by Dima Zales
“Riiight. You’d shoot the bad guy, and then you’d pass out.”
“So what? The bad guy wouldn’t be a threat anymore.”
“Assuming you killed him with one shot,” I mutter. “And assuming there’s only one guy.”
Felix’s jaw is set in a way he must’ve learned from Ariel. “Do you want to go to Orientation or not?”
“Fine.” I put on my own shoes. “Let’s go.”
Before we leave the building, we summon the car and wait for it to arrive, hands on our concealed weapons.
We get into the car unmolested and head for Maya’s place, which is nearby.
“Hi, Felix. Hi, Sasha,” Maya chirps excitedly when she gets in. “Thanks so much for coming to get me.”
If she’s disappointed that I’m here, Felix-blocking her, she’s very good at not showing it.
“Here.” Felix discreetly slides Ariel’s gun across the seat. “Use that in case something bad happens.”
Her eyes get so wide they barely fit in the rims of her stylish eyeglasses. She recovers quickly, though, and hides the gun inside her backpack.
I really hope Felix knows what he’s doing, giving the kid a gun. I’ll have to remind him to take it away before we drop her off at home; the last thing we want is her parents finding it.
The ride to Queens is slow in traffic, and I let Felix and Maya chat. Their clumsy flirtations are cuter than newborn kittens. Maya is pretty mature for her age, which, combined with Felix’s immaturity, bridges their age gap, but they’re still adorably awkward together.
Damn, I wish Ariel were here for this. She loves to make virgin jokes at Felix’s expense, and this ride would give her a lot of material. Then again, is he still a virgin given the succubus attack?
Probably. It didn’t look like he got that far with her.
As we pull up to the Orientation building, I notice a familiar face behind the wheel of the Jaguar that rudely cuts us off at the intersection.
“That’s Chester,” I hiss at Felix, pointing at the car in question.
Oblivious to any traffic behind him, Chester stops in the middle of the road, and Roxy gets out of his car.
She looks annoyed at something. Maybe she doesn’t like Daddy driving her, or maybe she wanted him to park by the curb, like a normal person.
I duck before Chester sees me, because if he does, I’m sure some truck will barrel into our car a few seconds later.
Fortunately, Chester pulls away as soon as his hell-spawn enters the building.
Our driver parks.
We get out of the car, and Felix accompanies us to the classroom. As we walk, I can almost feel Maya wanting him to take her hand—but he doesn’t.
“I’ll be back in a bit.” Felix is looking right at Maya as he says this, and I make a mental note to have a serious conversation with him. In a nutshell, it would be, “Before you do anything, wait at least ‘a few months.’”
Maya and I enter the classroom, grab two chairs, and sit together as far away from Roxy and her hive as is mathematically possible.
The Queen B is acting normal—by which I mean she’s clearly saying nasty stuff about us to her hive, but in a voice too low for me to overhear.
Whatever Rose told her in the park, she’d clearly wasted her breath.
Maya’s hearing must be sharper, because her hand goes into her backpack—but she catches my stern look and doesn’t bring out the gun.
Dr. Hekima walks in, and everyone shuts up.
“Hi, all.” Dr. Hekima’s Einsteinian hair is messier than usual today. “Boy, do I have a great lesson for you.”
He walks up and hands me a printout, then gives one to Maya before going around the circle.
The printout is covered in legalese, which, if I understand it right, talks about giving consent to having my mind invaded for the purposes of the lecture.
What?
I must’ve misunderstood.
“The forms are for later,” Dr. Hekima says after everyone has a copy. “To start, I’ll just talk, and the topic is something I’m sure you have been eagerly awaiting.” He pauses for drama and looks everyone over, his eyes shining. “The Otherlands.”
The teenagers show no sign of the eagerness he just implied. No one seems to care, except for me.
I’m ready to jump up and down in excitement.
“Raise your hand if you’ve heard of the term ‘alternate dimension,’” Dr. Hekima says.
My hand shoots up, and a few others gingerly follow my example.
“How about ‘other worlds?’”
More hands.
“What about ‘parallel universes?’ Or ‘the multiverse?’”
Pretty much all hands are up now.
“Good,” he says. “That will make it easier to explain what the Otherlands are. The first thing you need to know is that there are gates, which are a means of travel to the Otherlands—worlds very different from our own. We’ll cover gates in more detail later, as the focus of today’s lesson are the Otherlands themselves.”
I listen eagerly as he gets up and begins to pace.
“Something you need to keep in mind is that Earth itself is one of the Otherlands,” he says, circling around the classroom. “And we, the Cognizant, are not native to it.”
He pauses for drama again, and that allows me to realize I’ve been thinking of the Otherlands as “out there” and Earth as my home. But we are, in effect, aliens here.
Where is our original home?
Does anyone know?
Dr. Hekima keeps pacing and talking, covering some of the things I’ve learned from Ariel and Felix.
There are an infinite number of worlds, in many of which time flows differently. The gates only lead to a tiny fraction of this infinitude, so there are countless worlds that you can’t access by a gate.
