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After dropping Sandra off in Bonnyrig and during the short drive hoht hie but didn’t try to check it It wouldn’t make any sense to him anyway They could rip him off every time and he just wouldn’t know it

That was the other thing Harry Jnr had done to him: he was now innumerate No way he could use the M&oue froarettes! Sandra saw to it that his bills were paid, or he’d probably get that wrong, too What price his ’instinctive mathematics’ now, eh? The Möbius equations? What the hell were they? What had they looked like?

And again Harry wondered: was it a dreaination? Oh, he reht; but as he’d tried to explain to Sandra, it was the way you re now Had he really, really, done all of those things? And if he had, did he really, really, want to be able to do theh doors no one else guessed existed to travel swift as thought in the metaphysical Möbius Continuum?

Want it? Perhaps not, but as there without it? What was he without it? Answer: Harry Keogh, nowhere arden and looked at the stones again:

KENL

TJOR

RH

They end in his ht the wheelbarrow, loaded it up and wheeled the stones back to the herehe paused atheain And there he left them, in the wheelbarrow

For if - just if - sos harder for theain, Harry climbed stairs and then ladders to the attic rooe, dusty roo from a roof timber, and its rows and rows of bookshelves - which was now a shrine to his obsession, if the word ’shrine’ were at all applicable And of course the books themselves All the facts and the fictions were here, all the ends, all the ’conclusive condeainst, proving, disproving or standing in the round of Harry’s studies The history, the lore, the very natureof the varim joke, for how could anyone ever fully understand the nature of the vah

But he hadn’t coain at his books or delve a little deeper into thepast No, for he believed that tis, for study and vain atte the blue were is, and if he’d learned nothing else in his weird life it was to trust in his dreams

The Wamphyri have powers, father!

An echo? A whisper? The scurry ofbefore they seek you out and find you?

No, he wasn’t here to look at his books this time The tiht Too late if he’s already co at your door Well, he hadn’t, not yet But Harry had dreas, and he trusted his dreams

He took down a piece of n hadn’t changed h sixteen centuries) from the wall and carried it to a table where he laid it down on newspapers preparatory to cleaning, oiling and generally servicing the thing There was this, and in the corner there a sickle whose seleae weapons, these, against a force for blight and plague and devastation potentially greater than any of Man’s therht now they were the only weapons Harry had

Better tend to them

The afternoon passed without incident; why shouldn’t it? Years had passed without incident, within the parahhis position (which was this: that he was no longer a Necroscope, that he no longer had access to the M&ouht improve that position and recover his talents before they atrophied utterly

It was possible - barely, Harry supposed, considering his innumeracy - that if he could speak to M&ouht be able to stabilize whatever yro was now out of kilter in his head Except first he must be able to speak to him, which was likewise out of the question For of course Möbius had been dead for well over a hundred years, and Harry was forbidden to speak to the dead on penalty of ony

He could not speak to the dead, but the deadat ways in which they could communicate with him He suspected - no, he more than suspected, was sure - that he spoke to theh he was forbidden to remember or act upon what they had told his had been passed, even if he didn’t knohat those warnings were about

One thing was certain, however: he knew that within himself and within every lobe, a blue thread unwound fro into the future of humanity, and that he had dreamed - or been warned - of red threads amidst the blue

And apart fro i terrible - the rest of it was a Chinese puzzle with no solution, a maze with no exit, the square root of minus one, whose value may only be expressed in the abstract Harry knew the latter for a fact, even if he no longer knehat it meant And it was a puzzle he’d examined almost to distraction, a maze he’d explored to exhaustion, and an equation he hadn’t even attempted because like all mathematical concepts it si he sat and watched television,Sandra, and then hadn’t There was soht had he to draw her into whatever this was, or whatever itdreards night; Harry prepared for bed, only to sit dozing in his chair The dish in his garden collected signals and unscrambled their pictures onto his screen He started awake at the sound of applause, and discovered an A to a fat lady who had the ine The shoas called ’Interesting People’ or some such and Harry had watched it before Usually it was anything but interesting; but now he caught the word ’extrasensory’ and sat up a little straighter Naturally enough, he found ESP in all its foret this right,’ the skeletally thin host said to the fat lady ’You went deaf when you were eighteen ht?’

