"We do not feel the presence of our counterparts in other universes. Nor did the Inquisition feel the Earth moving beneath their feet. And yet, it moves!"

David Deutsch, The Fabric of Reality

"The secret to a long life is knowing when it's time to go."

Michelle Shocked

Working Title:

"The Longest Life"

Premise:

A man for whom everything has been going uncharacteristically well suddenly finds himself the victim of an assassination attempt. Any chance that it might have been a case of mistaken identity vanishes when he is repeatedly targeted for death by an assassin who seems to be able to appear and disappear at will, leaving few if any traces behind. Things become more complicated when a bizarre religious cult sticks its nose in and his girlfriend undergoes a radical change in personality, but the worst is still to come. Even though the assassin isn't from his universe, our hero would recognise him anywhere: it's him.

Characters:

Ryle "Cropper" Frensham (Ryle-1)

... our protagonist; a photocopier technician by day, couch potato by night; also a debtor, scruff and agnostic. Known as "Cropper" because of a tendency to screw things up, mainly through inattention to detail.

Ania Gryzwny (Ania-1)

... Ryle's on-again off-again girlfriend; a bit dull and drab but good at heart. She does have some ambition, unlike Ryle, but to appear on Sale of the Century not sip champagne on a Lear jet and join the mile-high club.

Goff (from Gofredo) Pivato

... Ryle's best friend; a slight improvement, in comparison. He's a middle manager in a nameless government department, constantly shuffled from desk to desk as (progressively shorter) contracts come up and expire. Good at following orders and for a wry laugh, he's more of a sidekick than an independent personality.

Detective Melville "Mel" Braham (rhymes with "Graeme")

... an old-school cop approaching retirement age and dreading the thought. He likes the odd brown suit and is distrustful of young people of both sexes on sight. He is, however, meticulously fair and far from stupid, and not bad in a scrap, either, when it comes down to it.

Lord Ryle Frensham (Ryle-2)

... a far cry from "Cropper", this alternate version of our protagonist has inherited vast amounts of cash from his parents and built scientific laboratories devoted to the pursuit of new ways to better his life. Stylish, spoiled and something of a sociopath, he has the backing of both a powerful scientific cult and a militaristic government hell-bent on turning the world into a giant copper-plated factory.

Ania Greenaway (Ania-2)

... unlike her counterpart in "Cropper"'s universe, this version of Ania does dream of Lear jets and joining the mile-high club. A blatant opportunist, she has changed her name to prevent it hindering her social ascent. Vicious, gorgeous, and a dab hand at politics, she's the perfect companion for Lord Frensham.

Sergeant Gofredo Pivato

... a clumsier version of Goff complete with a buffed leather uniform, gormless expression and license to kill.

Support ...

Various police officers, Ryle's family (poor and annoying in "Cropper"'s world (Earth-1), rich and dead in Lord Frensham's (Earth-2)), the chief guru of the Church of Life pretty much unchanged in both worlds and various monk sidekicks in Earth-2.

Hook:

Ryle Frensham gets up for work on what would be a typical Tuesday morning, except everything is so damned nice. Or, rather, it isn't, really, but he thinks it is.

Ania, his girlfriend, moans as the alarm goes off; he's already in the bathroom cleaning his teeth. The toast cooks too long; he laughs as it burns his fingertips. It's drizzling outside; he stands for a moment and relishes the splatter of water on his up-raised face. His car radio is stuck on an AM easy-listening station and an Air Supply song comes on while he's in peak-hour traffic; he sings along.

Sickening.

No matter how annoying he is, though, he doesn't deserve what happens next. Barely has he hit the second verse of "Two Less Lonely People in the World" when he notices a red dot dancing along his dash. He follows it idly before realising what it looks like: a laser sight from one of those fancy rifles on TV. It bounces around for a second or two before disappearing. He has an instant to realise it's only disappeared because it's now fixed on the back of his head before his reflexes take over — just in case — and he ducks.

A hail of bullets tears through the back window. He rolls across the front seat, kicks out the passenger door, scrambles madly from the car. The bullets follow him, stitching a path through metal and concrete alike. He ducks and weaves between lanes as horns blare and people shout in fear and anger all around him. He can no longer see the dot; he doesn't have time to guess where the bullets are coming from. All he can do, acting on survival instinct alone, is run for his life.