There are also worlds that had gates and then died—some from nuclear war the Cognizant couldn’t prevent, others from an asteroid or some other apocalyptic catastrophe. His main point, and something Ariel has mentioned already, is that we can’t gate willy-nilly to these barren worlds.
It would be like going to Jupiter or the sun itself.
Some of the accessible worlds have humans, while others don’t, and whenever humans are missing from a world, the Cognizant have no powers there.
“You see the connection to our prior lecture?” Dr. Hekima’s pacing speeds up. “When we talked about what would happen if the Cognizant were discovered by humans?”
Everyone, including me, looks blank.
“Worlds with humans are a precious resource,” he says. “If humans were to kill us, or banish us from their world, that would obviously be bad. But if we were to kill them, it would be its own tragedy. We’d lose another place where we can have powers—and of course, genocide is morally repugnant. This is why the Mandate exists in the worlds where technological and cultural human development made it necessary.”
I want to ask him about darker scenarios, like, say, a world where the Cognizant keep humans in some sort of slave-like state just to retain their powers, but then I realize that’s why he clarified the part about technological and cultural human development.
Modern-day Earth humans wouldn’t allow that without a fight.
Realizing I’ve missed a few seconds of the lecture, I leave my ponderings for later.
“—carefully reviewed cosmological data on a number of Otherlands, and couldn’t find a single star, planet, or galaxy that would be shared between them.” Dr. Hekima looks at us conspiratorially. “Some Otherlands even seem to have slightly different laws of physics—though the differences are obviously not severe enough to interfere with life as we know it.”
The idea of different laws of physics boggles my mind and makes me wish I’d majored in physics back in school. That way, I could’ve asked some good questions at the end of the lecture.
Realizing I just spaced out again, I focus back on Dr. Hekima’s words.
“—the limited time remaining
, I figured I’d use my powers to show you instead of telling.” He sits back down. “This is where the consent forms come into play, so please review them now.”
I’m about to study the printout again when Dr. Hekima says, “For those of you who don’t know”—he looks at me—“I’m an illusionist. I can make you experience what I wish. This is something I’d rather not do without consent, hence the forms in front of you.”
Everyone around me signs the form, and I join them without hesitation. Whatever we’re about to see, I’d never forgive myself if I missed it.
Dr. Hekima walks around and collects the forms, then stands in the middle of the class and raises his arms like a conductor.
Pulsing red energy streams from his fingers into the heads of my classmates, one by one, and when it hits me, the dingy classroom goes away.
Eyes widening, I gape at the impossible landscape around us.
Chapter Sixteen
We’re in the sky, on a huge floating island.
Clouds obscure the land below, but more islands are visible in the far distance.
How are these things floating?
I know Dr. Hekima mentioned different laws of physics, but surely he didn’t mean gravity misbehavior?
Also not following the laws of physics is the temperature. It should be freezing this high up, but it’s pleasantly balmy.
I look around. We’re surrounded by gates on all sides. Dr. Hekima brought us to the hub on this world.
The air is crisp with a hint of ozone, and the high elevation is making my breathing noticeably more difficult.
Every building in the surrounding town looks like a cathedral of some kind, only made out of a light-colored, porous material, and with a lot more windows.
Elfin-looking people dressed in togas are walking all around us. I half expect them to start strumming little harps—or whatever else you’re supposed to do in Heaven.
My classmates are all sitting in the same chairs as in class—and everyone looks as overwhelmed as I feel.
This doesn’t seem like an illusion. I could swear I’m actually here, in the sky.
If I didn’t know better, I’d bet my life on it.
“Ready for another example?” Dr. Hekima asks, and not waiting for anyone’s reply, he snaps his fingers.
The location instantly changes.
We’re in a much darker place.
The air is fresh and salty, like a beach on a summer night.
Above is a giant transparent bubble, like a force field of some kind. And beyond it is something that resembles water.
Are we on the bottom of the ocean?
We must be—unless a sky can have fish-like creatures “flying” in it.
The denizens of this surreal world are dressed in skintight outfits reminiscent of scuba gear, but no breathing apparatus is anywhere in sight, nor are gills.
I guess they don’t go beyond their bubble habitat.
The kids around me are oohing and aahing, and even Roxy and her hive look impressed.
Dr. Hekima smiles. “More?”
Without waiting for our agreement, he changes the scene again—and this time, I recognize where we are.
This is Gomorrah.
I’ll never forget the moonless sky with the telltale nebula that brings to mind fire and brimstone—or the sprawling supercity that dwarfs all the cities of Earth combined.
Without a word, Dr. Hekima changes the scenery again.
The new place is all gorgeous greenery and hills, reminding me of the Shire from Lord of the Rings—though, I guess, we could easily be in New Zealand.
The next world is familiar again. The fluorescent purple sky, pink clouds, two moons, the Saturn-like ring, and the unusually thick, sweet air belong to the world Ariel and I passed through on our way to face Beatrice in Las Vegas.
Dr. Hekima’s fingers start to snap faster.
I glimpse worlds I could’ve only dreamed of, and worlds that remind me of every fairy tale I’ve ever read.
Then examples of Otherlands show up even faster.
They flit through our awareness too quickly to fully register, but still deepen the overwhelming sense of awe.
