by R E McLean
She looked down at Pip. He had his eyes closed and was moving his fingers across the ground almost as if testing it was solid.
“Home,” she said.
He looked up. “Home.”
She sniffed. The air was heavy still, molecules landing like sparks on her skin. The air in the last place had been thin and clear, almost as if it was filtered. Here the air felt like soup.
“Please,” she said. “You made a promise.”
He nodded. He pushed himself upright, his legs trembling.
She listened for the sound of the Bay. It couldn’t be too far away, if what that woman had told her was correct.
As her eyes adjusted, she noticed how bright the stars were. The sky glowed with the trace of the Milky Way, spinning over their heads, oblivious to all the worlds she’d seen.
She was going to listen in Science class when she got home. She was going to learn about stars, and constellations, and physics. She tried to imprint the shape of the sky on her brain, so she could compare it later.
Checking he was following, she started to walk.
65
Butterfly
Alex ran onto the roof. The lights of Silicon City glowed around her, making it almost as bright as a full moon.
She looked up. The sky was overcast and there were no stars visible. Somewhere in the clouds she heard the hum of a vehicle passing.
She’d seen Pip and Lacey vanish through that portal but she had no idea where they’d gone. Which world should she jump to?
She approached the building that housed the Spinner.
Mike crashed through the doors. “What are you doing?”
“Going after Lacey, what do you think?”
“What’s the point, until we know where he took her? They could be anywhere.”
“We have two choices.”
He shook his head. “No. When I say anywhere, I mean it.”
“So you think Pip took Lacey to yet another world?”
He shrugged. “Madonna might be able to tell us.”
“He didn’t.”
They turned to see Madonna emerging from the stairwell.
“How did you get here so fast?” Alex asked. “Wait, are you really here or are you in the Hive?”
“I’m really here, sweetheart. I’ve got a top of the range habvehicle. It gets me about pretty quickly.”
“Of course you have.”
“So you want to find Lacey.”
“Yes. Where did they go?”
“They’re safe. Don’t worry.”
“I’m not going to stop worrying until Lacey is safely back with her parents.”
“I think you underestimate her.”
“How so?”
“I think she can get herself back to her parents. She demonstrated it, in that jail cell.”
“What did she say to you? What did you offer them?”
“You know that. I told Pip he could create one anomaly. The two of them had to decide together what that anomaly would be.”
“And?”
“Go home, Alex. Curl up with your marvelous cat.”
Alex gritted her teeth. “He’ll do fine without me.”
“Are you sure? Do you even know which world he’s in, right now?”
Alex thought of Schrödinger appearing in Point Zero. “He’ll be fine.”
“Glad you think so. But I don’t want him causing any trouble.”
“How can a fat ginger cat cause trouble?”
“If chaos theory says a butterfly flapping its wings can cause a hurricane, what do you think a fat ginger cat tripping all over the multiverse can do?”
“Madonna, you’re trying to distract me.”
Madonna shrugged. “All I’m saying is keep an eye on the things close to you. Let’s send you home.”
“Is that where Lacey is? Did Pip create a portal to San Francisco?”
“No. Sorry.”
Alex felt her heart sink. “Then we need to get to Point Zero. Mike?”
“Yeah.” Mike looked tired. Alex reminded herself that he’d been stuck in Point Zero for days before she had arrived.
“OK,” she said too Mike. “I’ll get you home, then I’ll be back.” She turned to Madonna. “I’m not giving up on her.”
“You go, girl. Now, let’s get you in the Spinner.”
66
Meteor
Lacey ran ahead, not caring how close Pip was now. She could see it, a hundred yards in front. Fisherman’s Wharf.
Above them, a shooting star raced across the heavens.
“It’s changed,” she said.
Pip caught up, panting. “What has?”
“The sky. It’s lost that red tinge.”
He looked up and shrugged. “Happens.”
She shook her head. “I think it’s a sign.”
“Where to?”
“Not that kind of sign. A sign that things are going to be OK. With you and your family.”
“I killed my brother.”
“I saw the look in Jackie’s eyes. She still loves you. And you don’t know that you killed him. This place has habit of changing things. He might be a giant tortoise by now.”
Pip snorted. “Hope not.”
She took a few paces back and stood in the spot where she’d first arrived. She could feel the breeze from the water on her back, buffeted by that shed. The one where Alex’s partner had died and been reincarnated as a twenty foot rabbit. If that could happen, then Pip making up with his mom was a walk in the park.
“So?” she said.
He was gazing up at the sky, watching a group of flickering lights above their head. “Meteor shower,” he said. “Lots of them.”
“So?” she repeated.
He turned to her. “You’re wrong.”
She felt her skin tighten. “Wrong about what?”
“Family. Probably in Nevada by now.”
“Are things normal, in Nevada?”
He shrugged. “They said, after the quake. Came to evacuate people. Helicopters, trucks. Took months. Left us, cuz of what I did.”
