Rebel in the Library of Ever Read online

  “How about you come with me, then?” Lenora said. “I’ve got a patron who needs to know what the largest number is. You can help me find out.”

  “The largest number is infinity,” said the girl.

  “Infinity’s not really a number,” said Lenora. “It’s more complicated than that.”

  “Really?” said the girl, putting her fist to her chin as though deep in thought. “We could just ask Daddy. He knows everything.”

  “Maybe,” said Lenora hurriedly, “but don’t you think it might be more fun to find out ourselves? Finding answers around this place generally is.”

  The girl brightened. “That’s a great idea! Okay! But I—” And then she stopped.

  Lenora, somehow, knew exactly why. She turned around slowly to see a young woman, dressed in a suit—but it was not a young woman at all, Lenora knew. And she was glaring at Lenora with a twisted face.

  “Princess,” said the “woman” in a voice dripping with bile, “you are to come with me immediately. And you are not to associate with this—girl—ever again.”

  Princess? thought Lenora.

  Princess stomped one of her extremely large platform shoes. “I’m not going anywhere with you! I’m going with her and we’re going on a mission to find out—”

  “A secret mission…” muttered Lenora.

  “To—to find out something,” Princess finished weakly.

  The woman fixed Lenora with a vile look that felt like it could punch a hole in the wall, but Lenora held her ground. She’d seen worse, and she responded with a firm and calm face that let the woman know exactly that.

  “The Director will hear about this,” snapped the woman, and with a whoosh of air and a popping sound, she vanished.

  Princess shivered. “I don’t like those people.”

  “Neither do I,” replied Lenora, which hardly covered it.

  “But don’t worry,” Princess said. “They all work for Daddy, and Daddy gives me anything I want. They won’t hurt us.”

  Lenora was not so sure about that, not so sure about that at all. She thought it would be a very good idea to get out of there as quickly as possible. But first—

  “Princess?” Lenora said. “Princess of what?”

  “Oh, I’m not a princess,” said Princess. “That’s just what Daddy always calls me, and so everyone else does, too.”

  “Well, I’m not calling you Princess,” said Lenora. “What’s your real name?”

  “I hate my real name,” said the girl.

  “Then pick something else,” said Lenora. “Just be quick about it. I don’t think we should stick around here much longer.”

  “Anything?” said the girl, smiling wide. “Wow. No one ever let me do that before, no matter how much I complained! How about … how about Lucy? She’s my favorite character from the book I read.”

  The book you’ve read? thought Lenora. This girl had read only one book? Lenora had so many questions, but now was not the time. Taking Lucy by the hand, she headed for the Tube station, and the girl came along eagerly.

  Luckily, Lucy was small enough that she could squeeze into the cracked leather seat right beside Lenora. Lenora scanned the slots, hoping that the one she wanted hadn’t gone dark. But then she found it, and slid her key into place.

  “Googology?” said Lucy as the tube took off with a swoosh. “What’s that?”

  “The study of large numbers,” said Lenora. “I figure that’s the place to start.”

  CHAPTER SIX

  Lenora in the Dark

  Lenora and Lucy sped through the darkness outside the tube toward Googology. Lenora did not like this darkness at all. A thought came to her: The lamps are going out all over the Library. This was something Lenora had read about Europe at the beginning of the First World War—a man had said, The lamps are going out. The second part of the quote went: We shall not see them lit again in our lifetime. Lenora was determined that this part would not come true. Knowledge Is a Light, she knew, and that Light would return to the Library if she had anything to say about it.

  They arrived, and as both girls went under the archway into Googology, Lenora was surprised to see that there was nothing here but a large, round room with a domed ceiling, and nothing to do with large numbers anywhere in sight. In the middle of the floor, however, was a big circular hole. She walked to the edge and looked down, Lucy right beside her.

  “What is that?” Lucy asked.

  Lenora thought for a moment. Quite obviously, it was a slide, and one that spiraled down and down to a destination she could not see. But this slide was made of something very strange, and yet somehow familiar from the many math books she’d read, and after a moment she snapped her fingers. “A slide rule.”

