"You know your stripper from your paint
You know your sinner from your saint
So much better than the rest
You think you've been blessed,
But I know you." - Peter Gabriel 'Steam'.
It seemed to Reggie like he had been walking for hours. The mysterious sound he had first heard upon awakening had resolved itself into an Earthly rock and roll radio station, complete with commercial breaks and pauses for station identification. But what a radio would be doing in a place like this was completely beyond him. An organ playing dirges was a possibility in a place like this, but not what he was hearing now. Equally puzzling to him were the endless row of chalkboards with their cryptic symbols. This was hardly surprising. Even someone with a doctorate in theoretical physics probably would have understood the meaning of only a tenth of what was written on those boards. And what they did understand would have bought them a oneway ticket to the rubber room. So, all things considered, perhaps it was just as well that Reggie's former career as an icecream vendor had not required any training in higher mathematics.
As he walked alongside the row of blackboards and the silver columns that supported them, Reggie had to fight a perverse urge to deface them somehow, by erasing them or possibly altering them. It was tempting, but it would probably annoy whoever the author was. And there was a large possibility looming in his mind that the creator of this mathematical nightmare was the Tall Man. And that dude was bad enough news without getting him pissed off.
Coming over the top of what seemed like the thousanth red dune he had climbed, Reggie finally saw the source both of the music, and the line of chalkboards he had been following. A black suited figure stood in front of one of the boards, writing furiously. For a second, Reggie thought it was the Tall Man, but he didn't seem like the type to carelessly throw his jacket into a heap on the ground. Or to suddenly stop writing and start a strange skipping sort of a dance around what had to be the weirdest looking radio he had ever seen.
Looking more closely at the scene before him, Reggie saw the four barrels of his shotgun poking out from under the discarded jacket. A plan began to form in his mind. First he would deal with whoever this weirdo was and get his shotgun. Then he would find the Tall Man and save Mike. In fact, maybe a few rounds of buckshot would persuade this - whoever it was- to give him some information. Like maybe where he could find the Tall Man in the middle of this huge place. He was about to look for a large rock to use for a weapon, when his sore ankle twisted under him and a small avalanche of sand fell down the side of the dune.
Below him, the figure looked up, and Reggie could see that it was definitely not the Tall Man. In fact, it wasn't a man at all, but a young woman. She set down the chalk in her hand and waved at him.
"Come down here!" She ordered, as if there were no question of his not obeying. For a minute he considered running away, but where would he run to? Besides, his shotgun was still down there and he felt naked without it.
At the bottom of the dunes, the racket of the jury rigged radio was truly incredibly loud. Well, maybe it was keeping the dwarves away. He certainly hadn't seen any around since... well since he got here actually. Lacking anything better to say, he wave a hand at the row of chalkboards that stretch along the path he had taken. "Mind telling me what's up with all the math, missy."
The woman gave him a glance that made him shiver. There was a pale look about her that reminded him of Mike when he had seen him last. "I'm checking my results."