“No. Why do you think he’d have to?”
We laughed, and he reached over and caught my hand.
“I’ve been worried sick,” he said. “I thought we’d lost you for sure.”
“No such luck, Dad. I knew that if I could just reach Sean, you’d come and get me.”
“And you did, and we did.” He patted my hand, let it go, and leaned back in his chair. “So, what’s this burning question?”
I could feel his mind bounce off the subject of Sean and who or what he was. I decided to leave that painful discussion for another day.
“The gate,” I said. “Is it stable? Could another Guild person use it?”
“Now that is something I can’t tell you, not yet. I’ve put in a call to the Guild. They’ll need to send someone out, because it’ll take two trained people to do the diagnosis.” He paused to think with a twist of his mouth. “I’m not so sure your aunt’s going to want people tromping back and forth through her house to use the damned thing, anyway.”
“There is that, yeah.”
“And what about the people at the other end? Who are they, anyway?”
“Relatives of ours. A widower and his two children, but the children’s mother was an O’Grady. Well, actually, she was my doppelgänger. That’s why they live in the house. They bought it from the Houlihan doppelgängers on Six.”
“Good God!” He paused in honest shock. “Well, that makes one thing easier to understand. No wonder it spread to them while it was twisting itself around.”
“Why has the gate spread? Do you know?”
“Because I wasn’t here to tend it. These artificial gates are like hybrid roses. They need pruning and feeding both.”
“But you built the one on the bottom floor to go through to Three, right? Michael opened the one on the top floor by accident once, but it led to Three that time, not Six.”
“So he told me. Three’s the only level he knows, is why. He wasn’t using an orb.”
“That makes sense, yeah.”
We shared a companionable silence. They say that every girl’s first love is her father, something that certainly was true in my case. I remembered him so well as the young and vigorous man he’d been, tanned from working outside and muscled as well, striding into the house at the end of the working day with a hug and a laugh for each of us kids. Now he was too thin from his long years as a prisoner, his hair steel gray, his eyes sad, somehow, in a web of crow’s feet.
“Dad,” I said, “have you thought about what you’re going to do now?”
“I’ve thought about it, but I still don’t know. I can’t go back to construction work. Everything’s changed, the tools, the methods, since I’ve been gone. I don’t have the energy I once had, either. I’ll have to think of something. I can’t stand to live off your mother’s salary. She keeps saying that it’s fine with her, but it’s not fine with me.”
“There’s the Guild.”
“I am not working with TWIXT.”
“I know that. They don’t own the Guild. Isn’t there a research arm?”
“And what would they want with a half-trained man like me?”
“A half-trained man who happens to be a genius.”
“Oh, come now! You’re my darling daughter, but there’s no use in idle flattery.”
“You know more than anyone else in the damn Guild. Do you think an ordinary world-walker could have built the gate upstairs? They have to find them, not build them. And then there’s your research, like that paper about angels. The one in Hisperic.”
He gave a startled little cough. “You’ve got that, do you? I wondered why it wasn’t in the desk when I went to look for it.”
“Sorry. I’ll give it back, but I used that data to induce a vision. That’s how I learned about the Maculates. You made a real find when you bought that from Wagner’s.”
“Huh, so I did. I’d wondered what it would lead to. I wish I’d had it in prison. It would have been something to think about to pass the time.”
We shared a wry smile. I found myself remembering the other Nola, her life brutally ended, her talents lost forever. He could still use his, even though the Britannic Empire had wasted thirteen years of his life.
“At least talk with the Guild.” I leaned forward a little. “The world-walker who’s been ferrying me and Ari around would really like to discuss things with you. She sure doesn’t consider herself part of TWIXT, let me tell you.”
“Well, in that case, maybe I will. I could at least hear what they want out of me. Talk’s cheap enough.” He stood up and looked at the clock on the kitchen wall as if it could tell him more than the time. “I’ve got to find something to do.”
“How will they contact you? You don’t have a trans-world router, do you?”
