“I will.”
The door swung open, making us both turn. “Hi,” Viv said. “Can you believe I’m here on business?” She didn’t look like a businesswoman compared to Ariadne, who wore a lightweight sky-blue suit and open-toed pumps; Viv had on striped green and white shorts, a cropped lemon-yellow T-shirt that matched her hair, and gray suspenders decorated with colorful buttons bearing cute sayings.
I tore my gaze from one that read I CAN KILL YOU WITH MY BRAIN—all right, that one wasn’t so cute—and looked past her at the other person coming through the door. “Mr. Wallach, hi,” I said.
“I was afraid we’d have to fight the crowds,” Wallach said. For a change, he wasn’t wearing scrubs, of which he seemed to have an endless supply. Instead, he wore an old-fashioned black suit with wide lapels and white pinstripes, black and white saddle shoes, and a tie wider than his lapels. It should have looked ridiculous, but on him it had a weird, sprightly dignity, if those three words could be used together.
“No, it’s been quiet,” I said. “Good luck, Ariadne.”
Wallach held the door for her and let it swing carefully back into place, though it no longer slammed shut if you let go of it at the wrong time. “I hope you’re doing well, Mrs. Campbell,” he said.
“I’m fine. I’m happier now that the new alarm system is in place. Though I guess it’s more a defense system than a simple alarm.”
“Here’s my request,” Wallach said, extending a torn piece of paper toward me. I took it, glancing at Viv, who was bouncing on her toes with excitement. Her lemon-yellow bob swayed with her movement.
“Um…is there something I should know about?” I asked. “You seem more chipper than usual.”
“Go ahead and get the augury, and we’ll tell you,” Viv said with a wide smile.
I raised my eyebrows. “That doesn’t fill me with dread at all.”
“It’s nothing to worry about,” Wallach said.
I took the piece of paper into the oracle. Immediately I felt its presence surround me, pressing down on me with the lightest touch that I knew would become unbearable over time. “So you’re interested in this augury,” I said. Despite myself, I felt heartened by its awareness. So long as it didn’t start talking about endings, I enjoyed having it near.
I unfolded the paper and read, Where is the navel? “Huh,” I said. “Navel of what?”
The oracle’s attention never wavered. In the distance, blue light flared. I headed in that direction. “I know he said not to worry,” I continued, “but Mr. Wallach has done a lot of crazy things in the past, and I can’t help thinking he doesn’t have the same definition of ‘safe’ as most people. You’ll steer him right, won’t you?”
The book was a pretty hardcover titled One Was a Soldier. I examined it without opening it for a few seconds before heading for the exit. The oracle followed me the whole way, giving me the impression that it was looking over my shoulder.
I handed the book to Wallach with a flourish. “$4500,” I said. “And you’d better let Viv tell me what has her so excited, or she might pop.”
Wallach rooted around in his suit for his wallet. “Go ahead,” he said.
Viv grabbed me by the shoulders. Her radiant smile prompted a smile from me, though I didn’t know what we were happy about. “We know how to end the Long War,” she said.
11
I stared at Viv, dumbfounded. “You what?”
“Isn’t it amazing?” Viv said. She let go of me and went back to bouncing on her toes. “Nobody ever thought to look for a solution like this, but it’s really obvious once you know. Obvious even to me, and I’m no scientist.”
I turned to Wallach just as Judy emerged from the stacks, looking disgruntled. “What do you mean, end the Long War?” I said.
“What?” Judy exclaimed. She sounded as incredulous as I had.
“I don’t know the mechanics of the solution yet,” Wallach said, “but the principle is, as Ms. Haley says, obvious. If we can misalign our reality with the invaders’, they won’t be able to enter anymore. Problem solved.”
Judy and I exchanged glances. “That sounds…really simple,” I said. “It seems someone ought to have thought of it before.”
“You’d think so, yes?” Wallach said. He finally dug his wallet out of the depths of his amazing suit coat and started counting out bills. Judy stepped forward to accept the money, but her wide eyes told me she was still stunned. “But it’s only been in the last five or so years that we’ve understood much about the non-Euclidean geometries defining the space invaders come from, or how that intersects with the Euclidean geometry of our world’s effective reality.”
“And now it’s not simple at all,” I said. I’d understood the individual words he’d used, but taken all together, they left my brain feeling mushy.
“Well, the details, as I said, I don’t know yet. But I’m certain it’s possible.” Wallach finished counting bills and put his wallet away. “I’ll probably have a number of augury requests in the coming days. I’m not so proud as to think I can do this entirely myself.” He patted the cover of his augury like a baby.
“Have you told Lucia?” Judy asked.
“I left her a memo. If she wants more information, she can come to my lab for an explanation.” Wallach’s smile went smug. I couldn’t blame him. Getting Lucia’s attention sometimes meant resorting to cryptic measures.
“You should keep this quiet until you have a practical plan,” Judy said. “Otherwise you might raise people’s hopes only to dash them. What if it turns out the mechanics are impossible?”
“Oh, I don’t think that’s the case,” Wallach said, “but I agree with you about keeping it secret. I prefer not to have people nagging me with questions in the early stages of development.”
“And I get to help!” Viv exclaimed. “I’m experienced at interpreting auguries now that I’ve helped Jeremiah with so many. I think I have a gift for it.”
I couldn’t think why this whole situation made me uneasy. “I agree,” I said, wishing my words didn’t feel false. I was sincere; if Viv hadn’t taken the job with Wallach, I’d have suggested she train as a professional interpreter. So why did I feel like a mom patting her child on the back for learning to dress herself?
“Thanks for this,” Wallach said. “Like I said, I’ll probably be back often.”
“We’ll be ready for you,” I said, and waved goodbye before shutting the door.
“That was unreal,” Judy said. “And it does feel like someone should have thought of it before, but he’s right that it wouldn’t have occurred to anyone until recently.”
“I have no idea what he was talking about. Misalign our reality?”
Judy leaned against the counter. “Well, you know how our reality is orthogonal to the invaders’?”
“And ‘orthogonal’ means ‘at right angles.’ That’s about all I know.”