Alphas - Origins by Ilona Andrews Page A

house.”
    But the room—it was a child’s room, made for a little girl. The blankets and the pillowcases looked brand-new and the rug still had the price sticker on it.
    So he hadn’t changed his mind. She had from now until morning to convince him to let her keep her daughter. Karina opened her mouth and said the only thing she could think of. “Are you hungry?”
    Lucas nodded. “I could eat.”
    â€œAny preference?”
    â€œMeat would be nice.” He turned away.
    â€œLucas?”
    He glanced at her over his shoulder. “Yes?”
    â€œWhat’s going on?” Karina asked him softly. “What was that thing?”
    Lucas grimaced. “It’s a long explanation.”
    â€œPlease. I want to know.” Whatever he would tell her had to be better than not knowing.
    Lucas sighed. “The woman who poisoned you has friends. Her people are looking for our base, so they are sending scouts out. The lizard was one of them. It’s basically a walking camera—it records what it sees and then transmits the information to its owners in short bursts. Luckily we caught this one before any transmissions had gone out.”
    â€œAnd if it had sent this transmission?”
    â€œWe’d be evacuating,” Lucas said. “We still may. We’ll know more in the morning.”
    Karina hugged her shoulders. “Lucas, where are we?”
    He was looking directly at her. “We’re on base.”
    â€œWhere is this base? I’ve seen those birds. There are no birds like that in North America.”
    Lucas examined her face for a long breath. “You want the truth?”
    â€œYes.”
    He grimaced. “You asked for it. As the planet rotates, fluctuations between the forces of gravity and nuclear reactions on the subleptron and subquark level cause a ripple effect in reality, where time and space are not constant but dynamic. Parts of space-time become incompatible with the current reality and are discarded. In essence, Earth continuously sheds chunks of itself. They linger for a time and dissipate, some slower, some faster. We’re in one such chunk—we call them fragments. It was shed sometime during the late Pliocene, approximately two and a half million years ago in what is now Texas. This pocket is stable and shouldn’t begin to dissipate for another couple thousand years. Can you make cubed steak?”
    â€œWhat?” Karina stared at him, sure she had misheard.
    â€œI asked if you can cook cubed steak. I just realized I’d really like some.”
    â€œYes, I can. You’re not joking?”
    â€œAbout the steak?”
    â€œAbout the fragments.”
    Lucas shook his head.
    This was just insane. “So we’re in an alternate reality? Like in a parallel dimension? Like in Star Trek ?”
    â€œNo. A mirror dimension is a self-contained, complete reality. We’re in a dimensional fragment.” Lucas leaned back against the wall. “Okay, think of an onion. The inner layers are white, and the outer layer is brown. Suppose the outer layer rots. The onion makes a replacement layer, identical to this outer one, and sheds the rotten layer in bits and pieces, some big, some tiny. We are in a piece of that rotten layer.”
    She stared at him. If he wasn’t lying, they weren’t anywhere near Oklahoma. They weren’t even on the same planet. Escape was impossible.
    â€œDon’t think about it too much,” Lucas said. “Subquantum mechanics will drive you insane.”
    â€œCan we get back? To normal Earth?”
    â€œIt depends on how close the layer is to its reality. The motel where you were attacked was in a layer that had barely begun to separate, so we could cross in and out easily. But this pocket has peeled much too far away for you and I to exit on our own. We need someone to rip it. To open a gateway.” Lucas pushed off from the wall.
    â€œBut we can go