She hurtled into the kitchen and skidded to a halt before him.
“I can see!” Tears coursed down her cheeks. “Dear God, I can see! It’s a miracle!”
“You could see before,” he said, maintaining a bland, unimpressed air. “You inspected my wounds many times and—”
“I could see blurry shapes and maybe a little more close up, but now I can really see! Everything is perfectly clear! It’s a miracle!”
Her joy was nauseating.
“Whatever was afflicting you has cleared up. That is hardly divine intervention.”
“Don’t you understand? I had AMD and it’s incurable. Now I can see. I call that a miracle!”
“As you wish.”
Her gaze narrowed. “Are you an angel?”
He hadn’t seen that one coming.
“A what?”
“An angel, sent here by God to test me?”
“That is perhaps the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard.”
“No … it makes sense to me now. God washed you up on shore to see if I’d be a good Samaritan and take care of you. And I did. So then He took Rocky from me to test me further. But still I didn’t reject Him. And so now I’m rewarded with my sight. Praise God!”
“Well, if I’m his angel, I wish he’d give me back my hand.” He remembered his cover story and forced a sob. “Or even better … my family.”
The cow added a sob of her own. “And I’d give up my sight if I could have Rocky back.”
“Maybe God has a mission for you that requires sight.”
She brightened. “You think so? I could be God’s instrument … I could do His work.”
“Yes. That would be wonderful.”
She looked around and made a face. “Having sight has its disadvantages. Look at this mess. I couldn’t see the dirt before. This place needs a good scrubbing.”
As she bustled off, Rasalom could not help but smile at the cow’s comment.
Having sight has its disadvantages …
She could not realize how true those words, for she would curse her sight and beg her god for return of her blindness when the horrors of the Change reached her little island.
3
Eddie rammed his shovel into the hard-packed dirt. “How long do we keep this up?”
“Digging?” Jack said, doing the same.
“Yeah. When do we reach the point where we say two shovels aren’t cutting it and go hire some help?”
Jack stopped and stared at the wall of hard-packed earth before them.
Good question.
And one Eddie would ask before either Jack or Weezy. Eddie had never seen the altered sigil. He’d only heard talk about it, so it wasn’t as real to him as to them. Jack could picture it right about here, leaning against the right-hand wall. But even if it hadn’t washed away, it might have fallen to the floor.
Eddie would also ask because he still looked shaken by last night’s events. Jack wasn’t untouched—he realized the danger they’d been in—and he was sure Weezy wasn’t either, but they’d learned to expect the unexpected and inexplicable. Eddie was still a long way from that.
Even though sunrise had brought everything back to normal, just as Weezy had predicted, Jack could tell Eddie wanted out of here. Because even though the hallway and beyond had been restored at first light, the two chairs they’d tossed through the door were nowhere in sight. They’d gone Somewhere Else.
Jack wondered if that might be the same Somewhere Else his brother Tom had been taken. In truth, he didn’t even know if his brother was alive. But if he was, and in the same Somewhere Else, at least now he had someplace to park his doughy butt.
But no matter what they found down here today, if they needed to stay over another night, they’d do it at the Lonely Pine Motel.
“Jack?” Eddie said. “The end point?”
“What?” He yanked himself back to the here and now. “Oh, sorry.” He shook his head. “I’m not sure.”
“Well, pick something. I need a target.”
“Why?”
“I’m goal directed. It’s the way my mind works. It needs an end point. Give me one.”
Jack thought a moment, then shrugged. “Two more feet.”
Didn’t sound like much, but with a passage ten feet wide and eight feet high, that was 160 cubic feet of dirt. Eddie’s daunted look said he realized that.
“And then what?”
“Then we call Tommy.”
“Do we know his number?”
Jack smiled. Eddie was already preparing for defeat. Jack wasn’t ready to concede yet.
“It was on the side of his truck.”
He squinted at Jack. “You remember it?”
“No, but I’ll bet your sister does.”
“Sister does what?” Weezy said from behind them as she descended the ladder.
“Remember Tommy the excavator’s phone number.”
“Sure.” She rattled it off as she slipped on her work gloves. “You giving up?”
“After two more feet,” Eddie said.
Weezy took the shovel from her brother and gave Jack a semi-stern look.
“Is we gonna stand here jawboning or is we gonna move some dirt?”
Before Jack could answer, she drove her shovel into the wall of dirt—
And hit something that went clink!
They all froze.
Jack said, “Do that again.”
She did, with the same result. Jack attacked the dirt in the area and within minutes a four-inch-wide expanse of gleaming black appeared.
“That look familiar?” he said.
“Does it ever.” Weezy’s smile was beatific as she turned to Eddie. “See? Same material as our little pyramid.”
“So we’ve found it?”
“We have.”
But they had a lot of digging left to do to free it from the earth.
4
Ernst jumped at the sound of a knock on the car window. He turned and saw some disfigured derelict peering at him through the rear passenger window.
Ernst waved him away. Probably wanted to wash the windshield or—
“Drexler, open the door.”