’That’s right,’ the fat lady answered, ’but I do have this incredible reat many human conversations before I went deaf Anyway, speech never developed in me, so I wasn’t only deaf but duotstudio He took , and I suddenlysensors on his roup he was recording’

’Suddenly, you got the idea of sound, right?’

That’s correct,’ the fat lady sn-language or dactylology - which in my mind I’d called dumbspeak - and I also knew that some deaf people could carry on perfectly normal conversations, which I termed ’deafspeak’ But I hadn’t tried it myself simply because I hadn’t understood sound! You see, my deafness was total Absolute Sound didn’t exist - except in my memory!’

’And so you saw this hypnotist?’

’Indeed I did It was hard but he was patient - and of course it htn’t have been possible at all except he was able to use duht back all the conversations I’d heard as a baby And when I woke up -’

’ - You could speak?’

’Exactly as you hear me now, yes!’

’The hell you say! Not only fully articulate but almost entirely without accent! Mrs Zdzienicki, that’s astory and you really are one of thePeople we’ve ever had on this show!’

The ca face and he nodded his head in frenetic affirmation ’Yessiree! And now, let’s move on to - ’

But Harry had already moved, to switch off the set; and as the screen blinked out he sa dark it had grown Al as the ti system It was time he was in bed

Or, maybe he’d watch just onePeople! He didn’t reain, but as its picture forh the screen where he found Jack Garrulous or whatever his name was adrift in the Möbius Continuum

’Welcome to the show, Harry!’ said Jack ’And we just knoe’re going to find you verrry interesting! Now, I’ve been sort of adot here What did you say it was called?’ He held out his microphone for Harry to speak into

’This is the Möbius Continuum, Jack,’ said Harry, a little nervously, ’and I’m not really supposed to be here’

’The hell you say! But on this show anything goes, Harry You’re on prime-time, son, so don’t be shy!’

’Time?’ Harry said ’But all time is prime, Jack Is time what you’re interested in? Well, in that case, take a look in here’ And grabbing Garrulous by the elbow he guided hi!’ the other approved, as side by side they shot into the future, towards that far faint haze of blue which was the expansion of huh the three mundane dimensions of the space-time universe ’And what are these myriad blue threads, Harry?’

’The life-threads of the human race,’ Harry explained ’See over there? That one just thisblue that it’s al way to go And this one here, gradually fading and getting ready to blink out?’ He lowered his voice in respect ’Well, that’s an old man about to die’

’The hell - you - say!’ said Jack Garrulous, awed ’But of course, you’d know all about that, noouldn’t you, Harry? I mean, about death and such? For after all, aren’t you the one they call a Necrowhatsit?’

’A Necroscope, yes,’ Harry nodded ’Or at least I was’

’And how’s that for a talent, folks?’ Garrulous beah’s the man who talks to the dead! And he’s the only one they’ll talk back to - but in the nicest possible way! See, they kind of love him So,’ (he turned back to Harry), ’what do you call that sort of conversation, Harry? Ito dead folks? See, a little while ago ere speaking to this Mrs Zdzienicki who told us all about dumbspeak and deafspeak and -’

’Deadspeak,’ Harry cut him short

’Deadspeak? Really? The hellyousay! Well, if you haven’t been one of theover Harry’s shoulder

’Um?’ said Harry

’One last question, son,’ said Garrulous, urgently, his narrowing eyes fixed on so just outside Harry’s sphere of vision ’I h, but what in all get-out’s theof a red one, eh?’

Harry’s head snapped round; wide-eyed, he stared; and saw a scarlet thread, even now angling in towards hi out of his armchair into the darkness of the roo back into the rest of the house, he saw the silhouette of what could only be one thing: that which he’d knoas co for him!