“I don’t, but the man I’m in touch with here does. The Guild has members on every world we can reach, darling. We just don’t tell anyone about it.”
“Gotcha,” I said. “I won’t even tell Ari.” I got up to join him. “When the Guild contacts you about the diagnostics, tell them you want to work with Willa Danvers-Jones. See what she has to say.”
“Fair enough, and I will. We’d better go back to the others. Jack promised me he’d call as soon as he was done with the police.”
“How long do you think that will take?”
“God only knows. An hour at least. The police will want to go out to the house, I should think, to interview Maureen. They can’t act on Jack’s say-so alone.”
I hesitated. What I wanted to do bordered on the dangerous, but in my mind I could hear Cam’s two kids, begging me to stay. Thanks to the strange ways of the multiverse and my family, they belonged to me now, I realized, not as a son and daughter, no, more like a niece and nephew, but kinfolk nonetheless.
“Dad, will you do something for me? Could you open the gate just long enough for me to leave something up there for the kids? A present, to let them know I’ll see them again if I can. They’re mourning their mother, and my being there helped.”
For a moment he looked utterly puzzled; then he smiled. “And why not?” he said. “If nothing else, we can just slide it across like Ari was planning to do with your bag.”
I took the bag with us when we went upstairs to the gate room. The dusty book that Ari had been fiddling with while we talked was an illustrated edition of Kipling’s Just So Stories. I cleaned it off with tissues and wrote on the flyleaf, “For Donnie and Beth from Aunt Rose. Love you!” Dad produced a yellow-green orb from nowhere that I could see.
“I always keep a few nearby now,” is all he would tell me. “I learned my lesson on the night they arrested me.”
He opened the gate as easily as I would have opened a door. As the green-and-beige room on Terra Six solidified around us, I realized that the floor lamp in the other Nola’s lair was glowing. Cam had come upstairs at some time earlier. He was sitting in the middle of the room on the floor, just sitting there, numb from his loss. He stared at us, started to speak, choked on the words. He scrambled to his feet and stared the more.
“Cam, I’m sorry I had to leave the way I did,” I said. “I brought something for the kids so they’ll know I’m not just deserting them.” I held out the book. “Ari’s got an anger management problem. I had to get him out of here before he blew.”
“I could see that, yeah.” He glanced at Dad and stiffened. “Flann? Flann!”
“Not the one you’re thinking of,” Dad said. “I don’t know what wild story Nola told you, but it’s doubtless all true. Other world levels, that sort of thing?”
Cam nodded and took the book from me.
“I’m this Nola’s father,” Dad went on. “Not your wife’s. My condolences, and I mean that from the heart. It’s a hard thing, losing someone you love.”
“Yes. Thanks.” Cam looked as stunned as if he were the one with the concussion. He swallowed heavily, rubbed his fingers on the book as if to reassure himself that it existed, then finally found his voice. “Beth said you’d be
back to give them a present. Damned if she wasn’t right.”
“Cam,” I said, “those stories of hers aren’t just stories. She’s probably right about a lot of things.”
Cam gave me a twisted little smile of pure disbelief.
“If she’s got O’Grady blood,” Dad said, “then you’re going to have a fine time of it, raising her. You and I will have a talk about this, but we’ve got to go back now. This gate’s not as stable as it might be.”
“All right.” Cam tried to say more, then gave it up. He hefted the book. “Thanks.”
“You’re welcome.” Dad said it before I could. “And don’t worry. You’re not alone in this anymore.”
Cam seemed to be about to speak, but the room began to darken. He disappeared. We’d returned to the clutter of the storage room on Terra Four.
Dad joined the family in the living room to wait for Jack’s call. I decided to see if Jerry was awake and coherent, by no means a sure bet on weekends. When I went back to the kitchen, Ari followed me. I sat down at the table and took my phone out of my shoulder bag. He stood over me and shoved his hands hard into his jeans pockets, as if he needed to keep them confined. I felt the beginnings of a SAWM. Ari’s not quite six feet tall, but he can loom over someone when he wants to. I had to tip my head back to look him in the face.
