Pocatello, Kringler, Svoboda And Tannahill

Poul Anderson, The Boat Of A Million Years (London, 1991).

Shan and Asagoa meet Juanita "...at the Pocatello airport..." (p. 389) so I get to learn something about Pocatello (see image). When Juanita tells Asagoa about the Unity organization whose first "Mama-Lo" was the mother or maybe the grandmother of the present one, Asagoa thinks that the Unity might be a cover for another immortal.

To Hanno's hotel room, a bell-boy brings a tray of items including "...kringler." (p. 402) Hanno and Svoboda meet and recognize each other, although not immediately, after a brief "Encounter" (Chapter VI) a thousand years previously.

In Chapter XVIII, section 7, we learn how wise Hanno is to keep covering his tracks as he moves between assumed identities. His political opponent Moriarty investigates his Kenneth Alexander Tannahill identity. Is Tanahill's periodical, which is hostile to Moriarty, named The Chart Room because Hanno was a seaman? Hanno will mainly defeat Moriarty merely by continuing to live long after the latter has died.

In 1975, one shadowy individual, Tomek, really Hanno, finances another shadowy individual, Tannahill, really Hanno. Moriarty suspects something odd here but will not live long enough to expose it. Anderson shows us an urgent present becoming a forgotten past.

By having Tannahill watched, Moriarty learns that:

Tannahill is with Olga Rasmussen, about whom there are "'Some puzzling things...'" (p. 430);
he visited Unity headquarters;
the Unity high priestess, Corine Macandal, is "'...quite the mystery woman...'" (p. 431);
her associate, Rosa Donau, has been seriously wounded in an attack on a Unity house;
John Wanderer, who looks like a Native American, is Tannahill's and Rasmussen's house guest.

Thus, without realizing its significance, Moriarty has gathered important intelligence about five of the eight surviving immortals - and is about to initiate a Federal investigation of Unity. Is the noose tightening? Not really. The immortals will simply outlast it.