Chapter One: The Twenty-third of June

"It’s hard to believe, isn’t it Pan?" Lyra asked the pine marten on her shoulder.

"Yes," Pantalaimon agreed. "Two years."

Lyra headed straight for a bench, and she calmly sat down as a distant clock struck noon. Though she knew that they were worlds apart, Lyra took a small comfort that she and her beloved Will were both sitting on a bench in the garden. She had thought about Will every single day since the day when they were forced to part. Yet, in her mind, she still could see him. His image was a clear to her as the plants that surrounded her.

"I can almost see him," she mumbled, glancing at the empty seat next to her. "Here, next to me." She closed her eyes for a moment, but as she reminisced about the grand adventure that they had, her dæmon jumped slightly. "What is it, Pan?" Lyra inquired, looking at him.

"I think you should look again," Pantalaimon said.

"What?"

"He said, ‘I think you should look again,’" someone else said, amazed to be saying it at all.

Lyra shot up and turned to face a teenage boy stroking a black cat by his side. "Will?" Lyra choked as the tears began to run down her face.

"Lyra," Will answered, and the two embraced one another in a tumult of emotions.

"I thought I’d never see you again," Lyra told him.

"I didn’t think I’d see you, either," Will replied. "How’d you get here?"

"What?" Lyra asked, confused.

"How’d you get here?" Will repeated.

"What are you talking about?"

"I was just sitting here, and then you appeared. Right out of thin air."

Lyra looked around the garden. It was similar, but there were subtle differences here and there. She realized that she was no longer in her Oxford any more. "I don’t know."

A woman dressed in a white lab coat and working on an expensive calculator walked in from a path on the right. "Will, I think—," she started, but when she looked up from her calculation and saw the second person, her calculator crashed to the ground, and she said, "Dear God. Lyra? How did you get here?"

"I wish I knew," Lyra told Dr. Malone.

"They just appeared," the black cat clarified.

"We don’t really know what happened," the pine marten further informed Mary.

"Oh," Mary nodded; then she seemed to confer with an invisible bird on her shoulder. "Maybe we should head back to my flat for a while."

Within minutes, the group had arrived at Mary’s residence. Mary had wanted to prepare something for her guests, but when she saw that she had nothing, she went left for the store for a while. Finally, Will and Lyra had some time alone. As Will rummaged through the refrigerator in a futile effort to find a can of soda, Lyra just watched in awe. Will eventually noticed her gaze, but he only said, "Do you want something to drink?"

"Water, thanks."

Will returned to his seat next to Lyra with two glasses of water in his hands. He gave Lyra the glass in his left hand, and Lyra glanced at his missing fingers.

"That’s healed well," she said, indicating the wound with her eyes.

"Yeah," Will replied. "It hurt for a long time, but I hardly noticed it."

An awkward silence ensued for what seemed to be eternity. Then, Will decided to break the emptiness. "Java, do you think you could find the remote?"

"I don’t know where it is," his dæmon answered.

"That’s why we need to look," Will told her.

The cat reluctantly left to begin the search, but before she got far, Lyra had an idea. "Pan, why don’t you go help her?"

The pine marten silently left Lyra’s shoulder and followed Kirjava. "What are we looking for?" his asked Kirjava has they headed down a hall.

"A small, thin rectangular object," she described.

"That could be anything," Pantaliamon objected, and the rest of the conversation became inaudible to Lyra and Will.

"So, how have you been, Will?" Lyra asked him.

"I’ve been good," he said. "Ever since that day on the boat, I’ve been trying to get on with life, and I think I’ve done that."

"You still don’t lie well, Will."

Will couldn’t help but crack a smile. "No, I guess not. What about you? What have you been up to?"

"I’ve been trying to figure out the althiometer. It’s been hard, but I can read it sometimes. I never gave up; I knew there was a way."

Again, a long pause filled the room. This time, Lyra ended the period of nothingness. "I can’t believe this," she said.

"What?"

"Every day for two years, I thought about trying to find you again, and now, here we are, and I can’t figure out what to say."

"I know the feeling. I never could get on with life without you. It hurt too much."

Another awkward silence would have followed, but as it began, a glass picture frame shattered on the floor. Immediately, Lyra and Will watched a bizarre spectacle of a marten trying to catch a cat carrying a remote control. "You’re not getting away!" Pantalaimon insisted.

"Watch me!" Kirjava taunted.

The chase continued through the house, and Lyra and Will watched in amusement, chuckling. When Lyra could no longer see the dashing dæmons, she turned to face Will. He was still watching the sight, but when he returned to continue the conversation, Lyra was already looking into his eyes. Their heads inched ever closer, but as their lips made the gentlest contact, Mary opened the door, groceries cradled against her chest obscuring her view and a compact disc her hand. She struggled to unload the packed grocery bag onto the counter. "I think we can figure out what’s going on with this."

"The Dust program?" Will asked skeptically. "I thought that was scrambled."

"It was, but I’ve been working to reconstruct the data," Mary explained. "I’ve almost got it completely recovered. Give me a few hours, and I think we’ll be ready."

"What’s she talking about?" Lyra inquired, confused.

"The Cave," Will summarized, and Lyra understood.

"We need this disc to talk to your Shadows," Mary clarified. "It’s the only way to find out how to get you back to your world."

"Oh, don’t you remember?" Lyra asked Mary and Will. "Xaphania said that angels have a way to travel between worlds."

Mary and Will stood stunned. They now remembered, but they had completely overlooked the fact the first time. "How?" Will said.

"She said that you had a friend who could teach you."

"That’s me," Mary realized. "Because I can feel them." "Exactly," Lyra acknowledged.

"Mary, if you can help us learn to go to different worlds, then why do we have to talk with Dust?"

"I just get impressions, Will," Mary said. "It’s not comprehensive, so we need to get this program running." She headed for her laptop, and the difficult process of decoding the jumble began.

Ten hours later, Mary realized that she had underestimated the difficulty of the final blocks of the program. She had to go by memory to fix the corruption. At this time, she decided to call it quits. Fatigue overcame her. Lyra had insisted on sleeping on the floor, and Will had similarly insisted on sleeping on the couch. Thus, Mary was forced to sleep in her own bed. Then, just as she fell asleep, the door burst open. Will searched for the light switch, but when he flicked it on, the burglar flew through the twelve-story window. "The disc!" Lyra exclaimed, for the CD tray on Mary’s laptop was left open. Will looked down at the ground below the window, where a large thick mat had cushioned the falling thief. He ran down the alley, but motion-sensitive lights illuminated his path of escape. But, then, for no apparent reason, he vanished.

Chapter Two: Dust-Free

Within two minutes, Lyra, Will, and Mary were inspecting the scene. Mary knew instantly what had happened.

"There’s a window," she said. "The Shadows are flowing to where he vanished. He’s in another world."

"Something’s wrong here," Will asserted. "Who would go out of their way to swipe that disc?"

"Someone who doesn’t want us talking with Dust," Lyra answered. "But, who would that be?"

"No time to wonder," Mary decided. "We’ve got to get that disc back before the too many Shadows pour through this opening."

Will and Lyra were in complete agreement with Mary, so they walked up to the window in the air and ventured through it.

They found themselves in pitch darkness. "Well, that was a good idea," Pantalaimon commented sarcastically.

"Will, maybe we should try this in the morning," Kirjava stated.

"A good idea," Will replied. "Mary, where’s the window? I can’t see anything."

Mary didn’t reply for a long time, mystified with something. Finally, she led them through the window back into her world. When day came the next morning, the group returned to the window, and they found themselves inside an empty office building. The power was out, so the only illumination came from between the slits of the blinds covering windows.

Will went to an office and let more light in. He looked down at a nearby street. There was no traffic. Then, Will realized that in this world, they had an even slimmer chance of finding the culprit than if he had not entered the window. They couldn’t use police for help without them noticing that they weren’t from around here. Will decided to voice his concerns.