There was a s Groping in the darkness, his fingers found two things: a table-lamp thrown to the floor, and the weapon he’d worked on earlier in the day The latter was loaded Switching on the laht up his gleahtmare had advanced into the roorey colour of its flesh, its gaping jaws and what they contained, its pointed ears and the high-collared cape which gave its skull andfeatures definition It was a va that this wasn’t the real thing (and he of all people should know), still Harry’s finger had tightened on the trigger

It was all reaction This body he’d trained to a peak of perfection orking just as he’d programmed it to work in a hundred simulations of this very situation And despite the fact that he’d co in his roo and his heart pounding, and his weapon’s fifteen-inch hardwood bolt already in flight It was only in the last split second that he’d tried to avert disaster by elevating the crossbow’s tiller up towards the ceiling But that had been enough, barely

Wellesley, seeing the crossbow in Harry’s hand, had blown froth through his plastic teeth in a gasp of terror and tried to back off The bolt h the collar of his costuainst the wall It buried itself deep in plaster and old brick and pinned him there

He spat out his teeth and yelled: ’Jesus Christ, you idiot, it’s me!’ But this was as much for the benefit of Darcy Clarke, back there soh For even as he was shouting, Wellesley’s right hand reached inside the coat under his cape and grasped the grip of his issue 9 h had attacked him, just as he’d hoped he would It was self-defence, that’s all

Harry, taking no chances, had nocked his bow, snatched the auxiliary bolt from its clips under the tiller of his weapon and placed it in the breech In a sort of slow-motion born of the speed of his own actions, he saw Wellesley’s ar position; but he couldn’t believe the man would shoot hioing to use the crossbow again That must be it, yes He dropped his weapon into the armchair’s well and threw up his ar, his eyes glinting, his knuckle turning white in the trigger-guard of the autoh, you s, happening almost simultaneously:

One: Darcy Clarke’s voice, which Harry recognized iet out of there Get the fuck out of there!’ And his footsteps co as he collided with a plant-pot and stand and knocked the himself over backwards behind the armchair as finally Wellesley’s intention becary whirrr of the bullet as the first shot ide by an inch And levering hiain, just in time to see the look on Wellesley’s face turn froe and murderous intent to one of sheerest horror as his eyes were drawn to so behind Harry, which caused the in a lass and snapping of thin woodenwet and heavy and cluh the locked patio doors into the roo which drew Wellesley’s fire from Harry to itself!

’Jesus! Jesus! Jesus!’ the head of E-Branch screaun over Harry’s head, which he’d now turned towards the shattered glass door And there, staggering fro to keep its feet, Harry saw soh who exactly it would be hard to tell -which he’d thought never to see again And even though he didn’t know this one, still he knew him or it for a friend For in the old days, all of the dead had been Harry’s friends!

This one was bloated, wet, intact, not long dead - but long enough to smell very badly And behind it came a second corpse, dusty, withered, alh the fra burial sheets and each of the on Wellesley where he stood pinned to the wall, still yanking on the trigger of his eun

And Harry could only crouch there watching,silent denials, as they drew close to the frenzied, an to raise their stones

That hen the corridor light came on and Darcy Clarke stumbled into the room His talent for survival -unfelt except by Darcy hiet the hell out of here, alht it; and after all, the hostility of the dead wasn’t directed at him but at his boss ’Harry!’ he yelled, when he saas happening in the room ’For God’s sake call them off!’

’I can’t,’ Harry yelled back ’You know I can’t!’ But at least he could put himself between theot between the dead things and Wellesley where he gibbered and frothed And there they stood with their stones upraised, and the soggy one seeking to put Harry gently to one side

He ht have, too, but suddenly suicidal, Harry cried out: ’No! Go back where you belong! It’s a ot as far as ’go back where - ’ For he was forbidden to speak to the dead But fortunately for Wellesley, the dead weren’t forbidden to heed him

As Harry clapped his hands to his head and cried out, jerking like a spastic puppet as he crumpled up, so the dead ain into the night

Strangled until now, Wellesley found his voice again; but it was a deranged voice if ever Darcy Clarke heard one ’Did you see? Did you see?’ Wellesley gibbered ’I didn’t believe it, but now I’ve seen for ainst me! He’s a monster, by God, a h’

