‘You think the Russians may be experimenting, making them – designing them – as weapons?’ It was plain that the Necroscope found it incredible.
‘Didn’t that lunatic Gerenko have exactly that in mind before you . . . dealt with him?’ Clarke was persistent.
Harry shook his head. ‘I didn’t kill Gerenko,’ he said. ‘Faethor Ferenczy did it for me.’ He fingered his chin, glanced again at Clarke, and said, ‘But you’ve made your point.’
Harry put his head down, clasped his hands behind him, walked slowly back through the brooding house to his study. Clarke followed him, trying to contain himself and not show his impatience. But time was wasting and he desperately needed Keogh’s help.
It was mid-afternoon and streamers of late autumn sunlight were filtering in through the windows, highlighting the thin layer of dust that lay everywhere. Harry seemed to notice it for the first time; he trailed his finger along a dusty shelf, then paused to consider the accumulation of dark, gritty fluff on his fingertip. Finally he turned to Clarke and said: ‘So really, there was no “parallel case” after all. That was just to make sure I’d listen to you, hear you out?’
Clarke shook his head. ‘Harry, if there’s one person in the world I would never lie to, you’re it! Because I know you hate it, and because we need you. There’s a parallel case, right enough. You see, I remembered how you put it that time eight years ago when your wife and child disappeared – before you quit E-Branch. You said: “They’re not dead, and yet they’re not here – so where are they?” I remembered it because it seems the same thing has happened again.’
‘Someone has disappeared? In the same way?’ Harry frowned, made a stab at it: ‘Simmons, do you mean?’
‘Jazz Simmons has disappeared, yes, in the same way,’ Clarke answered. ‘They caught him something less than a month ago and he was taken into Perchorsk. After that contact was difficult, very nearly impossible. David Chung reckoned it was (a) because the complex is at the foot of a ravine; the sheer bulk of matter blocks the psychic view; (b) because it’s protected by a dense lead shield, which has the same effect; and (c) mainly because there are Soviet espers mind-blocking the place. Even so, Chung was able to get through on occasion. What he has seen or “scried” in there isn’t reassuring.’
‘Go on,’ said Harry, his interest waxing again.
‘Well,’ Clarke continued, and immediately paused and sighed. ‘This isn’t easy, Harry. I mean, even Chung found it difficult to explain, and I’m only repeating him. But . . . he’s seen something in a glass tank. He says he can’t describe it better than that because it never seems to be the same. No, don’t ask me,’ he quickly held up his hands, shook his head. ‘Personally I haven’t the foggiest idea. Or if I have an idea then I don’t much care to voice it.’
‘Go ahead,’ said Harry. ‘Voice it.’
‘I don’t have to,’ Clarke shook his head. ‘I’m sure you know what I mean . . .’
Harry nodded. ‘OK. Is there anything else?’
‘Only this: Chung says he sensed fear, that the complex was full of dread, living in terror. Everyone in the place was desperately afraid of something, he said. But again, we don’t know what. So that was how things stood until just three days ago. Then – ‘
‘Yes?’
‘Then no more contact. And not just Soviet “static” either – literally no contact! Simmons’s cross, and presumably Simmons himself, were – well, no longer there. No longer anywhere, in fact.’
‘Dead?’ Harry’s face was grim.
But Clarke shook his head. ‘No,’ he said, ‘and that’s what I meant when I called it a parallel case. It’s so like your wife and child. Chung himself can’t explain it. He says he knows the cross still exists – that it hasn’t been broken up or melted down or in any other way destroyed – and he believes that Simmons still has it. But he doesn’t know where it is. It defies his talent to find it. And he’s angry about it, and frustrated. In fact his feelings are probably a lot like yours: he’s come up against something he doesn’t understand and can’t figure out, and he’s blaming himself. He even started to lose faith in his scrying, but we’ve tested that and it’s OK.’