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Second Contact - Horror on Halki -Negative Charge

Turbulent in his Rhodian hotel bed, Harry ht have woken up there and then; but no sooner was his contact with Sandra and Layard broken than another voice intruded on his dreams, this time a far more welcome visitation:

Harry? Did you call out? Did you call His Name, Harry, into the void?

It was Möbius, but the waft and whisper of his dead-speak voice told the Necroscope that he was just asas ever ’His na in his sticky sheets but gradually settling down again ’Your name, do you mean? Probably But that was earlier’

No, His Name! Möbius insisted

’I don’t knohat you’re talking about,’ Harry was bewildered

Ah! M&ouhed, partly in relief but ht for a moment that you had reached a similiar conclusion Not at all impossible, nor even improbable For as you know, I’ve always considered youmuch sense, but Harry didn’t like to tell him so His respect for Möbius was limitless ’Your peer?’ he finally answered ’Hardly that, sir And whatever new conclusion you’ve reached, no way that I could ever match it Not any more, for I’ for you’

Ah, yes! I re about being innumerate? Well, as for the for to h? Möbius chuckled That is not hoould describe you!

Harry’s turn to sigh his relief M&ouh to hi of its usual crystal clarity He pressed his case:

’But that’s just it: it’s the only way to describe what’s happened to me I aer have access to the Möbius Continuum And I need the Continuum now as never before’

Innuain, plainly astonished But how may I accept it? How may I believe it of you? You were my star pupil! Here, try this: and he inscribed a complicated mathematical sequence on the screen of Harry’seach sy to fatho! Möbius cried That was a very simple problem, Harry It appears this disability of yours is serious

’That’s what I’ve been saying,’ Harry tried to be patient ’And it’s why I need your help’

Only tell h was a glad one, for it seemed that at last he had Möbius’s total attention He quickly told hiled the connections he’d found there, which had been sti each time Harry had attempted to use his deadspeak

’Faethor was probably the only one who could ever have corrected it,’ he explained, ’because it was one of his own sort who’d snarled it up in the first place And so I got my deadspeak back But that wasn’t the only obstruction Faethor found in there, not by a long shot The areas governingof numbers had been closed off almost entirely Here’s what he discovered: closed doors, barred and bolted -with all my maths locked up behind them Now Faethor is no ot one of these doors open Only for a h And beyond it the M&ouot out of there’

Entirely fascinating! said Möbius And: It seeain

Harry groaned ’That isn’t quite the way I see it,’ he said ’Ithere’d be a ht now, or I’oner What I mean is, well, Faethor could only handle those areas in which he was the expert And so I was thinking that maybe you -’

But Harry, Möbius seemed shocked, I’m no vampire! Your mind is your own, private and inviolable, and -

’But not for er,’ Harry cut him off ’Not if you turn ust Ferdinand, I have to go up against soet But it’s not just forFor you see, if I lose this one, then ets it all - even the M&ou If you can’t open those doors in my head, he will And and and after that -’ Yes?

’ - After that, I just don’t know’ Möbius was silent for a moment, and then: That serious, eh?

That serious, yes’

But Harry, all your secrets are in there, your ahts

’Also ust You don’t have to look where you don’t want to’

The other sighed his acquiescence Very well Hoe go about it?

Harry was eager now ’August Ferdinand, you’re the one o anywhere -literally anywhere - in three-dimensional space You’ve been out to the stars, down to the bed of the deepest ocean Through your knowledge of the M&ourave Sohoe go about it is si to clear my oing to say: Möbius, come into my mind Enter, of your own free will, and do whatever is necessary to’

AHHH! ca voice of Janos Ferenczy in Harry’s mind BUT SUCH AN ELOQUENT INVITATION NEVER LET IT BE SAID THAT I WAS THE ONE TO REFUSE YOU!

Möbius and his deadspeak were swept aside on the instant Harry, paralysed, could do nothing He felt the Ferenczy step inside his head as a fish feels the laill, and was likewise i had oozed in through his ear to eat his brain, and was now stretching itself luxuriously before co down the shutters of his mind but they were stuck, effortlessly held open by the invader

OH? said Janos, as yet feeling his way, enjoying the horror of his host AND DID I FEEL YOU CRINGE JUST THEN? COULD IT BE THAT YOU ATTEMPTED TO EVICT ME? AND WAS THAT A MEASURE OF YOUR STRENGTH? IF SO, THEN I’VE PRECIOUS LITTLE TO FEAR HERE! BUT FOR SHAME, HARRY KEOGH! WOULD YOU INVITE ME IN AND AS QUICKLY THROW ME OUT? AND WHAT SORT OF A HOST ARE YOU?