He’d freed the spent un and dropped it to the carpeted floor, and was in the process of bringing a fully loaded one out of his pocket when Clarke hit hiazine went flying, and Wellesley hung there in his makeup, suspended fro footsteps, and in the nextwhat the hell was going on; and Darcy was down on the floor with Harry, holding hiasped out his unbearable pain, and slid down into the deep, dark well of reat deal occurred in the nine hours it took Harry to sleep it off A security-screened doctor was called in to look at hiive Wellesley a shot that would keep hiot in touch with Sandra because he reckoned she should be in on this, and should have been from the start; and as dawn ca to show signs of regaining consciousness, so a call cah from the Duty Officer at E-Branch HQ

Darcy had of course already put HQ in the picture He’d contacted the DO right after the excite that had happened and what he’d done, and at the sanation to the Minister Responsible Also he’d suggested that so about a replacement for Wellesley, as obviously several kinds of flake And looking back on Wellesley’s plan to scare Harry Keogh into using the M&ou with - Darcy reckoned he ht be just a little on the flaky side hi worried as hell and after he’d explained things to her, had said as much in no uncertain terms and probably would have said a lotit badly enough already She didn’t feel the need to bla hi to pieces, she’d siht and into the o, when everyone was into his third cup of coffee, that hen the telephone rang and it was HQ asking to speak to Darcy Clarke He took the call, which was a long one, and when he was through had to sit down a minute and think about it

They’d stretched Wellesley out on Harry’s bed upstairs, with one of thehim; Harry himself had a leather couch downstairs in the study where everything had happened, and where they’d draped a blanket over the broken patio doors to keep out the night chill; Sandra, Darcy and the other E-Branch operative were all there with hi to do now except wait for hi this telephone call, Darcy had quite a bit ed had left hie of rapidly changing expressions on his face as he’d talked into the telephone; and now, catching a glimpse of the confusion in hisof the shock, too? - she felt prompted to inquire:

’What was that all about?’

Darcy looked at her and his bleary eyes slowly focussed Then he turned to the other agent and said, ’Eddy, go up and keep Joe company, eh? And when Wellesley wakes up, tell him he’s under arrest!’

’What?’ the other looked at him incredulously

Darcy nodded That was the DO on the blower, and he had our Minister right there with hi around a little with a suspicious character from the Russian Embassy! He’s suspended forthwith, and we’re to deliver hiht back in the chair For now, anyway’

As Eddy left to go upstairs, Darcy told Sandra: ’Yes, but that’s just part of it It never rains but it pours We have a big proble her head ’No, for I’ht you were, too Well, your resignation h with the Branch, as of now’

’I understand that,’ he said, ’and I meant I have a problem rather than we It’s not only business but personal, too And I’m afraid I can’t quit until it’s sorted out But you don’t want to hear about it, right?’

’Hearing won’t hurt,’ she said

’It’s Ken Layard and Trevor Jordan,’ he began to explain ’They were out in the Aegean, Rhodes, keeping tabs on a load of drugs being run through the Med And now it seems they’ve come unstuck Badly’

’How badly?’ Sandra had met the two men - in fact Jordan, the telepath, had been her sponsor - and she knew so reputations

’Very badly,’ Darcy shook his head ’And it’s weird! So to have to look into myself These were two of my closest friends’

’Weird?’ she repeated him ’Were?’

He nodded ’Over the last few days Trevor’s had a couple ofor so madmanor would be if he wasn’t under sedation in a Rhodes asyluht before last - no, the one before that; when I’oes out of whack - Ken Layard was fished out of the harbour half-full of water and with a bu Concussion, that’s all Except as yet there’s no sign of a normal recovery All of which smells very fishy to h, fuhly toxic as he tried to sit up

They sprang to his side, Darcy supporting hiht, Harry?’ she stroked his hair, kissed his forehead

He freed himself, licked his lips and said, ’Be a love and make me a cup of coffee’ And as she left the room he focussed on Darcy

’Names,’ he said

’Eh?’

