Sound system pumping, Pearl rocketed up the gradual ascent towards the ancient crater known as the Dish, lying nestled deep amongst the arid uplands of the state's interior.

As she crested a final shallow ridge, becoming briefly airborne in the process, the massive geological scar materialised out of the heat haze, the walls of the weathered landmark stark against the endless, aching blue of the cloudless sky. Shifting down through the gears, Peregrine pulled the Jag into a crumbling, weed-filled carpark, from the edge of which—just discernible amongst the undergrowth—a single, narrow path meandered up to and over the edge of the crater.

Two other vehicles were already in the carpark.

One of them was occupied.

"Thank goodness you're here. I'm afraid Frank may be in terrible danger. You simply must help him."

Radovic—the occupant of the car had turned out to be Dr Radovic, the bearded scientist from the Novus institute, looking hot, bothered, and somewhat ludicrous in his now rather dishevelled and sweaty lab coat.

Peregrine looked the little man up and down. "Whoa there, pal. We're happy to help, but first we need some facts. What the hell are you doing all the way out here?"

"Of course, of course, agent. Forgive my abruptness. Allow me to explain. You see, after your visit to the Institute this morning, I became quite concerned about Frank. I knew his interests had become somewhat...strange, but it wasn't until I saw federal agents were involved that it occurred to me he might actually be in serious trouble. I tried calling him, but there was no answer, either at his house or on his mobile phone, and as I mentioned, nobody has seen him at work for quite some time. I was at something of a loss, but then recalled Frank had mentioned doing some fieldwork out here at the crater recently, collecting rare-earth mineral samples. So, for lack of any better options, I decided to come out to look for him."

"And?" asked Fields.

"Well, as you can see for yourselves, my hunch was correct—that's his car over there. I was just about to make the climb over into the bowl when the noises began."

"Noises?"

"Oh, yes—frightful noises. Rumbling and roaring and goodness knows what." He cocked his head to one side. "They seem to have stopped now. But I'm ashamed to say I found myself altogether too frightened to make the climb. I'm a scientist, I'm afraid, not a man of action. I was sitting in the car, debating my next move, when you arrived. And thank goodness you did. Please, you must go and check on Frank. Who knows what trouble the poor fellow has gotten himself into?"

Relieved to have a clear course of action presented to him, Fields shrugged out of his jacket and tossed it into the rear seat of the Jag. "Right. Embers and Al, you stay here with Dr Radovic. Peregrine, let's go."

The female agent looked up at the winding, overgrown trail, before winking at her partner. "Bet you wish you'd carbed up now, huh?" Pausing briefly to check the seating of her gun in its shoulder holster, she set off towards the crater. "So glad I didn't become an accountant."

"Now, hold on just a damn minute." Cape swirling, the entity followed in Peregrine's wake. "Stay here? I think not. I didn't come all this way just for the somewhat dubious pleasure of your company. Even less so this hairy fellow." He made a dismissive gesture in Radovic's direction.

"Oh, you're so charming." She elbowed Fields in the ribs. "Prince Charming. Get it? Ha! Seriously Al, you don't need to come with us. You showed us where to go, and that's all we asked. You should stay here where it's safe. Well, safer."

"Peregrine, you don't get it, do you? Do you honestly think I'm here for your benefit? In that crater, just minutes from where we stand, there is quite possibly a man with the power to bridge universes. The power to access other dimensions. At his will. Can't you see what that means?"

"Um. Dead princesses? Confused agents? Lotsa lame wand jokes?"

Al shook his head. "What it means, Agent Peregrine, is that within that crater there may be a man with the power to do something I have never seen before, in the entire length and breadth of my millennia-spanning, multiverse-wide existence. The power to provide the one thing I have longed for, above all others. You see, within that crater there may be a man with the power to put me back together again."

Eyes wide, Peregrine processed this for a few seconds, before cracking into a grin. "Okay, got it. Come on, then, Humpty-Dumpty—let's get moving."

Even sans jacket, Fields was finding his tailored navy-blue suit and highly polished brogues to be less than ideal hiking-wear. It was a sweaty, scratched and somewhat scruffy agent who finally arrived at the crest of the crater wall, with Peregrine and Al just behind him.

