Chapter 2
We run for a long time then, seems like it’s hours. The kid wears out pretty quickly so after a few blocks it’s really more like a jog. We’re both shivering in the relentless rain. It’s much darker now, the sky a deep indigo blue tinged with grey. Never seen weather like that. I’ve also never seen so many alleyways in Gotham. Didn’t know that there were that many. The kid has some strange ability to find every connected alleyway in the entire city, navigating them like some sort of vagrant savant.
After a while I pull to a stop. The kid stares at me expectantly.
“Twiggy, switch to tablet mode.” I croak hoarsely.
“Tablet mode on.” Repplies Twiggy.
“What’s tablet mode?” The kid asks.
“Prowler mode is for LE tracking. Tablet mode is for work.” I reply absentmindedly.
“Huh?” He says, perplexed.
I shrug, “Never seen a digipad kid? What, are you some kind of a technophobe?”
“Something like that. Where I grew up, we don’t have those.”
I laugh at that. “Everyone has one of these. Unless you’re up-system in which case you have the Intellect built into the station.”
“Station? You mean like a space ship?”
I shake my head with frustration. “Space ship? No of course not, I meant the Everest complex. You know, the one where all the fat cats live. The bourgeoisie. The rich.” I look up at him, trying to read his carefully neutral face. His accent, his strange slang, his weird clothing. Something’s not adding up here. “Hey kid, where did you say you were from again?”
His eyes narrow and his gaze becomes intense. He’s almost handsome when he does that. “Far way. Really far away.”
“Atlantis then?” I ask, breathless.
He bursts out laughing and shakes his head. “No, definitely not Atlantis. I’m from a little city called New York, more specifically the Bronx. Or at least that’s where I lived up until 36 hours ago. Now? Now you could say I’m homeless.”
“New York?” I ask, mouthing the strange name carefully. It has a weird colonial feel to it. “Is that part of the old British Imperium?”
“No.”
Of course not. Britain is a desolate nuclear wasteland. Uninhabitable for the next 10,000 years or so, I think to myself. Besides, I once heard Gotham had a similar nickname.
I step back from the kid and straighten my ruined suit. “Well kid, wherever you’re from, thank you for saving me from that bastard. But alas, our time together must come to an end. LE’s probably looking for me so we better split up, unless you fancy getting caught. So just point me in the general direction of Acheron Avenue and I’ll let you get back to… Well whatever it is that you’re up to down here.”
The kid leans back and pulls something out of his denim pants pocket. It’s a small carton box, from which he pulls out a thin white tube. He puts the slim tube, looks like it’s made of paper, in his mouth and a tiny flame form a compact device lights the end of the tube. He pulls in air and the tip glows ruddy orange. He breathes out rancid smoke.
I stand gaping at him, wondering what kind of crazy person inhales a burning paper stick. Like really. Who wakes up one morning and decides, hey, today I’m going to light stuff on fire and then suck in the smoke. He sees my surprise and takes the tube out of his mouth and holds it up to my face. The smoke is making me nauseous.
“What, they don’t have these where you’re from?”
“Where I’m from? No one has these anywhere. For god’s sake, I’d have heard of something like this, trust me.”
He shrugs and takes another drag from the tube. I’m starting to suspect that most normal humans would be on their knees by now, coughing up big chunks of lung tissue. “Well, I guess. But listen, I don’t think you should leave.”
“Oh? And why is that?”
“Because whatever happened to me yesterday, well I think it’s happening to you. If you leave, you’re going to have to hit one helluva learning curve and I suspect you’re not nearly as flexible as I am with my interpretation of reality.”
I look him up and down. “Listen kid, don’t take this as an insult, but I don’t think even the freak back there has anywhere your flexibility in interpreting reality. And he’s about as crazy as a two headed Pacific Dollar.”
“Well, don’t say I didn’t warn you. But take this piece of advice. When you figure it all out for yourself, learn to use the alleyways. They can get you out of just about any amount of trouble.”