"Hey, how are we going to find this guy, anyway?" he asked Lyra and Mary, who were still in the hall with the window back.

"Just find the Shadows," Mary said simply.

"What?" Will inquired, confused.

"Will," Lyra began. "There’s no Dust in this world."

"What?" Will repeated, still befuddled. "How’s that possible? What happened to all the people?"

Lyra quickly pointed to a man in a black suit. He looked normal enough, but for lack of a better description, he acted like a monkey. This man still had intelligence, but he had been stripped of his consciousness. He acted purely on instinct, which proved to be somewhat destructive in special cases. Will, Mary, and Lyra observed this behavior for a while in wonder. Then, he grabbed his head as if he had a headache, and he asked, "What are you doing here?"

Shocked at this sudden change in behavior, the group stood stunned and speechless. Finally, Lyra answered him. "We’re not from around here," she said. "What happened?"

"Don’t you know?" he demanded. "The epidemic. People started losing their higher functions. Well, you people seem all right, so they must have found a cure." He put his hand back on his head, making it appear that his pain had worsened. "Wait a minute…I was like that too. What’s going on here?" he asked the newcomers in an accusatory tone.

Lyra, Will, and Mary conferred before they answered. "Mary, do you think the lack of Dust in this world has something to do with their epidemic?" Lyra asked.

"Well, Dust requires sentient beings to be produced," she began. "But, maybe it works the other way around, too. Maybe sentient beings need dust to be sentient."

"Then what will happen to all the people of this world?" Will inquired.

"We’ve brought Dust into this world, so they should be able to produce more," Lyra concluded. "I think they’re going to be all right."

"But, how did all the Shadows leave this world at all?" Mary wondered. "That man made it sound like they left all at once. What could do that?"

"If we get the disc back, we can find out," Will reminded them.

"I said ‘What’s going on here?’" the man demanded, growing more agitated.

Mary decided to answer him. "They found a cure in the form of a retrovirus. It’s slowly spreading through the atmosphere. It may be a while before the general population is cured."

Satisfied with this, the office worker said, "I guess I’d better be getting home then. No work for the rest of the week!" He packed a briefcase and headed towards the stairs.

"Okay, where’s our thief?" Will asked once their company had left.

"I think a more important question is why he came here," Pantalaimon said.

"That’s right, there’s nothing here for anyone," Mary agreed.

"There’s probably another window somewhere around here," Kirjava concluded. "The question is: where?"

Everyone looked at one another, baffled. Lyra guessed, "It has to be close," with volumes of false confidence.

"I don’t think we’ll find it with this window open," Mary said. "The Shadows are flowing into this one. If there’s another, we should close this one to find it. Let’s get working on—" she started to continue, but Will’s stomach rumbled, interrupting her. "First, let’s get some breakfast," she finished, and Lyra had to stifle a smile.

As they headed back, Lyra sensed that Pantalaimon wanted to talk with her privately, so she stayed back near the window once she had gone through it. "What is it, Pan?" she asked.

"Don’t you think it’s strange that all the Dust in a world would suddenly disappear?" he said.

This had crossed Lyra’s mind, too. "Yeah, it doesn’t make any sense. What could do that?"

"I don’t know, but it probably could happen to our world. Or Will’s."

"We’ve got to get that disc back, or," she paused, and she retrieved the althiometer from her pack. "I’ve got to learn how to read this again."

Chapter Three: The Emissary

“Master, she’s gone!” a woman exclaimed as she barged in.

“Dame Hannah,” the master of Jordan acknowledged, putting down a book. “Who’s gone?” he asked calmly.

“Lyra,” she answered.

This made the master rise from his comfortable chair. “How? Has she run off?”

“No. She vanished into thin air.”

“A window?”

“No. Supposedly, she was sitting on the bench when she simply disappeared.”

The master had been staring out the window into the darkness, and he stood there, lost in thought for a few moments. Dame Hannah interrupted him though. “Do you think there’s anything we can do?”

“No,” he said definitively. “But, keep an eye out, anyway. Thank you, Dame Hannah.” The master continued to stare out the window in wonder when he spotted a strange reflection.

“What business does a witch have here?” he asked as he leisurely turned to face the newcomer.

“A great deal, master,” the witch replied. “I am Serafina Pekkala.”

“Ah. I imagine that you have come to discuss Lyra’s disappearance.”

“Yes.”

“Well, what is it you know that I don’t?”

“Her adventure is not over.”

The master’s eyebrows creased. “She is with the boy,” he concluded.

“Yes. They must finish what they have started.”

“I don’t understand.”

“The Authority was not destroyed with the death of Metatron. He had been deep within the bowels of the Clouded Mountain, safe from the battle outside. Also, the Authority deceived Metatron, for he did not delegate all his powers to him. Instead, he kept some for himself, and with the power Metatron held released, the Authority had full power to do as he pleased.”

“Which is?”

“He has crafted a new world out of all others, specifically designed for him and his followers, and he is destroying all who oppose him, one by one. He will destroy us as well if he cannot be stopped.”

Unable to bear the tremendous weight of this information, the master sat again. “Why have you come here? To me?”

“I regret to inform you that the girl will die.”

“What? How?”

Before the master finished the question, Serafina Pekkala was gone. Though she seemed to have disappeared, in reality she had only gone out the window, where she conversed with an unseen figure.

“Well?” a male voice asked.

“You were correct,” the witch confirmed. “He has been well informed.”

“Good. We need all the forces we can have.”

“Are you certain about this?” Serafina Pekkala questioned him.

“Absolutely. There can be no denying it. I have seen the Clouded Mountain for myself, and I have no doubts. We need every bear, every witch we can find. Even Ruta, if possible.”

“Have you considered trying to find Lord Asriel?”

“Yes, but I’m having enough trouble staying here, let alone trying to revive another. Do what you can, Serafina Pekkala. I need not tell you that the fate of every world rests on us.”

Chapter Four: The Janitor

“How do we close a window?” Mary asked herself aloud. “Will, you remember how the Knife closed them?”

“Yes,” he confirmed. “I could feel the edges with the Knife and bring them together. The Knife is broken, though.”

Lyra sat silent, pondering something that had been said. She was confident that she was right. “Wait a minute,” she insisted. “The angels said that they were going to close the windows, right? They must have a way to close a window.”

“And open one,” Will recalled.

“Then, how do we close a window like the angels?” Mary thought audibly.

The group contemplated this question, but no one had an answer. In an effort to solve this puzzle, Will proposed a different way to look at things. “What if we’re asking the wrong question? Maybe we should look at how to open a window instead.”

“I see,” Lyra proclaimed. “If we know how to open one, we can close one!”

“I need to help you, then,” Mary deduced. “The angels said I could help you.”

“We need to remember everything they said about opening a window,” Will decided. After a brief pause, he said, “My father went through worlds without an instrument. How did he do that?”

“It was like imagination, but different,” Lyra remembered.

“If you imagine something, you see something that’s not really there,” Mary mused. She looked into empty space for a while. Next, she closed her eyes.

“Mary, maybe it’s like—” Will began to speculate, but as he said this, Mary began to fade away. “Whoa!” Will exclaimed.

“What is it?” Lyra snapped out of her train of thought. She realized that Mary was nowhere to be seen. “Where’s Mary?”

“She just…disappeared.”

“Disappeared?”

“Disappeared.”

“How’s that possible?”

Before Will could answer, Mary faded back into existence. As soon as she reappeared, she grabbed the two of them. “You need to see this,” she told them, and she closed her eyes again. Will and Lyra watched as Will’s world faded away, giving way to another world. When the gentle change was complete, Will and Lyra recognized their surroundings. They stood absolutely still, stunned. Mary was very animated. “Look at this,” she commanded them. “There’s a window open here. It leads down some sort of tunnel. I think our thief may have gone down there.”

