"Who am I spying for?" Andreson demanded. "The beasts? Jina's right—it is ridiculous."
"Yes, the beasts," one of the Guardsmen said flatly. "You're a native of Earth, no matter what your Time, and so are they. You could easily be the vanguard of a raid."
Andreson's temper was already short from the buffeting he had taken. "There's not a shred of evidence for such a theory," he snapped.
"Unfortunately, there is," Atel purred. "We noticed a beast travelling through the foundations of the city, just below the energy barrier, and managed to trap it. We let it get up into a pillar and then energized both ends. We were just about to kill it with hollow slugs when it materialized—the first time the beasts have ever succeeded in doing it, and it's an evil augury."
"Well? I still don't see...."
"It was an Earthman."
Andreson's mind nibbled around the edges of the fact. It was startling enough in itself, but he could make little sense of it. How would an Earthman have gotten into the reverse universe? And how at this Time in the dim past?
"Perhaps it's another victim of the gallery," he suggested, frowning. "It never occured to me before, but that infernal place might have been set up deliberately as a time-trap—perhaps by the beasts!"
"Perhaps," the Guardsman said. "But we can see no purpose behind such time-trapping, and Atel's interpretation makes better sense. Come along with us."
Andreson shrugged. "Where to?"