Graham Masterton – Descendant (Thriller Audiobook)

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About this book :
Californian James Falcon’s compelling Romanian mother told him so many folk stories that by the time he reaches college in 1943, he is something of an expert on the strigoi, the legendary, undying vampires who infested the most isolated forests of Wallachia. Mostly as a joke, he writes a term paper on the strigoi. But the joke turns serious when US counterintelligence approach him to recruit his expertise.

James hunts down strigoi murderers in war-ravaged Europe, Nazi assassins hired to run down run down the French and Belgian resistance in exchange for Transylvanian independence, although the principal one, the terrible Dorin Duca, continues to elude him. In the Cold War, he must fight once more, as Duca goes on the rampage, spreading his strigoi infection all across London, England.

With Jill, a police dog handler of great beauty and resilience, James is assigned to Britain’s MI6 to go on the hunt again. But even after the threat is driven away, James will still uncover more secrets about the immortal predators — secrets that come ever closer to home…
Horror
Vampires
Fiction
Science Fiction
Thriller
Fantasy
Mystery
Supernatural
Dark Fantasy
Occult

this is audible descendant by Graham masterton read by Garrick Hagen Diana it was a sweltering Thursday afternoon and I was caught in the usual southbound traffic jam on the Kennedy Bridge when WKA played Diana and I felt as if my entire skin surface was shrinking Diana by Paul an that song has haunted me for the past 50 years and I guess it always will whenever I hear it I can’t stop myself from turning my head around just to make sure that I’m not being followed or that somebody isn’t watching me from some Shadow doorway on the opposite side of the street I’m so young and you’re so old it brings everything back the glassy heat of the South London suburbs in the middle of summer the large 1930s houses with their red tiled roofs and their tennis courts the flat sweet smell of British pubs the shabby clothes and the tiny little cars and those things that ran through the streets dark and voracious and utterly cruel clinging to ceilings rushing up walls you think that you know what it’s like to be frightened you don’t have any idea when I finally arrived back home in Kenwood Hill I closed the front door and stood for a long time with my back pressed against it and my heart was beating like a jackhammer two semicircles of crimson light Shone on the wall from the stained glass window at the top of the stairs like bloodshot eyes it was then that I thought damn it whatever the government might do to me it’s high time that you knew the truth that’s why I’m going to tell you what really happened during that summer of August 1957 and what hideous Carnage we had to face I’m going to tell you what happened afterward too and for me that was even more of a nightmare all I did was put off the evil day sooner or later the decision that I could never bring myself to make is going to be yours I was officially warned never to talk about it two days after I was relocated to Louisville a pimping young man came around to my house in a shiny gray suit and warned me not to say anything ever not even to my wife Louise even after all these years I guess the government could still have me arrested for breaching National Security or lock me up in a nut housee but they can’t terrify me the way that I’ve been terrified every single day for the past 50 years because vampires never ever forgive you for anything antp 1944 Captain kerik led me up the uncarpeted stairs of this narrow unlit building on marrat in the Northwest part of the city two small children with grubby faces were standing in a doorway on the second Landing a girl and a boy and Captain koser said to them you’re going to be okay you understand we’re going to arrange for somebody to take care of you behind them in the Gloom of her sitting room an old woman was sitting in a sagging brocade armchair underneath her black laac widow’s cap her hair was white and wild and her face looked like a shriveled cooking Apple somebody from the children’s services will be calling around later Captain koser shouted at her then he turned to me and said and death as a doorpost I called out the woman flapped her hand dismissively H made BR what did she say asked Captain kerik something about the family being cursed well I think she was right on the money about that come take a look for yourself he let me along the corridor and up another flight of stairs I could smell boiled cabbage and another smell much stronger and more distinctive the smell of blood although it was mid October it was UN seasonably warm the stairwell was alive with glittering green blowflies at the top of the stairs there was a much smaller landing and then a door with two frosted glass panels in it the door was half a jar and even before we opened it I could see a woman’s leg lying on the floor with a worn out brown brogue lying close by Captain kosk pushed the door wide so that I could take in a full view of the room it it was a one room apartment with a large iron-framed bed in one corner a Fray beige couch and a wooden wheel back chair there was a small high window over the sink which had a view of a light gray sky and the dark 13th century spires of the ra the cathedral beside the sink there was a small homemade shelf with a red and white packet of tea a blue Pottery flower jar a glass dish with a tiny square of butter in it and three potatoes that were already starting to sprout a picture of the Virgin Mary hung on the wall beside the Shelf both of her eyes had been burned out with lighted cigarettes I looked down at the young woman lying face down on the streaky green lenium she must have been 27 or 28 with wavy brown hair which she had obviously tried to color with Hanah she was wearing nothing except a reddish wool skirt which had been dragged halfway down her thighs her skin was very white and dotted with moles there were spots and sprays of blood all around her and several Footprints some whole and some partial including some smaller bare Footprints which must have been those of her children but considering what had been done to her there was remarkably little blood want me to turn her over for you asked captain koseri I nodded I was sweating and the air was clogged with the brown stench of blood but I had to make sure Captain kosk hunkered down beside the young woman and gently rolled her onto her back she was quite pretty in a puffy Flemish way with bright blue eyes her breasts were small with pale nipples she had been split wide open with some very sharp Implement from her breastbone to her navl her heart had been forcibly pulled out from under her rib cage and her aorta cut about 3 in from her left ventricle it looked like a pale saggy hose pipe you seen this kind of thing before said Captain koser the MPS told me to call you in as soon as they found her I lifted my khaki canvas bag off my shoulder unbuckled it and took out my Kodak I took about 15 or 16 pictures from different angles while Captain kosk went out onto the landing for a smoke after I had finished taking pictures I searched the young woman’s room Captain kosi came back in again what are you looking for if you don’t mind my asking oh you know evidence he was very young even though he had a streak of gray hair and a bristly little mustache but I guess we were all very young in those days even me I lifted up the thin thread bare mat beside the bed there were signs that one of the floorboards had been lifted so I went to the sink and took out a knife to pry them up underneath in the floor space I found a rusty can of cooked ham two cans of alt mecklinburg sausages three cans of condensed milk a box of cocoa powder and a box of powdered eggs as well as three packs of yasmi cigarettes why the horde said Captain kosk peering over my shoulder all German too where do you suppose she got these from fraternizing with the Enemy something like that so somebody from the resistance found out and they punished her that’s one possibility listen I know this is all supposed to be top secret and like that but who do you think might have done this I looked down at the young woman lying on the floor a blowfly was jerkily walking across her slightly parted lips oh I know who did it what I don’t know yet is why the night people I went downstairs again and knocked on the old widow’s door the two children were kneeling on the window seat looking down at the street below a ray of sunlight was shining through the boys ears so that they glowed Scarlet the old Widow lifted her head to see me through the lower half of her bifocals and made a kind of Silent snarl as she did so did you see anything I asked her in Flemish no but I heard it bumping and Loud talking and footsteps they were Germans the Germans aren’t here anymore the Germans have been driven back back to the other side of the Albert Canal these were Germans no question I looked at the children I guessed that the girl was about six and the boy wasn’t much older than four in those days though European children were much smaller and thinner than American children after years of rationing do you think they saw anything I pray to God that they didn’t it was 3:00 in the morning and it was very dark you want a cigarette I asked her she sniffed and nodded I shook out a camel for her and lit it she breathed in so deeply that I thought she was never going to breathe out again while I waited I lit a cigarette for myself too you mentioned the night people I told her Menon Vu I hadn’t told Captain kerik about that that’s what they were weren’t they you know that that’s why you’re here I blew out smoke and pointed to the ceiling what was her name had she been living here long an an deals she came here last April I think it was she was very quiet and her children were very quiet too but I saw her once talking to Leo kopman and I know they weren’t discussing the price of sausages Leo kopman from the white Brigade The White Brigade were a Belgian resistance even now they were helping the British and the Canadians to keep their hold on the ANP docks antp was a weird place in the fall of 44 the whole city was filled with Liberation fever almost a hysteria even though the Germans were still occupying many of the northern suburbs some belgians were even cycling from the Allied part of the city into the German part of the city to go to work and then cycling back again in the evening I gave the old woman my last five cigarettes do you mind if I talked to the children do what you like you can’t make things any worse for them than they already are I went over to the window seat the boy was peering down at three Canadian jeeps in the street below while the girl was picking the thread from one of the old brown seat cushions the boy glanced at me but said nothing while the girl didn’t look up at all what’s your name I asked the girl my cigarette smoke drifted across the window and the boy furiously waved it away Agnes the girl told me in a whisper and your brother martin Mrs tupet says that Mommy was sick so she’s gone to huml Mar announced brightly the Flemish word for Heaven is haml so he must have misunderstood what the old woman had told him the girl looked up at me then and the appeal in her eyes was almost physically painful he doesn’t know his mommy’s been killed don’t tell him please our uncle Peter lives in HL she whispered I nodded and turned my head so that I wouldn’t blow smoke in her face did you see anything I asked her she shook her head it was dark but they came into the room and pulled mommy out of bed I heard her say please don’t what’s going to happen to my children then I Heard lots of horrible noises and mommy was kicking on the floor her eyes filled up with tears I was too frightened to help her it’s good for you that you didn’t try they would have done the same to you how many of them were there I think three three that would figure they always came in threes the little girl wiped her eyes with the sleeve of her prayed red cardigan I saw something shining it was like a necklace thing a necklace like a cross only it wasn’t a cross those are the good men interrupted the little boy pointing down at the Canadians they came and chased all the Germans away you’re right umbre I told him then I turned back to the little girl and said this cross thing do you think you could draw it she thought for a moment and then she nodded I took a pencil out of my jacket pocket and handed her my notebook very carefully she drew a symbol that looked like a wheel with four spokes she gave it back to me with a very serious look on her face it was shining like silver I gave her a roll of fruit flavored Lifesavers and touched the top of her dry unwashed hair not much compensation for losing her mother but there was nothing else I could offer her I still think about them even now those two little children and wonder what happened to them they’d be in their 60s now the old Widow said you see I was right wasn’t I it was the night people I didn’t say anything I wasn’t allowed to tell anybody what my specific duties were not even my fellow officers in the 101 Counter Intelligence Detachment Captain kosk came back in you done here he asked me I got two core men downstairs ready to take the body away the little boy frowned at him you don’t know how glad I was that he couldn’t understand English Frank takes a drink Frank was sitting on the cobbles when I came out of the house his purple tongue Laing out of the side of his mouth Frank was a four-year-old black and tan Blood Hound who had been specially trained for me in Tangipahoa Parish Louisiana by the man tra expert Roger duat actually Frank’s saddle spread so far over his body that he was almost entirely black but Roger had explained to me that he was still officially a blacken Tan in Belgium they called him a St Hubert Hound after the monk who had first trained blood hounds in the 7eventh century the patron saint of hunters Frank’s real name was pride of ponchatula but I had rechristened him in honor of Frank Sinatra who happened to be my hero at the time when I walked along to K with my great coat collar turned up I like to think that I looked as cool and edgy as Frank Sinatra did how’s it going Frank I asked him hope you’ve been conducting yourself with the Corum Frank was a pretty obedient dog but now and again he had a fit of the loonies which Roger Dua said was brought on by him picking up the smell of dead rats Corporal little said he’s been fine sir I fed him those marrow bones and then he took a dump around the corner well thanks so much for the update I said listen we’ll be going out tonight soon as it gets dark Corporal little looked up at the flat narrow front of number five Marat and said screechers no question about it they split her open like a herring holy Christ did you find find out who she was on the bouter age 28 or thereabouts I don’t know why they specifically came looking for her but her landl seemed to think that she might have had some connection to the white Brigade could have been a Revenge killing who knows maybe they were just thirsty Corporal little looked around his eyes narrowed against the bright gray October light think they’ve gotten far I don’t think so by the time they finished with her it must have been nearly daylight in this whole area was heaving with Canucks by 0430 my guess is that they’ve gone to ground someplace close by Corporal little reached down and tugged Frank’s ears hear that boy we’re going to go screecher hunting Corporal Henry little was an amiable wide-shouldered young man with a red crew cut and a face covered in mustard colored freckles he had a snub nose and bright blue eyes that looked Perman permanently surprised although I have never yet known him to be surprised by anything even when it was first explained to him what his duties would be he did nothing but nod and say okay sure as if hunting vampires through the shattered cities of France and Belgium was no more unusual than chasing rabbits through the underbrush Corporal Little’s family had bred pedigree tracking dogs in Oak Ridge Tennessee which was why the Detachment had enlisted him to help me if blood hound e had been a language Corporal little would have been Word Perfect Frank had only to lift up his head and stare at Corporal little with those mournful hungover eyes and Corporal little would know exactly what he wanted cookie Frank Frank had a thing for speculo those Ginger and spice cookies they bake in Belgium preferably dipped into Corporal Little’s coffee to make them soft we climbed into my Jeep and Corporal little drove his back through the narrow sewage smelling streets jolting over the cobbles until I felt that my teeth were going to shatter we passed a dead horse lying on the sidewalk a German shell had landed in the Square two days ago and torn open a big triangular flap in its stomach so a passer by had killed it with a hammer somewhere off to the Northwest from the direction of the valkar and Peninsula I could hear our artillery fire like somebody banging encyclopedia shut we turned into ker Strat and stopped outside the vele hotel it was a small old style building with a 16th century facade the lobby had Oak panel walls and a brown marble floor and it was Milling with officers from the British 11th Armored Division as well as an argumentative crowd of Belgian politicians waving their arms and pushing each other and shouting in French the British officers looked too tired to care one of them was sleeping in an armchair with his mouth wide open I went to the desk where the deputy manager was trying to rub soup from the front of his shirt with spit I need to talk to Leo Koopman he stopped rubbing his shirt and looked at me with bulging brown eyes it’s important I said I need to talk to him about an wter do you think you can get in touch with him the deputy man pulled a face that could have meant yes or possibly or why on Earth are you asking me I’ll be in my room until 8 I told him I tapped my wristwatch and said AK understand Corporal little and I went up in the rickety elevator to the fourth floor Frank sat staring up at us and panting and the vouter children were in the room when they killed her I said lucky for the boy didn’t wake up but the girl did I could see myself in the mirror I hadn’t realized I looked so Haggard my hair was greasy and flopping over my forehead and the mtled glass made it appear as if I had some kind of skin disease she give you any idea what they looked like no too dark but she was pretty sure that there were three of them and she saw that one of them was wearing the wheel we walked along the long blue carpeted Corridor until we reached 413 considering there was a waron my room was surprisingly Sumptuous with a huge four poster bed covered in a golden cream bedspread and gilded armchairs upholstered to match on the walls hung several somber Landscapes of gent and louan with clouds and canals a pair of gray riding Brides hung from the hook on the back of the door with dangling suspenders still attached these had belonged to the German officer who had occupied this room only days before we had arrived Corporal little unclipped Frank’s leash and let him Trot into the bathroom to lap water out of the toilet I went to the windows and closed them the maid had opened them every morning since we had arrived here last week even though there was no heat I opened a fresh pack of cigarettes lit one and blew smoke out of my nose then I unfolded my street map of antp and spread it out over the glass toop table here’s Mark kravat where on the vouchers was killed and this is the way the Canadian division was coming in so it’s pretty unlikely that the screechers would have tried to escape along Martin Strat I reckon they left the building by the back entrance which would have taken them out here onto Kip Thorp that means they had only two options either turn left and head Northwest toward the scelt or turn right and make their way across kipor Brook toward the Central Station Corporal little studied the map carefully I don’t reckon they would have headed for the river sir where would they go from there I agreed with him they couldn’t have escaped North because the Germans had blown all the bridges over the Albert Canal besides the Brits were holding the Waterfront area and most of the Brits were untrained conscripts waiters and Bank clerks and green grossers and they were even more trigger happy than the poles they would let loose a wild fusel of poorly aimed rifle fire and then shout who goes there afterward I circled a five block area with my pencil we’ll start in this street around Kip Dorp and work our way Eastward along s yacob’s Mark corporal little massage the back of his prickly neck that’s going to be one hell of a job sir with respect think of all them hundreds of sellers they could be lying low in think of all them hundreds of attics and all of them hundreds of closets and linen chests and steamer trunks it could easy take us days before Frank picks up a sniff of them and by that time they could be halfway back to wherever they’re headed we’ll find them Henry I promise you I have a hunch about these particular creatures with respect sir you had a hunch about those creatures in Ruan and you had another Huns about those scures in Bon I know but those scures we got in France they were like cornered rats weren’t they they were running and hiding and it took everything we could do to catch up with them well sure but what makes these guys any different think about it they must have been keeping themselves hold up someplace in the city center for the past 5 weeks either that or they’ve had the bras coones to make their way back in they wanted to have their revenge on the on devouts and they obviously didn’t care what chances they took they were German speaking right but they walked through a city crowded with British and Canadian troops and they cut a woman open in front of her children and they stayed there long enough to drink 90% of of her blood Corporal little looked impressed but still slightly mystified so what does this specifically lead you to conclude sir don’t you get it Henry they’re not scared of us they’re not frightened to come out in the open that’s why I think that we’ll find them the only trouble is when we do find them they’re not going to go down without one hell of a fight Corporal little gave me a smile of growing understanding in that case sir we better double the watch on our rear ends wouldn’t you say go get the kit will you I told him most of the time I couldn’t work out if he was a genius or an idios the kit the kit was contained in a khaki tin box about the size of a briefcase it was scratched intended but then we had been carrying it with us ever since we had landed in Normandy in June and we had used it five times since then Corporal little opened it up and together we inspected the contents a large Bible with a polished cover carved out of Ashwood and a silver crucifix mounted on the front a large glass flask of holy oil from St Basil’s Romanian Orthodox Church in New York a pair of silver thumb screws and a pair of silver toe screws a silver Compass about 5 in across with a base that was filled with the dried Petals of wild roses a 30ft Whip made of braided silver wire a surgical saw a small silver pot filled with black mustard seeds two small pots of paint one white and one black I lifted out a roll of greasy shammy leather and unwrapped it inside were three iron Nails about 9 in long they were black and corroded and each had been fashioned by hand I had no proof that they were genuine but if the price that the Detachment had paid for them was anything to go by that it should have been these were supposed to be the nails that had been pulled out of Christ’s wrists and ankles when he was taken down from the cross at the bottom of the tin box there was a circular mirror made of Highly polished silver a pair of dental forceps and a sculptor’s mallet hunting scures was always a combination of science religion common sense and Magic so you needed the apparatus that went with each you also needed a willingness to believe that a human being can defy gravity running kind of low on garlic said Corporal little lifting up a bunch of papery covered clothes Frank came sniffing around his pendulous jows swaying see said Corporal little Frank knows that we’re going out tonight don’t you boy Frank gave one of those barks that can deafen you in one ear an oblique conversation just after 6:00 the deputy manager rang up to my room to say that Leo kopman had been unavoidably detained on the northeast side of the city however somebody in the lobby called Paul hanar would be privileged to talk to me I went down in the elevator alone and met him in the small dark bar at the back of the hotel Paul hanar was a short thick set man with a lumpy face like one of the peasants in a brogal painting and rimless spectacles he was wearing a black roll neck sweater and a black suit with shiny elbows I would have guessed that he was a school master in another life he stood up and shook hands pleased to meet you actually it’s Captain Captain James Falcon Jr 101 Counter Intelligence Detachment we sat down and I offered him a cigarette he took one and tapped it on his thumbnail I heard you were looking for for some special information he said his English was flat but barely accented you think you can help me I asked him it’s something we’ve been trying to keep quiet mainly because we didn’t want the Germans to know that we knew and because we didn’t want to cause any panic and because we didn’t want to look like fools in case we were wrong do you know a young woman called on the bouter she rents an apartment on marav Strat Paul hanar looked at me acutely I know the name yes you can’t do her any harm by telling me about her she was murdered last night he flinched as if I had reached across the table and tried to slap his cheek but then he recovered himself and said I’m very shocked to hear that her land lady said it was Manson van the knocked do you have any idea what she was talking about a young boy in a long white apron came over to us and asked us what we wanted to drink what do you have asked Paul hanar Apple snaps and anything else the boy shook his head in that case we’ll have two apple snaps one snaps one lemonade I corrected him I need to keep a clear head tonight and I know what that godamn snaps his like my Corporal calls it nuts waterer Paul hanar lit his cigarette and I noticed that his hand was trembling men V he said Riley that’s one explanation if you believe in such things but you don’t I keep an open mind Captain so tell me what’s been happening he coughed and wiped his mouth with a paper napkin it started in August last year we were having many successes against the Germans we had infiltrated many of their administrative offices and also the power company and the water company in July we were able to sink five barges on the Albert Canal which took them weeks to clear away but then everything seemed to turn around the Germans began to raid our hiding places and arrest Our People by the Dozen every time we planned to sabotage the docks they would catch us before we had the chance to plant any explosives they found our weapons and our wireless sets and our safe houses it became clear to us that some of our own people must be betraying us I didn’t say anything behind him there was an oval window with Crimson glass in it and the branch of a tree was tapping against it as if some beggar were trying to catch our attention Paul hanar said we noticed that some of our people were acting differently they started to look ill and to keep themselves to themselves also they smelled it’s very hard to describe not altogether unpleasant but musty like the inside of a closet in which a dead man’s clothes have been hanging gradually it became clear to us that every operation which was betrayed to the Germans was connected with one or more of these sick people what did you do about it of course we immediately isolated any of our people who showed any signs of illness or behaving in a strange way and allowed them no contact with the rest of us but even this didn’t stop the infection from spreading amongst us and we couldn’t understand how this could happen we have doctors who help us but even they were mystified it was on the vouchers who first discovered what the Germans had done she had spent many months becoming close friends with a young German officer from the 136 special Employment Division who had ministered antp during the occupation when I say close friends you understand what I’m saying to you he paused and took a deep breath as if he were trying to stop himself from sounding too emotional she is she was a very moral young woman but her husband Yan was arrested and shot by the Germans in 1942 and I think she believed that this was the best way she could take her revenge anyway one night this young German officer invited an to a party at Major General stalberg stalberg house he was the commanding officer of the 136 special Employment Division some of the German officers got drunk and started boasting that they would soon exterminate all of the resistance in antp he turned around in his seat to make sure that nobody else was listening and then he leaned forward and said they claimed they had brought in some kind of infection from Eastern Europe which would spread amongst the white Brigade and within 6 weeks it would kill us all still I didn’t reply and still the branch kept tapping at the window it sounded as if the wind was rising and I prayed that it wouldn’t start the rain the scent of screes was so much harder to follow in the wet Paul hanar said they didn’t seem to know exactly what this infection was but they were very excited about it apparently they had used it against the resistance in Poland and also in France they said that it had come from Romania I see any mention of mson Van the night people as far as I’m concerned that was only an hysterical rumor it started to spread when people were discovered around the city with all of the blood drained out of them sometimes a whole family would be found in their apartment grandparents mothers and fathers even babies cut open and their hearts pulled out but in many cases their doors were locked on the inside and nobody could work out how anybody could have gotten in or out how do you think they were killed I don’t know I don’t believe in anything Supernatural once or twice some of our people who had gotten sick were seen by Witnesses in the vicinity of these tragedies but we never found any conclusive evidence that they were responsible I said quietly an was killed like that what they opened her up then they took out her heart and drained all the blood out of her Paul Han car’s mouth tightened but he didn’t say anything I watched him and smoked and eventually I said is there anything else you can tell me doesn’t matter how trivial you think it is it might help me to find out who killed her and then what after you found out who killed her that won’t bring her back I know but it might stop it from happening again he blew out smoke and Shrugged I know very little really an kept her ears open whenever she was in the company of German officers and once or twice she heard them discussing the killings especially the one on Mander brothered Strat when 23 people died including two nuns the Germans never said anything to connect these massacres directly with the Romanian infection but un told me more than once that she had a feeling that they might be Associated one of the SS officers said something like at last the Romanians are being of some use to us and the sicker they are the more blood they want also one of our wireless operators managed to intercept some quoted messages which were sent to ANP from the sixth Army in Bucharest really we could only pick up bits and pieces but they kept referring to carriers in the sense of people who carry an infection these messages did they contain any names what do you mean Romanian names it could help us to find out what this infection actually is and where it came from as I remember only one Romanian name dorin du it came up times it was not completely clear because the messages were so fragmentary but it appeared that somebody called Dua was supposed to be assisting the operation in antp however we never came across any daoka so I doubt if he actually came here we keep a very close check on who comes into antp believe me and who leaves the boy arrived with a bottle of apple schnaps and a bottle of lemonade and two very small glasses Paul hanar immediately filled up his glass knocked it back and filled it up again if the Allies hadn’t taken the city there would have been no resistance left by Christmas what did you do when your people became infected I told you we isolated them broke off all contact we couldn’t jeopardize any of our operations so I could talk to some of them if I needed to Paul hanar Shrugged I think many of them got very sick indeed so maybe not how sick Paul hanar looked from left to right avoiding my eyes well they are dead now he said at last you understand for our own protection that we had to dispose of them how many altogether maybe 35 36 do you want to tell me you did it I don’t understand do you want to tell me how you disposed of them does it matter actually yes it matters a great deal he lifted his hand with his finger pointing like a pistol we shot them in the back of the head then we threw their bodies into the skel okay I was afraid of that we did something wrong I shook my head you did what you thought was right I can’t blame you for that you think this was possibly easy all through the darkest times of the occupation we had trusted these same people with our very lives and they in their turn had implicitly trusted us they were not only friends but relatives some of them fathers and mothers brothers and sisters sure I didn’t like to tell him that shooting a screecher could only make things a thousand times worse the only saving grace was that they had thrown their bodies into the river we sat in silence for a while eventually Paul hanar picked up another paper napkin and blew his nose on it I am very sad about an he said she was always so careful not to compromise herself I always thought that she and I would both survive I’m sorry I said I didn’t think that I was old enough to tell him how obvious it was that he had loved her he finished his strink and stood up I have to go now I hope I have assisted you if you find the people who murdered her we will but you won’t find out about it besides what’s the point of telling an arivo jewelry designer who died in 1901 he nearly managed to smile you know the name Paul hanker I nodded I’m impressed I didn’t know Americans had such culture man trailing we left the hotel just as the pregnant looking long case clock in the lobby chimed eight Frank was straining so hard in his leash that he sounded like a cinjun Squeeze Box it hadn’t rained hard but a fine wet Mist had descended over the city and the cobbles were all slippery and shiny I could hear heavy bombers somewhere in the distance but they were very far away drone drone drone then that crumpy bump crackle sound of anti-aircraft fire Corporal little said 36 of them sir Jesus do you know how far this could have spread half the city could be screechers by now I don’t want to think about it let’s just concentrate on picking up the scent from Marat we jolted our way back to on devou apartment building somebody had taken the dead horse away we were flagged down three times on the way by Canadian troops who wanted to check our papers so it took us almost 20 minutes before we arrived there us counterintelligence they asked half respectfully and half disdainfully some of them were so young that their cheeks were still pink we were admitted to number five by an old man in a saggy beige cardigan with a face the color of liver sausage Frank snapped furiously at the old man’s worn out slippers so that he almost had to dance upstairs to get away from him he won’t hurt you I reassured him I promise you he’s a friend to everyone I don’t have any friends who try to bite my feet the old man retorted it’s not your feet sir it’s your slippers he thinks they’re dead rats we allowed Frank to have a good snuffle around on De Walter’s room we said nothing while he crossed from one side of the lenium to the other thrusting his head underneath the bed and into the curtained off space whereon devouts had hung her clothes he spent a long time licking the dried blood that was spattered over the floor blood hounds don’t identify sents with their noses but with their tongues I was hoping that the scures had left plenty of traces of saliva for him to pick up on when he was finished Frank sat up straight and made a whining sound in the back of his throat you ready Frank Frank Corporal little asked him said Frank we went back down the narrow staircase there was a light shining under V tet’s door but I didn’t want to disturb her the old man with the dead rat slippers was nowhere to be seen when he reached the bottom of the stairs Frank ignored the front door and turned sharp right heading toward the back of the building he led us past an Al Cove crammed with mops and brooms and strong smelling bleaches and up to a heavy oak door I pulled back the bolts and unlocked it and we stepped out into the fairy fine Mist told you I said out the back of the building and on to Kip Dorp Frank hurried through a low Archway on the opposite side of the yard where six or seven bicycles were propped up and then he hurried into the street his claws clattering Softly on the cobbles he hesitated for only a moment and then he turned right towards s yacob’s Mark and kipor BR every now and then he paused and looked around to make sure that we were following him I seriously believed that he thought we were like two stupid children and it was his responsibility to take care of us although the sidewalk was wet the scent of screechers must have been very strong because Frank went straight along the north side of Kip Dorp and there was none of his usual circling and sniffing and wuffling around I think we’ve got these Jokers sir said Corporal little triumphantly but when we reached kipor Brook Frank galloped straight up to the Sandstone wall of the maritime bank and stopped he looked upward and barked and then he turned back to us whining in frustration we looked upward too the Bank building was 17th century five stories high with a flat Flemish style facade apart from the window ledges there wasn’t a single hand hold between the sidewalk and the roof I looked at Corporal little and Corporal little looked at me we were both deeply impressed and frightened too they went straight up I said at least one of them anyhow we had known screechers to run up 20ft walls and jump from one sloping roof to another we had seen one run across a ceiling but we had never known one to climb up a sheer 100 foot building Frank kept returning to the wall and jumping up and barking good boy Corporal little told him pulling his ears good boy it’s not your fault you can’t climb walls it was difficult to know what to do next we could have located the manager of the maritime bank and have him open up for us so that we could follow the creatur’s trail across the roof but that could take us hours and in any case the screecher had probably climbed down the front of some other building and come back down to ground level my guess is this was a dead one I said Corporal little nodded he must have left a real strong trail behind him the way Frank’s getting himself so excited and if he could shimm me straight up the wall like that it’s worth checking though maybe he only climbed up part of the way and then jump back down again I hunker down and opened up the kit I took out the compass and opened up its silver filigree lid the needle immediately swung around and pointed to the front of the Bank building when I held it up vertically it pointed directly upward there was no question about it our screecher had gone all the way up to the roof with no deviation like a rat up a drain pipe said Corporal little and Frank let out another expectant bark I swear that dog would have talked if he’d had the larynx for it as I was fitting the compass back into the kit how ever the needle started to creep back the other way in the direction of kipor brug it wasn’t an urgent swing but the needle was trembling a little the way it always did when screechers weren’t too far away look at this I told Corporal little shining my flashlight on it I don’t think all three of them went up the wall maybe only one of them I’m definitely picking up another Trail in this direction Corporal little took hold of Frank’s CER and tugged him away from the bank hear that boy more screechers go get them boy in the elephant house Frank was much less certain about this secondary Trail and he kept stopping and snorting and going back on himself now and then he got distracted and started to investigate a lamp post and Corporal little had to drag drag him away I kept the compass in my hand and even though the needle was just as hesitant as Frank and kept swinging from side to side there was no question that it was pointing in the general direction of Central Station and the anpa zoo maybe they thought they could get away by train Corporal little suggested I shook my head there’s no civilian trains running and even if they managed to ride a military train where were the go melin Brussels there’d be a very strong risk of them being caught if they tried to go South all of a sudden as he snuffled his way