“No, Mary,” Will said with absolute certainty. “He couldn’t have gone down there. That leads to the world of the dead.”

Mary was in complete shock. “This is the battlefield.”

“Yes, Mary,” Lyra responded. “This is where it all ended.”

They all stood still, taking in the meaning of where they were. Lyra and Will remembered how they left the world of the dead, looking for their dæmons. The battle was raging. On one side, there was Lord Asriel’s palace. On the other, the Clouded Mountain.

Lyra looked to Lord Asriel’s fortress. There it was, exactly as she remembered it. Then, she looked to the other side, but the space was vacant. The desolate battlefield was missing one of its castles.

Lyra’s brow creased when she saw this. That wasn’t right. The Authority was surely vanquished, but His fortress had disappeared. She voiced her concern to Will. “Will, do you remember what this place was like two years ago?”

“Yeah.”

“The Clouded Mountain was there, right?” Lyra asked him, indicating a specific location.

Will stared at the spot for quite a while. “Yeah, it was,” he finally whispered. “What’s going on here?”

“It’s just gone?” Mary requested clarification.

“Yes,” Lyra confirmed. “It was here, and now it’s gone. That can’t happen. We won the battle.”

“But maybe not the war,” Pantalaimon suggested.

This observation created a strong sense of uneasiness among the entire group. “While we’re here,” Will started. “We might as well try to figure this out. Where do we start?”

“Where else?” Mary asked rhetorically, studying Lord Asriel’s palace. Thus, the three reached an immediate consensus, and they drifted towards the deserted fortress.

As they walked through the empty palace, Lyra could only imagine what had taken place here two years ago. That was the funny thing. It was only two years ago. Time had not been kind to this staging point of the rebellion. Dust and cobwebs abounded, and in some places the ceiling had caved in. If there were answers here, they were not forthcoming.

Then, just as she turned a corner, Lyra found herself three inches away from a heavily bearded face. “Who are you?” the stranger insisted. “What do you want?”

“Who are you?” Lyra returned, studying the man’s features. His beard acted like a shroud; it made it impossible to determine his true age. Thus, this stranger could have been fifty, or twenty. There was no way to tell.

“I am…the janitor,” the stranger explained. “I’ve been here for two long years, ever since the angels left me here.”

“What do you know about angels?” Lyra inquired. Something wasn’t right about this fellow. Lyra couldn’t pinpoint it, but something within her told her that this stranger wasn’t what he appeared.

“I know a great deal about angels,” the janitor replied. “Being the janitor, no one notices you. I listened in on their conversations and briefings. I know what’s going on. No one fools Clancy Jones. Well, I’ve introduced myself, what about you three?”

“I’m Lizzie,” Lyra told him. “We fell out of a gyropter and found ourselves here. Tell me: where are we?”

“You’re at the battlefield,” Clancy answered. “The end of God as every human knows.”

Lyra looked at him strangely for good measure before he walked off. Once they were sure he was out of earshot, Lyra and Mary said simultaneously, “He’s lying.”

“Do you think he suspects something?” Will wondered.

“Undoubtedly,” Mary responded instantly. “He knows no one should be here. A window’s open, and he knows it. But, that’s not all.”

“Yes, he lies about himself, and his entire identity,” Lyra perceived. “He’s completely transparent.”

“The world’s best liar,” Will commented.

“Which world?” Lyra countered playfully.

Shortly, the exploration continued, with a special eye on Clancy Jones. Though he was never within sight, each person knew that he was keeping tabs on them. Somehow. That didn’t last however, for the group decided to split up, though they didn’t know what they were looking for. Whatever it was, it was like art: they would know it when they see it.

Lyra soon found a portrait of her father on the wall in a large room. Even now, she found it completely amazing that the man whose image lay before her was her father. Will strolled up alongside her.

“Remembering?” he asked.

Lyra nodded softly. “For years, he was my uncle. Then, out of nowhere, he was my father. And Mrs. Coulter was my mother. It shocked me then, but now…I don’t really know. I haven’t thought about it in a long time.”

“Two years,” Will began. “Is a very long time, and also, the blink of an eye. I look back, and few things seem clear. Everything just blurs together.”

“Even me?”

Will smiled. Lyra was overcome when she saw that smile again. “No, never you,” Will corrected, and they looked at the painting one more time. Suddenly, a rush of footsteps sounded. Someone was coming, and this person was definitely in a hurry. That person was Clancy Jones. Lyra and Will hid under a long rectangular table. Jones pointed some sort of devise forward. Nothing visible occurred, but in a few moments, a female voice reprimanded him. “You should not have contacted me now. This is very dangerous. I could be exposed.”

“I realize that,” Jones acknowledged. “But someone has followed me here.”

“Who?” The voice made Lyra shudder. It was vaguely familiar.

“A girl, a boy, and a woman.”

The woman paused for a moment. “These three?”

Jones appeared to be examining some object or objects. “Yes, exactly these three.”

“Go to world 38391,” the voice insisted. “You will be protected there.”

Will tried to get closer, to see who was answering Jones and how. This job was extremely precarious, for Lyra was between him and the edge closest to Jones.

“What are you doing?” Lyra whispered.

“Trying to see who that is.”

Then, there was a muffled cry. “What was that?” the unseen woman demanded. Lyra knew immediately. Will had lowered his hand on Pantalaimon’s tail.

Chapter Five: The Domino Effect

The master of Jordan College stared out the window. He gazed through the glass for seemingly an eternity, lost in the current. To him, it was an eternity, but in truth, he had only looked out for a few seconds before he was interrupted.Chapter Five: The Domino Effect

“Something I can do, sir?” a young woman asked, opening the door. The master didn’t move. “Sir?”

“Pardon?” The master snapped out of his trance. “Miss Reynolds? What are you doing here?”

“Did you not summon me, sir?” Miss Reynolds returned.

“No, I’m afraid I didn’t,” the master answered. “But it’s just as well. Would you fetch a bottle of tokay and Dame Hannah Relf, please?”

“At this hour, sir?” the female asked.

“Yes, Miss Reynolds, at this hour!” the master insisted.

Miss Reynolds walked back out the door, quietly mocking, “At this hour.”

“What was that, Miss Reynolds?” the master inquired.

The blonde woman stiffened like a child who had been caught with a hand in the cookie jar. “I was thinking of some flowers, sir. They would brighten the room a bit.”

“Aren’t you allergic?”

“That’s why it’s your room, sir.”

“Get going, Miss Reynolds.”

“Yes, sir.”

A few short minutes later, Miss Reynolds returned with a bottle of tokay in her hands and Dame Hannah Relf close behind. “Thank you, Miss Reynolds,” the master said, and he closed the door.

Miss Reynolds started to retrieve something when she noticed her ring: it was blue. “Not now, not now,” she repeated to herself, and she rushed back to her desk.

“Are you sure about this master?” Dame Hannah Relf asked as the master opened the door.

“You should know as well as I never to take something a witch says lightly,” the master replied. “What’s this?” He found a small rectangular device on the top of the door frame. It appeared to be an ambaric device of some sort. There were six buttons: REW, STOP, FF, PLAY, REC, and EJECT. The REC button was offset down. The master tried all of the buttons, but each time he faced resistance except when he hit STOP. That time, there was a definite “click,” and the REC button leveled with all the other buttons.

“Wouldn’t EJECT imply that there’s some kind of removable object in there?” Dame Hannah speculated.

“Yes, it would,” the master agreed, and he pressed EJECT. The object opened slightly, revealing something else inside. This rectangular case was easily removable. It had two white flat cylinders inside with some kind of ribbon or tape wound around each one. The cylinders could rotate, and when one did, the tape moved, thus making the other cylinder rotate. The master replaced the case with some difficulty; apparently, it went inside only in a specific orientation. “What about PLAY?” the master wondered.

