“Here it comes, engineer talk, we can’t sell engineering

  babble.”

  “There are people in these other worlds. Like ghosts.

  They wander around, and their memories are stored in our world.”

  “Where?”

  “Just sitting there in the air. Just a collection of an-

  gles. Wherever their head is, in our world and a lot of

  other parallel worlds, they have their memories stored as a pattern of slants. Haven’t you had the experience of

  walking into a room and then suddenly you can’t remem-

  ber why you came in?”

  “I’m seventy years old, it happens all the time.”

  “It has nothing to do with being seventy. It happened

  when you were young, too. Only you’re more susceptible

  now, because your own brain has so much memory

  stored that it’s constantly accessing other slants. And

  sometimes, your head space passes through the head

  space of someone else in another world, and poof, your

  thoughts are confused—jammed, really—by theirs.”

  “My head just happens to pass through the space

  where the other guy’s head just happens to be?”

  “In an infinite series of universes, there are a lot of

  them where people about your height might be walking

  around. What makes it so rare is that most of them are

  using patterns of slants so different that they barely impinge on ours at all. And you have to be accessing mem-

  ory right at that moment, too. Anyway, that’s not what

  matters—that is coincidence. But you set up this recorder here at about the height of a human being and turn it on, and as long as you don’t put it, say, on the thirtieth floor or the bottom of a lake or something, within a day you’ll have this thing filled up.”

  4 0 8

  A N G L E S

  “With what?”

  “Up to twenty separate memory states. We could build

  it to hold a lot more, but it’s so easy to erase and replace that we figured twenty was enough and if people want

  more, we can sell peripherals, right? Anyway, you get

  these transitory brain states. Memories. And it’s the

  whole package, the complete mental state of another hu-

  man being for one moment in time. Not a dream. Not fic-tionalized, you know? Those dreams, they were sketchy, haphazard, pretty meaningless. I mean, it’s boring to hear other people tell their dreams, how cool is it to actually have to sit through them? But with the Angler, you catch

  the whole fish. You’ve got to put it on, though, to know

  why it’s going to sell.”

  “And it’s nothing permanent.”

  “Well, it’s permanent in the sense that you’ll remember

  it, and it’ll be a pretty strong memory. But you know,

  you’ll want to remember it so that’s a good thing. It doesn’t damage anything, though, and that’s all that matters. I can try it on one of your employees first, though, if you want. Or I’ll put it on myself.”

  “No, I’ll do it. I’ll have to do it in the end before I’ll make the decision, so I might as well do it from the start.

  Put on the cap. And no, it’s not a toupee, if I were going to get a rug I’d choose a better one than this.”

  “All right, a snug fit, but that’s why we made it elastic.”

  “How long does it take?”

  “Objective time, only a fraction of a second. Subjec-

  tively, of course, well, you tell us. Ready?”

  “Sure. Give me a one, two, three, all right?”

  “I’ll do one, two, three, and then flip it like four. OK?”

  “Yeah yeah. Do it.”

  “One. Two. Three.”

  4 0 9

  O R S O N S C O T T C A R D

  “Ah . . . aaah. Oh.”

  “Give it a few seconds. Just relax. It’s pretty strong.”

  “You didn’t . . . how could this . . . I . . .”

  “It’s all right to cry. Don’t worry. First time, most people do.”

  “I was just . . . She’s just . . . I was a woman.”

  “Fifty-fifty chance.”

  “I never knew how it felt to . . . This should be illegal.”

  “Technically, it falls under the same laws as the

  Dreamer, so, you know, not for children and all that.”

  “I don’t know if I’d ever want to use it again. It’s so

  strong.”

  “Give yourself a few days to sort it out, and you’ll

  want it. You know you will.”

  “Yes. No, don’t try to push any paperwork on me right

  now, I’m not an idiot. I’m not signing anything while my

  head’s so . . . but . . . tomorrow. Come back tomorrow. Let me sleep on it.”

  “Of course. We couldn’t ask for anything more than

  that.”

  “Have you shown this to anyone else?”

  “You’re the biggest and the best. We came to you

  first.”

  “We’re talking exclusive, right?”

  “Well, as exclusive as our patents allow.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “We’ve patented every method we’ve thought of, but

  we think there are a lot of ways to record in slantspace.

  In fact, the real trouble is, the hardest thing is to design a record that doesn’t bend space on the other side. I mean, people’s heads won’t go through the recording field if the recorder itself is visible in their space! What I’m saying is, 4 1 0

  A N G L E S

  we’ll be exclusive until somebody finds another way to

  do it without infringing our patent. That’ll take years, of course, but . . .”

  “How many years?”

  “No faster than three, and probably longer. And we

  can tie them up in court longer still.”

  “Look at me, I’m still shaking. Can you play me the

  same memory?”

