"You're keeping him prisoner," I said. We stood in front of a one-way mirror looking at a German man handcuffed to a metal table. The General had taken us South, to the Chicago PD Headquarters, which Moira had retrofitted as a kind of military base.

General Eastford shrugged. "I'm not doing anything. It's all your woman. She calls the shots. Although this time I'm not sure I disagree with her - we've got no idea what's up and what's down. Maybe this guy has a walkie-talkie and is going to call his friends down on us as soon as we turn our backs. Could be a spy, for all we know."

The man didn't look like a spy. His fatigues were torn and ash-stained, becoming almost white. He had a tan that seemed out of place on a Berliner in winter. Although, I supposed, who knew what season it was in 2022.

"It doesn't make any sense. We've been here for what, two months now? How could he be from two years in the future?" Brigg said.

"It could be that time passes differently here," Lee said, "there's still a lot we don't know about the Void. If this really is a whole separate dimension, why should time pass the exact same as on Earth? Even if we were on a different planet - isn't there time dilation that happens with interstellar travel?"

Brigg said, "I don't know Lee. Time dilation isn't something they covered in my mechanical engineering degree."

"What about the Pilot? Kaito, from Hiroshima?" I asked.

"We had the same idea. Moira extracted him from London and brought him here. He's in a cell like our friend here - apparently now that Tokyo is in the mix, he's a potential spy as well. But we already asked him about timelines. Apparently he thinks it's the year-of-our-lord 1952."

"Jesus," Brigg said, "so they didn't survive for seventy years after all. They survived for what, seven?"

"Not a bad run, if you ask me," the General said, "but it also means Nagasaki vanished a lot quicker than we'd thought. Whatever came for them..."

"Might be coming for us," I said. "Soon."

"Exactly," the General said. "Or any of the other cities. I would hate to show up and find that a billion people from Mumbai are vanished. Or actually, maybe I wouldn't. Would make things a lot easier for us."

If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

Lee shot him a disgusted look, but said nothing.

"Moira's interrogation is done. Let's go," the General said.

Moira stepped out of the holding cell and approached us. "I want us on City X in two days, Construction Team. I don't care how, just do it."

We nodded, not wanting to press her. She left the room and her guards followed.

We opened the door to the holding cell. The Berliner looked up at us, and for the first time I noticed the over-wide, electric quality to his eyes.

The General took the seat across from him, while the rest of us stood on the edge of the room.

"What's your name, soldier," the General asked.

"Jonas," he said.

"And your station?" the General asked.

"I am a para-trooper," Jonas said, "just a soldier. Or I was." His English was guttural but clear.

"Where?" The General asked. "Is there a base on City X? An air base?"

Jonas nodded. "Ramstein. An American base, but we have been using it since the war."

Lee and I shared a concerned look.

"We came here in 2020," Lee said, "and we've been here for two months. But you came from 2022."

Jonah nodded.

"What's happened on Earth? Since we left?" I asked.

Jonah looked down. "War. All over the planet. First came the nuclear bombs. Then there was war on the ground. The U.S. and their allies against Russia and China. There was a break in nuclear warfare for a while, when the ash fell down and both sides realized they were on the brink of killing the planet. They went back to using guns and explosives and soldiers. Cities armed themselves against invasions, but most people fled to the countryside. Berlin spent most of our time dealing with the ash-falls and the radiation sickness. But that couldn't last. Two years later, and the bombs started falling again. Berlin was hit. And now I'm here."

"How did you get down here? Why did you come?" I asked.

Jonas shrugged. "There aren't many people left in Berlin. A few soldiers, some sick people. It's chaos. People are raiding, rioting. Some thugs had me cornered in an ashed-out building. I knew there was a city down here. I jumped and hoped for the best."

"That's some gamble," Brigg said.

Jonas leaned forward. He had a haggard, sharp-jawed look that implied starvation. "I'm still waiting to see if it pays off," he said.

Someone knocked at the door. The General stood to answer it, and I heard someone whispering in a hushed voice.

The General turned to face us. "I doubt that it will, soldier. Because you're going to help us get into Berlin. And quickly," he said. The General turned to Lee. "I have to commend you for your brilliant method of linking London and Chicago. So brilliant that the Russians have done the same thing. They shot cables at New York and are dragging it in."

"That means..." I said.

The General nodded. "New York City is on the edge of extermination."