The Dark at the End

by F. Paul Wilson

  She turned sideways and squeezed through the opening, easing herself down to the sunken sandy floor within. She strode to the stone column, maybe a foot in diameter and four feet high, that stood in the exact center of the space, then turned to face them.

  "I will stay here. "

  Jack didn't know what to say. He glanced at Weezy, close beside him, and she seemed at a loss for words too.

  "Go," the Lady said, making a shooing motion. "You both have more important things to do than stand here and stare at me. "

  "Just . . . leave?" Weezy said.

  "Yes. Go. "

  "You'll be all right?"

  "Perfectly fine. "

  "Won't you be lonely?"

  "How can I be lonely when I have all of you - when I am all of you?"

  Good point.

  "Do you need - ?"

  "I need you to go about your business. "

  Jack took Weezy's arm and gently pulled her away.

  "You heard her, Weez. "

  "Yeah, but. . . " She came with him, but kept looking back over her shoulder. "Walking away and just leaving her there - with a storm coming, no less - seems so . . . wrong. "

  Jack looked back and saw the old woman standing alone in the cold within the confines of the megaliths. He knew how Weezy felt.

  "Yeah, it does, because we keep thinking of her as an old woman. But that's simply the avatar she's stuck with. She's not an old woman. And she doesn't feel cold or hot, rain and snow don't bother her, she doesn't eat, she doesn't sleep, and she doesn't feel lonely. Ever. "

  They made their way back to the Jeep and headed back to Johnson, driving in silence until they reached Old Town.

  "Do we have time to swing by our old places?"

  Jack nodded. "Tons of time. "

  Back over the bridge and then onto North Franklin up to Adams Street where Weezy used to live. He slowed as they passed and let her stare at her place.

  "Want me to stop?"

  She shook her head. "No. Seen enough. " She leaned back. "I don't know why people have such nostalgia for their childhoods. "

  "Was yours so bad?"

  "I remember the grammar school years as being pretty good - at least I don't remember anything bad. But high school. . . " She shook her head again. "As soon as I stopped being the Stepford child and started thinking for myself, it all went to hell. "

  "You went goth. "

  "I didn't go anything. "

  He smiled. "Oh, right. Black shirts, black jeans, lots of eyeliner, Bauhaus, Siouxie . . . you were a disco queen. "

  "Okay, okay, I fit a type. But I didn't go around thinking, 'Look at me, I'm a goth. ' It was what I liked. And what my folks hated, unfortunately. "

  "Yeah, your dad. . . "

  "I still remember that disapproving look on his face every time he'd see me. Every time. I was on an emotional seesaw as it was, with my moods all over the place, and he made it ten times worse. "

  Jack remembered her ups and downs, wild swings sometimes.

  She sighed. "Even after the doctors came up with a drug cocktail to even me out - well, I never evened out, but the amplitude of the swings lessened. Even so, high school was hell. "

  Not for Jack. He remembered having a pretty good time. But he wasn't about to say that.

  She reached over and rubbed his shoulder. "Except for you, Jack. You were my rock. You never rejected me, even at my nuttiest. "

  Jack was wondering what he could say that wouldn't sound lame. The ringing of his cell phone saved him.

  "I'm calling from the Easy Peasy," said a male voice. "You left a message about a charter?"

  "Yeah. Thanks for calling back. First thing: you have a depth finder?"

  A snort. "Course I do. "

  "Can you take me out to the Hudson Canyon where it's a mile deep?"

  "Yeah. " He stretched the word. "We are talking fishing here, right?"

  "No. Scientific experiment. "

  Weezy gave him a look and he shrugged. Couldn't very well tell the guy he was dumping a sword overboard.

  "How many people?"

  "Two. Just me and my assistant. "

  Another Weezy look.

  He pressed the mute button. "Eddie?"

  She nodded.

  "Easy Peasy's built to hold up to twenty. Kind of expensive for just two people. "

  "Money's no object. I've got oceanography grants. "

  Weezy rolled her eyes and put a hand over her mouth to stifle a laugh.

