Page 19 (1/2)

Countdown to Hell

There atchers

Harry chose to exit from the Möbius Continuum at the same point as the last time he’d been there, in the shadow of the wall across the alley froht there!

Even in the moment he stepped from the Continuum into the ’real’, physical world, Harry heard the plain-clothes asp and knew someone was there in the shadoith him; knew, too, that even now this unknown so difference between them was that Harry could see perfectly well in the dark Another was that his adversary was only a -fast movement, Harry reached out to slap the man’s weapon out of his hand and sahat kind of a ’gun’ it hich the other had produced from under his coat A crossbow! He knocked it away anyway, sent it clattering on the cobbles, and held the esper by his throat against the wall

The nosticator - a reader of future times - he had known that Harry would come here That had been as far as he could see; but he’d also known that his own life-thread went on beyond this point Which had seemed to mean that if there was trouble, Harry would be on the receiving end

The Necroscope read these things right out of the esper’s gibbering le as he told hia to live, are you? Well, maybe But what as? A man - or a vampire?’ He tilted his head a little on one side and s like coals under a bellows’ blast, and in the nextand showed hiape - of Harry’s jaws, and gagged as the vahtened on his windpipe In his , Oh, Jesus! I’m dead - dead!

’You could be,’ Harry told him ’You could oh so easily be It rather depends on hoe get on Now tell me: who killed Darcy Clarke?’

Theand narrow-eyed, used both hands to try to loosen Harry’s grip on his throat It was useless Turning purple, still heto answer the Necroscope’s question with anything but a gurgle But Harry read it in his mind anyway

Paxton! That vicious, sli It would be so easy to just tighten his grip until this staggering shit’s Adam’s apple turned to mush in his hand but that would be to punish him for what someone else had done Also, it would be to pander to theinside him

Instead he tossed the man away from him, took a deep breath and breathed a vampire mist By the tiainst the wall, choking andhis throat, the mist lay over the alley like a shroud and Harry had disappeared into it -

- Or rather through it, and through the Möbius Continuum into Johnny Pound’s flat

He knew he didn’t have a lot of time; it depended how h the ht now And they’d be equipped with all the right gear, too A crossbow is a hellishly ugly weapon, but a flasty and s, thinking: Even my shoes will feel unclean

First he checked the door It was sturdy as hell, es, fitted with three locks and, on the inside, two large bolts Obviously Johnny hadn’t intended that anyone should break in; which sufficed to make Harry feel a little safer, too He quickly ri the now quiet road, he paused beside a cheap writing desk One draas half-open; Harry glimpsed a metallic sheen from inside but was distracted by the itee-breasted Saed in biro alongside soe on a sheet of A4 bearing the Frigis Express logo The calendar didn’t seem especially ie on the A4:

Johnny -

Tonight A London run Your ’lucky charm’ truck, which I’ll have loaded for you Pick her up at the depot 11:40 It’s for Parkinson’s in Slough They’ll be dressing it for Heathrow Suppliers starting first thing in the , so we can’t be late with this Sorry for late notice If you can’t ned in some indecipherable scrawl, but Harry didn’t need to knoho had signed it The date at the top was today’s Johnny had a London run tonight, leaving the Darlington depot at 11:40

Now Harry looked at the calendar again In the ed date, Found had scribbled: ’London run! Good, ’cos I feel lucky and this could beat his watch, Harry saw that it was 11:30 Johnny was at the depot right now

The Necroscope cais Express truck (his ’lucky charames of sex, murder and necromancy; and so the truck should likewise feature in his punishht would be Johnny’s last run And now all Harry needed was an ites

He yanked the desk drawer open the rest of the way, and a half-dozen heavy metal tubes jumped in their velvet-lined coht, What the ? But as he carefully lifted one of the tubes out of the drawer he kneell enough what the

The thing was a weapon, which Found himself must have made or had manufactured, for use on his victims Or for use on one of them, anyway A name had been painted with a s ht, This ent into Penny, before Found went into her

The weapon fitted Pamela Trotter’s description perfectly A section of steel tubing about an inch and a half internal diameter, one end was cut square and had a rubber sheath or hand-grip, and the other end was cut diagonally to a point That was the cutting edge of the tool and its rim had been filed from the inside out to a razor’s sharpness The Necroscope already kne -and why - such a hideous knife would be used The very thought of it was sickening

As a kid Harry had played in the deep snows of England’s north-east coast When he was quite small he’d love just to sit there in the piled snoith an old tin can, driving the open end plop into the cold, soft white bank When you pulled the can out again it would be full of snow; short fat cylinders of snow, from which you could build castles like on the beach Except unlike sandcastles, which melted ahen the tide came in, these castles would last for days until the weather warmed up But it wasn’t the castles he pictured now but the perfectly circular holes which the can had used to leave in the snow In his mind’s eye he could see those holes even now and they were crimson And they weren’t cut in snow

Harry looked at the other steel-tubing knives There were five irls whose names he knew from the police files but didn’t know personally, and the fifth carried the naraphs of old fla over them

Six weapons in all, yes, but there were seven velvet-lined trays in the drawer Found must have the seventh tube with him, except it wouldn’t have a name yet

