I QUICKLY MADE a command decision.
Without the aid of The List, I needed a new source for in-depth intelligence on my final foe. The List is the portable supercomputer that used to be my primary tool for up-to-the-minute information on extraterrestrial evildoers.
Why couldn’t I just boot up The List again, do a few finger swipes, and check out Number 1?
Funny story.
My dad passed The List on to me after his death, but he didn’t know that the miracle microprocessor was given to Earth’s Alpar Nokian protectors by Number 1.
That’s right. The guy at the top of the list was in charge of the list.
When my father passed over to the other side, he learned the truth. Then, in one of our “imaginary” visits, he shared it with me:
“For eons,” he said, “this twisted creature we call Number 1 has been amused by the eternal struggle between good and evil; the never-ending battle of demons and angels, darkness and light.”
“Destroyers versus creators,” I added.
“Exactly. Number 1 has always favored the dark side, but more than anything, he enjoys watching a good fight between equally matched opponents. So, to keep things interesting, he pits the universe’s finest creators against its deadliest destroyers.”
So up to this point, all my adventures—and those of my father and mother who had started serving in the Alpar Nokian Protectorship long before I was born—had been extremely amusing to the giant freak we all called The Prayer.
Now, IT had grown tired of the game.
IT wanted our seemingly endless death match to come to an end.
Well, the feeling was mutual.
But first, I had to go back to the location of my first contact with the monstrous IT.
I needed to return to the scene of the crime. The setting that provided the fodder for my most hideous nightmares. The one place in the world I never wanted to visit again.
My childhood home in Kansas.
I needed to go there and find a clue, a hint, an answer—something (okay, anything) that could help me defeat Number 1.
Or at least survive.