across the wide cobbled expanse of King asterid plane Frank must have picked up a much more definite scent because he started to run ahead of us with a curious lope his head down and his ears swinging by the time he had reached the steps of the Central Station he was Galloping so fast that Corp little and I could hardly keep up with him the Central Station was an extraordinary building like a richly decorated Renaissance palace with a high glass dome which covered the platforms and six elaborate spires the square in front of it was jam-packed with Canadian and British trucks as train loads of troops were unloaded from Brussels I can remember that night as if it were a dream trying to follow Frank through all of those jostling soldiers and Diesel smelling trucks all the lights and the shouting and the revving of engines some of the soldiers whistled at Frank and clapped their hands and called out here boy but Frank was man triling and he wasn’t going to be diverted by anything not even lonely young Canadian soldiers who were missing their dogs from home he didn’t run into the station instead he skirted around it and headed toward the entrance to the Ana Zoo we left the noise of the Central Station behind us and followed Frank to the zoo’s main entrance it was much quieter here although I could still hear the distant grumbling of artillery fire the zoo was in darkness but Frank ran straight through the turn Styles and disappeared Frank shouted corpal little Frank you better come to heal boy or else there’s no more marrow bones for you we heard him bark but he didn’t come back then we heard him bark again even further away he’s found one for sure said Corporal little we better get after him then I opened the stud of my holster and tugged out my Colt 45 automatic this was only the third time since we had landed in Normandy that I’d taken it out and I had never fired it at anyone it was loaded with bullets that had allegedly been cast from the peor goblets from which the disciples had drunk during the Last Supper so it wasn’t the kind of weapon that you would fire indiscriminately but the zoo grounds were impenetrably black and very extensive nearly 25 acres of Parkland and trees and animal houses and if there were screechers here I didn’t want to be caught by surprise Corporal little and I climbed awkwardly over the turn Styles and made our way along the path to the mock Egyptian Square where the elephant house stood our flat FL lights made Shadows jump across the buildings like hopping hunchbacks and a couple of times I was tempted to fire Frank called Corporal little in a hor stage whisper Frank where the hell are you you disobedient mut we heard him bark again and this time his bark echoed like somebody shouting in a swimming pool he’s in there said Corporal little shining his flashlight on the elephant house there were no ele elephants in there of course when the Germans had first entered antp the zoo staff had shot all of the animals elephants Tigers gorillas giraffes in case they broke out of their cages and escaped apart from that there was little enough food for the human population let alone animals we entered the elephant house cautiously with our weapons raised it was like walking into Tutton Common’s tomb The Columns were gilded and decorated with a canthus leaves and Egyptian hieroglyphs had been painted all over the walls it was also dark and smelly and the tiled floor was gritty and wet so that our boots made a scrunching noise Frank called Corporal little Frank turned around and we saw his yellow eyes reflected in our flashlights like some kind of hound from Hell there said Corporal little cowering in the corner one hand Clinging On to the bars of an elephant pen the other hand raised to Shield his face from my flashlight s a creature he was tall and emaciated with thinning brown hair and a palid bony face he was wearing a dirty gray Overcoat with a deluge of brown stains down the front of it and a cheap brown business suit and his shoes had holes in the soles most people would have passed him on the street but without a Second Glance but Corporal little and I had seen enough screechers to recognize him immediately for what he was it was the way he couldn’t look directly at the light and the way that his eyeballs kept darting from side to side like cockroaches he looked anxious and scheming rather than terrified like most of the creatures we’d encountered he’d obviously believed that humans couldn’t kill him no matter what we did to him but he did know know that we could hurt him what he was looking for with his Shifty little eyes was a way to escape well well I said walking right up to him I sniffed and I could smell the unmistakable odor of rotting poultry and dried dill where are your friends then he said nothing so I holstered my 45 knelt down on the floor and opened up the kit I took out the shiny silver mirror and held it up at an angle so that I could see his face in it contrary to what you’ve seen in the movies or read about in Dracula screechers are clearly visible in mirrors the only difference is that pure silver doesn’t reflect evil so the mirror showed me this creature as he used to be before he was infected sometimes of course you can make a mistake and a smelly homely looking character that you suspected of being his creature looks just as homely in the mirror in that case you apologize and let him go on his way without banging Nails into his eyes but what I saw in the mirror that night in the anpa zoo was a goodlooking young man in his mid-30s with wide apart eyes and a heavy jaw he looked German or Austrian or maybe Swiss I repeated waving my flashlight from from side to side to Dazzle him if you tell me where your friends are I might be able to save your life if you don’t then I won’t have any choice I’ll have to kill you here and now the screecher kept his hands held up in front of his face and didn’t answer me Frank barked at him but even Frank was sensible enough not to go too close the screecher may have looked like a down andout but I knew from experience that he was quite capable of ripping Frank’s head off with his bare hands I’m giving you one last chance I said in German I took out my pistol again and pointed it directly at his heart we can save you give you back the life you used to have before think of it your family your sweetheart all you have to do is tell us where your friends are I was lying of course I didn’t know if it was possible to return this creature to normality even if we were to give him a mass of blood transfusion we had never tried every screecher by his very nature had committed mass murder so we had never had much incentive okay then I told him I cocked my pistol and gripped it with both hands even if I hit him directly in the heart it wouldn’t kill him but it would stop him long enough for us to put the thumb screws on him and prevent him from escaping I was just about to fire when the screecher suddenly performed a backward somersault then he performed another and another right up the bars of the elephant cage until he reached the ceiling over 30 ft above our heads I fired two deafening shots but the ceiling was vaed and I was terrified of ricochets the screecher crawled quickly across it clambering over the vaulting like a huge brown spider heading for the entrance Frank started barking again and Corporal little took out his pistol too but I shouted at him no as the screechers scuttled upside down across the ceiling I took the silver wire whip out of the kit and flicked it so that it unraveled the whip was heavy and springy and jumped around with a tensile life of its own I swung it back and lashed out with it catching the screecher just as he reached the architrave around the door there was a small Barbed grappling hook on the end of the Whip and it snatched at his coat I yank the whip hard but his coat tore and the hook came free Frank was hurling himself up and down barking insanely Corporal little maneuvered himself until he was right beneath the doorway his pistol raised ey lashed out again and this time the grappling hook caught the screecher in the back of the head bearing itself in his scalp he cried out in pain and reached around with one hand trying to pull the hook loose it was then that I gave another yank and and he lost his grip in the ceiling and slammed onto the floor on his back immediately while the screecher was still concussed Corporal little and I seized his arms and wrenched off his Overcoat we pulled off his coat his shirt and his pants I hated this part of the job lives creatures always stank of Decay like that chicken you should have cooked the day before yesterday and their skin had a chilly greasiness about it which took carbolic soap and very hot water to wash off like all screechers this one was dead white with a slightly bruised look across his abdomen and his inner thighs The Telltale sign of internal putri faction even before we had finished stripping him he started to come too his head LED from side to side and he coughed and said something that sounded like German although I couldn’t understand what it was then he twisted his back and tried to flap at Corporal little with his right arm without hesitation I took the thumb screws out of the kit and fastened them tightly so that his hands were forcibly held up in front of his bony chest then I pinioned his big toes together with the toe screws in English he said what what are you doing what are you doing I will kill you I gave you an 18 karat golden opportunity didn’t I I retorted all you had to do was tell us where your your friends are hiding go to hell my friends will hunt you down and they will cut you open like pigs oink oink Corporal little taunted him between us we dragged him across to one of the Egyptian style pillars he was wriggling and struggling and trying to bite us and he was unnaturally strong considering how wasted he looked it took a whole lot of grunting and shoving to press him up against the pillar but while Corporal little held him in position I wound the whip around him six or seven times and made it fast the silver wire cut into his skin as if it were candle wax all right then I panded I’m going to ask you again where are your friends hiding you think that I will tell you anything he said speaking in German again he spat at me although I was too far away and the thick saliva ended up swinging from his chin listen I warned him I don’t want to hurt you fella but if you won’t cooperate go to head I went over to the kit and took out the dental forceps then I came straight back to the screecher and gripped his nose tightly in my left hand so that he couldn’t breathe he tried to waggle his head from side to side but I held him fast he protested trying to keep his mouth closed but he couldn’t keep his lips together for longer than a minute and a half when he opened them gasping for breath I immediately fored forced my thumb under his upper lip then I gripped his left front inzer with the dental forceps and wrenched it hard his gum made a sharp cracking noise and welled up with blood but the tooth was reluctant to come out I had to jerk the forceps backward and forward three or four more times before I managed to extract it alog together immediately I gripped his right front inzer and started to tug that too he choked as I pulled the tooth out by its roots without hesitating I moved the fores saps across to his canines you want me to stop I asked him he said nothing but coughed so that a fine spray of blood covered his chest okay maybe you need something more persuasive what do you think Corporal something more persuasive that’s good to me think of all the innocent people he must have killed that’s right like on devouts now why did you and your friends want to murder and devouts I told you to go to hell the screecher spluttered well yes you did but you and I have to talk first and you have to tell me what I need to know you can’t kill me what is that what they told you you can hurt me as much as you like but you can never kill me when you have been lying in the cemetery for a 100 years I will still be alive to piss on Your Grave sorry pal I told him I hate to be the one to break this to you but somebody’s been shooting you a line not only can I kill you but I can kill you in such a way that you will wish you had never been born the screechers spat out more blood you’re lying I’ll prove it to you that’s unless you tell me where your friends are the screechers struggled against the silver wire but he succeeded only in cutting himself so that blood ran down his skinny white thighs when I thought back on it after the war I sometimes found it hard to believe that I could have treated anybody with such cruelty even a screecher but then I remembered all the times we broke into houses in France and Belgium and the Netherlands and found heaps of men men women and children massacred so that the creatures could feed on them when I remembered that the smell and the Flies and the tangles of pitiful bodies what I was doing by comparison seemed almost restrained I took the bottle of holy oil from the kit unsted it and held it up in front of the creature’s face with this oil I Thee anoint I told him you think that scares me you no I don’t in fact I don’t think you or your friends are scared of anything which makes you very dangerous and because you’re so dangerous that makes me all the more determined to kill you I poured about a tablespoonful of oil over the screecher head so that it ran down his face and dripped from the end of his nose he shuddered and took a deep snorting breath to him in his state of utter unh Holiness consecrated oil would have felt scalding I took hold of his oily hair and twisted it up into a point like the wick of a candle then Corporal little stepped forward and handed me his Zippo last chance I said flipping back the lid you could save yourself a whole lot of pain here believe me the screechers said nothing so I snapped the lighter into Flame the screechers stared at me with such venomous hatred that I wished that I had blindfolded him I’m going to count to three I told him then you’re going to burn like a church candle I’ll do the counting for you he said I SP try now do whatever you have to do I lit his hair and immediately the whole of his scalp caught fire his hair shriveled and his skin blistered and even his ears were a light he managed to bear it for nearly 5 Seconds without moving and without crying out and he even managed to keep his eyes open but then the oil on his face burst into flame and he closed his eyes tight shut and screamed I had never heard a man scream like that before it sounded just like a French woman in Normandy whose legs had been crushed by a Sherman tank three soldiers had pulled her out but her legs had stayed where they were the screecher tossed his head wildly from side to side which only had the effect of Fanning the flames and making them burn more fiercely he screamed and screamed for nearly half a minute but then he stopped screaming and let his head fall back against the pillar the Flames died down and he was left smoldering his whole head blackened and raw his lips inor enormously swollen and his nostrils clogged with blood I used the Zippo to light a cigarette I waited for a while smoking and then the screecher slowly opened his eyes now that smarts doesn’t it I asked him you can’t kill me he said his voice thick with pain oh yes I can you want to know how you can’t kill me whatever you do I reached into the kit and produced the nails you see these do you know what these are these are the same nails that the Romans used to nail Christ to the cross and do you know what I’m going to do with them I’m going to hammer them into your eyes and right into your brain that won’t kill you I admit but it will have the effect of paralyzing you so that you won’t be able to stop me from doing what I’m going to do next I’m going to cut your head off with this saw and I’m going to take your body to the calvary Garden of St paulus Kirk and I’m going to bury it there because I have special dispensation from the Dominican monks to do that then I’m going to take your head and I’m going to boil it until the flesh falls off and your brains turn into broth and that is how I kill people like you whatever you do we will have our revenge on you I can promise you that I smoked my cigarette right down to the very last eighth of an inch and then I stepped on it Corporal little I said how about passing me that Holy oil again Corporal little did what I asked him I took the stopper off the oil and said this is what we call burning the candle at both ends just our little joke with that I poured oil between his legs all over his Scraggy pubic hair and his penis and relit Corporal little Zippo the screechers stared at the flame out of his swollen half closed eyes I want you to know that I am doing this simply for the pleasure of it I told him I don’t care whether you tell me where your friends are or not I’m going to kill you whatever I just want to hurt you as much as I possibly can before I do Corporal little was holding his collar but Frank made a strangled whining noise and scrabbled his claws on the floor as if he wanted to get away I don’t know if that was what convinced the screature that I was serious but he suddenly said 71 skiler Strat on the corner of Carl H Strat they’re hiding in the Attic how many of them two a German called Pelt and a Romanian called duka is duka the Dead one dead what do you mean he’s not dead what I’m asking you is is Du or Mort I still don’t understand what you mean Corporal little said sounds like this guy doesn’t even know half of what he was getting himself into oh I think he has the general idea it’s just that they didn’t fill him in on all the Gory details they promised you that you’d live forever didn’t they that’s what they said they said you were going to be a hero and turn back the tide of War I’ll bet they offered to pay your family a fortune too take care of your folks and your girlfriend what are you going to do now asked the screecher what do you think I’m going to do now you said you could give me back the life I had before did I did I really say that you promised me that if I told you where my friends were you would let me go well that was very stupid of me wouldn’t you say because I have no way of checking if your friends are really where you say they are or not I swear that I am telling you the truth 71 Hilder Strat fourth floor in the Attic what’s your name I asked him erst Ernst Hower he said almost as if he could barely remember where do you come from the reinstein fort it’s a village near monster in vest Fallen why after the war I went to right your family and tell them where you died I think they deserve that much not how you died of course they wouldn’t want to know that but where you’re really going to kill me aren’t you I nodded it’s what I do ears it’s what I came here for Corporal little handed me the Mallet and one of the nails I positioned the nails so that the point was only a half inch away from the screecher eyeball I can’t tell you that I regret doing this I told him the plain truth is that I don’t the Stations of the Cross father Antonius opened the small garden door at the side of St paus Kirk on the corner of V Mar and swort suster stth and the hinges shuddered as if they were in pain father Antonius was Bor and almost comically ugly with enormous ears and drooping jowels so that he looked as if he were distantly related to Frank I didn’t expect you so soon Captain he told me in a thick flemy voice in fact to be truthful I didn’t expect you at all well God was on our side and we caught up with one of them at the zoo you asked father Antonius making a Cutthroat gesture with his finger we have his body in the back of the Jeep is it okay to bring it in Father Antonius didn’t look at all happy but he said yes we agreed so yes I will make sure that we bury it right away Corporal little and I went back to the Jeep between us we lifted the rough Hessian sack off the back seat and carried it through the gate and into the Cavalry Garden at this time of the night the garden was a deeply unsettling place to visit not only because of its Gothic arches and its dark shadowy corners but because it was crowded with 63 life-sized statues depicting Christ’s Journey To The Cross culminating in a crucifixion on top of a Stone Mound the figures stared at us blindly as we shuffled between them like a pair of grave robbers the sack in which we had tied up the scater body swung heavily between us and my end of it was soaked in blood up above us search lights flicked nervously across the sky although the night was unusually quiet and there was no sound of bomber engines or artillery fire here said father Antonius pointing to an open area of grass if you leave him here we will do the rest thank you Father I lowered my end of the sack and wiped my hands on my handkerchief there may be two more we’ve been given an address but we’re not yet sure if it’s genuine father Antonius crossed himself I wish you God’s protection in your work I don’t pretend to understand what you are doing I don’t even know if I believe in such things but these have been terrible days and anything which could help to bring them to an end a bitter wind was blowing across the Cavalry Garden as we walked back between the silent Stone figures and Dead Leaves rattled against the walls Corporal little said when are we going after the other two sir not until it gets light if they’re hiding where ER said they were hiding I don’t think that they’ll have tried to make a break for it yet they’re probably still waiting for poor old erns to come back we closed the garden gate behind us and climbed in the Jeep on the floor in front of the back seats was a cardboard box which had originally contained cans of condensed milk one corner of the box was stained dark brown let’s just make sure that he never can come back shall we Frank barked and shook his head so that his ears made a flapping noise Ground Zero I slept until well past 0700 hours which I hadn’t done for months most nights I had terrifying dreams about Shadows chasing after me and I woke up with a jolt while it was still dark one of the hotel maids tapped on my door and came in with a pot of coffee and two bread rolls with red plum preserve she was a shy young girl plump with a pattern of moles on her cheek what’s your name I asked her I could see myself in the closet mirror and my hair was sticking up like a cocko Hilda she whispered well Hilda maybe you could open the drapes for me so that I can see what kind of a day it is it’s raining sir it’s a bad luck day A bad luck day what makes you say that it’s Friday the 13th you’re not superstitious are you she shook her head but then she said one of the girls downstairs thinks that you’re toar toar is Flemish for a black magician the girl must have seen my Bibles and my crucifixes and all the paraphernalia of screecher hunting no I’m not a toar tell her I’m AAR auh halar is a conjurer the kind who pulls rabbits out of Opera hats and strings of of colored bunting out of his ears yes sir she tugged back the heavy velvet curtains and she was right the sky was gloomy and the window was speckled with raindrops you should be careful today sir I’m always careful here I reached over to the ashtray on my night table and fished out a couple of Franks to give her a tip I met up with Corporal little and Frank in the lobby downstairs the hotel was bus in with activity because some of the British were leaving outside Ker’s thr was crowded with jeeps and trucks and British tomies wearing rain capes you had something to eat Henry I asked Corporal little sure thing Frank and I shared some sausage you know what the belgians put in those sausages hate to think sir reconstituted Nazis with additional cereal Corporal little had parked around the corner we climbed into the Jeep and maneuvered our way towards skild throt Frank took the rain as a personal insult and kept shaking himself impatiently number 71 was a tall gray building right on the corner of Carl Strat the downstairs windows were covered with grimy lace curtains and all of the upstairs windows were shuttered Corporal little parked halfway up the curb and we went to to the brown painted front door and knocked the knocker was cast in Bronze in the shape of a snarling wolf a knocker like that was supposed to keep demons out of the house but if Ernst Hower had been telling us the truth it certainly hadn’t worked here we knocked three times before the door was opened a plain young woman in a white muslin cap and a plain brown dress stood in front of us holding a mop from inside the house a I could smell bleach and fish boiling we’re looking for three men I told her holding out my identity card do you have anybody staying here nobody now only my grandfather how about before before yes we had five Germans here before the Allies came and another man but they’re all gone now another man I don’t know what he was he didn’t speak German I don’t know what language it was he used to talk to us sometimes and I think he was asking us questions but we didn’t understand maybe he said something like bu DEA or NOA or mesque yes that word mumes he was always saying that can you tell me what he looked like this man the girl looked embarrassed he was tall taller than you with dark hair combed straight back what else can you tell me about him I mean if I were to see him in the street how would I recognize him she lowered her eyes he was very handsome my mother’s friends used to come round for tea in the hope that he would be here really if he pass them in the hallway they would start to giggle what kind of handsome would you say did he remind you of anybody a movie star maybe well I know it sounds funny but if you can imagine Mar has a man instead of a woman High cheeks very proud looking also he spoke very warm if you understand me always looking you right in your eyes so you did mind if you didn’t know what he was saying his eyes were green like the sea and he had a scar on the side of his forehead like a vshape I gave Corporal little a brief translation of what the girl had said and the Corporal grinned and shook his head sounds like this young lady didn’t exactly fail to be swept off her feet either she didn’t happen to notice his sock size by any chance I turned back to the girl did this this man ever tell you his name no but I heard one of the Germans call him her doctor what were the Germans like horrible I hated both of them they kept coughing as if they were ill and they always smelt bad Frank picking up anything I asked Corporal little not so far sir but it’s been raining all night do you think there’s any possibility that these men may still be here I asked the girl what do you mean could they still be hiding in the house in the Attic maybe their rooms are empty I had to clean them after they left do you think we could possibly take a look around I don’t know my mother isn’t here she won’t be back for an hour we wouldn’t disturb anything I promise you she doesn’t even like me to answer the door door it was only because you wouldn’t stop knocking okay then we wouldn’t like to get you into any trouble we’ll go find ourselves a cup of coffee and come back later she smiled and said danu and I can still see that smile now and her white linen cap and her hand holding the mop we drove to a cafe at the far end of Carl Roat there there were chairs and tables set out on the sidewalk but because it was raining there was nobody sitting there except for one old man he was Sheltering under the dark green awning smoking a Miram pipe Corporal little tied Frank to the cast iron umbrella stand and we went inside the interior was very gloomy even though there were decorative mirrors on every wall behind the bar an old Marone Wireless was playing I’ll seeing you we sat down in the corner lit up cigarettes and asked for two filter coffees the proprietor was a fat middle-aged man in a floorlength apron every time he turned toward the window the gray Morning Light reflected from his glasses so that he looked as if he had Pennies on his eyes you know what today is I asked Corporal little breathing smoke at that instant there was a deafening Bang louder than a thunder clap instantly followed by another one the cafe windows cracked diagonally from side to side and everything in the whole place rattled and shook we both stood up just as a huge Billow of brown smoke came rolling along Carol Rock his Strat immediately followed by a shower of bricks chairs torn fragments of sheet metal window frames curtains roof tiles and even more bricks we hurried to the doorway Frank was cowering behind a plant pot his eyes wide trembling debris was still falling from the sky including a huge metal cylinder that looked like an old-fashioned kitchen stove it bounced and bounded over the cobbles and slammed into an office doorway across the street Jesus said corpal little who never blasphemed what the hell was that I looked down towards kilder Strat through the gradually clearing smoke I could see that number 71 had been completely demolished along with three or four houses on the other side the whole intersection had been reduced to mountains of rubble and bodies were lying everywhere a young woman in a black coat with an overturned baby carriage an elderly couple whose heads had both been blown off six or seven nuns who must have been walking on the opposite side of the street lying on top of each other like dead pigeons the cobbles were strewn with body parts and blown apart sofas and a black citen taxi that looked like some surrealistic Panther standing on its hind legs all of the windows within a 100 yard radius had been blown out and in some houses fires were blazing I walked slowly down the street and stood on the edge of the crater that had been number 71 the crater was almost 20 ft deep as as if the house had been hit by a meteor I was still Deaf from the double blast so it was like walking through a silent movie with the rain falling and people running in all directions I turned around Corporal little had been following me with prank he said something but I couldn’t hear what it was and then he Shrugged I knew what he was trying to tell me though if there had been screechers hiding in the Attic they had been obliterated along with the rest of the house and the young girl’s grandfather and the young girl herself with her white linen cap and her mop for the first time since we had landed in Normandy I felt that I wasn’t the sole representative of the Angel of Death I’ll be seeing you so what’s the plan now sir asked corporal little God knows I told him I was still half deaf we were sitting in one of the Dank Stone alos in De CLA Cafe on Old corn Mark eating chicken V zoy and potatoes the cafe was converted from a 13th century Cellar and it was lit only by candles in small glass jelly jars it was so cold that we were both wearing our overcoats and mittens and our breath was smoking Frank was lying under the table making disgusting noises with a pork knuckle I mean supposing those other two screechers weren’t hadding in that building at all we only have that haer guy’s word for it after all well you’re absolutely right Henry but it’s going to take days to clear all that rubble and even then we may not know for sure what do you reckon it was gas m i Shrugged and said nothing but I had guessed what it was the instant I had heard that distinctive double bang the house in skiler Strat had been hit by the first German V2 to strike the center of antp the first bang was a sonic boom as the rocket came out of the sky at over three times the speed of sound the second was over a ton of high explosive 6 days before a V2 had hit the village of cross chot about 8 km to the northeast of antp and all of us officers in 101 Counter Intelligence Detachment had been briefed that this was probably a rangef finding shot with more V2s to follow the stove like object that had bounced along the street had confirmed it for me it was the Rockets combustion chamber which weighed over 600 kilos and almost always survived the explosion I lifted up a Scraggy piece of chicken leg on the end of my fork with a shred of wet leak hanging off it what do you think they fed this on newspaper a second V2 landed on the city in the middle of the afternoon when Corporal little and I were walking along kaser Strat Frank did a four-legged jump and cowed against the nearest wall it’s okay boy corpal little reassured him but Frank never did get used to the side mic shock of V2 explosions which made the cobblestones knock together like pebbles on the beach if blood hounds are capable of having nervous breakdowns poor old frank got pretty close to it that Sunday October 15 a rocket destroyed 25 houses on kunun at borgerhout killing four people and injuring a 100 more over the next few days more and more V2s hit the city center there was a total news blackout nothing on the wireless and nothing in the newspapers except vague warnings about flying bombs so nobody knew what was really happening the city authorities were desperate to avoid any panic and just as importantly they didn’t want the Germans to find out whether their Rockets were hitting their targets or not after the schilder Strat attack Corporal little and Frank and I spent three more weeks in antp searching for any Trace of the Romanian screecher and his German companion just in case Ernst Hower had been lying to us or they had been hiding in some other house when the V2 struck but after we had dragged Frank up and down every Rubble strewn Street and every smelly Alley between Prince thrat and long and thrat and talked to more than 200 people including police officers and hospital orderlies and Priests we finally had to conclude that they had either left antp and returned to Germany or else that first B2 had simply atomized them as the winter grew colder and colder and the Germans retreated we were sent into Holland we visited houses in einhoven and brda and tilberg and found the grizzly evidence that screechers had been there men women and children with their hearts cut out and all of the blood drained out of them but the screechers themselves had long gone and they had left no trail that Frank could usefully follow whenever I think of that winter I think of finger numbing cold and skies as dark as lead I think of desperate tiredness and boredom driving miles and miles between Avenues of popper trees and seeing nobody for hours it felt as if the war had passed us by and we were completely alone in the world on on the morning of January 16 1945 a message came through Brussels that my mother had died and that I should return home immediately operation screature was over as far as I was concerned anyway because I was never sent back to Europe Corporal little was ordered to take Frank back to antp where he could help the Belgian Rescue Services to locate buried bodies the city was still under daily attack from V2 rockets and already more than 3 and a half thousand people had been killed the last time I saw Corporal little and Frank was on the long Stone mole at zga Harbor where I was due to board a British troop ship it was the middle of the afternoon and it was snowing hard the lighthouse on the end of the mole was back in action and every now and then the snow was illuminated by a bright sweeping light well Henry it’s been an experience yes sir it has he hesitated for a moment and then he said think we did any good sir I don’t know I guess we never will I can’t see us going into the history books can you no sir but we’ll remember it you and me and Frank Frank made that whining noise in his throat and irritably shook the snowflakes from his back I shook corpal Little’s hand and walked back along the mole to the dock side somewhere in some alternative existence I think that I’m still walking along it now with the lighthouse flashing on and off and the snow falling all around me and the bang and clatter of cranes still echoes in my ears I didn’t yet know how my mother had died but I was already feeling a devastating loneliness as if I had lost not only the woman who had given birth to me but part of my ancestry too mil Valley 1943 I was swinging in the hammock in my parents backyard when my father came walking through the overgrown grass and said there’s two military guys want to talk to you I sat up a little and shaded my eyes with my hand two middle-aged men in sharply pressed army uniforms were standing by the kitchen steps with their hats tucked under their arms one had a silvery gray crew cut and the other had horn Rim glasses and a heavy black mustache they wouldn’t tell me what they wanted said my father if you prefer me to say that you’re not at home well I’m more than happy to you know my views on the military my father was what you might call a professional non-conformist he always reminded me of Groucho Marx in horse feathers when he sang whatever it is I’m against it he looked a little like grocho Marx too in his slopy shouldered Cardigans and his baggy corduroy pants with his pipe always sticking out of the side of his mouth he was professor of Slavic languages and literature at Berkeley but he was also a writer and a fly fisherman and when he played the piano on summer evenings with the Parlor windows open his music was so sentimental that he could make you choke up the officer with the Silvery gray crew cut raised one hand and called out James Falcon Jr need to talk to you sir I looked at my father and my father Shrugged I clambered out of the hammock catching my foot so that I staggered on one leg for the first couple of Paces but I managed to hold on to the Apple I’d been eating the officers approached me I’m Lieutenant Colonel Kenneth bullo and this is Major Leonard Harvey they stood with their backs like Ram rods and they almost had me standing up straight not long ago I found some photographs of myself that my brother took around that time and you’ve never seen such a skinny lanky 25-year-old streak in your life in a baggy pair of jeans and a striped shirt that was five times too big for me we need to talk in private said Lieutenant Colonel bover he didn’t look at my father and at first my father didn’t understand what he was saying this is just about as private as you can get he said taking his pipe out of his mouth there isn’t another house for half a mile hey we could beat a pig to death with baseball bats and nobody would hear us Lieutenant Colonel bullo looked at him as if he were mentally efficient when I say private sir I mean that I need to talk to your son confidentially on his own oh oh what for and this family doesn’t have secrets that’s as may be served but this is wartime and this country has Secrets oh my father hesitated for a moment and then he put his pipe back in his mouth and walked away across the grass jerkily turning around now and again as if half expecting us to call him back eventually he climbed the steps and disappeared into the kitchen the screen door banged Lieutenant Colonel bullo placed his hand in the small of my back and gently steered me down toward the far end of the yard where the Tangled raspberry canes grew it was very hot and still that day and I remember that everything looked magnified as if I were seeing it through a lens major Harvey and I were attached to the office of the coordinator of information in Washington DC about 3 weeks ago we received some information from a resistance agent in Belgium he confirms something that our intelligence agents have been suspecting since the early days of the war in Europe oh yes major Harvey cleared his throat with a single sharp bark Mr falcan what Lieutenant Colonel bullsh over is a about to tell you now is absolutely top secret that means you are prohibited from divulging any of this information to anybody your father your mother your best friend even your family cat if we discover that you have been giving anybody else even the faintest hint of what we’re going to discuss with you you may discover that your life is forfeit what you’ll be shot said major Harvey I stared at him in disbelief I’ll be shot are you serious in that case excuse me I don’t want to hear it you have to hear it James said Lieutenant Colonel bullo firmly then in a quieter tone you have to you’re the only person we’ve been able to find who seems to have a comprehensive knowledge of the particular problem we’re faced with the only person of an appropriate age anyhow I don’t understand I don’t know anything about any military stuff I know that but you know all about these with that Lieutenant Colonel bullo reached inside his coat and produced a sharply folded sheath of papers I didn’t have to open them to recognize what they were they were tear sheets of my paper the stoy myth versus reality in popular Romanian folk culture I had written it for my anthropology exam in the summer and Professor Yuan had been so impressed with it that he had submitted it to the North American Journal of ethnography admittedly the journal’s circulation was only a little over 2,500 copies so it wasn’t exactly like being published in Life Magazine but it was the first article I had ever gotten into print and I was seriously proud of it I even had some cards printed James Zar fcan Jr author and Anthropologist and handed them out to all of my friends until my father told me to stop acting so swell-headed the stoy I said cautiously I was strongly beginning to suspect this was a practical joke set up by some of my friends at Berkeley what do the stro have to do with the war in Europe more than you’d think in August of 1940 under the terms of the Vienna dictat Germany forced Romania to give up the territory of Northern Transylvania to Hungary which Hungary had been