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Annie was trembling.

This was the place to which she had been summoned. This was where she knew Charlie had to be. She was sure of it. He was inside

this shop.

And he was not alone.

Someone—some thing —was here with him, and the only way she was going to get Charlie back was to go through this door and confront whatever it

was.

She walked up to the door, turned the handle, and pushed it open.

A bell rang, announcing her arrival. As she stepped into the shop, someone said:

“Ah! At last! I was afraid you’d never get here.”

The words were spoken by a short man standing behind the cash register. He wore a silly engineer’s cap and a vest covered

with the patches of numerous railroad companies. He was flashing a warm smile and there was something of a twinkle in his

eye, as if in his spare time he moonlighted as a leprechaun. But despite his offbeat, quirky—even nerdy—appearance, there

was an air of menace about him. It wafted off him like a bad smell.

“Where’s my son?” Annie said, pushing down her fear and struggling to fill her voice with authority.

He raised his palms in a gesture of reassurance. “Please, please, come in and let me—”

“Where is my son?” she said, her voice rising. “Where is Charlie? Tell me right now, or God help me I’ll take that stupid hat off your head and shove it down your goddamn throat.”

The man’s smile grew smaller and the eye twinkle vanished. “If you don’t show some civility, you’ll never know.”

She was about to repeat her demand at an even louder volume, but something told her to hold back. If she followed through

on her threat, if she choked this man to death, she might never find her son.

In a more restrained tone, she said, “I’ve come all this way for him. I have to know he’s okay.”

“He is. He’s absolutely fine. And you’ll see him shortly. But there are a few matters I need to discuss with you first, if

you’ll permit me. Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Edwin Nabler, and you, of course, are the amazing Annie Blunt.”

His smile came back. “I can’t begin to tell you what a fan I am.” A small grin. “Not, perhaps, in the way you might think,

but I’ll get to that.”

“Who are you?”

“I told you. I’m Edwin Nabler, and this is my shop.” He waved his arm. “As you can see, I carry a wide assortment of toy trains

for the beginner and the enthusiast. Back in the day, when there were still people here, my clientele was made up entirely

of Lucknow residents. After the... catastrophe... it might have made sense to relocate. In fact, even before, I was

sensing I might need to pull up stakes once again. But that unfortunate incident—I’m sure you’re familiar with it—occurred

at about the same time as the Internet’s reach began to expand. So I decided to stay, take orders online.” Nabler smiled proudly.

“We ship all over the world. I can’t tell you what a godsend these technological advances have been for someone in my line

of work.”

“You mean, as a toy train merchant, or something else?”

Nabler came out from behind the counter and raised a finger in the air. “Very perceptive. But I would imagine that some of the things you’ve experienced lately have persuaded you that there are... what’s the word? Forces? That there are forces at work with which you have been, up until recently, unfamiliar?”

“You could say that.”

“Forgive me if I sound boastful, because that’s not my intention, but I have to take the credit for that.”

“What are you? Some sort of magician?”

Nabler pondered how to reply. “That’s not a bad way of putting it. I don’t know that there’s any way I could explain it to

you that would be adequate. I’ve tried with others in the past and they’re always left a little overwhelmed. Those of us who

operate in the sliver have our own set of natural laws that are difficult to articulate. You know how it’s hard to imagine

space going on forever?”

Was this an actual question, or rhetorical? But Annie said, “I think so.”

“You think, well, it has to end somewhere, right? But then, if it did, what would be beyond that ? You see what I mean? Explaining myself would be like that. Beyond your ability to comprehend. No offense intended.”

“Why am I here? What do you want with Charlie and me? Because that’s what you’ve done, isn’t it? We’ve been summoned. There

was no direct invitation, but we were manipulated, conned into coming here.”

“Yes,” Nabler said without hesitation. “You could not be more correct.”

“Why us?”

“The question is, why you . And I want to get to that. It’s my intention to be much more forthcoming with you than I’ve been with anyone else outside the sliver. Explaining my role. Have you heard of those... what is it they call them in the business world? Head hunters? People who match the right person to the right job?”

Annie said nothing.

“Anyway, I’ve been acting as my own head hunter for some time now. You see, I’ve been at this for longer than you can imagine,

and not just in this location. Been many, many places. Set up shop, stay awhile, then pack up my tent and move on to the next

venue. Name a town, I’ve probably been there.”

Annie wasn’t sure she was actually supposed to play this game, so she continued to say nothing.

“There’s a perception in the culture that someone like myself lives forever. Not unlike that Dracula myth, not that I bear

any resemblance. Anyway, that’s fiction, and this is the real world. I’m tired, and I’d like to pass the torch.”

“What the fuck are you talking about?”

“Ah, she speaks. One of the amazing things about living as long as I have is getting to see the wired world. The World Wide

Web. A great time-saver. Saves on shoe leather.”

“Please just tell me where my son is.”

“He’s closer than you can imagine. I promise you, he’s fine, having a wonderful time, even. You’ll be with him soon. But first,

there’s something I would like to show you.” He pointed his thumb toward the back of the shop. “Something I’ve been working

on for years in one place or another.”

Some sort of fucking torture chamber , Annie thought. I won’t go back there. I can’t go back there. Unless that’s where Charlie is...

“I swear to you, you won’t be harmed. This will help me explain what it is I do and how I do it, and then we can discuss how

to make the necessary reconfigurations. Come.”

He started walking between two aisles of toy train merchandise, beckoning her to follow him. He reached a door at the back of the shop and opened it, and Annie was almost knocked back by the din.

ChuffchuffCLICKETYCLACKclicketyCLACKwooWOOchuffCLICKETYchuffCLICKETYchuffWOOchuggachuggaclackclicketyCHUFFCHUFFclicketyCLACKwooWOOchuffCLICKETYchuffCLICKETYchuffWOOchuggachuggaclackclicketyCHUFFCHUFFclicketyCLACKwooWOOchuffCLICKETYchuffCLICKETYchuffWOOchuggachuggaclackclicketyCHUFF...

“I know, it’s a bit noisy, but you get used to it after a while. Like white noise.”

Nabler held the door for her, and as she entered the back room her jaw dropped. Her reaction was not unlike that of those

who had come before her. Trains whipping around the room on tracks that hung in the air on strips of wood suspended by wires.

A toy train jungle, ribbons of steel that twirled through the room like spaghetti. Along the far wall, an immense diorama

featuring a town and mountains and rivers and bridges, but none of them quite right. Outcroppings of rock that looked more

like skulls. Grass that looked like hair, tree trunks that had the look of bone.

“What... what is this... ?”

“This is where the magic happens,” Nabler said. “This is where all the trains are given that extra special something. Like

that train set Charlie found in the shed out back of the place where you were staying. The quality of that set was top-notch.

Very potent. Look how it held its resonance more than two decades after I ran it through the process. One of my very best,

if I do say so myself.”

Annie had weaved her way through some of the suspended tracks to get closer to the miniature town. A long passenger train’s diesel horn sounded as it whipped past her head, startling her. She stood before Nabler’s handiwork, a town with various shops and services and a park and even what looked to be a town hall with a clock tower.

Something about it caught her eye, and she gasped.

It was the clock set into the top of the building. It wasn’t a regular clock. It was a Marvin the Martian watch.