“What were you doing upstairs?” His voice radiated suspicion.
I considered lying, then rejected the idea as too dangerous. Dad might give the truth away. “Dad opened the gate for me,” I said, “so I could leave a message and a present for the kids.”
“Oh. Right, of course. The children. Did you see them?”
I disliked the way he was looking at me, a minute examination as if he were hoping for clues to feed his jealousy.
“No,” I said. “I gave the book to their father.”
“Their father. Right.”
“Dad was there, too. We’re not done talking about Cam Douglas, are we?”
“No.” He hesitated, shifted his weight from one foot to the other, then finally sat down opposite me at the table. “I’m sorry. I should be able to just put it behind me.”
“I have never heard a falser apology.”
I’d been too blunt. He half-rose from his chair with a look so cold that I snatched handfuls of Qi in case I needed an ensorcellment. He caught himself and sat back down. I let the Qi disperse.
“Why should you be sorry?” I continued in the spirit of better hung for a sheep than a lamb. “You only found out a couple of hours ago. It must have been a shock.”
“True. But I know how you work with sexual Qi. I’ve felt it.” He tried to smile and failed. “And I know you can use that sort of energy to do things like contact your brother. I do believe you. I just—” He leaned forward in his chair and held out both hands, a little way apart as if he could trap an explanation between them. “I don’t even know what I’m getting at.”
“Ari, look. Sex obviously means something real different to you than it does to me. When I first met you, I figured you were the kind of guy who just chalks up scores and moves on. It’s been different between us.”
He shrugged again. “I wouldn’t want to marry you if I was going to go around seducing other women. Do you believe me?”
“Yeah, I do. I don’t want to go around seducing other guys, either. But sex is something I used to see as a tool, part of my skill set, I guess I mean. I’m not exactly detached from it, especially not with you. I don’t plan on ever sleeping with any other guy ever again, but I sure didn’t plan on falling into bed with Cam, either. It really was a desperate measure.”
“I know that. Which is why I’m annoyed with my own reaction.”
I could hear the anger management class in that statement. Ari didn’t believe what he was saying, but it was a start. Inwardly, I thanked his superior officer in the army, the one who’d made him go. I leaned across the table and touched Ari’s hand.
“What counts with me is that I love you,” I said. “That’s something I’d never say to any other guy. That’s yours alone. I promise.”
“I love you, too. That’s the problem, isn’t it?” He winced and leaned back in his chair. “That’s a crappy thing for me to say.”
I waited. He squirmed in the chair, straightened up, glanced away, looked at me again.
“I don’t want to talk about this anymore at the moment,” he said. “Can you accept that?”
“Yes, I can. Like I said, you only found out a few hours ago.”
“I do love you.” He hesitated. “I’d rather show you how much, but you’re too far away to kiss. Hold on a moment.”
I smiled. We both got up and met in the middle for a good, long embrace. With kisses, more than one, I’m glad to say, until I felt the family overlap. I pulled away.
“Jack’s about to call,” I said. “I really want to hear this.”
“So do I. Sanchez, by the way, hasn’t been able to get Maureen into the Witness Protection program. Apparently, the head of the narcotics division thinks that Maureen may have colluded with Trasker when it came to the drug deals.”
“She never would have!”
“Even if she had, she’d still be turning state’s evidence. Worth protecting, I should think.”
We started walking down the long hallway.
“The one thing Narcotics will do for us is put arresting Trasker for drugs on a high priority,” Ari continued. “That’s quite a concession, because he did his dealing over in Livermore, not in their jurisdiction. Unfortunately, it’s the only one they’ll make.”
I said something extremely unladylike. Ari grimaced but agreed.
“Sanchez is going to see what he can do sub fusc,” he went on. “Unofficially, if you take my meaning.”