claiming for centuries was theirs well sure I know that what you may not know is that the Romanians would have had to surrender Southern Transylvania too but they made some kind of offer to the Germans which the Germans accepted and they allowed them to keep it major Harvey said we’ve been trying for three years to find out exactly what this offer was it was Cod named um Arun which didn’t mean anything to us at the beginning um Arun I repeated Embrace that’s right and how many times does the word Embrace appear in your article James 47 to be exact and according to what you’ve written here here the Embrace is the way in which the stoy initiate humans into becoming one of them I Shrugged could be a coincidence I mean Embrace that’s a pretty common word wouldn’t you say you can embrace all kinds of things you know like a religion or a philosophy or your Nextdoor neighbor’s wife true and the Romanians embraced Nazism they still chose to fight on the German side even though the Germans made them surrender all of that territory but after we received this report from Belgium we’re pretty sure now that Embrace means something very specific we think it’s the kind of embrace that you were writing about I kept a straight face for about 10 seconds longer and then I burst out laughing God you guys are good you even sound like you know what you’re talking about who set this up I’ll bet it was stradlater wasn’t it tell me it was stradlater James said Lieutenant Colonel bover but I interrupted him how many times does the word Embrace appear in your article James I mimicked him 47 to be exact you’re excellent look at you standing there like you both have pool cues stuck up your asses Lieutenant Colonel bullo waited until I had finished then as if I hadn’t said anything at all he continued since February last year James we’ve been receiving reports of some very unusual killings they started in Romania more than 60 members of the Red Knights resistance group were murdered all within the space of a week that immediately deprived us of vital intelligence and it drastically reduced our ability to sabotage the Nazi war effort from within I looked at him with my eyes narrowed come on now this is a joke isn’t it not for the victims and not for the Allies if this continues come on admit it if it wasn’t strad later who was it not dunan dunan wouldn’t have the brains James said major Harvey it wasn’t any of your friends and it isn’t a joke all right I said although I still believed that they were bullshitting me what does any of this have to do with me since the Red Knights were all murdered we’ve been receiving more and more intelligence which suggests that the Nazis have been infiltrating local resistance groups and literally wiping them out it happened all across the Eastern Front especially after they took bz Arabia and bukovina back from the Russians now is happening in Holland and Belgium and France the reason why this has everything to do with you is that all of the victims had their chests cut open their main arteries severed and the blood drained out of their bodies dinner with the Falcons that evening my mother made boru peris sour meatball soup which was one of the Specialties of her Village in northeastern Romania we sat and ate it it in the kitchen with the windows open so that the last of the sun Shone across the table my mother Mar chica was beautiful in a darkhaired wh- skinned way like a Madonna in a church painting she did everything gently and gracefully she could even peel apples gracefully their skins unwinding in spirals she always spoke softly too although the quietness of her voice bellied a very strong character dad was fuming he didn’t like secrets and he didn’t like anything to do with authority his father had been a biochemist and a violin player and had knitted his own sweaters mostly green with orange zigzags he had brought Dad up to believe that a man was answerable only to his own intellect and God in that order you can’t even give us a hint what they want you to do your own family I shook my head they said if I told anybody even you they’d shoot me oh my God said my mother they threatened you they come here uninvited into my house and threatened to shoot you my son in my yard hey it’s my house too my father protested and my son and my yard come to that we should complain to the Army said my mother they said I have to go to to Washington next week I told her they’re going to pay my fair and everything they can’t coer you said my father is this why we pay taxes tell them you don’t want to go to Washington I spooned a meatball out of my soup but I do want to go to Washington I think this is going to be really really interesting I see it’s so interesting you can’t tell us what it is Dad not only will they shoot me they’ll probably shoot you too P said my father pushing his chair back in disgust the same way he did when I beat him at chess but my mother was staring at me across the table and there was a look in her eyes which told me that she had guessed why the Army had come looking for me after all what was the one thing that made me different from all the rest of my college friends I had a Romanian mother who had told me all kinds of scary Romanian folktales when I was little none of my friends had been brought up on stories of stoy and struga the creatures of the night and none of my friends had researched Romanian Legends as thoroughly as I had and published a paper on them I have to admit that I decided to write a paper on stoy out of perversity almost as a joke everybody in my class thought that I was a clown including my professors and I guess I decided to live up to their expectations it’s difficult to grow up normal when your father expects you to recite Edward Arlington Robinson to amuse his lunch guests when you’re only four years old and your mother sings You Romanian lullab about what will happen to you if you betray love if you betray love you will squirm like a snake walk like a beetle and you will own nothing but the dust of the land the stoi even though she told me so many stories about them my mother never gave me the impression that she actually believed in the sto and she was brought up in tanaku where they still cross themselves if a crow flies down their chimney or a black dog urinates against their gate po as recently as the summer of 2005 a priest from the Holy Trinity Monastery in tanaku strangled and crucified a nun because he thought she was possessed by demons to begin with I didn’t believe in the stoy either but like I say I thought it would be a terrific wee to write a paper that discussed them as if they were real only two or 3 weeks after I had started work on it however I I began to come across credible documentary evidence that the stoy might be more than imaginary letters newspaper reports even some blurry old photographs I couldn’t help asking myself what if they did exist even more intriguing what if they still do I studied the stroy for nearly two years I made scores of phone calls and talked in person to more than 200 remain immigrants of all ages I search through private libraries and smelly old collections of rare books without realizing it day by day I was becoming one of the world’s greatest experts on stoi one of the elderly Romanian immigrants I interviewed for my college paper talked to me about his cousin who became aoy Mort he was the handsomest man you ever met tall wiy and irresistible to women but he could be very melancholy too once when he came to visit us I saw him standing by the window and there were tears in his eyes I asked him what was wrong and he said look he reached out his hand and it passed straight through the glass of the window pane without breaking it I could actually see his hand outside the window still with his gold wedding band on it then he drew his hand back in again and the glass was completely intact I felt a chill like nothing I had ever felt before he said I am dead Daniel and I can never go home again ever it was this man who first drew me a picture of the wheel which the stoy Morty wear around their necks a diagonal cross to symbolize a kiss with a circle around it to represent endlessness usually the stoy Morty fashion the wheels themselves they use gold from any rings they wore when they were still human with copper to enhance its electrical conductivity the wheel is much more than symbolic it gives the stoy Morty exceptional night vision and it contains the protective power of absolute evil several respected academics suggest that JRR tolken was inspired by the wheel when he wrote The Lord of the Rings and that the physical and spiritual degeneration of Gollum is a close parallel to what happens to people when they become infected by stroy you remember that gollum’s eyes lit up so that he could see better in the dark just like the stoy Morty when they wear the Wheel by the time I had finished writing my paper I still hadn’t conclusively proved that the stroy did exist like I had never knowingly met one but I had a wealth of anecdotal evidence that they might I ended up my paper by saying on balance it appears highly likely that the stoy did once haunt the remoter Regents of Transylvania and vakia and a few may do so even today and I was right which was why Lieutenant Colonel bullo and major Harvey came knocking at my door to tell me that the joke was on me my training I flew to Washington DC on August 11th 1943 it was the first time I had ever flown and I saw mountains with scatterings of snow on them and Fields of wheat that seemed to stretch forever with Cloud Shadows moving over them slow and lazy as if whales were swimming through the sky somewhere I still have the blue American Airways timetable with by more war bonds printed on the front I was met at Washington National Airport by a a skeletally thin man in a flappy gray double breasted suit and Tiny dark glasses he raised his hat to me and asked me to call him Mr kianu he drove me to a large Ivy covered house on the outskirts of Rockville and it was there during the next 3 months that I was given my basic training in stgo hunting since I already knew a whole lot more about the stoy than almost anybody else what they were really giving me was military training I was taught to fire a gun and to read a map and to climb over a 10-ft wall I was also introduced to a laconic animal trainer with no front teeth who had been specially recruited from barnab and Bailey’s circus he gave me daily instruction in wielding a bull whip which is a darn sight more difficult than it looks I spent whole afternoons lashing my own calves until the looked like corn beef meantime the stroy hunting kit was gradually being assembled mostly according to the details I had provided in my college paper although it was Mr kianu who suggested the black and white paint according to him stroy are repelled by the sight of a dog with an extra pair of eyes painted above its real eyes it was during my training session that we started calling the stroy screechers the word stroy comes from the Romanian worda meaning which and this in turn comes from the Latin cognate stga which has its origins in stricks the word for a screech owl besides that my sidearms instructor always used to say if you want to immobilize those creatures you have to hit them dead center and the way he slurred his words always made it sound like those screechers I wish I knew where they acquired the nails from the crucifixion I asked Lieutenant Colonel bullo several times but he always refused to tell me all he said was it was a case of you scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours I always wondered if this meant that in return for these Priceless relics the United States had agreed to support the creation of an independent state of Israel but maybe I was reading too much into it 6 weeks before dday I was introduced to Corporal little and Frank so that Frank could get used to my smell and Corporal little could be briefed on what he was supposed to be doing 3 weeks before D-Day we were embarked from New York on the USS New Hampshire to sail to England we were taken over over to Normandy a week after the first Landings on Omaha Beach we were all seasick even Frank the rest I’ve already told you except that it didn’t end there nothing ends when you get yourself involved with the stoy the stoy are Immortal and their sense of grievance is Immortal that’s why when two US army officers Drew up outside my house in New Milford Connecticut in July 1957 I almost felt a sense of relief because I had always known in my heart of hearts that this was coming New Milford 1957 my wife Louise answered the door the two officers stood on the veranda with their caps tucked under their arms just as Lieutenant Colonel bull and major Harvey had done 14 years before it was a hot bright day and they were both in shirt sleeves Captain Falcon I came out of my study and put my arm around Louise’s shoulders help you I asked them I didn’t like the sound of Captain like to have a few words with you Captain if that’s okay sure what’s it about maybe we could could come inside I invited them into the living room the dark oak floor was highly polished and the Sun was shining on it so that when they sat on the couch opposite me it was difficult for me to make out their faces they were both young though one was sandy-haired and the other was wearing black rimmed eyeglasses like Clark Kent where from CER intelligence at Ford hird sir we need to speak to you in confidence I turned to Louise and said how about some coffee honey okay she agreed although she wasn’t especially happy about it Louise was very petite with bouncy brunette hair and an Audrey heurn look about her but she had her own opinions about almost everything which were usually the exact opposite of mine and she never allowed me to treat her as if she were a little woman she went into the kitchen and started a percussion solo for spoons and cups and coffee percolator the officer in the black rimmed eyeglasses leaned forward and said sov we’ve had a communication from British intelligence Captain MI6 it concerns a series of incidents in the suburbs south of London England incidents what kind of incidents the sandy-haired officer said homicides well I I say they’re homicides but they’re practically massacres to be honest with you 13 people killed at a business conference six children killed at an orphanage nine women killed at a social club altogether 73 people dead in the space of five weeks I slowly sat back I didn’t say anything I had already guessed what was coming MI 6 have kept all of these kids ings out of the news they’ve been telling relatives that there’s some kind of bug going around Korean flu something like that in fact they’re actually calling their investigation operation Korean flu the officer in the eyeglasses said it’s not a bug though Captain all of the victims were cut open and the blood drained out of them exact same scenario as operation screecher during the war Louise came in with a tray of coffee and Ginger Snaps which she passed around with a tight shiny smile Ginger Snap they’re homemade not by me I’m afraid my mother while she did so none of us said anything except thank you when she had finished pouring coffee Louise waited for a while and all three of us looked at each other in uncomfortable silence at last she said maybe I’ll go out outside and cut some roses sure good idea I told her she hesitated a moment longer but the officer in the eyeglasses raised his eyebrows at her expectantly and she left I could see her through the French Windows snipping away at the rose bushes as if she were giving all three of us vasectomies before we tell you anymore Captain we have to remind you that you are still Bound by the same rules of confidentiality that you were during operation screecher maybe I’d prefer it if you didn’t tell me anymore we’re not at War now are we well yes Captain I’m afraid we are it may not be an allout fighting War but it’s still a war and your country needs your help what if I declin to give it we don’t actually think that you will Captain I see I told him I wasn’t stupid however callow these officers looked they worked for one of the most secret and highly specialized counterintelligence units in the western world and I could tell when I was being seriously threatened the officer in the eyeglasses said according to our records you were in ANP Belgium in the winter of 1944 searching for a Romanian National by the name of dorine Dua that’s right I never found him though or it I should say I always assumed that he was killed by a V2 in actual fact sir Dua escaped to the Netherlands he was located by another operative from operation screecher and detained I frowned at him I didn’t know there were any other operatives in operation scater I thought that I was the only one no Captain not exactly other operatives were occasionally brought in as and when the situation called for it well that’s news to me besides what do you mean by detained you can’t detain screechers all you can do is eliminate them knock Nails into their eyes and cut their heads off this particular operative had special abilities which allowed her to take zuka into detention this was a woman the officer nodded she confined duka to a casket and the plan was to fly him to England and then ship him back here to the United States to see if we could learn anything useful from him as regards counterintelligence operations I shook my head I can’t believe this we were going to bring a screature to America deliberately didn’t anybody have the first idea how dangerous those creatures can be oh I think so sir after all screechers wiped out practically the entire resistance movements in bessarabia and Bulgaria during the war and they did some major damage to the French and Dutch underground movements the Nazis even used them in Warsaw during the uprising sent them down the sewers to hunt down members of the home Army but what possible use could a screecher be to us once the war was over the officer took off his eyeglasses the opinion was that we needed to maintain our Edge over the rusky captain it was all part of Operation Paperclip I don’t know what Operation Paperclip was that was the code name we used for bringing Nazi scientists and intelligence experts to the United States after the war not even the state department knew about it to begin with none of them had visas and most of them had their files altered to conceal the fact that they were 100% Nazi sympathizers or Worse you’re talking about people like verer Von braa exactly Von Brun developed the V2 for Hitler and now he’s developing rockets for the Army ballistic missile agency then there’s Hans van oain who used to design jet engines for hle he’s director of the US Air Force aeronautical laboratory and Alexander lipes who did the same for measures SMI he’s in Cedar Rapids designing jet fighters for con Reinhardt galin used to be in charge of intelligence for the verm and he set us up with the most effective counter Espionage Network that we’ve ever had Kurt Bloom he used to test plague vaccines on concentration camp victims now he works for the US Army chemical Corps there were 760 of them all together put in the sandy-haired officer but Dua Dua isn’t even human we’re aware of that Captain but it made good military sense to bring him over here too if the ruskies got hold of him think of the damage that they could do to our intelligence gathering Louise was standing in the sunshine not clipping roses anymore but raising her face to the sky with her eyes closed as if she were enjoying the warmth of the Sun or praying I had a terrible sinking feeling that I was about to let her down and very badly but not through any fault of my own I stood up and walked to the French windows and lifted my hand up pressing it against the glass but her eyes were still closed and she didn’t see me you better tell me what happened I said lost and found duer was sealed into a casket and flown out of Holland on the night of December 17 1944 along with two marines a lieutenant from the counterintelligence Detachment and the operative who had managed to detain him do you know how Dua was caught I asked him we looked all over Northern Belgium and Holland for him for weeks and we didn’t even get a sniff of him I called duah him because these officers did but I always thought of any stoy as an it especially a stoy Mort they weren’t people they weren’t even ghosts of people they were things they could be deeply sentimental but they only looked like people the sandy-haired officer unbuckled his briefcase from all the reports I’ve read captain they caught him mostly by Shear chance he was hiding in the cellar of a house in braa when it was shelled by British artillery and he was trapped the Dutch resistance had been looking for him and they had the good sense not to let him out of that Sellar but to give his location to us Counter Intelligence so why the hell didn’t they tell me I was the one who was hunting for duka they didn’t tell you Captain because they knew what you would do to him and they wanted him well alive isn’t quite the word for for it is it but they didn’t want him destroyed so this female operative somehow managed to seal Dua up in a box I can’t imagine how she did it but I’m very impressed what happened to him after we flew him to England that’s the problem Captain when they took off from Holland it was snowing very hard blizzard conditions they were supposed to fly to big and Hill Airfield in Kent but their plane never arrived the Royal Navy sent out airca rescue boats to search for it but they couldn’t find any Trace at all nothing he took a photograph out of his briefcase and passed it over to me it showed the muddy fuselage of a DC3 on the back of a trailer last May though a dredger was clearing the temp’s Estuary near a place called Leon sea and it struck one of the plane’s propellers the aircraft must have hit the water at full speed and buried itself in the mud that British Aras what was her name Amy Johnson she disappeared in almost the same place in 1941 and they still haven’t found her plane either so they dug the plane up and found dua’s casket I asked him that’s right and nobody realized what was in the casket so they opened it right again Jesus I said MI6 are very very very anxious to get this situation under control as quick as possible said the officer I’ll bet they are it’s not just a question of innocent lives being lost Captain it’s a question of National Security think of what could happen if the ruskies get wind of this and track duka down before we do British intelligence has more holes in it than a Swiss cheese so it’s a distinct possibility if we lose duka to the Communist block well to put it bluntly we’re in very deep doodo oh you bet we are I told him and if the Press find out that us counterintelligence were covertly trying to smuggle a stro into the country at the end of the war without the knowledge or approval of the state department and in complete disregard of the very obvious dangers to Public Safety some pretty important heads are going to be rolling don’t you think you can’t tell anybody about about this said the officer not even your wife nobody so what do you want me to do you’re booked already on a tww Starliner from Idle Wild to London you leave tomorrow evening at 1945 what about a man trailer a dog British quarantine laws won’t allow you to take a dog with you you’ll be met in London by somebody from MI6 who will brief you more fully and provide you with a tracker dog and a trained Handler I sat down again and I didn’t say anything for a long time the two officers watched me tensely almost as if they expected me to make a run for the door at length I said supposing I say no saying no is not actually one of your options said the sandy-haired officer what am I going to tell my company I can’t just disappear without telling them where I’m going or how long I’m going to be away we’ll take care of that Captain okay but I’ll have to get some stuff together silver mirror Compass B all that kind of thing and I need the nails they use to crucify Christ where am I going to find those we have your kit already Captain said the officer with the eyeglasses everything’s in there just the way it was when you handed it in including the nails all you need is some fresh garlic you think this is funny no Captain not in the slightest so you want me to eliminate duka if I can find it you don’t want me to bring it back here to the states I afraid you don’t have the expertise to detain him Captain nobody does nobody that we can find anyhow so this female operative who did detain it do you have any idea who she was the sandy-haired officer said yes Captain actually we do that was one of the things I was instructed to tell you about you were bound to find out sooner or later I looked from one officer to the other both of them looked highly embarrassed it was your mother Captain Marica Falcon nay loveing rescue my mother what the hell are you talking about my mother died of a heart attack at home in California I’m sorry captain no she didn’t when you were being trained to hunt regy you told your instructors that you learned most of your basic information about vampires from your mother the cater intelligence Detachment sent some people to talk to her and they found out that she knew almost as much about the Rego as you did not only that she had some practical knowledge too like how to seal thoy Morty into lead caskets in such a way that they couldn’t escape I was stunned my mother had been sent to capture Dua I had never thought that she believed in this droy in fact she had always said that they were only stories to frighten naughty children into behaving themselves I thought of of my father sitting on The Veranda his eyes glistening with tears she had a problem with her heart he had told me hely and now I have a problem with mine he must have known what had happened to her and yet he had never said a word he had even emptied her ashes into the sea at PAB Bay which used to be one of her favorite places except that they couldn’t have been her ashes at all London 1957 they had reserved me a sleeping birth on the tww flight to London so that I would be rested and ready to start work as soon as I arrived but shortly after I dozed off I started having terrifying nightmares the droning of The Airliner turboprop engines gradually turned into the noise of a huge dark Factory crammed with strange machines for crushing people’s bones and I found myself running past dripping pipes and greasy electric cables with a dark figure running just ahead of me I knew that I was supposed to catch up with this figure but I was frightened to run too fast in case I did after less than 4 hours however it began to grow light and the flight attendant brought me a cup of coffee are you all right sir she said smiled you were shouting in your sleep she had very blue eyes and freckles across the bridge of her nose oh yes what was I shouting I don’t know something about teachers I think you were telling them to get off you teachers if only it was surprisingly hot when we landed in England well over 80° and the sky was cloudless as I came down the steps of the plane I was greeted by a young man with wavy Brill creamed hair and sunglasses the only concession he had made to the heat was to take off his Tweed coat and hang it over his arm and roll up his shirt sleeves Captain fulan how do you do I’m Terrence Mitchell how are you I asked him and shook his hand which was soft and sweaty hope you had a comfortable flight sir well it certainly was a sight faster than the last time I did it they’ll be bringing in Jets next year and that’ll make it even quicker 6 hours to New York or so I believe amazing when you think it takes six days by boat at this way sir I’ve got a car waiting outside I hadn’t been back to England since the end of the war but it hadn’t changed much the same flat smell of English cigarettes and body odor the same dinky little cars and red double-decker buses the same clipped accents as if everybody had been to elocution school don’t worry about your things said Terrence I’ve arranged to have them sent straight round to your hotel a beige Humber Hawk was parked by the curb outside the terminal with a uniformed Bobby standing beside it the Bobby gave Terren a nod as we approached and strolled off Terren opened the door for me and then climbed in himself gaspa he said taking out a box of players cigarettes uh no thanks I gave up two years ago had a cough I couldn’t get rid of you won’t mind if I do we drove out of the terminal and along the Great West Road toward the center of the city good book asked Terrence nodding at the blue bound volume I had brought to read on the flight comparative folk mythologies of DOA I told him holding it up oh I’m more of a Neville suit man myself it always surprised me how green London was the narrow streets were bursting with trees and every little front yard had its bushes and its neatly trimmed hedge among the rows of houses stood the Tranquil spires of Victorian churches which gave the suburbs the appearance of order and respectability and enduring Faith very nasty business this sir said Terren with his cigarette waggling between his lips seven more fatalities yesterday morning in Cen you don’t have to call me sir all the time really Jim will be fine righto Jim it is he pronounced it as though it had inverted commas he looked ridiculously young to be an SIS operative but he was probably the same age as I was when I was hunting the stroid during the war he was was pale and round shouldered and he reminded me of one of those young English Pilots you see clustered around Spitfires in Wartime photographs all smiling and most of them doomed to be incinerated alive before their 21st birthdays how are you managing to keep this out of the news I asked him it’s been Jolly difficult to tell you the truth fortunately there’s been some Korean influenza going around so most of the time we can blame it on that these seven in um where did you say Cen it’s a burough about 10 miles south of London not the most attractive spot on earth pretty groty as a matter of fact were they all in the same room when they were killed yes apart from one lad they found his body upstairs only 11 years old very nasty business they all belong belong to the same family except for one of them an elderly lady who was a friend of theirs it was a birthday party shocking there was blood all over the food you haven’t touched anything the bodies have been taken away but that’s all everything else is just as we found it okay but I’ll need to take a look at the bodies later we were coming into West Kensington now past the Natural History Museum and the bromton oratory and the traffic was beginning to build up as we reached Howard’s store in nightsbridge Terren tossed his cigarette out of the window and took out a fresh one tapping it on the steering wheel to Tamp down the loose tobacco the first murders were on the 23rd of May at the selston Park Hotel 11 men and two women at a business conference I read the police reports I saw the photographs too property developers weren’t they estate agents it was a total fluke that we found out who might have killed them oh yes one of our senior chaps just happened to be round at Scotland Yard for some security power when the news about the murders first came in look at that Bloody cyclist he must have a death wish he leaned out of the window and shouted nutcase go on I told him oh yes as luck would have it our chap used to leave a with us counterintelligence during the war and he remembered that your people always wanted to be urgently notified of any mass killings especially if the victims had their hearts cut out or the blood drained out of them at the time your people never actually told him why they wanted to be notified or what it was all about and our chap still had no idea what it was all about but he thought hello Mass killing people with all the blood d r out of them and he got on to your people anyway your people came back to us in less than 24 hours and they came round to HQ and gave us the full SP I must say I find it really fascinating in a Grizzly sort of way but it isn’t exactly easy to believe is it you know vampires he Beed his teeth and gave a bad imitation of a Bella Lugosi ho ho ho let me tell you Terren I said you need to believe I probably sounded too serious and pontificating but I was very tired if you think that Russian spies are dangerous you don’t know what dangerous is the stroi are the most vicious creatures you are ever going to meet in your entire life we drove around hide Park corner with his its massive Stone Arch and its triumphant statue of winged victory then we made our way down the m and passed Buckingham Palace a troop of horse guards jingled their way down the center of the road their helmets sparkling in the sunlight the last time I had been in London it had been grim and gray and badly bombed but this was like driving through a brightly colored picture postcard after another 15 minutes of sitting in traffic around alar square and up Ludgate hill we arrived at MI6 headquarters in the city it was a large ugly office building with a soot streak facade and plastic Venetian blinds in a nasty shade of olive green Terren parked his Humber around the back and led the way in you’re fully cleared right up to level one said Terren clipping an identity tag onto my shirt pocket I peered down at it I don’t know where my photograph had come from but my eyes were half closed and I looked as if my mouth was stuffed with cheeseburger the building was very warm and stuffy and smelled of floor polish three or four plain looking women passed us in the corridor and they all said hello with that funny little English Yelp we went up to the top floor Terren said it’s supposed to stay warm until Sunday but I can’t see it myself you know what they say about the English summer three hot days followed by a thunderstorm he knocked at the Walnut panel door marked director of operations sis and we walked into a large office with a panoramic view of the city and the river temps I could see tower bridge and London Bridge and the Dome of St Paul’s Cathedral everything was hay with summer heat so that it looked like an impressionist painting except for the constant Spark of traffic as we entered a tall heavily built man in a gray suit rose up from behind an enormous desk like a whale coming up for air he had a large elaborately chiseled nose and deep set eyes and short shiny chestnut colored hair which I could imagine him polishing every morning with a matching pair of brushes aha you’re the uh creature fellow he said he spoke in a hesitant draw with the sides of his mouth turned down as if he found the whole business of talking to be rather a damn boore he reached across his desk and gave me a crushing handshake Charles frii so gratified that you could get here so promptly good flight yeah great thanks I never flew over the pole before really he said as if I had admitted that I had never ridden to hounds this is all turning out to to be very unpleasant indeed so we’re uh glad of any help that you can give us how many have been killed altogether Charles PRI blinked at me perhaps you’d like a cup of tea I usually have one around now or coffee I think we can run to some instant te’s fine during the War the British seemed to spend more time Brewing up tea than they did fighting the Germans it was usually strong and astringent and tooth achingly sweet but I had developed a taste for it myself 97 fatalities so far said Terren that’s including yesterday’s figure any eyewitness statements one or two people have said that they heard things at the seston Park Hotel there were several reports of screaming in the middle of the night but the screaming didn’t last very long apparently and the witnesses thought it was somebody throwing a party well I mean it could have been for all we know Charles F said I talked to the Metropolitan Police Commissioner yesterday evening and unfortunately he can give us very little to go on the police found Footprints made by some very narrow shoes but no identifiable fingerprints and no fibers to speak of in several cases there was no obvious means of entry and um the premises were secured from the inside making access virtually impossible to a human as salant in any case we all sat down around Charles fi’s desk all he had in front of him was a leather blot three telephones one black one green and one red and a framed photograph of a grinning blonde woman with a gap between her front teeth I expect cic told you that the stgo are capable of entering a room through the thinnest of apertures I told him they rarely leave much in the way of fingerprints or Footprints but they do leave a very distinctive smell which is why we use dogs to hunt them down we’ve arranged for a Tracker dog and uh uh somebody to handle him okay that’s excellent the sooner I meet him the better her as a matter of fact Terren corrected me the full SP we sat in Charles frits for the next 3 and 1 half hours so that we could study all of the Case Files together all the forensic evidence all of the photographs all of the witness statements I wanted to see maps and reconstructions and transcripts of Coroner’s Court proceedings I insisted that we go right back to the very beginning from the moment that a T’s dredger called the Mary Ellen had struck the propeller of that buried DC3 I didn’t tell Charles fi or Terren that I knew who had died in it I was afraid that I might catch myself unawares and fill up with tears the wreckage had been discovered on April 11th it had been raised out of the mud on May 15th by a combined team from the air Ministry and the British aeronautical archaeological committee it had been taken on a flatbed truck to the Royal aircraft establishment at farbor for cleaning research and possible restoration because of the total secrecy that had surrounded Operation Paperclip The Disappearance of this plane and its cargo had never been officially reported after the war it had mostly been forgotten since the counterintelligence agents involved had gone back to civilian life or retired or died even when the plane’s excavation was widely shown on television radio and news reels even a two-page spread in Life Magazine nobody in the cic put two and two together and realized which plane it was and what it had been carrying that only happened when the pilots and their Marine escort were formerly identified and by that time it was too late for me the most poignant paragraphs came from hm coroner sir Philip Platt Dickinson at South End on sea the remains of five adult individuals were discovered in the wreckage there was no soft tissue remaining only bones but judging from the positions in which they were found all of them were instantly killed when the airlane struck the water at a speed that must have been well in excess of 200 M hour and was almost completely buried in the EST mud the pilot and his co-pilot were identified by their dog tags as officers in the United States Army Air Forces the remains of two further individuals both male were identified as officers in the United States Marine Corps the remains of the fifth individual who was female carried nothing at all that allowed me to make a positive identification although the recovery team found a gold wedding ring and a rectangular gold wristatch from shrien company which I am given to understand is a respected jewelry shop in San Francisco California her dress and shoes were also of American origin animal remains were found close to the female individual and these were identified as being those of a Blood Hound probably 6 or 7 years old the American Embassy in London was notified of the exhumation of these individuals and their remains were duly removed for repatriation to the United States where they could be formally identified and given appropriate funeral rights I sat in that MI6 office in London and in my mind’s eye I could see that rectangular gold wristwatch I could even remember the day that my father had given it to my mother their 25th wedding anniversary in April 1941 we had drunk sweet white wine in the yard while cherry blossoms blew all around us like snow and my mother had sung Romanian DOA who made DOA the small mouth of a baby left asleep by his mother who found him singing the DOA the casket had been examined by an air Ministry crash investigation team led by Professor Roger brawe who was renowned worldwide for his expertise on unusual air accidents apparently it had been secured to the floor of the DC3 with webbing straps but these had snapped on impact when the aircraft crashed the casket had slid forward smashing into the co-pilot seat and breaking his back Terren passed me a selection of black and white photographs these showed the casket from four different angles resting on a Trestle in a large empty hanger with several bespectacled men in laboratory coats standing around it it appeared to be fashioned out of a thick lead alloy beaten and welded by hand it measured approximately 9 ft long 3 ft wide and 2 6 in deep it weighed over 750 lb when it was lifted out of the aircraft the casket was tightly fastened with two lengths of braided silver wire which formed a cross over the lid at 6:45 on the evening of May 17th professor braithway joted in his notebook that he had decided to cut this wire and take the lid off the casket to see what was inside the next morning May 18th when Rae technicians opened up the hanger they noticed that the casket appeared to be intact but the silver wire had been neatly cut and was lying on the floor there was no sign of Professor brathe or his two assistants by 6 p.m. that day professor brathe and his assistants