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16

Man to Man, Face to Face

’Harry!’ Soent shake ’Harry, wake up!’

The Necroscope cah a Möbius door fro He saw the Gypsy he had spoken to and shared food with, whose blanket lay across his legs And his first thought was: How does he knowwhich he relaxed Of course he would know his name Janos had told it to him He would have told all of his thralls and hureatest enemy

’What is it?’ Harry sat up

’You’ve slept an hour,’ the other answered ’We’ll soon beyou should see’

’Oh?’

The Gypsy nodded His eyes were keen now, dark and sharp ’Do you have a friend who searches for you?’

’What? A friend, here?’ Was it possible Darcy Clarke or one of the others had followed him here from Rhodes? Harry shook his head ’I don’t think so’

’An enemy, then, who follows on behind? In a car?’

Harry stood up ’You’ve seen such a one? Show me’

’Follow me,’ said the other ’But keep low’

He erow Harry followed him and are of the other Gypsies scattered here and there throughout the encampment Each of thereen shade of the trees Their belongings were all packed away They were ready to uide He stood aside to let the Necroscope peer through the bushes

On the other side of the road aat the entrance to the encampment Harry didn’t know him, buthe knew him Now that his attention had been focussed on him, he remembered He’d been on the plane, this arette holder was a dead giveaway Likewise his generally snaky, effeminate style And now Harry remembered, too, that earlier brush with the Securitatea in Roent, perhaps, for the USSR’s E-Branch?

He glanced at the Gypsy beside him and said, ’An enemy - possibly’ But then he saw the knife ready in the other’s hand, and raised an eyebrow ’Oh?’

The other sany don’t much care for silent watchers’

But Harry wondered: had the knife been for hi him to heel? ’What now?’ he said

’Watch,’ said the other

A Gypsy girl in a bright dress and a shawl crossed the road to the car, and Nikolai Zharov sat up straighter at the wheel She showed him a basket filled with trinkets, knick-knacks, and spoke to him But he shook his head Then he showed her soly She took the h the forest Zharov frowned, questioned her again She becaain in the direction of Gyula, along the forest road

Finally Zharov scowled, nodded, started up his car He drove off in a cloud of dust Harry turned to the Gypsy and said: ’He was an eneoose chase?’

’Yes Noe’ll be on our way’

’We?’ Harry continued to stare at him

The man sheathed his knife ’We Travellers,’ he answered ’Who else? If you had been awake you could have eaten with us But - ’ he shrugged,’ - we saved you a little soup’

Another man approached with a bowl and wooden spoon, which he offered to Harry

Harry looked at it

Don’t! said a deadspeak voice in his head, that of the dead Gypsy king

Poison? Harry answered Your people are trying to kill me?

No, they desire you to be still for an hour or two Only drink this, and you will be still!

And sick?

No Perhaps a mild soreness in the head - which a drink of clean water will drive away But if you drink the soup then all is lost Across the border you’ll go, and up into the ageless hills and craggyto the Old Ferenczy!

But Harry only srunted his satisfaction So be it, he said, and drank the soup

Nikolai Zharov drove as far as Gyula and midway into the town, then finally paid attention to a s voice in the back of hishi moment, that he was a fool! Finally he turned his car around and drove furiously back the way he’d coone to Gyula he could check it later But

The Traveller cah the Gypsies had never been there Zharov cursed, turned left onto the ine And up ahead he saw the first of the caravans passing leisurely through the border checkpoint

He arrived in a skidding of tyres, ju into the one-roo The border policeman behind his elevated desk picked up his peaked, flat-topped hat and ralared back Beyond the dusty, fly-specked s, the last caravan was just passing under the raised pole

’What?’ the Russian yelled ’Are you soarian or Ro-bellied, red-faced A Transylvanian village peasant, he had joined the Securitatea because it had see Notnow and then He quite liked bullying, but he wasn’t keen on being bullied

’Who are you?’ he scowled, his piggy eyes startled

’Clown!’ Zharov raged ’Those Gypsies - do they sio? Isn’t this supposed to be a checkpoint? Does President Ceausescu know that these riff-raff pass across his borders without so much as a by your leave? Get off your fat backside; followin those caravans!’

