“I don’t know. I heard something pushing through the brush last night and thought it was another human. I was about to give it a shout when I heard it make a sound like a hiss. Right then I knew it wasn’t human. Or if it was, not any human I wanted anything to do with. Suddenly it seemed to catch on that I was there. It let out this ungodly screech and started charging my way.”
Jack saw Weezy’s eyes widen—she lived for this stuff—and he knew she was thinking about the tracks around the pyramid.
“What did it look like?” she said.
“I didn’t wait to see. I ran.”
“Obviously you won the race,” Jack said. Otherwise he wouldn’t be here to tell his tale.
He shook his head. “I might have in my college days, but I’m way out of shape. No, I got smart and climbed a tree.”
“And the thing couldn’t climb?” Jack was having trouble buying into this.
“Unfortunately it could.”
Weezy said, “Then how—?”
“It was heavier than me—a good deal heavier. I was climbing as fast as I could and it was right behind me and gaining when I heard branches start to crack, then break. I kept going until branches started breaking under my own weight. I stopped—I had no choice. I looked down.”
“What did it look like?” Weezy repeated.
He shook his head again. “Couldn’t tell you. The sky was overcast—no moon, no stars. The only thing I could see was this dark blob maybe ten feet below me, screeching and clawing at the bark. Then it stopped clawing and started shaking the tree. I tell you, I had to hold on for dear life.”
“How’d you get away?”
“I didn’t. I mean, I’m here now, but not because of anything else I did. The thing howled and shook the tree for what seemed like forever. Then it finally quieted and climbed down. I prayed it would move on but it didn’t. It dug up some sort of stone and started slamming it against the tree trunk again and again. I realized it was trying to cut it down.”
“Ohmygod, you must have been scared out of your mind.”
“Scared? I damn near shi—” He cut off as he glanced at Weezy. “I was the most scared I’ve ever been in my whole life.”
Jack relaxed his grip on the chain. Maybe this guy was all right.
“So I just hung on all night, rain and all. As the sky began to lighten, the banging stopped. The thing gave the tree one last shake, let loose with one more scream, and disappeared into the trees. But I wasn’t going to be fooled. I stayed where I was until it was full light. I wished I could have seen the sun itself, but the dawn gave me an idea where east was, so I climbed down and started walking. I knew if I kept walking east I’d eventually hit the Parkway.”
“But you were heading west when we saw you.”
He stopped and shook his head. “I guess I was.”
Jack pointed up at the thick low clouds. “That’s what a vanilla sky will do to you.”
“Vanilla sky?”
Jack nodded. “Yeah. Overcast and all one color. And since the Barrens are mostly flat with no landmarks, people get lost all the time.”
“Vanilla sky …” He looked up. “That’s why I haven’t been able to find my way out of here. Damn clouds. If you don’t know where the sun is, you can’t tell your directions.”
“That’s why they make compasses,” Jack said.
The guy didn’t appreciate the remark. He gave Jack a look. “I know that, kid.”
“There’s always moss,” Weezy said.
He frowned. “Moss?”
“Sure. Check tree trunks for moss. It’s always thickest on the north face.”
“Oh, hell!” He slapped a palm against his forehead. “I know that! Or at least I did once. How could I have forgotten? Not that it matters, because I am never, ever going in there again.”
“Did it stink?” Weezy said. “The thing, I mean?”
The man stared at her. “To high heavens. How did you know?”
Weezy glanced at Jack. “We saw something like that last month.”
“Did it come with floating lights?”
Weezy stiffened. “You saw lights?”
“Yeah. When I was parked in that tree. Two glowing blobs, like maybe the size of softballs. They floated along the tree-tops and circled near me while that thing was bashing the trunk.”
“Pine lights,” Jack said.
“They’re also called lumens,” Weezy added.
Jack frowned. “Where’s it say that?”
She raised her eyebrows. “I have my sources.”
He didn’t doubt it. Weezy read stuff hardly anyone else had even heard of.
“They’re a kind of ball lightning,” he told the man.
He shook his head. “I can’t buy that. These things didn’t act like any kind of electricity I’ve ever seen.” His expression was unsettled as he looked at Jack and Weezy. “They floated off as the rain began, but as they were hovering there, over me and the beast, I almost got the feeling they were … watching.”
7
“Oh, thank God!” the man cried as they broke from the trees and the Old Town section of Johnson came into view. “Civilization!”
“Such as it is,” Weezy muttered out of the corner of her mouth.
The man dropped to his knees and sobbed.
Jack looked away, embarrassed for him. He’d hoped to find Gus Sooy still here so he could give the man a ride down to the highway where they could call the sheriff’s department. But no sign of his battered old pickup. Must have sold off his applejack and gone back to his home in the Pines.
“Only a little farther,” Weezy said.
“I can’t. I’m all in. Go call for help. I’ll wait here. As long as I’m out of those damn woods and can see houses, I’ll be okay.”
So Jack and Weezy left their bikes and started going door to door, but no one seemed to be home, including Mrs. Clevenger. They didn’t try the Klenke house, of course.
“Where is everybody?” he asked Weezy.