’My invitation wasn’t to you!’ Harry forced his brain into gear, tried to remind himself that this was just another vaht like a vulture to carrion:

I WAS NOT INVITED? BUT YOUR MIND WAS OPEN AS A WHORE’S CROTCH - AND JUST AS TEMPTING!

Sorip on himself, forced his feverish mind into what he hoped was a defensive stance But he could almost smell the vampire’s vile breath and feel his stealthy tread in the corridors of his

AND STILL YOU ACCUSE ME OF STENCHES! the invader laughed WHAT WAS IT YOU LIKENED ME TO THE LAST TIME? A DEAD PIG? YOU OF ALL PEOPLE SHOULD KNOW BETTER, FOR I AM UNDEAD

Suddenly Harry was cool He had felt stifled but noas as if someone had thrown open ato blow out all the cobwebs of his s with the rush of this weird, conjectural ether and felt stronger for it And from a far more buoyant if mysterious viewpoint, he wondered at the audacity of the vampire that he should feel so safe and secure as to be able to just just walk in here

All of these uarded, so that Janos took Harry’s silence as an indication of sheer terror AND SO THIS IS THE MIGHTY NECROSCOPE, said the vampire AND HOW DOES IT FEEL TO HAVE MY ’FILTHY LEECH’S MIND’ IN YOUR HEAD, HARRY?

Harry continued to guard his thoughts It wasn’t difficult; it was like deadspeak, where with a small effort of concentration the dead heard only what he required thee of confidence which was surely well out of place here For, asleep and drea, he couldn’t exert half as much control over his ht be, still he sensed that Janos was beco just a fraction more cautious

YOU KNOW OF COURSE THAT I CAN BEND YOU TO MY WILL JUST AS I BENT - AND BROKE - THAT FOOL JORDAN? But was Janos stating a fact, or was he asking hi yourself that,’ said Harry, without emotion ’But remember: you entered of your own free will’

WHAT? And now there was a ragged, worried edge to Janos’s thoughts As if for the first ti his position here

And in the back of Harry’s mind, unsuspected by Janos, it was as if he heard Faethor advising hiain, as he had in the ruins of his house outside Ploiesti:

Instead of shrinking back from him when you sense him near, seek him out! He would enter your mind? Enter his! He will expect you to be afraid; be bold! He will threaten; brush all such threats aside and strike! But above all else, do not let his evil weaken you And, finally: There may be more to yourto think so too THIS MIND OF YOURS ISDIFFERENT FROM THE MINDS OF OTHER MEN IT WILL GIVE ME GREAT PLEASURE TO EXPLORE IT AND IT WILL GIVE YOU GREAT PAIN!

’Well, at least you have the vanity of the Wamphyri,’ said Harry ’But what is vanity without the means to ier than ever PERHAPS TOO WELL

’Having second thoughts, rily: WHAT?!

’Come now, not so nervous I speak more as an uncle than a true father But it’s a fact I do have a son of my own Except, of course, he is Wa What, you afraid? How so? For after all you have my measure Have you not invaded my mind? Where is my resistance? With whatAh, but there are castles and there are castles - and soet out of!’ And at last Harry brought the shutters of hisdown

Janos was confused; this was no reater than a man In his panic, so the vampire became vicious:

THESE PUNY BARRIERS YOU HAVE ERECTEDI AM SURROUNDED BY DOORS BUT I HAVE THE STRENGTH TO BEAT THEM ALL DOWN, INDEED TO TEAR THEM FROM THEIR HINGES!

Harry heard hireat jaws at you, go in through them, for he’s softer on the inside!

’Beat them all down, then,’ he answered ’Tear thees - if you dare!’

Janos dared He ran through Harry’severy barrier the Necroscope could put in his way, tearing down the shutters and screens on his Inner All Harry’s past was there, his loves and hates, his hopes and aspirations, and all trah previously secret corridors of id In any one of these places the h, cry, screa now that indeed he had Harry’s ed And:

WHAT? WHAT? he finally laughed, as he caether WHY, IT CAN ONLY BE THE VERY TREASURE HOUSE! AND WHAT MARVELLOUS SECRETS ARE STORED HERE, HARRY KEOGH? ARE THESE THE VAULTS OF YOUR TALENTS?

And before Harry could answer - if he would answer -Janos had wrenched two of the doors open

Beyond one of theleon the threshold of the Möbius Continuu there where he directed Harry’s game, and now inspired Janos’s uttermost terror!

