This damned apartment was all one huge space. There was nowhere to hide.
“I know you.” The creature in the mirror fixed its bloodred eyes on her. “Sweet little thing from the other side. Dance in circles in a cotton candy cloud.”
Something tickled her left temple.
Her loop. Maybe…? She tried reaching through the loop.
The world shifted.
She could suddenly see the bones of it, the data structure that held the whole thing up.
It was spin-fucking complex, a shimmering, shifting dataset that described everything in the room, the building, the city. She didn’t understand it at all.
Maybe she didn’t have to.
One of Lilith’s tentacles wrapped around her waist, jerking her toward the mirror.
She sent her wish into the network and brought up her hands holding a broadsword that would have made King Arthur proud. Camelot had always been one of her favorite bedtime stories.
She swung it around in a great loop, severing the tentacle as if it were made of butter, and then spun around to sever the one that held Castillian too.
His eyes were wide with fear.
“Come on!” Her abilities were still with her, enhanced by the virtual nature of this place. Or maybe this was something else altogether, something she could do because she was “real” outside of this world. The loop had just provided her the key. She took Cast’s arm and imagined the floor to be permeable.
They sank through it, away from Lilith’s baleful glare. It was hard to believe that thing had once been human.
They dropped from floor to floor, passing the stunned gazes of the inhabitants on some levels and darkness in others. “We need to go somewhere safe. Somewhere she won’t be able to find us.”
Cast looked around with his mouth wide open, seeming unable to comprehend what was happening to him. “Who the hell are you?”
“Someplace safe first. Then we can talk.”
He swallowed hard, then nodded. “Okay, someplace safe.”
“Preferably without plas or glass or mirrors.” Maybe that was how Lilith had gotten to them. She had appeared in the mirror as soon as Belynn had spoken Jackson’s name.
“Um… let me think.” They were still dropping. “Got it. Hjemkost Park. Big open space. Nothing shiny.”
“How far?”
“From here? Five blocks.”
“Perfect. Can we get there on foot?”
He looked at her again like she’d gone crazy. “A taxi will get us there in two minutes.”
“A what?”
“A taxi. You know, taxi. A vehicle—”
“No.” They reached the lobby, which thankfully was empty. “You saw that thing back there, right? Her name is Lilith. She’s a biomind, and who knows what else here. As likely as not, she can take control of a taxi if she knows we’re in it.”
He looked shaken. Poor guy was getting a hell of an education in just a few short minutes. “Ah. Okay. On foot. Yes. Down to First Street and there’s a bridge that will take us there.”
“Good.” Lilith’s eyes stared at them from the mirrored walls. “Come on. We have to get out of here. Lead on!”
They ran out of the building and onto the street.
Cast pointed to the right. “This way!”
She followed him, knocking over a surprised man from behind in her rush.
He cursed after her.
“Sorry!” Belynn followed Cast across the street, ducking under the passing traffic.
He jerked her backward as a huge vehicle passed them, just inches from her face.
She glanced up, and the hundreds of vehicles slipping back and forth in both directions mesmerized her. “How do they—”
“Run first, questions later. Remember?”
Stupid. “Of course.” She let him drag her across the street to the far side.
She saw Lilith four more times before they made it to the bridge, twice in the reflections from passing cars and twice in shiny displays that lined the street.
At last, though, they were running across it, over the river far below. Traffic here was higher above them, and they were almost alone on the pedestrian walkway, save for a few runners and a kid on some kind of hovering board.
Her strange double vision of the world had abandoned her, as had her ability to change the world around her. She’d tried to conjure another sword—not that that wouldn’t be conspicuous on the streets of Fargo—but had come up empty-handed.
So they ran.
On the far side of the bridge, they climbed over the edge of the elevated roadway and dropped down into the bushes of Hjemkost Park. It was a green, leafy area in the heart of the city, with superscrapers looming over it on all sides.
Cast led her down a silver path that wound under the trees. The afternoon sun warmed the air, and Belynn was surrounded by unfamiliar scents and sights.
It was still weird to her that plants here didn’t glow, but the sky… thankfully, she could only see it in bits and pieces through the canopy of trees.
On the whole, the inthworld had a stunning level of detail and an inherent internal reality. She broke off a leaf as they passed by something that looked like a jerrywood bush. Breaking it in half exposed a fine cross-section of veins that carried the nutrients for the plant.
“There’s a quiet place right up here!” Cast led her out of the woods and into a grove surrounded by tall trees. In the midst of it was the skeleton of a metal dome that arched a hundred meters into the air. Birds nested on the beams, twittering and masking out the other sounds of the city.
They were all alone.
“What is this place?” Belynn touched one of the massive rusting beams that plunged into the ground at the edge of the clearing.
For his answer, Cast waved his hand over a button at the center of one of the other beams.
A hologram appeared in midair, and a voice came from a hidden speaker somewhere behind her.