’You ain, seeue round the words ’People I’ve heard of, and met, in E-Branch’ He pulled a face ’God, , his eyes ide ’That idiot was trying to shoot ht, his eyes searching every corner of the rooht, Harry,’ Darcy told hione now They hen you told them to’

Some of the anxiety went out of Harry’s face, replaced by the bitter look of a man betrayed ’You were here,’ he accused, ’with Wellesley’

Darcy didn’t deny it ’Yes,’ he said, ’I was, but for the last ti to, but that’s no excuse I was here, and shouldn’t have been But from here on inI have one ood I don’t think spying’son my friends isn’t! As for Wellesley: I don’t think he’ll be much trouble from now on’

’What?’ Harry went deathly pale in a moment ’Don’t tell me they - ?’

Darcy shook his head ’No, they didn’t hurt hio and they went And then you folded up’

Sandra was back with Harry’s coffee ’What’s this about names?’ she said -

Harry took a ave his head a tentative shake and said, ’Ow! God, ave them to him He accepted them and washed theain ’The na about them as I came to?’

Darcy told him about Layard and Jordan, and as he talked so Harry’s face gren, even haggard Finally, when Darcy was done, Harry glanced at Sandra ’Well?’

She shrugged, lookedat, Harry?’

’Tell hiarden’

And seeing his asped: ’Ken L! And T Jor!’

Noas Darcy’s turn to look dumb ’Do you want to let me in on it?’ he said

Harry stood up, swayed a little, then headed for the patio doors He was still in his pyjamas ’Be careful!’ Darcy cautioned hilass there We didn’t doup, I’lass and took down the blanket, and they followed hiarden In his bare feet he crossed the lawn, pointed to a fresh series of stones where they’d been laid out on the grass ’There,’ he said "That’s what they were doing when Wellesley juht like to try explaining sometime when you’ve a week or two to spare!’ This was directed at both of them

’Harry,’ Sandra was quick to protest, ’I had nothing to do with it’

’But you do work for the Branch’

’Not any more,’ she said And then, because she was afraid of losing him, she let it all out in a breathless rush ’Try to understand, Harry At first you were just a job, but different fro was for your benefit; that’s what they told me But they didn’t plan - and I didn’t plan - onin love with you That just happened, and now they can stuff their job’

Harry sered a little She at once caught him, held him up ’You shouldn’t even be on your feet! You look terrible, Harry!’

’I’m still a bit dizzy, that’s all,’ he answered ’Anyhat you were saying: I heard all that, too, when I aking up And what the hell, I think I’ve always known that you were one of theirs You and Old Man Bettley So what? So was I, once And let’s face it, I can use all the help I can get, right?’

Darcy was still looking at the stones, his forehead creased in a frown ’Does this mean what I think it means-?’ he asked They all looked at the incomplete word:

RHODF

’Rhodes,’ said Harry, nodding ’They didn’t have time to finish the E and the S, that’s all And now it all adds up’

’But to what?’ Sandra and Darcy said together

Harry looked at the I’ve been praying wouldn’t happen, and yet half-expecting ever since I returned from Star-side,’ he said Then he shivered and added, ’Let’s get inside’ And for the moment that was all he would say about it

When Wellesley woke up and Darcy told hi trouble, at first he was full of bluster But then he had to face down Harry, too, and that hen he caved in He kne lucky he was that he wasn’t a murderer, knew too that Harry hadn’t let his dead friends kill hiht and couldn’t have been blamed for it What’s more, he knehat it had cost Harry to call the, the whole story: how he’d been recruited by Gregor Borowitz because of his negative talent (the fact that his mind couldn’t be read), and how he’d been a sleeper until they tried to activate hih doubtless they would have got around to the rest of E-Branch, too, when they were satisfied that he was no longer a player -and so Wellesley had been feeding theress But when it had sees, then they’d wanted rid of him Harry, with his old powers returned to him, or maybe new talents they hadn’t even heard of, would be just too dangerous

Then Darcy had given his men their orders, to take the ex-head of the Branch back to London and hand hi session on the telephone talking to the Minister Responsible One subject had been Nikolai Zharov, Wellesley’s Russian contact He was still loose so Diplomatically immune, they couldn’t even pick him up Eventually a protest would beZharov’s expulsion for the usual ’activities inconsistent with’ etc