by R E McLean
“I have no idea what’s happening,” said Sarita, sounding displeased.
“Maybe Mike’s coming back,” said Alex.
“Let’s hope so.”
Sarita approached the console. “I don’t know how to work this thing.”
“You must do.”
Sarita turned to her. “What makes you think that?”
“You jumped, with Mike. To fetch me from Claire’s apartment. Mike’s no quantum physicist. I figure you’re more likely to work it out than he is.”
Sarita took a step back. “I’ve no idea. We need Nemesis or Madge.”
“Let’s call them.”
“It’s not as easy as that.”
“Why ever not?”
“Neither of them has a phone.”
Alex snorted. “Don’t be ridiculous.”
Sarita shook her head. “Think about it, Alex. They’re both of them as eccentric as a tanker full of frogs in leather jackets. And they work in a unit that’s hiding in a camper van. Do you think they want to take calls?”
“Surely Monique can get hold of them.”
“Monique is the last person they’d give their contact details to.”
“So we wait,” said Alex.
“We wait.”
“And we hope that Mike steps out of the Spinner.”
“Yup.”
“And that Schrödinger isn’t really dead.”
18
Please
The Spinner
1 April, 9:48pm
Mike stepped into the Spinner. It was just as he remembered it: blank, and white, and motionless.
He gave it a kick.
“Come on, stupid thing. Get me out of here, or they’ll turn me into Meow Mix.”
The Spinner said nothing.
“What about you?” Mike said, turning to Schrödinger. “Can’t you help?”
But Schrödinger was gone.
He poked his head out of the door, looking from side to side. There was no tartan-collar-wearing ginger cat. Instead, hundreds of cats, some injured, some missing patches of an ear or with cheeks adorned with long scratches, approached him. They’d stopped running; instead they were prowling toward him.
He was cornered.
He retreated into the Spinner. Schrödinger had been unable to come inside; maybe the other cats would have the same problem.
“Spin! Get me out of here!” he cried.
The cats advanced. He could hear them: no meowing or yowling now, but instead a low rumble, like the sound of his stomach when he’d been eating Thai food.
He stumbled back to the floor and looked around the Spinner again.
“Please!” he shouted.
The door to the Spinner closed. He put a hand to his chest and felt his heart pounding. He swallowed down bile.
The Spinner started to spin.
“Thank God,” he murmured.
It picked up pace. Mike held on to the floor, easing himself towards the corner where it met the wall. He knew he couldn’t hold onto anything; he had to hope that centrifugal force would be enough.
He closed his eyes and hoped it was taking him home.
19
Collar
MIU
1 April, 9:56pm
“Meow.”
Alex tore open the lid of the box. “Shrew!”
She grabbed her cat and enveloped him in a hug so tight she almost crushed him.
“Meow.”
“Sorry, boy. Oh, am I glad to see you.”
“Meow.”
“I know. What’s this?” She fingered the collar around his neck. “I didn’t put this there. Where did you get this, boy?”
“Meow.”
In the Multiverse, probably, Alex thought. She unbuckled it and shoved it in her pocket. She lifted Schrödinger to her face and gave him a hug.
“Meow.”
Sarita was watching, a smile on her lips. “It’s picking up,” she said.
“What is?”
“The Spinner.”
Alex turned to see that the Spinner was shifting. It wasn’t spinning, not yet. Instead, it seemed to be shimmering in and out of existence, turning hazy, then solid, then hazy again.
“Has it done that before?” she asked. Schrödinger pushed against her grip and she let him jump to the floor. He slunk off.
“Never.”
There was clattering as the doors burst open behind them. Nemesis flew in, followed by Madge.
“Jumping Jesuits!” exclaimed Nemesis. “What did you do?”
“We didn’t do anything,” said Sarita. “It started doing this all by itself.”
“That makes no sense.” Nemesis threw himself at the console, pressing buttons and tweaking levers. “It has to stop.”
Madge was pale. She hung back, staring at the Spinner, her eyes wide. “Not again,” she said.
“What?” asked Alex. “Have you seen this before?’
Madge nodded. A tear ran down her plump cheek. “Just once.”
Nemesis shook his head. “I can stop it,” he muttered. “I have to stop it.”
The Spinner gave a clunk and everything stopped. Nemesis fell back.
“There,” he said. “Everything’s all right.”
Madge breathed out heavily. “Thank Einstein.”
Alex shifted closer to her, uneasy at the look she’d seen on her new friend’s face. “Are you all right?”
“No, my dear. I’m scared.”
Alex took her hand.
“Where is he, dear?” whispered Madge. “Why hasn’t he come back yet? Who’s taken him?”
Nemesis flicked another switch. “It’s all disabled now, Madge. Stop worrying. We’ll get him back.”
He went to the outside door, which was still hanging open. Alex heard meowing outside; Schrödinger, heading home. Or seeking out food. She considered going after him but figured if any cat knew how to find his way home, it was him.
The Spinner clunked again.
“No!” Nemesis shouted. “I turned you off. Pizzle!”
He hurled himself at the machine again, hands racing over the dials and switches. “Madge, help here!”
Madge shuffled toward it, looking at it like it was a tiger about to bite. She reached out and flicked a switch.
A light came on and the Spinner began to move. It blurred as it span, faster and faster.
“What did you do?” Nemesis asked Madge.
“Nothing. I turned it off. Don’t you look at me like that, young man.”
“Err, I suggest we all stand back,” said Sarita.
Alex retreated with her friends, staring at the Spinner.
“This isn’t good,” whimpered Madge. “This isn’t good at all.”
Murder in the Multiverse, Book 1 of the Multiverse Investigations Series
Alex Strand is finding her way as the newest and most ginger member of the University of Berkeley Physics Faculty.
But when the murder of reclusive internet billionaire Claire Pope proves insoluble, she’s recruited to the top-secret Multiverse Investigations Unit.
Hidden in the parking lot of San Francisco Police HQ, the unit investigates murders by sending officers to parallel universes in which the victim is still alive – for now.
Alex needs to prove herself. With the help of the mysterious Sarita Jones, the bizarrely-bearded Sergeant Mike Long and Schrödinger the quantum cat, can she track down the murderer, prevent the same crime from happening in a parallel version of San Francisco, and get back before closing time?
Buy Now
A Rift in Space & Crime, Book 2 of the Multiverse Investigations Series
Mike is missing – can Alex find him?
Alex has returned in one piece from her first multiverse investigation. She’s caught the criminal, kept the crime from happening twice and made it back for closing time.
But there’s one problem. Mike Long, her new partner, is missing.
Can Alex find Mike in an unexplored universe, keep the mysterious rif
ts in spacetime from turning San Francisco into a puddle of goo, and live down the embarrassment of kissing Sarita after their last jump?
A Rift in Space and Crime follows on immediately from this story, Lost in the Multiverse.
Buy ‘A Rift in Space & Crime’ Now
Read about Schrödinger’s Exploits - free and exclusive
Schrödinger is a very special cat. When he gets in his box, you never know if he’ll be alive or dead. He’s worked out how to do quantum tunnelling by slamming into walls. And he has a stomach that’s so capacious he believes it has a portal to a belly in another universe.
Find out how Schrödinger spends his year by reading DIARY OF A QUANTUM CAT.
Only at multiverse-investigations.com/diary.
Copyright © 2020 by RE McLean
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.
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