Silver had done a mind map, the only way she knew to lay out the insight she’d received from the master system. On it, Jake could see Earth surrounded by a big explosion bubble. It had given him pause for thought.

"So, what are the Car..."

"The Cáirneach? They claim it’s an old word for ‘Thunder’, because they developed the theory of the properties of electricity centuries before the rest of humanity. They’re a society of scientists and philosophers, who keep all their knowledge in vast underground vaults. There’s a Chapter in the UK, the original ones, but wherever there was a former British colony, there’s a Chapter. Needless to say, they’re pretty widespread."

"Are they dangerous?"

"Heavens, no. But they’re far more scientifically advanced. It’s said that they were given the secrets of Atlantis to safeguard, and started experimenting with the knowledge they had. When alchemy came around, they didn’t bother with all that lead into gold stuff, they just applied the new procedures, like hermetic sealing, which is still used today. And since then, no government or commercial interest funds them, so they can pretty much develop what they like. For example, tobacco industries have been sure of the connection between their products and lung cancer since the fifties, but they used their money and their tame scientists to subvert the research, holding it back for decades. The same thing has been happening, in some form or another, for hundreds of years."

"Like the lead into gold thing. In the Middle Ages, that was what lords and things employed alchemists for, almost exclusively, and if they failed, they were executed. It’s a good incentive."

Silver looked at Jake as though a monkey had just improved on Einstein. Thanks, thought Jake.

"So they’re a threat to the Unity?"

"Yep. The rate they grasp new concepts is staggering, and it worries the Unity something chronic. The Unity’s big advantage is that what one person knows so does everyone else. Instantly. It means information, and therefore power, is taken so much faster than any rival. You understand?"

"So what do they do? Wipe out everybody on Earth?"

"The Cáirneach are a secret society. There’s no way of telling who’s a member. The Unity don’t think Earth is important. So it seems safer just to..."

"My God. How?"

"Oh, there are lots of ways, ways that even the Harlequins wouldn’t think fishy. A diverted comet, a new virus, global warfare... anything. The ironic thing is, the Cáirneach will have had defences against that sort of thing in place for centuries. They’ll be the only ones to survive."

Jake thought for a long moment. He was frightened of the Unity, but even that couldn’t convince him they could destroy the Earth. There was just so much of it. Everything he’d ever seen up until yesterday had had something to do with the Earth. It was just there, always, and he simply couldn’t get his head around it. Then he remembered.

"Du Cray. Where the knights came from."

"Destroyed. Nobody’s sure how. That’s what’ll happen to our world if we don’t stop ‘em. Now, here’s what we need to do. You need to find the Cáirneach. I’ll handle the other two."

"How do I do that?" Jake couldn’t help thinking he’d got the short straw, here.

"Take the spare Portal sticks. Let’s see. Yes, the masking’s fine, you won’t be spotted. I’ve set in the destination, and they return here automatically. We won’t be able to communicate directly, but I’ll see if I can’t leave a few bits and pieces in your way. Send an... E-mail, I think. Technology fascinates them. Tell the truth, you’ve got to earn their trust. Believe me, what I’m about to do is a lot harder."

He told everyone he’d been to a party in a part of the city he didn’t know. Everyone believed him. But as Jake sat at the terminal, he realised that he didn’t know this bit of town any more. He didn’t fit right. Through the cracks of his life, alien flowers were growing, splitting them further.

He didn’t know what address to use, so he just put Cáirneach.com and hoped for the best.

By a twist of circumstance, the lecture was on the Elizabethan view of the universe, as evidenced in Marlowe’s 'Doctor Faustus'. Looking around at the rest of the students, Jake couldn’t help thinking that their worldview wasn’t so much more advanced. Didn’t they realise that in the next door dimension, there was an all-powerful force that wanted them dead? Of course not. There were those in the lecture theatre that still honestly believed that they were the only life in the universe. Arrogance.

But if Jake was having problems with his lifestyle, he should have been watching Silver. She’d been dithering ever since he left, still trying to give him last minute bits of advice as the Portal closed behind him. Now, in a little street unremarkable in all respects, she was trying to work out what change she had for the payphone. Since she’d last used one, several coins were a lot smaller.

Silver shook her head. It was a measure of how shaken she was that she was still trying to figure out these irrelevancies. Selecting a likely-looking business man, she stepped out onto the pavement.

"Excuse me, sir, do you have the time?"

He looked at his watch, then automatically up at her- and froze. Silver’s gaze had him like a minnow on a fishing line. She held out her hand, and, understanding, the man took his mobile phone from his briefcase. Telling himself he could stop any time he wanted to, he dialled a number, and passed the phone over.

"Graham?" She took a deep breath. "It’s me. Can we talk?"

He was bored. He’d always liked literature, to his own vague surprise, but right now his mind was full of the Unity, millions of identical men in green that would fill the sky with big improbably-shaped ships- except that they wouldn’t. Earth was so terrifyingly vulnerable it made Jake’s mind freeze. So much so that he nearly didn’t spot the wolf.

Except now he knew damn well it was nothing of the sort. In Layers it may have passed for one, where his mind was jammed in higher-level denial, but here it caught him partially by surprise.

Muscles were the first, second, third and fourth impressions. Muscles that needed to punch holes into the Outside and back again. The skin was vaguely leathery, although there was fur between the shoulders and on the head. The eyes were solid blue, a horizontal slit the only sign of a pupil. And the thing radiated intelligence.

The entire student body watched it in silence. Jake did too, mostly because it was filling his mind with pain and instructions. Which train to which station to which house to which door to what to say to... it was far too fast for Jake to be consciously aware of it, but he knew he’d have no difficulty remembering. In the same way, people knew their own names, without remembering the first time they were told it.

Sighing, Jake picked up his bag, and strode out of the theatre.