

The Shadow Worlds

Part One Of The SCI'ON Trilogy

By Nicola Rhodes

The Shadow Worlds. Copyright 2010 Nicola Rhodes

Smashwords Edition

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the written prior permission of the author.

## Talvas of Bellême

Around the middle of the eleventh century, at about that time when the bastard son of Robert the Magnificent (second son of Richard the Fearless, Duke of Normandy) was being born. He who was destined to become known to the world as William The Conqueror, there arose in Normandy a man, or a devil as you prefer, who soon became known as the most evil man who ever had or who ever shall live. His name was Count Talvas de Bellême.

The young William heard stories of this man that told of his evil practices. It was said that he would waylay innocent travellers in his lands and incarcerate them in his dungeons that he might torture them at his feasts, which he would give for his almost equally depraved friends.

He would cut out their eyes and slit their noses and perform other even more hideous torments for the amusements of his guests before doing his prisoners to death as slowly and painfully as possible.

When Talvas married, so the story goes, he captured over 100 people and at his wedding feast performed the most horrifying tortures that have ever been witnessed. And when his new bride turned from him in horror and begged him to desist, he punished and humiliated her before his guests for daring to show her disgust.

The young William met this man one day and remembering his father's advice to look fear in its face, he stared the evil count down until Talvas flinched and lowered his eyes, and it was he who was afraid of the young child. He muttered a curse on William saying. "You and yours will destroy my house".

William, when he became Duke of Normandy, did eventually curtail this man's power. But in the next century, the family rose again, this time in England. Lord Robert of Bellême, who some said was the re-incarnation of the evil Talvas himself, and who others said was, in fact, the very same man who had sold his soul to Satan in exchange for everlasting life on Earth, bought large estates in England and continued his ancestors' evil practices on the people of England during the reign of William II.

But when William Rufus known as the Red King died, his younger Brother Henry I "The Lion of Justice" succeeded him, and he routed Robert of Bellême and sent him back to Normandy to harry his elder brother Robert, who was Duke of Normandy at this time and a fool, unable to control his wily vassal. And the atrocities continued.

Thus Henry, taking advantage of a Normandy in turmoil, seized his brothers Ducal crown and routed the family of Bellême once and for all.

But Robert, whose pictures reveal an uncanny resemblance to the late Talvas, vanished most mysteriously at this time, and none know what became of him.

Since that time, many evil men have risen up in his image and performed similar atrocities even up to the present day. So even though the very name of Talvas de Bellême is all but forgotten, his evil continues.

## Chapter One – Kai and Ryan

'Kai!' There was a silence. Then, more impatiently, 'Kai! Where _is_ that boy? Yo _Kai_!'

The bushes rustled, and a dark tousled head appeared. 'All right – all right, keep your hair on!'

The modern colloquialisms that he had picked up from her still sounded strange in his mouth to Ryan. She could not help smiling, but she soon became serious.

'Kai, did you get away all right? I've been so worried. I wish you'd stay here with me.'

'Can't,' he said, giving her a cockeyed grin. 'I have to be on the spot, so to speak. You know that. I'm sure Mac would agree,' he added slyly.

She sighed; it was true. Nothing was more important than the mission – whatever _that_ was. Ever since she had been about twelve and Malcolm O' Connor had discovered that her childhood playmate came from – well another world, she called it (although Mac said she was oversimplifying it) and it had turned out that only she and Kai could cross over between them, he had been sending them on ever more and increasingly dangerous "missions". He had said that they must be "chosen" whatever _that_ meant. It had never occurred to her or Kai that Mac might know something that they did not, or that he was not who he said he was, or even that he was insane. But they had not argued with him. In fact, Ryan had been rather pleased to be so important, and so had Kai. And now that they were older and not so easily impressed, it was too late, because, chosen or not, there really were a lot of people who needed help in Kai's world and they did what they did – they helped people because not to, when they could, was unthinkable. They were trapped. Trapped by their own consciences.

'It's a good job too,' said Kai, referring to his earlier comment and breaking in on her thoughts. 'He's at it again.'

'The Count?'

'Yep, and I wouldn't have known if I lived _here_ , now _would_ I, eh?'

'Another baby?'

'He's got it in the palace as we speak.' Kai confirmed.

'What does he want them for?'

'Beats me. Not for any good though, I reckon, that's all we need to know, ain't it? We gotta get it out, before he...'

'Exactly,' Ryan pounced on his perplexed pause. 'Before he what?'

Kai wrinkled his brow. 'I dunno,' he said. 'But it can't be good. We know what he's like, and if he weren't up to no good, what's he want to kidnap it for?'

This was indisputable. The Count Kalas, who was a part of Kai's world and an absolute ruler of his little empire, had an evil reputation. He had, to Kai and Ryan's certain knowledge, been previously involved in ritual virgin sacrifices, had had several servants beheaded and was known to consort with witches who, Kai assured her, were, in his world at least, always up to no good.

It seemed strange to think now, that as a child, she had never realised just how different Kai's world had been, had never realised that it _was_ a different world at all. For such an idea would not have seemed as impossible to a child as it would to an adult. And yet, with a head full of Narnia and Tir Na Nog, still she had accepted that through the little gate at the back of the garden Kai lived in a home without electricity where he had no TV or washing machine or stereo. She had envied him, not having to go to school without ever wondering about it or thinking it strange. Nor had her mother, who had opined that the Lascalles family – Kai's family, must belong to some weird religion and had expressed some uneasiness about Ryan sharing his company.

'What kind of name is Kai anyway?' she had asked. 'What kind of name is Lascalles, for that matter?'

But Ryan had not known and did not care. Kai was her best friend, and if he did not have a TV, he had something better in his world, as Ryan was to discover – magic. It took her a while to see this as an advantage of his world over hers because, until she was nine, she firmly believed, like all small children, that her world had magic in it too. She just had not seen any yet.

Kai had grown up almost without her noticing it. It may have been because he still, at the age of twenty, was not very tall, at least not for a man, and he was lithely built, although wiry and deceptively strong. In a world without modern conveniences, people had to work hard just to eat and Kai had grown up on a farm. Or it may have been his large blue eyes, which gave his face a still childlike quality, and he still wore the same untidy haircut and peasant clothes that he had always done. In many ways, he had hardly changed at all. Had she known it, but she honestly never gave it much thought, she had not changed much either. Also twenty, she looked no older than fifteen, with her long fair hair scraped back in a ponytail and no make-up most of the time, only the changes in her figure indicated that she had grown up at all. She did not consider herself pretty, and in truth, she was not, but she was attractive. Her green eyes, long but not large, were secretive and seductive, her cheekbones high and her mouth sulky except when she smiled, when it seemed almost to stretch across her whole face. She was tall for a woman, the same height as Kai, and when her hair blew around her face, she resembled nothing so much as a Viking princess. This effect, though, was somewhat spoiled, when in her own world, by the constant wearing of faded jeans and a battered cowboy hat pulled low over her eyes.

This hat she tipped back now to look at Kai. 'Do we have a plan for getting in?' she asked him. 'We can't use the same as last time.'

'No,' he agreed. 'Too risky, they know us now.' He paused. 'Maybe I should go alone.'

'I'd like to see you,' she scoffed.

'What's that supposed to mean?'

'I mean I'd never let you do it, we're a team, aren't we?'

He looked at the ground.

'Well aren't we?' she persisted.

'I did have one idea,' he said, ignoring this. 'I think we should run it by Mac first.'

Ryan narrowed her eyes at this evasiveness, but said nothing for they were at the door, where Mac greeted them.

'Morning Kai, glad you're still in one piece. Hello sulky.' This last shot to Ryan, who scowled.

Malcolm O' Connor had been first a genial neighbour and later Ryan's stepfather, jovially referred to as "The Ogre" until she had learned to like him and discovered that his arias were worse than his battle scenes. She had been left in his custody when her mother had run off with yet another man who was, less jovially, referred to by both of them as: "That bastard, son of a bitch" and sometimes "That scheming tosspot."

Ryan had been surprisingly unaffected by her mother's desertion; in truth, she had expected it, and was closer to her stepfather anyway; she had been going on "missions" for him for three years already when her mother had left. Ryan had been christened Alyssa, and Ryan was her father's surname. When Malcolm had married her mother he had adopted Alyssa, and she became known as Alyssa Ryan-O' Connor, but she lost no time in dropping the "Alyssa", which she did not like anyway, and from the age of ten had been simply Ryan O' Connor. She was more than happy to be known by her stepfather's name, yet she had not wanted to drop her real father's name entirely, and she was not, as she said, a double-barrelled kind of person.

Kai had been left an orphan at the age of three, and been brought up by his grandfather, Matthias Lascalles, who had disappeared in mysterious circumstances two years earlier. It was only recently that Kai had begun to wonder if the same thing might not have happened to his parents. With the Count around, anything was possible.

* * *

Kai appeared around the corner clutching a bundle of rags, he gave the thumbs up sign and Ryan nodded, holding her finger to her lips. She pointed to the balcony that they had designated their exit route and indicated that the coast was clear. Kai nodded and began to move when they heard footsteps, the unmistakable tap, tap, tap, of the Count himself, in his absurd patent heeled boots.

'Shit!' mouthed Ryan, to Kai's great admiration, he still was not comfortable cursing himself, but he loved to hear her do it. It seemed so daring, all part of her fearlessness. She hesitated; Kai had the baby; it was up to her. She stepped out in front of the Count to his utter astonishment, and Kai ran for it, feeling a coward, but unwilling to face her wrath if he did not. The Count let him go.

He turned an evil smile on Ryan. 'I'll get him the next time,' he said as she levelled her revolver at him.

'It was a trap,' panted Kai. 'He did it to get us there, we've been causing him too much trouble lately, and now he's got her. He'll kill her for sure.'

Now that the baby was safe, Kai was feeling his burden of guilt, he saw it all clearly now, and he had just left her there. Just run away.

'Now calm down,' Mac told him. 'She's been in worse situations, you both have. How do you know _she_ won't kill _him_?'

Kai stared.

'What do you mean, he's a _vampire_?' Mac roared. 'A ruddy vampire! And you didn't think to _tell_ us this?' He was pacing the room in his fury. 'Oh my God.'

'I thought you knew,' mumbled Kai, shamefacedly. 'He's a Count.'

'What the blue-blazes does that have to do with it?' bellowed Mac. He paused as this sunk in. 'Wait a minute, do you mean to tell me that if you are a Count, you are automatically a vampire?'

'Of course,' Kai faltered. 'You didn't know that?'

'Of course not fool. How should I? Vampires don't exist here.'

'B-but that means that _she_ doesn't know.' Kai started to panic. 'She won't run. She'll try to fight, and he can't be fought – can't be killed. I left her there, and it's exactly the same as if I'd killed her.'

The door flew open, and a furious voice called. 'You could have _told_ me the bastard was a vampire.'

'Ryan! How? What? Oh thank God, how did you escape?'

'In a cloud of dust.' She grinned.

'Huh?'

'His dust, I staked him. You know?'

Kai shook his head perplexedly.

'Like Dracula.'

Kai shook his head. 'Who?'

Mac was laughing softly by this time. 'I think I can elucidate,' he said. He turned to Ryan. 'You killed him?' he asked.

'Yes.'

'And how did you know how to do that?'

'Well, books, TV, movies, you know.'

'And Kai, have you ever heard of a book about a vampire? A story book?'

'No.'

'Hmm, I'm not surprised. If vampires are real in your world and hold positions of power, such stories would be suppressed, naturally. You do not know then how to kill a vampire?'

'But _I_ did,' butted in Ryan. 'Because they _aren't_ real in our world, so we know how to do it – in theory anyway.'

'Vampires can be _killed?'_ stuttered Kai. 'But they're already dead.'

'Is much of your world under vampire control?' asked Mac, ignoring this.

'Almost all of it, I'd say.' He thought about this. 'But if what you say is true, then it need no longer be.'

'Maybe _this_ is our mission,' interrupted Ryan excitedly, 'to free Kai's world from...' She stopped suddenly, a new thought had occurred to her. She turned to Kai. 'You mean you left me there believing I had no chance?'

Kai's face burned. In his shame, he missed the note of compassion in her voice and instead invested the question with the accusation that he had been heaping on himself.

He turned away. 'I'm sorry,' he muttered. And then, 'I should go.'

He was out the door and flying up the path before either of them could stop him.

'What did I say?' said Ryan.

* * *

Kai was in the middle of a dusty cornfield when she found him. Two miles out from the farmhouse and wielding a scythe like a maniac. She waited for him to see her and meanwhile watched a glorious sunset. Eventually, hot and sweaty and tired out, he stopped and then he saw her. She was standing perfectly still in the twilight, in a long white dress. She was, as she would have said, incognito, her long fair hair shining in the pale light of a moon not quite out and still competing with the last rays of the sun. She seemed, in this unearthly light, to glow of herself, she really looked almost inhuman, angelic even, and quite beautiful. Kai stared at her as if he had never seen her before; he felt dryness in his mouth that had never before been associated with her presence, his heart was thumping painfully. He put it down to guilt.

'Kai.' Even the voice was not her own. She held out her hands to him, and he moved toward her slowly, his legs felt like they were full of porridge. He put it down to weariness.

'You really are a berk,' she grinned, and the world returned to normal.

Kai shrugged. 'I'm sorry I left you.'

'I know you are. That's all I meant you know. It must have been hard for you. I'm not mad, honest. Anyway, it all worked out for the best, didn't it?'

Kai shrugged again. 'I guess.'

'Let's get back to the house, it's getting dark.' She glanced up at the sky. 'I reckon there's a storm coming.'

'What do you mean? It's a beautiful night.'

'Nevertheless, I reckon there's a storm coming,' she said in a sombre voice.

Kai laughed. 'You should be on the stage – sweeping it.' He clutched a hand dramatically to his breast. 'Oh save us mere mortals from the deadly influence of a vengeful God,' he pronounced pompously in the best traditions of bad acting.

Ryan thumped him, laughing herself now. 'Shut up you cheeky toad.'

He dodged away and picked up the scythe, then walked toward her, brandishing it fearsomely. 'Ask not for whom the bell tolls...' he began in a lugubrious tone, when the sky was split by a terrible cry, at once both harsh and shrill and deadly cold.

Ryan started to look about her wildly, but Kai already had her by the elbow. 'Run!'

Wheeling about in the sky were several large shapes like birds or maybe dragons, except they shot no flame. Indeed they seemed almost like mere shadows or ghosts, but the terror of them was unambiguous enough. They ran.

'What are they?' gasped Ryan.

'Hupia,' he said, shortly, 'The Child Stealers.'

'Oh, but that's...' She stopped. After all, in _this_ world they had vampires and witches and God knows what else, why not the vampire ghosts who stole children in the night?

'We're not children,' she objected.

Kai looked at her scornfully through streaming eyes. 'Do you want to risk it?' he asked. 'Run! Besides...'

She nodded – vengeance! She put on speed. They reached the horse paddocks and Kai, who could ride, pulled Ryan, who, despite the cowboy hat, could not, onto the back of a large black horse, which was already snorting with terror at the approach of the Hupia. It reared and foamed at the mouth, then bolted. Ryan closed her eyes and prayed.

'They're gone,' said Kai, pulling the shutters closed. 'They know they can't get in.'

'Will they come back?'

'Not tonight. I should take you home.'

Ryan looked slyly at him. 'I'd rather stay – if you don't mind.'

'I don't mind he said ingenuously. 'But there isn't much to eat and only one bed.'

'Oh.' There was a strange lilt in her voice, which Kai did not register.

'No, no, I don't mind if you don't,' he said, 'but what about Mac? Won't he worry about you, if you don't go home?'

'Let him worry,' she said heartlessly. 'He's the one who's always sending me – us into dangerous situations. Do him good to worry for a bit.'

'Well, if you're sure. The hospitality isn't up to much.'

Ryan looked around. It had been years since she had been here, she realised. It looked the same as it ever did. The bare, dusty boards and sparse furniture, which looked so uninviting by day, actually looked rather cosy in the firelight. Besides, there were those – things.

'I'll get us some supper,' she said decisively. And it was settled.

'Bread and cheese? No wonder you're so thin.'

Kai screwed his face up. 'I told you there wasn't much.'

They sat companionably before the fire. 'Tell me about the Hupia.' She said.

Kai shuddered. 'I don't know much,' he said. 'They haven't been seen since my grandfather was a boy. He told me the stories that his father told him. I always thought that they were just stories to frighten children into behaving, like the bogie man. Then I saw them just recently, oh maybe a week ago. I saw them in the sky, and I knew. I remembered, but I don't know why they're back.'

'What are the stories?'

'Just that they take children who are out after dark – they disappear in the light. Some say they suck out their souls, but – who knows?'

Ryan shuddered. 'I believe it.' she said. 'Remember how cold?'

Kai nodded.

'What are you doing? You're not going to sleep on that chair?'

'Of course, you don't think I'd ask _you_ to sleep on it, do you?'

'I wouldn't anyway. All the springs are poking out. But the bed's big enough for two.'

Kai said nothing. He turned red.

'Oh don't be such a prude.'

'I'm not being a prude. How do you know you can trust me?'

Ryan was about to make some joke when she suddenly realised that he was serious – when had _that_ happened? Where was the boy she had known? She surveyed him from under her lids, and then smiled. He really was pretty cute, and in one respect at least, she trusted him more than she trusted any other person in any world.

'Maybe I don't _want_ to be able to trust you,' she told him.

There cannot, surely, be any man in any world anywhere who would refuse such an obvious invitation. They went to bed.

* * *

The surface of the water went cloudy. 'I think that's enough,' said the woman. 'This is not a peepshow. We know what we need to know.'

'Which is?' The man was disappointed.

'Why, that they need each other, that they must be separated,' she said, as if this ought to be obvious even to a mere man.

'I could have told you that,' he said scornfully. 'They work as a team.'

'They are more than that, as any fool can see,' she told him. 'No, take her away from him and he will be lost, he will waste time in searching for her, be distracted. By the time they work out what's going on, it will be too late.'

'Why can't we just kill them?'

'Fool,' she screeched. 'Haven't we already tried that? isn't that how we lost Kalas? Together they are too strong. They protect each other. Don't ask me why?'

'Love,' suggested the man.

_'Love_!' sneered the woman. 'And what would _you_ know about that?'

'Nothing from you, certainly,' said the man. 'Although we have fun, don't we?' he added hopefully.'

'Not now,' she told him. 'I have things to do.' She stirred up the cauldron, and a fuzzy image appeared. 'Why don't you watch those two for a while, if it makes you happy?'

She seemed somewhat chagrined as he settled down in front of the cloudy basin as if he was indeed, more than happy with the idea. She snorted and swept away.

* * *

The next morning could have been awkward, but as it turned out, there was not time to feel it. Some days just start with a bang – quite literally. Both were jolted out of bed.

'What is it?' panicked Ryan.

'Earthquake,' said Kai. 'Pretty bad one, I should go and check the horses.' He stood up and grabbed a shirt.

'The Earth moved,' giggled Ryan. 'Bit late,' she observed, still laughing.

Kai laughed too. They were like two silly children, and somehow all this made what had happened seem okay, no big deal, just another game. Kai strode to the door.

'Er, Kai.'

'What?'

'Trousers.'

He looked down at his bare legs, raised his eyebrows and said. 'What for? The horses don't care.' Then they fell about laughing again.

'Primrose has a broken leg,' he called, when he strode back in, 'but the others are okay. She'll have to be shot.'

There was no reply and Kai tried again. 'Ryan?' Where are you? C'mon it's the way of the world. Don't sulk. I can't afford a lame horse. Ryan?'

It did not take long to search the small cottage; she definitely was not there. No note. She would not leave without letting him know, would she? He was doubtful about this, circumstances being what they were. It was possible that she had decided not to face him this morning after all. And yet... no note? It was not like her. Besides, she had been fine when he left, hadn't she? He looked outside. There were no footprints in the dirt except his own. That settled it – she didn't fly out of the window for God's sake. So, something had happened to her. Another mysterious disappearance. Only this time he had an ace up his sleeve. Alive or dead he _would_ find her.

## Chapter Two – Johnny And Jez

Johnny Hammond was sitting, as usual, at his computer screen playing a game of horrible complexity and violence. He leaned back in his chair and yawned surveying the screen through sleepy, half closed eyes, his hands moving the joystick with a remarkable speed and dexterity that seemed unconscious and almost unconnected with him. He paused the game momentarily to brush his untidy blonde hair out of his eyes, causing his mother, who had been standing behind him for God knows how long, to say. 'I do wish you'd let me cut that lot.'

Johnny resumed his game without acknowledging this remark, which was repeated so often that it was doubtful that he even heard it anymore. Like so many of his mother's remarks, it was just so much background noise.

'And turn that thing off now,' she resumed after picking up a number of items from Johnny's bed and straightening the rumpled sheets. 'You have a visitor.' She pursed her lips as she said this although Johnny did not see it, he heard it in her voice. He grinned at her way of putting it. It had to be Jez, whose name Johnny's mum refused to utter and whom she disapproved of for reasons that Johnny had never been able to get out of her.

He waved a hand offhandedly without looking round. 'Okay, send her up then,'

_'Jonathan Matthew Hammond!_ ' his mum sounded scandalized.

Johnny winced; his mother had placed this embargo on Jez visiting his room at the age of fourteen, an act which, at the time he had found extremely mystifying, although Jez had seemed to understand it and find it highly diverting. How could he have forgotten? Still...

'Oh for God's sake mum,' he snapped, pausing the game to turn round and face her. 'I've been friends with Jez, since I was three, what _exactly_ do you think I'm going to do to her?'

The effect of these words was immediate. His mother blushed a deep crimson and turned on her heel and marched out of the room.

Johnny sighed and turned back to his game, he felt a bit guilty for embarrassing his strait-laced mother like that, but honestly, he was seventeen now, old enough to be trusted surely? Besides, well... _Jez?_ It was ridiculous. Okay, so she was _technically_ a girl, he supposed, but to Johnny she was just Jez. Annoyingly clever, slightly paranoid, incredibly bossy and the best friend he had ever had. Besides which, she had a boyfriend, a lanky college student whom Johnny got on very well with whenever they met, although he had had a little trouble at first coming to terms with the idea that someone else apparently _did_ see her as a girl... Too weird.

But Johnny's mother had always been like this, overprotective and overbearing. It was understandable, she had lost Johnny's father shortly after he had been born, and Johnny was all she had left, she would never remarry. John Andrew Hammond had been, according to his widow, the perfect man, reproduced again in his son, who she never ceased to marvel at. That _she_ , plain Mary Collins, that was, should have such a son. It was amazing really that Johnny had turned out the way he had. With such devotion and eulogistic admiration showered on him from his earliest years, one would have expected more arrogance, more vanity. But Johnny had the great gift (or curse) of seeing himself as he really was, and he accepted his mother's adoration with the same detached serenity as he accepted criticism from others, and remained, for the most part, aloof from the opinions of others.

The screen suddenly boomed "GAME OVER!" bringing his attention back to it with a jerk. He thumped the desk in frustration.

'Lose, did you?' came an amused voice from behind him.

'Nope,' said Johnny, spinning his chair around. 'Won again, and I wasn't even trying. Jesus, I wasn't even _concentrating_. They make them too _easy_.' His voice rose to a plaintive howl. He turned to a tall red haired girl leaning with her arms folded and legs crossed in the doorway of his room, a sardonic smile stretched across her wide mouth.

Jezebel Basserié, surely the most unfortunately named child in this millennium, even including the children of rock stars, movie stars and flower children. There cannot be many little girls who would have given up their best Ballerina Barbie doll to be called Tinker Bell or Moon Star.

'They don't know they're born,' she would sigh.

Her mother, a distracted wispy woman, who only seemed to be half in this world at her most lucid moments, had apparently read the name in a book and thought it pretty. No doubt, the book had been called "The Most Infamous Women in History" or something along similar lines, but Mrs. Basserié could not be expected to have realised that, she probably had not been reading the book at all. All her actions, reading, knitting watching TV even doing the housework, were more in the nature of an affectation than genuine activity. She pretended to do things. It was apparently quite something to see Mrs. Basserié wandering about her house with a duster in her hand and a distracted air, polishing the cat and anything else that came within her reach. Johnny had never seen this, although he had, when younger, made various and sundry forays to the house at unexpected hours in the hopes of catching a glimpse of this or something equally funny. Jez herself was wont to say that it was a miracle that her mother had spotted the name at all in the book that she was not reading. Johnny thought it a lucky thing that she had not been reading the Bible at the moment of uncharacteristic comprehension, Jez might have ended up being called Kerrenhappuch for example or Methuselah and how would you shorten _that_? It was pointless for a horrified Jez to say that Methuselah had been a man.

'What difference would that have made?' As Johnny pointed out.

Jez was also an only child, and for a similar reason to Johnny. Her father had left before she was born. Probably he could not take any more of Jez's mother's unhinged behaviour. Even Jez could not blame him for that.

Jez herself had inherited none of her mother's airy-fairyness; she was a sharp as a tack, in more ways than one. Many people found her shrewd observation and acid tongue disconcerting. She did not, for instance, fail to notice the slightly guilty start that Johnny made as he turned to face her. 'I was just coming down,' he said.

'S'okay,' she said. 'Your mum said: "He said you're to go upstairs, HMMPH".'

One advantage of Jez's talent for precise observation of others was that it made her an astonishing mimic. This last sound, somewhere between a snort and a sigh, had been uncannily like a noise Johnny's mum was wont to make whenever Jez's name came up.

Johnny laughed. 'Don't.' he said. 'She's a good egg really. She's just got a blind spot where you're concerned.'

'Don't I know it,' snorted Jez. 'And yet,' she continued in a dreamy voice. 'What's in a name? Would not a Skunk Thistle, by any other name, smell as foul?'

But Johnny was staring at her with a horrified expression on his face. He clutched his heart dramatically and pointed at Jez.

'But – But,' he spluttered to her utter astonishment. 'How can this be? This must not be, oh the horror, you – you're a-a _girl!_ Oh woe, woe, the disgrace, the shame. There's a _girl_ in my room, whatever shall I do? Call the village elders.' He burst out laughing, and Jez leapt on him and pummelled him.

'You rat bastard,' she said. 'You really had me going for a minute there.' Then she became thoughtful. 'So that's what it is, is it? She thinks I'm going to corrupt her little boy?' She gave him a mischievous glance. 'Would it help, do you think, if I told her you'd already _been_ corrupted by Helen Webster in eleventh grade?'

'Don't you dare,' said Johnny seriously, 'she might kill her.'

'She might, yes.' Jez gave the impression that at least, as far as she was concerned, this would not constitute a major tragedy.

'Bitch,' said Johnny lazily.

'Pig,' responded Jez automatically.

'Cow,'

'Dog.'

'Okay, okay, whatever. What am I going to do about these damn computer games?'

'Dunno. Have a lobotomy?'

'What are you talking about now, you dim-wit?'

'You know, to make you stupider, if that's possible?'

'Hur, hur, hur.'

'Well, we could go down to the arcade, they've got these new VR games in. Apparently they're really good. Might be a bit of a challenge.'

'Might be, I suppose.' Johnny did not sound convinced.

'Anyway, I think I can hear your mum coming up the stairs with tea and sandwiches. You know in case we're _hungry_.' She winked outrageously at him.

That clinched it. They went out.

Johnny was irritable as they trudged along the high street towards the large games arcade.

'Why did you have to bait her like that?' he growled moodily. 'Like it wasn't bad enough that she caught us on the bed.' He brushed his hair back and forth across the top of his head until it was standing up in all directions, a sure sign of agitation.

Jez reacted irritably. 'We weren't doing anything,' she snapped testily. 'Ugh, as _if_.

Johnny grinned despite himself. 'Oh yeah? _Thanks_!'

Jez waved a hand dismissively. 'You know what I mean,' she said. 'I mean you're like my brother or something, it's just gross that's all.'

Johnny shrugged and opened his mouth, but Jez overrode him. 'Maybe I'm just sick and tired of the way she always...' She trailed off pulling an expressive face.

Johnny nodded understandingly and reached into his jeans pocket to withdraw his cigarettes. He offered her one, more as a gesture of conciliation than anything else.

She shook her head. 'I'm trying to quit,' she said. 'Pete doesn't like it. Besides, they cost a fortune.'

'Free ones don't,' argued Johnny lighting one up for himself. 'Go on, have one. It'll calm you down. Anyway, since when do you let your boyfriends push you around?'

'Being considerate of someone's feelings isn't letting yourself get pushed around,' said Jez, but without much conviction. She shrugged and took one after all. 'What would mummy think of you now?' she teased him.

They lounged against a telephone box in companionable silence for a few moments. A few girls turned to stare at Johnny as they passed. Even with his baggy jeans and untidy haircut, he gave off an aura of casual elegance that few could emulate, flicking his cigarette ash lazily and smiling remotely, apparently into some unfathomable distance.

Johnny and Jez ignored the girls. They were both used to this; it always happened, as did the incredulous looks at Jez and the occasional mutterings of. 'What's _he_ doing with _her_?' Jez had used to find this behaviour hurtful when she was younger, but nowadays, more secure in herself, it was merely food for amusement. Johnny, on the other hand, still found it profoundly irritating, especially the giggling, which he had taken personal exception to at one time until Jez had explained it to him. 'They giggle because they fancy you,' she had said, 'God knows why,' she had added, with just a trace of bitterness in her voice, comparing her own gangly awkwardness and long freckled face with Johnny's lean graceful physique and perfect Grecian features.

But that had been several years ago. Now she was statuesque, and her freckles had submitted to an onslaught of determined potion application and had finally surrendered (not without a fight) and were almost all gone leaving her with skin that was almost translucent, giving her an somewhat spiritual look, and revealing her cat-like amber eyes. She would never be conventionally pretty, but she was arresting and had a grace of her own, and the cruel comments had grown less and grew more often, these days, out of jealousy, which was what she found so amusing. 'As _if!_ '

'I'm sorry about mum,' said Johnny eventually. 'She doesn't mean anything really, she's just...'

''S okay,' Jez shrugged, 'It's not as if she's the only one.'

Johnny sighed. 'Oh she's going to give me hell when I get home.' He laughed ruefully.

'Tell her I put a spell on you,' suggested Jez.

'That one stopped working when I was twelve,' Johnny told her.

_'What_?' Jez was outraged. 'You dung-heap, you _didn't_?'

'The first time she caught me smoking,' he admitted. 'Well she already didn't like you, so...'

'So, you made it ten times worse – thanks a lot.'

'Sorry,'

'Oh never mind, let's go.'

'I've already beaten all the games they've got,' said Johnny. 'Why don't we just go to the park?'

'I told you. They've got new stuff, virtual reality and all that. It's supposed to be really good. Under new management I think.'

'Oh okay,' said Johnny casually enough, but his eyes gleamed with anticipation. He loved a new challenge.

The arcade was indeed under new management judging from the elaborate façade that had been tacked up over the old grubby sign and the surly looking bouncers that now flanked the entrance. Johnny recognised them, and his heart sank. Stanners and Briggs, the biggest bullies at Johnson Lane High, it was just the sort of job he would have expected them to take, had he ever given it any thought. Although, it was mildly surprising to him that Stanners, at least, was not in prison by now.

He pushed Jez protectively behind him instinctively and whispered. 'Look who it is.'

Jez looked. 'Okay,' she sighed. 'Let's go.' They would never get in with those two gorillas on the door.

They turned dispiritedly to leave, but it was too late, they had been spotted.

'Look who it is,' said Stanners, in unconscious imitation of Johnny. 'It's lanky Lulu and the pretty boy.'

Johnny clenched his fists and ignored them. He carried on walking away, but Stanners had moved in front of him and was blocking his way.

'Where do you think you're going?' he jeered. 'Running home to mummy?' Johnny's overprotective mother had been a well-known figure of fun at school. It was the wrong thing to say. Johnny's face went white with rage; he raised his hand to strike.

Jez grabbed his arm. 'No Johnny,' she pleaded. 'Let's just go – _please_.'

With an effort, Johnny controlled himself. He lowered his arm and allowed Jez to lead him away. Stanners, however, was not about to let him go so easily. He grabbed Johnny by the shoulder and jerked him backwards his arm raised to punch Johnny in the face. Johnny, however, had been expecting this. He ducked, spun round, grabbing Stanners arm as he did so and punched upwards at the large paunchy chin. Stanners staggered backwards. Johnny kicked, and Stanners went down, then Briggs jumped on Johnny's back as Stanners got to his feet.

The next few seconds were a blur. Johnny had moved so fast it was impossible to see what he had done. What _was_ apparent when he stood back was that both Briggs and Stanners were lying on the pavement in a bloody, mangled heap, while Johnny had barely a hair out of place. Apparently, as Jez had suspected, the bullies had short memories. Johnny had taken Hap-Kido lessons since the age of nine and Karate since eleven and had achieved black-belts in both before he was fifteen. He had been forced to beat these two up once before in similarly spectacular fashion a couple of years before, and this was what Jez had feared would happen again. This was no school-yard battle; Johnny might easily be arrested this time. It was clear to anyone who had been watching, that Stanners and Briggs were no match for Johnny and the fight had attracted quite a crowd, peppered with the usual bunch of admiring girls, who would no doubt be prepared to swear under oath that Johnny had not touched the bullies. But there were plenty of other witnesses.

Still, he had only been defending himself, and there was still time to get out of here.

'Come _on_ ,' muttered Jez out of the corner of her mouth, tugging on Johnny's arm. 'Let's _go_.'

Johnny's face cleared as if he were coming out of a trance.

He shook his head sharply, 'Uh, yeah, yeah, okay, right okay.' And he allowed himself to be led docilely away.

Unfortunately, the terminally stupid Stanners chose that moment to stagger to his feet and chunk a piece of loose cobblestone at Jez as a parting shot.

He added insult to injury by yelling as he did so. 'Guess you have to do what your whore girlfriend tells you to, don't you pretty boy?'

Stanners, Geoffrey. IQ – less than ten anyway. Life expectancy – less than ten seconds. Jez summed up the situation in her head and moved with remarkable speed to hold Johnny back. Not fast enough. With a speed that seemed to defy the laws of physics Johnny kicked Stanners' legs from under him and pinned him to the ground. He restrained himself there, however, from doing further damage and hissed menacingly at his captive. ' _What_ did you say?'

Stanners whimpered.

'I can't hear you,' Johnny informed Stanners in ordinary tones.

'What seems to be the trouble? Ah, I see. You two again.' The voice came from a tall, thin well-dressed man who had emerged from the arcade. He looked down at Stanners and Briggs with an expression of the utmost contempt. 'What was it this time?' he drawled. 'Didn't like his face, hmm?'

Jez leaned forward. 'Johnny,' she hissed. 'Let him up, it's over.'

Johnny refused to loosen his grip. 'I'll let him up when he apologises,' he said. 'Maybe.'

'I'm s-sorry, sorry,' gasped Stanners.

'Not to _me_ ,' snarled Johnny impatiently.

'Sorry Jez,' muttered Stanners, flicking his eyes upwards, the only part of his head that he was able to move.

The tall, thin man had watched this scene without the slightest sign of interest. Now he addressed himself to his employees in a neutral manner, for all the world as if they were standing in front of him in his office and not lying, bleeding on the pavement.

'I'm afraid I'm going to have to sack you both this time,' he said. 'I really cannot have you attacking my paying customers for the sake of old grudges or amusement or whatever it is you get out of it. I have a business to run, if you must pick fights with all and sundry, you must do it on your own time.'

'I haven't finished here,' said Johnny suddenly. 'You can sack him _after_ I've killed him.'

The thin man raised his eyebrows at this. It may have been in amusement Jez could not tell, and then he recovered his poise. 'Very well then, I'll see him when you've finished with him. Good day.'

Johnny punched Stanners in the face again and then let him up. 'Okay, _now_ I've finished with him,' he said, getting slowly to his feet.

'Excellent,' said the man. 'I don't suppose you're looking for work, by any chance?'

Johnny could only stare blankly at him, still white faced and shaking with anger.

'No, I suppose not,' said the man, who was staring at Johnny with frank interest.

Jez misinterpreted this expression and drew her arm through Johnny's with a possessive air, just to make things clear. After all, it would not be the first time a well-dressed older man with a slightly effeminate air had shown an untoward interest in Johnny. The man noticed her gesture and gave her an amused look, which made her feel confused.

"You are very young" it seemed to say. However, the man continued to look at Johnny with avid interest.

'I do hope,' he said with a slight bow, 'that you will accept my apologies for this unfortunate incident and please make use of the facilities –.'

Johnny opened his mouth, shaking his head slightly.

'On the house of course,' continued the man smoothly, 'to make reparation for your inconvenience.' He bowed again, and this time the look he gave Johnny appeared to Jez to be almost – hungry?

Jez was always at her most observant whenever she was around Johnny, perhaps because she was always concerned about him (he was so unconscious of the effect he had on others, how it always invited strong emotion of one kind or another, either admiration or jealousy, and sometimes something more sinister than just admiration) but more likely because it was simply easier for her to observe others closely when all their attention was focussed on him, and it always was.

'The peacock and the peahen,' she thought ruefully.

Johnny, apparently noticing nothing unusual, grinned. 'Okay, thanks,' he said bouncing on his heels excitedly. He turned to Jez, 'I guess today isn't going to turn out so bad after all.' he said.

Jez narrowed her eyes but held her peace. As they were swept in the door Jez noticed again the man give Johnny that strange, hungry look. Her stomach jolted unpleasantly.

'I'd give anything to know what that old vampire is up to,' she thought, resolving to keep an eye on him.

Because that was what he resembled more than anything, a sleek, smooth, oily vampire, from his plain black suit, tailored neatly to his slender frame, to his jet black hair, slicked straight back from the forehead revealing a well-defined widows peak, and his neat moustache. All he needed to complete the picture was a cloak and a cane to twirl. And he had seemed uncomfortable in the daylight outside too, just like a vampire would. Jez realised that she was letting her imagination run away with her. Just because he was skinny, pale and mysterious looking, was no reason to... After all he couldn't help the way he looked now could he?

She looked again at him. Impartially, she supposed he was rather beautiful, much in the style of Johnny's own good looks, the same sharp cheekbones and elegant stance, that air of casual grace. Much older of course and of a more sinister cast, but still... she could imagine him casting a spell over the more impressionable type of teenage girl and she supposed that _had_ Johnny been inclined that way, he might have been attracted – but of course, he wasn't.

It was dark inside and determinedly high-tech. An oblivious Johnny was still bouncing excitedly on his heels as the man, who had introduced himself rather formally as Mr. Bellême, showed him round the new facilities, letting out the occasional 'Wow' and 'Cool!' while Jez trailed, apparently forgotten, behind them occasionally rolling her eyes towards the ceiling in tolerant exasperation.

They stopped in front of a large silver cylinder, which looked to Jez's untutored eyes, like nothing so much as a space age lift.

'Our latest virtual reality console,' said Bellême with a flourish as the cylinder spun to reveal a hollow tube inside, with space for a person to stand inside and, apparently, nothing else.

Johnny looked nonplussed. 'Er...?' he said. 'How... um... what do you...?'

Bellême laughed showing bright sharp white teeth. Jez gave an involuntary shudder.

'It's quite simple,' he told them, now including Jez in the conversation. 'It's all automatic, done by lasers you know, all you do is step inside and close the tube, then just follow the instructions. 'Oh it's quite safe,' he assured Jez, whose eyes had widened at the word "lasers".

Johnny looked as if he was going to faint with delight. 'Can I try it?' he begged. 'Can we both?' he indicated Jez. 'Will we be able to see each other?'

'Oh yes,' Bellême assured him, 'if you both go into the same world you can – play together.'

'The _same_ world?' gasped Johnny. 'How many are there?'

Bellême gave him an aloof smile, which Jez did not like somehow.

'Oh, quite a few,' he said quietly. 'Yes quite a few indeed.' And then he muttered something under his breath, which sounded, but _couldn't_ have been, to Jez like: "Countless millions"

'What do you mean, "Worlds"?' she demanded nervously.

'Oh Jez,' said Johnny, 'you're hopeless. It just means the artificial worlds in the machine, it's just jargon, you know?' He laughed. 'Haven't you picked _anything_ up from hanging around with me all these years?'

Jez relaxed suddenly. Suddenly all her fears seemed rather silly, and Mr. Bellême caught her eye sardonically. He seemed to understand exactly what she had been thinking, and his expression was one of unimpeachable respectability injured by unfounded suspicions, but forgiving nevertheless. "You are, after all, very young," it seemed to say.

'Right, right,' I knew that,' she said slightly defiantly.

Johnny was still laughing at her, and she felt slightly nettled. It was not often that he could make her feel stupid or uninformed, and she did not like it at all. However, this was his area not hers and she realised that he was just bubbling over with excitement, there was no malice intended; she doubted whether Johnny was even capable of malice. So, despite the fact that, between Johnny's amusement and the older man making her feel like a recalcitrant nine year old, she was headed for some serious sulking, she pushed it aside and forced a smile onto her face. This was partly pride. Never, never would she let this old vulture let her provoke her into behaving the way he evidently expected her to, and partly because she did not want to see the hurt disappointment in Johnny's eyes if she had turned on her heel and marched out of the arcade. She never doubted that he would follow her remorsefully. It never occurred to her that she was being ruthlessly manipulated through her own pride and her affection for her friend, just as he was being manipulated by his boyish love of computer games. By the time she realised this, it would be far too late.

She did, however, feel a flicker of unease as she caught a last glimpse of Bellême's face before the cylinder closed smoothly around her. He was looking intently at Johnny again, and the expression on his face she now recognised, not as hunger, but greed.

Inside the cylinder, it was pitch black, and a seductive female voice said. 'Mapping now, please stand absolutely still.'

Jez rolled her eyes. 'Oh honestly!' she said. However, she was too nervous to disobey as the laser beams played over her body. Then the lights came up, and she found herself standing, not in the cylinder, but in a large bare room. In front of her, was a screen apparently hanging in mid-air and beside her was Johnny still bouncing excitedly on his heels.

She turned in surprise. 'Oh!'

'Isn't it cool?' he said. He could barely contain himself; he was practically jumping up and down.

'Dork,' she told him amiably, but she was beginning to catch his excitement. They both walked toward the screen; it seemed the obvious thing to do. On the screen was a list of what were apparently the games:

DRAGON HUNTER - I PLAYER +

SPEED CHALLENGE - 2 PLAYERS +

VAMPIRE EPIDEMIC - 2 PLAYERS +

DON JON CHALLENGE - 2 PLAYERS +

NEOLITHIC NIGHTMARE - 1 PLAYER +

JURASSIC JUNGLE - 1 PLAYER +

SAMURAI QUEST - 2 PLAYERS +

CRASH AND BURN - 1 PLAYER +

SKY DIVING - 1 PLAYER +

RIDE THE RAPIDS - 1 PLAYER +

SCI 'ON

Johnny was looking at the screen in a slightly perplexed manner.

He ran his fingers lightly over the screen. 'Neo-whatsit...?' he murmured.

Jez shook her head decisively. 'Cave men,' she informed him.

'Oh. No then,' he agreed.

'What about "Don Jon Challenge"?'

'Oh yes, I can just see myself,' said Jez sarcastically. 'You been waiting for a chance to beat me up then, have you? I thought you'd have had enough of that for one day?'

'Okay then, what do _you_ want to do?'

'I'm not fussy really,' she shrugged.

'What's "SCI'ON"?' said Johnny frowning. 'That's weird it doesn't say how many players or anything, look.'

Jez yawned. 'SCI'ON isn't a game,' she said. 'It's a place. In the Bible, I think. I'm not sure.'

Thus, in this casual manner, she planted the idea firmly in Johnny's subconscious that SCI'ON was a place – perhaps even a _real_ place.

'I think you mean Zion,' he said.

'Isn't that what you said?'

Johnny shrugged.

'Oh well, you're probably right,' he agreed. 'Sounds dull anyway, what about "Speed Challenge"?'

'Sure, whatever.'

Johnny hesitated, his fingers dancing distractedly over the screen. 'Or... well, what _about_ this one?' he said, pointing again at SCI'ON.

'What about it?'

'Well... I dunno, maybe we should take a look, I dunno...' He trailed off.

'Oh make your mind up,' said Jez.

'Okay,' said Johnny, sounding a lot more decisive than he felt, 'Speed Challenge.' He put a hand out toward the screen and then pulled it back again uncertainly. He looked at Jez. 'It couldn't hurt just to have a look, right?' he said.

Jez shrugged; she was used to this. What Johnny really wanted, she suspected, was to try out all the games at once. Still he hesitated.

'Oh my God,' exclaimed Jez eventually. ' _I'll_ do it.' And she pushed the icon with an impatient finger.

Nothing happened.

She pushed it again. Still nothing. She grinned and shrugged. 'Guess now we know why that one wasn't certificated,' she said. 'It's not running yet.'

Johnny looked at the screen with a strange expression of mingled disappointment and relief.

'What's the matter with you?' asked Jez. 'There are plenty of others to choose from.

'I _know_ ,' snapped Johnny defensively 'I just... I dunno.' He shook his head. 'Never mind, okay? Let's just get on with it.'

Jez narrowed her eyes at him. He looked strange, flushed and feverish, although, for all she knew, she looked exactly the same. It was not exactly a normal environment they were standing in after all. But it was not like Johnny to get so agitated, and three times in one day was something of a record for the boy who normally took the words "laid back" to a whole new level. He was sweeping his hands back and forth over his hair again making it stand up like a bottlebrush. She wondered if he was coming down with something.

With a sudden jerky movement, he leapt forward to touch the icon. Nothing happened. Jez raised her eyebrows, this time in surprise. Johnny gave a strange half laugh and looked embarrassed.

'Thought it might be worth a try,' he muttered looking at his feet. Then he smiled and looked perfectly calm and normal again.

Jez felt a strange relief sweep over her. 'Yes, well if you've _quite_ finished,' she said acerbically

'Have I been acting like a bit of a prat?' he asked.

'Oh no more than usual.' Which was not exactly true, but it restored a feeling of normality between them better than showing her concern could have done.

Johnny could not explain the powerful feelings of curiosity that had been eating him up regarding SCI'ON. He had wanted to get in there more than he had ever wanted to do anything in his whole life – including Janine Ridley. But at the same time, he had been terribly afraid. Of what, he did not know, but once he had discovered that the door, so to speak, was irrevocably closed a great relief had settled over him. The matter was out of his hands.

Johnny was of that cast of mind that bounces back quickly. Never one to dwell on things, in less than a minute he was his usual cheerful self, the struggle of the last few minutes almost forgotten.

It was Jez who noticed that "SCI'ON" appeared to have been erased from the screen.

They decided on Samurai Quest in the end, after Jez pointed out that this was VR after all, and Johnny, although multi-talented in many ways had never yet beaten Jez in any kind of race either on foot, bicycle, horseback, motorbike or go-cart. Excessive speeds, which Jez loved, made Johnny nervous, although he would never have admitted this even under torture, except to Jez of course. The only time she had ever seen him really lose his poise completely was after he had been coaxed and bullied into taking a ride on a roller coaster. Jez had told a humiliated Johnny afterwards that she had never seen _anyone_ throw up so much, not even Duggan Macrewley after he had inadvertently swallowed a handful of frogspawn on the school science trip in fifth grade.

Johnny touched the icon first, and Jez had to hold back a cry of alarm when he suddenly vanished. Then she told herself that she should have expected that, and she got a grip on herself and touched the icon.

She caught up with him in a forest glade; he was standing under a tree just staring around him. The air was crisp, and it was _cold._ There were patches of snow on the ground here and there and through the trees shafts of sunlight broke, illuminating dancing motes of dust and Johnny's bright hair. Jez blinked and took a deep breath; the cold air filled her lungs. This wasn't _right_. It was too real. The forest was almost completely silent; only the sounds of distant birdcall and Johnny's breathing could be heard.

Johnny seemed to be having the same idea; he turned to her with shining eyes.

'Isn't it brilliant?' he asked. 'Dead realistic, don't you think?'

'Bit _too_ realistic,' muttered Jez, 'don't _you_ think?'

But Johnny did not seem worried, and she bowed to his superior knowledge of what was achievable in this area. Maybe the lasers...? She shrugged it off.

'So, what are we supposed to do?' she asked in a relatively calm voice.

'Oh, there are instructions if you ask for them... at least...' He looked around at a loss. 'Usually... um...'

'Did you ask?'

'Well normally there's... Okay, computer, er, what do we do?'

Silence.

Johnny shrugged helplessly. Then suddenly, the silence was broken by the sound of clashing swords and shouting. In the distance, but getting nearer, definitely getting nearer. And just then Jez caught her face on a branch as she whipped round to see where the sound was coming from, and gasped with the sudden pain, she felt her cheek gingerly with her hand. There was no doubt about it, she was bleeding. The noise was getting nearer.

'Er, Johnny...'

* * *

The thin man, known to Johnny and Jez as Bellême, was in his office. A small glass cubicle perched above the main floor of the arcade and sealed in with dusty Venetian blinds, a relic of the last owner and clearly unsuitable to the dignity of the present management. Which was, without a doubt, the reason for the somewhat incongruous nature of the inner furnishings, a sumptuous mixture of old oak furniture and damask curtaining, instead of the folding table and deal chairs that one might have expected. How it all fitted so comfortably into the space provided, was a mystery in itself.

Most mysterious of all was the centre of this small room. In a place where space was at a premium, someone had nevertheless scooped out a large dished hole in the floor. It was empty apart from a thin coating of ash. Any medieval scholar would have recognised it as an anciently styled fire pit. Particularly as there was an actual fire burning in it even now. The only problem was that there was no chimney above it.

Bellême withdrew his gaze from the flames which he had been watching with a ravenous intensity.

'Did you see, Stigers?' he said, clutching a smaller, stout, red-faced man painfully by the elbow. 'Did you?'

The smaller man winced and rubbed his elbow and said nothing, he merely nodded.

Bellême took no notice. 'He went straight for it,' he continued. 'He tried to get into SCI'ON.' He released the smaller man and began pacing his TARDIS-like office. 'I had a feeling about this one you know,' he said excitedly. His eyes were burning, not metaphorically but actually. If you looked closely, it was possible to see, in his eyes, two tiny orange flames. The one called Stigers was used to this, however. It always happened when his master got agitated.

'He may be the one. He _is_ the one. He _must_ be. Oh yes, yes, we've _found_ him Stigers, I am certain of it. Just look at him, will you? He reminds me of a young Adonis, remember him Stigers? Such a beautiful boy, such a shame. Ah it was a long time ago.' He smiled lightly.

Stigers was unnerved by all this good will. It was strange, to say the least, to see his master acting this way, almost like a human being. It gave him the confidence, however, to put a timid question, a hitherto unheard of liberty.

'He didn't get in though, did he Master?' he said tentatively, then stood well back.

There was no need, Bellême reacted quite mildly. He cuffed Stigers lightly on the back of the head, causing only minor contusions and no concussion at all.

'Fool,' he said, more as a matter of form than a strongly felt sentiment. 'He _can't_ get into SCI'ON from _here_ , how could I allow _that_? But he _tried_ , _and_ he is a warrior, a _reluctant_ warrior, an _unlikely_ warrior (I never saw a more unlikely) that is important Stigers.

'It would appear that those two brutes that I hired to guard my doors served a purpose, after all, in showing him to me. They might have come my way just for that purpose and no other.'

'Yes sir,' said Stigers dutifully. 'And the girl, Master?' he asked, encouraged by the success of his last foray into the unfamiliar region of question asking. Another idle cuff came his way as Bellême mused on the question.

'Ha, yes, the girl, I should like to... she has a quality about her that I have not seen since... and clever yes, certainly. She suspects me. Oh definitely a challenge that one. A girl to be tamed – broken. Not a girl to be taken lightly, a girl to be loved but not a girl to fall in love with, no. _He_ will not love her of course... If _he_ is a young Adonis then _she_ is Minerva. _She_ was a harridan,' he added reminiscently.

Stigers was used to this. His Master often talked in this way, in a kind of sinister shorthand. Stigers effortlessly, and from long practice, filled in the gaps and decided that the girl _would_ be going with the boy, which was what he had wanted to know. Now he just had to find out _where_ they would be going.

He glanced at the fire pit from where his Master had been using his "special talent" to watch the boy and his friend (he himself never saw anything but the flames) and felt a great surge of pity for them and for himself and for all people who came under his great Master's dominion.

## Chapter Three - Kai

Kai debated about whether or not he should go back to Ryan's world, to tell Mac what had happened, before setting off after her. Time was against this idea; on the other hand, Mac would worry if he did not. Of course, Mac would also worry if he _did_ , but at least he would know what it was he was worrying _about_ , which is always better than just general worrying. In the end, he compromised. He gathered his dogs together and picked the brightest to send through the gate with a message, the other two he would take with him to track Ryan.

He packed a few things quickly, some food and his rifle, although what use a gun would be against the Hupia he did not know. However, the land was lawless, and there were plenty of other, less formal, dangers out there. But few bandits would bother an armed man on horseback. After tackling the Count on his home ground, Kai felt more than able to deal with enemies that were mere humans.

Remembering the Count, Kai was struck with a thought. He took his father's sword and some sharpened fence posts and stuck them in his pack. Bandits might not be his only concern out there; the Count was by no means the only vampire in this part of the world.

He mounted his best mare, Diamond, and called his remaining dogs, two enormous wolfhounds.

'Huan, Goliath, come here boys, here now, find Ryan, find her.' He waved her abandoned cowboy hat in front of their noses and they capered around for a moment before putting their noses down and sniffing all around about them, whining and whimpering and pawing at the ground. Then suddenly Huan stiffened and let out a howl and raced away Northwards, Goliath following a second later. Kai put Ryan's hat on his head and pulled it low over his eyes – like she always did, and kicked the mare into action. 'Yah!' The mare broke into a trot, but just as Kai reached the fence, he pulled up suddenly and looked back wistfully, he had never left his home indefinitely before, and he had a moment of poignant regret. He had a strange feeling, that he would never see it again. Then he set his jaw and turned resolutely away to follow the dogs and find Ryan.

Some time later, Mac received a grubby note attached to the collar of a shaggy wolfhound. Anyone observing him as he received this communication, had they been aware of its contents, might have been surprised by his reaction. He gave a little smile, balled it up, and threw it into the fire.

'So, it has begun,' he muttered to himself, and he took up his gun and his hat, much as Kai had done, ' _I'm getting too old for this_ ,' and left the house. The dog followed him.

## Chapter Four – Virtual Reality

Johnny gasped when he saw the bright red streak of blood on Jez's cheek. For the first time, he felt uneasy. 'That's not possible,' he said uncertainly. 'Does it hurt?'

'Yes.'

Johnny flinched. The sounds of yelling and swords ringing was getting closer. He forced himself to keep calm. ' _It's only a game,'_ he told himself, ' _only a_ game _.'_

'Freeze game,' he said. The noise only got louder, and Johnny suddenly felt panic surging through him. He looked wildly about him. 'Run?' he suggested.

He caught Jez's hand and pulled her along. Stumbling over tree roots and through ditches, having their faces whipped by low branches, which drew blood. It was because of this, and the very real pain that it caused, that fear took them and drove them headlong and directionless, filled with a nameless panic until the sounds behind them died away.

Johnny stopped abruptly, breathing heavily. 'This is ridiculous,' he said. 'It's not _real_ , it's a game. It _can't_ hurt us.'

'Johnny, _look_ at me,' snapped Jez. 'I'm bleeding, and so are you.'

Johnny put his hands up to his face gingerly. 'Yes, but... it's not _real_. It just _can't_ be,' he said plaintively.

'I know,' she said, quietly. 'But I think it _is_.'

Johnny waved his hands helplessly 'It can't be,' he repeated.

'Help,' said Johnny, not as a plea, but rather, in the voice of one who had had a sudden inspiration. Out of nowhere, apparently, a wizened old Japanese man appeared in front of them. He bowed low, his long white beard touching the ground. 'I am here,' he announced. 'How can I help?'

Johnny laughed somewhat hysterically. 'Cool help programme,' he said

The little man bowed again. 'I do not understand this instruction,' he told Johnny slightly reproachfully. Even Jez laughed this time.

'See,' said Johnny triumphantly, 'if even the _help_ programme is this realistic, no wonder the game is so... well...'

'Realistic?' suggested Jez, relief flowing through her. _It_ was _just a game. They_ were not _going to die. So why was the pain necessary anyway?_

Johnny was busy getting instructions on how to play and how to avoid getting hurt. The pain was not mandatory apparently. It was just to inspire players to try harder. Usually only seasoned players played with the safety protocols off. Johnny, rather reluctantly decided, in deference to Jez, to play with the safety on, although, in future, if he came back alone, he definitely wouldn't. _This_ , he decided, was the challenge he had been looking for.

## Chapter Five - Mica

When Kai started slipping sideways off his horse, he reluctantly decided that it was time to stop and rest. He had been travelling for nine hours now without a sign of Ryan or her abductor or abductors. He had really been hoping that he would have caught up with them by now, but evidently, they had not stopped anywhere yet. Or perhaps they had stopped only for a short time before going on. He grudged the time he would have to spend resting and hunting food to keep going, but he would catch up to them sooner or later and it would be as well to be rested and fed when he did so. Not speed, but doggedness was what he had to rely upon. And he would _never_ give up.

The county he was in now was strange to him, being mostly wild forests behind and vast, empty plains ahead on the other side of the lake, both landscapes being sinister in their own way. And ahead, there were even, in the far distance, the tops of mountains. He felt truly far from home, when he saw them.

He tied Diamond up to a tree by the lake, where she could easily drink if she wanted to, the dogs too. And then he made a small fire, laid his cloak on the ground beside it, and lay down, too tired to eat. Off in the distance, he heard wolves howling. The howling of wolves often meant that there were also vampires at hand, and there was even the possibility that they were werewolves. But with Huan and Goliath nearby this did not worry him too much. He had slept in the open before with his dogs for company, although never in such a wild place as this, and wolves never bothered him when his hounds were with him. And, thanks to Ryan, he now knew how to deal with vampires. Besides, he was just too tired to care. He fell asleep to the music of the children of the night. Beside him, the mammoth form of Huan twitched in his sleep.

He woke early to find that he was no longer alone. Sitting across the burned out fire was a small scruffy looking child. It may have been either a boy or a girl, so bundled up in rags and blankets as it was, with just its skinny legs poking out in front. It grinned at him. Kai grinned back; he could not help it, and the child nodded causing its tousled dun coloured hair to tangle in its eyes and a single gold earring to glint momentarily in the sun.

'Hello,' said Kai, and the child shrieked with delighted laughter. Kai rubbed his head ruefully, wondering what the joke was. This was evidently very funny too.

'You'm a man,' announced the child. 'I tell them, in village, you'm a man, not ghast. You'm real man, I see you come, you come on horsey. Ghasts not ride horsies. I see you. They'm all stupid, all grown up stupid, say you'm ghast. But ghasts not speak like men.'

'What's a ghast?' asked Kai. But this just precipitated another gale of laughter. And Kai rubbed his nose thoughtfully.

'I Mica,' the child told him, 'I ten winters now, soon be big man, like father. You'm a small man. What you name?'

'Kai.'

'Stupid name,' said Mica, dismissively. 'My father name Akron, what your father name?'

'Jerai,'

The boy pupped his lips at this, as if he thought this too was a stupid name. 'You sleep out here all night?' he asked. 'Many wolves on plains, very dangerous, eat you and your horsey he, he, he.'

'Huan,' called Kai. 'Come here boy.' And suddenly the great dog bounded up from behind the horse. This seemed acceptable. The boy nodded.

They were interrupted by the appearance of a frowsy looking woman, in a long blue dress, covered by a cloak and, incongruously, an apron, suggesting that she had hurried out in search of the boy without paying much attention. She cuffed Mica and went off into a long stream of agitated gibberish, to which to boy replied in like, while pointing at Kai and dancing about excitedly.

Kai stood up awkwardly and addressed the woman in his own language, hoping that since Mica had a reasonable grasp of it, the woman would too.

'Excuse me,' he began. The woman glared at him. 'I am only passing through here,' he explained. 'I won't bother you. I'm sorry if I have trespassed here.'

The woman narrowed her eyes at him. 'You look hungry,' she said accusingly.

'I have food,' he assured her.

'You are as thin as a rake,' she said. 'You will come and eat with us.' It sounded like a command, but Kai recognised it as a motherly chiding. So might she speak to a nephew or a friend's child.

Mica was hooting again. 'He, he, he,' he chortled happily. 'Thin man, small man, very little man.'

The woman cuffed him again. 'Shut up you,' she said. 'I am sorry about this boy,' she said to Kai. 'He has no manners Just like his Da.' Which Kai took to mean his father.

He decided to take up the offer of breakfast. It would help him to conserve his own small supply of food, and he could ask these people if they had seen anything of Ryan or anything else that might be useful. Besides, it would be rude to refuse their hospitality, so he followed the woman back to their village.

It turned out to be not so much a village as an encampment, these were gypsies. This explained a lot to Kai. Even though he had never met any gypsies, he knew about them from his grandfather. They were extremely superstitious, he had said, and they spoke their own strange language among themselves; although, they also spoke many others in order to trade with local people, to whom they would never teach a word of their own speech. The gypsies were a disappointment to Kai, who had heard tales throughout his childhood of the bewitchment of these people, of their bright clothes and jewels and dark skin and eyes, so different from Kai's own pale skin and blue eyes. Of their dancing through the night and casting a spell over unwary travellers. If he had not seen their encampment, he would have taken them for ordinary villagers. There was not a gold earring or a bright scarf to be seen. They looked just like him. The encampment itself was rather grubby and disorganised and was strewn about with signs of a very ordinary lifestyle. Washing lines hung between caravans hung with clothes in varying states of wear and cleanliness; women plied brooms on their front steps, and children ran about between the campfires playing with the dogs. A cat lay curled up in a basket of washing. Kai sighed inwardly, another romantic ideal lost forever; he had thought that he was old enough to be past all that. The smell of breakfast cooking, however, was welcome and cheered him up no end. He decided that perhaps, after all, it was better that they were just an ordinary society rather than the dangerous, if more romantic persons, he had understood them to be.

The woman gestured to Kai to sit outside the caravan with Mica and disappeared inside muttering. Mica was still laughing wholeheartedly at something, which was beyond Kai's perception. He glanced after the woman.

'Is that your mother?' he asked. 'Your... Ma?' he added, when Mica looked perplexed at the question.