had still failed to put in an appearance and none of them were answering their home phone numbers the security services were immediately notified and a major search initiated watches were kept on all British ports and airports and roadblocks set up in Hampshire and sui several houses were searched including Professor brae’s holiday Cottage in the Lake District some days later when the Press made polite inquiries about Professor brae’s whereabouts they were told that he had flown to the United States to undertake several weeks of background research it’s hard to remember how trusting the press used to be in those days to date though neither Professor brawe nor his assistant had been cited anywhere dead or alive and there was no evidence to explain what might have happened to them except of course the empty casket the lid of the casket was still in place on the morning of May 18th but investigators were able to lift it open without difficulty inside they found it to be lined with white Thorn wood and thickly bedded with dried garlic flowers and Wild Roses on one side lay an empty sack made of thin Brown Linen like a torn open shroud there was a deep impression in the petals as if somebody had been lying there motionless for a very long time didn’t anybody suspect what had happened even then I asked Charles fi didn’t anybody think to ask what kind of creature could have been lying in a sealed casket for nearly 13 years without air or food or water afraid not old man Security Services are never very good at communicating with each other at the best of times somebody could have used their imagination imagination Charles fith blinked at me as if I had used a four-letter word not a requirement for MI6 I’m sorry to say the police reports on all of the recent killings were depressingly similar and all of the photographs too heaps of bodies with their clothes torn open their abdomen sliced apart and their hearts pulled out from underneath their rib cages men women and children even toddlers in little white socks in the background cheap floral wallpaper decorated with loops and spatters of blood no no had ever seen anybody entering the crime scenes nobody had ever seen anybody leave well um we’re quite certain that this is the work of you know stoy no doubt about it when stroy Mort and at least two stroy V and they’re going to multiply fast more tea no thanks I think I’ll go to my hotel if that’s all right with you and take a shower I need to call my wife too then I want to go to this house in Cen and take a look at this birthday party Terrence do you think you can arrange for our dog handler to meet us there say about 3:30 I don’t anticipate any problem with that Jim I’ll give her a tinkle I stood up and Charles fith stood up too tremendously pleased to have you on board Captain falcan well me too sir I have a very personal interest in Catching this particular scater H it’s a long story sir I’ll report back to you later yes good oh uh but there’s one more thing you’ve been issued with a sidearm Colt 45 automatic I gather it’s all been approved but I have to ask you to be very discreet with it this is England you know not the wild west of course of course I told him yes he repeated on the way back along the corridor I said to Terren he kept saying ears what did he mean by that oh that’s English upper class for Yes House of flies for my first night in England the sis had booked me a room at the Strand Palace Hotel it was comfortable in a well-worn Shabby way although the traffic was so noisy that I had to close my window and the furniture rre of cigarettes I booked a transatlantic call to Louise and tried to take a shower the shower head gurgled and sneezed and then dribbled I took a shallow bath instead I was lucky it could take hours before a call to the states came through but the operator rang me back after only 20 minutes Louise answered and although she sounded quite close I kept hearing an echo so that she said everything twice I’m going to the Marriotts this evening they’re having a cookout they’re having a cook out that’s great I said are you going to see your sister this weekend I don’t know it depends if Dick’s coming home if Dick’s coming home uh listen I have to go but I love you be careful Jimmy won’t you please won’t you please I’ll be careful I hadn’t been allowed to tell her what I was doing here in England only that it was connected with my work for the intelligence Services during the war but Louise wasn’t the kind of woman to be easily fooled she had stood in the bedroom doorway watching me pack as intently as if she were making an 8mm home movie in her head a home movie that she could play back later in her Mind’s Eye if I never came back to her I had known Louise since College we had dated once or twice and had a good time together but Louise was always much more serious than I was she liked string quartets and art galleries and live theater while I preferred beer and swing music and WC Fields movies not that I wasn’t academic you couldn’t help being AC mic with a father like mine but I wasn’t a sensitive academic I didn’t carry a lily around and I didn’t lisp as it happened though Louise and I met up again in 1949 at a friend’s party in North Beach and I invited her to mil Valley for the day we were both different people by then she had been through a violent marriage and lost a baby I had been chasing stugo in Europe we saw qualities in each other that we hadn’t been able to appreciate when we were younger in Louise I saw thoughtfulness and a deep appreciation for the value of human life but an unexpected willingness to have fun too I don’t exactly know what she saw in me but I always tried to be kind to her and protective and I even pretended to like her cheese and macaroni Terren called for me at 2:30 p.m. and we drove to Cen Terren was right cuden was pretty gry a densely overcrowded suburb with mile after mile of Victorian and Edwardian shops and pubs interspersed with sorry looking semi detached houses and filling stations and used car lots the sky was beginning to Cloud over although the heat was still unbearable Terren was steadily perspiring in his coat and necktie but he didn’t make any attempt to take them off we reached an ugly red brick pub called the Red Deer where the main road divided Terren took a right up a steep Narrow Street lined with scabby looking plain trees we passed a huge Victorian Church faced with flint and then pulled up outside a large three-story house there were two men standing around outside the front gate smoking Terren said couple of our chaps couldn’t have the constabulary here somebody might ask awkward questions I climbed out of the car and looked up at the house it was massive and clumsily proportioned built of the same shiny red brick as the pub we had passed with a gabled roof and window frames painted bright blue the front garden sloped up from the street and was crowded with Laurel bushes the soil was so chalky here that the flower beds were strewn with big white lumps of limestone Terren introduced me to his chaps like Terrence they both seemed to be far too young to be MI6 operatives like two school boys one of them said don’t know what the latest score is by any chance last I heard Evans took four wickets for 64 Cy I thought he’d broken his finger our dog handler not here yet I asked shouldn’t be too long do you want to take a quick shufty inside sure why not one of the ch led the way up the steps to the front door which was propped open with a dogeared telephone directory six pint bottles of lumpy looking milk stood on the doorstep the Family’s last delivery I followed the chap into a high airless hallway which had a wide staircase on the left hand side house was shared you see the chap told me Mr and Mrs and three children lived on the ground floor while the grandparents lived upstairs although the house was detached it stood only 6 ft from the house next door and the windows were all glazed with yellow and green glass so the hallway was deeply gloomy like an aquarium on the wall hung a damp spotted print of a miserable looking Maiden by Dante Gabriel Rosetti window cleaner looked in and saw the bodies said Terren otherwise who knows it might have been weeks we went through to the dining room which was thick with the smell of decaying food and human blood and noisy with the buzzing of hundreds of flies dark brown Woolen drapes had been drawn across the bay window but enough sunlight penetrated the room for me to be able to see what had happened here the dining chairs had been set back against the walls presumably so that the family could stand around the dining table and help themselves to the buffet plates and Cutlery were scattered on the mustard yellow carpet as well as trotten in sandwiches and cakes on the sideboard stood bottles of scotch whiskey in Gordon’s chin and EM Cream Sweet Cherry as well as six or seven bottles of light ale and maasin stout I was reminded that the British liked their beer warm the words happy birthday Jackie had been cut out of colored paper and stuck onto the mirror difficult to tell how the buggers got in said Terren back door was locked and all of the main windows were closed I stepped carefully across the dining room and Drew back the drapes three of the small upper windows were open even a child would have found it impossible to climb through them but a stroy Mort could slide through the narrowest of gaps once inside he would have opened the front door for any stoy V who might have accompanied him it wasn’t easy to tell how many stroi had been here because there was so much blood and so much mess but they usually went out feeding in threes I looked back at the dining table all the food had been splashed with dark brown blood the birthday cake the sausage rolls the mashed sardine sandwiches and now flies were crawling all over it so that the whole table looked as if it were Rippling I went to the door there were bloodstained fingerprints on either side of the door jam you say that one of the bodies was found upstairs 11-year-old boy yes see these fingerprints my guess is the kid was trying to escape and somebody blocked the doorway to stop the screechers from going after him unsuccessfully of course because look I pointed to some smudges of Blood on the wallpaper they ran diagonally up the wall each one higher than the next until they reached the ceiling I stepped back into the hallway and looked up the smudges continued across the ceiling toward the staircase and up the sloping ceiling above the stairs too Footprints I said the boy tried to get away and one of the stro chased him on the ceiling said Terren he looked at the chap and the chap raised his eyebrows and puffed out his cheeks but didn’t say anything you have to understand what we’re up against here I told him the other ch cap came in from outside your dog handler is here he told us bit of all right as a matter of fact bullet I went out onto the porch not only to greet my dog handler but to breathe some fresh air during the War I had grown pretty much enured to The Ripe stench of cut open human beings but over the past 12 years I had forgotten how sickening it was and how it seemed to cling to your clothes and your hair for hours afterward you could even taste it in your mouth when you were eating the dog handler had parked her pale green Hillman mink estate car next to terrence’s Humber and was opening the back doors so that her dog could jump out the dog came up The Path first a glossy black Labrador with a crimson tongue panting furiously in the heat the dog handler followed and the other chap hadn’t been exaggerating she was a bit of all right she was very slim with dark shiny hair cut into a bob she looked as if she might have had some burmes or Siamese blood in her because she had high cheekbones and dark feline eyes she was wearing a white short sleeved blouse with the collar turned up and she was very large breasted I don’t know what it is about white blouses and big breasts that do it for me but for a split second I felt A Rush of Blood to the Head as if I were 15 years old again her waist was cinched in with a large silver buckled belt and she wore a Navy pencil skirt that came down just below the knee hello she smiled she had a clear upper middle class accent and she spoke as if she were reading the BBC News you must be Captain Falco is it Falcon with an N like peragine Falcon but call me Jim all right I’m Jill foxley from the metropolitan police dog section at Kon great to meet you Jill foxley and her dog too what does he answer to his proper name is Willowick Gruff but his working name is bullet bullet I like that hey bullet how you doing boy bullet turned to me and gave a single contemptuous bark hey I think he likes me already and Jill said I’m sorry he’s very loyal once he gets to know people but he’s been trained to be suspicious of strangers well that’s what we need suspicious in fact we need very suspicious you’ve been briefed about this job I hope I mean you know what you and me and bullet here are supposed to be looking for yes they gave me a general idea they said that if I needed to know anything more I should ask you about it apparently you’re the world’s greatest expert and what do you think she pulled her face I’m not at all sure at first I thought they were having me on toast but I’ve always liked Unusual Work bullet and I spent the last 6 months tracking down heroin smugglers in Limehouse that was fascinating you know all that Chinese culture and everything you understand what these creatures are don’t you well yes she seemed embarrassed vampires sort of exactly we’re not dealing with human beings here they don’t have a soul and they don’t have a conscience they don’t have any compunction about killing anybody of any age with no warning at all like wild animals and really uh-uh they’re not like animals they’re intelligent and they’re so damn quick you can’t even see them and they won’t give you any second chances I understand she had an alluring way of tilting her head sideways and looking at me out of the corner of her eyes well I said trying to sound brisk and professional you better bring bullet inside you’ve visited a homicide scene before it’s not too salubrious in there the language I was using I was starting to sound quite British I would probably start saying constabulary next instead of cops don’t worry said Jill I’ve been called to quite a few murders the last one was a husband who beat his wife and their seven-year-old daughter to death with a hammer and then cut his own throat with a bread knife that was quite yucky quite yucky yes I guess it must have been out of her navy blue pocketbook Jill pulled a strip of brownish fabric about the length of a woman’s scarf she held it up against bullet snout so that he could sniff it and lick it this is a piece of the linen shroud they found in the casket she explained if the same screecher has been here then bullet will be able to tell good for bullet let’s take a look shall we I led her through the hallway into the dining room with bullet trotting obediently beside her I think she was determined not to show that she was nauseated but as soon as she entered the door she clamped her hand over her mouth and couldn’t stop herself from letting out a high cackling wretch oh my God it’s disgusting do you want to go back outside she shook her head I can manage thanks it’s the Flies more than anything else I can’t stand flies join the club but this is fairly typical of a screecher attack the stoy Mort gains entry first in this case I’m guessing that it came through one of the skylights here it probably came in so fast that nobody saw it or if they did it would have looked like nothing more than a dark blur whizzing through the room it would have opened the front door and LED in its Companions and then the three of them would have come back in here and had themselves a feast bullet was snuffling around the carpet occasionally licking it with his thick Crimson tongue how many victims were there asked Jill seven the scures would have sliced their stomachs open first and cut the Achilles tendons in their heels so that they couldn’t get away then they would have gone from one to the other cutting them open even wider pulling out their hearts and drinking their blood directly from their aortas that’s so horrible yes it is but if you and I don’t stop them the screeches are going to multiply I don’t know how much they told you when they briefed you but there are two kinds of screes the infected ones who are still alive the stoy V and the dead ones the stoy Morty I didn’t completely understand that when they briefed us the stoy Morty they’re really dead I mean dead dead dead in the sense that they’re not human anymore and never will be they can be nostalgic for sure in a very selfish way they can shed tears for their lost Humanity they can even have relationships with humans you’d never know if you passed a stoy Mort in the street except that they usually look unnaturally Flawless Perfect Skin Perfect Teeth it’s just that they have no soul they said that the dead ones spread the infection that’s right by sharing their blood or other bodily fluids with human beings who attract them they call it the Embrace or the witch’s kiss there must be a cure for it surely I shook my head once you’ve caught the infection that’s it you have a raging thirst for blood and you can never get enough of it it’s like being a drug addict only a thousand times worse so what happens to you in the end you can’t stand it any longer and you go looking for the stoy Mort who first infected you you drink more of its blood which poisons you and so you in your turn become a stoy Mort very good-look an idealized version of yourself but utterly dead and unable to rest forever bullet came up to Jill and let out another bark his tail was beating furiously against the table leg he’s picked up the scent he wants to go after it in that case we’ll let him shall we of course I hope you’re f it are you kidding me I swim I play tennis I paint fences painting fences you’d be surprised what good exercise that is bullet was already heading for the door Jill looked at me and Shrugged and so we followed him I went to the car and heaved out the battered metal case containing my kit I think we have a trail I told Terren oh he didn’t look very pleased about it it was one thing to talk about stoy hunting them was something else altogether bullet made his way out of the house and up the street with Jill and Terren and me trying to keep up with him unlike Frank he didn’t turn back once to see if we were following at the top of the hill we reached a small public park called hailing Grove there was a brick and concrete air raid shelter by the front Gates which could have made a good hide hiding place for stoy but its doorway was sealed with corrugated iron and its ventilation holes had all been bricked up we walked through the shadow of some horse chestnut trees until we reached an open space the park was strangely deserted even though it was such a hot day in the middle of the summer vacation period in those days the British didn’t fly to Spain or France or Florida during the summer they couldn’t afford they went to the seaside for a week and then they spent the rest of the time at home tenting their Gardens or building shelves the park was probably no more than 3 or 4 Acres surrounded by mature Oaks and beach trees bullet looped across the bright green grass ahead of us on the other side of the grass stood a large stained Oak summerhouse with a dark thatched roof where an elderly woman sat wearing a black dress and Tiny green sunglasses she was so white-faced that I could have believed she was dead they would have been long gone by now wouldn’t they panted Terren perspiration was trickling down the sides of his cheeks oh for sure this will probably come to nothing but if we can pick up more than one Trail we can begin to work out where they’re hiding themselves triangulation said Jill she must have been much fitter than Terren or me because she wasn’t out of breath at all and she looked as cool as a pin’s number one bullet had passed the summerhouse and now he was standing beside a wide flower bed planted with dalas along the back of the flower bed ran a brick wall over 18 ft High which looked as if it marked the Park’s southern boundary bullets sniffed at the soil and barked three or four times times go on bullet Jill told him follow up boy bullet crossed the flower bed and went up to the wall he turned around for the first time and looked at us in frustration clever I said I’ll bet you 10 bucks they climbed the wall and ran along the top of it there’s a door further along said Terren we could check the other side couldn’t we the door was half open and LED through to an overgrown area of old glass houses and abandoned wheelbarrows and compost heaps Jill guided bullet along the length of the wall snipping at it but it seemed as if I was right and the stroy had made their way along the top of it even if we could have lifted them up there there was no way that bullet could have balanced along the coping to follow their scent about 300 yd away the wall passed under the branch of several large oak trees and it was my guess that the stroy had used them to climb down from the wall and Escape into the street nearby we spent a half hour crisscrossing the street and the park Pathways but bullet had lost the scent completely Jill gave him a handful of black and red dog biscuits patted him on the head and said Well Done bullet never mind bullet ate his biscuits with a crackling sound like gunfire and I had never seen a dog look so Furious Jill said he’s very annoyed he hardly ever loses a trail we’ll get them I told her screechers have to come out and feed and that’s their greatest weakness I wiped my forehead with the back of my hand Jesus it’s hot anybody feel like a drink Terren looked at his watch it is opening time for another 2 and 1 half hours but there’s a sweet shop on the corner down at the bottom of the road I could get you a bottle of tier I hadn’t realized that British pubs were closed all afternoon until 6:00 p.m. and so it was that I was driven back into Central London drinking this fizzy bright orange cordal out of a heavy glass bottle feeling sweaty and tired and more than a little sick death on a double decker I slept badly that night as badly as I used to sleep during the war The Strand Palace had no air conditioning and the endless knock knock knock of Taxi and bus engines seemed to penetrate right through my pillows I had a nightmare in which I couldn’t find my way out of haling Grove Park and the old woman with the white face and the green sunglasses was sliding after me as if she were on Wheels I took a tepid bath around 700 a.m. and then I went down to the dining room for breakfast I ordered a full English bacon sausages fried eggs grilled tomatoes and mushrooms everything was cold and lying in congealed Grease and I could only conclude that I must have been hungrier during the war or younger and less discriminating the coffee tasted like weak beef stock while I pushed my food around my plate I read the Daily Express Cairo radio had incited Arabs to rise up against the British and sabotage the RAF Venom Jets at Shara Airfield where they were being used against Rebel forces in muskat and Oman on PanAm had announced that they were beginning transpolar flights to London from the West Coast flying time about 18 hours a British doctor had been killed by the polio epidemic in the British Midlands because he had vaccinated all of his patients but hadn’t thought to vaccinate himself in spite of the warm weather British roads were unusually empty because motorists feared bonnet to taale snars in traffic not a word about mass killings in Cen or selon or anywhere else not a word about stoy on television that night were sir Lancelot chriscross quiz and gun law the waiter came over and looked at my plate not to your liking sir no it was great just a little too much perhaps you’d care for something else sir porridge perhaps no thanks I had seen the porridge and it looked like badly poured concrete I was crossing the lobby on the way back to my room when the receptionist called me Captain Falcon sir you have a telephone call I went into the phone booth at the side of the lobby it was Terren calling me we’ve had another one Jim really bad this time I can’t tell you anything over the blower but I’m coming to collect you in 15 minutes it’s South London again okay I could see my eyes in the small mirror at the back of the telephone booth they looked expressionless as if they didn’t belong to anybody at all we drove to Wallington another suburb on the far side of Cen Aerodrome a wide grassy field which up until the war had been London’s principal airport Wallington was Avenue after Avenue of 1930 semidetached houses with white painted Pebble Dash walls and monkey puzzled trees in their front Gardens Bank clerk land Terren was wearing the same shirt in green necktie that he’d been wearing the day before he smoked even more furiously than ever and it was obvious that he was very nervous and upset 17 killed that’s what they told me 17 Jesus this time a whole Avenue had been cordoned off by police two Bobbies stopped us and made a meal of checking our identity cards you’re an American sir asked one of them peering at me as if he’d never seen a real live American before and was wondering why I wasn’t wearing a ston hat and a bolo neckti eventually they led us through and we drove about a half mile to the end of the Avenue here we found more police as well as two firet trucks and five ambulances I could see Charles fith wearing an Immaculate light gray suit talking to a senior Police Inspector this must be really serious if Charles frii had actually ventured out of his office the Avenue was crossed by a low green painted railroad bridge a green double-decker bus was wedged under the bridge so that the front half of its roof had been ripped backward six or seven policemen were erecting High canvas screens around the bus while two firefighters were up on the bridge lowering a tar poolin over the top of it ah Jim said Charles frii as I approached him this is inspector Ruck Metropolitan Police Inspector this is our American friend Captain James fulcon inspector Ruck was a stocky man with a Scarlet face that looked as if it were just about to explode he had pale blue eyes with colorless eyelashes like a pigs he eyed me up and down and said nothing at all this happened at about 6:30 this morning said Charles fi the bus comes down the main road here but I’m told that it usually turns off at Chesterfield Avenue which is I the second Side Road just back there this morning it kept straight on and as you can see tremendous bang apparently residents came out to see if they could help but uh no survivors I’m sorry to say I better take a look I told him inspector Ruck said not happy about that sir not until my men have finished their job don’t want any evidence booger up no need to worry about that inspector said Charles fith in his Urbane draw Captain fuler here is a very experienced investigator who specializes in this sort of business all the same sir I Charles fith gave him the coldest possible smile and said carry on Jim in inside the bus I breathed in a strong smell of blood and fat like a butcher shop but it was far less nauseating than the house in Cen because the passengers were freshly killed all the same it was stifling in there especially now that it was draped in a heavy Tarpin and the windows were speckled with flies two forensic scientists in white lab coats and rubber gloves were dusting for fingerprints and taking photographs watched over by a sweating detective in a badly fitting brown suit the detective looked at me with deep suspicion when I climbed onto the platform I held up my identity card and said Captain James Falcon from the cic I’m temporarily sanded to MI6 the detective frowned at my card and said MI6 he was sandy-haired and freckly and put me in mind of Spencer Tracy if Spencer Tracy had been 6 in taller what’s this got to do with MI6 can’t answer that one I’m afraid what do you think happened here I’m not sure I’m supposed to tell you believe me you’re supposed to tell me inspector Ruck dragged aside the tar pollen and said irascibly we’re cooperating with the US intelligence Services Johnson whatever Captain Falcon wants to no just tell him will you he disappeared and Johnson blinked at me in dismay sorry I said in the brief time that I had stayed in Britain during the War I had learned that sorry was the key word that would get you out of any kind of awkward situation somebody steps on your foot you say sorry and they say sorry and you say sorry again and that’s the end of it unless one of you feels it’s necessary to say say sorry a third time well come on then said Watkins we’ve got 11 stabbing victims on the lower deck five upstairs and then there’s the driver the driver was stabbed to no he died of chest injuries when the bus hit the bridge he led the way down the aisle our shoes made sticky noises because the floor was varnished with blood most of the passengers were sitting upright as if they were still waiting to be carried to their destinations there were eight men most of whom looked like Factory workers on their way to start an early shift and two women with their hair tied up in scarves office cleaners more than likely the bus conductor was lying sideways on one of the bench seats at the back of the bus his hands were covered in blood as if he had been struggling to defend himself against an as salant who was wielding a very sharp knife in fact three fingers of his right hand were almost completely severed and were dangling on thin shreds of skin every one of the passengers had been stabbed in the lower part of the stomach and then the knife pulled upward until it met the breast bone since they were all still sitting in their seats it was clear that they had been attacked very rapidly before they had time to react that spelled stroy Mort to me a stroy Mort could flicker through a busload of people like this and kill all of them in a matter of seconds the passengers pants and skirts were soaked in Blood and several of them had little heaps of glistening pink intestines in their laps can’t think why the poor SS didn’t put up any kind of a fight said Watkins I didn’t say anything but leaned forward and examined the stomach wound of one of the cleaners whatever had been used to slice her open it must have been wickedly sharp because it had cut through her thick white elasticated girdle she was looking at me with a suspicious expression as if she were just about to speak to me do you have any idea who might have done this Johnson asked me oh yes I nodded but you’re not going to share it with me no well I must say this is all B frustrating sorry maybe your boss will fill you in later I climbed up the Steep curving stairs at the back of the bus onto the top deck it was the same story here except that two of the passengers sitting right at the front of the bus had been crushed under the railroad bridge their mutilated Heads Lay on the seat behind them one of them still wearing a wiry brown toue like a ventriloquist dummy I duck down under the roof of the bus to check their bodies both had been gutted like everybody else one of them had been cut so wide open that his entire digestive system was hanging from the edge of his seat bowels stomach and liver in a glutenous Cascade that was crawling with flies on the other side of the bus however I saw the body of a young boy no more than five or six years old he was wearing school uniform a blue blazer with a badge on the pocket and gray flannel shorts and gray Woolen socks and brown Clark sandals his head had been compressed against the side of the bus window so that his eyes were bulging out and his skull was oval but what interested me more than anything else was that unlike everybody else on the bus he hadn’t been stabbed he was dead but his stomach was intact Johnson came up the stairs and said everything all right I don’t know yet but you still can’t tell me who did this or why it really would help me an awful lot if you could give me an inkling I knew who had done it there wasn’t any doubt I knew why they had had done it too an early morning Bus full of dozy shift workers must have looked like a mobile Feast to daoka and his stroy V I guessed that they had planned to take it someplace secluded and drink the blood of everybody on board at 5:30 in the morning there would have been few people around to disturb them I went downstairs again and took another look around then I climbed off the bus and walked around to the driver’s cab the driver was a balding man in his early 50s with a handrolled cigarette tucked behind his ear he was slumped forward over his steering wheel with his eyes closed as if he had simply nodded off the sliding door to his cab was marked with seven or eight fresh scratches some of which had gone right through the red paint to the bare aluminum underneath it looked as if a screecher had tried to get into the cab stabbing at the door in frustration I was still examining the cab when Jill arrived with bullet the day she was wearing a yellow blouse and natural colored slacks and no makeup she had probably had to come down here at very short notice as I had good morning she said in a hushed voice looking at the bus not for these folks they told me 17 it’s Dreadful yes but the screechers didn’t get the chance to do what they wanted to do what was that I’m pretty sure that they were trying to comeand Deer the bus so that they could take the passengers someplace and drink them dry but it looks like the driers saw what was happening inside his bus and panicked I pointed up at the railroad bridge I don’t think he did this deliberately he was probably trying to go for some help wait a minute they were trying to Commander the bus you mean screechers can drive of course they can screechers are no different than they were before they were infected they can drive they can use telephones they can do anything the stoy virus affects people’s bodies and it snuffs out their soul but it doesn’t affect their memory or their intellect or any of their practical skills I didn’t realize I mean when you think vampires you can’t help thinking medieval can you you know castles and horsedrawn carriages and things like that why don’t you let bullet here take a sniff around the bus there’s some officious detective called Watkins in there but don’t let him bother you okay I’ll call for help if he starts being too bossy one of the Bobbies lifted the Tarpin for her bullet jumped onto the bus and she followed him pretty girl the Bobby remarked as I walked past him I didn’t say anything I was married to Louise and I had always thought of myself as faithful but I was surprised how pleased I had been when Jill had turned up I rejoined Charles fith and Terren got everything you need said Charles fith peering at his wristwatch I must get back to town by 12:30 lunch with the Minister for my sins Jill uh Miss foxley she’s seeing if she can pick up a trail do we know exactly what went on here attempted hijack most likely hijack eh Charles fi seemed to like the American sound of that hijack well keep me informed inspector Ruck came over looking hot and Crist there’s some press boys wanting to know what’s happened and they say they’d like some pictures too tell them that somebody on the bus was infected with the Korean flu and collapsed the driver tried to take the bus to the nearest hospital and misjudged the low bridge everybody else on the bus has been quarantined just to be on the safe side you’ll give them a fuller statement later oh I will will I said inspector Ruck aggressively and what will I tell them then Charles fith patted the silver Pips on his shoulder I’ll let you know after lunch now I really must Dash can’t keep the minister waiting beneath the trees bullets spent over 15 minutes sniffing around the bus downstairs and up when Jill emerged from the tarpulin she looked pale and upset I’ve never seen anything like that before that was too horrible for words are you okay her hair was damp with perspiration and I lifted a strand of it out of her eyes do you want to drink of water or anything no I’m all right it’s the way that they’re just sitting there bullet looked up at me and barked twice I really think he’s getting to like me and actually he’s warning you not to get too close oh sorry sorry boy do you think he’ll ever get to like me Jill smiled once he gets to know you better I’m sure he will okay then I said does he have a trail for us to follow yes he does and I think it’s quite strong I called out to Terren Darren we’re going screecher hunting you want to go get your car oh okay okay then righty ho Jill and I walked along the crown of the road trying to keep up with bullet while Terren crept along behind us in his Humber although the sky was cloudless we could hear distant collisions of Thunder and the lime trees along the Avenue began to rustle uneasily after only 10 minutes we reached the entrance to a large public park where there was a tar McAdam parking lot surrounded by giant elms what’s the betting the screechers were planning on bringing the bus here I asked Jill there was a bus stop close only 10 yards away for numbers 403 and 403a so the bus would normally have passed this way bullet hesitated and lifted his head he sniffed in several different directions as if he couldn’t make up his mind which way to go I think they must have split up somewhere here said Jill she took the scarf-like piece of linen out of her purse and held it in front of bullet’s nose to refresh his memory bullet immediately galloped through the entrance to the park and crossed the parking lot until he reached the trees on the far side there he stopped again and barked he’s confused said Jill he can still smell something but it’s different we LED bullet up and down the parking lot for over 10 minutes every now and then he lifted his head and sniffed the air but the strong scent that he’d been following from the bus seemed to come to an end here very abruptly you know what this means I said the stroy have a car or even cars plural that’s going to make things damned awkward said Terren mopping his face with his handkerchief how can we follow them if they’re driving around in bloody cars I got down on one knee and opened up my kit bullets snuffled around me suspiciously while I took out my compass and opened up the silver filigre cover that’s rather fancy said chill what is it stroy compass for locating any nearby scures really it looks like an antique it is it’s nearly 300 years old the priest of the Romanian Orthodox Church designed it in 1682 on the instructions of the vo V Akia sherban kakuzo the who of where I held the compass up higher and slowly moved it right and left Shaban kakino was a great social and religious reformer he had the bible translated into Romanian and it started a huge religious revival like the King James Bible in the west the compass needles spun around and around he was determined to root out the stroy all of them because they were so Unholy obviously he didn’t have much luck no the stroy got him first some treacherous boyars allowed a stroy Mort to slip through the window of his Palace one night and the poor chap was sliced open and completely drained of blood the compass needle suddenly stopped spinning and started to seesaw in between North Northeast I’m pretty sure the stroy Mort must have driven off I told Terren and Jill but there are still some other creatures not too far away bullet can smell them can’t you boy bullet growled in the back of his throat it’s quite a thing isn’t it asked Terrence bending over and peering at my stroy Compass how do it actually work look at the needle it’s made up of pearl copper and silver silver is highly sensitive to evil and moral impurity copper is responsive to lies and deception ask anybody who has ever taken a lie detector test and pearl goes dark when you expose it to hydrogen sulfide hydrogen sulfide that’s the principal gas given off when human beings start to decompose colly said Terren that makes it sound almost scientific doesn’t it I stared at him almost scientific my rear end he was talking about a theological tracking device invented and constructed by some of the leading intellects of the 17th century I didn’t argue about it though I had a job to do and very little time to do it in gradually nervy the needle began to settle down although it was still twitching from side to side whatever it had picked up it was still quite a long way off and the needle couldn’t seem to make up its mind exactly which way it wanted to point to me that meant that it had probably picked up more than one screecher and was dithering between the two as bullet was distance maybe a half mile Direction diagonally Northeast across the park across an Avenue of Pop and then a bright green playing field go on boy said Jill bullet circled around for a while sniffing and snorting and sneezing as if he had a head cold then without warning he tore off across the playing field bullet slow down boy bullet Jill ran after him and I jogged after Jill my metal kit banging painfully against my knees Terren had gone back to to his car and was slowly driving toward us up the Avenue of Popper’s even though Motor Vehicles weren’t allowed inside the park I could see two uniformed Park Keepers in the distance staring at him although they were too far away to make out the Expressions on their faces bullet shouted Jill bullet crossed the playing field to the other side and ran into a cops of horse chestnut trees at this time of the year the trees were dark green and