He reaches the shelter of a large marble foyer and hides behind a pillar. The shots continue for a moment, shattering windows and ricocheting all around him, then peter out. When they cease, all he can hear is the chaos outside. All he feels is shock. Why would someone want to kill him? He can't imagine who it could be — unless it was Lionel Ritchie for his appalling rendition of "Three Times A Lady" earlier that morning ...

In the background is a billboard long in need of changing. Ryle has passed it every day for months without ever paying it attention, and now is no exception. A figure clad from head to foot in a white suit (much like coveralls, but fancier) ducks hurriedly behind it, lugging what looks suspiciously like a rifle. The tatty poster design assumes central importance as the scene plays out: white lines on a blue background converging upwards to a bright point, like the star on a Xmas tree, with one word — "LIFE" — written beneath it.

There is a clap of thunder.

This is the logo of the Pounders. Few people have heard of them in this universe, and those that have pay them little attention. They are destined, however, to play an important role in the life — and death — of Ryle Frensham.

Plot:

Act 1 ...

The aftermath of the hit sees Ryle puzzled and more than a little hurt. The papers have reported it as a random incident, a psycho sniping at traffic. In lieu of a suspect or motive, little else makes sense. Despite the evidence of his eyes — and the aerated chassis of his car — no-one believes that he was the target of an assassination attempt. The police, inasmuch as they give his theory any credit at all, palm it off as a case of mistaken identity; his family think it's just another example of his famous bad luck; Ania is more concerned about repairing the damage to the car. Who would want to kill a nobody like Ryle Frensham? No-one.

When Ryle goes to collect his car from a police compound later that night, he is spooked by the sight of someone dressed in white hanging around it. Suspicious and nervous both, he checks the car. There is an oddly-shaped package hidden deep under the bonnet. It is connected by wires to the engine and is wrapped in plastic featuring the logo of the Pounder movement (which Ryle doesn't recognise). Unsure whether he's over-reacting or not, he stands outside the car, reaches in, and turns the key very, very slowly.

There is a slight spark before the starter motor turns. He ducks automatically, and this saves him, putting the car door between him and the bonnet space. The package explodes, throwing him away from the car. For the second time that day, he ends up in the hands of paramedics.

That convinces him. It also convinces his friend, Goff, but that's dubious support at best. Goff does, after all, have a habit of toking in his lunch break and getting away with it because no-one notices the difference.

The police advise him to go home and to be careful. There's not much else they can do until more evidence appears (the burnt-out wreck of the car was clean). Detective Mel Braham, however, decides to dig a little deeper, suspecting Ryle is hiding something sinister, maybe a connection with underground drug-lords or prostitution. He's seen Ryle's type before, and doesn't like it much. He learns Ryle's schedule for the next day, and decides to stick close to see what emerges. You never know.

Ryle's insurance pays for a loan car so he can keep working. Being the victim of a failed mafia-style hit doesn't mean you can take time off. There are no attempts made on his life that day, but when he returns home he finds an unidentified package on his doorstep. Fearing the worst, he calls the police, who dutifully examine it with X-rays and prepare to blow it up if necessary. All it contains, however, is a tacky gift from his mother designed to cheer him up (but as is usual for her only succeeded in annoying him more).

Embarrassed for over-reacting, he invites the head of the bomb squad in for a drink. He pours a glass of water from the tap and hands it to his guest, who raises it to sip, then sniffs suspiciously. The water smells odd. The water purification system has been tampered with, they discover, and would have fatally poisoned anyone who unwittingly drunk from it.

Footprints in the earth around the back yard show a familiar design: the Pounder logo, once again.

Attempt number three leaves Ryle completely paranoid. He interrogates his neighbours. Only Mrs Arrizza two doors down saw anything suspicious: a man in grey (possibly white) overalls hanging around that afternoon. She also heard thunder, which on such a clear day is remarkable but hardly seems relevant.

Twice now Ryle can connect the white suit to an attempt to kill him. It isn't enough for the police, however. Still they need more. All they can really do is haul Ryle in and put him in protective custody, which might ultimately only delay the problem, not solve it. Instead, they allow Detective Braham to follow his instincts and work full-time on the case. Braham suspects Ryle even more of foul-play, now; it was, after all, a police officer who nearly fell foul of the poisoned tap water, and it could easily have been another who attempted to start Ryle's booby-trapped car.

