The snap and hiss of multiple portals popped in the lobby, and others stepped out and spotted them. “Hey! Stop!”
Pax and Ellis pushed out the front doors back into the falselight sunshine that gave no feeling of warmth. Ellis saw Pax pause and fiddle with the device, then a new portal appeared directly in front of them. With Pax still holding tight to his hand, they jumped in together.
Ellis was standing inside a massive stadium. Tiers of seats rose up before him numbering in the tens of thousands, most filled by spectators looking down at a green field where a game was being played. The crowd roared, several jumped to their feet, clapping. None noticed Pax and Ellis.
Pax, still holding his hand, pulled Ellis up a set of steps and around a pillar that was marked SEC-B 200-300 in bold white numbers.
“Where are we? What’s going on?” Ellis asked, having to shout over the cheers of the fans.
“We’re at Tuzo Stadium,” Pax replied, struggling feverishly with the portal device. “I was here last week. Had the location pre-programmed and I didn’t have time to pick anywhere else.”
Ellis peered around the pillar. On the field athletes were battling with three separate balls. Instead of uniforms, the players were painted different colors. Ellis guessed there were three different teams: one blue, one orange, and one yellow.
“What’s going on? What happened in Pol’s office? What was all that about Ren?”
Pax was busy with the portal device again, but darting furtive glances down the steps. “I need to pick a place outside, somewhere on the grass where you’ll be safe.”
“Safe from whom?”
“I don’t know, but that wasn’t Pol-789. Whoever we just met was involved in Geo-24’s murder, and I think also might have killed Pol-789.”
“How do you know—”
“Got it,” Pax declared as another portal appeared.
Ellis could hardly see anything inside the opening. The far side was dark.
Pax took hold of his hand once more. “Let’s go before they catch us.”
The moment Ellis stepped through the new portal, he was hit by a bath of hot, humid air and knew he was no longer in Hollow World. The light that spilled in from the stadium illuminated a scene of thick vegetation. Large, broad-leafed plants and massive-trunked trees hugged them. The ground felt moist beneath his feet, the air thick with the scent of dirt and plants, and everywhere were the whoops, chatter, shrieks, and cries of living things.
An instant later the portal snapped shut, leaving them in darkness.
“Where are we now?” Ellis whispered, terrified to move, but Pax pulled him along, rushing blindly into the slap of leaves.
“On the grass—South American Plate, Amazonian Biome, Basin Quadrant.”
“We’re in the Amazon jungle?”
Pax halted. “I—I thought—” The words were frightened, panicked. “I didn’t know it would be dark here. I can’t see what I’m doing!”
“Hang on—relax.” Ellis stopped. Pulling off his pack, he fished out the flashlight.
“Shine the light on my Port-a-Call,” Pax said, holding up the device.
The little controller had a tiny screen and a touch pad, and Pax was doing something that caused new numbers and words to appear. “You said you left your time machine not far from the Ford Museum, right?”
“Yeah.”
“And you have more food and water at that machine?”
“Sure.”
“Okay, then I’m going to open a portal for you near the museum. They’ll never be able to find you once you step through.”
“Wait—what about you? You sound like you aren’t coming.”
“I can’t. I have a chip like everyone else. They can track the PICA in my shoulder as I pass through any portal. They knew we were in Tuzo Stadium. They’ll know we’re in this jungle too. They’ll trace the exact spot we ported to, but because we’re outside Hollow World, because we moved from the port-in, they can’t know exactly where. Once we split up, they won’t be able to find you at all.”
“Who’s they?”
“The murderers. Whoever that was in Pol’s office, I guess. I thought we’d stopped the killing. We didn’t. It’s obvious this isn’t just random. People are being murdered and replaced. We need to find out why. We’re probably the only two who know.”
“I bet Geo-24 knew—or suspected,” Ellis said. “That’s why he was investigating Pol. That might be why he was killed.”
“Maybe,” Pax said. “But Abernathy mentioned that it was Pol who contacted Geo-24 first. So what did Pol want from Geo-24?”
“Something suspicious enough to make Geo-24 ask questions that might have gotten him killed.”
“At this point it could be anything. All I know is that they’re after you.” A portal appeared in the dark. This one also led to a leafy darkness, just not as thick. “There! Go!”
Ellis hesitated. “What about you?”
“Don’t worry about me, run!”
“But I do worry about you. If I disappear, they’ll come after you.”
“I won’t tell them where you went. I swear.”
Ellis sighed. The electric filament that outlined the open portal painted Pax’s face and the surrounding giant leaves with a ghostly light. “I know you won’t. You’d die before telling them.”
“Yes…” Pax nodded, eyes grave, face desperate. “Yes, I would.”
“Which is why I’m not going through that portal. Not without you.”
“But I can’t go. I have a chip, and they’ll be here soon.”
Ellis let his hand settle on the pistol at his hip.
“No,” Pax said, lips trembling. “Please don’t.”
“I won’t leave you.”
“No more killing, please. Just go.”
The pain on Pax’s face was horrible to witness. This was the only living friend Ellis had. He would kill anyone who tried to harm Pax, and yet just then he was the one causing the pain. There had to be another way.
“What if we got rid of the chip?” Ellis asked.
Pax stared at him for a moment. “Do you have your knife in that bag?”
Ellis nodded.
“Okay, okay…” The portal snapped out of existence. “But let’s get farther away from the port-in. It will give us more time.”
Using his flashlight, Ellis led the way, pressing through thick ferns. They splashed through water and trudged over a tangle of roots and plants until they found higher ground at the base of a vine-wrapped trunk that afforded a small open patch. The ground was spongy, a buildup of organic material—dirt in the making. By the time they stopped, Ellis was soaked. Maybe it was the air condensing on him, the spill of water from leaves, or just plain old-fashioned sweat, but his clothes were plastered to his body, dragging on him like weights. His breath was also coming in gasps, that same harsh crackle. It hadn’t bothered him nearly so much in Hollow World. Now it was back. The shift in temperature and humidity wanted to remind him his life was on a timer.
Pax had already stripped away the frock coat and was unbuttoning the white shirt. There was something awful about watching Pax undress, like seeing a superhero forced to strip off a mask. Underneath, Pax was like all the others.
Ellis dropped his pack and drew out the hunting knife. Ellis had purchased the blade off Amazon’s website, which, at that moment—in his growing anxiety—struck him as ironic. “We should sterilize this somehow.”
“Why?”
“Prevent an infection.”
“There isn’t a germ on this planet that’s interested in my cells.” Pax sat against the tree. “Just make sure you don’t nick yourself.”
“Right.”
Ellis knelt beside Pax. Holding the flashlight with one hand and the knife in the other, he wiped his dripping forehead with his sleeve, but he only exchanged one wetness for another. “Do they put these things in deep?”
“I don’t know.”
“I think this is going to hurt.”
“Yeah, and you’d better hurry. They will eventually come here, and I’m not sure I…”
“What?”