“Mister Hill,” I said extending my hand. “So good to see you again.” His clasp was brief but firm. “And this is Ellie. Remember her?”
“Of course,” he said in a deep voice, turning to her. “But do you remember me?”
“Yes and no,” Ellie said. “I was in pretty bad shape. Thanks for getting me away from the signal.”
He looked surprised. “So…you know it’s a signal?”
“Yes. I’ve learned a lot since then. And so have you. You put out a report on them, I believe.”
“I didn’t originate it. Burbank did. I merely took over for him after he passed. But now I’m shutting it down. All the signals have synchronized to the same frequency, so there’s nothing left to report.” He clapped his hands once. “Well, it was nice to see you, but I’m busy dismantling the electronics in the monitoring room, so—”
“I want to go below and see where the Prime Frequency originates.”
He stared at Ellie in silence a moment. As did I. What was she talking about?
“You know about that?”
She nodded. “It’s among the many things I’ve learned.”
He offered a lopsided smile. “Have you heard the expression, ‘You can’t get there from here’?”
“Maybe others can’t,” she said in a matter-of-fact tone, “but I can.”
He shook his head. “The passage is closed, I’m afraid.”
“It will open for me.”
Another long stare, then, “You know, for some strange reason, I believe it will.”
“Can we go now?”
He shrugged. “Don’t see why not. We’ll have to take the freight elevator. Wait here while I get the keys.”
He returned a minute later and the three of us rode the elevator back down to the lobby. He led us to a rear corner and was unlocking a door there when Simón called out from the entrance.
“Mister Hill? This lady here is in a big rush to meet Burbank.”
We turned to see a short Indian woman striding purposefully across the lobby.
HARI
Hari took a Lyft from Newark Airport straight to the Allard.
She felt content and calm. Good sex did that for her. And the sex had been very good. Donny proved to be a skilled and considerate lover, as anxious to please her as she was to be pleased. She hadn’t felt this relaxed in a long, long time. Too long.
And as a bonus, for a while she’d been able to forget about the sun rising late.
Despite her cajoling and even the application of some of the Kama Sutra techniques she’d learned, she could not convince him to return to New York with her. He was planning something. He kept saying he didn’t have a plan yet but she didn’t buy that. For some reason he didn’t want to tell her what it was. Which meant it was either foolish or dangerous or both.
But Hari had her own plan, which involved learning more about the signals. According to Donny, the last report from [email protected] said all the signals had synchronized their frequencies. A few hours after that, the sun rose late. Coincidence? Hari didn’t think so. And as far as she could see, if anyone had info on the signals, this Burbank character was the man.
She hopped out of her Lyft and headed straight for the doorman.
“Somebody named Burbank live here?”
The doorman nodded. “He’s busy right now. If you want to leave your—”
“I’m one of his subscribers.” Well, Donny had been reading his emails—close enough. “I need to speak to him ay-sap. It’s important. What can you do for me?”
He turned and called out to a tall man and two women in a far corner of the lobby. “Mister Hill? This lady here is in a big rush to meet Burbank.”
The man had ruddy skin and strong features. She didn’t get the “Mister Hill” bit, but the way the guy had turned said he had to be Burbank. She made a beeline for him.
“Hari Tate,” she said, shaking his hand. “Spelled H-a-r-i.” She guessed from his complexion and features he was Native American. “One of your subscribers. I’ve got some questions about the signals.”
“I’m busy right now,” he said. “If you want to wait—”
“Last night they all synchronized, and today the sun rose late. There’s got to be a connection.”
He shrugged. “There’s certainly a correlation but I don’t know if it’s a cause-effect relationship.”
The younger of the two women, a teenager with a weird ratty blanket tied around her neck, said, “Night is falling, the Change has begun.”
Uh-oh…was she one of those Septimus types? She was just a kid.
“What happened to ‘twilight has come…night will follow’?”
“That’s passé. Twilight is done.”
“I don’t think I like the sound of that,” Hari said. “Who are you?”
She introduced herself as Ellie and the older woman as her mother, Barbara.
“And you’re Burbank?” Hari said.
“My Burbank days are over. I’ll answer to Hill.”
Ellie turned to him. “Maybe we should take her with us.”
Hill shook his head. “I don’t know…”
“Hari says she wants to learn about the signals. The Prime generator would be an excellent place to start.”
“If we’re talking about something that generates this Prime Frequency I’ve heard about, I’m in. Lead on.”
Hill hesitated, then said. “Okay, but don’t be surprised if our way is blocked.”
He opened a door and Hari followed the three of them into what looked like a freight elevator. He inserted another key into one of two slots in the control panel and the car started down.
“What’s down here?”
“The Allard has an underground garage but we’re going below that, deep into the schist. You can’t access the bottom stop without a key.”
“What’s the schist?” Barbara said.
“It’s the bedrock of Manhattan Island,” her daughter said. “It runs close to the surface here in Midtown.”
Well, I just learned something, Hari thought. Smart kid.
But something very weird about her—a keep-your-distance brand of weird. The ratty blanket as cape, sure, weird as hell, but something much deeper. And on the subject of the blanket, did it just move, like with a breeze when there wasn’t one?
Hari was going to have to keep
