Technomancer (Unspeakable Things: Book One)

inside that place when we got there, a dozen of them or a hundred? Armed with weapons we can’t face?”
    “This isn’t an invasion, Draith.”
    “How can you be so sure?”
    McKesson smiled wearily. “It’s not like that. They come for their own odd reasons. They’re more like mobsters than soldiers from a hostile nation.”
    “You’ve talked to them?”
    “You just have to trust me concerning their motivations.”
    “All right,” I said. “But something is up. You know that as well as I do.”
    McKesson looked thoughtful. “This is something that you can’t help me with. I would tell you to stay clear entirely, but I don’t think you can now.”
    I stared at him. “Are you saying we have people going through to
their
side as well?”
    McKesson laughed. “There you go, thinking big again. Thinking of Pentagon boys and agents with perfect teeth and black belts. It’s nothing so formal. We have our Community, they have their equivalent powers. We’ve had a truce for a long time, but—”
    I cut him off. “A truce? How long?”
    “Since the eighties, I guess,” he said. He eyed me as if worried he’d said too much. Finally, he shrugged. “Since the tests ended.”
    I narrowed my eyes. “What tests?” I wanted to ask, but suddenly, McKesson leaned away.
    I stepped forward and tried to look over his shoulder. He jabbed at me with his elbow, pushing me back. I came forward and grabbed his arm. I wrapped both my arms around his wrist and pulled his hand toward me.
    We both stared at his wristwatch. The hands were moving, all three of them, all swinging around to point west.
    “Something’s coming, isn’t it?” I asked. “Something is opening up. Is it close to us?”
    McKesson had his hand on his pistol. “Let go of my arm,” he said, speaking each word with slow precision.
    I let him go. He glared at me for a second, then relaxed. “I’ve shot men for less, you know,” he said.
    “I’m sure you have.”
    “There is something coming,” he said. “And yes, it will be close.”
    I looked toward the west and I began walking that way, the direction the hands on his watch had indicated. McKesson made a sound of exasperation and followed me. It was dark now. The pale orange sodium lights flickered into life, illuminating the streets and the apartment complex.
    “You should keep your nose out of this one, Draith. We have rules in place.”
    “Rules?” I asked. “Since when are there rules in this game?”
    “They aren’t written down. But we have a mutual understanding. Like two dogs growling at each other on either side of a fence. As long as we don’t mess with each other, there is peace. But the minute one dog digs a fresh hole and sticks his snout into the other’s territory—well, all bets are off.”
    We were out in the alley now, behind the apartments. There wasn’t much here other than dumpsters with green chipped paint and a few discarded, moldering couches.
    I saw something there, a bright spot in the alleyway. I figured it was the final gasp of the dying day, a last sunbeam not blocked by trees or buildings. But I was wrong. McKesson headed for the bright spot and I followed. There was something slowly twisting in the alleyway. A shimmer in the air. It affected only a small area this time. It was just a crack.
    I realized in wonder that the light I was seeing wasn’t from our own sun. It was from somewhere else. The small, vertical warp in the air had let through light from another time or place—or both.
    I paused there, studying it. McKesson stood beside me.
    “A second one?” I whispered. “So close?”
    “It’s an echo,” he said. “A smaller variety of rip in space. It happens sometimes when they force one through. Have you ever pushed your finger through a sheet of paper? Itnever makes a perfect hole, you know. There are always splits, folds, and tears.”
    I took a step toward it, then another.
    “What the hell are you doing?” McKesson said behind me. “Be careful, man. You can’t go stepping out through an echo, they aren’t stable.”
    “Does this lead to the home of the Gray Men?” I asked him.
    “I don’t know—probably. They are the ones fooling around at the moment.”
    I stepped forward again. Three fast steps. I didn’t want to give myself or McKesson time to think.
    “What the hell?” shouted McKesson, angry now. “You can’t step out! Get back here or I’ll have to drop you, Draith.”
    I looked back over my shoulder. I felt