Mica shook his head. 'That not my Ma, that Gilly,' (he pronounced this with a hard G, as in got – get) 'she my Sister-Mother,'

'Your – sister?'

'No, not sister, Sister- _Mother_.'

Kai frowned, trying to work this out.

Mica clucked impatiently. 'She my Sister- Mother, I her Sister- son, see?'

'Your Sister's mother... no, your Mother's sister? Your _Aunt_?'

'Si, iss, Aunt, _Aunt Gilly_ , he, he, he,'

'Oh,'

Mica became suddenly sober. 'My Ma, she went away many year ago, went away in the night. The ghasts took her away, they take away many peoples, always in the night, we move around much, but still they find us. I afraid one day they take away Gilly too, just like Ma. Then Mica have no mother at all.'

'I'm sorry,' said Kai. A thought struck him. 'Aren't you afraid the ghasts will take _you_ , or your Da?'

Mica gave a snort of contempt. 'You'm, terrible ignorant, you'm don't know nothin'. Ghasts don't take men, nor childers, only take women.'

'Why?' asked Kai, calmly enough, although his heart had started pounding, he felt sure that he was on the brink of an important discovery.

Mica shrugged. 'Nobody knows,' he said, disappointingly. But Kai felt as if he was getting closer to uncovering something of Ryan's fate. He had wondered at the time, why it was only Ryan who had been taken, perhaps these people knew something that could help him. He would ask one of the older people. Mica, after all, was only a child, perhaps one of the adults would know more.

Not Gilly, though, he decided, as she reappeared carrying a tray loaded with food and frowning forbiddingly at him as he rose politely to help her with it. She was a closed book if ever he saw one, and besides, as a woman, and a woman who had already lost a sister in this horrible way, he did not want to upset or frighten her.

Several men now approached the caravan. These, by the looks of them, were Mica's father and his – Brother-Fathers? They looked curiously at Kai, but they had their own brand of silent courtesy, and forbore to ask questions at this time. Now Kai understood why Gilly had frowned him down, not one of these men moved to help Gilly with the trays of food nor did they serve themselves or take any notice of her at all. Evidently, there was a strong and rigidly observed demarcation between the sexes among these people. This was women's work.

The meal was silent and, for Kai at least, uncomfortable, but at the end of it the oldest man rose silently and beckoned Kai to follow him.

'I am Akron,' he said, when they had reached a quiet spot. 'Mica's father, you see.'

Kai nodded. 'My name is...' he began, but Akron waved his hand.

'I know your name,' he said. 'But not your business... Oh never mind,' he added, 'I'm not asking. A man's business is his own, look you. I don't want to know it, unless you want to tell me.' He looked intently at Kai for a few moments, and then sighed. 'Mica tells me you have fence posts in your pack,' he hinted. Then he laughed at Kai's surprised face. 'Ah, that villain gets in everywhere, you see. Watch out for your pocket watch... Ha, ha, ha, ha.'

Kai smiled politely at this rather weak joke. He hesitated, but after all, why not? These people had as much right to defend themselves as he could have; it was not even as if it was his secret to keep. Ryan would have told them, he knew.

'They're for using against vampires,' he said eventually.

Akron stopped laughing abruptly. _'Vampires_?'

'Yes, you thrust a sharp wooden stick – it has to be wood – into their hearts, and they... um, crumble into dust.' Even as he said it, he realised how ludicrous it sounded.

Akron looked closely at him, peering into his eyes as if trying to read his thoughts. 'Hmm,' he said. 'I would say, that either you are mad, or that you are lying. You don't look mad to me,' he continued. 'But neither are you lying, I judge. I can usually tell when a man is lying to me, so I must conclude that you are sane and speaking the truth, strange, as it seems to me. And this really _works_?'

'Yes.'

'And is this why you are travelling alone in this wild country, to hunt vampires?'

'No.'

'Ah.'

'I'm searching for someone,' Kai said hurriedly. 'A friend of mine who was taken from me. A young woman actually. I wondered if you...'

'A young woman?' said Akron. 'Was she taken in the night?'

'At dawn actually, but...'

'At _dawn_?' Akron looked thoughtful. 'Then I do not know what may have become of her.'

Kai's face fell. 'Oh.'

'Did you see the ghasts in the night?' asked Akron suddenly.

'I don't know what you mean by _Ghasts_ ,' said Kai. 'I saw the Hupia.'

'The child stealers?'

'Yes.'

'It was not them who took your friend,' said Akron decisively. 'The Hupia steal children because it is their nature to do so. However, that is not their work. They are used often as spies for the vampires or witches.'

Kai digested that. 'And what are ghasts?' he asked. He was, by now, bursting with curiosity on this point.

'Deadly creatures, of wraith kind, but stronger. More – solid if you will. They feed on the souls of the living. More than this, I cannot tell you.'

Kai narrowed his eyes; he had heard this kind of evasion before. 'That's not the same as "I don't know any more than this", is it?' he said.

'That's right,' said Akron, and smiled sadly.

'But if there's a way to kill them...'

'There is no way that I know of,' said Akron. 'I would not hide it from you if there were.' He smiled lightly. 'But maybe _you_ will find a way – slayer of vampires.'

'Well, it wasn't a complete waste of time,' thought Kai as he made his way back to his campsite. 'At least I know what it probably _wasn't_...' He stopped short and stared. 'Oh the _bastards_!'

'At least,' he thought grimly, as he made his way back to the settlement, 'this is what I should have expected from gypsies.' They were finally living up to their reputation. They had been kind and civil to him according to their lights and so he had forgotten the warnings that his grandfather had inserted into his stories about them. They may have been unlike the gypsies he had been taught to believe in, but after all, they _were_ still gypsies. Now they had proved it.

He ran down to the encampment and raised his gun menacingly, red faced with wrath. Some of the men nearest to him drew back involuntarily.

'Okay, you swine,' he roared belligerently. 'You only get one chance, and then I start firing, see?

'And I'm not trained at this, so who knows _what_ I might hit.' He grinned malevolently. The men exchanged nervous glances.

Kai took a deep breath and yelled, 'Where the hell is my bloody horse?'

* * *

It was utterly dark when Ryan opened her eyes. Dark and quiet, no – silent. Utterly silent. And the air had a strange quality about it, muffled and thick, as if it were part of the dark and the silence. Its cause and its result.

"This is a dream" and the answer came back, unbidden from the recesses of her mind.

"Yes"

"And will I wake up soon?"

"You will never wake up."

## Chapter Six - Johnny

They played "Samurai Quest" and then "Speed Challenge", which Jez won easily. And then Johnny insisted they try "Vampire Epidemic", which Jez did not like, before quitting the VR simulator at Jez's insistence. She was tired, she said, and Johnny had been brought up to be courteous, so he agreed that perhaps it was enough for one day, even though it was obvious that he could hardly bear to leave. He would come back alone, he decided, maybe tomorrow, and try the games with the safety off. It would be better on his own.

Bellême greeted them as they exited the tubes.

'I hope you had – fun?' he inquired bowing graciously.

'Oh, yeah,' enthused Johnny. 'Brilliant.'

'I am so pleased,' said Bellême smoothly. There was no sign now of his former repulsive interest in Johnny, Jez noticed. He seemed almost indifferent, as he said without even looking at Johnny. 'We hope to bring out a home version soon, would it be popular do you think?'

Johnny looked as if he was about to have a heart attack. 'Wow!' he turned to Jez, his eyes shining. 'That would be – would be...'

'Brilliant?' she supplied dryly.

'Well _yeah_!'

'I'm so glad you think so,' said Bellême. And for a moment his eyes seemed to burn again.

'Of course you are,' thought Jez cynically; 'it's how you make your living.'

Bellême gave her a shrewd look, as if, once more, he was reading her mind, and did not think much of it either. ' _You are very young indeed,'_ he seemed to say. ' _Very young, alas.'_

He held out his hand to Johnny. 'So nice to have met you,' he said. 'My clerk tells me that you achieved a remarkably high score for your first time, I do hope this means that we will be seeing you again.'

'You bet,' answered Johnny emphatically, shaking the proffered hand enthusiastically. 'I'll be looking out for that home version too,'

'Ah, but you must not forget to get out into the fresh air _sometimes_ ,' laughed Bellême.

'Every day,' Johnny promised. 'I'll walk here instead of taking the bus.'

Bellême laughed even though this was not very funny. He then turned to Jez. 'And you Miss?' he said. 'Did _you_ enjoy yourself?'

Jez shrugged. 'It was okay,' she said. 'Johnny's the computer addict. It's not really my thing. Very realistic though. I can see why he's so excited.'

'Ah,' Bellême gave her a knowing smile ( _You are so very young)_ 'Then it will be your part to keep, as they say, his "feet upon the ground", will it not, eh? Make sure he gets some fresh air and remembers to eat and so on.'

'It always has been,' agreed Jez, without any clear idea about what she was saying. The damned man seemed to be hypnotising her.

Bellême clicked his heels together in Teutonic fashion, bowed once, turned on his heel, and swept away.

'What a weird guy,' said Johnny.

'I don't like him,'

'I could see that. Why though, what's wrong with him?'

Jez shrugged. 'Just a feeling,'

'Oh?' Johnny wanted to ask more, he knew from experience that Jez's funny feelings about people were not to be taken lightly. He remembered once when they had been thirteen and had met the father of a school friend for the first time. He had seemed a perfectly amiable character to Johnny, no different from any other dad. But Jez had announced a decided dislike of him that she could not articulate. And she had persisted in this attitude saying: 'There's just something I don't like about him, I don't trust him.'

It had turned out later that he had been abusing his children for years. And this had not been the only example of this intuition.

But Jez's face was clearly saying that she did not want to talk about it. Johnny decided to let it go. But it was something, he decided, to keep in mind, unlikely as it ever was, to matter to him.

* * *

That night Johnny dreamed of SCI'ON. The dream was inarticulate, as dreams often are; a mere kaleidoscope of images clustering together, swirling around in his subconscious. He had never seen SCI'ON, had no idea what or where it was, and yet he was quite certain in his own mind that he was seeing it. Now a sunset behind a field of wheat, now a forest of huge primordial trees, now a vast ocean, a desert sky – blood red as the sun rose over the dunes. And then, as his eye drew back he saw... the planet receding, growing small and fragile looking as he was swept up into space, the stars pin wheeling around him. And still he drew back until he could see the whole galaxy and became aware of its infinite size, which was not size at all, for all that he saw had no beginning and no end, it stretched on forever and yet was no bigger than a thought, a shadow of an idea. He saw that this was its strength and yet its vulnerability too. It had so nearly never existed at all, he realised. It would not take much to destroy it – or no, not destroy it, just to change things, so that it had never been.

* * *

Johnny woke up with a bad headache. He lit a cigarette and hoped that his mother would not smell the smoke; he did not feel like dealing with that right now. He wanted to think about his dream before the images slipped away.

Johnny had never been one for philosophical contemplation; he just wanted to relive the experience as best he could. The beauty of the landscapes and the feeling of the infinite.

'So that's what SCI'ON would look like in my head,' he thought. 'I didn't know I had such an imagination'.

But memory is a poor substitute and the images faded away, slipping beyond his grasp as the waking world reasserted itself leaving only shadows of the idea in his conscious mind.

By the time he had finished his third cigarette and his mother could be heard fannying about in the bathroom, it was almost completely gone.

## Chapter Seven – Kai and Mica

Kai hoped like hell that this would work; he did not want to have to shoot anybody, not that he would not of course. And he had lied about his marksmanship too, which was deadly accurate at a far longer range than this _, deadly_ being the operative word.

His grandfather had taught him to shoot, he had also taught him to shoot robbers, poachers, horse thieves and other villains who encroached on their land, and Kai had learned.

It was a fact of life living on the land. If you stole a man's horse he had a right to kill you, Kai had never questioned this. He had also never stolen a man's horse.

The men looked shiftily at each other as Kai observed.

'I _will_ shoot,' he said calmly. 'I would prefer not to, but I will.' He looked at the faces watching him, calculatingly. They were not going for it. Kai sighed and took aim. The rifle cracked, and a man near the back of the group fell with a scream.

'My horse, fellers,' he said. 'And I'll be on my way.' He supposed that technically, the man down might not have been the actual thief, but then again, they were _all_ guilty really, weren't they?'

A man stepped forward agitatedly. 'We do not have...' he began, and Kai shot him.

'I will kill every last one of you if I have to,' Kai promised.

Then he saw a small figure running through the long grass. It was Mica.

He grabbed the man nearest to Kai by the arm. 'Luka, Luka, no, give him his horsey, he will kill us all with the stick that goes bang. There was no need for it, though. At the second man's death the gypsies had been ready to capitulate, Kai had seen it in their eyes.

The man shook the boy off angrily. 'Go and fetch it then,' he muttered.

Mica ran off. The man glared at Kai, who returned his gaze calmly. The other men had shuffled off as inconspicuously as they could manage. These were timid men Kai surmised; he had seen the fear in their eyes when the first man had fallen dead. They were no more than petty thieves; they had taken him for some soft lad, an easy target; it had happened before. Mica returned with the horse and Kai took the reins from him without a word.

'Let this be a lesson to you,' he told the boy as he mounted up. 'People are not always what they appear.'

Mica was staring at him, his expression torn between terror and hero-worship.

Kai addressed the man, who was looking surly. 'What did you do to my dogs?'

'Nothin' much,' said the man with all the defiance he could muster. 'They'm be all right, we don't hurt animals. Just a little sleeping draught is all. They'm be awake by now.'

'They'd better be,' Kai told him. 'Or I'll be back... What is it?' Mica was pulling at Kai's sleeve.

Mica said nothing in words, but his expression spoke volumes. It was half pleading half fearful, and he held out his hand plaintively. Kai laughed and held out his hand to the boy who grabbed it and swung onto the horse behind Kai as Kai pulled him up. 'Better hold on tight,' he said kicking Diamond's flank hard.

At the clearing, Kai roused the dogs and packed his belongings without saying a word to Mica, who evidently had something on his mind and was best left alone until he decided to unburden himself.

Eventually Mica spoke in an airy, it doesn't really matter kind of voice. ''Twas the witches,' he said somewhat obscurely. Kai waited.

'I seen 'em,' continued Mica, encouraged. 'Night before last, up in the sky, flying.' He stopped as Kai frowned, but still said nothing.

'I _did_ see 'em,' protested Mica, as if he knew Kai did not believe him. 'I was up for the privy, sum on the men seen 'em too, but they'm won't talk about 'em. _I_ ain't scared,' he added defiantly.

Kai took this information in order of the last piece first and asked. 'Why are the men scared?'

'Dunno, witches is women's stuff, I guess.'

'But witches don't fly, that's just a story.'

'I _seen_ 'em,' repeated Mica emphatically. 'Goin' north they was.' He pointed toward the mountains.

_'Flying_?'

'Iss,'

'Flying how, on broomsticks?'

'Naw, on big birds silly.'

'Oh. How many witches?'

'Oh lots. More 'n five anyhow, I can't count more 'n five. An' they was goin' real fast anyhow.'

What were they doing?' asked Kai. 'You said it was the witches, _what_ was?'

'What took your friend away?'

Kai glared at him. 'How do you know _that_?'

'I seen it, leastways I seen they had _some 'un_ wiv 'em. In a net, draggin' behind 'em. Can I come wiv you?'

'Why?'

'I can help.'

'Maybe,' said Kai cautiously. 'I meant, why do you _want_ to?'

'Just do – please.'

'No, I need a better reason than that to take you away from your family.'

Mica pupped his lips. His usual sign of contempt. 'They'm don't want me,' he said. I's just another mouth to feed, Da says. And I can help you, I telled you about the witches, dint I?'

'Yes but...' He stopped and stared at Mica's grubby little face as if seeing it for the first time. As Mica raised his arm to wipe his nose, Kai saw the bruises and burns on his hands and he noted the missing teeth and the remains of a black eye now going green-yellow. He saw how thin Mica was and how ragged his clothes. It was as if suddenly the scales dropped from his eyes, and he saw the mischievous little urchin for the first time for what he really was, a neglected and abused child, how had he missed it before? He had seen the woman hit the boy with his own eyes, he remembered. And the boy had barely reacted either; it was strange now he came to think back on it. Mica had not even attempted to dodge as most kids would. Neither had he cried nor pouted or gone off in a sulk. It was Mica's own acceptance of the way he was treated that had blinded Kai.

His grandfather would have told him to forget it, that it was not his problem, that you can't help everybody when you have problems of your own.

He certainly had problems enough, that was true. He smiled at Mica suddenly and reached out his hand. 'Come on then kid,' he said. 'You can sit up front,'

Mica's face broke into a huge blurry smile. 'Iss Mister, I do what you say all time. I help, I help good.'

Kai could not help a surge of obscure pride. He searched within himself for the source and realised that it was because of Mica's expression of complete trust in him. It would be treachery indeed, he felt, to abuse that trust now.

He swung up onto Diamond's back and sat Mica in front of him. 'Okay?' he asked.

'Iss.'

'Good.'

'Thanks Mister,' said Mica so quietly that Kai barely heard him.

'You should call me Kai,' said Kai. 'Even if it _is_ a stupid name,' he added laughing.

_'Not_ stupid,' said Mica in outraged tones. 'Who said so?'

Kai just grinned.

Mica proved to be as good as his word. He was good with the dogs and the horse. He groomed Diamond every night religiously and fed the dogs. He fetched water every day and helped to build a fire. At first, he would stand back from Kai nervously after completing any task, looking apprehensive, as if he was expecting a rebuke for doing it wrong, or even a smack. But after a few days, he relaxed. Kai was sparing with the praise, but he was careful always to thank Mica gravely for his help and pointed out any faults gently, saying that we all have to learn and that Mica was doing well. The truth was that he was beginning to wonder how he could have managed without him.

And slowly and steadily, they headed north.

* * *

'No, Kai will come for me.'

'He will not come; he doesn't know where you are.'

'He'll come.'

'No.'

Ryan tried to open her eyes, to will herself awake. Not sure if she had succeeded or if it was only a part of the dream, she saw a sliver of light out of the corner of her eye, to the right of her. She tried in vain to turn her head, but it was not necessary. The sliver widened into a shaft, as when a door opens in a dark room. The light, although it was a sickly green glow that illuminated nothing, still hurt her eyes after the impenetrable black of before. From beyond the light, she heard a cold voice utter a shriek of thin, high-pitched laughter. Then a shadow blocked the light for a moment, and Ryan sensed, rather than saw, that someone had entered the room. She shrank back and closed her eyes. Footsteps passed her, and in the near distance, a scuffling could be heard, mingled with a pleading voice, which grew nearer and then passed her. The door slammed shut on a terrified screaming blended with that horrible laughter, cutting the sound off abruptly

'You're next,' said the voice in her head.

'I Know.'

## Chapter Eight – The Forested Mountain

'You wait here,' said Kai. 'That's an order, understand?'

'Iss.' Mica nodded readily. Too readily in Kai's opinion, he eyed him suspiciously.

'I mean it,' he growled. 'I'll leave Huan here to keep an eye on you I think.'

Mica's face showed disappointment,

_'Ah, I thought so,'_ thought Kai. 'It's dangerous,' he said. 'Well, it might be anyway. I'm going in alone.'

"In" referred to a large cave in the side of the mountain where the dogs had stopped and howled. Ryan had evidently gone this way. This was indisputable anyway, since in the vast wasteland that they were now in, there really was nowhere else to go.

Kai unslung his pack from Diamond, took out his gun and gave it to Mica. 'You take this,' he said. 'See that nobody steals my horse, Okay?'

Mica grinned, mollified. He had a task, he was helping, it was okay. 'Okey dokey,' he chirruped.

Kai was startled; that was a favourite phrase of Ryan's but Mica had never used it before, in fact, Kai had never heard anyone but Ryan use it. ' _What_?' he said abruptly, glaring fiercely?

Mica cowered. 'Sorry, I's not knowing it a bad word. I's sorry, never say it again. _You_ saying it all the time,' he added accusingly.

Kai relaxed. 'I _do_?' he said. 'I never realised. It's okay.' He smiled reassuringly at Mica. 'It's not a bad word. You aren't in any trouble.'

Mica smiled hesitantly, unsure what to say next. He settled for. 'Okey dokey.' And Kai laughed.

The cave was quite shallow, but there was a tunnel at the back. Kai entered it reluctantly, goblins inhabited caves in the mountains as everyone knew, and he had no wish to meet any of that ilk if he could avoid it. He was also uneasy about leaving Mica alone, but he had the horse and Huan as well as the shotgun, which Kai had taught him how to use. He was probably safer than Kai was at the moment. Probably...

As it happened the journey through the tunnel in the mountain was uneventful, and at length, he arrived at another small cave.

He emerged from the cave into a thickly forested area. After a moments' indecision, he moved forward. The forest began to thin rapidly after no more than ten minutes' walk and came to an abrupt halt at the edge of a precipice.

Kai did not have time to stop and think about the oddness of this; he was too caught up in the horrified contemplation of the terrible yawning abyss that had opened up before his feet. He staggered backwards in shock. One more step – it did not bear thinking about.

He edged carefully forwards again and looked down. The cliff face was a sheer drop, fathoms down, and the bottom lay in impenetrable darkness. It was impossible to gauge how far down it went. However, a certain thinness to the air assured Kai that this was no crater in the earth but that he was, in fact, several thousand feet above sea level.

It was dark all around him, even though it was, by his reckoning, no later than mid-morning, and it was a few minutes before he understood the reason for this. Before his mind registered what his eyes had been looking at all along, but refused to comprehend. As he gazed across the chasm, he saw on the other side, at least a half a mile away, the most massive cliff face he had ever seen or imagined, rising as far again above, as it dropped below. So high that it blocked out the sky before him. It rose, just as it fell, into a black infinity. You could turn the whole thing upside down, and it would look the same. And surely the whole _world_ could not be that big.

And it was terrifying; it did not loom or tower it was just _there_. Huge, vast threatening and oppressive, it filled the world from top to bottom and from one end to the other. It _was_ the world. Big was not the word for it; it wasn't big, or huge or vast or massive; it was just _everywhere_.

This place was evil. He could _feel_ it. The menace of these cliffs was almost palpable. It frightened Kai on a deeper level than mere threat or force could have done. It accessed a primal fear that seeped out from within and made him want to scream and scream and scream.

Kai's knees began to shake. His brain jammed, and he had never in his life wanted to run away so much. But he did not. He just stared in horror, in awe and, most of all, in disbelief.

As he slowly calmed down and his eyes adjusted, he began to register details. He noticed large promontories jutting out of the rock face that were all thickly forested, just like the area behind him. He suspended disbelief and turned slowly then he looked up – and up and up. Behind him the cliff face rose, dark and threatening, as high as it was on the other side, blocking out the sky _behind_ him. There was no doubt about it now; he _was_ halfway up a mountain. Now he took in properly the full magnificence of what he was seeing. The cliffs stretched away into blackness on both sides of him, seeming to go on forever as if they ranged from one end of the world to the other. And there was no way across to the other side.

This was clearly no place in the world. No cliffs this vast existed Kai was sure. And then there were the trees! Surely, no trees could grow without sunlight, in bare rock and at such altitudes. And that was another thing, the altitude. It was chilly certainly, but not freezing, there was no ice or snow such as you would expect to find on a high cliff or mountaintop. Kai supposed he ought to be grateful for this, but it added to his sense of unreality and unease.

What the hell _was_ this place?

Then he saw, across the chasm, something that only added to the impossibility of this place. On the projection facing him laterally, on his left, looking tiny and lost, he saw a building perched on the edge of the ledge, with the trees growing densely behind it. How the hell did anyone manage to build anything _here_?

The building itself was in a way, a terrible anti-climax. It was a long, low one-storey building, or rather three buildings joined end to end, all of the same type. They had a flat, utilitarian look about them, painted a uniform and dull shade of grey with small square windows and standing on small metal legs. If Kai had ever seen a mobile office such as those used on building sites, he might have recognised the basic design.

It was like expecting Barad-Dur and finding a Quik-Fit outfit instead.

And yet, in some strange way, these buildings impressed Kai with a far more potent sense of menace than any tall and turreted dark tower could have done. Battlements were for show. _This_ was where the _real_ business of evil was conducted. Or it may have been the ghastly eldritch glow that emanated from the windows that convinced him.

## Chapter Nine - Nick

Jez was worried about Johnny; she had not seen him for two weeks. He seemed entirely wrapped up in the amazing virtual world that he had discovered. He had even, and she knew this because she had been searching for him down at the arcade and the manager had told her, brought home a prototype of the home version. When she had called round for him, his mother had told her, with a certain amount of barely disguised glee, that Johnny had said that he wanted no visitors, this had happened on several occasions, and Jez was at a loss as to what to do about the situation.

She was thinking about calling round again, when she realised that her footsteps, on automatic pilot, had brought her home, she decided to take a bath, and tackle Johnny later.

"Home" was a flat in a converted Victorian house. The other tenants, apart from Mrs. Dooley, the aging and bad tempered landlady who occupied the flat on the top floor in what had been the servant's attic, were all men. On the ground floor lived Nick Trent, she knew his name from his mail slot, but she could not remember ever having spoken to him and if she had been asked, unlikely as this was, she would have been hard pressed to describe him, even though she saw him every morning as he left for college, just as she did. She had a vague impression of a tall, slim blonde man, quietly spoken and with diffident manners, but she could not for the life of her, have recalled a single feature of his face.

Yet he evidently made a strong impression on some people if he wanted to. For since she had moved in she had been aware of a constant stream of women flowing to and from his flat. He had female company almost every night. None of them, as far as she knew, were ever invited more than once or twice. Clearly, he had _something_.

On the other side of him, lived Jake. Jake was the exact antithesis of Nick. Tall, dark and handsome, and excessively exuberant, he openly pursued women, Jez included, with absolutely no success at all. His childish behaviour and the fact that he was almost insupportably arrogant about his looks put women off in droves, yet Jez rather liked him really; he was one of the few people she had met in her life who never employed subterfuge of any kind. He was what he was, and it was refreshing in a way.

Jez lived on the second floor, next to Peter. Peter was in his forties, recently divorced and reclusive. His wife had left him for a young lover, and it was Jez's cruel opinion that she did not blame her. He was dull to the point of being oafish, heavyset and thunderingly predictable. Jez had endured certain awkward gallantries from him, which had been mercifully short lived.

Simon Parker lived on the top floor, alongside of Mrs. Dooley. There was a certain amount of speculation about this. Most of it, it had to be said, put forth by the abandoned Jake. Because Simon was beautiful in a girlish way, he had a delicate piquant face with exceptionally large dark eyes surrounded by long dark curls. And he was extremely weird. He never came out of his flat during the day, which had led Jake to speculate that he slept in a coffin, and perhaps he did, for when he was seen, he was always wearing a long black dressing gown, lined in red, that looked remarkably like an opera cloak.

He was a painter, so it was perhaps fitting that he should be living in a garret, where, no one had any doubt (he was so exceedingly thin) that he was also starving.

His flat was directly above Jez's and she often heard him wandering about in the small hours of the morning. But her one attempt to go and reprimand him about this had been a complete failure. He had stammered and blushed and looked so terrified when he had opened the door to her that she simply did not have the heart to do it.

All these thoughts sped through her mind unheeded as she ran her eye down the mail slots in the hallway until she reached her own. Then her mind went back to Johnny. Not for long; Jake bounded out of his flat and accosted her enthusiastically. 'Hi gorgeous!'

Jez did a comedy double take and looked behind her. 'Oh!' she said, in mock surprise, 'I thought there might have been a mirror behind me.' It was not very funny, but she was tired and distracted.

Jake grinned; it was impossible to snub him, he was completely impervious to insults.

'Having a party tomorrow,' he informed her. 'Wanna come?'

Jez raised her eyes significantly in the direction of the top floor flat, where Mrs. Dooley reigned with supreme vindictiveness.

Jake smirked happily. 'She's not going to be here,' he informed her. 'She's going away for a long weekend, to see her daughter in – oh some Godforsaken place, Simon told me. So naturally, I had to invite him, but never mind, eh? We can still have fun. So d'ya think you might wanna come?'

Normally Jez would not have considered it, but something made her say. 'I might look in, yeah.' She said it diffidently, but Jake hailed her acceptance with enthusiasm.

'Great!' he said. 'Bring some friends, the more the merrier.'

Jez allowed herself some amusement at the thought of Jake's reaction should she bring Johnny to his party. A rival for any female attention was certainly not what he had in mind, and Johnny would be a formidable rival too. No, _girl_ -friends were what he clearly meant, and Jez racked her brains to think of any girls she knew that she particularly despised. There were plenty, but none of them that she disliked _that_ much.

She allowed herself to be distracted from the Johnny problem by the party. Deciding what to wear, what bottle to bring and other sundry considerations. She was aware of what she was doing on some level, but she refused to admit it. She would get drunk and forget him. He could look after himself for once.

The party was deadly. Jake had made a drunken pass, but that was to be expected. And now she was cowering in the kitchen pondering on how to make her escape, while Jake's friends bounced around the living room to Madness.

Jake was blocking the kitchen door. He was slightly drunk and inclined to be a little truculent. From the corner of the kitchen, not quite behind her, she was suddenly aware that she was being watched by sardonic eyes. She turned to see Nick Trent looking amusedly at her; he raised a mocking eyebrow in Jake's direction and stepped out of the shadows. Jez's knees buckled. It was as if he had been in the shadows all the time that she had known him, and she had never really seen him before; and now that she did, God, he was so _beautiful_! He focussed his gaze on her smiling enigmatically. Without moving his gaze from hers, he managed to indicate Jake, now swaying belligerently in the doorway.

'Last of the great lady-killers, eh?' he said, as he moved toward her. Unable to tear her gaze away, she backed away from him until her had her cornered by the fridge. He put out his hand and lightly brushed her hair from her face, she felt a tingle run through her.

'Doesn't he realize that he's not good enough for you?' he said softly.

Jake was watching this scene jealously. Jez was aware that she was making a fool of herself, but it was as if her brain had jammed. She could not think, she could not move, she was mesmerised. By his dark, hypnotic eyes, his soft, caressing hands, his gentle, seductive voice.

She forced herself to think about Pete as he leaned in to kiss her, but she found herself responding anyway. It was bliss, but when he pulled away from her, her eyes were filled with tears.

'Tears, Jez?' he asked gently. 'Why?'

She pulled herself together. 'You'd cry too,' she told him. 'If your body was betraying you into doing something you knew was wrong.'

It was not just that she was involved with someone else that made it wrong, she thought. She had no desire to become another notch on Nick Trent's bedpost.

He was looking at her with a slight frown. 'Wrong?' he repeated. 'Why wrong?' and he leaned in again.

She allowed herself one more of those long, languorous kisses and then pulled away fiercely, before she got in so deep that she would not be able to pull away no matter how much she wanted to, and ran out of the flat. Nick stared after her nonplussed. _That_ had never happened before, he was sure he'd had her. And he was aware of a deep disappointment that had nothing to do with hurt pride.

For him, she too had appeared suddenly, out of the shadows.

Jez lay on her bed feeling – what? Nervous, excited, afraid? He would come. She knew it. Her whole body felt scorched, as if she had been lying out in a desert for days, every nerve tingling, every skin cell parched. She glanced at the clock, almost midnight. He would come soon. Then what?'

At midnight on the dot, there was a knock at her door. Without even thinking about it, she rose and opened it. Nick stood there, looking slightly gauche. 'I had to come,' he said.

'I knew you would,' she told him as she stood aside to let him in.

In this small space, alone with him, his attraction was even more potent. She found him irresistible, but she did not care about him, she realised. It was all about appetite. Banishing thoughts of Pete and associated guilt, she led him to the bedroom in silence.

Nick was astounded at his tender feelings for this girl. She was far less pretty, in a conventional sense, than many others he had known, and yet, and yet...?

As she lay there sleeping beside him, he felt none of his usual desire to retreat. He wanted to stay here with her and be there when she awakened. And he knew already, that one night was not going to be enough for him.

Jez was not asleep; she was thinking. She was not unaware of Nick's feelings, partly because he had made no attempt to hide them from her. Probably, she thought, because, he had no experience of such emotion – that had been obvious. She had hoped that this would be it; that having satisfied her desire she would be able to put this experience behind her and move on, with no more consequence than a vague feeling of guilt, which would fade over time. But she now knew that spending the night with such a lover as Nick had proved to be – masterful yet tender and passionate beyond her experience, had only increased her desire for him. She had viewed him as an itch to be scratched, a deviance from her customary reserved behaviour, but he was much more. She thought of him as a wild animal, a sleek jungle cat perhaps, who had just barely been able to keep himself from tipping over into savagery. He had frightened her a little, but in such a way that she wanted to be frightened again.

Always one to look facts in the face and deal with them, she did not try to hide this from herself as some people might have. She knew she would see him again if she possibly could. She knew, also, that she would have to keep this liaison a secret. What was odd was the feeling that it was not Pete who must be kept in the dark ( _that_ was a given) so much as Johnny. Instinct told her that if _he_ found out, there would be trouble, although she was not sure why.

She understood Nick far better than he understood himself. He was ready to fall in love with her, mainly because she had shown him so clearly that she was far from ready to do the same. If she wanted to keep a hold on him, she would have to make him fight for her. Too many had been too eager for him. Therefore, she feigned sleep.

In the morning, she awoke to see him quietly dressing and felt a momentary alarm; was he trying to sneak out? Immediately she controlled herself. She believed she knew how to act.

She waited until he became aware of her scrutiny then gave him a lazy smile. 'What time is it?' she asked, infusing a certain indifference into her voice.

Nick looked at his watch. 'Half past ten,' he told her.

'Is that all,' she murmured, and turned over as if to go back to sleep.

Once again, Nick was nonplussed. He finished dressing and was ready to leave, and _still_ she had not asked when she would see him again. He did not know how to handle this unusual situation. Should _he_ ask _her_?

She helped him out. She slipped out of bed and grabbed a robe then headed for the bathroom. As she reached the door, she turned back and casually said. 'Goodbye, Nick. It's been fun, you know, but I don't want people to think I make a habit of this kind of thing. One-night stands are so – teenage. So, would you mind keeping this to yourself? Thanks.'

It was dismissal.

* * *

Johnny spent hours in the virtual worlds every day. He was not eating, and he was hardly sleeping. Not until he collapsed from sheer exhaustion, did he drop onto his bed and pass out. Then he would lie still, weak and utterly drained and dream of SCI'ON.

Still, it had not escaped his notice that his body was changing. He was growing stronger and more agile, as if, as if... he were _really_ doing the things that his mind was telling him he was doing. As if he was actually spending hours each day fighting and running and climbing mountains, which of course, was ridiculous.

SCI'ON! It was beginning to haunt his waking hours as well; it was growing into an obsession, an unattainable ideal. Sometimes he would wonder if it was a real place somewhere, another ludicrous idea. But he had an idea – born of his dreams – about how to access it in the virtual world. He was sure that he could write a program. In the dream, he could _see_ the way clearly; it seemed so easy, but when he awoke, it was gone, dwindled into a handful of vague impressions. But it was enough to be going on with. He had a feeling that once he began to write the program, it would become clearer, as it was in the dreams. But he was indolent; he could not seem to get started, perhaps because he was afraid to discover that it could not be done, that SCI'ON could not be reached, even in the virtual world. Perhaps he was afraid that it could. Not that he believed that SCI'ON was real, that was absurd.

When he started dreaming about the girl, he started to believe.

* * *

It had been eight days since the party. Time, Jez, decided, to make her next move. The stream of women to Nick's flat had increased dramatically, and he was avoiding Jez. This was a situation that he just did not know how to handle.

Jez thought that _she_ did. She accosted him in the morning, as a young woman was haranguing him with tears in her eyes in the hallway. As the girl lifted her hand to strike Nick in the face, Jez caught her arm to prevent her.

'Have some dignity,' she scolded. 'You knew what you were getting into.' She caught Nick's eye and winked.

After the girl had departed in high dudgeon, Nick had the grace to look thoroughly embarrassed.

'I'll see _you_ later,' said Jez, mock threateningly. 'Midnight?'

'Okay,' said Nick gloomily.

'The tide is high,' she thought, 'but I'm holding on'.

He launched into explanations almost before he was through the door.

'I know what you're going to say,' he said. And you're right, I should know better now. I mean, it was one thing I suppose, when I didn't know what it felt like, but now I do, so there's no excuse. It's just that – I didn't know how else to handle it, I mean, that's what I _do_ , you know. But you're right, and I won't do it anymore. You know, I didn't think you'd noticed. Not that that's any excuse... So...'

'Have you finished?'

'Um, yeah, I think so.'

'Okay, are you staying, or what?'

Nick pounced.

'Oh good,' said Jez.

It had been a couple of weeks now, and they had spent every night together. True to her original plan, Jez was keeping him at arm's length. She had refused to give up Pete and would not let Nick publicise their relationship. She had, on one occasion, quite deliberately called out his name, knowing full well, that he would treasure it up and ponder on whether or not it meant anything. So far, he had not dared ask, in case she said something like: "Did I?" Or "I don't remember that". She never did it again.

* * *

The girl in Johnny's dream was trapped somewhere. Somewhere dark and smothering. He could feel the heaviness around her, smell the fetid air, and he shared her terror. Sometimes he dreamed that _he_ was trapped. She was not always there; she loomed in and out of his dream like a phantom, but she was always the last thing he remembered before he woke up sweating and shaking. Now he _knew_ , SCI'ON was real, _she_ was real; he had to make the program. Somehow (he did not understand how) the program would take him there.

Even if Johnny had known that he was being manipulated, it probably would not have stopped him.

* * *

As Jez approached the house wearily on the evening when Johnny was finally deciding to write the SCI'ON program, she was suddenly struck by its sinister appearance, and she found that she really did not want to go in.

The house loomed threateningly at her, and she was suddenly assailed by an unreasoning paranoia. This feeling had been growing on her insidiously for some time. She had recently had the unbelievable notion that she was being watched by the other occupants. Nick was constantly around of course, and Jake was a sullen, brooding presence, always skulking around corners watching her and Nick with an air of jealous resentment. So far so unremarkable, she supposed. But then there was Peter. It seemed as if he was always there in the hallway, either coming in or going out at the same time as her, no matter if it was nine a.m. or midnight, there he was. But most troubling of all was Simon. Just last week she had had a very disquieting experience in his flat, which may have been responsible for her paranoia now – or was it heightened awareness?

She had gone up to see Mrs. Dooley, about her broken tap in the bathroom. Mrs. Dooley, who must have been in, for the old bat never went out, nevertheless, did not answer her door. When Jez had turned to leave, she had noticed that Simon's door was open. Overcome with vulgar curiosity, she had crept inside carefully, aware that Simon might be in there, and had had the shock of her life.

There were canvases and sketchpads everywhere, and each and every one of them depicted her own countenance.

He must have drawn, sketched and painted every expression that she had ever worn, she thought. There were several fine paintings and countless loose sheets of paper, all her. She could not get away from herself. It was the most unnerving experience of her life.

'They don't do you justice,' said Simon coming into the room. Jez jumped.

'I just can't seem to capture that spiritual look of yours, no matter how hard I try. I suppose it's just something inside of you that can't be pinned down, not by a photograph or a mirror, or alas, even a paintbrush. Perhaps if I was a better artist ...'

Jez stared at him with her mouth open.

'I'm sorry,' said Simon, suddenly seeming to realise that all was not well. 'I really wanted to paint you, any artist would. It doesn't _mean_ anything,' he assured her.

Jez did not believe him.

'I suppose I should have asked you to sit for me,' he continued. 'But I was too shy. I thought you'd probably say no.'

Jez did not remember how she got out of there, she had muttered something about having to be somewhere and had dashed past him back to her own flat where she felt extremely exposed, as if he had drilled a hole in her ceiling and was watching her through it. Oh, how she wished, over the next week, that she had never thought of _that_ idea.

Since then, the insecurity had grown, until now, standing on the doorstep, she even suspected old Mrs. Dooley of harbouring deep, dark designs against her.

Suddenly she knew what she wanted, even more than to get the hell out of here. She wanted Johnny.

She turned to run, almost panicking now, and ran straight into Nick. He caught her in his arms and still panicking, she struggled with him for a few seconds before she realised who it was.

He looked solicitously at her. 'Hey what's up?' he said lightly.

She glanced at the house before she could stop herself. Nick followed her gaze and his expression changed. With a shock, she realised that he saw what she saw. The house had changed.

'We have to get out of here,' he muttered, dragging her by no means unwillingly, away.

'They're watching,' he muttered, 'they're always watching. I was...' He broke off suddenly. 'Not here,' he said. 'Come on.'

'Nick, you're scaring me,' she protested.

He pulled her into a random parked car and used an electric screwdriver to start it up. 'Only way to travel,' he quipped. 'Keeps them on their toes.'

'Who?' She was really scared now.

'Don't worry,' he said calmly, speeding up to seventy. 'There's still time.'

'Time for what? Where are we going?'

'I'm taking you to Johnny,' he said, perplexingly. Jez had never mentioned Johnny to Nick, she was certain. It would have seemed, in some indefinable way, a betrayal

'I'll explain as much as I can,' he said. 'But we may not have very long.' And so saying, he swung abruptly into the car park of a roadside restaurant.

'You have to get to Johnny,' he said. 'Don't take no for an answer, you have to stop him, he doesn't know what he's doing.'

'Once more, in English please?' said Jez.

'He's trying to get to SCI'ON. Ha! He doesn't even know why, poor fool. But he mustn't do it. Please! You have to stop him.'

'What are you _talking_ about, who _are_ you? Have _you_ been spying on me too?'

Nick shook his head, 'I was, but I'm not now. I can't explain any further.' He rubbed his eyes tiredly. 'I wish I could, but it wouldn't help anyway.'

'Why should I trust you?'

Nick looked pained.

She nodded. 'Sorry, of course, I see. You changed sides, or whatever, yes?'

'Yes,' he said shortly. But Jez knew there was more to it than that?'

'So,' she ventured. 'They want Johnny to go to this "SCI'ON"?' Even as she said it, she felt like she was humouring a lunatic.

'Yes,'

'So why were you all watching _me_?' She was genuinely puzzled about this.

'Because we want, _they_ want you to go with him, and they knew that you wouldn't, not without a little help at the right time.'

'And now you don't want either of us to go?'

'I-I found something out,' he admitted reluctantly. 'I found out why they _really_ want him there. The others in the house don't know, and they'll never believe it. If he goes, it'll be bad. If you both go, it'll be worse. Besides I...'

She cut him off hurriedly. ' _What_ did you find out?'

'You'd never believe it either,' he said miserably. 'No one would, it's too incredible.'

She struck out toward sanity. 'Simon?' she asked hesitantly, aware that she might not like the answer. 'He – painted...'

Nick nodded. 'Obsession,' he said shortly. 'He was always like that. "Watch her" they said, so he did. "Note every expression" for God's sake! He just takes things a little too literally, don't worry about him.'

'They? No, never mind, I don't want to know.'

Nick looked sidelong at Jez. 'I'm sorry,' he said.

There was a long silence then Jez said. 'Take me to Johnny's then. I promise I'll do my best to stop him. Got to get past the old dragon first,' she added mischievously. She never missed any opportunity to deride Johnny's mother.

Nick looked startled for a moment, and with a jolt, Jez realised that he had taken this last remark literally.

'Jesus! What have I got myself into?' she wondered.

As they pulled up at Johnny's house, Jez turned to Nick. 'What will they do to you?' she asked.

Nick gave her a wry smile. 'They've got to catch me first,' he told her.

'Nick.'

'Yes?'

'I love you too.' And it was true too. For a given value of truth anyway.

Nick gave her a wan smile. ' _Now_ you tell me,' he said.

* * *

It was all becoming clearer; he had been right, the more he wrote of the program, the more he understood. It was like a journey. _Exactly_ like a journey actually, which was why he had begun by purchasing a copy of "Travel to the stars" a now defunct school program, to adapt to his purposes. Not that he would be travelling in a literal sense, and it would not be in space either, but it would seem like it from his point of view. Dimly he understood that although he would not be physically travelling anywhere. His brain would need to believe that he was for this to work. It was all about perception. Even though he now believed that SCI'ON was real, he knew that it was not a place that one _travelled_ to in a bodily sense. Although it was his physical body that he wanted to get there. But he had to convince his mind that it was possible. That was what the virtual games had been about – preparation for this. Games! Those had been real places; he now realised that, because now he understood, he knew what SCI'ON was at last.

Jez was getting desperate. Johnny's mother just was not having any of it.

'I told you my dear,' she was saying in her best sarcastic manner. 'Johnny's ill, he can't have any visitors.

Jez finally lost her temper. 'Balls!' she retorted then took advantage of the older woman's moment of shock to push past her, wondering, even as she galloped up the stairs, why the hell she was doing this. But Nick had imbued her with a deep sense of unease, even if it turned out to be nothing she would at least see it through. Johnny's mother would probably try to have her deported after this, or possibly sectioned.

She burst into Johnny's room, and all her fears were realised. It was not Johnny's room any longer. It was a flight deck on some sort of spacecraft. Somehow, he had made the virtual world come to life around him, around them both. She was too late.

The irrational thought occurred suddenly. 'So, this is what it's like in Johnny's head.'

'Johnny!' she grabbed him by the shoulders and shook him. He turned in his seat, genuinely shocked. 'Jez! What the hell...?'

'You have to stop it, Johnny, it's a – a trap or something. You have to stop it.'

'I can't,' he said, looking slightly alarmed.

'You must, please.'

'No, you don't understand. The program's running now, it can't be stopped from the inside, you might as well ask Super Mario to turn the game off for you, he can't. And we can't either. How did you get in anyway?'

'I-I don't know, I just opened your bedroom door, and I was here.'

'Gosh!' Johnny was impressed. 'Talk about timing, the chances of that happening, of you walking in just at the moment of initialisation, it's – incalculable.'

Jez sank down on her knees in despair. It had turned out to be all true and far worse than she had envisaged, and she had failed to stop it.

Johnny was bewildered. He had a lot of questions, and he knew that once she calmed down, Jez would too. But for the moment, he was happy. He was going to SCI'ON – the time differentials were a problem; he had not been able to make the programme accept a journey of less than ten years, a fact that would probably upset Jez when he told her – and yet it seemed right, somehow that Jez was going with him. He looked at her fondly. It just would not have been the same without her.
'I'm coming, hold on.'

'Kai?'

'No.'

'Then who? Oh, it's just a dream.'

'It's a dream, yes.'

'I thought so. Am I going mad?'

'Am I?'

'It's so quiet here.'

'And lonely.'

'Yes, lonely. Please come soon, they're going to kill me I think.'

'It's just a dream.'

'Oh, yes. Just a dream.'

## Chapter Ten – Saving Ryan

There was no way across the yawning abyss. Kai was almost frantic with frustration. He pondered on going back for Mica. Who knew, perhaps he would have an idea, he was good at ideas, but Kai feared that this particular conundrum would prove to be too much for even his fertile brain. And in any case, this was no place for a child.

Now he was plagued by indecision. Should he go back to Mica, who might well be in danger all alone in the mountains, and who may, just possibly, have a good idea about how to cross the chasm? Or should he wait here, and hope that inspiration would strike, or failing that, luck? Ryan, after all, was definitely in danger, and Mica only _might_ be. And Ryan was the reason he had come all this way in the first place.

How did the occupants of this place reach it? Mica's wild story of witches on giant birds he felt he could dismiss. Although, in such vast cliffs, he supposed, you never knew. Could they have been some sort of mountain eagle? This line of thought was not productive. Even if such creatures existed, how could they be tamed? In any case, there was no sign of any such thing.

There had been, for the last few minutes, a low humming sound. So low, in fact, that he had not been consciously aware of it, but now it was growing louder and it forced itself onto his attention. He glanced left and right until he saw it, bobbing inelegantly toward him. A large balloon with what looked to be the carcase of a galleon slung beneath it. Kai sought in his mind for the name of this oddity. A dirigible, that was it _._

'So, that's how they do it,' he thought. And he wondered how he might use this discovery to his advantage. Hailing a ride was, clearly out of the question – or was it?

The thing was not moving fast. He had his climbing ropes and he had been lassoing faster moving things than that since he was five years old. But if he fell... if he fell... well if he fell, he would probably die of old age before he hit the bottom, so...

He had to decide _now,_ before the thing was out of reach.

He gritted his teeth and threw. The rope caught the bottom rudder, which was exactly what he had been aiming for. He did not wish to be seen by any passengers. Now, he thought, for the tricky bit. He tied the rope firmly around his waist and swung out. He fell straight down. The dirigible was travelling too slowly to give him any momentum, but this was no problem, as soon as he stopped falling he began to climb the rope, being careful not to look down. Kai had never known the terrors of vertigo, simply because he had never encountered any great heights (or depths) before, but he was learning fast.

Despite its slow speed, the dirigible was almost at the landing point already. Kai panicked; he had clearly not thought this through. But fortune was with him, and the balloon descended so slowly that he had plenty of time to drop and roll away from it before it landed. He dashed into a nearby thicket as soon as he hit the ground. So far so good, he was now on the other side. All he had to do now, was find a way to get into the building undetected, find Ryan, get them both out also undetected and get back across the gulf that separated him from Mica. Easy, he thought with a grimace.

One thing at a time, he decided. How to get in?

He waited until the passengers had alighted and entered the first building through a front entrance, and then he carefully walked around the last building first and, wouldn't you know it, a door had been left open at the back. Evidently, these people did not fear intruders. He remembered where the building was situated and was not surprised.

Once inside, he found himself in a small kitchen, at least it had been a kitchen once. Now it was fitted up as a crude laboratory. Kai's uneasiness increased. Who _were_ these people, and what did they want with Ryan? This was not magic; this was something far more sinister; something he had only heard of in Ryan's world – science.

Wizards and witches do not experiment on people. Torture them yes, occasionally, but that was just their way. But science! Now that was _really_ evil.

It occurred to Kai as he looked around him at the scientific equipment that he had only ever heard about before, that he had, in fact, entered another world. As this thought struck him, he wondered that he had not thought of it before. Now it seemed to be the only thing that made sense. The impossible cliffs, the strange trees, the very building he stood in, were not features of his own world, vast as that may be, and now this. Even the dirigible, he thought, was an uncommon thing in his world. Strangely, this idea unnerved him far more than the terrifying ride over the bottomless chasm had done. He had never before entertained the idea that there were more worlds out there, in fact, he realised now, that in his heart, he had never fully accepted that Ryan came from another world from him at all. Now he had to face the truth. 'If there can be three different worlds,' he reasoned, 'there could be hundreds, thousands, millions even. How many worlds are there?' Vaguely he remembered Ryan telling him something about this. He wished now, that he had paid attention.

He shook himself impatiently, now was not the time for speculation. He glanced around the room. There did not seem to be anywhere to hide something as large as a person in here, so he cautiously moved to the next building. This too was devoid of people. Okay, so they were all in the last one, waiting for him! This building seemed to be living quarters. Bunks, washbasins, and lockers lined the walls neatly in a fashion reminiscent of an army boot camp dormitory. He counted twelve of these. 'Nice to know the odds,' he thought.

The chances of finding Ryan locked in a cupboard were, he decided, remote. But he checked them anyway. Nothing! Although this inventory did give him an insight into the occupants of this place. They were, apparently, all female. Perhaps servants, maybe the scientists only worked here and lived elsewhere.

Now to beard the lion's den. It was divided into two parts or more; he could see the connecting door at the far end of the room, a living space with armchairs and a small dining table. There were pictures on the walls and rugs on the floor and a small fireplace with a plug in electric fire in the middle of it. _Someone_ had tried to make the place look homely. He gave a shiver. This room too was unoccupied. It was strange, where the hell was everyone?

In the last compartment, a kitchen, he at last found someone, a girl. Not Ryan, but it was a start. And she was alone. This was weird. He had seen with his own eyes, at least five people enter this place, and then there were the beds, twelve beds; he could not account for it. Where _was_ everyone? Where was Ryan? Was she even here?

The girl was sitting at a dirty folding table of the kind used at picnics; she barely gave Kai a glance.

'They're all below already,' she said in a dull monotone. 'You'll want to catch them up, I suppose.'

'Below!' Kai could barely suppress his excitement. 'Of course, some kind of cellar'. He thought about the rock face that this building was standing on. 'I'm glad I wasn't the one who had to dig it,' he thought inconsequentially.

The girl rose grudgingly from her seat and pulled a rug away from a trapdoor in the floor. She kicked it open. 'There you go,' she said and then added, 'Sir,' as if in afterthought. 'The other sirs won't be too far ahead of you yet.'

'Thanks for the warning,' thought Kai grimly.

There was a long steep stone staircase, built into the rock, which curved around as it descended into a dungeon-like room with flaming torches in brackets on the walls and sturdy oak doors set into the walls.

'Now, this is more like it,' he thought, 'nice and creepy.' For some reason, he began to feel better.

He began to hear low voices not far ahead of him, and he moved more cautiously. He could now see the shadows of several men and women further on, and he realised that if one of them turned, he would be visible by his own shadow, he was not ready to be seen yet, he wanted to find out more about this place.

The air was so stuffy down here that he was hard pressed to keep from gasping loudly for air. He wondered how these people were able to chat lightly as they seemed to be doing. Kai felt as if he were being choked by noxious fumes. He hoped he was not.

The sound of a heavy door being scraped along the stone floor drew his attention from his own suffering. One of the "ladies" let out a high-pitched shriek of laughter, which made Kai shudder in horror. And then – screaming – terrible hideous, heart rending screaming shattered the air. Kai felt as if he could breathe again, so it was a pity his heart had stopped. It was not Ryan who was dragged into the light, but another young woman, it made no difference to what had to be done, though.

Kai stepped into the light. 'WHAT ARE YOU DOING?' He thundered impressively. 'LET HER GO!' His usually amiable features now stern and forbidding, betraying an inner power that was unknown to most people who knew him. Even Ryan, who knew him better than most, would not have known him at that moment.

There was an instant commotion until an older man called peremptorily for silence.

The commotion ceased as suddenly as it had begun and the group stared at Kai with mingled curiosity and malevolence. The older man stepped forward, but before he could speak the silence was broken again by a plaintive voice. 'Help me, if you're not a dream, please help me.'

The man clicked his fingers and the men holding the girl threw her at Kai's feet.

'Take her,' he said. 'We have others. We don't want any trouble. '

The girl grabbed Kai around the ankles and sobbed.

Kai ignored her. 'Others?' he asked. 'What are they here for?'

The man nodded understandingly. He bowed. 'Dr. Franklin,' he said, indicating himself, and he beckoned Kai toward the nearest door. 'In here,' he said, and slid open a small hatch in the door that Kai had not noticed. Behind the hatch, he saw a face. It looked dead; it was blue for one thing. But Kai had seen death, and this was not it. 'Frozen?' he asked

'Indeed,' agreed the Doctor. 'Cryogenics we call it. It's quite harmless. The subjects are all perfectly healthy, no tissue damage. But we don't seem to be able to do anything about the nightmares, unfortunately.' He spoke pleasantly and plausibly.

'Nightmares?'

'Well,' Dr. Franklin shrugged. 'It's a convenient explanation. Something about the freezing process, perhaps, causes quite terrifying hallucinations in the brain, but we're working on it, we'll fix it.

Kai reddened with fury. 'You're torturing them,' he asserted.

The Doctor's gentle smile faded, and he lost his poise for a moment. 'Of course we're not,' he said crossly.

'You're torturing them,' repeated Kai. 'As surely as if you were beating them and starving them and putting them on the rack

The high-pitched laughter rose up again from behind them.

'Oh do be quiet Arabella,' snapped the Doctor. 'Nervous disorder,' explained the man. 'She can't help it poor thing.'

Kai's eyes narrowed. This man, with his gentle manner and suave words had had him bemused for a moment, but now he knew he was being lied to. He also understood that he was being stalled. These people had no intention of letting him get out of here if they could help it. If it was all so damn innocent, then why were they kidnapping people? 'Doctor, my ass!'

He decided that their motives were not the important issue here. What _was_ important was how he was going to deal with them. If they were human, he had no problems.

He raised his gun. No warning this time, he decided, these were no horse thieves. He fired. The first shot went straight through the putative Doctor's forehead. He toppled like a felled tree. Two men leapt forward. Kai shot them in quick succession. The rest of the group, and there were only two women left, capitulated immediately.

'Who else comes here?' asked Kai, waving the gun at them threateningly.

'Th – the servants,' said the taller one, the one who had laughed so callously.

'Okay, good.' He gestured toward the empty cell. 'Get in.' he told her. She hesitated, but not for long, Kai waved the gun again, and she shrugged and obeyed him.

He turned to the other woman, a pudgy middle-aged dame who was shivering uncontrollably. 'You!' he barked. 'Let the rest of them out.' She hastened to obey him.

There were six prisoners all told, and they all exited their cells in great trepidation, blinking bewilderedly in the unaccustomed light. The third to be released, to Kai's delight, was Ryan. Kai felt his knees go weak with relief.

'Ryan,' he cried. 'Thank God!'

She stared stupidly at him. 'Kai? Is it really you? The voices said you wouldn't come, and I...'

'Of course I came,' snorted Kai, gruff in his relief and he threw his arms around her.

The last prisoner was released and the pudgy woman stood looking nervously expectant at Kai.

He grinned at her. 'You know what to do,' he told her.

The prisoners let up a cheer as she walked rigidly into Ryan's vacated cell, and Kai closed her in.

'Come on,' he said. 'Let's get the hell out of here. Anyone know how to fly a dirigible?'

* * *

Mica woke up to find a strange man, tall and black haired, with silver streaks at the temples, and elegantly, even foppishly, dressed, standing over him. He looked extremely incongruous in these Spartan surroundings.

Mica leapt to his feet and called the dogs while assuming as defiant an attitude as possible.

'W-wot choo want Mister?' he demanded, in a voice, not quite as steady as he would have liked.

'Nothing, nothing,' said the man mildly. I await your master. I trust his mission has been successful.'

'He ain't here,' said Mica.

'Obviously,' returned the man and sat down. 'I shall wait for him here,' he declared.

Mica was not happy with this arrangement at all, but there seemed little that he could do about it. He skirted the dying fire carefully and sat down on the opposite side to the intruder, never taking his eyes off him.

The intruder looked around him distastefully. 'What an uncouth place this is,' he said, and he waved his hands as if to indicate the landscape.

'You don' 'ave to stay 'ere,' observed Mica dourly.

'It needs some trees,' said the man, ignoring this sally. Trees appeared.

Mica gasped.

'Some grass, of course,' said the man and added some. 'And a lake, with a waterfall, perhaps. Yes a waterfall.'

Mica's eyes were like round saucers in his head as these wonders appeared.

The man addressed Mica now. 'Is it too early for tulips?' he asked. 'I'm rather fond of tulips.'

* * *

The girl in the kitchen took no more notice of the troop of prisoners than she would have of a beetle crawling across the dirty floor. Indeed, she did not seem to notice any difference between the group who had entered, and the group who were now leaving. She rose wearily from her chair and held the door politely open for them. 'Goodnight sirs.' she said indifferently.

Kai, who had been anticipating more difficulties than this, looked sharply at her. But it seemed that she did not even see him.

Nervously, glancing fearfully at the girl, the prisoners trooped outside, with Kai (feeling like this had all been too easy) bringing up the rear.

Once outside, he took the lead and led them round to where the dirigible had landed. There, at last, he met his Waterloo. The dirigible had gone.

## Chapter Eleven – Extraordinary Expedition

Jez was less hysterical by now. Her habitual self-control had come into play. She also shared with her mother, a strong streak of fatalism, so, she shrugged her shoulders, what-will-be-will-be, she implied. But she was as bewildered as ever.

Johnny tried to explain. 'You know about multiple realities?' he began.

'That's just a theory,' said Jez. Already, she did not like the sound of this.

'No, they're real,' Johnny told her, unable to keep the excitement out of his voice. 'And I've actually visited them – some of them.' He thought for a moment. 'And so have you,' he added wonderingly, as if he had only just realised this.

_'What_?'

'The virtual reality,' he explained.

Jez narrowed her eyes. 'I _said_ it was too real, didn't I?'

Johnny lowered his eyes. 'Sorry,' he muttered. 'I guess you were right. Anyway,' he continued breezily, 'you know about multiple universes? How every decision makes two different futures, each one making the world split off in two...'

'Yeah, yeah, I understand. So?'

'Well, that's where we're going. To a world called SCI'ON.'

'Why?'

'Well...' Johnny shrugged helplessly.

'You don't even _know_?' Jez was outraged. Then she shrugged it aside. 'Okay, so why all this?' She spread her hands to indicate the "spaceship".

Johnny grasped her meaning immediately. 'You mean, why can't we just go straight there, like we did the others?' he elucidated. 'I don't know. There wasn't a program for it. I had to make my own up, and this was the only way I could do it. I think that maybe SCI'ON isn't like the other ones we went to. It seems to be further away for one thing, further away in time I mean.'

'How could you possibly know that?' asked Jez incredulously. 'You know what,' she ploughed on, seeing the perplexed look come back to his face, 'never mind. I'll take your word for it.' Her eyes narrowed again. 'Just how much further away is it?' she asked suddenly.

This was the question that Johnny had been dreading answering, but there was no help for it now. He looked at his feet and mumbled uncomfortably. 'For us, about ten years.' Then he shied away from her expected wrath, closing his eyes.

Jez, however, took it calmly. 'I suppose I shouldn't be surprised,' she sighed.

Johnny risked opening one eye. He squinted nervously at her.

She sniffed impatiently. 'Never mind,' she snapped. 'I'm curious about this – program or whatever it is. What is it? Where are we? How is a computer program supposed to get us to another reality? I don't understand how you've done this. Are we safe? What do you mean "for us"?'

Johnny laughed, relieved. 'Which question do you want me to answer first?' He grinned.

'Are we safe?'

'Perfectly,' he assured her.

'Okay, so boast away, tell me how you did this. It'll pass some time. And that's another thing. You can explain to me why it's going to take so long to get there while you're at it.'

'It's because SCI'ON is so far away in time,' Johnny said. I can't explain it any better than that. I think maybe it existed long before ours did, maybe a hundred million years even, but... it still exists, of course, so I don't know...' He trailed off.

