8 DAWN'S HIGHWAY The sky was black, save for the star-jewels which spangled it. The wind was cold. Upon the heights of Macchu Picchu somewhere in the middle of the Night, Two Ways touched a thigh; while the two were warm within the palace, this stone womb and stoned off some good U-boat: the war on drugs had never been fought here; the two were chewing coca leaves. While the Serpent was seducing the Two King Hanco Capac sat upon his throne, watching the temple maidens play. Virgins and whores; whores and holy ones, the priestesses of Quetzalcoatl-- Altruism had finally come to the Incan priesthood in the Protestant Reformation, though in forbidden temples, in sewers blasphemous to the idols, the Orthodox Incas still practiced the old rites; the demonic rites of human sacrifice. But religion was only one of the problems on the King's mind right now. The problem of the mysterious stranger still vexed him. How could anyone hack into the computer to that extent, that he could extract his entire ID? Each of the palace guards was known to him; they all had their own individual identities which could be scanned by a thought-holo. All of the hundreds; he had a good memory for faces. And even if he didn't the computers had recorded their names on tetrahedral iso-linear memory-chips. Then once more he gazed in the divining crystal and saw Six Serpent dallying with the stranger, the man who claimed to be a shaman from another world, and changed his mind about her affair with him. Now he was pleased: seduction could extract secrets even torture could not. But would Six Serpent reveal the information she seduced to him when he needed to know? Oh well. He could always have her tortured. What if there really is another world besides our own? King Hanco Capac thought. A parallel universe where the Indians put the white men on reservations? Wouldn't it be our moral duty, at least, to capture and rule such a world? I wonder how they... An aide interrupted his train of thought with a report. "There is a rebellion going on at the Reservation at Rome. Here are photos taken by satellite reconnaissance. They show Inca citizens of the Eastern provinces lying in fields and farms bleeding, wounded; here is a picture of Incas scattered on a highway dying--and Dawn is at the forefront of the attack!" "Give me those," the King said. He looked them over. What the aide said was true: Dawn had risen up against him. The King said, with the power and authority of his rank, "I will leave immediately, with a retinue of warriors--man all of the flying shields; prepare to arm the thermonuclear warheads--although I only want to use them as a last resort; if we blast Rome we'll end up nuking a lot of our own citizens--this rebellion seems widespread enough to deserve all we can throw at them with conventional weapons first. And take the stranger with us. Perhaps he knows something of this matter." Nine Jaguar went off to fetch Two Ways, who was with Six Serpent, naturally--he could monitor her position by punching in her position on his scanner. The two had come to be inseparable since she had come to be his chief guard, and even though Six Serpent had told him last night that she loved the tall, handsome, muscular stranger he wasn't sure he believed her-- And so Two Ways was brought before the King, Six Serpent looking sultry beside him and trying to look like a soldier, but her efforts were defeating by the pastel Kelly evening gown she wore--the mass rioting in Europe and the King's plans to put down the rebellion had caught her off-duty and still half asleep. "Do you know anything about the White Man rebellion?" the King asked Two Ways. "I would not help a White man to rebel, even if he were a slave," Two Ways said. "I am Gros Ventre, and proud!" "We shall see," the King said. "You claim in your own world, if I can believe your fantastic story--I still think you are a master hacker, that you got a virus into cyberspace that can elude even a Knowbot--you say you have a White girlfriend--" Two Ways said proudly, "Six Serpent is my girlfriend now. But even if I didn't have a girl of my own race, I'm still proud that I slept with Sophie Rosencruetz: she was beautiful, and beauty comes in many colors and..." The King dismissed Two Ways, saying to Six Serpent, "We are taking a contingent of a thousand flying shields and a million mind-lasers to put down this accursed rebellion. And if all else fails, we will nuke them to death--even if our own people don't have a chance to clear out: the only good White man is a dead White man!" He was ejaculating now. "Of course," Two Ways echoed, but it didn't seem as if anyone heard him. Or as if he really believed it. The King stood erect from his throne. Everywhere everyone snapped salutes. The guards marched off to attend to the business of war, leaving the King alone with Two Ways--and Six Serpent. One of his most trusted guards. In a see-through evening gown with a black lace brassiere underneath. In the past, he had trusted her unconditionally. But could even she be trusted once this