youth was to be the instrument of revenge. No wonder he was so self-possessed. With the power of JNO behind him and the incontrovertible moral power of his argument, the dispossessed could and should bring down the established world order. Alexander wondered if Penny was aware of this as a possibility. Did she know what JNO had potentially unleashed on an unsuspecting world?

During a moment in the tour of the complex, Manny was called over by an employee allowing Marina time to observe; 'Alexander, don't you get the feeling that he is rather enjoying himself. From the moment he knew we were here he's making sure we don't get out of his sight...the lad has a big role in this too...by the way I'm an independent person so don't you get any proprietorial inclinations.'

'I...you...we...' Alexander was unable to get his words out.

'Stop that...I need to know more about myladdo there and I'll use whatever means I can, and enjoy myself too if I can. Get it!'

'I get it!' He began to draw himself up but before he could remonstrate, Marina grasped him behind the neck with fingers of steel and drawing his ear to her lips hissed with the force of a steam train through his brain; 'n.o.body owns any part of me! I give what I want to whom I want! I'm in control - all the way lover boy! Now observe...there's something going on here. I've no scruples about what they want to do to the white-man's way of life, I can see you've got some qualms with that, and that's your problem. But don't forget the hacker comes from here and it's my job to protect JNO. Now I don't know what your job is, and I don't care. Just as long as you don't get in my way. As far as I'm concerned we are on the same side until you prove otherwise, and if it's any consolation, it's usually the other way round. But don't you bug me, is that clear!'

She kissed him swiftly and hard on the lips, smiled and disengaged as if nothing had been said.

Alexander's pride fell about him like the vast folds of a deflating hot-air balloon. He knew he did not own her but had hoped he had meant something to her. That she was tough he had no doubt, but he wanted her to reserve her special gentleness for him. His pride in himself demanded it. Their relationship sustained him in his confusions with his different worlds. Without the gift of Marina he felt alone. Having the Pantheon in touch was all very well but he felt he was mostly human and since his time with Marina he knew he desperately needed that kind of contact.

The net round his shoulders tightened as if offering an alternative emotional sustenance and he registered it as helpful. Was he wrong about her? Was she only, merely, an ally? Essentially was he alone?

After the tour, Marina drove in silence through the hot afternoon in the air-conditioned comfort of the Cherokee as they followed Manny's pick-up on the way to his hogan. Manny stopped at the crossroads to offer a lift to the youth who had brought the coffee, and Alexander was unhappy to know Marina would encounter him again.

Marina was not usually talkative and Alexander agonised angrily in the silence. Her disregard must be contempt for his wimpish adolescence. But he could not help himself. He wanted to own all of her and the thought that tore him to shreds was that her freedom (which was what he loved in her) allowed her to consider the Navajo youth as a possible lover. It was worse that she could consider giving her body for the fun of it in the conduct of her work. Was that all he was to her, a bit of bunce that came with the job? Thea's voice was live in his head telling him to concentrate on what mattered, and he was ripped in two pieces by the need to leave Marina to her own devices while he concentrated on other tasks. He sat glumly, determined that if that was what she wanted - if that was all he meant to her - then good luck to her.

He kept glancing at her for a reaction. Surely she would feel the strength of the pa.s.sions surging through him. How could she act so calmly as if things were perfectly normal. Was she thinking about the body of the youth as he thought of hers - in the arms of the Navajo? Still he would not speak of it. Her instructions were clear. There was no way he would get in her way. He would keep his distance and she could do what she wanted. She was an employee, she could do her job in whatever way she wanted. He did not pay her wages, he wasn't even sure if he was an employee of JNO himself any more. So much had happened to him that was strange and unexpected, why did he think she was anything more special than that Ljeschi character. He would stick with Thea, she cared for him, was concerned about him.

Peripherally, he was aware of the country as they headed towards the Grand Canyon. Despite his mood the idea of visiting this natural wonder filled him with enough expectation to partially soothe his adolescent jealousy.

Few travel there on business, even fewer go with a Navajo chief and his acolyte. Fewer still go over the rim into the mountain-upside-down to search for the Sipapu, the hole in the ground through which the first people entered this glittering world from their subterranean mountain top. He kept the feel of Thea quick in his mind for courage and despite his mood - the presence of Marina for support.