“It would play something,” Dame Hannah concluded.

“Yes, but play what? An instrument? Could this be some sort of instrument?”

“It’s unlike any instrument I’ve ever seen, but perhaps it produces sound like an instrument,” Dame Hannah suggested. She pushed the PLAY button, and they heard voices. No, they weren’t just voices. They were conversations, real conversations. Days’ worth of discussions had been recorded.

The master had heard enough, and he pressed the STOP button hard. “I think we know what’s going on here,” he declared.

“Yes, but who?” Dame Hannah questioned. “And why?”

“I’m not sure,” the master admitted. “But, regardless of those questions, there is something of which I am absolutely certain: there is a spy among us.”

Chapter Six: Poor Ignorant Fools

“It’s nothing,” Jones assured the woman. Then, he overturned the table. “Well, what do we have–what?” The deception complete, Jones could not conceal his pleasure at revealing eavesdroppers, but there were none. The table was now standing on its side, so it was conceivable that someone could be hiding on the other side. Acknowledging this possibility, Jones snuck around to the other side, but he had to avoid a barrage of chairs. Lyra and Will grabbed the chairs on their side and chucked them towards Jones. Panicking, Jones pulled a pen, pointed it in front of himself, and opened a window. He scampered through the breach, disappearing before any of the two could detain him. Will and Lyra looked around. There were no other windows in the room.

Lyra rushed for the window, but Will yanked her arm. “Where are you going?”

The girl’s face twisted with a concoction of confusion and shock. “I’m following him!”

“Are you crazy?” Will exclaimed.

Lyra tried to smile. “Are you going soft on me, Will Parry?”

“Think about it, Lyra,” Will insisted. “He’s supposed to be going to a world that’s safe for him. If it’s safe for him, it’s not for you!”

“You’re coming with me,” Lyra informed him. “Two one one’s better odds.”

“Three on one’s better odds!” Will corrected. “Besides, we can’t leave Mary here.”

“Yeah, you’re right,” Lyra agreed, subdued. As she watched him begin the search, she called, “So much for time alone, huh Will?” Will only paused for a moment.

When Will returned with Mary, he found only an empty room. “Same old Lyra,” Will muttered under his breath, and the two embarked through the window. As soon as they were clear, armed men surrounded them, holding the boy and the woman at gunpoint. “You are under arrest for treason and inciting riots,” a leader informed them.

“Hey, maybe you don’t understand, but we’re not exactly from around here,” Mary tried to dissuade them.

“We are under no illusions, Doctor Malone,” the same man replied. “You have undertaken actions against God, and for that you must pay, before we are all damned.”

Mary and Will marched along to a military facility, where their possessions were confiscated. The Army of the Salvation had detained them, awaiting holy judgment. Until judgment could be rendered, they were to be held in the brig.

The brig was a small, dank structure, lacking all proper amenities. A single guard watched over all the cells, for only one was occupied, and it held Lyra. The Holy Task Force threw Will and Mary in with Lyra. The guard, Jones, shut them in. Lyra was picking up fragments of a black object. “What’s that?” Will inquired.

“The disc,” Lyra replied simply.

Kirjava tightened in a sudden burst of anger. “What is this?” she demanded of Jones.

“Why, isn’t it obvious?” Jones toyed with the prisoners. “You’ve been captured. This ruse has succeeded, and soon, you will all be dead. The worlds will be rid of the leaders of the insurrection forever! And you had the arrogance to challenge God! Ha!” Jones laughed at the apparent absurdity. “The truth will finally prevail!”

“You think you know the truth?” Lyra challenged.

“You can’t handle the truth,” Pantalaimon chimed in.

Will spontaneously chuckled, and Jones was completely abashed. “Hey, stop that. Stop it—now!” Jones began shaking the bars violently. Then, Mary tapped him on the shoulder. Just as he looked, she struck him with an open hand, knocking him to the floor.

“I never thought I’d be using that,” Mary observed. “Then again, I never thought I’d be in a brig, either.”

“Pan, can you get a key from his pocket?” Lyra asked. The pine marten shimmied through the bars and hooked a key on its claw. Lyra opened the lock, and they were freed. Will began searching Jones’s pockets. “What are you looking for?” Lyra inquired.

“That ‘pen,’” he answered. “We need to get out of here.”

“Pen?” Mary interrupted.

“It’s like the knife,” Kirjava translated.

Lyra retrieved her altheiometer bag. “The altheiometer! It’s gone!”

“The ruse continues,” Pantalaimon noted.

“No, it has just begun,” the lieutenant of the Army of the Salvation corrected. The three were back in the cell, under the watch of a new guard. Jones soon regained consciousness and also stood watch. Mary, Lyra, and Will waited in silence. Suddenly, a soldier barged in, and alerted the guard on watch. “Sir, the Forces of Damnation are upon us. We are being attacked!” His sentence closed with a loud explosion. It didn’t sound far away.

“Request additional guards,” the watchman commanded. “They will most certainly try to free the prisoners.”

“Yes, sir.” Within seconds, three more guards appeared.

“Wait, what’s happening here?” Mary thought aloud. Something enveloped all her attention. She never heard the bombs, the gunfire, or the desperate commands. She was watching something else. “Where’s it going?”

“Where’s what going, Mary?” Lyra asked.

“The dust, it’s going away,” the reply came.

“Like that other world,” Kirjava recalled.

Lyra frowned. “That makes no sense. Why would the Authority destroy his own allies?”

“I don’t know, but I stopped looking for sense from God a couple years ago,” Will responded.

“Do not speak of Dust here,” the watchman interrupted. “Dust is a myth concocted by God’s enemies. Say no more of this lie.”

“You’re going to all end up acting like monkeys in a few minutes,” Will retorted. “Your ‘god’ is going to reduce you to simple animals.”

“If that is God’s will, then I will surrender to it,” the fanatic replied.

Jones disagreed. “Come on, we can get out of here if we want. You will live to serve God another day!” Another bombshell exploded.

“Your world is coming to an end as you know it,” Mary insisted.

“That does it, doctor,” the guard snapped. “Take her to the totaliectomy room.” The door was opened, and two guards began to escort Mary out the cell.

“Wait, what’s a totaliectomy?” Mary demanded.

“Why, it’s a very simple punishment,” the guard elaborated. “Your internal organs will be removed, one by one. At some point during the operation, you will die.”

Lyra and Will began to charge the guards as soon as they heard this, but Mary yelled, “Stop!” The two were dumbfounded. “I’ll be all right,” Mary assured them. “You two just stay alive.”

“That’s where your strategy fails, doctor,” the watchman corrected once again. “It has already been confirmed that the girl will die. Your own witches say so.” Mary was dragged out the door. It was the last time Lyra or Will saw her alive.

Chapter Seven: Loss of Time

Will fingered the “pen.” “I should have given it to her,” he muttered quietly.

“It happened too fast,” Kirjava tried to console him. “There was nothing we could do.” But, there was a bit of doubt in her voice, partly afflicted by Will’s uncertainty.

“I don’t know,” Will said. “But, now it’s too late.”

“It’s never too late,” Lyra chimed in. “We’ll find a way.” She too, unfortunately, shared Will’s despair. Lyra could see no way, but she knew she had to cheer Will up.

A visitor walked in, and Lyra recognized her immediately. “Miss Reynolds,” she whispered.

“Who?” Will asked, but before the answer came, another bomb exploded, shaking the foundation of the building and dropping parts of the ceiling to the floor. Then, the door broke down, and six well-trained soldiers dropped the remaining armed guards. They shot the lock on the cell door and freed the prisoners. “Are you two all right?” the leader asked.

