“That’s quite an achievement for a recluse,” said Ivy.

  “I only reclude myself from Ron and his ilk,” said Ivy-O. “When I feel like it.”

  “So you do get out and meet people. And recruit them,” said Ivy.

  “Informants who might all be double agents, secretly reporting to Ron while feeding you disinformation,” said Laz.

  “As if Ron cares that much about any of us,” said Ivy.

  “Ron lies to those he loves the most. Also, the planet Shiva might have been an illusion created by Ron’s group to enable them to take their position of power over all the worlds,” said Ivy-O. “Let’s stay within the realm of likelihood, please.”

  Ivy pointed at the tablet with the photo of the message on it. “My dear Original,” said Ivy, “do you have any idea whether the original Lazarus Hayerian is still alive, and if he is, has he discovered or developed capabilities that would allow him to deliver this message to Laz?”

  Ivy-O looked long and hard at Ivy. “I don’t dislike you, personally,” she said. “But please understand that I detest the fact that you even exist. Or the earlier Ivy. Or these fake Laz-copies.”

  “We haven’t felt any outswelling of love from you,” said Laz. “So that doesn’t come to us as news.”

  “My feelings are on the table where you can see them,” said Ivy-O. “Despite my disdain for you, I will do what it takes to restore contact with my Laz as—well, as you would do if you two got separated.”

  “We’re not in love,” said Ivy. “We were deciding that just before you walked out here.”

  “Liar,” murmured Laz. “I mean that in the nicest possible way.”

  “I wasn’t in love with my Laz,” said Ivy-O. “I don’t think I’m actually capable of love, which means that neither are you. But he was my side-stepping partner, and I was his dowser.”

  Ivy looked bemused and then laughed. “So if timestreams were water, you had the ability to dowse for them.”

  “We have that ability,” said Ivy-O. “Calling my job ‘dowsing’ was our little joke. I’d find the streams, and he’d jump over them.”

  “Step over them,” said Laz. “That’s what he called it. When he… when I did it. As a child.”

  “That was his terminology when he talked about it with outsiders,” said Ivy-O. “But your memories don’t reach to the time when we started calling it dowsing and jumping. Also, for a while, stream hopping. You must know that there are things between me and my Laz that don’t figure into your implanted memories at all.”

  Laz held out his hand. “That’s why we’re here. Because you know things about Lazarus Hayerian that we just don’t know. Can’t know, and can’t guess.”

  “Could he travel in time?” asked Ivy.

  Ivy-O shook her head. “Not that I know of. If he’s still alive, who knows what he might have accomplished since he… left.”

  “Since he abandoned you,” said Ivy, “and let people think that you had broken the connection.”

  “I told people that I lost the connection. A few people knew the truth, but it was never published.”

  “Ron,” said Ivy. “Ron knew.”

  “Ron was an intern assigned as an aide to Professor Hayerian. His meteoric rise through the bureaucracy shows his ambition—or it shows how much Laz wanted him to get ahead. Laz admired the boy, so I suspected he was hopping timestreams to favor the ones where Ron kept getting more and more responsibility and power.”

  “Until Lazarus Hayerian disappeared,” said Laz.

  Ivy-O sighed. “Then Ron was on his own. But he was already so bureaucratically powerful and knowledgeable that nobody even tried to displace him. They sucked up to him or ignored him or tried to quarrel with him, but Ron was exactly what Laz thought he was—someone with the ambition and ability to rule the world. Whether it was the Old Place or the New Place.”

  Ivy said, “Knowing your Laz as you did, and knowing young Ron—”

  “I didn’t know ‘intern’ Ron,” said Ivy-O. “He was Laz’s aide for years before I first made contact with Lazarus.”

  Laz wondered if Ron had resented this young upstart girl who had an inside track to Lazarus because she could see the timestreams more clearly than Lazarus could. Ron could have seen her as a threat. But Laz kept his suspicions to himself, because if they weren’t ridiculous, they would be offensive to Ivy-O.

  “Ivy the Dowser,” Laz said. “Do you have any idea whether Lazarus was even thinking about time travel?”

