'What...' Ric smiled. '...Are you thinking?'

'Don't play games with me Ric!'

'Okay, okay; you're thinking Alexander is a hybrid, half one of them and half one of us - but mostly one of them, extrapolating from that hypothesis and adding what we know about Greek mythology, it's not unusual for mortals to be used as vehicles for the birth of new G.o.ds. Zeus was famous for picking on beautiful women and coupling with them...' Before he could finish Marina continued the narrative - ' So Alexander's father is one of Them, could even be Zeus himself!'

'Probably is Zeus!'exclaimed Ric. 'Which is why Penny has no real knowledge of it. The myths are clear that the, how shall I put it, the 'visited' of Zeus were not usually apprised of the ident.i.ty of their ravisher.'

'Wait, wait a bit!' Marina jumped down and Ric joined her to walk by her side, both were excited and needed motion to calm them a little.

'I can't get my head round this at all. Logically, it makes sense but the premise is unbelievable! If there are Greek G.o.ds still here - extant, and If Penny was ravished by Zeus and if Alexander is the issue of such a coupling; then...'

'Then Alexander is an immortal and the G.o.ds are active and they const.i.tute this other Firm; and you are right one does exist!'

'Whoa! Slow down a bit, Ric! - If we go along with the ifs' for the sake of the argument, and I say only if we do, it doesn't make sense. The Firm, JNO that is, is run and was created by Penny and Lucina who is one of 'Them'. So if 'they' are undermining JNO they are undermining themselves. It doesn't add up!'

'No Marina, left like that it doesn't, but add another dimension and it might. What if Zarian Thea, Hep, Lucina etc are one branch of the Firm and there's another branch out to get them, of which Barboncito is as yet the only representative we've fingered? What then?'

'You mean rivals of equal strength more or less cancelling each other out!'

'Exactly, it would explain a lot wouldn't it?'

'It certainly would! It'd explain what I've been loosely calling 'hacking' but which feels much more accurate if you call it equal forces neutralising each others' effort. So while Penny, the group you and Hep and the rest are working away at changing the way our system affects the earth, the other Firm are pulling the rug out from under you. No wonder the weather is unpredictable! It feels like the JNO faction is trying to save the earth from despoilation while the other Firm is doing the opposite. It all logical and mad. You have to believe in Greek G.o.ds first. And I don't!'

'Maybe not,' said Ric. 'But remember Greek thought and Greek mythology are part of our Western culture and forms the basis of much of our thought patterns. There's maybe a cross over where mythology and metaphor merge into reality. There's definitely a reality in what's happening even if the logic doesn't work in the real world - if there is such a thing. So let's go with the flow and see it out.'

They walked a while in silence along the bank of the stream, and over a little rise built to accommodate the resonating, wooden, foot bridge which echoed their foot-falls.

Ric, in an attempt to calm the maelstrom of his thoughts, stopped to admire the view. He often walked to Thunder-Bridge when he wanted to think. The way the ground slipped away was always a pleasant surprise which he imagined before he saw it, and without fail it was always better in the fact than the imagination; revealing a nestling copse beyond a water-meadow, sometimes full of wild-flowers, softly-green in spring, in summer turning to gold in the full heat.

He watched Marina move ahead and felt a growing admiration for her many qualities. He had never really spent much time thinking of her, he was too busy with his feelings for Penny and his work to notice other people as long as they were effective at their work. He considered Marina with new eyes. Not only was she stunning to look at, graceful, athletic, feline almost - if a bit short in the leg for his taste - but she knew more than he imagined. He had seen her as an efficient security chief, ruthless when necessary, but without much creativity. Suddenly she had become a close confidante, holding keys to the same large issues he had been worrying about for a long time alone unaware there was anyone to share them with. He had tried to broach them with Penny but sheared off from either her ignorance of the truth or her felt desire to keep him at arm's length from her own worst fears. It was a relief to speak of these things to another person. Ric broke the silence, 'Marina, how long have been worrying about this other Firm - only since Barboncito?' His voice sounded too loud in the still air.

'No, I had my suspicions when the hacker was first discussed that day Alexander came here to Markham and the monitor melted down. Of course I didn't know about another Firm as such, like the rest of you I thought it was a 'normal' hacking operation by another company. But I recall Hep getting particularly agitated about it - you remember?'

'Hep? G.o.d yes Marina! Don't you think we ought to get him to talk to us about this? On second thoughts, he's so wrapped up in his work, I don't think he would give us the time. What's more I don't think he would reveal his origins to us without it being part of the overall plan of Lucina. I wouldn't want to inadvertently set hares running that we couldn't handle while there's so much to do and such little time.'