I frown at that. More crazy talk, but… “Thanks kid. I’ll keep it in mind. Now, you got any idea which way to Archeron?”
He shrugs again, raising his hands to his shoulders. “Your guess is as good as mine.” With that he waves at me halfheartedly and pushes off from the wall. He saunters away into the gloomy twilight.
I straighten my drenched suit and head in the opposite way. The rain’s stopped and the ensuing silence has somehow become ominous. Even though Gotham is a very safe city, well except for the freak, I feel like there are figures lurking in the shadows.
I hug my arms around myself and pick up the pace. But I walk no more than a few yards and the alley suddenly ends. I look up and a building stands in my way. A big one, probably one of the core five. Which means I’m in the heart of Gotham’s downtown. Should make it easy to get home. Just need to get out of this stupid alleyway. I turn around and head towards the kid. Moments later I come upon him. He’s leaning forward, pressing his hands against another dead end. He’s mumbling to himself, the burning tube bobbing up and down in his lips.
“Hey kid, the other way is a dead end.”
He turns around, looking perplexed. “So is this way.”
I frown. “Well, we just got here, so where’s the way back out?”
He looks at me, color draining from his face. “Well damn. If we’re boxed in, that’s some major fucking problem. It’s one thing sliding around worlds, but if we’re stuck between them, I’m going to go crazy.”
“What are you talking about? Sliding along worlds? What is that, slang for bumming around the city?”
“No lady, I mean sliding between dimensions.” He spreads his arms out. “Don’t you see? I mean when in your life have you ever seen so many small streets? Does your city even have this many without a single major road? And how about the way I can keep finding side alleys just about anywhere? Have you ever seen anything like it?”
“Well… Uh…” Yeah. The kid had a point.
“That’s right. Didn’t think so. So let me tell you. We, both of us, are now literally walking between dimensions. It’s the only explanation that makes sense.”
I look around in panic. Suddenly the walls are suffocating close. I can’t explain it but somehow everything he says makes sense. It all makes sense. The weird clothing, the slang, the accent. The fact that we evaded the freak in the darkness – something which is supposedly impossible. And even though I know it’s impossible, I also know that’s why it could be true. Because I’ve spent my entire professional life looking at patterns and making sense of them. Patterns which are buried in mountains of lies and corporate disinformation. Patterns of truths and misinformation that organizations spend decades intertwining. Yeah, no matter how insane, once you eliminate the impossible… Well whatever remains, however improbable, is the truth.
I look at the kid again. Suddenly he looks like just some frightened kid, wet and cold, trying to make sense of something monstrous that’s just happened to him. He’s sucking away at that little tube like it’s Athena’s left tit and I’m betting that it’s the only thing besides me that’s keeping him together.
“Okay kid, something strange is going on, I’ll give you that. Maybe not world hopping, but something strange for sure. Whatever it is, let’s get onto a main road quickly.”
He nods. “Yep. Except now we’re boxed in.”
“You just said you can find a side alley anywhere. Try that now.”
He grimaces. “I just d
id, as soon as I hit the dead end. No joy. We’re trapped.”
“Well, try it anyway. Humor me.”
He grabs my hand. I shudder at the inanimateness of the touch, but he doesn’t even glance my way. How strange that a boy so young could be so… cavalier about holding a girl’s hand. Or is it that holding hands is not the same thing for him, in his world? I try to keep myself comported and follow him. He leads me a few steps down the way and suddenly pulls me towards the wall. Then we’re down a different alley. We take two or three steps and it widens considerably.
“See?” I say, feeling relief coursing through me. Hope blooms in me. “Maybe we can even get back to Gotham.” He doesn’t respond, but just keeps walking. Suddenly there are street lights in the distance. We pick up the pace and we’re running by the time we spill onto the street. I look up and I can see that we’re in downtown Gotham proper. We’re on Osiris Lane, just about a block from my apartment. Relief floods through me.
“Come on kid. You’re about to be treated to a hot shower, clean clothes and dinner.”
The kid’s smile is from ear to ear.