We tucked into our food, and it was bliss to have something hot and semi-healthy. I spoiled myself by squirting an altogether unhealthy amount of ketchup on the eggs to give them a bit of a sweet tang. “Tell me what’s got you rattled.”

Cody washed down his eggs with a mouthful of coffee. “Do you have gangs back on your world?”

“I’ll let Cris answer this one,” I replied. “We have a few problems, but nothing compared to the States.”

“Jeez, way to insult my homeland,” she said, giving me a cheeky middle finger.

“I didn’t mean it as an insult, but most of England’s drive-bys involve a lot of harsh language or thrown crumpets instead of bullets.”

“Fair point,” she conceded, turning to Cody. “We’ve got our fair share. We’re a melting pot of races all trying to get along, and most of them have a few gangs under their banner. You’ve got the Aryan Nation, the Bloods and Crips, MS-13, what’s left of the Mafia, drug cartels, all sorts. It’s a difficult situation. Why do you ask?”

“Because there,” said Cody, tapping the mid-air map which created a ping in our vision too, “is smack dab in the middle of their territory.”

“Their?” I pushed.

“The Disciples. They control nearly everything in the west of the city.”

“Religious nutters?” I asked.

“In a way. They punish their enemies with ritualistic murders and maiming. They’re evil with a capital E.”

I was about to suggest we leave that site to last, but in the back of my mind I had an inkling that our observers would get a kick out of having Liza stashed there. Danger on top of danger for them to get their rocks off. Bastards. “Wouldn’t the gang be a bit upset if the military is operating on their turf? Patch? Whatever?”

“I’m not sure how it works in your world, but even well-organised street killers have their limits. If they ever got to the point they were threatening the government, or even the city governor, the army would go in and wipe them out in a few hours. They know to keep their activities lowkey.”

“You call controlling half the city lowkey?”

“The government has never cared about the people. Who cares if a few hundred die to drugs or shootings? When I say lowkey, I mean they stick to drugs, extortion, prostitution, the usual. Is it different on your world?”

“Not at all,” Cris replied. “It sounds far too similar for my liking.”

Sun interjected with a raised, tattooed hand. “This is all modern talk, yes?”

Cris nodded. “Yeah.”

Sun nodded curtly and stuffed another sausage in her mouth. “Good. Carry on,” she mumbled between chewing.

I wanted to know, and I didn’t want to know. “Who controls the other half?”

“The Blood Nation. Edresian migrants from the south settled here and their tribal gangs followed. They’re not quite as bad as the Disciples, but not by much. They try and minimise the damage to civilians who aren’t involved in the bad stuff. They’re fellow Edresians, after all.”

We were stuck between a rock, a hard place, a lightning storm while taking shelter beneath a tree, an incoming artillery strike, and a chihuahua with toothache. This was ridiculous.

Bart? What the fuck?

Hello, Mark. What the eff, what?

What have you dropped us in to? This world is just as bad as ours. When do they get popped?

When they threaten trillions of lives. They’re not on course to discover warp drives and wormhole manifestation technology. Their pain is self-inflicted, and unable to spread. The coming invasion may well eradicate old rivalries and unite the people.

If there’s anyone left alive.

That is a fair point, Mark. How are you progressing?

I looked around the table at three other people who were as lost as I was. This was damn near insurmountable.

I’m compartmentalising, I lied.

How is the new party coming along. Is it good to have Cris with you?

Are you kidding? She’s awesome. She’s a super powerful spellcaster.

She blushed across the table from me. Thanks.

I dropped my mug, spilling the last dregs of coffee onto the Formica top. You can hear us?

Of course, Mark. She is now part of your timeline. I have taken you both, as Cris’s sponsor was having second thoughts.

But… you can hear me! What if I’d said something bad?

I’d have kicked you in the balls. Cris grinned across the table. But you didn’t, so don’t worry about it.

What if the time comes when I want to speak to you privately, Bart?