They left the main road about two miles from the South-Rim of the Grand Canyon and drove side by side to avoid the dust, dodging through the dry gra.s.ses between ranks of pinyon pine. As they drove, trees whistled between them and on either side. Manny grinning from ear to ear, devilishly cast off his seat belt with a flourish and in a series of surges and decelerations indicated a race.

The ride developed into a crazy scramble between the trees and increased in speed as Manny, sensing Marina could cope with some fun, tested her driving skill. Alexander soon forgot his mood in a mixture of sheer excitement and terror as side by side their speed increased to seventy-five miles an hour on open ground thick with trees and boulders. Alexander held onto the grab handle in front of him, his backside in the air more often than on the seat. Marina dripping sweat despite the air conditioning, hurled the vehicle from side to side like a bucking bronco. Alexander was aware of the tense faces of their opponents in the car alongside. They brushed wheels more than once, as each speeding vehicle converged and parted to avoid the many obstacles.

They stopped almost together in a scream of brakes and a cloud of dust at a point not far from the brink of the Canyon. How Marina knew when to brake was a mystery to Alexander. Manny clearly knew the country and as far as Alexander could see had given no signal to Marina. They could have been hurled into oblivion were it not for her well honed sense of danger. Manny and the youth got down and approached Marina who was draped over the steering wheel, breathing hard.

'You are a very special kind of woman Marina what-your-name,' Manny said, sweat too glistening on his brow. 'We thought it was the boy at the wheel and we would test him. When I realised it was you I wanted to slow down but Barboncito here would not let me - You win his trial and he is proud of Marina No-Name.' Barboncito threw open the door to the Cherokee and without a word thrust his hand to grasp Marina's in a hand-shake of equals. Alexander recognised the young man's appreciation of her skill and although he felt he ought to be jealous, the sheer honesty of the gesture unexpectedly made him warm to him.

'How did you know when to brake?' Manny asked, taking the words out of Alexander's mouth.

'Something to do with the relationship of sky and landscape, I don't know exactly, but I knew ahead was just void.'

'You feel the power of this place, you are one of us, Marina No-Name'. The Navajo youth spoke for the first time. Alexander was surprised at the caressing softness of his voice. 'Come I'll show you where you are.' The four of them walked towards the South Rim of the Canyon. After a few paces Alexander was amazed at the starkness of the break in the ground. Somehow he had a.s.sumed you would come across the canyon gradually - but it just happened. At about eighty yards from the edge he was aware of what Marina had fortunately sensed before him - a change in the light indicating great s.p.a.ce. He was however, quite unprepared for the ground to fall precipitously away hurling his senses far into the void.

This first shock left him hanging like an eagle on a thermal up-draft, suspended over the ends of the earth. Giant forces had abruptly rent apart the flat ground over which they had been driving so recklessly a moment before. The magnitude of the s.p.a.ce threw his mind into the immeasurable profundity to leave him breathless. As he tried to take in the vastness, his heart resisted the attempt. He knew it was possible to describe what he saw in scientific, geological terms - so many kilometres across, so many miles long - so many feet deep - but he could only take it in into himself as a wholeness and found he could not fathom its size, colours, depth nor mystery. He was simply enveloped and absorbed into the fact of it.

The four people, from very different backgrounds stood silent for a long moment with their own thoughts.

The drive from Tuba City had brought them into late afternoon and the sun dipping Westward over Point Sublime and Tuna Creek revealed a golden grandeur and n.o.bility of form, beyond the imagination. This was a manifestation of the infinitude of Gaia herself, a sense of her capacity to dwarf the mortal into proper insignificance. Every pa.s.sing cloud, every fractional shift of the point of the sun recast the mountainous terraces into cathedrals and great amphitheatres of rock, clothed in moving light and shade. While all was the stillness of eternity, all was moving planes of ethereal fragility and everlasting solidity paradoxically melting and reforming.

