‘Go on,’ said Harry.
And with his mind, Gormley drew him this mental picture:
‘What the hell’s that?’ Harry was nonplussed.
‘It’s a Mobius strip,’ said Gormley. ‘Named after its inventor, August Ferdinand Mobius, a German mathematician. Just take a thin strip of paper, give it a half-twist and join up the ends. It reduces a two-dimensional surface to only one. It has many implications, I’m told, but I wouldn’t know for I’m not a mathematician.’
Harry was still baffled, not by the principle but by its application. ‘And this is supposed to have something to do with me?’
‘With your future – your immediate future – possibly,’ Gormley was deliberately vague. ‘I told you there mightn’t be anything in it. Anyway, let me tell you what happened.’ He told Harry about his and Kyle’s word-association game. ‘So I started off with your name, Harry Keogh, and Kyle came back with “Mobius”. I said, “Maths?” – and he answered, “Space-time”!’
‘Space-time?’ Harry was at once interested. ‘Now that might well fit in with this Mobius strip thing. It seems to me that the strip is only a diagram of warped space, and space and time are inextricably linked.’
‘Oh?’ said Gormley, and Harry pictured his surprised expression. ‘And is that an original thought, Harry, or do you have . . . outside help?’
This gave Harry an idea. ‘Wait,’ he said. ‘I don’t know your Mobius, but I do know someone else.’ He got in touch with James Gordon Hannant in the cemetery in Harden, showed him the strip.
‘Sorry, can’t help you, Harry,’ said Hannant, his thoughts clipped and precise as ever. ‘I’ve gone in an entirely different direction. I was never into curves anyway. By that I mean that my maths was – is – all very practical. Different but practical. But of course you know that. If it can be done on paper, I can probably do it; I’m more visual, if you like, than Mobius. A lot of his stuff was in the mind, abstract, theoretical. Now if only he and Einstein could have got together, then we really might have seen something!’
‘But I have to know about this!’ Harry was desperate. ‘Can’t you suggest anything?’
Hannant sensed Harry’s urgency, raised a mental eyebrow. In that emotionless, calculating fashion of his, he said: ‘But isn’t the answer obvious, Harry? Why don’t you ask him, Mobius himself? After all, you’re the only one who can . . .’
Suddenly excited, Harry crossed back to Gormley. ‘Well,’ he told him, ‘at least I have a place to start now. What else came out of this game of yours with Alec Kyle?’
‘After he came up with “Space-time” I tried him with “necroscope”,’ said Gormley. ‘He immediately came back with “necromancer”.’
Harry was silent for a moment, then said: ‘So it
looks like he was reading your future as well as mine….’
‘I suppose so,’ Gormley answered. ‘But then he said something that’s got me stumped even now. I mean -even assuming that all we’ve just mentioned is somehow connected – what on earth am I supposed to make of “vampire”, eh?’
Cold fingers crept up Harry’s spine. What indeed? Finally he said:
‘Keenan, can we stop there? I’ll get back to you as soon as possible, but right now there are one or two things I have to do. I want to give my wife a call, find a reference library, check some things out. And I want to go and see Mobius, so I’ll probably be booking a flight to Germany. Also, I’m hungry! And … I want to think about things. Alone, I mean.’
‘I understand, Harry, and I’ll be ready when you want to start again. But by all means see to your own needs first. Let’s face it, they have to be greater than mine. So go ahead, son. You see to the living. The dead have plenty of time.’
‘Also,’ Harry told him, ‘there’s someone else I want to speak to – but that’s my secret for now.’
Gormley was suddenly worried for him. ‘Don’t do anything rash, Harry. I mean – ‘
‘You said I should go it alone, do it my way,’ Harry reminded him.