“What did you do?”
“Got angry. With a marine. Yelled at me, I got mad.”
“What did you do?”
“Killed him.”
“With your powers?”
He nodded.
“That was mean of them, to leave you. And your family.”
“They woulda been OK,” he said. “Chose to stay. Wouldn’t leave me.”
She felt her chest lift. “There you go then!”
“Then I hurt Dad. He took Mom an’ Fred to Oakland. Pip too scared to follow.”
“You didn’t want to get too close to the epicenter.”
“No.” He hung his head. “Shouldn’t have gone yesterday.”
The breeze was lifting at Lacey’s back and she could smell decay. But it was still dark.
“I already told you, he might not be dead. You have to go find out.”
“No. Too much. I can’t.”
“You can, Pip. You saved me when those cats attacked me. You’re better than you think.”
“You see yourself in me.”
She snorted. “Don’t be dumb. Anyway, you made me a promise.”
His eyes darkened. “Don’t want to let you go.”
She clenched her fists. “You promised me, Pip.”
“Shouldn’t have.”
“We had a deal.”
“I’m lonely. Maybe you stay with me. That way, don’t have to—”
“Pip? Pip!”
Lacey looked round to see a shadow approaching. She cast around for a weapon but there were none.
Who was it? Alex?
“Leave me ‘lone!” Pip cried.
The shadows came closer. Lacey tried to gauge from Pip’s face whether they were a threat. He was crying.
She took a step forward.
“What is it?”
“Pip, son. Please let me talk to you.”
Lacey let herself breathe again. �
��Jackie?”
“The one and only. Where have you been? I’ve been looking all over for you?”
Lacey turned to her. “How’s Fred? Is he…?”
“He’s alive, thank God.” Lacey formed a cross on her chest. “Phil’s spitting feathers. But he’ll be alright.”
“How?”
“The effect wore off as soon as Pip crossed the bridge. Don’t ask me why. Nothing about this city makes any sense.”
“No.”
Lacey turned back to Pip. “See? She’s come for you.”
“If I go back there, Fred will die!” he cried.
“It might not work like that. You have to try.”
“Lacey. Please stay with me. Only person I won’t hurt.”
She folded her arms across her chest. “No. You made me a promise, and you’re keeping it.”
She stepped toward him. He looked past her at his mom.
“She loves you, Pip. And I want to get back to my own family.”
He said nothing, his eyes not leaving Jackie.
“Please?”
He curled his lip and raised a hand. She tensed, waiting. He started to twist his fingers, the movement spreading into his arms.
“Thanks, Pip. Good luck.”
He nodded. The portal lit up his face. It was streaked with dirty tears.
She stepped into the light.
67
Lion
The Spinner stopped moving. Alex grasped her knees, her legs shaking. How many times had she jumped between worlds in the last two days: four, five?
Mike was crouched next to her, groaning. His skin was pale and his beard had morphed into a thick, shiny mane worthy of a lion. She knew better than to point it out.
The door slid open. Madge ran in, her eyes wide.
“Oh, my dear!” she trilled, falling over Mike. “Michael? Michael can you hear me?”
He groaned. She turned him over and planted a kiss on his forehead.
“You’re home now. We’ll look after you.”
Nemesis appeared with a stretcher that looked like it may have been a relic from the First World War. The three of them lifted Mike onto it then struggled out with him.
“Where’s Sarita?” asked Nemesis.
“She stayed behind, for now. Why didn’t you tell me she was from Silicon City?”
Nemesis’s gaze fell to the floor. “She prefers to keep that quiet.”
“But from me?”
“I have to protect her privacy.”
She shrugged.
“Look, can you take care of Mike. I need to go back.”
His face fell. “Go back?”
“Yes. I don’t have Lacey, do I?”
He looked her up and down. “I can’t let you do that.”
“Why the hell not?”
“Ahem. Let’s not be rude.”
“Sorry.”
They stumbled into the central space of the MIU. Lights flickered reassuringly on screens.
“No,” she said. “I have to go back.”
“It will take all of us to get Mike out of here and to an ambulance,” said Madge. “We can’t have paramedics crawling all over this place.”
Mike was cradled in Madge’s arms. He was muttering, and some of the color had returned to his cheeks.
“Alright,” said Alex. “But then I have to go back.”
“Very well.”
The floor jolted into place and Madge beckoned them over. The three of them lifted the stretcher, Alex and Madge at either end and Nemesis in the middle. Mike grunted each time they moved him.
“Quickly,” Madge said. “He’s got quantum energy poisoning.”
Alex felt herself pale. “Really?”
Madge gave her an impatient look. “Yes. He needs urgent treatment. How did you not notice earlier?”
“We were… we were busy.” She hesitated. “Do I have it too?”
Madge frowned. “No, of course not. You had that suit you’re wearing.”
She looked down. She’d forgotten about the skintight suit. She’d even forgotten that Sarita had been wearing one too.
“You’re right.”