  “A slide what?”

  Lenora pointed. “See how the slide is all covered with numbers? And there’s a bar in the middle that slides back and forth. Or at least it could, before the slide rule got turned into a slide.”

  “So it’s a ruler,” said Lucy.

  “Not quite,” replied Lenora. “A slide rule was a computer you could operate by hand. You could use it for division and multiplication, and also for functions such as roots, exponents, trigonometry, logarithms…”

  “Uh, what?”

  Lenora shook her head. “Don’t worry about it for now. I’ll lend you a copy of Computers: The First Two Thousand Years later. The important thing is that they were used for centuries to do a lot of work that people would use electronic computers for later. Knowing the Library, this is probably the world’s longest slide rule, and once it wasn’t needed anymore, some clever librarian turned the slide rule into a slide.”

  “So what do we do now?”

  “What do you think?” said Lenora, and hopped onto the slide. She immediately found herself shooting down the dizzying spiral, all kinds of digits flashing around on all sides (she even spotted a π), as though she’d been caught up in a tornado of numbers.

  She twisted around and saw that Lucy had followed her, her face covered in unbridled glee. This is rather fun, Lenora thought. She’d been so caught up in her serious worries about the Library that she’d forgotten about all the fun she had promised Lucy. So she lay back and whooped with delight, and so did Lucy.

  Down and down they spun, shrieking and laughing, until the slide’s steep slope grew more gradual, and then finally flattened out entirely and they both came to a giggling stop.

  “Phew,” said Lenora, sitting up. “I needed that.” But then she said nothing more, for she was stunned by what she saw before her.

  Stretching far out in front of them was the longest room Lenora had ever seen, and that was saying something. The room was well lit at the beginning, where the girls sat, but there were fewer and fewer lights as the very tall shelves continued down (Lenora was relieved to see actual books on them), until in the far distance all she could see was total darkness. Utter silence surrounded them and they were completely alone. This was a bit eerie, but Lenora could sense no presence of the Forces of Darkness (How can I do that? she wondered). The darkness far away down this long room was only ordinary darkness, nothing more.

  She stood and took a few steps toward the row of shelves, marveling at the books stacked on them. They were like no books she’d seen before. They made the huge book she’d once found in History of Science look like a matchbox in comparison. Some of them seemed to be as tall as Malachi, others dozens or hundreds of feet tall. They’d be utterly impossible to read, and if one of them contained the world’s largest number, there was absolutely no way she’d ever be able to lend it to that boy. She continued forward, pondering, when she suddenly heard a clomping rush of feet and then found Lucy cowering beside her, clutching Lenora’s hand, her face white as could be.

  “What’s wrong?” asked Lenora.

  “This is scary!” whispered Lucy shakily.

  Lenora looked at the long, dark hall. She supposed this was rather scary, but after the things she had seen, the thought had not occu
rred to her. “There, there,” she said soothingly, patting Lucy’s hand. “There’s nothing bad here.” At least, nothing as bad as the Forces. What else there might be, she couldn’t say. Then she remembered Malachi’s instructions never to lie to the girl. She corrected herself quickly. “There’s nothing as bad as those people who work for your father, anyway.”

  “Daddy would never hire anyone bad,” objected Lucy, bristling a little. “They’re just … creepy.”

  Lenora decided to leave that alone for now. “Well, if there is any danger, don’t worry. I plan to protect you.” And that was very much true.

  Then they both jumped a foot in the air when a voice out of nowhere said, “Hello. How may I help you?”

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  Lenora and 〇

  Lenora tried to spin around and look everywhere for the source of the voice, which was somewhat difficult, as Lucy was clinging to her and shrieking her head off. For a moment she thought this might be another invisible memory, like the spectral girl she’d met in the Library of Forgotten Knowledge. But then she saw it—a slight shimmering, hardly visible, floating in the air beside them.

