Existence

Agurne’s warm squeeze expressed comradeship. Solidarity. “I am so very glad to meet you,” she said in Beijing dialect with a thick foreign accent. As their hands parted company, “We have much to discuss. But first, please let me introduce my son. He has lately chosen for himself the name Hijobosque. Hijo, please say hello.”

The boy looked ten years old or more, though less time than that had passed since pillars of flame heralded his birth in the forested hills of Auzoberri. Though modesty forbade her to stare, Mei Ling noted that his face bore no sign of the heavy brow ridges that appeared in most artist renderings, predicting the likely appearance of a-

– she could not recall the name of the cave people who used to inhabit Europe and much of Asia, before the arrival of modern man. They had been thick-boned, short-legged, robustly built people… and those traits seemed to carry through in the boy, though not in any extreme way that shouted stranger! His posture was proudly erect and he seemed no hairier than any other man-child. Perhaps the bony eye-hoods were removed by doctors, to help him hide among regular humans.

“Please call me Hijo,” he said in a voice that sounded both deeper and more constricted than normal, as if he were deliberately trying for a nasal twang. Or, perhaps he was just overstressing his tones, in speaking Mandarin Chinese.

When Hijo shook hands with Mei Ling-the older way-Mei Ling felt almost sure there was something different in the way bone and muscle and sinew were put together. His gentle squeeze conveyed a sense of repressed strength. Lots of it.

Nervously expecting him to say something profound, Mei Ling found Hijo’s next words comfortingly normal.

“Baby,” he said, spreading open both hands. “Can I hold your baby? I promise to be careful.”

Remembering that quiet strength, Mei Ling couldn’t help glancing at Agurne Arrixaka Bidarte, who merely smiled in a relaxed way. So did the strange little boy, Yi Ming, who had arranged this encounter, guiding Mei Ling through countless twisty passages beneath the Universe of Disney and the Monkey King. Lifting Xiao En out of his sling carrier, she set an example of holding him, then turned the infant in order to hand him over… watching.

There was no cause for worry. Hijo hefted Xiao En with evident skill and ease… he must have handled babies before. And Xiao En chortled pleasure at having someone new to charm. In truth, he was getting so big, Mei Ling found it a relief to surrender the weight, for a time.

Hijo made cooing sounds that drew from Xiao En a drooling, gap-tooth smile. Though they were strange to Mei Ling’s ear… as if two creatures were crooning in different parts of a forest, at the same time.

Watching the two of them together, Mei Ling wondered how the Basque Chimera had been able to stay free for so long. The modern world’s overlapping cameras fed each other, reporting to smart daitabases. Sure, there had been efforts to conceal the boy’s differences-having undergone reconstructive surgery herself, Mei Ling recognized signs that Hijo’s nose had been altered and possibly even the slope of his forehead. But other things, like a pronounced bulging of the back of the skull, could not be disguised. Though, now that she thought about it…

… Mei Ling glanced at Yi Ming and realized, some of the telltale traits were shared with millions of others walking around today. People with normal, human pedigrees.

“Shall we sit?” Agurne invited Mei Ling to join her on a couch. Not far away stood one of the multi-access consoles where men and women-all of them clearly abnormal-had plugged and wired and harnessed themselves, grunting and twitching as complicated light-shows flashed from goggle-covered eyes.

“I do not-” Mei Ling swallowed, trying for her best grammar. “I do not understand why I am thus honored.”

Agurne laughed, a gentle sound.

“Please. We both became pregnant and bore healthy sons under difficult circumstances. We both successfully fled the clutches of great powers. How is it any less of an honor for me to meet you?”

Mei Ling found herself blushing. And she knew that made her scar tissue stand out, embarrassing her further.

“How… may I be of service?” she half whispered.

Agurne Arrixaka Bidarte inhaled deeply. Her eyes glittered with compassionate concern.

“Normally, I would not be so rude. You have no reason to trust me. At the very least, we would talk a while. Get the measure of each other, one woman and mother to another. But there is so little time. May I go straight to the point?”

“Please… please do.”

Agurne motioned with one hand toward the janitorial smart-mob, harnessed into their multisensory portal stations. “All over the world, small groups like this one are joining forces, in an urgent quest for understanding. They can sense that something is happening. Something that cannot be entirely encompassed by words.”

Mei Ling swallowed hard. She glanced at the boy who was now sitting on the floor, holding her son. Although he was turned partly away, Hijo seemed to sense her question.

“Yes… I can feel it, too. I am helping. In fact, I have to get back to work, real soon.”

Agurne smiled with adoring approval, then turned back to Mei Ling and continued.

“I cannot explain what it is that they are doing, or claim to understand, except that it seems to be about destiny. Things and ideas and emotions that may determine the future of humanity, if Allah-of-all-names wills it.”

Mei Ling could find no words, so she waited for the other woman to say more.

“Do you know what many of these teams are doing right now?”

Mei Ling shook her head. No.

“They are searching for your husband. And the crystal he was last seen carrying into the sea.”

She had known, of course, all along. Deep down. This could only be about the accursed Demon Stone. “I wish he never found the terrible thing.”

“I understand. You have cause for bitterness. But do not judge too quickly. We don’t know what role it will play. But one thing is certain. Your husband will be safer if he and the stone can be drawn out of shadows. Into the light.”

Mei Ling pondered this for long seconds.

“Can that be done?”

The other woman’s smile was rueful, apologetic.

“I don’t know the details. They are searching for him by sifting the daita-sphere. A myriad corners and dimensions of the Great Mesh. The tides and currents and drifting aromas. Many things that are deeply hidden, encrypted and buried behind bulwarks of firewall isolation-these nevertheless leave spoors that can be detected, if only by the studious absence of mention.”

Mei Ling blinked silently, wondering how this foreigner-born in New Guinea, raised on Fiji, and educated in Europe-became so articulate in Chinese. Better than me, she observed.

“These are the sort of not-there traces that the Blessed Throwbacks sometimes can detect, invisible to the rest of us.”

“But not to me!” inserted Hijo, who had laid Xiao En on a plush rug, and was playing a game of peekaboo, to the baby’s delight.

“No. Not to you,” Agurne responded, indulgently.

“In fact, I can tell that Mei Ling’s children will be special,” the Neanderthal boy added. “Even though I don’t know why. Nobody can know the future. But some things just leap out. They’re obvious.”

Hijo’s faulty use of the plural almost made her protest. I have only one child. But Mei Ling shook her head. This was no time for petty distraction. She turned back to the mother.

“How can I help? What can I tell you?”

Agurne Arrixaka Bidarte leaned gently toward Mei Ling.

“Everything. Anything you can remember. We already have many clues.

“Why don’t you just start at the beginning?”

A GLIMMER

The gullet of the sea serpaint isn’t as gross or disgusting as he expected. The walls are soft and he has only to crawl back a short distance to find a space shaped to fit a recumbent person.