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Lazarides

That saht:

The Lazarus lay moored to a wharf in the main harbour, entirely still and darkly lass; three of the four crew only a watchkeeper; the boat’s owner sat at a -seat upstairs in theout and down across the waterfront Downstairs a handful of tourists drank cheap brandy or ouzo and ate the execrable food, while the local layabouts, bulish and Gered drinks

There were three or four blowsy-looking English girls down there, some with Greek boyfriends, all the worse for wear and all looking for the ered to sporadic bursts of recorded bouzouki ly, horizontally, to the acco flesh

Upstairs was out of bounds to such as these, where the owner of the taverna carried out the occasional shady deal, or perhaps drank, talked or played cards with soht, however, just the landlord hi alone in the alcove leading to her business premises - a small room with a bed and washbasin - and thehis -seat

The fat, stubble-chinned proprietor, called Nichos Dakaris, was here to serve a bottle of good red wine to Lazarides, and the girl was here because she had a black eye and couldn’t ply for trade along the waterfront Or rather, she wouldn’t It was her way of paying Dakaris back for the beatings he gave her whenever he was obliged to cough up hush- a prostitute use his place If not for the fact that he felt the urge himself now and then, he probably wouldn’t let her stay here at all; but she paid for her room ’in kind’ once or twice a week as the ot forty per cent of her take Or would get it if she only used her roo in Rhodian back-alleys! Which was his other reason for beating her

As for Jianni Lazarides: he also had his reasons for being here This was the venue for hiswith the Greek ’captain’ of the Samothraki and a couple of his cohorts, when he would look for an explanation as to how and why so tickets for their assu operation Actually he already knehy, for he’d had it from the mind of Trevor Jordan; but noanted to hear it from Pavlos The how best to detach hiood edly safe business (which now appeared to be anything but safe), and he wanted his ods here in this era no less than in all the foregone centuries of human avarice, of which Lazarides had e And indeed there were easier, safer, uaranteed ways to make and use money in this vastly complex world; hich would not attract the attention of its law-keepers, or at any rate not too much of it

Money was very ireedy This world he’d e to become even more so, and a vaiven lands by some puppet prince or other, to build a castle there and live in seclusion and, preferably and eventually, soevity had walked hand in hand in the Old Days; you could not have one without the other; a famous man must not be seen to live beyond his or any other ordinary creature’s span of years But in those days news travelled slowly; a man could have sons; when he ’died’ there would always be one of those ready and waiting to step into his shoes

Likewise in the here and now, except that news and indeed er travelled slowly, because of which the world was that much smaller Sohow then to build an aerie, and all unnoticed, in these last dozen years of this 20th Century? Impossible! But still a very rich o about his business as of old Which begged a second question: how to becoht he had answered that one uise of Lazarides he wasn’t so sure In those days a geold had been instant wealth Now, too, except that now men would want to know the source of such an item In those days a Boyar’s lands and possessions - or loot - had been his own, no questions asked And only let him who dared try to take theold Scythian croere ’historic treasures’, and a ood in

Oh, Janos knew the source of his wealth well enow; indeed, here it sat in this -seat, overlooking a harbour in the once powerful land of Rhodos! For the very man who ’discovered’ and unearthed these treasures in the here and noas the selfsame one who had buried theo! How better to prepare for a second co period of utter retrieved these several caches, these iteo, surely it would be the very si to transfer them into land, properties of his own, the territories and possessions of a Wamphyri Lord? Oh, true, an aerie were out of the question, even a castle but an island? An island, say, in the Greek Sea, which had so many?

Ah, if only it could have been that easy!

But places change, Nature takes her toll, earthquakes rumble and the land is split asunder, and treasures are buried deeper still where old markers fall or are simply torn down The mapmakers then were not nearly so accurate, and even a keen memory - the very keenest vampire memory - will fade a little in the face of centuries

Janos sighed and glanced out of theat the harbour lights, and at thosetheir ships like luminous inchworone now, back downstairs to serve ouzo and watered-down brandy and count his takings But the bouzouki hter, the would-be lovers still danced and groped, and the young whore remained seated in her alcove as before

The hour must be ten, and Janos had said he would contact his American thrall about then Well, and he wouldin a while, in a while