'You mean it split off a long time ago?' Jez caught some of his enthusiasm. 'So, some universes are older than ours, because they split off a long time ago, and the further back in time the split took place, the further away it is from us in time, even though in terms of space, it occupies the same place.' she theorised.

'I think you understand this better than I do,' said Johnny.

'I bloody hope not,' said Jez.

'Anyway,' Johnny continued, coasting over this remark. 'I couldn't get the computer to accept a shorter journey. We're not in space, of course. It just seems like it. Look outside.'

Jez did so. It did indeed look like empty space, except that there were no stars.

'We're actually travelling through a wormhole in the fabric of the universe.' He looked awkward for a moment.

'What aren't you telling me?' said Jez, glossing over the fact that she could make neither head nor tail of this last statement.

'Well, we're travelling at a quantum level,' he said. 'That's very, very small. So, technically, we've been destroyed, physically, I mean. We'll be re-constituted when we arrive.' He said all of this very fast.

Jez placed her hands on her thighs, stomach, collarbone and face in quick succession then looked at Johnny sceptically. 'I feel real enough to me,' she observed.

'We'll be rebuilt on the other side,' Johnny repeated. He was going to say more, but Jez interrupted him. 'Are you sure?'

'Positive, the universe is expecting us you see. It will rebuild us, when we get there.'

Jez shook her head. 'It's _expecting_ us?' she said. 'How?'

Johnny shook his head.

'Don't tell me,' said Jez sarcastically. 'You don't know!'

'It's just hard to explain,' said Johnny. 'Like gravity. It just works. You don't have to glue yourself to the ground to make sure you don't fly away, do you? Well it's kind of like that. It's a natural function of the multiverse. The universe will see us arrive and accept us.'

Johnny did not feel inclined to go into any more detail than this, Jez was unnerved enough. To explain that it would not technically be them at all who arrived at the other end, but rather another version of themselves from another almost identical universe, seemed to be an unnecessary worry to add to those she was already entertaining. To all intents and purposes, it _would_ be them.

'You can't possibly _know_ all that,' objected Jez. 'What if it doesn't work?'

'It always worked before,' Johnny pointed out.

Jez accepted this as true. She realised that she did not really want to know any more. The whole thing was so unbelievable anyway, and she suddenly felt very tired. She wondered about this, how could she feel tired when she had been physically destroyed?

'Mental habits,' said Johnny reading her thoughts. 'Get some sleep if you like, and don't think about it, it'll drive you nuts.'

'Really, _destroyed?_ ' she said suddenly, unwilling to let this idea go despite Johnny's advice.

Johnny sighed. 'Look don't worry about it. I mean it. It's not important. Anyway we'll soon find out,' he added.

'Soon?'

'Yes, I built in a number of scheduled stops in universes along the way, sort of rest stops, to stop myself from losing my mind, you know. I mean, I wasn't expecting to be accompanied, and the program suggested it. Besides, we'll need supplies and stuff. It'll be interesting too, and useful. Can't let ourselves get flabby, can we?'

'How soon?'

'I scheduled them for every three months, but we don't have to take them all.'

'I'm not sure we should take any of them, it might be dangerous,' said Jez. 'How do we know what we'll find?'

'We don't, but we don't know what we'll find in SCI'ON either, that's why it's a good idea. Get us used to the unexpected.'

Jez was suffering from information overload at this point, and she wanted to bury her head in the sand and ignore all this, and pretend it was not happening. Still, she heard herself say: 'Just one more thing, we'll be twenty seven when we arrive?'

'Yes, but from the point of the universe, we'll arrive instantly.

'I see, so we lose ten years of our lives, fabulous!'

But Johnny did not see it this way. He did not say so to the severely practical Jez, but to him, it was a mythic journey. He (and now Jez) would spend ten years travelling and learning and changing, and yet going nowhere in a physical sense; they would be lost to the world, hidden. And when they emerged, they would be different.

* * *

Jez was sleeping; they would have to sleep in shifts, Johnny decided. The module that he had designed had really only been designed for one passenger. He had expected to be doing this journey alone.

He was concerned about Jez; her sudden unexpected arrival had unnerved him, particularly, since she had said that she had come to stop him. He realised that his questions still had not been answered. How had she known what he was doing? Why had she come to stop him? Who was behind it? _Someone_ must have told her of his plans, who? And how the hell had _they_ known? She had mentioned a name he remembered – Mick? Nick? Before he slept himself, he would want some answers?'

Jez told Johnny about Nick and what he had told her. She held back on the details about her relationship with him, but Johnny could see the tenderness in her face as she spoke his name, he wondered if Jez realised how her face softened when she mentioned him, probably not. Lucky Nick, he thought, without a trace of jealousy. He viewed Jez, impartially of course, as the best girl in the world. And he knew also that she set a high price on herself. But the rest of it disturbed him.

'It sounds like a conspiracy the way you tell it,' he said. 'All your neighbours spying on you, and all that urgency to stop me. He didn't say why?'

'Just that it would be bad,' she said. 'He didn't have time to say any more.'

'He could have told you earlier,' observed Johnny, but without much feeling. Jez had already shown an inclination to defend Nick's lightest word fiercely, and Johnny did not want an argument. Even at this mild reproach she frowned.

'I told you. He was on _their_ side at first, but I don't know what it's all about. If I'd been able to stop you, he probably would have explained it to both of us.'

Johnny was not so sure, but he did not say so. He had not told Jez about the dreams yet, the ones about the girl. He wondered how that fitted in with what Jez had told him. Was it possible that it was all just a ruse to get him to SCI'ON? And what did the man Bellême have to do with all this, whose side was he on? Clearly, he _wanted_ Johnny, and perhaps Jez too, to go. But what were his intentions? Johnny was beginning to feel like a manipulated fool. He should have thought about what he was doing, not just rushed headlong into this. Now that he had time to reflect, he realised that he did not even know what SCI'ON was and why it was so important to these mysterious people, some to send him there, and some to prevent his going.

Well, the ones who wanted him to go had won. He had been too easy to manipulate in the end, and it was too late, as Jez had said, to worry about it now.

'Are you sure he didn't tell you anything?' said Johnny desperately. 'Nothing about SCI'ON, what it is, why we shouldn't be going? _Anything_.'

Jez shook her head, 'sorry.'

Johnny saw that she was weary of the subject. 'You miss him, don't you?' he said understandingly. 'You know, you might see him again.' he added encouragingly. 'Seems to me that he probably comes from SCI'ON or at least...' He frowned. 'How else would he even know about it?' he finished lamely.

'And Bellême and his little familiar?' she said. 'Do they come from this SCI'ON too?'

'Maybe, oh let's just drop it. At least we know now, that there may be a good reason for us to be cautious about this. Nick's defection gave us that much at least. I'm going to sleep for a bit, Okay?'

'And I just hope I still have the dream, if I don't... it means it was never real.'

## Chapter Twelve – The Witches

With the dirigible gone, Kai was more worried than he wanted to reveal to the band of weary prisoners, who had already suffered so much. Who had taken it, and would they be back soon? These were pressing concerns. Besides, without it, how was he going to get these people out of here?

Ryan was staring out across the chasm in bewilderment. 'Oh my God,' she kept repeating. 'Oh my God,'

Kai took her hand. 'Yes,' he said lightly. 'It does take you like that a bit at first.'

Ryan looked at him through hunted eyes. 'What _is_ this place?'

Kai shrugged and wandered off distractedly. He could not help her with this, and he had his own worries. Like how the hell to get them all out of here. He gazed across the gorge in frustration.

Ryan was beside him. 'What's wrong Kai?'

He took her to one side. 'We're trapped here,' he said. And explained how he had got here in the first place. 'Now that it's gone, I don't see how we're going to get across,' he said.

Ryan looked down the side of the cliff. 'Over _that_?' she said in wonderment. 'You swung on rope over _that_?' she shuddered. 'Bloody Hell!'

Kai could not help looking a little pleased at such vehement proof of admiration.

'Oh, well...' he began modestly. 'It was... what's that?'

'What?'

'That noise,'

Ryan could not hear anything, but she was aware that Kai had hearing like a bat, so she waited. After a moment, the sound became audible to her. 'Sounds like a helicopter,' she said.

'A what?'

'There!' she pointed. 'One of those,'

Kai was excited. 'With one of those, we could get across the gorge.'

'You know how to fly a helicopter do you?' asked Ryan dryly. ''Cause I don't.'

'It's landing,' shouted Kai, above the roaring of the blades. He pulled out his gun.

'I'll figure it out,' he said loudly. 'How hard can it be?'

The helicopter landed on the roof of the low-slung building in the middle. And the pilot then let down a ladder, as he reached the bottom rung the cold muzzle of the gun was pressed into his temple.

'Maybe this guy can fly us across,' suggested Ryan.

Kai nodded. 'How many passengers you got room for?' he asked the sweating man.

'T-two at the most,' he said. 'It's a bit cramped in there.'

'Then you fly us across in shifts,' said Kai, 'I'll ride on them landing skis up the side. I'll be right beside you the whole time, got it?' He pointed the gun meaningfully at the man.

The man agreed. He kept looking nervously back at the building behind him.

'Kai laughed. I reckon your scheduled passenger's a bit busy right now,' he said. 'No one's coming to help you, believe me.'

The man looked horrified.

'Don't look so worried,' said Ryan coldly. 'No one will hurt you, as long as you do what we tell you, will they Kai?'

Kai did not answer. He shrugged. I'm not going to make any promises I might not be able to keep, he implied.

Once they were all on the other side of the gorge, they tied up the pilot and left him. Ryan was dubious about this, but Kai was adamant; he would free the others to come after them, he said, if they just let him go.

'But he might die here,' said Ryan, shocked at this evidence of Kai's callousness. He had changed, she thought. And it was her misfortune perhaps, that she should still love him.

'He'll be okay,' said Kai gruffly. 'He'll work himself loose in a few hours, I didn't tie him tight. And his helicopter thing is right over there. We'll be long gone by then, so it won't matter to us what he does.' His face said quite clearly that he was not going to be argued with.

They rounded up the escapees, two men and three women, all of whom still seemed bemused by their change in fortunes and Kai led them through the forest to the mouth of the tunnel.

The young woman who had been released first was the first to vanish suddenly as they made their way through the tunnel. Kai heard a cry from one of the men and turned back. 'She just disappeared,' he wailed. Like a ghost or something.'

The others gathered round them. 'What happened?' 'Where is she?' 'Vanished?'

Then they rounded on Kai. 'What kind of a place is this that you've brought us to?' they asked. 'What happened to her?' 'What will happen to us?'

Half of them were for turning back, but the others said that the danger was obviously behind them, and they should push on as fast as they could to get out of this terrible place. This was agreed, and Kai took the lead again. An idea had come to him about this place, but he decided to wait and see.

The next to vanish was a young man. Not the one who had witnessed the last disappearance, but the other one. Before he vanished, he was heard to say. 'There it is, the end of the tunnel, and he had begun to run. This was accounted strange, since the end of the tunnel was nowhere in sight. When Kai heard about this, he was sure his idea was the correct one, but he said nothing as yet, he merely insisted that they keep going.

By the time he and Ryan reached the end of the tunnel, they were the only ones left out of the group. As they burst out into bright sunlight Kai frowned, this surely was not right. This was not the place he had left behind, was it? He was relieved, however, to hear a piping voice calling him.

'Kai, Kai!'

'Mica, thank God,' he said as the scruffy figure threw himself against Kai's legs and clung on. 'I thought I was in the wrong place.' He looked around at the newly lush landscape in confusion. 'Tulips?' he enquired. 'It's October!'

Mica released his legs and began dancing around him.

Ryan looked on in mingled amusement and bewilderment. 'Who's this?' she asked.

Mica gave a mocking, but still friendly bow sweeping his hat off elegantly.

'I Mica, beautiful lady,' he announced. 'You Ryan?'

Ryan nodded. 'That's _my_ hat,' she added.

'I know Kai 'ud find you, Kai cn do _anything_! Anything at all.' he leaned forward confidentially. 'Kai is my friend,' he said.

Ryan was amused. 'He's my friend too,' she said.

Mica nodded. 'We'm bin lookin' for you for ever so long,' he told her.

'Mica!' said Kai sternly. 'What happened here?'

'Man come,' said Mica. 'He'm dida spell and went away. He'm be looking for you, 'e sed. He'm be comin' back, 'e sed.'

'What kind of man?'

'Old man, posh clo-es, fancy shoes, white hairs all slicked back like a badger.'

'Well dressed?' said Kai. 'Out here?'

'Iss, very strange,' agreed Mica. 'Mica thought so too. Mica was afraid of the man.' He beamed at Kai. 'Kai will not be afraid, ha! Kai will sort him out good, yah! Bang, bang!'

'Well, if he's coming back, we'll find out about him soon enough,' said Kai. He smiled at Mica. 'Any food going?'

'Iss, come on fire is going, we shall eat, and Kai shall tell Mica of his adventures.'

'What do you think happened to the others?' whispered Ryan as they sat down by the fire. 'I think they went back to their own worlds,' said Kai. 'I'm sure that place was another world from this one, and that tunnel is like the path between our two worlds, only it leads to other worlds too, at least that what I think. That place wasn't my world anyway. I'm sure of that.'

'No,' Ryan agreed. 'Those impossible cliffs! Not in _this_ world.' She sighed. 'I hope you're right. I hope they're all right now.

'Other worlds,' she mused. 'I wonder why we couldn't see them.'

They slept by the fire in each other's arms. This had been the moment when they had finally had to face the awkward situation that they had left behind when Ryan had been kidnapped. Now that Mica was asleep, they were finally alone. It was Ryan who moved first, slipping easily into his arms as if nothing had happened inbetween, although, she was holding her breath as she did so. As Kai's arms tightened around her, she let out a sigh of relief and murmured. 'I missed you.'

Kai's relief was no less than hers, and his response was all that she could have hoped for.

They made love under the newly grown willow trees while Mica slept on the other side of the fire.

Ryan was the first to awake in the morning, and she let out a shriek, which woke the others, when she saw, sitting quite calmly on the other side of the fire, the "old man" that Mica had spoken of.

'You're back then,' he observed archly. 'And looking remarkably in the pink I must say – considering.'

He was, in fact, when Kai studied him, not an old man at all. It was true that he had silver in his hair, which was long and drawn into a ponytail, but by his face, which was smooth and unlined, he was very little older than Kai himself. It was a face, which would be considered remarkable anywhere for its beauty, but it was a chilly beauty. The mouth was thin and cruel, and his eyes glittered coldly. Kai had seen eyes like that before.

Without acknowledging the intruder, Kai ordered Mica to go and fetch water.

When he had bounded away, the man said. 'There was no need to send the child away, I will not be violent.'

_'I_ might though,' said Kai edgily.

'My name is Count Cesare of Romagna,' said the man.

'I thought as much,' growled Kai. 'A ruddy vampire.'

'Yes, yes, of course,' said the Count mildly. 'You knew, of course you did, but I am not here to trouble you. Indeed, I am only here to pass on a message.'

'Oh yeah?'

'Yeah, I mean yes, ahem. The Witches of Richida seek you.'

'Are you here to warn us or to deliver us to them?' asked Kai with fine disdain.

The Count laughed. 'I? I have no interest in the matter at all,' he declared.

'Then why are you here?' asked Ryan.

'And how did you know where to find us?' added Kai.

'To answer the last question first,' said the Count. 'The witches told me, or rather one specific witch, she has been scrying for you for some time I believe. It was she who told me that you would be here. And I came here as a favour to her,' he laughed hollowly. 'In order to receive favours one must be prepared to give them, it is the way of the world.'

'Well, you surely don't think that we're stupid enough to go, do you?' said Ryan acerbically.

'It is your own affair,' said the Count indifferently. 'But if I were you, I would be wondering why you have provoked such interest from the witches. They are not known, you know, for their fascination with mortals.'

'I _am_ wondering,' said Kai. 'And I think that you could answer that question, if you chose to.'

'Mmm, very shrewd,' said the Count suavely. Then he seemed for a moment to lose his perfect poise. He passed a weary hand over his face and looked at Ryan through haggard eyes.

'No,' he said. 'I cannot do it.' He looked earnestly at Ryan and held out his delicate white hand to her. 'Do not trust the Witches of Richida,' he said. 'Go to those in the mountains. They will help you.

'Why should I help the old bitch?' he muttered, apparently to himself. 'Why should I do her bidding for a few paltry favours? I will not help her destroy this innocent girl, this beautiful creature,'

He focused on Ryan's bewildered face. 'Ah, you wonder now, what I am at,' he observed. 'But you must trust me. Indeed, only the witches in the mountains can help you now.'

'She will be angry.' He was off again, muttering to himself. 'I care not, I care not. I have been weak, but no more, no more.'

'You believe in good and evil?' he addressed Ryan once more. 'Ha! When you have lived as long as I have, you will know better. But you will not, of course, you are a mortal I was forgetting. Vampires and witches are not all evil and humans are not all good. Vampires and witches, witches and vampires! There is no easy answer, no clear-cut division. I am not evil. I am a vampire, but not evil, just weak, and I have been foolish you see. But you understand? Being a vampire does not make one evil. Nor does being a witch. Some are bad, and some are not, just like humans, eh? You see? I was led into evil, evil ha! But you see what I mean? But now that I see you, I cannot do it. I cannot bring you to harm. I compare you with her...

'Her, my evil genius.' He was slipping away again into one of his autonomous monologues. 'What punishment she will inflict on me for this? I care not. She is watching, I doubt not. No time, no time, she will stop me if she can.' He forced himself to attend to Ryan again.

'You do not believe me,' he asserted.

'I-I don't know,' she stammered.

'You could prove yourself,' suggested Kai.

'In what way?' asked the Count. 'What would you ask of me?'

'Tell us what the Witches of Richida want with us,'

'They want to separate you. Together you are too strong.

'What?'

'You threaten their plans.'

'What plans?'

'I do not know, but it is something bad. Perhaps the mountain witches will know.'

Kai and Ryan looked at each other uncertainly. The Count certainly seemed sincere, but since when had you been able to trust vampires? Still he appeared to be in real distress, he would have to be the most consummate actor if he was deceiving them. And yet his very face had become gentler since the change in attitude, the eyes softer, and the mouth less cruel. Still they were unsure.

'You _must_ trust me,' begged the Count. 'I will tell you more. It was she who arranged for you to be taken. I was sent only when it became apparent that he would find you and bring you back from the other world.'

'So it _was_ another world,' said Ryan in wonder.

'Yes, yes, they are all in league, all together. Plotting, plotting, damn them!'

'We can't take Mica to the mountains,' said Kai. And Ryan knew by the way he said it, that he had made up his mind to go. But it would not be so easy to leave Mica behind she thought.

It was not. Mica cried and kicked and fussed and threatened. Then he begged and cajoled and flattered and made a great play of his usefulness until finally Kai said in exasperation. 'Oh, for God's sake, you can come as far as the foot of the mountain and no further. You can wait for us there, and if you try to argue, I'll strap you to a rock and leave you there for the buzzards. Understand?

'Iss,' said Mica delightedly.

Kai had, most reluctantly traded his horse with some local gypsies for three donkeys, to scale the low and gentle slopes of the paths near the foot of the mountain. Mica was enchanted with his. He named it 'small-round horse' (which may have shown a lack of imagination but was vastly amusing to Kai and Ryan) and showered affection on the beast.

It was rough going on these animals, but, as Kai said, donkeys are more sure-footed than humans and their progress would be safer and faster with this mode of progression. Only Mica, being so young and resilient was untroubled by the jerky movement and was finding the journey fun.

About half way up, they made camp. From here on, they would have to climb, and Mica would remain behind to take care of the animals. This was the way to put it, Kai decided, for Mica dearly loved to be useful. Had he known it, Mica, having thought more about it, was not eager to meet witches in any case and would have needed much less persuasion to remain behind than Kai exerted himself to devise.

Thus Mica was contented with his task, which was within his means and yet no disgrace to his honour. Not so, Kai and Ryan, who were dreading the morrow, and who, while Mica slumbered peacefully, lay wakeful and restless for most of the night wondering what the mountain top would bring, if they ever got so far.

In the morning, Kai and Ryan ate in silence, aware of a growing uneasiness that even communicated itself, in the end, to Mica, who finally, under this weight of oppression fell silent himself and began to fidget.

Kai took Mica by the shoulders and said. 'Now, we won't be long, okay? Look after the dogs and don't move from this spot for three days. If we don't come back by then, make your way back down. _Don't_ come after us, understand?'

'Iss.'

'I mean it Mica, okay?'

Mica grinned 'Okey dokey,' he said chirpily.

As Kai turned to make his ascent, Ryan looked back at Mica. Suddenly she saw him, as Kai had once done, as if for the first time, as a small lonely boy, ragged and neglected and yearning for something he had never known. Instinctively she swooped on him and enveloped him in a crushing embrace and kissed his grubby cheek. 'Goodbye dear Mica,' she said. 'We'll be back soon, I promise.'

Kai was startled at this action, but not more than Mica was. In all his short life, he had never been kissed, or shown any kind of motherly affection by any woman. He gazed in wonder at Ryan, his heart bursting with unaccustomed childlike longings.

If Kai was his hero, then Ryan was now his benevolent angel. He clung to her, all pretence at grown up dignity forgotten, as if he would never let her go. Ryan looked anxiously at Kai. He shrugged helplessly; he did not know what to do. But after a few minutes Mica let her go, and with an attempt at his usual swagger, saluted Kai with a grin and then turned his back on them determinedly and began to see to the dogs.

Kai grabbed Ryan and heaved her up the side of the precipice.

The air was getting thinner; it was freezing cold, and Kai was having serious doubts as to the wisdom of this venture. He wanted to go back, but Ryan was battling ahead with a look of grim determination on her face. Ryan had once told him that women are blessed with more stamina than men, and now he was almost ready to believe it.

They had been climbing for perhaps an hour (to Kai it felt like a week at least) when they heard the singing.

Ryan stopped and raised her head, which had been bent forwards against the wind.

'What's that?' she yelled. But her voice was taken by the screaming wind and swept away.

Yet, the singing was as clear as a church bell. When the import of this hit them, Kai and Ryan's eyes met in a shining communion of excitement. The _witches_!

But where? They looked around frantically. All they could see were swirling eddies of snow and the sheer side of the mountain disappearing into a cloudbank.

Suddenly Ryan began to yell. 'Hey! Over here, help, over here, _hey_!' And so on. The singing stopped abruptly, and there was a sense of tension in the air, a feeling of watchfulness all around them. If anything, they were now even more certain that the witches were close by. Kai, who had been less certain of the wisdom of seeking out witches in the first place, was filled with an ominous sense of unease. He decided to turn back and was about to communicate this decision to Ryan, when it was suddenly too late.

Ryan felt a strong pair of hands grasp her around the shoulders and pull her sharply upwards into a dark opening that opened up suddenly above her head. Then it was Kai's turn.

The witches were sat around a fire, which was burning in the middle of the cave. At the back of the cave, a dainty fair skinned witch with an air of fragility sat on a carved stone chair, which was placed on a raised dais.

She was wrapped in a dark cloak which appeared to be made of some kind of sheepskin material and only her steel bright eyes and some errant curls the colour of pale gold were visible under the deep hood. Kai and Ryan were brought before her and told to kneel. The witch stood up gracefully and threw off her cloak, revealing her bare arms, and gestured to them to stand.

'No, no ceremony,' she said. 'These two are known to me. It is not for them to kneel to me.'

Then they noticed that none of the witches were warmly clad. All wore thin toga like garments with no sleeves in beautiful bright summery colours; there were spring flowers in their hair and they were barefoot. This was magic indeed. Even in their warm gear Kai and Ryan were shivering despite the fire, which seemed, indeed, to be more ceremonial than practical, since none of the witches were huddled close to it as normal people would have been.

'Do you get the feeling that all these people know something about us that we don't know?' said Ryan to Kai.

The witch laughed. 'Ask,' she said. 'I will hold nothing back. But you are cold,' she added and clapped her hands. Two witches came forward with steaming goblets of some pale amber liquid, which they held out to their guests.

'Drink,' said the witch. 'We use it to keep out the cold, since we were forced to take up our abode in this inhospitable place.'

They looked suspiciously at the goblets, with curling smoke rising off the top of the peculiarly coloured stuff.

Kai sniffed it apprehensively. 'Witches brew,' he muttered.

The witch laughed gaily. 'Indeed,' she said.

'What's in it?' asked Ryan, trying to sound as if she were merely interested and not at all apprehensive.

'Mostly tea,' said the witch, 'and some herbs, nothing harmful. Look I will take some,' she sipped from Ryan's goblet 'See?' she said.

With an air of throwing caution to the wind, Ryan raised the goblet to her lips and downed the contents suddenly in one go.

'Urrrgh!' she said involuntarily. Then, realising that this was not very polite, she added. 'Oh, it's nice.' The effect of the brew _was_ nice. Ryan felt a warmth spread rapidly through her body, she was actually growing uncomfortably warm until she had to take off her cloak and then her jacket and even her boots as if it were a summer's day.

More suspiciously, Kai drank his brew with the same effect.

'Now,' smiled the witch. 'We are all comfortable. Shall we sit, and discuss what has brought you here?'

They sat in a circle, near to the fire, but not too near, and the witch gave them an expansive smile.

'Introductions first,' she said. 'I am Valencia Catalina Romola De Medici. I like to be called "Valentina".'

This was such an impressive sounding name that Ryan replied without thinking. 'I am Alyssa Ryan O'Connor.' Using the Christian name that she had dropped when she was ten years old for the first time since then.

Kai, who had never heard this, looked askance at her. But Valentina merely smiled.

'Called "Ryan",' she said, 'as we have heard.'

'Kai Lascalles,' said Kai, 'but I guess you already know that.'

Valentina smiled her slow smile again.

'And as to what brought us here,' added Kai, 'apart from the donkeys, that was a vampire called Count Cesare of Romagna.'

That wiped the smile off her face, he noted.

'Cesare?' she said startled. ' _Cesare_ sent you to us?'

'You know him then?' said Ryan.

'He is with our enemies,' said Valentina seeming confused. 'Surely...' Then her face cleared. 'Ah, I think I understand,' she said. 'We have been watching him, and all his doings. It seems that we have interfered with his conscience by doing so. He was once, when he was alive, a good man, perhaps...' She shook her head. 'But we will soon know.' She clapped her hands, and a tall witch with auburn hair appeared behind her. 'Marina,' she said. 'Bring Cesare to me.'

The tall witch bowed.

'You speak of him so familiarly,' said Ryan. 'Do you know him personally?'

'We have met,' said Valentina archly. 'Now, we have much to discuss, the enigma of Cesare's behaviour will be addressed, no doubt, when he arrives. That can wait. It is of you that we need to talk. And yet, it seems that Cesare is important in this, without him, you would not now be here, I deem. This is strange to me. However, that is for later. Now, I must tell you about SCI'ON.'

As she said these last words, a strange and mysterious feeling swept over both Ryan and Kai, a feeling of intense curiosity, longing and horror.

## Chapter Thirteen - Only Yesterday

Stigers approached his master in deep apprehension. He would be lucky, he felt, to survive as the messenger of such news – two lots of unwelcome news.

Bellême smiled like a shark as Stigers crept into the room.

'Ah! The incomparable Stigers,' he purred steepling his fingers in a gesture of intense satisfaction. Stigers trembled; such evidence of amiability only made his task worse – his master's mood would soon undertake a rapid reversal and Stigers would receive the brunt of it. He steeled himself.

'N-news, Master,' he stammered. 'F-from the Others.' He said this last word as if it were a title like "The Sovereigns".

Bellême's smile slipped a little. 'What?' he said sharply. 'Already? Well, go on then.'

'If you please Master, the er ... girl, the one you...'

'She has escaped, has she?' finished Bellême.

'Er, yes sir – how did you...?'

'It doesn't matter,' said Bellême calmly. 'She has played her part – she has drawn him in.'

Stigers was relieved. This last statement was completely mysterious to him of course, but as long as master was not angry. Still there was the other news. He cleared his throat. 'Ahem...'

'Of course,' mused Bellême, 'it would have been preferable if those bungling fools had managed to hang on to her. But then I never really expected them to.'

'Yes sir – er, I have news of the other girl too. The one who...'

'Ah yes, our fair Minerva,' said Bellême. 'What about her?'

'She's gone with him.'

Bellême frowned. 'Hmm, that's not so good,' he said. 'Still,' he continued calmly. 'Perhaps it won't matter very much after all. The main thing is that _he_ has gone.'

Stigers bit his lip. 'Um...'

'What? Stop umming and arring man, spit it out.'

'Nick talked sir.'

Now Bellême _was_ enraged. Stigers backed out of the room hastily as the room filled rapidly with flames.

* * *

The days and nights were of such unconscionable monotony that Jez had decided that she might as well face the inevitable; she would go slowly insane, and there was not a damn thing she could do about it. The entertainments that Johnny had provided reflected his own taste, and, in any case, they had long since run through the lot of them, books, magazines and videos.

Jez was rather hysterically, thinking of writing her memoirs. "A Diary of Infinite Tedium. By The Lunatic of The Space Time Continuum." What made it worse was the fact that the "Infinite Tedium" was united constantly with a horrible unnameable terror of the future. Oh yes, she would be out of her mind any day now. What made it even _worse_ was Johnny. He was apparently unaffected by all the conflicting emotions that beset Jez every waking moment. Existing in his own secret inner life, that she had no access to, he seemed perfectly content. He was like an old man; he pottered. That was the only word for it, he "pottered" about the module, spending hours in the head, re reading old magazines or shuffling to and fro with an abstracted air, occasionally pushing buttons on the console or checking the settings, until Jez wanted to scream at him.

But when he slept, she felt differently. There _was_ something bothering him that only assailed him in his sleep. Hour after hour he would whimper and twitch like a toddler having nightmares, sometimes he would cry out in a harsh voice, not his own. Incomprehensible words, and Jez could only watch him in agonized pity. She had never been able to wake him from these horrible episodes, try as she might. But only at these times was her irritation mitigated. He would awake from these nightmares drained, clammy with sweat, pale, and listless, but he never spoke of them and Jez was not even sure that he remembered.

Johnny could see how Jez was feeling, but as he did not know how to help her out, he felt it was more diplomatic to ignore the situation. He knew, as she did not, that they were approaching the three month mark. They were, both of them, unaware of time passing but Johnny had been keeping an eye on the settings. Had he understood the human psyche in any measure, it might have occurred to him that the reason the tedious journey was easier for him was because he had a way of marking the time that he had not offered to Jez, mistakenly thinking that it would make it harder, not easier, for her. Thus, he did not tell her that in two days they would be making a stop.

The dreams of SCI'ON had continued, as Jez had witnessed. But the dreams of the girl had stopped, for some reason. This made him uneasy; probably because it gave credence to the theory that, he had been duped, which he did not like to think about.

The dreams about SCI'ON were getting more intense and more detailed, but not more comprehensible. Johnny only had the vaguest notion of what SCI'ON was, and why he was going there, except that every dream culminated with its destruction now, and worse, although Johnny could see how its destruction had been accomplished, he had no idea how it might be prevented.

It was Jez who first noticed that the craft had stopped. This was strange, since at no time since boarding had she been aware of any momentum. But the instruments were dark, and there was just a feeling of stillness that she could not explain. For a moment, she was panicked, and then she remembered Johnny telling her that he had programmed this to happen. He was in the head, reading. What, she did not want to know. Women have never understood the male fascination with reading on the toilet and have their own suspicions about what's really going on in there. Still, this was no time for prudish reticence; she banged loudly on the door.

'Hey, Captain Kirk,' she called loudly. 'The Millennium Falcon's ground to a halt in an asteroid field.'

Johnny winced at this terrible Sci-Fi _faux pas_ , but he recognized the cheerfulness of Jez's tone and wondered.

'That's "Han Solo",' he told her as he came out.

'What?' Jez was temporarily nonplussed at this apparent _non-sequitur._

'Han Solo was the captain of the Millennium Falcon,' he told her. 'James T Kirk was the Captain of the "Enterprise".'

Jez sniffed impatiently. 'We've stopped,' she informed him bluntly.

'Great,' said Johnny although he did not seem to Jez to be very surprised.

She narrowed her eyes at him. 'You _knew_ you bastard,' she accused. You could have _told_ me. I've been going loopy all this time, and you've known all along where we were up to.'

Johnny was genuinely shocked by this reaction. 'I-I'm sorry,' he stammered. 'I-I thought, well, I thought it would make it worse to know, sort of like marking time in prison or something.'

'You idiot,' Jez flashed back at him. 'Don't you know _anything_? It's pretty well known that prisoners keep sane by counting the days off. That's why solitary confinement's a _punishment_ in prison.'

'Oh God, I didn't think of that. I didn't mean to put you in "solitary confinement." I promise I won't do it again.'

He was so contrite that Jez was mollified. 'Fool!' she contented herself with saying.

* * *

The reconstruction sequence was the most horrible thing that Jez had ever endured. It felt as if every molecule in her body was being forced outwards by a large balloon that was being rapidly inflated with hot gas. It lasted only microseconds, if that, but it felt like an eternity to Jez. And then she was reconstructed – in another universe. The thought made her dizzy. She remembered her first trip abroad, the strange delight of lapping her feet in the sea of an alien shore. This was a similar feeling, only a thousand times more so; and no dragons either, at least, so far.

Johnny was gazing around him looking ecstatic. 'Like Neil Armstrong,' he said and Jez knew he was feeling the same way as she was.

They stood for a long time just feeling the breeze on their faces. The air of a different world. Strange yet familiar.

'So, where are we?' she asked, even her voice sounded strange.

'Pretty close to our own universe I think, so it shouldn't be too different,' he said.

'It _looks_ like England,' said Jez hoping to make her meaning clearer. Her thinking was more rational than Johnny's at times.

'Yes,' he agreed, 'it is. We're in the same place physically as we started from. It just looks different here.' He gestured to their surroundings, which consisted of a field and some trees and in the distance, a farmhouse. A desolate place. 'Maybe they don't call it England either.' he said.

'How do we get back?' asked Jez.

Johnny held up a small sliver rod. 'This,' he said. 'One of us just has to press the end, and we'll be deconstructed again, as long as we hold hands or something. We have to be touching.'

Jez shuddered at the word "deconstructed". She decided not to ask how it worked; she just did not want to know.

'Don't worry,' said Johnny seeing her face, I've tested it, it works fine, we can take anything we like back with us too, that's how I know it'll carry us both. I'd've made two if I'd known you were coming.'

'So where to?' Jez was conscious that she was leaving all the decisions up to Johnny, an unheard of thing, but this was an unprecedented situation, after all. Perhaps, she would be more like her old self once she got used to all this. If she ever did.

'I think there's a road over there,' said Johnny pointing. 'Let's head that way and see what we can find.'

'Johnny?'

'Yeah?'

'That – stick thing. Can we use it anywhere, or do we have to be back where we arrived?'

'Oh, anywhere will do,' he told her. 'It's all the same to the multiverse.'

'Oh, okay.'

They made their way to the road in silence, both of them wanting to drink in the experience of another world in their own way.

'I wonder if I shall eventually become blasé about this?' thought Jez, and knew that she would. Her mother, in her more lucid moments, had had a saying: "A body can get used to anything, even being hanged." And Jez had found this to be true.

She even speculated now, on the way her mother had viewed the world, as if she was from another world herself. Previously she would have dismissed this as an aphorism and nothing more; she was wiser now.

Johnny was walking along with an abstracted air. He was wondering about the silence, it was eerie. It was not just that there were no people about; it was a deserted country road, and there were no dwellings along it, so perhaps that was not so strange. But there were no other sounds, as he gradually became aware. No birds sang, no small animals scuttled in the undergrowth, no insects buzzed. It was a bright sunny day; it was inexplicable. When he spoke his voice sounded too loud, like an intrusion.

'Have you noticed,' he said suddenly, 'there's no sound – nothing, not even a bird or anything?'

Jez stopped and listened. She was rattled to realise that he was right. It was not like her to be unobservant, what had she been thinking about? Then she realised that this was not the thing to be focusing on right now.

'It is weird,' she agreed. 'Creepy. I wonder what it means.'

'I don't like it,' said Johnny. 'Shall we just get out of here?'

It was amazing the effect that mere silence was having on them. They were both becoming more and more unnerved. A monster would have been so much easier to cope with – mentally speaking.

As Johnny said. 'A monster is a monster, you know. It may be nineteen feet tall and about to eat you, but it's definitely a monster, you can _see_ it's a monster. There isn't any kind of mystery about it.'

Jez agreed; even a dragon would have been an improvement, but they were both becoming increasingly aware that they were just talking for the sake of it. The silence around them was like a horrible vacuum that needed to be filled.

Johnny began to theorize. 'Maybe it's just a world without sound, perhaps there's some kind of sonic jamming equipment being used...'

'And we're communicating by telepathy I suppose,' said Jez acidly. 'Besides, what the hell would be the point in _that_? – No don't answer that,' she added as he opened his mouth. 'I meant what _practical_ point, and you know it. Nobody would spend millions of pounds on such a thing for no good reason.' She held up a hand to forestall his next statement. 'Not _even_ a mad scientist,' she said firmly.

Johnny sagged.

'Besides,' she continued, 'it's not just that we can't _hear_ anything, like birds and so on, we can't _see_ them either, look around you.'

Johnny did so dispiritedly. 'There's smoke!' he said suddenly.

Jez jumped. 'What – where?' she cried looking around her wildly.

'Over there,' Johnny pointed, 'at the cottage.'

She followed his gaze. 'People?' she wondered.

'Well I don't think it's the three bears,' said Johnny.

'It might not be people either,' said Jez ominously.

'It... of _course_ it is,' said Johnny. ' _This_ world isn't that different from _ours_. It's quite close – in time – to _our_ world. I told you that!'

'Oh yeah?' said Jez. 'So why...?

'I don't know – yet. Maybe, it's a quantum thing, you know, maybe we're not quite here, maybe the deconstructor...'

'Shut _up_!'

Johnny was shocked into silence. Jez looked more distressed than he had ever seen her.

'If you don't know, then stop guessing,' she said. 'And don't talk to me about that, that – thing!'

Johnny looked awkwardly at the ground. 'Okay, sorry,' he said. He looked up and grinned suddenly. 'But by God, you're magnificent when you're angry,' he said.

Jez grinned back despite herself. 'Shut up you pillock,' she said.

There was, unsurprisingly perhaps, no one at the cottage, not a soul, not even a dog or a mouse running across the kitchen floor, although there were plenty of tracks.

The house showed every sign of recent occupation, indeed, apart from the total absence of a single living soul, it actually showed signs of _current_ occupation. The kettle was boiling, the fire was blazing away merrily, and there was a pot on the stove bubbling away. The table was laid for six and Jez recovered herself sufficiently to make the acidic observation that the china pattern was hideous. 'Yellow roses!' she said. 'Whatever happened to them, they probably almost deserved it.'

Johnny ignored this. 'Something terrible happened here,' he said.

Jez looked obliquely at him. 'Well?' she asked eventually, when he did not say any more.

'Well what?' he answered. 'We have to...'

'What?' she interrupted. 'It's none of our business Johnny. And what the hell do you think we could do about it anyway, just the two of us? We don't even know what happened.'

'Well, we should try to find out,' he said stubbornly.

Jez rolled her eyes. 'Save me from heroes,' she said. 'Okay hot-shot, what did you have in mind?'

Johnny pointed out of the window. There was a factory or something in the distance; a large complex building, with green gas pouring from its many chimneys. And beyond that, what appeared to be the hazy silhouette of a city.

'We'll take their truck,' said Johnny. 'Grab some food and come on. There's got to be _someone_ here who can tell us what's happened.'

'Bollocks!' muttered Jez under her breath, forgetting how sound was apparently magnified in the unnatural silence.

Johnny raised an eyebrow. 'This could happen in our world,' he reminded her, 'whatever it was. It's very close to it.'

'Huh, so you say,' said Jez. Okay, okay, I'm coming. I never said I wouldn't come, jeez!'

The factory, like the cottage, was deserted, but again, there were signs of recent occupation.

'Some kind of accident?' said Jez, who was getting interested despite herself. 'A chemical explosion or something that vaporised everybody?'

'And the people in the cottage?' asked Johnny.

'Well, it's not too far from here,' Jez pointed out.

Okay, fair enough,' said Johnny. 'So we go on to the city, see what's there.'

'What about having a look at their computers,' suggested Jez. 'I bet you could hack your way in no problem. They may be able to tell us something. If what happened _has_ got something to do with this place.'

'Good idea,' said Johnny, a little chagrined that he had not thought of this himself.

There was no need for Johnny to hack the computer. It was on and had apparently been in use at the time of the disaster, if disaster it was. No files were restricted, and Johnny zipped through them in no time. The factory was a plastics plant and, as far as he could tell, there was nothing sinister about it at all. Whatever the explanation for the weird ghostliness of this world, it did not lie here.

The city was the same, silent as the grave and just as unnerving. Jez was beginning to get twitchy.

'Look, she said. 'We came here for supplies, not to play "Sherlock Holmes". There's nothing we can do, let's just get out of here, I'm beginning to hate it here.'

Johnny was in secret agreement with this sentiment, but a hitherto unrealised streak of stubbornness now asserted itself, he wanted to be the one to suggest leaving. So he ignored Jez and ploughed on mulishly through the deserted streets as if he expected to meet a mad scientist around every corner. Resignedly, Jez followed him.

'Do you think it might be something we did?' asked Johnny, as if Jez had not said a word.

'Like what?'

'I dunno, but maybe I made a mistake in the programming, so that our arrival here made everyone here vanish, maybe into another world or onto another plane, just while we're here.'

Jez sighed and rubbed her nose, a sure sign of irritability. 'I honestly don't know,' she said.

But Johnny was not really talking to her anyway; he was talking to himself, theorizing again, more frantically now. 'It'd be handy,' he mused, 'if that _was_ it. We'd be certain never to run into any trouble. Ha, we'd never run into _anyone_.' He frowned. 'Perhaps we _should_ get out of here,' he said. 'I mean, who knows what we may have done to these people, just by being here.'

Jez was about to argue, when she realised that Johnny was finally giving in. He did not really believe that he had done this. Even with her imperfect knowledge of the quantum theories that had brought them here, she knew that what he was saying was nonsense. He was just looking for an excuse to leave. She was nothing loath; she had had enough of this uncanny place with its deserted streets and houses and factories.

Christ, it was worse than "Betta Builders" the DIY Giant supastore, on a Saturday afternoon. Jez had had a part time job there when she was fifteen. At least that place had had apparent lurching zombies around to brighten the place up a bit.

Jez realised that her mind was wandering. 'Okay,' she said, 'let's get out of here.'

Johnny took out the deconstructor and weighed it in his hand. 'Unless...' he began uncertainly.

'Oh my God!' snarled Jez and snatched it from him. ' _I'll_ do it!' And she did...

The reconstruction sequence was the most horrible thing that Jez had ever endured. It felt as if every molecule in her body was being forced outwards by a large balloon that was being rapidly inflated with hot gas. It lasted only microseconds, if that, but it felt like an eternity to Jez. And then she was reconstructed – in another universe. The thought made her dizzy.

'Er...?' said Johnny.

'What...?' said Jez?

'Oh shit!' they said together. They were back in the field where they had first appeared in this world – five hours earlier.

'Okay Hammond, explain yourself,' demanded Jez. 'What did you do now?'

_'I_ didn't do it,' protested Johnny. 'I don't understand this any more than you do.'

'You mean it's a cock up,' she said. 'We're _stuck_ here?'

'I-I'll try it again,' faltered Johnny. 'Maybe...' he shrugged and pressed the deconstructor again. Nothing happened. Johnny pressed again this time in panic. Again, nothing happened.

'Fabulous,' said Jez. 'We're stuck in a Sunday afternoon in hell for the rest of our lives. Well done!'

'Don't start,' muttered Johnny mutinously. 'It's not _my_ fault.'

This was such an outrageous piece of denial that Jez was temporarily speechless.

'I know what you're thinking,' said Johnny. 'But it really _isn't_ my fault. I think it must be a time loop.'

'Oh good,' said Jez. 'I'm glad we've got that cleared up, a time loop. It's a good job you're here to explain these things... What the hell is a time loop?'

'It's... well its self-explanatory surely.'

'Okay, brainiac, what are you going to do about it?'

'Um...'

'I thought as much... um! Um, is not the answer to everything you know, despite what you appear to think. I'm not even sure it's a word. So you had better think of something because I am damned if I'm going to spend the rest of my life here on Marie Celeste world.' Jez's voice had risen to a screech by the end of this harangue, and it was just as well for Johnny that she ran out of breath at this point.

Johnny was about to retort when he realised that she was close to tears, so he shut his mouth and tried to think of something reassuring to say. Unfortunately, his mind was a blank on that score. He looked helplessly at her and shrugged. 'We'll find a way,' he said uncertainly.

_'What_ way?'

'Well...' Johnny began. But this was apparently as inauspicious a beginning as "um". By the look on Jez's face, she was ready to take right off again.

I'm sorry,' he tried. This seemed more acceptable, although Jez was still frosty.

She thawed a little, enough to ask quite civilly. 'What's a time loop then?'

'Didn't you ever watch _Star Trek_?' said Johnny. This was again, apparently, the wrong thing to say and Jez made him feel it.

'Well in layman's terms,' said Johnny pompously. 'It just means that we're apparently stuck in the same five hours of time and we have to keep living it over and over again from the beginning unless we find a way to break the cycle.'

Light dawned. 'You mean like _Groundhog Day_?' asked Jez.

'Right,' Johnny agreed. 'We're Bill Whatshisname, evidently. I mean, like him, we're aware of the time loop – others may not be.'

'What others?' said Jez spreading her hands. 'There's nobody here. Bill _Murray_ ,' she added inconsequentially.

'Who?' said Johnny looking around wildly.

'In _Groundhog Day_ ,' explained Jez. 'Bill Murray.'

'Oh!' Johnny deflated. Then he brightened up. 'Well,' he said, 'you seem to know all about it. What did Bill Murray have to do to end Groundhog Day?'

'He had to fall in love,' said Jez flatly.

Johnny looked at Jez aghast. 'We'll be here forever,' he moaned.

'Thanks a lot!' she said indignantly.

'Oh come on Jez,' said Johnny plaintively. 'Be reasonable, I just meant that if _we_ we're going to fall in love we'd probably have done it by now, don't you think?'

'I suppose so,' said Jez grudgingly.

'And it's not as if there's anyone else here,' he added.

'Yes well, that's the point, isn't it?' said Jez. 'I don't necessarily think that we have to do the same thing as in the movie. That's ridiculous. I should have thought that what we have to do here is obvious. We have to find out what's happened to everyone and put it right. It's probably all connected somehow. In fact, I'd be amazed if it wasn't.'

'That _does_ make sense,' said Johnny cautiously, and added, 'I suppose.'

'So,' said Jez with the air of one for whom it's all been settled, 'what do we think _did_ happen to everybody?'

Johnny thought about it. 'Well,' he said eventually. ' _We're_ stuck in time, maybe they are too in some way.'

'Okay,' said Jez encouragingly.

'Only... not in the _same_ time. And that's why we can't see them. I mean perhaps they're a few minutes behind or ahead of us, or something like that, or even just a few seconds would do it I suppose. We can't see them because they're coming up just behind us, or we're coming up just behind them, see?'

'No. But keep going.'

'It would only happen if they were stuck in a time loop too, otherwise they – or we would catch up to them – or us.' Johnny shook his head as if to clear his brain. Clearly, he was getting lost in a metaphysical maze.

'But time isn't moving on normally for _any_ of us,' he continued. 'We're _all_ stuck.' He grinned delightedly. 'I'm sure that's it,' he finished.

'Okay,' said Jez, summarising. 'So we're all stuck in a time loop, like the Flying Dutchman or whatever, going round and round in circles forever and ever, and presumably we're the only ones who are aware of it, because we came to the show late – or early as you prefer, no doubt because we came from the quantum program thingy and aren't really a part of this world, right?'

'Right, near enough.'

'So...?

Johnny looked bewildered. Jez stamped her foot impatiently. Just because he looked like some sort of scruffy angel descended to Earth, she felt, was no excuse for his perennial otherworldliness.

'I _mean_ , dimwit,' she said. 'What are we going to _do_ about it? And I _swear_ if you dare to say "um" to me ...' She left the sentence hanging threateningly.

Johnny compromised; he kept silent.

There was a long silence and then. 'Why five hours do you think?' said Jez.

'I dunno,' said Johnny irritably. 'Shut up I'm thinking.'

'What happens if we just stay here for the five hours?' said Jez.

It won't make any difference,' said Johnny shortly. 'I already thought of that.'

'Oh!'

'It's no good,' said Johnny suddenly. 'The only thing I can think of is to stop time altogether, so that the world can catch up with us, or us with the world and even if it were possible, which it's not, I can't see how that would break the loop.'

'But it _would_ ,' said Jez. 'If you think of it in terms of a paradox – Oh God, I sound like you. If you stopped time, just for a few seconds even, then whatever caused the paradox wouldn't happen, because there wouldn't be any time for it to happen _in_.'

'You're good,' said Johnny, clearly impressed. 'But time _can't_ be stopped Jez, at least not by us, I wouldn't know where to start, would you? Besides, what would happen when time began again? This hypothetical paradox might happen again.'

'No it wouldn't,' argued Jez. 'Because it couldn't, don't you see, we're _in_ the paradox right now, and so is everyone else. You can't have a paradox within a paradox, it's impossible!'

'Only a paradox could have caused this,' mused Johnny, 'you're right about that. I have to admit, I hadn't thought of it.'

Jez looked smug. 'I do watch _Star Trek_ occasionally,' she said.

Johnny groaned. 'I don't see how this helps us,' he said. 'You can't just stop time whenever you feel like it.'

_'You_ can do it Johnny,' said Jez. 'I _know_ you can.' She took his hands. 'You're a genius in your own way,' she told him earnestly. 'If you can find a way to travel to other universes, you can do anything – just anything! Stopping time for a few seconds ought to be a runaway for you.'

'I think I might have had help with the universe travelling thing,' admitted Johnny. 'I don't know anything _about_ time,' he added plaintively.

'Well, it's all quantum, isn't it?' said Jez. 'Start there. You believe in destiny don't you? Well, _our_ destiny brought us _here_. You _will_ find the answer. I _know_ you will.'

'That's a lot of italics for one sentence,' laughed Johnny. The pep talk had had the desired effect – on Johnny at least. Jez was actually feeling far from confident despite her bold words.

'It's a pity we can't find out what _caused_ the paradox,' said Johnny. 'That might help.'

'You don't think it was _us_ do you?' said Jez anxiously.

'I _know_ it wasn't,' said Johnny. 'We aren't caught in it like the rest of them. It must have happened _before_ we arrived...' He trailed off thoughtfully. 'Hmmm,' he muttered. 'Before, definitely _before_...'

He thought of his dreams about SCI'ON. Power, he had learned, is just a question of knowing where to put your thumb to alter the balance. Find that out, and you can destroy worlds. Make it so they never happened at all. In this case, as in his dream, he had the advantage of being on the outside of the situation, looking in. How do I make it so that this never happened? He wondered. Stop time, how? By going back!

From here, he suddenly realised, he could see, not only the future, that he had already lived through once, but also the past, which he would shortly be living through again, because he and Jez were outside of time. How else could they be aware of the loop? The paradox had begun before their arrival, it was true, but it did not matter. They were here now, and he could see, past their arrival, further back, to the moment when time had looped around on itself. The world swung giddily around him until he found it. He stopped, right there, and the world stopped with him. He looked around. The world seemed more vivid than formerly; he was back in real time, except it was frozen. Jez was not here yet, but she would be, in a few moments, and so would he – again. Was _that_ the paradox? Had Jez been right, had they caused it, had _he_?

No, because he was not _really_ here, it was like looking down a telescope, observing from a distance. But you cannot observe something without changing it, and he was changing it now, the past.

The paradox was simple, five hours from now a man who had been hit by a car and survived when he should not have done (and had not done in countless other worlds) would take a bank teller hostage in an unplanned hold up. He would kill the bank teller in a panic when the police arrived. Because the actions of a "dead" man were to reverberate onto so many other lives (within hours the entire country would hear the news on the Television) the paradox occurred. The man was repeatedly being hit by the car and surviving the accident to go on to kill the teller, who could not be killed by a man who had died five hours earlier. The universes had not split off, as they should have. In no universe was this man supposed to survive. Some things were impossible, and impossibility causes paradoxes. Johnny saw it all clearly. Well, the man would not survive this time. Johnny did not have to interfere, for which he was grateful, the universe, given another chance, got it right this time. The man died instantly.

Johnny wondered how many universes there were that were stuck in similar situations, this could not be a unique case; it could happen all too easily. Perhaps it had happened in SCI'ON; perhaps that was why he was going there. Probably not, he decided, he had a feeling that his task in SCI'ON was far more sinister than that. It was what the dreams had implied.

From Jez's point of view, it went something like this: Johnny went into a sort of trance and seconds later opened his eyes and said. 'Listen to the birds, doesn't that sound better? Now let's get the hell out of here before it happens again.'

She had never been so astounded in her whole life.

## Chapter Fourteen - Cesare

Count Cesare of Romagna, back in his citadel, was now uncertain as to his future. Whenever this happened, he would look back over his past. It was a strange fate, he thought, that had brought him here. Born in 1475 into a notorious family of Rome, he had been infamous himself for his power and cruelty. As a living man, he had been feared by all Italy and had conquered most of that country for a time. Before his death, he had lost his dominions and had become a prisoner of the King of Spain, but he had escaped and it had seemed for a time that he would regain all that he had lost, for men still trembled at his name and he was still a formidable fighter.

Women had loved him, both for his extraordinary beauty and out of fear of his terrible vengeance. It was said that no woman dared to refuse him, and he was not averse to abducting a woman who sufficiently appealed to him. And, perhaps there were some who could not choose between these reasons.

Yet he had been kind to his plain little wife, who had brought him power if nothing else. And he had loved his sister with a passion that many said went far beyond what most brothers felt for their sisters. Indeed, it was rumoured that he had had her husband murdered out of jealousy, and it was even said that he had done the deed with his own hands.

Yet, after he had died (in furious battle against Louis de Beaumont, a mere vassal of the King of Navarre, a kinsman of Cesare's through his marriage, an inglorious death for the once proud Duke of Romagna) and become a vampire, he seemed, paradoxically, to be less evil than formerly. Certainly, he was less evil than most of his vampire brethren. Perhaps it was because now he had the power to regain all his dominions with ease and his ambitions were now finally realised. Cesare had only been cruel to those who opposed his desires or who slighted or insulted him, whether in reality or in his fancy, and now there were none who dared do that and his arrogance was appeased.

His conquest, he soon realised, had been the beginning. After himself, he saw many vampires becoming powerful all over the world until nearly every province or state had a vampire at its head.

He remembered how it had happened in his own case.

He had been lying close to death (many of the soldiers believed he had already gone and were rejoicing) when a strong man had lifted him up as easily as if he were a child and borne him away.

When he awoke, he felt new strength in him, more than he had ever known – and he had been an exceptionally strong man to begin with – he had been only thirty one years old at the time of his death. He had been lying on a stone slab in a mausoleum, and seated close by was a tall man who was looking sardonically at him.

Cesare raised his head and looked at this man in wonderment for he seemed not entirely human. 'You have healed me,' he said.

'In a manner of speaking,' the man told him. 'Yes, you are – _healed_.'

Cesare did not care for the strange way the man had stressed the last word, but he said merely.'Then I thank you.'

The man inclined his head. 'You will be wondering who I am.'

It was not a question, and since it was indisputable, Cesare did not contradict him.

'I am Count Talvas of Bellême,' the man told him. 'That is my true name, and it would surprise you to know, I have no doubt, that in my time, I was as notorious as yourself. But it is scarcely remembered now. It was five hundred years ago or thereabouts, when I became infamous, even as you are now. That is why I chose you. We are two of a kind, you and I.'

This had proved to be something less than the case, Cesare thought now. His own evils had never, even in his lifetime, equalled those of this man. Indeed, even as a vampire, what he had later learned of his mentor's past, had nauseated him. What he had learned was that what Count Talvas craved more than anything was power, and he had devised more subtle ways of achieving it than torture and mutilation. Cesare was the beginning of his quest for power, his test case. And Cesare, as more and more power fell into his hands at the behest of this creature, began to understand that it had been his own immoral behaviour that had brought him to this pass. For he realised that he was trapped. There was no escape from this man. Man? Had he been a man, to live so long? He was no vampire; Cesare knew this for a fact, since no vampire can hide its true nature from another of its own kind.

He had met Valencia in Ferrara, the former home of his beloved sister, and this had been the beginning of his fascination with witches. It was he who had given her the name Valentina. She had refused him as a lover, but they had been close friends and she had in some measure replaced his beloved sister in his life until she had been forced to flee to the mountains with her kin.

Cesare had sought to replace her in his life and had found other witches, some of whom were not averse to becoming his mistress and, for a while, he had been satisfied. But these witches, who flourished under the evil regime of Count Talvas's vampire domination, were not like Valencia's clan, being evil and lascivious and given to cruelty. And in any case, none of them could replace Valencia.

One who came close, in beauty at least, was Mordrenna leader of the witch clan of Richida. In her, he at least could find forgetfulness and a measure of satisfaction. And so, gradually, he had been ensnared into her evil plans. And now he had betrayed her.

He heard the sounds of horses in the courtyard below, and went to look out of his window. Witches! So soon? Well, he should have realised that Mordrenna would waste no time getting her revenge. And what was he going to do now?

He watched from his turret as the two witches, they were unmistakable as such, dismounted gracefully and looked about them for a groom or some other servant. Strange, he thought, that he did not recognise them. But wait, he did, now that he looked more closely. Surely it could not be?

He leaned out of his window and called to them.'Hi there! Marina, Luciana? Is it you in truth?'

The witches looked up. 'Cesare!' called Marina. 'Valentina has sent us for you. Will you come?'

'With good will,' replied Cesare, trying to keep the relief out of his voice.

'Then we must hurry,' said Luciana. 'The Witches of Richida are hot on our heels. Indeed, we passed them on our way here.'

Cesare looked nervously to the horizon, but there was no sign of anything yet.

'I will come down,' he called. 'We shall leave at once,'

* * *

Valentina had changed her mind and was telling Ryan and Kai the story, as far as she knew it, of Cesare. The story of SCI'ON, she decided, should wait until Cesare arrived, then they should all hear it together.

Ryan expressed her surprise that such a powerful leader should have allowed himself to be subjugated to another, even a witch.

'The ruler of Italy,' she said, 'to become a witch's errand boy? It hardly seems possible.'

'Ah but the flesh is weak,' came a voice from the mouth of the cave, 'even when one is dead.'

'Cesare!' cried Valentina, and even Kai, terminally insensitive as he usually was, heard the tremor in her voice, which she hastily suppressed. 'So you have arrived.'

He bowed. 'I would always come at your command,' he said suavely, and even he, for a moment believed that it was gallantry and not fear, which had brought him here. He certainly convinced his listeners if only for a moment, such was the power of his charm.

Valentina recovered herself first. 'You _have_ been a naughty boy Cesare,' she said teasingly.

He agreed to it, regretfully. 'Would I had come with you to the mountains all those years ago,' he said.

'Well, you have done the right thing now,' she said, 'in sending these children to us. And how could you have done so, had you been here from the beginning? Nay, it was your destiny I see, to swerve toward evil for a time, for how else could you have helped us now?'

'Children?' said Kai in a mortified tone. 'We aren't children.'

Valentina laughed. 'Cesare is over four hundred years old,' she told him, 'and I myself have passed my first century, I will not say _when_. So you see, to us, you are very young, but I meant no harm.'

'Oh shut up Kai,' said Ryan. 'I want to hear about SCI'ON.'

'SCI'ON?' said Cesare surprised. 'So that's what all this is about. But it is a myth surely?'

'It is no myth,' said Valentina seriously, 'but a very great doom, which affects us all. I doubt your witch friends knew what they were dabbling in, for it is clear to me, that they themselves are only the puppets of others.'

'Bellême?' said Cesare.

'We have no proof of that,' said Valentina. 'And yet, it does not seem unlikely.'

'Not unlikely at all,' retorted Cesare dryly.

'Who is Bellême?' asked Ryan, giving a shudder, for the very sound of his name made her feel cold all over.

'All in good time,' said Valentina. 'First I will tell you about SCI'ON.'

'First you must understand the nature of the universe,' she began. 'You already know about other worlds, you both are from different realities from each other. But do you know how these realities are created?'

'You're talking about the many worlds theory,' said Ryan. 'Whereby each decision made causes a split in reality leading to separate universes.'

'To put it simply,' said Valentina. 'Yes.

Cesare lit up a cigar and looked interested. 'Well?' he said. 'Go on.'

'SCI'ON is the first, the beginning, the original universe before all others sprang into being from that one spark. It alone has existed, since the beginning of time.

'Some of those who have this knowledge say that it is the only true universe and that all others are mere shadows. Thus, they are known, rightly or wrongly, as the "shadow worlds"

'One thing is certain, if SCI'ON fails, then so do all the shadow worlds with it, they would go out like a light and be no more.'

'That's mere conjecture,' put in Cesare. 'If my father dies, do I also die?' he said challengingly.

'No,' said Valentina. 'But if your father had never existed, then neither would you. That is how it works with the many worlds.

All this is well understood,' she continued. 'Now we come to what _is_ conjecture. As the universe is expanding, so it must one day begin to contract, and when it is nothing again, time will begin again, and the universe will expand again, as had happened countless millions of times before. And this is where our knowledge comes from. For to foretell the future is only to recall the past, because all this has happened before, and it will all happen again. Thus are prophecies made.

'But prophecies are not infallible. The future can be unmade. This is our burden, for in each cycle, some things _do_ change and, therefore, there are those who have the power to change the future.

'If SCI'ON were to be unmade before the end of time, no one can guess the result of such a catastrophe. And this is what we fear.'

'Unmade, as in – it never existed?' asked Cesare.

'Exactly,' said Valentina.

'But who would be foolish enough to do _that_?' said Kai.

'Even if it were possible,' added Cesare. 'Which I'm not at all convinced that it is.'

'The danger is there,' said Valentina. 'It may be that whoever is behind this has other intentions. No one can know the outcome of an untried action. How many times have we seen it? Men rarely think of the other consequences of their actions beyond the one they are striving for. To take a crown seems a simple thing until the civil wars that tear the county apart begin.'