The border policeed For all he knew (and despite the other’s harsh foreign accent), ZharovSecuritatea official; certainly he acted like one But as all this about spies? Flushing an even brighter red, he hurried out from behind his desk, did up a loose button on his sweat-stained blue uniforered the two-day-old stubble on his chin Zharov led hiot back into his car and hurled the passenger-side door open ’In!’ he snapped

Craly protested: ’But the Travellers aren’t a proble this way for years! They are taking one of their own to bury hiht to interfere with a funeral’

’Lunatic!’ Zharov put his foot down hard, skidded dangerously close to the rearan to overtake the coluht be up to so? No, of course not! I tell you they have a British spy with theh He’s a wanted man in both the USSR and Romania Well, and now he’s in your country and therefore under your jurisdiction This could well be a feather in your cap - but only if you follow my instructions to the letter’

’Yes, I see that,’ the other h in fact he saw very little

’Do you have a weapon?’

’What? Up here? What would I shoot, squirrels?’

Zharov growled and sta the car sideways in front of the first horse-drawn caravan The coluan to concertina, and as the dust settled Zharov and the blustering border policeot out of the car

The KGBGypsies were even now cli down onto the road ’Search them,’ he ordered

’But what’s to search?’ said the other, still mystified ’They’re caravans A seat at the front, a door at the back, one roolance will suffice’

’Any space which would conceal a man, that’s what you search!’ Zharov snapped

’But what does he look like?’ the other threw up his hands

’Fool!’ Zharov shouted ’Ask what he doesn’t look like! He doesn’t look like a fucking Gypsy!’

Theworse as the Russian and his Securitatea aideopen their doors and looking inside As they approached the last in line, the funeral vehicle, so a group of the Szgany put themselves in their way

Zharov snatched out his automatic and waved it at them ’Out of the way If you interfere I won’t hesitate to use this This is a rave consequences may ensue Now open this door’

The Gypsy who had spoken to Harry Keogh stepped forward ’This was our king We go to bury hio into this caravan’

Zharov stuck the gun up under his jaw ’Open up now,’ he snarled, ’or they’ll be burying two of you!’

The door was opened; Zharov sao coffins lying side by side on low trestles where they had been secured to the floor; he climbed the steps and went in The border policeman and Gypsy spokesman ith him He pointed to the left-hand coffin, said: ’That one open it’

’You are cursed!’ said the Gypsy ’For all your days, which won’t be many, you are cursed’

The coffins were of flimsy construction, little more than thin boards, built by the Travellers theun to the mortified border policeman, who fully expected the next curse to be directed at him, and took out his bone-handled knife At the press of a switch eight inches of steel rod with a needle point slid into view Without pause Zharov raised his arh the timber lid, so that it disappeared to the hilt into the space which would be occupied by the face of whoever lay within

Inside the coffin, asped: ’Huh - huh - huh!’ And there ca at the lid

The Gypsy’s dark eyes bugged; he crossed his; likewise the border policeh sely, he yanked his weapon free and ja here and there until it was loose Then he put the bone handle between his teeth, took the lid in both hands and yanked it half-open

And from within, someone pushed it the rest of the way but it wasn’t Harry Keogh!

Then-

- Even as the Russian’s eyes stood out in his pallid face, so Vasile Zirra coughed and grunted in his coffin, and reached up a leathery arht!

’God!’ the KGB man choked then ’G - G �C God!’ His knife fell fro took it up at once and drove it into Zharov’s bulging left eye - all the way in, until it scraped the inside of his skull at the back That was enough, h

Zharov blew froth from his jaws and stepped woodenly back until he met the side of the caravan, then toppled over sideways Falling, hethe floor, twitched a little And then he was still

But nothing else was still

At the front of the column a Gypsy drove Zharov’s car into the ditch at the side of the road The Securitatea lout was reeling back in the direction of his border post, shouting: ’It had nothing to do with any spokesman stepped over Zharov’s body, looked fearfully at his old king lying stiff and dead again in his coffin, crossed himself a second time and manhandled the cover back into place Then soain at the trot

Half a roith brambles and nettles, Nikolai Zharov’s corpse was disposed of It bounced froreenery

Even as Harry had drained the soup in the bowl to its last drop, drug and all, so he’d brought Wellesley’s talent into play and closed his mind off fro; he hadn’t even re bundled into the funeral caravan and ’lain to rest’ in the second coffin

