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The hotel was big and rather faht fla distance of Whitehall , and not entirely what it seeiven over to a company of inter­ national entrepreneurs, which was the sue about it The occupants of that unknown upper region had their own elevator at the rear of the building, private stairs also at the rear and entirely closed off from the hotel itself, even their own f ire escape Indeed they - ’they’ being the only identific ation one ht reasonably apply in such circumstances - owned the top floor, and so fell entirely outside the hotel’s sphere of control and operation Except that fro in totalwas anything other than what it purported to be; which was exactly the guise or aspect - or lack of such - which ’they’ wished to convey

As for the ’international entrepreneurs’ - whatever such creatures ht be - ’they’ were not In fact they were a branch of Government, or more properly a subsidi­ary body Government supported them in the way a tree supports a small creeper, but their roots holly separate And similarly, because they were a very tiny parasite, the vast bulk of the tree was totally unaware of their presence As is the case with sowas of a low priority, came out of ’petty cash’ The upkeep of their offices was therefore far and away top of the list where costing was concerned, but that was unavoidable

For unlike other projects, the nature of this one demanded a very low profile indeed Its presence in the event of discovery would be an acute embarrassment; it would doubtless be vieith suspicion and scorn, if not disbelief and downright hostility; it would be seen as a totally unnecessary expenditure, a needless burden on the taxpayer, a complete waste of publicit; the benefits or fruits of its being remained as yet entirely conjectural and the mildest ’frost’ would certainly put paid to theanisation or service: it must (a) be seen to be effective while paradoxically (b) o: to expose such a body is to kill it

Another way to dispose of this sort of hybrid would be, quite simply, to tear up its roots and deny it had ever existed Or wait for theency and then fail to replant theo there had occurred just such an uproot­ ing A major tendril had been broken, whose principal function it had been to bind the vine to its host body, providing stability In short, the head of the branch had suffered a heart attack and died on his way home He had had a bad heart for years, so that wasn’t strange in itself - but then soht on the ht now

For now, on this Mondayof an especially chilly January, Kyle, the next in line, e and feasibility of repairs; and if such repairs were at all possible, then he ether The project’s foundations had always been a little shaky but now, lacking positive direction and leadership, the whole show ht well fall apart in very short order Like a sand-castle when the tide cohts in Kyle’s head as he stepped frolass doors into a tiny foyer, shook damp snow from his overcoat and turned the collar down It was not that he personally had any doubt as to the validity of the project - in fact the opposite applied: Kyle believed the branch to be all- important -but how to defend his position in the face of all that scepticism from above? Scepticism, yes Old Gorh places, his ’old school tie’ io, but men such as Keenan Gormley were few and far between Even fewer now

And this afternoon at four o’clock Kyle wouldbe called upon to defend his position, the validity of his branch’s being, its very existence Oh, they’d been quick off the h, and Kyle believed he knehy This was it, the crunch With nothing to show for five years’ work, the project was to be teruments he produced, he’d be shouted down Old Gorether; he’d had the clout, the back-up; but Alec Kyle - as he? In his mind’s eye, he could picture the afternoon’s inquisition right now:

’Yes, Minister, I’ second in command to Sir Keenan, I was - Iyour pardon? Ah, it means I foresee the future, sir Er, no, I have to adive you the winner of the 3:30 at Goodwood toenerally isn’t that specific But -’

But it would be hopeless! A hundred years ago they wouldn’t accept hypnotis at acupuncture So how could Kyle hope to convince them in respect of the branch and its work? And yet, on the other hand, coh all the despondency and sense of personal loss, there was this other thing Kyle knew it for what it was: his ’talent’, telling him that all was not lost, that soo on Which hy he was here: to go through Keenan Gors, prepare so its cause And again Kyle found hiliht he had dreast Gor word for it Kyle’s revelations - his glis which had not yet happened, future occurrences -invariably ca awake, immediately prior to full con­scious awareness The clamour of his alarm-clock could do it, set the process in h his bedroorey light of another grey day invading his roo upon his idly drifting mind the fact that another day was about to be born

And with it had been born a vision But again, ’gliht be a better word for it, for that wasall Kyle’s talent had ever per that it would only occur once and then be gone forever - he had fastened upon it absorbed it He dared notbe had ever ’seen’ in this way had always proved to be vitally important

And on this occasion:

He had seen hih his papers one by one The top right-hand desk draas open; the papers and files on the desk in front of hi cabinet stood as yet undisturbed against the wall of his office; its three keys were lying on top of the desk where Kyle had tossed them Each key would open a tiny drawer in the cabinet, and each drawer had its own combination lock Kyle knew the combinations and yet had not bothered to open the cabinet No, for that which he sought was right here, in these documents from the drawer