heavy with pink Blossom and the ground beneath them was deeply shadowed Jill disappeared into the Gloom and I followed her bullet started barking again and this time he wouldn’t stop I had almost caught up with Jill now together we burst into a clearing amongst the trees and there was bullet barking and snarling and running from side to side oh God said Jill standing in the middle of the clear ing were four people a young man with short scruffed up hair and a pale bruised looking face wearing a torn sport coat and badly stained gray flannel pant a girl with gingery curls as pale and bruised as the boy she was plump about 17 years old and she was wearing a white summer dress with red and gray cats printed on it like the Siamese cats in lady in the but the the front of her dress was flooded with dark maroon blood the young man was standing behind a round-faced middle-aged woman with permanent waved hair the woman’s flower pot hat had been knocked a skew and she was panting hysterically not surprising the young man had one arm around her neck and he was holding a long wide-bladed kitchen knife right in front of her face the gingery haired girl was holding the wrist of a skinny young boy about eight or nine who was so frightened that he had wet his khaki shorts and could barely stand up the girl was holding a kitchen knife too and repeatedly prodded the boy in the chest and the shoulders with the point the boy kept whining ow ow ow ow I reached behind my back and lifted my Colt 45 out of its holster I held it up in both hands cocked it and took two steps closer you don’t need me to tell you what to do I announced I’m going to give you till 3 and then I’m going to kill you the young man looked at the gingery haired girl and then he looked back at me bucker off he told me not a hope pal you heard what I said I’m giving you a count of three and then I’m going to kill you one I thought I said bugger off the young man challenged me you did but I think you were under the misapprehension that even if I shot you I couldn’t kill you you’re a screecher after all a stoy V and as such you think you’re Immortal the young man frowned what do you know about it you tosser I know very much more than you do pal if my old friend Dua is running true to form the young man lowered his arm so that the point of his kitchen life was digging into the woman’s blouse just above her waistband a small spot of bright Scarlet blood appeared amongst the pattern of lime green leaves the woman whimpered and started to cry and helplessly opened and closed her hands the young man said I don’t know who you are mate and to be honest with you I don’t give a monkeys but if you don’t sling your o right now I’m going to get the right hump and do this poor old bag right in front of you two I told him and for your information the bullets in this gun were cast from the melted down goblets that were used by Christ’s disciples at the Last Supper not only that they’ve been plated with pure silver and rubbed with garlic from the pope summer Residence at Castel Gandolfo you’re having a bubble M you want to try me barel said the young man half turning toward the girl I took another step for forward I had never been Roy Rogers but at this distance I could have blown at least half of the young man’s face off without too much risk of hitting the middle-aged woman one I warned him at that moment the girl swung her elbow back and stabbed the little boy in the middle of his stomach the blow was so forceful that I could hear the chop as the blade went in without any hesitation the girl whipped the knife upward so that he was cut open from his belt to his chest the little boy let out a horrible high-pitched scream like a run over cat then he fell backward onto last Autumn’s leaves I fired once and hit the girl in the shoulder the bang of a 45 is absolutely deafening and disorienting too I fired again and hit her in the side lumps of red flesh flew off her hip and she rolled over backward and sideways just behind the boy she tried to get up so I shot her again blowing off her left kneecap Jim screamed Jill I swung around pointing my pistol at the young man but I was too late he had already thrust his knife into the middle-aged woman’s stomach right up to the hilt and her blood was running down his wrist and staining her skirt she was staring at me in pain and shock and for some reason I couldn’t help noticing the large brown mole on her upper lip as if she had suffered that that blemish all her life only to die like this I aimed at the young man’s head but he ducked down behind her I tried to dodge to the side but he swung her around as if he were dancing with her with the knife still buried in her stomach no matter which way I tried to get a clear shot at him he kept her between us Terrence I yelled I needed someone to outflank this young screecher and hid him from the Side Terrence where are you for Christ’s sake it was then that I turned to Jill she was standing under the trees her eyes wide holding on to bullet’s collar Jill set bullet on him Jill he’s going to kill her but it was too late the screecher yanked his knife upward and the woman’s intestines piled out onto the ground unraveling themselves like yards and yards of overcooked canalone the screecher turned and ran away through the woods and he was running so fast as that all I could see was a brief gray Shadow and a flurry of leaves there was no point in wasting a Last Supper bullet on him I turned around the gingery haired girl had gone as well did you see which way she went I asked Jill we have to call for an ambulance she told me her voice was jerky and erratic and she was trembling uncontrollably I gripped her arms and shook her did you see which way way she went the redhead send bullet after her they’re going to die said Jill she tried to turn around and stumble away but I wouldn’t let her listen Jill they’re probably dead already Terren will call an ambulance you and me we have to go after the screechers that’s what we’re here for she shook her head I can’t send bullet after those people I can’t I I can’t do this anymore I didn’t realize eyes Jill for Christ’s sake pull yourself together we have to get after them now no she said I can’t do this anymore I thought I could but I can’t I let her go there was nothing else I could do I couldn’t let bullet run after the screechers on his own and he certainly wouldn’t listen to me I walked over to the little boy his arms and legs were sprawled as if he were jumping into the air but he would never jump again he was white-faced and dead the woman moaned and I crossed over to see how she was her intestines were stuck all over with leaves and twigs and she was staring at them in despair pray for me she whispered I nodded every morning from now on until the day that I die I promise you you’re a strange bloke she said I didn’t answer her what can you answer when a dying woman says that to you hunt for the dead Charles frii was Furious he paced around his office throwing up his arms from time to time as if he were singing the finale to a grand opera you don’t know what it took to cover this up 17 dead people in a 403 bus a woman and a boy disembed in a public park this is worse than the Buster crab business the red phone rang and Charles fith picked it up what He barked even louder than bullet then oh oh sorry Home Secretary I leaned close to Terren and said Buster cra business as far as I knew Buster Krab was a movie actor with big muscles I think I’d seen him in some Third Rate Western bster Krab was a royal Navy diver said Terren hely it was obvious from the way he was talking out of the side of his mouth that the Buster crab business had been a serious embarrassment they found his body in chitest Harbor early last year no hands and his head fell off when they tried to lift him out of the water hey yes I nodded I think I read about that it was that time that K visited England wasn’t it and they thought this guy had been secretly diving under K’s ship that’s right said Terren uncomfortably that was MI6 perhaps possibly but you certainly didn’t hear it from me Charles frii banged the phone down it’s the daily mail again they’ve got hold of this bloody idiotic idea that MI6 has been secretly running some kind of mad scientist experiment turning our agents into sociopathic assassins and that some of them have escaped human killing machines on the loose sir David’s fluffing at the mouth sir David’s always frothing at the mouth said Terren I just want to know what the devil we do now said Charles Smith I mean what’s the plan Jim I thought we were going to track these buggers down and exterminate them before the press or the public got wind of what was going on that’s what I promised s David anywhere and if we can’t do it I need to know now it might be an idea to let the male run with their story about killing machines Terren suggested we can always prove them wrong later and it’s better than telling them that South London is infested with screechers forget about the Press relations I told him press relations won’t mean anything if we can’t locate the stoy Mort you’re talking about this fellow Dua it’s not a fellow sir I insisted it’s a thing we have to find it and destroy it and we have to do it real quick dua’s been infecting people much faster than I expected you only have to do the math I turned Charles F’s blotter around and joted on it with my mechanical pencil 17 people contain 170 pints of blood but the human stomach only has the capacity to swallow four pints at a time obviously Dua didn’t know in advance how many passengers were going to be riding on that bus and even if there were more than he and his fellow creatures needed it still would have been necessary for him to Kill Them All but if they did need 17 people we could be talking about 42 screechers here oh my God said Charles F this is out of control already isn’t it if you have 42 screechers in the South London suburbs and all of them are looking for eight or nine pints of fresh human blood three times in every 24 hours then yes this is out of control the green phone rang Charles fith picked it up and bellowed what he listened for a moment and then he said no commissioner absolutely not commissioner I’m sorry commissioner not a chance no and a very good day to you too he slammed the receiver down and said sir Kenneth bloody mlan they should demote that man back to Constable no cloak room attendant he sat down in his big leather armchair and swung from side to side breathing like a man who’d eaten a large lunch smoked a cigar and then run up eight flights of stairs eventually he said what’s it going to take to find this dooka fella a thing I mean I drew a few more lines on Charles fi’s plaughter when I was hunting down screechers after D-Day it was a totally different ball game we were attached to an advancing Army which was driving the screechers ahead of us but here well this is South London in peacetime we can’t go from Street to street searching every house we can’t ask the Royal Engineers to blow up buildings for us if we suspect that a couple of screechers are hiding in the Attic so what can we do we’ll have to use a combination of plain old-fashioned police work plus some inspired deduction plus well something else something else asked Charles frii suspiciously raising one Bramley eyebrow I guess you’d probably call it sorcery are they ult you mean Dennis Whitley kind of stuff the devil rides out dear God I can just hear myself explaining this to Sir David I hope you won’t have to sir but let’s make a start from what happened today it’s pretty clear that Dua has found himself an automobile we need to check any reports of stolen vehicles in that part of South London over the past 6 weeks but we also need to ask the public if they have seen a neighbor’s automobile not stolen but being regularly driven by somebody unfamiliar what are you getting at stoy Morty aren’t half rotten and sick looking like stgo V they look perfectly normal in fact they usually look better than normal but they’re dead and dead people find it difficult to rent or buy property because well they’re dead so they have a habit of killing other people and taking over their lives their homes their property even their clothes and usually they’re clever enough to do it without arousing suspicion so how do we get the public to help us I’m not really sure to tell you the truth maybe some kind of announcement in the newspapers I’ve got it said Terren we could tell the press that we’ve had an intelligence report from Washington they suspect that a KGB spy has moved into a flat or a house in South London and that he might be driving the car belonging to the previous occupier we could give out a special telephone number for the public to call we could even offer a reward Charles fith pulled a disapproving face in his opinion newspapers were only good for wrapping up Cod and chips but terrence’s idea was actually a pretty good one we were right in the depths of the Cold War and every day the Press was full of scaremongering stories about Soviet spies living amongst us leading what appeared to be commonplace lives and as we l discovered they actually were very well Charles fi told Terence why don’t you scribble something down on paper and see if you can have it on my desk by 5:00 I’ll talk to Sir Kenneth bloody mlan and see if he can get his beat chaps to start asking questions about people driving cars that they shouldn’t be what are you going to do Jim I looked at my watch the gold brightling that Louise had given me on our wedding day I have some persuading to do T for two Terren let me borrow his Humber and I drove back over Chelsea Bridge toward the south suburbs the sky was deep blue and streaked with Mar’s tails and it was so warm that I drove with all the windows open and my cows licked blowing the river temp sparkled in the sunlight like smashed mirrors I drove through the builtup center of Cen at an overheated crawl I hadn’t driven a manual shift for over 10 years so I kept stalling and kangaroo jumping and it took me over an hour to get to pearly by the time I turned into Kum Road my shirt was sticking to the leather seat and I was so thirsty that I could have drunk blood pearly was a prosperous suburb BB with huge 1930s houses concealed behind High Beach Hedges shining new Rovers were parked in every grael driveway and I could see tennis courts and gardeners clipping rose bushes and well-dressed children running around in Airtec shirts and white socks and sandals there was a tranquil air of summer heat and confidence and money I found the starlings at the end of Kum Road an enormous mock tutor house with glittering Ivy all down one wall and pigeons warbling on the roof I steered the Humber into the drive and parked outside the garages a middle-aged man in a droopy cotton sun hat was clipping the edges of the front lawn not that they looked as if they needed clipping the lawn itself was so perfectly kept that it looked unreal and striped like a pair of green silk pajamas I climbed out of the car and walked up to him shielding my eyes with my upraised arm I’m looking for Jill I told him oh yes my name’s Jim Falcon Captain James Falcon actually Jill and I have been working together yes I know about that well as much as I’m allowed to I’m her father he climbed up over the herbaceous border onto the driveway he had a squarish pugnacious face and a prick ly gray mustache is Jill home I asked him I really need to talk to her I don’t know if that’s a very good idea Captain fulan Jill came home in a state of considerable distress and we had to call the Family Doctor to give her a sedative I’m sorry she hasn’t told us what happened and of course we haven’t been pressing her to tell us because we’re aware that it’s extremely Hush Hush but if it’s good to have this kind of of an effect on her well we’re her family we have to put her personal well-being first before her work yes sir I can understand how you feel I know Jill’s extremely shocked and I’m sorry about that but this investigation we’re working on is critical we’re talking about people’s lives here sir maybe hundreds of people’s lives maybe even more well I’m really not sure I PA paed for a moment and then I said sir you saw action during the War I guess yes of course I was out in Burma you saw plenty of things that shocked and distressed you Al bet you saw people killed he blinked at me Captain fulcon are you trying to tell me what I think you’re trying to tell me I nodded what Jill and I have been doing together it’s just as important as what we did during the war in some ways even more so though because nobody’s prepared for it something to do with the bloody Russians I suppose I’m sorry I’m not allowed to tell you but I need her sir I need her expertise I need bullet The Situation’s getting more and more desperate by the day and she has to pull herself together I can’t say I’m altogether happy about it look at it this way sir and Jill also has to realize that her entire career could be in jeopardy I covered up for her this afternoon I told my boss that she took bullet to cin to follow up some new trails we found but if she won’t get back on the job they’ll probably have to demote her or even sack her her father lowered his head so that I couldn’t see his face under the brim of his sun hat all right he said I’ll see what I can do Jill was lying on a flowery chint sofa in the drawing room was lying on the rug next to her panting I thought you’d come sooner or later she said wly turned out to be sooner her eyes were swollen and there was a feverish pink flush on her cheeks she had pulled her hair back with a pale blue Alice band which made her look even younger like a sixth former from some upper class English girls school she was wearing a white cotton robe although her legs were covered by a silky throw with fringes I looked around the room traditional yet expensive with staffer figures of shepherdesses on the mantlepiece and oil paintings of gallions at Sea through the French windows I could see a yorkstone patio with cast iron garden furniture and Beyond to a tennis court where a 20-ish couple were shouting and laughing as they knocked the ball backward and forward over the net a clock discreet completely chimed too how are you feeling I asked better thanks a little woy the doctor gave me something to calm me down are you going to be coming back or is this your way of saying you quit she looked up at me and I could tell that she didn’t really know what to say I’ve seen dead bodies of course it’s part of the job but I’ve never seen anybody killed before not right in front of me so that’s it you quit at that moment the drawing room door opened and a middle-aged woman appeared wearing an orange silk dress she had the flat pretty face of a Burmese and there was no question where Jill had inherited her exotic looks from she came forward and held out her hand Maya foxley I’m Jill’s mother Jim falcan good to meet you is everything all right Mr falcan we were very worried when Jill came home in such a state I gave her a tight non-committal smile I know I’m sorry I wouldn’t have bothered you but Jill’s doing some very important work for us and and I just came to remind her how important I see Mrs foxley looked uneasy I don’t know if she was expecting me to explain myself any further but when it was obvious that I wasn’t going to she said would you like some tea chill and I talked for nearly an hour her mother brought in a plate full of Scottish shortbread called Petticoat tals and I ate about seven of them I hadn’t realized how hungry I was I tried not to push chilled too hard instead I encouraged her to think about what she had seen and why it had shocked her so much from my own experience during the War I knew that people can be much more distressed by tiny poigny than by Major tragedies the baby’s shoe lying in the ruins Jill said what I can’t get out of my head that stoy who killed the little boy she was a girl it never occurred to me that you could have female screechers too I put down my teacup sure you can they’re called stoa in some ways they’re supposed to be even more powerful than the M stoy according to the folk stories they can turn your butter rancid stop your cows from giving milk ruin your Harvest even ruin your marriage they sound horrendous horendous that one we saw she was horrendous well she was still alive and physically decomposing which didn’t make her very attractive but once they’re dead or Undead rather the strio AA is suppose to be very alluring some of the stories even say that they can fall in love with human men and have children who are half human and half stoy they’re still just as dangerous of course they still need fresh human blood so you wouldn’t want them living in your neighborhood Jill said I couldn’t help thinking what if that happened to me I think that was what I was afraid of more than anything else first of all that’s not going to happen to you because Dua is not going to catch you unawares the way it did with those poor people second of all if it did I would immediately know what had happened to you and I would Hammer Nails into your eyes cut your head off and bury your body in consecrated ground so you’d have nothing to worry about for the first time that afternoon Jill actually smiled she reached out her hand to me and touched my shirt sleeve I’m sorry she said I’ve really let you down haven’t I your stiff upper lip went a little floppy that’s all I came around to starch it for you so what do we do now I think we need to take bullet back to the park and follow Any Trail that the screechers left behind them I very much doubt that they would have gone straight back to the place where Duke is hiding but if we can find out where their hold up they’re bound to make contact with him before too long all right then um just give me 10 minutes to get dressed she stood up I hadn’t realized how short she was without her shoes I’ll wait for you I said and nodded toward the tea tray I’ll um take care of these cookies as she left her mother came back in and gave me that look that only mothers can give you when you’re taking their daughter away bindes road we drove bullet back to bedington park the woods where the middle-aged woman and the little boy had been killed were already screened off with 10t high sackings and signs saying Metropolitan Police no entry I took the kit out of the trunk of the car and then we showed our identity cards to three sweating Bobbies in shirt sleeves who allowed Us in inspector Ruck was still there looking even closer to detonation than before oh it’s you he said what the devil do you want want we’re going to be following Any Trail that the perpetrators may have left behind them about Bloody time I wanted to get the Dogs Out hours ago but believe it or not I was countermanded he pronounced countermanded as if it were one of the most disgusting words in the English language like mucus yes sir I know I said trying to calm him down but that only made his eyes bulge and his nostrils flare even more widely I have to say though that I loved apoplectic Englishmen like him especially if they were on my side they were like hand grenades with the pin out morning till night Jill let bullet off the leash and he scampered off through the woods I gave inspector Ruck a half-hearted salute and then I followed bullettin Jill carrying my kit Madness I heard inspector Ruck protest bloody ludicy the whole bloody thing in the clearing we found two forensic scientists from the Metropolitan Police laboratory at Hen still raking through the leaves and taking photographs okay if we play through I asked them one of them stood up and took out a pipe actually old boy we’ve just about finished here no Footprints but plenty of blood samples if you catch the blighters we should be able to to match them for you he lit up his pipe and he was sucking at it furiously when his companion came over holding up his tweezers George have a deco at this I thought he was showing us a leaf at first a curled up shred of something pale and wobbly with turquoise tinged edges George took out his pipe and peered at it human skin he said almost at once I suddenly thought of the shots that I had fired at the ginger-haired girl and the lumps of Flesh that had sprayed out of her arm that’s green said chill of course which tells us that the owner of this particular piece of skin must have been dead for at least 24 hours I looked at Jill and gave her the slightest Shake of my head she looked back at me wide eyed don’t say a word about scates odd said George you haven’t had any earlier reports of any missing persons in this area have we not that I know of I told him but take that piece of skin back to your laboratory would you and preserve it we might need it for evidence later George said what’s going on here I really get the feeling that we’re being kept in the dark yes you are and for a very good reason George took out his pipe again it’s not very helpful you know when they keep us in the dark hard to know what we’re supposed to be looking for you’re looking for anything that doesn’t seem to be natural like that piece of skin H said George frowning around the clearing as if he had lost something important bullet picked up the screecher trail almost immediately and began to trot ahead of us with his nose down he led us to the edge of the park and out into the Suburban streets again heading back in the direction of Cen Aerodrome every now and then we found spots of blood on the sidewalk which indicated that the ginger-haired girl must have been pretty seriously wounded Jill said another thing I always thought that vampires could only come out at night you’re thinking about the NOS sparatu like Dracula and all the vampires you see in the movies the stoy are different they have some similarities but they’re more like distant cousins the thing is the stroy were isolated for hundreds of years in the forests and mountains and small village communities in Romania and because of that they became very inbred and they developed different strengths and different weaknesses they can walk around in sunlight which the NOS veratu can’t do and they can eat normal food and like I say there’s even a legend that female creatures can even conceive how can a dead woman give birth to a live baby search me how can a dead woman walk around at all but when a stgo v becomes a stoy Mort there’s a radical change in its body chemistry it becomes I don’t know like liquid mercury and smoke it can walk on ceilings and it can pass through a gap only an inch wide which is why the people in Romania always close their windows at night even in the summer yeah look said Jill bullet had reached a red mailbox at the corner of the street what the British call a pillar box the female screecher must have leaned against for a while because there were splatters of Blood on the asphalt pavement all around it and a smear of Blood on the white enamel plaque which gave the times of maale collections I hope she hasn’t gone too much further I said we had already walked over a mile and a half and we were close to the perimeter of the aerodrome but bullet turned around and barked at us and so we continued we climbed a grassy Hill next to the main area field where young children were flying kites and kicking footballs from here we could see all the way across Cen with its Victorian Town Hall Tower and even as far as the city of London and the Dome of St Paul’s it could have been idilic Earth has not anything to show more fair if we hadn’t been following that dogged black labrador on the trail of stoy as we crossed the grass chill said to me I was wondering how you started chasing screechers it’s rather a funny choice of career don’t you think hey I’m not a professional screecher Chaser my real job is giving cultural advice to businessmen you know if American Executives want to know how they should behave when they sell their products in Belgium say or Greece or India I tell them what the protocol is in India for instance nobody ever says no you want something they don’t have they always tell you tomorrow so why screeches my mother’s fault most of all she was Romanian she told me all about the stoy when I was little and when I went to college I did a whole lot of research into them without really meaning to I became something of an international expert is is your mother still alive I shook my head I didn’t want to talk about my mother just now I didn’t want Jill to know how intent I was on hunting down Dua and destroying it and why in any case anger was unprofessional anger could lead to fatal mistakes bullet led us across the field and back into crowded residential streets soon I found out that we were walking down a street that I recognized ized it was the same street where the birthday party Massacre had taken place we passed the same house and the same Victorian church and soon we were back on the busy main road just opposite the Red Deer Pub I would have given 5 lbs for a beer right then even a warm one but of course the Pub’s doors were closed we passed a small parade of shops a Barbers and a chemists and a sweet shop outside the Sweet Shop there was a color poster for the curse of Frankenstein starring Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing showing next week at the Regal Cinema I can’t stand horror films said Jill and then she looked at me with a self-deprecating smile I’m really not very good for this job am I Jill nobody’s good for this job believe me but some poor sucker has to do it you’re doing fine Jill bent down to take hold of bullet’s collar and we crossed the main road on the other side the streets were even narrower and the houses were smaller and closer together orange brick Victorian houses with black slate roofs we walked up a short Steep Hill into Bin’s road which backed on to the main London to Brighton railroad line we were only halfway up the road when just above the rooftops a pman Express train flew past with its distinctive Brown and cream carriages and pink table lamps shining in every window whoosh bang a decompression of air and it was gone that was the Brighton Bell said Jill London to Brighton in 60 minutes flat and a good lunch too well we’ll have to do that one day you and me when this is all over and paddle in the sea yes she said that would be lovely bullet continued to sniff his way along the sidewalk but then I said grab his collar Jill look about a 100 yard further up the street a glossy black Armstrong sidley Saloon was parked apart from a 10-year-old Morris and a motorcycle it was the only vehicle in the straet and it was far more expensive than anything that the people around here could have afforded well over $44,000 new I would have guessed bullet whined and strained but Jill pulled him back across the street and we took shelter in the doorway of a small laundry on the corner the woman behind the counter looked at us oddly but didn’t come to ask us why two grown people and the dog were playing hide and go seek in the front of her shop we waited over 10 minutes and then the front door of the house opened after a further pause a tall gray haired man in a gray suit appeared he was too far away for me to be able to see his face clearly but he had a very upright bearing and he was carrying a cane he opened the garden gate and as he did so he turned back to the house as if he were saying something to the occupant then he climbed into the Armstrong Sidle and drove off bullet made another strangled noise as if he were disappoint pointed that the man had gone I’ll bet money that was Dua I said well we have his registration number said Jill all we have to do now is get the Ministry of Transport to look it up for us NLT 683 I’ll call Terren then I want to take a look at that house I went into the laundry and asked the woman if she had a phone I could use of course she said is every everything all right oh sure my girlfriend and I are just playing a trick on somebody it’s his birthday oh said the woman blinking at me then you’re American aren’t you as if that explained why I was behaving so strangely when the MI6 operator put me through to Terren he sounded distracted I gave him the license number of Duke’s Car and told him that I’d call him back later but teren on no account take any action even when you found out who the car belongs to don’t worry old man I wouldn’t have the first idea we walked up Bin’s Road toward the house it had a peeling Brown painted front door and a knocker in the shape of Mr punch the tiny front garden was covered over with concrete but dandelion were growing up between the cracks I tried to see into the front window but a pair of sagging net curtains were drawn across it and all I could make out was the sunlight shining in the backyard in Louisville they would have called this a shotgun house in the sense that you could fire a shotgun in through the front door and the pellets would go clear through the house without touching anything the front door of the adjoining house opened and an elderly woman appeared wearing a flowery summer dress that appeared to have been modeled on a bell tent and wrinkled red socks from the open door I could hear Diana playing on the radio I’m so young and you’re so old the elderly woman made a flemy noise in her throat and said If you’re looking for the Browns mate they’ve been poorly really when was the last time you saw them three days ago the doctor’s been around twice a day he even came around in the middle of the night I asked him what was wrong with him and he said mentis was that their doctor the guy in the black sedan that’s right he’s not their usual doctor though they usual doctors Dr Bedford I suppose he’s on his holidays Dr Bedford yes I imagine he is well thank you for telling us the elderly woman didn’t appear to be in any hurry to go back back into her house she said I go to Dr cotr myself she’s a woman doctor you don’t want to go to a man doctor at my age I’ll get this rash on me legs see I see we thought we were going to be delayed there for hours talking about the woman’s skin problems but after 2 or 3 minutes a younger woman appeared at her front door and told her that her tea was getting cold so she went inside I said thank God the British can’t survive for more than 10 minutes without a cup of tea I think there’s somebody in the living room said Jill I saw a shadow moving across toward the door I shielded my eyes with my hand and she was right there was definitely somebody in the house moving around although it was impossible to tell what they were doing I decided to go in cold normally I would have made sure that we had covered the back of the house but the railroad embankment was very Steep and trains were rattling past every 3 or 4 minutes some of them at 50 or 60 M an hour and even a screecher would have thought twice about trying to escape that way I opened the garden gate and went up to the front door it may have been bolted on the other side but the main lock was only a cheap Yale I turned my back on it and at the same time I reached behind me and took out my gun Jill said nothing but held on to bullet’s collar and waited don’t let bullet go I warned her these bastards are capable of breaking his neck without blinking and once I’m inside bring my kit in will you as quick as you can all right said Jill apprehensively I had started to count to three 1 two when I heard the young man’s voice inside the house who’s there is there somebody outside barel there’s somebody outside I can smell them without any more hesitation I kicked backward and the door burst open I barged into the hall and hurled myself sideways so that I virtually bounced off the wall there were three or four coats hanging up and for one desperate moment I was entangled in empty sleeves as if the Coats were trying to catch hold of me but then I fought my way out of them and pushed my way into the living room the young man we had seen in the park was standing in the far corner behind The Frayed brown couch lying on the couch was the gingery headed girl with its knee heavily bandaged the living room was stuffy and hot and there was a sickening smell of putrescent Flesh and dried herbs the unmistakable stench of screechers chill I yelled pointing my gun at them with both hands get in here now what do you think you’re going to do with that the young man sneered at me kill us we’ll suck you empty said the gingery haired girl you and your girlfriend and your bleeding dog there was no doubt where the piece of skin in the park had come from the girl’s face had a pale greenish tinge to it and its eyes were already already starting to milk over it was very close to becoming a stoy Mort Jill came in with my kit bullet was close behind her eager to get at the two screechers but Jill said stay bullet and he reluctantly waited in the hallway panting his tail thumping against the umbrella stand keeping my gun pointed at the young man I went down on one knee and opened up my kit the young man started to come around the side of the couch and as it did so it took his kitchen knife out of its belt I’m going to split you wide open mate and there’s nothing you can do to stop me I was reluctant to shoot it for one thing I didn’t want the neighbors to call the police for another thing I had only six Last Supper bullets left and I wanted to conserve them the young man came up to me crouching slightly holding out its knife and grinning like most creatures it thought that it was Immortal and that even if I shot it it would survive I think that’s near enough son I warned it out of my case I lifted the Bible with the Ashwood cover and the silver crucifix and held it up in front of it immediately it turned its face away as if I had Shone a blinding light in its eyes the gingery haired girl clamped both her hands over its face and cried out what’s that Mickey what’s that I’ll tell you what this is this is the first Bible that was translated into Romanian for sherban kakuzo of wakia when he swore to rid his country of Unholy Vermin like you take it away the girl screamed at me take it away it’s hurting my eyes the young man raised one hand to protect its face and started to Edge its way toward me again but then I handed the Bible to Jill and said open it where it’s bookmarked and hold it up high she took the Bible and found the faded Red Ribbon then she opened it wide and held it up it was marked at revelation 20ce both screeches found it almost impossible to see when I had first used this Bible on a screecher during World War II I hadn’t been able to believe that the word of God could have such a blinding effect on them but they were totally Unholy and it did it was like throwing salt on slugs I shoved my gun back into its holster and took out my silver wire whip I made Jill take a step backward toward the door and then I lashed it sideways so that it wound itself around the young man’s chest pinning H arms I gave the whip a sharp yank and the young man fell onto the worn out carpet struggling and swearing what have you done to me you bastard what have you done you never forget how to restrain a screature after you’ve done it often enough you could almost do it in your sleep kneel on its chest pass its thumbs together with the silver thumb screws then drag off its rancid shoes and fasten its big toes together until you hear the screws crunch into the bones the gingery headed girl kicked and wrestled me too but for a screecher it was very weak I must have heard it badly when I shot it and Jill helped me by holding the Bible right in front of its turquoise mtled face so that it was completely dazzled when I had tightened up their thumb screws and toe screws I pulled the young man so that it was sitting upright and Unwound the whip then I dragged the girl off the couch so that it was sitting upright too back to back and I wound the whip around both of them so hard that it was cutting into their arms Jill looked at me and I could see that she was Disturbed you’re going to regret this you bastard the young man told me not as much as you are sunshine you see how British I was becoming and I’d only been there a couple of days especially if you don’t tell me what I need to know I’m not telling you nothing you can eing f off I want to know where dooka is that’s all Mickey will spit you wide open and I’ll drink you dry the girl spat at me um I don’t don’t think so you seem to be laboring under the misapprehension that I can’t kill you the truth is I can and I’m going to Jill was still holding up the Bible I said it’s okay Jill you can put that down now the only way these characters are getting out of here is in a sack she slowly closed the Bible and put it back into my kit you’re not really going to kill him of course they’re half dead already but I need some information first why should we tell you anything said the young man if you’re going to kill us anyway what’s the effing difference the difference is that if you don’t tell me what I want to know I’m going to hurt you both very badly Joe said Jim can I talk to you outside if that’s all right sure these two aren’t going any place she went out into the front garden I could see that she was very agitated bullets stayed close to her and kept looking up at her anxiously Jim they told me that you were going to kill the screeches when you found them but I never realized that it was going to be like this I didn’t know what to say she was a lovely and sensitive young woman and I really didn’t want to distress her but she had to realize that we were hunting some of the most disgusting parasites on the face of the Earth and there was no easy or humane way of Exterminating them listen I said why don’t you go back to that laundry and call Terren for me again tell him where we are and tell him that we’re going to need