Pressing herself into my embrace, she said softly, "Now you know the truth. So what are you going to do? Take me back to the Titans? Or turn me over to the cops?"
Her eyes flashed, once, twice, and my heart did the high-wire thing again. Then, so help me, I said, "Hold tight, lady. I got a better idea."
We stood beside the dancing railroad tracks: me, the dame and three Titans. Winter wind howled into our flesh. Lightning flashed above us, beneath us, inside our heads. In the far, far distance, a familiar smear of light came galloping out of the gloom.
The great lobster shape of the Search Engine crashed to a halt just inches from our faces, spilling its load of noxious gases and lubricants into the noisome filth of its wake. Even the Titans had the good grace to look impressed.
Something like a head emerged from the cab. Following it out, moving with sidewinder speed, came something like a body. This time, instead of inviting us up, the driver was coming down.
We backed away. Even the Titans backed away. We had to, to give the driver room to stand.
The Titans, I noticed, had dipped their massive, horned heads in respect.
"Which one of you's brought it?" said the driver, with something like anticipation.
The dame took one step forward and handed it over. When she stepped back, I slipped an arm around her waist and pulled her close.
"Don't worry," I whispered in her ear. "It'll all work out."
Raising something like an arm, the driver put on the hat.
We sat in my office: me, the dame and the two remaining Titans.
"I'd offer you coffee," I said, "only the machine's busted."
Hyperion, the bigger of the two, waved away the offer with one gargantuan hand.
"Who'd have thought it?" he rumbled in a voice like boulders in a tumble-dryer.
"Ah well," drawled Oceanus. "We lost a bet. So what?"
"We lost Iapetos, is what we did. We shouldn't have bet him."
"He was noisy. You never liked him."
"Yah."
Then Hyperion turned to me and said, "We got you to thank for showing us that place, buddy."
"Interesting place," Oceanus put in.
"Sure enough. Strange fellow though, that driver. Who'd have thought he'd turn into something with so many teeth?"
"Yah. Poor Iapetos."
"Who'd have thought it?" I agreed. "So you didn't mind my, er, client making the substitution? Not putting the hat on herself."
"Nah," said Oceanus, picking a piece of driftwood from between his teeth. "It can get pretty dull, you know, being a Titan. Everything's smaller than you are. Even most worlds."
"Especially most worlds," put in Hyperion.
"Yah. And it isn't every day we get to see a place we've never seen before."
"Especially one that's bigger than we are."
"And that driver."
"One weird character."
"Yah. And just a little . . . would you say . . . ?"
"Scary?" I put in.
"Yah. Scary. We don't get scared much."
They sat silent for a minute or two, considering fear with eyes like turning worlds.
"So," I said, "my client's debt?"
"All paid," said Hyperion, swiping that mighty hand again. "No bother. You guys, you did something today nobody's done for a long time."
"An eon," put in Oceanus.
"An eon," Hyperion agreed.
The dame pressed some of my favorite parts of her body close to me. I relaxed back in the chair and said, "What did we do?"
"You surprised us."
"It's a long time since I surprised a god," I said when the Titans had left.
"They aren't gods," said the dame.
"Next best thing," I replied. I pointed to the footmarks on the carpet. "The size they are, they might as well be."
"You know, that's always puzzled me. They must be, what, a thousand miles high? But they always manage to fit in an ordinary room. How do they do that?"
"Search me," I said. "I still don't know how we got them inside that filing cabinet. I never folded a Titan before."
We both stared at the cabinet.
"Is the world inside that top drawer bigger than this one?" she asked.
"Bigger than all of them put together," I said. "At least, that's what the guy in the market said when he sold it to me. I've only been inside it three times now but, from what I've seen so far, I think he may be right."
"It impressed the hell out of the Titans."
"That was the idea."
"What about the one who, um, stayed behind? What do you think will happen to him?"
"Iapetos? Search me. I'm just glad I got him down there