The invader reared back - fro place and was frantically trying to push hih the doorway to eternity, and frorunted his shock, astonishment and total disbelief For within a mainly human identity he had stu concept, but also the entirely -dead father!

Terror galvanized hiasped a stream of semi-coherent obscenities at hione in a uessed that he’d never dare try it again But -

’Faethor!’ Harry growled, hisas an old chalk on a new blackboard - his own voice now, no longer influenced or guided by the ain: ’Faethor!’

There was no answer, except perhaps a far, faint chuckle, like oily bubbles bursting on a lake of pitch Or perhaps the furtive whir of bat-wings, echoing from the deepest, darkest cave

’Oh, you bastard you liar!’ Harry howled ’You’re in here! You have been right from the moment I let you in! But I can find you, throw you out’

And at last:

No need, my son, came Faethor’s distant, diseased whisper The first battle is fought and won; the sun rises; I get one!

After that: Harry surfaced from his dreams slow and cold, so that the sas dry on him by the ti on his doorabout breakfast By then, too, Harry believed he’d worked out hoas going to play the rest of it

At 8:15 Rhodes Toas only just awake, but already Harry was down on a pier in Mandraki harbour to see his friends off Darcy and Manolis waved several times as their boat pulled out onto the incredible blue ean, but he didn’t wave back He siht, and silently wished them luck

Then he drove over to the beach at Kritika and swa Even after furiously towelling himself dry, and despite the fact that it was at least seventy-five degrees out in the sun, he was still cold The coldness he felt had nothing to do with the outside temperature It came from inside

Harry’s bed had been freshly ht a while, slowly e hiht hiht Faethor, right there in hissun standing high in the sky So hosts don’t burn It ive Faethor a few bad dreams but it couldn’t physically hurt hi physical left of him Any of Harry’s dead friends could have told him that much

’You old devil!’ he said, but coldly, for he wasn’t na a fact ’You old bastard, you old liar So just like Thibor fastened on Dragosani, you’re thinking of latching on toof it? Faethor came into the open, and Harry could feel hiht there at his bedside Fait accorinned mirthlessly ’I will be rid of you,’ he said ’Believerid of myself’

Suicide? Faethor tut-tutted No, not you, Harry Why, you are tenacious as the ones you hunt down and destroy! You will not kill yourself while there’s still a chance to kill another one of the, Faethor Me, I’h my brain, like Trevor Jordan I wouldn’t even know about it Believe ’

I see no real notion of suicide in your thoughts, Faethor shrugged, so why pretend? Do you think I feel threatened? How can you threaten me, Harry? I’ht? Listen and I’ll tell you sohts I can hide them, even from you It’s deadspeak; that’s how I learned to do it; by keeping back hts from the dead I did it then so as not to hurt them, but I can just as easily use it the other way’

For a moment - theAnd he nodded knowingly ’See? I knohat’s on your mind, old devil But do you knohat’s on mine, if I hide it from you so?’

Deep in the psyche of Harry, the Father of Va It fell on him like a blanket, as if to smother him It was as if he were back in the earth near Ploiesti, where his evil fats had been rendered down the night Ladislau Giresci took his life

’You see,’ Harry told hiain, ’I can shut you out’

Not out, Harry You can only shut me off But the moment you relax I’ll be back

’Always?’

For a ain And so long as you hold to it, then so shall I When Janos is no more, then you’ll be rid of led like a night-dark swamp, and smiled an immaterial smile

It was the natural sarcasm of the vampire, but Harry only said: Til hold you to that’ And his mental voice was cold as the spaces between the stars ’Just remember, Faethor, I’ll hold you to it’

Manolis handled the boat It had a sine, and left a wake like lohite walls ht of land, they had rounded Cape Koumbourno and outpaced the water-skiers off Kritika Beach before Harry had even hit the water there By 9:00 a to port were heading for Aliht have trouble with his stolass and with the wind in his facehean expensive holiday That is, if he wasn’t perfectly sure he was heading for horror

Around 10:00 a pair of dolphins played chicken across the prow of the boat where it sliced the water; by which time they’d passed between the almost barren rocks of Alimnia and Makri, and Halki (which Manolis insisted should be ’Khalki’, for the chalky shells it was named after) had swum into view

Fifteen minutes later they were into the harbour and tied up, and Manolis was chatting with a pair of weathered fishermen where they mended their nets While he ht a ht on the waterfront and studied what he could of the island’s layout There wasn’t a great deal to study

