The Dark at the End

Ernst caught up to Thompson just as he was entering the big, open elevator.

"Mister Thompson. Hold that."

Thompson smiled. "Well, well. Look who got invited to the party. I didn't know if Tyleski had got to you or not."

"Tyleski?" The name threw Ernst for a second, then he remembered. "Oh, yes. That was the name he gave you."

"Bogus as all hell." He raised the paper sack he was carrying. "But these will bring out the truth. Before the night is over, we'll know everything about this guy."

Ernst removed the Taser from his pocket and held it up.

"This will help too."

"That's way too tame, man."

"But if he is the one who Tasered us last summer, it is only fair, no?"

Thompson grinned. "Well, maybe for appetizers."

The elevator stopped at the top floor and he let Thompson lead the way across the foyer.

"Hey, everybody," he said as he opened the door to the loft. "It's party ti - "

He stopped dead one step inside the threshold. Ernst was expecting that but purposely ran into him from behind, pushing him farther into the room.

"Oh, shit!" Thompson cried. "Oh, fuck!"

Ernst put on a suitably shocked expression and pushed past him. Perhaps only partially put on. It always surprised him how much blood the human body contained. And when it ran out through multiple large exit wounds, it formed pools of remarkable size. These three pools had merged into a crimson lake. Clotting had begun.

Thompson seemed mesmerized by the blood, but he tore his gaze away and focused on the empty chair.

"He's gone!"

"Yes, I can see that," Ernst said.

"But how? Szeto and I taped him into that chair ourselves. No way he could have gotten out."

Ernst stepped around the pool of blood and inspected the chair.

"Tape? What tape? There is no tape here."

"There's gotta be!" Thompson's eyes looked ready to pop from his head. "What the fuck's going on?"

"Szeto once told me he thought he was a ninja."

"A ninja? Naw, he was just some American guy, but this - this is like supernatural!" He looked around. "We better get out of here."

"I think that is wise."

"What about the bodies?"

This encounter had served its purpose. The Order would want answers. Ernst would say he arrived and found them all dead. Thompson would back that up. But Ernst would wonder aloud about Thompson ... the last to see the three men alive ... or had they been alive when he'd left? He claimed to have taped the stranger into the chair, but no tape was evident when Ernst arrived ... could he be working with the stranger?

The Order would find no evidence of that, but the questions would focus attention on Thompson while Ernst searched for clues to the One's whereabouts.

Even better, the One might contact him. Since he could no longer go to Szeto for "minor logistical support," as he'd called it, would he turn again to Ernst Drexler? Ernst hoped so.

If that happened, and if Ernst regained the One's trust and favor, the deal with Jack would be null and void.