Both he and Ryle are determined to get to the bottom of the case. The difference between them is that, while Braham has access to all the resources of the state's overburdened but undeniably prodigious police department, Ryle has only one person he can come even close to counting on, and that's Goff.

Act 2 ...

Ryle goes about his daily routine with Goff tailing him at a distance, keeping an eye out for the white suit. Both of them are, in turn, watched by Detective Braham. Nothing dramatic happens until Ryle is called to repair several copiers in a large office block downtown. The machines have been deliberately interfered with, it seems.

As he is completing the final repair, a fire alarm forces everyone out of the building. As Ryle emerges from the stairwell at ground-level and walks down a narrow alleyway, a slight movement from above makes him look up. He sees — and jumps to avoid — a large piece of masonry that has been dislodged from the top of the building. It crashes to the pavement exactly where he had been standing, and would undoubtedly have killed him had he not moved in time.

Goff arrives bare seconds after the drama. Braham is slightly behind, and at a better angle to see the roof. He sees someone moving, and goes up the stairwell to investigate. Ryle, recognising the police officer, follows (much to Braham's annoyance). Goff is left behind, in more than one sense.

Braham radios for the other fire exits to be sealed. Fire officers hasten to obey, just as someone in a "strange-looking outfit" tries to get out through one of them. Braham hurries across the roof to that exit. Both he and Ryle see someone ascending the stairs towards them. Seeing them in turn, this person ducks out of the stairwell. The suit, however, becomes tangled in the doorway. Ryle and Braham can see it flapping as the person tugs desperately to free it. When they are just metres away, the suit falls limp — then the door blows off its hinges, propelled into the stairwell by an explosion not of fire but of air, as though an enormous bubble has burst in the room beyond.

Braham and Ryle are knocked off their feet. They recover soon enough and survey the damage. The door is in splinters and the room beyond is in disarray, but there is no sign of the person wearing the white suit.

Braham puts out an alert for everyone to keep an eye out below and arranges for the building to be searched. On the floor among the wreckage, Ryle spies a familiar shape: the Pounder logo in necklace form complete with broken chain. It stands out because of its peculiar composition, as though made out of a glistening, purplish steel. He pockets it without Braham seeing, made curious by its repeated appearances.

Braham escorts him out of the building, past the police officers stationed at each exit. Goff meets them there, and is taken in by Braham for questioning, with Ryle. The time has come to actively dig for answers, instead of fart-arsing around. Ryle feels exactly the same way.

A few minutes later we see the same entrance and the same guard. She looks up as someone approaches, and says: "You again?" The person she's talking to (invisible to the viewer) just grunts vaguely and walks past her.

Braham interrogates Ryle and Goff for four hours and learns little, except for where Goff keeps his dope plants (confirming the lesser of Braham's suspicions). He eventually gives up, and agrees to let Ryle go providing he will allow a police escort to accompany him. Ryle readily accepts the condition.

As he leaves, the Pounder necklace falls out of his pocket, and Braham sees it. He expresses disdain and a hope that Ryle isn't mixed up with "that mob". When questioned, Braham explains that it is the logo of an obscure internet cult called the Church of Life (COL). Ryle has never heard of it, and Braham isn't surprised. They're nothing but "another pack of harmless weirdos with a death-wish". Ryle is intrigued, despite Braham's scepticism. Given that the logo has turned up every time an attempt was made on his life, there must be a connection.

He goes home, trailed by two police officers. They sit in the patrol car outside his house while he goes about his business. Ania isn't home (although she should've been), so he opens a tin and eats alone. He checks his phone book and finds no reference to a Church of Life. Going on-line, however, he discovers they have a temple in town. He rings the number and is told by a recorded message that the temple is open to the public every evening from six to nine. He checks his watch; he's dying for sleep, but there's just time enough to make it before the temple closes.

The police dutifully follow him there. As he pulls up outside, the sight of the familiar logo sends a chill down his spine. But it seems less threatening in flickering blue neon against a peeling white background. Inside is a run-down meeting hall decked out with curly-edged posters, yellowing pamphlets and dusty collection boxes. A couple of outdated computers provide the only light, apart from a couple of tall candles down one end. The police have waited outside, and Ryle assumes for a moment that he's alone — until a voice draws his attention to a shadowy corner in which one small, old man sits, dressed in white robes.

