Reality 36 Read Free

seventy-six expulsions. Very few have put us in danger. All will be well."
      "I am not so sure," said the lion warily. "This is different. I feel it. Complacency is the enemy of the wise, and I am not feeling wise today."
      "Are you feeling instead, then, afraid?"
      "No, never afraid. I am concerned."
      The lion said no more, concentrating on forcing his way through the forest, the crack of snapping branches punctuating Jagadith's humming.
     
    Several hours later, as day retreated, Jagadith ceased humming, and a dark expression clouded his face.
      "Tell me, Tarquinius, what is the precise extent of this landmass?"
      "Four hundred and twelve point seven three kilometres squared, give or take the odd metre. It is effectively a large island in the centre of the Rift canyon."
      "Then why is this jungle persisting?"
      "You know what I am going to say."
      "Because it is anomalous?"
      "Because it is anomalous." Tarquinius gave a metallic grunt as he shoved aside the trunk of a fallen tree blocking their path. The rotten wood broke against his metal with a noise like a sheared melon, falling away, taking a swathe of undergrowth with it and opening a ragged tear in the jungle's wall.
      "But not," gasped Tarquinius, "as anomalous as that."
      "By Jove!" said Jagadith. "Now I am believing we may be in some small degree of imperilment."
      Before them lay a clearing, a round gap in the stinking dark so precise of edge it could have been popped out by a hole punch, so large that to eyes less gifted than theirs its edges would have appeared straight. Some tens of miles away in the middle, shining in the last light, was a dimpled, hemispherical hill of carved basalt like a giant's golfball, and atop that a gargantuan monkey puzzle tree, its top crowned by a spinning hole in reality similar in aspect to a turning galaxy. Swamps girt hill, tree and anomaly. The tentative chirps of frogs oblivious to the peculiarity of their surroundings sounded from the swamp.
      "This is a turn-up for the books." Jag slipped off the lion. "I do not recollect seeing anything of this nature since, well, I am thinking, ever." He frowned, perplexed.
      "Nor do I, and I am as old as time itself." Tarquinius was silent a moment, his head cocked to one side.
      "This is indeed a powerful god we rush to confront, he who can so reshape the world, and after so long..." He lapsed into thought. "Perhaps we should not be too hasty." They stood silent, as the sky dimmed.
      "My friend," said Jagadith, "we camp here. Is this a good idea? Tomorrow we cross the swamps so that we may climb yon mighty tree. I suspect that vortex to be our quarry's lair." He pointed with an elegant hand.
      "I concur," said the lion, and slumped to the ground. "Godlings are nothing if not predictable." He licked at some of the jungle's slime with his strange tongue. He made a face and said, "I am weary, yet not so tired I cannot make fire to dry this filthy water from my bronze. Perhaps the smoke will drive the biting insects away also, and we both may rest more comfortably. Fetch some wood, good sir, and I will open my panels and kindle it with the heat of my reactor." He yawned and stretched. "I would help but… You understand."
      Jag performed a slight bow. "Quite. For all your talents, I do sometimes feel the gods could have given you opposable thumbs."

Chapter 2
    Valdaire
     
    From the moment Veronique Valdaire heard the message from the professor, she was in trouble.
      Her sleep was electric with Grid-fuelled dreams. Reality less so when she awoke, sore and sweaty, to the sound of her name chanted over and over. She wished she'd showered before bed.
      "Veev, Veev, Veev, Veev," insisted Chloe. Veronique frowned, rolled over, arms flopping disastrously into bedside table. The table rocked, sending the small necessities of her life tumbling about the wood of the floor.
      "Veev, Veev, Veev, Veev," sang the phone from under the