The Secret Sea (29 page)

“We don't need to,” she told him. “They charge it over here.” She pointed to the second magnified area. “All the charged electroleum we could ever want.”

Zak squinted at the map. “It says ‘High Security.' We'd never get in and then get out with the stuff.”

“Got a better plan?” She planted her fists on her hips. “Maybe you have an electroleum dealer on speed dial?”

With a sigh, Zak admitted he didn't. “It can't just be as easy as walking into this place, though.”

“I'm sure it isn't. But we'll figure it out.”

“Will we?”

Moira shrugged and grinned, and for a moment Zak was able to forget how dangerous this world was for her. “Well,
I'll
figure it out. You can watch. Like usual.”

*   *   *

Zak had felt like an idiot going into a corner store and asking if there was somewhere he could get on the Internet for free. He felt more like an idiot when the guy behind the counter looked at him, perplexed, and said, “The
Internet
?” as if he'd never heard of it before.

“You know, like a computer?” Zak mimed typing and mousing. “Connected to other computers?”

The guy's face lit up with understanding. “You mean the TIM! There's a TIM café down on Ninth and Thirteenth, but if you just want to get on quick and free, head over to the Apple Store.”

The words
Apple Store
just didn't seem to belong to this world, in a world so different in so many fundamental ways. But there had been Dr. White-eagle's Wonder Glass. That etched Apple logo, hovering just above surface of the device.

Different world, similar world. Like twins, after all.

And so he and Moira headed west on Fourteenth, toward what was in their world called the Meatpacking District. According to the signs they saw on the way, it had the same name here.

Moira kept her head down, her hands jammed in her pockets, shoulders hunched, staring at the pavement as they walked. With the sun just setting, Zak felt guilty for enjoying the walk. The air was crisp and less humid than a typical New York August. Just a good weather day, or was the climate different in this world, too?

In any event,
he
could saunter down the street without a care, nodding to other pedestrians, smiling at them. No one would be scandalized by his presence.

He noticed signs banning women on storefronts. Or welcoming them, but only with men in their company.

It was a magic world, this one. A world where his twin could live again. Where his heart could be repaired.

And where his best friend was a criminal.

He wished that this world didn't resemble home so much. Somehow, that made its flaws even worse.

“How did you find me, anyway?” he asked her. He told himself it was to help her relax, but really it was to take his mind off his own guilt.

“Tommy.” It was the last word he expected to hear out of her mouth, and it froze him in his tracks, rooting him to the spot. Moira kept walking for a few paces, then stopped and gestured to him in panic. “Keep up with me!” she whispered loudly.

Zak caught up to her. “Tommy? Really?”

“I was backtracking from the Dutchmen's hideout, trying to make my way to the alley. And then I saw you, just standing on the corner. I ran to you and tripped and fell right through you, and that's when I realized I was seeing a ghost.” She paused. “I can't believe I just said that sentence.”

“Tommy! What did he say to you?”

“Nothing. He just started walking, and I followed him until I got to the doctor's house. He disappeared right on the stoop, so I figured that was where I was supposed to be. When the door opened, I couldn't believe you were right there!” She beamed at him, and her joy both invigorated and depressed him.

“We're gonna be stuck here, aren't we?” he asked.

Her smile dimmed. “Yeah. I think so.”

“And you're going to be—”

She shook her head fiercely. “We can't talk about that. Not now. Right now, we have to learn what we can about this recycling place. And find Khalid.”

Breaking into a futuristic building they knew nothing about, evading security, and stealing an alien substance they'd never encountered before suddenly seemed a lot easier than finding Khalid. Alternate universe or no, missing chunk of the island aside, this Manhattan was every bit as crowded and overpopulated as the one back home. Without cell phones, finding Khalid would be like isolating a specific drop of water in a lake.

“How are we going to do that?” he wondered.

“One step at a time,” Moira said. “We're here.”