As if realisation of that fact had galvanised the ie of himself where it sat in Gormley’s chair, Kyle had then seen himself pause abruptly as he came to a certain file It was a yellow file, which anisation Someone ’on the books’, as it were Someone Gormley had had his beady eye on Perhaps soht dawned, so Kyle took a step towards himself where he sat Then, drae at the desk had looked up, stared at him, and held up the file so that he could read the nah’

That was all That had been the point where Kyle had started awake As to what the thing had nify - who could say? Kyle had long since given up trying to predict the li But in any case, if soht him here today, it would have to be that brief and as yet inexplic­ able ’drea

As yet it was still fairly early in theKyle had beaten the first rush of heavy traffic in London’s streets by just a few minutes For the next hour or more all would be chaos out there, but in here it was quiet as the proverbial to the typist!) had been given today and tomorrow off out of respect for the dead man, so the offices upstairs would be completely empty

In the tiny foyer Kyle had pressed the button for the elevator, which now arrived and opened its doors He entered and as the doors closed behind hi it easily and sh the sensor slot The elevator jerked butlanced at his card and silently cursed It had run out yesterday! Normally Gormley would have renewed its validity on the branch com­puter; now Kyle would have to do it hi with the rest of his office-related effects Using the ex-Head of Branch’s pass-card, he coerced the elevator into carrying hih a similar procedure to let himself into the main suite of offices

The silence inside was alh up above the level of the street, with soundproofed floors to shut out hotel noises frolazed, tinted s for additional privacy, the place see crept in that if you listened to that silence long enough, it would become hard to breathe It was especially so in Gorh to draw the blinds at the s But the blinds had jammed only a little ht coreen-tinted s, the entire office seemed decorated in a horizontal, sub-ely alien, and it was suddenly very odd and unreal not to have the Old Man here

Kyle stood in the doorway, staring into the office for longthe door behind him, he stepped to the centre of the room Several hidden scanners had already picked him up and identified him, in the outer offices as well as in here, but a monitor screen in the wall close to Gormley’s desk wasn’t satisfied It beeped and printed up:

SIR KEENAN GORMLEY IS NOT AVAILABLE AT PRESENT THIS IS A SECURE AREA PLEASE IDENT­IFY YOURSELF IN YOUR NORMAL SPEAKING VOICE, OR LEAVE IMMEDIATELY IF YOU FAIL TO LEAVE OR IDENTIFY YOURSELF, A TEN SECOND WARNING WILL BE GIVEN, FOLLOWING WHICH THE DOOR AND WINDOWS WILL LOCK AUTOMATI­CALLY REPEAT: THIS IS A SECURE AREA

Feeling irrationally aggressive towards the cold, unthinkingbut waited After a count of three the screen wiped itself clean and printed up:

TEN SECOND WARNING COMMENCES NOW TEN NINE EIGHT SEVENSIX

’Alec Kyle,’ said Kyle grudgingly, not wishing to be locked in

The , commenced a new routine:

GOOD MORNING, MR KYLE SIR KEENAN GORMLEY IS NOT -

’I know,’ said Kyle ’He’s dead’ He stepped to the desk keyboard and punched in the current security override; to which the machine replied:

DO NOT FORGET TO RE-SET BEFORE YOU LEAVE, and switched itself off

Kyle sat down at the desk Funny world, he thought And, funny bloody outfit! Robots and romantics Super science and the supernatural Telemetry and telepathy Coets and ghosts!

He reached into a pocket for his cigarettes and lighter, came out with both items and also the keys to Gor, he tossed the keys on to an empty corner of the desk Then he paused and stared at the a pattern - the pattern frolio from there

He tried the drawers of the desk Locked He took out Gormley’s notebook from the inside pocket of his overcoat, checked the code It was OPEN SESAME

Unable to suppress a chuckle, Kyle punched OPEN SESAME into the desk keyboard and tried again The top right-hand drawer slid open at a touch Inside, papers, documents, files

And here coht

He took out the papers and placed the the drawer open (his ’glih the docu each one back in the drawer in its turn He knew that by now his talent shouldn’t really surprise hiave a small involuntary start as he arrived at the yellow file The nah

Harry Keogh Apart from Kyle’s dreaame he had used to play with Keenan Gormley As for this file: he had never seen it before in his life (his conscious life, anyway) and yet here he sat staring at it, exactly as in his drea And -

In the dreaht set the act inwhy he did it, but at the say - he held up the file to the ehost froered the action, now the action triggered so away and beyond all of Alec Kyle’s previous experience or knowledge