Pausing to catch his breath, he surveyed the weathered, cave-pocked slopes that swept out from either side of him, wrapping around to form the enormous, enclosed bowl of the Dish, a kilometre or more across. Even now, some fifty millennia after the meteorite's impact, it was impossible not to feel a hint of the colossal forces involved in the creation of such a massive, lasting monument. Small and forlorn, dwarfed by the immensity of the crater, a cluster of low white buildings lay towards its centre.

"Phew." Wiping perspiration from her forehead, Peregrine joined Fields on the rim. "Wow. That is one big-arse hole."

With a frown, Fields glanced back at Al, confused for a moment before his brain determined the correct location for the hyphen in Peregrine's statement. "Oh, right. Yeah, it is. Still, at least it's downhill, from here." He squinted at the buildings. "Hey, can you see something moving down there?"

"Hmm, maybe." Peregrine shaded her eyes. "My contacts aren't doing so well in this dry air. Hey, Al—any chance of a heads-up on what's waiting for us?"

Breathing even and face composed, with not a thread out of place, the former prince moved up between the two agents, placing one glistening leather-booted foot on the very rim of the crater. Effortlessly poised, expression serene, he regarded the distant buildings with a regal gaze, as a fortuitous gust of wind fetchingly ruffled his glossy, jet-black hair.

"Agent Peregrine, as you well know, I am an entity of utterly mind-boggling capabilities. Despite my modest beginnings, I now possess a consciousness that spans countless realities, a hyper-intelligence that reaches across the multiverse, a vast quantum network of seething, pulsing, living nodes, ever-evolving, ever-growing, ever-learning. Truly, it is beyond your human ability to even begin to grasp the phenomenal breadth and depth of my capacity, of my vision, of my very power."

"Right. So, that'd be a 'yes', then?"

"Of course." The chiselled features displayed just the tiniest hint of discomfiture. "Only...not precisely, I'm afraid. You must understand that my powers, while vast"—at his expectant look, Peregrine dutifully put on her best impressed face—"are not without limits. After all, my dispersal across the multiverse was the result of an accident, unplanned and unexpected, and was therefore, rather...messy."

"Okay. So, that's a 'no'?"

Al sighed, all trace of arrogance gone. "It's a 'sort of', Peregrine. My presence in each reality varies. In some, such as this one, I am fully present, fully conscious, and consequently in full possession of my powers. In others, I am but the merest trace of awareness, nothing more than the whisper of a suggestion of myself. My capability in each reality varies accordingly. You see—"

"Look, that's all very fascinating," interrupted Fields, his tone making it clear just how fascinated he was, "but can you get to the point? Do you know what the hell's down there or not?"

The entity shrugged. "Alas, most of the recent imports have been from realms where my presence is limited. I'm beginning to get a sense of them, now that they are in this world, but it will be some time before I can tell you much."

"Figures." Fields drew his gun. "You know what they say—don't bring a pan-dimensional entity to a gunfight. Looks like we're doing this old-school." He took a single step over the edge of the crater but was brought up short as the hint of movement amongst the buildings became more definite—much more definite. "What is that?"

"Yes, well, there I can be of assistance," Al replied, with a lopsided grin. "I don't know much about the majority of the things your scientist friend has just brought into this world." The movement had by now become a discernible object, which, as they watched, launched into the shimmering air. Faintly, on the breeze, there came a distant rumble. "However, there is one particular item I've been able to identify quite accurately. In this one case I was quite specific in my description to myself."

Climbing ever higher, the object angled towards them, rapidly growing in size as it ate up the distance at an astonishing—and disturbing—rate.

"Yes, to be honest, I quite gave me the heebie-jeebies. You see, I'm afraid the object in question is indisputably—"

Pointing with a trembling finger, Fields interrupted. "That looks like—"

Face pale, Peregrine cut him off. "It can't possibly be—"

"—a dragon," finished Al testily. "Look, if you're going to go around interrupting me mid-pronouncement, then why even bother having an entity at all? I don't know, no respect. Oh, there is one more thing, though."

Unable to tear his eyes away from the colossal silvery-scaled creature, which now seemed to half-fill the sky, Fields managed a shaky, "What?"

"Run."