*   *   *

From across the street, the Apple Store looked astonishingly like one back home, except that it was lit by electroleum, which gave it an unearthly, beautiful haze. Moira couldn't allow herself to be seduced by the pretty tech, though. This world was a minefield for her, a maze with death rays around every corner. She had to be careful. More careful than she'd ever been in her life.

“You go in there and find everything you can online about the recycling facility,” Moira told Zak. “I'll be over there, figuring out our next step.” She pointed to a rather dingy and darkening alley opposite the store.

“That's crazy. Just come with me.”

“No.”

He flung a hand out. “There's no sign on the store! Women are allowed in there!”

Moira grabbed his face, pinching his cheeks together. “Be. Quiet!” she whispered. “Don't shout stuff like that!”

“Sorry,” he mumbled with his compressed mouth.

Releasing him, she peered around, making sure no one had overheard. “You have to do this part.”

“It's better if you're with me. You'll know what to look for. You'll be able to remember—”

“I can't go in.”

“Why not?”

She shrugged. “Too crowded. Someone might realize I'm a girl.”

“You're being paranoid. No one's even looking at you.”

Moira erupted. “Don't you get it, Zak? This is my life now! This is my life
here
. I have to think like this. All the time. I can't just walk down the street or go into a store, like you can. I have to
think
about it. I have to decide which risks to take. Especially if we're going to be stuck here forever. Everything I do has to be calculated.”

Zak stared at her for a moment. “I'm sorry,” he said slowly, turning away. “I'm being a jerk.”

“You're not,” she said, mollified. “It's tough to get used to.”

He shook his head. He couldn't even look at her. “This is all my fault. I was chasing Tommy, and I brought us here.”

“Don't do that.” Her voice softened.

“Do what? Tell the truth?” He rubbed at his eyes to keep tears away. “If it weren't for me, you wouldn't be here at all. And you wouldn't have to be afraid all the time. And you—”

“‘No use cryin' over spilt whiskey,' my dad says.” She chuckled. “‘Just figure out how to get it back in the glass!'”

He laughed, and she laughed, too. Until she'd said it, she hadn't realized how much she missed her parents. She could hear her dad saying exactly that, even though he rarely drank anything stronger than a Coke. Her parents seemed to like talking about drinking more than actually drinking.

“We're here,” she told him, touching his face gently to turn his gaze back to hers. “And we're going to figure out how to make the best of it. That guy Salazar said something about someone filling my head with ‘femalist propaganda.' So there's gotta be
someone
out there in this world fighting for the truth. And if not, maybe I'll get to be the Susan B. Anthony of this universe.”

Zak sniffled and laughed. “I don't even know who that is.”

“Of course not.”

“So you won't go in there with me? Really?”

“Out on the street is one thing. But look at me.” She spread her arms wide. “I'm in a dirty coverall, and my face is dirty, and my hat came out of the garbage. Inside, people will look. Besides, it's close quarters in there. If someone realizes I'm an uncompanioned female, I want to be out in the open. Where I can run.”

Zak struggled with his words before blurting out, “I don't want to lose you again. I can't stand the thought of it. What if someone comes after you while I'm fooling around in there? You were in an alley before, and the Dutchmen still got you,” he reminded her.

“And I got out of that okay.”

“Moira.” She had told him—after much prodding and annoyance—of her escape, of the bloody beatdown of one of the Dutchmen. “Be real. That wasn't getting out of something ‘okay.' That was risking your life and escaping by the skin of your teeth. You got lucky. Really lucky. We both know you're tough, but come on—you won't get lucky like that a second time.”

She stubbornly refused to respond to that, saying only, “I can't go in there.”

Zak mused for a moment. “How about this: If someone notices you, we'll just say that you got lost and that your dad or your grandfather is somewhere else in the store. They'll spend some time looking for him, and we can slip out.”

Moira considered this. “That's not the worst idea I've ever heard.” She sighed heavily and studied the Apple Store across the street. It seemed so much like home that she ached inside. And Zak was right—there was no sign on it declaiming that women could not enter. Maybe it was, if not actually safe, at least saf
er
.

