Felony shook her head. “I have no idea. It’s a sheer gamble.”

  “How about this: we check whichever ones nobody else is checking.”

  She nodded. “Works for me. Demeanor, which are those?”

  “These two.” The parrot indicated two of the seeds.

  “We’ll start with the closer one.”

  That was it. They followed a line out of the campus, through the badlands, and to the perimeter of the seed. This was a kind of wall that enclosed a distinctly different-looking terrain. The vegetation was unfamiliar throughout, resembling tree-sized ferns.

  “I’ve seen that kind before,” Felony said. “Sort of halfway between ferns and palm trees. I forget what they’re called.”

  “Cycads.”

  “That’s it! You had the answer again.”

  “You had the question. I didn’t think of it until you commented.”

  “We make a team, all right, for what it’s worth. Next question: where are the oaks and pines and flowers?”

  Ike considered. “I thought the pomegranate seeds were just marked sections to indicate different challenges. But this suggests that they are more than that. This could be another world.”

  “With the same gravity, temperature, atmosphere, and halfway familiar plants? That’s a reach.”

  He nodded. “It must be Earth. But it could be from a different time.”

  “Time travel? Complete with ferocious paradoxes?”

  “Or maybe an alternate Earth, parallel but not identical, that split off from ours some time ago. All the seeds could be different alternates, some with dinosaurs, some with nothing but insects, some with nothing but birds, depending on what won out in their particular frames. We’ve seen some imports, like those dart dogs and the big running bird.”

  “So every pomegranate seed is a different parallel world? That’s one hell of a fancy virtual game set up!”

  “Or a series of sets made up to resemble other Earths,” he said. “Sets aren’t as complicated as real worlds, and for this purpose they work about as well.”

  “For this odd examination,” she agreed. “It’s still a remarkably elaborate setup just to see how prospective students manage.”

  Ike smiled. “Did you notice how quiet our familiars are? They know what the deal is, but can’t tell us. We have to figure it out for ourselves.”

  “You’re too smart for your own good,” Miss Demeanor said, and Blue hissed agreement.

  “All the same, we’d better be ready for trouble,” Felony said. “Maybe one of us have the sword ready, and the other the shield. Just in case.”

  “Just in case,” Ike agreed. “Because whatever the setup, they don’t want dopes or fools.”

  They moved on into the seed, Ike with his laser sword ready, Felony with her laser shield. Their colored line had faded out; they were on their own.

  They passed through a forest of cycads, but encountered no creatures of any kind. This was a relief, but it also made Ike nervous. There surely were animals; where were they hiding?

  “I know you’re thinking the same thing I am,” Felony said. “So what’s your answer?”

  “Maybe some calamity, like a meteor strike, wiped out all the animals, leaving only the plants, which can grow from seeds that survive the holocaust. But I’m not satisfied with that, because the world is in balance, with plants emitting oxygen and animals breathing it. Take out one, and the other will soon suffer. So there should be animals here.”

  “There should be,” Felony agreed. “Except that a lot of the life on Earth is bacterial and viral. I understand that there are ten times as many bacteria in each person’s digestive system as in all the rest of his body. So there can be balance here, just not birds, reptiles, and mammals.”

  “And they’re not attacking us because they’re not used to mammals,” Ike agreed. “It could be like the Garden of Eden, a paradise without people.”

  “We’re Adam and Eve? I think we’re not innocent enough, and will be kicked out.”

  “I think it’s the opposite. We’ll be kicked out unless we catch on to its real nature.”

  “Which is?”

  “For now, let’s make an assumption. That when the Permian extinction came, two hundred and fifty million years ago, for some reason vertebrate life did not recover. It faded out, leaving bacteria and maybe the fish. That’s this seed.”

  “The fish would have formed their fins into legs and invaded the land, the way they did before.”

  “So maybe no fish either. So here is this open world, waiting to be colonized.”

  Felony smiled. “I like it. But are we worthy?”

  “That’s what we have to prove.” He held up his hand, imitating her Stop signal. “And not by being fruitful and multiplying. Not yet. By properly understanding it, and passing the exam.”

  “Aww.” She plainly enjoyed the role of seductress.

  The cycads gave way to a clearing. They paused, amazed.

  There was a structure, not exactly a building. It was more like a monument, five sided, its network of struts curving up into the sky.

  “The Eiffel Tower?” Felony asked.

  “More like the Awful Tower. This is its skeleton. The surfacing must have weathered away millennia ago, leaving only the invulnerable framework.”

  “It must have been some tower! It’s a thousand feet tall.”

  “And maybe a thousand feet down,” Ike said.

  Felony looked down. The tower stood above a similar hole, an inverted image of itself, disappearing into the darkness below. “What immortal hand or eye...” she murmured.

  “Can frame thy fearful symmetry,” he concluded. “Somehow I doubt this is the work of our kind.”

  “But why make it and leave it to flake apart?”

  “Conjecture: when the world got wiped out, aliens visited and thought it could make a good way station between their galaxy and Andromeda. So they set it up with all the amenities. This is the signal tower, to contact other worlds.”

