They found Mr. Juro and Master Hiruko playing dominos in the diner.

“Weren’t we just here?” Brock asked.

Darius was thinking the same thing. No one had been here. He glanced at Nova, but she just shrugged.

The nondescript Juro rose from his seat and bowed to Hiruko.

“Thank you for the game, Juro,” the old man said.

“Perhaps some tea, Juro, if you please.” Juro gave them a pleasant smile and disappeared through the kitchen door.

“Please, children, come and sit with me,” said Hiruko.

Darius, Brock, and Nova made for the remaining chairs, then Brock hesitated, looking to Badrik.

“No, you sit with Master Hiruko. I will sit here behind the counter.” Badrik made his way to the tall stool behind the cash register. “I will be more comfortable here anyway.”

The three teenagers joined the master at the table, who had sat with his back to the door. Dominos were spread on the tabletop. A black silk bag with a drawstring sat at the old man’s elbow.

It looked to Darius as if the old man was nearly asleep. He sat very still, his eyelids drooping.

“Master, if I may,” Badrik said, leaning forward on the counter, “Darius has been having unsettling headaches. He has been having trouble with his eyes. I was hoping you could talk to him. Talk to them…”

He is sleeping, Darius thought. He just asked us to sit down, and already he’s sleeping. Some old dude they were forced to bring with them pulled him out of a shower in a fancy hotel, wrapped in a bathrobe, and now they had him traipsing around in flip-flops.

“If you see a small child…” Master Hiruko said, startling Darius. His soft voice filled the diner with a feeling of strength.

“… a very small child that has escaped from its nursemaid for the first time, outside in the garden. You see a window or, possibly, a door that has been mistakenly left open. The child hasn’t noticed you, and before you are able to act, in the garden, it has climbed a tree…” He held up a finger. It suddenly reminded Darius of the same gesture the lawyer, Mr. Mercury, had made, “The child is gleeful. It has no concern. No worry. Only a new feeling of freedom. It is aware that some things have changed. Compared to the soft plush of the nursery, the rough bark is uncomfortable, but the coarseness is masked by the exultation of freedom. The joy the child feels hides the danger.”

“You are trying to tell us something,” Brock said.

“My question to you is, do you make the child aware that it is in the tree, startling it? Or do you let it learn a little on its own, give it some hints along with a steadying hand? It could fall from the tree if you suddenly shock it by making it aware of all the dangers at once.”

“I want to know now. I think you need to tell us why we are here, where I grew up, and still wearing our uniforms. Did you guys drug us into sleep? Stick us in the limo and load it onto a military transport plane?” Darius finished with his arm flung out in exasperation.

“The fireball. The explosion,” Brock said. “I don’t know how we escaped the fireball. I don’t know how they, you, froze the explosion.”

At that moment, a single loud “ping” of a bell rang out in the room. They all turned and saw Juro’s face, his grin wide behind a pot of tea in the tiny peek-a-boo window of the kitchen.

Badrik stood up from his stool, turned, plucked the pot up, and, reaching under the counter, brought out four cups.

“Nova, would you be so kind as to take this to the table?” he asked her.

She let out a heavy sigh. Some tension seemed to leave the room with it. She went to the counter, brought the teapot back, and Badrik handed the cups to Brock.

Master Hiruko smiled politely as she poured for him. Once everyone had a hot drink, they returned to their places.

The white master took a small sip of tea.

“Ok,” Nova said. “Answers. How did we come here?”

“And who are you guys?” Brock added.

Hiruko nodded. “I ask you to allow me to explain… as much as I can without startling anyone into a dangerous fall,” the ancient master asked.

“Ok,” Darius said. “I think we all get that this is weird. But we’re all here. Together.”

“Yep,” Brock agreed. “We are definitely here, together, all ok.”

“Ok. But first I want to know about tree. It is good to know the dangers…” Brock gave Nova a questioning look. “No. Baby. First baby. Want to know what is baby.”

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Hiruko held up his finger. Nova quieted.

He lifted the black silk bag at his elbow, and two remaining dominos fell out.

“Where we all are right now, we are protected for the time being. You are not kidnapped, but also, for the time being, we can’t leave here. Once we are free from this safeness that surrounds us, you are free to go and decide to do as you choose, but we had to extract everyone from the moment of the explosion to keep you safe, very much like our game here on the table. We draw dominos from this pouch. In drawing a piece, it is given a chance—the chance to influence the path of dominos. The dominos are played and arranged, as to the rules of the game, on the table. Some dominos remain in the pouch, unplaced. But we know when the game is over, even if a few pieces remain. We can see where the game will go. We can see when the game is lost. A few additional pieces will not make enough of a change in the outcome.

“Tis but a Chequer board of Nights and Days

Where Destiny with Men for Pieces plays;

Hither and Thither Moves, and mates, and slays,

And one by one, back in the closet lays.”

Badrik spoke these lines to them.