'My point entirely, Ric, you've too much on here, my job is security and I'm worried about Alexander. I have the strongest feeling he is the key to everything and he's alone amongst the other Firm whatever it is. I have to get to him and soon. I can get a laisser pa.s.ser from UNPEX and fly to Arizona. I'll start at the Matkatamiba and take it from there.'

'What about Penny?' asked Ric. 'What did she say to you to do?'

'She wants me to find Alexander and she wants you to finish what you're doing with Hep and Lynne Farrel. She says you know Franklin Colwyn is on Ios and what they're working on with Lynne and SYDCOM is your priority. She says what you're up to is the only possible antidote to the other Firm's inroads. She's leaving the Alexander thing to me, and won't have anything to do with it. I'm just to give her news and not to involve her. She wished me luck, I first thought she was afraid for me, but now I think she was relieved someone else was getting involved and leaving her off that particular hook.'

Rick stopped walking and turned to gaze down on her from his rangy height. He held her by both shoulders and then to her utter surprise and inner pleasure, he clasped her to his chest and kissed the top of her head.

'Do it for love of her, and for love of Alexander - do it for care of them, find him, help her. What Hep, Lynne, Franklin and I do will astound the world, what you do will help rescue it! Pray G.o.d, Zeus and Hera and all the G.o.ds that ever were, that you succeed!'

Chapter 3.

Marina left Markham via the culvert and picked up a car with an UNPEX plate provided by the Chief Constable of Oxfordshire, one of her many helpfully placed a.s.sociates, and drove to Heathrow airport. She had her UNPEX ticket for Phoenix Arizona, designating her as a senior civil servant of the new Republic of Great Britain. Her UN travel doc.u.ments, were courtesy of Doris Botham's department. She had no trouble getting access to the airport precincts in the distinctive car nor were there any problems getting through emigration, and she was sure her entry papers for the USA would be okay.

Her consternation and frustration were all the more acute on hearing the flight was delayed. A liveried and effusively apologetic, employee came to the VIP lounge to inform her personally that the 'plane was delayed in its inward journey by bad weather. There was no knowing when the weather would change. In the meantime would she like to book into the Concordat Hotel at their expense?

In the absence of Atlantic flights, she had the man check on Eastward schedules. In a little time he returned with the information there was one Concordat flight available via Tel-Aviv and Bangkok to San-Francis...o...b..t because of the situation it was fully booked. Whereupon she asked if the UN Airport Controller was in the airport at that moment, and if he was, to inform him Marina would like a word if he would be so kind. The attendant, used to domineering VIP's and aware that these days all sorts of people were travelling who could pull strings, and jobs like his being scarce, acceded to all her requests without qualm. He was also particularly and unusually impressed by this stunningly attractive woman. She was dressed in a fiercely severe and expensive suit of fine wool, it fitted like a second skin. It made her desirable while giving clear hands off signals. He was used to dealing with haughty women belonging to VIP gentlemen and to business women in their own right. Somehow even the most attractive were either self-conscious or imperious. He had come to the conclusion that only the dowdy were real. This woman was certainly not dowdy, but real as paint for all that. Minutes later he returned with a 'phone number and a mobile phone and leading her to a private room offered it to her and retreated to leave her in private. 'An official with both good sense and manners,' she thought. 'We could usefully recruit him.' She punched the number into the 'phone. In a while a voice answered.

'h.e.l.lo, Marina, how can I help you?'

'Hi there Gerry, How's it going...okay? Good. Look, I'm stuck here - b.l.o.o.d.y weather - yea - I'm told there's an Eastward flight, can you get me on?'

'For JNO anything. Give me a few minutes - love to Penny when you see her!'

'Sure thing Gerry - thanks a lot - JNO owes you one!'

'What JNO's done for me!... No probs. sweetheart, consider it done!'

She returned to the lounge area. Minutes later the liveried attendant walked over to a severely dressed man, ostentatiously fiddling in his briefcase. He bent over to have a few words. The man closed his briefcase with a snap, surprised, then soon dismayed. He spoke quietly at first and after a reply from the attendant his voice went up several decibels.

'You mean I've been b.u.mped! Me? b.u.mped! You can't do this, I'm on UNPEX business! Tell whoever did this he'll hear from my people! I want to see someone in authority, this instant!' He left the room abruptly, followed by the attendant. Seconds later another attendant approached Marina to inform her, her flight to San-Francisco was confirmed. Boarding was in ten minutes.