But his es, too For one, the dead could no longer communicate with hiainst what Vasile Zirra had told hi And he’d been sure he could spare an hour or two at least What the old king hadn’t told hied soup would suffice In draining the bowl dry, the Necroscope had dosed hi awake - half-way between the subconscious and conscious worlds - he collapsed Wellesley’sdeadspeak background static Vasile Zirra, lying only inches away froence

Harry Keogh? the dead old ed with sadness and not a little frustration You are a brash youngto entrap you, and you have to throw yourself into his web! Because you were kind to me - and because the dead love you - I jeopardized nored me So now you pay the penalty

At the an to coh he hadn’t yet opened his eyes, still he could feel the jolting of the caravan and so knew that he was en route But how far into his journey?

You drank all of the soup, Vasile reiu is very close! I know this land well; I sense it; the hour approaches ht, and the mountains loom even now

Harry panicked a little then and woke up with so of a shock - and panicked even more when he discovered himself inside a box which by its shape could only be a coffin! Vasile Zirra calht you across the border No, it isn’t your grave but e - for now Then he told Harry about Zharov

Harry answered aloud, whispering in the confines of the fragile box: ’You protected me?’

You have the power, Harry, the other shrugged So it was partly that, for you, and it was partly for hih who he meant ’For Janos Ferenczy?’

When you allowed yourself to be drugged, you placed yourself in his power, in the hands of his people The Zirras are his people, my son

Harry’s ansas bitter, delivered in a tone he rarely if ever used with the dead: ’Then the Zirras are cowards! In the beginning, long before your tio - Janos fooled the Zirras He beguiled them, fascinated them, won them over by use of hypnosis and other powers come down to him from his evil father He made them love him, but only so that he could use them Before Janos, the true Wamphyri were always loyal to their Gypsy retainers, and in their turn earned the respect of the Szgany forever There was a bond between the but terror and death And even dead, still you are afraid of him’

Especially dead! came the answer Don’t you knohat he could do to me? He is the phoenix, risen from hell’s flames Aye, and he could raise me up, too, if he wished it, even from h Many brave sons of the Zirras have gone up into those mountains to appease the Great Boyar; evenyears Cowards? What could we do, who are ht of the Wamphyri?

Harry snorted ’He isn’t Wamphyri! Oh, he desires to be, but there’s that of the true vaainst him? If you had had the heart, you and a band of your ht him out in his place and ended it there and then You could have done it ten, twenty, even hundreds of years ago! Even as I must do it now’

Not Wamphyri? the other was astonished But he is!

’Wrong! He has his own for as anything the Wamphyri ever used - but it is not the true art He is a shape-changer, within limits But can he form himself into an aerofoil and fly? No, he uses an aeroplane He is a deceiver, a powerful, dangerous, clever vampire - but he is not Wamphyri’

He is what he is, said Vasile, butfor ain ’Then leave me be I’ll need to find help elsewhere’

S said: Anyhat do you know of the Wamphyri? What does anyone know of thenored hihts into Halraveyard there And frohts

Black Romanian bats in their dozens flitted overhead, occasionally coht where they escorted the jingling colu, misted Transylvanian countryside And the sa walls and ruins of Castle Ferenczy

Janos was there, a dark silhouette on a bluff overlooking the valley Like a great bat hiht and observed with so like milk in the valleys The any Zirra And in his way, Janos had communicated with all three ’My people have him,’ he said, as if to reh through the afternoon and into the night He turned to his vaain: ’They have the Necroscope and will bring hied, which is doubtless why you can’t know his whereabouts or read his s with severe limitations’

But even as Janos spoke so his locator gave a sudden start ’Ah!’ Layard gasped And: There there he is!’

Janos grasped his arm, said: ’Where is he?’

Layard’s eyes were closed; he was concentrating; his head turned slowly through an angle directed out over the valley to one which encompassed the e ’Close,’ he said ’Down there Close to Haliu’

Janos’s eyes lit like lah He looked at Sandra ’Well?’

