She'd supposedly kept it bandaged in public, and now Jack could see why. It was wicked looking.
"Lewis, please," Melanie said in a strained voice. "You're crushing me."
He released her. "Sorry," he said, wiping his eyes. "It's just that I've missed you so."
"You two can snuggle later," Zaleski said. He indicated the hole and the still floating tower. "What is all this, Melanie? And where the hell have you been?"
"Home," she whispered. A strange fevered glow lit in her eyes as she said the word.
Jack eased down the steps for a closer look. Finally he was getting to see the notorious Melanie Ehler in the flesh. She seemed far more intense than her photographs had indicated. Her hair was darker, her black eyebrows thicker, and her thin lips were split into the rapturous grin of a zealot who'd just heard the voice of God.
"Not here," Kenway said. He pointed to the hole. "What's down there?"
"Home," she repeated, then turned to Frayne. "It worked. I've found the way to the Otherness. We can go home now."
Canfield clasped his hands together and looked as if he was going to puddle up along with Lew.
"Mel," Lew said, pointing to her arm. "What happened to your nail?"
"It changed," she said, raising her black talon to eye level. "As soon as I got there it changed shape and color ... to the way it's supposed to look."
She looked around and Jack felt something like an electric shock as her gaze locked on him.
"And you must be Repairman Jack," she said.
Jack stepped off the steps onto the floor. "Just Jack'll do."
He glanced at the others, but the "Repairman" remark didn't seem to have registered. They were all still fixated on that hole. Good.
"Thank you so much," she said, stepping forward and extending her hand. "I knew you were the right man for the job."
Jack was about to protest that he'd done very little when Melanie's touch stopped him. Her hand was cold.
"Come on, Melanie," Zaleski said. "Enough with this 'home' shit. What's going on?"
She stepped back to where she could face everyone. "I've found a gateway to the Otherness," she said.
Kenway snorted. "The what?"
"It would take too long to explain fully," she said, "and I've neither the time nor the inclination. Suffice it to say that the single solution to all the mysteries that have plagued you, the answer you've spent so many years searching for, lies on the far side of that opening."
Jack had heard all this from Roma and Canfield. Hadn't believed a word of it before, but now ...
He hooked his arm around the support column at the foot of the stairs and looked around. He still sensed something nasty in the air. Was he the only one?
"Is this that 'Grand Unification' thing you've been talking us to death about?" Zaleski said.
"Yes, Jim," she said with a small, tolerant smile. "It's all there. The secrets behind your UFOs and Majestic-12."
"Yeah, right."
She turned to Kenway. "And for you, Miles ... the identityand the real agendaof the power behind the New World Order conspiracy."
"I sincerely doubt that," he said huffily.
She looked around. "If only Olive were here."
"She's been missing for days, Mel," Lew said.
Jack watched her closely. She seemed genuinely puzzled and disappointed." Didn't she know?
"That's too bad," she said. "The truth behind her cherished Book of Revelations is on the other side as well."
"All down there?" Zaleski said.
"'Down' isn't quite right. 'Over' there would be more accurate."
"But how?" Lew said. His face had a hurt look. "And why?"
"How?" she said. "I learned from talking to some old timers out in Shoreham, people who had relatives who'd worked in the Tesla lab, that before he sold his property and dismantled his tower, Tesla had buried mysterious steel canisters here and there around his property, and even beyond it."
"After the Tunguska explosion!" Zaleski said. "Must have scared him shitless."
Jack had already heard enough about Nikola Tesla and Tunguska to last a lifetime, but he couldn't bring himself to leave just yet ... not with that tower floating in the air and the hole yawning in the floor. He remembered the holes in his recent nightmares, and wanted to see this one closed before he headed home.
Melanie said, "I don't know if Tesla caused the Tunguska explosion, and I don't really care. But I can tell you this: Nikola Tesla was not the type of man to be frightened by a mere explosion, no matter how powerful. I've suspected all along that something else was at the root of his breakdown. And now I know."
"This ... Otherness?" Kenway said.
Melanie nodded. "Yes. During the year I spent searching for those canisters, I found three. One of them confirmed my suspicions. I gave the others to Ron Clayton and"
"Clayton?" Jack said. That name rang a bell. "You knew Ronald Clayton?"
Melanie shrugged. "We shared an interest in Tesla. Ron was more interested in his electronics theories."
"I'll bet he was," Jack said, remembering the transmitter he'd seen on a hilltop upstate. Apparently the creep hadn't been the great innovator he'd wanted everybody to believe.
"Whether Tesla's tower was able to broadcast energy is irrelevant," Melanie said. "What I do know, or rather what I have proven"she gestured toward the hole"is that it can open a gateway to the Otherness. And I think that's what unhinged Tesla. He made contact, saw what was on the other side, and immediately slammed the door."
"It's that bad?" Lew said.
"Not for me," she said. "And not for Frayne. But for the rest of you ... " She slowly shook her head.
"Hey!" Zaleski said. "How bad can it be?"
"It is the truth ... and the truth at times can be unbearable."
Somewhere in the back of Jack's head another Jack shouted, You can't handle the truth!
Zaleski stepped to the rim of the hole and peered over the edge. "And you were down there how long?"
"What day is it?" Melanie said.
Jack glanced at his watch. "Just about four A.M. Sunday morning."
"You've been gone almost a week, Mel!" Lew cried.
She shrugged. "Time is different there. It seemed like barely two days."
"Well, if you can fucking handle it," Zaleski said, "so can I." He turned to Kenway. "Whatta y'say, Miles? Want to get up close and personal with Melanie's Grand Unification Theory?"
"I don't know," Kenway said slowly. He sidled to the edge and looked down. "Awfully dark down there."
"You can see some light way down. Besides, you're carrying aren't you?"
Kenway stared at him.
Zaleski snorted a laugh. "Look who I'm asking! Does the Pope wear a cross? Come on, Miles. You're armed and dangerous. Don't be a pussy."
Kenway glared at him, then hitched up his belt. He pointed to the rope ladder. "After you."
Zaleski gave Kenway a thumbs up, then squatted next to the ladder. He grabbed the two ropes, swung his leg over, then started down.
"Is this such a good idea?" Jack said.
"It's a great idea, Jack. You're coming right? Maybe you'll find those missing hours."
"You can have them," Jack said. "Kind of late for spelunking. My job's done here. I think maybe I'll be heading home."
"No!" Melanie said quickly. "I mean, not just yet. I need to talk to you first."
"All right," Zaleski said. "Suit yourself. Here goes nothing."