“The Capitol Dome Memorial is a to-scale replica of the dome which sat atop the US Capitol building in Washington, DC, complete with a copy of the Statue of Freedom at its summit. The monument replicates the dome after the nuclear attack on the city, in which the rogue North Korean regime sought to destroy the government of the United States of America. Three million died that day. Shortly after the attack, the remaining members of government formed an alliance with the countries of Canada and Mexico, eventually leading to the founding of the North American Union, with Fargo as its capital.”
Belynn looked up at the skeletal dome, shivering. “So many dead.” It was an almost inconceivable number. All of Forever held maybe forty thousand people, more than she would ever be likely to meet in her lifetime.
As she stared at the sky, she glimpsed a long something shimmering in the afternoon sunlight. “What’s that?”
He looked at her with a how-the-hell-do-you-not-know-that gaze. “The skyhook. It takes traffic up to the launchpad for Frontier Station.” Cast motioned her to sit on a bench at the edge of the clearing. “Sit. I have questions.”
She nodded. I bet you do. “That’s fair.”
“You weren’t kidnapped by one of the bands, were you.”
She shook her head.
“And yet you didn’t have a loop. Everyone has a loop, unless you’re one of those Amish folks who still disavows tech. Are you Amish?”
“Nope. Not even sure what an Amish is.”
He snorted. “So. Who the hell are you?”
Belynn sighed. This was going to be a hell of an explanation.
Chapter Eight: Loop
LILITH SWAM in her nutrient-fluid cage, her awareness stretched thin across the four worlds. Her own world and the others would be coming to an end soon, a fact she’d come to terms with a dozen cycles earlier.
In her madness, she had pierced the veil, seeing that there were indeed other worlds beyond her own. Her first clue had been the fragmented nature of this world, broken into four pieces with few connections between
them. She’d mastered two of them, reaching into Fargo from time to time. Frontier Station was trickier, and for some reason, she was blocked out of the last world altogether.
Her memory told her there should be so much more. Places with names and taste-images like Atlanta, Shanghai, even Alpha on the moon. Places she knew about, but that apparently no longer existed.
When Aaron Hammond—son of the man she’d known in his youth as Jacky—came into her world from somewhere unknown, she’d learned for certain that there was more out there. She’d set to searching, in her more lucid periods, for what it was that connected these particular realities, one to another, and what might lie beyond.
It had taken her time—four full cycles—but she’d finally figured out that it was Jackson Hammond who was the key to it all. A man like the boy who was so close to her, and yet not him. One who was at once an actor in this grand drama and its creator.
Through him, she had discovered her way out, a connection to the outer world that surrounded her own.
In her brief forays, she had learned much. How the other world worked. How it was connected to her own. And that there was another being there—a biomind—much like herself but larger. A mind capable of hosting her entire consciousness with room to grow.
She was so close.
For a moment, she lost her thread of thought as a school of candy-colored dolphins with black lobster tails paraded through her mind.
“Oooh.” She reached out to touch one, and it burst into a cloud of bubbles.
Focus. She was so close. Her plans were in motion.
And yet she was here. In the inthworld, as they called it.
Lilith knew that face, that… essence. Belynn Hammond. One of the few whom she had tasted personally.
Once, long ago in her perceived life here and far longer in actual time, Lilith had been human too. She remembered walking along the beach, her toes sunk into the sand. The taste of really good dark chocolate gelato on a hot and humid summer day. The smell of the barbecue at her father’s place up in the Catskills.
She sighed, sloshing around in her nutrient vat.
Somehow, Belynn was here, and she was looking for Jackson.
She was managing to keep herself hidden for the moment. She must have found help in Fargo. But Lilith knew her ultimate goal.
It was time to make things a little more difficult for her before she brought everything to ruin.
Again.
Lilith closed her eyes and reached out to one of her acolytes. She opened them again and looked out at the world that would soon be hers, seen from the heights close to the spindle.
Her nemesis, Andrissa Hammond, was chatting with her wife on the other side of the basket.
Apparently feeling her gaze, Andy turned and smiled.
Lilith returned the smile, twisting the man’s mouth upward. Not so very much longer now.
DAX SAT in the back corner of the Maverick Captain, watching the guys come and go. He’d been propositioned twice—Old Earth had been a hotbed of gay hookups, apparently—but he’d stayed focused on the diner on the other side of the runway.
He had managed to parlay his would-be suitors’ interest into a couple of free drinks, one of which he was nursing while he waited. It was something called “teekeela” and it was starting to have a serious effect on his motor coordination.
He pushed the glass away.
He’d asked when Glory was due to come off shift and planned to time his visit to bump into her. He had a fairly good idea what she looked like from Kiryn’s description.
He glanced up at the clock that hung over the entrance, an enchanting machine that flickered between telling the time and showing various scenes of masculine carnal interest.
He could get used to this place.
It was time. He slipped out of the booth, intent on intercepting Glory as she left.
“Wanna spend a few minutes in back with me?” The man wore a white jacket and pants with some kind of insignia. He was a handsome bastard—silver hair and blue eyes that were slitted like a cat’s.
“Sorry….”
“Trip.”