“Yeah, we’re okay,” Will replied as they grabbed their belongings and charged out the building.

“Good, we’ll have you out of this mess in no time,” the same man answered. The infiltration unit fanned out, shooting at various targets. “I can’t believe that they resorted to napping a couple kids, though,” he continued. “You must have something they really want.”

“I don’t know about—” Lyra began, but a well-placed grenade exploded right in their escape route. The leader of the team fell, along with another member of the unit. The remainder turned back and picked up the fallen comrades. Lyra and Will continued to follow until Will spotted something in the air.

“A window!” he exclaimed when the group took cover behind a large group of metal barrels.

“No, we have to go, now!” the second-in-command of the unit yelled. “The bomb’s coming down any second!”

“You mean that bomb?” Lyra wondered as the whistling of an explosive dropping through the air grew louder with each passing moment.

“Run for cover!” the substitute leader of the unit ordered, sending the members scrambling.

“Lyra, the window!” Will shouted, dashing towards the window. Lyra started to sprint, but then she saw a glint in the dirt a few meters back. “The altheiometer!” she screamed, and she ran back to retrieve the item.

“Come on!” Will cried and reached out with his hand. Lyra was only a few feet away, but so was the bomb. The force of the blast took no time in reaching them. All Will saw were a light and a shadow: the light from the blast and the shadow of Lyra, so close and yet so far away. Then, there was only the darkness and fading cries of terror.

* * *

“Will he survive, doctor?” a masculine voice asked.

“Yes, but I’d prefer to get him to proper medical facilities,” another man replied. Will’s eyes were slowly opening, letting in a tumult of distorted, unfocused images.

“This will suffice,” the first answered. “And, remember, not a word of this to anyone.”

“I know, I know,” the latter confirmed begrudgingly. A door opened and closed.

Finally, the imaged cleared, leaving only two people in Will’s line of sight: a man and a woman, both looking rather stern.

“What happened?” Will thought aloud. “Where am I?”

“I don’t know what happened,” the man declared. “But, as to where you are, you’re in another world, and that description will have to suffice.”

Will instinctively looked for Kirjava, who had actually been alert long before Will was.

“Good to see you’re all right, Kirjava,” Will commented and stroked her fur. As soon as he said this, both the master’s and Dame Hannah’s eyes widened. Their thoughts were one and the same, so when they looked at one another to confirm what they thought, they met an equal glance. Still, they couldn’t be sure, so the master decided to draw on a detail from Lyra’s testimony of two years ago.

“She’s very pretty,” the master remarked, moving his hand close to Kirjava, but the dæmon and the boy recoiled.

“She doesn’t like to be touched,” Will explained.

“Of course not,” the master noted. “Tell me, has she settled yet?”

“Yes, about—hey, wait a minute!” Will sat upright, but a twinge of pain forced him to lie down again. “Who are you?”

“Is your name Will Parry?” Dame Hannah Relf finally spoke.

“Yes. Who are you?”

“I am the master of Jordan College,” the master answered. “You’re in Lyra’s world.”

Will sat up once more, overcoming the pain. He was completely dumbfounded, but after a while, it made perfect sense. “Do you know someone named Reynolds?”

“My secretary,” the master began, confused, but he quickly made the connection. “She’s the spy!” he exclaimed suddenly.

“She visited us while we were being held in the brig in another world,” Will elaborated.

“We?” Dame Hannah interrupted.

“Lyra and me.”

“Oh my…” Dame Hannah started.

“Was Lyra caught in the blast that sent you here?” the master demanded.

“Whoa, you heard that?” Will asked incredulously.

“Yes, we heard it,” the master practically laughed at the absurdity. “We’ve got almost every agency of the Magisterium here trying to figure out what happened here. If they find you…we’ll all be dead! You’ve got to hide. It’s not safe here.”

“I’m not hiding,” Will insisted as he rose from the bed and stood shakily on the ground. “I’m going back for Lyra.”

“She’s dead,” Dame Hannah interjected. “The prophecy has been made.”

“I don’t care about a stupid prophecy,” Will declared. “I’m going back.”

“I don’t know everything about the way your world works,” the master admitted. “But, there’s something I do know about mine: the witches’ prophecies are never wrong. They are infallible.”

“You don’t know that it’s now!” Will observed. “It could be later, or perhaps it’s one of those sixpence fortunes that’s open to interpretation! All I know is I’m going back.”

“Don’t you see the grand scheme?” the master challenged. “The Authority has returned in the hope of taking a vengeance. There are bigger things to consider than a single life.”

“Then, when does it count?” Will argued, his passion turning to rage. “Is it two lives? Or four? Or ten? Or a thousand? Or a million? Or a billion? Where does it end?” The master had no answer. “That’s why we have to do it for each and every life, no matter the cost.”

“And what if it costs trillions of lives?” the master rebutted. “What if all the worlds are destroyed? All for one life? Come on, lad. I’m willing to let go. You should, too.”

“Gentlemen!” Dame Hannah interposed. “Master, I think Will has the right to do as he pleases. He is not subject to you.”

“But—” the master began, but a vicious look from Dame Hannah had him immobilized.

“Will, I think the master is trying to get you to consider what’s currently at stake,” she continued. “You could be very helpful in repulsing this incursion.”

“I have no experience in fighting God,” Will corrected. “Lyra and I didn’t even do anything back then.”

Dame Hannah started to say something, but she changed her mind. “No, I guess not. Anyway, with regard to Lyra, do not take a witch’s prophecy lightly. I have not once seen one go wrong.” The master gave her a glance.

“I understand,” Will acknowledged. “But, this is something I have to do. I had two chances to do something, and I let each of them go. I’m not letting another pass by.”

The master nodded. “Do what you must, Will. We will do the same. But, in the meantime, you must rest. Your injuries are far from simple.”

“All right,” Will capitulated. “In that case, you guys got a bathroom?”

“Down the hall and two doors down on the left,” the master directed, and Will struggled out the door.

“You weren’t precisely correct,” the master told Dame Hannah.

“No, I wasn’t,” she confessed. “But, I think that’s between the two of them.”

“And if that makes all the difference?”

“Maybe it won’t. I can’t possibly know for sure. Time is the ultimate fortune-teller.”

Chapter Eight: The Art of Deception

“How long can it take to relieve oneself?” the master wondered aloud. Dame Hannah’s head snapped around at a sudden thought, and she dashed out into the hall and found the bathroom door open. “He’s gone?” the master surmised correctly, and a nod came in reply. “The window!” he exclaimed, but when they arrived at the scene, it had vanished. The guards from the Magisterium had left now that their point of interest had been closed.

Will had found only a desolate battlefield. Lyra was nowhere to be found, so Will was in a state of utter disbelief. “God, Java, it’s happening all over again. Just like then.” After carefully examining the pen, he found a button that closed the window.

“It’s not just like then,” Kirjava insisted.

“Yeah, it’s worse.”

“It’s not. Look there.” A glint of light attracted Will’s attention. He moved closer in the dimming light. It was Lyra’s altheiometer bag. Several footprints were clear in the dirt, along with a straight wide mark leading back towards the window Will had closed.

“Somebody was dragged,” Will concluded.

“Lyra and Pan were dragged,” Kirjava finished.

“And the window was closed,” Will noted. “They could be anywhere.” He got the pen out again. It had the digits zero through nine, two browsing buttons, and separate open and close functions along with a small display. Will idly browsed through the numbers, each signifying a different world. “She could be in any one of these worlds,” he muttered. “This is imposs—” he stopped short, feeling a slight jolt of…something. He scrolled back through the multitude of worlds, and there it was again. Slowly, he went forward again, one world at a time. Then, there was that feeling again. It was something familiar, and yet also desperate, and alone. In a sudden instant, he knew it was Lyra.