Marina gazed at the plush elegance of the first cla.s.s fuselage as she arranged herself in the comfortable recliner. She enjoyed the opulence offered by her position in the Firm, but it was something she never actually got over, nor took for granted. Although habituated to VIP treatment and quality in her surroundings, she always remembered her inauspicious origins. She was neither proud of her beginnings, nor was she in any way ashamed. It was what it was and what was done was done. Today luxury came with the job and she accepted it while it was offered. It was undeniably pleasant, but not essential. In the same as way she kept her body honed, her approach to life was essentially pragmatic, quick to spot and act on the necessities for survival. She felt no satisfaction 'b.u.mping' the man in the VIP lounge. For her, JNO business had priority just because it had universally applicable purpose in this new, crazy world, where people like those around her travelled in the lap of luxury, while the rest of the world were confined to their zoned precincts. UNPEX control was by now pretty well absolute. Her expertise in security told her it was not surprising that UNPEX should so quickly be in global control. No single government had the resources to co-ordinate the international effect of waves of refugees from coastal inundation and famine. At first NATO, the EC and the USA, together with Russia and China had tried to co-ordinate a response and soon delegated the day to day running of the response programmes via the Security Council to the General Secretary who created UNPEX. A world wide emergency had been declared and the UN machinery was quickly re-worked. The G8 countries, took less time than the rest of the world had imagined possible to come to an agreement to forestall global panic.

Like Colwyn before her, Marina along with many other sceptics, was pleasantly and continually surprised at the efficiency of the UN machine and the new UNPEX authority. Natural disaster, it seemed, evoked a psychology in people different from that produced by man-made misery. People sought an effective authority to clear a way through and were relieved to give up their independence when uncontrollable events unfolded, sped up and washed over them.

That is to say most did - some, individualistic to the last, were upset that UNPEX had transferred to itself the instruments of freedom of action previously held by national governments in the interests of international order, and railed and protested about the global dictatorship of the UN backed by the Great Powers. Marina, like most people was not sanguine but saw the sacrifice as necessary in the emergency. She was aware that her own circ.u.mstances allowed her uncommon privileges and hoped for to the day when control would be re-devolved. She however shared the general consensus that things had probably changed forever and that national governments would find it difficult to reinstate their authority after the emergency.

She agreed with those who implacably opposed UN power as an abdication of national politics and proper democracy - and while happy with the pragmatism of the present arrangements found it difficult to envisage the Security Council agreeing to a return to the anarchy of nation-states competing with each other for hegemony of resources, trade or the freedom to defend their own local interests. At the same time there had been a rise in very local and regional authorities, and sub-governmental liaisons to regulate the immediacy of life for many groups sharing similar interests and geographies.

JNO's a.s.sociates had been and still were, highly influential at the international level but were most powerful in the regional and local alliances. It was their task to ensure these structures would grow and strengthen. It was clear that after the emergency, however long it lasted, the current changes in global political, commercial and social arrangements would be recast and also there was potential for everlasting conflict between localised and centralised government systems. Just now, Marina was more concerned with the here and now to dwell on hypothetical futures. Like most people the future lay in the penumbra just outside her frame of reference, to be picked up on one day - whenever, if ever.

In the current battle for common sense and practical arrangements, JNO worked in the UN and inside UNPEX to maintain fairness in commerce, continuity of adequate food production and aid. Her understanding of the global situation from HIGO gave her confidence in the present and probably the future. The immediate danger was the way the other Firm in opposition made what ought to be straight-forward into hard work. It was this that preoccupied her as the aircraft taxied to the main runway. She consulted her new hand held computer to get the latest information from HIGO. She had become sensitive to resistances. By recording her thumb-print on her set she was able to receive HIGO information directly via bluetooth to her ear-piece. HIGO's s.e.xy female voice grated as usual, on her ear. Hep's little joke, or was it Ric's, to give HIGO a voice that was supposed to resemble her own, irritated her but not enough to insist it was changed. She made a mental note to talk to Ric about it but knew she would forget and be just as annoyed the next time she used the gadget. The information she got was more or less what she had expected to hear. There was a long list of changes in production and distribution due to the weather and the continuing loss of the polar ice-caps. The predictions were that this would continue for the foreseeable future. As usual the consequences of this were inconclusive and she told HIGO to ignore the speculations. She noticed a number of small indicators which confirmed in her mind the reality of the other Firm at work. There were several cases cited of UN or UN supported operations, some aid related, others commercially driven, which in the name of order or effective a.s.sistance, were adversely affecting the work done at Markham and the group on Ios. It was clear that global-warming and the financial firepower of the G8 via their UN system gave opportunity to certain operators in different markets and agencies to quash gains made by local people in the power relations between large-scale conglomerates and smaller eco-based, production co-operatives.

'S'right, d'arlin' They ain't never goin' ter gerrit right.'

Marina started, for a moment she thought Ric must have changed the voice in her ear-piece for a joke and was about to speak a few well chosen expletives into her machine when she realised the voice overrode HIGO and came from another source altogether. She couldn't be certain if it came from the ear-piece or from somewhere inside her head. She knew she was not hallucinating. She also knew what she heard.