Suddenly Harry’s vampire awareness warned hi the main door of the house to creep in the communal corridor outside Pound’s door E-Branch? The police? Both? He sent out his thoughts to touch upon their minds Another mind stared back at him for a moment, then withdrew in shock and horror It had been a ain; but the others out there were police Armed, of course Heavily

The Necroscope snarled a silent snarl and felt his face twisting out of its fa and fighting; why, he could even win! But then he re here - the job still to be finished - and conjured a M&ouing froe where the Frigis works exit turned on to an Al South access road, he was in ti articulated truck as it sped by The ht sheen of his windscreen, but despite the fact that the legend on the side of the truck said only frigis express, still it spoke volu where the paint had peeled away,it look like eypress

Johnny Pound’s ’lucky chare of the road, was trapped for a e, powerful car followed not too far behind the truck Intense faces lanced at hi about those faces Harry reached out and touched their minds Police! They were after Found; they still wanted to catch hi up soh in his flat to put hiht: he’d probably go into a ain in short order

That other party back at Johnny’s flat in Darlington: maybe they had broken in by now Maybe they knew So if Harry wanted the necro to have to work fast

But then he re He didn’t kno long this was going to take He could simply kill Found out of hand, of course, or cause him to be killed in any number of ways Except he’d made a deal with Pamela Trotter, and he still wouldn’t cheat on the dead Also, Pound’s punishment should fit the crime But Penny shouldn’t be left on her own Not for too long They’d killed Darcy Clarke, hadn’t they? Why the fuck was everything so co felt it swelling until the pressure inside was enorht air and took a firrip on himself Penny had put him first; he h

She wasn’t in the house!

Harry couldn’t believe it He’d told her to stay here, to wait for hione? He reached out with his telepathic ht, where could she have gone? Why? For what reason? Or had she simply taken Trevor Jordan’s advice and walked out on hiuide hi outwards like ripples on the surface of a sentient ain!

He snarled at them, in their minds, and felt the shutters slaht as lioes out They’d been close but not too close, probably in Bonnyrig, some house they’d made their HQ Harry passed theainstin his s

Daet out and let you all find your own paths to Hell But I should leave soive you nightmares for ever!

He could do it, too, if he so desired, for he had the plague in hiacy to a world and race which had forsaken hiue of vampires

Physically, his own vampire was undeveloped, immature as yet; but its blood was his blood and his bite must surely be virulent And at his command, the infinite vastness of the metaphysical Möbius Continuum Why, he could plant vaht - if he wished it And maybe then they would wish they’d left hiarden under the stars and the risen ht, his time Ahhh, his time! But maybe in more ways than one They were here for a reason, these espers They could be coht now, invisible under their shield of static

’Come then, co for you!’

At the bottoly open ’Harry?’ Penny stepped into view and started up the path towards him

’Penny?’ The Necroscope reached out to her with his arms and with his mind, but her mind was a blur - or rather ait Mind-s!

Harry felt devastated, but he must hide it Now she was a vampire, or would be, and now she was his thrall It wasn’t a crush any longer And he wondered if it ever had been After all, he had brought her back froht? I told you to wait’

’But the night was so beautiful, and just like you I needed to think’ She let him fold her in his arht lured you You felt the first fires racing in your veins And tomorrow the sun will hurt your eyes, irritate your skin

’I thought maybe you didn’t want to take ht wrong I will’ I have to, for to leave you in this world would be to sign your death warrant

’But you don’t love me’

’Oh, but I do,’ he lied But it won’t matter one way or the other, for you won’t love me, either Still, we’ll have our lust

’Harry, I’htened!’

Too late, too late! ’I don’t want to leave you here now,’ he told her ’You’d better come with me’

’But where?’

He took her into the house, ran through the roohts, quickly returned to her And he showed her Johnny’s knife, with her naine hiht ’Can you picture hi your pain and his pleasure?’

She shuddered ’II thought I’d forgotten I’ve tried to forget’

’You will forget’ He nodded ’And so will Iwhen it’s over But I can’t leave you here, and I have to finish it with him’

’Will I see hiht

Harry nodded ’Yes’ His scarlet eyes lit in a strange smile ’Yes - and he will see you!’

’But you won’t let him hurt me?’

’I promise’

Then I’m ready’

One hour earlier on Waverley station in Edinburgh, Trevor Jordan had boarded the overnight sleeper for London He’d , early, he would probably give E-Branch a ring and see if he could sniff out which way the as blowing And if it felt right he’d offer theain They’d check him out (in the circumstances it was only to be expected) and of course they’d want to know all about his experiences with Harry Keogh But he’d make sure that all of that took time, and by then Harry wouldn’t be here any more In the event he was still here, Jordan would cry off any work that went against hiratitude yes, and if he was truthful out of fear, too Harry was Harry and a vampire In that respect, anyone who didn’t feel at least some trace of fear had to be an idiot

The telepath had paid for a bed but couldn’t sleep There was just too much on his et used to it, probably never would Not even a man who makes a full recovery from a desperate illness could feel like Jordan felt For he had gone beyond illness - beyond life itself- and returned And it was all down to Harry