  “And then deserted it?”

  “Maybe not; maybe they used the station for a million years, then had to move on to another universe. So it’s been here ever since, a relic of their one-time presence, like the Pyramids.”

  She clutched his arm. “Ike!”

  “Or maybe not. I’m just guessing.”

  “Shut up and look.”

  What was on her mind? He looked where she was looking.

  There, in the middle of the hole, attached to a cord danging from the base of the tower, was a weighted pouch. From it projected a pass.

  They had found what they were looking for. The college authorities had placed it where it could not be missed. It was also inaccessible. That explained why no one else had taken it.

  “Maybe I could climb one of those struts, grab the cord, and haul up the pouch,” Ike said dubiously.

  “No. Those struts are greased. You’d fall to your doom.”

  Now he saw the glisten on the strut. “No climbing,” he agreed.

  “We’ll have to go back to campus and get a pole long enough to reach the pouch, with a hook.”

  “Or maybe just a ball of string. One of our familiars can carry the end of it around the cord, hooking it so we can haul it in to us.”

  Blue hissed, and Demeanor nodded. “Feasible,” the parrot said.

  “The sooner the better,” Felony said, excited.

  “Time’s a wasting,” he agreed.

  “One detail: whose pass is it?”

  “Yours. You saw it first.”

  “I want you to have it.”

  He shook his head. “I’ll find my own. But let’s not argue; we need to nab this one before someone else does.”

  “Any comment, Familiars?” Felony asked.

  “You’re doing fine on your own,” Demeanor said, and Blue hissed agreement. “You can decide after you have the pass.”

  “First catch your rabbit,” Ike said, smiling.

  They hurried back to the campus. But before they could search for a pole, Professor Comodon intercepted them. “There’s an emergency. You need to get home before it strikes.”

  “Home? But we have a good half hour left of the session,” Ike protested.

  “A stone termite swarm has been spotted. It will eat our foundations and damage the classrooms. We will have to shut down for repairs. The limo will come for you when we’re back in business.”

  Ike exchanged a look with Felony. This happened right when they had a chance to get a pass? That was suspicious.

  Comodon was studiedly neutral. That confirmed it as part of the exam.

  “How can we help?” Felony asked.

  “We’re not sure you can. We’ll just have to rebuild after the swarm departs, sated.”

  She looked at Ike. “Got an answer?”

  Ike had been wracking his brain. This was obviously a setup. They could find string and head back out to claim their pass, or they could help save the buildings. But the pass would keep; the buildings might not. Better to help with them first.

  That left the termites. There had to be an answer. They had to come through.

  Then he had it. “The river. The quarry. The tuff is untouched under the water.”

  “But the foundations are above water.”

  “Yes. Something in the water stops the termites. We need to douse the foundations in river water, and keep them wet until the termites go. It’ll be a job, but it should be feasible.”

  “That just might be,” Comodon said.

  They got buckets, co-opted all personnel in the area, and set up a bucket brigade. Just as the first ones were splashed on the foundations, the swarm of termites arrived. It darkened the sky as it oriented on the campus. Would this work?

  The first termites closed on the buildings, covering them like rugs. The bucketeers kept splashing. Wherever they splashed, the termites sailed up angrily, not liking the taste at all. But more came in, not learning from the experience of their neighbors. Still, it became evident that they were not chewing on the tuff. As long as it was wet, they couldn’t eat it.

  “Your time is up,” Comodon said. “You will want to go home.”

  Interesting the way he framed it. They had a choice?

  “Do you shut down the set when the students are gone?” Felony asked. She was disheveled from her exertion, but looked happy.

  “No, it remains. But we feel it is unfair to hold applicants longer. There are natural functions and such.”

  “Which can be done expeditiously in the changing chamber,” Felony said. “So we can stay and see this campaign through.”

  “That is feasible, yes, but we do not require it of you.”

  And there were students who did only what was directly required. None of them were in evidence here. They must have gone home before it started.

  Felony glanced at Ike. He took the hint. “I’m for it. We can take quick breaks, then return to the fray. Until the job is done.”

  “We can even stay the night, if necessary,” Felony said. “Sharing a room.”

  Oho! Would the professors go for that? Ike was more than intrigued. “Can you leave a text message for our folks, so they know we’re okay?

  “We can do this,” Comodon said. He almost smiled.

  They headed out to refill their buckets. “You’re really pushing it,” Ike said.

  “I am coming to the conclusion that whatever Pomegranate College teaches, I want to learn. And I want to spend all the time with you I can, in case one of us doesn’t make it. So I have two reasons. You object?”

  “No.” Her reasons were coming to be his reasons.

  “We’re the only two applicants participating in this effort. The others went home. I think the buckets seem too much like work to them.”

  “That is my impression too.”

  “They’ll be too short-handed to protect all the buildings without us. We have to see it through.”

  “We do,” he agreed.

  They kept going. After the first swarm of termites gave up and moved on, there was a break, during which Ike and Felony returned to their chambers for rapid snacks and functions. Food and drink were waiting for them in the chambers. This was routine, but Ike found it anything but routine in feeling. He agreed with Felony: he wanted to be admitted to Pomegranate College, to learn whatever it had to teach, and to be with Felony.

