boomerang balls yesterday, while we had sun to
mask the return-flashes. Nothing. The Croutha have taken the city of
Sohram, just below the big bend of the river. Tomorrow, when we have
sunlight, we're going to start boomerang-balling the central square.
We may get something."

"The Wizard Traders'll be moving in near there, about now," Vall said.
"The Croutha ought to have plenty of merchandise for them. Have you
gotten anything more done on narrowing down the possible area?"

The deputy bit back a yawn and reached for his coffee mug.

"The experts have just about pumped these slaves empty," he said. "The
local religion is a mess. Seems to have started out as a Great Mother
cult; then it picked up a lot of gods borrowed from other peoples;
then it turned into a dualistic monotheism; then it picked up a lot of
minor gods and devils--new devils usually gods of the older pantheon.
And we got a lot of gossip about the feudal wars and faction-fights
among the nobility, and so on, all garbled, because these people are
peasants who only knew what went on on the estate of their own lord."

"What did go on there?" Vall asked. "Ask them about recent
improvements, new buildings, new fields cleared, new paddies flooded,
that sort of thing. And pick out a few of the highest IQ's from both
time lines, and have them locate this estate on a large-scale map, and
draw plans showing the location of buildings, fields and other visible
features. If you have to, teach them mapping and sketching by
hypno-mech. And then drop about five hundred to a thousand boomerang
balls, at regular intervals, over the whole paratemporal area. When
you locate a time line that gives you a picture to correspond to their
description, boomerang the main square in Sohram over the whole belt
around it, to find Croutha with firearms."

The deputy looked at him for a moment then gulped more coffee.

"Can do, Assistant Verkan. I think I'll send somebody to wake up
Subchief Ranthar, right now. Want to talk to him."

"Won't be necessary. You're recording this call, of course? Then play
it back to him. And get cracking with the slaves; you want enough
information out of them to enable you to start boomerang balling as
soon as the sun's high enough."

* * * * *

He broke off the connection and sent out for coffee for himself. Then
he put through a call to Novilan Equivalent, in western North America.

It was 1530, there, when he