  Ivy-O started to form a word—which was obviously going to be “no”—but she stopped herself. “He sometimes talked about time travel. When we were alone together. Repeating all the reasons why the paradoxes were insuperable and time travel was impossible. But frequently bringing up the topic meant he was thinking about it. A lot. Maybe all the time. I told him once, ‘Listen, Hopper, isn’t it enough you can decide which path through history the human race should follow? Do you have to go back and forth along the streams, too?’ And he said, ‘It’s never been about what I could do. It’s about what can be done. No matter who does it.’ ”

  Laz chuckled at that. “He must have known that was nonsense. If someone could go back and change the past, or go forward and see the future, it would matter very much who did it.”

  Ivy-O nodded. “You think I didn’t tell him that? But he didn’t seem worried, and I thought, maybe he expects that if time travel is possible, he’s the one who’ll figure out how to do it, and he thought he was the safest person to have that power.”

  “Why would he think that?” asked Ivy. “It’s too much power for anyone.”

  “Don’t forget that by that time, he was known as the Pythagoras, the Newton, the Einstein of the age. Everybody looked up to him. They trusted him to find a New Place to save the human race. Of course he could be trusted with the power of time travel—if it could possibly exist.”

  “Do you think he disappeared,” asked Laz, “precisely because he had learned how to travel in time?”

  “I’ve thought of that a thousand times over the last few decades,” said Ivy-O. “I’d have to have been a numbskull not to wonder. But if he made a breakthrough, he never told me.”

  “What I was hoping,” said Laz, “is that he thought he told you, but you maybe didn’t realize at the time that he was announcing the possibility—”

  Ivy-O shook her head. “Not to be offensive, Laz, but my Lazarus thought he was subtle. He was not. If he tried to tell me, I would know it, because he didn’t talk in riddles and codes, any more than you do. It would have been plain, or he wouldn’t have spoken at all.”

  Laz looked at his Ivy. “I’m not subtle?”

  Ivy shook her head ruefully. “It’s one of the things I love about you. That you’re as deceptive as a two-year-old affirming that it was his imaginary friend who spilled the ice cream.”

  “What you’re saying is that you think I’m a bad liar,” said Laz. “But the great Professor Lazarus Hayerian had many years of life beyond the age that I remember. Maybe he developed subtlety along the way.”

  “Maybe,” said Ivy-O. “But I knew him right up until he… disappeared, and I can assure you that he never acquired any kind of subtlety.”

  “Or if he did,” said Laz, “he was so effective that you never detected it.”

  Ivy-O shrugged. “All things that are possible are possible. And impossible things are impossible. Until we learn how to do them and then we understand that they were possible all along, always possible, never really impossible. Which is how science progresses, isn’t it? Einstein taught parallel lines to meet without ceasing to be parallel. I still don’t understand that one, but I never had to.”

  They sat in silence for a while.

  Then Laz stood up. “We’ve taken up so much or your time,” he said, “and I believe you have been forthright with us. Even though you didn’t know the most important things we wanted to learn, what you do know is fascinating and useful, and I’m grateful to you for trusting us.”

  “All she trusts,” said Ivy in her mildest tone, “is that we’re too dimwitted to figure out the things that Professor Lazarus figured out.”

  Ivy-O smiled. “Believe what you want, my suspicious alter ego. Your Laz understands me better than you do. I’ve told you all I know that bears on your questions. If I think of anything else that might be useful, I’ll tell you.”

  Laz nodded his thanks and reached out to Ivy to help her rise from the bench. She pointedly did not take his hand, but stood easily on her own. They were already several steps away on the path when Ivy-O called out to them. “Wait,” she said. “Just one thing. Not something I remember, not something I know. I just thought you might be overlooking one possibility.”

  “What?” asked Laz.

  “The message in the dirt,” she said. “Whoever made it, you might be misinterpreting it entirely.”

  “It’s true that ‘Laz No’ isn’t very specific,” said Laz, “but the only thing I was about to do was make a Portal.”