Then, there was a faint high-pitched whine behind him, and a bright spotlight shone on his back in the waning daylight, casting a long shadow on the ground. “Stop right there,” a male voice commanded. “Who are you? What do you want?”

“I’m just passing through,” Will lied.

“With a cat?” the voice replied incredulously. “You take me for some kind of fool? Aside from that, everyone around here’s dead. You want to explain that? Now, put down your…pen?” Once again, the voice changed to a disbelieving tone. “Turn around and keep your hands up.” The light shone directly in Will’s eyes, blinding him, but it soon widened in scope, lessening the blinding effect. Through the remaining ambient light and the torch illuminating the scene, Will could discern a boy, holding some kind of rifle. Will guessed that he was no older than he was, but the face bore a hard expression.

“What is that?” Will asked. “A gun?”

“Would you like to find out personally?” the boy challenged. “Now, answer me. Who are you? What do you want?”

“My name is Will Parry. I’m trying to find a friend who’s missing.”

“Is anyone else with you?”

“Ye—no,” Will corrected himself, but the slip set off the other. He pulled the trigger, and the air right of Will exploded with a flash and a huge spark, sending a thunderclap through the area and deafening Will momentarily.

“Wrong answer!” The boy seemed genuinely angry. “One or the other, choose now!”

“No one but Kirjava,” Will answered, glancing at her.

“Interesting name,” he mused. “What does the pen do?” he inquired more calmly.

“Nothing,” Will replied nonchalantly. “It’s just a pen.”

The weapon discharged again, this time on the left. “Wrong again!”

“It opens a window between the worlds,” Will admitted.

This grabbed the boy’s attention. “Oh really?” He powered down his weapon. “Well, it would be useless to try to find your friend at night, Will. I would suggest you wait until morning.”

Will breathed a sigh of relief. “Yeah, I see that now. I’ve answered all of your questions. How about a few of my own?”

The boy stuck out his hand, and Will shook it graciously. “Lucian Farrell. Some covert organization has been chasing me. They think I have something they want. I don’t have anything, but if nobody knows about these guys, I guess there’s no telling what they do to their prisoners. I was gone as soon as guys in black suits came to my door. Since then, I’ve been keeping tabs on them, trying to figure them out. The first time I saw them vanish into some supernatural gate, I knew I was in way over my head, but I also knew that this was big: bigger than anything in my world before.”

“What’s that thing?” Will pointed to the rifle.

“My own invention,” Lucian elaborated. “Take a high-power laser and focus it on a point. The air breaks down at the focal point like it does in a lightning bolt. Loud, isn’t it?”

“Yeah, I though my eardrums would blow up.”

“And that was only setting four. Come on, like I said, I don’t think you’ll be able to find…” Lucian still didn’t know who was missing.

“Lyra,” Will put in.

“Lyra at night,” Lucian finished. “Might as well get a fire going. It’s going to get cold. It already is.”

Will found some dry sticks to light, and Lucian used his spark rifle, as he called it, to ignite the wood. Lucian was actually loaded with items for his survival. In his pack, he carried several cans of food and boxes of non-perishable items, along with battery packs for his rifle and a smaller version, a spark pistol.

“Make no mistake,” he explained. “I can tell these guys, whoever they are, mean business, so I have to mean business as well. I also have to be able to survive on my own since I know if I’m discovered I probably won’t ever be heard from again. The only bad thing is it looks strange to be walking around with a pack on the streets.”

They shared a box of crackers and sat around the fire, exchanging their stories.

“I’ve told you my story, what about you?” Lucian pried.

“It began…just yesterday?” Will questioned himself. “Seems like a week,” he muttered, and he told the story of the last two days. He decided not to delve into the details of the adventure two years ago, only saying that he and Lyra did interesting things a while back. Instead, he restricted himself to recent events, providing enough information for Lucian to understand but not so much that Lucian would be overwhelmed with the epic implications. Besides, he probably wouldn’t believe any of it, Will reasoned.

By the time he had finished his testimony, Will felt like changing the subject, especially with Lyra still missing. He moved to pick up the spark rifle, but Lucian grabbed it, unwilling to let anyone else handle it.

“I’m just trying to see it,” Will tried to persuade him.

Lucian held it up briefly. “You saw it.”

Will conceded the point. “All right. How does it work?”

“You already asked me that.”

“A little more detail, then?” His tone changed to match Lucian’s confrontational one, but Lucian smiled after this impasse.

“All right. Without explaining the physics of the laser, it works by focusing a high-intensity laser on a single point in the air. If there’s enough power, the air buckles under the energy condensed in one point, breaking down as it does in lightning when there is enough of an energy difference between the cloud and the ground. It uses two lenses to adjust the focal point to hit any target up to two hundred meters away. The only problem is adjusting the range. A target could conceivably move away before the lenses adjust.”

“Wow. How’d you get it?”

“There’s a guy down the road who loves gadgets and has the means to make some impressive ones. I showed him the basic design, and we made an agreement. He has the more powerful ones, but all I need is right here.” Lucian held up the rifle again. Then, he checked his watch. “It’s late. We should probably get some sleep and figure out how to find your friend in the morning.”

“Not a problem,” Will assured him. “I know which world she’s in.”

“Well, so do I. It’s probably mine. Those guys must have snuck back through and closed that window, as you call it, while I was still looking for them. That doesn’t mean we can get back there, though. If I understand correctly, there are infinitely many worlds. It’s unlikely that we’d be able to find a specific one.”

“No, I mean I know which world she’s in, and I can get there using this.” Will retrieved the pen.

“Good, then we have a plan,” Lucian concluded.

“Yeah. You have sleeping bags?” Will’s exhaustion was catching up with him.

“Only one. I didn’t count on meeting anyone.” Lucian pulled out a coin. “Flip for it?”

“Sure. Heads.”

“Tails. I guess that’s me, then.”

“All right. I’m getting some sleep. Good night.”

“Good night.” Lucian started putting away his equipment and other belongings as Will drifted off.

*

*

*

Will was walking through a forest. It was very dense, and the twilight didn’t make the hike easier. To make things worse, he was hiking up a slope. He knew why he continued hiking, though. He was heading for Lyra.

“Lyra!” he called at the top of his lungs.

“Will!” the answer came a few seconds later.

They had kept this up for the last few minutes, and he knew he was getting closer. He could feel her even though he couldn’t see her. She was just around the next bend. He turned the corner, and there she was, staring him in the face. They rushed into each other’s arms. When they released themselves from the embrace, Will asked himself, “What is this?”

“It’s a dream,” Lyra told him.

“That means you’re not real,” he inferred.

“No, Will. It’s me.”

“Oh, of course!” Will remembered what Lyra had told him about her and Roger. “Lyra, where are you, really?”

“A room with grey walls,” she described. “With only one door and no other way out.”

“I’ll get you out,” Will insisted.

“I don’t see how,” Lyra commented. “I don’t even know where I am outside those walls.”

“Lucian and I have a plan.”

“Lucian?”

“A kid from another world,” Will explained. “He thinks he knows where you are.”

Lyra suddenly grew pale and had to rest on a rock by the side of the trail. “Lyra, what’s wrong?” Will demanded. “Are you all right?” She wasn’t. She grew dazed, and blood trickled from her mouth. Will didn’t know what to do. His mind was reeling when someone tapped him on the shoulder. A human figure of solid light held out his, Will knew it was a he somehow, arm. There was an envelope in his hand, and Will took it. Will opened it, read it, and turned around, where he saw…

*

*

*

…where he saw the morning light and the burned-out campfire. Will awoke to find the scene deserted. Lucian was gone, and Will found a window just a meter or two away from him. Will searched his pockets for the pen, but it was gone. Lucian was gone, and he had left Will in the dust with only a trail of footprints.