'There is my hogan,' interposed Manny suddenly breaking the silence, pointing downwards into the rocky chiaroscuro. Alexander followed the direction of his finger and with some difficulty made out the trickle of a trail plunging and winding deeply into the heart of a chasm and ending at a sloping gra.s.sy plateau atop a steep ravine at about the half-way level to wherever the bottom of the abyss and the mighty Colorado seemed to be. A thin, blue line of wood-smoke suddenly s.n.a.t.c.hed by an internal wind marked a round man-made construction like an upturned coracle. Next to it a wooden shack appeared to almost slip off the edge of the plateau, about to fall into the bottomless ravine. Answering his thoughts, Barboncito, standing close to Alexander spoke softly into his ear.

'It is a four hour trail by mule from here to the hogan, now we go to Supai to get mules and supplies from my friends the Havasupai for the descent before dark. Tomorrow morning we will descend further - and when we are ready,' he hesitated and glanced at Alexander. 'Further to the Sipapu.'

Alexander was as shaken as if Barboncito had launched an arrow at him. The meld with Thea had told him all he knew about the Sipapu and the reason for his visit and its significance. It was natural that Barboncito would know everything about the Sipapu and its significance for his people; but what made the hairs stand up on Alexander's neck was that somehow Barboncito knew that he knew.

'You see I know that's where we must go, you and I my European friend. To enter the world below. To find our destiny there. We are well matched. We are the ones chosen. Isn't it so? You and I will enter the Sipapu, we will revisit the time before and know the past as good. Together we will open the Sipapu, all the gates linking the underworld of the past to the now and together we will retake what is truly ours. The Din will have our country back as before. We need each other. We are the twinned ent.i.ty where past and present meet.'

By the time his shocked brain began to be capable of response Barboncito had joined Manny and the pair of them with Marina retraced their steps to the vehicles. Alexander's first thought was to run after the younger Navajo and demand what he meant. He suspected however that it would yield him nothing and he was not yet ready for any kind of confrontation. He suspected a show-down with one or both of these men was more than likely at some time and he had no idea if he was capable of coming out unscathed. He was certainly out of his depth and it was only Marina and his link with the 'sphere that prevented him from fleeing. Added to which he had no real idea where he was nor how to get back. Anyway he was committed to the task now. Flight was out of the question, the humiliation of having to confront Lucina, not to mention all the others as a wimp, was an impossibility making the potential confrontation with Barboncito or Manny a vicar's tea-party by comparison. There was more going on here than he could fathom all at once and he had no choice but to go on. The demeanour of these Navajo, the Canyon, and Marina's keen sense of dissonance made him keep his thoughts and feelings to himself.

Chapter 4.

Two thousand feet down at the dead-end of the trail from Peach Springs which leads to Havasu Canyon, is the village of Supai, which is happily cut off from the rest of the USA. It is the home of some five hundred Havasupai People sandwiched between the towering walls of the canyon.

The town was built originally of willow wickiups, but now was made up of mobile homes or near collapsed, single-story buildings, typical of 'towns' in the reservation. The main building is the Havasupai Lodge constructed to exploit tourists which stuck-out as the only attempt at 'development' - a cynical gesture to Mammon to make white visitors feel at home. Alexander concluded the Native American's relationship with permanent structures was at best equivocal, similarly their use of possessions was more nearly related to daily needs than the mere satisfaction of possession - they had other, more satisfying things on their minds.

Their land invaded, their psyche under siege; they eyed the American dream with a cultural indifference only just now being understood by their ubiquitous, neighbours of European stock. The Native Americans had struggled against the white tide to barely cling to a culture based on a philosophy once considered utterly alien to their conquerors and now, just as some of the victors were beginning to appreciate its real value, they realised they had wantonly, all but, destroyed it.

The unbroken link with Gaia made Native Americans the natural allies of JNO. Their cosmology and that of the Olympians was a kinship shared. Alexander was sure that Barboncito and Manuelito Kanuho were exploiting this relationship for all they were worth. He also knew that the link to the underworld represented by the ancestors of the ancient people, the Anasazi of the desert and the canyon, was significant to the Named and the fact that the hackers' computer link was here made it all the more so. The key to his mission was here in the Grand Canyon and Barboncito was important. He knew he knew about the Sipapu and what he had to do there once he found his way to it. Barboncito would lead him there. But what then? He felt small and helpless against forces well beyond his managing. Compared with him Barboncito was accomplished, suave and confident. In any confrontation Barboncito was sure to win.