by Barnaby Yard
“That is your choice, however, I assure you we will be travelling using the device which may be... difficult for you if you do not drink.”
“What do you need me for? If you have one of those machines you can go anywhere you want.”
“Ah, but I would like to go somewhere in particular Mr Fartheid. Somewhere I have never been... but you have.”
“I won't help you, you fiend!”
“I rather think you will, you see... if you do not concentrate on a destination known to you, who knows where we will end up? You in fact, will need to be my tortoise. Do you know what some of the other versions of this world are like? I can tell you that many of them, in fact, an infinite number of them, are not pleasant at all.”
Colin was not the most agile of mind, but his brain clicked into some sort of new groove which allowed images of some of the things they'd seen in books which had turned up in the library to flash through his mind. Many of them had had far more tentacles than were good for them. He swallowed and tried to remain calm.
“How would you know? You wouldn't have been able to...” He was cut off mid-sentence.
“Again Mr Fartheid, you seem to be unaware of so many things which... change the picture so to speak. I am afraid you are to remain unaware. Right now you are only to think of the world where your Ingress and your silly little team are, and think well. If we end up anywhere... unpleasant, I will have no hesitation in leaving you there.”
Colin looked down at the dirty bottle in his hand, pulled the small cork from the top and swigged, his eyes attempting to burn a hole into the back of the angular man's skull. In fact, it was Colin's skull which currently felt like a whole was being burnt in it. If possible, Colin thought, this was worse than fog.
“Mr Pall?” the man said slowly, “Please start the device.”
Pall began to turn the small brass handle on the side of the box in an anticlockwise direction. The sound of well oiled gears moving almost silently seemed to fill the room more than it should have done. If you were to look closely, very closely, in fact, you'd probably need an extremely good microscope, you would be able to see the brass horn quivering slightly. Not quivering in the normal side-to-side motion of something being vibrated, but more quivering in your vision. It would be in one place and then, simply not. Less than a millisecond later it would appear again, but in a slightly different place. With the aid of a very powerful microscope and possibly slow motion video footage, it may have looked like its position was jumping around as though on a flickering film.
Pall stopped turning the handle. The machine had made no noise before, but the silence now was different, more hollow. Pall reached down, pulled the handle off of the shaft which led into the box, and flipped a switch which stuck out of the side.
Immediately everything began to swim in front of Colin's eyes. There was an almost imperceptible deep hum which grew and grew until it felt like it was inside him. Air passed around him thickly, with a pressure which was rocking him back on his feet. There was a sudden pop as he felt himself being stretched through an invisible gap at a rapid speed.His eyes began to focus once more and a sudden brightness made him squint. They were now outside, he turned his head left, then right, he saw the man sat on the damp grass to the side looking somewhat surprised. Colin realised that he had been sitting before they had jumped, but the leather armchair didn't exist here. Pall was crouched in a fighting stance, breathing heavily, his eyes darting around for danger. There was none, they had landed in a field containing nothing more alarming than a few dozen cows who raised their heads to them momentarily before lazily swooping back to the grass to continue lunch.
The angular man had regained his composure, standing up sharply and brushing himself down, he spoke in an abrupt manner.
“Well, we are here. Now, let's find the girl quickly. We need a map.” He began to head in the direction of some low slung buildings which were visible over the hedge in the fields corner. A sharp dig in Colin's back indicated that Pall wanted him to follow him.
~~~~
Becky and Spencer arrived back at Ingress to find the old building apparently empty. Becky called out to the twins, but got no reply. She wandered to the workbench and started to study the donuts that were there. Spencer wandered along the long room to the far end where the tortoise pen ran along the wall. He reached the wooden fence and leaned on it, thinking hard. If there were copies of people in each universe, then... that mark on the body... it could have been.. He was suddenly dragged from his thoughts as he realised that whatever he had been gazing at, didn’t quite add up somehow. He looked around at the tortoises ambling around the straw laden pen. Then he realised.
“Becky! Quick!”
He heard her footsteps echo against the flagstones of the room, then arrive at his side in a rush.
“What’s wrong? I... Oh!”
They both stared in silence. The pen was empty, there wasn’t one tortoise crawling across the straw laden floor.
“This is bad isn’t it?” asked Spencer. Though he knew the answer. He could feel that Becky had tensed next to him before sagging slightly.
“It’s bad," she answered in a slightly hoarse whisper, “it means we’re stuck here.”
“It’s too risky without them?” asked Spencer.
“Yes.” She turned to look at him. “We don’t know where they all go yet, it could be anywhere, and dangerous.”
“So who marked the ones that you knew where they went?”
“Spangler I guess,” she answered, before turning back to face the long room. “Where is everyone?!”
As though in answer, the large doors at the side opposite the round window opened suddenly. Spangler burst in, his face in a furious grimace, with Norbert and the twins trailing him.
“I told him. The idiot! I knew it was fishy! I knew it was fishy!”
He stormed across the room and walked to the large round window, leaning on its curved sill breathlessly.