  “We could build a machine that would do that, but you

  won’t want to. The first time with each one is the best.

  Doing the same person twice can leave you a little . . .

  confused.”

  “Bring me the paperwork tomorrow for an exclusive

  for five years. We’ll launch with enough product to drop

  that price point from the start.”

  3001

  It took a month for the members of Kotoshi to assem-

  ble. Only a few decided not to go, and they took a vow of silence to protect those who were leaving. They gathered

  at the southern tip of Manhattan, in the parlor of Moshe’s house. They had no belongings with them.

  “It’s one of the unfortunate side effects of the technol-

  ogy we use,” Moshe explained. “Nothing that is not organ-

  ically connected to your bodies can make the transition to the new slant. As when you were born, you will be naked

  when you arrive. That’s why wholesale colonization using

  this technology is impractical—no tools. Nor can you

  transfer any kind of wealth or art. You come empty-

  handed.”

  4 1 1

  O R S O N S C O T T C A R D

  “Is it cold there?”

  “The climate is different,” said Moshe. “You’ll arrive

  on the southern tip of Manhattan, and it will be winter,

  but there are no glaciers closer than Greenland. Anyway,

  you’ll arrive indoors. I live in this house and use it for transition because there is a coterminous room in the

  other angle. Nothing to fret about.”

  Hakira looked for the technology that would transfer

  them. Moshe had spoken of this room. Perhaps it was

  much larger than bender technology, and had been em-

  bedded in the walls of the room.

  Yet if they could not bring anything with them that

  wasn’t part of their bodies, Moshe’s people must have

  built their machinery here instead of importing it. Yet if they hadn’t brought wealth, how had Moshe obtained the

  money to buy this house, let alone manufacture their

  slant-changing machinery? Interesting puzzles.

  Of course, there were two obvious solutions. The first

  would be a disappointment, but it was the most pre-

  dictable—that it was all fakery and Moshe would try to ab-scond with their money without having taken them

  anywhere at all. There was always the danger that part of the scam was killing those who were supposed to be transported so that there’d be no one left to complain. Foreseeing that, Hakira and the others were alert and prepared.

  The other possibility, though, was the one that made

  Hakira’s spine tingle. Theoretically, since slant-shifting had first been discovered as a natural function of the human brain, there was always the chance of non-

  mechanical transfer between angles. One of the main

  objections to this idea had always been that if it were

  possible, all the worlds should be getting constant visits from any that had learned how to transfer by mental

  4 1 2

  A N G L E S

  power alone. The common answer to that was, How do

  you know they aren’t constantly visiting? Some even speculated that sightings of ghosts might well be of people coming or going. But Moshe’s warning about arriving

  nude would explain quite nicely why there hadn’t been

  more visits. It’s hard to be subtle about being nude in

  most human cultures.

  “Do any of you,” asked Moshe, “have any embedded

  metal or plastic in your bodies? This includes fillings in your teeth, but would also include metal plates or silicon joint replacements, heart pacemakers, non-tissue breast

  implants, and, of course, eyeglasses. I can assure you that as quickly as possible, all these items will be replaced, except for pacemakers, of course, if you have a pacemaker

  you’re simply not going.”

  “What happens if we do have some kind of implant?”

  asked one of the men.

  “Nothing painful. No wound. It simple doesn’t go with

  you. It remains here. The effect on you is as if it simply disappeared. And, of course, the objects would remain

  here, hanging in the air, and then fall to the ground—or

  the chair, since most of you will be sitting. But to tell the truth, that’s the least of my problems—part of your fee

  goes to cleaning up this room, since the contents of your bowels also remain behind.”

  Several people grimaced.

  “As I said, you’ll never notice, except you might feel a bit lighter and more vigorous. It’s like having the perfect enema. And, no matter how nervous you are, you won’t

  need to urinate for some time. Well now, are we ready?

  Anyone want to step outside after all?”

  No one left.

  “Well, this couldn’t be simpler. You must join hands,

  4 1 3

  O R S O N S C O T T C A R D

  bare hands, skin to skin. Connect tightly, the whole circle, no one left out.”

  Hakira couldn’t help but chuckle.

  “Hakira is laughing,” said Moshe, “because he mock-

  ingly suggested that maybe our method of transfer was

  some kind of mumbo jumbo involving all joining hands.

  Well, he was right. Only this happens to be mumbo

  jumbo that works.”

  We’ll see, won’t we? thought Hakira.

  In moments, all their hands were joined.

  “Hold your hands up, so I can see,” said Moshe. “Good,

  good. All right. Absolute silence, please.”

  “A moment first,” said Hakira. To the others, he said

  softly, “Nippon, this year.”

  With fierce smiles or no expression at all, the others

  murmured in reply, “Fujiyama kotoshi.”

