Free Flux by Beth Goobie Page B

triumphant grin taking over the dark.
    “Who’d they catch?” asked Deller, obviously exasperated. “I didn’t see anyone hiding in the church but us.”
    Nellie couldn’t help it, her entire body convulsed with satisfaction. “You!” she crowed and knew the game was up, the secret out, but she couldn’t help it—the truth was beauty in her mouth,a moment of singing revenge for the razor and the taunts that had dug deep, deeper than she’d ever wanted to go.
    “Me?” said Deller, thunderstruck. “But I’m right here, beside you.”
    “Your double ,” Nellie gloated and listened to his breath quicken. “Don’t you know anything about traveling the levels?”
    Deller’s silence was so intense she could feel it like a wave, permeating the surrounding dark. “So,” he said finally, his voice husky with thought. “You’re a rerraren, are you, Bunny?”
    Rerraren . The word hung between them, one of those fragments of the old speech that Outbackers used to shut everyone else out. “What’s that?” Nellie asked suspiciously, her eyes narrowing. “You calling me crazy?”
    “Maybe,” Deller said slowly. “Or maybe I just figured out why they were after your brains.”
    She opened her mouth but there were no words, just the abyss of her mind opening endlessly down.
    “So, we’re somewhere else then?” Deller asked, after a pause. “Lulunar took us into another world? That’s why the air’s got such a buzz to it. What did you call it—a level?”
    Lulunar? she thought. Fine, let him think it’s the twin moons that did it . “Don’t worry,” she said casually. “We’re only one level over, so it’ll be easy to get back. We just have to wait until we’re sure there’s no one in the hall, and then I’ll open the gate.”
    “But that’s the hall in this level, isn’t it?” asked Deller. “How d’you know it’ll be quiet in our level?”
    A grin of admiration flashed across Nellie’s face. He was quick, that was for sure. “Because everything’s the same in the levels,” she explained. “They’re copycats. If the hall’s quiet here, it’ll probably be quiet there too.”
    “Probably?” asked Deller.
    “Well, they’re usually the same,” Nellie admitted. “It depends on flux, I guess. And on how much you mess things up when you travel from one level to the next.”
    “So what you’re saying is that when this hall gets quiet, we won’t have a clue about our hall—” Abruptly Deller cut off, listening, and then she heard it too—a long wavering cry, so faint it seemed to caress the air.
    “That’s ... me,” said Deller slowly. “Isn’t it?”
    “Not you ,” Nellie scoffed, trying to shake her unease. “Just one of your doubles. And you can thank the Goddess for that. If we were in our level, it would be you.”
    “But it is me, isn’t it?” said Deller. “Some kind of me, in a different place?”
    “Don’t be ridiculous,” Nellie snapped, her unease growing. Some kind of me —what was he talking about? Doubles were just ... doubles . “Doubles are like shadows,” she said quickly. “Just ideas of yourself. You should be glad those men are busy with your double. It makes it a zillion times easier for me to open the gate and get us back home.”
    Instantly Deller’s hand gripped her shoulder. “We can’t,” he said hoarsely.
    “You bet we can,” Nellie hissed, trying to shake him off. “ I can.”
    “They’ll murder him, Bunny, don’t you know that?” Deller whispered and she froze, thinking of the Interior agent and the line of listless children standing beside the burgundy van. That agent’s double now had hold of Deller’s double, and she knew better than Deller how much mercy the man was likely to show. But so what? This wasn’t her home level, what did she care about what went on here? There were hundreds of levels—you could go crazy trying to keep track of them all.
    “You’re thinking too much,” she said. “This place isn’t