You don’t know me, but we must meet very soon. I know you are aware of the Realities, but that you have never had much interest in them because the Fourth is so much more advanced than the others. But I have a proposition for you that I am certain you will accept. I know of your love for power.

As a measure of my sincerity, I will come to your Reality. Meet me in Industry Park by the Lone Oak at noon on the thirteenth of May.

Your future partner,

Mistress Jane

Reginald crumpled the note up into a ball, squeezing it in his fist. The audacity of this woman. Commanding him to meet her like he was some errand-running schoolboy—and then having the nerve to not even show up? Who called themselves Mistress anyway?

He looked at his skinwatch one last time, then stood up. The lady was obviously not coming.

As he walked back toward his building, Reginald threw the mysterious note into a roving Recycabot, angry about the time he’d wasted. There was much to be done, things he’d mapped out and set in motion long before he’d received a letter from today’s no-show, Mistress Jane.

Reginald was a very busy man.

~

A Glossary of People, Places, and All Things Important

> Alterant—Different versions of the same person who exist in different Realities. It is extremely dangerous for Alterants to meet each other.

Annika—A spy for the Realitants who spends many months slowly gaining Mistress Jane’s trust.

Atticus Higginbottom—Also known as Tick, a thirteen-year-old resident of Deer Park, Washington. He is very smart and loves to play chess, and often suffers cruelty at the hands of bullies. He begins receiving very strange letters that lead him toward a dangerous destiny.

Barf Scarf—A red-and-black scarf that Tick wears at all times to hide the ugly birthmark on his neck.

Barrier Wand—The device used to wink people and things between Realities and between heavily concentrated places of Chi’karda within the same Reality. To transport humans, they must be in a place concentrated with Chi’karda (like a cemetery) and have a nanolocator that transmits their location to the Wand. It is useless without the Chi’karda Drive, which channels and magnifies the mysterious power.

Bermuda Triangle—For reasons unknown, this is the most concentrated area of Chi’karda in each Reality.

Billy “The Goat” Cooper—Tick’s nemesis at Jackson Middle School.

Chi’karda—The mysterious force that controls quantum physics. It is the scientific embodiment of conviction and choice, which in reality rules the universe. Responsible for creating the different Realities.

Chi’karda Drive—The invention that revolutionized the universe, able to harness, magnify, and control Chi’karda. It has long been believed that travel between Realities is impossible without it.