Rebel in the Library of Ever

by Zeno Alexander

  “Lemme go,” cried Lucy, pulling back. “I wanna help Lenora!”

  Lenora knocked again. “Hello?!”

  TREE(3) began to shake. First, the smallest vibration. Then, its branches began to shake. Then, a mighty tremor shook the air, and TREE(3) came to life, roaring, “YOU DARE?”

  And then the mighty branches closed around them, coming together as though to squash them all flat.

  CHAPTER TEN

  Lenora and the TREEs

  A voice spoke. “Oh, stop it.”

  The voice was the smallest and squeakiest Lenora could imagine, but for some reason, TREE(3) returned immediately to its immense, remote silence.

  “Hello,” said the voice. “Down here.”

  Everyone looked down. Sitting at the base of the enormous tree was a much smaller tree, something that looked to Lenora like a bonsai-sized version of TREE(3), which you could put in your backpack.

  “Thank you,” said Lenora with immense relief. “May I ask who you are?”

  “I am TREE(2). It’s very nice to meet you.”

  This TREE was certainly nicer than the other, and Lenora felt that they ought to shake hands or something, but of course they had no way of doing that. So she simply asked, politely, “Are you a large number as well?”

  TREE(2) laughed. (Lenora was not exactly sure where its voice was coming from.) “No, not at all. You see, TREEs grow quickly. TREE(1), for example, is only equal to one. And I, TREE(2), am only equal to three. TREE(3), on the other hand, is a number so incomprehensibly vast that it defies any description I could give you. There is no written notation that can express it. TREE(3) makes Graham’s number (I believe you’ve met) look like nothing in comparison.”

  “So it’s the largest number, then?” asked Lenora hopefully.

  “Oh, no,” said TREE(2). “Of course, they thought that for a while. But then someone found one larger. Every so often, a new one is discovered. It’s all quite exciting, at least to us.”

  “Well, thank you,” said Lenora. She did not want to seem ungrateful, but how on earth would she give that boy his answer? Then again, the idea that one could keep discovering ever-larger numbers was rather thrilling. But given what she had seen from TREE(3), Lenora wasn’t so sure she wanted to meet any more of them.

  Nevertheless, she turned to Milton. “I suppose we should keep going.”

  A voice spoke from behind them. “No. You shouldn’t.”

  Lenora whirled around. “Malachi! How did you get here?”

  Malachi looked down at the three of them, and Lucy gaped up at the astonishing sight of the ten-foot-tall Assistant Answerer. (Though Lenora wondered why she still seemed ten feet tall when all of them were larger than the observable universe at the moment.)

  Lucy looked down at her own platform shoes, then up at Malachi. “How did you get to be so tall?” she demanded.

  “A stretching machine,” replied Malachi gravely. “I use it every day.”

  “Really?” asked Lucy.

  “No,” said Malachi, and turned to Lenora. “Lenora, I must be brief. You should know that I am being watched at all times. There are few places in the Library I can speak freely, and this is one of them. As you know, the Forces fear this place, and they cannot spy on us here.”

  “But why haven’t they just fired you?” asked Lenora, hard as it was to imagine anyone throwing Malachi out of the Library.

  Malachi closed her eyes and took a deep breath. “Only the Director can give orders such as firing a librarian—”

  “Daddy would never do that!” Lucy interrupted.

  “—and so I made the decision, and I hope it was the correct one, to give the appearance of cooperation with him. I wish to fight from within, though I am still not fully trusted. But we have no further time to discuss this. The Director has been informed of your presence and that you are with his daughter, and he ordered the Forces to find you immediately. They are on their way here despite their fears, and so you must go.”

  “I’m not going anywhere,” said Lenora. “I still don’t have an answer for my patron.”

  “Are you certain of that? Perhaps you have an answer, though not the one you were seeking.”

  Lenora knew better than to ask Malachi what that answer was. She expected to be told it would be best to figure it out for herself, of course. And so she would. In the meantime …

  “Where can we go?” asked Lenora. “If we can’t hide from the Director here, then where can we?”

