Year's Best Scifi 2 Part 42

He would burn the ziggurat tomorrow. He would have to, if he were not to lose everything he had takenfrom it, and be accused of the murder of the dead woman in the leaf bag, too-would have to, if he wished to keep Tamar.

But might not the time device, submerged who could say how deep in the lake, perhaps buried in mud at the bottom as well, survive and continue to function as it did now? Fishermen on Haunted Lake might see the sun stand still, while hours drifted past. Had the device spread itself through time to give the lake its name? He would buy up all the lakeside property, he decided, when the profits of the new company permitted him to.

"We're going to build a new cabin," he told the sleeping Tamar. "A house, really, and a big one, right on the sh.o.r.e there. We'll live in that house, you and me, for a long, long time, and we'll have children."

Very gently, her fingers tightened around his.

Story Copyrights

"Think Like a Dinosaur" copyright 1995 by James Patrick Kelly.

"Wonders of the Invisible World" copyright 1995 by Patricia A. McKillip.

"Hot Times in Magma City" copyright 1995 by Agberg, Ltd. Reprinted by permission of Agberg, Ltd.

"Gossamer" copyright 1995 by Stephen Baxter.

"A Worm in the Well" copyright 1995 by Abbenford a.s.sociates.

"Downloading Midnight" copyright 1995 by William Browning Spencer.

"For White Hill" copyright 1995 by Joe Haldeman.

"In Saturn Time" copyright 1995 by William Barton.

"Coming of Age in Karhide" copyright 1995 by Ursula K. Le Guin. First appeared in New Legends.

Reprinted by permission of the author and the author's agent, Virginia Kidd.

"The Three Descents of Jeremy Baker" copyright 1995 by Roger Zelazny. Reprinted by permission of the author's agent, The Pimlico Agency.

"Evolution" copyright 1995 by Nancy Kress. First appeared in Asimov's Science Fiction.

"The Day the Aliens Came" copyright 1995 by Robert Sheckley.

"Microbe" copyright 1995 by Joan Slonczewski. First appeared in a.n.a.log. Reprinted by permission of Valerie Smith, Literary Agent.

"The Ziggurat" copyright 1995 by Gene Wolfe. First appeared in Full Spectrum 5. Reprinted by permission of the author and the author's agent, Virginia Kidd.