The three silently withdrew, Milton still holding both girls’ hands. Lenora sensed hesitation from the boy. “Is something wrong?” she asked.
“It’s TREE(3),” replied Milton with a tremor in his voice. “I have never encountered it before. But I have heard it is not friendly, not friendly at all. Perhaps we should stop here.”
Lenora was worried, but firm. “I must have an answer for my patron. If you will not go on, please show me how to go myself, and you and Lucy can go back and wait for me.”
“No way!” announced Lucy, who, against all odds, seemed to be having the time of her life. “I’m going with Lenora!”
“Very well,” said Milton. “It is better that I go with you, then. A mere googol may or may not be beneath notice in this realm, but two humans certainly will. No offense meant.”
“None taken,” said Lenora.
The children squeezed each other’s hands tightly as they flew off again, this time toward a brilliant light farther above. As they went, Milton said, “I might as well tell you that TREE(3) is just a way of counting up ‘trees’ you can draw like this.” He released Lenora’s hand long enough to borrow her notebook.
He continued, “They’re drawn according to certain rules. It’s quite a bit simpler to understand than Graham’s number, but … well, we shall see what TREE(3) has to say.”
Now they were nearing something absolutely enormous—Lenora was not surprised to see it was a tree, but of such massive size that its branches extended in all directions farther than the eye could see, and the light that poured from it was nearly blinding. The three of them were as small before it as a tardigrade would be in front of Devils Tower. It reminded Lenora of what she had read of Yggdrasil, the world tree of Norse mythology that connects nine different worlds.
She had plenty of time to ponder this connection, because TREE(3) did not react to them in any way whatsoever, no matter how many bows and curtsies and polite entreaties they produced. But Lenora was not about to give up (how could she possibly fail two patrons in a row?). She decided she’d had enough bowing and curtsying and begging. She was a librarian, after all, and she would not be ignored.
She walked up to TREE(3) and raised a fist.
“Uh…” said Milton.
Lenora gave TREE(3) a firm knock. “Hello? Hey? Listen to us. I’ve got a question I have to answer!”
“Lenora, I—” said Milton, backing away and pulling Lucy with him.
“Lemme go,” cried Lucy, pulling back. “I wanna help Lenora!”
Lenora knocked again. “Hello?!”
TREE(3) began to shake. First, the smallest vibration. Then, its branches began to shake. Then, a mighty tremor shook the air, and TREE(3) came to life, roaring, “YOU DARE?”
And then the mighty branches closed around them, coming together as though to squash them all flat.
CHAPTER TEN
Lenora and the TREEs
A voice spoke. “Oh, stop it.”
The voice was the smallest and squeakiest Lenora could imagine, but for some reason, TREE(3) returned immediately to its immense, remote silence.
“Hello,” said the voice. “Down here.”
Everyone looked down. Sitting at the base of the enormous tree was a much smaller tree, something that looked to Lenora like a bonsai-sized version of TREE(3), which you could put in your backpack.
“Thank you,” said Lenora with immense relief. “May I ask who you are?”
“I am TREE(2). It’s very nice to meet you.”
This TREE was certainly nicer than the other, and Lenora felt that they ought to shake hands or something, but of course they had no way of doing that. So she simply asked, politely, “Are you a large number as well?”
TREE(2) laughed. (Lenora was not exactly sure where its voice was coming from.) “No, not at all. You see, TREEs grow quickly. TREE(1), for example, is only equal to one. And I, TREE(2), am only equal to three. TREE(3), on the other hand, is a number so incomprehensibly vast that it defies any description I could give you. There is no written notation that can express it. TREE(3) makes Graham’s number (I believe you’ve met) look like nothing in comparison.”
“So it’s the largest number, then?” asked Lenora hopefully.
“Oh, no,” said TREE(2). “Of course, they thought that for a while. But then someone found one larger. Every so often, a new one is discovered. It’s all quite exciting, at least to us.”
“Well, thank you,” said Lenora. She did not want to seem ungrateful, but how on earth would she give that boy his answer? Then again, the idea that one could keep discovering ever-larger numbers was rather thrilling. But given what she had seen from TREE(3), Lenora wasn’t so sure she wanted to meet any more of them.
Nevertheless, she turned to Milton. “I suppose we should keep going.”
A voice spoke from behind them. “No. You shouldn’t.”
Lenora whirled around. “Malachi! How did you get here?”
Malachi looked down at the three of them, and Lucy gaped up at the astonishing sight of the ten-foot-tall Assistant Answerer. (Though Lenora wondered why she still seemed ten feet tall when all of them were larger than the observable universe at the moment.)
Lucy looked down at her own platform shoes, then up at Malachi. “How did you get to be so tall?” she demanded.
“A stretching machine,” replied Malachi gravely. “I use it every day.”
“Really?” asked Lucy.
“No,” said Malachi, and turned to Lenora. “Lenora, I must be brief. You should know that I am being watched at all times. There are few places in the Library I can speak freely, and this is one of them. As you know, the Forces fear this place, and they cannot spy on us here.”
“But why haven’t they just fired you?” asked Lenora, hard as it was to imagine anyone throwing Malachi out of the Library.
Malachi closed her eyes and took a deep breath. “Only the Director can give orders such as firing a librarian—”
“Daddy would never do that!” Lucy interrupted.
“—and so I made the decision, and I hope it was the correct one, to give the appearance of cooperation with him. I wish to fight from within, though I am still not fully trusted. But we have no further time to discuss this. The Director has been informed of your presence and that you are with his daughter, and he ordered the Forces to find you immediately. They are on their way here despite their fears, and so you must go.”
“I’m not going anywhere,” said Lenora. “I still don’t have an answer for my patron.”
“Are you certain of that? Perhaps you have an answer, though not the one you were seeking.”
Lenora knew better than to ask Malachi what that answer was. She expected to be told it would be best to figure it out for herself, of course. And so she would. In the meantime …
“Where can we go?” asked Lenora. “If we can’t hide from the Director here, then where can we?”
“We’re not hiding from Daddy, are we?” ventured Lucy plaintively. “Just those creepy Forces people, right?”
Malachi was frowning. “Hide?” she said. “Hiding is hardly in your nature, Lenora. Now, where would the Director be least likely to expect you?”