  “But the message might have been trying to stop you, not from making that Portal, but to stop you from making any Portals at all.”

  “Or maybe warning you not to make me pregnant,” said Ivy. “Or not to try to learn to drive a car.”

  “When I figure out how babies are made,” said Laz, “I’ll be sure not to make one with you until you ask me. Nicely.” He turned to Ivy-O. “Thank you for suggesting that we not settle on any explanation or guess until and unless we actually get evidence. We need to keep our minds open.”

  “Then I’m glad to have been of some use to you,” said Ivy-O. “I’d invite you in for cookies and milk, but I’m not that kind of old lady.”

  “And we aren’t Hansel and Gretel,” said Ivy. “The stupidest children in all of folklore.”

  “In this world we’re all stupid children,” said Ivy-O, “but sometimes we learn a few things and make the world better. The way your predecessors found so many timestreams that could cope with the huge human population—it prevented a lot of warfare.”

  “As Alexander the Great whined,” said Ivy, “we’re afraid that our predecessors, including you, already did such magnificent world-changing things that there’s nothing important left for us to do.” She offered her hand, and Ivy-O took it.

  “Not friends, I suppose,” said Ivy-O. “But not enemies, not rivals, not even annoying relatives. Just people who share the same face at different ages and some of the same memories.”

  “That’s as close to friendship as we’re likely to need,” said Ivy. Then she let go of the handshake. “Good-bye. If we learn anything more, we’ll tell you, even if we choose not to tell Ron.”

  “Just tell Ron that his new clothes look magnificent,” said Ivy-O. “He’ll believe you.”

  Laz and Ivy walked out of her yard and into the road. The surrounding landscape looked dry and bleak compared to Ivy-O’s garden.

  “I want a garden like that someday,” said Laz.

  “Did we accomplish anything?” asked Ivy.

  “I don’t know,” said Laz. “Define ‘anything.’ The two of you shook hands. She persuaded me that she really doesn’t know anything about what Lazarus knew or what he did. That’s not nothing.”

  Ivy shook her head. “You really are an honest man, Laz. That makes it hard for you to suspect dishonesty in others.”

  10

  AS THEY APPROACHED the house where the Zees lived, Ivy stopped Laz and said, quietly, “You know that their house is probably bugged and constantly monitored. We didn’t tell Ron we were coming here, and he and his minions will be eager to listen in on whatever we say.”

  “I know,” said Laz.

  “Should we even do this?” asked Ivy.

  “If Ron already knows who left that message for me, then he won’t learn anything new. If he doesn’t know, then maybe he can help us guess at the source.”

  “Ron helps while he picks your pocket.”

  “As do we, to him,” said Laz.

  “I just wanted you to be careful,” said Ivy.

  “And I want you to let me do this in a forthright way. If we act fearful and paranoid, will the Zees help us? Will they tell us anything important? For all we know they hate the fact that Ron woke up a new pair of clones. They probably don’t regard us as long-lost siblings to take under their wing. So they need to see us young and ignorant.”

  “Which we are,” said Ivy.

  “And we want Ron to see us that way too,” said Laz.

  “Why didn’t you say all this on the way over…” She trailed off, because she figured it out. “Walking up this path is the first time we’ve not been under surveillance,” she said. “You didn’t say anything because Ron was listening.”

  “I assume Ron is listening even now, Ivy, my love,” said Laz. “But it’s too late for him to keep us from coming here at all.”

  “Oh, Laz, you’re not paranoid enough by half. I always assume he has us watched by a couple of excellent AI snipers.”

  “AI snipers are not more accurate than human snipers with AI assist,” said Laz.

  “But AI snipers don’t get sudden fits of compassion and refuse to shoot two unarmed, unsuspecting kids who have the potential to save the world,” said Ivy.

  “That’s a pretty elaborate scenario,” said Laz.

  “For all we know, that’s why we aren’t dead already,” said Ivy. “And when you call me ‘Ivy, my love,’ it makes my heart turn over even when it’s obvious you’re saying it sarcastically.”

  Laz thought about this for a moment. “You are my love,” he said.