'Not while Hades' got 'is finger in the pie. See 'e don't want 'em ter get inter sustainability 'cos that'd give Gaia a too early chance and 'e's playin' a double game. See, what I means lady? Like he's sayin to 'imself, people's not goin' ter change. Them 'as 'as, ain't goin ter give nuthin' away ter them as 'asn't, if they can 'elp it whatever 'appens to the world. They don't believe it's as bad as it is really. All this UN stuff is just kiddin' them along that things can be sorted out. So Penny's wastin 'er time really and there ain't enough of that left for her ideas ter take 'old. It 'ud be nice if she could like, but she knows it ain't gonna work in time. Summat else 'as got ter 'appen - see! The voice rattled on. She fiddled with her set but was unable to turn it off or get rid of it.

'That's where Alexander comes in! But he's making 'ard work on it. It's not 'is fault altogether, people's outa practice bein' heroes these days. They relies on science and exactness nowadays. No soul see, that's the point. Sense an' feelin's separated like. Know what I mean? They don't 'ave no problem with what they knows, but it don't fit wiv what they really feels an' its drivin' 'em mad - 'cept they don't know it yet, not properly.'

The voice became wistful and trailed off dreamily. Just as Marina thought the aberration was over, it came back with vigour.

'So you've gotta 'elp 'im! Like now!'

I'm not hallucinating, thought Marina, but I am hearing a voice. This set's picking up something, probably to do with the plane. The aircraft was gathering thrust for take off and the noise made all thought difficult. She removed the ear-piece and held it in her hand. Minutes later, in the air approaching cruising speed, the noise-levels abated and the aircraft levelled-off. There was no voice now in her head - it must have been the ear-piece. Now she was bothered by what the voice had said. The interference had mentioned Penny and Alexander and the main mission of JNO. The only explanation she could think of was somehow, the other Firm was able to make contact with her. She knew enough about the abilities of Hep and if, in the maddest of mad worlds, Ric was right about the Greek stuff, anything was possible.

Most of the time she kept an open mind about all things, whatever the confusions that happened inside her own head. She was proud of making some clear decisions for herself which affected her management of the external world, for example that she would be oppressed by no one. She had made another decision not to indulge in introspection. Nevertheless the connections of her involuntary internal thoughts to her perceived external realities always fascinated her. She considered them as the difference between private thoughts and public doings. She often thought of these different realms like patterns printed on transparent acetates. You can set them down separately or on top of each other. You can layer them ad infinitum - remove some add others. You can have part of a pattern on one completed by overlaying part of one from another.

What it all meant to her was that she considered her life as having existence in both realms simultaneously. She lived mostly in the tangible external world rather than in her less clear, internal world. It seemed to her that periods of happiness came from an integration of both. Her normal external world of present immediacies required ma.s.ses of information built into an una.s.sailable reality. She was continually aware of the insistence of the immediate world of up-and-doing which overlaid her differently arranged and differently coloured internal understanding.

Her private thoughts had a tendency to become indistinct - and therefore less tangible, but not less powerful for all that. At times of relative quiet, such as before sleep or in that period just before waking when dreams can be at their most vivid; her internal perceptions were often very clear. Except when on waking, the outside world drove them away - seeming to prove that external realities had more insistence and logically, more importance. She wasn't sure it was altogether good to keep her private thoughts so private. This tended to make them unreal. Reality being an external thing. She fully believed that as people are of the same species, they all felt things similarly (cultural differences taken into account) rather than differently, so the potential for a fully integrated, inter-personal communication was possible. She believed - I feel therefore I am - is equal to - I do therefore I am, but only if the feeling is expressed - which of course needs expertise and effort, if understanding is to be communicated correctly. This view of things made her strongly a.s.sertive without being dogmatic. The problem with all forms of dogmatism she felt, was that to establish 'rules' in the external world, it is necessary to deny any inconsistencies this sets up in the internal mind. In these days, she was concerned that in the name of 'order' and the mitigation of public panic the new UNPEX system of control was beginning to ignore many people's own internal understanding of truth and fairness. The big issue for her was she did not know how far her own understanding of her internal realities fitted with those of other people. You simply couldn't communicate with everyone on equal terms. You had to rely on external expression, the use of language and imagery, which was always flawed. She held in high regard those people who's actions were consistent with their declared beliefs. Penny and Alexander were two such and Ric seemed to be a third.

'You're dead right about all that my girl, but what yer gotta know is how are you to get that all working? 'Cos that's the point I'm making. People've gotta change. They've gotta fit what they feels with what they knows and be able to check it out with everyone else before they do anything and then act t'gevver. That's what Penny and Alexander are about 'cept Alexander knows the size of it and is scared rigid and Penny knows what to do but is s.h.i.ttin' 'erself there's no time to get it right! Just a few folks gettin' it right won't be no good. That's what Lucina says at any rate an' it makes sense to me. Cep'n 'istry's against yer innit? Know what I mean?'