Chapter Nine: No Good Deed…

Will stepped though the window, finding himself in the kitchen of an eating establishment. Several chefs had gathered in awe of the spectacle already, so when Will appeared from the disturbance, they all jumped back in shock, including the constables who had arrived. The back door to the restaurant had been broken down with some kind of weapon. More precisely, the door had been obliterated. Fortunately, nothing had been stolen, but despite that, the bizarre events had piqued local law enforcement’s interest.

The officers trained their firearms on the newcomer, forcing Will to raise his hands. “Kid, how’d you get here?”

“Get where?” Will asked, looking around in feigned awe. “Whoa!”

“That, what is that?” another demanded, indicating the window.

“I found it.”

A third looked down. “What’s with the cat?”

“What cat?” Will replied. “Oh. I didn’t know they let cats in kitchens.”

The officers and chefs looked at each other and collectively decided that Will was an idiot. Guns lowered slowly, and the lead officer said, “All right, what’s your name?”

“Wally,” Will answered.

“All right, Wally,” the officer tried to downplay the situation. “We need to take you to the station to ask you a few questions.”

“Okay.”

The three officers walked out the nonexistent door. “This lad seems duller than an unsharpened pencil,” one remarked.

“Yeah, he—hey!” the third exclaimed. “Where’d he go?”

Will had taken off through the empty dining area of the restaurant. Rather than risk capture, he stuck to the dense forest that surrounded the town he had landed in. Only when he thought he was safe did he venture into town again, hoping to blend in until he could formulate a plan.

Lucian had run off with everything Will needed. He knew where Lyra most likely was, he had the means to free her, and he had the only way to move between worlds that Will could obtain. As Will casually walked down the sidewalk, he came to a definite conclusion: he needed to find Lucian.

Shortly after he had left the safety of the woods, Will thought something was wrong. Will thought that police would be looking out for him since he appeared out of nowhere, or rather, he appeared out of a strange hole in the fabric of this world. Will’s escape alone should have been suspicious. Surely this incident would have generated interest.

Then, something caught Will’s eye. It was an electronics store with an array of televisions in the store window. Dead bodies appeared on each set. The pictures weren’t gruesome, but the sheer number of them, totaling over fifty already, indicated some kind of new epidemic. These deaths were accompanied by several sightings of floating, moving creatures. Some apparently believe that these creatures were omens, indicating the end of the world was at hand and causing some hysteria, but in any event, the entire town was quarantined indefinitely. People were encouraged to continue with their lives.

Will couldn’t help but watch the images on the screens. They were vaguely familiar, but Will couldn’t recall exactly what they reminded him of. Something about the way the people looked so lifeless rang a bell. Of course, the dead would look lifeless, or at least they should.

“Everyone clear out, now!” An ambulance arrived at the shop, and the paramedics rushed in. Will followed to see what was going on. When he entered, he saw another victim of the mysterious disease. The paramedics were already too late to do anything. The victim, a young woman, was too far gone. Nonetheless, the paramedics transferred her to the nearest hospital for examination, not that previous ones had yielded any results.

Seconds after the ambulance left, a couple police cars parked outside. “Ladies and gentlemen, we’d like to ask you a few questions about what happened here,” one informed them as he entered. Will recognized the voice, but he hadn’t heard the sirens close in, so it was too late. “You!” the officer recognized him. He was one of the three from earlier that morning. Will bolted. In two seconds, he was out the back door. He made for the street, and braving the dangers of fast traffic, he almost crossed unscathed. Just as he dashed past the last lane of motorists, he tripped on the curb. Luckily, he suffered only minor abrasions. As he rose, a tall, old man offered him a hand. “You must follow me,” he insisted. “Quickly!”

Will didn’t really have a choice, for the man dragged him along with surprising force. After ducking in an abandoned storage facility, the gentlemen tried to bring Will into a car, where an accomplice waited.

“What are you doing?” Will demanded. “What’s going on here?” Will tried to free himself, but the second man, much younger than the first, proceeded to restrain Will.

“Trust me, son,” the first said. “This is for your own good.”

“I don’t even know what’s going on!” Will quickly disavowed his knowledge of the situation, not that he knew he had any at the moment. The two men shoved Will into the back seat, but neither of them noticed Kirjava jump in before the doors closed. The older man drove while the newcomer simply held a gun pointed at Will’s head.

“You will,” the driver declared. “When because of us, you reach salvation.” Will instantly knew he was in the wrong company.

They drove only a few blocks to an industrial lab on the top of a hill, where a security checkpoint stopped them. “ID badges?” a guard asked as he approached. The two men in the front seats retrieved valid identification. Upon closer inspection of the checkpoint, Will noticed that the usual window that the guard looks out of was shattered. Will also discerned a pair of eyes peeking at the activity. When guard retreated to his post, Lucian rose from his position and fired his only weapon, shattering the windshield of the car and showering the abductors in shards of glass.

“Open the door!” Lucian insisted, but Will hesitated.

“How do I know I can trust you?” Will inquired.

“You don’t!” Lucian admitted. “But do you have a better idea?”

A shot ripped the slack on Will’s shirt, and Will decided that he didn’t. He quickly boarded, a bulled hitting the door as he opened it. The car sped away with no one in pursuit.

“Will, this is Mr. Jarvis,” Lucian introduced the driver. “He’s that person who has the means to make impressive gadgets.”

“Nice to meet you, Will,” Jarvis called from the front, his eyes still trained on the road. Soon, they were safely concealed in the garage of a large mansion.

“You want to tell me what’s going on here?” Will asked.

“Well, either I just saved you from the very people who have abducted your friend, or I just took you from the people you’re working for, and you’re still trying to dupe me.”

“Oh yeah? What about you? You take off with everything I need and aren’t even brave enough to do that while I’m awake?”

“I’m sorry,” Lucian replied sarcastically. “You’re absolutely right. Oh, wait a minute. I almost forgot; I don’t believe you.”

“Why not?” Will challenged.

“You don’t have a shred of proof. All you’ve got is a story without a shred of proof or a convincing argument. You’ve been hiding something, and until I know what that is, I don’t trust you. Now, for the moment, you’re welcome to stay here. Enjoy the accommodations.” Will could only think that Lucian was a very strange kid. Will left the garage, only a bit confused.

Lucian remained, however, and retrieved an unconscious guard from the trunk. He removed him from the trunk and laid him on the ground. The “passenger” soon recovered, but he would have no time to rest, for Lucian had some questions.

“Did you find a girl and bring her to the compound?” Lucian had his spark pistol trained on the guard as soon as he recovered his wits.

“No,” the security officer lied.

“You’re lying.”

“It’s the truth,” the man stammered.

“No, you don’t understand. I’m not guessing that you’re lying. I know you are.” His weapon charged up.

“We did; we did!” the guard quickly exclaimed, fearing the awesome power of the weapon. Of course, it helped that he was also a coward, and it was even better that Lucian knew that, too.

“Where is she? What do they want with her?”

“I don’t know that.”

“No, you don’t.” Lucian pulled out a cylinder with two amber lenses. “What is this?”

“I don’t know.”

“I see. You must be hungry. Follow me.” Lucian led him into the dining room, where a glass of water and a plate of crackers were brought out. The problem for the guard: the water was drugged, so in a matter of minutes, the guard was out cold.

Lucian took out the spyglass and examined it. It was certainly a marvel. For no apparent reason, whenever he looked through it, he saw…something. He didn’t know why, and he didn’t know what it was. It was some sort of field of something, but he only saw it through the lenses of the spyglass. Lucian also got certain impressions from the shifting field of particles. Somehow, he saw things with greater depth, if that could fit this new awareness. This little device was definitely a mystery, and Lucian wanted to know what it was. What was he seeing? And how did it enable him to know things he could never know? How did it this new outlook tell him that Will was concealing something? Things had changed. The world had changed. It was like he had been stuck in a black-and-white world. The spyglass had transformed the world to color. Now, he didn’t need the spyglass to see in color; he could feel the color around him.