stranger had seduced her? Would she still remain loyal or was her heart in another world? "You have been doing an excellent job of guarding him," the King said. "Too excellent. You must speak to me in my chambers." In his private chambers, leaving Two Ways still free to roam the palace as long as he didn't break his house arrest, the King said, "My mystic crystal tells me you are his lover." "Your crystal has a flaw in its cyberware," Six Serpent replied. "It shows you false images, just as when a dream can no longer be distinguished from reality in the mind of a madman. Why would I be in love with a man from another world--" She caught herself. "If he truly is what he claims to be--" "You swore to be one of my sex-slaves; now you would fall in love and love another, thus betraying me--your master," King Hanco Capac said. "You are fickle like your name: Serpent. Perhaps you are like the myths the white men have--the Serpent in some forgotten garden; I forgot it's name." "Inna-gadda-da-vida, I think Two Ways said its name was. Alright, so I love the man who calls himself an 'Indian' and claims to be from another world--" The King began ejaculating at the sensuous and seductive warrior-woman, "If! If! If! Do you see the danger you are putting yourself in? You are supposed to be his guard, not his girlfriend. I have only let you dally this long because I thought maybe you could tease some secrets out of him. But if he really is of danger to the Empire...what then? What will you do when he uses you to his own devices? When you let your guard slip and let him slip out of the palace? I..." "King Capac? Flying shields are armed and ready. We are prepared to lift off at once!" Thirteen Alligator's voice said, coming from the magic tetrahedron, the source of the pyramid power which was the foundation of all this world's science--and magic. "We are prepared to lift off at once!" The King replied, "Then see to it that the prisoner is taken with us--under guard. Under someone else's guard. Six Serpent, I'm relieving you of guard duty on the prisoner--" She asked, tears almost creeping into the corners of her eyes, "May I say something personal, sir?" "You may." She asked, apprehensively, "Even though I risk my commission?" "You may speak your mind with me, woman," the King said, looking irritable, which just raised Six Serpent's sense of apprehension and dread fear and loathing of the King--after experiencing true love for the first time, she was beginning to regret the many gangbangs the King had made her the house whore at. Even though he was God-Emperor of the Feathered Serpent, she was beginning to hate him. Perhaps now would be the time to give the azot to Two Ways...if she could just get alone with him. "You're just jealous," she said, smugly. And now the traces of tears vanished from her eyes; she spoke as a woman of Power. Because the coca was giving her magic, though she still didn't understand what this Coca-Cola Two Ways spoke of was...then the King put his arms around her in a fatherly hug, which took her totally by surprise: she tried to read him in her scanner, but the scanner searched psyber-space in vain: the King was cloaked. He said, "I have serving girls enough for one, and I have love enough for three--I can find some other sex slaves to have my threesomes with. What does it matter if you have some dalliance with someone who claims to be Indian, yet looks closer to our own race? Just be sure he really is a man from another world, and not a spy, before you jump into it. I must go now. The flying shields are ready." The aerial dreadnoughts were parked on hover outside; Two Ways was to ride with King Hanco Capac in the lead aircraft. These were weapons of war, large, battle-ship sized, bristling with weapons; besides the deadly mind-lasers, there were machine guns, grenade launchers jam packed at every turret, and bomb bays for delivering tactical nuclear weapons--though every ICBM in the Empire was trained on Rome right now. A rung ladder dropped to Earth. The King ascended it; Two Ways followed, Nine Jaguar right behind him; the rung ladder withdrew behind the King and Two Ways as they took their place in the forward compartment of the anti-gravity powered flying craft. Acceleration gripped them as they rose even as Two Ways fastened his seatbelt-- The thousands of rocket-propelled vehicles raced away from the stone heights of the Andes. Macchu Picchu was lost in the distance. The flight to the Eastern Provinces was smooth, with very little turbulence, a flight over the turgid depths of the Atlantic, catching up to the sun as dawn crawled over the Roman Reservation. Then they saw it: the center of the cyclone, the center of the rebellion: armed with potent mind-lasers, the revolu- tionaries had punched back a hole surrounding Rome; it was here where the Incas lay scattered upon the highways and the hills in the throes of death. "Sir?" Thirteen Alligator cried out. "Should we use nuclear weapons?" "Negative," the King replied. "We do not mean to destroy Rome, for Rome is a very