Spencer and Becky walked across to meet Norbert and the twins in the middle of the room.
“What’s going on?” asked Becky.
All four of them looked nervous as Esme replied.
“Norbert’s friend had told him he’d seen Colin being taken onto a boat in the docks by some men. We all rushed down there and there was this guy saying he’d seen it too and that the ship had sailed off... but....we could see he wasn’t telling the truth. He was trying to lead us off on a wild goose chase. So we... used the persuader.” She lifted a metal handle which formed two prongs at one end. He flipped a switch on the side in way of demonstration and a light blue bolt of electricity sparked between the two small spheres at the end of each prong.
Eva continued from her sister.
“He told us someone had paid him and his brother to tell anyone asking that that was what had happened. His brother had taken a boat out a little way and was to lead anybody who tried to chase him out to sea.”
“I don’t understand?” said Becky.
“I do," said Spencer. “It was a distraction wasn’t it? Spangler knows.”
They all turned to look at the figure who was now striding up and down in front of the window, occasionally smashing a fist into its sill and muttering constantly.
Eva continued. "He was... you know... the other one, then he changed and was furious. Kept saying ‘he didn’t listen’, but we don’t know who he means."
“I think he’s talking to himself," said Spencer slowly.
“Well obviously.” said Becky curtly.
“No, I mean he’s talking about himself, the other side of him.”
They all looked from Spangler to Spencer, but he didn’t expand further, he continued to stare at the old man pacing with a slight frowned expression. Norbert broke the spell.
"I'll murder that Leggy ‘Arold if I see ‘im again! The bleeding liar! Now they’ve gone and taken it and I'll never get me bits and bobs!” His hat was spinning fast in his hands.
“Taken what?” asked Becky sharply.
>
They all looked at the floor. Giving Spencer the impression of four puppies trying to decide who should explain the funny smell coming from the wardrobe.
Suddenly Norbert wailed.
”The device! The one you go to the other places with! It’s all my fault!” He pulled a stained and sodden hanky from his breast pocket and blew a loud parp into it.
“No!” burst Becky “It can’t have... oh god.” There was another awkward silence.
Spencer became aware that Spangler had become quiet as well. He looked across and saw the old man leaning once more, but he wasn’t agitated and mumbling anymore. He was still and quiet apart from the rise and fall of his back as his breathing slowed. He slowly stood up and turned towards him. The scowl had gone, the eyes had reverted to their piercing, warm blue sparkle rather than the cold blue ice they had appeared as just moments ago. He was the Spangler Spencer had first met again.
“Come now!” he said as he approached. “Do not worry, we will find it again I am sure! We have each other, and what a fine team we are!”
“They took the tortoises as well," said Becky softly.
Spangler’s smile flickered. For a fleeting moment it looked as though his entire face had flashed back to the angry, cold, hard face he had had previously. His eyes wandered to the tortoise pen and quickly darted back, he raised his smile again.
“No matter, no matter. Let’s concentrate on finding Colin and the device shall we?” he said in a business like manner and promptly walked off and out of the large side door to the rest house.
Everyone seemed to have frozen for a moment before Becky spoke quietly.
“Where the hell do we even start looking?!”
Spencer stepped forward.
“Norbert, go and find your friend... ‘Leggy’ was it?”
“Leggy ‘Arold yeah,” spat Norbert murderously.
“Well find him and find out who paid him to say what he did, he must have been paid off like the man at the dock. Eva, start looking at media, online stuff anything that can let us know if something big happens.”
Eva giggled a little, “There’s no internet or tv here, just radio.”
“Ok,” continued Spencer assertively, though inwardly reeling with panic from the realisation he was now stuck in a world that didn’t have television. “Listen to the radio then, get out on the street and see what’s going on. Whatever this is I've got a feeling it’s going to be big. Think about what someone could do with this...” Silence rang out like bell, tension wrapping itself around them as they stood thinking. Spencer broke it.
“I need to go and have a little chat with Mr Spangler.” He walked off towards the door with Becky following him.
“He’ll be in his office on the top floor, what are you going to say to him?” Becky asked.
“I think he knows who’s done this, you saw his reaction, I think he was angry with himself as he should have seen this coming. We need to know what we’re up against and he’s the only one who can tell us.”
“He’s always refused to talk about his past and things.”
“Well it’s time for that to change," said Spencer as they reached the top of the musty wide staircase with the fading, floral carpet and set off down a corridor, Becky pointed down as she continued.
“He has a terrible temper.”
“No he doesn’t,” Spencer said darkly. “That’s not even him.”
They reached an ancient and battered door with ‘Spangler’ etched into a small brass plaque at its center. Spencer knocked loudly before Becky could ask him what he was talking about.
Spencer opened the door and entered before waiting for a reply.
A large wooden desk dominated the center of the crowded room which heaved with bookshelves stuffed with dusty tomes. Papers were strewn all over the desk and floor, each with scribblings and writing that looked illegible to Spencer. Brass candlesticks heavy in melted wax sat dotted around amongst the drifts of paper. It was not so much a ‘fire hazard’ as a ‘fire to be’ thought Spencer, as in, this place is definitely going to burn to the ground at some point and it would be best if people (particularly himself) weren't in it at the time.