Since Chuck had actually shot at Maureen, the San Anselmo police were prepared to take her predicament more seriously than Sanchez did, or so Jack told Dad when he called. I figured that Jack’s money and social position were helping their attitude as well. Unfortunately, they could do little for her unless she filed a restraining order in Marin County. Once again, however, she’d have to notify Chuck she was doing so, an incitement to violence if I ever heard of one.
“If she files the correct papers,” Ari told us, “someone else can do the notifying for her. I’ll be quite glad to do so. He won’t give me much trouble, I should think. The real problem is that no one knows where he is.”
“Catch twenty-two,” Sean muttered. “There always is one.”
I felt a brief desire to scream in frustration.
“The one thing they could come up with,” Dad continued his report, “is that she should stay inside where he can’t see her. And then if he comes around, call them, and they’ll pick him up on illegal weapon charges. It turns out that he has a prior felony conviction.”
“Like he’s going to just stand there and let them,” Michael said. “Dad, this sucks!”
“It sure does,” I said. “Look, though, I do have one contact who might know where Trasker’s hiding out. If he does, maybe we can get him arrested before anything ugly happens.”
“Can you call this bloke?” Ari said.
“Sure. I’ll go do it now, or rather, I’ll call one of my coworkers. He’ll have to do the interviewing for us. The guy I have in mind won’t talk if you’re there, Ari, and I’m not about to go out without a bodyguard.”
“Could we get Maureen a bodyguard?” Aunt Eileen put in. “Can you just hire them?”
“Oh, yes,” Ari said. “But Jack told me that Trasker has a sniper rifle. A bodyguard won’t be able to prevent him from using it. It’s got too long a range.”
Ari tactfully stayed in the living room when I returned to the privacy of the kitchen and my phone. By then, in the late afternoon, Jerry was indeed awake and reasonably sober. When I told him the situation, he agreed to question his roommate.
“I can’t lie, darling,” Jerry said, “and tell you that he’ll be able to help. It’s not that he won??
?t want to. It’s just that his mind’s been scrambled for years. We don’t call him Wakko Yakko for nothing.”
“What? He samples his own goods?”
“Not anymore, no, but alas for abstinence! Too late!”
Not a good sign, no, and when Jerry called me back that evening, he had no information for me. His roommate had a vague recollection of having met Chuck Trasker, but as to where Trasker might have currently been or what he might have been doing, Wakko knew nothing.
“Something might come back to him,” Jerry told me. “He has occasional eruptions of brain activity.”
“Okay, I’ll hope for that. Thanks anyway.”
By then, Ari and I had returned home after a large, noisy family dinner, although Dad had gone back to his apartment and my mother. She and I had called a truce in our long war too recently to be at ease in each other’s company. Besides, seeing Dad and Sean glare at each other over the food would not have helped my shattered nerves or Aunt Eileen’s, either.
I’d been dreading seeing our flat again because I was sure it’d be an awful mess. Ari had been living alone in it for ten days, during which he’d been frantic and depressed in turns. Much to my surprise, when we got home I found it nice and tidy except for a stack of pizza boxes that he’d forgotten to put into the recycling.
“Did you hire someone to come in?” I said.
“No.” Ari looked down at the reasonably clean kitchen floor. “Picking things up gave me something to do in the evenings. It kept me from thinking too much about what I’d done. I suppose it was magical thinking, too. If I made the place look decent, you’d be more likely to come back to it.”
“You’ve always done half the work around here anyway.”
He nodded and studied the flowers on our worn Persian carpet.
“I’m going to put this bag away,” I said.
When I headed for the bedroom, I expected him to follow me. He didn’t. I slung the bag onto the dresser and paused to look in the mirror at the scar on my forehead. The scabs had begun peeling to reveal the pale, overly slick tissue underneath. The bruise on my chin had faded to a faint yellow stain. I shuddered and turned away. I changed my shirt—I’d been wearing one of the other Nola’s—before I left the bedroom. I put on the v-necked green top that Ari liked so much.