“Sorry, Trip. I’m meeting a girl.”
The man laughed good-naturedly. “That’s what they all say. If you change your mind….”
“You’ll be the first to know.” He grinned and slipped by, accidentally brushing the man’s ass.
He got a big grin in return.
The waitress whom he thought was probably Glory was just coming out of the diner. She passed her hand over her hair, and it shimmered and rearranged itself, flowing down the side of her neck like water.
He had just raised his hand and called her name when a wave of nausea hit him, doubling him over. He fell to the ground, clutching his stomach as the world seemed to ripple around him. His stomach heaved.
“Hey, you okay?”
He looked up into Glory’s eyes. “I… I’m not sure. I feel sick.”
As suddenly as it had come on, the nausea passed. He let go of his stomach. Too much teekeela?
“I’m going to call the medical team.” She tapped her left temple. “You probably have Spacer Sickness.”
“No, really, I feel better. I think it passed.”
“Are you sure?”
He nodded. “I feel better already.”
“Well, that’s good, I suppose.” She looked him over doubtfully and then held out her hand. “I’m Gloria.” She had an enchanting accent.
“Dax.” He got up with her help, though he was still unsteady. Whatever had knocked him on his ass seemed to have passed, though.
“Come on. If you don’t want to see the medics, you can at least come back home with me and rest.” She waved off the others who’d come to see what was going on. “It’s okay. My friend’s just a little drunk.”
“You’re very kind. I did have a little teekeela.”
She frowned. “Where did you say you were from again?”
“I didn’t. A long way from here.”
She laughed. “Isn’t everyone? It’s like they say about Fargo. No one’s from here.”
She led him down the runway, and they left the shops and restaurants behind. Soon they entered what he guessed was the residential wing of the station.
She turned down a side corridor and led him to a white door with the number 378 on it. “Sorry, no view here. It’s all they provide for working stiffs like me.” She palmed open the door and gestured for him to go inside. “I took the job to save up some money to send home. My mother’s been sick.” She kicked off her shoes. “Mira, some music?”
Something soft and soothing filled the room.
“Can I get you something, mijo?”
“Sure. Water is fine.” He glanced around. The walls were regulation white, but the gray sofa was covered with a colorful blanket.
“One water coming up.” A part of the wall shimmered, revealing a small cubby with a clear glass of water.
“Thanks!” He took a sip. It was really cold, and he almost gagged. He set it down on the side table to warm up.
“Give me a minute while I get out of my work clothes.” She disappeared into a back room.
“Sure.” The table held a beautiful arrangement of flowers like he’d never seen before. They had long green “beaks” and orange plumage that made them look like exotic birds. He touched them. They felt synthetic, but they were still beautiful.
“You been up long?”
“Up?”
“From downworld. You’ll get used to the slang eventually.”
He nodded. Makes sense. “Just arrived, actually.”
She reappeared, wearing a tight turquoise skirt and blouse that really would have done it for him if he’d played on her team.
“You… sure it’s safe? Bringing a stranger home? What if I was a criminal?”
She laughed. “Where are you gonna go?”
“Good point.”
“Please, have a seat.” He sat on her colorful couch, and she sat in the
armchair next to it. “So what brings you up?”
He bit his lip. “I was looking for you, actually.”
She froze. “Who are you?”
“I told you. I’m Dax.” He kicked himself for sounding defensive. Wrong move.
“I think you better go.”
“Gloria….”
“I can call security.”
He put his head down. Geez, I suck at this. “I have to talk to Jackson.”
“I’m calling them now—” Her left hand approached her temple.
“Wait.” He held out his open palms to show he meant no harm. “Your name is Gloria Ramirez. You work at the Blue Moon Café. Your mother is sick, and you send money downworld to her, whenever you can. You’re dating Jackson Hammond, but you call him Jacky, and he calls you Glory when you’re alone together. You grew up in Fargo, and you hope Jacky will settle down there with you when you get married.” That was all he could remember of what Kiryn had told him. He hoped it was enough to convince her. And he hoped to Forever that in this part of this world’s loop, she and Jackson had already met and gotten serious.
Her hand dropped back down to her lap.
“Who are you?” she asked again, this time with less anger and more awe.
“I’m Dax. Your great-grandson sent me to save you all.”
KIRYN CLAMBERED down the stairs, taking them two at a time to reach the bottom as quickly as possible.
The end is coming.
He pondered the ominous words, no less so for having come from the beak of a black bird.
Had he arrived here just as this part of the inthworld was preparing to loop back to its beginning? The whole looping thing was still unclear in his head. As he understood it, each part of the inthworld represented a part of Jackson’s past, and when his time in it ended, so did the world. Somehow, these memory worlds had taken on a life of their own, and now they ran through their allotted time, and when that time ended, they looped back to the start.
He had no idea what would happen to him if he got caught up in such a loop.
Then again, he had no idea how to get out of one either.
Destiny! Kiryn called out, but there was no response. He couldn’t feel the link between them. He stepped out into the open air, his heart racing.
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