  “And you are mine, to the degree I’m capable of loving anybody.”

  Laz shook his head. “You give with one hand, take it back with the other.”

  “Just don’t call me ‘my love’ when you’re talking down to me,” said Ivy. “I’ll start to think that every time you call me that, you’re talking down.”

  “So we’re going to do relationship therapy here on the Zees’ front walk?” asked Laz.

  Ivy put her hands on his shoulders. For a moment he thought she was going to kiss him, but no. “Here’s some relationship therapy,” said Ivy. “The reason you’re so locked in on getting officially married before we start making babies is, you’re trying not to be your father. You’re trying to create something that will last, without screwing it up like he did. Any kids we might have, you want them to grow up in one house, with both parents living there.”

  Laz nodded, because he had listened to what she said, and it sounded true. But he also realized that he didn’t always treat her like the woman he wanted to stay married to for the rest of his life. He would need to watch his attitude sometimes, and only use terms of endearment sincerely instead of ironically. But because he was also pissed off at the way she talked down to him, he signaled his acceptance of her words by starting to walk toward the house again.

  It took Ivy only a moment to catch up to him. “So are you walking away from me in a pout, or are you a little upset because you agree with me?”

  “I’m walking up to the Zees’ front door,” said Laz. And then, because he didn’t want to act like the stubborn fool he would naturally be, he said, “I agree with you completely. I always do, dammit.”

  He knocked on the Zees’ door, even though he assumed the house security system had already notified them—perhaps via a call from Ron, who had installed that security system, or ordered it installed, with whatever back doors and wormholes he wanted.

  The door opened, and Ivy-Z stood there, smiling cheerfully in greeting. “I didn’t think you’d ever have time for us,” she said. “What with being slaves of the system and all. Come in!”

  Laz chuckled and ushered Ivy in before him. To Ivy-Z, he said, “If you were wishing for us to visit, you sure didn’t give us that impression when we were here before.”

  “It never crossed my mind that you would do what I asked,” said Ivy-Z. “Please sit down. I don’t imagine you need anything to eat or drink?”

  “Is your Laz at home?” asked Laz.

  “You mean the loving father of our invisible children?” Ivy-Z asked.

  “Invisible?” asked Laz’s Ivy.

  Ivy-Z looked at her quizzically. “Of course they’re not really invisible, they’re just not here, where Ron’s spies can keep track of them.”

  “So… invisible to Ron,” said Ivy.

  “How do we know what the puppetmaster knows or doesn’t know?” asked Ivy-Z. “But we do our best to pretend we have a little freedom and even sometimes a speck of privacy.”

  Laz nodded, more to show that he knew she had said something, and not because he thought she had made anything any clearer.

  Ivy-Z sat on the couch and stretched out her legs. “I knew you’d be frustrated not to get a straight answer about the kids, so here’s the straightest answer we’ve come up with. We don’t know, we parents, where our children are, and we don’t think it matters whether you know that we don’t know, or believe it, because we’re not going to just make stuff up so you can feel better about taking the trip out here. Truth trumps good manners.”

  “A rule we can live with,” said Ivy.

  “The Rude Rule,” said Laz.

  “Are your children talented?” asked Ivy.

  Silence.

  “You really don’t know where they are?” asked Laz.

  “Of course I do, idiot boy,” said Ivy-Z. “I always know where everybody is, if I want to.”

  This was news to Laz. Did Ivy have the same level of knowledge? Did his Ivy know where the Zero children were? In the spirit of candor, he asked, “Could Ivy or me find them?”

  “I don’t know how you would,” said Ivy-Z. “Or why you should.”

  Ivy snorted. “That means you’re enjoying turning my Laz into a shambles of puzzlement.”

  “I’m puzzled,” said Laz, “but I don’t think I’ve been shambled.”

  “I can see you quivering right now,” said Ivy. “Like a Jell-O just taken out of its mold.”

  “I’ve never seen that,” said Laz.

  “At least now you’ve tried to imagine it,” said Ivy. Then, to Ivy-Z, “You have two kids. Did the genetic model hold true?”