It was delivered like a bolt out of the blue, and quite deliberately. ‘Pax – ?’ The smile slid from Clarke’s face, was replaced by a frown. Paxton? What about Paxton? He didn’t know anything about him – only that he’d done a few months’ probation as an esper, a telepath, and that the Minister Responsible had found cause to reject him: something about a couple of small kinks in his past record, apparently.
‘Yes, Paxton,’ Harry said again. ‘Geoffrey Paxton? He’s one of yours, isn’t he?’ There was an edge to his voice now, an almost mechanical precision which was cold and controlled. Like a computer waiting for some vital item of information before it could begin its calculations.
‘Was,’ Clarke finally answered. ‘Was going to be one of ours, yes. But it seems he had a couple of black marks against him and so missed the boat. How do you know about him, anyway? Or more to the point, what do you know about him?’
‘Darcy.’ The edge on Harry’s voice had sharpened. It wasn’t menacing – there was no threat in it, no way – but still Clarke could sense its warning. ‘We’ve been friends, of sorts, for a long time. I’ve stuck my neck out for you. You’ve stuck yours out for me. I’d hate to think you were shafting me now.’
‘Shafting you?’ Clarke’s answer was instinctive, natural, even mildly affronted; with every right, for he wasn’t hiding anything or shafting anyone. ‘I don’t even know what you’re talking about! It’s like I said: Geoffrey Paxton is a middling telepath, but developing rapidly. Or he was. Then we lost him. Our Minister found something he didn’t like and Paxton was out. Without us he won’t ever be able to develop to his full potential. We’ll give him the onceover now and then, just to make sure he’s not using what he has to take too much of an advantage on society, but apart from that – ‘
‘But he’s already taking advantage,’ the Necroscope, plainly angry now, cut in. ‘Or trying to – and of me! He’s on my back, Darcy, and he sticks like glue. He tries to get into my mind, but so far I’ve kept him out. Only that takes effort, gets tiring, and I’m getting pissed off exerting so much effort on something like this! On some sneaking little bastard who’s doing someone else’s dirty work!’
For a moment Clarke’s mind was full of confusion, but he knew that to hesitate would only make him look suspect. ‘What do you want me to do?’ he said.
‘Find out who’s running him, of course!’ Harry snapped. ‘And why.’
‘I’ll do what I can.’
‘Do better than that,’ Harry came back like a shot. ‘Or I’ll have to do it myself.’
Why haven’t you already? Clarke wondered. Are you afraid of Paxton, Harry? And if so, why? ‘I’ve told you he isn’t one of mine,’ he said out loud. ‘Now that’s the truth, so you can’t threaten me through him. But like I said, I’ll do what I can.’
There was a pause. Then: ‘And you’ll get the details of those girls to me?’
‘That’s a promise.’
‘OK.’ The Necroscope’s voice had slackened a little, lost some of its tension. ‘I … I didn’t mean to come on so strong, Darcy.’
Clarke’s heart at once went out to him. ‘Harry, I think you’ve a lot on your mind. Maybe we can speak sometime – in person, I mean? What I’m saying is, don’t be afraid to come to me.’
‘Afraid?’
It had been the wrong word. ‘Apprehensive, then. I mean, don’t worry that there might be something you can’t tell me or we can’t talk about. There isn’t anything you can’t tell me, Harry.’
Again that long, perhaps indicative pause. Then: ‘But right now I don’t have anything to tell you, Darcy. However, I’ll get back to you if I ever do.’ ‘Is that a promise?’ ‘Yes, that’s a promise too. And Darcy – thanks.’
Clarke sat and thought about it for long minutes. And while he sat there behind his desk, drumming his fingers in a continuous, monotonous tattoo, so he became aware of the first small warning bells growing to an insistent clamour at the back of his mind. Harry Keogh had required him to find out who was running Paxton. But who could be running him if not E-Branch? And to what end?