Web of Everywhere by John Brunner

very different here, by the way, than where you hail from.’
    ‘Where is here?’ she asked tremulously.
    A brief hesitation. Safe? Well, worth risking, to gain her confidence.
    ‘We’ve come to Sweden.’
    Her response was a distracted nod. The gamble had paid off. For her, no doubt, it was a name on an old map, corners ragged from the attentions of termites, lacking referents.
    She said, ‘No, not very different. Also at Festeburg nothing could be left for more than a day or two without becoming very dirty … Is that snow?’
    She was gazing at the windows.
    ‘Snow? Yes, of course it is!’
    ‘I heard about it. But I never saw any before.’
    Hans relaxed so violently he almost gasped. It was going to be easier than he’d dared to dream, convincing this youngster he was telling the truth about Dany. His mind fermented with ideas: leave her here, afraid to use the skelter without a companion, trapped for as long as proved necessary to sort things out … There was no evidence of his illegal trips, even in his dark-room, for the police to find; he could ask Karl Bonetti to confirm that Dany had made scores of suicide threats without putting any of them into practice; he could arrange to have his hallway redecorated so Anneliese wouldn’t recognize anything, or better yet he could move to another country, another continent …
    It could all be done in forty-eight hours.
    Too bad that he would have to sacrifice the would-have-been star entry in his secret files – but at the very edge of his mind hovered the idea that from now on he might not be paying so much attention to his hobby.
    This girl Anneliese: given the way she’d been brought up, she might well be susceptible to the ancient notion that marriage was a woman’s only security. What would shedesire more than security in this weird, unfamiliar world?
    To have a young bride … Ho,
ho!
It must be a decade or more since a man in his thirties married a girl of seventeen!
    He took a frenzied grip on himself, aware that he was still a little drunk despite the sobering shock of seeing Aleuker’s home attacked, and then finding Dany. It was too soon to let his dreams run away with him.
    He said, ‘Anneliese – dear – I think you look tired. Should I prepare a bed for you? There’s a room you can sleep in, over there.’
    He pointed toward the child’s room, forgetting that he’d left its door ajar and the weak sunlight would reveal the toys, books and scattered clothes. She smiled and turned her head, and instantly was bewildered.
    ‘You – you are married? You have children?’
    Invention, quickly! Something that can’t be used against me!
    His tone was so smooth it astonished him as he replied.
    ‘Ah, this is my old family home. You heard that there was – well, what we call the Blowup? And after that, plagues and epidemics?’
    A nod. ‘I don’t understand much about it, but they did tell me. It must have been very terrible.’
    ‘Yes, it was…. Well, I had a sister. She died. And my parents are dead as well. I – ah – I never felt inclined to change things here, if you see what I mean.’
    ‘Yes, I think so.’
    ‘But it was a long time ago. It’s foolish to live with the dead past. Now you are here, I have an excuse to clear away what I kept as mementos – no, sit down! Stay by the fire!’ Pushing her gently, one hand on her soft warm shoulder. Somehow his fingers remained in contact with her and they were looking at each other, eyes direct into eyes.
    There was a stillness.
    ‘Poor little girl,’ Hans said at last. ‘To be cast adrift in this strange world … it must be awful. Trust me, though, and I’ll see you come to no harm.’
    Unexpectedly from her bright dark eyes a pair of tears spilled over.
    ‘Thank you, sir,’ she muttered almost inaudibly.
    ‘Not sir! Call me Hans!’
    ‘Yes please. If you don’t mind …? Yes, it is a fearful new world for me, and I know so little about it. I can’t even find my way around, let