This time Marina had the ear-piece in her hand. So the voice was definitely in her head. Still surprised, but not as shocked as she thought she ought to be, she recognised the voice as Pannie Ljeschi's, the manikin who dogged Lucina's footsteps. She wondered if she had summonsed the notion of him through the conversation with Ric. She noted to herself she needed a sample of his DNA to verify the Greek thing as possible. She decided she was keyed up and therefore her thoughts were playing tricks. She ordered a gin and tonic from the pa.s.sing hostess and settled down to get some relaxing sleep. If the voice in her head went on she would go with the flow and not worry about it - no point worrying about things you can't control especially if there's something weird going on in the internal and external world at the same time. Things would resolve themselves and she'd have to cope as best she could.

She drank her gin and reclined the comfortable leather chair and rested, thinking about the conversation she'd had with Ric and of Alexander.

From the moment she checked him out in Markham the day of the hacker, she knew he was in a different category from anyone else tied up in the complex web of personalities that made JNO what it was. It wasn't just the DNA sample, although she had been bothered by 'Them' for a while. She was particularly pestered by the dissonance set up when she compared Penny, whom she adored, with Thea whom she failed to comprehend at all and of whom in consequence, she was suspicious, and now there was Alexander - who was of Penny and of Thea; and Thea who in turn wasn't of Penny. There was no explanation she could find beyond the far fetched one of Ric's. She would have dismissed it as dreaming nonsense were it not for her own delving, HIGO's exclamation mark and her own DNA sampling. She must be sub-consciously obsessed with the Pannie Ljeschi idea to hear his voice in her head.

Her thoughts turned to Alexander. She was at first irritated by Penny's blatant nepotism with her children in JNO. One of 'Them' or not - Thea had simply walked in to a senior position. She suspected Lucina had something to do with it, but had to admit Thea's abilities were remarkable. Thea never had any doubts about any decision and had never been wrong. Such formidable behaviour was too uncanny for reasonable explanations. Alexander on the other hand seemed to be forever finding himself in complex situations which demanded depths of the kind of introspection which she found too much like hard work. Going after a hacker and stopping him in his tracks was one thing. Getting into a jealous relationship with her and going off into the blue-yonder with Barboncito and getting lost was another. She thought about her own relationship with Alexander and the comparison she had inadvertently told Ric about, of him and Barboncito: another one of 'Them'.

The spindrift of her thoughts rippled round her tired brain allowing remembrances of them both to curl into her. As the softening effect of the gin laced through her blood, she slid ever so gently into an entrancing doze where her arts of s.e.xual reverie reached the endorphins of her mind and in the right mood, provided her with a kind of mental o.r.g.a.s.m equalling in intensity, but quite different in kind, from the physical. This s.e.xual energy was part of her character, it flowed from her inner core and affected all the men she met. She had developed a strong hands-off response as a control, which never failed. Those she allowed in more closely were inevitably bowled for six at the first encounter and so became too abject to bother with. Barboncito and Alexander had been 'let-in', and so she had already experienced 'Them'. Her relaxed mind mirrored them, twinned them into halves of each other like two parts of a mould. Her s.e.xual memory conjured the painful remembrance of her unnatural father, from whom she had been liberated through his blood and her own violence. Her experience with Alexander had gone straight to her mind while by contrast, Barboncito had played her body with exquisite cadences. In the mind's eye of her abstracted musings, she saw her past and future entwined in these two lovers.

The thrum of the aircraft resonated through her and she drifted far away; her body gathered momentum, her nerve endings sang, as she tuned into her twin sweethearts as her body rushed through the air five-times faster than sound.

Chapter 4.

Zeus had a scheme for shaping the future. But only if Alexander was successful in his mission and the world of mortals was able to continue without G.o.ds. He would give an account of Alexander's sojourn in Hades deliberately wrought in the form of a new myth. His chronicle would tell of Alexander's early doubts and subsequent forgetfulness, attributed to the undoubted qualities of the river Lethe flowing through Elysium. It would tell how Alexander heroically overcame forgetfulness and helped Zeus and Hades link the past and present through a proper use of remembrance. At the same time he, Zeus the Thunderer, would show how, in his Magnificence, he treated with Yahweh and offered the future exclusively to the inheritors of Gaia. Thus She would be saved by this race of mortals. The tale would show how without the myth, mortals would have obliterated themselves by forcing Gaia to save Herself by first destroying them.

This, he reflected, had always been the point of Olympian Symbolism. To create a sufficiently complex and satisfying mythology to offer guidance in the present. It was right that Lethe should blur the detail of the past so the present could take hold; the dead should be mourned and left behind. Distillation of the past into myth, creates the right elements of remembrance, like the laying down of coral, to build strong foundations to support the ever increasing weight of the collective psyche. Through proper remembrance the present seamlessly dovetails into an appropriate future.

