Emptied, tortured, very nearly mindless, Dragosani lay there, his arms flopping. And as Harry Keogh said: ‘And now finish him,’ so the necromancer’s twitching hand found the machine-pistol where it had fallen to the carpeted floor. Somewhere in his burning brain he had recognised Keogh’s voice, and even knowing he was dying, still his evil and vengeful nature surfaced one last time. Yes, he was going – but he would not go alone. The weapon in his crab-like hands coughed once, stuttered briefly, then chattered a continuous stream of mechanical obscenities until its vocabulary and magazine were empty – which was perhaps half a second after an ancient Tartar sword had split Dragosani’s monstrous skull open from ear to ear.
Pain! Searing pain. And death. For both of them.
Almost cut in half, Harry found a Mobius door and toppled through it. But pointless to take his shattered body with him. That was finished now. Mind was all. And as he entered the Mobius continuum, so he reached out and guided, dragged the necromancer’s mind with him. Now the pain was finished, for both of them, and Dragosani’s first thought was: ‘Where am I?’
‘Where I want you,’ Harry told him. He found the door to past-time and opened it. From Dragosani’s mind a thin red light streamed out amidst the blue brilliance. It was the trail of his vampire-ridden past. ‘Follow that,’ said Harry, expelling Dragosani through the door. Falling into the past, Dragosani clung to his past-life thread and was drawn back, back. And he couldn’t leave that scarlet thread even if he wanted to, for it was him.
Harry watched the scarlet thread winding back on itself, taking Dragosani with it, then searched out and found the door to the future. Somewhere out there his broken life-thread continued, began again. All he had to do was find it.
And so he hurled himself into the blue infinity of tomorrow …
FINAL INTERVAL:
Alec Kyle glanced at his watch. It was 4:15 p.m. and he was already fifteen minutes late for his all-important governmental board. But time, however relative, had flown and Kyle felt desiccated; the papers in front of him had grown to a thick sheaf; his whole body was cramped and the muscles in his right hand, wrist and arm felt tied in knots. He couldn’t write another word.
“I’ve missed the board,’ he said, and hardly recognised his own voice. The words came out in a dry croak. He tried to laugh and managed a cough. ‘Also, I think I’m missing a couple of pounds! I haven’t moved from this chair in over seven hours, but it’s been the best day’s exercise I’ve had in years. My suit feels loose on me. And dirty!’
The spectre nodded. ‘I know,’ he said, ‘and I’m sorry. I’ve taxed your mind and body both. But don’t you think it was worth it?’
‘Worth it?’ Kyle laughed again, and this time made it. ‘The Soviet E-Branch is destroyed -‘
‘Will be,’ the other corrected him, ‘a week from now.’
‘ – and you ask if it’s been worth it? Oh, yes!’ Then his face fell. ‘But I’ve missed the board. That was important.’
‘Not really,’ the spectre told him. ‘Anyway, you didn’t miss it. Or rather, you did but I didn’t.’
Kyle frowned, shook his head. ‘I don’t understand.’
Time -‘ the other began.
‘ – Is relative!’ Kyle finished it for him in a gasp.
The spectre smiled. ‘There’s a door to all times out there on the Mobius strip. I am here – but I’m also there. They might have given you a hard time, but not me. Gormley’s work – your work, and mine – goes on. You’ll get all the help you need and no hassle.’
Kyle slowly closed his mouth, let his brain reel for a moment until it steadied itself. He felt weary now, worn out. ‘I expect you’ll want to be going now,’ he said, ‘but there are still a couple of things I’d like to ask you. I mean, I know who you are, for you couldn’t be anyone else, but -‘
‘Yes?’
‘Well, where are you now? I mean, your now? What’s your base? Where is it? Are you speaking to me from the Mobius continuum, or through it? Harry, where are you?’