‘So, just to be clear,’ I said, ‘I’m from some alternate like the one the first Jerry Beche came from?’

‘That’s right.’ Yuichi nodded.

‘I have a lot of questions,’ I said.

Yuichi nodded again. ‘Of course you do. And we’ll all try and answer them as best we can.’

‘So what about Nadia?’ I asked, my throat tight. ‘Are they going to go retrieve some other version of her, from some other alternate, like they did me?’

‘I don’t know,’ said Yuichi. ‘I guess that’s up to Bramnik and the rest of the Authority types to decide.’

I wondered what Rozalia might have to say about that.

‘Back there,’ I said, ‘we couldn’t even radio for help. All those drones flying over that city might as well not even have been there.’ I took a long swig of Yuichi’s whisky. ‘All of it’s an unmitigated, stinking, fucking mess – run, so far as I can tell, by idiots.’

‘Yeah,’ said Yuichi. He scuffed at the dirt underfoot with a boot. ‘Still. Better than being stuck alone on some empty world, surrounded by death, with nothing to live for while you get older and nuttier. Right?’

I put my face in my hands and mumbled something.

‘What you say?’ asked Yuichi.

‘I said you’re a shithead,’ I repeated, louder this time.

‘For what?’

I looked back up, leaning my head against the cool ancient stone. ‘For being right.’

He laughed.

I looked at him. ‘At least tell me how he died.’

‘The first Jerry? It was just a stupid accident. He was up high in the ruins of some building on an unexplored alternate when he lost his footing and fell.’ He shrugged. ‘It was just one of those cosmically stupid accidents.’

Yuichi reached a hand down to me. ‘C’mon, man. I think it’s time we got headed back into town, don’t you?’ His nose wrinkled. ‘Seriously, dude. You need a shower.’

‘Hey,’ I said. ‘Why didn’t you just go find some other guy who could do this job, instead of me?’

‘Why bother?’ Yuichi replied. ‘They’d have to go hunting that other guy down, figure out if he was crazy or not, whether or not he’d fit in with us or be able to work with other people, or if he might be psycho or paranoid or think he was being followed by black helicopters or any one of a dozen damn things. But another version of the same guy we know and trust, so similar you can’t tell the difference? Someone like that’s a whole lot more quantifiable – and a whole lot cheaper to retrieve and train if you know just where to find him, too.’

It started to rain. I shivered, feeling cold, and let him pull me upright before following him back down to the vehicles.

ELEVEN