"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 identity—and the real agenda—of 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."
He started down and disappeared below floor level.
After a few seconds, his voice echoed up from below. "Come on, Miles, you chickenshit bastard. Let's go."
Kenway pulled his .45 automatic from under his sweater, flicked off the safety, then put it away again. He sighed, looked around, and—with much less enthusiasm than Zaleski—started down.
Jack stepped to the edge of the hole and watched the bristling hair atop Kenway's head recede into the depths. Damn, that looked deep.
Lew came up beside him. "I'll be. There is some light down there."
"Way down," Jack said, spotting the faint flickers.
"Are you sure you don't want to go too?" Melanie said, looking at Jack. She sounded almost…hopeful.
Jack wondered about that. A moment ago when he'd said he was leaving, she wanted him to stay. Now she seemed to be encouraging him to leave by another route.
"I'm very sure," Jack said. "In fact, I don't think I've ever been so sure of anything in my life. But you said you wanted to talk to me."
Lew jumped in before Melanie could answer. "Before we go any further, I need an answer to something. When I asked you if it was so bad down there, you said, 'Not for me and Frayne.' What did you mean by that?"
Melanie sighed and looked away. Jack saw a touch of sadness and regret in her eyes.
"Lewis…when I called it 'home,' I wasn't exaggerating. When that gateway opened, and I entered the Otherness, that's exactly what it felt like—coming home. For the first time in my life I felt like I belonged. And Frayne will feel it too."
"But I won't?" Lew said, his voice full of hurt.
Zaleski's voice echoed up from the hole then.
"Hey! Something weird down here…like everything's floating."
Melanie went to the edge and called down. "That means you're almost there. Gravity reverses at the transition point. You'll have to climb up the rest of the way."