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.They might be worth billions.They might secretly own half of Saro City.It was worth looking into, he told himself.He entered the vast, echoing entrance hall of the great tower and peered about in awe.Though he had never been here before, he had heard it was an extraordinarily lavish building both inside and out.But nothing he had heard had prepared him for the reality of the cultist's building.A polished marble floor, with inlays in half a dozen brilliant colors, stretched as far as he could see.The walls were covered with glittering golden mosaics in abstract patterns, rising to arched vaults high overhead.Chandeliers of woven gold and silver threw a shimmering shower of brightness over everything.At the opposite end from the entrance Theremon saw what seemed to be a model of the whole universe, fashioned, apparently, entirely of precious metals and gems: immense suspended globes, which seemed to represent the six suns, hung from the ceiling by invisible wires.Each of them cast an eerie light: a golden beam from the largest of them, which must be Onos, and a dim red glow from the Dovim globe, and cold hard blue-white from the Tano-Sitha pair, and a gentler white light from Patru and Trey.A seventh globe that must be Kalgash moved slowly among them like a drifting balloon, its own colors changing as the shifting pattern of the suns' light played over its surface.-As Theremon stood gaping in astonishment, a voice coming from nowhere in particular said, "May we have your name?""I'm Theremon 762.I have an appointment with Mondior.""Yes.Please enter the chamber on your immediate left, Theremon 762."He saw no chamber on his immediate left.But then a segment of the mosaic-covered wall slid noiselessly open, revealing a small oval room, more an antechamber than a chamber.Green velvet hangings covered the walls and a single bar of amber light provided illumination.He shrugged and stepped in.At once the door closed behind him and he felt a distinct sensation of motion.This wasn't a room, it was a lift! Yes, he was rising, he was certain of it.Up and up and up he went, in a very unhurried way.It took half an eternity before the lift chamber came to a halt and the door slid open once again.A black-robed figure was waiting for him."Would you come this way, please?"A narrow hallway led a short distance into a kind of waiting room, where a large portrait of Mondior 71 occupied most of one entire wall.As Theremon entered, the portrait seemed to light up, coming strangely to life and glowing, so that Mondior's dark, intense eyes looked straight at him and the High Apostle's stern face took on a luminous inner radiance that made him seem almost beautiful, in a fierce sort of way.Theremon met the portrait's gaze coolly enough.But even the tough-minded newspaperman found himself ever so slightly unnerved to think that very shortly he would be interviewing this very person.Mondior on radio or television was one thing, just some crazed preacher with an absurd message to peddle.But Mondior in the flesh-awesome, hypnotic, mysterious, if this portrait was any indication-might be something else again.Theremon warned himself to be on his guard.The black-robed monk said, "If you'll step inside, please-" The wall just to the left of the portrait opened.An office became visible within, as sparsely decorated as a cell, nothing in it but a bare desk made of a single slab of polished stone and a low backless chair, cut from a chunk of some unusual red-streaked gray wood, placed in front of it.Behind the desk sat a man of obvious force and authority, wearing the black Apostles' robe with red trim along the hood.He was very impressive.But he wasn't Mondior 71.Mondior, judging by his photographs and the way he seemed on television, had to be a man of sixty-five or seventy, with a kind of intense masculine force about him.His hair was thick and wavy, black with broad streaks of white, and he had a full, fleshy face, a wide mouth, a strong nose, heavy jet-black eyebrows, dark, compelling eyes.But this one was young, surely not yet forty, and though he seemed powerful and highly masculine too, it was in an entirely different way: he was very thin, with a sharp, narrow face and tight, pursed lips.His hair, curling down over his forehead under his hood, was a strange brick-red color, and his eyes were a cold, unrelenting blue.No doubt this man was some high functionary in the organization.But Theremon's appointment was with Mondior.He had decided just this morning, after writing his story on the Apostles' latest fulmination, that he needed to know more about this mysterious cult.Everything they had ever said struck him as nonsense, of course, but it was beginning to seem like interesting nonsense, worth writing about in some detail.How better to learn more about them than to go straight to the top man? Assuming that was possible, that is.But to his surprise they had told him, when he called, that he could have an audience with Mondior 71 that very day.It had seemed too easy.Now he began to realize that it had been too easy."I am Folimun 66," the sharp-faced man said in a light, flexible voice with none of Mondior's compelling thunder.Yet it was, Theremon suspected, the voice of someone who was accustomed to being obeyed."I am the public-relations adjutant for the home district of our organization.It will be my pleasure to answer any questions you may have.""My appointment was with Mondior himself," Theremon said.Folimun 66's chilly eyes betrayed no sign of surprise."You may think of me as the voice of Mondior.""I understood it would be a personal audience.""It is.Anything said to me is shared with Mondior; anything that comes from me is the word of Mondior.This should be understood.""Nevertheless, I was given assurances that I'd be allowed to talk with Mondior.I have no doubt that what you tell me would be authoritative, but it isn't just informition that I'm looking for.I'd like to form some opinion of what sort of man Mondior is, what his views are on other things besides the prophesied destruction of the world, what he thinks about-""I can only repeat what I have already said," Folimun declared, cutting in smoothly."You may think of me as the voice of Mondior.His Serenity will not be able to see you in person today
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