an unmarked van he’ll know what you mean I don’t know how you can do this she said if it’s any consolation neither do I how long do you need give me 10 minutes okay if they’re going to talk that should be long enough and if they don’t the curse of Dua the two screechers looked up at me as I came back into the house and I don’t think that I’ve ever seen such hatred on any creature’s face human or not you you still don’t want to answer my questions I asked them all I need to know is where Dua is hiding himself and how many people he’s infected you can kill us but we won’t die said the young man contemptuously you can even cut our heads off and we won’t die oh yes I know that but that can only happen if your body is able to escape from the place where I put it and your head is still reasonably intact since I’m going to bury your bodies in consecrated ground and I’m going to boil your heads until there’s nothing left of your brains but soup which I’m going to pour down the drain there isn’t much chance of that happening Dua will find you and Dua will make sure that you suffer duka doesn’t have to worry about finding me I’m going to find it first I have a score to settle with dooka well we’re not going to help you find him said the gingery haired girl you want a bet I asked it I went to the windows which Overlook the backyard and pulled down The Grubby net curtains then I came back and wrapped the curtains around the screechers heads what are you doing you TSA the young man said spitting to get the net curtain out of its mouth guy Fox Knight just came early I told it what I took the holy oil out of my kit unstoppered it and poured it over their wrapped up heads bloody hell that burns the young man shouted tossing its head violently from side to side the girl didn’t say anything but sucked in its breath because the oil hurt so much I took a box of swan Vestas and struck one holding it up in front of them so that they could see the flame now do you want to tell me where Dua is hiding you’re mad you are the young man screamed I’m not going to tell you nothing the choice is yours buddy how about you sweetheart are you going to tell me where dooka is go to hell the girl retorted its voice muffled under the Nets in that case you don’t leave me any alternative the match had burned right down to my fingers and I had to blow it out and take out another one at that moment though Jill came back into the living room she looked wide-eyed at the two screechers with the net curtains wrapped around their heads but she didn’t ask me what I was doing instead she said I’ve just spoken to Terren he’s identified the car well that’s good news for these two comparatively speaking Jill had written the car owner’s address on the back of a laundry bill it belongs to Dr Norman Watkins The Laurels pampisford Road South Cen he’s in general practice but most of his patients are private so I wonder what a stoy Mort is doing driving his car around Terren is leaving now he’s going to collect his car from bedington Park and then he’s coming over here with a van he says that he shouldn’t be more than an hour that’s plenty of time do you want to take bullet for a walk while I do the necessary Jill said all right come on bullet but when she reached the door she hesitated do you have to do this I mean is there really no other way come on Jill you saw for yourself what these two jokers are capable of and once they become stroy Morty they’ll spread their infection like wildfire can’t they be given a proper trial chill Justice is a human right these godamn things are halfway to losing their Humanity already duka will drain your blood even if we can’t said the gingery head girl I promise you that you piece of I promise both of you what your language I told it smoke and mirrors parents arrived just after 5:00 p.m. followed closely by a dark blue Austin van Jill and I were sitting on the low brick wall in front of the house with the mid August sun in our eyes the van was driven by a whiet thin man in a brown boiler suit with a sharp purple nose and hair that stuck up at the back of his head His companion was big and Silent with a blue shaved head and a scar under his nose where his hair lip had been sewn up without a word the two of them opened the back doors of the van and carried two folded up coal sacks into the house Terren went in after them and came out almost immediately looking quasy my God Jim nobody said that it was pleasant I know but all the same he pressed his hand over his mouth and held it there for a while his eyes watering my God I wish I hadn’t had those sausages for lunch Mickey and Barrel hadn’t been easy to kill especially since I was on my own and I wasn’t nearly as young and as fit as I used to be during the war the only way to kill them together was to force Barrel face down onto the floor with Mickey on top of her facing upward even though they were both restrained they still twisted and fought and cursed and I had to wedge their shoulders underneath the legs of a dining chair to keep them still I hammered each nail directly into Mickey’s eye sockets and at 9 in they were just long enough to penetrate the back of Barrel’s skull too which was sufficient to numb her then I got out my saw and cut through their necks leaving both of their heads in the kitchen sink the driver and His companion came shuffling out of the house with one of the sacks swaying heavily between them Terren winced and looked in the opposite direction what do you plan to do about duka he asked go after it I told him but this isn’t something we can Rush Tuk is going to be a hell of a lot Wier than these two and much more difficult to nail down we need to do some reconnaissance first what’s your suggestion well it’s posing as a doctor isn’t it so oh let’s make a doctor’s appointment pampisford Road was a 3M Long Avenue that ran along the east side of Cen Aerodrome most of its houses had been built in the mid 1930s large detached residences hidden behind Laurel Hedges but they weren’t as opulent as Jill’s parents house and most of them weren’t nearly so wellmaintained their front Gates were sagging on their hinges and their Gardens were overgrown with weeds we parked on the grass Verge about 50 yards away from the Laurels and walked the rest of the way leaving bullet in the car on the gate post there was a tarnished brass name plate with the name Dr Norman Watkins F frcs general practitioner engraved on it beyond the gate there was a shingled driveway where Dr Watkins Armstrong Sidle was parked the house was Pebble dashed and painted white although the pebble Dash was Gray from years of weathering and there was a bright green streak of damp down one wall where the guttering was broken I said you can see why Dua chose a practice like this Dr Watkins was running it single-handed and from the looks of things he was probably pretty old he wouldn’t have been able to put up much of a fight what’s the plan then asked Terren the windows of the house were black and curtainless and the interior looked deeply forbidding with dark antique furniture and mirrors on the walls in the dining room mirror we could see ourselves standing in the driveway our faces pale and distorted like Reflections in a lake why don’t you keep watch from the road I told Terren Jill and I will go in and try to see Dua you’re actually going to go in and talk to him it I corrected him never forget that it’s an it but yes we can make out that we’re just about to get married and we need some information on birth control Jill looked at me and gave me a nervous smile well I said we don’t want a whole lot of baby Falcons around do we not just yet do you need your kit asked Terren I shook my head this is a wrecky after all but if you hear any gunfire bring it in and bring it in quick Terren retreated to the side walk just outside the Laurels standing behind the Hedge and lighting a cigarette Jill and I crunched over the shingle to the maroon painted front door there was another brass sign on it polished this time which said kindly enter I turned the door knob and we went inside the house was stuffy as if nobody had opened a window in a very long time and there was an underlying smell of boiled fish the hallway was tiled in a dime pattern of black and white with a hideous oak coat stand and four or five dead flies lying on their backs on the Windows Hills a doorway to the left hand side was open and I could hear typing I went in and Jill followed me a middle-aged woman in a pale green tailored suit was sitting very upright at a desk her head slightly raised so that she could see through the lower half of her bifocal spectacles pecking away at a huge huge black typewriter opposite her stood a row of Bentwood chairs and a low table with a collection of doged magazines on it John Bull and The Illustrated London news and Horse and Hound the woman looked up and said sharply can I help you as if helping us was the last thing she wanted to do I um we don’t have an appointment but we were wondering if we could see Dr Watkins I’m afraid surgery finished half an hour ago and in any case Dr Watkins is away it’s just that this is the last chance we’ll get before Saturday I gave Jill an indulgent smile and took hold of her hand we’re getting married and there were one or two things we wanted to talk about you know personal things are you regular patients of Dr Watkins I’m afraid I’m only temporary myself oh sure I mean my fiance is Dr Watkins helped to deliver her so I’m sure that he’d want to help her as much as he could well all right I’ll ask Dr duka if he can see you he’s the locom that would be great it’s just that we want to make absolutely sure that you know we don’t have any little surprises God I must have sounded dumb who shall I say asked the receptionist clicking down the switch of her intercom Mr Billings and miss erskin the receptionist leaned forward and shouted there’s a Mr Billings and a miss kin here doctor they’re going to be married on Saturday and they were wondering if they could have a word she didn’t really need an intercom I was sure that Dua must have been able to hear her across the corridor there was a moment’s silence and then I heard duk’s voice for the very first first time and I felt as if centipedes were crawling over my shoulders of course why don’t you ask them to come through Suave measured with that distinctive Romanian accent that reminded me of all the other stoy morti I had encountered I almost felt that the past 12 years had shrunk away completely the receptionist led us across the hallway to a door marked private she knocked and showed us in my heart was beating in slow painful thumps as if I had been running for my life Dua was standing by the window looking out over the back Garden it was very tall over 6′ 3 and it was wearing an Immaculate light gray suit with a dark gray shirt underneath it and a white starched collar its gray silk necktie was tied to just a little more flamboyantly than the average Englishman would have tied it in those days and its gray combed back hair was just a little longer than the average Englishman would have allowed it to grow so that it curled over its collar at the back it had a single Diamond sparkling in the lobe of his left ear which the average Englishman would have thought was incontestable proof of homosexuality not only that it was wearing some kind of lilac colog at a time when even Old Spice was considered a little suspicious but like most regy Morty it was devastatingly handsome even in my eyes and I detested Tuka more than anything alive or dead its face was angular with hooded seag green eyes and a sharp straight nose its straw was clearly defined and it had lips of extraordinary sensuality as if it had just finished giving a woman the most intimate kiss imaginable and had not yet wiped its mouth the girl at the house in skiler Strat had been right it strongly resembled a male incarnation of Milena dri it turned away from the window and smiled at us behind it in the garden I could see a dilapitated Pergola so wildly overgrown with creepers that it looked as if it were infested with green snakes beside it stood a marble statue of a pensive woman holding a water jug so you are to be married said Dua it turned its head toward me but it never once took its eyes off chill you are a very lucky man Mr Billings John Billings and your very desirable bride to be Katherine ersin Catherine I yes in my country you would be called Katherine which means pure you are an extremely beautiful woman cine you deserve many years of Joy thank you said Jill although Dua was being so absurdly flirtatious I had the feeling that in a way she was enjoying it its voice was so mellow and yet it had an air of intense danger about it that was both alarming and attractive at the same time it gave me the same sensation as standing too close to the edge of a cliff for some reason I always feel insanely tempted to throw myself over why don’t you both sit down it had asked us then you can tell me what it is that you wish to know when sat down in two leathered armchairs facing dukas’s desk or rather Dr Norman Watkins desk because it had Dr Watkins name plate on it and the cpf photograph of a rather overweight family standing by a seaw wall somewhere Dua eased itself into a highback chair and tilted itself back still keeping its eyes fixed on Jill we were wondering about birth control said Jill and blushed either she was a very good actress or else she was genuinely embarrassed we are not at all sure what the best method is well you are both mature adults capable of deciding what your priorities are Dua replied are you looking for complete safety or are you looking for unmitigated pleasure both I hope I told him but dooka still didn’t look at me Dua raised his eyebrows no method of course is foolproof but there are four different ways in which you can lessen the risk of conception the occlusive cap sometimes known as the Dutch cap which would cover the neck of your desirable young lady’s womb and prevent the entry of spermatozoa the sheath or condom which would prevent spermatozoa from entering your desirable young lady at all then there are chemical pessaries or Solutions which kill the spera on contact you can practice quite as interruptus withdrawing yourself from your desirable young lady immediately prior to ejaculation or you can try the Rhythm method whereby you should only have intercourse with your desirable young lady during that time of the month when she is not oating the way in which its tongue lingered around the words your desirable young lady would have really raised my hackles if I had genuinely been intending to marry Jill but all I did was nod and say uh-huh I see as if I were taking this all very seriously and didn’t realize how lubriciously it was talking to her it’s difficult to decide isn’t it said Jill which method do you personally recommend well said Dua the Rhythm method of course is the best for natural pleasure but it is very unreliable for contraceptive purposes Kus interruptus is also unreliable in that some spermatozoa can escape prior to ejaculation or the husband may not be prompt enough in his withdrawal also somewhat messy the sheath sounds the most effective to me I put in for the first time Dua really looked at me you may think so my dear sir but it is only effective if you can be relied upon to wear one is there any reason why I shouldn’t I’ve always used one before perhaps one night you may have drunk too much wine and forget perhaps one night you may decide that you are tired of sheaths that they diminish your pleasure after all what does it matter to you you are not the one who will have to carry the child and go through the agony of Labor well no I guess not in my opinion the Dutch cap is the best protective because your desirable young lady herself will ensure that she always fits it Dua lifted its thumb and two fingers as if it were folding a Dutch cap prior to insertion it was one of the most sexually suggestive gestures I had ever seen anyone make uh where can I get one asked Jill do they sell them at the chemists no no your doctor has first to measure your cervix so that you have the correct size then he has to demonstrate to you how to insert the Dutch cap so that it snugly seals the neck of your womb usually I insist that my young ladies insert it for themselves at home and then visit the surgery so that I can ensure they have learned how to fit it correctly Jill looked at me her eyes wide and the look on her face said absolutely not I cleared my throat and said that was uh very enlightening doctor thank you I think you’ve told us just about everything we need to know maybe my fiance and I should go away now and talk this over between ourselves of course said duka but you are to be married in only a few days time so if your desirable young lady has need of my services it would be better if you made your decision sooner rather than later sure I said and stood up as I did did so however Dua looked at me again and this time its sea green eyes narrowed a little and a crease appeared in the middle of its forehead as if it had suddenly remembered something you know my dear sir it’s very strange you remind me very much of somebody I once knew well I do Dua nodded I can’t quite put my finger on it it’s in your expression you don’t have any Romanian blood in you do you me my parents were Irish Irish it’s still very strange I have a long memory for faces and your face it’s so much like this person I knew can’t help you I’m afraid I told him but he kept on staring at me and I was convinced that he could see my mother looking out of my eyes Night Fever at around 6 that evening the sky clouded over from the west and it grew so dark that Terren had to drive with his headlights on rain began to fall on the window shield big fat drops as warm as blood we drove moved to Jill’s House in perly and Terren parked in the driveway we had decided that there was no point in my going all the way back to Central London so Jill had invited me to stay over Terren would find me a local bed and breakfast in the morning and have my cases brought down Charles fi had arranged with inspector Ruck for a watch to be kept on The Laurels throughout the night the police would alert us immediately if duka left the house and follow it although they were under strict instructions not to attempt to stop it if they did they wouldn’t stand a chance what’s next then asked Terrence tugging on the parking break we need to get into The Laurels sometime during the day when Duke is out what I’m looking for is his wheel the Talisman that he wears around his neck why’ you want that two reasons when a live screecher becomes a dead screecher its physiology changes it can slide through the narrowest of gaps and it can run so fast that you can barely see it but it has very poor night vision the wheel has properties which realign the rods and the cones in its eyes so that it can see in the dark but if duka wears it around its neck said Jill it doesn’t not during the day if it did its eyes would be much too sensitized and it would practically be blinded especially if the sun came M if we can find duk’s wheel and take it duka is absolutely certain to come looking for it and I suppose we’ll be waiting for it when it does you’ve got it we’ll catch it in a sealed and darkened room so that it won’t be able to see us and it won’t be able to escape then what we’ll tie it up nail it down decapitate it and dispose of the body just like the other creatures the only difference between external minating aive screecher and a dead screecher is that the dead one’s bodies have to be cut into four pieces and each piece has to be buried well away from the others Terren looked queasy Jill said I don’t have to be there when you kill it do I not unless you want to it’s dangerous and it’s pretty damn disgusting and the dead ones usually scream blue murder in that case I think I’ll pass as we went into the house lightning flickered over the trees at the end of the garden followed by an indigestive Rumble of Thunder Jill’s mother was in the dining room wearing an emerald green sari and setting the table for dinner her father was in the living room standing in front of the fireplace Captain falcan good evening perhaps I can offer you a sniffer I’ll have a scotch if that’s okay he went over to a large drinks cabinet and opened it I’ve just been given some very palatable single malt as a matter of fact that sounds very palatable he handed me a heavy cut crystal glass brimming with whiskey I didn’t usually drink this much alcohol in a week Jill’s mother has been having a bit of a word with her said Jill’s father leaning forward confidentially and lowering his voice to make sure that Jill and her mother couldn’t hear him oh yeah yes it turns out that Jill’s rather taken with you oh I didn’t realize but what she has to understand is I suppose it’s partly the danger that she finds attractive women do don’t they they get star eyed about racing drivers and test pilots and Mountaineers and such like I’m afraid I’m not doing anything nearly as glamorous as that well well whatever it is it certainly had an effect on our Jill or so her mother tells me she was very upset about what you were doing no question about it but she was even more upset that she might not have the gumption to go on working with you oh I see I’m sorry but I think she needs to know that Jill’s father lifted his hand all I’m saying to you old boy is that I’d appreciate it if you didn’t take it advantage of her no offense meant but I’m her father and obviously I have to have her best interests at heart of course I totally understand good man just thought that it would be better to get things straight I sipped my whiskey and Jill’s father was right it was very palatable and I began to feel much more relaxed but I couldn’t help asking myself why I hadn’t quite managed to admit that I was married dinner was strange but very good I had never eaten any kind of Curry before and this was a Burmese curry with fishy tasting rice and chicken simmered in coconut and a bewildering selection of pickled vegetables and fried chilies and chopped cilantro leaves we I out of small decorative bowls and drank very cold light ale making a toast every time we took a drink here’s to International friendship here’s the bullet here’s to Harold McMillan Jill’s parents asked me about my family and my life in Connecticut but they assiduously avoided the subject of what I was doing here in England and why I needed Jill and bullet to help me Jill’s always had such a passion for dogs said her mother I’ll show you some of her Kennel Club trophies after supper I’d like that I said you can take it from me that what she and bullet are doing for me it’s invaluable I only wish I could tell you what it is well it was the same during the war said Jill’s father careless talk costs lives and all that kind of thing have some more of those noodles they’re absolutely top hole Jill’s mother showed me to a large bedroom on the third floor with slow ceilings and a window that overlooked the tennis court it was decorated with red and gold Regency striped wallpaper and all the furniture was antique I took a bath and then I lay on the bed in a blue toweling robe that they had let me reading one of the books that were stacked on top of the bureau a crime novel called the Tiger in the Smoke by margorie allingham the smoke in the title referred to London I suddenly felt very tired and very alone I had tried to book a telephone call to Louise after dinner but after 45 minutes the international operator had come back to say that there was no chance of my being able to talk to the United States until the early hours of the morning I had thought about trying to call my father too it was his 61st birthday in a week’s time but I wasn’t sure how I was going to talk to him now that I knew that he had told me the truth about my mother’s death I very much doubted that the counterintelligence people in Washington had given him the full details of how she died but he must have known that she was on some kind of secret mission my eyes started to close when I opened them again my watch said 10 after midnight and I was still lying on the bed with the bedside light on with the book open in front of me I roll p over and put the book aside and I was just about to turn off the light when I heard floorboards creaking outside my door immediately I pulled my gun out from under my pillow pointed it directly at the center of the door and cocked it screes aren’t easily deceived especially the dead ones some of whom are 20 or even 30 Generations old if Dua had managed to remember who I looked like then the chances were that had worked out why I was here and why I had paid it a visit there was a cautious knock Jim it’s chill are you still awake I swung myself off the bed went to the door and opened it and Jill was standing out in the corridor wearing a short white baby doll night dress are you okay I asked her not really I was wondering if we could talk for a bit I peered out onto the The Landing what about your parents I don’t want to ruffle any feathers here oh they’re dead to the world they always go to bed early and you saw how much whiskey daddy puts away maybe it could wait till the morning I won’t be able to sleep okay then I opened the door wider and it was then that she saw my gun her eyes widened what’s that for you don’t think the dooka might follow us never underestimate a screecher sweetheart she came into my room and sat down on the edge of the bed I suppose you think I’m being hysterical why should I think that they gave me this assignment because I had so much experience with murders and I accepted it because I thought I was pretty hardboiled but hunting these creatures I didn’t expect anything like this not only do we see the murdering people right in front of our eyes we have to murder them that’s right I said sitting down close to her that just about sums up the noble sport of screecher hunting are you trying to tell me that you want out no no I don’t know it’s partly you that’s making me feel so confused I find it so hard to reconcile who you are with what you’re capable of doing I don’t understand you at all you think that’s necessary to understand me I mean so long as you know that I’m on your side so long as you’re confident that I’m never going to let you down she looked directly into my eyes she was incredibly beautiful even down to the small pattern of moles on her left cheek she smelled so good too fragrant and soapy like cousins Imperial leather the bedside light Shone through the layers of nylon net that made up her night dress and I could just make out the darker tinge of her nipples I’ve never felt like this before she said not about anyone I’m just a garden variety academic Jill there’s nothing special about me I got involved in screecher hunting by accident more than design you know that yes but you couldn’t do it could you if you didn’t have that special quality in you what special quality stupidity no she said cruelty she reached up her hand and touched my face I thought about Louise but this was something very different this was something dreamlike something that was taking place on the other side of the mirror Jill opened her lips and kissed me and I kissed her back our tongues touching and licking each other as if we were trying to discover what kind of people we were through our sense of taste the way that bullet did she loosened the tie of my bathrobe and reached inside running her fingers down my side so that I shivered her fingernails were very long and when she ran them down my back the soft scratching was incredibly arousing I could feel myself rising and then there was no turning back Jill raised both of her arms like a ballerina and I drew the baby doll night dress up over her head her breasts were rounded and heavy and they performed a complicated double bounce when her night dress came off her nipples were dark Crimson with very wide arolas and as I rolled them between my fingers they knurled and crinkled and stood up erect I don’t have any rubbers I told her what I don’t have any protection she pressed her forehead against mine and laughed brothers are Wellington Boots well they are in England that doesn’t help I don’t have any Wellington Boots either she kissed me and kissed me and kissed me again then she opened up my bathrobe and took hold of me and squeezed me hard digging her nails into me as if she wanted to prove that she could be cruel too she lay back on the bed the hair between her legs was fine and dark like burmes Silk I climbed on top of her and all the time she kept her eyes open staring up at me trying to read the Expressions on my face I made love to her very slowly because I had the feeling that this would be the first and only time and I wanted it to last as long as possible as I rose up and down she Drew her fingernails across my shoulders you’re so lean she said all muscle and bone and senu like a greyhound she smiled all the time we were making love as if she were harboring some secret her breast swayed in a gentle undulating Rhythm and her hips Rose to meet me with every thrust so that I penetrated deeper and deeper At Last I began to feel that tightening sensation between my thighs and I knew that I couldn’t hold off much longer I’m afraid it’s going to have to be Kus interruptus I told her oh no Dr Dua doesn’t approve of it he says it’s messy it’ll be a darn sight Messier if I knock you up I took myself out of her and climaxed the warm drops fell in a pattern across her stomach outside rain began to patter on the roof she said do you think when this is all over and you’ve gone back to America that you’ll remember me are you kidding me I’ll remember you for the rest of my life she sat up and kissed me I know you will because I’m never going to let you forget me ever wheel of ill Fortune Terren came to pick me up at 9:30 the next morning he smelled of cigarettes and fried bacon any movement from duka I asked him as I climbed into the passenger seat not a Dicky bird if he did leave the house he didn’t use his car have you found her some place we can use to trap it I believe so it’s in an old newspaper office in South croon the paper closed down about a year ago and the building’s been empty ever since then but there’s one room they used to use as a dark room no windows double sealed doors and we can easily cover up the ventilator that sounds ideal did you find me a bed in breakfast better than that old man you can come and stay with me I live in Thornton Heath and that’s only 10 minutes away from here it was my mother’s idea she said you must be feeling homesick well that’s very thoughtful of your mother but excellent that’s settled then one of the chaps will bring your cases down and you can borrow a clean shirt from me until they arrive Terren and his mother lived in a semidetached Victorian house in a Long Street of semi- detached Victorian houses inside it was gloomy and narrow with very high ceilings the furniture was reproduction rustic with tapestry of poster and there was a guilt framed reproduction on the wall of the hay Wayne by John Constable as well as decorative dinner plates and a selection of Spanish fans with sequins on them terrence’s mother was a small flustered woman with very red cheeks and wild gray hair she wore a cotton print frock with huge yellow flowers on it as soon as Terren told me you were looking for a BNB I thought the poor fellow can’t stay in a place like that what he needs is his home Comforts that’s very generous of you Mrs Mitchell oh please call me Doty I hope you like shepherd’s pie Terren showed me up to my room it used to be my sister’s before she moved out there was a dressing table with a pink frilly Valance around it and a dark mahogany closet and a poster of Pat Boon on the wall stuck with Scotch tape tell me when you want a bath would you said Terren and I’ll put the immersion heater on it only takes about an hour to heat up I changed into a clean blue shirt and then Terren drove me to South croon to the abandoned offices of the South Cen Observer a squarish three-story building of brown brick right on the noisy Main Road the same blue Austin van was parked outside and when Terren parked behind it the Whippet thin driver and his shaven-headed friend climbed out and came toward us everything okay asked Terrence yes Mr Mitchell want to come and have a look the driver unlocked the double doors that led into the reception area the par flooring was gritty with dust and there were yellowing bundles of old newspapers stacked up against the walls he led the way up the staircase to the second floor and then along a corridor the dark room was right at the very end what do you think Terren asked me ushering me inside the dark room measured about 10 ft by 12 the walls and ceiling were painted entirely matte black and not a of light showed anywhere there was a ventilator Grill over the sink but the driver and his friend had screwed a rectangle of plywood over it I tugged the cord which turned the light on and off looks ideal I nodded it won’t be too small will it if duka puts up a fight there isn’t going to be very much Elbow Room no this is fine the less space you give a screecher to maneuver the better Terren chafed his hands together nervously I can’t wait to get this over with to tell you the truth I slapped him on the shoulder you’ll be all right once you get in close you won’t have time to be frightened I promise you we collected Jill and bullet from pearly and drove up to Pampers for Road Jill was unusually subdued when I turned around in my seat to smile at her she smiled back briefly but then she looked away I wondered if she regretted what had happened between us last night it was so hot that bullet kept panting and licking his lips so that his warm slobber flew all around the inside of the car when we arrived we parked close behind a gry Hillman Saloon two plain clothed detectives were sitting in it smoking and reading the Daily Mirror one of them was fat and sweaty and the other was thin and Drew in his cheeks when he smoked as if he were sucking on a lemon All Quiet on the Western Front said the fat one some woman arrived about 15 minutes ago answering the description of the suspect’s receptionist but so far that’s all you haven’t seen Dua at all I I asked him not a sausage sir okay Terren I said now it’s your turn to play Patience supposing Dua rumbles me asked Terren it won’t it’s so preoccupied with pretending to be a doctor that it won’t think that you’re pretending to be a patient all right then but if things start going pearshaped I’ll be right behind you Terren I swear to God Terren walked across the shingle dve driveway and went in through the front door we could see him talking to the receptionist and nodding then he sidled up to the waiting room window so that we could see him and tapped his wristwatch to indicate that duka was making him wait we saw him pick up a copy of picture post and sit down a pigeon started up a monotonous mating call from the chimney tops are you okay I asked Jill you’ve been kind of pensive this morning if you don’t mind my saying so I didn’t sleep much she said oh nothing to do with you nothing to do with us I kept having horrible dreams that’s all goes with the job I’m sorry to say I used to have a nightmare almost every single night during the War I dreamed about this man who was walking around with no no head I was sitting in the living room at home and he tapped on the Windows as if he wanted me to let him in I was so frightened I thought my heart was going to stop I woke up but every time I went back to sleep I had the same dream the thin detective said there you are sir he’s going in Terren was standing up the receptionist showed him out of the room and then she came back in again alone right I said let’s see how long Terren can keep duka talking about his imaginary hay fever I entered the front garden with Jill following close behind me we ducked our heads low so that we were out of the receptionist line of sight skirting around the Laurel bushes we went up to the front door and I gently pushed it open inside I could hear the receptionist typing but she was interrupted by the telephone ring ringing Dr Watkins surgery she shrilled at the top of her voice no Madam Dr Watkins is on his holidays at the moment no I don’t know how long for I’m only temporary but if you need to see a doctor right away Dr Dua is standing in for him Dua that’s correct while she was screaming into the receiver Jill and I crept into the hole let’s start by making a search upstairs I I whispered let’s hope that dooka leaves the wheel in its bedroom during the day if your foot’s really painful you should come in said the receptionist the doctor is only here until half 12 but I could fit you in at a quarter two luckily for us the door to the waiting room was open only three or 4 inches and while the receptionist was talking on the phone her back was half turned so we were able to make our way along the hall without her seeing us as we reached the bottom of the stairs she banged down the receiver and started typing again I’ll take the bedrooms on the right I told Jill you take the bedrooms on the left if the wheel isn’t in plain sight go through every single drawer but make sure you close them afterward ideally I don’t want Dua to find out that we’ve taken it until it starts to get dark I was just about to climbed the stairs when the door to dua’s surgery suddenly opened and Dua came out he looked at us in Surprise and then smiled well well so you two love birds have decided oh yes I said we talked it over and U decided Dua laid its hand on Jill’s shoulder in my opinion my beautiful young lady I think you have made the most sensible choice I have always believed that a woman should be in charge of her own destiny at least as far as her womb is concerned tence came out of the surgery too he gave me an apologetic Grimace Dua turned to him and said your allergy doesn’t seem to me to be so bad Mr Mitchell the prescription I have given you for antihistamine tablets should alleviate your symptoms they will make you a little drowsy so if you are thinking of driving a steamroller I suggest that you don’t it gave a sharp humorless laugh all right doctor said Terrence thanks very much duka turned back to Jill now let me see what I can do to give your desirable Young Bride the protection she quires this was a seriously horrible moment it had been one thing to pretend that we were engaged and listened to du’s lipl licking descriptions of various methods of contraception but to allow it to give Jill an intimate examination when both of us were fully aware that it wasn’t even human was enough to bring me to the edge of panic on second thought maybe we’re being too hasty I suggested maybe we should should leave it for today and come back tomorrow I have no surgery tomorrow I regret said Dua tomorrow I have other obligations in that case maybe we should leave it till after we’re married is something wrong my dear sir asked Dua and there was something very knowing in his tone of voice something very Arch I wondered if he might have remembered who I looked like and guessed why I was here wrong no no of course there’s nothing wrong it’s just that this is a very important decision and I don’t want us to rush into doing something that we both regret I don’t see why you are so concerned if you find that you dislike this particular method of birth control all you have to do is to stop using it but look at you you see seem very agitated you are perspiring perhaps something else is worrying you of course not it’s a very warm day that’s all but it was then that Jill said it’s all right why doesn’t Dr Dua examine me and you can wait outside at the same time she lifted her eyes toward the upstairs landing and I realized what she was trying to tell me while Dua is busy measuring my cervix you can go looking for the wheel I didn’t know what to say I felt that I had lost control of the situation and to my own surprise I also felt both protective and jealous Jill was trying to prove herself to me trying to show me that she was brave enough to be a screecher hunter but the proof that she was offering me was the same proof that she had offered me last night as proof that she was attracted to me Dua laid his arm around her shoulders his fingernails were very long and pale and immaculately manicured Jill said don’t worry darling honesty I’ll be all right the way she called me darling made me feel even worse you’re absolutely sure about this I asked her she nodded what could I say without arousing dua’s suspicions all right right I said I’ll wait for you in the car Dua ushered her into its surgery and closed the door I said to Terren go get my kit stay right outside if I shout out come on in as fast as he can God said Terrence you’re not going to let it I don’t have any choice hurry Terren went out of the front door and I ran up the stairs as quietly and as quickly as I could could if the worn out stair carpet and the dusty window Ledges were anything to go by Dr Watkins lived alone no woman would have kept a vase of dried honesty on the landing so old that the leaves had turned skeletal first of all I opened the bedroom door on the left a guest bedroom quite small and smelling of damp next to it was a bathroom with a large pale green bath that was streak with rust I went to the bedrooms on the a mediumsized room which must have been a school boy’s room once upon a time with Athletics trophies on the window sill and a single model Spitfire still hanging from the ceiling thick with willly dust in the master bedroom stood a large mahogany bed with a pink satin quilt the quilt and the pillows had been so fastidiously arranged