He poured a little wine for hilass turned to blood Aye, the blood was the life - but not in a place like this! He would sup when he would sup, and meanwhile the wine could ease his parch What was it after all but the plaguy unending thirst of the vampire, which one must either tame or die for? Or at least, tame within certain limits And Janos wasn’t shrivelled yet

The whore had heard the chink of his glass against the bottle Now she looked across, her surly lass, which was empty

Janos felt her eyes on him and turned his head Across the rooood looks and expensive clothing, and wondered at the dark-tinted spectacles which shielded his eyes But at this distance she could not see how coarse and large-pored was his skin, hoide and fleshy his th of his skull, ears and three-fingered hands She only knew that he looked powerful, detached, deep And certainly he was not a poor man

She smiled, however unprettily, stood up and stretched - which had the desired effect of lifting her pointed breasts - and crossed to Janos’s -seat He watched her swaying towards hiht: Of your own free will

’Will you drink it all?’ she asked hi eyebrow ’All to yourselfall by yourself?’

’No,’ he said at once, his expression re entirely ambivalent, ’I require very little of this’

Perhaps his voice surprised her: it was a growl, a rumble, so deep it made her bones shiver And yet she didn’t find it displeasing Still, its force was sufficient that she took a pace to the rear But as she drew back so he smiled, however coldly, and indicated the bottle ’Are you thirsty, then?’

Was he a Greek, this ue, but spoke it like they did in soes, which modern times and ould never reach Or perhaps he wasn’t Greek after all; orand the exotic dilution of far, foreign parts

The girl didn’t normally ask, but now she said: ’May I?’

’By all means As I have said, my real requirements lie in another direction’

Was that a hint? He h the alcove and into her curtained roolassit was as if he had read her h of course that wouldn’t be too difficult ’No,’ he said, with a slight but definite shake of his great head ’Now you must leave me alone There areme here’

She threw back her wine, and so’

And that was that; the command was irresistible; she returned to her bench under the alcove But now she couldn’t keep her eyes off him He are of it but it didn’t seem to bother hiht feel concerned

Anyway, it was now ti He put the girl out of histhe waterfront to the mole, and into the shadows there where ht lights there, just heaps of mended nets, lobster pots, and the floats and aht the octopus And the ever faithful Ar for his master’s commands

Do you hear me, Seth?

T whispered into the shadows of the mole, as if he talked to hier, which Janos could feel in his ood, for a master’s needs must always coet to reward a faithful dog Ar would receive his reward later

I now seek out the lishman, Janos briefly explained, and hilish will doubtless accompany him That one is not required, for he can only hinder my works One of them can tell us asunderstood well enough - and again Janos felt the hunger in hier that this ti fro of yourself! Do you hear me, Seth?

’I understand’

Good! I suggest that he receive a stunning blow - say, to the back of the neck? - and that he then falls in the water where it is deep Look to it, then, for if all is well I shall send them to you soon

Withouta the hotels and tavernas, in and around the bars, fast-food stalls and nightclubs It was not difficult; the ht were different, possessed some small powers of their own And one of theed, al to be destroyed, but not just yet Tih for that when Janos knew all that it knew And fro down on thatit to seek sanctuary in oblivion, he was certain that it knew a great deal

The mind of a mentalist, aye: a ’telepath’, as they called the on hi-running operation of which he was a part), how h tohim down Janos had sensed that the mindspy knehat he was, and that must never be What? To be discovered as a vaht scoff at such a suggestion - but others would not This mentalist was just such a one, and there’d been echoes in his mind which hinted he knew of others An entire nest of thehtened thoughts He knew the scent of them It was a mind he had encountered before, recently, which like a fahts they were, bruised and battered tonow once more to consciousness He tracked the mind knew at once that this was the one and he’d made no mistake

Ken Layard attended Trevor Jordan in the latter’s hotel roole rooms were side by side, with access from a corridor For twelve hours solid the telepath had lain here now: six of them as still as a corpse, under the influence of a powerful sedative administered by a Greek doctor, fourin the grip of whatever dream it was that bothered him Layard had tried to wake him once or twice, but his friend hadn’t been ready for it The doctor had said he’d coood time

As for what the trouble was: it could have been anything, according to the doctor Too ot into his syste to worry about just yet The tourists were always going doith so or other

Layard turned away from Jordan’s bed, and in the next moment heard his friend say: ’What? Yes - yes - I will’ He spun on his heel, saw Jordan’s eyes spring open, watched hiht into a seated position

There was a jar of water on Jordan’s bedside table; Layard poured hilass and offered it to hilazed He swung his legs out of the bed, reached for his clothes where they were draped over a chair The locator wondered: is he sleepwalking?

