Paladin Prophecy 2: Alliance Read Online Free PDF

of the Black Caps.
    “Oh my God, Ajay, you’re right, ” said Will. “That’s Mr. Hobbes.”
    “That’s what I was hoping you’d say,” said Ajay. “I’d only seen him on Ronnie’s video that one time so I didn’t want to lead you to it. That is him, isn’t it?”
    “Yes, this is Hobbes, I’d swear it. He’s got hair here, and he’s younger obviously.” Will scrutinized Hobbes through the magnifying glass. “But not that much younger.”
    “I couldn’t help but notice that as well,” said Ajay, folding his arms. “So let’s ask ourselves, my friend: How is that possible? This picture was taken over eighty-five years ago.”
    “You remember what he looked like when I saw him through the dark glasses Dave gave me,” said Will.
    “Of course I do: solid bony exoskeleton, red eyes, like a reptile covered with human skin,” whispered Ajay, recoiling from the memory. “Even if I could forget details, those aren’t the sort of details one forgets.”
    “He isn’t human. Not completely, anyway.”
    “He’d have to be well over a hundred by now, which should disqualify him for any physical activity more vigorous than shuffleboard.”
    “Hobbes is some kind of hybrid from the Never-Was. Normal human limits don’t apply to him.”
    Ajay gripped Will’s arm. “Now you see why I’m so excited? This is the hard evidence we’ve been looking for, a connection between the Black Caps and the Knights. Hobbes is both. ”
    “So Hobbes was a student at the Center, a senior in 1937, and a member of the Knights,” said Will, looking at the photo thoughtfully.
    “Which means I should be able to cross reference his image in existing school records and find out his real name,” said Ajay excitedly. “Surely they can’t have erased all traces of him as a student. And once we have a name, that may lead us to everything else we need to know …”
    As Ajay was talking, Will noticed something even stranger in the picture. Ajay must have seen the astonishment on his face.
    “What is it, Will?”
    Will recognized a second student in the photograph, seated across the table from Hobbes. Staring straight into the camera, like the others, raising his glass and grinning. Grabbing the magnifying glass, Will looked closer, and the closer he looked the more certain he became. The photo had been taken before he’d been changed or altered into the twisted, miserable wretch they knew now, but it was him, no doubt about it.
    “Hold on to your huevos rancheros, Ajay,” said Will, then pointed to the other student and held the magnifying glass over him. “We know this guy, too.”
    Ajay leaned in for a look and then looked at Will, with his eyes open wide, and they both knew he was right.
    The second student was the men’s locker room attendant:
    Happy Jolly Nepsted.
    “We need to talk to that man,” said Ajay.
    RULE #29: YOU COULD ALSO THINK OF COINCIDENCE AS SYNCHRONICITY.
    “We need to find Nick,” said Will.
    “So what do we think this means?” asked Ajay anxiously, struggling to keep up with Will.
    “It means my instincts about Nepsted were right all along,” said Will, keeping his voice down. “He knows a whole lot more about this place than he says he does—it means he knows who Hobbes is, for starters, and that’s the biggest break we’ve had.”
    They were hustling through the quad, heading toward the field house, where Nick had returned their call to say he was finishing a workout. The campus thrummed with early-evening activity, everyone animated by the summer weather and flushed with end-of-the-school-year fever. Flocks of parents had descended for graduation or to pick up their kids for summer. Will and Ajay kept their heads down and avoided any eye contact.
    “I’m with you, but this is too important to accept without applying anything less than the most exacting standards of inquiry,” said Ajay quietly. “For instance, shouldn’t we consider that this might be one of Nepsted’s