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Intruder

Khuv, Agursky and the others reeled as they entered the roo creature in the tank, they failed to see that ap Harry had ursky recovered first, leaped across the room and switched off the power ’Who has done this?’ he demanded of no one in particular ’Who is responsible?’ He clapped a hand to his brow, staggered toward the sputtering, s to an to clear, he saw the creature’s blackened relass wall; saw, too, so which he didn’t want anyone else to see He ripped off his smock, quickly threw it over the monstrous remains

Khuv had meanwhile turned to Leo Grenzel, the locator ’You said he was here, an intruder Well, soh I’m damned if I can see how! The door was locked, and there’s a guard outside Oh, a half-asleep, stupid guard, that’s true, but he’s not a coh if not irasped Grenzel by the shoulders, stared hard at hi else?’

Grenzel’s face was pale again; his grey eyes were deep as deep space; he swayed where Khuv held hiht ’Still here,’ he finally said ’He’s still here!’

Khuv stared all about the roo froursky’s s to cool; but no sign of any intruder ’Here? Where, here?’

The girl,’ Grenzel swayed The prisoner’

Taschenka Kirescu?’

’Yes,’ Grenzel’s nod

Khuv whirled on Savinkov and Slepak ’How can this be?’ he asked But already his ; memories of reports he’d read flashed before hisfrom before his time, but weren’t the British supposed to have a h was said to have been one such, and after hih was dead but but they never had found Kyle’s body after the mess at the Chateau Bronnitsy

’How can it be?’ Savinkov repeated his KGB master ’It can’t be!’ He was definite But:

’Oh, it can,’ Grenzel’s far-away voice contradicted him ’It is!’

’Quickly!’ Khuv rasped The cells I want to knohat the hell is happening here!’

They ran out of the roo there, his face slack and vacant, but his eyes seeing, seeing And Agursky, bundling up the dead creature and its dead parasite in his set it back to his private quarters and away from any threat of inspection by others For he nohat had controlled this na, and he wanted to exaursky there was nothing more i’s parasite - whose egg had been deposited and was even now ht in the lock on her cell door, and of Khuv entering, dark-eyed and evil - had kept her awake It was that sort of nightmare, the sort you suffer when you’re awake It was doubtful if she would have slept anyway; she hadn’t since since the horror Khuv had shown her in the roo She couldn’t sleep, for the face of her father kept s at her from the darkness behind her eyelids whenever she closed her eyes; her father’s face - on the body of a beast

She kept her cell light on, and lay war for Khuv For her ti for her That had been his threat, and Major Chingiz Khuv didn’tshe could tell hi Only that she was the irl in the world

When Harry stepped out of the Mobius Continuum, Tassi had just turned on her side, turned her face away frolance about the cell told Harry they were alone; he took a single pace to the metal bed, put a hand round Tassi’s face and over her mouth, cautioned her in Russian: ’Shhh! Be quiet Don’t shout or do anything stupid I’et you out of here’

He kept his hand clamped to her face but let her turn her head to look at him And with his hand still in place, he helped her to sit up Then: ’OK?’ he asked

Tassi nodded, but she was tre in every limb Her eyes looked like saucers above her nose and the bands of Harry’s fingers He slowly took his hand away, gently urged her to her feet She looked at the door, then at Harry, said: ’Who? - How? - I don’t’

’It’s OK,’ Harry put a finger to his lips

’But how did you get in here? I didn’t hear you come Was I asleep?’ Then her hand flew to her mouth ’Did the Major send you? But I’ve told hi! Oh, please don’t hurtto hurt you, Tassi,’ Harry told her And then heher expression, he could have bitten his tongue through

She shook her head and backed away from him There were tears in her eyes now ’My father’s dead,’ she wept ’He’s dead! He couldn’t have sent you’ And accusingly: ’What are you going to do to e of desperation in his tone, ’I’ to take you out of this place Do you hear those alarms?’

She listened, and indeed she could hear the klaxons, sounding from deep down in the heart of the place ’Well,’ Harry continued, ’I’ forin here So now I’ was impossible It was either a trick of Khuv’s or else this et out of this place, Tassi was sure But on the other hand, how had he got in? ’Do you have keys?’ she asked

Harry could see he was htly ’I have an entire door! Lots of doors!’

He was mad, surely But he was different from the others here, totally different ’I don’t understand,’ she said, still backing away Her legs struck the edge of her bed and she flopped down on it again

Running footsteps sounded, and the tight grin slipped fro,’ he said ’Get up’ The sudden authority in his voice had her on her feet again in a le of keys, Khuv’s voice hoarsely corabbed Tassi by the waist ’Put your aruments, now!’ She did it She had no reason to trust him, but she had no reason not to ’Close your eyes,’ he said ’And keep the one arrunted as he lifted her feet fro open, then silence - but such absolute silence

’Wha - ?’ she commenced a question she couldn’t finish, and shrank fro of her own voice Startled, she opened her eyes for a htly shut again

’There,’ said Harry, and he lowered her feet to a solid floor ’You can open your eyes now’

She did, the ainst hian to slide down his body

Harry caught her up, lifted her, laid her on the Duty Officer’s desk Behind his newspaper, the DO had just this irl’s arm and hand flopped into view under his open newspaper and he reared up and back with an inarticulate cry: ’G-yahhh!’