'So what does this have to do with us?' asked Ryan.

'You have the power to travel between worlds,' said Valentina. Do not think that any could have used the path you used between your worlds, it is a gift given to few.'

'That place we were in,' said Kai. 'There were others there apart from us. They went back to their own worlds through the tunnel in the cave.'

'What is this story?' asked Valentina.

They told her.

_'Many_ worlds were accessed through this tunnel?' she asked. Her knuckles, gripping the side of her chair, had gone white.

'That's right,' said Ryan, 'so you see... Whatever's wrong?'

'It was not the _people_ who were special,' said Valentina. 'It was the _place_. Don't you see? You _must_ see!'

'You think it was SCI'ON?' said Kai.

'I _know_ it was SCI'ON,' said Valentina. 'If those people had had your power, they would not have been drawn back into their own worlds as they passed through. Clearly, they were _taken_ into SCI'ON, by your story this is what happened to them. Taken by someone who had this power.'

'But I ended up back here, where I belong,' objected Kai.

'And you?' asked Valentina, looking at Ryan. 'Is this where _you_ belong, also?'

'I see your point,' said Ryan. 'Why wasn't I drawn back into _my_ world?'

'Because you were _taken_ from _this_ one!' said Kai.

'Oh, that's true,' said Ryan, she had forgotten this point.

'And what were you doing in _this_ world?' asked Valentina triumphantly.

'Okay, okay, but why are you so sure that the world we were in was SCI'ON?'

'Because only SCI'ON can be accessed from all worlds. And only from SCI'ON can all other worlds be reached. You must believe me. I have spent long years in study on these matters.'

'That's true,' put in Cesare, with the air of one who has suffered much from a loved one's obsessions.

'Well,' said Kai, who seemed determined to find a flaw in her reasoning somewhere. 'I wouldn't say that _all_ worlds were in that tunnel. There were only six of us you know. I don't call that proof.'

'You don't understand,' said Valentina. 'I see I have not made myself clear. Each world only has _one_ tunnel or path or whatever you may call it. And that path leads, through the other worlds into SCI'ON – always.'

'But the path between our worlds...' began Ryan, who was finally beginning to understand.

Valentina nodded. 'Is the path to SCI'ON from _your_ world. Now you begin to understand _why_ you are special, only you two have been able to traverse that path to another world instead of SCI 'ON.

'Understand, there is only one path, throughout the universe, and all worlds are along it. But they are as closed doors, except, apparently, to you.'

Kai gave in. 'Okay, so what do you want us to do, go back to SCI'ON?'

'And do what?' said Ryan.

'We shall see,' said Valentina.

_'We_? You mean you're coming too?'

Valentina nodded. 'And Cesare too,' she said. 'He has much to atone for.'

'Well, at least we know the way,' said Kai.

## Chapter Fifteen - Things To Do In Dartmouth When You're Dead

Johnny and Jez's next encounter with a new world began with an accident. Johnny, who was not usually clumsy, misjudged their entry and consequently landed in the new world twenty-five feet off the ground. Fortunately for Jez, she ended up in a tree. Johnny was not so lucky; he missed the branches by inches and plummeted to the ground to the accompaniment of Jez's piercing screams. He hit his head on a stone wall and was killed instantly. He never noticed.

Jez scrambled down the branches in an agony of fear – Johnny was not moving at all, and he was a horrible greenish colour. There was a trickle of blood in the corner of his mouth. By the time she reached him, she could see that he was breathing. He was merely unconscious she concluded. Then she saw his horrible head wound. His blond hair was the perfect foil to the bright red of the blood seeping from the back of his head. In other circumstances, the colours might have looked pretty together, gleaming in the sunlight. This idea just made the reality all the more gruesome.

Jez sank to her knees and gathered Johnny's broken head into her lap, disregarding the gore flooding onto her jeans. 'Oh God! Oh God! Oh God,' she muttered.

'Help us!' she croaked. 'Help! HELP! HELP! Help us somebody, _please!'_ By the time her voice had escalated to a scream, several people had come running in obedience to her plea.

'There, there miss,' consoled a fatherly older man. 'Calm yourself down, it'll be all right.' He patted Jez uncertainly on her head. In the meantime, his wife, a grimly efficient woman of about the same age had taken charge.

'You!' she pointed to a youngish man with a pencil thin moustache, a smart but cheap suit and an air of bewilderment. 'Call an ambulance.'

He dug his mobile phone from his pocket and obeyed her – anyone would have, even had the circumstances been less urgent, she had that kind of voice. Had she yelled 'SIT!' legs would have folded under people automatically. Thus, it was that Jez found herself reluctantly relinquishing Johnny's head into the woman's lap for bandaging purposes. The woman, who had "Matron" written all over her, bandaged Johnny's head efficiently with a strip of cotton borrowed from a young spectator's summer dress, who had found herself ruining her attire before she even had time to think up an objection. The old man lent her his coat with a resigned air, no doubt before his authoritative wife could order him to do so. The dress had been pretty short to begin with; it was now no more than a T-shirt.

Jez normally did not like this type of bossy older woman, but at this moment, she felt nothing but gratitude for the lady's competent help, as the woman said. 'There now, he's fine. I'm a nurse, and I know what I'm talking about. His pulse is good and his colour's coming back now. Just shock I expect. That wound looks worse than it is.' She looked at Jez, who was still shaking and crying, and her face softened. 'There now lovey,' she said. 'Didn't I tell you he'll be all right, come on here, do you want to hold his hand?' clearly beneath the domineering exterior, lay a kindly soul.

Jez snuffled and nodded.

'Come on then, lovey, just sit here with him a while – where's that ambulance? Clarence!' she addressed her husband. 'Go and watch the road, there's a good chap.'

Jez managed a smile. There was something comforting about the idea that Clarence was keeping an eye out, which may have been what his wife intended since it could not conceivably speed up the arrival of the ambulance.

'Thank you,' sniffed Jez. 'Er... Mrs.?

'Jessop,' said the woman. 'But you can call me Betty,' she gave a roguish grin which completely altered her demeanour. 'Since we're now battle comrades, eh? Pair of Florence Nightingales, we are, wouldn't you say?'

'I haven't been any use at all,' protested Jez. 'I just fell apart.'

'Well, well,' said Betty kindly. 'It can take you like that sometimes. 'Specially when it's someone close to you. You did better than some I've seen. I remember one girl...'

She was interrupted by the sound of the ambulance arriving and Johnny opening his eyes simultaneously.

'Blimey!' he said uncharacteristically. 'What have I been doing to myself?'

'Falling out of trees, young man.' said Betty severely. 'Such going's on, I never did see, and at your age too.'

Johnny gave her a bemused look and looked at Jez who shook her head quickly. Johnny wisely said nothing.

The paramedics arrived followed by a puffing Clarence. They briskly strapped him to a stretcher and bundled him into the ambulance.

Although outwardly calm, inside, Johnny was panicking. In his heart, he knew without question, that he must _not_ be seen by a doctor, though he could not have articulated any reason why not, except that he knew that he had been severely injured by his fall, and now, miraculously, he was not. In fact, he felt certain that he was no longer injured at all. Briefly, he wondered why, but put the question aside for the time being and concentrated on the more pressing problem of getting the hell out of here before an astounded doctor made the same discovery that he had made.

He looked at Jez, who gave him a watery smile.

'We don't have time for this,' he whispered to her, glancing covertly at the paramedic behind his head.

Jez looked puzzled.

Johnny sighed impatiently. 'Look,' he said. 'Just trust me. We have to get out of here.'

Jez shook her head. 'You have to see a doctor,' she insisted. 'It'll be all right. You're in shock, that's all'

'Shock, my arse,' said Johnny. 'I'm fine, do you understand me? I'm _fine._ ' He waggled his eyebrows in that perplexing manner that people have when they are trying to indicate something without saying the words.

Jez's forehead creased into a frown as she tried to understand. She knew Johnny well enough to know that he was perfectly lucid and not in shock at all, but his behaviour seemed to contra-indicate this. Eventually she decided to go along with him, he usually knew what he was doing, and if he did not – well, she could always... well actually she did not _know_ what she could do, but Johnny was getting agitated now and he certainly didn't seem ill.

Swiftly she bent down and loosened his straps unseen by the paramedic. Johnny lay mum until the ambulance stopped at some lights, then fast as lightning, he whipped up off the gurney and kicked open the ambulance doors and leaped out.

Jez, although she had been expecting something of the sort, was nearly as startled as the paramedic by the swiftness of his actions. However, it was just as well that she was a little behind Johnny, since the paramedic reacted frighteningly quickly (perhaps he had a lot of runaway patients) and had Jez not been in his way he would have been on Johnny before he could get away. She fumbled in the doorway with him for a few seconds, then, tired of this, she planted an expert foot on his thigh and dead-legged him, as she had done countless times to Johnny in their childhood; he dropped, cursing, and Jez followed Johnny down the street.

She was relieved to see him weaving in and out of the traffic ahead of her. No one, she reasoned, could run like that, if they were at all unwell.

'So, what do we do now?' panted Jez, when she finally caught up with him at the corner of a side road also occupied by two vagrants and a natty men's and women's couturier, bearing the legend. 'Going Out of Business Sale' on a long since faded sign, and sporting a sad looking mannequin in the window wearing a dinner jacket. Johnny grinned.

'Go shopping,' he suggested.

'We haven't got any money,' Jez pointed out, wondering if Johnny really was feeling all right after all.

'Good point,' agreed Johnny still smirking.

'Are you _sure_ you're feeling all right?'

For answer Johnny unpeeled the impromptu bandage from his head, it looked distinctly un-caved in. Jez gasped. 'How on earth...? Oh, right, did you do something funny again?'

'Something,' said Johnny enigmatically. 'Now just leave it at that for now, okay?'

'Jez shrugged. 'Okay,' she agreed.

'Good,' said Johnny. 'Now, we need supplies, agreed?'

'Yes.'

'We have no money.'

'No.'

'Okay, then, so we need to get some money.'

'Johnny!'

'Okay, okay, well, as it happens, I do have a little pin-money as you might call it.'

Jez brightened up. 'How much?' she asked eagerly.

'Ten pounds.'

Her face fell. 'That won't get us far,' she said despondently.

'I agree. We need to turn it into more, at least ten times more.'

'Magic?' asked Jez acidly.

'Casino,' responded Johnny, pointing with undisguised glee at a flashy building on the higher ground behind him, it looked well guarded, the approach road began a long way from the door at street level and there were big iron gates. A classy establishment!

'They'll never let us in there dressed like this,' pointed out Jez. She knew there was no point in arguing the foolhardy recklessness of the gambling itself. Johnny was an ace at games of chance, his specialty being poker.

'I mean look at us,' she urged, gesturing to the dried blood on her jeans. 'I'm wearing _jeans_.'

Johnny cocked his thumb at the out of business clothing emporium behind him.

'Bet we could find something in there,' he said.

Jez was sceptical. 'It'll be empty,' she said. 'They won't have left the stock behind.'

'I'm not so sure about that,' said Johnny. Then for the first time Jez noticed the vagrants lounging about the alley. They _were_ suspiciously well dressed.

Jez crossed her eyes.

It was fun trying on the clothes; Johnny put on a black suit with a matching shirt and tie, and a sinister looking hat.

Jez shook her head. 'You look like a gangster,' she objected.

'So?'

'We don't want any trouble, do we?'

Johnny shrugged but removed the hat and changed the shirt.

'Oh Johnny! Not _pink_ , you look like a pimp.'

Jez found a stunning floor length silk gown in silver. She twirled.

'No,' said Johnny. 'It's too much. It's _lunchtime_! Try an LBD.'

'I'm not taking fashion advice from a man in slip-on loafers,' snorted Jez.

'What's wrong with them? They might be fashionable in this world.'

'Johnny, slip-on loafers are the epitome of nerdishness in _all_ worlds – trust me you might as well have elbow patches. Anyway, how do _you_ know what an LBD is?'

Johnny shrugged. 'Girlfriends?' he suggested.

Jez let it go, Johnny had a lot of secrets, and if, as she now suspected, he had once spent those mysterious Friday nights, when he would not be drawn for anything watching the "The Clothes Show" it would do no good to bring it up now. However, it might be worth remembering.

'Just change the shoes,' she said tersely. 'And everything else,' she added as she reluctantly slipped off the stunning dress. She had to admit that he was right; it _was_ too much.

Johnny eventually found a dark grey business suit, which brought out the colour of his eyes and Jez settled on a cocktail dress in midnight blue.

'You really can't imagine anything worse than me in black,' she said. 'I look like a corpse.'

Johnny winced. 'You look fine,' he said indifferently.

Jez scowled.

Johnny himself looked like a blond James Bond, but Jez was damned if she was going to tell him so now.

Jez wondered about Johnny's behaviour; he seemed almost giddy, and Johnny was _never_ giddy, he was far too laid back.

He did not tell her, but Johnny _was_ feeling strange, he felt like the back of his head was missing, and he wanted to be reckless because he had a feeling that it did not really matter what he did anymore, since he was sure that he was, in fact, and despite evidence to the contrary, dead.

They had no trouble getting in to the casino, even though Jez was having trouble with her high heels – being tall, she was not used to them – and Johnny was still wearing the loafers. ('I can't find any other shoes that fit me') They were an attractive, well-dressed pair.

Johnny wandered around until he found a poker game that looked like the type of thing he was looking for – five players, all business types with money to burn and a cavalier attitude to it. He noted, with some satisfaction, that they were all wearing slip-on loafers.

Jez, having no pin-money, played to her strengths and attached herself to a burly man in a cowboy hat at the craps table who was having a run of luck.

Within two hours, Johnny had won five hundred pounds, and Jez had taken the tokens so generously bestowed on her by the grateful cowboy to Johnny, and they headed for the roulette table.

Jez was against this. 'We have more than enough now,' she argued. 'You could blow it all.'

'So, I'll win it back.'

It was not like Johnny to be arrogant, thought Jez in concern, except, she realised suddenly, when it came to games. She relaxed. He was probably right anyway; he was unbeatable in certain specialised areas.

The crowd parted like the red sea for Johnny as he approached the table. And he raised an eyebrow at a pretty brunette across the table who was smiling at him. He was really working the James Bond thing, thought Jez in disgust as she pushed her way through the unrelenting rabble to Johnny.

He winked at her roguishly.

'Place your bets,' called the croupier.

'Red 17,' said Johnny, doing so. 'In compliment to the lady,' he added catching a strand of Jez's hair. To her horror, she blushed and looked at her feet. The Brunette did not look pleased. Johnny smiled at her, and she melted. Jez snorted inwardly. _Honestly_!

The wheel spun. 'Black 32,' announced the croupier. 'Wrong lady,' Jez sighed to herself, looking at the brunette. It was going to be a long night. She wandered off to get a drink.

During the course of the evening, Johnny won and lost around three thousand pounds, ending up with total spoil of around one thousand four hundred pounds. Jez got progressively more drunk at the bar and fended off a number of inexpert passes from drunken businessmen, some of whom clearly thought she was a call girl.

Johnny was set to play through the night (after all, nothing else was open anyway) when the games were brought to an abrupt end in the most dramatic way possible. A murder.

It started, as these things so often do, with a scream. It was loud and ringing and clearly not of the "I've just won a million" variety, which could safely be ignored. The whole place froze into silence apart from the screaming, which continued until the unfortunate lady was led away by security. Then pandemonium broke out.

The man who was dead had been discovered behind an elaborate curtain by the woman, who had been looking for the ladies' and had got a bit disoriented.

It was swiftly ascertained that the victim had been stabbed professionally – that is, under the ribs and straight up through the heart – and that the weapon had been removed. It was also soon determined that there had been no witnesses. At this point, the casino was locked down, and the police called.

'Of all the rotten luck,' muttered Johnny.

'You said it,' replied Jez from behind him. 'They're not paying out until this is sorted out.'

By one a.m., the victim had been identified, and the approximate time of death ascertained – by experts who said it must have been sometime that night! But everything else was vastly more confused.

The victim, one Charles Miller, was an inoffensive middle-aged accountant who had no known enemies. He played the slot machines once a week and never won a great deal of money according to the proprietor. He was unmarried and had no family apart from a sister in Bournemouth, and he had no criminal record. It was hard to imagine why anyone would have wanted to kill him.

Johnny listened as all these facts were relayed to him via the casino grapevine and became increasingly perplexed by the whole thing.

It was not so much that the motive was inexplicable that bothered him. In Johnny's opinion, there was a reason to kill just about anyone ranging from: "You stitched me up you bastard" to "What you lookin' at?" But what _was_ strange was the amount of irrelevant minutiae that the police had managed to dredge up on this guy in a short space of time. In Johnny's world, the police do not have detailed files on people without criminal records. Of course, he realised that he was not _in_ his world, but it was still strange. The thought continued to nag at him as the investigation continued.

The police set up an inquiry room and began interviews. Perhaps they were hoping to find a man with blood under his fingernails, and a large knife in his socks who would then say "It's a fair cop guv," thought Johnny derisively. It was almost certain that the murderer was already long gone, he thought, and since no one knew the victim well, and there had been no witnesses, this was clearly an exercise in futility. The police just wanted to be seen to be doing something.

Judging by the increasing murmurs of discontent among the crowd, Johnny was not alone in his opinion.

Then it was Johnny's turn.

'I didn't kill him,' stated Johnny flatly. 'And I don't know who did. Can I go now?'

Naturally this did not go over very well and Johnny was questioned on irrelevancies for the next three quarters of an hour, until finally the Sergeant asked him bluntly. 'Who do you think killed him?' Johnny stared. He had not expected this.

Eventually he said. 'I neither know nor care.' And he was released. He left the incident room shaking his head in perplexity.

He found Jez at the bar looking morose. 'I think there's something funny going on here,' he told her, but she was not interested.

'Oh, let's just go,' she said. 'I've had enough of this.'

'We can't go,' pointed out Johnny. 'We haven't got any supplies yet.'

'Well then, you'd better find out who killed the old bugger then,' said Jez. 'Then maybe we can get out of here.'

'Okay,' said Johnny in a voice absolutely devoid of sarcasm.

As far as Johnny could see, there really seemed to be no motive for the murder whatsoever. This meant that someone was lying. He considered the facts and came up with one irrefutable conclusion – that the man's identity was assumed – no one's life could be that boring. So, who was he really?

Johnny sidled closer to the cordoned off area where the body lay; no one tried to stop him so he slipped behind the curtain and gasped. The body was gone.

There were two clues, a strange sweet smell emanating from the carpet and a door hidden in the panelling behind the curtain. Johnny disregarded the smell for now as unsolvable and slipped through the door. Behind the door was a comfortable room done out like a study; and sitting in a chair, Johnny was not terribly surprised to see Charles Miller, apparently perfectly at ease and smoking a cigar.

'You know, I died earlier on today too,' commented Johnny.

Charles Miller smiled amiably. 'You shouldn't be back here you know,' he said calmly.

Johnny raised his eyebrows.

'No doubt you want to know what's going on.'

Johnny nodded his acquiesce.

'None of your bloody business!' snapped the putative corpse, changing from genial to menacing without any apparent intermediate stages.

'The police evidently know you're alive,' commented Johnny unabashed.

'Of course they do you imbecile,' retorted Charles. 'It was their idea...' Then he stopped suddenly, as if aware that he had said too much.

Johnny put it together quickly and summed it up in two words. 'Witness protection?'

'That's right,' agreed Charles deflating suddenly. 'The police got word that a contract was out on me, so they set this up – nice and public, you know.'

'Well,' said Johnny reassuringly. 'I don't want to know any more about it, I wasn't looking for you, you know. I'm just a nosy bastard, who happened to find you. I'm only interested in getting the hell out of here with my winnings, see? Me and my friend, we have pressing business – out of town, and our – our train leaves in a few hours.'

Charles studied his face earnestly for a few moments then shrugged helplessly. 'I believe you,' he said. 'If you were the hit man, I reckon I'd be dead already. But what can I do?'

Johnny thought fast. 'Where's the safe?' he asked.

'There's one behind the desk,' said Charles hesitantly. 'But you can't...'

'Don't worry,' said Johnny. 'I won't take more than I won, I promise. I'll leave the chips behind. They can sort it out later.'

Seeing Charles was still hesitant, Johnny resorted to threats. 'Just keep quiet, 'he said. 'Or I'll have the whole establishment in here in no time.'

Charles surrendered. 'All right, all right!' he said holding up his hands. 'How are you going to break the safe?'

'That's my problem,' said Johnny, who really had no idea. 'Is there a back way out of here?'

'Of course, but what about your friend?'

'Damn,' said Johnny, 'I'll have to go and get her.' He looked at the safe – it looked complicated. 'I'll do this first,' he decided. 'Then I'll go and get her. How long do I have?'

Charles shrugged. 'They don't tell me anything,' he said glumly.

'Better get on with it then.'

Jez watched Johnny slip behind the curtain and shuddered, she had no desire to see the dead body close up and wondered exactly what it was that Johnny hoped to achieve. She was unaware of any tendencies toward morbid curiosity in Johnny's nature, but then again everybody had a little of that in them, didn't they?

'Not me!' she thought vehemently, ' _Yuk_! I don't know what the idiot expects to find anyway – waste of time!'

But after a while, she began to wonder what was taking him so long. He had been behind that curtain for about twenty minutes she estimated, and although she had not been watching the whole time, she was certain that he had not come out yet. She swigged down the rest of her drink – for Dutch courage – and headed unsteadily over to the curtain. As in Johnny's case, no one tried to stop her as she cautiously drew the curtain aside and slipped behind it.

She barely had time to be surprised by the total lack of a bloodstained corpse before she was seized in a pair of strong arms.

Johnny examined the safe in frustration. Not only did it have a combination lock on it – which was bad enough – it also had a timer lock on it meaning that it could only be opened at a certain time of day.

'Told you,' said Charles smugly. 'It opens at six a.m. sharp but only with the correct code.'

'You seem to know an awful lot about it,' said Johnny.

'Yes, well the manager is a friend of mine,' Charles said. 'That's why he let us set this up here.'

'I see,' said Johnny. 'I don't suppose...?'

'No,' said Charles. 'Before you ask, I don't know the safe code. Why would I? Besides, what difference does it make? You can't open it until six anyway.'

'Oh,' said Johnny. 'I already thought of that, it's not a problem.' He frowned. 'But the code _is_.' He rocked on his heels and muttered to himself. 'What am I going to do?' And the thought came to him – _remember_.

Johnny concentrated. Then he swiftly reset the timer to six a.m. and began to listen.

'Five,' he muttered, and punched it in. 'Nine.'

'Here?' exclaimed Charles. 'What are you doing?' But Johnny did not seem to hear him. 'Eight.' His eyes were slightly unfocussed. 'Zero.'

The safe beeped and opened.

'How the hell did you do that?' spluttered Charles.

'I-I'm not sure,' confessed Johnny. 'I just – remembered it.'

'Remembered doing something you hadn't done yet?' said Charles incredulously. 'That's impossible.'

'Tell me about it,' said Johnny.

There was a sound outside the door, both men's' eyes swivelled, one in hope, the other in fear.

'It's Jez,' said Johnny.

Jez was not totally convinced by Johnny's hasty explanation that they had been caught up in a staged murder mystery put on by the Casino. But once again, she decided to let it go, she was learning that there was a time and a place for forcing confessions out of Johnny.

"I'll get it out of him later," was becoming her motto. Johnny, knowing Jez well, was just glad that she had not witnessed his bizarre _coup de grace_ with the safe. He would have a hard time explaining that one, he surmised, particularly as he was not really sure himself how he had done it. All he really knew was that ever since he had heard the echoes of the future, the feeling that he was not really alive had subsided. He hoped that Charles would soon feel the same way, but he had a feeling that it was not going to be so easy for him.

Still, he thought, it would appear that being dead, in this world anyway, was not exactly a barrier to having some fun. He turned to Jez.

'Let's go shopping,' he said stepping carefully over the prone policeman in the passageway.

## Chapter Sixteen – The Doorway Is Closed

Mica was the only one of the return party who was not in depressed spirits. To be back with Kai and Ryan was all he needed to restore his natural ebullience. But the rest of them felt under a cloud of oppression that would not lift, even the dogs seemed subdued as they made their weary way back down the mountain.

Kai had no desire to return to the strange primordial world he had discovered, nor did Ryan, whose memories of that place were necessarily unpleasant. And all of them, including the arrogant Cesare, were worried about the strange destiny that seemed about to overtake them whether they wanted it to or not.

They made camp as before, half way down the mountain, and as before, they did not sleep easily. Seeing this, Cesare, who seemed determined to redeem himself kept them entertained with flamboyant tales from his long life, both before and after his "death". As he did so, Ryan, who was more imaginative than Kai, began to see the world through Cesare's eyes, and she also began to realise that she had heard some of these stories before, from another source.

The scion of a notorious Roman family? His father had been a pope? A _pope_? Such a thing, she understood was not improbable in the fifteenth century. In those days, a priest's vows of chastity were taken as a matter of form, and she understood that not continence, but discretion, was all that was expected of these men. Although, it did not seem to her to be very discreet to advertise the fact that you had a large family to the whole world, for Cesare mentioned brothers, and a sister and several half siblings too, as if this were a matter of course.

But the pope that she was thinking of, an infamous man, with a notorious family, was it possible? Even his name, Cesare! She was sure she recognized it.

One name kept creeping into her mind and would not be dismissed. If she could just learn name of the pope, but Cesare was careful not to mention it. And Ryan realised that he was doing so deliberately, to avoid the very question that was on the tip of Ryan's tongue, so she held her peace.

But Valentina noticed, and later she took Ryan aside. 'I see you have surprised Cesare's secret,' she said. 'We do not speak of it. It is the source of both pride and shame to Cesare.'

Ryan's eyes widened. 'So – he _is_! He's a...?' she whispered.

Valentina put her fingers to her lips. 'Shhh,' But she nodded. 'Ill Valentino,' she said. 'The Duc de Valencia, it is why he nicknamed me thus, a joke of his, when he hoped to make himself my lover. He thought it would be amusing, a small clue to his true identity.' She laughed lightly.

But Ryan detected a certain amount of pain behind the laughter. 'She loves him,' she realised. 'Who would _not_ love him? I wonder why she turned him down. If he had looked my way, I don't think I would have been so self-denying.' She was a little disturbed by the way, her thoughts were running. It seemed disloyal to Kai and yet she could not help it. Cesare was handsome and exciting and almost hypnotic in his presence, so that it was hard to notice others when he was around. And yet, she felt pity for him too, which only sharpened her feelings of attraction in some strange way. She knew that Valentina felt the same way; she could read it in her face, so why had she left him?

'To love is to suffer,' said Valentina obscurely, as if she had read Ryan's thoughts and was not yet ready to share more of her experiences with one so young and unable to understand. But Ryan understood her better than she would ever have believed.

Kai was thumping the rock furiously. 'It was here!' he yelled. 'Right here! I know it was,' he looked appealingly at Mica, 'wasn't it?'

Mica nodded emphatically. 'Iss! Here it was, I remembers 'cause of the lines I did scratched in the rock, see?' And he pointed. Sure enough, there were deep marks in the rock face – a calendar; Mica had defaced the rock to count the days of Kai's absence. IIII IIII III

Kai was pleased. 'See, he said, this _is_ the right place.'

'So where is the cave?' drawled Cesare. 'It's not here, that seems certain.'

'The way has been shut,' said Valentina. 'We are too late. Bellême has done this.'

'If it _is_ Bellême,' said Cesare, but without much conviction.

'So what do we do now?' asked Ryan, relief mingling unaccountably with her disappointment.

'Well, that is where we are fortunate,' said Valentina. 'We _do_ know of another way, do we not?' She smiled at Ryan who frowned in confusion. 'From _your_ world,' prompted Valentina.

Ohhh, right! Of course.'

'But first we must get into your world,' said Valentina. 'You must lead the way.'

'But I don't _know_ the way,' said Ryan, looking perplexed again.

Valentina looked at Kai. 'I take it, you can find your way back,' she said.

Kai nodded. 'With my eyes closed,' he told her.

'That will not be necessary I'm sure,' said Cesare, earning himself a sour look from Kai who resented Cesare's presence for reasons that he could not analyse. It was more than just his deep-rooted distrust of vampires, because that distrust had always extended to witches too, and yet he felt no such antagonism toward Valentina.

Now he felt uneasy. 'I thought you said that each world only had one way into this SCI'ON,' he addressed Valentina. 'How is going to the other doorway going to help? It only goes to Ryan's world.'

'Yes,' she replied. And from there, we can use the doorway to get to SCI'ON.'

'But not from _this_ world?' said Kai.

'No, from this world you can only go back to Ryan's world. This world must be nearer to SCI'ON than the other. It works like a one way door.'

'A one way door?' asked Ryan.

'What do you mean, _nearer_?' asked Kai. 'I thought you said all the universes were in the same place.'

'In space, yes, but not in time.'

'I don't...'

'I understand,' interrupted Ryan. 'But what I don't get _is_ why the door only works one way. If it's the doorway to SCI'ON, then why can't we get to it from here?'

'Because we shouldn't be able to get _anywhere_ through that door, it shouldn't exist at all from this world,' said Valentina. 'The doorway from your world passes through this, and other worlds, on its way to SCI'ON, but it is _not_ supposed to open into them. That it does, is our great good fortune. We must hope that our enemies do not know about it.'

'Is there any reason to suppose that they do?' asked Kai, looking at Cesare.

'None that I am aware of,' he replied imperturbably.

'Good,' said Valentina briskly. 'Then we must be on our way.'

She fell into step beside Kai. 'How many days journey from here is your home?' she asked him.

Kai considered. 'Without horses,' he mused, 'could be at least a month, maybe six weeks.'

Valentina looked perturbed. 'That is too long,' she said. 'Time is short. I must see about finding a faster way.

'Magic?' said Kai, awed.

Valentina laughed. 'In a way, perhaps. I will tell you a secret,' she said. 'It is this, ninety percent of magic is knowing one extra fact that others have not discovered.' And she smiled at him and put her fingers to her lips. 'There, you will not tell on me, will you?' And Kai found himself returning the conspiratorial smile. Then he glowered suddenly at Cesare, who was, he saw, deep in conversation with Ryan.

'Who is this Bellême character?' Ryan was asking Cesare. 'Valentina seems very worried about him.'

'I can only tell you a little,' said Cesare. 'I have known him for many long years, and yet, I know relatively little about him. Only that he is evil beyond most human experience and Valentina is right to fear his intentions. It was he who was responsible for my transformation. Although how he accomplished it I have no idea, for he is no vampire, that is certain, although he is old, older than any other being I have encountered. He made me and many others and put us all into positions of power throughout the world. A great sorcerer he must be, and yet I have never seen him perform any magics with my own eyes.' Cesare sighed. 'I myself soon became unhappy with my position under his regime, a tyrant he is, and capable of such inhuman cruelty that nauseated me and turned me from him, and yet it seemed there was no escape from his despotism. Not for me, or any others in this world. And perhaps others it seems, if Valentina is right.'

'You don't like being a vampire?' asked Ryan.

'I don't like being a puppet to Bellême,' corrected Cesare. 'Perhaps it is why I left my Kingdom and joined the witches.'

'But they were working for Bellême,' pointed out Ryan.

'A fact I was unaware of until lately,' said Cesare. 'He is gathering followers from all quarters of evil-doers now. I should have known, but I was ever the type of man who only sees that which he wishes to see.'

Ryan put out a timid hand and touched his arm. 'But you see the truth now,' she said comfortingly. 'That's all that matters, isn't it?'

Cesare turned and smiled at her languidly and took her face in his hands, caressing her cheeks with long sensitive fingers. 'You are kind to me,' he said. 'All women are kind to me.' He sighed and stepped back looking suddenly despondent. 'It is more than I deserve,' he said. And he looked at Valentina.

Kai interrupted them petulantly. 'Valentina's going to find us some transport,' he said. 'What are you two talking about so cosily?'

'Cesare was telling me about Bellême,' said Ryan puzzled. 'What's wrong with _you_?'

Kai looked at his feet and muttered. 'Nothing, I'm fine.' And then, with finely overdone carelessness. 'Where's Mica got to?' And he stalked away.

'A worthy man,' commented Cesare. 'Perhaps you should pursue him,' he suggested, 'and find out what is disturbing him.'

'It's all this SCI'ON business,' said Ryan. 'I'm feeling a little out of sorts myself.'

Cesare smiled sardonically. 'If you say so,' he said. But he clearly did not agree with this diagnosis.

'I-I'd better go and talk to him,' she said uncertainly.

Cesare went to Valentina. 'The boy says you are leaving us,' he said bluntly.

'We need faster transport than our own feet,' she answered curtly.

'Eagles?' asked Cesare. 'Will the humans accept that?'

'They'll have to,' she said. 'We have to hurry. Kai said that his home may be more than a month away on foot. Do you think that Bellême will be dawdling?'

'Nay, you are right – Valentina?'

'Yes?'

'Valentina, why...? Oh never mind, it can wait, I have waited so long already for an answer, what is a little longer?'

'What is a little longer?' she repeated quietly and turned abruptly away from him.

Ryan caught up with Kai and grabbed his shoulder. 'Kai, what's up with you?

'I told you, nothing,' he said sulkily.

_'Kai_?'

'I just don't like you hanging around with that guy,' he admitted. 'He's bad news.'

'Cesare? He's all right. I was just asking him about Bellême. Nobody's _telling_ us anything!' she added plaintively.

Kai relented a little. 'What did he say about him?' he asked.

'Nothing good,' she told him. 'He said that Valentina's right to be worried about him. Seems that Bellême's the reason your world is under vampire control.'

'So, not a good guy then?'

'I'm concerned about Mica,' she said now. 'I'm not sure we should be leading him into all this danger, he's only a child.'

'I've been thinking about that too,' admitted Kai. 'He's a brave kid...'

'And he idolises you,' put in Ryan.

'... But we don't even know where we're going,' finished Kai.

'But what can we do?' said Ryan. 'We can't just abandon him.'

'I wasn't thinking of abandoning him,' said Kai testily. 'We could leave him with Mac. Mac would take care of him. He couldn't be in safer hands.'

Ryan clapped her hands together. 'It's the answer,' she said. 'Of course, why didn't I think of that?'

''Cause you're an idiot,' said Kai amiably. And Ryan hit him with her hat, at which he dove on her and pummelled her into the grass, she fought back and soon had him on his back begging for mercy. It was like the old days, she let him up, flushed and laughing. 'Weakling,' she scorned him.

'Ah shut up – _Alyssa_!' he retaliated. 'Alyssa?' he asked wonderingly. 'How come I never knew that was your name?'

'Because it isn't anymore, I never liked it.'

'I think it's kinda pretty,' he said. 'So it certainly doesn't suit _you_ at all,' he added. 'I'm kidding, I'm kidding,' he said hurriedly as she prepared to pounce on him again.

'Ratbag,' she said without venom.

'At least, we have each other,' she said pensively, her mood changing abruptly. 'No matter what happens.'

'No matter what,' he agreed. And suddenly he felt very foolish to have been jealous of Cesare.

Cesare was watching them together wistfully. He had been a little attracted by Ryan who reminded him of his long lost sister. But it was nothing, an airy bubble easily swept aside compared to his feelings for Valentina. What he was really thinking was: when will I find happiness like those two have? He feared that the answer was – never!

Ryan continued to be fascinated by Cesare, but Kai could now view this with equanimity. His former jealousy seemed ridiculous to him now. Besides, it was becoming increasingly clear, even to the terminally obtuse Kai, that Cesare had eyes only for Valentina.

And so their journey continued.

Mica had been the only one, apart from Valentina, to view the mode of transport she had provided with anything other than trepidation. She had returned after two days with three giant fish eagles trotting docilely behind her. Even Cesare, had looked uneasy, having, as he knew well, no affinity with wild beasts. All living creatures are skittish about vampires, and these birds proved to be no different. They shied away from him like panicky horses until Valentina soothed them.

Kai, who had recently discovered that he suffered from acute vertigo, was frankly terrified. The helicopter had been bad enough, but these things... they did not look stable to him. Kai was used to domesticated animals; he would have mounted the largest, fastest horse in the world without turning a hair, but he was damned if he knew what he was doing to do about these cursed things. How did one direct them, he wondered. What about landing? And what if the damn thing decided to wheel around suddenly, as he had often observed birds to do in flight? They would be thrown off in midair.

Ryan had similar fears, although her thoughts were less constructive. Observing birds in flight was not a pastime she had ever indulged in.

Only Mica hailed this new adventure with delight; some people are natural fliers.

However, Valentina was insistent, the birds, she said, were well trained. All witches travelled this way over long distances, and they would go fast. They would reach Kai's home in less than a week. This settled it. Even Kai was sick and tired of trudging through the wilderness. A longing to see his home again, even for a short time, sealed his determination; he would try the damn birds.

As it turned out, it was not as bad as they had thought. Valentina had not intended that they should ride the birds, but harness them to a boat shaped carriage, rather like the one that Kai had seen swinging beneath the dirigible, and drive them, as one might drive horses in front of a cart.

Wearily they climbed into this thing, Mica's delight threatening to overwhelm him at this new wonder.

'A flyin' boat,' he shrieked excitedly. Ryan wondered what his reaction would be to an aeroplane. 'Cn I steer, 'I's good at steerin' ain't I Kai?'

'Maybe later,' said Kai wearily and then laughed at himself, he sounded like a father.

Mica pouted. 'That means "no",' he said shrewdly.

'That's right,' said Kai. 'And if you don't stop mithering, we'll leave you behind, right.'

Not that this threat sounded serious, but Mica immediately fell silent, it did not do to take chances. But once they had risen smoothly into the air under Valentina's expert direction, he continued to bounce around excitedly until night fell and he curled up in Ryan's arms contentedly and fell asleep. It was cold up here at night, and only Cesare and Valentina seemed not to feel it. While the others slept huddled under a blanket together, they talked together in low voices, barely to be heard above the whistling wind. They had a lot to say to one another. Once Ryan woke up to see them, standing together in the prow, their arms entwined around each other, Valentina's head resting on Cesare's shoulder, her hand reaching up to loosen his hair from its tight ponytail. She smiled to herself and closed her eyes. The birds sped on into the night.

## Chapter Seventeen – The Aryan Prince

Having heard his explanation of the strange events that concluded their first visit to another world, Jez was beginning to regard Johnny with a mixture of awe and fear. She felt as if she had never really known him. He was a stranger now, with awesome and inexplicable powers, so it seemed. And the fact that he himself took no great pride or even interest in them only made it more chilling.

She was lonely now, since she was avoiding contact with Johnny, as far as was possible in such a confined space. Oh, but it was more than that. She had been gradually losing him for some time now, she realised. He had become so introverted recently; he had not even realised that she was avoiding him, for he was lost in a world of his own most of the time, drifting further and further away from her. On the last world they had visited, it had seemed that they had reverted back to their old footing for a while, Johnny had seemed more like his old self, but now... now she was not even sure who he was anymore. Or what.

She began to miss Nick again. He at least, had been comparatively easy to understand, and he had talked to her, Johnny hardly ever said a word. But as much as she longed for Nick, she longed for the old Johnny more. He had, after all, been a part of her life for more than fifteen years, since they were two years old.

More disquieting still, Nick and Johnny were becoming disturbingly confused with each other in her mind. They did look like each other she supposed in a superficial way; both were tall, slim and fair-haired, and both were attractive. But as to personalities, they could not have been more different. The only thing they had in common, apart from their looks, which even Jez had to admit, were not so similar that anyone would mistake them for each other even at a distance (Johnny was by far the more physically attractive of the two in a purely aesthetic sense) was that she loved them both, albeit in very different ways. Or did she? Perhaps it was the loneliness, or the longing for Nick combined with this strange merging of their personas in her mind, but she was beginning to realise new feelings in regard to Johnny. Feelings quite apart from the newfound fear that was beginning to affect her.

'I think I must be going mad,' she muttered to herself. 'Aha, there you go, you're talking to yourself. It's only a matter of time now.'

Johnny was sleeping, peacefully for once and Jez had the ship to herself, more or less. She decided to use the time to analyse her feelings about Johnny, both the fear and the – other thing.

He _was_ attractive, she decided, but then, she had always known that, in the dispassionate way that you might reluctantly admit that your brother was not bad looking. Or another woman perhaps, whom you could admire for her beauty without feeling any kind of attraction towards it. She knew that he viewed her in that way too. No, it was the loneliness that was affecting her. If Nick were here, Johnny would not even register. But she knew that was not exactly true. She would never care for anyone's welfare like she did for Johnny's; no man could replace him in her heart, he was her family. And that was the problem. Replacing Nick with Johnny in her thoughts smacked almost of incest, and she had to admit to herself that that was what she was doing. Why? Did she really miss Nick so much? Was that it? Did she have no self-control? It was ridiculous! And then there was the fear, did that fit in somewhere? She had been afraid of Nick at first. Was it this new frightening, mysterious Johnny, so unlike the old Johnny, and yet not unlike, that she was attracted to? But it was the _old_ Johnny that she wanted back, she missed him. Perhaps he was still in there somewhere. Maybe she should try talking to him. She woke him up.

Johnny stirred sleepily. 'Mmm, whatsup?'

'I need to talk to you.' She was beginning to regret this already.

Johnny was his usual good-natured self. 'Okay.' He smiled lazily, sitting up. Jez began to feel better.

Johnny rubbed his eyes sleepily. 'How long was I asleep?' he asked.

'I don't know. A couple of hours,' Jez shrugged.

Johnny frowned. 'Is everything all right?' he asked, looking more alert.

'It's fine,' she assured him. She was starting to feel foolish. Johnny was acting completely normally. Had she been worrying unduly?

Johnny looked relieved. 'Okay, so what did you want to talk about?'

Now Jez was really wishing that she had just left him alone. She did not know what to say. She rubbed her face and pulled at her hair awkwardly. 'Um...'

'Don't say "um",' Johnny teased her. 'I hate that.' Jez just stared at him; this was Johnny all right, just as he had always been. She felt baffled.

Johnny helped her out. 'Is it that you've finally decided to confront me about how weird I've got?' he asked her gently. 'And all that stuff on the other world that I told you about?'

'Well, yes, I suppose it is really,' she managed to say in a slightly strangled voice. This was going very differently from how she had imagined.

Johnny nodded. 'I knew you weren't handling it very well,' he told her. 'I figured I should just leave you alone for a while. I probably did the wrong thing again?' It was a question; he looked enquiringly at her.

'You _knew_?' she asked, aghast. 'You _knew_ that I was avoiding you? You hid that well.'

Johnny shrugged. 'As we have established, I'm no psychologist. If I got it wrong, then I'm sorry. But you seemed so freaked out, and I didn't really know how to handle it.' He looked nervously at her as if he was expecting an outburst, but she just stared at him.

'Jez...' he began tentatively.

But she interrupted him. 'But you've been so different, ever since we started all this I mean, not just...'

'I know, I know, and I'm sorry, but you've been different too you know, sort of edgy and nervous, not like yourself at all and I felt really guilty about dragging you into this so I guess I just...'

'Withdrew?' supplied Jez, waves of relief washing over her.

'I didn't want to pressure you,' he told her. 'I thought it'd be better if you talked to me whenever you were ready. Did I do the wrong thing?' He looked uncertainly at her.

Jez considered. 'No,' she said eventually. 'I think you were right actually. I didn't realise how much all this had affected me. I did need to work it out for myself.'

Johnny looked relieved. 'There's something else,' he said. 'And I think it might help to explain what happened on the other world.'

He told her about the dreams.

'I knew there was something,' she said. 'Sometimes you moan in your sleep, and I can't wake you.'

Johnny was startled. 'Really?' he said 'You never said anything.'

'I didn't think you would want me to,' she said. 'I thought you would tell me about it when you were ready and since _you_ never mentioned it, _I_ didn't like to.'

Johnny laughed. 'We are a pair aren't we?' he said. 'Let's decide right now to end all this subterfuge, Okay? No more tiptoeing around each other, we'll just be honest. Deal?'

'Deal!' agreed Jez, but she still did not tell him about her confused feelings about him and Nick. There was no point, she decided. That was all over now that Johnny was himself again, and it would only freak him out. She was still restless, but she now understood that it was not Johnny she wanted, it was just _someone_. She suspected that Johnny felt the same.

They talked, really talked like they had not for so long, and Jez began to understand that Johnny was just as anxious about the future as she was, maybe even more so, and that it was largely her fault. If she had not told him about Nick and his gloomy hints and warnings – all the more terrifying for being so obscure – then he never would have been beset by all these doubts that he was now revealing to her.

But they both agreed in the end that it was better that they were wary, better to be warned that all was not as it seemed. Johnny even ventured the opinion that perhaps he might have begun to question things by now anyway, having got over the first flush of excitement. The tide that had swept him into this had now ebbed, and now he could hardly remember why he had felt such a strong urge to do this mad thing.

'It was as if I couldn't help myself,' he told her. 'It was just so compelling. I can't explain...'

'Destiny,' said Jez dryly

'Oh more than that,' said Johnny earnestly. 'More like... mind control.'

'Bellême?' asked Jez, remembering the sinister man who had aroused such antagonism in her.

'You didn't see him,' said Johnny, nodding. 'Not like I did. It was like he was... hypnotising me – only not, if you see what I mean.' He shook his head impatiently. 'I mean he was so... so...' He gave up. 'And the dreams,' he continued. 'They were so real, so inviting. It was like I was being shown who I really am. And _he_ had that effect on me too. He made me feel like a god – which I know I'm not,' he added hastily seeing a sceptical look come over Jez's face. 'But it was just when I was with him that I felt that way, I think it was intentional.'

'He made me feel like a silly little girl,' said Jez. 'I hated him,' she added unnecessarily.

'We were just puppets to him,' said Johnny. 'I see that now.'

'I wonder who he was,' said Jez.

'I've got a horrible feeling we'll find out,' said Johnny. 'And we won't like the answer.

'I think he was a little... don't laugh... a little... in love with me.' Johnny continued meditatively. 'Oh I know it sounds silly but... Oh he probably _meant_ me to think that, didn't he?'

Jez was thoughtful. 'No,' she said. 'I think you're right actually. I noticed that too, and he wouldn't have wanted you to think that, why should he? _That_ wouldn't have influenced your decision, would it?'

'No, not at all,' said Johnny a little too vehemently.

Jez smiled. 'So it was just something he couldn't quite conceal from you – or me for that matter,' she said. 'Maybe that's a good thing. Perhaps he has a weak spot somewhere that we can use if we ever need to. It shows that he's not totally in control.'

'How is that going to help us?' asked Johnny.

'That's what we'll have to find out, said Jez enigmatically.

It was hardly a solid plan, but it was strange how this idea made them both feel a little better.

They fell into a routine after that, sleeping, eating, talking, and reading. They played chess for hours on end. Johnny's dreams were growing less and less since he had talked openly about them and he felt in some strange way that this indicated that he was growing away from Bellême's influence, which made him feel better. When they reached SCI'ON, he decided, he would make up his own mind about how to act. He would be nobody's puppet ever again. Once he had made this resolve, he felt stronger within himself and more confident about the future. Probably, he thought, he would just leave SCI'ON and go home, since that clearly was not what Bellême wanted him to do.

In the meantime, they had an adventure before them. It was turning out to be very dull. They had been travelling almost a year and had visited three worlds. The first had been the most exciting, and even that was only because of the circumstances of their arrival. After that, the next two worlds had been so similar to their own that it had been practically impossible to tell the difference. And the first world would have been the same too had it not been for the time loop. Johnny and Jez, therefore, were becoming complacent about parallel universes – although Johnny should have known better, being aware that the further away they were from their own world the more differences they could expect, due to the fact that the split would have taken place further in the past. He forgot this, and as a consequence, both he and Jez were totally unprepared for the next world they were about to encounter.

* * *

It began uneventfully enough as usual, as dramatic events usually do – read any fairytale for evidence of this. They were in a town; it looked pretty ordinary, people shopping, kids running about etc. Johnny was keen to explore for a while, stretch his legs, enjoy the fresh air and Jez was nothing loath.

They wandered into a park – It was the _cleanest_ park they had ever seen – and sat on the grass, luxuriating in the sunshine and the fresh, breezy scents of the daffodils.

It was Jez, naturally, who first noticed the strange uniformity of the people around them. It was not just that they were dressed alike; fashion could be like that, although there are usually some mavericks who dress to please themselves – there were none here. But the people all looked alike too; it was disconcerting. All the people in the park were unusually attractive. Jez was used to feeling comparatively dull next to Johnny, but this was something else. Here _everybody_ was Johnny – in a manner of speaking. This was ugly duckling syndrome on a grand scale.

She mentioned this to Johnny. 'Look at them,' she said. 'They all look like you, pale shadows of you. I feel like a freak.'

'Why?' said Johnny? 'You're pretty – sort of.'

'Yeah? Well _these_ people are beautiful,' she snapped. 'And they all look the same, like they were stamped out with a cookie cutter.'

Johnny looked around him and had to concede that there was truth to this remark. Everybody he saw was tall and fair haired and favoured with similar patrician features, to those that Johnny had been blessed with. Used to being the most attractive person in the vicinity, without ever thinking about it, however, Johnny felt slightly piqued without really understanding why. But mostly he was intrigued.

'Maybe they're a Viking race,' he said. 'It certainly is strange.'

'I feel really uncomfortable,' said Jez. 'I want to go, people are staring.'

'Don't be paranoid,' said Johnny. 'You don't _look_ that different, you're as tall as me and you're good looking enough to pass. Nobody'll notice you. See that guy over there?' he pointed. 'His hair's red too.'

It was, but not like Jez's flame coloured glory. It was a reddish blonde, and even _he_ stood out from the crowd. Jez was not comforted.

In fact, people were not staring at her; rather they were avoiding looking at her as if she had some horrible disfigurement. This was worse.

'It's like Hitler's nightmare,' she said. 'You know, the dream he had of creating an Aryan race.'

'Don't be silly,' chided Johnny.

'It's all very well for _you_ ,' snapped Jez. ' _You_ fit right in. You could be their spokes-model, whereas I...' She broke off abruptly and began to cry. 'Johnny please,' she begged. 'I'm scared of this place, let's just go.'

'There _is_ something sinister about it,' said Johnny reluctantly. 'I mean, why are they all dressed alike too, and they walk in lines, almost like they're marching. I think you're right. There's something weird about this place. I don't fit in either; I can't see a single pair of jeans anywhere, and my hair's too long.' He said this almost lightly, but he was getting nervous too. Any minute now, he thought, a couple of burly figures in uniforms would arrive to arrest them both.

'I hate being right all the time,' he thought, as that was exactly what happened next.

He jumped to his feet and placed himself in front of Jez protectively. To his surprise, the men saluted him in a manner that was disquietingly familiar.

'Nazi's,' whispered Jez behind him. 'I _told_ you.'

'My Lord,' said one of the men. 'What are you doing here? The Fuhrer has been expecting you these last three days. He will not be pleased at your tardiness.'

Johnny gaped at the man.

The other man gave Johnny a supercilious look, his lip curled as he said. 'What strange attire My Lord, where have you been to find such odd clothes? The Fuhrer would not approve.'

The first man agreed. 'We _must_ find you some suitable attire before you see him.' And he laughed.

Johnny gathered from their attitude that the person they had mistaken him for was not held in high respect, despite the title and his apparent relationship with the Fuhrer – Hitler himself, he wondered, or some successor? Would Hitler still be alive today? The men expressed disdain for his scruffy appearance without showing the least surprise about it. His doppelganger – he wondered for a bizarre moment whether it might not actually be himself, another version of him, it was entirely feasible – was apparently something of a rebel. This was a relief; at least they were not going to be arrested.

The first man had now noticed Jez. His expression was not so much one of distaste as it was of wonderment. 'A Celt, My Lord?' he asked, indicating Jez. 'How... exotic.' And he laughed again. 'What _will_ you do next sir?' he added jovially.

Johnny's fists itched; he had never wanted to hit someone so much in his whole life.

'She had better come along with us sir,' added the man. 'She will hardly be safe if we leave her here. Already I see people staring. No doubt that is what you intended, My Lord, but the Fuhrer would not approve of any disturbance of the peace. The car is waiting sir, this way.' And he turned to take Johnny by the elbow.

The other man was looking at Jez with undisguised aversion. 'She's rather tall for a Celt,' he observed. 'Perhaps some sort of half-breed?'

Johnny lost it. He pulled away from the first man and struck the second hard in the face. 'You take that back!' he howled furiously. 'How dare you!'

The second man was lying on the grass with blood pouring from an obviously broken nose. Yet he still managed to look patronizingly at Johnny as he said. 'Temper, temper.' And wagged a finger at him like a nurse chastising a naughty child.

Johnny was fuming, but the first man managed to defuse the situation by laughing at his fallen comrade and giving him a dig with his foot.

'Get up you imbecile,' he said. 'And next time, don't let yourself be caught off guard, eh?'

The fallen man rose slowly and attempted to recover his dignity – a clearly impossible task in the face of things.

Johnny's good humour came to his aid and he smiled faintly and shook his head slightly patronisingly at the man then he docilely allowed himself and Jez to be led to the car that was waiting for them.

Jez was trying agitatedly to catch Johnny's eye, but he was ignoring her. She wanted desperately to get out of here, but she realised that it was a vain hope now. She had seen a familiar light in Johnny's eyes; he wanted to stay.

When had he become like this, she wondered watching him as he looked eagerly about him. He was changing, losing his indifference, his laid back attitude of what-will-be will-be. Johnny, the old Johnny, had never exerted himself unduly, except at computer games, had never shown the slightest curiosity about things that did not directly concern him. Now his curiosity seemed insatiable, and his desire to interfere was growing dangerous in Jez's opinion.

It was as if all the energy that he had previously expended on getting to level 5 in "Mean Streets II" now had to find another outlet. Even the quest itself – going to SCI'ON, building the program, planning the journey – was an indication of this. What the hell did SCI'ON have to do with him anyway, when you came to think about it?

Johnny himself was not thinking in such constructive terms; he was only aware of an insatiable curiosity about this world and the strange coincidence of his being mistaken for an obviously important person – if it was a coincidence. Johnny was becoming something of a mystic, and he felt sure that it was no coincidence but rather that it was _meant_ to happen so that he could, as he saw it, "put things right" here.

Destiny! He was becoming a believer. Jez would have said that he was getting a hero complex, had she been privy to these thoughts, and would have no doubt made sarcastic comments about his rescuing cats stuck in trees and saving drowning children. He did not think he was a hero; it was more like being an instrument of fate. He was glad that Jez did not know that he had thought _that_! He would never hear the end of it, and he himself was inclined to laugh at himself inwardly when he thought it. It sounded ridiculous, even in his head. Perhaps it was a good thing that Jez was with him, she would keep him grounded in reality. He only had to think of what her reaction would be to some of the things that were passing through his mind, to bring him back down to earth.

Nevertheless, he was determined to see it through. If it turned out that there was nothing he could do; well then, he would just have to accept that he supposed.

The car sped on into the heart of the city – London they supposed, but it was unrecognisable as the dirty city they were accustomed to. However, there were a few familiar landmarks apparent as they drew nearer to the centre of the Capital. They drew up eventually at the gates of St James' Palace. Johnny suppressed a gasp of surprise and then he realised that things were necessarily different here, and no doubt the Royal family were all working in factories now or supermarkets as was befitting in a communist regime. He was no royalist, but still he refused, at this point, to consider the other, rather more grim alternative to this scenario.

The gates were hung with large swastika flags, which made Johnny shudder involuntarily. Don't be silly, he chided himself; it's only a flag. But it was the significance behind it that was disturbing his equanimity. The Fuhrers palace! England, and perhaps all of Europe, was in the grip of the Nazi's.

He threw a warning glance at Jez who was more openly upset than he was, but the men guarding them were not taking any notice of her anyway. It was his own reactions that he would have to guard.

The gates opened smoothly, and the car glided in. As soon as the men leaped out to open the doors they took Jez to one side and seemed to be taking her in another direction.

Jez gave Johnny a panicked look. She was right, he thought, they must not be separated.

'She comes with me,' ordered Johnny hoping that he had the authority to uphold this command. If he did not, then the men were overawed by his sudden regal manner, for they shrugged and let her go immediately, only observing that the Fuhrer would undoubtedly disapprove.

'What _doesn't_ he disapprove of?' thought Johnny.

But the men seemed unconcerned. It was his affair, they implied.

They waited in a large ornate office; the walls hung with the customary swastikas and other badges of office. It was only a few minutes before the door opened and admitted a tall blond man in a smart suit. He was one of the most handsome men Jez had ever seen even including Johnny, and she recognised him immediately from photographs she had seen, although he was a little older now, but still looked far younger than what must be his age. Johnny recognised him too.

'Dad?' he said forcing himself to speak without a tremor.

The man frowned. 'I have told you before,' he said sternly, 'not to address me in that casual manner.

Johnny was reckless. 'I'll call you any damn thing I want,' he said angrily.

Jez plucked at his sleeve. 'Johnny!' she said warningly.

John Hammond senior turned his attention to Jez momentarily. 'So you allow people to address you by your given name?' he said to Johnny, 'and a shortened version of it too.' He sighed. 'Have you no dignity, no sense of who you are? – My _son_!' he finished scornfully.

Johnny was shaking, whether with anger or with shock, he was unsure. He was aware of an acute misery. This – _this_ was his father? This monster, _Mein Fuhrer_? It was too much to be borne.

He remembered his mother's eulogies about this man, how he had always wished that he could have known him and now... _this_!

Jez understood his feelings up to a point; she was an expert on disappointing parents, after all. And surely, it did not get any more disappointing than this.

She took Johnny's hand timidly. 'Come on Johnny,' she said. 'Let's just go. This is pointless.'

Johnny shook her off impatiently and turned to the man – he would not call him his father – and his whole body was shaking with rage.

'You?' he asked quietly. 'You can talk about dignity? You dare to question _my_ behaviour? You? You... you... fucking Nazi – no Jez,' he overrode her protests. 'Who do you think _you_ are?' he demanded furiously of his father.

The man suddenly leaned forward and hissed at Johnny. 'What the hell's the matter with you?' And then pointed at his ears in a distinctly lunatic fashion and then at the walls and at his lips, and generally indicated in pantomime that the walls have ears.

Bugs, Johnny realised. The room was electronically wired. He should have thought of that. Still why was the Fuhrer so worried about it? He could only suppose that some family feeling was at the bottom of it. Even the Fuhrer himself would not want his own son to be arrested for treasonable statements. Perhaps _especially_ the Fuhrer, now he thought about it. It would probably seriously undermine his position.

Johnny did not care about that, but he still fell silent. He looked sulkily at his father.

His father looked relieved. 'I think, son, that you should go to your room now and calm down. I will talk to you later.'

And then, to Johnny's amazement, he nodded conspiratorially and gave him a swift wink.

Johnny left the room in a daze. Once he was out in the corridor, he looked around him uncertainly.

'What's the matter?' whispered Jez.

'I don't know where my room is,' he hissed back.

'Who cares?' said Jez, shocked. 'Let's just get the hell out of here while we've got the chance.'

'No.' Johnny was adamant. 'I want to know what he wants to say to me. Something's not right here. Did you see the way he acted before we left?'

'Look Johnny, I know you want to believe that he's not such a bad guy but you have to face the truth here. He's a Nazi. _The_ Nazi, in fact. It doesn't mean that _your_ father would have been. You _do_ understand that that man _isn't_ your father right?'

Johnny looked at her bewilderedly. 'We're staying,' he said eventually.

'Shit!' said Jez.

Since they could not ask anyone to direct them to Johnny's room without arousing suspicion, they decided to go into the gardens and wander around. Here they hoped they could talk without being overheard.

'Did you notice,' said Johnny. 'He didn't seem surprised to see you. I mean he never said a word about you being... different from everyone here, like he didn't care.'

'Johnny, don't get your hopes up about him, please. He must be a good Nazi; otherwise he wouldn't be in charge.'

'We'll see,' was all Johnny would say on the matter.

Jez was worried. She felt sure that Johnny was headed for further pain, and there did not seem to be any warning him.

They wandered around in silence after that, and after a while, they headed for a small summerhouse. To their surprise, the Fuhrer was inside waiting for them.

'You took your time,' he greeted them. 'I've been waiting a good half hour for you.'

Johnny controlled his surprise admirably. 'Sorry,' he said. 'I lost track of time I suppose.'

His father grinned engagingly; this was a real shock to both of them. And an even bigger shock awaited them as he looked appreciatively at Jez and said. 'I can't say I'm surprised, with such a charming young lady to distract you.'

Johnny looked triumphantly at Jez.

Then he looked serious. 'Look Jonathan,' he said. 'I understand how you feel, but you must learn to watch your temper. You can't say things like that inside the palace it's dangerous. I thought you understood that.'

'I'm sorry,' said Johnny.

'I just don't know what came over you,' continued his father, 'and to say such things to _me_! I know you're disappointed in me,' he sighed. 'But this is the way it is now. I used to be like you believe it or not. Oh yes, I did. I hated that my father had defected to the Nazi's after the war; I thought he was a traitor. But I understand now. He had no choice. He had to protect his family, and so do I.' He took Johnny's hands. 'We're safe now, you see? You can't change the world just by wanting to, no matter how _much_ you want to. You just have to make the best of the world you live in. That's what I have done. And it's what you will have to do also. I don't want anything to happen to you son. Please just try to at least compromise. I won't always be here to protect you from your recklessness.'

Johnny pulled his hands away sharply. 'You're afraid,' he said accusingly. 'That's what it is, isn't it?'

'For you son,' his father replied, and your mother. If I had been a single man...' He shrugged. 'Who knows?'

'I _am_ a single man,' said Johnny. 'And I'll do what I think is right. I wish you would too.'

His father looked at Jez questioningly.

She answered for Johnny. 'Oh, I'm not staying around here for long,' she told him.

John senior nodded. 'I see,' he said. 'Well, I suppose you must do what you think is right, I don't suppose I can stop you.'

'It would be a lot easier if I had your support,' said Johnny. 'I mean, do you rule this country or not?'

'Yes, but...'

'Well then,' Johnny spread his hands. 'Change the damn rules. What are you so afraid of?'

'It's not as easy as that,' objected his father.

'Balls!' said Johnny with more truth than elegance. 'I never said you had to do it overnight. I understand it would take time, but you have to start somewhere.'

