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’My suitcase is already packed’
Then we can go right now’
’At 4:20 in the h, so we either walk it or I’ll need to call a - ’ But Jordan knew his e wan smile
’A taxi’s not necessary,’ the Necroscope told him ’I havethe floor as he’d paced it all night It wasn’t his talent that was bothering hier - he was just worried about the Branch and the job he suspected was being planned right now, at this very h But in fact the tere one and the sahts of Clarke’s house were bright behind a facade of shrubs and trees as Harry guided Jordan out through a Möbius exit and back into the real world ’You can open your eyes now,’ he told the telepath as Jordan staggered under the briefly suspended, now renewed, pull of gravity It was like the feeling in the pit of your stomach when an elevator descends to the level you want and jerks to a halt there, except this elevator had no walls, floor or ceiling and you ’fell’ in every direction at once Which hy Harry had asked Jordan to close his eyes aa little as he looked all around at the night street
Harry thought: God? The M&ouust Ferdinand thinks so, anyway! He steadied the telepath and said, ’I know It’s a weird sensation, isn’t it?’
Jordan looked at Harry and felt himself in awe of him He talked about the immundane, the utterly unbelievable, as if it were athered his senses to say, ’Nice shot, Harry That’s Darcy’s place right there’
They let theate and walked up a path between the shrubs The glohite globe of a la like a small moon over the front door Harry directed Jordan to stand to one side, put on his dark glasses and pushed the doorbell; in a little while footsteps sounded from within
The door was equipped with a peephole lens; Clarke used it and saw Harry standing on his doorstep, staring right at him His talent made no objection as he opened the door, which told him a lot ’Harry!’ he said ’Co hold of his arm, ’listen, take it easy - but there’s someone with me’
’Someone with - ?’ Darcy started to say as Jordan stepped into view He saw him and said, ’Trevor?’ Then he started violently and took a pace to the rear
Harry, following him in, said: ’It’s OK, it’s OK!’
’Trevor!’ Clarke breathed, his eyes bulging in his suddenly pale face ’Trevor Jordan! Oh, my God! Oh, sweet Jesus!’
Harry wished people wouldn’t keep using these Names of Power so casually, but on this occasion he understood andof it
Trevor Jordan pushed past Harry and took Clarke’s other arm; Clarke at once strained back and away froain it was a ’nor to do with his talent Jordan said, ’Darcy, it really is me And I’m OK’
’OK?’ Clarke’s mouth open and closed and the word caain ’Really you? Yes, I can see that But I know you’re dead I ith you in that Rhodes hospital, remember, when you put a bullet in your brain!’
Harry said, ’Can we go inside, sit down, talk?’
Talk?’ Clarke looked at him - at both of them - as if they were mad, or as if he was But then he nodded ’Sure, why not? And then Iroom Clarke pointed to chairs, poured drinks like a robot, actually apologized for the untidiness and said he wasn’t quite settled in yet And then he very carefully sat down and tossed back his large whisky in one and at once sprang to his feet again and said, ’So for fuck’s sake, talk! Convince me that I haven’t cracked!’
Harry cal - or al into the fine details And when he was through: ’So we’ve co on, what it is that you and E-Branch are up to Actually I’ on you to keep theed to do’
Finally Clarke closed his mouth and turned to stare hard at Jordan Jordan, yes - looking exactly as Clarke had always known him - but still he took the other’s hand and squeezed it, and stared even harder just to be one hundred per cent sure But in the end there was no way round it; this could only be Trevor Jordan The telepath suffered Clarke’s astonished scrutiny and made no co checked him out, checked every well-remembered line of his face and form
Jordan’s face was fresh, oval and open, and with his fair, thinning hair falling forward over grey eyes, it would normally look boyish; except that noas lined orry and not a little astonishs were reflected in the line of his hten out if soht and tight Well, and Clarke could well understand that
And Clarke thought: Good old easy-going Trevor! Transparent as a , readable as an open book Such has always been your guise, anyway As if you’d like people to be able to read you as easily as you read the to coize for it Trevor Jordan: sensitive but always determined, I never met the man who didn’t like you And if there was such a one, why, you’d simply avoid him And if you really are you, you’ll know exactly what I’rinned and said, ’You y-limbed, athletic bit! But what’s this about "boyish"? Are you callingkid, Darcy?’
Clarke sat back in his chair and touched his feverish broith a tre hand He didn’t knohich one of theh or Trevor Jordan Finally he said, ’What can I say? Except welcome back, Trevor!’