Cris raised an eyebrow and smirked at me. And why would you want to speak to Bart privately? Planning on keeping secrets from me?

Ava bustled over and began apologising profusely while wiping up the spill as if it were her fault. “Let me get you folks a refill.”

I smiled gratefully and left her to do her thing, turning inward to our conversation once more.

No, of course not! But you never know what might come up.

Ok, you two, simmer down. You can both speak to me privately this way at any time by simply thinking of a private room. I’d rather not have that happen, because we’re all pulling in the same direction.

Apparently not, Cris smiled, teasingly.

Cut it out! What if I wanted to perv over you? Eh?

She turned a laugh into a cough into her hand. Perv over me?

You know, just chat to my alien friend about how good you look, that kind of thing. A man sometimes has less than noble thoughts.

I’ll allow it.

This is a bloody nightmare. Thanks for nothing, Bart.

I’m always here to help. You’re both doing great. Keep it up!

That had Cris cough-laughing again, and I scowled at her. “An erection pun. Very immature.”

She got herself under control and wiped a tear from her eye. “Sorry.”

“Care to share?” asked Sun.

“I was asking our friend for help. He wasn’t very forthcoming.”

“It matters not,” she replied. “We did what was necessary in my world, we’ll do the same here. The only thing that’s changed is the scenery.”

I couldn’t miss the look of distaste as she surveyed a world similar to my own. When set against the largely unspoiled landscape of Kherrash, it was little surprise. “And the enemy.”

“These beings you keep talking about. Are they bigger than the trolls?”

“The dinosaurs? Ye…” Hang on, were they really? Some of the herbivores like the brontosaurus perhaps, but the T-rex would be of a similar size to the trolls, and we’d manage to shit in their cornflakes just fine. Except for my temporary girlfriend, Trollina, anyway. I hoped she was keeping to herself, feeding on mountain goats rather than people. I’d been her first love, but I wished her nothing but happiness with TrollBrett who wore Axe body spray and did CrossFit.

“There you go,” she said, taking my hesitation as confirmation.

“Ok, but it’s not the size that counts…” I began to reply, and immediately died a little inside. Cris was looking anywhere but at me, and by god was I grateful for small mercies. “What I mean is it’s all about numbers. How many trolls did we fight? Fifty to a hundred?”

“About that, yes. You exploded quite a few with your black powder too.”

“If what I’m thinking is going to happen happens, you can multiply that number by thousands.”

Cody paled a little. “Do you really think there will be that many?”

“There has to be. Otherwise the military strength of this world would be able to put them down, like you said. It has to be utterly overwhelming.”

“That leaves the question of how Lake will get them to all corners of the globe,” added Cris. “I can’t picture a small army of dino wranglers walking them nicely on leashes.”

“As daft as that seems, with all the global satellites down, he could be ferrying them down the road two streets over and we’d be none the wiser.”

“You think he blinded us to move them into position?” asked Cody.

“Why else?”

He finished off the last mouthful of food as he also chewed on the information. In truth, it was so far beyond our control it may as well have been on one of the other worlds. Lake had his finger on whatever button was throttling communication, and if it was ever to be freed, it would only be at his order or action.

“So what’s the plan, boss?” asked Cris.

“Don’t call me that. This is a democracy, majority decision, all opinions welcome.”

“Ok, boss,” she repeated. “Then tell us how you see it?”

“Even if it’s impossible?” I asked.

They all turned to me and nodded.

“Well, first thing is to try and find Liza. Once we have her, the impossible bit happens.”

“Nothing’s impossible,” argued Sun.

Cody pushed his plate away and sighed. “You’re thinking of going after Milley, aren’t you?”

“What other way do we have of finding out what the hell’s going on?”

“None,” he replied instantly. “It doesn’t stop it being literally impossible. Do you have any idea how well guarded their base is?”

“Really well guarded?”

“Really, really well guarded,” Cody corrected, helpfully.

“I’m open to suggestions. Like I said, this is a team effort.”

