When Jack turned back on to Carranza Road, he faced a straight shot back to 206, allowing him to make some quick calls. He speed-dialed Weezy's cell number but her voice mail picked up immediately. He tried two more times with the same result. Another post-crash cell dead zone? They were happening less frequently, but still happening.

Or had she turned off her phone? She wouldn't do that. Not unless they'd started the ceremony.

No-no-no. They wouldn't start without hearing from him. Or would they?

Feeling a little frantic, he dialed her home landline: no answer. No surprise there - she had to be at the Lady's - but he'd needed to give it a try. He dialed Glaeken's apartment. He'd no doubt be down in the Lady's place too, but he usually left a nurse with Magda. She'd answer and he could ask her to go downstairs and -

Glaeken's voice mail picked up immediately too.

He wanted to smash his phone against the steering wheel. What the hell was going on?

He gunned the car around the traffic circle onto Route 70 and headed west, weaving through the traffic, but carefully. He faced a frustrating gauntlet of traffic lights between him and the freeways, and he couldn't risk a cop stop for being too aggressive.

Every cell in his brain and body screamed at him to stop that ceremony. But why? As if some part of his subconscious - the primitive crocodile hind brain perhaps - was sensing danger but unable to explain it to the higher centers.

All right ... what did he know? Why this gnawing feeling that they'd been gamed?

It all centered around the Other Naming Ceremony. Where had that come from? Discovered by Weezy in the Compendium of Srem.

The Compendium ... it kept opening to the Ceremony - so often that Gia had remarked that it seemed to be "trying to tell you something" - a quip they could have brushed off had it referred to any book other than the Compendium. Because the Compendium was sui generis, and its page order seemed to be in constant flux. It frustrated you by making it almost impossible to return to a page after you'd seen it. And yet here it was, opening to the same page time and again ... the page about the Other Naming Ceremony.

Yes, it did seem to be "trying to tell you something."

But books don't have awareness, don't have a will. Not even the Compendium. At least not as far as anyone knew. Srem had used a long-lost technology to construct it, but Jack doubted she'd been able to imbue it with consciousness.

So that meant randomness or manipulation. He discarded randomness - first, because he couldn't buy it, and second, because if that was the case, he had nothing to worry about.

But the manipulation possibility bothered him. A lot.

Two sources for that: the Ally or the Otherness. If the Ally, no problem. It wanted to frustrate the Otherness as much as Jack and Glaeken.

But what if the Otherness was the source?

Jack's fingers tightened on the steering wheel as he remembered how the Order had put out a BOLO on Weezy a few weeks ago. Out of the blue. After months and months of disinterest - he now knew they'd been preoccupied with developing the Jihad virus - they suddenly wanted to locate Weezy. And according to Eddie, they'd found her.

But they did nothing. They left her alone. Or maybe not. Rasalom moved Dawn in across the hall. No one had yet to make sense of that. But Weezy discovered the Other Naming Ceremony shortly thereafter.

Connection?

Could Rasalom have sneaked in and altered the Compendium? Manipulated it to show the Ceremony page every time it was opened?

Jack stiffened in the seat. Could he have added the page? Neither Glaeken nor the Lady had ever heard of the Ceremony. Was it bogus? Could the words, written in the Small Folk tongue that only the Lady knew, have an effect that went beyond naming? Would the Lady's reciting them harm her?

His mind whirled with possibilities.

What if discovery of the Ceremony was meant to spark memories of the broken sigil and send Weezy and him back to Johnson to find it?

No, wait ... Rasalom couldn't know they'd seen it ...

Unless Drexler told him. Drexler had been living in the Lodge when they found it.

Jack tracked down Drexler's number in his phone history and hit SEND. When Drexler picked up, he wasted no time.

"This is Jack. Did the One ever ask about me?"

A heartbeat or two of hesitation, then, "You flatter yourself."

Not an answer.

"He never asked you about our interactions when I was a kid?"

"Why on Earth would he care?"

Still not an answer.

"Yes or no?"

"No. Never."

"Okay."

Jack ended the call.

Lying ... Drexler was good at it. A good liar's reflexes when withholding info were to avoid getting caught in a lie, so he dodged a yes-or-no answer whenever possible - just as Drexler had done until pinned down. And Jack had sensed an instant's hesitation before the flat denial.

Pretty clear now that Drexler had been contacted by the wounded Rasalom, maybe even helped him. The One had survived and turned to Drexler, and so he'd switched sides again.

Why am I not surprised?

But it meant Drexler's denial was bullshit. Rasalom had quizzed him on what he knew of Jack's childhood.

The scenario took shape in Jack's head:

Rasalom, knowing Jack was the Heir, probed Drexler about his childhood and learned that he and Weezy had seen the broken sigil. That may or may not have been important to him at first.

He knew finding Jack would be nigh impossible, but the Order knew what Weezy looked like, so he told Drexler to find her and then do nothing more than watch her - because maybe she would lead them to the Heir.

Once Rasalom knew her location, he could have floated to her apartment windows, entered, and found the Compendium. He could have altered the book -

Wait. The Other Naming Ceremony didn't appear until after Dawn moved in. So ...

He moved Dawn in across the hall - reason to be determined.

Then he changed the Compendium to keep opening to the Other Naming Ceremony - which he might well have added to the book.

Jack punched the steering wheel. And we played right into his hands. We remembered the name on the sigil, we went and found it, and now we're ready to perform the Other Naming Ceremony on a not quite human baby -

He almost hit a divider as the truth hit him.

That's it! That's why Dawn was moved in across the hall. So we'd go looking for the baby. Because the baby's such an obvious choice to take on Rasalom's Other Name.

Except it isn't his Other Name. It's bogus.

But what was all this supposed to accomplish?

Jack hadn't a clue, but he did know that, for whatever reason, Rasalom wanted the Lady to perform the Ceremony.

He called Weezy again, and again got her voice mail. Then he remembered Eddie. He'd probably be with Weezy, and even if not, he could run over and tell them to wait for him.

But Eddie's voice mail came on immediately as well.

Jack tossed the phone into the backseat - worthless piece of crap. Wait. Could be a local cell outage in the city, or was the Internet down again?

He retrieved it and called Gia. She picked up almost immediately.

"Is everything okay there?" he said. "The Internet and the phones?"

"Yes. I'm on the computer now. Why?"

"I'm not sure. Can't get hold of Weezy or Eddie."

"I thought they were with you."

"Long story. Are you going out at all tonight?"

"No plans. Schools are open tomorrow. Why?"

"Good. Stay in. Don't go anywhere."

"Should I be worried?"

"I don't know. Just ... stay in. I'll call you later."

He cut the call and stepped on the gas. He didn't know what Rasalom was up to, but he knew he had to stop the Ceremony.

P/S: Copyright -->www_novelfreereadonline_Com

***