  “We’re not hiding from Daddy, are we?” ventured Lucy plaintively. “Just those creepy Forces people, right?”

  Malachi was frowning. “Hide?” she said. “Hiding is hardly in your nature, Lenora. Now, where would the Director be least likely to expect you?”

  Lenora thought of her oath. Think on my feet and rely on my wits and valor …

  She turned to the others. “I know where we’re going. We’re going to the Director.”

  “Yay!” cheered Lucy.

  “What?” cried Milton, aghast.

  “Correct,” replied Malachi. “Now go to him before the Forces catch up. I have every confidence in you.” She looked at Milton. “Show them the way immediately. I must go.”

  “Yes, ma’am,” said Milton. And then Malachi was gone.

  In an instant they were shrinking, shrinking at an impossibly fast rate as the universe and galaxies and stars all rushed by, this time getting larger instead of smaller.

  And then they were standing in front of the sign again, Lenora fuming all the while. How had she gotten an answer for her patron? She didn’t see it. But this was not the time to figure it out, and so she asked Milton, “How can we get out of here if the Forces are coming?” For there had not seemed to be a way back up that slide, even if the room beyond the dark wall were not already filled with enemies.

  As she pondered this, the glimmering idea returned. Lenora snapped her fingers. “Milton, if the Forces are afraid to come here, could librarians use this as sort of a hideout, like a … a…”

  “A rebel base!” said Lucy. “Cool.”

  “Exactly,” replied Lenora with a smile.

  “Certainly,” said Milton. “We do have plenty of room, after all. But in the meantime, you should go.” He waved his hand. Instantly, a single tube capsule appeared, seemingly suspended in the darkness. “This is my personal capsule. You can take it straight to the Director. And … good luck.” He did not look especially confident.

  Lenora did not blame him. She herself was, frankly, quite alarmed. Lucy, however, was simply giddy. “Yes, let’s go see Daddy! I can’t wait for him to meet you, Lenora! I’m sure he will get those Forces creeps straightened out.”

  And so the girls climbed in, and Lenora saw something new—a large, brilliantly glowing label, twice the size of any other, that said in bright letters: DIRECTOR.

  Steeling herself, Lenora inserted her key, and they were off.

  After a speedy journey, the tube slowed and stopped. The door popped open.

  Lenora got out, followed by Lucy. In front of them was a short set of stairs that seemed to be made of, or at least coated in, pure platinum, a silvery sort of extremely valuable metal that Lenora had learned all about in Metallurgy: From Aluminum to Zirconium and Back Again. At the top of the steps were some rather over-decorated doors, and above that the words THE DIRECTOR, also in platinum, and above that a gigantic portrait of the Director, which made him look quite a lot younger and even handsomer than he was. That was framed in platinum, too. Lenora rather thought you could overdo it with the platinum, but then the doors burst open and everything changed.

  Several members of the Forces, disguised, of course, as librarians, came rushing down the steps. But the expressions on their faces were unlike anything Lenora had seen from them before. They were unsure, rather pale, surprised, and they were saying things to one another like:

  “—what did she—?”

  “—why? Where did they—?”

  “—where is—but how�
�?”

  Lenora couldn’t make it all out because they were babbling over one another. But this was exactly what Lenora had been hoping for. The Forces had expected her to run or hide, but instead she had come straight at them, taking them completely by surprise, and they had no idea what she was doing or why, and perhaps—just perhaps—were a little afraid that she might have some kind of plan.

  She did not, of course, have a plan. But she did realize, for this moment at least, that she had an advantage and must make use of it immediately. So she grabbed Lucy’s hand and said, “Let’s go see your daddy!” in the brightest and most confident voice she could possibly muster.

  “Yes!” said Lucy, enthused, and up the stairs they dashed, right past all the Forces. A couple of them moved as though to block them, then hesitated, and before any decision could be made Lenora and Lucy were through the door.