She locked on to Layard’s extrasensory current, followed his scan And: ’Yes,’ she said, slowly nodding ’He is there’

’And his thoughts?’ Janos was eager ’What is the Necroscope thinking? Is it as I suspected? Is he afraid? Ah, he is talented, this one, but what use esoteric talents against muscle which is utterly ruthless? He speaks to the dead, yes, but ht: Aye, he speaks to the dead Even to es in his mind! Whichknows me! I cannot relax This will not be over until it is over Perhaps I should have them kill him now, and resurrect hilory, the satisfaction, in that? That is not the way, not if I would be Wamphyri! I must be the one to kill hieto Layard’s arnals and in the next moment snatched herself back frorabbed her, steadied her ’Well?’

’Hehe speaks with the dead!’

’Which dead? Where?’ His wolf’s jaws gaped expectantly

’In the ceasped ’And in your castle!’

’Hales in his convoluted bat’s snout quivered ’The villagers have feared me for centuries, even when I was dust in a jar No satisfaction for him there And the dead in hed hideously, and perhaps a little nervously ’They gave their lives up to me; they will not hearken to him in death; he wastes his tith, was still shaken ’Hehe talked to a great many, and they were not Gypsies They arriors in their day, almost to a man I sensed the merest murmur of their dead minds, but each and every one, they burned with their hatred for you!’

’What?’ For a h which was more a howl ’My Thracians? My Greeks, Persians, Scythians? They are dust, the veriest salts of uards which I raised up frorant you, the Necroscope ain - but even he cannot build flesh and bone from a handful of dust And even if he could, why, I would siain! I have him; he is desperate and seeks to enlist impossible allies; let hiain, briefly, and turning towards the dark, irregular pile of his ruined castle, narrowed his scarlet eyes ’Corunted then ’There are certain preparations to be any h the woods and past the outcropping knoll with its cairn of soulstones beneath the cliff His hands were bound behind him and he stumbled frequently; his head ached roup passed close to the base of the knoll, so he sensed the wispy wraiths of once-men all around

Harry let his deadspeak touch them, and knew at once that they were only the echoes of the Zirras he had spoken to in the Place of Many Bones deep in the ruins of the Castle Ferenczy The knoll’s base was lapped by a clinging ground mist, but its domed crest stood clear where the cairn of carved stones pointed at the rising moon Men had carved those stones, their own headstones, before cli themselves to a monster

’Men?’ Harry whispered to hihter!’

His deadspeak was heard, as he had intended it should be, and frohts was answered:

Not all of us, Harry Keogh I for one would have fought him, but he was in my brain and squeezed it like a pluo to the Ferenczy willingly We were not such cowards as you think Now tell ht a Zirra, chosen by his master, turn away

’Who are you?’ Harry inquired

Duue more persuasively than your father!’ said Harry

One of the Gypsies prodded hi of the cli your prayers? Too late for that, if the Ferenczy has called you’

Harry, said Dumitru Zirra, if I could help you I would, in however small a measure But I nawed upon by one of the Grey Ones who serve the Boyar Janos He had s off at the knees! I could crawl if you called ht What, ristle? But only say it and III do what I can

So, I’ve found a man at last, Harry answered, this time silently, in the unique manner of the Necroscope But lie still, Duainst Janos

The as harder now and the Gypsies sliced through the thongs binding Harry’s wrists Instead they put two nooses round his neck, one held by a man who stayed well ahead of hilish yourself,’ their spokesman told him ’Or at very least stretch your neck a bit as we haul you up!’ But Harry didn’t intend to fall

He called out to M&ou?

We’re alraveyard It could be an hour, two, three at the outside

Try thirty minutes, said Harry I may not have much more than that left

Other voices crowded Harry’s Necroscope hwe are shunned Who nareat liar!

Taken off guard, he answered aloud ’I asked for your help You refuseddead hold you in conteany where they laboured up the ht looked at each other ’Is he mad? Always he talks to himself!’

Harry opened all the channels of his mind - removed all barriers within and without - and at once Faethor was raging at him: Idiot! I am the only one who can help you, and yet you keep e Why do you do this, Harry?

Because I don’t trust you, he answered silently Your motives, your le thing you say or do, Faethor You’re not only a father of vampires but a father of liars, too Still, you do have a choice

A choice? What choice?

Get out of o back to your place in Ploiesti

Not until this thing is seen through -to- the - end! And how can I be sure you’ll stick to that? You can’t, Necroscope!