Zeus was right to trouble about the length of Alexander's forgetfulness beyond the Sipapu. He had for that reason acquired some insurance against leaving the Hadean part of his plan to an unknown quant.i.ty. He hoped this foray of his son in the Underworld would produce the third and final part of the total force needed to save his race. He nonetheless kept another string to his bow.

He spoke of his doubts to Athena and Ares, and sent them in full war gear to safeguard Themis as she journeyed to find his dread father Chronos and negotiate - a dangerous alternative given his vicious record. Hera, beyond anger and frustration at his meddling, renewed her efforts through Hep and Ric and the group on Ios. Show-down time was not far away. Pannie was on as full a throttle as she could make him go - and Alexander - what of him? Who would keep his failing remembrance intact in Elysium? Mnemosyne was on the wrong side of the Sipapu. Hecate, a shade of the darkness and much maligned G.o.ddess, was in Hades. Unknown to Hera, she had set her test and like Zeus - she hoped.

The Erinyes, from the unfathomable depths of Erebus in the black belly of the Underworld's Underworld, had sniffed the pride of illicit life in Hades. Now they hovered keenly at the verges of Elysium, beating glossy, black wings in gleeful antic.i.p.ation of some real action. The rhythm of their wings fanned hotly in the inner darkness of Alexander's mind. Unrecognised, though he sensed danger. Not yet pursued by them he felt driven forward to escape something he could not name. Where was his namer, Nemmi now? Who would vanquish the darkness of the unnamed fear?

The subtle power of Lethe made sure he could not see that his work among the clan was inadequate. That whatever was done in this place could never amend the effect of Europa's work in the upper world. He felt so earnestly that it should, and as he was himself striving heroically to make amends, he proudly overrode his own doubts in the light of his tangible achievements with the people of the tribe. Zeus was right to fret about the effects of Lethe. This most recent Orpheus had found his Eurydice in the purity of a fellow clanswoman but had no desire to bring her forth into the bleak daylight of a world contaminated by the work of Europa's children. His pride would not allow the crushing of her spirit under such a defiled sun. Between NightChant and Barboncito, his heart gave way first to her superlative sweetness and to his magnificent vigour. The clan had to be fed, his wide family satisfied. His duty to the ancients performed, his oneness with the Earth and all it contained, expressed. In a delight of spirit; Alexander out-clanned the clan, out-sang the singing-way, rode fastest, fought hardest. Never having had a Way of his own, in his conceit he appropriated their Way and was proud. Unperceived by him, the smallest of shadows, were nonetheless cast by the flick of dark wings against the pearl of the sky.

In Fourthworld, Manny Kanuho was worrying about JNO and the losing battle and called out for Barboncito. At Manny's call he left Alexander and rode from Elysium and out into the world of the present. His job was to a.s.sist a drowning planet make to make sure the numbers flowed ever faster on the road to Charon Crossing and increased the power of the past. As fast as JNO organised new remedies for the continuing failures of different initiatives through their networks by diverting funds through its GRADE programmes, Barboncito used Fourthworld as a vehicle to peddle simple explanations of causes and to find many easy scapegoats for the increasing problems of the Earth.

He rode out of Tartarus concealing under his under his cloak numberless shades to trouble a frenzied population seeking explanations to make them re-affirm convenient old religious and mystical accounts for the untoward changes in the world. A great search for visible and easy things to blame overtook the four fifths of humanity who already had nothing to lose and who doubted the scientific and commercial motives of the last fifth who still had so much to lose. More and more of the peoples of the world were motivated by the shadowy hosts of Barboncito to re-define forgotten cultural fundamentals. As the world's seams unravelled, old G.o.ds and ancient spirits rose up to challenge the most rational minds. In the name of new simplicities, the great work of JNO, fell foul to a.s.sa.s.sination, terrorism and demonstration as people re-minted old solutions and argued, often violently, about their different but correct ways to put Humpty together again. They wrestled in overlapping attempts to establish their own truths and final solutions. Blind obedience fought against co-operation, zealots with bowed-knee, challenged the idea of personal responsibility.

'We have sinned against (the deity or deities) and taken too much on ourselves and we are justly punished. You who do not yet follow us must listen to (G.o.d, the G.o.ds, the stars, sun - any and all Redeemers) and (we, they) will save you from yourselves - see how we prostrate ourselves and interpret the signs for you. You must follow us and (the, our) revealed truth!'

