Master George interrupted her. “I’m certain that was Reginald Chu from the Fourth, not Tick’s science instructor. And the thing he put around your arm was a highly illegal device called a nanohijacker. If we ever catch Chu, he’ll be punished severely and spend the rest of his days in a Realitant prison.” His face reddened. “So sorry, please continue.”

“The . . . nanohijacker hurt worse than anything I’ve felt in my entire life,” Sofia said, her face grimacing at the memory. “We heard loud crashing sounds in the woods, and Chu told us something was coming to get us. Well, the pain made us all pass out and when we woke up, dozens of trees had been smashed together—almost like they’d melted. We even saw a couple of deer in the mess.”

“Hope it wasn’t the wee one I saw last year,” Mothball said. “Sprightly little thing, it was.”

Sofia gave her a confused look then continued. “In the weird underground place, a bunch of robot things called metaspides attacked us, but they all got melded together, too. There was a big tornado and they turned into one big heap of junk.”

“That was the Industrial Barrens in the Seventh Reality,” Master George said. “Miserable place. And those metaspides are Chu’s security force. I didn’t know he’d sent them to the Seventh. We’ve had trouble with those buggers before. Go on.”

“It happened two more times,” Sofia said. “In the desert, a huge beast catapulted through the tunnel right before it was going to kill us—and got trapped in a big chunk of melted glass. I think some of the glass might have been created from the super-heated sand. The last time was when we were running from the glowing . . . monkeys near Circle City and a bunch of trees smashed together again, killing a few of the animals. It looked just like it had back in Deer Park—like the wood had liquefied and twisted together, then solidified into one massive structure. Like it was something from a nightmare.”

Sofia stopped and looked at the floor.

Master George patted her arm and leaned back in his chair. “Thank you, my dear. Yes, yes, I’m quite certain my suspicions are correct. Quite certain, indeed. I fear our problems are much deeper than we thought. Oh, goodness gracious me.”

“What?” Paul said, his joy and relief from the vanished pain fading at the haunted look that crossed Master George’s face. “How could it possibly be worse? What are you talking about?”

“It’s Tick,” Rutger grumbled. “It’s Tick.”

Sofia’s head shot up. “What do you mean, it’s Tick?”

Master George stood, any sign of the jolly old English gentleman gone, his face set in a stony expression of concern.