GROUND ZERO
ALSO BY F. PAUL WILSON
Repairman Jack*
The Tomb
Gateways
Legacies
Crisscross
Conspiracies
Infernal
All the Rage
Harbingers
Hosts
Bloodline
The Haunted Air
By the Sword
Young Adult*
Jack: Secret Histories
The Adversary Cycle*
The Keep
Reborn
The Tomb
Reprisal
The Touch
Nightworld
Other Novels
Healer
Implant
Wheels Within Wheels
Deep as the Marrow
An Enemy of the State
Mirage (with Matthew J. Costello)
Black Wind
Nightkill (with Steven Spruill)
Dydeetown World
Masque (with Matthew J. Costello)
The Tery
The Christmas Thingy
Sibs
Sims
The Select
The Fifth Harmonic
Virgin
Midnight Mass
Short Fiction
Soft and Others
The Barrens and Others
Aftershock & Others
Editor
Freak Show
Diagnosis: Terminal
* See “The Secret History of the World” (page 367)
GROUND ZERO
A Repairman Jack Novel
F. PAUL WILSON
A TOM DOHERTY ASSOCIATES BOOK • NEW YORK
This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
GROUND ZERO: A REPAIRMAN JACK NOVEL
Copyright © 2009 by F. Paul Wilson
All rights reserved.
A Tor Book
Published by Tom Doherty Associates, LLC
175 Fifth Avenue
New York, NY 10010
Tor® is a registered trademark of Tom Doherty Associates, LLC.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Wilson, F. Paul (Francis Paul)
Ground zero: a Repairman Jack novel / F. Paul Wilson.—1st ed.
p. cm.
“A Tom Doherty Associates book.”
ISBN 978-0-7653-2281-4
1. Repairman Jack (Fictitious character)—Fiction. 2. September 11 Terrorist Attacks, 2001—Fiction.
I. Title.
PS3573.I45695G76 2009
813'.54—dc22
2009016465
First Edition: September 2009
Printed in the United States of America
0 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
AUTHOR’S NOTE
You hold the pen-penultimate Repairman Jack novel.
That’s right: I’ve decided to end the series with number fifteen (though Jack will make his final appearance in Nightworld).
I’ve always said this would be a closed-end series, that I would not run Jack into the ground, that I had a big story to tell and would lower the curtain after telling it.
The end of that story draws nigh. (There’s a highfalutin phrase.)
And if you’ve been following along, you’ve noticed that the recent novels do not tie up as neatly as the earlier ones. I’ve always kept longer story arcs running from book to book, but I used to be able to bring each installment to a distinct conclusion. That, I’m afraid, is no longer the case.
As I move people and objects into place and set the stage for the events that will tip all of humanity into Nightworld, the final chapter, this sort of incremental closure has become impossible.
So I ask you to bear with me. You may have noticed that By the Sword began shortly after Bloodline, and Ground Zero picks up a couple of months after that.
Two more Repairman Jack novels remain, the last ending just before Nightworld begins. Along the way we’ll be reprinting the remainder of the Adversary Cycle, synching the releases of The Touch, Reborn, and Reprisal with Jack’s timeline. (See “The Secret History of the World” at the end of this book for the sequence.)
The post-Harbingers installments of Jack’s tale have become what the French call a roman fleuve—literally, a “river novel,” with one story flowing from volume to volume. As a result, each new installment is going to feel richer, deeper, and make more sense if you’ve read the ones before.
Hang in there, folks. It’s been a long ride, and we’ve still got a lot of wonder, terror, and tragedy ahead. I promise you’ll be glad you made the trip.
—F. Paul Wilson
the Jersey shore