The Long Earth

drifted away into the wild, others had started staking claims. You settled down, hammered in your markers, and prepared to plant your crops and raise your kids, in what looked like virgin country. But who, in reality, owned what? You could stake your claim, but would the government endorse it? Were the parallel Americas even United States territory? Well, now the administration had decided to take a position on that.
    Clichy said, ‘Word is the President is going to declare that all the stepwise Americas
are
US sovereign territory, over which US laws apply. The stepwise territories are “under the aegis of the federal government”, is the language. That will simplify things, I guess. If you can call having a beat suddenly become infinite “simple”. We’re all overstretched, all the agencies. You have the military being brought home from the war zones, Homeland dreaming up endless new ways the terrorists can get through, and meanwhile the corporations are quietly heading on out to see what there is to grab … Ah, shit. My momma told me I should have stayed in Brooklyn.
    ‘OK, listen, Officer Jansson.’ He leaned forward now, hands folded, intent. ‘I’ll tell you why I brought you in. Whatever the legal viewpoint, we’re still charged with keeping the peace in Madison. And, how lucky for us, Madison is a kind of magnet for the nutjobs over this.’
    ‘I know, sir …’
    Madison had been the source of the Stepper technology in the first place, so it was a natural hub for that reason. And Jansson, studying reports about people coming here to begin long stepwise journeys, was also beginning to wonder if there was something else about the area that attracted them. Some way stepping was
easier
here. Maybe the Long Earth was about stability. Maybe the oldest, most stable parts of the continents were the easiest places to step – just as iron had the most stable nucleus. And Madison, sitting at the heart of North America, was one of the most stable places on the planet, geologically. If she saw Joshua again, she meant to ask him.
    Clichy said, ‘So we got a special challenge. Which is why I need you, Jansson.’
    ‘I’m no kind of an expert, sir.’
    ‘But you keep functioning, right through all the
Twilight Zone
shit. Even on that first night, you kept your head clear and your mind focused on the policing priorities, while some of your esteemed colleagues were busy pissing their pants or puking up their pretzels. I want you to be point man on this. You understand? I want you to take a lead, both on the individual incidents, and the patterns behind them. For sure those rascals out there are going to keep figuring out more ways to use this shit against us. I want you to be my Mulder, Officer Jansson.’
    She smiled. ‘Scully would be more appropriate.’
    ‘Whatever. Look, I’m not promising you anything in return. It’s an unconventional assignment. Your contribution will be hard to reflect in your record. I’ll do my best, however. You might end up spending a lot of time away from home. A lot of time alone, even. Your personal life—’
    She shrugged. ‘I’ve a cat. She looks after herself.’
    He tapped a key, and she knew he must be studying her personnel file. ‘Twenty-eight years old.’
    ‘Twenty-nine, sir.’
    ‘Born in Minnesota. Parents still there. No siblings, no kids. A failed gay marriage?’
    ‘I’m mostly celibate these days, sir.’
    ‘Jansson, I sincerely do not want to know. OK, go back to Datum Earth, rework your assignments with your sergeant, figure out what you need to set up in this station and the one in East 1 – hell, just go look busy for the mayor, Officer.’
    ‘Yes, sir.’
    All in all Jansson had been pleased with the meeting, looking back on it, and her new assignment. It told her that guys like Clichy, and those in power above him, were handling this extraordinary phenomenon, the sudden opening up of the Long Earth, about as well as they could be expected to. Which wasn’t true, she had learned from the news and other sources, in every country in the world.

10
    ‘SURELY, PRIME MINISTER , we could just ban stepping? It is a manifest security risk!’
    ‘Geoffrey, we might as well outlaw breathing. Even my own mother has stepped!’
    ‘But the population is fleeing. The inner cities are ghost towns. The economy is collapsing. We must do
something
…’
    Hermione made a tactful minute of the exchange.
    Hermione Dawes was extremely good at taking minutes.