  It was done. Hakira turned to Moshe and nodded.

  They bowed their heads and made no sound, beyond

  the unavoidable sound of breathing. And an occasional

  sniffle—they had just come in from the cold.

  One man coughed. Several people glared at him. Others

  simply closed their eyes, meditating their way to silence.

  Hakira never took his eyes from Moshe, watching for

  some kind of signal to a hidden confederate, or perhaps

  for him to activate some machinery that might fill the

  room with poison gas. But . . . nothing.

  Two minutes. Three. Four.

  And then the room disappeared and a cold wind blew

  across forty naked bodies. They were in the open air in-

  side a high fence, and around them in a circle stood men

  with swords.

  Swords.

  Everything was clear now.

  4 1 4

  A N G L E S

  “Well,” said Moshe cheerfully, letting go and stepping

  back to join the armed men. One of them had a long coat

  for him, which he put on and wrapped around himself.

  “The transfer worked just as I told you it would—you’re

  naked, there was no machinery involved, and don’t you

  feel vigorous?”

  Neither Hakira nor any of the people of Kotoshi said a

  thing.

  “I did lie about a few things,” said Moshe. “You see, we

  stumbled upon what you call ‘slanting’ at a much more

  primitive stage in our technological development than

  you. And wherever we went that wasn’t downright fatal,

  and that wasn’t already fully inhabited, there you were!

  Already overpopulating every world we could find! We

  had come upon the technique too late. So, we’ve come re-

  cruiting. If we’re to have a chance at defeating you and

  your kind so we have a decent chance of finding worlds

  to expand into, we need to learn how to use your tech-

  nology. How to use your weapons, how to disable your

  power system, how to make your ordinary citizens help-

  less. Since our technology is far behind yours, and we

  couldn’t carry technology from world to world anyway,

  the way you can, this was our only choice.”

  Still no one answered him.

  “You are taking this very calmly—good. The previous

  group was full of complainers, arguing with us and com-

  plaining about the weather even though it’s much colder this time. That first group was very valuable—we’ve

  learned many medical breakthroughs from them, for in-

  stance, and many people are learning how to drive cars

  and how to use credit and even the theory behind com-

  puter programming. But you—well, I know it’s a racial

  stereotype, but not only are you Japanese every bit as ed-4 1 5

  O R S O N S C O T T C A R D

  ucated as the Jews from the previous group, you tend to

  be educated in mathematics and technology instead of

  medicine, law, and scripture. So from you we hope to

  learn many valuable things that will prepare us to take

  over one of your colonies and use it as a springboard to

  future conquest. Isn’t it nice to know how valuable and

  important you are?”

  One of the swordsmen let rip a string of sounds from

  another language. Moshe answered in the same language.

  “My friend comments that you seem to be taking this

  news extremely well.”

  “Only a few points of clarification are needed,” said

  Hakira. “You are, in fact, planning to keep us as slaves?”

  “Allies,” said Moshe. “Helpers. Teachers.”

  “Not slaves. We are free to go, then? To return home if

  we wish?”

  “No, I regret not.”

  “Are we free not to cooperate with you?”

  “You will find your lives are much more comfortable if

  you cooperate.”

  “Will we be taught this mental method of transferring

  from angle to angle?”

  Moshe laughed. “Please, you are too humorous.”

  “Is this a global policy on your world, or are you rep-

  resenting only one government or perhaps a small group

  not responsible to any government?”

  “There is one government on this world, and we repre-

  sent its policy,” said Moshe. “It is only in the area of

  technology that we are not as advanced as you. We gave

  up tribes and nations thousands of years ago.”

  Hakira looked around at the others in his group. “Any

  other questions? Have we settled everything?”

  4 1 6

  A N G L E S

  Of course it was just a legal formality. He knew per-

  fectly well that they were now free to act. This was, in

  fact, almost the worst-case scenario. No clothing, no

  weapons, cold weather, surrounded. But that was why

  they trained for the worst case. At least there were no

  guns, and they were outdoors.

  “Moshe, I arrest you and all the armed persons present

  in this compound and charge you with wrongful impris-

  onment, slavery, fraud, and—”

  Moshe shook his head and gave a brief command to

  the swordsmen. At once they raised their weapons and

  advanced on Hakira’s group.

  It took only moments for the nude Japanese to side-

  step the swords, disarm the swordsmen, and leave them

  prostrate on the ground, their own swords now pointed at

  their throats. The Japanese who were not involved in that task quickly scoured the compound for more weapons

  and located the clumsy old-fashioned keys that would

  open the gate. Within moments they had run down and

  captured those guards who had been outside the gates.

  Not one got away. Only two had even attempted to fight.

  They were, as a result, dead.

  To Moshe, Hakira said, “I now add the charge of as-