’Trevor,’ he quietly said, taking his arm, ’are you - ?’

’What?’ Jordan faced him, blinked rapidly, suddenly looked hiuessed that he was now fully conscious, and apparently capable ’Yes, I’m OK But’

’But?’ Layard prompted him, while Jordan continued to dress hi al As Jordan went on dressing, Layard answered it It was Manolis Papasta The Greek lawman had come on the scene only seconds after Jordan’s collapse; he’d helped Layard get him back here and called in the doctor

Trevor’s fine,’ Layard answered his anxious query ’I think He’s getting dressed, anyway What’s happening your end?’

Papastalish the sa the boats - both of the has come ashore from the Samothraki it couldn’t have been very much, and certainly not the hard stuff, which is about e expected I’ve checked out the Lazarus, too; unlikely that there’s any connection; its owner is one Jianni Lazarides, archaeologist and treasure-seeker, with good credentials Orlet’s just say he has no record, anyway As for the crew of the Samothraki: the captain and his first ht a very little of the soft stuff with the coffee and brandy Butsober’

Jordan hadfor the door He moved like a zombie, and his clothes were the sahts were still chilly; plainly he hadn’t so ht, casual clothes as taken them because they’d been handy Layard called after hi?’

Jordan looked back "The harbour,’ he answered auto the mole to the windmills’

’Hello? Hello?’ Papastamos was still on the phone ’What now?’

’He says he’s going to the windoing with hiht here I’ve known it all day Sorry, Manolis, but I have to hang up on you’

’I’ll see you down there!’ Papastaht half of it as he was putting the phone down And then he was struggling into his jacket and following Jordan where he edly downstairs into the lobby, then out of the door and into the Mediterranean night

’Aren’t you going to wait for me?’ he called out after hilance back, once, and Layard saw his eyes staring out of his sick-looking face like holes punched in pasteboard Plainly he wasn’t going to wait for him, or for anyone else for that ht up with his robotic partner as Jordan crossed a road heading for the waterfront, but then the lights changed, engines revved, and , death-wish, devil-take-the-hindmost fashion of Greek traffic In that same moment he found himself separated from Jordan by bumper-to-bumper metal; and by the tiain, the telepath had disappeared into ed the streets Hurrying after him, Layard knew he’d lost hi

Jordan felt that he was fighting it for all he orth, every step of the way, even knowing it was useless It was like being drunk in a strange place and aers, when you lie on your back and the roo chasing each other like the spokes of a wheel And there’s nothing you can do to stop it because you know it isn’t really spinning - it’s yourinside the head on top of your body Your bloody head and body but they won’t obey you you can’t make them do what you want no matter how hard you try!

And all the time you can hear yourself trapped in your own skull like a fly in a bottle, buzzing furiously and banging repeatedly against the glass, and saying over and over again, ’Oh, God, let it stop! Oh, God, let it stop! Oh, Godlet it stop!’

It’s the alcohol - the alien in your syste it onlyyour head and shoulders up off the bed and everything spins even faster, so fast you can feel the centrifugal force dragging you down again Force yourself to your feet and you stagger, you turn, begin to spin with the room, with the entire bloody universe!

But only lie still, stop fighting it, close your eyes tight and cling to yourself eventually it will go away The spinning will go away The sickness The buzzing of the fly in the bottle - which is your own battered, astonished, gibbering psyche - will go away And you’ll sleep And it’s possible the strangers will roll you and rob you blind

Roll you? They could steal your underpants - even rape you, if they felt inclined - and you couldn’t stop them, wouldn’t feel it, wouldn’t even suspect

It was a replay of Jordan’s first violent experience with alcohol That had been when he’d started university and got hos! A couple of fellow students, college co to have a little fun at his expense, had spiked his drinks Then they’d played a few tricks on hied his cheeks, given hiarter-belt and stockings and stuck a Mickey Mouse johnnie on his dick

He woke up cold, naked, ill, not knohat had happened, wanting to die But a day or two later when he was sober, he’d tracked the shit out of theot physical when there was no other way around it

But by God, he wished he could get physical now! With himself, with this mind and body which wouldn’t obey hi this to hi: he kneas so his, and there was still nothing he could do about it!

