D and the source of the voice were in a space that had been distorted four-dimensionally; they could have kept going forever.
“Looks like we’re gonna break the speed of light. If we do, it’ll be trouble,” the voice continued. “I’ll connect us to another extradimensional space. We’ve gotta escape. I ate some dirt earlier. Fire we can manage. Water I’ll leave to you.”
D transferred his blade to his left hand and extended his right arm.
“But the problem will be wind,” the hoarse voice said in a tone that conjured up a vivid image of a worried countenance.
Though they were moving at terrific speed, there was zero air resistance—it was like they were falling through the void of outer space. Yet they weren’t suffocating.
Bright blood gushed out. D had used the blade in his left hand to cut his right wrist. Returning the sword to his right hand, D used the palm of his left to catch the spilling blood. That was their water. Not a drop of it was wasted.
“Okay!” the hoarse voice exclaimed, and at the same time the Hunter’s left hand stroked the wound. Seconds later, all that remained was a faint red line that immediately faded.
“We’re passing the speed of light!” the hoarse voice called from the left hand D had extended. “And we’ve got no wind. Brace for impact!”
A tiny mouth formed on the palm of his hand. In it appeared a howling blue flame. Space twisted as the tiny mouth inhaled. The left hand vanished. At the same time, D felt a violent impact.
-
“Congratulations on breaking free of my sealed dimension,” an austere male voice said. “But it must’ve been quite hard on you. You’re under a spell, aren’t you?”
D was standing inside a huge dome. The voice issued from the tower that loomed before him.
“My name is Sigma. I’m an antiproton computer.”
“There are supposed to be two children here,” D replied. Talk of “Sigma” or “antiproton computers” meant nothing to him.
“There certainly are. Right here.”
A golden line appeared in the floor not three feet from where D stood, and it rose without a sound to create a space ten feet high and six feet wide. It had no depth and was invisible when viewed from the side. Matthew and Sue were inside it. Apparently they noticed D, because they reached out their arms and started to run. No matter how they pounded across the ground, they never came any closer. Though less than three feet lay between that space and D, the distance between the children and his dimension was infinite.
