The Dark at the End 7

Ernst ended the call and closed his phone. Just ahead, the Manhattan skyline loomed above the entrance to the Midtown Tunnel, while his impatient passenger waited behind.

They had heard from the Manhattan brothers who investigated the Connell woman's apartment. Neither she nor the Compendium had been in evidence.

And now word from New Jersey. Some of the information was puzzling, and even a little disturbing.

"That was from the brothers who checked the Johnson Lodge. They found two men and a woman in the basement. The woman's description fits Louise Connell. Descriptions of the men are vague, but they easily could have been Jack and the woman's brother."

"What were they doing?"

Here was the puzzling part.

"According to the brother I just spoke to, they were digging."

"Were they." A statement rather than a question.

"Yes. They appeared to have been digging in an excavation beneath the basement of the Lodge."

"That would put them in the ruins of the buried town."

The One had been very interested in the town when he had quizzed Ernst about Jack's boyhood.

"Yes. The brother told me that the High Council had authorized the dig and sent an emissary named Kristof Szeto to initiate it."

"Did they find anything?"

"Someone - they don't know whether it was Jack and his friends or the workers Szeto hired - but someone unearthed the large, damaged sigil that has been down there longer than the Lodge."

It had been largely forgotten over the years. Ernst hadn't thought about it in a long, long time - not since the 1980s when he'd researched the Johnson Lodge before visiting it. The sigil had been found in ancient times. The brothers back then had no use for a damaged symbol of the Order but did not feel right discarding such a relic. So they stored it away.

"Then we must assume the Heir saw it."

"No assumption necessary: He directed the brothers to it."

The One made no reply. He remained silent as they entered the Midtown Tunnel. Ernst glanced in the rearview mirror and saw him staring out the window, his expression unreadable.

"Does that particular sigil have a special significance?"

His voice seemed to come from far away. "It belonged to me back in the First Age."

Ernst stiffened in his seat. What a remarkable revelation. That explained the One's interest in it when Ernst had mentioned it during his quizzing about Jack.

"If only we'd known, it would have been displayed all these centuries in a place of honor."

"I am glad it wasn't. I had thought it lost forever." He seemed full of sudden determination as he leaned forward. "When we reach the city, turn downtown."

"Yes, sir."

Ernst knew better than to ask why. But then the One answered his question.

"I must feed."