From Surgipelago, the Beach Surgery encyclopedia
The Service Station at the Boundary
Crossing the red desert in a stolen utility vehicle, Leif and Katita spot a remote service station at a grid intersection that appears to shift between orientations whenever neither looks directly at it. Inside, they find a mechanic tending a petrol pump—the same man Leif tackled in Newcastle. When Leif's vision splits into ten layered versions of the man's hands, each turning a different wrench, Katita drags him toward the radio igloo. Raising the broadcast frequency to a wavelength the autonomous diesel data-harvesters cannot penetrate also corrects Leif's doubled sight. Katita: “It's getting ready.” The pressure beneath his shoulder-blades intensifies. The mechanic, in all ten versions, smiles.