Ground Zero Part 62

As Russ made the copy, Jack looked into the eyes of the face on the screen.

So ... you don't like your picture out and about? You send your Septimus flunkies around erasing all photographic evidence of your existence. What is it? Some First Age superst.i.tion? Afraid they contain pieces of your soul? Nah. You don't believe in souls. More likely you're afraid Glaeken will see through your disguises and decide to come looking for you. Yeah. Bet that's it. You want to stay behind the scenes, pulling strings and playing Dr. Mabuse with n.o.body the wiser until the Big Day when the Otherness shows up.

I can't seem to find a way to hurt you, but maybe I can find a way to distract you, annoy you. I know how to be really, really annoying.

Where are you now? Brooding and fuming about the failure of your Fhinntmanchca Fhinntmanchca?

I hope to h.e.l.l so.

3.

Ernst watched the One stare at the lifeless husk of the Orsa. Its stink did not seem to bother him. But his silence disturbed Ernst. The command had come to meet him here, yet the One had spoken not a single word since Ernst arrived, when he'd found him standing just as he was now.

Ernst rolled his sore shoulders. Every muscle in his body ached from the Taser shock he'd received yesterday. A terrible experience. So helpless ... completely at the mercy of that man.

His jaw clenched. Who was he? He knew much more than he should. It hadn't been Glaeken, he was sure of that. He'd never seen the legendary foe, but he was reputed to be a large man with flaming hair. This bearded stranger had been average in size and looks.

Whoever he was, he had to be found. Thompson hadn't seen him, but he was savagely intent on finding him. Ernst would add the Order and the Dormentalists to the Kickers numbers in the hunt. They'd find him. And when they did ...

But that was the future. Ernst hoped the One would allow him a future.

He forced himself to speak, not simply to break the unbearable silence, but because he needed to know.

"How could this happen? How could the Fhinntmanchca Fhinntmanchca have failed?" have failed?"

A protracted silence followed, but finally the One responded.

"The Fhinntmanchca Fhinntmanchca did not fail. It did exactly what it was designed to do. But what happened after its success ... that is troubling. Her source recreated her almost instantly. It should not have been able to do that. In fact, it was considered an impossibility. Something has changed, something unforeseen has taken place within her source, enhanced its power. You must learn what that is and reverse it. Soon." did not fail. It did exactly what it was designed to do. But what happened after its success ... that is troubling. Her source recreated her almost instantly. It should not have been able to do that. In fact, it was considered an impossibility. Something has changed, something unforeseen has taken place within her source, enhanced its power. You must learn what that is and reverse it. Soon."

And then he turned and walked away, leaving Ernst alone with his thoughts and the remains of the Orsa.

The source ... Ernst was familiar with the concept of another plane of existence engendered by the sum of human thoughts and interactions. In many circles it was considered a theory or a pipe dream. Ernst knew different. He knew it existed and was the progenitor of the Lady.

In and of itself, the ubermind was no impediment to the Otherness. But its creation-its Eve, as it were-was. Through the Lady it trumpeted its existence to the multiverse, and thus to the Enemy. It was powerful and grew incrementally more so with each increase in the sentient population of the biosphere. But it should not have been powerful enough to reconstruct its instrument in a flash. That bespoke enormous power.

What was fueling that power?

And then ... a flash of insight. He might be right, he might be wrong, but he saw an entirely new avenue of attack.

Excited, he hurried after the One to tell him.

www.repairmanjack.com

THE SECRET HISTORY OF THE WORLD.

The preponderance of my work deals with a history of the world that remains undiscovered, unexplored, and unknown to most of humanity. Some of this secret history has been revealed in the Adversary Cycle, some in the Repairman Jack novels, and bits and pieces in other, seemingly unconnected works. Taken together, even these millions of words barely scratch the surface of what has been going on behind the scenes, hidden from the workaday world. I've listed these works below in the chronological order in which the events in them occur.

Note: "Year Zero" is the end of civilization as we know it; "Year Zero Minus One" is the year preceding it, etc.

THE PAST.

"Demonsong" (prehistory)"Aryans and Absinthe"** (19231924) (19231924)Black Wind (19261945) (19261945)The Keep (1941) (1941)Reborn (FebruaryMarch 1968) (FebruaryMarch 1968)"Dat Tay Vao"*** (March 1968) (March 1968)Jack: Secret Histories (1983) (1983)

YEAR ZERO MINUS THREE.

Sibs (February) (February)"Faces"* (early summer) (early summer)The Tomb (summer) (summer)"The Barrens"* (ends in September) (ends in September)"A Day in the Life"* (October) (October)"The Long Way Home"Legacies (December) (December)

YEAR ZERO MINUS TWO.

"Interlude at Duane's"** (April) (April)Conspiracies (April) (includes "Home Repairs") (April) (includes "Home Repairs")All the Rage (May) (includes "The Last Rakosh") (May) (includes "The Last Rakosh")Hosts (June) (June)The Haunted Air (August) (August)Gateways (September) (September)Crisscross (November) (November)Infernal (December) (December)

YEAR ZERO MINUS ONE.

Harbingers (January) (January)Bloodline (April) (April)By the Sword (May) (May)Ground Zero (July) (July)The Touch (ends in August) (ends in August)The Peabody-Ozymandias Traveling Circus & Oddity Emporium (ends in September) (ends in September)"Tenants"*Repairman Jack #14

YEAR ZERO.

"Pelts"*Reprisal (ends in February) (ends in February)The last Repairman Jack novel (ends in April)Nightworld (starts in May) (starts in May) Reborn and Reprisal Reprisal will be back in print before too long. I'm planning a total of fifteen Repairman Jack novels (not counting the young adult t.i.tles), ending the Secret History with the publication of a heavily revised will be back in print before too long. I'm planning a total of fifteen Repairman Jack novels (not counting the young adult t.i.tles), ending the Secret History with the publication of a heavily revised Nightworld Nightworld.

*available in The Barrens and Others The Barrens and Others **available in Aftershock & Others Aftershock & Others ***available in the 2009 reprint of The Touch The Touch