  "Whatever. When do you want to go?"

  "This afternoon. "

  "No way. "

  "Why not?"

  "Don't you listen to the news? Heavy weather coming. Big nor'easter heading up the coast. Ten-foot swells out there already. "

  Jack hadn't been paying much attention to the weather. He'd heard some mention of snow.

  "Tomorrow, then?"

  The master of the Easy Peasy couldn't hide his exasperation with this landlubber. "It hits tomorrow. I'll call you next week. "

  Jack didn't want to wait that long.

  "I'll pay extra. "

  "Look, you can't pay me enough to take my boat out into what's coming. Talk to you next week. "

  He hung up.

  "Crap," Jack said. He told Weezy about the nor'easter.

  "It's been all over the news," she said. "Where've you been?"

  Abducted . . . taped to a chair . . . threatened with torture . . . shooting people . . .

  "Preoccupied, I guess. Maybe one of the other boats - "

  "Maybe the Andrea Gail will take you. Look, that katana's been in your closet for months. It can stay there a few more days. No sense in risking your life just to - "

  Now Weezy's phone rang. She dug it out of her pocket.

  "Hello?" she said. "Oh, hi. Yeah, he's right here. What - ?" She frowned and handed Jack the phone. "It's Dawn. She sounds a little worked up. Says she's got to talk to you. "

  FRIDAY Chapter 6

  "Nothing?" Dawn said, her voice rising in pitch and volume. "We do nothing?"

  Jack noticed a couple of people in the deli/sandwich shop glancing their way and made a calming gesture.

  "Let's keep this between just the three of us, okay?"

  "Okay," she said at a lower volume. "But my baby's in there. I can totally feel it. "

  Jack watched her. Dawn looked more animated than he'd ever seen her. After her call, he and Weezy had driven directly from Jersey to Long Island by way of the Verrazano and Brooklyn. They'd stayed in touch much of the time, with only a few cell dead spots along the way. When Dawn had called to say Dr. Heinze was leaving the beach house, Jack had told her to follow him as far as the nearest town and find someplace like a coffee shop where she could wait for them. She'd resisted at first, preferring to stay where she was, but had finally agreed.

  She'd found a Citarella with a view of a windmill, and waited. The three of them occupied a rear table, with Jack facing the two women.

  Jack decided she looked more than animated. She looked wired. Not the state of someone who'd be easy to convince that slow and steady was going to win this race. So he'd have to let her convince herself.

  He said, "I agree a hundred percent: Everything points to your baby being in that house. What do you think we should do?"

  She shrugged as if the answer was too obvious. "Go in and get him. "

  "Really? How many people are inside?"

  From her spot beside Dawn, Weezy gave him an almost imperceptible nod of approval.

  "Well, I know Georges is there, and I assume Mr. Osala and . . . Gilda. "

  Lots of poison in that last name. From what Jack had gathered, Osala's housekeeper had given Dawn a pretty hard time while she was a not-so-voluntary guest at the Fifth Avenue digs.

  "Can't assume. You do a home invasion, you'd damn well better know what you're getting into. "

  She lowered her voice furth
er. "Well, you have a gun - I've seen it. You could use it to make them give us the baby. "

  "They could have guns too, and things could get ugly, endangering us and your baby. But let's say they're unarmed. What if they refuse to give up the baby? Who do I shoot?"

  She didn't hesitate. "Gilda. "

  "Really? Shoot her dead or just wound her?"

  She looked away. "All right . . . I guess not. "

  "Okay. But let's assume we do cow them and they hand over your baby. Where do you take him? They know where you live. Reprisals could follow. Not only that, you signed him away for adoption. Maybe Mr. Osala adopted him. You have no legal right to that baby, so they could send the police after you - and Weezy and me, as well - for kidnapping. "

  She leaned back, looking defeated. "Okay, okay, okay, but I can't believe there isn't something we can do. "

  Weezy put an arm around her shoulders. "We talked about this on the way here and we think we've come up with a plan. "

  He was glad she'd sat next to Dawn; that way it didn't seem like the two adults against her. Jack had to keep reminding himself that she was only nineteen.