Then sit in the dark, said Harry, closing hiain And now the climb was half-way done

In Rhodes it was 1:30 am

Darcy Clarke and his team sat around a table in one of their hotel roo froroup, had discussed their experiences and how they’d been affected and probably would be affected for a long time to come But in the back of their minds each and every one of theht waselse was cosmetic and the partial elation they felt now only the lull before the real storm

As they’d returned from their late meal, so Zek had co a locator Together, they ht be able to reach Harry and see ere his circumstances

Darcy had at once protested: ’But that’s just what Harry didn’t want! Look, if Janos got his mental hooks into you -’

’I’ve a feeling he’ll be tooelse,’ Zek had cut in ’Anyway, I want to do it In the Lady Karen’s stack - her aerie on Starside -1 had the job of reading the reat many Wamphyri Not one of the came of it That’s the way I’ll play it now’

Still Darcy wasn’t sure ’I was only thinking about poor Trevor,’ he said, ’and about Sandra’

’Trevor Jordan wasn’t expecting trouble,’ Zek had answered, ’and Sandra was inexperienced and her talent variable I’ a fact’

’But -’

’No!’ and again she had cut hi, I want to do it Harry means a lot to Jazz and me’

At which Darcy had appealed to Jazz Simmons

Jazz had shaken his head ’If she says she’ll do it, then she’ll do it,’ he said ’Hey, don’t take my word for it! I’m only married to her!’

And with reservations, finally Darcy had submitted For the fact was that he as much as anyone else was interested to know Harry’s circumstances

Now the three eren’t participants, Darcy, Jazz and Ben Trask, sat around the table and concentrated on what Zek and David were doing: the latter with his eyes closed, breathing deeply, his hands resting lightly on the stock and body of Harry’s crossbohere it sat on the table, and Zek similarly disposed, her hand on one of his

They had been this way for ato locate the Necroscope through the medium of one of his own possessions But as seconds ticked by in silence and the two participants grew even an to relax a little - even to fidget - and their thoughts to drift And just at the moment that Jazz Simmons chose to scratch his nose, that hen contact wasuttered a long drawn-out sigh - and Zek snapped bolt upright in her chair Her eyes re seconds while all the colour drained from her face Then they shot open and she snatched herself away frohtened to her feet and backed unsteadily away from the table

Jazz went to her at once ’Zek?’ his voice was anxious ’Are you OK?’

For a h hi, but at last she answered: ’Yes, I’ht But Harry -’

’You found him?’ Darcy too had risen to his feet

’Oh, yes,’ David Chung nodded ’We found him What did you read, Zek?’

She looked at him, looked at all of the

Darcy said, ’Is he OK?’ And he held his breath waiting for her answer

Eventually she said, ’He’s all right, yes, and he got there safely - to his destination, I h to know that it will all coht’

Darcy’s heart thudded in his chest ’Not right? You mean he’s already in trouble?’

She looked at hiazed on alien things, in a world of ice beyond the times and places we know ’In trouble? Oh, he’s that, all right, but not necessarily the trouble you’re thinking of’

’Can you explain?’

She straightened up and gave herself a shake, and hugged her elbows ’No, I can’t,’ she said, shaking her head ’Not yet And anyway, I could be mistaken’

’But’Harry is going up against Janos Ferenczy personally, l If he’s in trouble before they even e could well be insure look, and shook her head, and quietly said, ’No, not insurmountable In fact on a one to one basis, I think you’ll find that that there’s not a great deal to choose between the time, she would say no more

With the ht of the heights, Harry knew the climb would soon be over and he’d be face to face with hell He had hoped to call up all the local dead into an army on his side, arid march with them on Janos’s place But even the dead were afraid Now there was very little time left, and probably less hope So the fact that he actually found hi to explain It could be of course that he’d simply ’cracked’ under the strain, but he didn’t think so He’d never been the type

His hts:

A breakdown? You? No, never! And especially not noe’re so close I need to be into your mind, Harry

’Enter, of your own free will,’ he answered, almost automatically

The other was very quickly in and out, and he was excited as never before It all fits! It all fits! he said And the next time I come, I’m sure I’ll be able to unlock those doors

’But not right now?’

I’m afraid not

’Then there ive in, Harry!

’I haven’t I’ facts’

I se’ll have the answer inyourself

’Help myself? How?’