He speaks in a low, rumbling tone, from deep in his throat. The ground under their feet begins to tremble, and echo with his words. Darkness bubbles up from the hill. Long black shadows emerge from the ground, reaching up, forming long arms that end in clawed hands.

Shadowmen. Dozens of them, freed from the hill.

Colchester is not bothering with a great serpent this time. Without the altar, he is simply going to try to force-feed the darkness below with as many victims as he can.

The Shadowmen claw their way out of the ground, reaching for the bodies closest to them.

Eric sees one Shadowman snag a victim, someone he had sixth-period French with, although he cannot remember the guy’s name.

The claws wrap around him, then the Shadowman’s head rises up and begins tearing great chunks out of him, consuming him as it drags him back down into the earth.

He begins screaming, but the dirt fills his mouth and he is gone.

Colchester smiles at Eric, Jeremy suspended on his puppet strings. He doesn’t say anything. He doesn’t have to. He’s still winning.

31

This Time, I Swear, We Can Do It Right

Of course they knew it was a trap. They just didn’t figure it out until they were already in it.

Carrie put it all together after Danny left her house.

Why were they here? If it wasn’t fate or destiny, like Danny said — because obviously it wasn’t — what were they doing back in Middleton?

She asked herself: Why would the Followers murder her witness? Why would they send those idiots Lonnie and Fuller to meet Danny at the airport? Why attack Alana when she was in San Diego? Yes, there were the invitations, but there were at least a dozen ways to keep Hailey from sending a cry for help. And even if they couldn’t stop her, why didn’t Colchester have them killed in their sleep a thousand miles away from here?

She asked herself: Who benefits?

And it became blindingly obvious: Colchester. He needed them back. For revenge, or for fuel for his ritual, or whatever he had planned. He wanted them in Middleton.

Carrie opened the door and went running after Danny.

Danny wasn’t stupid. Sax was a sentient computer virus, a ghost in the machine. A virus can get into any device that’s connected to a network. Danny knew information security; he’d been practicing it since he was six years old. He knew he had to take steps to keep Sax blind and deaf. When he and Carrie went to get Alana at her hotel, he shut down his phone completely and left it in a Faraday pouch in his rental car. (Carrie asked him, “You bring a foil bag that blocks electronic signals with you everywhere you go?” Danny said, “I work in Silicon Valley.” As if that explained everything.)