“Thank you, Badrik. Yes, Omar Khayyam described how gods use men like chess pieces. He was an eleventh-century scholar. What I’m explaining to you is, as Badrik implies, that in chess, it can be difficult to see the progress of the game. In dominos, the history can be understood and visualized, just like walking down a sidewalk.

“In dominos, each event touches the next. The structure of the game, what nature allows, determines the general line of play, and the individual characteristics of each piece and how they interact with the adjoining pieces determines the outcome.”

He fanned his arm across the table, skimming the sleeve of his robe over the teacups and dominos. When he drew back his arm, all the dominos were blank. All the white dots had disappeared. Nothing but black rectangles sat among their cups.

“Without conflict, there is nothing. Without struggle for balance, there is nothing. No movement. No progress. No meaning. To accommodate evolution, rules of logic must be established and applied to allow movement.”

With a swipe of his arm, the dots of the original game reappeared. “And we can play.”

With another swipe of his arm, all of the dominos appeared separated, as if someone had bumped the table.

“With complete chaos, the game cannot be played because evolution will cease. Chaos strives for completeness, but to accept it, the game ends. Nothing exists. To exist, Chaos needs interaction. So they allow the game but strive for complete dystopia to gain the most power.”

Another swipe and the dominos were all reconnected into the original game, but the dominos on half of the table were all filled with the fullest number of white dots, whereas the other half had single dots.

“They want to crush—force submission. Create a dystopian world downtrodden in perpetual servitude.”

“Wolves,” Nova said. “Need to eat something.”

With another swipe of his arm, the original game appeared.

“In games, just as in life, there is luck. Our luck influences the game by what we draw. Chess has predetermined pieces, but if you are lucky enough to draw white, you win the first move. In most card games or games of dominos, you draw each round, not just at the beginning of the game; thus, you have a far greater chance to inject luck into the game. Some are very lucky and can draw goodness that is effective towards harmony. Good influencers.” He picked up a single piece in the middle of the path of dominos. It had two white dots on it. He placed it back down, and when he did, it had six dots on it.

“Luck can make a hero.”

“But the smallest amount of luck on each draw can make a difference. A little nudge of luck on all pieces can change the entire outcome of a game. Influence the path.” With a flick of his hand, all of the single-dot dominos became two dots. “If we all did just a little good with a little more help from luck, the manipulation of the path towards good would be far greater than the ability of a single hero.”

“So what now? What does this mean? What does it have to do with us?” Darius asked.

“And who is baby?”

“No.” Brock raised his finger, now adopting the universal sign for the holder of the talking stick. “First, what happened with the explosion? How did we get here?”

“Yes. Explain trip to Grandmother’s house,” Nova said.

This time Badrik spoke. “Your future had ended where you were. That was a result of Chaos. Law allows us to extract you, as you no longer had a future there,” Badrik continued, “and you are under our contract. Our protection. You were correct in saying that we were recruiting you at the time. Imagine games of dominos being played on each one of these tables. Before one of these tables was destroyed, where a game was being played, we were allowed to take three dominos off that table to preserve them for another game.”

“But the next game hasn’t started yet. We are players not yet in play?” Brock stated.

“And this place is between tables,” Nova said.

“Yes, to both of you. Very well put,” Badrik replied.

“I don’t like this,” Brock said. “This is…”

“Ha!” Nova pointed at him. “YOU baby! You starting to worry, baby? You going to fall out of tree, baby?”

Brock shot her a dark look. “Actually, I think the baby is Darius,” he said thoughtfully.

“No. He is to know. Babies don’t know things. Darius, if he knows, he would know if he’s in tree or not. Darius. Are you in tree?”

“I don’t know.”

“Who is the machine?” Brock asked. “Yesterday, you and Mr. Mercury spoke of a machine intelligence you were working for.”

“It is on a future table, but it can reach back into time. It is threatened, and as the keeper of mankind’s future existence, that too is threatened. It has used all the tools it has at hand. The machine has played all the options, run all the very best games of dominos it possibly can, and it sees it will lose,” Master Hiruko said. “So it searched for help in the fields of things it didn’t understand and has discovered me, us.” She gestured to Badrik and the kitchen behind him. They could hear pots and dishes clattering softly from it. “Myself. And Badrik, Juro, and Joy help me. The machine has asked us to aid it.”

“The machine. In the tower. From my dream. When I went under for surgery,” Darius said and reflexively reached for the bandage on his cheek. He had forgotten about it. There was no bandage. No blood. Not even a soreness. Badrik nodded.

“So we’re going to help it?”

“We have given a little luck, a little nudge to some pieces,” the old man said.

“They need to get us into the game the machine is playing,” Brock said.

“Yes,” Badrik replied.

“And what are we going to do?” Darius asked.

“You will be influencers and win the game,” Badrik answered.

“Ah. See?” Nova said, “Old master, not looking at anyone else. He look only at Darius. You right.” She said to Brock, “Darius is baby.”

Nova stood up and leaned on the table towards Darius. “They going to show you tree. You better not fall, baby.”