The man greets him and identifies himself as Esko ("just Esko"), head guru of the local branch of the COL. He has been meditating, but doesn't mind talking. Ryle shows him the necklace he found the day before. Esko confirms that the design is the same, but he hasn't seen anything like it before; the COL has never been one for selling trinkets.

Puzzled, Ryle inquires more deeply about Esko's beliefs. The Church of Life follows the teachings of physicist-cum-philosopher Harold Pound (hence their nickname: "Pounders"). It begins with a simple physics lesson. For every event that has two or more possible outcomes, the universe splits: in one universe, one of the outcomes took place, while in another the outcome was different, and so on. This happens constantly, so the universe we inhabit is not only constantly dividing, but is surround by numerous near-perfect "parallel" copies, the result of divisions arising from previous events.

Harold Pound taught that this ongoing division has consequences for humanity. Every child is born complete, he said, having undergone no divisions and containing a complete human soul. As time passes, events occur and the universe inevitably divides around it, producing copies of the child scattered throughout numerous parallel realities. This wouldn't be a problem, Pound said, except there's only so much of us to go around: whatever the soul is made of, it isn't duplicated with each universe, and must spread itself ever-more thinly as the child grows and divides.

This explains, Esko says, why life seems that much better when we are young. We are truly more alive then; we have more soul.

The belief seems quite peculiar to Ryle, who nods off towards the end. He's too tired to really concentrate. Not wanting to seem rude, he makes his excuses. As he's seeing Ryle off, Esko sniffs the air outside and remarks on its brilliance.

"I haven't smelt air like this since I was a boy," he says. "I guess that proves my point."

Ryle has noticed it too. "How?"

"Well, I am nearing the end of my time. Different copies of me are dying younger than this me, so I am becoming whole again. I am gathering my soul about me like a cloak. That is why life, for me, now, is so much more vivid than it was in my middle years. Every day is a miracle. I feel blessed on all counts."

Remembering the happy glow of a couple of days ago, Ryle says: "But that's how I feel. How do you explain that?"

"Maybe you are near the end of your life, too."

"But I'm only thirty-two."

"Death comes irrespective of age, my friend. We cannot predict when the knife will fall, and only when we kill ourselves do we truly recognise the hand that holds it."

Before Ryle can respond, his mobile phone rings. It's Ania. She's waiting at his house, and needs him urgently. When asked why, she whispers something erotic and hangs up.

That's good enough for him. He leaves Esko behind and, tailed by the ever-present cops, goes home for the night.

Act 3 ...

When he arrives home, it's to an Ania he's never seen before: seductive, slinky and very sexual. Her fingernails are painted purple; her lingerie is new and mind-boggling. He barely has time to gape before she drags him inside. The cops see this and chuckle to themselves. At least someone's going to have a good night.

It does look that way, until Ryle glimpses something quite shocking — and totally unexpected — as they fumble past the half-open laundry door: a white suit is hanging from a hook where his duffel coat normally resides. He almost freezes, but manages to fight the reflex. If she notices that he's noticed, she'll ... what?

"Oh, my Lord," she breathes as she twists him around and presses him onto the bed. Ryle has a hard time remaining aloof as she unbuttons her corset. Luckily he sees the glint of metal in her right hand as the fabric falls away. Ignoring the distraction before him, he grabs the hand holding the concealed weapon and asks her to explain what the hell is going on.

She is instantly on the offensive, transformed from minx to vixen in a split-second. They struggle. From the outside, it looks like vigorous sex, so the police don't intervene. The object in her hand pricks her instead of him, and she cries out in anger. Poisoned, she falls limp over him. Concerned despite himself, he rolls out from under her and checks her pulse: unconscious, not dead. She clearly wanted to take him alive.

She ... or someone else? The suit is hers (he can smell her perfume all through it) but the Ania he knows never owned anything like it. It looks like a space-suit, with a one-way transparent cloth hood, eyes-up display and a big timing device counting down towards zero. (This device could take the form of a digital watch or a thermometer-style rising red line or even creeping pie-graph, but it's visible from the outside.) There's half an hour remaining before time runs out. What happens then, he doesn't know.