that I knew that Dua must be sleeping here or resting anyhow screechers don’t don’t sleep in the same way that humans do and so of course they never dream the nearest they ever get to Dreaming is a revery about their lost humanity and the people who used to love them I found duk’s wheel at once it was hanging on a fine gold chain from the side of the mirror on the dressing table on top of the dressing table stood several bottles of hair lotion and cologne as well as a miniature portrait of a young woman in an oval frame I picked it up and looked at it more closely I could see why dooka was so attracted to Jill this young woman looked more Slavic than Jill but she had similar features with high cheekbones and Feline eyes the name Anka was written on the bottom of the portrait in faded mve ink I lifted the wheel off the mirror and dropped it into my coat pocket then I left the master bedroom on tiptoes and started to make my way downstairs the door to the surgery was still closed and the receptionist was still pecking away at her typewriter I was only a little more than halfway down however when the surgery door opened and Dua appeared sleeking back its hair with both hands it looked up and saw me and said aha it didn’t look angry or outraged in said it looked triumphant as if it had known all along what Jill and I were doing here sorry I said I was looking for the bathroom Dua pointed to a door right behind me it had a handlettered card pinned to it patient toilet oh sorry I didn’t see that I must think about getting myself some eyeglasses Dua glanced upstairs and then it looked back at me I think think perhaps you were looking for something else not a bathroom I don’t know what you mean it held out its hand I think perhaps you have taken something that does not belong to you still don’t know what you mean I am not a fool Mr Billings or whatever your real name is I recognized your Romanian ancestor the moment you walked into my surgery you think that I cannot smell where you come from by your blood it took a step toward me still holding out its hand I can also sense what you have stolen from me Mr Billings I think it would be wise of you to return it to me now Terren I shouted Terren the front door was flung wide and Terren appeared carrying my kit Dua swung around and spat you too you with your ridiculous allergy to Timothy grass I should have guessed oh buger said Terren Jill I called her Jill are you okay Dua turned around again and faced me I could see how Furious it was by the way it kept wincing but its voice was cold and utterly controlled so it was you then who caught my two protes I am going to kill you for that my friend I am going to kill both of you with much pain chill I yelled I was getting worried about her now Terrence bring me the kit Terren came toward us holding up the kit in both hands as if he were quite prepared to smashed Dua on the head with it I hop that he didn’t because I didn’t want anything broken I reached behind me and tugged my gun out of my belt I pointed it directly at dua’s chest and said I’ve had to wait a long time for this dooka you know me you know who I am oh yes I know who you are I also know what you are that is very flattering but if you know know me so well you will know that you have absolutely no chance of catching me Terren I said you want to open the kit for me what said Dua you really believe that I am going to stand here and allow you to work your ridiculous Hocus Pocus on me Terren open the kit and take out the Bible open it up where the ribbon is Terren flicked open the catches but before he could lift out the Bible Dua lunged at me and snatched my wrist I fired at Point Blank Range right through his perfectly tailored vest and into his lungs the bang was so loud that the receptionist shed and dropped a telephone tukka stared at me still holding my wrist the expression on its face was unreadable that’s one of the things about screechers they’ve lived so long and they’ve seen so much that you can never really understand what they thinking there was a 3 second pause and then Dua coughed so that blood spread out from between its lips all over my right cheek and all over the front of my coat then it smiled and said I want you to give me back my wheel Mr Billings I tried to raise my gun so that I could give it a head shot but it was far too strong for me I strained and strained with my teeth gritted and my elbow juding but I couldn’t manage to lift my arm more than a couple of inches daoka had almost managed to pry the gun out of my hand when Jill appeared in the surgery doorway unbalanced and bewildered what’s happening she said she looked as if she was walking away from a car accident what’s happened to me duka turned and as it turned teren held up the Bible open like before at apocalyps the Book of Revelation duka protested raising its hand to Shield its face it wasn’t totally blinded by the scripture the way that Mickey and Barrel had been but all the same it twisted its head from side to side to keep the Dazzle out of its eyes and it had to let go of my wrist Jim said Jill reaching out for me Dua made a grab for her arm presumably to use her as a human shield but I fired at it again I missed it and blew a large chunk of plaster out of the wall but Dua must have decided that it had had enough it disappeared out of the front door so fast that it was nothing but a gray flicker like a moth’s wings Terrence I shouted don’t let it get away we hurried out of the house we looked left and right and at first we couldn’t see Dua anywhere but the thin detective pointed upward and called out there sir right behind you go up the wall like a bleeding ferret Terren and I turned around Dua was climbing the ivy covered wall so fast that it had already reached the bedroom windows The Ivy rustled and tore as it surged its way upward and it looked as if it were swimming through it like a man swimming up a waterfall rather than climbing I raised my gun to take a shot at it but by the time I had steadied my hand it had already reached the guttering and disappeared over the roof I ran around to the side of the house just in time to see dooka leaping on top of the garage and then to the roof of the garage next door and then it was gone there was no point in going after it now that was Bloody rotten luck said Terren as I came back round to the front of the house I reached into my pocket and took out the wheel not entirely I said swinging it from side to side dua’s still going to come looking for this you found it that’s terrific but now dooka knows who we are doesn’t it and what sort of a game we’re playing you don’t think it’s just going to walk into a trap of course not we’ll have to be a little more ingenious that’s all the thin detective came up to me shaking his head never seen anything like that sir never never seen anything like what detective oh yes sir sorry sir take a point never happened sir did it no detective it never happened field of blood I went back into the house to look for Jill I found her sitting in the waiting room with the receptionist leaning over her offering her a glass of water oh poor fiance’s had a very nasty turn said the receptionist mind you I’m all in a tither myself Jill was pale and trembling and there was perspiration on her upper lip as if she were running a temperature her pupils were dilated too and she didn’t seem to be able to focus properly Jill are you okay I don’t know I don’t know what happened to me duka told me to lie on the couch he said lie on the couch my dear and that’s all I can remember it didn’t inject you with anything did it she frowned down at her arms I don’t think so I can’t feel anything I just feel so strange as if I’ve been asleep Terren came in I think we’d better get Jill home I said I don’t know what duka did to her but she’s not feeling too good I don’t understand and what’s going on said the receptionist why were you shooting at Dr dooker what am I supposed to do now I guess you’ll have to start looking for another job we drove Jill back to her parents house in pearly and helped her out of the car chill wh what’s happened to her what’s wrong demanded her mother as we brought her in through the front door I’m sorry Mrs foxley we simply don’t know it could be delayed shock from yesterday it could be the heat I should call the doctor not just yet if you don’t mind give her some time to rest first bullet clearly sensed that something was different about Jill because he stayed very close nuzzling at her and whining in the back of his throat Jill lay on the couch in the living room and covered her eyes with her hand do you have a headache I asked her no not really I feel feverish that’s all hot and cold like when you have flu maybe it is flu said Terren there’s a lot of it going about I mean that’s why we he remembered at the last moment that Mrs foxley knew nothing about operation Korean flu and finished his sentence with a meaningless flap of his hand Mrs foxley said I’ll bring you some aspro Jill would you like a cold drink I used Mrs foxley’s phone to call Charles frii at MI6 I explained that duka had found out who we were but we had taken its wheel and it was sure to come looking for it I also asked that he send a forensic team down to search The Laurels from attic to basement and the garden too Charles Bri said very well but we really need to wrap this business up old man and as soon as possible the Press have been chasing the minister all day and I don’t think we’re going to be able to keep it under WRA for very much longer I can’t make any promises sir but Duke is going to want its wheel back and if I know anything about screechers is going to be looking for Revenge I didn’t tell him about Jill because I wanted to see how quickly she would recover but I was seriously beginning to think that I would have to ask him for a substitute dog handler 10 minutes later when I returned to the living room Jill was asleep with her mother sitting close beside her I leaned over to make sure that she was still breathing and then I lifted her eyelid with my thumb she was staring at nothing at all and her pupil was fixed which told me that she wasn’t dreaming is she going to be all right asked her mother I’m pretty sure of it but call me if you notice any change in her condition Terren and I drove back to the South croen Observer building the morning had started sunny but a heavy Bank of bronze colored clouds had slowly rolled over from the southwest and now it was gloomy and humid I felt that I could hardly breathe any ideas what duka might have done to her asked Terrence I’m not sure dead screechers have a way of draining their victim’s resistance so that they don’t struggle even when the screecher is actually cutting them open their victims know that they’re being killed but they feel so lethargic that they can’t do anything to stop in Romania they call it the weakness it doesn’t look as if Dukas hurt her though does it I hope not I think duka sensed that I was upstairs and that interrupted it God I blame myself I should never have let her go in there what else could you do I could have gone straight in there and cut its goddamn head off without your kit it would have cut yours off first Terren was parking outside the former newspaper office when his radio telephone crackled and a Brisk woman’s voice said control to 340 control to 340 position please 340 340 said Terren South cuden Observer we’ll be here for the rest of the day can you go immediately to Charmers boy School in haling park 339 we’ll meet you there there’s been another incident what kind of an incident operation Korean flu ask her when it happened I told him control do we know when this incident occurred there was a lengthy pause and then the woman’s voice said it was logged about 2 hours ago apparently a few minutes past 11 thank you control said Terren Roger and out then he looked at me and said bloody hell it’s happened again you know what this means don’t you dooka couldn’t have done this two hours ago Dua was still at The Laurels you mean we’ve got ourselves another dead screature apart from dooka there has to be one of the Liv scree must have transformed already if they’re transforming as quickly as this there could be dozens of them by now damn it we really need a dog right now I’ll get on to control see if they can fix us up with one okay but don’t tell them what’s happened to Jill yet tell them tell them that bullet’s eaten something that’s upset his stomach Terren raised an eyebrow but didn’t make any comment he may have appeared to be puppyish with all his talk of cricket and Neville shoot stories and collecting cigarette cards but he was perceptive and very discreet whatever a chap did a Chap’s own business was a Chap’s own own business especially when it came to women we turned into haling Park Road and drove up a steep curving Hill toward the entrance of Charmers boy School Charmers looked more like a cathedral than a school a large red brick building built in 1930s Gothic complete with stained glass windows and flying buttresses a green copper Weather Vein surmounted the roof in the shape of th carrying his sidethe over his shoulder the courtyard in front of the school was crowded with shiny black wolsley police cars and ambulances I could see some reporters and photographers too but they were being kept well back by police officers as we parked one of the young MI6 agents who had met us outside the birthday party Massacre came hurrying over to meet us his linen sport coat was crumpled and his red necktie was es skew I don’t know how the hell we’re going to keep the lid on this one he said we climbed out of the car what’s happened follow me he led us between the ambulances and around the side of the school the school is closed for holidays at the moment but they were holding a friendly seven aside Cricket practice first 11 versus old CH marians at the rear of the school buildings there was at least an acre of wooded cops with beach trees and oak trees and horse chestnuts the young agent took us through the shadows and the Bracken to the other side where there were five bright green Sports fields on three of the fields red and white painted rugby posts had already been erected in preparation for the fall term but the furthest field was still being used as a cricket pitch three ambulances were parked on the grass and two more police cars and there were police photographers taking pictures and forensic scientists in brown lab coats and coroners assistant and over a dozen police officers even from a quarter mile away I could see bodies lying on the grass the bodies were red and white too we crossed the fields my old friend inspector Ruck was there pacing backward and forward and bristling his mustache Captain Falcon He barked as we approached I was rather hoping that you and I wouldn’t be seeing each other again he was trying to be fierce but I could tell that he was badly upset anybody with any human feeling would have been distressed the cricket pitch was strewn with nearly 20 bodies all of them wearing white Cricut flannels half of them were men in their 20s and 30s the other half were boys of 16 and 17 two bloodstain cricket bats lay on the grass and the wickets were sped at an angle as if both players had been bowled out God Almighty said Terren and he actually took a staggering step back as if somebody had pushed him we slowly walked around the cricket pitch all of the victims had been stabbed in the stomach and their white shirts were Crimson with blood a few of them had their hearts bulging out of their chests like gory fists they looked so youthful and innocent especially the school boys and for the first time since World War II I felt myself close to tears not only tears of pity but tears of Fury I hated those godamn creatures I hated their moral filthiness and their cruelty I knew that Terrence was right and that if I had attacked duka at The Laurels without my kit it probably would have beheaded me on the spot but right then walking around the glistening bloodstained grass of that Cricut pitch between those bodies I bitterly wished that I had tried how could anybody do this said Terren shaking his head I mean honestly how could they as I looked at the bodies though something began to dawn on me even though all of the players had been killed only a few of them looked as if their chest cavities had been opened up to make absolutely sure I walked around the cricket pitch a second time and peered closely at everybody all 20 of them had been sliced open yes and and some of them lay with their intestines coiled on the grass beside them but only five of them had had their chests pulled wide open and their hearts dragged out I turned around to say something to Terren but Terren was standing a long way off by one of the sight screens smoking a cigarette I can’t say that I blamed him I walked over to one of the forensic Pathologists a plain forish woman with very red lipstick her coppery hair was fastened in a tight French pleat like the coil of an electric motor she was standing beside one of the older victims making notes on a clipboard I introduced myself and held up my security pass although she didn’t bother to look at it this poor guy here he had his aorta cut right that’s right he probably lost 25% of his blood that’s around 2 and 1/2 pints correct she nodded and carried on making notes these others who had their hearts cut out would you say that they lost roughly the same amount of blood I can’t make an accurate assessment until we get them back to the Mory but I would say so yes give or take a few pints so only five victims had been drained of any blood and only two to two and 1/2 pints each simple math indicated that they had been attacked by no more than four or five screechers or even as few as three if they were particularly thirsty terrifying as the screecher infection still was maybe I had been wildly overestimating how rapidly it was spreading but why had the screechers felt it necessary to attack so many people if there had been only three of them and they had wanted no more than four points each they would have needed to kill only two people not 20 not only only that out of the five victims who had been drained of blood four of them were old chal marians I would have thought that the screechers would have had a taste for the youngest blood they could find yet they had pulled out the heart of only one of the school’s first 11 can I talk to you again later I asked the coppery haired pathologist of course here’s my telephone number you can always leave a message for me and I’ll get back to you she handed me a card with rosemary Schulman MD FRC path printed on it inspector Ruck came up to us blowing his nose on a large white handkerchief any ideas then I don’t know yet I told him but I’m beginning to think that only three screechers did this they usually go out in threes two living screechers and one dead one the question is why did they need to kill two entire cricket teams just for a few p of blood off their bloody rockers if you ask me mental cases screeches are lots of things but they’re not mad they killed all of these people for a reason they were Witnesses weren’t they said inspector rutic as if he were talking to a very slow child that’s why they killed all of those people on the 403 they were Witnesses but why attack so many people when you don’t need their blood and so many of them are going to to be able to identify you unless you Slaughter everybody inside it doesn’t make any sense why not attack a young couple walking home at night or a couple of cyclists In A Country Lane nobody would see you do it and you wouldn’t need a wholesale Massacre to cover it up I told you said inspector Ruck mental cases lunatics they do it for the thrill of it that’s all black trap we spent the rest of the afternoon at charmer School Charles PRI pulled some strings with Scotland Yard and at 3:30 p.m. a dog and a trainer arrived the dog was a German Shepherd called Skipper and his trainer was an ex-military policeman called Stanley Kellogg Skipper was far from being an ideal dog for screecher trailing the scent of screechers made his fur bristle and he was very reluctant to follow it Keening and barking and trotting around in circles Sergeant Kellogg wasn’t much more help he was boneheaded and pedantic and he repeatedly made it clear that he strongly objected to taking orders from an American attached to MI6 this isn’t an easy one for me sir as you can probably appreciate I have been instructed to look for persons or objects about which I have been told absolutely nothing except that I’m going to be be told absolutely nothing this isn’t personal Sergeant I said it’s just that we didn’t have time to get you the necessary security clearance I’m sure that you and Skipper have all the necessary skills to do as proud with respect sir whatever persons or objects that Skipper is supposed to be trailing the scent of them is causing him considerable apprehension and since Skipper and me is so closely bonded I would very much appreciate some idea of what they is or are Sergeant what they are is irrelevant all you need to know is that they have murdered 20 people on a cricket field and we have to track them down before they murder anybody else the bodies had been removed now but Skipper was quick to pick up the scent as much as it unsettled him although it was only midafternoon the sky was dark maroon as if the clouds had been soaked in blood I could see lightning over Cen Aerodrome we followed Skipper across the playing fields to The Far Side of charmer school which barded onto a Suburban Street the screechers had obviously entered the school from this direction climbing over the green iron railings Skipper led us along the street to a quiet Dead End Street or cesac there the trail ended the screechers must have arrived here by car parked and then walked to the school Playing Fields sorry sir said Sergeant Kellogg with undisguised smugness think your persons or objects have been Spirited Away thank you Sergeant I’ll call for you again if I need you let’s hope not sir I raised an eyebrow but he quickly added wouldn’t want to see any more fatality sir would we I walked back to the school I found Dr Rosemary Schulman in the parking lot beside a dark blue home office Van packing up her medical bag and her notes and taking off her lab coat who’s going to be carrying out the autopsies I asked her well I am in conjunction with the Cen coroner did you deal with any of the previous killings all except the first ones at the Seldon Park Hotel I was on holiday then have they all been the same with only a small proportion of the victims with their hearts pulled out no they haven’t as a matter of fact each incident has been very different in one case we had a family of five killed in a caravan in warlingham and four out of five of them were exsanguinated but in another case in strum seven were killed at a Boy Scout get together but only two were ex anguin those victims who weren’t sanguinated I asked her did they have anything in common I was looking at the victims here and it occurred to me that whoever did this they mostly cut the hearts out of the older people Dr Schulman folded her lab coat neatly and tucked into the back of her van I can’t be sure without checking my records but it’s worth looking into isn’t it the only victim in the Caravan killing who wasn’t ex sanguinated was a girl of 11 everybody else in the family was older older brother parents uncle and Aunt cousin okay that’s interesting can you go through the figures for me with a particular focus on age also can you look for any other distinctions between the victims who were drained of blood and the victims who weren’t such as I don’t know blood type or medical history or ethnic background of course I’ll get in touch with you as soon as I can even if you don’t find anything can you still let me know naturally said Dr Schulman and climbed into her van and drove off it was past 6:00 p.m. by the time Terren and I had finished at charmer school so we drove back to his mother’s house for supper we sat at the kitchen table and she served us shepherd’s pie with carrots and cauliflower I had never eaten shepherd’s pie before ground lamb topped with mashed potato but I was hungry and I think I enjoyed it at least Mrs Mitchell seasoned her meat with plenty of salt and pepper and lean parin sauce apart from Maya foxley’s Burmese Curry most of the food that I had been served since I had arrived in England had been very inferior quality and almost tasteless you wouldn’t have believed that the war had been over for 12 years while Terren went upstairs to visit the bathroom I helped his mother by drying the plates he’s a very good boy my Terrence she said very thoughtful always brings me a bunch of flowers on payday I’m glad to hear it a young man should always respect his mother how about your mother Jim do you get to see much of her my mother passed away before the end of the war oh I’m sorry she must have been quite young 48 but she didn’t look it she was Romanian darkhaired very beautiful I can still remember the songs she used to sing me in Romania they call them DOA they have sad DOA and happy DOA and love DOA and DOA for singing your kids to sleep you miss her said terrence’s mother yes I never had the chance to say goodbye to her not the way I wanted to I thought of my father and I standing on the dock at padega Bay letting those light gray ashes run between our fingers into the sea and they weren’t even hers for all I know my father had dug them out of the living room Hearth and they were nobody’s Terren and I drove back to the South cro and obser server building we unlocked the front doors and led ourselves in we had checked every single office before we left it making sure that the doors and windows were all closed tight I hadn’t wanted to come back here to find that duka had slid in through some inch wide aperture and was waiting for us our footsteps echoed along the corridor as we made our way to the dark room I was carrying a flashlight but I didn’t switch it on there was a faint Orange glowe from the main road outside and that was enough for us to find our way upstairs the darker the building was the more difficult it was going to be for Dua to be able to see where we were there was a loud bang Terren had collided with a metal filing cabinet that had been left abandoned in the corridor are you okay I asked him fine stubbed my toe that’s all you’re sure you’re up to this bit Happ apprehensive if you must know he paused and then he said I was in the eve club last year in Mayfair a lot of security people go there MI5 MI6 Soviet agents all sorts I was spotted by this East German agent and I had to hide in the ladies for two hours he would have shot me no questions asked if he could have found me he gave a self-deprecating snort I thought I was scared then I opened the dark room door and switched on my flashlight try to keep your nerve Terrence okay when you’re dealing with screechers the last thing you need to do is to show them that you’re frightened they latch on to fear the same way a shark will go after your leg if you’re bleeding well that’s reassuring we entered the dark room and took a quick look around it still smelled faintly of photographic developer so what exactly are we going to do when dooka gets here Terren asked me if dooka gets here oh it’ll get here don’t you worry about that I hunker down and opened up my kit when it does I want you to open up the Bible just like you did before but I want you to do something else too I want you to hold up this silver mirror right in front of dua’s face so that it has no choice but to look at it all right then what will that do it will show Dua what it really looks like it’s pure silver and it was blessed by Pope Urban VII so it can only reflect Purity and Truth did you ever read The Picture of Dorian Gray no but I saw the film George saers wasn’t it Oscar wild based that novel on stories that he was told about the stoy Dorian Gray’s portrait Grew Older while Dorian Gray himself stayed Young and handsome just like a stoy Mort you wait until Dua sees its true face in the mirror I promise you its own image will stop it dead in its tracks or Undead in its tracks I took out my whip my hammer and my nails and my surgical saw and I laid them out on the dark room drain board that’s when we slam the door shut and do the rest of the business but it’ll be totally dark won’t it not entirely to give Terren a demonstration I took out the screw top lid from a pickle jar I had cut a thin 3-in slit in the center of it and then painted it matte black it screwed tight over the top of my flashlight so that only a faint glimmer managed to escape Terren and I could only just make out each other’s outlines and the dark glitter of each other’s eyes Dua didn’t have its screecher wheel so it was is going to be 99.9% blind so how long do you think we’ll have to wait asked Terrence checking his watch who knows but I don’t think it’s going to be very long from my experience screechers have better noses than blood H hands they can smell what she had for yesterday’s breakfast in Holland I’ve known them go through hospitals drinking the blood of everybody in sight except for the patients on morphine because morphine affects their sense of balance Terren said how do you do this this screecher hunting bloody hell I couldn’t do it I Shrugged it was too complicated to explain we waited for over an hour Terren took out his cigarettes but I shook my head let’s keep the air clear shall we well he said I’m trying to give them up anyway too expensive two and 4 P for 20 these days maybe you should try gum I suggested does that really work but you’ll never guess what I saw the other day a chewing gum machine you put in a penny and turn the handle and you get a packet of Beachnut chewing gum miraculous Terren glanced at me you’re twitting me aren’t you you’ve got all those automats in America right then we heard a door banging somewhere downstairs then a metallic squeak and another bang I lifted out my gun and cocked it Teran said do you think that’s Stuka I don’t know it could be sh we strained our ears but all we could hear for the next few minutes was the swooshing noise of traffic from the main road then I thought I heard a faint scrabbling noise like a caged animal scratching chicken wire want me to take a look asked Terrence I heard the noise again it certainly wasn’t footsteps Terren eased open the dark room door and peered out into the corridor right and then left I can’t see anybody perhaps it was squirrels or rats outside a police car sped past with its Bell urgently ringing then silence again no nobody there said Terrence he was just about to close the door when there was a sharp pattering sound quite loud and approaching us very quickly I looked out into the corridor and for a split second I still couldn’t see anybody there but then I looked up and saw that Dua was hurrying rapidly toward us on its hands and knees it was crawling along the ceiling upside down so that each of the conical glass lamps shade started to sway as it came rushing past them I stepped back into the dark room and pulled Terren after me by his shoulder it’s on the ceiling said Terren hold up the mirror I told him as soon as it comes through the door at the same time I holstered my gun and picked up my silver bullt I gripped the handle in my right hand and the claw likee tip in my left there was a last flurry of scrabbling and we saw dooka climb head first down the wall on the opposite side of the corridor it unfolded itself like a great gray preying mantis until it was standing up straight it fastidiously brushed the ceiling dust from its sleeves its green eyes staring at us with unblinking Fury its spine was straight its handsome head was tilted slightly backward its lips were Scarlet like a bloody razor cut it was slightly out of breath which lent it a false Humanity that for some reason made it all the more frightening so here you are it announced I have come to recover what is rightfully mine well my friend I told it you can certainly try you have stolen it from me and I want it back oh really haven’t you forgotten what you’ve been stealing you’ve been stealing the lives of innocent men and women and children too for centuries fellow and I’ve come here to stop you stealing anymore you are a pathetic fool you cannot stand in the way of Fate you don’t think so I’ve exterminated more stoy morti than you can count on the fingers of three hands my friend and now it’s your turn he stepped forward with his left hand held out I will give you the chance to return my possession if you refuse then I will take it anyway and I will unravel your visera all the way along the corridor how do you know I have it this possession of yours duka looked at me with derision because it is mine and it sings out to me like all of my possessions and imate or inanimate it held its hand to its chest and of course it was right I was wearing the wheel around my neck if you want it Dua you’ll have to come get it you think I won’t without hesitation Dukas stepped through the doorway into the dark room I shouted now Terren and Terren held up the silver mirror and pointed it directly at dua’s face Dua turned toward Terren with obvious IR iritation Terren was shaking with fright but he managed to hold the mirror still enough for Dua to see its own Reflection from where I was standing I couldn’t see what Duca could see in the mirror its own face as it should have appeared if it hadn’t been transformed into a stoy Mort corrupt centuries dead and heaving with grave worms Dua seemed to be confused at first not understanding what it was looking at but it slowly raised its hand toward the mirror like somebody recognizing a long forgotten acquaintance and as it did so it realized what Terren was showing it and it was shaken to the very core of its self-belief it bunched up its shoulders and let out a harsh roaring scream and shook its head wildly from side to side it was almost a myth The Logical moment when the Beast catches sight of its own reflection and realizes what it really looks like that was my moment too I looped my silver whip right over its head and pulled it down to its waist then I lifted its coat and crunched the claw right through its vest and its shirt into the muscle of its back just below its rib cage Dua screamed even more furiously as I wound the whip around it its waist trying to pinion its arms lights tarant and Taren Switched Off the Lights so that the dark room was swallowed in Black Dua ducked and thrashed and struggled and even though I had managed to lash both of its elbows against its sides it was incredibly strong and it was pulling at the whip so furiously that I wasn’t sure that I would be able to restrain it hammer and nails quick as you can without warning Dua dropped to the floor so that I had to drop down beside it to keep my grip on the whip my eyes were becoming accustomed to the darkness now the faint glow from the flashlight on the workbench was just enough for me to be able to make out dua’s glittering eyes Dua itself would have been totally blind but its blindness didn’t prevent it from twisting and wrestling and trying to bite me the only sound in the dark room was scuffling and grunting and cursing and the clatter of our SHO as we kicked against the cupboards Terren held out my hammer and two Nails I dropped my Whip and tried to reach out for them but dooka abruptly rolled over onto its side trying to unwind itself hit it I shouted Terren pushed his way past me and flailed at Dua with my hammer the first blow hit the floor but the second struck duka on the shoulder and the third caught it just above its left ear with a hollow knocking sound its head abruptly fell backward and it stopped struggling although it kept twitching and jerking as if it were suffering an epileptic fit Terren gave me one of the crucifixion Nails I positioned it over dua’s right eye and held out my hand for my hammer dua’s eye was closed but I had no qualms about driving the nail through its eyelid I had seen what Dua had done how many innocent people he had killed this was for un to Walters and everybody else that duka had murdered during World War II this was for my mother oh God Almighty said Terren I lifted the hammer high trying to keep the nail steady as I did so however Dua suddenly rolled over again and again until he reached the opposite wall I made a desperate grab from my whip but it snaked out of my hands and Dua began to stalk up the wall completely horizontal and till it reached the ceiling then it turned itself around and faced us although it was still virtually blind the light was too dim even for us to see it clearly but there was no mistaking the contempt in its voice I have escaped such people as you so many times before and I will escape you too don’t bet on it I told him and took hold of my whip which was still embedded in dua’s back I yanked it with both hands as hard as I could hoping that I could drag Dua down from the ceiling but I heard a sharp tearing noise and the claw came free as I later found out all I had pulled out was a bloody lump of muscle and a triangular piece of silk from the back of its vest Terrence I said mirror we have to start this over but at that moment Dua reached into his coat pocket and took out something cylindrical as Terren reached for the mirror Dua tugged the end of the cylinder and the dark room was suddenly filled with intense white light so bright that Terren and I could see nothing at all I took three steps backward shielding my eyes although I was blinded I could tell by the Magnesium smell and the sharp fizzing noise that Duca had set off a handheld Marine flare 10,000 candle power at least it doz totally but it gave Dua the extra light he needed to see I hauled out my gun but the light was so intense that all I could see in front of my eyes were dancing scarlet amibas and duka was so quick that I didn’t stand a hope in Hell of hitting it I heard it leap from the ceiling and the next thing I knew it pushed me squarely in the chest so that I stumbled backward over my kit it twisted the gun out of my hand and threw it aside then it tore open the front of my shirt and pulled the Wheel from around my neck breaking the chain thank you for my property it breathed and its breath was actually chilly like an open ice box now you will get what you deserve for stealing from me through the glare I saw Dua take out a broad bladed knife I had never let a screecher get the jump on me before ever but I suddenly realized that I could die here with my heart cut out and my guts lying all over the floor I felt like a skydiver on his thousandth jump who discovers that his suot won’t open you think you’re going to live forever I asked it whatever you do to me you’re not going to see another winner Dua pointed his knife at my throat there is a war here there is always a war on one side the living on the other side the eternals you can never win for all of your religion for all of your socalled morality for all of your piety it pulled my shirt open even wider maybe now we can see what you are made of it prodded my navl with the point of its knife and the pain made me jump with shock but as it drew back its elbow to stab me it tilted backward I heard struggling and swearing although I was still half blinded I managed to roll over and pick myself up the flare had almost burned out now but in its last flickering moments I could see that Terren had thrown himself on Dua and dragged it to the floor they were hitting each other and grunting with effort I stood up and hauled out my gun right there I shouted hold it right there but dukov was too quick and too strong it dragged Terren up off Theo floor and swung him around in a circle so that he was standing between us by the spluttering light of the flare I could see that it was holding its knife across terrence’s throat Terren was staring at me in panic now I am going to leave you said Dua its voice hoarse with effort but in case you are thinking of showing me any more of your mirrors or opening any more of your Bibles I am going to take this fellow with me for my security no I’ll let you go I promise you you can walk out of here and take your wheel and I won’t do anything to stop you just don’t hurt him okay do you think I believe you I know who you are I know what you are I’m coming after you Dua I warned it if you so much as scratch him I’m going to make sure that you have the most agonizing death that any screecher for ever suffered and that’s a promise Jim choked Terren but Dua pressed the blade of his knife right up against his Adams Apple so that he couldn’t say anymore just stay calm Terren I told him do what Dua tells you and you won’t get hurt duka smiled who are you to make promises on my behalf we shall see what happens to your friend when it happens with that it pulled Terren back back toward the dark room door and opened it then with unbelievable speed it dragged him off along the corridor toward the stairs it was like watching a flickery old black and white horror movie I ran after them but before I could even reach the head of the stairs I heard the front door slam and I knew that they were gone body count I clattered down the stairs and into the street but there was no sign of them I saw a black Saloon pulling away from the curb on the opposite side of the road with a puff of exhaust but I couldn’t make out who was driving it I needed a mantrailing dog and I needed it fast but Terren had the keys to the car and without the keys I couldn’t get access to the radio telephone to call for assistance The Counter Intelligence Corp had trained me how to fire a whole variety of weapons from crossbows to Bazookas and how to break