  “Shh, shh,” Lenora said to Lucy, patting her on the back. “It’s just a librarian.” Though she had no idea what kind of librarian this was, she simply knew it was, just like she knew a member of the Forces on the spot.

  Lucy stopped shrieking and sniffed. “Where?”

  Lenora pointed to the shimmering. “Right there.”

  Lucy looked. “I don’t see anything.”

  “Hmm,” said Lenora. “Well, you’ll have to trust me.” And then, to the shimmering, she said, “It’s nice to meet you. May I ask your name?” For this librarian had no visible badge.

  “I am 〇,” said the shimmering, and Lucy yelped again at what Lenora supposed must seem like a voice coming from absolutely nothing.

  “Excuse me?” said Lenora, for she could not quite understand the name the shimmering had used.

  “〇,” said the voice again. “But I suppose that might be difficult for you to say. I am one of the new Chinese characters introduced by Empress Wu Zetian, the only woman ever to reign over China, in 689. Originally, I meant ‘star,’ but nowadays people mostly use me to mean ‘zero,’ which is rather disappointing.”

  “Perhaps we can just call you Star, then?” inquired Lenora.

  “That would be lovely,” sighed Star.

  Lenora could see that Lucy was still trembling. Poor thing, thought Lenora. Obviously this type of experience was quite new to her. “Star,” she asked, “is it possible you could make yourself visible to my friend?”

  “Oh, yes,” replied Star, and immediately an 〇 the size of a large dinner plate was floating in front of them.

  “Wow!” yelped Lucy, dropping Lenora’s hand immediately. “Who … what … how?!?”

  “It is rather complicated,” replied Star. “Perhaps if we had a few months, I could explain.”

  “Unfortunately, we actually have very little time at the moment,” said Lenora.

  “Well, maybe later,” said Lucy, her voice full of longing.

  Lenora wanted to ask Star questions about what had happened to the Library, but knew she should not, when listening devices could be all around. Since Star had been invisible to Lucy, though, Lenora supposed Star could hide from anyone who wasn’t a real librarian, including the Forces. Lenora wished greatly that she had this power. She resolved to return here and learn more, after matters with the Library were straightened out.

  For now, Lenora decided it was best to stick with the topic at hand. “Star, I have a patron who is looking for the world’s largest number. Can you tell me what it is?”

  Surprisingly, a tremble rippled through Star, and Lenora sensed fear. “I can tell you many things about large numbers,” said Star. “But that … I am afraid I cannot help you with. As a number myself, there are realms into which I dare not venture.” And Star turned to face the deep darkness at the very far end of the hall. “Perhaps you and your friend could enter them, if you are brave.”

  Lenora worried about Lucy, for the girl had not sworn the librarian’s oath to venture forth bravely, as Lenora had. But then she noticed Lucy was no longer clinging to her, and had in fact wandered over to the books on the long shelf. Perhaps she could adjust more quickly than it had seemed at first. Lenora went over to have a look.

  Lucy pointed to the title of what was one of the thinnest books on the shelf. “Googol,” she said, pronouncing the name on the cover. “What’s that?”

  Lenora turned the cover. Inside the book was only a single page of paper, and on it was nothing but a one followed by a very long string of zeros.

  Star floated over. “A googol is simply one followed by a hundred zeros. A nine-year-old named Milton Sirotta invented the term.”

  Lenora already had her notebook out, and wrote quickly: googol—word invented by ambitious nine-year-old.

  Star went on. “It is a rather famous and interesting number, but it is certainly not the longest, and has little use in mathematics. We keep it here only for historical interest.” Star dipped to indicate another thin book nearby, titled Avogadro’s Number. Lenora opened it to find a single page on which was written 602,214,150,000,000,000,000,000. “Avogadro’s number,” Star explained, “which is used to count up atoms and molecules for certain measurements, has a meaningful purpose in chemistry. That is what we mean by ‘large numbers’ in Googology. Numbers that mean something in the real world can be used to form equations and learn new truths, and can be counted up using one, two, three, four, and so on. And I suspect that is the very question your patron is asking. What is the largest number that has a meaning and purpose?”