'And if I do?' said his father. 'If I turn this country into a free nation, if I manage to make the people accept a different rule, if I turn the government on its head and expel the Nazi element, then what? This county would find itself at war with half of Europe.'

Johnny pondered the truth of this and shook his head. 'I hadn't thought of that,' he said.

It was Jez who said. 'Isn't that what diplomacy is for?'

'Explain,' said Johnny's father shortly.

'Perhaps other leaders feel the same as you do, or they could be persuaded to. You could put out feelers anyway – discreetly. Aren't they all like you, natives of the countries they are ruling?'

'Most of them are yes,' he agreed. 'But all countries, including this one, have a core government of ardent Nazi Germans. It would be a dangerous game. They are little more than spies for the German government.'

'They could be weeded out,' said Johnny, seeing that his father was definitely swaying toward them, 'if you arranged private conferences with the prime ministers.'

'Fuhrers,' corrected John.

'I don't think so,' said Jez.

John just smiled. 'As you say,' he agreed. Then he lapsed into a long meditative silence.

'By God,' he said suddenly, thumping his leg hard. 'I'll do it. There have to be some things worth fighting for.' He looked sombre. It will take careful planning,' he said. 'It won't be easy, and I'll have to get you and your mother out of the country...'

'I'm not going anywhere,' interrupted Johnny.

'... It'll have to be Hawaii,' he continued ignoring this interruption, 'it's safe there, or perhaps Alaska. No, too cold, your mother wouldn't like that...'

They left him making his plans. As Johnny said, they had done all that they could here. It was time to leave. They had their own mission to complete.

'I hope it works out,' said Jez.

'It will,' said Johnny confidently. 'People don't like being treated like cattle.'

'What's going to happen when his _real_ son turns up and doesn't know anything about all this?' wondered Jez.

'It'll be okay,' said Johnny. 'We know he feels like his father does, so he'll be on his side all right. They'll figure it out. Perhaps they'll put it down to amnesia or something. It's not our problem now.'

'I guess,' agreed Jez uncertainly.

'Don't worry so much,' said Johnny. 'And give me a hand with this mini fridge.'

Jez gave up and took the other end then Johnny pressed the deconstructor and the world faded away.

## Chapter Eighteen – The Red Planet

Whether it was fate or just extremely good luck, was then, and is likely to remain, an open question. Certainly, Bellême could have had nothing to do with it as Johnny and Jez were, for now, far beyond his control. But, could he have influenced events exactly as they happened, he almost certainly would have unless of course, he could have influenced them further still and prevented the landing altogether. One thing is clear enough, that had Jez arrived on the Red Planet, as they later named it, she would have died instantly (as did Johnny, although in his case, it was only temporary) and that, we may conjecture, since it was clearly part of his purpose to send Jez with Johnny, was the last thing Bellême would have wanted.

The fact was that Johnny had now finessed the program further and it now revealed the approaching world as a planet seen from space. It was an easy adjustment to make since the original program he had adapted had been a space flight simulation.

This was pure swagger on Johnny's part, a completely superfluous addition to the program, since, for the most part, it told them nothing that they did not already know, although Jez approved it because it made the program seem more like a real journey and less like a weird science experiment. Johnny cared less about this; he had done it out of sheer boredom and a desire to show off.

Yet, as it turned out, perhaps fate _had_ played a part in Johnny's decision, since without this new feature, they would almost certainly have been reconstructed together on the red planet to Jez's certain demise.

Because when Johnny saw the horrible red atmosphere that surrounded the approaching world, he decided there and then not to risk Jez as well as himself "landing" there.

Naturally, this sparked off an argument, but Johnny could be firm when he deemed it necessary and eventually Jez had to yield

But when Jez saw the sinister planet looming up on the monitor, she thought it might be more prudent to avoid it altogether. She stared at it in fascinated horror.

'What is it?' she gasped. 'That's never Earth! It looks more like Mars.'

'It can't be,' said Johnny shortly.

'Why not?' argued Jez. 'Maybe the people of this world have relocated.'

'Very likely,' said Johnny dryly, 'because that's _definitely_ Earth. It can't be anywhere else. The program doesn't move us in space, only through dimensions, but physically, we always end up in the same place we left from and the last time we deconstructed we were definitely still on Earth.'

'But what's happened to it?' said Jez. 'Oh Johnny, I wish you wouldn't go there, we don't need supplies that badly and it looks dangerous. What if you can't breathe?'

'That's why I'm going alone,' said Johnny firmly.

'Why do you have to go at all?' Jez persisted.

'Because – because I do all right,' snapped Johnny. 'I'll come back and get you if it's safe.'

'And if it's _not_ safe?' asked Jez with bitter sarcasm. 'What am I supposed to do if you never come back?'

Johnny hesitated. He knew that he _would_ come back, but he did not know _why_ he knew it and he could not explain to Jez his certainty on this point. Eventually he shrugged. 'I'll be okay,' he said. 'I just have a feeling.'

Jez rolled her eyes impatiently, and this was the last thing he saw before he died on the surface of the scorched Earth.

'I think he's coming around,' he heard a man's voice say as consciousness returned.

'What on Earth was he doing out there without a suit?' came another voice. 'He's lucky to be alive.'

_'I_ made sure he was dead,' said another, a female voice this time.

He opened his eyes. 'Where am I?' he said predictably.

'Colony sixty five,' said the woman's voice. 'You'll be safe here, just lie back now, you had a close shave there, you need to rest.'

Johnny did not think so; he raised his head and tried to take in his surroundings, hoping thereby to gain a clue to his situation. It was difficult to see anything beyond the anxious faces that surrounded him so he took note of them first. A youngish woman with short, curly dark hair, sharp features and thin nervous hands was bending over him. Beyond her was a heavily set older man with a thick jaw and a heavy neck supported on wide shoulders, but who was clearly related to the woman, having her small blue eyes and the same dark curls. And in the background was another similarly large man of indeterminate age, with short, bristly red hair and small pink rimmed eyes. Big men, and strong, but Johnny decided with some satisfaction that he could take them on if he had to.

This brought Johnny's attention to the room beyond; it looked like a small capsule with built in furniture. The bed on which he lay was more of a bunk set into the wall with a bank of lights set in above his head. All the furniture, and there was not much of it (the room was no more than nine or ten feet square) looked like the smooth curvy plastic furniture of Captain Kirk's bedroom. A nineteen sixties nightmare. Johnny shuddered.

Furthermore, there was no natural light and the artificial lights set into the walls cast only a dreary glow that made the room look depressingly gloomy, like the simulated twilight that you get in a bedroom when the curtains are still closed.

'What the hell were you doing on the surface without a suit?' asked the first man

To Johnny this remark was incomprehensible. What could the man mean? His head filled suddenly with the absurd notion that he was on a submarine and had offended some strange maritime etiquette, by going above decks informally attired. Which only goes to show how chaotic the mind becomes when you die (bright lights indeed!) Fortunately for him, all he could say was. 'What?'

Instead of an answer to this ejaculation, he was told by the woman to lie down again and not to get excited. But Johnny felt fine – better than fine – he felt rejuvenated in fact. He attempted to rise but was restrained by gentle hands.

'You see Matthew,' said the woman. 'He's all confused, it's the oxygen starvation, it always happens. He's probably got permanent brain damage.'

This was an alarming idea and Johnny leaped from the bed in panic.

'No I haven't!' he shouted defensively. 'My name is Jonathan Matthew Hammond. I'm nineteen years old,' he recited. 'Do you want me to count to a hundred, recite the alphabet or my twelve times table?' And he proceeded to do this last feverishly. 'One times twelve is twelve. Two times twelve is twenty-four...' he began, but the woman stopped him.

'Yes, yes,' she soothed, 'you seem all right, I must say, but don't get excited now.

Johnny stopped abruptly. 'You see?' he said sulkily.

The woman looked at the man designated Matthew, the dark haired man, and he looked at her, then he nodded, although she had not spoken, and abruptly left the room taking the other man with him.

The woman contemplated Johnny anxiously for a moment and then, in a voice that was obviously straining to sound normal but failing signally said. 'Well Jonathan, if I may...?' she paused for Johnny to nod. 'Jonathan,' she reiterated, 'my name is Caroline and that was my brother Matthew and his friend Charlie. My brother found you on the surface. We thought you must be dead, and we're right glad that you are not of course. But what on Earth were you doing up there without a breathing suit?'

Johnny blinked. He could not remember; he had no idea what she was talking about. His mind worked quickly, clearly if he played along, he might be able to find out where the hell he was without having to admit that he did not have a clue.

'Stolen,' he hazarded, this seemed likely enough, he thought. It was.

'Bastards!' muttered the woman. 'I suppose it was the uplanders? They're always damaging their suits on the rocks. Drunk, most of the time I reckon. Then they come down here to steal ours. I expect you know. They probably raid your colony too. But I never heard of them stealing a suit off a living man before and just leaving him to die. That's going _too_ far.' She paused and looked sympathetically at Johnny. 'Reconnaissance mission I suppose?' She answered her own questions, which was very helpful under the circumstances. 'Of course, you're from colony sixty-four I reckon, how did you get separated from your mates? The fog came down, I suppose? Those fog visors are a ruddy joke if you ask me. It's bloody lucky for you that our Matthew was out today. He wasn't going to go before, 'cause of the fog an' that you know. But I made him 'cause our food credits are running low, and I'm glad I did now, else you'd be a goner.

'Well, I must tell our Matthew to report this to the governor, it's an outrage that's what it is, and it's got to be stopped. The governor won't be able to ignore this I reckon. It's time we took the uplanders in hand and has been for a long while now, but he won't do anything about it, not him. Weak as water he is, how he ever got elected...? Well they say it's _who_ you know.' Here she nodded sagaciously and continued. 'But he'll have to wake up now, else no one else will go up to the surface at all and then what will we do for fuel eh?'

Johnny was made irremediably nervous by this diatribe. The one fact he had managed to extract from the slough of information, was that the state of armed neutrality between the colonists and the uplanders (whoever they were) had now been threatened by his own stupid "off the cuff" remark. It seemed pretty clear that his coming here might be the innocent means of inciting a war between people that he knew nothing about and had nothing to do with. He wished he could remember what had happened and how he had got here. He wished that he had kept his mouth shut. _Stupid! Stupid! Stupid!_ And with this internal condemnation, he remembered Jez.

She was still in the program, he remembered. And he was on the mysterious "Red planet". He needed Jez, he decided, she would know what to do.

Caroline was looking at him in concern, when he brought his gaze back to her. He had been, for some minutes, staring blankly into space, and she was evidently worried that he was about to break out into mathematics again, or perhaps begin conjugating verbs.

'Are you all right?' she asked anxiously placing a tentative hand on his forehead.

Johnny gave her the benefit of a full watt smile in his usual lazy fashion. It worked; she turned away in confusion.

'I'm fine,' he assured her. 'I was just having a think.' He touched her hand lightly, and she blushed to the roots of her hair. Satisfied, Johnny turned his attention to getting back to Jez. Caroline was clearly not going to give him any more trouble. Now he just had to get rid of her. He glanced around the small chamber for inspiration. There was food on a small table and a jug of water – no help there. He could not send her away for that. Medicine? He _was_ supposed to be ill. Would painkillers be too much to ask for?

He lay down suddenly with a slight moan. Caroline was immediately all attention. 'Ooh, what's the matter?' she yelped.

'Nothing,' said Johnny, 'just a headache.'

Caroline sprung up. 'Oh how inconsiderate of me, you poor thing,' she exclaimed. 'I'll get you some tiger balm. You just lie still, and I'll be right back.'

Johnny did not obey this last instruction. He jumped up the moment the door closed behind her and felt for the deconstructor.

Jez was pacing anxiously and nearly ran right into the deconstructed Johnny when he arrived.

'Wanker!' she told him, to relieve her feelings.

'No time,' said Johnny. 'I need your help. I've done something awful I think.' And he proceeded to relate all that had happened in short breathless bursts.

'What should I do?' he asked plaintively at the end of his recitation.

Jez tossed her head impatiently. 'Men!' she said contemptuously. And while Johnny felt the full impact of her scorn, he was nevertheless gratified at his inclusion into the category of manhood. She had never said as much before.

'Why don't you try telling the truth?' she continued.

Plainly, this idea had not occurred to Johnny to judge from his startled expression. 'What?' he remonstrated.

'Why didn't you just tell the truth to begin with?' she said.

'She wouldn't have believed it.'

'You could easily have proved it,' pointed out Jez. 'Besides, don't give me all that claptrap! Since when could _you_ not wrap any woman round your little finger – except me of course?'

Johnny was bewildered. 'So – you think I should just...?' he began.

'You can't do anything _now_ ,' said Jez crossly. 'You can't go back there. You were lucky that you didn't die the first time round. You can't expect that kind of luck twice.'

'I won't need it,' grinned Johnny. 'I'll arrive exactly where I left, remember? Safe underground.' He scratched his chin thoughtfully. 'And so will you, if we go together. If you come with me, it'll make the story more believable. You can back me up. I forgot to mention, but I think that Caroline thinks I'm brain damaged...'

'Aren't you?' interrupted Jez tersely and without even a _soupçon_ of humour.

'... And if I came out with a tale like this one she'd have me sectioned or sent to live with the uplanders or whatever they do there,' continued Johnny as if she had not spoken. 'But if _you_ come too, she'll _have_ to believe me. I think you're right, I think I have to tell her the truth, I think _we_ have to tell her the truth.'

Jez was somewhat mollified by this assertion and the admission that preceded it. It's always nice to hear "I think you're right".

'Okay then,' she agreed. 'And...' But she never finished that sentence because Johnny pressed the deconstructor.

The cabin was deserted as Johnny had half expected when he reappeared with Jez in tow and it took a few moments for him to register that all was not as he had left it only a few minutes before. Apprehension dawned growing quickly to panic as he gradually took in the alterations before him. The cabin had clearly been deserted for some time. Three of the lights were broken, the bed linen was gone, the furniture broken up. It was filthy and flies buzzed around the rotten food left on the table.

'Yuk,' said Jez. 'How can anyone live like this?'

'I don't think they do,' said Johnny in a sudden burst of comprehension. 'I think they're all dead. We're too late.'

'After ten minutes?' said Jez scornfully.

'It hasn't _been_ ten minutes,' said Johnny sombrely. 'Not for them. That food didn't go rotten in ten minutes.' He shook his head seriously. 'It's been at least five months, maybe longer.'

'How do you know that?' asked Jez incredulously. She caught on fast and was willing to accept that time had passed more swiftly in the world than in the program as it was something she already knew in theory, but how could Johnny know how much time.

Johnny pointed to a series of lights in a bank on the wall. Six were out, and six remained lit. 'I think that's a calendar,' he said. 'I just figured it out, if I'm right then I'm sure that only one light was out in that bank the last time I saw it. Now there are five more out.'

'But you can't be sure?' said Jez uncertainly.

'There's one way to find out,' said Johnny. 'Let's go and investigate.'

Jez was naturally unhappy about this, deeming that they – or Johnny at least – had interfered enough in this world. But she knew from experience that it would be pointless to argue.

'Resistance is futile,' quipped Johnny seeing the acquiescence in her face.

Jez scowled. 'I see nothing funny in any of this,' she reprimanded severely, and Johnny immediately became penitent.

'You're right,' he said. 'I'm sorry.'

This made two admissions of her superior judgement in one day. Such behaviour in Johnny made Jez uneasy. It was so unlike him.

The outer corridor, which Johnny had not seen before, was dark and deserted. But there were signs that it had once been both well-lit and busy. Banks of lights ran along the walls at ceiling height, but most of them were out and only a few still flickered feebly like dying fireflies. By this torpid light, many well-worn grooves could be seen on the tiled floor, a sign previous heavy traffic, both feet and wheels, had passed regularly this way. Furthermore, there were other signs of habitation. Notice boards and chairs lined the corridor and there were signposts to other parts of the colony pasted up at intervals where the corridor diverged. "Communal Bathrooms" to the left and "Library" straight ahead" "Sector 7G" to the left and so on. Instinctively Johnny headed in the direction of the library. Jez objected to this immediately, reading his intention and disapproving of it.

'We aren't here to find out what happened to the atmosphere of this place,' she told him. 'We need to find some people who can tell us what happened here.'

Johnny knew this, but his curiosity on this point was urgent and he was not to be denied.

They saw no people on the way to the library which Jez found extremely sinister. Could Johnny have been right, were there no survivors? In which case, they were too late and since she was rather curious to know about the history of this world herself, she confined herself to silent disapproval and followed Johnny docilely to the library.

The door of the library was off its hinges, and Johnny pushed it aside and entered with exaggerated caution. A quick scan of the room revealed that it was empty and curiously untouched; the rest of the compound had shown signs of previous conflict and some wanton vandalism, perpetrated after the fact.

There were no books in the library, just banks of computers and shelves of discs reaching from floor to ceiling and all neatly labelled and colour coded. Each set of shelves was handily signposted by genre, just like a normal library. There was no fiction at all, but Johnny was not interested in that anyway. This was clearly a reference library and not the borrowing kind, which made sense when Johnny came to think about it.

He started with the history files index and, once it was loaded up, he found that he could cross reference it with the index for genealogical events and found what he was looking for.

All this takes less time to say than it took to accomplish, and Jez was getting very impatient by the time Johnny found the right file.

It was fascinating and horrifying and yet in a way wholly predictable.

Quite simply they had done it to themselves over a long period of time, by a systematic and concentrated abuse of the natural resources of the planet. This had begun in earnest approximately three centuries earlier and ozone depletion had started almost a century and a half before, which confused Johnny until he thought to look back further into history and discovered that there had been no period corresponding to that era known to us as the dark ages, which set scientific progress back several centuries. Even so, destruction had been slower in coming than might have been expected. They had tried to hold it back and might have succeeded had it not been for several wars and a lack of unity towards the fulfilment of this goal. Then had come an interminable ice age and people had apparently just given up and gone underground to survive and when they emerged it was to an alien planet.

This is only the abridged version of events that Johnny related to the uninterested Jez, and eventually he gave up and, on a suggestion of Jez's, he tried to discover the background of the uplanders to give them a clue to the origin of the antagonisms that had started this train of events in the first place.

Again, it turned out that the colonists really only had themselves to blame. The uplanders were, in the main, convicted criminals (or the offspring thereof) banished to the inhospitable surface in lieu of punishment for various crimes ranging from petty theft to murder. The idea of rehabilitation seemed to have been long abandoned.

There were now several generations of uplanders living on the surface in colonies of their own and more joined them all the time either from the criminal ranks or by choice – runaways and malcontents.

Johnny shook his head over the unutterable folly of all this. How did they expect such a system not to breed resentment and eventually hatred towards those who had condemned them? And how could the condemned be expected to live without falling back on their criminal ways?

So much for the past. What of the future? What was happening now? Where were the colonists, what had happened to them? And was there anything Johnny could do to rectify what he had done? Because, although it was clear that a conflict was going to happen sooner or later, it would probably have been later, had Johnny not put his big foot in it. He was feeling expressly guilty about that and, as Jez rather unfeelingly told him: so he should.

'You shouldn't be in here.' This was said by a young man who had suddenly appeared in the doorway. 'We're getting ready to evacuate,' the man said. He was stained with streaks of dirt and his face showed signs of recent suffering and rapid weight loss. 'They'll be coming back to finish us off,' he said. 'And there aren't enough of us left to stand and fight. Just women and kids mostly and not many of them either. Well, are you coming?'

'Where?' asked Johnny.

'To the evacuation point of course,' said the young man peevishly.

'No, I meant, where are we evacuating _to_?' explained Johnny.

'Cor, where have you bin?' exclaimed the man in surprise. 'We're going to the plains. It means living above ground for a while anyway, until we can rebuild. But it beats dying here like rats in a trap. Like them other poor sods. All the colonists, what's left of us anyway, are meeting there...' Suddenly he clapped his hand over his mouth. 'Who are you anyway?' he said suspiciously. 'I don't seem to remember seeing you before.' Then, without warning, he pulled a gun from his belt and pointed it at them in a wavering hand. 'You just come along with me,' he said. 'I reckon we need to get to the bottom of this. Spies, that's what you are, uplander scum. Well you won't be going back to your pals to tell them where we're off to, not if Deacon Hobbs has anything to say about it.' He waved the weapon threateningly at them. 'Come on,' he said. 'And don't try anything.'

Johnny shrugged at Jez to intimate that they should go along with it for now, and they obediently walked slowly ahead of the young man.

'Got me some spies,' announced the young man when they reached their destination, which turned out to be a refectory in which the surviving colonists were herded together. A large black haired man with a jutting jaw stepped forward.

'All right Tom,' he said to the boy patting him gently on the shoulder. 'I'll deal with this. Where did you come across them?'

'In the library,' said Tom excitedly. 'An' they was acting real suspicious like, askin' about the evacuation an' stuff like they didn't know about it. An' why shouldn't they unless they're spies. We know that's how that bunch of...'

_'Tom_ ,' said the man warningly.

'Sorry Deacon,' Tom apologised with a red face. 'We know,' he reiterated, 'that that's how the uplanders knew we were going to come after 'em and how to get in after us. And how they've always known things about us that they didn't ought to know and planned their raids and such like.'

Johnny was nodding to himself. It made sense, and it confirmed his opinion of the uplanders in general, who seemed, according to the little history, he had read, to have a lot more native wit than the colonists.

Deacon Hobbs noticed this movement. 'Is that a confession?' he asked Johnny mildly enough.

'What?' said Johnny, coming back to himself. 'Oh no, I was just... I was thinking about something else.' He forced himself to attend. 'Are you really a Deacon?' he asked suddenly. Anything less like a man of the cloth was hard to imagine.

Deacon Hobbs laughed gently. 'No, no, Deacon is my given name. I guess my mother thought it might make a good man outta me.'

'Did it work?' asked Johnny, sensing an ally in this genial man and wondering why.

'Why, I guess not,' said Deacon and winked at Johnny.

'He's the spy,' thought Johnny, 'and he thinks I am too, or else he thinks I'm part of the second wave of invaders. He thinks I'm an uplander anyway.'

'But I've taken over as leader here since the governor passed on,' continued Deacon Hobbs. 'So why don't we step into my office and have a little chat?' he winked again. 'And see if we can't sort all this out in jig time' He inclined his head toward the door that led into the kitchen.

'I guess not,' said Johnny imitating Deacon's drawling voice. 'I guess we can talk out here pal, as well as anywhere. _I've_ got nothing to hide anyway.' And he fixed the discomfited Deacon with a laser like stare. Jez winced; she knew Johnny well and she knew bad things were about to happen.

'Well now son,' began Deacon uncertainly. 'There's no need to...'

'There's every need,' shot back Johnny heatedly. 'Spy!' In the shocked silence that followed this abrupt accusation, Johnny followed up his advantage with the biggest rigmarole of lies he could put together at a moment's notice.

'Yes,' he said. 'I _am_ an uplander, and I'm sick of all this carnage. I came here to expose you before it got any worse.' He glared at the disbelieving company. 'And if anyone doubts me, just look at his face.' He pointed to the guilty and bewildered countenance of the impostor.

Before anyone could obey this last direction, Deacon Hobbs had taken to his heels with a howl of rage.

'Stop him!' ordered Johnny, taking command of the situation, and several men broke away from the crowd to do as they were bid.

Johnny faced the rest of them. 'I don't know how much they know,' he said. 'But I guess that your plan of evacuation is compromised already, so I advise you to change it. Is there anywhere else you can all go?'

'How do we know you won't betray us?' asked a woman at the back of the crowd. 'How do we know you're telling the truth?'

'Take me with you,' suggested Johnny smiling.

'And what about her?' said another pointing at Jez.

'Her too if you like,' agreed Johnny amiably, ignoring Jez's black looks.

There was a burst of discussion, succeeding this remark, during which the three men returned with a sour faced Deacon struggling futilely in their grip.

'Traitor,' he spat at Johnny as he passed. Johnny smiled contentedly as if he'd just been given a rare compliment.

This, more than anything, suddenly won the colonists to his side.

'Well, we will,' said one grizzled old man favouring Johnny with a toothless grin. 'What have we got to lose?' he asked the others. 'So long as he comes along with us, how are they ever going to know where we are?

'But we decide the place young man,' he added, turning to Johnny. 'We ain't going to be led into no trap by you, you hear?'

'Finally,' thought Johnny, 'they're learning some sense.' He nodded cheerfully. 'Good idea,' he said.

When the colonists retired to discuss their new plan of action – locking Johnny and Jez in the food store cupboard as a precaution – Jez opened up on Johnny.

'What the _hell_ was that all about?' she demanded. 'Why did you say we'd go with them?'

'Because they wouldn't go otherwise,' said Johnny. 'And they'd (to borrow a phrase of Tom's) be caught here like rats in a trap.'

'Well it's all your fault anyway,' muttered Jez sulkily. 'None of this would have happened if you hadn't come here.' She looked thoughtful for a moment. 'Can't you put it right after all?' she asked suddenly. 'You know, like you did before when you sort of reached back and made the thing that happened not happen, the thing that went wrong.'

'Do you really think I haven't thought of that?' asked Johnny. 'It won't work in this case.'

'Why not?' said Jez, obstinately.

'Because it won't,' said Johnny irritably. 'Because it's not the same. That was a paradox,' he explained a little more reasonably 'A time loop. And we were outside it. What you're talking about is actual time travel and... Oh my God, you're a genius,' he cried jubilantly.

'Yes!' said Jez decisively. 'In what way exactly?' she added curiously.

'Time travel!'

'What about it?'

'I thought it couldn't be done, but it can! Not in the world of course, not in reality, but in the program anything's possible. I mean if we can travel through dimensions, we can do _anything_! And besides, travelling through time is sort of what we're doing anyway except we're going backwards in dimensional time, but apparently forwards in real time. Hmm, this needs some thinking about.' And he broke off into a long, thoughtful silence.

'We just have to turn the ship around – so to speak,' said Johnny eventually. 'It'll mean adjusting the program of course, but if I can do it...'

'Yes, _if_!' broke in Jez sarcastically.

_'If_ I can do it,' reiterated Johnny impatiently. 'Then we'll be going the other way, back in time – real time I mean – and forward in dimensional time, but just for a little way, just so I can fix what I did, you see?'

'No,' said Jez wearily. 'But I trust you. Will you end up on the surface again like last time?'

'No, that's the beauty of it,' said Johnny enthusiastically. 'I won't have to come back here at all. I'll just fix it so I never came here at all!'

'Which I told you not to in the first place,' Jez could not forbear to point out. But Johnny was far too jubilant to take offence.

It was distinctly odd watching their own arrival at the red planet, in reverse, as it were. They watched it recede from view for a while until Johnny said. 'There, I think that will do.' And he adjusted the program and the red planet slowly began to grow nearer again.

'Well,' said Johnny, 'we've done all we can. I suppose Deacon Hobbs is down there right now spying on the colonists and planning raids even as we speak, but there's nothing we can do about that.'

'Amen to that!' said Jez emphatically.

## Chapter Nineteen – Ryan: Retrospect

When Ryan was twelve years old, her life changed forever. It was not that her mother had left her. In her heart, Ryan knew that her mother had left her years before, in spirit if not in body. And it was not that she had finally realised that Kai lived in a different world to her own, in many ways she had always known it and if anything twelve is a cynical age and Ryan had begun to question many things that she had earlier accepted without question. They had begun to deal in more dangerous missions at about that age. Ryan had met her first "Count" Count Lensha of Malvés at the age of twelve; it was not that either. No, at the age of twelve, Ryan had had the first dream. In her dream, she was dying, neither slowly nor painfully, but rather it was a peaceful experience and Ryan knew instinctively that this was, in fact, a memory. The dreams had gone on from there in reverse chronological order, back over a lifetime that she could not consciously remember.

That Ryan accepted this without question was strange enough, but stranger still was the fact that she never told a living soul about it; not even Kai.

At first, the dreams had been disjointed and patchy but now, after seven years, she was able to piece together that former life quite coherently.

It had been a perfectly ordinary life until the age of fifteen; that was when everything changed. Ryan (she always thought of that other self as Ryan although her name had been Matilda) had been raised in a convent. Her noble but impecunious family having placed her there to educate her as befitted a daughter of a noble house and it had been expected that she would eventually take the veil and become a nun, for who would marry a dowerless girl, despite her noble blood?

She never became a nun; events conspired to intervene.

In Normandy in the eleventh century the most powerful men under Duke William, were the Barons it was one of these, who had come to the convent to pillage and rape, who saw the young Matilda (or Ryan) and decided to abduct her. This was a tried and tested method in those days of finding a young bride or of getting money from the families of the girls – by means of a ransom – or sometimes both – by means of the dowry.

By the time the baron had realised to which noble family his captive actually belonged and that there was no money to be had from her, he had become so enamoured of her that he married her anyway. Ryan had been nothing loath; having no taste for a nun's life, she had seen this marriage as a means of escape.

But she was soon to learn the truth about her new husband, he was evil, sickeningly so, and Ryan began to long to escape from him and return to her family.

Her wedding had been celebrated by the most horrendous spectacle of torture of mutilation of innocent peasants and servants that was ever witnessed. Ryan was no innocent; she knew what the world was like, her upbringing had not prevented her becoming worldly as might have been expected, being as she was, shut away from the world. Yet she was so horrified that she had begged him to cease his cruelty until he had thrown her from him and threatened to kill her there and then before all the guests. Then he had stripped her and humiliated her in front of the company and then forcefully consummated his marriage there and then on the banqueting table.

When she recovered from her injuries and her humiliation, Ryan's fury was cold; she began to plan her revenge.

She tried poison, but he survived without any ill effects although several of his servants died in agony. She feared that he knew what she had done; he would often regard her sardonically from under his lids, particularly when he was eating and Ryan trembled waiting for his inevitable revenge. It seemed imperative that she get rid of him now, before he got rid of her.

She decided to stab him through the heart while he slept. Nobody in the castle, she felt sure, would trouble to investigate too closely the death of such a man.

The dagger was under the pillow; her husband slept soundly beside her, worn out with all his debauchery. Even though his reputation was well known, he was so handsome and charismatic that many women and men were willing to share his revels even when he had blood on his very hands, although many of them hated themselves afterwards – if they lived so long. For these crimes, she thought, as for so many others, he must die.

But it was not to be. As she carefully took the dagger from beneath her pillow, her husband moved like a snake and grabbed her arm, twisting her wrist until she dropped the dagger onto the sheet beside him. He moved his body on top of her and held her down and then picked up the dagger and regarded it curiously.

'And what is this, my dear?' he asked silkily. 'Surely you are not contemplating suicide? And in our marriage bed. That _would_ be a scandal. And yet, I am sure that no one would be terribly surprised.'

Ryan glared at him with hatred. He would kill her now, she was certain. A "suicide." But she was determined to show no fear of him; that would only be a fillip to his enjoyment.

To her surprise, he threw the dagger to one side and released her. She struggled to a sitting position and looked at him, waiting.

'This is the second time you have tried to murder me,' he commented. She did not deny it and he continued. 'Have I been such a bad husband? Of course I have,' he answered his own question. 'I am unfaithful, and I am somewhat... ill-tempered I suppose.'

'You are a monster of cruelty,' she retorted. 'You like nothing better than to torture and terrify innocent people. You are evil and I hate you. You subjected me, your own wife, to such indignities that I shall never forgive you.'

'Ah, so that is it,' he smiled. 'I have hurt your dignity. Well perhaps it was ill advised, but you were not a good wife to me that night. You questioned me before my subjects, and that I could not allow to pass.' He shrugged.

'It's not just that...' she began.

'Ah, but it _is_ , my dear,' he told her bringing his face close to hers. 'You could have forgiven me my other little vices – in time, as others do. I know you well. You are proud but not cold. I remember your passion at our first encounter; you could not have enough of me.'

Ryan shuddered. 'I did not know you then,' she said. 'Now I see you for what you are.'

The Baron laughed. 'You always knew,' he told her. 'Did I not pillage the convent and rape the holy nuns before your very eyes? Do not try to fool me woman. I see to the very back of your mind. ''Twas your _own_ humiliation that turned you against me, is it not so?'

Ryan lowered her eyes.

The Baron picked up the dagger and handed it to her. 'A lesson,' he said. 'Try to kill me now, I will not stop you.'

'Of course you will,' she said scornfully. 'You will turn the dagger on me. It is one of your foolish games, although, I confess, I do not understand the point of it. Why do you not just kill me and have done with it?'

'Wife,' he said almost tenderly, 'forget your bitterness. Work together with me and give me fine sons and you shall be honoured by me and mine for the rest of your life, I swear it. You will have such honour and power that the indignities you hold against me now shall be wiped away and forgotten. I give you this chance now, because you are the wife that I chose despite your poverty, and I have some tenderness for you still. Choose now for it is the last chance you will get. Choose wrong and instead of honouring you as my wife, I will humiliate you for the rest of your days as my slave and concubine, and I will still have my heirs from you. Their procreation shall be a public spectacle as shall be their birth. This I promise you, for neither you nor any mortal can kill me.' And he plunged the dagger into his own breast to show her that he spoke the truth.

'What say you, wife?' he asked, drawing the bloody dagger forth and showing it to her with a smile on his face.

She tentatively pulled apart his nightshirt and felt with trembling fingers for the wound. There was no wound.

She smiled suddenly. 'You drive a hard bargain my lord,' she told him.

He nodded and embraced her. 'I knew that you were no ordinary woman when I met you,' he said.

She accepted his terms. What else could she do? Of course, she never stopped plotting against him, which he was fully aware of and for which he bore her no rancour. It made life interesting, he said. And he would not have wanted a tame wife.

She bore him three sons, all of whom promised to be as perverted and cruel as their father. She ignored them until the day when her husband went out riding in the forest and never returned. His body was found in a copse by a woodcutter's cottage. He had been gored by a boar. A fitting end, she laughed for she had always hated him and now, she had the power she had always craved. Her eldest son was only fourteen, her youngest ten, she would rule until the eldest reached his majority. But in those days men grew up faster, she would have two or three years at most before that time. She decided not to accept it. Had she been married to that monster for almost twenty years only to reach the pinnacle of her power just in time to have it snatched away from her? She thought not.

When she came out of her mourning, she had decided. She appealed to the Duke. Her sons were, as yet, only boys (she wrote.) Yet already they showed signs of becoming as depraved as their wicked father had been. Was this not a form of insanity? Was it not possible that they would soon grow up to continue the reign of terror that he had begun? She was a weak woman who could not hope to control them once they reached their majority. Would he not help her?'

The Duke responded with alacrity. Here was a way to curb the power of the most destructive family in his realm. Their own mother had hinted that the boys were insane. She was showing him the way. Within a month, her sons were tried and found incompetent to rule and put away in an asylum for the rest of their lives.

She had won.

She remarried and lived in peace and prosperity for another thirty years. She hanged many of her late husband's evil followers and took control of their estates and fortunes, some, more fortunate ones, were merely banished. But the reign of terror was over.

Now Ryan was worried about her dreams. Recently, particularly when she had been imprisoned, they were becoming more vivid and real to her. She realised that in that former life, she had been a hard woman, cold and determined on power. Was that who she really was? For years she had dismissed the memories. That is, she had been interested in them as you might be in a colourful story, but she had never attempted to analyse them. Never wondered if that woman she had been, that life she had lived, had made her the person she was now. Suddenly it seemed distinctly possible, and for a very disconcerting reason. The very reason that she was now holding off telling the others about it, despite the fact that it was preying on her mind, and it seemed so vitally important that she do so.

The fact was that her husband in that former life had been Count Talvas of Bellême.

There seemed little doubt that it was the same man who was pursuing them. Evidently he had not died in the forest that day. Where had he gone then? And why? It did not matter now. She wondered if he knew who she was. An old enemy reborn. Well, she had defeated him once, and she would do it again – this time for good. This time she was not alone.

She felt guilty for keeping her secret. Strangely, though, it was not Kai who was the focus of most of this guilt, but Cesare, who had been so frank himself about his own connection with Bellême. And several times, she was on the point of confessing her secret, but always something held her back. Perhaps it was because she was not entirely certain what her own connection with Bellême actually meant. Part of her felt as if it went far deeper than just a past life experience, and she was afraid of what this might mean, afraid of Valentina's probing eyes on her, and of the mistrust that she might see in Kai's face. Whatever it meant, she was certain that it was far more than a mere coincidence.

## Chapter Twenty – Amazon Nation

Whatever land they were in, giggling sounds the same in any language. They had not been on the road five minutes when a crowd of young girls passed and began staring and pointing at Johnny. This was such a familiar occurrence to both of them, that at first, they took no particular notice of it. But now they were reaching a more built up area, they noticed with some disquiet that even quite mature women were displaying the same juvenile behaviour. And now it was becoming more than just irritating, it was beginning to feel menacing.

'What's going on?' hissed Jez to Johnny. 'What's wrong?'

Johnny shrugged uneasily. 'I dunno, but I think it's me.' Never before had he been so conscious of the attention he was attracting.

'I think we should get out of here,' hissed Jez. 'Before something happens.'

'They don't seem hostile exactly,' said Johnny, 'just curious.'

'Yes, but why should they be, what's so strange about _you_?'

'I don't know, maybe they can sense something, like the fact that we're different, not from around here, you know. Or maybe there are no strangers in this village, could be anything.'

Jez looked around her and then she saw it, the thing that had been nagging at her since they arrived.

A little girl ran up to Johnny and gazed at him with the frank curiosity of the very young. A woman, presumably her mother, made a dash at her and pulled her away. 'What's it mummy?' cried the child pointing at Johnny. The woman shook her head and gave Johnny a sour look.

'Oh for God's sake,' whispered Johnny to Jez. 'Anyone would think they'd never seen a man before.'

'Er, I don't think they have,' said Jez. 'Look around, no men, not even an old codger leaning on gate while the young men work in the fields or something. Not even a little boy,' she continued, 'just girls.'

Johnny looked around. She was right. 'Oh my God!' he breathed. 'No guys, no guys at all.' He paused and frowned. 'How would that even work?' he asked perplexed. 'There are children, what was it, immaculate conceptions?'

'Maybe the sexes are segregated,' suggested Jez. 'No,' she mused. 'These women look as if they've never even _heard_ of a bloke, let alone _seen_ one.'

'Whatever it is,' said Johnny. 'I think you were right. We should get out of here.'

They began to walk fast, back in the direction they had come from, but they were stopped by an armed guard, all female of course. Johnny, who had never hit a woman in his whole life, surrendered immediately, although not without a certain amount of chagrin. He felt as if the universe was not playing fair somehow. If these had been male guards, they would have, by now, been looking for their kneecaps in the gutters.

The guards were stern, but they seemed fascinated by Johnny. Jez was sure that she could have disappeared into a hole in the ground without causing even a minor comment. It was the old story. They stared at him and touched him and wanted him to speak, so that they could compare his voice to theirs. When one put her hand on his crotch, and Johnny reacted loudly like a wounded bull, they were thrilled.

'What a sound,' they cried. 'Do it again.'

Thus, it took some time to reach the large house at the end of the village that they were heading for.

It appeared that they were expected. A large woman in an apron opened the door, and with only a small gasp of wonder, she led them through the house to a pair of oversized double doors. Here she left them, saying: 'Ms. Abbot will be with you shortly I don't doubt – well I never. Well I never did.'

'We're alone,' suggested Jez.

'Right,' agreed Johnny, although the possible advantages of a world peopled entirely by women was beginning to work on his mind. Nevertheless, he reached into his pocket for the deconstructor, just as the doors were thrown open. 'Oooh, so close,' he muttered and thrust it away again hastily.

The room was set up like a courtroom and filled with women of all ages, obviously in different positions of authority. The woman who sat behind the large desk at the back was evidently in charge. This presumably was Ms. Abbot. The nameplate on the desk confirmed this; it read "Ms. Eugenie Abbot, Squiress" whatever that meant.

She looked at Johnny with undisguised wonderment. 'So it is true,' she said glowering down at him from behind the desk. She was a relatively young woman, perhaps thirty, averagely attractive, nothing special, and elegantly, but not flashily dressed. She would not have looked out of place in our world. Had Johnny seen her shopping in a supermarket he would not have given her a second glance. Under the circumstances though, she had his full attention.

'I have never before seen a living man,' she told him.

'At least you know what one is,' said Johnny.

Ms. Abbot smiled suddenly. 'The women in the village are simple folk,' she told him. 'But here, we study many things.'

The way she said this made Johnny feel like a specimen that she had found on an archaeological dig. It was not a comfortable feeling.

Nevertheless, he was Johnny, laid back and friendly until forced to be otherwise. He had always relied on his charm to get him out of most awkward situations. So, he smiled his slow, lazy smile at her.

Jez had to bite back laughter at the woman's reaction; she was blushing.

She dismissed the other women, 'I do not think he is dangerous,' she commented. However, Jez remained behind, as a kind of chaperone, she supposed.

'I wonder where you come from,' she said. 'There are a few small colonies left since the purging, so we hear. But that was many years ago, and you are a young man, are you not? Is it true then that the male colonies have taken women into them and bred with them like – like... beasts?' Here she looked at Jez.

'You don't know what you're missing,' Jez told her.

'I don't know what you mean by purging,' said Johnny, with a fierce glance at Jez lest this woman decide to find out what she _had_ been missing. He supposed he would though, she wasn't _bad_ looking, and it _had_ been a while.

'You _have_ been away haven't you?' said Ms. Abbot. 'You mean your fathers never told you about the purging of men from society. Perhaps it is forgotten. It was a long time ago.'

'Tell us,' urged Johnny.

It seemed that in the previous century, on this world, a drastic decision had been taken after a severe bout of wars had torn nation after nation. Few men had survived, and women were in a position of power hitherto un-thought of. They had decided that men were too warlike; that if they were not curtailed, they would destroy the world. Using scientific techniques, still in their infancy at that time, to create several large banks of frozen embryos, all female, enough, they believed, to last for seven thousand years, they gradually did away with the need for men at all. Such few men as remained were sent away to live together in colonies, no murders took place. It was thought that they would dwindle away in time and be forgotten. But they had proved unexpectedly resilient it appeared. Rumours abounded about these colonies, but men were rarely seen these days.

'IVF with a twist,' muttered Jez.

'We are, of course, aware that the day will come when the frozen embryos will run out,' Ms. Abbot said, 'and we are working toward perfecting our cloning techniques against that eventuality. But we have plenty of time,' she added comfortably.

Jez was unable to hide her consternation as this tale unfolded. As an ardent defender of women's rights, she was terrified at this evidence of what it could lead to. They had gone too far. Besides, she thought, what was a strong woman without a man to dominate?

Johnny was no less shocked than she. But he, perhaps realising the precariousness of his situation, managed to hide his feelings under his habitual lazy smile.

Or perhaps he felt that what happened in another world was no business of his.

Ms. Abbot, her attention on Johnny, never noticed Jez's expression, but Johnny did and he shot her a warning glance to compose her face before the woman noticed her. The last thing he wanted to do was upset this woman (who was clearly in a position of power) while their fate was still undecided. The main thing, he implied, in his angry looks, was to get out of here with all extremities, one in particular, intact.

Amazingly, Jez understood him. She had never realised before what an expressive face Johnny possessed when he wanted. The face he turned on the woman, which was the face he normally wore, was as bland and expressionless as a doll's.

'Wow,' he said calmly. 'I never knew all that, it's amazing! To think, how clever it all is.'

Ms. Abbot smiled benevolently at him. Dissembling was obviously a foreign art to her. But now she frowned. Not in severity, but with uncertainty.

'Hmm,' she said, 'I really don't know what is to be done with you. You can't say here, that's for certain, it would cause... unrest. You see what I mean. Already too many people have seen you, er...' she looked questioningly at him.

'Johnny,' Johnny supplied. 'And this is Jez.'

'Johnny, _Johnny_!' she mused. 'What a strange name, and this is a "man's" name?'

'Yes, it's quite common,' Johnny told her.

This was a mistake. The smile faded from Ms Abbot's face as she said. 'I beg to differ,' in a cold voice. ' _I_ have never heard of it.'

Johnny's face froze. _Shit_!

Now she was looking at him suspiciously. 'Just how many of you are there?' she demanded. 'And what are you doing _here_?' she answered for him. 'You have come here to take our women back with you. How many more are waiting in the fields and forests for a signal from you?'

'N-no, that's not... it's a mistake, we got lost,' stammered Johnny.

'Indeed,' she said grimly, 'it _was_ a mistake, one that you will regret for a very long time I think.' She glared at Johnny. 'Did you think that you could fool me with your languishing looks, your pretty words? Oh we are so young and innocent are we not?' she said with bitter sarcasm. And Jez realised that she was all the more angry because she had indeed been fooled, because she had been attracted by Johnny and she was now acting partly out of humiliation, as so many duped women had done before having made fools of themselves over a handsome face. That Johnny was entirely innocent of any such intention was irrelevant. Even now, Jez could see that he was totally ignorant of the true cause of the woman's fury.

She clapped her hands, and a series of bells rang behind her and several of the guards who had been their escorts to the house, ran into the room.

'Lock him up,' ordered Ms. Abbot. 'Leave the girl here. We may be able to rehabilitate her.'

She turned. 'Ah, Magdalen.' She disdainfully addressed a girl who had apparently been standing unobserved in the shadows behind Ms. Abbot's desk during the entire interview and had now come forward.

'What are you doing creeping about there?' she asked sharply. The girl hung her head demurely, and Ms. Abbot slapped her face perfunctorily and turned away from her impatiently. Jez saw the girl throw a venomous glance at the back of Ms. Abbot before turning her attention to Johnny, whom the guards had taken hold of.

Jez closed her eyes and willed Johnny silently. 'Fight them off. Don't be so bloody chivalrous. Fight back.' If he would just fight them, they would be out of here in ten minutes – less. It was not as if these were normal women, such as Johnny was used to dealing with. Charm was not going to work here. But the habits of a lifetime are not so easily broken, and Johnny meekly allowed himself to be led away with a wry glance at Jez as he exited the room.

Immediately Jez turned on Ms. Abbot with a fury.

'Bitch!' she screamed. 'Fucking cow. He never did anything to you. There is no plot, and you fucking know it. You know, he probably would have slept with you, you know, "mated!" That's what you wanted, isn't it?' she added slyly. 'I don't suppose he will now. He liked you though. I could tell, he _wasn't_ pretending. Huh, Johnny's so thick he doesn't know _how_ to lie.' This was an exaggeration of course, but Jez knew that she was distressing the woman with this line, so she allowed her fury to whip itself up into a tempest.

'Poor Johnny, she said. 'He never hurt anyone in his life. It's not his fault that he's good looking.'

Ms. Abbot held up her hand. 'Stop!' she said agitatedly. 'These matters need sifting. I will have the area searched, if he is indeed innocent, no harm will come to him. But I have the safety of my people to think of.'

'I came with him, and I'm _telling_ you he's innocent. If you don't believe me, then why aren't _I_ locked up too?'

Ms. Abbot contrived with her expression to indicate that this was still a possibility. Little realising, that this was what Jez was hoping for, so long as they were locked up together.

It was, therefore, a disappointment, when Ms. Abbot, without saying another word, swept haughtily from the room.

## Chapter Twenty One - Magdalen

Jez let her hands fall to her sides helplessly as Ms. Abbot let the large double doors swing closed behind her. _Now what?_

'He _is_ innocent,' said a voice behind her. 'But it won't save him I'm afraid.'

Jez swung round to face the girl that had been slapped by Ms. Abbot. She was a tall dark haired girl with pretty Irish-Italian looks and a sullen demeanour. Jez liked her immediately.

'Of _course_ he's innocent,' said Jez. 'But how do _you_ know it?'

The girl smiled ruefully. 'Because, _he_ may not be a spy,' she said. 'But _I_ am, and I've never seen him before.'

_'You_?'

The girl shrugged. 'I am a natural birth,' she said. 'I came here from the colonies. Ms. Abbot knows of course. That's why she doesn't like me.

'I grew up around men. We had proper families. It's not perfect,' she expanded her arms, 'but it's better than _this_.'

Jez nodded. She could see that.

'Unfortunately,' said the girl, 'others do not see it the same way. We _must_ rescue your friend or he _will_ be put to death in the morning.'

'But how can she _do_ that?' said Jez. 'There's no evidence against him.'

The girl grimaced. ' _She_ doesn't need evidence. She won't send out those search parties you know.' She grinned slyly. 'Perhaps she should. She'd no doubt find all the evidence she needed if she did.'

Jez was startled. 'You mean...?'

'Oh yes, there are men around here, hiding out in the forests. We don't intend to put up with this forever you know.'

'So even if Ms. Abbot searched...?

'Your friend would be in a lot of trouble anyway, yes.' She put out her hand. 'Magdalen Da Silva,' she introduced herself.

'Jez Basserié,' she shook hands with the girl.

'Okay,' said Magdalen, with these formalities over. 'Let's get your friend out of here.'

'You know where he's being held.'

'Oh yes, I lived there myself for a while. It's a rite of passage for the spy, a spell of imprisonment.' She smiled reminiscently. 'But they never found me out. Papa told me how to act, and he was right.'

'Your _father_ sent you here?'

Magdalen's face hardened. 'I volunteered,' she stated. 'Who are these women to dictate how we all should live? My father is a good man, why should he be treated as an animal? He never did any harm to anyone.'

'Nor has Johnny,' agreed Jez. 'Unless you count kidnapping me on this crazy mission, and that was an accident,' she muttered under her breath.

Magdalen ignored this. 'They'll be back for you soon,' she said. 'They won't put you in the cellars, like your friend, but they'll probably lock you up so it might be an idea not to be here when they come for you.'

Jez turned to look at the large double doors, which were almost certainly guarded. Magdalen laughed. 'Not _that_ way,' she said. 'Follow me.'

She lifted a wall hanging and revealed a small door behind it. She pointed to herself and then at the door saying. 'Spy – secret door. Secret door – spy!' She held up her hands, her eyes dancing with suppressed laughter. 'I scouted out this place months ago. I flatter myself I could find my way about this dump better than anyone.'

Jez was impressed. She followed Magdalen down a short dusty passage, which led to an untidy garden.

Magdalen sniffed her disapproval. 'Look at this mess,' she snorted. 'My father would have a conniption, he loves gardening.'

'Are there many of you?' asked Jez curiously.

'Oh 'bout a hundred maybe a few more, not including the children – in our colony, that is. In the whole country – who knows?

'And – a lot of them are men?'

'Of course, more than half, maybe seventy men. More boys are born than girls for some reason. I have three brothers.'

'Nature finds its own balance,' muttered Jez.

'Maybe,' said Magdalen, who clearly had not given it much thought. 'Now, come this way, you can hide in the old potting shed until nightfall, I'll have to be back at my post soon , or they'll start looking for me. We'll get your friend tonight.'

'This is very good of you,' said Jez. 'I mean, you don't _have_ to help us.'

Magdalen snorted again but said nothing.

'What will they do to you, if you're found out?'

'Oh, they'll know it was me,' said Magdalen airily. 'I'll have to leave with you. This'll blow my cover all right.' She did not sound as if she was too concerned about this.

'I'm sorry,' said Jez.

'Ha! _I'm_ not,' said Magdalen. 'I hate this place. I want to go home. Right, I'll see you later, okay?'

Jez nodded, and Magdalen disappeared through the trees.

Johnny was wishing that he had made a fight of it after all. It was not so much that the cellar was dank and dark and smelled unaccountably of cabbage, although that did not help matters. It was not even that he was separated from Jez; he would get back to her somehow he was sure. No, it was the guards, the all female, never seen a man in their whole life, indecently curious guards.

Part of Johnny's charm, as Ms. Abbot had discovered, was the fact that he was unfailingly courteous and considerate with _all_ women, regardless of whether or not he found them attractive. This aspect of his nature was being tried to the utmost at the moment. He felt like a specimen in a zoo, this was a mixed metaphor, he realised. Jez would have had something to say about that, he thought with a pang.

Now it was almost midnight, and there were only two guards left outside his door, but they were still peering in at him at intervals and giggling nervously as if they thought he might suddenly burst out of his cell and ravish them.

'Not on your best day,' he thought savagely, although he could not actually _see_ them from the dark of his chamber.

Suddenly there was a yell, cut off abruptly and then he heard a familiar voice calling his name softly.

'Jez?'

'It's him,' he heard her say to an unknown third party. He heard the third party reply tersely. 'Keys!' and there was a clinking sound. He held his breath. He had no idea how Jez had found him, nor why it was so urgent to rescue him in the middle of the night. But some of the urgency of his two rescuers had communicated itself to him, and he was suddenly afraid.

The cell door was unlocked, and Jez came in. 'Johnny?'

'Here.'

'Well come on then, Magdalen says we haven't got much time.'

'Magdalen?'

'That would be me,' she stepped out of the gloom holding one of the guard's lanterns up to his face. Johnny gaped. She was the prettiest girl he thought he had ever seen; her dark Italian looks were just his taste.

'I'll explain later,' said Jez breaking in on his reverie.

'We have to move _now_!' Magdalen was tugging on his arm as if to reinforce this instruction. 'Let's _go_.'

As they ran along the passage, they heard above them, the sounds of a commotion. Magdalen swore vividly in Italian and made a crude gesture, raising her fist defiantly and slapping her other palm against her inner arm. Johnny was fascinated.

'They are coming,' she yelled. 'The bitches have raised the alarm. Run!'

They reached the inner staircase and were yards from the outer door, when they were caught. It seemed like the entire household had been roused and were converging on the three miscreants in a solid phalanx. But Magdalen was not finished yet. She pulled two short daggers from her belt and another from her boot and quickly distributed them – one each.

She addressed Johnny. 'This time you _must_ fight,' she told him. 'It is your life or theirs, understand?'

Johnny nodded, but he dropped the dagger. 'I'll fight,' he said. 'But not with this, I don't need it.'

Magdalen shrugged. It was his decision, she implied. Then she charged.

It was a hopeless fight from the beginning, or it would have been if it were not for Johnny. He had now buried his scruples, and he went at it with a will. He remembered that these were not ordinary women; he remembered what they had done; yet he still restrained himself from inflicting serious permanent damage on the women. Magdalen showed no such restraint, and several of the women would probably never walk again.

Their opponents began to fall back, and Johnny saw a way through. Magdalen saw it too, but she was trapped. Johnny hesitated and was about to turn back, but she yelled at him with such furious authority, that he was compelled to obey. 'Run, you idiot, or we'll all be taken.'

Johnny grabbed Jez and ran for it.

Not until they were several hundred yards away, did the spell of Magdalen's last instruction wear off and he stopped abruptly.

'We have to go back for her,' he said.

'Not now,' said Jez. 'In the morning.'

'It'll be too late by then,' argued Johnny.

'No, they'll want her alive for a proper execution – in public. She explained it all to me. Look, she's not stupid. She'll give in quietly now we're away, if we go back now there's nothing we can do for her. But if we wait...'

'Yes?'

'She said there are men around here, friends of hers, if we can find them, maybe they can help us.'

'You're certain they won't just kill her tonight?'

'I can only go off what she told me, an execution in the public square. It's what they had planned for you.'

Johnny was horrified, but also intrigued. 'I think,' he said slowly, 'that you'd better tell me everything.'

Magdalen was resigned; she was going to die. Her friends would not be able to help her without exposing themselves, even if her new friends had been able to find them, and that would not be easy. She had known, from the beginning, the risks of what she had taken on.

She was marched up the steps onto the platform by a surfeit of guards. So many were not necessary. It was a studied humiliation. She was a wild beast, they implied, a terrible danger to society. So would they have treated Johnny, had they had him in their power.

Johnny! At least she had saved him. She thought of him now as the rope went around her neck. He was unlike the other men she had known. She had never seen one so handsome for one thing, nor so gentle, and yet, paradoxically, he was a greater fighter, when roused, than any of the warlike men she had grown up with. His fighting skills had taken her by surprise because he had a tranquil demeanour and a mild expression that proclaimed no devil. For the first time it occurred to her to wonder where he had come from. He was like a hero from the olden days; no such men existed anymore, so she had thought. A golden man, so different from the dark, fierce men she knew. She had saved his life at the cost of her own, but she could not regret the bargain. She brought his face to the forefront of her mind and smiled, it was as if he was standing before her, his fair hair stirring gently in the breeze as he threw back his hood and mounted the platform beside her...

She became aware of the consternation of the crowd; they were shouting and gesticulating at the guards. Slowly she focused on the figure beside her, cutting her bonds. She saw him, through a sudden mist of tears, smiling down at her. A hero indeed. She felt suddenly weak with emotion. It was unbelievable, but it was true. He had come for her.

Johnny acted calmly, but he was aware of the need to hurry. He could only rely on the confusion of the guards at this unexpected and bold move for a few seconds. Then they would pull themselves together and charge the platform. Rapidly he cut her bonds and then, taking her by the shoulders, he confounded the guards again by leaping in the air and landing hard, toes pointed downward, on the trap door, which gave way. And Johnny and Magdalen vanished from view into the chamber below the gallows. Once more, the guards were taken off guard at this extraordinary manoeuvre.

This was the sign. Among the watching crowd, several hoods were thrown back, to reveal unmistakably masculine features, many heavily bearded

A shout went up from the crowd. The panicking women began running wildly in all directions, the men chasing them almost light-heartedly, just enough to cause the maximum of confusion.

'ARRRR!' growled one large jowled man, pirate style, at a young woman, who screamed and ran away. This seemed a good joke to the men, and soon the cry was taken up by them all, and the square was rapidly filled with the sounds of bellowing men and screaming women.

The guards were helpless to restore order. What had been a relatively peaceful public execution had, in the space of a few seconds, become a riot.

This was the diversion. Johnny hearing, almost immediately after he dropped, the sounds of panic and mayhem, burst out of the box, dragging the bewildered Magdalen after him. They crawled away unnoticed in the mêlée, until, after a few yards, Johnny jumped up and pulled Magdalen to her feet and they ran back to the road, the fields and the woods and freedom.

Johnny, without pausing, looked back briefly and raised an amused eyebrow at the receding sounds of pandemonium from the village. 'Sounds like they're having fun,' he commented.

The plan had been Johnny's, and he had been surprised how eager the men had been to carry it out, but now he thought he understood. They had been longing, it seemed, to have some fun. They were certainly going at it with a will.

They had not been hard to find in the end. Their encampment was only a few hundred metres into the woods. The villagers never went in there, for it was said that it was haunted, and any who went in never came out again. The man who had told Johnny and Jez this had done so with a certain twinkle in his eye that made Johnny wonder.

There were more of them than Johnny and Jez had expected, at least thirty men and some few women. This was what gave Johnny his idea. They decided to send twenty men to the village, and the rest would remain behind to pack up ready to leave. It was certain, said the leader, a man named Giacomo, that, superstition or not, after this, the women would scour the surrounding countryside for them.

There was feasting that night in honour of the safe return of their brave Magdalen and the courage of her new friends.

After travelling for most of the day, Johnny and Jez could not understand where they found the energy. They drank heavily and seemed none the worse for it; and then there was dancing around the campfire. Wild passionate gypsy dances that Johnny and Jez were not allowed to decline to join.

Magdalen danced with Johnny, and it seemed that she could not take her eyes off him. The dances were suggestive, and Magdalen's eyes were smouldering with fervour as she danced. There was much ribald speculation later when it was seen that Johnny and Magdalen had disappeared.

Jez was the subject of some speculative glances herself from several of the men, one dark and handsome young man in particular caught her attention, and she shrugged her shoulders and left with him. Ten years was a long time, she thought, and who knew when she might have another chance. But she was thinking about Johnny. Johnny was a romantic at heart, and she had not been unaware of the way he had looked at Magdalen, he was going to find it hard to leave her behind, thought Jez, and she was vaguely worried about that.

'You will be leaving soon?' Magdalen leaned up on one elbow and looked down at Johnny, who was lying on his back gazing at the stars.

'I must,' he said despondently. 'I don't really want to now, but I have to. I wish I could explain. I don't belong here'

'I want to go with you,' said Magdalen bluntly.

Johnny laughed ruefully. 'You have no idea what you're saying,' he told her.

'So – explain it to me.'

'You wouldn't believe it,' said Johnny with a sigh.

'I would,' she said. 'I know there's something strange about you already, and I don't believe you would lie to me. So tell me, let me judge for myself.'

Johnny hoisted himself up into a half sitting position and looked at her speculatively. 'Okay,' he shrugged 'Why not?'

'I'm from another world,' he began.

Magdalen nodded. 'I thought as much,' she told him to his boundless astonishment.

So Johnny explained. He told her about his dreams and how they had led him to make his program to reach SCI'ON and how, now he felt certain fears about his decision, the fear that he had been callously manipulated. 'And for what sinister reason?' he wondered.

She told him that she too had had dreams, incoherent dreams, about a traveller from another world; she had thought it meant an alien from another planet. She had not taken it seriously at first, but the dreams had persisted and finally claimed her attention. Now she believed she understood. She still wanted to go with him.

But Johnny was unsure. Wasn't it likely that she was also being manipulated? Perhaps she would be better off staying where she was. If he left without her, then the dreams, being of no more purpose, would certainly stop.

Didn't he believe in destiny? Of course he did, if he had not he would not have come here, wouldn't have left his home. There is no escape from your destiny, she believed.

But Johnny said. 'You make your own destiny, I made a mistake. You don't have to make the same mistake as me. My case should serve as a warning.'

'I see that you don't want me,' she replied sullenly.

In vain did Johnny protest. There was little chance of return, the journey was so long, the conditions so cramped, the dangers unknown. She was adamant; she wanted to go with him.

In the end, he gave in.

But he was reckoning without Jez.

## Chapter Twenty Two - Mac

'I'm too old for this lark,' thought Mac, baling hay furiously. Looking after Kai's farm had seemed like a good idea at the time, so many things do, but Mac was getting on for fifty five and had led a somewhat sedentary life up until now. He had not realised how much hard work would be involved, or he never would have done it.

It was true that he had long known that this day was coming and had realised that he would have to do his small part, but he had hoped that it would be sooner, while he was younger, or at least that he would have been better prepared than he was. The truth was, he admitted to himself ruefully, that he had put it out of his mind for long periods of time and had never got around to building up his fitness levels in readiness for this, as he had always intended.

'Much good if I have a bloody heart attack,' he muttered inconsequentially to the dog by his side. 'You're no bleedin' use either are you?' he added. 'Jumping around and making a mess and barking all the time. So much for man's best friend.'

