Bloodless

63

As Pendergast increased the power, it looked to Coldmoon as if someone had abruptly heaved a stone into still water. The mirror-clear view of Times Square wavered and grew suddenly distorted. The vibration in the room increased, causing an odd, slightly nauseous feeling in Coldmoon’s gut — something below the range of hearing but not below the body’s ability to sense it.

Now the portal flickered and shimmered, images passing by almost more quickly than he could make out: tremendously accelerated in time-lapse, twisting and tangled up in ever-shifting shapes like knots, folding and refolding over each other. Coldmoon saw many Times Squares flash past in the blink of an eye — but he also saw, or thought he saw, bizarre astronomical images of stars and galaxies and nebulae, whirling alien landscapes and twisted black holes, all in furious succession.

Pendergast’s fingers stopped at the dial’s second and last setting. The churning visions settled and the image of Times Square stabilized once again, like a pond returning to a quiescent state. It was still night and everything looked as before. Only now, Coldmoon noted, the time on the Times building read 10:15—an hour into the future.

The portal itself also seemed different. The shimmering edges of the image were heavier now, creating the effect of looking at this Times Square through a glimmering tunnel. And in those tunnel walls, Coldmoon could barely discern the flitting about of grotesque, otherworldly shapes. The smell of burnt rubber, which had never gone away, now intensified as a stream of warm, humid air issued from the portal.

With a sudden movement, one of the dragonfly-things, and then a second, zoomed in from the edges of the tunnel. They approached the portal, stopped, then wriggled through with effort, as if emerging from a cocoon.

“Stay back, please,” Pendergast said, stretching out an arm in warning. They watched as the two insects buzzed the room: the same creatures Coldmoon had seen dead on the ground, with gossamer wings and fat abdomens carrying vicious stingers. The two spiraled upward toward the naked lightbulb in the ceiling, diving at it, hitting it again and again until their wings were broken and they fluttered to the floor. At the same time, several more insects squeezed out of the portal’s membrane and flew at the lightbulb, circling and ticking on it incessantly before tangling with each other.

“It would appear,” said Pendergast drily, “the higher setting allows creatures to pass through. And not from a familiar Times Square universe, either.” He paused. “It seems there are other universes in there, quite different from ours.”

Coldmoon watched the insects grappling, stinging each other frantically as they fell to the ground, tumbling around in a death embrace.

“Only small creatures,” said Constance quickly. “Frost explained this. Those parallel universes are stacked like membranes on each other. Their edges are visible as you look down the tunnel. She called it a manifold space. It’s from this space that the tiny insects emerge.”

Pendergast frowned. “Frost knew of this?”

“She was speculating,” said Constance.

Coldmoon saw the portal deteriorate. Its interface began to grow unstable, flickering in and out. The foul odor increased, along with the sounds from the other side: a strange scrabbling noise that raised the hairs on his neck.

“I think we’ve seen enough,” Pendergast said, stepping up to turn down the power.

“Wait,” Coldmoon cried out. “Do you see that?” He pointed at the biggest screen on the Times building, still visible in the unstable light. It was flashing BREAKING NEWS. Then the screen dissolved into what was apparently a live video feed, taken from a news helicopter: a city in flames, people running terrified through the streets, dead bodies strewn everywhere.

“That’s Savannah!” cried Coldmoon. “My God, what’s happening?”

Swinging into view of the camera came a beast out of nightmare: a giant bat with a distended body, a wicked mosquito-like head swiveling this way and that, its dripping proboscis spasming in and out. And on cue, the news ticker began streaming: HUNDREDS DEAD IN BRUTAL ATTACK ON SAVANNAH GA, MILITARY MOBILIZED...