That voice … he knew that—oh, no, it couldn’t be! He looked closely and saw that it was.
The One.
He fumbled for the LOCK toggle. The buttons popped up and the One entered the rear of the car. Ernst gaped at him. The hair had been burned off the right side of his scalp; scars stippled his right cheek. And his hand … his left hand was—
“Close your mouth. You look foolish.”
“Yes, sir. It’s just that—”
“Someone tried very hard to kill me, Drexler. To make that attempt, they had to first find me. My presence at that house was supposed to be a secret.”
Ernst tried to read his eyes, but as usual, that proved impossible. Those pools of black infinity revealed nothing. How much did he know?
“Your whereabouts was known only at the highest levels—and to Doctor Heinze, of course.”
“Did that include you?”
Ernst swallowed. Best to stay close to the facts, if not the truth. He’d learned of the One’s whereabouts through indirect means. No one could be aware that he’d known.
“No. I had no idea. The Council informed me only after the attack.”
“I feel fear washing off you, Drexler. And while I find that enjoyable, I must ask: Are you guilty of something?”
“No-no. I’m simply afraid I’ll be suspected of something of which I am innocent. We—the High Council and I—believe we have pieced together what happened. Doctor Heinze visited the baby on Friday. We believe the baby’s mother—”
“Dawn Pickering—her body was found across the street.”
“Correct. She was convinced that her baby was still alive, and we now believe she was following Doctor Heinze. We spoke to the doctor and he hadn’t seen Dawn since he’d had her removed from his office last week. But we think she was following him and traile
d him to Nuckateague.”
The One looked troubled. “Sounds reasonable. It appears I underestimated that girl’s determination.”
“I assure you no one on our end let it slip. Gilda hadn’t left the South Fork for a week and Georges only once to drive you to the airport. And no one could have followed you to Nuckateague because you weren’t around.”
Ernst would have loved to know where the One went on his jaunts but knew better than to ask.
“Doctor Heinze’s visit might have led her to suspect her baby’s presence, but not mine.”
“If Dawn spotted either Georges or Gilda out there—and we believe she must have—it would be logical for her to assume that Mr. Osala was there too.”
“But Dawn Pickering did not mount that assault.”
He had a feeling the One knew the identity of his attacker—or had a pretty good idea who he was—but was testing Ernst in some way.
“No, of course not. My theory is that she informed Louise Myers—also known as Louise Connell—of the whereabouts of the baby.”
“That requires a leap in logic.”
Yes … definitely a test.
“Not so much, considering they lived across the hall from each other.”
Ernst wanted to add: Something you arranged. But he dared not. He was still baffled by the move. Weeks ago the One had instructed him to find the Connell woman—find and no more. Absolutely no contact. Ernst had succeeded almost immediately, and shortly thereafter the One moved Dawn in across the hall. He must have had a reason for that, but Ernst could not fathom what it might be. Now was not the time to ask …
Or was it?
“Is that why you moved Dawn so close to the Connell woman? So they would meet?”
“That is not your concern.”
Well, Ernst thought, glancing at the One’s scars and the stump of his wrist where it rested in his lap, whatever your plan, it certainly backfired.
“As you wish.”
“You knew the Connell woman as a youngster, Drexler. Do you think her capable of such an assault?”
“Louise Connell? No. A very determined young lady, but her weapon is her intellect. Her friend Jack, on the other hand … the one you were interested in … he’s another story.”
“Yes,” the One said. “The Heir is quite another story.”
Ernst jolted in his seat. He had never been struck by lightning, but this must be how it felt.
“Jack is the Heir?”
The One nodded. “Heir Apparent.”
Now Ernst understood why the One had grilled him in such detail about his early experiences with Jack.
“I knew it!”
The singed remnants of the One’s eyebrows lifted. “Did you, now?”
Watch it! Be careful here. Fabricate as little as possible.
“Well, I didn’t know, exactly. But he visited me on Thursday night asking where he might find you.”
“Really. For what purpose?”
Ernst’s mouth was dry. “To kill you.”
The One leaned back. “Interesting. And what did you tell him?”
“The truth: I had no idea where you were. He threatened me but became convinced I didn’t know. In fact, I laughed in his face at the possibility that he could succeed in harming you.”
Obviously, not such a laughing matter. Jack, you impress me more and more. But still … you failed.
Which put Ernst firmly back in the One’s camp.
“He very nearly did. Why didn’t you subdue him?”
“I tried but he was waiting for me when I entered my apartment and had disabled all my defenses.” Time to stretch the truth. “But I did call Szeto—”
“Ah, yes. Szeto. Where is he?”
Yes … your beloved Szeto …
“Alerted by me, Szeto and two of his men captured Jack and brought him to a property the Order keeps on the West Side. Szeto wished to torture him for revenge, I wanted information from him—specifically, how he knew about you being the One. I had surmised he was involved with the Enemy but had no idea he was the Heir. When I got there, Szeto and his two men were dead and Jack was gone.”
The One considered this. “Szeto did not strike me as the careless sort.”