They hauled Mike toward the double doors. Madge barked out a command and they swung open. They shuffled through the parking lot, finally getting him to the gates at the back.
Madge muttered as Nemesis unbolted the gates. Outside, two guys in dark uniforms were waiting with a gurney. Alex helped transfer Mike to it, relieved she hadn’t dropped him. She hurried after them and watched the van speed off with Mike in it. It was unmarked.
“Who were they?” asked Alex. “They weren’t paramedics.”
Madge wiped a tear from her cheek. “They were ours, dear. Don’t worry.”
Monique rounded a corner.
“Alex!” she snapped. “What are you doing here?”
“I’m just about to go back. Lacey was taken to Silicon City, then back to Point Zero.”
Monique looked up and down the street. “Shush.”
“Sorry.”
“You’re not going back though.”
“Why not?”
“There’s been a disturbance at Fisherman’s Wharf.”
68
Penn and Teller
Alex drummed on the window of the police car, impatient to get to Fisherman’s Wharf. Monique sat beside her, talking into her cell phone in a low voice. Alex couldn’t make out what she was saying over the sirens that wailed from the roof.
They were at North Beach, only a few blocks away, when Monique finally placed the phone in her lap.
“What’s happening?” asked Alex.
“It sounds a lot like another portal.”
Alex looked at the uniformed officer in the front seat. She leaned in to Monique.
“Does he know? Or is it Penn and Teller this time?”
Monique frowned. “We’ve passed this one off as a freak weather event.”
“A freak weather event that someone disappeared into?”
“As far as the Press is concerned, she fell into the Bay.”
“So what will you say when she turns up again, right where she vanished?”
“We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.”
Alex pressed her fingers against the cold glass. She could only hope that she was right, that this was another portal, and that Lacey would be coming through it.
“Lieutenant?”
Monique was texting. “What?’
“Something I learned while I was in Silicon City. Something Sarita told me.”
“What was she doing in Silicon City?”
“Don’t you know?”
Monique held her face very still. “Know what?”
“You do know, don’t you?”
Monique looked away. “The less questions you ask, the better.”
Alex frowned. “Right. But we have to be careful.”
A sigh. “Careful of what?”
“If there’s a portal to another universe at Fisherman’s Wharf, how do we know which universe it leads to?”
Monique turned back to her. She glanced at the driver and lowered her voice. “You think it’s from Hive Earth?”
Alex shook her head. “No. Maybe. It could be from anywhere.”
The car pulled up and Monique wound her window down. A uniformed officer bent to look into the car. His eye rested on Alex.
“She’s with me,” Monique said. “Let us through.”
The officer looked at Monique. “Sorry, Ma’am.”
He lifted a barrier of police tape that had been strung across the road and the car crept through. On either side was a solid mass of people. Police, passers-by. Gawpers.
Poor Lacey.
The crowd thinned and the car stopped. Ahead of them, at the end of the pier, was a shimmering patch of light.
Alex felt her throat constrict. She ran toward it.
“I thought you said we should be careful!” Monique called after her.
“We should!” Alex called back. She c
arried on running.
The anomaly was in the exact spot that Alex had seen it last time. Alex felt her heart pick up pace.
Had Madonna lied to her? Had they come through to San Francisco after all? Or had Pip tricked her?
The patch swayed and lightened. She stood waiting, holding her breath.
It grew, swelling into a dark circle. Wind gusted out from it, and an unmissable acrid smell.
“It’s them!” she cried. “It’s Point Zero!”
The dark patch continued to swell. Behind her, she heard Monique barking orders, telling people to stay back.
She took a step forward.
A face appeared in the center. Alex squinted to see better. She saw arms, a body.
“Lacey?”
Lacey smiled. “Alex.”
“Where’s Pip?”
Alex took another step. The cold air was sharp on her face.
Lacey looked back. “He’s with his family.”
“Keep coming, Lacey. I’ve got you.”
Lacey looked back at her. She swayed. Alex reached out to her.
Lacey fell forward, staggering onto the wooden boards of the pier.
Alex leaned in and caught the girl as she fainted.
69
Moon
Alex stood to the side of her colleagues, baking under the flashlights. To her right, behind a long table, was Lacey. She was flanked by her parents. Ron Ashford, tall with the demeanor of a man used to succeeding in life, and Maya Brook-Ashford, lean with eyes that looked like they’d size you up as soon as they took you in.
Lacey sat between them, her hands in her lap. Her mother clutched one of them, blinking at the cameras.
“Are you happy to have your daughter back?” a reporter asked.
Dumb question, thought Alex.
“We’re over the moon,” replied Mr. Ashford. He glanced at his wife and his eyes crinkled. She narrowed her eyes at him. Alex wondered what Lacey’s home life was like. If they were really as bad as she made out.
She thought of Pip, alone in Point Zero. Was he back with his family? Would his father take him back, after the way he attacked his brother? Was Fred alive?