flew. Great electrical displays leaped from machine to machine and a hysterical howling noise grew and grew until Max had to cover his ears. What drew most of his attention was the metal platform and the copper sphere, which began to exchange energy at an increasing rate. Cascades of sparks propagated in both directions between them. Superimposed over this was a conical column of rays emanating from the sphere, bathing the platform in a pinkish light. Something was taking shape in the middle of all this.
'We're getting pretty close to an overload!' Hochstader shouted. 'Come here!'
Hochstader led Max over to a bank of switches and pointed to a gigantic heavy-duty guillotine switch with an insulated handle.
'If she starts to go, break this connection. Lift this up. Got it?'
'What is it?'
'The main switch. I've been meaning to install a circuit breaker here but I've had trouble locating one with a high enough wattage rating. And they just don't make fuses that big.'
'Got it.'
Hochstader returned to his station, and the strange display of electrical fireworks continued.
Soon, something began to coalesce on the platform, a human shape, gradually taking on more detail. The form was generally cylindrical at first, then became curved. Then it became womanly. At that point Max thought he was viewing some exhibit in a science museum. The skeletal structure became visible, then internal organs, circulatory system, muscle, and finally, bare skin. Clothes formed on the body. The face was still not detailed enough to recognize. The process of conjuration went on. The figure took on more substance, became more real.
Finally, the face was recognizable. Max gasped.
It was Andrea. And she was wearing Max's old buckskin jacket, the one with the tassels.
'Overload!' Hochstader screamed.
Max was frozen, transfixed by the sight of his long-lost Andrea, the Andrea that he had known and loved long ago. 'Break the connection!'
'Huh?'
Hochstader dashed over, yanked Max away, and threw open the switch. The sparks died and the howling ceased. The lab grew deathly quiet.
Max stared at the platform. Andrea… 'You nearly fried her, you stupid jerk!'
It was a strange-looking Andrea now. Her hair was a fright, sticking straight up, cartoonlike, as if she had stuck her finger in an electrical socket. Smoke rose from the buckskin jacket. Her eyes were closed. She teetered, then fell.
Max came out of the trance and ran for the platform. 'Andrea! Darling!'
He climbed up and went to her, knelt, and cradled her head in his hands.
'Andrea, baby, it's Max. Wake up, darling.'
Her eyelids fluttered, then opened. Her blue eyes tried to focus.
'It's me, Andrea. Max. You're back. I've got you back.' The eyes focused. She sat up. She looked around, at the lab, the machinery, the weirdness.
She screamed the most bloodcurdling scream that Max had ever heard. He jumped back.
'Andrea! Don't be frightened!'
'Wha… what… what the HELL IS THIS?'
'Andrea, listen-'
'WHERE THE HELL AM I?'
'Andrea, I can explain.'
She looked at him, as if trying to grasp the strange thing she saw. 'M-Max?' she said in a frightened voice.
'It's me, Andrea. It's Max.'
'Where… where is this place?'
'It's hard to explain. Why don't we go get a cup of coffee? We have to talk.'
She shook her head. 'I seem to remember… something… I was on a bus… and… then you… and now I'm here… Max, what happened?'
'It's a difficult concept to grasp, but it has something to do with quantum physics.'
Andrea looked around desperately. 'It looks like I'm in a Frankenstein movie. Max, why am I in a Frankenstein movie?'
Max chuckled. 'You look the part. You look a bit like Elsa Lanchester with that-'
Andrea screamed again. 'Max, I want to get out of here!'
'Sure, sure. Let's go.'
He helped her up.
'Max, where are we going?'
'Home. But we have to find it first. We'll re-tune the portal, and-'
'Re-tune what? Portal? What's that?'
'Again, it's hard to explain, but if you'll just step down off this platform…'
Andrea was a little unsteady on the stairs, but she made it down with Max's help. He led her to the computer station, where Hochstader was busy typing on the terminal.
'I think I've found you a pretty good world,' Hochstader said.
'Really?' Max said, hope buoying up his heart.
'Yeah. It might not be exactly the one you want, but it's as close to normal as you can get.'
'Normal? What's normal?'
'Well, hard to say, but I think the problem has been that we've been trying too hard to get things exactly right. What you'll have to settle for is a variant world in which there is no other Max Dumbrowsky. And you just move in.'
Max let go of Andrea's hand. 'But what would I do there?' Max protested. 'There'd be no record of me. I'd have no birth certificate, no Social Security number-'
'Those things can be dealt with. I'm good at that sort of dodge. I can get you a new identity, a whole new life.'
'But I don't want a new identity, or a new life. I want my old life.'
'Sorry, but the search for the original variant universe you came from would be endless. There's just no way I can calibrate this thing to- Hey, where'd she go?'
Max whirled. Andrea was gone.
'She went through the curtain!' Max wailed. 'What world is that?'
'I dunno. I was just sending the computer through a range of frequencies. I don't know exactly when she stepped through. It's stabilized now. She might have gone through this one-Hey, where are you going?'
'I'm going to find her,' Max said as he dashed through the curtain.
'Wait, forget that, Andrea! We'll just conjure another one! That one's lost!'
But Max was through the curtain and into another world.
Finally!
After failing to find Andrea-he'd searched the building and the street-he found something else: his home world. It must be! The phone directory listed no ad agency bearing his name, and Fenton Associates, his proper place of employment, big as life on the glass front door of the office.
Max went in. The office looked the same. It had to be the same one he'd left… how long ago was it? Last night? It seemed like aeons ago.
He left the building. There was a good chance Andrea had gone straight to Max's apartment. As far as she knew, she had never left it.
It was about seven o'clock in the evening. The city was quiet. All seemed normal. The cab driver was human, everybody looked human. No lobster creatures, no Nazi flags, no weird business. Fine, wonderful.
He paid the cabbie at the corner and walked the halfblock to his building, a building that contained shabby oneand two-bedroom flats where roaches took numbers and waited in line to rummage through the kitchen cabinets, where silverfish staked out beachfront property in the bathtub. Max's own place was a charmingly sordid little pied-a-terre. He loved it. He'd sign a ninety-nine-year lease and never leave.
