“It’s good to see you,” she went on. “How long are you in New York?”
“Just a few days.” Trelawny sighed. He was never in one place for very long. “I have to go back to Washington, then Virginia and then next week I’m heading back to California. My home town is giving me a parade.”
“Auburn?”
“It’s my birthday. They’re closing the whole place in my honour.”
“That’s very sweet! Maybe I should come.”
“You’d be very welcome.”
The two of them sat down. Nathalie poured the wine and for a few minutes they talked about the campaign, the speech in Los Angeles, the latest negative advertisements that had been playing on TV. But after a while, Trelawny fell silent.
“There was something you wanted to ask me about,” Nathalie said.
“Yes.” He rubbed a hand over his mouth, trying to work out where to begin. “Something happened when I was in Los Angeles,” he explained. “It’s like nothing I’ve ever experienced and I can’t get it out of my mind. I have to talk about it with someone and you’re the only person I could think of who wouldn’t think I was going mad.”
“I’ll take that as a compliment.”
“Well, I had a visit from an old assistant of mine, Alicia McGuire. You remember her?”
“Wasn’t she the one who lost her child?”
“Her son, Daniel. Yes. He vanished into thin air at the end of last year.”
“How awful for her.” Nathalie Johnson had never married and had no children of her own. She couldn’t imagine what the other woman must have been through.
“When I was in LA, Alicia turned up at my hotel. She hadn’t found Daniel but she had another kid with her, a fourteen-year-old boy. A Native American from the look of him. She told me this incredible story. I wouldn’t have believed a word of it. I’d have thought she was out of her mind. But then she showed me something which was completely impossible and which could only have happened if everything she had been saying had been true.”
“Tell me…”
Choosing his words carefully, Trelawny described everything that had taken place at the Carlton Hotel, his meeting with Jamie Tyler and the business with the little wooden box. If he had expected Nathalie to react with amazement or disbelief, he was disappointed. She showed no emotion when he talked, but she flinched at the mention of Nightrise and nodded in understanding when Trelawny mentioned their interest in children with paranormal abilities.
“Where is Jamie Tyler now?” she asked, when Trelawny had finished speaking.
“Maybe I acted against my better judgement,” Trelawny replied. “But he was so desperate to find his brother. And I believed it was the right thing to do.” He made a gesture with his hands. “I arranged for him to be sent to Silent Creek.”
“He’s in jail?”
“Not under his own name. We changed his appearance too. Don’t forget, the Nevada authorities are still looking for him for the death of his two guardians.”
“Let me just ask. Did this boy ever mention anything about England or Peru?” There was no answer, so she went on. “Did he say anything about the Old Ones? Or the Gatekeepers?”
“No.” Trelawny shook his head. “I don’t know what you’re talking about, Nathalie. The Old Ones? What are they? What have they got to do with a bunch of disappearing kids?”
“If I’m not mistaken, they have everything to do with it,” Nathalie replied. “And these two boys – Scott and Jamie Tyler – you have no idea how important they may be. They’re both at Silent Creek?”
“I can’t tell you. Jamie’s there… probably. He was sent there several days ago. As for his brother, he was going to find out when he got there. That was the plan.”
Nathalie put down her glass and leant forward.
“Listen to me,” she said. “You came to me for advice. You chose me because I’m an old friend. But – don’t deny it – you also came here because you know that I’m a member of… an organization.”
“The Nexus.” Trelawny spoke the two words and smiled as Nathalie sat back, alarmed. “I’ve heard that name,” he admitted. “I know it’s some sort of secret society and I’ve always suspected it might have something to do with you.”
Nathalie nodded slowly. “You’ve been touched by something you know nothing about,” she said. “But I know a great deal about it. For half my life I’ve been involved with it. So you must believe me when I say that it is absolutely vital that we find Jamie Tyler and get him out of Silent Creek immediately – and his brother too, if he’s still there.”
“That may not be so easy.”
“John, you could be the next president of this country. But there may not even be a country to be president of – unless you do what I say.”
“What are you talking about? Who are these two boys?”
Nathalie Johnson took a deep breath. “This is what you have to do…”
Los Angeles
Colton Banes was sitting at his desk when the telephone rang.
He didn’t like being in the office. It felt too much like the prison where he had spent the eleven years before the Nightrise Corporation had employed him. True, he could leave when he wanted to. He was well paid. But being stuck indoors, dressed in a suit, waiting to be told what to do… it made him uneasy.
And yet he had to admit that he’d never had a better job. In fact no job could possibly exist that was better suited to his talents. Colton Banes liked hurting people. He liked killing them too – but hurting them was better because they were still around to talk about it afterwards, to tell him how it felt. From school bully to delinquent to armed robber to prisoner and finally to this… His whole life had been leading him in only one direction. He knew that one day he would slip up and Mrs Mortlake would get rid of him with the same carelessness with which she had got rid of Kyle Hovey. But he didn’t really think about it. People like him never had long lives. It went with the territory.
He picked up the telephone on the third ring. “Yes?” He didn’t have to announce his name. The switchboard wouldn’t have put the call through unless the caller had asked for him.
“This is Max Koring.”
“What is it?” Banes recognized the name of the senior supervisor at Silent Creek. He was calling from there now. It was easy to tell. There were no landlines in that part of the Mojave Desert and the satellite reception was poor. The prison had been built in a dead zone, in the middle of a natural magnetic field, making communication almost impossible. The field had other side-effects too. The location had been chosen with great care.
“There’s something you should know,” Koring continued. “We had something weird happen last night. One of the kids – a new arrival – tried to get me to take him over to the Block.”
“What do you mean?”
“He asked me to take him to the other side of the wall. In fact, he didn’t ask – he told me, like he expected me to do what he wanted. And he said he wanted to see his brother.”
Banes’s eyes narrowed. “What is the boy’s name?”
“The name on his face sheet is Jeremy Rabb.”
That meant nothing to Banes. “Tell me what he looks like,” he said.
“I don’t need to. I thought the moment I saw him that he looked familiar. He’s cut his hair short and he’s got these thick glasses, but thinking about it, I figured out who he is.”
“Jamie Tyler?”
“No doubt about it. I checked with the guy on Intake. He has the same tattoo on his shoulder. A sort of swirly thing with a line through. It’s the twin. No doubt about it.”
Colton Banes smiled. First the news last night from Peru – now this. Things couldn’t be going better. So Jamie Tyler had decided to track down his brother. And he’d gone to the right place. The trouble was, he’d chosen the wrong time. “Where is he now?” he asked.
“I’ve got him in solitary. Do you want me to move him across to the Block?”
“No.” Banes thought for a moment. Once the boy arrived at the Block, he would know he was too late. It would be more fun to keep his hopes alive for the moment. And Jamie Tyler had escaped from him twice. Banes had a personal score to settle. He would let the boy sit there and stew for a few hours, then he would walk in and see the look on his face when he knew that he had failed, that pain and death were all that remained. “Turn off the air-conditioning in his cell,” he said.