“Well, in this case he was. Perhaps because he was so full of rage at Jack for killing so many of his men, and for the brutal beating he had suffered at his hands just weeks ago.” Ernst could not resist a final dig. “Szeto was competent, but I learned from my dealings with him that he suffered from an exalted estimation of his own abilities. If he had done his job, Jack would not have been around to attack you.”
The One appeared to mull this. “Still, he proved useful on a number of fronts. I shall miss Szeto.”
All but choking on the words, Ernst said, “We all will.”
Another protracted silence, and then the One said, “Drive me to the city. And as we travel, I want you to call the Council and tell them to send someone over to the Connell woman’s apartment—that is, if the Heir has left any to send.”
“We still have a few.”
“Tell them I want to know if she is there. If she is not, I want them to search her apartment for the Compendium of Srem.”
Another jolt, albeit of much lower voltage. Louise Connell had the Compendium?
“Yes, sir. And if they find it?”
“If it is there, do not touch it. If it is not, they are to leave her apartment exactly as they found it and report back to you.”
“As you wish,” Ernst said and reached for the phone.
“And while that is under way, tell the Council to send some of the local members of that Johnson, New Jersey, Lodge over to the building to see what is going on. I want a report as soon as possible.”
The Johnson Lodge? What could interest the One there?
“Right away. May I ask—?”
“You may not.”
The One leaned back and closed his eyes. The hideous injuries aside, he looked haggard, exhausted. Ernst had never dreamed anything like this could happen. And yet it had.
He wondered what that ancient twisted mind was planning.
Of one thing he was certain … Ernst was quite glad he was not Jack.
5
Jack hacked away at the last layer of dirt packed around the gleaming black sigil where it leaned against the wall. Neither time, the flood, nor the encasing dirt had dulled its onyx finish.
Since the sigil measured a half dozen feet across, they’d decided to excavate a narrow passage in front of it, free it from the dirt, and drag it out. The passage allowed room for only one, so the three of them rotated between digging and hauling away the loosened earth.
Behind him, Eddie said, “Careful. Don’t break it.”
Jack bit back a retort that might have come out sharper than intended. Eddie had morphed into a pest. Yes, Jack understood that the Lodge creeped him out and he wanted the place in his rearview mirror ASAP, but he was beginning to micromanage. Maybe that expanded his comfort zone, but it set Jack’s teeth on edge. Having dirt in his hair, his eyes, and down the back of his shirt didn’t help.
So he said, “Not to worry, Fredo.”
“Frodo?” he heard Eddie say to Weezy. “Why’s he calling me Frodo?”
“I said ‘Fredo,’” Jack called back. “And I’m getting in the mood to take you out on the lake for a little fishing.”
“Fishing? What’s he talking about?”
Jack heard Weezy laughing farther behind. “Never mind. And as for the stuff that sigil is made of, you can’t even scratch it.”
“Nice sentence structure,” Jack said.
She laughed again. “Oh, now you’re getting on me?”
“No,” he said as the last bit of dirt fell away from the top point of the sigil. “Now I’m getting this thing out of here. Eddie, give me a hand and we’ll see if we can shake it free.”
Eddie slipped in beside him. Together they both got two-handed grips on the spokes of the sigil and began rocking it back and for
th. Dirt rained on them as it became looser and looser.
“What is this thing made of?” Eddie said as they increased their efforts.
“Don’t know … but it looks like the same stuff as our little pyramid back in the day, and that was virtually indestructible.”
“It’s called tenathic,” Weezy said.
“Since when?”
“Since I read about it in the Compendium.”
He remembered Professor Nakamura telling him and Weezy that the folks at U of P hadn’t been able to identify the pyramid’s shiny black compound, mainly because they hadn’t been able to chip off a sample. Now he had a name for it: tenathic.
Finally it came free.
“Yeah!” Eddie shouted. “Yeah!”
“Okay. Let’s try to roll it out of here.”
They put their shoulders against the spokes, and Weezy pitched in by pulling on the free side, but the remaining section of the perimeter was jammed. Jack stepped up on one of the crosspieces and grabbed the perimeter. He could only vaguely make out the glyphs carved into the surface, but he could feel them against his palms. Something strange about them … something not right, but he couldn’t say just what.
Well, right or not right, it needed freeing up, so he tightened his grip and threw his weight backward—once … twice …
It loosened up on the third try. He dropped back to the floor and put his shoulder against the sigil. The three of them resumed their effort to roll it.
“Watch out for that point,” Jack told Weezy. “If this thing starts to move, it could—”
It moved and a point angled toward Weezy but she danced out of the way. Another couple of turns and it sat free in the passage. Dusting the dirt out of his hair, Jack stepped back with the others and stared at it.
Weezy said, “That has to be his Other name. Don’t you think? Can it be anything else?”
Jack looked at her eager face. “It had better be. It’s all we have.”
After they’d discovered the sigil this morning, Weezy had brought her backpack down. As she stepped over to where she’d tied it to the ladder, Jack leaned in for a closer look. He couldn’t say why it had felt so strange. But he recognized the glyphs.
The Dark at the End (Repairman Jack) Page 30