  Lenora looked down the long shelf, at books that were hundreds of feet high, and wondered what those books contained if they didn’t contain the world’s largest number.

  She was just about to ask Star, when Lucy spoke up. “Oh great. More creeps.”

  Lenora whipped around. Three people were sliding down the slide.

  No, not people, and not sliding, either. They were gliding, all three in a row, two men and one woman, all staring straight at Lenora. These were the Forces, and she was sure they were coming for her.

  Star saw them, too. “I must hide. You two, quickly, run. Run as far as you can, all the way to…” But Star’s words faded as the 〇 became only a shimmering once more. Lenora knew the Forces could not see it, but if Star spoke, they would know it was there. And so she grabbed Lucy’s hand and tried to run.

  But Lucy wouldn’t move. “Don’t be afraid, Lenora! Watch.” She turned to the three Forces, who were nearly to the bottom of the slide. “You get out of here right now! You are scaring my friend.”

  The Forces did not stop. If anything, having now reached the bottom of the slide, they were gliding even faster, straight at the girls.

  Lucy went very, very pale. “Run,” Lenora said firmly, and this time Lucy ran.

  The girls raced down the long, long shelf toward the deep darkness at its end. The Forces came on swiftly. Lenora risked a glance over her shoulder and saw they were gaining. Then she and Lucy came to a complete stop, for now they had reached a wall of darkness, covering the entire end of the room.

  Both girls whipped around, their backs to the dark. And Lenora saw something strange. The Forces had stopped coming for them, and were now drifting back and forth, casting anxious glances up at the dark wall.

  “They’re scared of it,” murmured Lenora in astonishment. She had never seen them show fear before. She could feel Lucy gripping her hand harder than ever.

  Lenora could hear something now, something coming out of the dark. A whispering, a very faraway whispering, and then more and more, until there were dozens of whisperings coming from what seemed like an unimaginable distance.

  The Forces appeared to have come to a decision, and resumed their advance toward Lenora and Lucy, slowly and deliberately this time. Lenora came to a decision, too. To escape th
ese three, there was no other choice.

  “Let’s go,” she said. Lucy nodded.

  Hands clasped, they stepped backward into the dark.

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  Lenora and the Whispering Hoards

  Lenora backed into the darkness and Lucy came with her. Once in, she found it was not completely dark—she could see Lucy faintly, as though by starlight. The distant whisperings could still be heard. Her heart pounding, she waited to see if the Forces would follow. They did not. Whatever was here, the Forces feared it. Lenora just hoped that anything the Forces feared meant nothing but good for her and Lucy.

  “Uh, Lenora?” said Lucy. “What are we standing on?”

  Lenora looked down. She had been right—almost—about the starlight. Faint points of light could be seen in all directions, up, down, and everywhere else. But they were not stars, for they did not twinkle. And they were not in space, where stars do not twinkle, because they could still breathe.

  “I’m not sure,” she admitted, for they seemed to be standing on nothing at all. She took a step, to see if they could walk. They could.

  “What’s that?” asked Lucy, pointing.

  Lenora saw in the near distance what appeared to be a sign, lit from below by glowing lights. That made sense. This was still a library exhibition, after all, even if it was a very strange one, and things would have explanations somewhere. Toward the sign they went.

  Soon they were standing in front of it, and both read silently:

  I have this vision of hoards of shadowy numbers lurking out there in the dark, beyond the small sphere of light cast by the candle of reason. They are whispering to each other; plotting who knows what. Perhaps they don’t like us very much for capturing their smaller brethren with our minds. Or perhaps they just live uniquely numberish lifestyles, out there beyond our ken.

  —Douglas Reay

  This sign was not at all helpful, but it sent a chill through Lenora. The whispering—were those hoards (she did not know why the word was hoards and not hordes, but somehow that made the message even more frightening) of shadowy numbers, plotting?