’It’s OK,’ said Harry, as growing accusto himself ’It’s only me, and the friend of a friend of mine’

’Jesus! Jesus! - oh, sweet Jesus!’ the DO clutched at his desk for support Of all people, it was Darcy Clarke Harry nodded the very briefest of greetings, began to irl’s hands

It had been 1:15 am when Harry arrived at E-Branch HQ, and it was almost an hour later when he left In between times he passed on some information, told Clarke all he had learned, and in return received a little information from the other His instructions for the welfare of Tassi Kirescu were these:

She was to be given refuge, comforted as best the staff of E-Branch kne, offered permanent political asylum A Russian interpreter was to be provided for her, and she should be debriefed (but with a great deal of care and sensitivity) with regard to the Perchorsk Projekt For the present she was to keep a low profile: her presence here in the West should be kept secret, and when she was released it must be with a new identity Lastly, E-Branch was to use such usual and paranormal means as were required to discover the whereabouts in the USSR of her mother Harry had made Kazimir Kirescu a promise and it was one he intended to keep - eventually

As for the information Darcy Clarke had for Harry:

’It’s Zek Foener,’ he had told the Necroscope

’Zek? What about her?’ The last tio She had been a telepath at the Chateau Bronnitsy, the USSR’s equivalent of E-Branch HQ, which had made her an enemy, but a reluctant one Harry could have destroyed her, but he’d sensed a deep-rooted decency in her, a desire to be free of her KGB masters All she had wanted was to return to Greece He had suspected she would Buthe had warned her not to coain

’She may be part of this,’ Clarke had told him

’How do you mean? Part of Perchorsk?’ Was Zek the one who’d betrayed his presence there? She would have known his mind at once, as soon as he materialized in the place Of course, there was also Khuv’s detachment of espers; they could have picked him up just as easily For the moment Harry preferred to believe the latter At least he hoped so

’Part of Perchorsk, yes A cog in the wheel of the place We’ve kept an eye on her ever since the Bodescu affair

She was doing time at a forced labour camp; not especially hard stuff, but not pleasant either Then they sent her to Perchorsk This was soo and we’ve just had news of it We can only assuain And for the KGB’

Harry’s face soured ’Again,’ he said ’I warned her not to Well, if I have tothere

Clarke stared hard at him ’But isn’t it more serious than that, Harry? At the end of the Bodescu affair, Zek Foener orking with Ivan Gerenko - ’

’Had been working with hi hiht so, anyway’

’But you knohat I mean,’ Clarke insisted ’Gerenko had so vaikh - and Zek - went back to that mountain pass east of the Carpathians: to see if, after all those centuries, anything remained of Faethor Ferenczy’s buried creatures Zek knows about vampires! It makes it that much more definite that the Russians have discovered a way toit there at Perchorsk!’

’So you’re saying?’

’Harry, you remember how you dealt with the Chateau Bronnitsy?’

After a h Using the Mobius Continuu, shattering fire and lashing heat, and the Chateau reduced to s with it, for their sins In the space of less than a ery to last any man a lifetime ’I remember,’ he had finally answered ’Except -’

’Yes?’

’Darcy, if you’re right, well, obviously the place has to go But not until we’re sure one way or the other, and not yet I have this feeling that the answer to ht there It may be risky - I mean, I knohat has escaped from that place, and what could presumably escape from it in future; indeed, I’ve seen and dealt with an example - but for the moment I can’t, daren’t, try to close it down Not if I want to see Brenda and Harry Jnr again’

For a moment it had seemed that Clarke understood, but then he’d said, ’Harry, it’s not just a case of "risky" -it’s deadly! Unthinkable! You must see that?’

And then it had been Harry’s turn Coldly he had answered: ’There are a couple of things you have to see, too, Darcy Like olddead - his death probably precipitated by your sending Jazz Si lost both her father and her brother And her mother, probably in a forced labour carief and worry, no doubt These are things you can’t write off, Darcy, and you’re certainly not going to write off Brenda and Harry Jnr So for noe’ll continue to play this ree ’Sowhat’s your way going to be? What’s your next step, Harry?’

’Well, there are questions I need answered It looks like I’ll have to go right to the top to get them answered’

The top?’

Harry had nodded ’The Perchorsk Projekt If I’ vampires, then what is it about? So to tell me There has to be a boss, a controller Not Khuv but someone above him’

’Of course there is,’ Clarke had answered at once ’Khuv’s in charge of security, that’s all The one on to fill Harry in on Luchov’s background

When he was done Harry had nodded grimly Then he’s the man I need to talk to If anyone has the answers, Viktor Luchov has to be the one’

’When will you try to see him?’

’Now’

’Now?’ Clarke had been taken aback ’But the place will still be on top alert!’

’I know I’ll create a smoke screen’

’A what?’

’A diversion Let irl’

Clarke had nodded, stuck out his hand ’Best of luck, Harry’

The Necroscope wasn’t one for holding grudges He shook hands, conjured a Mobius door Clarke watched hiht: I was there once! Pray God he’d never be there again

Viktor Luchov was back in his own executive quarters (which htly less austere than anyone else’s at Perchorsk) and he was furious Quite apart from this latest incident - this ’intrusion’, if such it had been - the Projekt Direktor had chosen the period of the alert to approach and challenge Khuv in respect of certain ruh the Projekt, ru brutality and murder They concerned the KGB officer’s prisoners, Kazimir and Taschenka Kirescu

Perhaps Luchov’s approach had been a little too liverish (he had after all been shocked awake in theall around like wailing demons out of hell) but that could not excuse Khuv’s response, which had been brusque to put it et off his back and let him attend to the Projekt’s security with a minimum of interference Or better still, with no interference at all This confrontation had taken place not in private but in the detention area, where Khuv’s espers had been crowding one of the cells in their search for so the ether!’ as one of them had put it