[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

bed in the attic room;
now he prowled the rooms and corridors of the old house where it stood by the
river, putting on all the lights, his every nerve jumping as he looked out
from curtained windows into the night. Just what his apprehensions were he
couldn't say, but he felt something looming, hovering, waiting. Some terrible
Thing for the moment conserving its energy, but full of monstrous intent.
Was it Harry, Jordan wondered? The thing that Harry was far too rapidly
becoming?
Possibly. Could it be concern over Harry's fate if - when - E-Branch finally
moved on him?
Well, yes, that too. Or was he worried about his own fate, if he was still
with the
Necroscope at that time? Was this how Yulian Bodescu had felt at Harkley House
in
Devon, that evening when the Branch had closed in on him to destroy him?
Something like this, Jordan was sure.
It was time for Jordan to leave Harry, and he knew it. To leave him for good
and merge back into the mundane world of ordinary men. Oh, the telepath knew
he could never more be truly mundane, for he had seen the other side and
returned from it. But he could try. He could work at it, work into it,
gradually forget that he had been - God, he couldn't bear the thought of the
word even now! - that he had not been alive, and eventually become just
another man again, albeit one with a talent. And when Harry was well out of it
and fled into that other world which Jordan could scarcely imagine, then he
might even return to the
Branch. If they would take him back. But of course they would want to be sure
about him first. They would want to check that he was who and what he was
supposed to be.
But the trouble was (and Jordan knew now that this must be the source of his
nightmare)
that he couldn't be sure he would be the same person. For if Harry's awful
metamorphosis continued to accelerate . . .
Harry!
Jordan sucked air gaspingly as telepathic awareness of the Necroscope suddenly
flooded his being. The sensation was like being doused with ice-water, causing
his whole body to shudder violently. Harry, out there somewhere, across the
river. Harry, listening to Jordan, to his thoughts. But how long had he been
there?
Only a minute or two, in fact. And he had not been eavesdropping on Jordan but
telepathically checking the vicinity of the house. He had detected something
of Jordan's
file:///G|/rah/Brian%20Lumley/Brian%20Luml...pe%205%20-%20Deadspawn%20V1.0%20(
html).htm (164 of 314) [2/13/2004 10:18:41 PM]
Brian Lumley - Necroscope 5 - Deadspeak fears, however, which did precious
little to calm the beast which raged within him, denied expression when he'd
fled from the two policemen watching Johnny Pound's flat.
The reason Harry chose to emerge from the Möbius Continuum into the bushes on
the far side of the river and not directly into the house was simple: when
he'd read the minds of those plain-clothes policemen in Darlington, he'd
plainly seen that they were expecting him. Indeed, someone had told the man
with the gun that Harry might be dangerous.
Obviously E-Branch must have alerted them to the possibility of him showing
up. So ...
whatever Darcy Clarke had told the Branch about him, it hadn't cut any ice.
They weren't having any.
And if they were looking out for him in Darlington, plainly it wouldn't take
long before they were doing it here, too. He'd scared off Paxton (for the
Page 160
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
moment, anyway) but Paxton was only one of them and untypical of the species.
So from now on he would have to check locations very carefully before
venturing into what were previously 'safe' places. It all went to reinforce
the Necroscope's feeling of claustrophobia, a doom-laden sensation of space -
Möbius space included - narrowing down for him. To say nothing of time.
And now, to discover that Trevor Jordan was also afraid of him, of what Harry
might do to him ... it was too much.
The dead - even Möbius himself - had turned against him; his mother had become
worn out and left him; there was no one in the world, neither alive nor dead,
who had anything good to say on his behalf. And this was the world, and the
race, which he had fought so long and so hard for. Not even his own race. Not
any longer.
Harry stepped through a Möbius door into a dark corridor of the house across
the river and silently commenced to climb the stairs to his own bedroom.
Suddenly he was tired; his cares seemed too great; sleep would be curative,
and ... to hell with everything! Let the future care for itself.
But Jordan's voice stopped him when he was only halfway up the first flight:
'Harry?' The telepath looked up at him from the foot of the stairs. Trevor
Jordan, who could read the
Necroscope's mind as easily as Harry read his. 'I ... shouldn't have been
thinking those things.'
Harry nodded. 'And I shouldn't have overheard you. Anyway, don't worry about
it. You did your bit for me and did it well, and I'm grateful. And it won't be
so bad being alone, for
I've been alone before. So if you want to go, then go - go now! For let's face
it, I'm losing more and more control to this thing, and leaving now might be
the safest thing to do.'
Jordan shook his head. 'Not while the whole world's against you, Harry. I
won't leave you yet.'
Harry shrugged and turned away, and continued to climb the stairs. 'As you
wish, but don't leave it too long . . .'
4
file:///G|/rah/Brian%20Lumley/Brian%20Luml...pe%205%20-%20Deadspawn%20V1.0%20(
html).htm (165 of 314) [2/13/2004 10:18:41 PM]
Brian Lumley - Necroscope 5 - Deadspeak
Dreams .
The night was still young when Harry laid his head on the pillow, but the moon
was up and the stars were bright, and it was his time. His senses were no [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]