F. Paul Wilson - Repairman Jack 13 Fatal Error

The preponderance of my work deals with a history of the world that remains undiscovered, unexplored, and unknown to most of humanity. Some of this secret history has been revealed in the Adversary Cycle, some in the Repairman Jack novels, and bits and pieces in other, seemingly unconnected works. Taken together, even these millions of words barely scratch the surface of what has been going on behind the scenes, hidden from the workaday world. Ive listed these works below in the chronological order in which the events in them occur.

Note: Year Zero is the end of civilization as we know it; Year Zero Minus One is the year preceding it, etc.

THE PAST

Demonsong (prehistory)

Aryans and Absinthe (19231924)

Black Wind (19261945)

The Keep (1941)

Reborn (FebruaryMarch 1968)

Dat Tay Vao (March 1968)

Jack: Secret Histories (1983)

Jack: Secret Circles (1983)

Jack: Secret Vengeance (1983)

YEAR ZERO MINUS THREE

Sibs (February)

Faces (early summer)

The Tomb (summer)

The Barrens (ends in September)

A Day in the Life (October)

The Long Way Home

Legacies (December)

YEAR ZERO MINUS TWO

Interlude at Duanes (April)

Conspiracies (April) (includes Home Repairs)

All the Rage (May) (includes The Last Rakosh)

Hosts (June)

The Haunted Air (August)

Gateways (September)

Crisscross (November)

Infernal (December)

YEAR ZERO MINUS ONE

Harbingers (January)

Bloodline (April)

By the Sword (May)

Ground Zero (July)

The Touch (ends in August)

The Peabody-Ozymandias Traveling Circus & Oddity Emporium (ends in September)

Tenants

YEAR ZERO

Pelts

Reprisal (ends in February)

Fatal Error (February)

The Dark at the End [working title] (March)

Nightworld (May)

available in The Barrens and Others

available in Aftershock & Others

available in the 2009 reissue of The Touch

This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the authors imagination or are used fictitiously.

FATAL ERROR: A REPAIRMAN JACK NOVEL

Copyright 2010 by F. Paul Wilson

All rights reserved.

A Tor Book

Published by Tom Doherty Associates, LLC

175 Fifth Avenue

New York, NY 10010

www.tor-forge.com

Tor is a registered trademark of Tom Doherty Associates, LLC.

ISBN 978-0-7653-2282-1

First Edition: October 2010

Printed in the United States of America

0 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

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

Ground Zero

Young Adult*

Jack: Secret Histories

Jack: Secret Circles

Jack: Secret Vengeance

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*

The Peabody-Ozymandias Traveling Circus & Oddity Emporium*

Editor

Freak Show

Diagnosis: Terminal

Thanks to the usual crew for their efforts: my wife, Mary; David Hartwell, Becky Maines, and Stacy Hague-Hill at the publisher; Steven Spruill; and my agent, Albert Zuckerman.

Special thanks to Christopher Corbetta reader known as Fenian1916 on the repairmanjack.com forumfor the title.

And special thanks to my cyberconsultants: Clint Collins, Ronald P. Crowe, Jr., Scott Garrett, Paul Hewitt, and Jason Tabor.

The penultimate Repairman Jack novel.

As mentioned in the past few books, Im ending the series with number fifteen (though Jack will be a major player in Nightworld).

Ive 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 is just around the corner.

Fatal Error picks up in the winter following Ground Zero, and its finale coincides with that of Reprisal. If/when you read Reprisal, youll understand what happened between Glaeken and Rasalom in North Carolina. (See The Secret History of the World at the end of this book for how everything fits together.) As with the last couple of novels, Fatal Error doesnt tie up as neatly as wed all like, but it sets the stage for an ass-kicking finale to the series.

One more Repairman Jack novel remains. Working title: The Dark at the End. Appropriate, I think, considering it ends just before Nightworld begins.

In Nightworld, the Adversary Cycle and Repairman Jack saga will merge and... close. The Secret History concludes with Nightworld. More stories remain to be told, but the timeline stops there.

Hang in there, folks. Its been a long ride, and weve still got a lot of wonder, terror, and tragedy ahead. I promise youll be glad you made the trip.

F. Paul Wilson the Jersey Shore

FATAL ERROR

Munir stood on the curb, facing Fifth Avenue with Central Park behind him. He unzipped his fly and tugged himself free. His reluctant member shriveled at the cold slap of the winter wind, as if shrinking from the sight of all these passing strangers.

At least he hoped they were strangers.

Please let no one who knows me pass by. Or, Allah forbid, a policeman.

He stretched its flabby length and urged his bladder to empty. That was what the madman had demanded of him, so that was what he had to do. Hed drunk two quarts of Gatorade in the past hour to ensure hed be full to bursting, but he couldnt go. His sphincter was clamped shut as tightly as his jaw.