Searching her, he discovers more mysterious evidence: a Pounder-logo ring, a strange tattoo on her left thigh where he's sure there wasn't one before, a matching metal drug applicator like the one she pricked herself with. An antidote? A truth-drug? He has no way of knowing. He ties her up and waits to see what happens. If she wanted him alive, he probably wouldn't have to wait long to find out why.

Within minutes, she stirs.

"My Lord, I'm so sorry, but — " She regains her senses slowly, noticing first that she is tied up but only becoming concerned about it when she realises where she is.

She is initially terrified that he is going to kill her. Why would he do that? he asks. Because he can, she says; or for revenge, if he had to have a reason. The fact that he won't mystifies her, but she accepts it in the end. And once she does, she becomes much more confident.

Ryle interrogates her as well as he can. He confirms almost immediately that she isn't the Ania he knows; her natural accent is much more refined. She is very cool and doesn't reveal much. It's all very frustrating and mysterious. If she isn't the Ania he knows, then who is she?

"What's the clock on the suit for? What's it timing?"

"How long you've got left to live." It shows barely than ten minutes, now. "You've less than that, in fact. He'll be here any second."

"Who?"

"You don't know?"

She laughs at his ignorance and refuses to elaborate, so he gags her and dons her suit. He refuses to feel sympathy; even though she looks exactly like his girlfriend, she has obviously allowed herself to be used as bait to trap him. Whoever set the trap won't be expecting him to be up and about, If he can just find out who it is and let the cops know, then finally something can be done about him (or her).

Barely has he thought this far when there comes a thunderclap from inside his living room. Ryle keeps a low profile in the kitchen as someone in a white suit walks down the hallway, calling Ania's name (but with the emphasis on the second syllable). The voice sounds familiar, despite its slightly odd accent and imperious tone. The man doffs his hood as he walks down the hallway, but Ryle is standing at the wrong angle to see his face.

Outside, the cops have been watching idly after the earlier excitement. They notice the thunderclap and explosion, and that there appears now to be two men inside the house. Puzzled, one calls Braham, who instructs her to go in and see what's happening. At the same time, Braham calls the house, and no-one answers. He decides to head down there himself, with reinforcements.

Inside, the new arrival ignores the phone, as does Ryle. The man proceeds to the bedroom, calling Ania's name again. Ryle has trussed her up and covered her in his doona. Ryle tiptoes after the new arrival up the hallway. The man pulls back the doona and discovers Ania. She, gagged, can only look frantically over his shoulder as Ryle creeps up behind him, still dressed in the suit and armed only with an expensive bottle of wine. The man turns, and at last his face is revealed.

Ryle freezes. It's him.

Ryle-2 freezes too, but not for long. From within a suit pocket, he produces a wicked-looking, futuristic handgun. He points it at Ryle-1.

Before he can fire, the doorbell rings. Ryle-2 is distracted for a split-second and Ryle-1 knocks the gun away. It goes off, causing an explosion on the far side of the room that destroys most of the wall, blowing the cop ringing the bell off his feet and into the bushes. Both Ryles struggle for the gun as the cops converge in force on the house. Just as Ryle-2 gets his hand on the pistol, the timing device on Ryle-1's suit hits zero.

There is a flash. He feels as though the wind has been knocked out of him. The view through the hood of the suit goes black. Then there's another flash, and he finds himself elsewhere — in a weird, red-lit laboratory set-up with uniformed guards standing around, peculiar scientists studying him intently, and Ania — his Ania — restrained in a corner.

Completely gob-smacked, he pulls back the hood.

"My Lord?" says a familiar voice. It is Goff, only now he's wearing one of the fancy uniforms and a rather nervous expression. "My Lord, did you get him this time?"

Every one is looking at him as though waiting for him to explode. For an instant, Ryle thinks he might just do that.

Meanwhile, back in his house, Ryle-2 has just managed to get his hand on his pistol after recovering from the explosion of Ryle-1's departure. As he raises it to fire at the cops, the window smashes behind him and a voice advises him to drop the weapon. Detective Braham has arrived, and he's not happy. Ryle Frensham himself is in a white suit now? It smells very strange indeed. The bondage gear his girlfriend is wearing looks decidedly suspicious, too. He intends to take both Ryle-2 and Ania-2 away for another round of interrogation.

