The Long Earth

supplies. What do you say? Then we’ll head for home.’
    Joshua was embarrassed, but he said, ‘And then what? We can deliver Lobsang, or what’s left of him in the
Mark Twain
, to transEarth . Not to mention his cat. But then – I’m going to want to go back out, Sally. With Lobsang or without. I mean, it’s all out there. All these years since Step Day we’ve hardly scratched the surface of the Long Earth. I thought I knew it all, but I’d never seen a troll before this trip, never heard of Happy Landings … Who knows what might be left to find?’
    She gave him her sideways look. ‘Are you suggesting, young man, that the two of us might travel together again?’
    He’d never suggested such a thing to any other human being in his life. Not unless he was trying to save them. He evaded the question. ‘Well, there is the Gap. The Long Mars! Who knows? I’ve been thinking about that. Step far enough
there
and we might find a Mars that’s habitable.’
    ‘You’re beginning to dribble.’
    ‘Well, I did use to read a lot of science fiction. But, yeah, let’s go home first. It feels like it’s time. Check out Madison. See how people are. Sally, I would very much like to introduce you to Sister Agnes.’
    She smiled. ‘And Sister Georgina. We can talk about Keats …’
    ‘And then, when Lobsang two point zero launches the
Mark Trine
, I intend to be on board. Even if I have to stow away with the damn cat.’
    Sally looked thoughtful. ‘You know, my mother had a saying when us kids used to run around like wild things: “It’s all fun and games until somebody loses an eye.” I can’t help thinking that if we keep pushing our luck with this wonderful new toy of a multiverse, sooner or later a big foot will come down on us hard. Though I guess you could look up and see whose foot it was.’
    ‘Even that would be interesting,’ said Joshua.
    As they prepared to leave they sought out Helen Green, who had been the first to greet them here, more or less civilly, and now they wanted to say goodbye to her.
    Helen was in the middle of her working day, a bundle of much-read books under her arm: calm, competent, cheerful, getting on with her life, a hundred thousand Earths from where she had been born. She seemed a little flustered, as always around Joshua. But she pushed her hair away from her brow, and smiled. ‘Sorry to see you go so soon. So where are you heading, back on the Datum?’
    ‘Madison,’ Joshua said. ‘Where you came from too, right? I remember that from your blog. We still have friends there, family …’
    But Helen was frowning. ‘Madison? Haven’t you heard?’

51
    FOR MONICA JANSSON , Madison’s bad day had started when Clichy called, and she had to leave her UW seminar on demographic impacts of the Long Earth. She got glares from her fellow delegates, save for those who knew she was a cop.
    ‘Jack? What is it? This better be good—’
    ‘Shut up and listen, Spooky. There’s a bomb.’
    ‘A bomb?’
    ‘A nuke. In central Madison. Believed to be stashed in Capitol Square somewhere.’
    This convention centre was a long way north-east of downtown. She was already running, out of the building, heading for her car, and already panting; there were times when she felt every one of her forty-plus years.
    An outdoor siren started to wail.
    ‘A nuke? How the hell—’
    ‘Some kind of suitcase thing. The warnings are going out. Listen to me. Here’s what you have to do.
Get people indoors
. Understand? Underground if you can. Tell them it’s a tornado if you have to convince them. If that thing goes off, outside ground zero itself you can cut your immediate casualties from radiation to a fraction if—damn it, Jansson, was that your car door slamming?’
    ‘You got me, Chief.’
    ‘Tell me you’re heading out of town.’
    ‘Can’t tell you that, sir.’ Already people were coming out of office buildings, shops, homes, into the sunlight of a bright fall day, looking bewildered. On the other hand others were going indoors, reflexively; Wisconsin did get its share of tornado touchdowns, and people knew to listen to warnings. Another couple of minutes and the roads would be jammed by people trying to get out of town, no matter what the official advice was.
    She put her foot down while the road was still relatively clear, started up her siren, and roared south-west towards the Capitol.
    ‘Damn it, Lieutenant!’
    ‘Look, sir, you know as well as I do that it’s going to be