The island was a big rock so axis lying east to west Looking west a mile or two, mountain crests stood wild and desolate where the island’s one road of any description wandered apparently aimlessly And Darcy knew that his and Manolis’s destination lay way up there, in the heights at the end of that road He didn’t need thehim ever since he stepped fro to the fishermen, Manolis joined him ’No transport,’ he said ’It is , and of course ill be carrying our - how do you say - picnic basket? It looks like a long hot walk, my friend, and all of it uphill’

Darcy looked around ’Well, what’s that,’ he said, ’if not transport?’ A three-wheeled device, clattering like a stea out of a narrow street to park in the ’centre of town’, that being the waterfront with its bars and tavernas

The driver was a sliot down frorocery store Darcy and Manolis aiting for him when he came out His name was Nikos; he owned a taverna and rooms on a beach across the bottleneck of the proht now and he could run them up to the end of the road for a small remuneration When Manolis mentioned a sum of fifteen hundred drachmae his eyes lit up like laroceries, booze and other ite in the back of the cart had to be better than walking - but not much better On the way Nikos stopped to unload his purchases at the taverna, and to open a couple of bottles of beer for his passengers, and then the journey continued

After a little while and when he’d adjusted his position against the jolting, Darcy took a swig of his beer and said: ’What did you find out?’

’There are two of the to buy meat - red meat, no fish - and ether, don’t talkup at the site if they cook!’ He shrugged and looked narrow-eyed at Darcy ’They work ht direction the villagers occasionally hear thees to shift the rocks and the rubble During the day they are not seen to do too much They laze around in the caves up there’

’What about the tourists?’ Darcy inquired ’Wouldn’t they be a nuisance? And how co in these ruins? Is your govern? This isit’s history!’

Again Manolis’s shrug ’The Vrykoulakas apparently has his friends Anyway, they are not actually digging in the ruins Beyond the castle where it sits up on the crest, the cliff falls away very steeply Down there are ledges, and caves This is where they are digging The villagers think they are the crazy men What, treasure up there? Dust and rocks, and that’s all’

Darcy nodded ’But Janos knows better, eh? Let’s face it, if he buried it, he should knohere to dig for it!’

Manolis agreed ’As for the tourists: there are ht now They spend their ti around They are on holiday, right? Some climb up to the castle, but never down the other side And never at night’

’It feels weird,’ said Darcy, after a while

’What does?’

’We’re going up there to kill these things’

’Right,’ Manolis answered ’But only if it’s necessary I ave an involuntary shudder and glanced at the long, narroicker basket which lay between theh’s crossbow, and a gallon of petrol in a plastic container ’Oh, they are,’ he said then, and offered a curt nod ’You can believe ht his vehicle to a halt in a rising re-entry To the left, pathhich were little h the ruined streets of an ancient, long-deserted hill town; above the ruins stood a gleaher still, on the almost sheer crown of the mountain itself -

’ - The castle!’ Manolis breathed

As Nikos and his wonderful three-wheel workhorseback down into the valley, Darcy shielded his eyes to gaze up at the ouard there as it had through all the long centuries ’Butis there a way up?’

’Yes,’ Manolis nodded ’A goat track Hairpins all the way, but quite safe According to the fisher the basket between them, they set out to cli could begin, they paused to look back Across the valley, they could pick out the boundaries of long-forsaken fields and the shells of old houses, where olive groves and orchards had long run wild and returned to nature

’Sponges,’ said Manolis, by way of explanation ’They were sponge fisheres ran out, so did the people Now, as you see, it’sit back to life again, eh?’

Darcy had other things than life on his et on,’ he said ’Already I don’t want to go any further, and if we hang about o at all!’

After that it was all ochre boulders, yellow outcrops and winding goat tracks, and where there were gaps in the rocks dizzying viehich were alinous But eventually they found themselves in the shadow of enor stone lintel into the ruin itself The place was polyglot and Darcy had been right about its historic value It was Ancient Greek, Byzantine, and last but not least Crusader Cli up onto walls three to four feet thick, the vieas fantastic, with all the coastlines of Halki and its neighbouring islands laid open to them

They clambered over heaps of stony debris in the shell of a Crusader chapel whose walls still carried fadingfaded haloes, and finally stood on the ri down on the Bay of Trachia

’Down there,’ said Manolis That’s where they are Look: do you see those signs of excavation, where all of that rubble makes a dark streak on the weathered rocks? That’s them Noe ht? You have that look again’

Darcy was anything but all right They they’re down there,’ he said ’I feel rooted to the spot Every step weighs like lead Christ, my talent’s a coward!’