  "Right," Jack said. "A full frontal assault is a last resort. We need to determine exactly what we're dealing with and find a way to spirit your baby out of there without being seen. But before we try that, we need to set up a way for you to drop out of sight afterward. You'll be their prime suspect, but if they can't find you. . . "

  Jack had no idea if he could pull this off. Really . . . how do you hide a woman who has a baby with a tentacle growing out of each armpit? But he was going to try his damnedest.

  The only way he could see even a glimmer of hope of success was to take out Rasalom first. Do that and Georges and Gilda would lose their center, their purpose for staying with the baby. They might be glad to have someone take the child off their hands. But even if they weren't, grabbing the baby would be much easier with their Mr. Osala out of the picture. In the aftermath of his death, Jack could very likely swoop in and snatch the child from right under their noses.

  A plan began to form . . .

  "First thing we need is an observation post. You say you found a house that's a good vantage point?"

  Dawn nodded. "But I don't see how we can camp out there very long without someone noticing. "

  Jack agreed. "It has a garage?"

  Another nod.

  "Okay, we need to find out who owns it and - "

  "It has an oar over the door carved with 'The O'Donnell's' - that's with an apostrophe s. "

  "Perfect. Time to learn all about the O'Donnells. "

  FRIDAY Chapter 7

  It took longer than expected. Not because the O'Donnells were particularly secretive, but because the Internet still wasn't up to snuff after the crash.

  First thing after leaving the coffee shop, the three of them drove to the county seat and looked up the lot and block number of the property jointly owned by Francis and Marie O'Donnell who were listed as residents of Riviera Beach, Florida. From there to the local library where they used a computer to track the couple. Bits and pieces from multiple sites sketched out the details Jack needed. Francis: seventy-six and a former stockbroker who retired from Bear Stearns well before the meltdown. Marie: seventy-four and a former high school teacher.

  Jack made the assumption that, barring a family emergency, a couple in their midseventies with a primary residence in South Florida would keep their distance from the bitter cold of Long Island in March.

  So he decided to move in.

  He left Weezy and Dawn in the Hamptons and made the long trip to his apartment to retrieve his break-in kit and a few other goodies.

  Darkness had fallen by the time he returned. Weezy dropped him off at the end of the street and he walked the rest of the way. He had a bad moment when he reached the place and found lights on in the front room and an upstairs window. But a few cautious peeks inside showed no signs of life: he spotted a timer in the socket feeding the light in the front window. No doubt the same story upstairs. A good policy for the owner: The place looked occupied to anyone driving by.

  He used a bump key to enter the house through the rear door into the utility room. The place felt delightfully warm to Jack after the frigid wind off the bay, but still a little cool for the comfort of a couple of septuagenarians. A good sign, but he needed to be absolutely sure the place was empty. He hurried through the first floor, then through the bedrooms upstairs. All empty.

  Back on the first floor, he used quick flashes of his penlight to find a thermostat. They'd left it set on fifty-five. He upped that ten degrees and heard a furnace go on. He tried a faucet. No water. Took him a few minutes to find the shut-off valve; he turned it back on.

  He called Weezy and gave her the all-clear, then went out by the garage - a one-car garage, unfortunately. But they'd found a spot in the trees down by the highway, not a hundred yards from the O'Donnells' back door, to stash the SUV. A padlock on the simple gate latch held the garage's old-fashioned double doors closed. He shimmed it open and waited.

  A few minutes later a car appeared with its headlights out. Jack swung the garage doors open and held them until Dawn's Volvo was inside, then closed up and replaced the padlock without securing it. Weezy and Dawn emerged from the garage's rear door with the bare-necessities groceries they'd picked up in Amagansett. Weezy had her backpack with her precious Compendium slung over her shoulder.

  "Okay," he said as they unpacked the bags in the kitchen. "We've got heat, water, and power. "

  The backwash of light from the front room provided enough illumination to allow them to see what they were doing.

