might be Snakes."

Our side in the Change War is the Spiders, the other side is the Snakes, though all of us--Spiders and Snakes alike--are Doublegangers and Demons too, because we're cut out of our lifelines in the cosmos. Your lifeline is all of you from birth to death. We're Doublegangers because we can operate both in the cosmos and outside of it, and Demons because we act reasonably alive while doing so--which the Ghosts don't. Entertainers and Soldiers are all Demon-Doublegangers, whichever side they're on--though they say the Snake Places are simply ghastly. Zombies are dead people whose lifelines lie in the so-called past."What were you doing in Saint Petersburg before the ambush?" I asked Erich. "That is, if you can talk about it."

"Why not? We were kidnapping the infant Einstein back from the Snakes in 1883. Yes, the Snakes got him, _Liebchen_, only a few sleeps back, endangering the West's whole victory over Russia--"

"--which gave your dear little Hitler the world on a platter for fifty years and got me loved to death by your sterling troops in the Liberation of Chicago--"

"--but which leads to the ultimate victory of the Spiders and the West over the Snakes and Communism, _Liebchen_, remember that. Anyway, our counter-snatch didn't work. The Snakes had guards posted--most unusual and we weren't warned. The whole thing was a great mess. No wonder Bruce lost his head--not that it excuses him."

"The New Boy?" I asked. Sid hadn't got to him and he was still standing with hooded eyes where Erich had left him, a dark pillar of shame and rage.

"_Ja_, a lieutenant from World War One. An Englishman."

"I gathered that," I told Erich. "Is he really effeminate?"

"_Weibischer?_" He smiled. "I had to call him something when he said I was a coward. He'll make a fine Soldier--only needs a little more shaping."

"You men are so original when you spat." I lowered my voice. "But you shouldn't have gone on and called him a Snake, Erich mine."

"_Schlange?_" The smile got crooked. "Who knows--about any of us? As Saint Petersburg showed me, the Snakes' spies are getting cleverer than ours." The blue eyes didn't look sweet now. "Are you, _Liebchen_, really nothing more than a good loyal Spider?"

"Erich!"

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