Page 88 of Tapeworld Induction

“Oh, please, girl… You think Sacha doesn’t know?”

“He probably does now…”

“I already knew,” Sacha said through the phone. “It was obvious as soon as you two showed up at my door. The way he was looking at you… I was surprised when you called each other ‘friends’.”

She was that transparent, huh? And the way he looked at her? Had she not noticed, or had she not wanted to notice?

She tried to shake off the awkwardness and get to business.

“I’ll think of Isaak and say his name. That should summon him to us.”

“It’s that easy?” Talia asked.

“It should be. To be honest, Isaak doesn’t really know how it works either. It just works.”

Talia nodded. “Okay. We got this far.”

“How does that sound, Sacha?” Dylan asked over the phone.

“Sure, sure. Go ahead. I’m still looking at the lobster phone, trying to figure out how it works. Call me back when you need me.”

“Uh… great?” Dylan said dryly.

It suddenly seemed almost impossible to visualise Isaak’s face. What did he look like? Black hair. Brown eyes. That nose. His mouth. Pink-brown lips. Oh, yeah. Those lips. “Isaak?”

Nothing. He didn’t appear.

She tried again.

Her eyes closed, clearing her mind. The thought only of him, in all his totality, prompting a smile. “Isaak!”

Lava shot out of the volcano with a thundering roar.

But nothing else happened.

“This isn’t working. Fuck.” She thought for a moment. “Okay. I’ll think of him, of where he is, wherever that might be, and try to open a tape-tube to him.”

“Tape-tube?” Talia gave her a quizzical look.

“It’s how we move around in the Tapeworld.”

She concentrated once more, but this time added a movement with her hand and arm. She didn’t know where he was, but if she thought about him hard enough, surely it had to work.

Blue and yellow sparks flew from the air directly in front of them, like glowing insects. Each gathering of sparks pulsed in synchronicity.

Talia walked back a few steps.

The sparks were accompanied by a low hum that quickly rose in volume until the vibration shook the floor.

All the sparks connected at once, becoming one ellipse of light, white on the edges and blue-yellow in the centre.

“That must be it! Come on!” Dylan held Talia’s hand and they walked into the portal.

The tunnel stretched to an unseen horizon. Horizontal vertigo dawned on Dylan. She held Talia’s hand more firmly. Reflected on her friend’s green eyes was a dot of light, the tunnel. Walls made of black brick. The cement glowed faintly.

“Where are we?” Talia asked.

It took a moment for her question to register.