Per our last discussion, I have verified that Dimension C-1572, the third parallel universe we have discovered that significantly overlaps with our own, is a suitable candidate for our first Chosen One summons. Said Chosen One has been identified as Sergei Petrov, who outsmarted a dark force known as the Black Cloud five years ago in that universe’s accounting of time.
Following the so-called rules of hospitality governing travel between universes, I located a point of vulnerability in Dimension C. We have previously defined a point of vulnerability as an individual who is susceptible to the influence of magical energy upon their person, which is to say that when we knock, he or she will open the door. Typically, a child serves this purpose well, as children are not as prone to questioning odd things as adults. However, in this dimension, our point of vulnerability is an adolescent girl with a suitably open mind and childlike belief in the impossible.
Once I am able to travel to Dimension C, I will locate an object significant to Sergei Petrov—that is, an object that Petrov has personalized to a high degree. I will carry this object back to Genetrix, and we will then use this object to summon Petrov specifically, since it is infused with his magical energy.
As a reminder, without a significant object to guide the working, the target is unlikely to respond to the summons to move to another universe—the object will work upon his mind such that when we speak our invitation, the target will hear it in the voice of a lost loved one, which he is more likely to trust. If he accepts said invitation, even momentarily, he will begin the process of entry. We, meanwhile, will attempt to steady the time fluctuations inherent in inter-universe travel so that Petrov doesn’t arrive in Genetrix at some point in the distant past or future.
I will need a magical assembly of about ten skilled magic-users, a group that must be cobbled together from the Council of Cordus, for maximum secrecy. The purpose of this memo is to brief you on my plan of action as well as to request approval for the assembly required for the summoning.
Let me know if you have questions or concerns.
Sincerely,
Nero Dalche
TOP SECRET
39
SLOANE DREAMED ABOUT the Drain. Matt, stepping too far, getting drawn into it as if tugged by an invisible thread. His body coming apart, arms popping out of their sockets, his heart bursting like a balloon. Esther, screaming, her cheeks stained with ash and the spray of blood. And Sloane rooted to the spot, her feet bare and then, a moment later, encased in concrete. He was there too—she felt him behind her, the same way she sometimes felt it when someone was staring at her.
She looked over her shoulder, and he was there, the Dark One, and he was Nero, face flipping back and forth between the one she remembered and the one she had seen on Genetrix, like the pages of a book caught in a breeze.
She woke with her hand in a fist in the blanket she and Mox slept on, her body shaking. Mox’s arm tightened around her waist. He had fallen asleep with it there, heavy against her ribs, his fingers twitching as he dropped deeper into sleep. She turned over to look at him. He was awake, dark eyes alert.
“Okay?” he said.
“Yeah,” she replied. “Just a dream. You?”
She realized, belatedly, that she hadn’t woken up because of her dream but because of a loud crash. A cardboard box had gone flying across the room and hit a wall, sending individually wrapped bars of soap scattering in all directions.
“Same,” he said, and he got up.
Well, Sloane thought, at least they had that in common.
The sun had just risen, and Sloane was already wound so tight, her head ached. She did everything she was supposed to: brushed her teeth (with Mox’s borrowed toothbrush), splashed water on her face, got dressed, ate breakfast, put on the siphon, reviewed the map she had drawn the night before. She knew the way, and she even knew this feeling, that she might be walking to her own doom.
They met Ziva at the entrance to the safe house. She was shrouded in dark fabric, a siphon covering her mouth and hiding the hole in her jaw. When she saw Sloane, she reached into her pocket and took out the pair of scissors Sloane had kept under her pillow that first