Chapter thirty-two

I sat down, my legs crossed Indian-style, watching the big black surfrider slice through those hefty swells. Dion needed to be away from the book and, if I was going to read the ending (as he assumed I would), he didn’t want to be around to observe. Neddy was nearby watching Dion surf as well, holding onto the gunnel to keep his balance: it was obvious that this Solomon didn’t spend as much time on deck as the other one.

“Master,” Ned said. He was now at my side, still watching the surf, but he had grabbed my right hand childishly again, as he did when we first met in the Library. “Master, I haven’t been wholly honest with you.” Neddy was standing over me when he said this. I stopped watching black dude; lifting myself up onto the gunwale with my good arm, I squared up with Neddy. He didn’t quite look guilty, but there was something in him that I hadn’t noticed before. He was about to confess something, and only to me – he hadn’t wanted Dion to hear any of this.

“I have been commanded to inform you that you must read this book.”

Commanded? I thought to myself, by whom? The Solomon Learned model was still holding my hand, the very one attached to my swaddling arm. In his other hand, he still had the book. I noticed how he held it now, as an opium-addict carries a pipe, or a drunk holds his bottle. There was more to this than just a command.

“What was your Primary’s name again?” I asked.

“His name is Skunk. But he knows nothing about the command, nothing about this book whatsoever.” He was looking at me strangely; he appeared to hold me in great esteem. Something in him was malfunctioning, and only I was permitted to bear witness to it. “Skunk controls me no longer. My one true Master is the man who summoned you, the man we are altogether readying to deliver ourselves unto, Master Zyrrk.”

I had to keep my head; this bot had been Mesmerized. Wasn’t Zyrrk supposed to be one of the bad guys? An enemy of the captain? “Give me the book,” I said as I feigned interest, coolly. “Zyrrk commanded you, at some point, to tell me to read this book.”

“That you must read this book,” he repeated, correcting me. He handed the book over, which displayed a measure of his trust in me. I had to play along, to make certain that this Solomon knows I’m on his side.

“Neddy,” I said. “I will read the book tonight, but you have to promise me something.”

“Absolutely anything, Master Lester,” Neddy responded. “Master Zyrrk told me I should do anything at all that you ask of me.” A fog had lifted in my mind. This explained why Ned was so nice to me in the Library from square one. Simply and easily, the pieces of the puzzle were coming together for me. I guess I failed to mention it before, but I was cooking up a pretty good plan at this point – a plan that, if successful, would at the very least save Dion’s life. Unfortunately, if it was going to work at all, absolutely none of the plan’s components could be revealed to Dion.

“Well, then, Master Ned,” I said, mimicking his seriousness with perfect solemnity and alacrity, “when the time comes I will need you to do just that: absolutely anything at all that I ask of you.”