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 trailed 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?”