After more drinks, it was Darcy’s turn He told them what he knehich wasn’t much, and finished up: ’So Paxton irls, Harry, which was sufficient to getafter you: you kno the Branch works al after you, sooner or later’
Trevor said, ’And me?’
’No,’ Darcy told hio into town and put them in the picture I could ’phone the Minister Responsible right now, but at this hour he wouldn’t thank o in and speak to everyone who is anyone in E-Branch, and ht do the trick and get theets them off my back,’ said the Necroscope, unemotionally ’I really do’ And he took off his dark-lensed glasses and asked Darcy to dihts
When E-Branch’s suspended boss saw Harry’s face in the darkened room, he quietly said, ’Harry, I hope so toofor their sake, every last one of theenuine, supposed he was one of only a very few men in the entire world whom he could trust; but the Necroscope’s va at Darcy Clarke he saw a man as half-friend and half-enemy Harry couldn’t read the future, not with any certainty - and in any case he knew that prognostication was a dangerous gauess at as coer than he’d planned, if this task he’d set hier than just a few ed to join the other tearessed the Branch would need all the expert help it could get Eventually, one way or another, even Darcy would turn against hiue carrier would have to be destroyed It was as simple as that
’Darcy,’ Harry said, as he turned the lights up again, ’if we ever did coainst one another, why, you’d be just about the only one who could stop me! For which reason I’m half afraid of you You know I’m a telepath now? Well, I am And I wonder: would it bother you if I took a closer look into your er Of course not, for Harry intended him no harm What he did intend was to take out a sort of insurance policy, one which could be cancelled later, when the danger was past No harm at all to Darcy Clarke the man, only to his talent itself For that hat the Necroscope feared: to co he couldn’t win, that the deflector’s guardian angel would protect him But with his talent taken away from him, Clarke would be impotent At least for what reive it back to him
’Look into my mind?’ Darcy repeated him
’With your permission,’ Harry nodded ’But it has to be of your own free will’
Darcy read nothing into the Necroscope’s words ’But can’t you read my mind, just like Trevor here?’
This is different,’ said Harry ’For this you need to invitefor ed; and his eyes met the other’s and locked on them, and in another ht wasn’t difficult to find, and he saw at once that it was a freak, a mutation It was Clarke’s unique talent, which all of his life had protected hiers but was ier which was Harry Keogh And even if it could save itself it did nothing, because Harry er Harry could ja as it takes to tell and then he was out again And he was satisfied that Clarke’s guardian angel had been gagged, for the ti at least
’Is that it?’ Darcy frowned ’Are you satisfied I’ll do you no harm?’
Absolutely, Harry said to himself, while outwardly he merely nodded Because if you try you’ll have no protection, which means I’ll at least be able to protect myself
And then he heard another voice in his head, Jordan’s saying: WhichWon’t you at least tell him what you’ve done?
No, Harry answered You know Darcy: he’d become paranoid about his safety in a moment That was always his paradox, that despite this weird talent of his, still he looked after hi
I hope he’ll be all right, that’s all, said the other
’Well?’ Darcy proainst me,’ the Necroscope told him ’And noe have to be on our way’
Jordan said, ’It strikes me as likely that the Branch will knoe’ve been here If you want to stay on their good side, Darcy, you ht like to call the Duty Officer and confirm it Let them see that you’re not in collusion with us And at the saood offices to clear me’
Darcy pulled a wry face ’Actually, ht now,’ he said ’But certainly I’ll give it a try’ He looked at Harry ’So where are you two off to now? Or shouldn’t I ask?’
’You shouldn’t ask - ’ Harry answered ’ - but I’ll tell you anye’re tracking your serial killer I sort of got hooked up on it That’s the job I want finished before I move on’
Darcy nodded ’That way you’ll leave a clean sheet behind you, Harry, which is the way it should be You’ll always be the right sort of legend: fa Fame, even infamy, didn’t concern him All that mattered was his obsession What waschased off his territory, forced to vacate his very oorld, which he had fought for Not physically driven out - not yet, anyway - but soon And the vampire, especially one of the Wamphyri, is tenacious and territorial Frustrated al back But if he must take it out on someone, then at least let that soht Namely, the serial killer, the necromancer, the torturer of Penny and those other poor innocents Even Pamela Trotter, innocent, yes Compared to him, anyway
It was time Harry and Trevor Jordan were on their way They said the usual farewells, very siain Darcy Clarke watched the hand into the space where they’d passed through a M&ou
And that was all he found there
Nothing