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Back A Fractured Infinity Save as PDF
Chapters (41)
  1. Cover
  2. Title Page
  3. 1
  4. 2
  5. 3
  6. 4
  7. 5
  8. 6
  9. 7
  10. 8
  11. 9
  12. 10
  13. 11
  14. 12
  15. 13
  16. 14
  17. 15
  18. 16
  19. 17
  20. 18
  21. 19
  22. 20
  23. 21
  24. 22
  25. 23
  26. 24
  27. 25
  28. 26
  29. 27
  30. 28
  31. 29
  32. 30
  33. 31
  34. 32
  35. 33
  36. 34
  37. 35
  38. 36
  39. 37
  40. Acknowledgements
  41. About the Author

For the first time since darkening his office, the other Yusuf squinted at me like I was standing in front of a glaring light. I know I default to humor when I’m uncomfortable, which I’ve been told more than once is annoying, so I figured his glare at me was because of that. Or he recognized me as Figueiredo—he must’ve seen the video footage that came as a bonus pack along with his universe’s Envisioner.

“That’s a joke?” he asked Yusuf, who just shrugged, instead of looking at me.

“We’re from another universe.” Yusuf frowned. “As improbable as that sounds, we—”

“And how did you get here?” his double cut in.

“I hailed us a cab,” I said.

His flinty eyes cut past me to the picture frame Yusuf had knocked over on the desk. He charged past us, snatched the frame, and flipped it over to inspect the glass with squinting eyes. His steady hands hovered over the picture, one thumb whispering over the face of one of the two men in matching tan suits in front of a waterfall. The face that—when I stole a glance before he gently placed the picture back on his desk, facing away from me—looked just like mine.

22

HOMECOMING

It turns out I’m dead in this universe. Bummer. I’ll get to that later.

This Dr. Yusuf Hassan—who let us call him Hassan so he and my Yusuf wouldn’t turn around every time I said their name—was born in Al-Maghrib in Northern Africa to Christian parents, who then fled religious persecution and raised him in France. He made his way as a teenager to what had once been called the United Kingdom, though by the time he enrolled at Oxford, the monarchy had been abolished, and England was now the anchor state of the United Commonwealth. He studied physics with a special focus on comparative universe sub-subatomic particle mechanics, plus he puttered around with quantum time entanglement theory in his spare time. I think I got most of that right. I tried to work my charm on Hassan but he wasn’t having it. I checked out about halfway through the conversation because it was like Yusuf and I were interviewing him for a job and Hassan took us on a guided tour of his credentials, stopping just short of whipping out his diplomas.