If Dr. Hekima’s goal was to make us feel small and insignificant at the prospect of these countless worlds, he’s succeeded admirably. Even self-centered Roxy looks subdued by the wondrous parade.
Until the Copernican Revolution, people thought Earth was the center of the Universe. Learning otherwise must’ve been as humbling of an experience as this.
The scent of burned coffee hits my nostrils, and I know I’m back on Earth—in the least interesting room of the least interesting Otherland among the multitude I’ve just witnessed.
“We’ll continue this topic next week,” Dr. Hekima says, glancing at his watch. “Please save your questions for then.”
Wait, what? No questions?
I expect my classmates to revolt, but they just start putting their stuff in their backpacks.
Before I can speak up, Dr. Hekima vacates the room.
I prepare for Roxy and her hive to start something, but they leave very quickly too. Maybe they’re getting a lift and are late for it?
Either that, or Rose and Vlad did have some kind of influence on Roxy.
Maya takes out her phone and sends a text.
A second later, her phone dings in reply.
“Felix should be here in a few seconds,” she says.
As the last of the students leave the room and I dig into my pocket, I ask, “Can you use your psychometry on this?”
I take out the admiral’s knife and show it to Maya.
“Sure.” She takes it from me. “Want to do it now?”
“Yep, as we wait for Felix.”
“Felix is here,” says a familiar voice from the doorway. “But please continue.”
Maya gives the arriving Felix a wide grin and sits on the floor, holding the knife handle tightly. A glowing, purple-tinted energy seeps from her skin into the object, and Maya’s expression turns trance-like.
“He’s cutting her face,” she chants under her breath. “Her blood mingles with her tears, but that just heightens his arousal. He tells her what he’s going to carve up next, and she screams louder—” Her eyes roll behind her head for a moment; then she exhales, and her eyes go back to normal as she drops the knife on the floor as if it were a snake.
“His name is Innokentiy Charnetskavoy,” she says, opening her eyes. Her voice is unsteady as she continues. “He’s a human monster of the worst kind. Part of the Russian mafia. You should stay away from him.” She visibly shudders.
A Russian connection.
Felix was right about those epaulettes.
“That name is a mouthful.” I hide my terror by bending to pick up the knife. “I think I’ll keep calling him ‘the admiral.’” I straighten, pocketing the knife. “As to staying away from him—I’d love nothing more, but unfortunately, someone sent this guy after me, so I don’t have much of a choice.”
I look at Felix to see his reaction to all this and notice how pale he is. “Dude, are you about to faint?”
“No.” His voice is hoarse. “I just don’t like hearing about blood.”
“I’m sorry,” Maya says. “I don’t have control over what I say when I do that.”
“It’s not you who should be sorry.” Felix gives me a meaningful glare, and I look down, away from his gaze.
He’s right to be upset.
In hindsight, I shouldn’t have asked Maya to use her powers like that. The poor girl might now have nightmares.
I definitely will.
“We better go catch the cab,” I say to change the topic and pull out my phone to summon us a ride.
We walk down in uncomfortable silence to find the car already waiting.
As we drive, the conversation resumes, and by the time we enter downtown Manhattan, Felix and Maya are back to their flirting, which relieves some of my guilt.
“Let’s drop me off first,�
� I say, suppressing a mischievous smile. To Maya, I add in a low voice, “This way, Felix can collect the gun from you right by your door.”
Neither of them questions my dubious logic. They clearly want a chance to be alone.
“Bye, guys,” I say when the car stops next to our building. “It was nice seeing you, Maya. Felix, I’ll talk to you later.”
“Later,” he says.
“Thank you,” Maya says. “I mean, bye.”
Smiling, I exit the vehicle and sashay to the entrance. Mentally planning the rest of my weekend, I enter the building and summon the elevator.
This is when a tsunami of premonition drowns me in dread.
Acting purely on instinct, I turn on my heel to face the building’s entrance.
Smiling menacingly, the admiral closes the door behind himself.
Chapter Seventeen
I freeze as he charges at me.
Even before Maya’s reading, this man looked big and scary, but now that I know about his penchant for knife torture, the terror is paralyzing.
Somehow, my muscles unlock and I reach into my secret pocket to grab my gun.
The admiral also reaches into his pocket as he runs, taking out a syringe.
Gulping in a breath, I rip my gun out of its hiding spot and shoot.
My shaking hands must mess up the shot because the admiral keeps coming, seemingly unscathed.
He’s so close now that I’d have no problem hitting him with the next bullet—except he moves too fast.
Before I can squeeze the trigger, he chops at my wrists with the edge of his palm, like a karate master attempting to break a brick.
Pain explodes in my arms, and the weapon clatters to the floor.
He kicks the gun away and grabs my throat, almost gently, then lifts the syringe.
Ignoring the pain in my wrist, I slip my right hand into my pocket.
My fingers close around his knife, and in a single motion, I yank it out and press the button to pop out the blade, then slice at his chest.
He grunts in pain, his hand letting go of my throat to grasp the wound.
I stab him in the shoulder.
He screams and backs away, so I bolt for the staircase, leaving the knife embedded in his flesh.