important colony of the Empire; we only mean to defeat this--white man conspiracy. Arm all mind-lasers!" The airship was rocked now as it was struck with mind-laser fire from the ground below: Dawn's troops. Dawn was driving a tank, crushing ground-cars beneath its mighty treads-- "Fire forward mind-lasers!" King Hanco Capac cried out. Suddenly the Earth below them melted as a thousand Incas concentrated mental energy through pyramid power sources. There was a ruby glow over everything, and it was more than the lizard dawn crawling upon clouds and land: it was laser-power. "Land, and deploy troops," the King commanded. The flying shields landed, where like ants spewing out from the eyes of a corpse Incan warriors spread out from the mighty planes as they came to rest on their landing tripods, firing off shots with bazookas, thrusting with bayonets, or firing their mighty mind-lasers. The King met Dawn in battle, after her tank had been hit by a teargas bomb and she was forced to abandon it: the most personal form of combat, next to fisticuffs: swordplay. The King said in a challenge to Dawn, "Let us set aside our mind lasers, and meet each other man to man--or man to woman. I recognize you--Queen. This is your doing, isn't it?" "So what if it is?" she spat defiantly. "You cannot keep us slaves forever. Very well, then--have at you." She holstered her precious mind-laser. "I will have your head as a trophy!" With a savage thrust she was upon him, thrusting, parrying, fighting with the courage of a warrior born. This was the climax of her every dream: and like any orgasm, it was deadly. Yet she would gladly give her life for the cause. The King recoiled from her savage blows, retaliated. She was a clever opponent, matching him blow for blow, but finally with a thrust, a riposte, and a parry, he wounded her. She dropped the sword and reached for the mind-laser. "Two can play at this game!" he shouted, reaching for his own mind-laser. The beams collided in mid-air, sending off cascading showers of sparks of ectoplasmic energy as their polarities cancelled. The entire battlefield reeked of the eldritch, but this was one place where two powerful sorcerers met, and others backed away to let them fight it out between themselves--even as all around the White men were succumbing to the mighty forces which had been raised against them. A beam from Dawn's mind-laser suddenly knocked the King's weapon from his hand. Then suddenly out of nowhere Six Serpent appeared. She had stowed away when the flight had left the heights of Macchu Picchu; now she didn't even reach for her mind-laser but merely concentrated. All at once a burst of mental energy from the King's fallen weapon burst forth, shattering Dawn's mind-laser in her hands. "I'm declaring martial law upon the reservation," King Hanco Capac cried in victory. "The local Police will give me a grand tour of the reservation--at once! We will see how far this futile rebellion has spread!" The other rebels were all surrendering now that the King had disarmed their leader. Without Dawn they were lost in the darkness of night. "I am Chief of Police," Chuck Rose Cross said, up to this time torn between his duty to the Empire and his love of his wife as Two Ways was struggling to remember the Latin he had learned in college so he could understand the conversation. Chuck said, "I will take you on this tour of the reserv- ation--sir--" His attitude was grudging as he asked, "But what will become of my wife?" "This Queen? She is to be put into prison, for staging a rebellion against your rightful King!" "I see," Chuck said, sadly. He was angry now, even though up until now he had wanted a divorce--and once he thought of it, still did. He finally asked, not sure he wanted to, "Will I be allowed to visit her?" "Yes, you will be allowed that--what is your name?" "Charles Rose Cross. My friends call me Chuck." The King barked, "Chuck, we will leave at once in my flying shield!" "We have many cities in the Roman Province," Chuck said, as the aircraft took the travelers across the hills. "But people live in squalor and degradation in the slums, ruins of the old Roman Empire and modern pre-fab houses that are cheap. They continue to live in poverty because they can't find work. But Dawn can tell you more about this; I'm not a social worker; I'm just the Chief of Police." Meanwhile George Two Ways had been watching everything, the entire battle, eager to see what had become of the White man in this Universe. Whatever the case, as the craft came to rest at the jail in the center of the city, Two Ways was in for a shock. As Dawn was guided to her cell, Two Ways came face to face with Father Vincent. "George Two Ways!" Father Vincent exclaimed. "What are you doing here?" "I came here through the power of the sacred herb azot; I see you came here through the work of a shaman by the traces of your aura--you have encountered chthonic powers of great magnitude. Who did this to you?" "Jerome Four Feathers. Tell them who I am!" Father Vincent begged. But Two Ways was silent. #