“Let's go,” she said.

*   *   *

The Wonder Glass display was crowded, and Zak was antsy, wanting nothing more than to push people aside and get his turn. But drawing attention to himself and, by extension, Moira was a bad idea, so he waited patiently until he had the Wonder Glass to himself.

The person before him had been surfing news sites, and headlines scrolled by on the surface of the Wonder Glass:
Wild Science Conference Hacked—by Alchemy!… President Gore Signs Global Cooling Pact … Apple CEO Steve Jobs Celebrates 60th Birthday in Territorial Hawai'i … Coalition Forces Triumph in Sudan … Lunar Olympians Prepare for Winter Games …

Superficially, it was similar to an iPad back home. He had no trouble figuring out the interface or the gestures. The Internet here was something called the TIM, but it worked basically the same way. He started browsing for information on the electroleum recycling facility south of the city, when he heard Moira, positioned close by, gasp.

Zak spun around and grabbed her hand, ready to pull her away from anyone who would try to snatch her. But then he recognized the source of her surprise.

Khalid.

 

FORTY-NINE

Zak had truly begun to wonder if he would ever see Khalid again. Near tears, he couldn't help flinging himself at his buddy, enfolding Khalid in his arms.

“Zak?” Khalid murmured in his ear. “Is it really you?”

“Yeah, man.”

All around them, the crowd in the Apple Store grinned and
aww
ed at the reunion … for a moment. It was still New York, alternate universe or not, so soon someone said, “Very touching. You done with this?” and gestured to the Wonder Glass display.

Moira cleared her throat; Zak could tell she was uncomfortable being so close to the center of attention. Together, the three of them headed outside.

“How did you get here?” all three of them asked at once.

And then—for the first time since escaping Zak's hospital room back home—all three laughed as though safety and sanity awaited them out on the street and not a universe away.

It wasn't far to Dr. Bookman's office—a block away, around a corner—and they caught each other up on what had happened as they walked there. Entering Bookman's office, Khalid said, “… so I went to get help, figuring I'd look up a hospital or something at the store, and then I saw you guys.”

Bookman still lay on the sofa, exactly as Khalid had left him. Moira knelt down by him and touched his neck, then his wrist.

“I tried that,” Khalid said lamely.

“I think he's okay,” she said. “Seems like he's sleeping.”

As if in response, Dr. Bookman suddenly snorted a complicated, phlegmy breath, then rolled over on his side, facing away from them. Moira stretched and actually yawned, then sat on the edge of the sofa. “I can't believe I can finally
relax
. Even just a little bit.”

“What's this?” Zak pointed to an aquarium with cockroaches skittering about.

“Dude, don't even ask. It's weirder than you can imagine. You don't want to know.
I
don't want to know. You know that electroleum stuff? He was messing with it. Next thing you know, some of them were dead, then alive—or alive and then dead—and some of them disappeared. It was a cockroach Rapture, man.”

“So, now what?” Zak asked. As he made his way across the room to the desk, he kicked something accidentally. Crouching down, he realized it was Officer's Cheong's stun gadget. He tucked it into his pocket and covered it with his shirt. While he was down there, he noticed water underfoot. “What happened here?”

“It was during the whole … voodoo possession thing. And believe me, I never thought those words would come out of my mouth. The whole place was just soaked with salt water.”

“Weird…” Zak armed a sheet of water off the desk, clearing a space. “We need to get online. Does he have a computer or one of those Wonder thingies?”

Khalid held up a rectangle like the one Dr. White-eagle had used. “Yeah, but I can't get it to work.”

Without a word, Moira snatched it from him. She studied it for a moment and then, with a shrug, lifted Dr. Bookman's hand by the wrist and pressed his fingertip against the screen. The Wonder Glass made a tiny, clicking unlock sound, and the screen lit up.