  The second wave came. Again, the termites covered the buildings; again they were repulsed. Their annoyance was palpable. “Tough spit,” Ike said unsympathetically as he soaked them in water.

  Finally the termites moved on. “The third wave is the last,” Comodon said. “It should arrive within four hours.”

  “Give us a room to rest in,” Felony said. “I’m bushed.”

  The professor showed them to a nice dormitory room, complete with two beds, two desks, closets, and a bathroom. “We will notify you when they arrive. Your service has been exemplary.”

  “You’re welcome,” Ike said. He shut the door and was alone with Felony.

  Except for the familiars. “Now this is nice,” Demeanor said, flying to a perch on the back of a chair. Blue agreed, slithering to the cushion on the same chair.

  “I have to get clean,” Felony said. “I’m just about made of grime.”

  “You look great to me.”

  “But you wouldn’t want to kiss me this way.”

  He took hold of her and kissed her.

  “But you wouldn’t want to strip naked with me.”

  He stripped, and she did. They stood naked before each other. She remained lean, but she did have what she called the girl parts, and they turned him on.

  “But you wouldn’t want to join me in a shower.”

  “If I did, I’d get a—you know.”

  “So you’re balking?”

  He joined her in the shower. He did get a reaction, which she ignored. However, he got the impression that she was pleased rather than embarrassed. She might have been annoyed if he had failed to react, showing his judgment of her non-luscious state. The shower felt exactly like a real one, and they did get clean.

  They dried and returned to the bedroom. Their filthy clothing had been replaced with clean clothing. Ike realized that wasn’t difficult, because their dirtiness was mainly illusion; their clothing always had been clean. They did not put it on immediately.

  “We resisted the urge to peek at what you did in the shower,” Demeanor said.

  Felony’s mouth quirked. “Thank you, birdbrain and snake eyes. That saves us phenomenal embarrassment.” As if they had done anything more than wash.

  The bird shrugged. “Now you will want to rest, while you can.”

  Felony looked at the bed. “I won’t tease you any more, Ike. You have to want to do it. You know I want to.”

  “I do want to do it! But not yet.”

  To his surprise, she accepted that. “I can see how badly you want to. You’re not just saying so. But your spirit is stronger than your flesh. I admire that.”

  “Thank you. You—you could make me do it, if you tried.”

  “But I know you would rather I didn’t. So I won’t.”

  Ike was both relieved and disappointed. “Then let’s lie together and rest.”

  They lay on the bed and embraced. Her body was soft and warm against him, and utterly sexy. “This is my dream, being with you like this,” she said. “I’d like to sleep with you holding me.”

  “Do it,” he said.

  “And just so you know: if you want to fondle any part of me, awake or asleep, you’re welcome.”

  “I’ll try to restrain myself.”

  “Too bad.”

  They needed to change the subject. “Felony, I was always smart and together, but I lacked direction for my life. With you, I am finding it. I think you are right: whatever the college teaches, I think I want to learn it as long as I’m with you.”

  “You mean I don’t need to seduce you to get you to stick around?”

  She phrased it as humor, but it was exactly the case. “Yes. You can seduce me when we don’t have other things to do.”

  She closed her eyes and relaxed. In moments, to his surprise, she really was asleep. He lay there, holding her as she breathed against him. Then, unable to resist, he slid one hand down to her bare bottom. It was sheer delight.

  “Well, now,” Demeanor remarked. Blue hissed, and she shut up. The familiars were each protecting the interests of their primaries.

  All this, because of termites! But he wondered: assuming the termite menace was a made-up challenge, to put them through their paces, had they passed the test? He rather thought they had. And what about this supposed aloneness in the room? He had never forgotten that nothing was truly private here; that was a significant part of what restrained him. Was this another test? Were they passing it? He wished he knew.

  Once the termites had been dealt with, they would return to Awful Tower and fetch the pass. They would still have to find one more pass. They would do it. Ike relaxed with that certainty.

  There was a knock on the door. Ike woke with a start. So did the familiars. So did Felony. “We slept!” she said.

  “Three hours,” he agreed, glancing at his watch. “Naked.”

  “Loved it.”

  “In a moment!” he called to the door as they scrambled up and got into their clothes. The termite wave must have arrived.

  It had. They rejoined the bucket brigade and fended off the insects, saving the foundations. Only when the last insect departed did they relax.

  “You two did good work,” Comodon said. That was all.

  “He might at least have thanked you,” Demeanor grumped, and Blue hissed agreement. That made Ike wonder again about the familiars; they seemed human in all but form. Were they actually mock-ups being controlled by hidden humans? Why?

  Now it was dusk, too late to go for the pass. But Ike had another thought as he bid parting to Felony. “Let’s save the Awful Tower until the end. If we find one other pass, then we can go for it. I don’t think anyone else will get it in the interim.”

  “Okay.” She kissed him, and they separated. The familiars remained by the side of the walk.