She shrugged. “It’s a nice day for a change. Maybe they’re out catching some rays.” She got a funny look in her eyes as she stared over his shoulder. “Let’s try … there.”
He turned and followed her gaze to the boxy, two-story white building that sat on a rise overlooking Quaker Lake—the lake it owned.
“The Lodge?”
“There’s a car in front.”
True enough. A big gray Bentley limousine was parked by the front entrance. After the murders involving Lodge members last month, two men had moved in. The building had been there as long as anyone could remember, but no one could recall anyone ever living there. Meetings galore, yes, but no residents.
“Tell me you’re not thinking what I think you’re thinking.”
She glanced at him. “Of course I am. This is a golden opportunity. We have a perfectly good reason for asking to use the phone. Once we’re inside we can look around for signs of our pyramid. Carpe diem, Jack.”
He knew that meant “seize the day.” Fine. They could seize the day, but he doubted very much they’d carpe the pyramid.
“Okay. Let’s do it. But I’ll bet you we don’t cross the threshold.”
“We have to, Jack.” Her tone tightened. “It’s ours and they took it.”
As they approached the building, Jack realized he’d never been this close. Someone kept it in excellent shape. The stucco walls were clean with no obvious cracks, the paint job fresh looking. The grass needed a good trim, though. And the foundation plantings were looking weedy.
He got a closer look at the big round seal—or sigil, as Dad called it—of the Ancient Septimus Fraternal Order over the pillared front entrance.
Jack had always found its eye-crossing design vaguely disturbing. As he stared at it he thought he saw a face appear in one of the windows above it, but it disappeared so quickly he wasn’t sure if it had been real or a trick of the light.
“All right,” he said in a low voice. “Let me do the talking.”
“You don’t trust me?”
“Let’s just say you’re not the greatest at hiding your feelings.”
He knocked on the door and realized it was steel. After ten seconds with no response, he was reaching out for another go when it opened. A thick-bodied, thick-necked man with reddish crew-cut hair stared down at them. He wore some sort of butler getup.
“May I help you?” he said with a German accent.
“May we come in and use your phone?” Jack said, pouring on humble politeness. “We need to call the police.”
“The Order’s phones are not for public use.”
As the man started to close the door a voice from within said, “Come, come, Eggers.” It carried just a hint of an accent. Perhaps German as well? “Someone must need help.”
As the door opened wider, the butler stepped back to be replaced by a tall thin man all in white—white suit, white shirt, white tie. He had a tight-skinned face with a high forehead and a hook nose. His shiny black hair started with a widow’s peak and was slicked straight back. His cold blue eyes fixed on Jack as his thin lips curved into a smile. Jack had seen him from a distance when he’d moved in last month.
“You’re the young man who found poor brother Boruff’s body, aren’t you.”
Jack nodded, his mouth suddenly dry. He didn’t like the idea of this strange man knowing things about him.
The man extended his hand. “How may we help?”
Jack thought he was offering to shake but then noticed he held a white business card between his index and middle fingers. Jack took it.
ERNST DREXLER II
Actuator
ASFO
He had no idea what an actuator did, and wasn’t about to ask.
“We found a guy who’s been lost in the Pines for three days. He’s really weak and needs an ambulance.”
Mr. Drexler stared at Jack a moment, as if processing the information.
“If we could just come in and use the phone to call nine-one-one—”
“By all means.” But instead of stepping aside, he turned and spoke over his shoulder. “Eggers, call the sheriff and tell them to send an ambulance.” He turned back to Jack. “Do you know that your father was extended the privilege of joining the Order, yet he turned us down? That does not happen very often.”
“He mentioned it.”
“Did he mention why?”
“Something about too many secrets.”
“’Too many’?” Mr. Drexler frowned. “What an entertaining concept. Just when does one reach the point of ‘too many’ secrets? Everyone has secrets. Even you.” He turned to Weezy. “Even this young lady.”
Weezy swallowed. “Wh-what do you mean?”
“You’re the young lady who found that strange artifact in the Barrens, aren’t you.”
With mention of the artifact, Weezy changed, losing her flustered look and switching to angry.
“The artifact you people stole.”
Swell, Jack thought. No way we’ll get in now.
Mr. Drexler’s eyebrows rose as he smiled. “Stole? And why would the Order want something you found buried in the dirt? I’m afraid I’ve never even read or heard a description of the object. Would you care to describe it for me?”
“You know exactly what it looks like.”
“Do I? ‘Artifact’ is such a vague term—it could be anything. But if you won’t describe it, can you perhaps tell me what it might be used for?”
Weezy frowned. “Used?”
“Yes. What did it do?”
“It didn’t do anything that we know of.”
“Then what possible use could it be to the Order? Why would we want to … steal it?”
Her voice rose. “Because it’s proof that there’s a Secret History of the World, something your order and other groups like it want to remain secret!”
As Mr. Drexler’s smile broadened while he stared at Weezy, Jack edged to the left for a peek through the doors. He saw fringed rugs on the floor—Persian carpets?—dark, indistinct paintings on the walls, a large fireplace with a lot of curios set on the mantel above it. The one in the center looked—
Jack felt his neck muscles bunch as he took a step closer for a better view.
