Office Spacetime

Marshal glanced around and noticed that he and Javier were alone in the office. “Any leads?” he asked.

Javier waved him over. “I’m running a Mask,” he explained as he tapped at the keyboard, letting Marshal know it was safe to use the computer. The screen changed colours and a new graphic appeared.


“I found these buried in the tags of Launchpad’s incoming emails," Javier said.  "I’m going to check Altar’s next.”

Marshal scanned the list. He didn’t recognize the data:


Delta Fox
Charlie Ten.7
Angel Cake 1.7
Indigo
Elephant Cobra

“I think they’re tracking Versions,” Javier said. “Think about it: wouldn’t a master-list of all variations of plureality make controlling them all that much easier? In fact, they probably couldn’t have achieved their spread of influence without having a trans-variable method of structuring and coordinating their activities. Sure, it’s creepy but you can see how useful it would be…”

Marshal nodded. He saw the appeal but there were implications, if it was even possible. Versions weren’t just parallel realities; the existence of parallel realities was a variable within a given version, a sub-criteria. Not all versions contained parallel realities.

He pointed at the screen, the list of data. One of the lines stood out:


5102 PARAPLEX

“What’s that, Frank?”

Javier stood up quickly, looked nervous. “Who’s Frank? Marshal, what’s-“

Marshal grabbed Javier and took him down, an elbow to his throat. “Who are you?”

“I-I’m the Counter… Your Counter c-contact…”

Now Marshal stood up, releasing Javier. He looked confused.