F Wilson - Fatal Error

Veilleur and the Lady stared at him uncomprehendingly. Weezy gave him the same look as this afternoon after his Elmer Fudd remark.

"This isn't an H. P. Lovecraft story, Jack. This is serious business."

"I know that. But if their goal isn't an Internet crash, I've got to ask myself what else it can be. And this is what pops up."

She shook her head. "Your mind… the Order playing 'Cthulhu fhtagn' over and over?"

"Well, not those exact words, I suppose. Okay. Dumb idea. I'm just throwing things out as they hit me. Here's something else that hit me on the way over: Could the release of this virus have anything to do with the birth of Dawn's baby?"

Weezy's eyes widened. "Did you find out about him? Is he alive?"

Jack nodded. "I can't say it's alive, but it wasn't reported dead. No death certificate filed on a newborn with Wednesday morning time of death."

"According to Dawn, the baby's a 'he,' not an 'it.' And I think we have to assume he's alive."

Veilleur said, "Is this the baby laden with the Taint?"

The term threw Jack for an instant, then he remembered that back in the First Age they called oDNA the Taint.

"That's the one."

After Jack explained the situation, Veilleur looked at Weezy.

"I don't like her moving in next to you. That cannot be an accident."

"Exactly," Jack said.

Weezy shrugged. "No argument. But that's the way it is, so we've got to deal with it."

Veilleur continued to stare at her. "She said nothing else about these so-called 'birth defects'?"

"She said she only got a glimpse of him before they whisked him away. Supposedly he'd stopped breathing."

Veilleur stroked his beard. "I'm interested in those birth defects. If you speak to her again, ask her what she saw. Any details at all."

"Why?" Jack said.

"Just… curious. A creature so rife with the Taint might have predictable deformities."

"Like what?" Jack said.

"Let's wait until you hear what the mother has to say."

Weezy looked offended. " 'Creature'? It's a child."

The Lady shook her head. "One so heavy with the Taint might not be quite human."

Weezy paled and said nothing.

Jack tried to steer the talk back to his original question.

"The baby was born yesterday morning. The virus shows up all over today, which means it was probably released yesterday. Connection?"

Weezy shrugged. "Maybe. But synchronicity doesn't signify a causal relationship."

"Thank you, Ms. Sting."

She offered a sour smile. "That's Ms. Sumner to you."

"I agree," Veilleur said. "But I think we must assume a connection. The people behind the virus could very well be the people who hid Dawn away during her pregnancy. My money is on the Order. So yes, there's a connection. But whether the baby's birth triggered the release of the virus, I can't say."

Jack said, "Fair enough. But I think the baby should be our focus now. It's the only lead we have. It's important to someone-important enough to hide its mother away during her pregnancy and then lie about it dying. So that, I think, makes it important to us."

"We have to consider that the baby might be dead and unreported," Weezy said. "There might have been something about his deformities, whatever they were, they didn't want made public."

Jack looked at her. "Do you buy that?"

"Not for a second, but it is a possibility."

Veilleur said, "The child is an enigma at this point. It had its origins in a crude plot conceived by Jonah Stevens to create a descendant richer in the Taint than any other living being. But you all know that."

Jack nodded along with the others. "But how did he know about the Taint?" He glanced at Weezy. "Or oDNA?"

"As a boy he lost his left eye in the Great Lower Mississippi Valley flood. After that he began to have visions in whatever was left of that eye."

Jack thought of Diana and her dad. "Sort of an Oculus for the Otherness."

"I suppose. Back in the spring of 1941, after I slew the One-at least his physical form-his essence, instead of dissipating, found a place to hide: the body of a unique human infant."

"Unique how?" Weezy said.

"I'll save that for another day. Suffice it to say that the Ally was unaware of this, and decided it didn't need me anymore, and so it freed me to grow old and die."

"After millennia of service?" Jack said. "Some reward."

Veilleur smiled. "After all those millennia of watching loved ones die while I went on… trust me, it was a magnificent boon. But the Otherness knew where the essence of its champion hid, and it brought in a protector: Jonah Stevens. The visions led Jonah to adopt that unique human infant-the 'vessel,' the One's unknowing host. The One was trapped within that helpless little body, a passive passenger, unable to exert any influence. Jonah's task was to guard the vessel until he grew to be a man who fathered a very special child."

"The One," Jack said.

Pieces were falling together.

"When was that?" Weezy said. "You've mentioned he'd been reborn a number of times, but when exactly was this?"

"I believe the exact date of his reconception was on or about February tenth, 1968, in the village of Monroe on Long Island. He was reborn November seventh in Hickory Hill, Arkansas."

Jack shook his head. "Eleven-seven. Supposed to be lucky numbers."

"Not so lucky. After the One's rebirth into a new body, to a new life devoted to the cause of the Otherness, Jonah stayed with him and his mother, guarding him as he grew. But I believe the part of him that made him uniquely suited for the guardian post also led to his eventual betrayal of his charge."

"That's why he's no longer with us," Jack said.

Veilleur nodded. "Exactly. For a while he took his job seriously, moving the child and his mother throughout the South to elude any Ally-influenced people who might try to harm him."

"So there was a movement to stop him?"

"Yes, but not terribly ambitious. It very nearly succeeded in Monroe, but fell apart after a horrific failure. I doubt that whatever iota of the Ally remains involved here considers him much of a threat. The One has been very circumspect, very cautious.

"But back to Jonah. As the One grew, so did his powers, and Jonah came to see a day coming soon when he would no longer be needed. From his visions he knew that he had been chosen as the guardian because of his bloodline, which we can assume meant he carried an abnormally high level of the Taint-supremely high. But he decided it could be higher. So he began his plan to concentrate it further, to create a child with a Taint so deep and so dark that it could replace the child he guarded and become the One. Then the One would be Jonah's progeny."

"Putting his bloodline in the catbird seat when the Otherness took over?" Jack said. "How was loading a child with the Taint going to accomplish that? I don't follow the logic."

Weezy shook her head. "Neither do I."

"It would not have worked," the Lady said.

Veilleur shrugged. "He may have known something we do not, or he may have misinterpreted some of his visions. But as it turned out, he never had a chance to find out. The One learned of the plot and, though occupying the body of a ten-year-old boy at the time, arranged a slow agonizing death for Jonah Stevens."

Weezy winced. "Do I want to know how?"

"Crushed in an elevator shaft. Took him hours to die."

"I could have lived without knowing that."

"Speaking of knowing," Jack said, "how'd you learn all this? I doubt you got it from the One."

Veilleur smiled. "I've become acquainted with the One's mother-I suppose I should say his most recent mother. He's had three."

Jack saw Weezy's jaw drop, then realized his own was gaping.

"He had a mother?"

The One's mother… the idea that that cold-blooded freak had had someone to nurture him when he was young and helpless… well, of course he did, but it boggled Jack's mind. If only she'd been careless… left the gate to the pool area open… something, anything…