But, despite the desire for simplicity there was only complexity. The secret contained in the heart of GAIANET revealed to those on Ios that nothing they touched was straightforward. Even the seemingly uncomplicated was in the end elaborately constructed from marvels of invention, containing hidden and beguiling syntheses of form, sense and imagination. In the diversity of the world, people, inst.i.tutions, nature, creativity and development - everything, turned out ultimately to be deceptive. It explained their doubts about their work. They would never reach the simplicity of a single solution and knew they would not.

Billions of years - myriad's of diverse splittings and joinings had produced the world and its inhabitants. The geography, the human race, the flora, the fauna. Trillions more of separate acts by billions of people over hundreds and thousands of years made this present and would make the future for good or ill. There was no one Act to rescue them. No one G.o.d to propitiate in the correct manner. No One Right-Way to follow, no point to which they could return and re-work the path in a different direction.

JNO included all this diversity in an attempt to manage the complexity of an ultimately rational world - Fourthworld sought simplicity and purity in faith and conviction. On Ios they knew this would not solve the problem as it had not done in the past. But those on Ios knew that where before, time had been on their side, the human race was now running out of time and there was not enough to reverse what Barboncito and his people were fast regaining.

They worked on in the hope of the development of new learning, but with dwindling confidence in their race. Tantalisingly, they felt they were half-way there - half the world, the half they had been able to help, managed for themselves and faced the problems daily in board-rooms, on committees, in a.s.semblies, in places of worship of all kinds, under trees in Africa, in halls in America, in long-houses, in school-rooms, in TV studios and radio-stations. Everywhere was the dichotomy. Save us! - versus - save ourselves! How long before we are destroyed?

Far from the present, on the other side of the Sipapu, without Barboncito, the people of the Sipapu looked to their new path-finder. As in early evening when the stars in the sky appear small and few but with the enveloping of darkness their depth and number grow to infinity; Alexander, beloved of Barboncito, grew in wisdom and righteousness and joining with NightChant aimed at Hozjo - completeness. Once achieved he would sally forth at the head of the children of the Din. He would go to Hades, his mission complete, his example made. He would show first Hades, then cross the Sipapu to show to Europa and all the world what could be. From the mere power of his example, people in the Now must change and become as the Din, and Gaia would be saved. Wholeness they were, inclusion they were. Together he, NightChant and the tribe rooted in the earth would claim a Great Joining under the sky with all people. He was ready. He would find Hades and demand he accompany him to carry Remembrance out of Tartarus and restore it to the needful world.

Hecate, as NightChant alone heard the beat of dark wings on the grey-green borders of Erebus and Elysium. Her Harpies waited impatiently for the signal she was hesitant to give. She could not help Alexander's forgetfulness nor his growing pride. Zeus and Hera were adamant and at one, in their insistence that on his journey to self-knowledge he was ultimately alone. Hecate knew too that pity was not enough. As NightChant she clove to him, as Hecate she wished to intervene but as part of Zeus's Plan she must sit on her hands. Alexander became obsessed with the power of his knowledge of Songlines and Blessingways. He spent long periods meditating alone, in the hills accompanied by Flatfoot. He would simplify, he would bring the world back to natural ways. His conversations with Barboncito were as those with Nemmi as a child, visits to long past experience of perfect Hozjo, a kaleidoscope of interlocking truths, added piece by piece, blessing by blessing, true feeling unsullied by strife, in peace and without guile. It was righteousness given to his tribe via their authentic relationship with the Earth.

'Your mission,' Barboncito taught, 'is to learn, feel and know and you will comprehend. Strength will rise in you like sap through a tree rising from the good Earth. From this will come the vigour to quicken your limbs and uphold your heart. In the beginning you will yearn to feel the knowledge in you. When all is known, in wisdom you will bear yourself to Hades for his blessing and join me with enlightenment under your cloak to bring to all the insignificant peoples of the earth the power of Hozjo in each of them. You will be their teacher and you will be honoured throughout the world as a redeemer. When it is time, you will go to Hades and ask of him the way back and lead the tribe of the dead - re-born - with you, into Fourthworld, where together we will spread his word and the word of the G.o.ddess Gaia. We will be warriors of the renewed Earth and bring down the works of man until they equal the sweetness of Gaia herself. Hades will teach you to lead the hordes of his shades in renewed life - simplified. Untouchable and invisible your hordes will tear down the works of Europa's children and remake the world out of renewed tribes from the past. Hozjo will reign - Gaia will be free again!'

He was ready now. He would journey from Elysium to Erebus where Hades dwelt with Persephone. He was ready for his mission. He felt the power of the clans who made him their leader. Daily he watched them become more than shades, vesting themselves with his life, the life he had from Gaia cleansed through Hozjo. Starting with NightChant, he would proudly breathe his spirit into them.