Eggers reappeared then, frowning at Jack as he blocked the space.
But not before Jack spotted a black object similar in size to the pyramid he and Weezy had found—the one that disappeared. This thing seemed to have a pointed top.
Their pyramid?
He hid the thrill jolting through his nerves as Mr. Drexler turned to him.
“Your friend is a most entertaining young lady. I would love to stand here and discuss her Secret History of the World and other wild imaginings, but duty calls.” He lifted his gaze and inclined his head toward a place somewhere behind them. “And besides, your lost man is up and about.”
Jack turned and saw the man staggering along Quakerton Road toward the bridge. He heard a click and turned back to see the Lodge door had closed. It appeared Mr. Drexler was done with them. Perhaps they’d stopped being “entertaining.”
“No!” Weezy cried as she started banging on the door. Her features were tight and her eyes wild. “Open up! Let us in!”
He touched her arm. “That’s not going to help.”
For an instant she looked as if she was going to pound on him instead of the door, then her shoulders slumped and she nodded. He was afraid she was going to cry, but she took a breath and started down the walk.
“Let’s go.”
He’d never seen her like this. What was with her, anyway?
8
They caught up to the lost man at the edge of the swollen lake.
“Where’re you going?” Jack said.
“Thirsty.” He looked at them with glazed eyes, then pointed at Quaker Lake. “Need a drink.”
“That’s probably not such a good idea,” Weezy said. She seemed back in control again. “Might make you sick.”
“Come on.” Jack pointed to the bridge. “Let’s get you across. There’s an ambulance on the way.”
A sheriff’s cruiser pulled up just as they reached the other side. Deputy Tim Davis hopped out and helped the man to the car where he sat on the rear seat with his legs outside and his feet on the ground.
“The ambulance will be here in a few minutes.”
After handing him a bottle of water, with advice to drink slowly, Tim turned to Jack. He’d dated Jack’s sister, Kate, in high school, so they knew each other pretty well.
“Where’d you find him?”
“He sort of found us.”
“That’s not answering the question.”
Jack glanced at Weezy and said, “Out by Old Man Foster’s.”
Tim didn’t look surprised. “That wouldn’t be the land that’s posted for ‘No Trespassing,’ would it?”
“Good thing we just happened by, huh?” Jack added a grin.
Tim didn’t return the smile. He looked tense. “I suppose so. Don’t go anywhere. I need to talk to you two.”
“About what?” Weezy said.
“About the woods.”
“Why us?”
“Because you spend so much time there, you should be made honorary pineys.”
Ordinarily he might have smiled when he said something like that, but his expression remained grim. Jack wondered what was going on.
As Tim took out his note pad and began asking the man questions, Jack started pulling Weezy aside to tell her what he’d seen on the Lodge’s mantel. But then he heard the first question and it puzzled him.
“You didn’t happen to see a little boy in there this morning?”
The man shook his head. “I didn’t see anyone until I came upon these two.”
Tim looked at them. “How about it? Did you see a kid?”
Jack shook his head and saw Weezy doing the same. “No, but—”
But Tim had turned back to the man. He said his name was Ted Collingswood, a broker in the Prince ton Merrill
Lynch office. He’d arrived in the Pines on Thursday, planning to spend a few days birding. He wasn’t due back till today, so nobody would have reported him missing yet. According to his story, Jack estimated he was now at least fifteen miles from where he’d left his car.
By the time he started telling his tale of being chased up a tree by the “thing,” about a dozen people had gathered. Jack shook his head, thinking how it didn’t take much to draw a crowd in Johnson, New Jersey, the most boring town on Earth.
“Sounds like the Jersey Dev il,” someone said.
Jack looked but it wasn’t Eddie.
Tim said, “Sounds more like a bear.”
“Bear?” someone else said. “There ain’t no bears in the Pines.”
“Yes, there are,” Tim said. “We’ve got black bears. Not a lot, but we’ve got some, and this man was unlucky enough to stumble across one in the dark. Let’s leave it at that, shall we? Let’s not start getting all Twilight Zone about this. Bears can climb, and they’re heavy enough to break branches a man’s weight won’t.”
A bear worked for Jack, maybe even explained the tracks around the pyramid.
Everyone turned then at the sound of a siren as an ambulance roared up Quakerton Road. They watched the EMTs load Mr. Collingswood into the back and roar away.
And as it did, another sheriff’s department cruiser pulled up and a deputy got out. Jack didn’t recognize him and couldn’t read his name-tag from here. After a whispered conversation with Tim, the new deputy leaned back against his car with his arms folded across his chest.
Tim was reaching into a button-down breast pocket of his dark blue shirt as he approached Jack and Weezy.
“We’ve got a serious situation here, and I’m hoping you can help.”
Uh-oh.
“Sure,” Jack said. “What’s up?”
Tim pulled out a photo and handed it to them.
“Know who this is?”
Jack’s stomach clenched when he saw the photo of a smiling little boy with shaggy blond hair.
“That’s Cody … Cody Bockman. What—?”
“He’s missing.”
“The little guy we saw this morning?” Weezy said.
Jack: Secret Circles Page 4