Ray staggered from the pain running through his system. He looked down at the spot

where his arm used to be. He couldn’t scream.

“Did you have to pull his arm off, Aldur?,” asked Woad. “What are you thinking?”

“The closest thing I have to what he wants is going to need space,” said Aldur. “The

only other thing to do is to put it in his torso. I didn’t want to do that in case he comes

back in one piece.”

“He’s going to die before we put him on the field,” said Woad.

“No, he won’t,” said Aldur. “I’ve done this a couple of times. I know how to work

fast.”

Woad made a get on with it gesture.

Aldur took what looked like a skeleton’s arm done in blue metal from a rack on the

wall. He grabbed everything he needed to attach the arm to the nub of Ray’s shoulder.

He hooked everything together in a blur of motion, attaching it to their debtor last. He

installed a lamp that emitted blue flame in the upper arm.

“That’s the battery,” said Aldur. “Can you hear me, little man?”

“Hurts like everything,” said Ray. “Did you have to pull off my arm?”

“Yes,” said Aldur. “You’ll get it back when you win.”

“That’s something to look forward to, I guess,” said Ray.

“Don’t worry,” said Aldur. “The battery will power the weapon. You power the

battery. Remember to eat when you can while you’re down there.”

“That seems right,” said Ray.

“Let me hook up the rest of it, then you’ll be ready to go,” said Aldur.

Aldur worked on the arm. He explained the process as he went. Ray tried to keep up,

but the pain running through his shoulder and the shock induced dulling of his brain

wasn’t making it easy. He did catch two things that were important.

They were hooking him up to a reality manipulator built into his new hand, and

powered by the lamp in his upper arm. It was mentally operated so he had to be clear

on what commands he wanted followed. It might be good to put in a password so he

didn’t tell it to do something when he didn’t mean it to.

He agreed with that assessment.

The second thing was that the arm was indestructible. It would survive a nuclear

explosion. The rest of him wouldn’t.

He hoped he didn’t run into the equivalent while trying to get things done.

He wondered when reality would drop in and make him scream. He shouldn’t be this

calm. He should be breaking down and crying.

He suspected that Woad had done something to him to keep his fear down. Either

that, or he had always been broken and unafraid and never noticed it before now. He

tried to search his memories, but the fact that Aldur was layering blue muscle cables

on his new arm pulled him back to the present.

“Let me put a shell on this,” said Aldur. “You’ll be ready to go.”

“Still hurts,” said Ray.

“Of course it does,” said Aldur. “Fitting you with an arm should have taken days, but

we’re in a hurry. Just because we think there’s a two year span, doesn’t mean there

is one.”

“So I could be fighting as soon as I get there,” said Ray. He rubbed his face with his

natural hand.

“Maybe,” said Woad. “If you can track down the mastermind we think is behind

everything, you might avert everything before the two years is up.”

Which is the plan right now. Ray wasn’t going to waste two years looking around.

Going home as soon as he could take care of the marker was what he wanted to do.

He flexed the fingers on his new arm. The piece of metal moved as smooth as his

natural hand. Flames ran out of vents poked in the arm from hand to shoulder. He

frowned at that.

“Flames?,” Ray asked. He indicated the vents.

“The more you have, the more power you have,” said Aldur. “Purely cosmetic.”

“All right,” said Ray. “So I can’t set people on fire with it.”

“I didn’t say that,” said Aldur.

Ray shook his head.

“Let’s get you rations and start up money,” said Woad. He gestured for Ray to leave

the armory. “After that, you’ll be on your own until the job is done.”

“I can handle it,” said Ray.

“The transition will be to a random spot, Mister Gunn,” said Woad. He led the way

back to the map room. “The rest will be up to you.”

Ray still felt too calm. He looked at the table that represented the world he was about

to land on. Could he do what was being asked of him? He wasn’t anything like a

detective.

If he wanted to get back to Barbera and the kids, he had to do the job. He had made

a bargain, and if he didn’t hold up his end, he would lose everything anyway.

“Hold on,” said Ray. He closed his eyes. He felt the connection to the battery in his

mind. It sat there patiently in a spark of blue flame.

“Lamp?,” Ray thought, reaching for the spark with his mind.

“Affirmative,” said the spark. The voice sounded familiar, like something from his

childhood. It reminded him of a tin dog.

“Memorize the map for later use,” thought Ray. “We’re going to need to go over what

you can do so we can figure out how to proceed on the mission.”

“Affirmative,” said the spark. “Memory stored for future use.”

“This is your pack, Mister Gunn,” said one of the other women in the map room. She

was matronly but radiated sex appeal at the same time. Her dark hair formed a wave

over the tiara she wore. She handed him a pack he could hang from his shoulder. “The

food and water inside will cover five days. That should be long enough for you to

reach a place that will give you a home for your search.”

“This is the starting gold,” said a slim man in a cloak of black. His eyes were white

like he had cataracts. “It’s not much, but it should get you through long enough for

you to start earning your own money from the locals.”

“Thank you both,” said Ray. He took the small bag and tucked it in his bag of

supplies. “I’ll try to return whatever I don’t use.”

“Are you ready, Mister Gunn?,” said Woad. He raised one hand. The air shimmered

around it.

“I think so,” said Ray. He raised his metal hand. He could feel the power inside of the

arm. It just needed direction to get things done.

He didn’t like this challenge. He had to get through somehow. He had to win to get

back to his family.

“Lamp, record teleportation for later use,” thought Ray.

Affirmative.

Woad dropped his hand. Everything went white. Ray found himself standing in a

bunch of trees. His stomach kicked up his lunch. He closed his eyes as he tried to get

his body under control. The spark in his mind waited for him patiently.

The comparison to a tin dog leaped in his mind, but he pushed it back. He had other

considerations at the moment.

“Lamp, did you record the teleportation process?,” asked Ray. He pulled himself to

a base of a tree away from his vomit.

Affirmative, confirmed Lamp.

“Can we use it to get back to Transition?,” he thought.

Negative. The spark sounded sad. I need more power to punch through the

intervening membrane.

“Can you get a signal through so I can talk to my wife?,” asked Ray.

Negative. I would need more power, but not as much as a full teleportational warp as

demonstrated.

“Where are we?.” Ray searched the bag and found a skin of water. He took a few sips

to wash out his mouth.

Unknown for the moment. Need a physical marking to compare with the map we

filed.

“Can we fly?,” asked Ray.

Affirmative.

“Take us up high enough to see the surrounding landscape so we can figure out where

we are on the map,” thought Ray. “We’re looking for any place we can use for

information.”

Affirmative.

Blue light surrounded Ray. He floated upward at a sedate pace. He felt that the spark

was taking it easy on him instead of just going as fast as it could and then dropping

him down.

He thought he saw lights in the distance. It looked like Woad had dropped him close

to a small city.

“Let’s fly over to that town and see if we can find a place to take a nap,” thought Ray.

“I feel dead tired all of a sudden.”

Affirmative.