al origin."

Tortha Karf nodded. "Pretty good, for consciously acquired knowledge,"
he commented. "Well, our luck's run out, on that sector; we have
troubles there, now. I want you to go iron them out. I know, you've
been going pretty hard, lately--that nighthound business, on the
Fourth Level Europo-American Sector, wasn't any picnic. But the fact
is that a lot of my ordinary and deputy assistants have a little too
much regard for the alleged sanctity of human life, and this is
something that may need some pretty drastic action."

"Some of our people getting out of line?" Verkan Vall asked.

"Well, the data isn't too complete, but one of our people has run into
trouble on that sector, and needs rescuing--a psychic-science
researcher, a young lady named Hadron Dalla. I believe you know her,
don't you?" Tortha Karf asked innocently.

"Slightly," Verkan Vall deadpanned. "I enjoyed a brief but rather
hectic companionate-marriage with her, about twenty years ago. What
sort of a jam's little Dalla got herself into, now?"

"Well, frankly, we don't know. I hope she's still alive, but I'm not
unduly optimistic. It seems that about a year ago, Dr. Hadron
transposed to the Second Level, to study alleged proof of
reincarnation which the Akor-Neb people were reported to possess. She
went to Gindrabar, on Venus, and transposed to the Second Paratime
Level, to a station maintained by Outtime Import & Export Trading
Corporation--a _zerfa_ plantation just east of the High Ridge country.
There she assumed an identity as the daughter of a planter, and took
the name of Dallona of Hadron. Parenthetically, all Akor-Neb
family-names are prepositional; family-names were originally place
names. I believe that ancient Akor-Neb marital relations were too
complicated to permit exact establishment of paternity. And all
Akor-Neb men's personal names have -_irz_- or -_arn_- inserted in the
middle, and women's names end in -_itra_- or -_ona_. You could call
yourself Virzal of Verkan, for instance.

"Anyhow, she made the Second Level Venus-Terra trip on a regular
passenger liner, and landed at the Akor-Neb city of Ghamma, on the
upper Nile. There she established contact with the Outtime Trading
Corporation representative, Zortan Brend, locally known as Brarnend of
Zorda. He couldn't call himself Brarnend of Zortan--in the Akor-Neb
language, _zortan_ is a particularly nasty dirty-word. Hadron Dalla
spent a few weeks at his residence, briefing he