They don't come willingly, however. Ryle-2 least of all. The moment Ania-2 is released, he sees his chance and takes it. Pushing her into Braham, he dives out the window and slips away into the garden. There, he dons his hood and fiddles with the suit.

Simultaneously, Ryle-1 is advised by one of the scientist types that: "someone else is trying to come through. The Lady Greenaway, I presume?"

He thinks fast, and tells them there's been a mistake. No-one else is to "come through" until he gives the order. They look mystified, but obey him.

Thwarted, Ryle-2 scuttles off into the shadows, leaving Ania-2 cursing him back in the house.

Ryle-1 learns that he has been mistaken for Lord Ryle Frensham, an alternate him from another universe who has the sort of money and power he can only dream of. Ryle-2 is also a fanatical Pounder, it seems, with the COL logo appearing all over the place, in wallpaper, carpets, chandeliers, even the architecture itself. The guru called Esko is present too, but dressed in much more expensive robes and looking almost magisterial.

"From your expression," the guru comments, "I guess there's still one left." His voice possesses a mocking tone. "And what happens when he is gone too, eh? Once you are the longest life, what will that accomplish?"

Ryle-1 shrugs non-committally, beginning to realise what's going on. He's in a parallel universe, one in which another version of himself has access to technology advanced enough to jump between divergent Earths. His evil self is trying to make himself the longest life by jumping to all the parallel Earths on which he exists and killing them (using local technology where possible in order to allay suspicions). He — Ryle-1 — is the last but one.

The technology is advanced, but simple to use. The white suits carry people across the gap between worlds and back with only a few restrictions. They can only stay at their destination for a certain length of time before returning (hence the timing devices on the sleeves). As soon as that time runs out, they jump back, along with anything sealed in the suit; if the suit is open when it jumps, its contents stay behind. This happened during the chase scene down the stairwell, when Ryle-2 opened the suit to free himself and was stuck behind after the suit automatically returned. (Ania-2 was forced to rescue him.)

So, Ania-2 and Ryle-2 are currently still on Earth-1, and Ryle-1 is stuck on Earth-2 where everyone defers to him and he's loaded with cash. It all seems pretty good to him, except for one small thing: Ania-1. She's still imprisoned on Earth-2 (and she too thinks he's Ryle-2 at first, although it doesn't take her long to work it out).

Ryle-1 orders everyone to take the day off — a welcome change from Ryle-2's usual strict work-ethic (for others) — and requests that Ania be taken to his quarters where he will interrogate her himself. He follows the guards there, not knowing the way himself. "His" private quarters are in the same building as the labs — a cross between a skyscraper and a mansion — and are decked out like a bordello. There he requests complete privacy, apart from Sergeant Gofredo and Ania, while he proceeds to work out what's going on. (In the process, he invites Gofredo to share their meal and relax with them. Gofredo is initially uncomfortable, but soon catches on and runs with it. He's not one to buck the new system, especially when it's being so pleasant to him.)

The device by which Ryle-2 jumps between worlds was paid for and commissioned by Ryle-2; the scientists who made it belong to the Church of Life, which has a lot more power in this world. Ryle-2 is the man behind it all, but he's using his power abominably. Ryle-1 has a good mind to leave Ryle-2 where he is as punishment, and keep this world for himself. (And Ania, from what she has seen, could handle the glamour.) That, when they send Gofredo on his way and retire, is the basic plan.

But the laws of physics get in the way. When Ryle-1 and Ania have fallen asleep, the time on Ryle-2's suit runs out. Whether Ryle-1 wishes it or not, it has to return. It brings him intact, and very angry, to his home on Earth-2. There he is greeted by an empty laboratory: no guards, no scientists, no-one at all. Obviously the other him has ensconced himself in this world, so Ryle-2 can't afford to make too much of a scene. Instead he calls his trusty bodyguard, Gofredo, and orders him to come to the lab.

There, Ryle-2 plots the demise of his remaining copy. Gofredo is an integral part of the plan, since Ryle-1 seems to have taken a liking to him. In ten minutes, the mansion guard will assemble outside the bedroom in which Ryle-1 and Ania are sleeping. Gofredo will request entry, whereupon the guard will burst in and shoot everything on sight. That way, there won't be another cock-up.