  And there was the Director.

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  Lenora and the Director

  He was sitting behind a huge mahogany desk with nothing on it, a desk set up on a dais so that Lenora had to crane her neck to look up at him. He was the same handsome man with salt-and-pepper hair that Lenora had seen in the videos, but he was not smiling or speaking, just staring down at Lenora with his lips tightly pursed into a petulant scowl, as though she had spilled something on the thick, red, expensive-looking carpet. On his chest was a huge platinum badge that read THE DIRECTOR. The walls were decorated with many portraits of a younger and even more handsome version of the man.

  The only other thing in the room was a machine along one wall covered with monitors and dials and switches and microphones. There was a sign above it that said TRANSMISSION CONSOLE.

  Lucy, for her part, screeched, “Daddyyyyyyyyyy!” then rushed up the dais and threw herself into his lap. The pursed scowl vanished, and the Director said, “Princess!” while giving her a hug. From behind Lenora, all the Forces rushed up to the dais and placed themselves in a semicircular arrangement behind the Director. It felt vaguely protective and a little threatening at the same time.

  The Director released Lucy and resumed scowling at Lenora. “So you caught her,” he announced. “I told you it would be easy if you stopped being such cowards.”

  “They didn’t catch—” Lenora began, thoroughly outraged, but was spoken over by several of the Forces:

  “Yes, sir, you were absolutely right as always, sir—”

  “Of course, we just thought about you, and how bravely you would handle it yourself—”

  “Without you we never could have—”

  The Director leaned back in his chair, beaming and basking in all this praise, smiling and tousling the hair of Lucy, who gazed up at him adoringly.

  Lenora had an idea.

  “That’s right, sir!” she yelled over the din. “They did a fantastic job catching me. I don’t think anyone’s plan could have worked better than yours! And now here I am.”

  One of the women behind the Director was staring daggers at her. Lenora stared them right back.

  Now the Director looked puzzled. He turned to one of the Forces. “You told me the girl who had taken my Princess was very rude and not respectful. But she seems very intelligent. Are you sure this is the right one? The enemy?”

  Lucy broke in before anyone could answer. “Lenora’s not the enemy! She took me to a huge slide and it was so much fun, and then we met a googol and grew bigger than the whole universe and met more numbers and then there was this really tall woman”—every single member of the Forces jumped at that news—“and—”

  “That’s nice, Princess,” said the Director, patting her on the head. “You have such a good, good imagination. Almost as good as mine, which is the best, isn’t it?” He turned expectantly toward the Forces, and they said, “Oh yes, sir! It’s a great, great imagination. The greatest ever.” But none of them looked very happy. Not at all.

  One of them continued, “But you see, sir—as you know, libraries can be very dangerous. And allowing Princess to run around with this girl who keeps finding herself in bad situations—well, sir, Princess could get hurt, you see. Or even worse.”

  The Director sighed. “I suppose you are right. We must look out for Princess.”

  “But Daddy!” Lucy pouted. “I learned so much from Lenora. Did you know that people used to work computers by hand? And that—”

  “Now, now, Princess,” her father interrupted. “You know that if you want to learn anything, you don’t need to read any books or ask any silly librarians. You can just ask me! I know everything.”

  And for the first time, Lenora could see just the smallest bit of doubt creep over Lucy’s face, even though she still seemed to love the hair tousling. (Lenora wondered how she could possibly stand five seconds of it.)

  Lenora grasped the opportunity. “That’s true, sir. The Philosophy section, for example. I love what you’ve done with it. All of those great … great … books, all written by you. What else could anyone need?”

  “That’s exactly what I said,” the Director replied. “Didn’t I?” He looked around, and the Forces nodded with extraordinary reluctance.

  Lenora felt she was really getting the hang of this. “Yes, all those old, really, really famous philosophers, stretching back thousands of years. You always knew someone was great when you saw their name alongside great, big philosophers, like Plato and Aristotle and those other famous Greek guys. Even though we don’t really need them anymore.”