He flung the fork into the haystack irritably and stalked back to the house. 'I've had enough for one day,' he told the dog. 'No wonder that Kai's stronger than he looks, doing this all the time. He deserves to look like the incredible hulk. Ought to have muscles on his muscles eh boy?' Mac had got into the habit of holding these one sided conversations with the dog; there was no one else to talk to after all.

'Come on boy,' he added. 'Let's go and have a nice cup of tea.'

At least, he mused to himself, the endless hours of grind helped him to keep his mind off worrying about Ryan and Kai. It was in the evenings, before he fell into an exhausted sleep, that he did that. Not that he blamed himself – for the most part. He knew that this had been inevitable; he just hoped that he had prepared them for the task ahead. Not that he was altogether clear about what that task was, but he had been aware that he had been sent to Ryan for a purpose ever since she had been introduced to him, a little girl of three years. Even then, she had been noticeably different from other children. She had looked at him through the eyes of a far older person. An old soul in a young body, it was a cliché, but it was true in her case. He had been in awe of her even then. Kai too was different, but not in the same way, and Mac had put it down to the fact that he was from an entirely different world from theirs. But now that he was here for the first time, he wondered. This world did not seem that different from his own, Ryan's own. The air was the same, the gravity, and the dust. He could have been on a farm in his own world for all the difference it made. Could growing up here really have made Kai so different from other boys? Mac did not think so, not anymore. Because Kai really was different, he was abnormally strong for one thing, Mac decided, rubbing his aching arms. And he had a ruthless side to nature that Mac often found disturbing and incongruous in someone who could also be so gentle. How could a person be ruthless without being at all cruel? That was the enigma of Kai.

And Kai had an otherworldliness about him that Mac could no longer ignore and put down to the fact that he _was_ from another world.

'I'm getting philosophical in my old age,' he told the dog.

'Oh, you're not that old,' said the dog. Only of course, it was not the dog, it was Kai. Still it gave Mac quite a funny turn, and he said so.

'What are you doing here?' asked Kai.

'Oh, just keeping an eye on things for you,' said Mac. 'Where's Ryan, she's all right, isn't she?' he added worriedly.

'She's outside with...' began Kai then faltered.

'With...?' prompted Mac.

'Some friends,' finished Kai. 'I'll go and get them. I only came in first to make sure there weren't any gypsies moved in or something, you know. I wasn't expecting _you_.' He turned to go back outside then suddenly turned back, laughing. 'I guess this explains the funny shaped haystacks we passed on our way in,' he said.

'It's art,' said Mac jovially, like those funny shaped hedges fancy gardens have, what's it called...?'

But Kai did not know. He was an expert on farming but landscape gardening was outside his jurisdiction.

Ryan squealed and threw herself at Mac in delight. 'What a lovely surprise,' she said. 'Oh I'm so glad to see you, what are you doing _here_?'

'Farming,' said Kai wryly and burst out laughing. However, there was no malice in it, and Mac took it calmly.

'At least you kept the beggars and gypsies out of here,' said Kai. 'That's a good thing.

'But how...?' began Ryan.

Kai turned to her. 'I guess we aren't the only ones who can travel between the worlds, after all,' he said.

They both looked at Mac who shrugged. 'I just followed the dog,' he said.

'Valentina would know,' said Ryan, and the subject was dropped for the time.

Now Mica, who had come in with Ryan and had been hanging back shyly, came forward to be introduced.

Mac looked at the ragged urchin in some surprise, here was another enigma, he decided. What was going on behind those shuttered eyes?

'This is Mica,' said Kai. 'I picked him up from some horse thieves.'

This was a strange way to be introduced, but Mica just grinned impishly and said. 'Iss, wicked men they was, iss.' And then pulled Ryan's hat down over his face bashfully and retreated behind Kai.

'You mustn't be shy of Mac,' said Ryan. 'He's okay, come on out of there.' And she tried to pull the hat off him. But Mica held on grimly and ran to a corner.

'You said _friends_ ,' observed Mac. 'Plural, are there any more?'

'Oh Cesare and Valentina are with the eagles,' said Ryan breezily. 'Gosh we've got such a lot to tell you.'

'So it would seem,' smiled Mac. 'Eagles?'

'Iss.' Mica spoke up again excitedly. 'We'm flew here, ina flyin' boat.'

'Flying boat?' asked Mac, perplexed.

'We'll tell you everything,' said Kai, 'just as soon as we've eaten, if that's okay?'

Valentina entered then and beckoned to Kai. 'You'll have to invite Cesare in,' she whispered to him. 'Otherwise he can't come in. He's rather embarrassed about it,' she added merrily.

'He can't?' asked Kai, 'why not?'

'Vampire lore,' said Valentina. 'Vampires aren't able to just enter a person's home without a proper invitation from the owner of the home, don't ask me why.'

'Oh, okay,' said Kai. He went to the door. 'Er, come in, Cesare,' he said to the discomfited vampire.

'What was that all about?' asked Mac tactlessly.

Kai shrugged and glided over the awkward moment by introducing Valentina and Cesare rather formally.

Mac narrowed his eyes. He did not miss much, but he said nothing.

'It's lucky you are here,' said Valentina to Mac, 'to look after Kai's home for him. It was very kind of you to do so.'

'Well,' said Mac. 'I'm glad he's back Miss, it's backbreaking work I can tell you.'

'But, he _isn't_ back,' said Valentina. 'At least... oh dear.' She looked at Kai. 'I'm sorry,' she said. 'Have I been rather indiscreet?'

'Don't worry about it,' said Kai. 'We'd have to have told him sometime.' He turned to Ryan who scowled.

'Oh, okay,' she snapped. ' _I'll_ tell him. Mac, we have to leave again in the morning.'

Mac looked downcast. 'I see,' he said dourly. Then he brightened up a little. 'Well, I suppose I should have realised really,' he said. 'It's never that simple is it?'

He got up and began bustling about with forced brightness. 'Suppose I fetch you some food, and you tell me all about it,' he said.

Kai and Ryan looked at each other in dismay. 'He's really upset,' whispered Ryan.

Kai shrugged. 'I know, but it can't be helped,' he replied. 'We'll talk to him later about Mica. That might cheer him up a bit.'

'Maybe.' Ryan looked doubtful. She did not think that they had particularly taken to one another for some reason. Kai, however, was blissfully unaware of this; he had never been particularly sensitive to people's moods.

Mac listened gravely to all they had to tell him, never interrupting once except to nod along and encourage the story when it faltered due to some defect of memory or the occasional argument about the sequence of events. When their account was over, he put some terse questions to fill in the gaps and even then he was certain that they had not told him everything – no, not by a long chalk. But he held his peace, as was his wont.

He never asked why Cesare ate nothing at the table, although he had his suspicions about this. And he wondered about but never questioned Mica's motives for leaving his family behind him – Mica's bruises having long since faded.

After dinner, Cesare and Valentina tactfully withdrew – and indeed, Cesare had his own reasons for wishing to take a moonlight sojourn – leaving Ryan and Kai to talk alone to Mac (Mica was packed off to bed to facilitate this).

It was Ryan who began it. 'We wondered if perhaps Mica might stay here with you,' she said uncertainly. 'Where we're going is certain to be dangerous, and he's only a child, we really don't feel justified in taking him with us.'

'But you felt justified in taking him from his family?' said Mac raising an eyebrow.

'That was his own choice,' said Kai.

'And so would this be,' pointed out Mac. 'I'll take him and gladly,' he continued. 'But I doubt he'll want to be left here with me. You might not find it so easy to leave him behind as you think.'

'Oh, we know he'll make trouble about it,' said Ryan. 'But it's for his own good. Kai only took him from his family because they beat him and made him steal you know.'

'Ah,' said Mac, comprehension dawning, 'I see.'

'Only you mustn't tell him we told you,' said Kai. 'He's terribly ashamed of it poor thing, as if he could help it!'

'I won't say a word, I promise,' agreed Mac, who understood this strange reticence on Mica's part better than Kai could, having been bullied mercilessly in the army by a particularly vicious sergeant and still could not bring himself talk about it.

On this head, he felt a certain amount of compassionate affinity with Mica, which softened his feeling toward the little boy quite considerably. He also shared with Mica a strong desire to accompany Ryan and Kai on their journey, but he knew that it was not his part to go with them, it never had been. Perhaps it was not Mica's either.

He offered to keep Mica with him on the farm, therefore, but conditional on Mica's acceptance of the situation. He would coerce no small boys against their will, he said, for fear of becoming as much an ogre as the boy's father had been.

The journey was, therefore, delayed a whole day while Mica predictably sulked and stormed by turns in an effort to reverse their decision in his favour. Mac kept himself aloof as he usually did in situations of this kind. But in the end, as evening drew on and the witch and the suspected vampire began to show signs of impatience and Ryan and Kai began to weary of Mica's tantrums, he unexpectedly took a hand.

'I won't deny,' he told Mica gravely, 'that I should be glad to have you here with me. You'd be a great help to me on the farm you know. And,' he added artfully, 'that would be a great help to Kai you know, for it's all for his sake that I stay here at all.'

Mica looked thoughtful at this. He looked at Kai for confirmation.

Kai nodded. 'It's true,' he said.

'Then whym didn' you _say_ so?' said Mica querulously.

Kai looked confused. 'Well...'

'I don' wan to stay,' said Mica biting his lip anxiously. 'But...' There was a long expectant pause. 'I reckon I will if'n it'ul help like.' He beamed suddenly. 'I like cows,' he said _apropos_ of nothing

'Oh you are a good boy,' cried Ryan in relief descending on the startled child and wrapping him in a big bear hug from which he immediately struggled to extricate himself. 'Gerroff,' he protested wriggling hard, and, finally escaping, ran red faced into the barn.

'Well,' said Mac. 'I'm glad that's finally settled. 'Although, truthfully, I'm not sure how much use he's really going to be to me, he's pretty wild I guess and kind of small. But at least he'll be company.'

'Don't underestimate him,' said Kai. 'He's pretty handy with the dogs and horses, and he can work hard when he's a mind to.'

Mac did not reply to this testimonial in words, but his expression said he would make up his own mind about it by experience.

'I guess you don't know how long you'll be away,' he suggested. 'Or even if you'll be back at all.'

'If we don't come back I reckon it won't matter anyway,' said Kai sombrely, referring to the fact that the conjectured mission was to prevent the end of the world.

'Aye,' said Mac laconically and turned back into the house without another word.

They set off within the hour, there being no more time to waste, and before the moon had fully risen they were in Ryan's world and preparing to turn back through the gateway but this time to go to a world God only knew where.

It was easier than Kai and Ryan had anticipated. They merely directed their thoughts away from the world that they expected to find through the gateway and found themselves in a familiar looking tunnel.

'It's like the tunnel in the mountain,' said Kai.

'That's because it _is_ the tunnel in the mountain, blockhead,' said Ryan. 'Pay attention can't you.'

'It's not what I expected,' said Valentina. 'It seems so... so...'

'Ordinary,' supplied Cesare.

'Exactly.'

'Stop jabbing,' said Kai. 'We need to concentrate. How do we find SCI'ON?'

'Just think of it,' said Valentina. 'Imagine it and expect to get there. It should be easy since you've already been there.'

'Easy for you to say,' muttered Kai.

Now whether it was because of various distractions or because of some malignant force working against them, or perhaps because, in their innermost hearts, neither Kai nor Ryan really _wanted_ to go back to SCI'ON they never found out. All that _was_ apparent was that when the tunnel finally burst into bright light, both Kai and Ryan knew immediately that the world they had entered was definitely _not_ SCI'ON.

## Chapter Twenty Three - Smells Like "Teen Spirit"

Jez was adamant when Johnny sounded her about Magdalen. She did not want her along. There was no room. It was dangerous enough for them, why should Magdalen be exposed to it needlessly? Why did she want to come anyway? It seemed a bit suspicious to Jez.

'Dreams?' she scoffed. 'Oh honestly Johnny, how can you be so naïve?'

'What do you mean by that?' he retorted, although he had a good idea where she was going with this.

'She made it up, obviously,' said Jez. 'But she doesn't know what she's trying to get herself into.'

_'I_ had dreams.'

'Yes, and you told her so. That's what gave her the idea – fool!'

'Why would she...?

'Because she doesn't understand, she doesn't realise what she'd be getting herself into. She just wants to be with you, which is very flattering I know, but... Well, she'd soon regret it – and so would you.'

'But I _told_ her...'

'And you think she understood it? Don't be an idiot Johnny.'

And finally, when all these arguments, which Johnny had already made to himself, failed, she announced categorically, that if Magdalen went, she would not. That clinched it.

She wondered if Johnny would ever forgive her, but she knew herself to be right about this.

In fact, Johnny was not as put out as he might have seemed to be. He himself had been unsure about the prospect of having Magdalen join them. Jez had not said so, but the prospect of having to watch – for there was no real privacy on board – the two lovers at all hours of the day was too much for her in her own lonely state. And Johnny too, although he would not own it, was apprehensive for much the same reason. At least, he was a little disturbed by Magdalen's cloying devotion, feeling that it might soon become too much to take in a space where there was nowhere to hide. But what really reconciled him was Jez's remark about her suspicions of Magdalen's motives. Johnny had learned never to lightly dismiss Jez's intuition about people.

They were back in the program within a few minutes of this discussion without even going back to say goodbye.

And although Johnny pretended not to speak to Jez for a few days he soon found that it was insupportable to have her always around and never to speak to her and decided to most magnanimously "forgive" her. All the while being certain that she knew very well what he was about and was laughing up her sleeve at him.

* * *

What with Johnny's new found propensity for interfering in what did not concern him Jez found herself feeling irremediably nervous at the approach of each new world. There was no telling what he might take it into his head to do next, and it seemed that no reproaches of Jez's pertaining to the injudiciousness of unwarranted interference – 'You can't just swan in and change things and then swan out again,' was how she put it to him – could affect him.

'How do you know you haven't made things worse?' she would ask him challengingly.

Johnny was apt to shrug off these allegations. 'I don't,' he said. 'We always help, don't we?'

'Don't you include _me_ in your God complex,' retorted Jez. 'Sure you help in the short term – _sometimes_. But how do you know what the long-term effects of your interference are. You aren't supposed to change the evolution of worlds, I'm sure. Don't they say that you can change the future in ways that you can't even imagine, just by stepping on an ant or something like that? And you are doing much more than that and not even by accident.'

'That's _time travel_ ,' scoffed Johnny. 'Which is impossible anyway, but you're talking about going to the _past_ and changing a future that's already happened, and you can't _do_ that.'

'How do you know?' argued Jez. 'You don't know everything you know, but all right then, what about all the trouble you keep getting _us_ into?

'What trouble?' asked Johnny ingenuously, though he knew quite well?

Jez could only splutter impotently at him in barely suppressed fury. ' _What_ trouble – what _trouble_? You – _you_... aaagh!' etc. That was the worst of living in such close quarters – there was nowhere to storm off to.

So, Jez was always relieved to come across a world that, while not perfect (a red flag in itself) seemed to be functioning normally – for a given value of normal anyway. They had got used to the idea that what was normal to them might not necessarily be normal to the inhabitants of other worlds, but that did not make it a bad thing. And even Johnny was inclined to live and let live so long as no one was obviously suffering.

This latest world was almost like a touch of home. There was the usual mixture of men women and children thronging the dull, ordinary streets. It was raining, and there was a canopy of umbrellas, mostly black with the odd brightly coloured or clear plastic-bubbled one to break the monotony. Telephone boxes and shop window displays, traffic lights and the distant outlines of tower blocks, multi storey car parks and bus stops. The only vaguely disturbing thing to be seen was a Bennetton advertisement blazoned above the ongoing traffic which gave Jez a bit of a start – it had been a while since she had seen one of these. Johnny laughed it off, saying they had surely seen worse since their travels began. Jez was not so sure; it was pretty horrible.

However, there seemed nothing sinister here. It was a facsimile of their own and several other worlds that they had recently seen, and there was nothing about it to raise their suspicions in any way. Johnny seemed disappointed, but Jez was relieved. This was the type of reconnaissance that she liked, in and out with no trouble.

'We're here for supplies,' she reminded Johnny, 'not to look for trouble. If you want to be James Bond, do it on your own time.'

The applied method for acquiring supplies on ordinary world like this one was simple. Like many other people without visible means, although it is doubtful that their excuse is as entertaining, they shoplifted.

Johnny, as befits a hero, was naturally unhappy about this method of procurement (although it has to be said he was a natural at it) but Jez had no such scruples and she took to it like a duck to water, as the saying goes. Or, as Johnny rather caustically put it. 'Like a three eyed fish to a sewage farm.'

'Okay, what do we need?' said Jez. 'Food – obviously, soap,' she checked off a mental "shopping" list, 'what else?'

'Underwear,' said Johnny emphatically. 'I don't know about yours, but mine's in rags.'

'I still don't get it,' said Jez. 'How can we need to wash and eat in a computer program? And how can our clothes wear out? It doesn't make sense.'

'I told you,' said Johnny impatiently. 'Our bodies and our clothes and everything we take back to the program with us, are converted into data, just like the ship and the console and everything in it. It's real to us, and we're real to the program. I don't want to have to go over this again, so just accept that we need to eat or else we'll die, and you go and do the supermarket, and I'll do the pharmacy. Get me some boxer shorts – medium and I'll get the toiletries.'

'No way,' said Jez. ' _I'll_ do the pharmacy, I don't trust you. Last time you got me the wrong shampoo and my hair has never forgiven me yet, it looks like a haystack. We aren't all blessed with perfect locks like you, you know, some of us have to work at it. Besides, I need tampons and why you should be embarrassed to _shoplift_ a packet of Tampax I'll never know, it's not as if anybody's going to see you do it, at least that's the idea, but I know you won't get me them.'

'Okay, okay,' sighed Johnny. 'You go to the pharmacy. But don't forget to get sun cream and insect repellent, just in case we end up on another tropical world. I don't want to go through that again.'

'Yeah, well, don't load up on ice cream again when you get the food. Get sensible food. Men never know how to food shop, why is that?

Johnny shrugged. 'Can I get some chocolate?' he asked.

'You'd better.'

The "shopping" went routinely enough, and they were going to hit a newsstand on their way back to stock up on magazines and that other essential to a dreary yet tense existence – cigarettes, when the fight broke out.

It involved almost everybody in the street although there were not many people left fortunately, and it began abruptly and without apparent cause, almost as if a silent alarm had been rung and everybody within range simply dropped what they were doing and hit the nearest person.

'What the fuck...?' wondered Johnny aloud and then ceased wondering, this being no time for analysis, and grabbed the stunned Jez and ran with her to the relative safety of an alleyway.

'Well,' said Johnny. 'That was weird.' He was almost rubbing his hands together in satisfaction. 'I think this needs looking into.'

'Or we could just mind our own business,' suggested Jez, but without much real hope.

Without even listening to her, Johnny left his sanctuary and waded into the fray, grabbing two combatants and pulling them apart. He then addressed them sternly. 'What the hell is this all about?' he demanded.

'He called me a minger,' was the unexpected answer, from a burly man of about forty and delivered in a whining sulky tone such as one usually associates with adolescents.

For a moment, Johnny was staggered. 'What?' he said incredulously.

'Yeah, well you _are_ a minger,' returned the other, 'and so's your fat sister.'

It was unfortunate that Johnny had dropped the man's arm in shock, because he was now free to avenge this double insult with a vicious blow to the head of his opponent, which was the signal for them to go at it again worse than before.

Johnny left them to it and moved into another group. Two women were fighting ferociously, and Johnny, without liking to interrupt them, having been brought up never to lay hands on women in anger, listened to their invective as they tussled.

'Bitch!' screamed one. That seemed appropriate enough.

'Cow!' was the response. Again, it was unpleasant, but not what he was listening out for.

'Yeah, well I'll tell Andy Cross that you stuff your bra.' Johnny raised his eyebrows.

'And I'll tell Craig Wood what you said about his mum.'

Johnny moved on. 'Curiouser and curiouser,' he muttered.

Further along, near to the car park was a gang beating up a man apparently just for the hell of it. Johnny would not stand still for this. They may have been acting like teenagers, but they were built like men, and there was a very real possibility of their beating this man to death if he did not interfere.

'What are you doing out here?' a man had come out of a doorway in the alleyway and addressed this question to the trembling Jez.

'It's not safe. You ought to be indoors by now.' And he attempted to pull her into the building.

'My friend...' she gasped. 'He's out there.'

The man frowned. 'Well, there's nothing you can do for him. He'll have to take his chances. More fool him for not getting under cover beforehand. And you too. Now you just come along with me until it's over. I won't offer again,' he added as Jez hesitated. Jez nodded dejectedly and followed the man into the corridor behind the door, which ended in some stairs leading up to a small bed-sit at the top.

Johnny meanwhile was engrossed in getting to the bottom of the fight he had broken up – there is little need to describe the details, Johnny's methods being pretty well understood by now. Suffice it to say that out of the six combatants, only two were still conscious, and one of these was the victim.

It is not an actual fact, although it is often alleged, that all bullies are cowards. Yet in this case there would seem to be some foundation to the rumour, at the very least the remaining conscious bully was showing definite symptoms of terror towards Johnny. But perhaps this is not to be wondered at, since Attila the Hun would probably have been apprehensive at the very least after witnessing Johnny's furious onslaught. He was watching him warily from under his lids as if he expected a renewal of hostilities at any moment.

The victim was bleeding heavily from a head wound and seemed almost insensible. Not much information would be got from him in his current condition so Johnny turned to the bully.

He opened with 'What the fuck is going on?'

The bully shook his head to indicate uncertainty. 'He started it,' he mumbled sulkily.

'I highly doubt that,' returned Johnny acidly, indicating the broken man lying on the pavement.

'Not _him_ ,' said the bully scornfully. 'Alex,' he pointed to the prostrate form of a large dark haired man with a heavy beard. 'Him.'

'Why?' asked Johnny? The bully shrugged. 'Dunno really,' he said. 'He just wanted to kick off I suppose. He's always like that. You can't look at him the wrong way without he gets the right hump and goes off on one.'

'So why did you join in?' asked Johnny severely.

'I didn't want to be next,' said the bully fervently.

Johnny nodded, 'I see,' he said. 'How old are you?' he asked curiously.

The bully looked surprised. 'Thirty two,' he answered raising his eyebrows, 'why?'

It was Johnny's turn to look surprised. It was not the answer he had been expecting. 'So you know how old you are?' he asked. 'You don't by any chance feel as if you might be, say – fifteen?'

The bully frowned. 'What made you say that?' he asked suspiciously.

'Never mind,' said Johnny. 'I'll get to the bottom of this somehow. Go on now, bugger off.'

The bully fled thankfully.

The streets were quieter now, and Johnny carried the injured man unhindered back to the alleyway where he had left Jez, passing a couple snogging in a shop doorway and navigating two men, one in his early sixties, if appearances were any judge, looting a computer software shop.

'Bizzaro world,' he muttered to himself.

The alley was ominously empty when he returned to it and he was immediately struck with remorse for leaving Jez alone. Not for long though.

Her head poked out of an upper window from where she had been watching for his return. 'Up here,' she hissed, signalling frantically. 'Come on.'

'I think he's pretty badly hurt,' said Johnny of the man lying on their host's battered sofa.

Their host sucked in his breath like a plumber delivering his verdict on your rotten pipes and said. 'He _seems_ normal enough.'

'What?' said Johnny, outraged.

'He means you,' explained Jez.

'Oh,' said Johnny. 'Well if he means I'm not acting like an out of control adolescent, then he's right.'

'What about him?' asked their host, indicating the patient.

'I'm not sure,' said Johnny. 'He was unconscious when I found him. This was very nearly the truth and, Johnny felt, enough of an explanation to be going on with. His travels had made him cautious about revealing too much about himself. The last time he had been witnessed fighting, he had been tranquillised by a phalanx of burly men and had woken up in an arena wearing a thong – less said...

'Well, he'll be all right when he wakes up anyway,' said their host who then introduced himself as Sam Brookes.

'Johnny Hammond,' said Johnny holding out a hand to be shaken. Sam looked perplexed for a moment and then his face cleared and he held out his hand too.

'Oh to be sure,' he said. 'You're in the habit of shaking hands, of course,' he said. 'I'm afraid I've almost forgotten what it is to be civilised.' And he sighed.

'Tea?' he added brightly, as if an uncommon idea had just occurred to him.

Johnny was about to decline when Jez struck in before him. 'Thank you, that would be very nice,' she said. And Sam bustled off to the kitchen.

'I know it'll probably be awful,' she said to Johnny. 'But you're the one who wants to pump him for information, aren't you?' She spread her hands. 'So...'

Johnny shrugged. 'I guess so,' he said indifferently – 'whatever.' And he threw himself onto the floor in an inelegant sprawl and put the TV on.

Jez narrowed her eyes at him but said nothing.

When Sam returned with three steaming mugs, Johnny took his with a grunt and then returned his gaze to the TV. Jez was becoming really alarmed now at this behaviour, and her consternation was increased when Johnny finally lit up a cigarette without the courtesy, which was usual with him, of asking for permission.

Sam, however, took no notice of Johnny at all and addressed his remarks solely to Jez from this point on.

'I guess you two aren't from around here,' he commented.

'Er no,' said Jez, somewhat distractedly. Johnny was flicking his ash into the sugar bowl and slurping his tea noisily.

'What the hell's the matter with you?' she demanded irritably.

'He's been affected,' said Sam calmly.

'What do you mean?'

'Well,' said Sam. 'Let me put it this way. How long have you known him?'

'All my life,' replied Jez wondering where this was going.

'And when was the last time you saw him act like this?' he indicated Johnny, who was now lying with his feet up the wall crunching a sugar lump.

Jez thought about it. 'Not since he was about fourteen and he was trying to wind up his mum.'

'Exactly,' said Sam.

'Exactly what?' said Jez exasperated.

'He's reverted back to his adolescence,' said Sam. ' _He_ worked it out I think – part of it anyway – before he was affected.'

'Oh god!' groaned Jez. 'Will he be all right?'

'No,' said Sam simply. 'There's no cure. But perhaps I'd better explain.

'This town is under a curse,' he began ominously enough. 'And it's spreading too.'

'It all began about thirteen years ago. An institute was set up to cater for troubled teens. Some of the citizens objected like busybodies always will I guess but mostly we didn't think anything of it. We thought they would be rehabilitated you know, have counselling sessions and so on. That's when we thought about it at all, which most people probably didn't most of the time, why would they? I had more reason to think about it than most I suppose, being chief of police at that time and being responsible for the young offenders as well as the old. Well our new policy was to send the young offenders to the institute to be retrained. I tell you, if I had known what was happening to those young folks in there, and without a trial too, I'd've cut off my right arm before I handed over a single one and that I swear before God. Though I'm not a religious man by nature.'

'What _were_ they doing?' gasped Jez.

'Well, I'll tell you,' resumed Sam. 'It came out that they – the "scientists" at the institute, believed that the problem with the young folks was just that, that they were young and nothing more and that they would be model citizens once they grew up – ha! Did you ever hear such a load of – ahem. Just as if there weren't plenty of old crooks about the place, and worse ones too. Well, I was saying, that's what they decided and they had the means to correct the fault of being too young too. Get this... an aging virus!

'Now as I understand it, the brain of a teenager is still like the brain of a child, yet trapped in the body of an adult. Their idea, and I don't say that I don't see the logic of it in a way, was to mature the brain to catch up with the body. Just by a few years like, in some cases, and they said that it worked too. Well, I don't know about that, but what I do know is that it wasn't permanent, the effects wore off and then on again. They said that it was because of the body's immune system trying to fight off the virus, but the virus must've fought back because it fell out this way. You see the thing about a virus, as I'm sure you know, is that it's catching. One person passes it on to another, and when one of the scientists, who was already an adult of course, happened to catch the virus from a teenage patient – or guinea pig as I call the poor things – it caused a very strange effect in his brain.'

'It made his brain regress back to adolescence,' supplied Jez.

'Right,' agreed Sam. 'It attacked the same part of the brain as it did in the kids but in a different way and like with the kids, the effects were intermittent. As the virus took hold, the man became more childish and then as the antibodies fought back he became more like himself again until eventually the virus won and the man was permanently brain damaged and had to be locked up for his own sake.

'Now, of course, we didn't know any of this at the time. I'm giving you all the facts as they are now known to us, but it all came out very slowly over time of course since the institute did it's damndest to cover all this up for a long time.'

'I think I can guess the rest,' said Jez. 'The scientist escaped...'

'No-o, he didn't exactly escape,' corrected Sam. 'You see at first, they didn't realise that he was infected, or what that meant. He just went home at the weekend and infected his wife, and he went shopping and out and about, infecting people as he went you see. By the time the people at the institute realised he was infected and saw what it had done to him, and decided to quarantine him, it was already too late.'

'But what about the kids?' asked Jez. 'Did they mean to quarantine them for the rest of their lives?'

'No, no, not at all. You see, the idea was that once the virus had done its work and left the body, the brain would be altered permanently, as a result. And as I said, sadly that is only too true.'

'Oh yes, of course, I forgot that,' said Jez.

'Anyway, more and more people are affected every day,' continued Sam. 'Those who are, are taken away to the institute and isolated while the disease runs its course and then they can go back to their families or into a mental facility if their families don't want them. What you saw today was our method of exposing those who have been affected by the virus. Every day at the same time an accelerant is released into the air, this acts on the affected population and precipitates an exaggerated episode. An unfortunate side effect, because what it is meant to do is knock them out, which it does eventually – if you go outside now, you will see institute workers collecting the unconscious bodies of the infected – but in the meantime, anyone not affected, must run for cover.

'It's not a perfect system of course. People get missed all the time, particularly if they live alone and don't go out much. You can't search every house and flat in the city, but it's better than nothing.'

Jez was appalled by the callous manner in which he said this. 'Aren't they working on a cure?' she asked.

'Of course they are,' said Sam. 'But there isn't much hope.'

'Why isn't Johnny unconscious?' Johnny was now heard loudly rummaging through the fridge in search of who knows what.

'He wasn't infected when the accelerant was released. It must have happened afterwards. He'll be himself again shortly – for a while anyway.'

'Why aren't I affected, or you? We've both been with Johnny since he came back.'

'Some people are naturally immune it seems. I know I am. It appears that you are too.'

Jez spent a few moments assimilating all the information she had received from Sam then she floored him with a standard lamp.

'You're not carting Johnny off to a mental hospital anyway,' she muttered to the prone form on the floor.

'What did you do that for?' said Johnny coming back into the room. 'Er, by the way,' he added without waiting for an answer. 'Have I been making an idiot of myself by any chance?'

'No more than usual,' said Jez dryly. 'Okay, we have to get out of here, before he wakes up – no don't argue, I'll explain on the way.'

'What about him?' Johnny pointed to the injured man he had brought in from the street.'

'What about him?' said Jez. 'He's dead already anyway.'

'Where are we going?' said Johnny as they hurried through the eerily silent streets. He was not happy in his new role of being in the dark about what was going on and Jez's determined and urgent manner was unnerving him.

'To the institute,' she replied tersely. 'And you have my full permission to beat the living daylights out of anyone there who says the words: "there's nothing I can do" Okay?'

'Okay,' said Johnny uncertainly. 'Am I sick?'

'Yes.'

'Am I going to start making fart jokes and eating straight out of the can?' he added astutely.

'Almost certainly.'

'And do I take it that there is no cure for this behaviour?'

'There had better be,' said Jez grimly, 'because I'm not being your damn mother, even part time.'

'What's the outcome?' asked Johnny quietly.

Jez skidded to a halt. She took a deep breath. 'It doesn't matter,' she said, 'because it won't come to that.'

'To what, Jez?' said Johnny softly? 'It won't come to what?'

'Permanent brain damage,' said Jez with anguish in her eyes.

'I see,' said Johnny calmly. 'Well, let's get going then.'

It proved unnecessary to beat anyone up. The scientists were eager to try out a new experiment on anyone who was willing to risk it, which no one was because it involved certain death – but only for ten minutes, the length of time it takes to starve the brain of oxygen and, simultaneously, the virus.

Johnny said he'd rather be dead than fourteen again, an attitude that many of us can probably understand in the abstract, but one that the institute scientists had not found to be prevalent in the general population.

But Johnny, unlike most people, risked his life on a semi regular basis these days so death held less terror for him than for most people.

'Johnny.'

'Johnny.'

'Johnny.'

'Jo-ohnneee.'

'Johnny.'

'Oh Johnny, ha ha ha ha ha.'

'Oooh, Johnny, where are y o u-oo?'

'What?'

'Johnny, Johnny, listen to me Johnny, we haven't much time.'

'Who are you?'

'The question is – who are you?'

'I don't understand.'

'Then listen carefully.'

'Am I dying?'

'You will never die. We will never die.'

'Johnny.'

'Johnny.'

'Oh, Johnny – isn't he pretty girls, such a handsome boy. Take him home to meet mother.'

'Sssh, you're scaring him.'

'How many of you are there?'

'Many.'

'What are you doing in my head?'

'Foolish questions, no time for that. Listen!'

'Ryan?'
'Ryan?'

'Who's Ryan?'

Johnny opened his eyes and saw Jez gazing down at him, her face full of concern. 'Who's Ryan?' she asked again.

Johnny blinked. 'Dunno,' he said confusedly. 'I never heard of him.'

'You were asking for him.'

Johnny ignored this; he caught sight of the doctor/scientist and turned his head with a groan. 'What's the verdict doc?' he asked with false breeziness. 'Did it work?'

'Scans are clear,' replied the doctor irritatingly.

'And...' prompted Johnny.

'No signs of permanent brain damage.' He stopped again. It was like drawing blood from a stone. Johnny sighed. 'And the virus, is it gone?'

'Oh, sorry,' the doctor apologised. 'I was a little distracted. 'Yes, the virus is gone, starved out as we hoped. But...'

'But what?' Johnny prodded. This was agonizing.

'Your readings are a little strange, it's almost as if...' He broke off again biting his lip.

'I'll punch him, shall I?' offered Jez.

'Readings would seem to indicate brain activity even when you were technically brain dead,' said the doctor in a perplexed tone. 'It must be a mistake – instrument error.' He shook his head. 'And yet there are indications that the virus was being killed off even before we got to you. It could just be the natural result of the antibodies fighting back as they always do – the seesaw effect we call it, but it's more like...'

'Like?'

The doctor looked straight at Johnny now. 'Like your brain – or at least the relevant area of your brain – had already died off, taking the virus with it, and regenerated itself before you even stopped breathing.' He shook his head again. 'But that's impossible,' he finished, but he was still looking suspiciously at Johnny.

Johnny had a vision of the future. It included himself sitting in a metal chair with electrodes wired to his head feeding information into various machines while clucking scientists analysed the data and talked about him as if he were not present.

He looked at Jez and saw that she saw what he saw.

'Okay, you can punch him now,' he said.

'Okay,' said Jez tersely. 'Spill.'

'Huh?'

They were back on their way, having met no obstacles to escape more daunting than a fat guard outside Johnny's room who had not even attempted to arrest their flight. They were heading down the wrong corridor anyway, the guard had thought (unaware that they were only looking for an unoccupied lavatory in which to activate the deconstructor) let someone else deal with them.

'I said _spill it_ Johnny. What the hell is going on with you?' She fixed his uncomprehending face with a glare. 'You have to my certain knowledge now died – actually _died_ , at least twice, possibly three times since we started this fiasco, and yet you look pretty healthy to me –better than I feel anyway. You can reach through wormholes in time with your mind or some such thing...'

'That's not exactly...'

'Whatever it was,' said Jez dismissively. 'It's not exactly normal, is it?' Without waiting for an answer she bored on. 'You apparently have dreams when you're technically brain dead ...'

'Other people...'

'And now you're having psychic visions.'

'It was just a...'

'Who's Ryan?'

'I don't...'

'I think you _do_ know Johnny.' Jez crumpled suddenly. 'Johnny, what the hell is happening to you? Who _are_ you?' _What_ are you?'

Johnny wheeled round, startled. 'What?'

'Yes. _What_?'

'I don't know,' Johnny confessed miserably.

## Chapter Twenty Four - Utopia

Jez was once more engulfed in her loneliness. She had been right; Johnny was as far from her as ever. His dreams had returned, more violent than ever it seemed, but he would not – or could not? – confide in her. And now Jez was not even certain that she wanted him to. What might he reveal about himself that she would find impossible to accept or even understand. They were estranged as neither of them had ever thought to be.

Johnny himself had been telling no lie when he asserted that he did not know what was happening to him. And yet, he was unafraid of it whatever it was. He was calm, sure that one day all would be explained, certain now of his destiny. All he had to do was reach SCI'ON – it was beginning to take on the aspect in his mind of the Promised Land. Once there, there would be no more misunderstanding, no more uncertainty and Jez too, would understand and return to him from beneath that careful patina of distant civility that she was maintaining towards him currently. He was serene.

And so, Johnny and Jez travelled on; visiting several worlds, some commonplace enough and others perhaps less so, although not to the inhabitants of these worlds naturally. They saw some "magic" worlds, inhabited by witches and vampires and other storybook characters (at least to them) and learned to accept the impossible. Jez even finally saw a dragon and was not terribly surprised by it when she did. They noticed that the magic worlds had little or no science, and the scientific worlds had no magic – for some reason a sharp dividing line had been drawn between these types of worlds and never the twain should meet. Johnny found this fascinating, but inexplicable. Jez found that she no longer cared at all. Even about the fact that there were vampires, although she did think it explained a lot about Bellême.

As time went on, Jez thawed somewhat toward Johnny; it was impossible to live in such close quarters and sustain her barriers. Intolerable might be a better description, and gradually they slipped back into a semblance of their old relationship, but it was only skin-deep. Underneath, Jez drew an impenetrable shroud around her shivering soul and from deep within herself, she watched him in mounting apprehension.

Johnny's ever-growing propensity for meddling in what did not concern him got them into a number of scrapes, some comical and some rather more hazardous. And as they travelled they learned not only a great deal about each other, but also that the variety of conditions to be found among the human race was far more diverse than they had ever imagined.

They had passed several years now in this manner and were, in many respects, very different people from the two light hearted teenagers who had set out.

Jez had long since cut off her long flowing hair and wore a rather severe crop which she said was more practical, but which she really favoured – and Johnny suspected this – because she thought it made her look like Sigourney Weaver.

At first glance, Johnny looked exactly the same as he always had, perhaps a little older if one were to look closely and a little heavier about the shoulders. But looking closer still, it was possible to see that he had lost his carefree demeanour, he smiled less, and when he did smile, it was with a mocking, sardonic air that was never absent from his eyes even in repose. Johnny had become disenchanted with this life and that, perhaps, is not to be wondered at. This is no way to spend the years between boyhood and manhood, and Johnny was now no longer a boy.

If Johnny was no longer, a boy then it follows that Jez was no longer a girl. And in the last few years, she had become hard and flinty. For her too, the wonder of visiting strange worlds had worn off long ago. And now each world they stopped at was no more to her than a port to put in to for provisions and a possible danger to be considered and prepared for. Mere signposts on their journey to their ultimate goal, which neither of them wanted to reach. The enchantment was gone.

It was rather like being put to sleep for a hundred years; a simile suggested to Johnny by Jez's stated opinion that he should have arranged stasis pods in the ship so that they could spend the bulk of the journey in suspended animation and thus make the journey go faster. Johnny thought that, although they were technically awake, the journey was rather like that anyway. Like a long unending dream. Put away from the world, in a state of grace, only to be awakened by the realisation of something only distantly seen and little understood. Jez said it was more like being buried alive, and Johnny had to admit that she had something there, although it was a less poetical way of looking at it.

And would they find the fairy tale ending suggested by Johnny's simile?

On a more practical level, Johnny's simile was appropriate, in that they did indeed spend many hours in between stops just sleeping for hours on end and in-between times were spent for the most part in heavy silence. Johnny and Jez rarely talked to each other anymore as becomes two people who have long ago said everything that needs saying to each other, and more besides, many times over. And who also, have become over the years of confinement to each other's company and reliance on each other, in such perfect concurrence that they are more like the two halves of one person than two separate individuals. Words were no longer necessary.

They were coming up on another stop, and Jez was silently packing weapons – picked up on various sojourns and designated "necessities" by her. After the "Red Planet" Johnny had no argument to make about this in principle, but he still refused to carry so much as a penknife himself.

'If my own hands aren't strong enough to protect my sorry carcase,' he said. 'Then it isn't worth protecting.'

Jez pulled on a cap over her cropped head and did not answer him. This point had been canvassed a hundred times between them and anything that either of them could say on the subject was so well known to them both as to be not worth saying again.

She glanced at the counter on the console. 'Five minutes to ETA,' she announced. 'Get the deconstructor ready.' Even this simple statement was unnecessary between them, as they had done this so many times before. But people must speak sometimes and, in this case, Johnny had to smother a smile, because it was Jez's hitherto unsuspected love of formal military jargon that had prompted this speech.

He saluted mockingly 'Yessir!' he wisecracked, and Jez gave him a wry smile.

'Okay, okay,' she sighed.

'Come on woman,' he said. 'Get your muscles polished and ready for action.'

Jez flexed at him, laughing. 'Done it,' she told him. 'Have you been to the bathroom?'

'Yes mum.'

There being nothing else left to say they waited in silence for the ship to stop.

When it did, Jez sighed. 'Here we go again.'

This world was lovely, a veritable paradise – on the surface anyway. But Johnny and Jez were too well travelled, by now, to be impressed by mere appearances. The _neatest_ world they had yet seen, for instance, had turned out to be ruled by Nazi's.

But this place, although neat and tidy, was not run on the same severe and, it has to be said, somewhat sinister lines of that one. The prospect that met their eyes was a jumble of cultures and ethnicities that yet blended together beautifully in a glorious harmony. The homes were all beautiful in their own way and the streets clean and neat. The gardens were not attached to the homes, but rather seemed to be of a communal nature with several centred in each small community and these were also beautiful and well tended, with fountains and tall trees and small temples adorning each.

And there were also some "public" gardens or parks, and it was in one of these that Johnny and Jez stood, and these too were beautiful and featured fountains, statues, and seating areas, which were being used by many mixed groups of people, evidently from different communities. These people sat picnicking, mostly around the trees or around the fountains, all were relaxed and contented, and the overall impression, in this dreamy setting, was that it was some far distant feast of the gods. It was a picture of Utopia.

A great many of these people were accompanied by animals or birds, some of which were of a rather wild and savage looking nature. Many of them, in fact, would have looked more at home in the wild or at least a zoo or nature reserve. At least so, it seemed to Johnny and Jez's domesticated eyes, for there were wolves and eagles, big cats and marine mammals like seals and even a penguin. Johnny even spotted one small boy strolling along accompanied by a large polar bear. Nor was this the only bear to be seen. Not all the animals were of this nature, though; there was a plentiful supply of cats, dogs and smaller birds and so on, which might have been taken for ordinary domestic pets had it not been for their behaviour. All the animals behaved as if they were quite used to each other and even friendly with each other as they wandered about, if it's not too strange a word. But it really seemed as if they were – _hobnobbing_ with each other. It was the most curious sight Johnny and Jez had ever seen and, by this time, that was saying something.

Not all the people, they noticed, were accompanied by animals, although it took a while to work this out due to the animals constant meandering.

But once they had taken this fact in, an even stranger thing became apparent. The people without animals had even more extraordinary attendants. These were in the form of shadowy human figures; most of whom stood behind the people silently but sometimes talked together or joined in the general conversation, and it was observing this behaviour that led to the strangest discovery of them all. The animals were doing the same thing.

It was Jez (naturally) who first observed this phenomenon and Johnny initially refused to believe it, and it was an altogether remarkable turn to events that finally convinced him that she was right.

They had been watching this sylvan scene from the relative security of a small hillock surrounded on three sides by trees, which lay somewhat conveniently at the edge of the park, for some ten minutes in wondering silence, broken only by the above mentioned disagreement.

Jez was not sure how long it was before she realized that something was gently nuzzling the back of her knee, but when she finally registered it she quite naturally turned round to see what was so patiently and yet persistently trying to get her attention. It was a puma. The only thing strange about this was that she was not really surprised.

Johnny was! He had turned round too, at Jez's sudden movement, and when he saw the puma, he let out a yell of shock.

'Shut up!' hissed Jez. 'It's only...' Then she stopped, puzzled and – most extraordinary – addressed the puma in quite ordinary tones.

'I'm sorry,' she said. 'I don't know your name, 'though I feel as if I should.'

'Kemaro,' said the puma. 'And you have known me all your life, although you have never seen me before. And a great wonder it is to me that you should see me now, and a great joy, for I have seen you every day of my life.'

Jez thought for a moment and then pointed to the scene before them, with the wandering animals. Kemaro nodded, a strange sight to see a jungle cat make such a human gesture, but perhaps not as strange, as it was to hear him talk.

'I see,' he said.

'But who are you?' said Johnny, recovering his voice, if not quite his equanimity.

'A guide,' said Kemaro, 'and a guardian. Known, until this day, only as an inner voice and a silent protection. Truly this is a wonderful world we have found.'

'What do you mean?' asked Johnny.

'Oh Johnny,' said Jez, exasperated. 'Isn't it obvious? Somehow, in this world, our sprit guides and guardian angels,' she gestured to the shadowy human forms in the park, 'are ... are ... visible to us. I think it's wonderful. Like finding an old friend.'

Johnny digested this and then said hesitatingly. 'So, doesn't everybody have one?'

'Everybody,' said Kemaro, and Johnny could have sworn he was trying not to laugh.

'I don't seem to have one,' said Johnny a little sulkily.

Now Jez did laugh as she pointed behind Johnny and said. 'Who's that then?'

Johnny whirled round and there indeed stood the silent figure of a young woman, dressed as if for battle, yet smiling benignly at him.

'Typical Johnny,' said Jez and Kemaro together.

'It's just what I would have expected of him,' added Jez.

'If I did not speak sooner,' said the angel, answering his thought rather than his spoken words. 'It was because you were not ready to hear me.

Johnny could not deny it.

'My name is Varis,' she told him. 'And I have been watching over you all of your life.'

'Why?' said Johnny rudely, and somewhat pointlessly, since he knew very well.

'It was my duty and my pleasure,' answered Varis. 'I am part of you – since the day you were born.'

It is not to be supposed that the populace had not perceived the visitors during all this time. Indeed, they had been the object of many interested glances from the picnicking hordes. But whether from a sense of delicacy or from uneasiness, no one had yet approached them despite the fact that they were comparatively strange looking to these people. It was unlikely that, in such a largely populated area, the citizens would expect to know all of their neighbours by sight. (Do you?) But it can be reasonably assumed that no one had ever seen such a sight as Jez and Johnny presented among so many beautifully presented people, with their battle stained attire and grim countenances. To sum up, they were recognized as certain aliens to the area and avoided as such.

Their guardians too, at least Johnny's, were cause for comment also.

Kemaro caused little comment, being an ordinary spirit guide, and telling the onlookers nothing more than that Jez was a hunter by nature, a loner by choice, intuitive and also somewhat lazy when she got the chance. More could only be learned by intercourse between Kemaro and the other guardians. But a puma was an unusual guide and little seen, although other big cats were common enough among certain types of people. But Varis was altogether of a very different kind to the other angels that were known among these people, being of a warrior cast. Dressed for battle in feathered helmet and silver breastplate over her white robes and with a long sword hanging loosely, as if ready to be drawn swiftly, from a girdle around her waist. To the eyes of one from our world, her costume brought to mind to the dress we are used to associate with the goddess Athene.

All of this they found out later, at this moment they were only conscious of being observed by curious eyes and of looking distinctly out of place.

However, if these people were shy of intruding on their visitors, the same cannot be said of the visitors themselves. For the first time in a long time, Johnny and Jez found their curiosity raised about a new world and were determined to go among these people and introduce themselves, some natural nervousness notwithstanding.

Although it was far too late for such idle preparations, the first impression on their hosts having already been secured, they both tried to tidy themselves up a bit before descending from their vantage point into the crowd. Jez whipped off her cap and brushed a hand over her bristly head, to no purpose whatsoever it has to be said. Johnny took off his stained jacket to reveal a stained T-shirt underneath. And while Johnny wished he had shaved, Jez rather wished – in reference to her head – that she had not.

When it became apparent to the people in the park that they were being approached, the nearest group stood up to greet them, and a gracious woman came forward and bowed.

'I am Ella,' she said. 'We are most glad to welcome you.'

Johnny noticed her guide (a black Marmoset) sprang forward to greet Kemaro, but the woman made no effort to introduce him to the human visitors. He was later to learn that etiquette forbade this, as the guides introduced themselves to new people only when and if they chose to, and only after they had become familiar with a person's guide. But he did not know this at the moment, and it seemed strangely rude. However, he sensed that Varis did not wish to be introduced to Ella by him so he avoided that particular _faux pas_ , as it were, by default, as he introduced himself and Jez, apologising for their untoward appearance.

Jez, meanwhile, was having a strange experience. When the monkey began to talk to Kemaro, she found that Ella's heart became more open to her. She knew that Ella was nervous, for example and that she was slightly displeased that her companions had pushed her forward to greet them, having no courage for the task themselves. That she thought Johnny very attractive, if in need of a good bath, and Jez herself very intimidating indeed. She also became aware that Ella was learning about her feelings too and was becoming less anxious about her the more she learned. Jez realised that this then was a world where subterfuge and deceit were practically impossible. There was nowhere to hide and this idea made her a little uncomfortable, and she realised too, that Ella was now aware of that too. She found herself hanging her head self-consciously as if she had been caught doing something wrong and she was slightly angry with Kemaro for exposing her like this. And yet, the next moment, she understood that Kemaro would never reveal anything that Jez would not like him too, nor would he open her heart to anyone, without her consent. Clearly then, Jez had wanted this woman to know her and understand her feelings and be comfortable in her presence, and this made sense when you came to think about it, for it made the first meeting between strangers much easier. It was also flattering to realise that the monkey had made the first move toward Kemaro, and had opened Ella's heart to her immediately and without reserve. Jez now pondered on this phenomenon for a moment and thought she finally understood how, even in our world where our guides reside only in our inner consciousness; people can meet and become friends almost before a word has been spoken between them. Jez raised her head and gave Ella a shy smile. Then suddenly it occurred to her how odd it was that she had accepted this all so quickly and easily, and she laughed out loud causing Johnny to look askance at her. But Ella laughed too, in quick understanding and Johnny felt discomfited feeling that he must somehow be the object of the joke. For Varis, true to Johnny's reserved and introverted nature – however open he might appear – had stood aloof all this time, and he had no idea of the understanding that was passing between other people in his very presence.

Jez realised this and decided to test her power by sending Kemaro to Varis in order to enlighten Johnny.

Ella nodded approvingly. 'Understanding is all,' she said.

And in only a few moments, Johnny's face was a study in bewilderment and wonder. A few moments more and he laughed too.

But still Varis would not suffer the approach of any guide other than Kemaro and Jez thought this a great pity, but understood it and would have understood it without Kemaro's aid. For she had known Johnny a long time and knew that he had a secret and self contained nature, that he hid from the world under a cloak of easy affability and that few could penetrate.

However, due to the interpretation made through Kemaro, from Jez, no one took Varis's behaviour ill. As Ella explained to Jez later, it was nobody's business to force disclosures from anybody unwilling to make them.

For now, she contented herself, having opened her heart, to opening her home to Jez and her taciturn friend as she called Johnny.

'You both need a bath and a change of clothes,' she observed. 'And I guess some food would be appreciated too, would it?'

To this both Johnny and Jez agreed with alacrity.

Ella was married with four children and was regarded as something of a matriarch to the community besides. This explained, as far as Jez was concerned anyway, why the other people in the park had looked to her to greet the strangers. A duty, which she had taken on unwillingly at first, but Ella was a natural leader, and in a civilization where there are few hearts closed, most people found their niche in society easily and naturally with little or no opposition from others. This was one thing that Johnny and Jez learned. They also found that here, there was a peace not to be found in other worlds.

Many different cultures and philosophies lived together in harmony within the city limits and beyond. For the most part, they lived in divided communities and met only on common ground, such as the parks, shopping malls and open countryside of which there was a vast tract outside the city. Yet, there was no sign that the cultural differences caused any hostility between the communities and the idea of racial tensions seemed utterly unknown.

The communities themselves welcomed visitors from other cultures, and Johnny and Jez visited friends of Ella's family in many different neighbourhoods.

Nor was there any unrest or lack of co-operation within the communities themselves, on the contrary, they all seemed remarkably tightly knit and yet not insular or xenophobic. An apparent contradiction in terms to someone from a world like ours.

It was this spirit of co-operation that made the streets and houses, and the gardens and parks so beautiful and well tended, for almost everyone likes to live in attractive surroundings if they can.

And this spirit of co-operation extended further still. No one was left in want; each member of a community was taken care of by his neighbour. There was no poverty or neglect to be seen. Johnny and Jez never saw a single homeless person or a single shoddy home or neglected child. The beauty and gaiety of these little neighbourhoods was unbelievable to their jaded eyes.

At first, perhaps not unnaturally, Johnny and Jez were disposed to distrust the apparently utopian conditions that met them everywhere they went. And for many days were consciously looking for the dark side that they were conditioned to expect. The race of slaves, for example, that were hidden from public view that kept the civilisation ticking over or the secret government that dealt out hideous death and punishment behind the scenes. Perhaps some cruel rule that citizens who defied the norm were banished to some barbarous location outside the city walls, where savages roamed alongside wild animals. And even after they were persuaded that all this was the most unlikely and sensational nonsense, still, subconsciously, they were alert for a more subtle form of oppression that tyrannized over these happy people.

Johnny even theorized that they were slaves themselves and just did not know it, to which Jez replied. 'Well, if they are and they don't know it, but they're happy enough, who's to argue with that?'

But Johnny was going to argue with it if he could. After all, there was such a thing as "too perfect" and it is not in human nature to accept contentment without question. And it was not in Johnny's nature to sit back and accept things without wanting to find something to improve. But he had to admit, in the end, that there were no grounds for this suspicion any more than any of the other wild theories that had passed through his mind.

And truthfully, although this world was peaceful and everyone got along well for the most part, it was far from being perfect after all as they found out. There was illness and death, just as there is everywhere. They witnessed bereavement and even a funeral. The children misbehaved and were punished although not cruelly. People even fell out occasionally and divorce, although rare, was not unknown, for people's hearts can change even if they cannot be concealed.

Ella was of course, fully aware of their qualms. How could she be otherwise when Kemaro, as Jez's wiser, more trusting self (it is no doubt what people mean when they say "I knew it in my heart") judged it right to open her mind on these matters. But they did not offend her; rather she felt a great pity for them. What kind of world had these unfortunate travellers come from to regard this poor, imperfect world as they did, with suspicion and fear that it was too good to be true?

They had already stayed longer in this world than they had intended to, longer than they had ever stayed anywhere else – at least a month had gone by, when Ella judged that the time was ripe to sweep away their mistrust and help them understand the world they had come into.

In fact, it had taken her this long to fully recognise the reasons for their feelings and lack of comprehension and to realize that their understanding was very different from her own. This was the only world she had ever known of course, and she had never before consciously tried to explain or understand it nor compare it with a different way of life. But now she thought she understood, as never before, how her own world worked the way it did.

'I think it is because of the guardians,' she said. 'Our guardians are free to communicate with each other and so our hearts are open. How many misunderstandings must occur in worlds where this is not so? And how many small disagreements must develop into larger issues, where pride interferes and the heart is closed? Have you never fought with someone and wished in your heart to be friends again but not had the words to explain or the humility to wish to? How easy then, to go from this to enmity and from enmity to warfare, if all peoples are thus estranged from each other's hearts. This cannot happen here. Even people who are not friends together, as must happen sometimes, at least understand each other, and understanding makes respect if not liking, for you cannot like someone whose heart is not in tune with your own, but you can forgive them for it, if they mean no harm to you by it. And it is on this understanding that our society has been founded from the first. I never heard of a time when the guardians were only inner voices and not outer manifestations as you tell me they are in other worlds, which is a thing that I cannot comprehend at all. This is, I think the answer to the secret that you have been pondering since you arrived here and no devilish subterfuge is behind. Indeed,' and here she laughed a little, 'it is the very opposite case when you come to examine it.'

And now Johnny and Jez realised that it was time to leave this world and go on with their journey, this very revelation and the understanding that came from it, was all that they had been waiting for, although they had not known it before. But they did not want to leave. Who would want to leave paradise? Particularly a paradise without hidden clauses – as this one had now proved to be.

Johnny particularly, shrank from the journey ahead with all its possible hazards and certain complications.

In the end, it was Ella who told them that they must go on.

'You should listen to your hearts,' she said. 'They know what you have to do, they are telling you all the time, and you are not listening. But in the end, if you do not listen to your hearts, they will shrivel inside you and you will despise yourselves and have no peace from your inner selves and the reproaches they will heap upon you. Can you stand all this?'

And it was true, Kemaro and Varis had been sulky and strange lately, and Johnny and Jez knew why, but had not wanted to admit it.

'I suppose we must go,' said Jez. 'But it's so hard to leave.' She turned to Kemaro. 'If only I could have you with me as you are now, to see you and talk to you as I can here, it wouldn't be so bad.'

At this Kemaro came and rubbed himself along her legs as cats are wont to do when they wish to show affection and he said: 'But, dearest, now that you have found me, do you think that you could ever lose me again? I shall always be with you, just as I am now, whenever you want me. Now that you have seen me with your eyes and heard me speak, you will always know how to find me again and see me whenever you want to.'

And Jez and Johnny then realized that it was not the world that they had not wanted to leave, but rather the guardians that they had found, that they did not want to lose.

'Then I guess I'm ready to go,' said Jez simply.

Johnny nodded. 'Next stop – SCI'ON,' he said. And Jez felt herself go cold all over.

## Chapter Twenty Five – Back To (Virtual) Reality

The world that Kai and Ryan had entered with Valentina and Cesare close behind them would have been recognised immediately by Johnny and Jez as their own world. The building they were in would have been recognized also as the same virtual reality games arcade where their own adventures had begun.

But, not having the advantage of another person's memories, the place they had entered was, to them, utterly mysterious and rather frightening.

'What kind of a place is this?' wondered Ryan trying to keep a tremor out of her voice. Kai shook his head bewilderedly. The noise was incredible, the flashing lights terrifying and blinding and the sinister man now coming towards them unnerving, to say the least.

'Well, well, well,' he purred in vast amusement. 'What a nice little catch I seem to have made for myself. And to what do I owe the honour of your company?' He turned a sneering glance on Ryan.

'Bellême!' said Cesare warningly.

I'll get to you presently,' Bellême told him. 'I never could abide a traitor. As for this one,' he smiled at Ryan. 'She knows me well enough I believe.'

'Well met Talvas,' said Ryan in her own voice but it was not her usual manner of speaking at all, far more formal for one thing. And it was clear that she did indeed know him.

'Ah it all comes back now does it?' said Bellême. 'I thought it would when we met again. And so you know me?'

Ryan leapt forward and raked her fingernails across his face drawing blood in four long livid streaks. 'Does that answer your question?' she snarled.

Bellême laughed softly. 'I see you haven't changed a bit my dear, still out to kill me if you can.'

'I wish you could,' he added almost to himself.

Valentina and Cesare were looking at each other in perplexity while poor Kai just stared uncomprehendingly at Ryan. No one else had spoken a word since Cesare had identified their host.

'I wish I could,' spat Ryan venomously then she paused as if struck by a thought.

'What are you doing Talvas?' she asked. 'What are you up to?' Another thought flitted across her mind. 'What are you doing with that boy, how are you using him and to what end?

Oh yes, I know about him, Talvas,' she added seeing a doubt come into his face. 'I have seen him. A blond boy – young, ha! If he were not on his way to SCI'ON, I'd have suspected a simpler motive for your interest in him. You always did like them young, didn't you, Talvas?'

Bellême did not bat an eye at this revelation. ' _I_ am not using him at all,' he said. 'He has made his own choice. I had nothing to do with it.'

'Liar,' Ryan decided, looking closely at him. 'And what are _we_ doing here? You should not have done it Talvas. You know I'll stop you now. You won't hold us here. You never had the power to hold me for long.'

'I didn't bring you here,' said Bellême shrugging. 'A most mysterious coincidence I assure you. But I think you'll find I _will_ hold you, if I choose to.'

'Rubbish!' said Ryan rudely. 'Don't think you can bluff me! I know you too well.'

'As you wish my dear,' replied Bellême suavely. 'Off you go then.'

'Not until I have some answers,' Ryan insisted. 'Tell me what you are doing with that boy.'

'If I _were_ doing anything with him,' said Bellême, grinning. 'You can hardly expect me to own it, now can you?'

'Oh, it's like that is it?' said Ryan narrowing her eyes in a way that was very familiar to Kai.

'Oh shit!' he breathed quietly, and wondered if he should take cover.

Even he, however, was unprepared for what came next. Ryan, as cool as you like, darted forward suddenly in a movement reminiscent of her earlier attack, but with this difference, instead of scratching his face, she plunged a small knife which she had presumably concealed about her person and produced from apparently nowhere, into Talvas's neck.

The attack was so sudden and so shocking that for a moment, nobody moved except for the stricken Talvas, who clearly had not been expecting this move on Ryan's part. He sank to his knees, gasping.

'Ha!' she crowed. 'Got you that time, didn't I?' She turned to the others, who were a motionless tableau. 'Come on,' she urged. 'It won't take him long to recover. I can guarantee you that. And who knows _what_ he's got up his sleeve.

'You'll never get out of here,' croaked Talvas, breathing his last. 'The doorway is sealed up from this side, why do you think that I never...' And then he died.

'There's got to be another way,' said Ryan, when Kai had confirmed these last words. 'He'd never have trapped himself here, I know he wouldn't.'

'Perhaps _he_ didn't seal the gateway,' suggested Valentina.

'Even if you're right,' said Ryan. 'He's bound to have forced a way out somehow. He was lying. I'll bet everything I have on it.'

'Ryan?' the voice came from a timid looking little man who had suddenly manifested in the doorway. Ryan spun round. 'Stigers?' she said in shock. 'How come you are here?'

'No time, no time,' said Stigers much agitated. 'I heard what you said, and you are right, master _did_ make another way, but we must hurry before he awakes. Come, come.' And he beckoned urgently.