“We have the stealth armour,” Cris offered.

“And our gifts,” added Sun.

“I just don’t think it’ll be enough,” I replied. “They’ll have motion sensors, thermal, all manner of stuff that might pick us up when the suits only hide us visually.”

“Do we have much choice?” asked Sun.

I slumped back in the cheap plastic booth. “Unless there’s a helpful map at either of the sites showing us where Lake is hiding, then no.”

“There’s another choice,” Cris said, cautiously.

I opened my hands, face up to show I was open to suggestions. “And that is?”

“We wait for the outbreak. In the chaos, I expect Milley’s troops will be more worried about the triceratops tearing through their fences than a group of trespassers.”

It was an option, just not one I could really consider. That would ensure the death toll was catastrophic, because we would still be at the start of the quest, and also surrounded on all sides by monstrous creatures intent on eating anything they could. Our progress would be painfully slow, if not drawn to a complete stop while we tried to move around. Meanwhile, the world would die, one meal at a time.

“No good?” she asked.

“Too good,” I replied. “It would give us a double layer of cover. I was just thinking about how many lives would be lost. I mean, I know our hosts won’t want us finding Lake before the shit hits the fan. They’ll want us dodging fangs by the thousand as we fight our way toward him.”

“I can see why you were conflicted about the aliens, Mark,” said Sun. “Their motives are good, and bad, which confuses me greatly.”

“Me too, Sun,” I sighed. “Me too.”

Ava hurried over at the sight of our empty plates and started to clear the table. “Anyone have space for seconds? We do the best cherry pie this side of the river.”

My gut was already at full strain. If I’d been wearing a belt, I’d have already loosened it by a couple of notches. Everyone else was similarly bloated from the full meal. “Just the bill, please.”

I heard the faint jangle of keys in her apron, and a crazy idea occurred to me. I let her carry the plates away before turning to Cody. “Those two cars outside. How much are they worth in your money?”

He craned his neck to look at the two beaters which were just about ready for the great scrapyard in the sky. “A few hundred, maybe a thousand if the dealer’s feeling generous. Why?”

Ava reappeared to top off our coffees, but we all declined.

“Ava, do you live close?”

She was obviously used to creeps, because her smile vanished. “What’s it to you?”

I pulled out a wad of notes that must’ve been over five thousand, and it hadn’t made much of a dent in my silver and gold. I marvelled at the change, wondering of there was some kind of cosmic exchange booth that gave me rates depending on the value of the precious metals in each world. “We’re in a bit of trouble. Our car died on the freeway, and I mean she’s D E A D. We need a car to get home, and I wanted to buy yours.” I put the bundle of notes on the table next to the bill.

“That piece of crap?” she asked, dumbfounded.

“Does it start and go forward?”

“Some of the time, yeah.”

“Then it’s better than ours. But I won’t buy it if you live a long way away. I won’t put you in danger like that.”

She studied my eyes for a few moments. “You want to buy my rust bucket, for that? It’s not worth anything close.”

“Consider the extra a little thank you for getting us out of trouble. Do you live close, then?”

“Not too far. Nestor would give me a lift, anyhow. What about the slip?”

“You can mail it to me,” offered Cody, asking for a pen.

“What do you say?” I asked as he started to write.

Her hand lashed out like a trapdoor spider and dragged the money into her apron. “I’d say you folks have got yourself a twenty-two year old deal.” A set of keys appeared and she took off her housekey before handing them to Cody.

I chuckled at the fluffy pink ball she’d left attached for us. “You’re a lifesaver. Literally.”

She beamed, the smile back in full effect. “Yeah? Well, don’t forget to tip.”

I laughed at her cheek as she bustled away. Taking out some of the notes to check their authenticity, she seemed satisfied and I swear her step was all the lighter. Whatever troubles she might’ve been having, my little gift had eased the burden slightly. I added another hundred as a tip, and turned to my companions. “Who wants to start a gang war?”

They didn’t seem keen on the idea.