Lucian found Will after a short search through the building. “You want to find your friend? I’ll help you. You just need to do one thing for me.”

“What’s that?”

“Tell me what’s going on here. I think you know more than you’ve told me.”

“Fine. When we get Lyra, I’ll tell you. Deal?”

“Deal.”

And so it began.

Chapter Ten: Chaos Theory

“I thought you were hiding in the hills,” Will said.

“And that’s what I was doing until I ran into you,” Lucian declared. “I knew you didn’t know about this place, so I headed here, and Mr. Jarvis was kind enough to provide me a room for a night.”

“I’m going to make a fortune with that design you gave me, Lucian,” Jarvis interrupted. “How could I not let you stay?” He turned the key in the ignition, but his had slipped off the key as he coughed uncontrollably for several seconds. “Oh, not the allergies again,” Jarvis moaned.

“But you’re only allergic to…pet dander!” Lucian found Kirjava, the obvious cause, sitting by Will’s feet. He reached to throw her out, but Will had her in his arms first. “What are you doing?”

“Don’t touch her,” Will said sternly.

Lucian tried to reason with him. “Look, I’m sure she’s a very nice cat, but she’s got to go.” Lucian lunged, but Will coiled back.

“She doesn’t like to be touched.”

Lucian could tell he was dealing with an extremely sensitive subject. “Okay, have it your way. That still leaves a small problem, though.” Mr. Jarvis sneezed again, and again, and again.

“How’s this?” Will lowered his window as far as he could.

“Much better, thank you,” Jarvis answered.

Lucian eyed Kirjava strangely. “Are you going to tell me about her, too?”

“We already have a deal.”

“And I’m beginning to think you’ll come out on the short end.”

“If we find Lyra I won’t.”

Now Lucian looked at Will strangely. “No, I guess not.”

They arrived at the gate checkpoint once again. “Your badges?” the guard asked.

“Will this work?” Lucian pulled out his weapon.

The guard practically cowered. “Ye-ye-yes, that’ll do.”

“Oh, one more thing.” Lucian fired…at the checkpoint, obliterating the booth and knocking the duty guard to the ground.

The car parked in a space close to the building’s entrance. Will and Lucian got out, but Mr. Jarvis stayed, ready for the escape. Lucian opened the trunk, revealing a virtual armory. He took a spark rifle and gave Will two spark pistols.

“Two?” Will didn’t see a need for two pistols.

“One for your girlfriend.”

“How did you…”

“Later,” Lucian cut him off. “My little stunt back there is only going to confuse security long enough for us to get in unnoticed. Let’s go.”

“How do these work?”

“Press the blue button to turn it on. Green, yellow, and orange buttons change the power setting. Green can stun a man and blow up small objects; yellow can kill and destroy medium-sized objects; orange can go through walls. Whatever you do, don’t touch the red button.”

It sounded like a movie line. “Let me guess: boom?”

“Times a thousand.” Lucian noticed Kirjava following behind. “She’s coming too?”

“Yes.”

“Okay.” Lucian opened the right of the double doors. “Oh, one more thing: you’ve noticed that these things aren’t exactly covert.” He held up his rifle. “So I need you to hit the purple button.”

“All right. What does it do?”

“It creates white noise, like the new headphones pilots use to keep from going deaf. It’ll block out the sound of our shots, but that’s all. It’s a silencer.”

They reached a four-way intersection. “This way.” Lucian pointed left.

“How do you know?”

“I just do. Come on.” They passed countless chambers, all busy with people who were too busy to notice the intruders walking down the corridors. Of course, it’s hard not to notice someone one bumps into, as Lucian did with a preoccupied worker, who dropped all his files when he slammed into Lucian as he turned a corner.

“Hey, who are you? What are you doing here?”

“Sorry.” Lucian fired. It was eerie to see such a brilliant flash of light with no sound accompanying the blast.

They now reached the beginning of a large space filled with cubicles. Nearly every cubicle had someone inside, someone who might notice the two boys as they walked. “We’ve got to get across,” Lucian told Will. “But there’s no way to get around without attracting some attention. We’ll need another plan.”

“Then let’s look at things the other way around,” Will decided. “We’ll create a diversion.”

“Brilliant,” Lucian said after considering the idea. “We’ll go practically unnoticed. I’ll blow a hole in the wall with the silencer off. That should get their attention. You go on ahead. Take out anyone who sees you. Ready?”

“All set.”

“Go!” Lucian leveled his rifle on the corner of the room, adjusted the power to the highest setting, and fired. The air literally shattered, and the wall buckled under the tremendous force. Commotion rose, especially when parts of the ceiling fell to the ground. In fact, the commotion kept rising as more and more of the ceiling kept dropping. The room was caving in, bit by bit. People ran for every possible way out. Lucian and Will rejoined on the other side of the room, though occasionally frantic people jostled them on their way out from the death trap.

“Go that way; I’ll be right there!” Lucian shouted over the rising noise.

“Where are you going?” Will demanded.

“This way!” The opposite direction.

“You said you would help me!”

“I have, and I will, but I’ve got some unfinished business. Go on! Your friend’s waiting for you!” Lucian took off down the hallway. He quickly reached the door he had been searching for and entered. A single man sat before him, not disturbed to find Lucian staring him in the face.

“Well, it was only a matter of time,” the man noted. He remained seated behind a wooden desk, not showing a single shred of surprise or fear. “Although I had pictured you lying in one of our cells. I dare say I never expected this.

“You’re a very interesting young man, Lucian. You’re very inquisitive, but that can be a fault. You wonder too much about us; you question salvation, and that is a sin. You should have accepted what was offered, but you wanted to know, and knowledge, in any form, can be a very dangerous thing. The Bible taught us that.”

“What is this?” Lucian held up the spyglass that had fit so tightly in his pocket. “And why did it arrive at my door?”

“Did you not notice? This building and your home are on the same street, and the addresses are almost the same, save the last two digits. Mix them up, and we have the other. It was a simple mistake, but it was enough. You found the spyglass. We had to get it back. That’s how it all began, and that’s all we wanted. But you ran. You should not have.”

“Tell me what you’re doing. Tell me what’s going on here.”

“What are we doing? We’re trying to help God save humanity. What is happening? Armageddon is at hand, and Judgment Day is coming.”

Lucian could hardly hold back is laughter. “Is this some sort of joke?”

“It is no joke.”

“Fine. I never took stock in religious fanatics anyway. Tell me this: what does this thing see?” He held the spyglass not three inches from the other’s nose.

“The essence and repetition of original sin.”

“Oh do shut up!” Lucian fired, driving the man from his chair and throwing him face-down to the floor. “I hate riddles.”

Lucian headed back to Will, who was ceaselessly searching another wing of the building. This part seemed to be a holding area for those who had become a problem for this holy venture. Just as Will had already known, these cells were all surrounded by metal for whatever purpose. It certainly wasn’t for the looks, though.

“You still haven’t found her?” Lucian was profoundly surprised.

“It’s a maze down here!” Will complained.

“She’s in here!” Lucian opened a door, and sure enough, Lyra burst out the hatch, embracing Will as soon as she could reach him. “Come on, people, we need to move it! Let’s go!”

“Who are you?” Lyra asked.

“Hi, Lucian Farrell, nice to meet you.” He shook her hand briefly. “Will, give me that. Here’s your gun; keep it in the green; shoot anything in the way. Let’s go.”

Lyra looked at Will in absolute confusion. “Are you sure this kid is sane?”

“I heard that!” Lucian called. “Call me insane when we’re dead. Come on!” Just as that line came out, guns, real guns, leveled at each kid’s head.

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