'But he _can't_ "awake",' said Kai, bemused. 'He's dead!'

'Not for long,' said Ryan tersely. 'I'll explain later,' she added, to forestall questions. ' _All_ of it,' she finished, plainly referring to the somewhat unintelligible revelations made earlier.

Stigers led them along a long passageway, and Ryan plied him with questions of her own as they ran along.

'How are you not long since dead, Stigers?'

'He made me undead a long time ago, to serve him... I don't know how he did it, but so he did. The master can do anything – anything except die himself.'

This revelation was punctuated by a heartfelt groan from Cesare.

'What is he doing?' asked Ryan urgently.

'I don't know. Master trusts no one, _you_ know that. He tells me nothing. I only know that the boy – how _you_ know of him is beyond me – the boy is going to SCI'ON, and the Master is mighty pleased about it. But I don't know why.'

_'SCI'ON_! Dammit, I should have known. So that _is_ it. I was only guessing before. Whatever is going on, old Talvas is always in the thick of it.'

'The girl too,' volunteered Stigers unexpectedly. 'The girl went too.'

_'Girl_? What girl? I know of no girl.'

''Tisn't likely you would,' said Stigers sagely, 'for she's only a mortal girl – but not ordinary for all that. The master said she was important somehow, but for what reason he never breathed a word to me.

''Twas Nick,' he went on, apparently trying to be helpful, 'who was sent to master her and send her with him, for she never would have gone otherwise, so I hear. But Nick betrayed Master and tried to stop her, I know not why. But the Master was downright furious when he heard of it, and poor Nick is being punished terribly so I understand. But the girl went anyway and so that's the upshot, they've both gone and who knows...'

_'Nick_?' interrupted Ryan incredulously. 'Nicodemus? He's in the middle of this too?'

'Yes, yes, and a mort of others too, but I don't know them all.'

'Oh God!' groaned Ryan. 'This is worse than I thought. And where _is_ poor Nick? Maybe we can help him.'

'I don't know where he is, and there's nothing you can do for him anyway, not when the Master has a down on him. You must save yourselves.

'Here it is,' he ended breathlessly, flinging open a door and showing them a bare room with polished metal walls all around. 'Inside, inside,' he urged as all but Ryan hung back reluctantly. 'No time to lose or he'll be after us.'

'What is it,' asked Cesare, 'a dungeon?'

But Stigers did not answer him; he merely slammed the door shut behind Kai who was the last in.

The room instantly went black as pitch, but almost immediately, a light came on and a screen appeared with a list of destinations. This was the heart of Bellême's virtual reality, and the list on the screen was both more businesslike and more various than that which Johnny and Jez had seen in the public booth. The destinations were designated by numbers and letters, which were meaningless to anyone who did not have the code to it, and there were hundreds of them. But Stigers never hesitated. He punched a number on the screen, apparently at random, with a stubby finger and the room vanished, leaving them in a woody glade.

'What is this place?' asked Ryan. 'It's not SCI'ON,' she added decidedly.

'No, no. Master couldn't find a way into SCI'ON this way – for all that he tried. Else, he would have sent the boy straight there I reckon. But the boy had to find his own way in and so will you and I certainly do hope you are in good time for he is close the master says, very close. But this place is pretty far back anyways,' he ended mystifyingly. Yet, Ryan seemed to understand him.

'You seem to know a lot more than Talvas told you,' she opined.

'I keep my eyes and ears open,' said Stigers. 'And now I must go back.'

'Come with us,' said Ryan. 'He'll torture you for betraying him if you go back to him, you know he will.'

'I know, I know,' said Stigers ruefully. 'But he's my master, and I'm bound to him.'

And before they could urge him further, as they were all inclined to do once Ryan had begun it, he put up a hand to stop them and something in his face made them desist before they had even spoken.

'Do you know where the gateway in this world is?' asked Kai suddenly, bringing his mind back to essentials.

'This was my world,' said Stigers sadly, ignoring this. 'I programmed it in myself, Master doesn't know and he would never come here anyway. He doesn't want to face his own soul, I reckon. That's why I brought you here. He caught me in another place, but I don't know how I got there now, it was long ago.'

'But the gateway?' repeated Kai urgently.

_'He_ knows,' said Stigers pointing to a large raven on Kai's shoulder which he had not noticed there before. Then without another word, he vanished.

## Chapter Twenty Six – Cold Mountain

'Is _this_ SCI'ON?' shouted Jez above the screaming of the wind.

'I don't think so,' yelled back Johnny.

'Then where are we, the Arctic?

'Er no, can't be. There's trees over there. It's just winter – somewhere. Could be Canada maybe, or Alaska. Maybe Nepal.'

'Oh you're a big help,' snorted Jez. 'Anyway, I thought you said we couldn't move geographically from outside the worlds.'

'Right!'

'Right, so when we left, we were in England, weren't we?'

'Could have been a climatic shift in this world.'

'Oh who cares?' snapped Jez through chattering teeth. 'If this isn't SCI'ON, then let's just go before we freeze to death.'

'I'm not sure that this _isn't_ SCI'ON,' said Johnny uncertainly. 'It certainly ought to be unless something's gone wrong.'

'Oh, for God's sake Johnny! Either it is, or it isn't.'

'I'm sorry, Jez, I just don't know,' said Johnny apologetically.

'Then it isn't,' said Jez decisively.

'How can you be sure?' asked Johnny wonderingly.

'Because I've known for some time now, that you would _know_ it when we arrived in SCI'ON. Don't ask me how, but I'm sure of it. You'll just _know_.'

'Like being in love?' said Johnny with a frozen grin.

'Sort of like that, yes.'

'Are you sure you're not just saying that so we can leave?'

'All right,' snapped Jez angrily. 'Suppose this _was_ SCI'ON, what the hell can we do here anyway? It's a bloody frozen wasteland.'

This was true up to a point. The land surrounding them was white with deep snow as far as the eye could see. There were hints, here and there in the distance, of wooded areas, as Johnny had pointed out, but even they were only white silhouettes against an even whiter background. And the wind was howling painfully across the landscape whipping up snowdrifts through the air like a sandstorm. It was like being inside a snow globe. Both were inadequately dressed for this kind of weather and Jez was turning blue. Narnia it most certainly was not.

'What does your heart tell you?' asked Jez.

Johnny stared at Jez's pale, frozen face. 'That, SCI'ON or not,' he said seriously, 'we're going to die if we stay here. Let's go,' he added. 'Nothing is worth this,'

'Thank God!' stuttered Jez, reaching out her hand for his. 'Let's go before something worse happens.

At that moment, the ground gave a shudder beneath her, and she disappeared suddenly with a shriek as half the mountain slid away taking her along for the ride.

Johnny never hesitated; hurling the deconstructor aside heedlessly, he flung himself forward flat on the snow and grabbed Jez's hands as she vanished over the newly-formed cliff face. They hung there together for a few suspended moments frozen in fear, and then time started up again as Johnny dared to open his eyes. What he saw was not encouraging.

Jez was hanging from his fingers over what could only be described as an abyss, the depth of which was unfathomable. Johnny could just about see the bottom and would have preferred it if he couldn't since just looking at it made him dizzy. There were no footholds or handholds for her to grab on to, the side of the cliff was completely sheer and horribly icy. Jez's feet scrabbled uselessly against the ice.

'Don't move!' ordered Johnny. 'And don't look down,' he added unnecessarily.

There was only one thing to do. Johnny dug his heels into the snow and began to slowly inch his way backwards, pulling Jez with him. It was excruciatingly slow going; for every foot he gained on the slippery, shifting surface he lost two sending Jez swinging backwards down the cliff face in a series of jerks.

Johnny had never felt so tired or desperate in his life before. Only the spectre of Jez hurtling down the mountainside into oblivion kept him hanging on despite the fire burning in his shoulders.

'Let me go,' said Jez suddenly after about half an hour of this, although it seemed much longer.

'No!' said Johnny shortly through gritted teeth, his face a mask of pain.

'Johnny,' said Jez, gently. 'Let me go.'

_'No_!' he howled and made one last concerted effort, wrenching his arms from his sockets as he pulled with a fury coursing through his veins that overrode all fear and pain. Finally, gravity gave up, and Jez was hauled over the edge of the cliff to safety, and Johnny collapsed in agony on the snow beside her. His arms felt like pieces of limp spaghetti.

'Help me,' he croaked. 'My arms...'

Jez saw with horror that his arms were hanging loose from the sockets.

'Oh, my God!' she cried. 'What can I do.'?

'Stand up,' said Johnny. 'And don't move.' Jez obeyed and Johnny slowly and painfully lifted himself up to face her then he braced himself against her shoulder and pushed... click! 'AAAAAGGGGH!

Jez bit her lip until it bled, but she never moved.

Then the other arm. Johnny fell on his knees sobbing as the other arm clicked back into place.

Immediately Jez had her arms around him. 'Oh God, Oh God, I'm sorry, I'm so sorry. You're all right now, you're okay, It's okay, It's okay.'

'I'm okay,' said Johnny abruptly after a few moments. 'It hurt like hell for a minute there, but I'm okay now.' He stood up.

There was a moment's silence then Jez said. 'Where's the thingummy?' She meant the deconstructor.

After a few more moments' silence, pregnant with ominous meaning, Johnny finally pointed down the mountainside. 'Down there.'

There was no question of castigating Johnny this time; Jez felt, indeed, that the whole thing was, in some indefinable way, her fault anyway. For the first time she felt utterly defeated. Not so Johnny.

He wrapped her in his coat for the extra warmth that she needed, and he did not, and dragged her unwillingly in the direction of the shelter of the trees.

'We can build you a fire,' he said. 'And maybe a shelter for the night and then 'I'll go and get the deconstructor. 'W-what about w-wild a-an-animals?' stuttered Jez.

'Fire!' said Johnny shortly.

'I-I meant y-you a-actually.'

Johnny shrugged. 'Not out in the snow,' he said indifferently. He was not worried about himself at all, but he was extremely worried about Jez, though he tried to hide this from her, but he would never forgive himself if she died out here from exposure. And more than that, he suddenly realised, what would he do without her? He glanced over at her; her cheeks were red, and her lips were blue, her eyes streaming and her whole body was shaking convulsively, yet to him, in that moment of revelation, she looked unexpectedly beautiful. He sighed internally, and they trudged on.

They had some unexpected good luck in the forest. First, Johnny managed to light a fire with surprising ease, considering the conditions – the wet wood and the swirling snow. And then, fastened in a tree, they found the remains of a parafoil, enough for a makeshift shelter, which would keep the cold and the snow out better than a natural shelter could hope to.

It was Jez, feeling much better since the lighting of the fire, who actually managed to make something of the mangled parafoil. It was not exactly a model home, and the boy scouts brigade would have poured scorn on it, no doubt, but it would do. She even had enough material left to wrap around herself in a parody of a sleeping bag. Johnny nodded approval. The colour was returning to her lips and, although she would not have won any beauty contests, at least she was looking human again.

He borrowed her knife and sharpened a stick with it and then he announced his intention of trying his hand at some hunting. As he strode off confidently into the forest, the incongruity of his appearance struck Jez for the first time as he walked through the thigh deep snow in his shirt-sleeves carrying his sharpened stick like a standard. She wondered in awe whether Talvas had not, after all, been right about Johnny. Was he indeed some kind of god?

When Johnny returned, Jez was asleep, and he debated whether to wake her. His hunting trip had been successful, and he had skinned his game in the forest away from Jez's sensitive eyes, but although he was good at lighting fires, he was not so accomplished at cooking on them, but then again, he reasoned, neither was Jez. He decided to give it a try. He would wake her when it was ready.

It turned out, though, to be a joint effort as Jez awoke at the sound of Johnny's cursing as he attempted to construct a spit over the fire. The whole cooking experience was an hilarious exercise, which gave Jez many opportunities to exercise her wit at Johnny's expense. He was glad to see that she was feeling better.

'I thought men were supposed to be good at barbequing,' she said eventually, after the spit had broken and the game fallen into the fire.

'Just eat it,' said Johnny reaching barehanded into the fire to pull out a haunch of scorched meat. Jez gasped, but wisely said nothing. Johnny did not even seem to have noticed.

Equilibrium restored, and hunger appeased, they both slept.

Johnny woke first and was struck by the beauty and peace of his surroundings. He gave a tender glance at the still sleeping Jez. He liked her this way, he decided. Asleep, she looked younger and softer, sweet and almost childlike. He hated to wake her, but it was time to leave her now and begin his climb down the mountain.

She wanted to go with him, but he would not let her. It was colder out there, away from the shelter of the trees, he pointed out, and they would not be able to have a fire on open ground, she would freeze. What he did not tell her was that he intended to try something in order to speed up his search. Since he had discovered that he was in some way able to manipulate time, he had pondered on this unusual power at whiles, and he thought he had an idea that he wanted to try out. But where he intended to go with this, Jez would be unable to follow.

The terrain was perfect for his plan. The emptier the surroundings, he knew, the easier – or rather the safer – it would be. And today, which also would help, the weather was calm, hardly a breath stirred. In fact, he thought, it would be hard to tell if it was working at all.

He intended to slow time around him in order to get to his destination faster.

Or, to put it another way, all around him, time would move on as usual, but he would be moving much faster, so fast, in fact, that he would not be seen at all, and to him, the world would seem to have virtually stopped. He had got the idea from a film he had seen once.

It was like being in another world. The air seemed thick and heavy, and the sky looked darker, as if a thunderstorm was coming. The faster he moved, the darker the sky got until it was almost like a moonlit night. This, he surmised, was because, the light particles that were coming through the atmosphere were reaching him too slowly, but the effect was eerie. In the air above him, a bird flapped its wings with ponderous slowness and Johnny wondered that it did not drop like a stone. Although he could get his mind around what was happening, he could not get his senses to agree, and it felt as if it were the world that was moving at the wrong pace, not himself. He knew that the bird was flitting overhead at speed, but he could not seem to realise that he was actually moving much faster than it was. It took him five minutes to reach the bottom of the cliff; he had been walking for six hours.

It took him a further fifty-seven seconds – just over two hours – to find the deconstructor. It was broken.

Jez had been waiting only twenty minutes (her time) before Johnny appeared with the deconstructor and the bad news.

Her first question was the obvious one. 'Can you fix it?'

'Yes,' Johnny lied.

'But not here in the middle of nowhere,' supplied Jez – which was technically correct.

'Right, but there must be a house or a hunting lodge or something around here,' said Johnny. 'Somebody parachuted in, as we know. They didn't just drop in for no reason.'

'Maybe a plane crashed,' said Jez gloomily.

Johnny had not thought of that, but he continued remorselessly as if she had not spoken. 'Perhaps a military base, or an airfield. As long as they have a phone, we can get back to civilisation and...'

'Maybe there is no civilisation anymore,' interrupted Jez. 'Maybe it's all gone. We don't know what happened here.'

'Jesus Jez,' said Johnny impatiently. 'What the hell's the matter with you?'

She shook her head listlessly. Johnny hauled her to her feet roughly.

'We'll go north,' he said. 'No particular reason, but we have to pick a direction and stick to it, okay?'

'Why north?' asked Jez as if she really did not care.

''Cause we came from the south, and north takes us through the forest where there's more shelter and more chance of finding a house or something.'

'Okay!' said Jez.

In the event, Johnny turned out to be right. Only about three miles into the forest, they came to a clearing, and in that clearing, was a deserted Rangers outpost. A small house, clearly designed for summer use. The storm windows were shuttered and bolted up, and the woodshed was empty, the pump frozen solid. Johnny was not discouraged, however.

'There's _bound_ to be a phone or a radio in this place,' he asserted.

'Or seven tiny little men who need a housekeeper,' said Jez acerbically. But her relief was apparent. Johnny smiled. It was nice to hear Jez being sarcastic again.

Johnny found the radio; it was in the main room – practically the only room, in fact. The tiny house consisted of one living area with a pull out bed and a kitchen at the back, the larder full of tinned food. The lavatory was outside, and clearly one was supposed to wash in the kitchen. Jez found a tin bath, of the kind to be dragged before the large open log fire and filled with jugs of water heated on the stove in the corner of the kitchen; it was full of spiders. The stove was an old fashioned aga, which needed wood to burn in it, and the woodshed was empty!

Johnny reckoned it would take him about ten minutes to chop enough wood to heat the stove and set the fire. It was only then that it occurred to him that Jez had not questioned him about his remarkably fast journey to retrieve the deconstructor. Just how much did she know – or guess about him, he wondered. Still, if she did not ask any questions, at least he did not have to lie to her. It never occurred to him that he might be able to tell her the truth. Perhaps that was why she did not ask.

Once the house was cosy and warm – and once again, Jez showed no curiosity about how this had been achieved in such record time – Johnny took a look at the radio. It seemed to be in perfect working order but try as he might Johnny could get no replies to his messages. Jez made beans.

'Perhaps there's no one listening at this time of night,' said Johnny eventually. 'I'll try again in the morning.'

There then followed a ridiculous argument about the sleeping arrangements with Johnny insisting that Jez take the bed and Jez saying that there was no reason why they could not both sleep in the bed. But Johnny proved to be unexpectedly prudish about the matter and wouldn't have it. He settled in the chair in a most uncomfortable position, and Jez accused him of being sexist – which was most unlike her really since usually she was only too pleased to be able to take any advantage she could get and only cited women's rights when it was to her benefit. It never occurred to her that it _had_ been nearly ten years and that maybe Johnny did not trust himself in the same bed as her.

'You didn't sleep last night,' she pointed out. 'So why do I get the bed tonight? Just because I'm a girl!'

The truth was, of course, that Jez was feeling guilty about getting them into this mess in the first place. Johnny ignored her and began to snore pointedly until Jez gave it up and turned over to sleep.

By morning, the fire had died, and the little house was freezing. Jez awoke first and decided to leave Johnny alone until he woke up on his own. He must be exhausted, she thought, to be able to sleep in that uncomfortable chair.

Determined to make herself useful, she went out to the woodshed and attacked the logs. Her hands were freezing, and she found it difficult to hold the axe steady, it slipped from her hands and fell straight onto her foot with the blade down. Blood spurted from her mangled toe and, after one prolonged yell of pain, she passed out.

When she awoke, she was back in bed with her foot throbbing but neatly bandaged and Johnny's anxious face hovering above her.

'Are you okay?' he asked. 'I thought you'd never wake up.'

'I'm fine, I guess,' she replied glancing angrily at her foot. 'Only now I can't even walk, I'm even more of a burden than before. I can't even help you bring the wood in or cook or anything.'

'It doesn't matter,' said Johnny, bemused. He jerked his head at the merrily blazing fire. 'I can do it by myself.'

'But you shouldn't _have_ to!' shouted Jez furiously. 'God, I'm completely useless, aren't I? You'd be better off without me.'

Johnny shook his head and was about to speak his denial, but Jez overrode him.

'First I fall off a bloody cliff, and you have to tear your arms out of their sockets to save me, and you lost the thingummy to get us out of here. And _then_ I fall apart, and you practically have to drag me to this place, and now I manage to cripple myself so that I'm finally no bloody use at all and you have to do _everything_. You'd have been out of here by now if it wasn't for me. You'd be better off without me.' she repeated.

'Is that what you really think?' asked Johnny when he could get a word in.

'It's true,' asserted Jez.

'Of course it's not,' said Johnny. 'I need you. I'd never have got this far without you, don't you know that? I didn't pull you off that cliff for you, you know. I did it because I knew I couldn't go on without you. It was entirely selfish, believe me.'

Jez narrowed her eyes suspiciously.

Johnny took Jez's face in his hands and held her gaze solemnly. 'Always I need you Jez,' he said. 'For your strength and your common sense – who else could keep my feet on the ground like you do? – And for your unconditional friendship even when I'm acting like a prat and don't deserve it. For your uncompromising honesty and the way you have of always knowing who the bad guy is – I don't know how you do it. _I_ can't read people like that. The way you have of getting me out of trouble, even when I don't realise I'm in it, you always have my back. I've always needed you and I always will. A couple of accidents don't change that. I love you Jez, I didn't think I had to say it, I thought you knew.'

The sun came out in Jez's eyes. 'You don't,' she affirmed. 'I do know, I guess I was just feeling sorry for myself. I'm sorry.'

'That's okay,' said Johnny grinning. 'I guess I'm sorry too.'

'What for?'

'Well, clearly I've been taking you for granted.' He looked guiltily down at his feet. 'I haven't been entirely honest with you.'

Jez nodded. 'I know,' she said.

'Yes,' agreed Johnny. 'And I knew that you knew, but I thought... Well I don't know what I thought, except I should have known better. I took it for granted that you never asked questions anymore about the weird stuff that's been going on lately.'

'I knew you'd tell me when you were ready.'

'You did?' Johnny seemed surprised. 'It's more than I knew then. That's not the point,' he continued. 'But that's what I mean,' he added paradoxically. 'You never pushed me, you understood me better than I did, and I never appreciated it like I should have.'

Jez waved this away as unimportant. 'Who cares?' she said. 'Are you going to tell me now?'

'Yes!' said Johnny, his face so grim and determined that Jez wanted to laugh.

'... I guess I didn't explain all this partly because I didn't understand it myself,' Johnny said at the end of his tale. 'I mean, I think I figured that if _I_ was so freaked out, how would _you_ take it? But you're taking it really well, I must say.'

'Well, it doesn't really matter anymore, does it?' said Jez. 'I mean, not if we're going to have to spend the rest of our lives stuck here.'

'Ah, the deconstructor,' said Johnny gloomily. 'I forgot about that.'

'Are you sure you can't fix it here?' she asked. 'Just patch it up I mean.'

Johnny winced as Jez knew he would at this suggestion. He was such a perfectionist when it came to anything technical. It was why she had not mentioned it sooner and the reason, she was certain, that he had not ripped the radio apart for spare parts as soon as they had arrived, as anyone else might have.

'We-ell,' said Johnny reluctantly. 'I might be able to. It depends on the damage inside. There's a radio repair kit under the radio's housing that might have some equipment I could use, but I don't...' He stopped; Jez was looking at him so beseechingly that he cracked. 'Oh, all right then,' he shrugged. 'I suppose you're right.' He glared at her suddenly. 'Just don't blame me if it doesn't work,' he added warningly. But Jez was not worried about that. She had absolute faith in Johnny's genius for the technological.

But just in case, she added. 'And if not, you can take us back in time to before it got broken, can't you?'

'No,' said Johnny brusquely. 'I can't.' Although he was not at all sure that he could not. He just did not know how. And, what's more, he had a feeling that even if he could, he really should not.

However, he did think about Jez's suggestion while he was working on mending the damaged deconstructor. And he realised that it might be possible for him to move back in time – he thought he could see how it might be done – but it would not be possible to take Jez with him, except within the program. But, by the time he had worked this out, it was largely irrelevant anyway. The deconstructor was fixed – more or less.

He was nervous, what if something went wrong? It was only – he shuddered – "patched up" after all. Jez was undaunted.

'So, something else goes wrong,' she said. 'What else is new?'

'We might be killed,' said Johnny.

'No we won't.' said Jez decidedly. 'I bet you fixed it better than it really needed. I _know_ you.'

'But the equipment is so outdated...' wailed Johnny.

'Oh, stop bitching,' said Jez. 'I'm fed up with this dump. I think I'd _rather_ die than be stuck here.'

'I'm going to test it first,' said Johnny. 'If it works then I'll come back for you.'

Jez hesitated. It _was_ a good idea; Johnny seemed to be able to survive anything, so even if it _didn't_ work, he would probably come back for her anyway.

Johnny knew that he would not. If it did not work, he was painfully aware of what would happen, he would be scattered into atoms and probably stuck between dimensions forever. But he did not tell Jez that. If he had, she would have insisted on going with him rather than be stuck here for the rest of her life – alone.

'Okay, then,' said Johnny taking the deconstructor in his hand. He hesitated, and then he drew Jez toward him suddenly and took her completely by surprise with a prolonged and tender kiss.

Jez was thunderstruck. 'What the...?'

Johnny shrugged looking somewhat abashed. 'I just didn't want to never have done that,' he explained, and then he was gone.

Back on the ship, Johnny's relief was tempered with embarrassment. It had worked, which meant he could go back for Jez. But, on the other hand, it had worked, which meant he could go back for Jez. How was he going to face her? What on earth had made him do it? But then his lifelong habit of nonchalance came back to him. It was Jez; she'd be cool. She always was whenever he went off the deep end for one reason or another. She probably would not even ask.

He pressed the deconstructor.

## Chapter Twenty Seven – The Undying

Ryan knew that she was in for it now. As soon as Stigers had vanished, the whole party turned to her, as one, with a questioning look.

'You promised us an explanation,' Kai reminded her.

Ryan looked distracted. 'But... _now_?' she faltered.

'I think this must come first,' said Valentina firmly. Before we can go further we _must_ know.'

Ryan sighed. She knew it. 'Okay,' she agreed. 'Just don't blame me if you don't believe a word of it.'

They sat on the grass, and Ryan looked around them nervously. 'My turn to tell _you_ something,' she observed to Valentina.

'My story, and that of Talvas and some others too who seem to be involved in all this, begins over eight thousand years ago. Actually, Talvas is older than that. I think he's been around about fifteen thousand years – he was the eldest, I think, but I may be wrong about that. I daresay he could tell you but I don't suppose he will, he never told me anyway.

We are the Undying. We cannot be killed nor die of natural causes, and we do not grow older.'

She took a deep breath and looked around to see if they believed her. Three faces gaped back at her in astonishment – this was not enlightening. She plunged on.

'Originally, there were seven of us,' she continued. 'All children of the earliest gods, those whom men created first, back in the earliest days of men. Gods of water, wind, and air. I do not intend to tell you all our story here. It would take a lifetime to tell – it took many lifetimes to live. We are the "Old Ones", the original seven, children of the gods, but we are not gods, having mortal blood. Talvas, Nicodemus, Jáco and Petragan – the twin sons of the sea god, Naia, Aöeven she recited reminiscently, and myself, the last to be born.

'My father was an ordinary farmer, but my mother was Idris the daughter of the sun and moon gods and she had power over time, the tides and the seasons. This talent she has passed on, in small measure, to me. But I can only control my own time and not that of the world, as she could. All the undying have strange talents passed on from their immortal parents, and I should tell you that Talvas can see things far off and long ago in the flames of any fire.

Now there are more Undying, how many more I am not sure. But it happened like this: Some of the undying had children of their own and those children were mostly mortals with no abilities and a normal lifespan. But sometimes, out of these bloodlines, an Undying is born. We call these "late born Undying" or "Young Ones" and how many are now scattered through the worlds, is unknown. But I believe that Talvas may have the means to find them out when he looks into the fire.

'You may wonder why I never told you this before,' she said looking steadily at Kai, who was gaping at her in undisguised wonder and disbelief, 'and the reason is, I never knew it myself until now...'

'It's ridiculous,' spluttered Kai. 'I've known you for years, since you and I were kids.' He gave her a triumphant look, as if to say: "Get out of that!"

'How is it that you didn't remember?' asked Valentina more gently and less sceptically than Kai. As a witch, she was more open to the "unbelievable".

'What shall I answer first?' said Ryan. 'I am unlike the other Undying in that I have power over time, inherited from my mother, as I told you. In this way, when life wearies me, I can begin again. Go back to my un-blighted childhood and start my life over fresh and new. It is the same childhood, but in a different place and time and among different people of course and although I am still me, I remember nothing of my growing up previously until such time as those memories are brought back to me. This time by Talvas, who I have known a long, long time.'

'Is Ryan your real name?' asked Kai, determined to find some incontrovertible fact to hang on to in this bog of nonsense that he appeared to have wandered into.

'Yes, it has always been my name, whether by accident or design, I'm not sure. It was the name my father gave me.' And she looked momentarily sad.

'One more thing,' she said seriously. 'I think that this boy whom Talvas has sent to SCI'ON, is a lately born Undying. Perhaps so lately born that he doesn't know it yet, being no older than he seems as yet. And I think that he may be of my own bloodline, for I felt a strong connection with him in my dreams and if I am right, then the probability is that he is of Talvas's bloodline too, and that bodes ill for us. For only evil ever came of that man's blood as I know better than most.'

She explained no further, and the rest were left with the impression that the connection between Talvas and herself was a blood relationship, perhaps a cousin or something like that. She hoped that she would never have to reveal the truth.

Of course, the whole party was left with a whole kaleidoscope of impressions to sort out from this story, and this seemed to be the least important of them.

It was Valentina who worked it out first, after some pondering on all that she had heard.

'Then you and he and these other Undying as you call yourselves, were born in the beginning?' she said. 'In SCI'ON?'

Cesare and Kai looked up startled.

'Yes,' said Ryan. 'In SCI'ON.'

'And you all left?'

'Yes, it was restrictive there. There was no room to grow. Time does not move on in SCI'ON. It is the beginning.'

'And now Bellême wants to go back,' pondered Valentina. 'I wonder why.'

'And why doesn't he just go then?' said Cesare, catching the idea. 'Why send this boy, whoever he is?'

'If we knew that, 'said Ryan, 'there would be no danger. We would know what he was planning and be able to stop him.'

'I say,' said Kai suddenly, 'don't _you_ know the way to SCI'ON, since you _were_ born there?'

Ryan shook her head. 'If you mean the gateway,' she said. 'How should I know where it is, in this world, any better than you do? I have never been in this world before.'

'Caw!' came a croak from Kai's shoulder. 'Caw! Caw!'

'Of course,' said Cesare, 'the raven. The man Stigers said that _he_ knew the way.'

'She,' said Kai absently.

'What?' said Valentina, startled. 'How do you know _that_?'

'She told me,' said Kai. Then his brow furrowed in confusion. 'That is – I think... er.'

'Caw, caw, _caw!'_ announced the raven indignantly.

'You know,' said Valentina thoughtfully. 'The raven is supposed, by some cultures, to be the messenger from other realms. The eye of the raven was thought to be the entrance to the supernatural worlds. If any person saw the raven as a spirit guide it was meant to mean that person was destined to travel between the worlds.'

'A spirit guide?' said Ryan.'But if this raven is Kai's spirit guide, how come we can _all_ see her?'

'Well if you do not know – eldest,' said Valentina. 'How shall I answer better?'

'Other worlds?' said Cesare. 'Well that certainly fits anyway – perhaps...'

'But I know nothing about spirit guides,' interrupted Ryan, ignoring Cesare. 'But somehow that raven seems familiar to me, as if, as if...'

'As if you have known her all your life,' finished Kai, 'just as I have.'

'Yes.'

'You have known her through me,' he said.

'What do you mean? How do you know?' said Ryan, alarmed.

'She is telling me.'

'Oh.' There was a silence at this. Indeed there really didn't seem to be anything to say.

'Well,' said Cesare eventually. 'Is she telling you anything else, such as where the gateway to SCI'ON is perhaps?'

Kai stirred like one who has been woken from deep thought. 'Hmm, oh yes,' he said. 'Sorry, I was thinking of something else.' He stopped and grinned impishly at the others.

'Well?' said Cesare impatiently. 'Where is it? Is it far?'

'No not far – as the raven flies,' said Kai softly and gave a gentle smile. Then he glanced behind Cesare as if something there amused him deeply.

Cesare whipped his head round but saw nothing. He glared at Kai.

'Look again.' said Kai.

All this time, a small fox had been nuzzling at Valentina's skirts, as if trying, very delicately to get her attention. Only Kai had noticed this, and for a very interesting reason.

Ryan had her own visitor too, a gracious looking bird with fiery eyes which students of folklore would recognise as a phoenix, but which Kai, who thought he knew a bit about nature, completely failed to identify.

Valentina reached down absently and stroked the fox's fur gently. It responded with a low purring sound.

Kai nodded, as if to himself, and said. 'He is too cunning to speak before us all, but he can talk to you in the privacy of your shared mind. You only have to listen.'

Valentina looked startled. 'Who are you talking about?' she asked.

'Him,' answered Kai pointing to the fox at her feet. 'He is your spirit guide I think. Ilsa – my raven, says that there is something different about this world. She is telling me that she never knew herself until we came here, although she has always been a part of me.'

Valentina closed her eyes as if listening for a distant sound then nodded. She opened her eyes and smiled, her eyes shining with pure joy.

'I see,' said simply. 'Oh yes I see. How wonderful.'

'And you,' added Kai to Ryan. 'See the... the um...'

'It's a phoenix,' said Valentina. 'Appropriate.'

'Why?' said Kai, puzzled. His upbringing had not included a classical education.

'Because it is the symbol of rebirth,' said Ryan. 'A mythical creature – it seems that a spirit guide need not have its counterpart in the real pantheon of creatures.'

'So everybody has a guide?' said Valentina.

'I don't,' said Cesare a little sulkily. As a vampire, he had never thought to be feeling affronted about feeling left out by a gang of mere humans.

'Look again,' said Kai smugly. He was relishing his new role as the one doling out the information for a change.

Not far away under a tree stood an insipid looking young woman with a gentle expression. She was standing apart from the group as if she was too shy to join them. As four pairs of eyes turned to look at her, she hung her head suddenly.

Cesare bounded to his feet and ran toward her. 'Lucrezia!' he shouted incredulously.

The others looked questioningly at Kai.

'Guardian angel,' he explained briefly. 'Usually a dead family member – but Ilsa doesn't know who she is.'

'It is his sister,' said Valentina. 'I have long known that she is always with him – in spirit so to speak. He talks of her seldom, but always when he does it is with great reverence and love.'

'I never heard him mention her,' said Ryan.

'As I said, he seldom speaks of her. But her presence in his heart explains much about him. To me anyway.'

'She looks terrified of him,' observed Kai.

'Yes,' said Valentina, smiling enigmatically, and would say no more.

'We should get moving,' said Kai. 'The gateway is south of here according to Ilsa.'

'How does she know?' asked Ryan curiously.

Kai shrugged. 'She can sense it.'

'Oh.'

'Kai is right,' said Valentina suddenly. 'We should move on. Nikita says there are people coming this way, and they may be hostile.'

'Not in this world,' said Kai decisively. 'But still we don't want to be held up here, even by friendly people. Who knows, Talvas's spy or dupe or whatever he is, may be in SCI'ON already and we have wasted enough time already.'

'Nikita?' said Ryan. 'Oh yes of course the fox.'

'And what is _your_ friend called?' asked Cesare coming up behind them.

Ryan cocked her head for a moment. 'He says to call him Conrad, but that is only an interpretation of a much older name that would mean nothing to you. Sorry I think he's a bit pretentious.'

'Shocking!' muttered Kai in a sarcastic aside.

Ryan narrowed her eyes at him but then remembered that Kai had every right to be a bit snippy with her just now and held her peace.

Kai kept his distance from Ryan all that day. He took the lead – or rather, Ilsa did and Valentina walked behind him followed by a subdued Ryan, Cesare brought up the rear with a very timid Lucrezia trailing as far behind the procession as she could.

They spoke little, being short of breath and also things to say. Kai was utilising the time to sort out his thoughts, with very little success. His mind was a boiling morass of fury and confusion. Ryan's revelations had left him with a feeling that he eventually identified as betrayal, although if pushed he would have been hard pressed to say exactly why this should be. Even the discovery of Ilsa took a very poor second place to the bitter rage that swirled around his entire being, causing the bile to rise in his throat and a dull hammering in his head.

Ilsa, perhaps sensing this, said little that was not to the purpose of their journey.

Ryan walked behind with silent tears dripping down her face.

But when night fell Conrad decided that enough was enough and approached Ilsa.

Together they flew upwards spiralling around each other like butterflies. It was like a dance, with Conrad approaching and Ilsa retreating, as they tried to find a common ground. It was like watching the physical manifestation of a delicate negotiation. Cesare and Valentina watched in fascination, but Kai and Ryan were watching each other from opposite sides of the fire. Conrad pursued forcefully, and suddenly with a furious squawk, Ilsa dived at him and jabbed with her beak driving him backwards.

At that moment, Ryan leaped up and ran away into the trees with Conrad following in an angry stream of fire.

Kai sat where he was, sullenly.

'I'll go after her,' said Cesare. 'None of us should wander alone in a strange world,'And he looked contemptuously at Kai.

As Cesare stood elegantly, Kai's gorge rose to his throat and he leaped to his feet angrily.

'Fuck you!' he yelled. 'Can't you leave her alone?' For a moment, his jealousy of Cesare overrode all his other feelings. ' _I'll_ go,' he spat.

'I only...' began Cesare defensively. But Kai punched him in the face hard enough to knock him to the ground. Since a vampire is ten times as strong as an ordinary human being, this took some force. Cesare staggered back and landed most inelegantly with his legs in the air and a startled expression on his face. 'Christ!' he muttered.

This unusual loss of poise on Cesare's part helped abate Kai's fury a little – he had always found Cesare's elegant unruffled posture an irritant. Valentina was laughing.

'She's mine,' said Kai. 'Do you understand me? Stay away from her, I mean it.'

Cesare raised his eyebrows. 'I understand,' he said quietly. 'Why don't you go and get her then?'

'I will then,' retorted Kai and stalked off.

Cesare and Valentina looked at each other.

'I think perhaps, although it was clearly unintentional, that you could not have done anything better for them than that,' said Valentina eventually.

'Oh, well,' said Cesare caustically. 'As long as I can help, that's what I'm here for after all.' He scowled rubbing his jaw reminiscently. 'He certainly packs a wallop for a little guy,' he added. Then he grinned. 'This'll ache for – oh, hours at least.'

'Do you want me to kiss it better?'

'Mmm.' Cesare nodded enthusiastically.

'Ha, think again, Romeo,' she said nastily.

'But you said...' he began. But Valentina cut him off with a gentle kiss on the cheek. 'Only joking,' she said.

'Ha!' said Cesare, pulling her toward him. 'I knew you couldn't resist me forever.'

The ghostly Lucrezia looked discreetly away.

'Where is she, Ilsa?' Kai asked his guide. Ilsa flew high and reported back. 'In the trees yonder, she's crying.

'Great, that's all I need,' grunted Kai. 'Guilt!'

'She's afraid that she's lost you forever. That is why she was pushing.'

'How do you know?'

'Conrad told me.'

'Oh. But she's always pushing, always wanting her own way, always everything has to be on her terms, has to be right for _her_. I just needed a little time, but she couldn't even give me that.'

'She was frightened.'

Kai sighed. 'I know.'

Ilsa hesitated. 'There's more you don't know,' she said. 'But it is not my place to tell it.'

'Worse?' asked Kai nervously.

'Just... more. She thinks it's worse, but you won't. You'll be shocked, I think, but not upset.'

Kai relaxed. 'Then it can wait. She'll tell me when she's ready.

Ryan appeared suddenly through the trees. 'I'm ready now,' she said. 'At least, I'm not really, but it can't wait. It's about Talvas.'

'What about him?'

'No,' she said. 'You all need to hear this I think.'

There was a silence. 'I'm sorry,' she said suddenly.

'I know. It's okay. It's not your fault. It was just a lot to take in, you know?'

'I'm still me,' she said. 'I still...'

'Me too, Cesare, of all people, reminded me of that.'

Ryan blinked at this unexpected revelation. ' _Cesare_?'

'Yeah, I know,' Kai grinned. 'I'm afraid that I'm a bit jealous of him. It's petty I know, but...'

'Jealous? Of that over-stuffed tailors dummy? Really? Why?'

Kai shrugged. 'Dunno really, now I come to think about it.'

Ryan gave him a knowing smile. 'Kai,' she said. 'You need to know something now, before I tell you about Talvas. I remember all my past now and in all my lives I have never loved anyone like I love you.'

'Tell me about Talvas,' said Kai abruptly, but he was smiling.

'He was my husband once.'

Kai staggered backwards as if from a blow.

'We had children,' continued Ryan inexorably, ignoring the growing horror on Kai's face. 'Three sons, they were as evil as him but mortal. I had them locked away. But the eldest had already had children of his own. I think that this boy who is on his way to SCI'ON may possibly be a descendant of mine as well as Talvas. If he is, he will have a power inside him that is beyond imagining outside of the Gods themselves. His antecedents include four gods and two first born undying a potent combination. As far as I know, no other undying have ever bred together, and Talvas's father was the most powerful of the gods and I...'

'Are descended from three gods, not just one,' finished Kai. 'I remember the story.'

'It was probably what Talvas had in mind when he married me,' said Ryan, although I never thought of it before. A powerful alliance to produce a superman. That would be just his style. He's probably been chafing for centuries waiting for him to be born.'

'Millennia,' corrected Kai.

'No, it's less than a thousand years since we were... well...'

'Oh.'

'I didn't remember him at the time. I had no idea who I was. You have to understand.'

'Just like this time?' said Kai.

'Yes, just the same. I was a nun in that life. He abducted me – more robust times.'

'I wish I'd killed him now,' said Kai fiercely.

'I tried,' she said wistfully. 'Many times. I didn't understand that I couldn't. He found it amusing. God I hated him.'

'Good!' said Kai decisively. 'That's all right then.'

Ryan smothered a smile.

'I'm glad you told me,' said Kai. 'Although it doesn't tell us what he's up to with this lad, it _does_ give us some idea what we'll be dealing with when we find him.'

He lapsed into thought. 'Do you think he's been planning whatever he's doing ever since he... I mean since you...'

'You mean did he marry me in order to produce this specimen with this plan in mind?' Ryan filled in. 'Yes, it's a strong possibility. We can be very patient – well we have to be. A thousand years is nothing to an Undying'

'God almighty – what could be so important to him?'

'I have no idea, but it must mean a lot to him. He's very jealous of his power and yet, if we're right, he schemed to bring another undying into the world who would certainly outstrip him.'

'To do something that he wasn't able to do himself?' mused Kai.

'It's hard to imagine what could defeat a man who has, quite literally, destroyed worlds,' said Ryan.

Kai and Ryan stared at each other in sudden horror.

## Chapter Twenty Eight – Relic Hunt

When Valentina was kidnapped before they could reach the doorway, nobody was particularly surprised. Not that they had expected that event precisely, such things cannot be predicted, but somehow, they had all had a fatalistic feeling, not shared among them but privately felt, that _something_ was bound to go wrong with Talvas on their case. Naturally they blamed Bellême.

It happened this way: As they approached a forested area, which, according to Kai, was close to the place they were seeking, twelve armed men jumped out at them. Since only Kai was armed, (with his rifle) a fight was pretty much out of the question. The men were dressed like soldiers, in khaki's and boots, the khaki uniforms alleviated by bright bandannas and wristbands. They looked more like a ragged contingent of rebel freedom fighters rather than a disciplined army unit, but they acted as if they knew exactly what they were doing. One thing was clear; these men did not come from this peaceful world.

The men shouted instructions in a foreign language and brandished weapons threateningly; no one moved. Cesare even managed to look slightly bored.

Then they moved their bandannas swiftly over their faces and threw gas grenades into the clearing.

They must have singled out Valentina immediately as their target because the knockout gas that they used to render the group unconscious was only a short acting one – by Kai's watch they had been out for less than five minutes – yet when they awoke, Valentina and the men were gone without a trace.

Well, not completely without a trace. Kai was a good tracker, and he wasted no time in ascertaining the direction the men had taken. There were clear tracks he said going south, further into the forest.

He shook his head. 'It makes no sense,' he said. 'Why would they go this way?'

'For cover,' suggested Ryan.

'But it's difficult terrain,' said Kai. 'And this way they leave an obvious trail, slashing down undergrowth and so on. It's as if they _want_ us to follow them.'

'If they wanted all of us,' said Ryan. 'There were more than enough of them to take us all with them.'

'Like I said,' reiterated Kai. 'It makes no sense.' He shook his head again in perplexity. 'And the gateway is _that_ way.' He pointed west. 'So they aren't planning to leave this world which is odd since they obviously don't come from here. Cesare! Pull yourself together. We have to go after them.'

Cesare had lost his legendary poise on waking to find Valentina missing. He was standing in the clearing staring blankly ahead as if in despair.

'We know she's alive,' said Ryan comfortingly. 'Otherwise, why would they have taken her with them?'

'They didn't kill _any_ of us,' pointed out Kai. 'And they could have, easily.

'Well,' he amended, looking darkly at Ryan, 'at least as far as they _knew_ , they could have.'

Ryan ignored this. 'So, what do they want her for anyway?' she asked. It was the wrong thing to say. Cesare let out a low groan. Vampires know all about abduction and the heinous reasons behind it and, added to that, Cesare was familiar with the behaviour of soldiers.

'No, no,' said Kai impatiently. 'It was planned – that much is obvious. Bellême is behind this. He's trying to slow us down. And it's working too. We're wasting time. Let's get going after them.'

'Bellême!' said Cesare. 'That's worse!' This was incontestable, but Kai brushed it aside.

'Look,' he said, 'it doesn't matter anyway, all that matters is that they have a fifteen minute head start on us now – whoever they are – we have to go!' And he plunged into the undergrowth. The others followed.

After about ten minutes, the reason for the path the soldiers had taken became clear. They hit a dirt track upon which were, clear signs of tyre marks. Only Ryan recognised them.

'Land Rovers,' she said, 'two or three I think,' we'll never catch them now.'

'Planned,' said Kai morosely. 'I told you.'

'Maybe they didn't go far,' said Cesare hopefully. 'We can follow these tracks easily at least...' He trailed off.

'He's right,' said Kai. 'We mustn't give up. But I wouldn't be too hopeful that they haven't gone far. These vehicles go fast, don't they, Ryan?'

Ryan nodded.

'And they wouldn't have used them at all for a short journey,' continued Kai. 'These are trained soldiers, tough men. They would have walked.'

'Still, he added more cheerfully. 'They have to stop sometime, and we can catch them eventually if we keep going.'

All this settled Kai took the lead. There was no logical reason for this now, since they could all see the tyre tracks easily and Cesare was disposed to resent it, but he held his peace for the time being. Ryan had recently revealed herself as a potentially formidable enemy and was likely to come down heavily on Kai's side if he raised a dispute. Besides, this was not the time; Cesare had many faults but he was not petty and a row about status now would only slow them down.

'Actually,' said Ryan as they trudged along the dusty path, 'they can't have gone too far, unless there's a petrol station along this road, which I doubt.'

'Petrol station?' asked Kai.

'To refuel the vehicles,' explained Ryan.

'Oh. And how far can they go on the amount of fuel they can carry?' asked Kai. But Ryan did not know.

'They may carry fuel with them,' said Kai after a little thought. 'I certainly would in an area like this.'

'I hadn't thought of that,' admitted Ryan.

'Still,' she added. 'I still say they couldn't have come from far away, or else how did they know where to find us?'

'Good point,' said Kai. 'They must have been watching us from somewhere close by, which means their base must be nearby too.'

Everyone felt more hopeful after this and Kai stepped up the pace.

They travelled about five miles when the tyre tracks ended abruptly in the middle of the road.

'Did they fly away?' asked Kai puzzled.

Ryan snorted. 'Some tracker you are,' she said. 'They left the vehicles and walked from here, see?' She pointed to some dusty footprints leading away from the tracks and down a side path.

'And the vehicles just evaporated I suppose,' said Kai.

'It's not important what happened to the cars,' said Ryan crossly. 'What matters is that they walked from here, and that means it can't be far now.'

'But the vehicles?' insisted Kai.

'Sod the vehicles,' snapped Ryan. 'Let's go.'

Kai shrugged and followed the footprints away from the area, but he was uneasy. He had a nasty feeling that they were missing something important. Vehicles – of any kind – do not just vanish into thin air.

They had only gone a few hundred yards when Kai stopped them suddenly.

'I don't like it,' he said. 'This isn't right. We have to go back. Those vehicles must be _somewhere_ , why would they just abandon them? I think we're being tricked.'

Ryan sighed, but she knew Kai well enough to know that he would go back alone if she refused, he was rarely this insistent, but when he was there was no arguing with him. So, with a great air of being put upon, she reluctantly turned back.

'I should have examined this area much more carefully,' said Kai when they returned. 'See that?' He pointed to the ground.

Ryan peered down. 'No,' she said eventually. 'What?'

'The ground here has been swept,' said Kai triumphantly. 'Obviously to hide the tracks that carry on _this_ way. Those footprints that led off in the other direction were a ruse.'

'God damn it!' spluttered Ryan. 'They didn't mean to be followed did they? And to think I fell for it too.'

'I bet if we carry on down this road the tracks will miraculously reappear,' said Kai. It was the closest he would come to saying "I told you so" and Ryan appreciated it. It made it easier for her to say: 'I guess you were right,' Kai just grinned.

'What I don't understand is why they didn't at least tie us up if they didn't want to be followed,' he said to change the subject.

'Because if they were going to do that they might as well have killed us outright,' Ryan said.

'So, why didn't they do that?' said Cesare. 'They _were_ soldiers. Soldiers don't usually have a problem with killing people, at least not in my experience.'

'Perhaps they knew who we were, after all,' said Ryan. 'Perhaps they knew they couldn't kill us, at least not all of us anyway, and tying us up wouldn't have held us for long either, so they had to try to fool us by confusing the trail.

'I guess they didn't count on Kai being such a good tracker,' she added.

'It is typical of Bellême to underestimate the abilities of mortals,' said Cesare. 'It's part of his arrogance. But his mistake is our good fortune.' He bowed slightly at Kai.

'Unless it was a double bluff,' said Kai morosely. The tyre tracks had not yet emerged. 'How fast do those vehicles go?' he asked now. 'I mean how far ahead of us would they have been when they did this.'

'Oh a good few hours,' Ryan told him. 'They would have had plenty of time to... there they are!' She pointed down to where there were indeed the dusty imprints of several sets of tyre tracks apparently materializing out of nowhere.

Kai gave a sigh of relief. 'Okay. Let's go.'

Only a few hundred yards further on, the tyre tracks stopped again, but at least this time there was a good explanation for it – they had come to a large gate through which the vehicles had evidently passed.

'I guess this is it,' said Kai. 'So how do we get in?'

But Ryan had already spotted another well-trodden path leading off to the right. 'Back door,' she said.

The "back door" turned out to be a hatch that led underground into a series of tunnels.

'Neat,' said Ryan, her voice echoing slightly

'This looks like the foundations of a castle or fortress of some sort,' observed Cesare.

'Makes sense I suppose,' said Ryan, 'Knowing Talvas... did you hear that?' They all had and they fell silent. Voices were raised, not far away it seemed, although in this place, with its echoing passages, it was hard to tell.

There seemed to be some sort of argument going on. Kai put a finger to his lips to indicate silence and beckoned the others on to follow him toward the voices. But before they reached the source of the noise Cesare noticed a shaft of light coming from a tunnel that appeared to be delved into the side of the passage. It was not a large opening – not a door – but it was large enough to admit a person. He squeezed through. The others followed him. The tunnel was short, and it emerged into small room. The walls were smooth rock, like a natural cavern but squared off, as was the floor, on the walls were flaming torches. There was a door to this room on the far side; it had a small opening with bars set into it – a jail cell. From inside the room the passage that they had entered by was not visible and the soldiers probably did not know about it. It was most likely an ancient escape tunnel dug years ago by some enterprising prisoner. Whether that person had made good his escape was impossible to know, but his tunnel came in handy now. They had found Valentina.

On a large stone slab in the centre of the room she lay with her arms folded across her breast and her eyes open. She was unmoving. Kai gasped with horror, but Cesare could hear her heart beating even from across the room. He hurried over; she was lying unsecured, not even a token attempt had been made to tie her down, and she stared blankly up at Cesare without recognition.

'She's been drugged,' he said. 'Or hypnotised maybe. I don't know.' He grinned, his incisors glinting in the torchlight. 'I can handle this,' he added. 'Keep watch for those soldiers, this may take a few minutes.'

Kai and Ryan never really knew what Cesare did next but vampires are experts at mind manipulation, hypnosis is not even the half of it. He passed his hands over her face several times, frowned and placed a hand to her forehead; then he began to call her name gently until she woke up.

'Cesare?' she cried in surprise.

'Got her,' said Cesare to the others. 'Let's go.' And he lifted Valentina lightly from the slab as if she was no more than a child.

But she protested at this, she could walk she said, it would be faster.

They made their way unchallenged, back down the passage to the hatch and out into the open air. Once they felt safely away, they stopped to rest.

'What did they want with you anyway?' asked Kai with his usual lack of tact.

'Kai!' said Ryan sharply. But Valentina did not seem to mind.

'They kept asking me about a map,' she said. 'They said they were looking for the lost tomb of Tou – he was a god or something I think...'

'Not a god,' said Ryan but Valentina did not seem to hear her. 'I never even heard of him,' she continued, 'but they just kept on and on about it, "where is the map to the lost tomb?" – On and on and they called me Sûla and I told them that it was not my name, that they had the wrong person, but they wouldn't listen. Anyway, I'm glad you found me. They were driving me crazy. They seemed in a real hurry too, kept going on about a curse and how they didn't have much time.' She passed a hand over her eyes wearily. 'What a nightmare, I really think they were lunatics.'

'I don't think so,' said Ryan thoughtfully. 'What do you think they meant by a curse?' she asked.

Cesare snorted. 'Superstition,' he said. 'People of that ilk believe that witches put spells and curses on them – you know kill their cattle, destroy their crops make their auntie ill – all that nonsense.'

'No,' said Valentina thoughtfully. 'I don't think they were worried about that. It seemed more like they thought that _I_ was cursed. They definitely weren't afraid of me.' She turned to Ryan. 'Why,' she asked, 'what do you know?'

Ryan hesitated. 'Not much,' she admitted. 'I certainly don't know about any map or even a tomb, but Tou was the son of Aöeven who was one of the Undying, she was the daughter of Davos the god of the earth and mountains. Tou was not undying himself, but he did have some unusual powers, and when Aöeven finally gave up her throne – she was queen of a small river kingdom – Tou took over power and declared himself a god. Sûla was his wife, and she betrayed him with a young soldier so he divorced her. That's all I know, but it seems that more could be said.'

'It certainly does,' agreed Valentina. 'But why would they think that _I_ was this Sûla?'

'Sûla was a witch,' said Ryan. 'But still I don't know...'

'Why did they hypnotise you?' asked Kai suddenly.

'I don't know,' said Valentina.

'Usually people are hypnotised in order to release knowledge that is buried in the subconscious,' said Ryan. 'Clearly they thought that the information they wanted was in your mind somewhere.'

'The map?' said Valentina.

'Yes, and Sûla might have known about it – she outlived Tou, I believe, although she had a short life for a witch, so she might have known where he was buried too.'

'And they believed that I was Sûla,' said Valentina putting it together.

'How can they?' asked Kai puzzled. 'I thought you said that Sûla was dead.'

'The soul moves on,' said Ryan. 'They obviously believed that Valentina was Sûla in a past life.'

'Hence the hypnosis,' said Valentina. 'I wonder if they found anything out.'

'Probably not,' said Ryan. 'Sûla died over seven thousand years ago. That's a lot of lives to go through. They were probably just getting started.'

'But they knew which life they were looking for,' mused Cesare. 'I mean it wasn't random.' He turned to Valentina. 'I think we should try to emulate their methods, see what they found out. Do you trust me?'

Valentina nodded briskly. 'Of course.'

'Why?' said Kai, impatiently. 'What does it matter to us?'

'Because whatever they wanted to find in the tomb,' said Ryan severely. 'I just bet it wasn't to promote world peace and an end to hunger. Tou wasn't that kind of man.'

'Right,' said Cesare. 'If they weren't up to no good then I'm a werewolf.'

'I just want to know,' said Valentina. 'It's my head after all, if they know what's in it, I want to know too.'

'And what about this curse business?' added Ryan. 'It sounds like the sort of thing Tou might have done to Sûla for betraying him. He was a bloodthirsty bastard you know. He killed the soldier... Soldier... _soldier –_ what does that remind me of?'

'They were soldiers that took me,' pointed out Valentina.

'Yes,' mused Ryan. 'And what would soldiers want in a dusty old tomb...? Oh my God! Tou's army!'

Three heads spun in consternation at Ryan's tone. 'What?'

'Legend said that Tou had the power to create armies out of the earth using a relic that his mother left to him – no one knew what it was – but the armies were said to be invincible. If one soldier fell another would take its place. It may not be true of course. I never heard of him using it. The mere threat of Tou's army was enough to ensure that no other power ever attacked his kingdom but if it were true... Well anyway, it seems likely enough that the relic was buried with him if it really existed. If those soldiers got hold of the relic it would be catastrophic.'

'I expect that's the reason they want it,' said Cesare dryly.

'Oh I doubt they even know what it does,' said Ryan. 'I wonder who's _really_ behind this.'

'You don't think it's Bellême?' asked Cesare in surprise.

'No, not really,' she answered. 'This sort of thing isn't really his style. He prefers working in the shadows, behind the scenes. He's the puppet master. He likes to influence people without their knowledge. And he prefers his violence to be up close and personal, that way he can hear the screaming. Vast armies...? It's just not subtle enough for him. He's more of an assassin than a General.'

'So, who do you think...?' began Kai becoming interested at last.

'I don't know is the point,' said Ryan, 'but it's probably another old one – an Undying. Lots of them hate Talvas. They resent his power and he has built up a large power base over several thousand worlds by now. Someone probably wants to take it away from him.'

'And a jolly good thing too,' said Kai vehemently. ' _Really_ several thousand?'

'Oh yes,' said Ryan. 'You have no idea. But if someone releases Tou's army a lot of innocent people will be killed. There has to be a better way. Besides, can you imagine...? Whoever it is, if they are prepared to go this far, are they any better than Talvas really? A lot of the other old ones are just as power-crazed as Talvas in their own way you know. There's a war going on out there. You just don't see it. A lot of them have tried to topple Talvas in the past, but he's just too good.'

'Blimey! A war between dimensions?'

'Oh yes, it's been raging for centuries. Of course, most of it is carried on by politics; factions joining and so on. But it looks like someone has decided to carry things to the next level. Most likely, it's Petragan – he's the son of Umas. He's very clever and he likes to read and learn about things. He could easily have discovered... I don't think it's Nick, he's quite gentle and he likes to lurk in the shadows too, like Talvas. It could be Aöeven herself of course, but I doubt it, she probably wouldn't need to go to all this trouble to find the tomb, and Naia has always been on Talvas's side, Jáco is too stupid. No, it must be Petragan. Unless it isn't an old one at all. Some of the young ones are getting quite ambitious now.'

'If you've quite finished in memory lane,' said Cesare testily. 'Are we doing this or what? I need quiet.'

'Oh, right, yes, sorry.'

Valentina went under quite easily, and Cesare began to talk softly to her.

'Your name is Sûla,' he told her, and she agreed to it. 'Open your eyes,' he then ordered. She did so. 'Where are you Sûla?'

'In the palace, is that you Marek?'

'Yes,' said Cesare after a moment's hesitation.

Valentina's demeanour changed suddenly as she entered into conversation. 'He took back my marriage ring, Marek. I hate to think what he will do with it.'

'What can he do?' asked Cesare perplexed.

But Valentina only laughed slightly hysterically. 'You must find the map and destroy it,' she said. 'No one must find the tomb. He is dead, they say, but how can he be dead? Gods cannot die. And now... it's up to you my love, make sure no one finds the tomb, I should never have... Destroy the map, promise me you will, before... In three days I die.' She was becoming agitated now. Cesare snapped his fingers, and she sank into a deep sleep from which he awoke her gently.

'It sounds as if she went mad,' said Kai.

'Can you remember anything?' asked Cesare ignoring this.

'Yes, I remember everything now,' said Valentina. 'There is a map room in the palace which shows the way to the hidden tomb. The priests had the tomb built in secret to cover up the fact that their god had died. The official line was that he was coming back one day. But I found out about it. I was still living in the palace after the divorce. Tou wouldn't let me go. He banished Marek and imprisoned me. But when he died, I was free, and I sent for Marek. No, no I'm getting confused. Before he died, Tou cursed me. He said I would die shortly after he did and so I did, but it's worse than that. He cursed my soul unto eternity.' She took a breath and resumed. 'In three days,' she said. 'I will die.'

'I don't understand,' said Kai.

'I do,' said Ryan grimly. 'She means that she will always die on the same day of her life in every lifetime.'

Valentina nodded. 'Before my next birthday,' she said. 'Sûla died on the eve of her – well I'm not telling you how old I am – but it was on the eve of a certain birthday that I am now approaching myself. It was – and is – young to die for a witch. In every life I live, I will die on that same day. Before I died, I sent for Marek to destroy the map room, I guess I knew that I didn't have much time left. I knew that the relic was there. Tou had it buried with him, but there were others who knew about it. The tomb itself is a cursed place. I didn't want him to go in there, just to destroy the map. But he failed. He was killed by the priests before he could reach the map room so it is still there in the palace.'

'And you know where?' asked Kai.

'Yes,' she turned to Cesare. ' _You_ must destroy it,' she said. 'It is your destiny. You must fulfil the promise that you made to me so long ago. This task belongs to you and you alone.'

'Me?'

'I recognised your soul as soon as I saw it,' she said. 'You were Marek. A different face, but the same heart, the same soul.'

'And the in same mess,' put in Kai, tactlessly. But he was right of course. After seven thousand years, it seemed that these star-crossed lovers were back where they started from.

'Is there no way to break the curse,' said Cesare despondently.

'There's no time for that,' said Valentina. 'You must find the map room, I will help you.'

Cesare bowed his head and said no more.

But Ryan had an idea. Kai could tell she had an idea by the look on her face; he drew her to one side.

'What are you thinking?' he asked.

'Don't say anything yet,' she said, 'in case I'm completely wrong, but I think there may be a way to break the curse. But I need to get into that tomb. You see, Valentina said that Tou took back her wedding ring,' she explained. 'In those days a wedding ring was more than a symbol of union, it meant that each had the soul of the other in their keeping. Now, of course in most cases, that wasn't literal but Tou had some pretty weird powers, and he must have kept her ring, the one she gave to him, even though he made her give the one he gave to her back to him. He could have used it to curse her soul. I reckon though, that the curse only lasts as long as he has the ring in his possession.'

'But he's dead, isn't he?'

'Yes, but if the ring is still with his body... Look I just think that if we can find the ring and return it to Valentina then she will regain control of her soul, and its destiny.'

It's a long shot,' said Kai dubiously.

'It's worth a try,' said Ryan. 'But yes, it's a long shot, that's why I don't want them to know what I'm up to, in case it doesn't work.'

'Okay, I'll keep it zipped,' said Kai. 'But how are you going to get it past Cesare?'