’Stop!’ he kept telling hirip of yourself Sit down throw uphold your head in your hands wait for Ken Do anything - but of your own free will!’ But before his runaway body could even begin to obey such instructions:

AH BUT IT IS NOT FREE! YOU CAME SPYING, INVADED MY MIND - AN ANT IN A WASP’S NEST! SO NOW PAY THE PRICE GO ON: PROCEED JUST AS YOU ARE GO TO THE WINDMILLS

That terrible, gonging, netic voice in his head -that hich superimposed itself over his will - that telepathic, hypnotic co as powerful, ined before, which made a mockery of resistance more surely than any Mickey Finn

Jordan’s legs felt like rubber - al at the knees - as he strained to hold thenetic poles, or a moth from a candle And still he followed the waterfront to theits rocky neck, until the ancient windainst a horizon of dark ocean

Dressed all in black, Seth Ar in the shadohere the sea as shaped like a castle’s battlements, after the style of the old Crusaders whose works were still visible all around He let Jordan go stu by, looked back into the darkness of the hts of Rhodes Old Tohere it sprawled on the hill He heard footsteps, running, and a voice, panting:

’Trevor? For Christ’s sake, sloill you? Where the hell do you th - ?’ And Ar, black, gangling, step out of the shadows One eye glared at hi, he skidded to a halt, spun on his heel to flee - and Ar cobbles of the path Out like a light, Layard lay cru the strictures on his will slacken a little, turned back

He saw the large, dark,bent over Layard’s unconscious form, saw his friend hoisted aloft on powerful shoulders - and ejected through one of the wall’s embrasures, out into thin air! A moment more and there caradually settling - and finally, as the figure in black now turned towards hi footsteps!

The beaht like a white knife through black card And Manolis Papasta the silence:

’Trevor, Ken, where are you?’

Be careful! the alien voice in Jordan’s mind coer directed at hier dominated but merely advised And he knew that his telepathic mind had simply ’overheard’ instructions meant for some other, meant in fact for the nized!

Splashing sounds fro cry Ken Layard was alive! But Jordan knew for a fact that the locator couldn’t swis to carry hih an e alien, confused and furious,like a scalded cat in the back of his er fully in control

Papastaht, and Jordan saw the long-liure in black back off into the shadows ’Man -Manolis!’ he forced his parched throat to croak ’Look out!’

The Greek lawman came to a halt, breathlessly called out: Trevor?’ and flashed his torch beam full in Jordan’s face

The shadows erupted and Ar smashed a blow to Papasta His torch fell with hi everywhere Thethe mole towards the town Papastamos cursed in Greek, snatched at the torch where it rolled past hiure Its bea on the sea wall like a giant crab escaping to the sea But Papastamos was armed with more than just a torch

His Beretta Model 92S barked five ti a five-spoked fan of lead after the scuttling shadoailing cry of pain and a gasped, ’Uh - uh - uh!’ ca

’M-M-Manolis!’ Jordan hadn’t let up on his battle with the clamp on his will ’K-K-Kenisinthe sea!’

The Greek got up, ran to the sea wall Fro, the slosh of water wind-ht for his own safety, Papastamos climbed up into the embrasure and launched himself feet-first into the harbour

In his -seat upstairs in the Taverna Dakaris, Janos Ferenczy’s three-fingered right hand closed on his wineglass and applied pressure until the glass shattered Wine and fraglass, and a little blood, too, were squeezed out froers If he felt any pain it didn’t show in his gaunt-grey face, except perhaps in the tic jerking the flesh at one corner of hisspoke to him from a little over three hundred yards away ’I’m shot!’

How badly?

’In the shoulder I’ll be useless to you until I heal A day or two’

Sometimes I think you have always been useless to me Go back to the boat Try not to be seen

’I I haven’t got the telepath’

I know, fool! I shall see to it myself

’Then be careful The man who shot me was a policeman!’

Oh? And how do you know that?

’Because he shot un Ordinary people don’t carry theuessed what he was as soon as I saw hi trouble Policemen look the same in whatever country’

You are a veritable hts were scathingly sarcastic But I take your point And since it now seeht-thief for my own, I shall find some other way to exa His hts of others, which until now hasfish in a little pond Ah, but now he has a shark to contend with! For I was a mindspy five centuries before he was born!

’I’ confirmed