Terry Goodkind - The Law of Nines

Hal stayed out of the line of fire and walked around behind to hand Jax the pen.

Jax crooked a finger at Mike Fenton, then pointed at the carpet a few feet in front of her. “Stay on your knees and come forward.”

Mike moved forward, keeping his fingers locked behind his head. He looked up at Hal, as if pleading his case.

“Just do as they ask, Mike. After what happened with Fred, Alex is making sense. We have to check everyone out.”

“Why not you?” Mike asked.

Hal heaved a sigh and knelt down in front of Jax. He tapped a finger against his forehead. “Test me first.”

Jax nodded and started drawing the symbols with the stubby motel pen. When she finished she sat back on her heels and rested her drawing hand in her lap. Hal turned and showed off the symbols on his forehead.

“See?” she said to the group. “I’m drawing a trigger that will activate a lifeline to take anyone from my world back there. If Hal had been from my world, he would have gone back just like that dead man, Fred, did.”

Everyone nodded that it made sense. They all looked considerably less worried. They came up one at a time and let Jax draw on their foreheads with the pen. It looked bizarre to see a roomful of people on their knees, all getting strange symbols drawn on their foreheads.

Mildred went last. She didn’t vanish. She looked relieved, though, as if she had feared she somehow might.

“I wish I could somehow preserve it,” she said to the group as she looked at all their foreheads. “We’re the first members of the society to see something from that other world since the book was first written.”

“Now what?” Hal asked, concerned with more important things than preserving a design.

“Now we let the doctor see to Jax’s arm,” Alex said.

“About time,” the man grumbled as he stood and came forward.

On his way by, Hal grabbed the man’s shirt at his shoulder. “Don’t you be that way to Alex. Fred’s the one who tried to kill Jax. Alex didn’t have to come. He didn’t have to take the land and he doesn’t have to be a part of any of this. Don’t begrudge him being afraid for his life, and the life of this young lady, here. It was one of the people we asked him to trust who attacked her.”

The doctor sighed. “You’re right, Hal. Sorry, Alex, Jax. I guess I just feel guilty because we let one of them into our midst. We could have ruined everything, and it would have been our fault.”

Other people nodded.

“Like I said, they fooled me, too,” Alex said. “But just because you all passed the first test, that doesn’t mean that I’m satisfied yet. Jax and I were almost killed by a doctor from this world who was working with them.”

Hal looked surprised. “Seriously?”

“Serious as a heart attack,” Alex said.

“This is going to need stitches,” the doctor said as he unwrapped Jax’s arm.

“Can’t you use magic glue?” Jax asked.

When the doctor frowned up at her, Alex said, “She means superglue.”

“Oh. Well, I could.”

“I have some in my truck. Hal, you want to get it?”

“Wait.” The doctor tossed Hal his keys. “Get my bag out of the back seat of my car instead, will you? I’ve got superglue but it’s medical grade. It’s more flexible and works better.”

Hal hurried out. He shortly returned with a black bag.

The doctor gestured to the table. “Over there. Let’s get her over there so she can lay her arm on the table.”

The two of them guided Jax over to the table. The doctor warned her that the glue would feel hot and sting. If it did, she didn’t voice a reaction. Alex didn’t hear a peep out of her as he kept his eye on the group on their knees before him. A few of them were getting tired and sat back on their heels.

It seemed to take forever, but when the doctor was finished Jax reappeared at Alex’s side sporting a tightly wrapped arm below the rolled-up sleeve of her white blouse.

“I have blood all over me,” she said. “I need to get some other clothes or I will draw attention.”

With a quick glance, he saw that she looked like she’d participated in an ax murder. “You’re right. Hal, would you go out to my truck with her? Watch her back?”

Hal caught the keys when Alex tossed them. “Sure.”

After they had returned, Jax hurried into the other room to change. It wasn’t long until she came out of the bedroom wearing the red top and different jeans.

“What now?” Hal asked.

“Now,” Alex said, “we’re leaving.”

“What about all of us?” Mike asked. “We have so much more we need to talk about.”

“We’ll have to talk later. I’m going to let Hal do the second half of the testing first, to see if any of you were in cahoots with your dead Daggett Society member from another world.”

Alex kept the gun pointed in the general direction of the group as he took Jax by the arm and backed toward the door.

ANY IDEAS WHAT WE SHOULD DO?” Jax asked on the way across the dark lot toward the Cherokee. Safely out of the room, Alex scanned the area and at last holstered his gun. “I don’t see that we have a lot of options. We can go after them or we can run.”

“If we run they will hunt us down.”

“Then I guess that answers your question.”

He looked back over his shoulder to see Hal come out of the motel room and turn to tell everyone to wait there and that he would be back shortly and they would discuss it all then. Hal shut the door and started across the lot after them.

He was carrying something under an arm.

“We came here to get to the land and see what we could figure out,” Alex told Jax in a low voice. “I think it’s about time we do so.”

“That makes sense,” she said as she watched the shadows at the edge of the lot. “But I don’t think we’re going to be able to get to it in the middle of the night.”

“And it’s still a long drive to get there. We’ll probably have to get a room somewhere along the way, grab a little sleep, and then first thing in the morning collect some supplies and head up toward Castle Mountain.”

Hal Halverson caught up with them as Alex was unlocking the Jeep. Hal set something dark on the hood of the truck. Even though it was hard to see in the dark, Alex thought that he knew what it was.

“So I’ve got to ask, why did you trust me in there and no one else?”

“Two reasons,” Alex said. “First, you were the one who kept Fred from doing worse to Jax.”

Hal shrugged. “Makes sense, but I could still have been party to it.”

“True, but you were the only one in that room who has had a background check. You and your security force have all had extensive law-enforcement background checks. I’m sure they must be quite thorough.”

Hal smiled. “That’s pretty good.”

“That’s the second part of the test — run those background checks on everyone in there.”

“You think there was someone working with Fred? Someone from this world in on it?”

“I’d bet on it. From what I’ve seen, these people from the other side try to find people here to help them. I’m not sure what they offer but they can probably come up with any wish or want.”

“Anyone in particular you suspect?”

“Tyler.”

Hal nodded unhappily. “That’s what I was thinking. He provided the diversion for Fred to make the attack.”

“That was my thought, too,” Jax said.

“It may not be him,” Alex said. “In fact, it may not be any of them.

But you need to do the most extensive background check you can and see if anything troubling turns up. If it does, it could indicate that the person would be susceptible to being turned against us.”