Spangler sat in a leather swivel behind the desk facing to one side. Light speared through a round window behind him, the beam illuminating him from behind giving him a glow. His head was in his hands, his elbows on his knees. He didn’t turn around when they entered.
When Spencer spoke it was quietly, taking Becky by surprise who had thought he was going to tear into Spangler from the way he had been talking.
“You need to tell us who’s done this, you need to tell us how this all started, and you need to tell us before something happens to Colin or they use the device to do god knows what.”
The old man turned to them and sighed deeply.
~~~~
They’d walked for around twenty minutes through dull little streets with dull little shops. Pall had draped his ragged coat over Colin’s tied wrists so that people couldn’t see he was clearly being held captive. They still attracted quite a few odd looks though. A thin angular man wearing what appeared to be a fancy dress pirate costume, being followed by an enormous, square jawed Colin in a white, billowing shirt. His hair shining golden in the sun. Then, at the rear, a hawkish, shifty-eyed individual who people seemed to turn away from very quickly when they caught his eye, suddenly finding the pavement absolutely fascinating. This was not an everyday trio to be wandering these streets.
Colin had considered calling out when they had first seen other people milling about the streets as they’d made their way from the field towards civilisation. He hadn’t though in the end, thinking that it was quite possible that the man behind him would have no issue in hurting an innocent passerby who tried to help him, and also that G.R.I.N club policy stated that they should try and reduce any possible connections between worlds as much as possible. He decided to bide his time and overpower them somehow.
He looked around, they appeared to have turned off into a residential area. Flats loomed either side of a narrow, stubby cul de sac.
“Where are we going?” he asked again. He had already asked this question twelve times during the short walk, but he considered perseverance to be an admirable trait.
Pall poked him hard in the back and snarled, “Shut up.”
The angular man was walking more slowly now, his head darting left then right, staring at the buildings on either side. He was muttering to himself and flicking through a small black leather notebook he had pulled from his jacket pocket. He seemed to be deciding something.
“There!” he suddenly shouted, pointing to an entrance the other side of the street from them.
The three of them walked up to the grubby glass door. The thin man scanned the small names covered in peeling plastic which ran vertical along the door, next to each one a buzzer.
The man ran a thin finger along the names, coming to rest against the second last one which read ‘Stroud’.
He pressed the buzzer. There was a moment's silence before a ghostly crackle proceeded a woman’s voice emanating from the speaker.
“Hello?”
“Hello madam, I am here to tell you that you have won a prize. If you would just come down, we can go through the details.”
“Bugger off," came the reply instantly, before falling silent again.
The man’s eyes narrowed and Colin saw the knuckles whiten on the hand that was now squeezing the notebook tightly. Someone suddenly came running down the stairs behind the door in front of them and burst through it. A man wearing luminous cycling shorts, a white basketball vest and enormous headphones jogged past them nodding curtly.
The angular man quickly darted behind him and caught the door before it slammed shut. He turned to Pall.
“Go and get her, I'll stay with this idiot.”
He stepped behind Colin who felt the tip of a blade press against his lower back. Pall hurried off up the stairs. Just five minutes passed with nothing
other than the low rumble of traffic from the main road and the odd burst of birdsong from the trees which lined the cul de sac, before Pall returned pushing a clearly terrified woman in front of him.
10
Queen Lisa
Spencer looked into the eyes of Spangler and waited for an answer. The old man slumped further over, his head bowed.
“What I have to pass to you, is the weight which has kept me so broken all these years. A great shame to me, a great shame."
His voice cracked with the last few words.
“Just tell me."
Spangler sighed deeply, he drew himself up slightly.
“Many years ago, I had a partner. I will not shirk my responsibility for what happened, but it is true to say that my partner drove us to our disastrous end. At the time, I thought it was all a wonderful adventure." His face moved into a sad smile. “Things were different then. We had such dreams... well... I did." His eyes moved from misty eyed reflection to something darker, there was a pain there. Spencer could see it hovering just below the surface.
“My partner was a very... single minded man. I didn't fully realise...“ He drifted off and stared at the floor once more.
“Go on," Spencer encouraged.
“Ever since I had hypothesised that there were multiple universes I had set my mind to finding a way across. I had searched for years using various methods, until finally one day I created my Vibrobbler."
Spencer spluttered suddenly. “Vibrobbler?!”
“Yes, yes, I realise it was a somewhat unfortunate name, but that's what I used to call it."
Spencer tried to relax his eyes from something other than saucers.
“It was an unknown area, we didn't realise the implications of...“ he tailed off again.
“Yes?" said Spencer
“The universe, all universes have weak points, thin spots in reality where each universe is as close to the next as it can possibly be. When we turned on the Vibrobbler for the first time, it shook the very foundation of reality, the weak spots simply... cracked."
“Which is why things occasionally leaked through," replied Spencer.