'We'll all go to the map room together,' said Ryan, 'and I'll mark the place of the tomb and go back later – alone. He never needs to know.'

'Unless it works,' said Kai. 'And I think I should come with you.'

'If you insist,' said Ryan, but she looked relieved.

Valentina said that the map room was literally that. A topographical map set inside a room, not a room with maps in it. She told them that it lay in a secret passage behind a wall in the priest's chambers of the palace – in the north wing.

She gave them a precise location and instructions on how to open the passage.

'There should be an altar,' she said, 'in front of the wall facing the window. On the front of the altar is a panel depicting Tou the magnificent, you'll be glad to know that you have to smack him hard in the face to open the panel. Inside there should be a lever mechanism to open the wall. But be careful, once you are inside there will probably be deadfall traps protecting the map room. Good luck.'

'We'll need it,' grumbled Kai. 'Deadfall traps nothing. We have to get past all the ruddy soldiers first.'

This time, after they entered the tunnels, they carried straight on; they were heading for the back of the building where Valentina had assured them there was a winding staircase that led directly from the dungeons right up to the priest's chambers, which occupied three floors in the north wing. The top floor contained the reading rooms or library and the altar room, which was what they were heading for. The other floors were apparently sleeping quarters and a refectory, which did not interest them except that it seemed unlikely that the soldiers would not have made use of these areas, so they would have to be careful.

In the bottom of the stairwell, their fears were confirmed, from here they could hear faint but distinct the sounds of voices on the floor above. The stairs were roughly cut into the stone and followed a sweeping pattern, climbing back on themselves. This meant that the stairwell was full of eerie echoes, the voices of the soldiers and the tinny sound of a radio being played bounced off the stone walls and steps all around them. Kai put his finger to his lips – they would have to be very quiet.

With exaggerated care, they began to ascend to the ground floor hoping that the rooms above were behind a door, and they would not be seen passing by. Kai led the way.

They got past the ground floor with no problems, but as they passed that level, they realised that the soldiers were on the first floor as well. From above them, they now heard the sounds of thumping as if someone was using a hammer. Even accounting for the effect of the echoes, it seemed very loud. Ryan tapped Kai on the shoulder and pointed upwards then she drew a question mark in the air. Kai shrugged; he could not imagine what they were doing. Were they in the altar room? He wondered. They did not sound so far away, but with the echoes, it was hard to be sure. He unslung his gun.

As they crept past the second floor, they realised that the echoes had fooled them; there were indeed soldiers on the floor above in the altar room. The second floor was deserted. They steeled themselves; they would have to fight.

Ryan mouthed to Kai. 'Too late?' But Kai shook his head. If they had found the tomb already, he reasoned, then they would not be messing about up here.

They stopped outside the room where the noise was coming from for a moment then burst in. The soldiers were clearly taken off guard; they had been busy hacking the altar to pieces. Obviously, Valentina had not told them its secret, and they were trying to get inside it. They turned at the intrusion and reached for their side-arms.

Kai shocked Ryan immensely by shooting two of them dead before they could even reach their guns. There had been four of them now there were two, but the shots fired might bring more. The remaining three soldiers fired simultaneously two shots hit Cesare in the chest, and one hit Kai in the shoulder, he dropped in pain, but Cesare moved like lightning. With a move that was almost balletic in its elegance, he kicked high at the nearest gun which flew across the room, the he whipped his foot back and kicked the man in the face once, then back again the other way, twice, and back again. It was completely unnecessary; the soldier had already given up when he saw the vampire stalking toward him with two bullet holes in his chest. He had not been trained for this sort of thing. The other soldier was holding his gun out in a shaking hand, swinging it uncertainly between Ryan and Cesare ignoring Kai bleeding on the floor; this was a mistake. Kai was down, but he certainly was not out. As Cesare delivered, his last kick, Kai saw the nervous soldier cock his weapon.Without hesitation he swung his rifle upwards and shot the man between the legs. Ryan locked the door.

Not a moment too soon. The commotion had raised the alarm on the floor below and the sound of many heavily booted feet could now be heard thumping up the stone stairs accompanied by angry shouts.

'Never mind them,' said Kai wincing at the pain in his shoulder. 'Get to the altar.'

'I hope they haven't ruined it,' said Ryan.

They had not; the panel depicting the dead king was intact. Ryan kicked hard at it and the panel slid open. The soldiers were behind the door now kicking hard at it and even firing off shots. Fortunately, the door was made of oak at least two feet deep and solid as a rock, but it would not hold forever.

'Hurry!' shouted Kai. Ryan reached in and yanked the lever. Behind the altar, a loud groaning sound began and, with painful slowness to the frantic people waiting, the wall began to slide sideways revealing a gap about two metres high and only one metre wide; just enough to fit one person at a time. Ryan dived in as the oak door finally began to crack. Cesare followed and then he realised that Kai was not behind him; he turned. Kai was collapsed on the floor, his jacket covered in blood. Cursing, Cesare went back; ignoring Kai's protests, he slung him easily over his shoulder and ran. The door now had a panel missing, not large enough for a man to get through, but certainly large enough for a bullet. Cesare took two more in the back as he pushed Kai through the opening then he dived in after him just as the door came down. The passage was still open, and the soldiers were in the room, Cesare scrabbled frantically at the wall for some sort of lever to close the passage – surely it was not meant to be left open? What kind of a secret passage would that be?

'On the floor,' croaked Kai.

'What?' snapped Cesare.

'The lever,' said Kai. 'It's on the floor.'

Cesare reached down, found it, and pulled it sharply. Several soldiers jumped over the altar and reached the passage just as the doorway began to slide shut. Cesare kicked savagely at the face that appeared in the gap; the man fell back with a cry, and then the door was closed.

The ensuing passage was disappointingly free of the promised traps and deadfalls, and the journey, once they had left the angry shouts of the soldiers behind them, was uneventful.

'Can they get through the door?' wondered Ryan nervously, referring to the soldiers banging on the other side.

'Not a chance,' said Kai shortly. He was losing blood from his shoulder wound and felt curiously short of breath, as if he had a dead weight on his chest that was only getting heavier. But he did not want to complain, time was short.

In retrospect, Kai was not surprised at the ease of the journey through the passage. Priests are not adventurous, and this passage and the map room had been built for their benefit. The entrance to the tomb would be the real test. Now _that_ would be heavily protected he was sure, although he did not know by what. He had never seen an Indiana Jones movie.

'I'm more worried about how we get out,' he said now. 'We can't go back.'

'Don't worry,' said Cesare. 'Priests are, and no doubt, always were, cunning bastards. There's bound to be more than one way out of this rat trap. I don't believe for a single second,' he elaborated, 'that they built this canny little hole in the wall without thinking that it might also prove useful as an escape route in the event of a palace coup or an invasion or something. In those situations, back then, Priests were usually considered expendable and were usually killed as traitors to the new regime. And if priests are anything, they're very good at protecting their own skins.'

The map room was just as Valentina had said. A miniature of the city as it had once been, carved in what looked like marble was laid out in perfect detail on the floor of a large room. And, as Cesare had predicted, there was another exit: several, in fact. The room was bright with sunshine that poured in through several large windows. The effect was breathtaking. But there was no noticeable indication of the location of the tomb. Ryan swore under her breath. She had hoped it would be clearly identifiable as soon as they saw the map, but it was just a map. X most certainly did not mark the spot.

'How shall we destroy it?' asked Cesare. 'It's made of marble, setting it on fire isn't going to work, and marble is very hard to break up.'

'I'm not so sure we have to,' said Ryan cunningly. 'I mean can you tell from this where the tomb is? 'Cause I can't. It's useless. Very pretty but ultimately...'

At that moment, a shaft of sunlight hit a large crystal set in the window behind the city. The beam of light focussed in on an apparently vacant area that Ryan later judged to be about twenty-five metres south east of the palace. Automatically she checked her watch; it was midday. The beam hit the spot for only a few seconds then died as the sun went behind a cloud.

'Hmmm,' said Cesare.

'Okay, okay,' conceded Ryan, but you would have to _know_. Anyway, all we have to do is take out the crystal from the window, that'll render the map useless.'

'Fine,' said Cesare. He broke off a piece of a turret that was cracked across and strode over to the window. While he was levering out the crystal Kai thought it pertinent to draw attention to his condition. He fainted.

Ryan was horrified when she looked at him. He was now covered in blood, and his face was white. 'Why didn't you _say_ something?' she demanded, shaking him awake.

'I didn't like to interrupt,' he said with a weak grin. 'You were doing so well.'

Fool,' she snapped. 'As if I... Oh never mind, get that jacket off.

'I could have dealt with this in a jiff,' she added, probing the wound. 'I do have certain special gifts you know. This won't hurt a bit,' she said with perfect truth.

'Aaaaarrrgh!'

Ryan pulled out the bullet fast, using her fingertips; a feat no ordinary mortal could have accomplished. 'Okay, that's the worst of it over,' she assured him.

He looked sceptically at her.

'No really,' she said. 'Just close your eyes.' She fumbled for her lighter and lit one of the torches that lined the walls. Then she took one of Kai's arrows from his pack. (Kai also carried a crossbow with him at all times.) She then heated the tip of the arrow until it glowed and, without warning him, she thrust the tip into the wound to cauterise it. Kai screamed in pain and passed out again. But when he came round a few minutes later, he found that he felt much better. The bleeding had stopped, and all that remained of his injury was a dull ache in his shoulder.

Meanwhile, Cesare had managed to remove the crystal from the window and was gazing at it in wonder.

'This isn't a crystal,' he said holding it up to the light and turning it reverently. 'It's a _diamond_.'

Ryan was unimpressed. 'Of course it is,' she said, 'so what? You may as well keep it,' she added. 'We're going to have to take it with us anyway. Now smash that window so you can't see where it was and let's get out of here.'

'Is Kai feeling better?' asked Cesare in an unusual bout of consideration.

'Much better thanks,' Kai answered.

'What about the map?' said Cesare. 'Isn't there _anything_ we can do to get rid of it?'

'I don't think so,' replied Ryan. 'Hey look,' she pointed to a small indentation in the centre of the map. 'The diamond would just fit into that,' she said. 'I wonder...' And she snatched the gem from Cesare's hand and placed it in the hole.

'Stand back,' she said, 'if I'm right, it's going to be bad.'

For a few seconds nothing happened and then... Well it was weird. The floor began to soften, the hard stone became like soft mud within matter of seconds, and suddenly Ryan could see why. Water was rising from under the ground and turning the hardened clay floor into a kind of quicksand. Already they were up to their ankles.

'Christ!' yelled Kai. 'Let's get the hell out of here.

Cesare was already on the windowsill; he held out a hand and hauled, first Ryan and then Kai, out of the rapidly sinking floor. From the other side of the window, they watched in awe as the miniature city sank beneath the floor. In time, the floor would harden again, and there would be no sign that the map had ever been there.

'Pity about the diamond,' said Cesare sadly.

It was Ryan who said that they ought to remain in this world until Valentina's birthday. Of course, she had an ulterior motive for this, but it made sense in any case, and Valentina said that she wanted stay here so that she could be with... until the end.

They booked into a small inn. Kai had to barter his crossbow to pay the bill. They took two rooms. Ryan wanted to be able to come and go freely with Kai without Cesare and Valentina knowing about it. She intended to slip out that very night and search for the tomb. Time was running short.

'We're going the wrong way,' said Kai. Ryan snorted and was about to carry on regardless when she had second thoughts. Kai was good at this sort of thing; it was why she had brought him. Not only was he a good tracker but he also had an inherent sense of direction, trained and refined by years of living on the land. He had natural senses that most of us never knew we had, and have long since lost under the burden of our reliance on modern technology. Kai could hear a distant nightingale and tell you which tree it was in. So she stopped.

'Which way are we going?' she asked first. It was necessary to be explicit with Kai sometimes as he could be maddeningly literal. Information had to be gathered in steps.

'South,' said Kai positively.

Ryan frowned. 'But surely that's right,' she said.

'No, we need to go south east,' said Kai.

'Why?'

'Because of the marsh,' said Kai irritatingly.

'What marsh? No, never mind,' she added hurriedly. 'I'll take your word for it. So why, er...'

'We have to go south east to avoid the marsh,' said Kai. 'Then turn and approach the tomb from the east.'

Ryan shrugged. How he knew there was a marsh in front of them was beyond her, but she had no doubt he was right. They turned south east.

Even approached from the east the land around the site of the tomb was boggy and they sank up to their ankles several times before they found the cover stone.

It was a flat, yellow stone laid on the ground in a haphazard fashion; it bore no markings of any sort.

'Are we sure this is it?' said Kai puzzled. 'Tombs are usually marked with... Well you would expect _something_ anyway.'

'This is the spot,' said Ryan. 'Besides, this is just a trapdoor to the tomb I expect. Cleverly disguised as a random piece of fallen masonry, remember the priests hid the tomb. I expect it's a lot more impressive once you get inside. Here, help me lift it.'

Kai was sceptical, but he obliged by hefting the heavy stone up on its end. The result was disappointing to Ryan but not entirely unexpected to Kai. He had thought it would not be so easy. Under the stone was just an area of flattened grass such as you might expect under a heavy stone. On the other hand...

'How long did you say this had been here?' he asked.

'Seven thousand years,' said Ryan.

'Then how come this grass isn't dead?' said Kai.

'How should I know?' said Ryan irritably. 'What does it matter?'

'No, it _does_ matter,' said Kai. 'Because this stone has only been here a short while, someone has moved it here recently.'

Ryan got the point. 'Moved from where?' she said.

'Can't be far away,' said Kai looking around.

'So there might be someone already in the tomb?' said Ryan. 'The soldiers?'

'I doubt it,' said Kai. They hadn't found the map room when we got there, had they?'

'Then who?'

'Does it matter?' said Kai. 'Whoever it is, we can deal with them when we get in there.'

'Got to find the entrance first,' pointed out Ryan.

'There!' said Kai pointing at a small opening in the side of a grassy mound. Clearly, the stone they had found had been removed from the gap.

Inside was a shallow passage that sloped gently downwards for about a hundred yards taking them under the earth; then it stopped suddenly at a set of stairs leading straight down.

'Be careful,' said Ryan. 'If there are any traps down here, this is where they'll start.' She tested every step carefully before treading on it; it was the fifth step that was booby-trapped. Suddenly the stairs folded up under each other and became a slide sending Ryan and Kai hurtling to the bottom. They landed quite softly on dirt and Kai laughed in relief.

'Well, that wasn't so bad,' he said

'It'll get worse,' said Ryan grimly. And she pointed to a square patch of subtly different stone laid on the floor before them; it was barely noticeable. Ryan squinted at it suspiciously.

'What do you think?' she asked.

'I think it's a diversion,' said Kai. 'A trick.'

'So do I?' said Ryan. 'It's too obvious. The question is...'

'Run!' yelled Kai suddenly. Behind them, large chunks of ceiling were falling. They ran along the passageway and dived though an opening at the end into a cave. When they looked back from the relative safety of the cave mouth, they saw that the passage behind them was completely blocked.

'Oh _shit_!' spat Ryan in frustration. 'We're trapped!'

'We should have stepped on the block,' said Kai.

'Clearly,' said Ryan sourly. 'It was a delay device, like punching in a code to stop an alarm that's already been activated. I never thought of that. It makes sense I suppose. The traps are automatic, and only someone who knows the "codes" can turn them off.

'Oh well,' she shrugged. 'Hindsight!'

'So whoever is in here knows the "codes" as you call it,' said Kai, he was unhappy about this.

But Ryan had something else on her mind. 'Hindsight...' she mused, 'hmmm, I wonder...'

'What are you twittering about?' said Kai impatiently.

'Hindsight,' said Ryan. 'You might say that's it's my speciality.'

'What?'

'I can turn back my own time,' she said. 'If I go through on my own, I can learn from my mistakes and then take you through by remembering what I haven't done yet, if you see what I mean.'

'No.' said Kai.

'I'll go through to the tomb, and when I've learned how to do it, I'll send myself back and...'

Oh!' said Kai suddenly enlightened.

'What?'

'I've just realised who is in there already,' said Kai, he was laughing.

'You have?' Ryan was perplexed. 'Who?'

'It's you!' said Kai.

Ryan stared and then she too began laughing. 'Of course,' she said. 'You must be right. Who else could it be? It must have been me who removed the stone from the entrance too.'

Kai snapped his fingers. 'Right!'

'Okay, well, wait here,' said Ryan.

'Will this take long?' asked Kai.

'Hell no,' said Ryan. 'As far as you're concerned I'll be back in a few seconds.' And she went across the cave to the far exit and disappeared into the darkness beyond.

It was literally the same moment when she reappeared behind him looking dusty and dishevelled.

'Boy,' she said. 'That cover stone was a bitch to move on my own.'

Valentina had wandered into Cesare's part of the room – he was closeted in a small dressing area behind a screen where he had placed an armchair and was attempting to sleep. He looked up in surprise when Valentina called his name softly.

'Cesare,' she said, 'I'm afraid.'

Immediately Cesare was on his feet and had his arms around her. 'I know,' he said.

'Stay with me,' she asked him.

Cesare nodded. 'I am with you,' he told her.

'Until the end,' she said.

'Don't,' he said in a weird choky voice.

She looked up into his face and gave a strange smile. 'I love you Cesare,' she admitted at last. 'I always have. I just want my last hours to be spent in your arms.'

Cesare found that, for once, he had nothing to say.

Ryan led Kai into the tomb through a series of dusty passages telling him. 'Step where I step and stop whenever I tell you to.'

Occasionally she would stop suddenly without warning and push a block of stone into a wall or pull a lever, but she never bothered explaining what would happen if she didn't.

'You don't want to know,' she said when Kai asked her. Eventually they stopped at a walkway.

'Aha,' she said. 'Now this is where it gets tricky. It took me three attempts to get this right. It's not like the others. This is a proper trap – just before the tomb.' She pointed down at her feet. 'See the slabs – all lettered.'

The slabs were indeed engraved with symbols of some kind, but Kai did not recognise them as letters that he knew. He said so.

'Exactly,' said Ryan. 'They aren't bloody letters at all. That was the mistake I made at first. I thought they were the old Arabic alphabet, but they aren't. They just look like it.'

'What are they then?' asked Kai

'Just look at them,' said Ryan. 'It'll come to you.'

'Ryan, do we have time for this?'

'We'd better,' said Ryan, 'because it's different for everybody. You have to work it out for yourself.' And so saying, she danced across the walkway in a series of hops, steps and jumps and waited for him on the other side.

Kai concentrated. 'Can't you give me a clue?' he wailed.

'No,' said Ryan. 'I don't want to bias your thoughts. What I see in the pattern is not what you'll see.'

There was a clue right there, thought Kai, a pattern eh? He frowned and suddenly he saw it. The symbols were numbers, just ordinary numbers from one to twenty one, but all jumbled up. How had he not seen that before? He stepped gingerly on to the number one; it held so he brought his other foot up and stepped firmly on the slab. Then he looked around for number two.

Once he was across, Ryan asked curiously. 'What did you see?'

'Numbers,' he said. 'The slabs are just numbered I can't imagine why I didn't see it at first.'

'You weren't supposed to,' said Ryan. 'It's like a Rorschach test. It mirrors the mind of the person looking at it. Most people would only see nonsense because that's what they expect. The real pattern is only revealed if you relax your mind and let it come and even then, it's not the same for everybody. I saw parts of a picture all jumbled up – yours was easier. I guess I like to make life difficult for myself.'

Kai looked back at the puzzle floor. It looked like it had before – utterly mysterious. 'It's reset itself,' he said.

'It never changed,' said Ryan. 'Only the way you viewed it changed. Damn clever really. Come on, the inner sanctum of old Tou's in here.'

It was a large chamber, lit with what, had he not known better, Kai would have thought were electric fairy lights from a Christmas tree. Tou's coffin was an imposing affair stood upright like a sarcophagus in the centre of the room and twinkling in the lights with hundreds of jewels encrusted all over the surface of it.

'Yuk,' said Kai. 'It's horrible.'

'Yeah,' said Ryan. 'Really tacky, I know. Old Tou was a bit like that, if I remember. Had to be the most dazzling sight in the room, even his own tomb.'

'Where's the relic?' asked Kai. 'I don't see anything.'

'Hmm, it's probably in a secret recess of the wall somewhere,' said Ryan. 'Switch on your torch and let's have a look around.'

But the tomb was completely empty.

'Any idea what we're looking for?' asked Kai fruitlessly probing along the wall of the chamber.

'Not really,' she answered. 'Forget it, there's nothing here. It was obviously just a myth. Let's get the coffin open and see if he's wearing the ring. Then we can get out of here.'

They heaved open the lid (which was really a door, since the coffin stood upright) of Tou's last resting place and peered inside.

'Bloody hell!' said Kai.

When Cesare awoke as the first streaks of dawn were spreading across the sky, the first thing he realised was that he could not hear anything. At first, he did not notice anything particularly odd about this until he realised what sound was missing. Valentina's heart was no longer beating.

At that moment, Ryan appeared in the room with Kai behind her.

Cesare looked up bleakly. 'She's dead,' he said.

Ryan's face fell. 'Oh no,' she said quietly. 'Well at least we can do this for her,' she said, and she crossed the room and placed a gold ring on Valentina's finger.

'At least now,' she said, 'the curse is broken. She will be free in her next life even though it was too late to save her in this one.'

'I don't understand,' said Cesare. 'But I have faith in you, if you say this thing is so then I am content.' Then he bent down and kissed Valentina on the forehead. 'Until we meet again my love,' he said.

Kai led him into the next room.

'We opened the coffin, and there was only an urn inside,' Kai was saying.

'The urn had a warning on it,' continued Ryan, 'which said that these were the sacred ashes of the god Tou and from these ashes would rise a deathless army if the ashes were sown into the ground. In other words, scattered, I suppose.'

'Well, we couldn't resist having a look,' resumed Kai. 'And it's a good job we did, because the rings were inside.'

We figured the smaller one was Sûla's ring, but we took both just in case,' said Ryan. 'The rings were engraved, but we couldn't read them in the gloom of the tomb so we took them outside to determine which was the right one. It was the smaller one of course.' She sighed. 'I only wish we'd been in time. I'm sorry Cesare.'

'But you must not be sorry,' said Cesare. 'Even so, you have done a great thing, and it was not your fault that the curse was laid upon her. I am sure that she would be grateful for what you have done. She told me herself that what she feared most was not death – for that is only temporary – but rather that she was doomed to live less than half a life over and over again. That she would never, in any lifetime, have time to accomplish anything of value or merit. That terrible fate, you have now averted. Yes, I think she would be grateful indeed.'

The door opened softly behind him, and a familiar voice suddenly said. 'What are we all talking about?'

Ryan determined that the ring had been returned before Valentina's soul had left her body, thus giving her back the control over her destiny before it was too late. But the truth was, they would never really know.

'And what are we going to do with Tou's deathless army?' asked Kai holding up the urn.

'Chuck 'em on the fire,' said Ryan.

## Chapter Twenty Nine – Standing On The Void

'It's taking a long time to get there this time,' remarked Jez.

'I know,' said Johnny. 'I can't understand it. We should be there by now I think.'

Jez thought that Johnny himself was the cause of the delay. His clear reluctance to reach his long sought goal, now that it was in sight might be leading him to, perhaps unconsciously, sabotage his efforts. After all, this was his program.

Jez did not want to get there either, but on the other hand, neither did she want to spend the rest of her life in this smelly, cramped space. Best they just get there and make an end of it. She said so.

Johnny nodded. 'It's not me,' he averred, as if he had read her thoughts. 'There's something pushing against us, trying to keep us out and I sense – this is going to sound ludicrous – but I sense... fear.'

'I'm not surprised,' muttered Jez. 'If that Bellême has good intentions then I'm Snow White.' Johnny heard this and laughed.

'That you certainly are not,' he commented. 'More like Darth Vader,'

'Piss off,' she replied, but without venom.

The ship lurched suddenly and surged forward. 'Ah,' said Johnny. 'We appear to have broken through some kind of barrier.' He looked out with a puzzled air. 'Er...'

He tapped furiously at the console. 'That's weird,' he said in the voice of one pretending to be a lot calmer than he really was.

'What is?'

'Where is it?'

'Where's what?'

'The world. It's not here.'

'Well, we're not there yet.'

'Yes we are. Or at least we should be according to the readout. We should be able to see it dead ahead, but there's nothing there.'

'You mean it's _gone_?'

'Or it's not there yet.'

'Huh?'

'I think... Wait a minute. I thought I saw something.'

'What?'

'Be quiet,' snapped Johnny testily. 'Something's wrong.'

The ship lurched again, this time to a sudden stop. Then the universe imploded.

'What happened?'

'This is the beginning,' said Johnny in a voice not his own. 'This is nothing, the nothing before the universe began. The real beginning

'Well, it's a good job we're only data then,' said Jez. 'What happened to the ship?'

'It doesn't exist yet. Neither do we.'

'Oh really! Then why am I panicking?'

The world – for want of a better word – was just empty space, nothing but empty space – forever. It bore down on them, a great sucking void of infinite. Nothing had ever existed, and, from the point of view of the infinite, nothing would ever exist. Until it did.

There was no colour, but because humans cannot think like that, Jez saw it as pale blue.

Johnny saw it as nothing. He was not entirely human.

'I think I hate this,' said Jez.

Johnny said nothing. He was wondering where to put his thumb.

Talvas rubbed his hands together in delight. He had not been mistaken in the boy. He was there, soon it would be done, it would be over – that is to say, it never would have been. He sat back contentedly in his chair and waited for the infinite to sweep over him.

Suddenly the world gave a lurch, and Talvas was jerked backwards into his past. Then everything went black.

Black is technically a colour.

Johnny eyes were glowing eerily. Jez's panic reached near epic proportions. Her sense of impending doom was crushing her. Bowing her down under its weight. Her, always accurate, personality evaluator was flashing alert-one and climbing. Johnny was about to do something _really_ stupid – she could tell. Jez knew a God complex when she saw one. She plucked agitatedly at his sleeve.

'Johnny!'

He turned to look at her, but his eyes only reflected her own face. He was not really seeing her at all – or hearing her. He was watching some internal vision miles away and light years ago – from her. She tried again.

_'Johnny_! What are you _doing_? It feels like – like...' She trailed off; there were no words for what she was feeling. It was as if the world was slipping away – memory was disappearing – experience fading. A whole history, far vaster than she was even aware that she knew, was being removed from her consciousness. And she knew enough to know that Johnny was doing it. She had never found the idea of oblivion frightening before – not being a religious type, she had never expected anything else after she died. Now she understood what oblivion really meant, the horrible emptiness of nothing, and it terrified her – a true primal terror. She felt the shriek rising in her chest. She suppressed it with an effort of will that she had not known she possessed. If she started to scream, she knew that she would never stop.

In the world of the spirits and guardians, Ryan felt it too, the slipping away of the worlds. She gasped suddenly.

'We have to hurry,' she said. 'It's almost too late.'

The others, struck by sudden panic, which they could not identify, began to run.

'There!' yelled Kai pointing to a small opening in the rock face. Ilsa swallow dived through and vanished Kai gasped in sudden pain and followed hurriedly.

He recognised the forest covered cliff face of the other world immediately. SCI'ON.

The others tumbled after him nearly knocking him off his feet. 'Hey...!' he began indignantly then he fell suddenly silent.

Cesare began to apologise then his mouth fell open in shock.

'What are you...?' began Valentina. Ryan nudged her, and she stared.

Coming slowly toward them through the trees was a man. Tall, handsome and imposing, neither old nor young but merely ageless in the way a rock is ageless or the sun.

Ryan recognised him, although the eyes of the others were too dazzled to make out his face clearly, although they could, paradoxically, see him perfectly well. She stepped forward.

'What have you done?' she demanded.

Jez fought the impulse to scream at Johnny. She took him by the shoulders and forced him to look at her.

'Johnny please. Don't do this,' she said as calmly as she could. 'You can't just take it all away.'

Johnny smiled distantly. 'I can,' he said simply. 'It's too easy.'

The coldness of his answer chilled her, as if it did not matter any more than the deleting of a computer program. And perhaps to him, it did not, not anymore. But at least she had his attention now. She pressed this small advantage.

'But you shouldn't,' she urged. 'Please Johnny, this isn't you, this isn't who you are. I _know_ you.'

'You never knew me, no one ever knew me. _I_ never knew me.'

'Bollocks!' said Jez angrily. 'Don't be so bloody pretentious. You're Jonathan Matthew Hammond. Computer nerd, impossibly handsome, completely irritating and the only person I ever met who is completely without personal vanity. And my best friend – at least, I _thought_ you were.'

Johnny blinked. 'Friend?'

Jez thought she saw an opening here. 'Yes, dammit!' she snapped. 'Friend. If you destroy everything, then that includes me. Is that what you want?'

This time Johnny looked properly at her. Then he waved a hand vaguely.

'All wrong,' he muttered. 'All corrupt – it never should have been. It didn't work.'

'What about all the good things?' asked Jez, feeling, even as she did so, like a character in a bad movie. The cynical core of her being could not help it. There was a part of her that agreed with him. She pressed on regardless.

'Music, Art, _Chocolate_! Sex. Sex _and_ Chocolate!'

Johnny actually smiled a normal smile – that was so typical of Jez.

Encouraged, Jez continued. 'Um... TV, Books, _COMPUTERS!_ ' she yelled triumphantly. Jez was floundering now, but Johnny seemed to, marginally, be coming back from wherever he had been.

'Er, Lara Croft,' she continued. 'Family, friends, love. What about your mum? Do you want her never to have been?'

Johnny shook his head slowly. 'It doesn't matter,' he said adamantly.

'The beach, the fairground, you were going to get a dog – remember? What about me? I'm _afraid_ , Johnny. Don't you even _care_?' She sagged. 'You know you're right,' she said suddenly. 'It doesn't matter. But... but... the _world_ Johnny, the whole world, _all_ the worlds, everything out there – that's a miracle. The bad and the good. The yin and the yang. Think about _that_.'

Johnny thought about it. Then he thought about war, famine, cruelty, torture, ethnic cleansing, and slavery. Child murderers, eleven-year-old prostitutes in Bangkok. The Atom Bomb, Hitler and the Holocaust. The Holy inquisition, the Witch burnings in Plymouth and Salem. Centuries upon centuries of iniquities piled up on one another.

He smiled and stretched out a hand into nothing.

Jez screamed...

## Chapter Thirty – SCI'ON

Talvas smiled serenely. ' _I_ have done nothing,' he said calmly.

'Who _has_?' riposted Ryan, not to be put off by mere irritating fact.

'The boy,' said Talvas annoyingly.

'What are you doing here?' asked Cesare. 'I thought you couldn't get into SCI'ON.'

'This is not SCI'ON,' said Talvas. 'The boy is there. It is not a place, it is only the beginning. This world was named for it only as an honour, as the first world that sprang into being. As for me, I do not know why I am here. I certainly did not intend it.'

'Who is he?' snapped Ryan.

'I believe his name is _Johnny_ ,' said Talvas with a shrug that seemed to indicate his thoroughgoing contempt for the universe's lack of appropriate gravitas. 'I appreciate that it is not exactly an imposing name but...' He shrugged again.

'Who cares about his name?' interrupted Kai, 'or even who he is. I want to know why. Why you did this. You must be insane.'

'Regrettably,' agreed Talvas. 'You try living fifteen thousand years and see how you stand up to it. This was the only way out. I cannot die.'

'I wish you could,' snarled Kai. 'I'd kill you no problem.'

'I wish you could,' said Talvas amiably. 'Alas...' He shrugged again.

'There were others who felt the same way, weren't there?' said Ryan.

'Yes. Many of us,' said Talvas. 'Your kinsman Nicodemus was with us at one time, but he betrayed us, almost to our ruin, but the girl cannot stop us now. It's too late.'

'So she _wasn't_ supposed to go with him then?'

'Her? No. We had her watched to keep her out of the way. As soon as I saw her, I knew she'd be trouble. It was working too, until Nick changed his mind.'

_'Nick_?' said Ryan, suddenly sidetracked. 'I'm not related to him.'

'You mean you didn't know?' said Talvas. 'Your Granddaddy was a bad boy back in the day it seems. You never found that out? Still it doesn't matter now.'

'Where is he?'

'I have dealt with him. The fool. He was set to watch the girl, but he failed in his task. He came to me bleating about having found love, with a mortal no less, ha! Once she died, as she inevitably must, he would have found the emptiness of the world far worse than it had been before. I have done him a favour. She went with the boy. As never should have been. But she can't stop us now. In fact, I don't doubt that she is already dead.'

... And Johnny stepped backwards.

The universe reverberated to the sound of Jez's scream. Talvas rocked on his heels.

'Oh no, no, no, no, no,' he screeched. 'Back at the beginning. _That_ is why I was brought here. _She_ has done this! I knew she was dangerous.'

'What's he talking about?' wondered Kai aloud.

Ryan was laughing softly. 'Ah,' she said. 'The best laid plans of mice and men.'

'Poor Talvas,' she continued. 'He forgot that the boy had _my_ blood in him too.'

'But,' said Valentina, pulling her scattered wits together, 'what has happened?'

'Watch,' said Ryan.

* * *

The stars wheeled overhead. Matter exploded into being, space free-floated around them, the planets were formed. It was frightening to be in the midst of it, but still Jez felt an unaccountable sense of deep relief. Even if she did not survive this, at least there was a 'this' to die of.

Johnny caught her hand laughing and suddenly they were in deep water fighting to the surface. Then the water was gone and they were in a bleak landscape – but at least there was air.

'Nice scream,' said Johnny. 'Not exactly what I would have used to call the universe into being but it might work out pretty well. You never know.'

Jez could only gape at him.

'What happened?' she managed eventually.

'Life.'

'But what did _you_ do? I thought...'

'Hmmm, I'm not sure I can explain it really. I sort of rebooted the universe. Everything is now back to the start of the program, that is to say, the beginning of time.'

Jez thought about this. 'Then how come we are still here?'

'Because we are in SCI'ON. SCI'ON _is_ the beginning.'

Johnny explained further. 'I moved us back in time, and then you screamed,'

'But I thought we were _already_ at the beginning,' said Jez, puzzled.

'Yes, like I said it's difficult to explain.' He thought for a moment. 'SCI'ON is the beginning,' he said. 'But it's a place – as well as a time. It's always there. The moment when the universe sprang into being.' I just moved us back in time, like I did in that world where the paradox had caused a time loop. The whole history of the world is a time loop. It's just a really, really big one.'

'I've heard about that,' said Jez trying to keep up. 'You mean like, time ends and then begins again. Everything that happens has happened before sort of thing?'

'Exactly. But I could have stopped it from doing that if I had ended time before it was due, if I had destroyed the beginning, which was exactly what Bellême wanted me to do.' He became sombre suddenly. 'And I would have too, if it wasn't for you.'

'What did _I_ do?'

Johnny grinned. 'What you always do,' he said, 'talked me out of it.'

He became thoughtful. 'I don't think you were supposed to be there. I think maybe Bellême believed that you wouldn't be able to survive the void.'

'Why did I?'

Johnny shrugged. 'Beats me.'

'Oh? I thought you knew everything.'

'If I knew everything, I'd know why I keep putting up with you.'

Jez punched him. 'Because I'm wonderful,' she told him, feeling happier. There was something infinitely comforting in the idea that Johnny was at a loss about _something_. Particularly as she had an idea what the answer might be. The world made sense again.

'Why would Bellême want you to end the universe?' she mused.

'Why don't we go and ask him?' said Johnny.

'Here?' He's _here_?'

* * *

'Why did we come all this way?' asked Kai. 'If there was nothing we could do anyway?'

'Fate,' said Ryan enigmatically. 'This is the only world there is for now. If we were not here, we would be nowhere.'

Kai digested this. Then he started up in horror. 'But... Mac and Mica they... they're...?

'They will be born in their due time in this cycle of the universe. And they still exist somewhere, in the previous cycle. But we cannot reach them again, not from here. We are now in the new cycle. It could have been a lot worse. It might _all_ have ended. This is better. Perhaps their next life will be happier, who knows.'

'I still don't understand.'

'I can put it no more plainly than that we were all _meant_ to be here. The purpose may never become known to us. I am not master of the fates of the world. Christ man, what do you want from me?' she added in more characteristic fashion.

'Where's Talvas?' said Cesare suddenly before Kai had a chance to answer this.

'Oh bloody _hell_!' said Ryan. 'I only took my eye off him for a second. Where the hell has he gone?'

'I'd quite like to know that myself,' said a voice behind them. It was Johnny.

'You're Ryan?' he asked.

She nodded. 'And you are Johnny, yes? I expect you have questions,' she said.

'Just a few – million.'

Ryan laughed. 'First we must find Talvas – and the others and deal with them.'

'Others?' said Jez.

'I believe you, at least, have met some of them,' said Ryan. 'Nick for instance.'

'Nick?' Jez gasped. ' _Here_?'

'So I believe.'

'They could be anywhere,' groaned Johnny. 'We'll never find them.'

Valentina had been starring at Johnny with her mouth open in a manner more uncouth than she had ever before employed. Cesare was experiencing jealousy for the first time in his long life, and Kai, seeing this, was vastly amused by this. But he was also feeling wary of this young man. He still viewed him as the enemy that they had been pursuing across the multiverse. After all, the man _had_ tried to destroy creation, even if he had not actually known that that was what he was going to do. Who knew, maybe he would try to do it again.

However, the first thing to do was to find Talvas. 'I know where they are,' he ventured. 'I'm Kai,' he said as Johnny turned to look at him.

'How do _you_ know where they are?' asked Johnny, eschewing all such pleasantries.

'Because I've been here before.' He turned to Ryan. 'The underground prison,' he said, 'on the other side of the mountain.' He pointed. 'I bet that's where he's hiding.'

'I bet that's where he's keeping Nick too,' said Ryan. 'I begin to see a pattern here.'

'How do we get over there?' asked Jez.

'I know this place,' said Ryan. 'It's the Topaz Mountain. I built it.'

_'You_ built it?' said Jez incredulously. 'You _built_ it? It's a _mountain_!'

'I _knew_ this place was too big to be a natural formation,' said Kai.

'All the undying built mountains here,' said Ryan. 'It was a way to pass the centuries. Talvas built a mountain of pure diamond – show off!'

'Jesus!' said Cesare.'

'Undying?' asked Jez.

'It's a long story,' said Ryan. 'The point is I know the way to the other side.'

'First,' said Johnny, I think we need to hear some of this "long story". For instance...'

Ryan shook her head. 'There is no time for lengthy explanations...' she began.

'But...' interrupted Johnny.

_'But,'_ continued Ryan firmly, 'I was going to say – they will not be needed. Give me your hand.'

Bemused Johnny did so. Ryan took Kai's knife from her belt and slashed his palm. Then, she did the same to her own and grasped his bloody hand in hers. 'Blood to blood,' she muttered. 'Mind to mind. Remember.'

Jez rolled her eyes. 'Very Vulcan,' she muttered _sotto voce._

And Johnny did remember. His mind reeled with the memories of generations. He staggered backwards for a second then recovered himself.

'I see,' he said. 'So...?'

'Now you know,' said Ryan.

'I think...' began Kai. Then the ground began to shake.

'Okay, No more time to think,' said Johnny. 'He's destroying SCI'ON. We have to stop him.'

'Oh God!' breathed Ryan. 'It will be the end.'

'What do you mean?' asked Jez. 'What does she mean?' She appealed to Johnny.'

'This is the only world there is,' said Johnny. 'We're at the beginning of time remember? This is my fault. I made it possible for him to do this. I never thought of this.'

'You couldn't have known,' said Ryan comfortingly.

'Oh, so this was his backup plan?' said Jez. 'I should have guessed. Villains _always_ have a backup plan.'

'I think it was more of an afterthought,' said Ryan. 'He never expected to come here.'

'That's what he told you anyway,' snorted Kai, falling to his knees as the ground gave a shudder.

'I can stop him,' said Johnny. 'Show me the way.'

A great piece of the mountain slid away in front of them. 'We'll never make it in time,' said Ryan despairingly.

'Ahem!' said Cesare. He was ignored. Everyone was shouting.

'What do you mean, that's what he _told_ us?' said Ryan to Kai.

'Well, he's not exactly known for his veracity,' pointed out Jez.

'That's right,' said Kai uncertainly. He wasn't sure what veracity meant. 'If you remember, Stigers told _us_ that Talvas _wanted_ the girl to go with the boy, which means...'

'That he may have planned it this way all along,' finished Ryan.

'It doesn't matter now,' said Johnny, 'whether he planned it all along or whether it was an afterthought or a backup plan. What matters is stopping him. I need to get to him. Now!'

'It's too far...' began Ryan.

'Hey!' Cesare tried again.

'How did _you_ get there?' Johnny asked Kai.

'Er guys –' said Cesare.

'Dirigible,' said Kai, 'across the gorge.'

'You flew?'

'Well we can't fly now,' said Jez.

_'I_ can!' said Cesare. Five pairs of eyes turned to stare at him. 'That's what I've been trying to tell you,' he said crossly. 'I _am_ a vampire – I can take you all across the gorge quite easily. Of course you only have my word for it.' And he grabbed Ryan by the arm and floated a few feet from the ground.

'Oooh,' she said, 'it's like flying.'

Contrary to expectations, Ryan was not dangling from the vampire's arm, but appeared to be free floating in the air beside him.

'Just don't let go,' said Cesare. 'Otherwise you'll drop like a stone.'

'This could work,' said Johnny excitedly. 'How many of us can you carry at once?'

'All of you,' said Cesare. 'Just all grab hands – it's like pins and magnets. As long as you all hold on to each other, only one of you need hang on to me.'

Ryan reached down and took hold of Kai's hand. Immediately, he floated up beside her.

'Cool!' he said before he could stop himself. He took Johnny's hand. 'Come on then wonder boy,' he said. 'Let's get this show on the road.'

Johnny reached out for Jez who hung back nervously, just long enough to let Valentina get to Johnny's hand before her.

'Come on Jez,' Johnny urged. 'It's easy.'

Jez shook her head. 'I-I don't think I can,' she whimpered. But just then, a strong hand reached down and grabbed her shoulder. Cesare had turned around and taken hold of her with his free hand.

'We all go together,' he insisted, giving Valentina a black look. 'I promise not to drop you. Now, are we all ready?'

Like a chain of paper dollies, they drifted across the chasm. Jez closed her eyes immediately and refused to open them until they had landed on the other side and even the bravest of them felt a qualm as they all passed over the deepest part of the ravine. Only Cesare was calm. It all took less than five minutes, but to Jez it was the longest journey of her life. When they landed, she was shaking, and it was only by a great effort of will that she prevented herself from throwing up.

Johnny, on the other hand, was jubilant. He turned to Kai.

'Okay,' he said. 'Where's this dungeon?'

The grey building that had been on the cliff face on Kai's original visit was gone. But the trapdoor that had lain underneath was still there, hidden partly by undergrowth.

'In there.' He pointed. 'He's down there, I'm sure of it.'

'Right!' said Johnny with a determined air.

'What are you going to do when you find him?' asked Valentina in an awed voice. Having met Talvas in person, she couldn't imagine anyone taking him on willingly, let alone eagerly.

Johnny paused. 'Er, I'll know when I see him,' he said at last. 'I mean, I'll just – know. You know?'

Jez snorted. Johnny ignored her and attempted to raise the trapdoor; it refused to budge.

Kai stepped forward. 'Here, let me,' he said. He shunted Johnny out of the way and tugged hard and fruitlessly at the stone ring. Then he and Johnny tried it together. Eventually Cesare took a hand, but even the three of them together were unable to move the door even the merest fraction of an inch. They stood back panting hard.

'Dammit!' yelled Johnny in frustration.

'It's very strange,' said Kai. 'I had no trouble opening it before, and I was on my own then.'

'Maybe if we had a lever,' muttered Johnny.

Valentina came forward to look at the hatch. 'There have been witches here,' she announced. 'The doorway has been sealed with a spell. No strength of men will move it, even if we had a hundred strong warriors.'

'Hell!' said Ryan. 'I forgot that Talvas had been using witches.'

'Didn't mean to leave anything to chance did he?' said Kai grimly.

Johnny swore and punched a tree. It fell over.

Ryan said calmly 'Can you break the spell?'

'Yes, but it may take some time.'

'We haven't _got_ time,' said Johnny. As if to confirm his words, the ground gave a shudder. Jez let out a low moan. Johnny turned to her.

'Jez...' But he was driven back by the sudden appearance of Kemaro, snarling fiercely.

As if in response, Varis appeared between them and brandished her sword threateningly.

'No,' said Johnny. And Varis stood back. 'Jez?' said Johnny cautiously. 'What's wrong?'

'Do we have time for this?' snapped Kai, who was the first to realise what they were seeing.

'Maybe,' said Valentina, catching up with events. 'These are their guardians, yes? If we can all see them here then maybe...' she closed her eyes and concentrated. Nikita appeared suddenly.

'Wait,' said Kai, 'we can see them in _any_ world?'

'Of course,' said Jez. Kemaro's sudden appearance seemed to have calmed her down. 'Didn't they tell you that?'

'No,' said Valentina thoughtfully. 'We met no people of that world while we were there. You know, with Nikita's help I should be able to break the spell much faster.' She knelt down beside the hatch and the others drew away respectfully. From a slight distance, they could hear Valentina and Nikita talking together in low voices but could not discern any words.

At last Valentina said. 'Aha!' in triumphant tones. Then, in slightly more urgent tones she cried. 'Stand back!' Just as the hatch rose of its own volition into the air and began to spin furiously, faster and faster until it suddenly flew apart in a million pieces.

'Sorry about that,' she said breathlessly when every last piece had finally fallen to earth. 'It seemed the quickest way to open it. Rather than try to find the command to unseal it, Nikita suggested that we counteract the spell. Unfortunately, two spells in direct opposition to each other can cause a rather violent reaction. I must admit, I'd never have thought of it on my own. Nikita is rather less cautious by nature than I am.'

'Who cares?' whooped Johnny jubilantly and rather rudely. 'It's open. Now Kai, what can we expect to find in there?'

'A prison,' said Kai. 'You know, cells – prisoners. Although I let everyone out the last time, but I don't doubt that he's filled them up again by now.'

Johnny peered into the darkness. 'I think I can make out steps,' he said.

'That's right,' said Kai.

'But I can't see any light at the bottom.'

'Prisoners don't get luxuries like light,' said Kai grimly. 'Are we going in or what?'

Johnny slapped him on the back. 'After you,' he said jovially. 'You know the way.'

'Right!' said Kai and slipped into the hatch. Johnny dropped in after him followed by Ryan, then Jez, who was pushed ahead of himself by Cesare bringing up the rear.

It was quieter down here. The shuddering of the ground seemed far away and barely noticeable. Kai led them to the cells. Johnny wanted to press on and find Talvas, but he agreed to help Kai wrench the various doors open and free the prisoners. There were seven in all, three of the first born undying including Nick and also, two brothers whom Ryan greeted as Jáco and Petragan. She asserted that they were twins, but they certainly did not look like it.

When Nick was released, Johnny and Jez both instinctively took cover in the shadows and so they missed seeing the release of the last two prisoners.

Of the others prisoners, there were two women and two men – one little more than a young boy really. These last were nervous and panicky and told of strange dreams that they felt had been put into their minds by outside influences. Valentina said that she could help them and cast them into untroubled sleep with a simple spell and then she and Cesare agreed to stay behind and watch over them until the others came back.

Jáco, Petragan and Nick, however, were furious. Jáco told them that he and his brother had been approached by Talvas some time ago to join his scheme. They had both refused, Jáco being too dull to feel the passing years as a burden, as he cheerfully admitted, and Petragan too wise to seek destruction when there was still so much of fascination to be seen in all the worlds. Talvas had left them then, and they had assumed that he had abandoned his plans until recently when he had approached them again with, as he put it, "one last chance". When they had again refused, he had locked them up here in his dungeon. Johnny did not believe a word of it.

Nick's story, of course, was already known to them, but he had some information to relate nevertheless, having been at one time, deep in Talvas's plans. The other prisoners, he said, were "young ones" the lately born of the undying. They represented Talvas's earlier attempts to find Johnny. Once he had captured them, though, he had thought it imprudent to let them go again, although some had escaped upon a time so he had heard. Kai said nothing but just grinned in the darkness. However, these were recaptured eventually, Nick told them. Kai stopped grinning.

Ryan had been captured, in part, to ensnare Johnny; Talvas knew her dreams in the chamber would reach out to any who shared her blood, and also to get her away from Kai. Talvas thought her likely to be dangerous to his plans even on her own, but with such an ally she would be doubly so. He had not heard until later that she had escaped, and by then it was too late.

Johnny stepped forward out of the gloom. 'Where is Talvas now?' Nick started in surprise. 'You?' he gasped. 'What are you doing here?'

'Where is he?' Johnny reiterated firmly. 'I want a word with him.'

'I'd tell him if I were you,' said Jez. 'He's been a bit touchy lately.'

'Jez!' cried Nick in delight. And went towards her eagerly, then he checked himself, she did not look all that pleased to see him. He could not really blame her.

'Reunions later,' said Johnny dryly, 'saving the world now. Where _is_ Talvas?'

Nick looked blankly at him and shrugged.

'I know where he is,' volunteered Jáco unexpectedly.

'Nonsense,' sneered his brother.

'No, I do really, he's with the others,' insisted Jáco.

'And where is that?' asked Johnny patiently.

'In the diggings,' said Jáco. 'Down under us. I heard him say so.' He smiled goofily. 'Poor Jáco, he's so stupid, it doesn't matter what you say in front of him, ha! But I heard him all right. All right?'

'And do you know the way?' asked Johnny gritting his teeth – it was like getting blood from a stone. Jáco shook his head sheepishly.

'I do,' said Nick.

'Right then,' said Johnny. 'Let's go.'

'What's it all about then?' asked Jáco.

Nick led them, hundreds of miles down into a vast cavern filled with red light. It looked like hell, but it sounded, weirdly, like church; this was because of the chanting.

Nick took Johnny to one side as they approached the cavern. 'They're lying,' he said in a whisper, indicating Jáco and Petragan. 'They've been on Talvas's side from the start. I ought to know.'

'I know,' said Johnny. 'But I judge it best to let them think they've fooled us for now.'

Nick nodded. 'Very well' he said. You are in charge, but just don't let Jez get too close to them. She might recognise them even though they look rather different to the last time she saw them. And keep in mind that this may be a trap.'

'No kidding,' said Johnny sourly.

'Talvas is using the fire under the earth,' whispered Ryan who had missed nothing of this exchange.

'But we can't be that far down yet,' hissed back Kai. 'We started on top of a mountain.'

'Volcano,' corrected Ryan. 'We are underneath the diamond mountain that Talvas himself created – how do you _think_ he did it? Even we can't change the laws of nature.'

'It must have taken him centuries,' said Kai.

'What's all the chanting for?' asked Jez in an undertone.

'Effect!' said Johnny, derisively.

'So, what is he doing?' asked Kai.

'Raising the molten fire from the Earth's core to cover the surface of the planet,' said Johnny. 'I think.'

'He is raising the dragon,' said Ryan solemnly. 'Beneath the Earth's surface it sleeps. Until it is time for it to awake and devour the world at the end of time.'

'So what happens if it awakes at the _beginning_ of time?' asked Jez.

'What do _you_ think?' said Johnny.

'So, stop him already,' she said plaintively.

'We could raise the seas,' said Jáco helpfully. 'My brother and I are descended from the sea god Umas.'

'Is that true?' asked Johnny, looking at Ryan. She shrugged. 'Yes, it's true.'

'Will it help?' he asked her, but he was looking sharply at Jáco as he spoke.

''Course it will,' said Jáco. 'Water puts out fire, right?'

Johnny hesitated. He did not trust the brothers; some instinct told him that they were up to something. And there was something about this plan that he did not like. For one thing, it seemed too easy, and for another... He tried to think – fire and water – what did that remind him of? It was there in the back of his mind – fire and water – what _was_ it? Anyway, it was something bad, he was sure of it.

Meanwhile, the lava was rising, the cave was filling with ash and smoke, and behind him Jáco and Petragan began to chant.

The language was unknown to Johnny, but memories stirred in his brain as he listened, inattentively at first, then, as his mind began to make sense of the words, more acutely.

'And the seas shall rise,' he heard, 'and all the world shall be turned over in fire and water. And it shall be made clean again...' Fire _and water!_

And the magma rose in a spiral of flame.

Through his heightened senses, Johnny heard, above him – many leagues above his head, the crashing of the waves. And the spiral of flame grew and rose up to break the surface of the earth and burst out like a hurricane of fire.

Through the fire, Johnny saw Talvas's mocking face and a rage like he had never felt came over him.

'STOP!' he yelled impotently. And the world went cold and grey and still around him.

'What...?'

'Well done,' said Ryan behind him. 'Even I can't do that. It is not for nothing that Talvas feared you.'

'I've stopped time, haven't I?' said Johnny.

'Indeed,' said Ryan smiling. 'Very clever.'

'But I didn't mean to. That is – I did. I mean I wanted... but I didn't do it on purpose.' He thought about this statement and added. 'I think.'

'If time has stopped,' he continued. 'Then how come you and I are still moving about?'

'Because we carry our own time with us, it is part of the legacy that our foremother passed on to us. We are now _outside_ time you might say. It is how you survived in the void.'

'But not the others?' said Johnny, 'Not Talvas?'

Ryan gestured to the frozen figures. 'As you see.'

Johnny looked around. Behind him, he saw Jez and Kai lying on the ground with their hands on their heads. Jáco and Petragan were frozen with their mouths open in mid chant. Before him, he saw through the ruddy haze of the petrified column of fire, the sardonic and triumphant face of Talvas de Bellême – Destroyer of Worlds.

Johnny smiled. 'I know what to do,' he said.

* * *

It was cold in the void after the fire and heat of the cavern. Or at least Talvas felt it so. Johnny felt nothing at all. Even his rage had abated suddenly, as if drained all at once from his heart by the immense emptiness of the void.

'What is this place?'

'This is not a place,' answered Johnny. 'This is nowhere. Isn't this what you wanted?'

Talvas did not answer.

'I have brought you here to offer you a choice,' continued Johnny. You weren't evil to begin with, were you?' he asked suddenly, _apropos_ of nothing. 'No, I don't think you were.' He answered his own question. 'Few people are. But the endless years became a torment, didn't they? And in the end, your mind was twisted. Perhaps if you had not been part mortal, you could have borne it better. However, that's not important now. And as to that, I will never know the answer anyway but I pity you now, now that I understand you, you and all the others who felt the same way. It could even happen to me one day. But I can't let you destroy the world, you do understand that don't you? And I don't think you would have, if you had found another way. So I offer you a choice.'

Still Talvas said nothing.

'You are only being held here in the void by my will,' Johnny resumed after a few moments' thought. 'I carry my own time with me – but you knew that didn't you? – It was my will that kept Jez alive here I realise that now, although I was unaware of it at the time. I didn't want to let her go. It was that simple. So you see Talvas, I can call you Talvas can't I? I can offer you now the oblivion you seek. All I have to do is let you go. If I do, you will cease to exist – forever. That is the nature of the void. But you must be certain that this is what you want. Even I can never bring you back once I let you go. Now the choice is finally before you. What do you want?'

_'Let me go_ ,' the voice was a howl. 'Let me go, let me go, let me go-o-o!'

Johnny nodded. 'Before I do,' he said. 'Tell me how to stop the dragon.'

Talvas looked at him for the first time now. 'Just will it,' he said. 'You are my descendant too, you also have this power.'

Johnny looked in his eyes and saw the peace there, all the madness had faded, and he looked now, like a man at the end of a very long and arduous journey who had at last found somewhere to rest.

'I believe you,' said Johnny. 'Goodbye Talvas.'And he let him go.'

'Thank you,' said Talvas as he vanished into the void.

## Chapter Thirty One - Once Upon A Time, The End

'It's a beautiful world after all, isn't it?' said Jez.

'It had better be,' laughed Johnny, 'after all I went through to save it.'

'After all _you_ went through?' snapped Jez indignantly ' _We_ did nothing I suppose?'

_'We_ ,' said Johnny hurriedly. 'Of course I meant we.'

'He's just teasing you sweetheart,' said Nick lazily. 'Don't rise to it.'

Jez subsided.

They were atop the Topaz Mountain. On a clear day, and this was a very clear day, it was possible to see an entire chain of mountains stretching away on either side of them. Kai only wondered that he had not seen it before. There was the Diamond Mountain facing them across the gorge. It glittered oddly in the sunlight. Away to the left of them were the mountains of aquamarine (Jáco) and amethyst. And to the right, mountains of chalcedony (Petragan – who had a store of pretentiousness of his own) ivory and emerald. The mountain chain had been built in a rough circle, which accounted for the mountains facing them. Talvas's diamond monstrosity was banked by peaks of fire, ruby and bloodstone, and in the further distance, on either side of the gorge, others could be seen far away in the mists, their colours muted and indistinguishable. The Undying had been busy here in the morning of the world.

There were, in fact, many more than seven precious mountains stretching away in to the distance. A fact, which Johnny pointed out to Ryan.

'Indeed,' she agreed. 'The seven original undying built mountains here at the beginning, but after that, many of the later undying – those who could be found – were brought here by their forebears and they also built mountains of their own. It became, for a while, something of a tradition.

'Oh,' said Johnny, 'I see.' He looked around him. 'Hmmm,' he said. 'Jade, I think, I like green, and I don't want to be ostentatious.'

This time, Ryan said, it would be different because of what Talvas had done. His treachery could not be entirely erased she said. For one thing, even now in the dawn of the world a thing had happened, which had never happened before. The world had split into two more already, even before the first man was born, before the first god had been created. Because of Talvas, the world had been destroyed – in one reality – and yet saved in another. Thus before time even began, There were now three worlds at the beginning, including this one. One was the empty, dead world, which Talvas had succeeded in destroying, and another one in which Johnny had prevented this, and this one from which those worlds had sprung. That left two worlds alive, in which life would begin independently of the other.

'And which one shall we call SCI'ON?' she asked, 'if they are both at the beginning?'

'Both,' said Johnny. 'Two chances to get it right, instead of one. Sounds good to me.'

All of the undying who had wished it had been released into the void. Jáco and Petragan had elected to stay. This seemed to be mainly due to the influence of Jez. It was she who had persuaded them to call off the rising of the seas.

After Johnny had tamed the dragon and she could see straight again, she had recognised them as the other spies in her flat share house – Jake and Peter, and, in this guise, she knew she could deal with them.

Johnny was fascinated by this previously undiscovered (by him anyway) femme fatale side of Jez and decided to investigate further. He went to Ryan who advised him to look inside himself for the answer. In his newly updated memory banks, he discovered the answer. It was a shock, even to him. He went to talk to Jez.

'I couldn't let you go in the void,' he told her, 'because I felt the bond between us.'

'What bond?' asked Jez, perplexed.

'You are my sister.'

'Really?' said Jez acerbically. 'How very Star Wars!'

Johnny laughed. 'Okay, okay, you're not my _actual_ sister. I meant that we are both descended from the undying, although you _are_ mortal,' he added hurriedly before she could get too excited. 'But you do come from the line of a certain undying who gave herself airs and called herself a goddess even though she wasn't. Apparently, there was a lot of it about in olden times.

'You mean the olden times that haven't happened yet?' asked Jez.

'Don't try to be clever,' said Johnny. 'You know what I mean.'

'Who was it then?' asked Jez, reluctantly fascinated.

'Aphrodite, so I understand.'

_'Aphrodite_? As in the Greek gods, Mount Olympus, all that?'

'Yeah, it's crazy, isn't it?'

'No more than anything else that's happened. So, how come I'm mortal then?' asked Jez, piqued. 'That doesn't seem fair.'

'Ryan says that most of the descendants of the undying are mortals. But they carry the gene of the undying in them and sometimes it comes out.'

'Like you,' said Jez sullenly.

'You won't die until I let you go,' said Johnny gently understanding. 'I have the power to loop time around you forever if necessary. Around _all_ of you.' Kai looked up at this, but said nothing.

'You won't have to leave him.' finished Johnny.

'Leave who?' asked Jez defensively, although she knew who Johnny was referring to.

'Nick,' said Johnny.

Jez had glared at Johnny, got up suddenly, and walked away. It was such a pain having someone who knew you that well.

Johnny sighed. Ryan touched him on the shoulder. 'I would have thought that you and she...' She left the sentence hanging tactfully.

Johnny shrugged. I thought so too once,' he admitted. 'Just for a moment anyway. But perhaps it's better this way after all.'

'Maybe it's just not the right _time_ ,' said Ryan significantly.

Johnny perked up. 'Maybe in another life...?' He left the question open.

Ryan smiled again. She looked over at Nick and Jez walking together along the cliff edge.

'He is the forerunner,' she said. She thought for a minute and added. 'Until she's ready.'

He looked back at Jez and smiled wistfully.

'I guess I just want her to be happy,' he said in a subdued voice.

'Ah, but that takes many lives to achieve,' Ryan told him.

Johnny looked about him. All around, the world lay waiting to begin.

'This seems as good a place as any to start,' he said.

## Part two of the SCI'ON TRILOGY.

Legacies

Even his own mother, from the moment he was born, was afraid of Talvas, for she knew whence he had come and wondered what his power would be.

Talvas Firebrand, later known as Talvas de Bellême and "The Destroyer of Worlds" was the son of Toros the fire god. His story and that of the other Undying begins on SCI 'ON back at the beginning.

Watching him from his citadel beyond time is Johnny Hammond, the only man in all creation capable of defeating Talvas and stopping the slaughter of millions.

What will happen when these adversaries finally meet again in a new cycle of time?

## Have you read the Tamar Black Saga?

Djinnx'd

Reality Bites

Tempus Fugitive

The Day Before Tomorrow

Faerie Tale

Anything But Ordinary

Rise of the Nephilim

Pantheon

## About the Author

Nicola Rhodes often can't remember where she lives so she lives inside her own head most of the time, where even if you do get lost, it's still okay.

She has met many interesting people inside her own head and eventually decided to introduce the rest of the world to them, in the hopes that they would stop bothering her and let her sleep.

She has been doing this for ten years now but they still won't leave her alone.

She wrote this book for fun and does not care if you take away a moral lesson from it or not.

You have her full permission to read whatever you wish into this work of fiction. As she says herself:

"Just because I wrote this book, doesn't mean I know anything about it."