  "All the comforts of home," Weezy said.

  "Not quite. We need to stay out of the front room while the light is on. Same for the lighted room upstairs. The owners may have hired some security people to drive by now and then, or they may have some sort of neighborhood watch. We don't want to risk someone spotting movement in a supposedly empty house. "

  The women nodded.

  "I'll find a blanket to drape over the bathroom window, so we can at least put that light on when we need it, but otherwise no lights. "

  Dawn looked at him. "Sounds like you think we're going to be here a long time. "

  "I don't know. I hope not. "

  She looked from Jack to Weezy. "I've got a feeling there's another agenda here. "

  No dummy, this girl.

  Weezy said, "I want you to get your baby back. But. . . "

  Dawn turned to Jack. "But what?"

  "Mister Osala is important too," he said.

  She frowned. "Why?"

  Okay. Time to lay out as much as he could for her. He gestured to the kitchen table.

  "Maybe we should sit down and discuss this. "

  They pulled out chairs and seated themselves in the near dark.

  Jack said, "Where do I begin, Weez?"

  She cleared her throat. "I think we should keep this on as mundane a level as possible. "

  Explain it without mentioning the Otherness and the Ally? Not easy, but it would keep them from looking like head cases.

  "Worth a try. "

  She leaned toward Dawn. "There's a war going on. It's being fought behind the scenes. Mister Osala is a very big player in that war. He's not a detective, your mother never hired him to protect you - in fact, your mother never met or even heard of him. Everything he told you is a lie. "

  "Then why - ?"

  "He leads a cult. You saw their symbol on the back of your obstetrician's watch. They think they can take over the world. "

  Dawn slapped her hands on the table. "Oh, I don't believe this!"

  Jack saw where Weezy was going.

  "You don't have to believe it," he said. "What's important to know is that Osala believes it. And he believes your baby is the key to that takeover. "

  Jack didn't know if that was true - he had no idea what Rasalom had
planned for the baby - but it might be. And even if he was wrong, it sounded good. Whatever it took to widen Dawn's focus from just her baby to a bigger picture.

  "But that's crazy!"

  Weezy said, "No argument. But crazy or not, the baby is why he took you in during your pregnancy and dumped you as soon as you delivered. That's why he spirited the baby away. "

  "And that," Jack said, tapping the table, "is why he's got to figure into what we do here. "

  "But I just want my baby back. "

  Jack hit her with an angle he thought would lock her in.

  "Do you want to keep your baby once you find him?"

  "Of course!"

  "Well, you can depend on Osala to do his damnedest to get him back. So unless we deal with Osala here and now, you and your baby could spend the rest of your lives on the run. "

  Dawn leaned forward. "What do you mean by 'deal' with him?"

  "Leave that to me. "

  A pause, then, "You're a little scary, you know that?"

  "Scarier than the guy who locked you away in his apartment for months on end and then stole your baby?"

  Another pause. "Score one for you. But how does this affect what we're doing here?"

  "Okay," Jack said. "We're working with only two facts right now: Osala's driver is over there, and the pediatric surgeon present during your labor has paid a visit. Everything else is assumption. We can assume your baby is there but we need to establish that as a fact. And even if we do, we can't move until we can establish beyond a doubt that Osala is there. "

  "But why?"

  Jack thought he'd made that obvious but Dawn's tunnel vision persisted.

  "So that when you take the baby and leave, I can make sure no one hounds your trail. "

  Weezy rested her hand atop Dawn's. "Larger issues than you and your baby are at stake here, Dawn. You don't need to know the details, but you were right: We have another agenda. But it dovetails perfectly with yours. We'll help you get and keep your baby, but you've got to promise us you'll play it Jack's way and let him decide the timing. That way we'll all walk away with what we came for. "

  "Do I have a choice?"

  "Of course you have a choice," Jack told her. "But if you do something rash, we could all come away empty-handed. "

  "Rash?" She sounded offended. "Like what?"

  "Like going over there and peeking in the windows to see if you can spot the baby. "

  She didn't reply.