‘More so than anything else for a long time,’ Olivia replied, clutching Jeff’s hand more tightly.

Mitchell sighed and stood up. ‘Then you’ll have to figure out how to get north. Remember, most of the flights to Inuvik are run by the ASI.’

‘Already thought of that,’ said Jeff. ‘Bob Esquivaz runs mission control for the Roses, and they have a sub-orb that can fly us out there.’

Mitchell looked impressed. ‘Sounds like you’ve really thought this through.’

Jeff stood up as well and nodded towards the door. ‘But, for the moment, we’re all still heading for the space-port. I’ll go pack our stuff in the car. Olivia?’

‘In a minute,’ she said. ‘There’s one other thing I want to ask you first, Mitchell. Jeff told me two of you were caught in those pits. What happened to . . .’ She waved one hand, momentarily unable to recall the other man’s name.

‘Erich Vogel,’ Jeff finished for her, stepping back from the doors and gazing at Mitchell. ‘I already asked you about Vogel, but you never gave me a straight answer.’

One corner of Mitchell’s mouth twitched. ‘He’s not dead, if that’s what you mean.’

‘Then where is he?’ asked Olivia.

‘He went ahead.’

Olivia frowned. ‘Ahead to where?’

The corner of Mitchell’s mouth curled again, into an almost apologetic smile. ‘To the very end of time.’

Olivia stared at Jeff, then back at Mitchell. ‘What?’

‘Look,’ said Mitchell, ‘the exploration teams went a long, long way into the future, but there are routes through the Founder Network that can take you much farther still – so far ahead in time that I don’t even know how to describe it. Except that it’s long after the universe, as we know it, has effectively ceased to exist.’

‘You believe this?’ she asked, looking at Jeff.

Jeff shrugged helplessly. ‘After what I’ve seen during the past couple of weeks, I think I’ll believe pretty much anything.’

‘The Founder Network zigzags across the whole universe,’ Mitchell went on. ‘Jeff told you about it, surely?’

She nodded, and Mitchell reached up to tap the side of his head. ‘The pools – the learning pools, I call them – they put a road map of the whole thing here inside my head.’

‘What about Erich?’ asked Jeff. ‘How could you have spoken to him? There was no sign of himivia starl when we found you.’

‘I can’t tell you exactly how I know, but some time between losing consciousness and when you found me, I talked to him.’

‘Talked? How?’

‘I just know that, before you found me, Erich and I’d . . . communicated in some way. He said he was going up ahead, to find the Founders and the civilization they created close to the end of everything. When I woke up, I was all alone.’

‘Why didn’t you go with him?’ asked Olivia.