Nemmi would be pleased with the remembrance he had from his new understanding of Gaia through the clan. She would acknowledge how his vitality had restored the vigour of his people to urge them onwards into the Fourthworld of their imagination. How they longed to regain their lost hunting grounds on the clear, clean plains in the land they had left, the wide open deserts, the deep canyons under a peerless sky.

Hecate, as NightChant produced a meal from the goodness of the earth fit for a conquering hero. In beauty she waited on her man, with beauty she gave him wholesomeness personified. As he ate he grew in his own estimation. Was he not a chief? Was he not in Hozjo? So why was doubt crossing like occlusions the eyeball of his mind?

'Go you soon forth to Hades in Erebus my chief?'asked NightChant, holding his hand - the test continued.

'Yes. Yes I will go.' He emphasised the will with only the faintest of a hesitation of which he was barely aware. Noted by NightChant it was seized upon by Hecate who alone, again, heard the flat beat of wings on the gloomy, heavy air of Erebus.

'I will gather all the tribes of Hades in a vast mult.i.tude and we will visit Hades himself in Erebus. I feel strong enough to confront him in his own country now I have the People with me. It's funny I thought of Barboncito as the enemy. I saw him leading me to another Firm, in another sphere which was out to undermine all that mother and JNO were doing. It's taken me ages to come to the idea of JNO being merely a different but later version of the Tribe of Barboncito, of Hozjo on a larger scale. I had to feel the power of Hozjo for myself to recognise it in JNO and to understand the stories of Mnemosyne.'

'Now you do?' queried a worried Hecate.

'Oh yes!', Alexander gripped her young, slim arms with fervour. 'It's all so simple really, I wonder why I never understood it before! I've been out walking the hills feeling the full force of Hozjo - these things around us, you, the hills, the tribe the way the wind strafes through the gra.s.ses, the water on the rocks falling fathoms to the canyon bottom, all this is the Earth and here in Elysium, it goes back into timeless, ageless Earth, the place that made and sustains us all. You have no need to own it, grab hold of it, or tame it. The Earth Herself is the only G.o.ddess, we are created through Her stuff, acknowledged through Her wholeness. There are no need for churches or temples here, we live in harmony with Her, a mother sheltering her kin, as the tribe shelters us, as the canyon provides for both me you the tribe and Flatfoot equally. Hades, who rules here has kept the secret of Elysium locked far from the gaze of living people. It is my mission to bring this to the present world, and for Chronos to be forgiven by Zeus my father so the past can be brought into the full light of the future and the earth saved, Gaia restored!'

His heart beat quickly, a light shone in his eyes and NightChant loved him as a G.o.d. Hecate on the other hand was worried sick. She had given him his heart's desire as she was bound to do. She could not however think for him. As NightChant she saw his n.o.bility, his earnestness, his real belief and his comprehension. As Hecate she saw his pride and listened, with foreboding to the continued beat of distant wings.

'And if Hades will not see you?' said Hecate. 'What will you do then?' Her inquiry grated on the pride of his self-belief.

'I have the mult.i.tudes of the tribes of the past with me. I have not only walked these hills, Barboncito and I have travelled this land of Elysium from margin to margin, deep in time and s.p.a.ce we travelled and we have allied all the tribes that were, before the coming of Europa. The power of Hozjo is unstoppable and Hades will hear or he will be overrun with the quickening dead.' His voice was triumphant. 'He must listen and we will ride from here to amaze the living!'

'You are to bring Hades to Zeus to parley, I wasn't aware the arrival of an all conquering hero at the head of his mult.i.tudes, was part of the plan.'

Alexander felt a jolt to the smooth rise of his self-confidence. What could NightChant know of the plan? She knew Alexander had a mission for he had told her as much. She, as far as he knew had no idea of any wider programme as it were, outside the frame of reference of the tribe.

Hecate had dropped her hint, would he, she hoped, take it up?

'Plan, what plan are you talking about?'Alexander burbled, not sure how much to say.

'I may have been in this place beyond the Sipapu for, well let us say a long time, but I'm not stupid. We have had people from the living world here before, but none of them stayed long and none at all ever attempted to force us back whence we came. What you do here quickens us with your life-force. It is quite unprecedented. We are in Elysium, we are happy here. We lived good lives in the world, and we have our reward here in this land. We had no desire, need or ability to move elsewhere. Chronos as I understand things made time stand still here and Hades watches over the proper disposition of the dead in timelessness. You doubtless know there are other realms in Hades' lands where the dead have different experiences from ours in Elysium. It is a well ordered system and we grow in numbers as populations increase in the living world. Since we remain we grow faster, exponentially. Your coming, rather your staying, changes things in unfamiliar ways. I can't believe this is unknown to either Hades or Chronos. So there is a plan. There must be.'

Hecate needed to stay credible as NightChant, while working Alexander's doubts to their fullest without actually doing the forbidden by putting ideas into his head.