The Long Earth Read Online Free PDF

country.
    ‘And all around the world,’ Dodd said, wondering, after he’d flicked on CNN. ‘A missing persons plague. Even China. Look at that.’
    Then the night got more complicated, for all of them. There was a rash of burglaries, even one from a strongroom in the Capitol building. The MPD had trouble just fielding the call-outs. That was before the directives started coming in from Homeland Security and the FBI.
    Jansson managed to collar the sergeant in charge. ‘What’s going on, sarge?’
    Harris turned to her, his face grey. ‘You’re asking me? I don’t know. Terrorists? Homeland are jumping up and down about that possibility. Space aliens? That’s what some guy in a tinfoil hat out in the lobby insists is causing it all.’
    ‘So what should I do, sarge?’
    ‘Do the job in front of you.’ And he hurried on.
    She thought that over. If she were a citizen out there, what would she most care about? The missing kids, that’s what. She left the station and got to work.
    And she found the kids, and spoke to them, some of them in the hospital, and every other kid talked about one particular kid who was calm, a hero, leading them to safety, like Moses – only he was called Joshua, not Moses.
    Joshua backed away from the cop.
    ‘You are Joshua, aren’t you? I can tell. You’re the one kid that isn’t dribbling vomit.’
    He said nothing.
    ‘They tell me Joshua saved them. They tell me he picked them up and carried them back home. You’re a regular catcher in the rye. You ever read that book? You should. Although maybe it’s banned in the Home. Yes, I know about the Home. But how did you do it, Joshua?’
    ‘I didn’t do anything wrong. I’m not a Problem,’ he said, backing further away.
    ‘I know you’re not a Problem. But you did something different. I just want to know what you did. Tell me, Joshua.’
    Joshua hated it when people kept repeating his name. It was what they did to calm you down when they thought you were a Problem. ‘I followed the instructions. That’s all. People don’t understand. You just follow the instructions.’
    ‘I want to understand,’ she said. ‘Just tell me. You don’t have to be afraid of me.’
    ‘Look,’ said Joshua, ‘even if you make a simple wooden box you have to varnish it, otherwise it gets damp and everything swells and that can pull things apart. Whatever you do you have to do it right. You have to follow the instructions. That’s what they’re there for.’ He was saying too much, too fast. He shut up. Shutting up nearly always worked. Anyway what could he say?
    Joshua baffled Jansson. Everybody had been panicking in the dark, evidently, the kids screaming and throwing up and tripping over and crapping their pants and being eaten by mosquitoes and walking into trees. But not Joshua. Joshua was calm. She looked at him now. He was slim, tall for his age, his face pale but his hair Mediterranean black. He was a calm enigma.
    Out loud she said, ‘You know, Joshua, I would have said that, given the stories they’re telling, some of these kids must have been playing with drugs. Except that they were all covered in leaves and scratches. As if they really had been taking a walk in a forest right here in the middle of the city.’
    She took another slight step forward, and he took another slight step back.
    She stopped moving and lowered her hands. ‘Look, Joshua, I know you’re telling the truth.
Because I’ve been there myself
. No more games. Talk to me. The box you’re holding looks pretty neat compared with the others. Can I have a look? I mean just put it down and step back, I’m not trying to trick you. I’m just trying to work out why kids all over town are getting stuck in some mysterious forest, frightened they’re going to be eaten by orcs!’
    Oddly enough that impressed Joshua. He did put the box down, and did step back. ‘I’d like that back, I haven’t got enough money to go to Radio Shack again.’ He hesitated for a moment.