Read Online Out of Phaze by Piers Anthony - Free Book Online

realized that she was unable to believe his story. She was a machine, subject to the limitations of that state. Her imagination simply was insufficient.
    Yet the truth was the truth. And he still had to locate his other self, so as to be able to change back. He certainly didn’t want to be trapped forever in this frame, where machines made love by touching torn fingers!
    “We’ve recharged some,” she said. “Let’s do some more time.” She extended her little finger.
    For a moment Bane was tempted. The pleasure was indeed compelling! But he realized that if he allowed himself to be caught up in that again, he might never want to resume his search for his other self, and that would not be right. He exercised what discipline he could muster. “No. I have another job to do.”
    “You mean I wrecked my finger, and I’m going to get in trouble with the repair authority, and you’re not even going to let me get full measure from it?” she demanded.
    “It—it’s an illicit pleasure,” he said. “We—we’re supposed to do it in the human fashion.”
    Suddenly she was alarmed. “You aren’t going to tell!”
    Telling—about the illicit act. That would surely bring trouble to them both, and further complicate his effort. “No. I just—just don’t want to do it anymore.”
    “Then get out of here!” she cried angrily. “I never want to see you again!”
    He walked to the wall. It fogged, needing no spell from this side, and he stepped into the hall.
    So at last he was free of the robot woman. That was a mixed satisfaction; she was very pretty, and she had shown him a lot that he needed to know, about the Game and the premises. And physical pleasure such as he had never before known. But it was best that he stay away from her; he knew that. She was not, in his idiom, a nice girl. Rather, a nice machine. She would get in trouble, if not today, some future day.
    But what was he to do now? He still hardly knew his way around these premises, and it was evident that his other self was long gone from this region, and now he had an injured finger that would be difficult to explain.
    He needed help. But where was he to find it?
    Disconsolately, he walked down the hall. Other naked young folk passed him, and he acknowledged their greetings, but kept his left hand curled into a fist to conceal the finger.
    Obviously he wasn’t going to locate his other self by aimless wandering. He had to get smart about his search. He had to figure out where he was in relation to Phaze, knowing that the geographies of the two frames were identical, and where Mach would be likely to wander, and go there. Simple enough, surely; he could step outside and study the landscape. He knew the features of his world, and could normally locate his position by a simple survey of the horizon.
    But where was outside? This building seemed endless!
    He set about it methodically: finding his way out. If he went in any single direction far enough, he had to come to the edge of the building. Then he would follow that edge until he found an exit. It was like locating water in the wilderness: keep going down, and sooner or later water would appear, for it also sought the lowest regions.
    But when he tried, he discovered that the halls did not go in single directions. They curved this way and that, and made right-angle turns, and took magically moving stairs to upper floors, and magically descending chambers to nether regions. It was like one huge labyrinth that threatened to get him hopelessly lost before he really got started. In the wilderness he could have coped readily enough; this foreign environment had him baffled.
    He would have to inquire. But the others thought he was Mach, who should know the way out; to ask would only get laughter, or perhaps some interaction like that with Tilly, the opportunist female machine. Better to avoid that.
    So he continued to walk the halls, his frustration mounting. The others he passed glanced at him with