  “That’s right,” mused the Director, who seemed to be struggling with something. A thought, perhaps.

  Lenora waited. The Forces were all looking on in extreme alarm.

  The Director snapped his fingers. “You know, I just had another great idea. We should put all those old philosopher guys back up. It will make me look even better, and no one is going to read their dumb books anyway when they can read mine.”

  “What a great idea,” said Lenora.

  “But sir!” said one of the Forces in horror. “The Board has directly ordered—”

  The Director waved his hand absently. “The Board, the Board, the Board. You know what? I’m bored.” He paused to laugh uproariously at his own joke, then continued, “The Board, look, they work for me, okay? They do what I say. I’m the Director.”

  “The Board does not work—” began one of the Forces, then stopped as he saw all the rest of them shaking their heads wildly.

  The Director began to get red-faced, then quickly became purple-faced. The veins on his neck bulged. Lenora got the distinct impression the man was about to lose his temper quite dramatically. “What did you say?”

  “Never mind him. It’s a great decision, sir,” said a woman soothingly. “He just means that we will have to inform the Board, of course. It’s merely standard policy.”

  “Fine,” fumed the Director. “Tell them. Make sure they know who’s boss around here.”

  “Of course,” said the woman, casting a triumphant look at Lenora.

  Lenora began to get a rather worse feeling about the Board than she’d even had before, and she was not as confident as the Director that he was quite as much in control of them as he seemed to think.

  “Good,” said the Director. “Now get down to Philosophy and put all those old guys back up. And mix them around a bunch so they’re always next to my books.”

  The librarian in Lenora shuddered at this lack of order. But at least the books would be back on the shelves. And then she was extremely surprised at what the Director said next.

  “And she’s in charge of it,” he said, pointing at Lenora. “I like her. You guys leave her alone. She’s cooperating.”

  Several of the Forces hissed at these words.

  “Can I go with her, Daddy?” cried Lucy. “Lenora is so much fun.”

  “Anything for my Princess!” said the Director, and Lucy leapt from his lap and ran to Lenora, who turned to leave. She could feel the Forces gathering behind her, ready to follow.

  “And I’m goi
ng to make an announcement to the Philosophy section about my great idea!” said the Director, walking over to the transmission console. “Message to Philosophy,” he began. “No,” he said. “The whole Library should know about this. It’s genius.” He flipped another switch from Off to Live and went straight into one of his speeches, his face appearing on every monitor, happy as could be.

  “Hello, patrons!” he exclaimed, face abeam. “As you know, I have been removing many unnecessary and expensive books in order to make the Library a more exciting and entertaining experience for all of you!”

  Lenora felt her left eye begin to twitch.

  “And of course my policy has been incredibly successful and is making you all much smarter. But I have decided to bring back a few of those books, by some of those famous Greek guys, like uh … uh ..….….….….….….….…. .”

  The agonizing pause continued until Lenora whispered, “Plato and Aristotle!”

  “Uh, yes, Platotle and all the rest…”

  Lenora couldn’t take it anymore. She went straight down the steps to the Tube, the Forces following, as the Director continued blathering away in the background.

  There was a man ascending the steps. A man wearing a green raincoat. And he was smiling serenely at Lenora as he ascended.

  Goose bumps rose on her arms.

  Lenora felt hate surge inside her, hate she had never felt before. Her blood was pounding in her veins, and her breaths were coming faster and faster. By the time the man in the green raincoat was next to her on the steps, still smiling at her pleasantly, she wanted nothing more in the world than to hurl herself at him, hitting him with her fists, and then to do the same to every single one of the Forces following her. A kind of red blindness came over her, and, fists curled, she threw herself at him—

  Or would have, had arms not wrapped around her from behind. “Lenora!” Lucy was shouting. “What’s wrong? Lenora, stop!”

  Lenora fought, pulling at Lucy’s arms, wanting to fight Lucy, too, even though the deepest part of her brain was telling her stop you don’t want this stop stop stop …