’You want to rest here a et started again Let’s get on’

There were several earette packets, scuff marks on the rocks, places where the sandy soil had been compacted by booted feet; the way doas neither hard to find nor difficult to negotiate Soon they found a rusting wheelbarrow and a broken pick standing on the wide shelf of a natural ledge which had weathered out froe that here much of the stony debris had been excavated fro quietly, they approached the cave showing the ns of work and paused at its entrance And as they took out spearguns from their basket and loaded them, Manolis whispered: ’You’re sure we’ll need these, yes?’

’Oh, yes,’ Darcy nodded, his face ashen

Manolis took a step into the echoing asped, his Ada ’It would be safer to call them out’

’And let theht, we’ll have the advantage,’ Darcy gulped ’And anyway, et the fuck out of here just cli notches Which probably ht A shadow stepped forward out of the cave’s darker shadows,carefully towards them where they stood in the entrance They looked at each other idening eyes, and together thuly The , but turned his shoulder side on and went into so crouch

Manolis spat out a streaabbled Greek curses, snatched his Beretta froun to his left hand Theat them out of the dark, but they saw hied-looking in silhouette He wore a wide-briy trousers, a shirt whose unbuttoned sleeves flapped loosely at the wrists He looked for all the world like a scarecrow let down off his pole But it wasn’t crows he was scaring

’Only one of theasped - and felt his hair stand on end as he heard pebbles sliding and clattering on the ledge behind theun flashed blindingly, deafeningly; Darcy looked back and saw a second - creature? - bearing down on theue in the cave he wore a floppy hat, and in its shade his eyes were yellow, viciously feral Worse, he held a pickaxe slantingly overhead, and his face isted in a snarl where he aimed it at Darcy’s back!

Darcy - or perhaps his talent - turned higer of his speargun The harpoon flew straight to its target in the vaht him to a halt; he dropped his pickaxe, clutched at the spear where it transfixed hiainst the wall of the cliff Darcy, frozen for a hing up blood

In the cave, Manolis cursed and fired his gun again -and yet again - as he followed his target deeper into the darkness Then Darcy heard an inhuman shriek followed by the slither of silver on steel, and finally theflesh The sounds brought him out of his shock as he realized that both his and Manolis’s weapons were now erab a harpoon froered forward and kicked the whole thing, basket and contents, right off the rim!

’Jesus!’ Darcy yelled, his throat hoarse and dry as sandpaper as again the fla turned towards him Then the vampire paused, looked about and saw its pickaxe where it lay close to the rising cliff It moved to pick it up, and Darcy moved too His talent told him to run, run, run! But he yelled ’Fuck you!’ and flew like aover, and himself snatched up the pick The tool was heavy but such was Darcy’s terror that it felt like a toy in his hands

Manolis ca his weapon in a deadly arc and punch the wider point of its dual-purpose head into his undead opponent’s forehead The creaturesounds and sank to its knees, then sluasped

’Over the edge,’ Darcy told him, his voice a croak

Manolis looked over the rim Further down the mountain, maybe fifty feet lower, the wicker basket was jagings had piled up to form a scree slide The lid was open and several items lay scattered about ’You stay, keep watch, and I’ll get it,’ Manolis said

He gave Darcy his gun and started to clamber down Darcy kept one eye on the vampire with the pickaxe in his head, and the other on the leering mouth of the cave The creature he had dealt with - a man, yes, but a creature, too - was not ’dead’ It should be, but of course it was undead The se of its syste in it even now, desperately healing its wounds Even as Darcy watched it shuddered and its yellow eyes opened, and its hand crept shakily towards the harpoon in its chest

Gritting his teeth, Darcy stepped closer to it His guardian angel howled at him, poured adrenalin into his veins and yelled run, run! But he shut out all warnings and grasped the end of the spear, and yanked it this way and that in the vahed up blood, then flopped back and lay still again

Darcy stepped back frohty, heart-stopping start as solanced back and down, and saw the one fro, his iron hand clasping Darcy’s foot There was a spear through his throat just under the Ada’s face had been shot half away, but still he was lare froht easily have fainted then; instead he fell backwards away froe And aiun right into the gri half-face

At that point Manolis returned He hauled the basket up behind hih’s crossbow Aup, and just in tie had torn the pickaxe fro to pull out the harpoon from its chest!

’Jesus! Oh, Jesus!’ Manolis croaked He stepped close to the blood-frothing horror, aimed his weapon froht into its heart

Darcy had meanwhile scraht hold of him and hauled him to his feet, said: ’Let’s finish it, while we still can’