When Ryle-1 is dead, Ryle-2 will be the longest life. He will be full of energy and vitality, more so than anyone else on Earth-2 (apart from the very old or very young). Nothing will stand between him and true power: not just over this Earth, but many others as well. His ambition is almost limitless, and he will stop at nothing.

Gofredo leaks this to Esko, who has never liked the way Harold Pounder's philosophy has been misused. An opposing force assembles to meet the mansion guard outside the bedroom. The forces clash almost instantly.

Ryle-1 and Ania-1 are wakened by gunfire and shouting. It sounds like a full-scale civil war is taking place on the other side of the door. It bursts open, letting in smoke and Sergeant Gofredo, who rapidly brings them up to speed.

This is the first time the inhabitants of Earth-2 have ever met another Ryle Frensham. Sergeant Gofredo and the COL scientists had naturally assumed all the Frenshams to be bastards, but this is obviously not the case. Now they have a comparison, they are quite certain who they prefer. Given a choice, they'd much rather have Ryle-1 in charge than Ryle-2.

Outside, the battle isn't going Ryle-2's way. He can see the writing on the wall, but isn't quite done for yet. He has one last chance to escape, and he goes for it.

Esko anticipates him, and they confront each other in the laboratory, from which Ryle-2 had hoped to escape back to Earth-1. There he hopes to rebuild the world-jumping machines, if the local technology isn't too lame, and revenge himself another day. But Esko thwarts him; he has the machine under control, and will not allow Ryle-2 to use it.

Ryle-1 arrives with the others. There is a show-down between the two Ryles. Ryle-2 dares Ryle-1 to kill him, but Ryle-1 can't. He doesn't have it in him. However the difference between them arose, perhaps the result of a random mutation, the difference is undeniably there. Ryle-2 can't kill himself in cold blood, and he won't order anyone else to do it for him. And as there's no chance they can co-exist ...

He allows Esko to send Ryle-2 to Earth-1.

Ryle-2 smirks as he disappears, counting himself lucky on getting away unscathed.

But that's not where Esko sends him at all. All the Earths Ryle-2 visited have been catalogued; some of them are much worse of than the one Ryle-1 has come from. It is to one of the worst that Esko has sent him. Far from escaping, Ryle-2 has gone from a life of luxury to one of misery.

Conclusion ...

That wraps it up for Ryle-2. In the end, Ryle-1 and Ania-1 opt not to stay on Earth-2; Ryle decides he will actually miss his parents (and he doesn't want the responsibility of running Ryle-2's empire) and all the excitement is a bit too much for Ania. (Seeing Ryle-2 hasn't ended up in Earth-1, the vacancy is still there.)

Their departure causes something of a situation on Earth-2. Being a techno-fascist state, a power vacuum forms without Ryle-2 to fill it. There is, however, one simple way to fix it.

Ryle and Ania jump back to home and appear right in front of Goff, who has been watching Ryle's house, waiting for him to show up. Confused because he thought Ania was in custody over the firefight at Ryle's house, he doesn't even try to understand what's going on. He's a public servant; he's used to ignoring things that don't seem to make sense.

Ryle rings Braham and asks to talk to Ania-2. In exchange, he agrees to turn himself in if Braham can actually find a charge that will stick. Braham, muttering, puts Ania-2 on the line. Ryle explains everything to her. He knows she was involved in Ryle-2's nefarious scheme, but believes her capable of better; she's smart, accustomed to wielding power, and familiar to the people back home. He'll let her go back if she agrees to listen to the people around her. She, knowing she has no other option (and having learned a lot about humility while in police custody), agrees.

Braham is, of course, monitoring the conversation, but can't make any sense of it. He agrees to let them meet. Ryle arrives wearing his white suit. He disrobes and hands it to her. She puts it on. He goes home. Minutes later, she hits the switch and returns to Earth-2, leaving behind an empty office and one very confused Detective.

Ania-1 and Ryle fully intend to lead a normal life from then on, and they stand a much better chance they did before. Quite apart from the small amount of gold Ryle brought back with him from Earth-2, both have learned a lot about themselves in the previous days; like Ania-2, they have a lot more potential than they gave themselves credit for. Where exactly they'll end up, they don't know, but for Ryle-1 life is looking very good indeed.