Part One (pp. 3-8)
Guion's English is subtly accented.
Everard does not know Guion's native milieu but doubts that people shake hands there/then.
He is short and slender with a large head.
Superficially, he is a white man with dark skin.
However, on closer inspection, he does not belong to any current (1987 AD) Terrestrial race.
His offer of dinner in a restaurant means little to an Unattached Patrol agent with unlimited funds but is significant as an investment of lifespan.
He cannot express precisely what he seeks even in Temporal.
Neither mutable reality nor what Guion seeks is amenable to symbolic logic.
The words "intuition" and "revelation" are inadequate.
He needs to sense how Everard's experiences felt to him.
He asks whether it is coincidence that Everard has thrice fought the Exaltationists, only once suspecting in advance that they might be involved.
He also asks whether it is accidental that Wanda Tamberly, unknowingly related to a Time Patrolman, became involved.
Her uncle was the reason why she became involved - but Everard realises that there is more than this to Guion's questions.
Because of these happenings, Guion and his colleagues or superiors need to know more about Everard and Wanda.
They seek a clue to the hypermatrix of the continuum although this is a misleading description.
Such knowledge might help to track down the last Exaltationists and, beyond that, maybe a larger meaning, direction and ending.
Everard scarcely hears Guion's last phrase or notices how he chops it off.
Full marks to Anderson for implying without stating a greater mystery.
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
Guion was also investigating why certain seemingly small events in history were not occurring exactly as they had been recorded. Even small tremors in the "web" of history was troubling Guion and his colleagues.
And I remember how Manse Everard wondered how much Guion knew about the Danellians--perhaps enough to be FRIGHTENED by them?
Sean
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