down a reinforced door using explosives but they had never taught me how to hotwire a car I looked around only about 30 yards along the road on the corner of alen be Avenue stood a lighted red Phone Booth I panted my way up to it inside chattering and laughing and smoking a cigarette there was a plump faed girl with a ponytail she was wearing a pink skirt with so many petticoats underneath it that had practically filled up the whole booth and a white back to front cardigan and pink popper beads I wrapped on the window and mouthed are you going to be long honey I have an emergency she opened the door and a cloud of smoke came out what’s the matter with you mate I’m talking to my boyfriend I have an emergency I really need to use the phone I just put three Bob in go and have your emergencies somewhere else I took out my wallet and pulled out a 10 Shilling note there you’ve made Seven Bob profit now can I use the phone I called MI6 control as it happened Charles PRI was still in his office and the operator put me directly through to him Captain fulin yeah you were lucky to catch me old man what’s the latest mission accomplished I hope I told him what had happened he listened in Silence the only time he interrupted did was when he said a flare just because the stoy come from a bloodline that’s over 3,000 years old that doesn’t mean they’re not technically sophisticated Dua turned the tables on us completely it blinded us and at the same time it gave itself all the light it needed to see in the dark well look here I’ll get in touch with inspector Ruck and get him to start looking for Mitchell right away as for a dog perhaps Miss foxley has recovered sufficiently to help you out she’s nearest after all if she’s still or the Comba let me know right away and I’ll arrange to have another dog handler sent down okay I’ll call you when I get to miss foxley’s good man by the way uh Mrs Rosemary Schulman has been trying to get in touch with you from the home office she rang two or three times so far as I know Daphne’s got her number thank you sir I’ll talk to you later Captain fulan yes sir you will keep a very low profile won’t you I’ve had the Press hounding me all day sooner or later one of the buggers is going to find out what we’re up to yes sir I hung up the girl with the Petticoat said how about Bloody time too my boyfriend’s probably left me for somebody else by now a terrific looking girl like you he’d have to be nuts oh she said flattered and giggled I went back into the South Cen Observer building and collected up my kit the building was dark and it echoed and it smelled strongly of burned out flare I was reminded of World War II searching through bombed out apartments for signs of screechers when I had reassembled my kit and shut the case I went back outside to fly down a black taxi I asked the cabbie to take me to Jill’s House in pearly which was only about 5 minutes away I’ll be glad when this bleeding eat lets up complained the cabby with a skinny cigarette tangling between his lips makes me feet swell up like bleeding balloons sorry to hear it then there’s all this Korean flu going around people dropping like bleeding flies that’s all because of the eat if you ask me and they say that next year is going to be even otter you know what I was reading by the year 1979 the old of England’s going to be like the Sahara Desert and we’ll all be riding around on bleeding camels we reached the Foxy’s house and I asked the cabie to wait the foxley were obviously at home because the drapes were drawn and the living room lights were on but the house seemed unusually quiet I couldn’t even hear a TV after a few moments however Mr foxley opened the door holding Bullet by his collar Captain Falcon he blinked we weren’t expecting you were we no you weren’t but we have a crisis on our hands and I was wondering if chill could maybe help us out without hesitation Mr foxley shook his head I’m sorry Captain but chill isn’t very well at all she’s been in bed since yesterday and we’ve had the doctor around twice do you know what’s wrong with her she’s very feverish the doctor thinks it might be Korean flu he’s given her something to keep her temperature down but I don’t think she’s out of the woods yet I’m very sorry to hear it problem is I desperately need a Tracker dog I looked down at bullet who was straining so hard against his collar that he was wheezing I thought I’ve seen how corporal handled Frank I’ve seen how Jill handles bullet it can’t be too difficult to manage a man trailer they go running off on their own most of the time maybe I could take bullet myself I suggested oh I’m not so sure about that I mean Jill and bullet they’re tremendously close I don’t know whether he’d take instructions from anybody else at that moment Mrs foxley appeared in an orange silk robe who is it there what’s going on hi there Mrs foxley I said I’m sorry that Jill is feeling so low I was wondering if I could borrow bullet for a few hours Mrs foxley looked dubious you could try I suppose I hunkered down on the front doorm and held out my hand here bullet good boy bullet how about coming out to play with your Uncle Jim I stroked his ears and he seemed to like that do you have a leash I asked Mrs foxley she went to the hall closet and came back with bullets leash here boy I said soothingly let’s go walkies shall we I started to clip the leash onto his collar but bullet immediately snarled and twisted his head round and his teeth crunched into the fleshy part of my thumb I toppled back knocking over all of the foxley’s empty milk bottles oh I am so sorry said Mrs foxley coming outside to help me you’re a wicked dog snapped Mr foxley slapping bullet’s nose what are you you’re a very Wicked dog I stood up holding my bleeding hand the bite wasn’t too deep but it damn well hurt hey it’s not bullet’s fault poor mut hardly knows me I’ll just have to call for another dog handler that’s so can I use your phone just as I was about to go inside the cabie came up carrying my kit sorry mate I can’t wait any longer it’s me mother-in-law’s wedding anniversary tonight if I turn up light for that I’ll get all kinds of grief from her indoors it’s all right said Mr foxley you can borrow Jill’s car it’s the least we can do I’ll get the keys for you I called MI6 again Charles frii had left the office but his Deputy George Goodhue said that he would arrange for a dog handler to meet me in South croon as soon as he possibly could I prayed that it wasn’t Skipper and that pompous Stanley Kellog I was anxious to see Jill I wanted to find out what duka had done to her if anything her doctor might have believed that she was suffering from Korean flu but I knew damned well that there was no such illness it could have been nothing more serious than stress after all I had left her in Dukas surgery for only a matter of minutes but she had been very disoriented when she came out and I would have liked to check her out there was no time I had to get after Dua without delay and in any case Mr and Mrs foxley seemed to be Keen for me to leave I didn’t blame them since I had first arrived on their door door step I had brought them nothing but trouble it was past 9:30 p.m. now I tried to think where Dua might have gone it must have infected at least a dozen stroy V so maybe it had taken refuge in one of their homes once I had a mant trailing dog I would have a much better chance of hunting these creatures down but it also occurred to me that many of duk’s recent victims were likely to have been patient of Dr Norman Watkins once duka had installed itself as Dr Watkins loim it wouldn’t have had to go out searching for new people to infect every day unsuspecting victims would have come to The Laurels expecting medical treatment and it would have been Simplicity itself for Dua to taint their blood with an injection of its own blood or simply give them an oral dose of cough Linkus blended with its own saliva I drove to the Laurels there were still two Bobbies standing outside with cigarettes cup behind their backs and a line of marker tape was fluttering across the gates I parked outside and showed the officers my MI6 pass I need to take a quick look inside rather you than me squat I reckon it’s haunted that house haunted we thought we saw somebody looking out of that upstairs window when was that about 9:00 just before it got dark we went inside and made a search cupboards under the beds everywhere not a sausage said the other officer emphatically well maybe you’re right hand it is haunted I told him on the other hand Reflections can play some pretty funny tricks I went into the house switched on the lights and headed straight for the receptionist office the police and MI6 had obviously searched it because all of the drawers of the filing cabinet had been left open and the pictures taken down from the walls two of the chairs were tilted over and magazines were scattered all over the floor I found what I wanted almost at once but then of course the police and MI6 hadn’t been specifically looking for it the receptionist diary was still lying open on her desk and the name and address of every patient who had visited Dr Dua was meticulously listed along with the time of their consultation once my new dog handler had arrived we could visit every one of these patients starting with the earliest and it wouldn’t take us too long to sniff out any screechers I closed the diary tucked it under my arm and I was about to leave the office when I thought I heard a creaking noise upstairs it wasn’t like somebody walking across floorboards it was more like h es followed by a complicated click there was something else too a noticeable change in atmospheric pressure as if a window had been opened and a draft was blowing in I went out into the hallway and stood at the foot of the stairs listening I was sure that I heard more creaking and then a shuffling sound the police officers hadn’t been mistaken there was somebody in the house I list listened and listened but I didn’t hear anything else I had the impression that whoever it was they were listening to me too I waited a few moments longer and then I went outside to Jill’s car I opened my kit and put the receptionist diary inside it along with all the other artifacts I needed for hunting screechers everything all right sir one of the Bobbies asked me I gave him a thumbs up but I didn’t say anything the less that any body else knew what was really going on the better back in the house I laid my kit on the receptionist desk and unfastened the clips I took out my screecher compass and opened the cover immediately the needle swung around and pointed shivering toward the stairs its response was so quick and so positive that I knew there must be more than one screecher in the house I could guess what had happened once they were infected with the screecher virus several sto V had been forced to leave their homes or had left voluntarily because they didn’t want to be tempted to kill their loved ones or their neighbors I had seen this happen many times before during World War II they had gathered together in a nest close to the stoy Mort who had infected them judging by the way my compass needle was trembling duk’s nest of living creatures was here someplace upstairs in this house I took out my Bible and my whip coiling my whip Loosely around my waist before I attempted to destroy the creatures I had to find out how many there were and where they were and this wasn’t wartime I couldn’t throw in a hand grenade and attack them while they were still stunned and maed and disabled I went to the foot of the stairs again and looked up the house was silent again and the second floor Landing was in darkness I tried the light switch but the bulb had burned out or the screechers had removed it holding my gun in my right hand and my Bible in my left I carefully mounted the stairs they creaked so I stopped every two or three stairs and stood totally still in case the screechers had heard me somewhere in the distance a plane was droning I reached the top of the stairs and looked right and left no screeches on the landing I went into the bedrooms one by one switching on the lights I opened the wardrobes and looked under the beds no screechers here either I nudged open the bathroom door there was a huge black spider halfway up the side of the bath but no screechers maybe the police officers had been hallucinating maybe I had been hearing things I was just about to go back downstairs when I heard a Sharp Shifting sound right above my head I looked up and saw a trap door and finger marks on the white ceiling all around it that’s where they were in the Attic the noise of Springs and clicking must have been a loft ladder coming down this was going to be difficult I would have to pull down the Loft ladder to get into the attic so there was no chance of my taking them by surprise and as soon as I stuck my head through the trapo they would tear my face off there was only one way to deal with them so far as I could see and that was to seal them in the Attic so that they couldn’t get out at least until I had thought of a way of rousting them out of there and killing them I went into the main bedroom and carried out an antique wooden chair which I positioned directly underneath the trapo out of my kit I took a large ball of yellow wax and two two full heads of garlic the wax had once formed part of a death mask of St Francis of AI and I had used it several times before to prevent stoy morti from sliding out through narrow gaps around windows and doors I rolled a large lump of wax between the palms of my hands until it was warm and soft then I climbed up onto the chair and started to press it into the crack around the edge of the attic door I had only filled in a few inches when I heard a loud scrape and a clatter before I could jump down from the chair the trap door was pulled upward and a staring eyed man in a gray suit appeared his gray hair sticking up as if he had been walking through a hurricane he lunged down and seized my wrists trying to drag me upward I kicked and struggled and the chair tipped sideways so that I was left in the air with my feet furiously pedaling another man reached down and grabbed my left sleeve my shirt tore but he got a grip on my elbow between the two of them the screechers started to haul me upward through the trap door scraping my shoulders on the wooden frame it was dark inside the attic but I could see five or six more of them including two women and they all came clustering around me snatching at my shirt and pulling at my hair I saw knives shining and and I suddenly felt a sharp wet cut across my Knuckles and another one across my forehead Christ they were going to cut me open and drink my blood and there were enough of them in this addict to drink me dry I realized then that they were too strong for me and that they were going to pull me up into the attic no matter how hard I struggled so I stopped kicking and Swinging my legs and instead of trying to wrench myself free I took hold of the grey Man’s coat and hauled myself upward the screechers were all pulling me so hard that I almost jumped up into the attic and the gray man lost his balance and fell backward I rolled over and rolled over again colliding with a stack of suitcases and knocking over an old standed lamp but as I rolled over the second time I was able to reach behind me and pull out my gun the gry man was practically on top of me so close that my nostrils were filled with the sweet smell of his rotting inside I pointed the gun at his face and fired and even in the semi Darkness I could see a large lump of his head fly off including his ear he fell sideways on top of the suitcases his heels drumming on the floorboards like a stricken horse I fired again the noise of the shot made my ears ring and the attic was filled with gunm smoke I fired a third time and one of the women’s creatures fell backward and toppled through the open trap door door a fourth shot brought down another man and even though their knives were raised the rest of the screechers hesitated they knew that I couldn’t kill them even if I blew bits off their heads but they weren’t impervious to pain and even screechers don’t relish disfigurement I stood up and approached them pointing my weapon at each of them in turn the dim light that came up through the trap door showed me what a sorry hi collection of lost souls they were their faces Haggard their clothes caked in dried blood their eyes milky they were in the last stages of degradation as stoy V and it wouldn’t be long before they would be craving one final poisonous drink of tua’s blood the blood that would transform them forever into stoy Morty from down below I heard shouting you all right sir what the hell’s going on I found your ghosts I shouted back there’s a woman down there hold on to her and don’t let her get away I edged toward the open trap door keeping my gun pointed at the screechers they were growing Bolder now and one of the women lunged toward me hissing in contempt and crisscrossing her knife in the air I pointed my gun at her head and pulled the trigger but all that I heard was a metallic click all of my last upper bullets had been fired and the clip was empty I didn’t hesitate I swung myself through the trap door and jumped down to The Landing below stumbling over the Fallen chair the woman who had fallen through was already halfway down the stairs her hair wild and her blue cotton dress spattered with dried blood the two police officers had just reached the foot of the stairs below her and they were staring up at her in horror bloody hell you’ve shot her stop her don’t let her get away the woman threw herself down the stairs toward them screeching the officers made a fumbled attempt to hold her but she flailed her arms and wrenched herself free and ran along the hallway to the open front door there’s another one exclaimed one of the officers pointing to the trap door above my head another woman screecher was climbing out of the attic she was wearing a green skirt and a stained yellow cardigan unlike the first woman she didn’t drop to the floor instead she crawled upside down along the ceiling so that her skirt hung down and I could see her laded stockings and her garer belt she crawled all the way down the sloping ceiling above the staircase above our heads all the way along the hallway ceiling and out of the front door we couldn’t have reached her to pull her down to the floor even if we had had the nerve to do it as soon as she had gone the man in the gray suit appeared in the trap door his hair was sticking up wildly and the left side of his skull looked like broken bloodstained china I could see the others creatures crowding close behind him and I knew that it was time to get the hell out of here I jumped down the stairs three and four at a Time come on there’s too many of them the man in the gray suit was already crawling across the ceiling and a balding middle-aged man with liver spotted hands was following him there must have been more screeches in the Attic than I had realized because they came pouring out like spiders swarming Down the Walls I didn’t stop to count them and neither did the two police officers I grabbed my kit from the receptionist office and we ran out into the night halfway toward the front Gates one of the officers turned around and Drew out his baton right then he said defiantly let’s see how they like having their heads cracked I seized hold of his arm and pulled him away so violently that he almost fell over you’re out of your fraking mind they’ll kill us let’s go come on they’re only a bunch of women and old geeses listen to me do you want to have your goddamn heart cut out because that’s what they’ll do to you the officers hesitated let’s go guys I shouted Ed at them and Confused they followed me we all scrambled into their unmarked wolsley and slammed the door the officer in the driving seat immediately reached for the radio but I said let’s get out of here first okay the screechers were already running out of the front door and across the shingled driveway the officer suddenly realized that they were intent on coming after us and doing us serious harm even if they were women and middle-aged men three or four of them reached the car and started to beat their fists on the windows and pull at the door handles and it was then that the officer started up the engine and jammed his foot on the gas pedal we roared off the grass birds and bounced onto the roadway with the screechers still banging on the roof and trying to mount up onto the running board a mile up the road the officer slowed down although he kept looking nervously in his rear view mirror what the hell were they said his fellow officer turning around in the passenger seat what the hell were what those people normal people can’t crawl across the ceiling Jesus Christ I was dabbing at my forehead with my handkerchief the cut extended all the way from my hairline to the side of my left eye but fortunately it wasn’t very deep we never saw any people crawling on the ceiling or otherwise but official Secrets act okay now can you patch me through to George goodu at MI6 he needs to know what hasn’t happened blasphemy the two police officers drove me to Cen police station a Monumental red brick Victorian building in the center of town just as we climbed out of the car the town hall clocked struck 12 midnight but the air was still humid and warm and moths still swarmed around the blue police station lamps we walked along corridors with shiny Brown tiles and highly polished lenium floors and the whole building echoed like a public swimming bath I found inspector Ruck in the main operations center the room had high vaed ceilings but it was badly lit and hazy with cigarette smoke 15 or 16 young officers were sitting at rows of desks wearing headsets with trumpet-shaped bite speakers inspector Ruck was standing in front of a large map of South London drinking very strong tea from a coronation mug this time he didn’t even say how irritated he was to see me he simply grunted and lifted his mug toward the map we’ve had one sighting outside the Swan and sugar Public House and another at West Tron station not confirmed mind you but it looks as if your dooker might be trying to make his way to Central London he was seen in the backseat of a brown Ford console with another man driving the other man could be Mr Terren Mitchell although we can’t confirm that either how soon can I get a dog I asked him a dog’s not much good for following a car I need a dog inspector if I have a dog I can track down all of the people that duka has infected and if I can find them I can find Dua they know where it is George Goodhue arrived looking tired and hot and harassed he was a short podgy young man with a wave of thinning blonde hair and he always wore his suspenders too tight so that his pants flapped around his ankles he was only 33 but he had been appointed deputy director of MI6 because he had graduated from Birmingham University the government were trying to look egalitarian while at the same time quietly trying to dismantle the Oxbridge Elite who had dominated the British Security Services for so many years ly hell said George when I told him what had happened at The Laurels so now we’ve got how many screeches on the loose 10 maybe a dozen it wasn’t easy to count but this could be the chance we’ve been waiting for now that we smoked them out of their Nest they’ll have to go to ground someplace and my guess is that most of them will make their way back home to their original addresses which I believe I may have in Dr Watkins appointments book George checked his wristwatch your dog handler shouldn’t be long he comes highly recommended from RAF Bry Norton I must say though you’ll have your work cut out for you the search for Dua and Terren went on throughout the night and until it began to grow light The Daily Express had got wind of the fact that dozens of police were combing the streets of South London they were told that a Soviet spy had escaped from custody at Paddington green and police suspected that he might be seeking Refuge with his former contacts in norbury at a quarter of 8 my dog handler still hadn’t arrived and I was hungry sweaty and exhausted I decided to go back to Thornton Heath for a bath and a change of clothes and a couple of hours sleep I hadn’t yet decided what I was going to tell terrence’s mother but she was used to him not coming home for days on end and I doubted if she would even ask me where he was I was just about to leave when George held up his telephone receiver and said call for you Captain fulcon Dr Schulman the switchboard past her through from MI6 thanks I said and took the phone from him Captain Falcon said Dr Schulman making no attempt to conceal her impatience I’ve been trying to get in touch with you since yesterday evening yes doctor I know I’ve been kind of uh tied up I carried out the test that you suggested I think you may be on to something quite significant go on out of the total number of known victims since these attacks began which is now 127 only 48 had their hearts removed and any blood drained from their circulatory system that’s less than 38% a very high proportion of these 48 were noticeably older than the remaining 79 25 years old and upward which led you to conclude what exactly it was the blood that told us the story we took s from every single victim and analyze them exhaustively we found considerable variations in the proportions of red and white corpuses as well as other indicators such as Ura and salts and proteins however none of these variations seemed to Bear any relation to whether a victim had been drained of blood or not there was only one consistently common factor which was shared by the victims who had been killed but not drained of blood they had all recently been vaccinated against polio polio well I expect you know that there’s been an epidemic of polio especially in London and the Midlands scores of people have been killed or paralyzed the health Ministry have been vaccinating school children in their hundreds I’ve been reading about that yes they sent 600 doses to cry and they’re desperately trying to get more that’s the sock vaccine isn’t it that’s right they inject children with the dead polio virus but it immunizes them against the live polio virus I felt an extraordinary surge of emotion almost Triumph it all made sense to me now the screechers hadn’t been killing such large numbers of people because they were wanly sadistic or because they were trying to silence any witnesses as Inspector Ruck had believed they had been desperately trying to find victims whose blood didn’t yet contain the new vaccine against polio militis they didn’t dare to drink the blood of anybody who had been vaccinated and it was easy to understand why the sock vaccine was made of dead polio viruses dead polio viruses didn’t affect humans but when a stoy V was transformed into a stoy Mort all of the dead and dying cells in its body were revived not only revived but enhanced so much that the stroy Mort became Immortal so if it had polioviruses in its bloodstream the viruses would be revived too the stroy Mort might be immortal but it would be totally paralyzed Dr showman I said you’re an angel you made my day well I think you must be some kind of an Angel too Captain Falcon we certainly wouldn’t have thought of making comparative blood tests if it hadn’t been for you I put down the phone George said has something happened yes George I believe it has I believe we found a way to wipe out these godamn creatures for good and all you mean it you really mean it that’s a bloody relief I was just about to leave the Operation Center when a young man in a blue RAF uniform appeared with his cap tucked under his arm I’m looking for Captain fulan that’s me you must be the dog handler I asked for that’s right sir warrant officer Tim Hedley sir kon’s outside in my van warrant officer Headley was a serious looking young man with very thick eyebrows and very blue eyes and very red cheeks his hair stuck up in his sprig at the back as if he were about 6 years old and he had been sleeping on it I’ll tell you what we’ll do warrant officer Headley I’ll call you Tim and you can call me Jim yes sir very good sir listen Tim I have to go back to my diggings right now to change my clothes and take a bath but then we’ll be ready for action I have a list of addresses for Kon to go sniffing around and I’m pretty confident that we found a way of dealing with the characters we’re likely to find there how much have you been briefed Tim’s cheeks flushed even redder I’ve got a rough idea of what’s going on Sir I’ve been told to keep it very hush hush you know what it is we’re going after I was told some pretty odd types some pretty odd types I hesitated wondering if I ought to tell him more but then I said yes okay pretty odd types I guess that just about sums them up Tim drove me to Thornton Heath in his RAF police fan I felt as if I had gone through 15 rounds with Rocky Mariano bruised exhausted with a thumping headache but Dr Schulman’s Discovery had got my adrenaline going and I couldn’t wait wait to start hunting down screechers kaston turned out to be a large German shepherd with a Shaggy coat and a black face it was hot in the back of the polican and he panted on the back of my neck all the way to terrence’s mother’s house kasten’s a wiiz at finding deserters said Tim one chap was hiding in an empty water tower 50 ft above the ground Caston snipped him out didn’t you boy Caston barked about 2 Ines behind my head you found him didn’t you boy none of the other dogs could but you did another bark I turned to Tim and said no more compliments okay my head won’t take it we parked outside terrence’s mother’s house do mind if I bring Kon in for a bowl of water asked Tim he can bring him in for a cup of tea and a sausage sandwich for all I care Tim was opening up the back of the van when I noticed that the front door of terrence’s mother’s house was open I looked up and down the street although it wasn’t yet 9:00 a.m. the morning was glaringly bright and very hot there were only two other cars parked anywhere nearby and a motorcycle with sidecar I approached the front door cautiously maybe I was overreacting after all the temperature was almost in the 70s already and Mrs Mitchell might have left her door open open for a cooling draft but the house was unusually silent Mrs Mitchell always kept her Wireless on humming along to soundtrack serenade and Johnny Duncan’s song bag Mrs Mitchell I called out Mrs Mitchell there was no answer Tim was coming through the front gate now with Kon everything okay he asked me I’m not sure probably but as I opened the front door a little wider kaston started to whine and lower his head like a dog who has been smacked on the nose for misbehavior Mrs Mitchell I stepped into the narrow hallway Tim tried to bring Kon in after me but he scrabbled his claws on the path and refused to come into the house kaston scent boy come on boy still kaston refused to come any further Tim dragged at his leash but he wouldn’t budge he’s never acted up like this before never maybe there’s something here that he seriously doesn’t like the smell of kaston come along lad Kasten I took out my gun and cocked it I had no more Last Supper bullets left but I had reloaded with a clip of regular bullets rubbed with garlic not nearly so effective at stopping a stroy V but hopefully still enough to give me a few seconds Advantage I went down the hallway and eased open the kitchen door the green floral curtains were drawn and the main overhead light was still burning there was a single saucepan on top of the new world gas cooker and the table was laid for one with a place mat and a soup spoon Tim came up behind me kaston won’t budge I’ve had to put him back in the van I’m really sorry about this he’s been spooked Tim and I can’t say that I blame him I’m spooked too we both listened all I could hear was the droning of those hairy blue blowflies the British call Blue bottles scores of blue bottles I stepped into the kitchen I could smell vegetable soup but I could also smell that distinctive rotten chicken odor of dry wi human blood at the far side of the kitchen there was a door with frosted glass panels which led through to the skullery and then to the backyard the frosted glass panels were spattered with dark brown spots Tim said oh God how about going back to your van and calling George Goodhue for me I asked him somebody’s been killed here haven’t they it sure smells like it but if you don’t want to see it look I lost my last dog handler because she couldn’t take the sight of people with their insides hanging out is that what you’re expecting to find Tim’s face was very pale although his cheeks were still fiery I don’t know let’s take a look shall we I opened up the skullery door I had been prepared to see all kinds of Horrors but at first I couldn’t really understand what I was looking at Tim made a wretching noise and clamped his hand over his mouth then he hurried back through the kitchen and out into the hallway and I could hear him noisily vomiting in the front garden on the side wall of the skullery in a Grizzly display of blasphemy and Butchery both Mrs Mitchell and Terren had been nailed completely naked and upside down their feet together but their hands outspread their heads had been saw off and underneath each of their gaping necks an enamel Basin had been placed to catch their blood a zinc bucket stood in the corner and I could see a bloody tangle of gray hair in it so I knew what had happened to their heads the scullery was thick with blue bottles most of them crawling in and out of the blood-filled basins in one of the basins there was a soup ladle I could only guess that duka had fed before he left I went through to the living room just as Tim was coming back into the house sorry about that he apologized thought I had a strong stomach don’t worry about it I think Kon had the right idea staying outside I looked around the living room it would take a police forensic team to work out exactly what had happened here but I could guess dugga had forced Terren to drive him here to his mother’s house the last place that we would have thought of looking for him then it had probably questioned him about our investigation who I was how much we knew what we were going to do to hunt it down after that it had murdered both Terren and his mother and had fastened their bodies to the skullery wall in a deliberate mockery of Christ and Christianity while I waited for George goodu to arrive from MI6 I made a systematic search of the living room I even got down on my knees and looked underneath the sofa where I found dozens of dogeared knitting patterns and three crumpled marsbar wrappers I opened drawers crammed with cutout recipes from woman’s weekly and stray buttons and cotton reels in the right hand corner of the room stood a semicircular telephone table with a crochet tablecloth on it and a frame photog RH of terrence’s mother on her wedding day the telephone receiver was off the hook I picked it up and listened but it was dead I jiggled the Cradle a few times but it stayed dead in those days if you left your phone off the hook for long enough they cut you off on the carpet underneath the table I found a crumpled piece of Note Paper somebody had written on it saon QE equals 1200 in Blunt pencil in shaky childlike letters on one side of the piece of paper there was a dark brown oval which looked very much like blood Tim I said what do you make of this Tim peered at it and then handed it back soan that’s short for Southampton what about the rest of it well uh QE could mean the Queen Elizabeth I suppose she docks at Southampton 12 I don’t know that could mean a 12:00 sailing you mean Terren could have made a reservation to cross the Atlantic yes I suppose it could I jiggled the Cradle a few times and eventually an impatient voice said operator oh yeah hi um I was wondering if you could tell me the last number dialed on this phone wait a minute sir I’ll have to check a minute became 2 minutes and then five at last the operator came back on the line and said South Hampton 7227 can you tell me whose number that is it’s the new 24-hour reservations office for the Cunard shipping line sir and what time was that call made 7 minutes past to this morning sir Tim looked at his watch I really think Kon is going to need a bit of a walk now sir he’s had his breakfast he always has to stretch his legs afterwards if you know what I mean do you think he’s going to be okay I really need a dog right now to be honest with you sir he’s looking a bit Dicky this thing I’m after I think it’s trying to leave the country sorry sir thing the thing that killed those two people in there Tim looked perplexed whatever it is sir I don’t think that Kon will go after it I’ve never seen him like this before well only once out in sewers somebody put him off the scent with Lion manure I ran the Canard Line reservations number after another lengthy wait I was answered by a chippy young girl somebody made a reservation on a Canard ship at about 10 after 2 this morning morning I told her this is an urgent security matter I need to know who it was and what ship they’re booked on she wouldn’t tell me of course so in the end I had to talk to her supervisor and her supervisor had to call MI6 to verify my credentials this wasted another 15 minutes and meanwhile dooka was putting ever increasing miles between it and me at last the supervisor came back to tell me that Mr Terrence Mitchell had telephone to book a cabin on the Queen Elizabeth Bound for New York via sherberg sailing at noon today in Pursuit George Goodhue arrived just as I was leaving the house his gray Rover was closely followed by three other cars and a plain navy blue van a dozen young men in suits climbed out of the cars and two home office Pathologists climbed out of the van I think the Duke is trying to get out of the country I said it forced Terrence to make a booking for it on the Queen Elizabeth yes but hold on Dua hasn’t got a passport has he or it I mean they won’t let it on board without a passport it won’t need a passport George it can move so fast they won’t even see it it can slide through a gap that’s half an inch wide all the same I can alert the Police and Customs at Southampton and we can hold the sailing if necessary well okay but tell the police don’t try to detain it it can rip them apart as soon as look at them and we don’t want any more casualties I have to get down there with my kit I’ll drive you that’s great thanks Tim came up with Kon trotting behind him on his leash how is he I asked him that Queen Elizabeth’s a hell of a big boat I could really use a good dog I’m sorry sir I don’t think he’s going to be up to it I looked down at Kon and I had to admit to myself that I had never seen a dog look so cow his head was lowered and he couldn’t stop trembling as if he was suffering from hypothermia all right Tim I told him I’ll just have to find another man trailer that’s all I picked up my kit and put it on the back seat of George’s Rover we left terrence’s mother’s house just as the home office Pathologists were walking in with their Brown overalls and their cameras and their forensic equipment and headed south through Cen Town Center George managed to change gear and smoke and talk on his radio telephone all at the same time blasting his horn impatiently at anybody who slowed him down kunard won’t postpone the sailing he said as we came closer to pearly Charles fith doesn’t want to postpone it either it’ll attract too much publicity the foreign secretary’s on board as well as Loretta Young and some Russian bigwigs too in that case we’ll have to make sure we get to Southampton before she sails I directed him to the foxley’s house he parked in the driveway with the engine running while I went to the front door and rang the doorbell Maya foxley answered almost at once her hair was fraying and she looked as if she hadn’t slept Mrs foxley I know Jill isn’t feeling too good but I really have to talk to her I’m sorry she isn’t here she’s not here she hasn’t had to go to hospital no no a man came around to call for her about 2 hours ago she said that he was something to do with the police and she would have to go with him she even packed an overnight bag at that moment bullet appeared his Crimson tongue hanging out in the heat he looked up at me and woofed Jill was on Police business and she didn’t take bullet that doesn’t make any sense I don’t know she asked me to take care of him that’s all this man who called for her what did he look like Maya foxley frowned he was very tall with his hair brushed back did you notice the color of his eyes she she shook her head would you say that he was good-looking handsome oh yes he would stand out in a crowd and very well dressed too a dark suit and a dark silk tie Mrs foxley May uh this man had nothing to do with the police if he’s the man I think he is he’s taken Jill against her will he’s abducted her but I don’t understand she seemed quite quite happy to go with him he didn’t say anything to threaten her that’s what makes him so dangerous listen do you think that bullet might come with me and help me find her Mrs foxley looked down at bullet dubiously I don’t know you’ve seen for yourself that he is a dog who obeys only his owner that was the way he had to be trained I bent over and held my hand up bullet sniffed at my fingertips and growled in the back of his throat bullet I said we have to go find Jill do you understand that boy we have to go and find Jill bullet barked and his tail slapped wildly from side to side Mrs foxley would you bring me bullets leash please I think he realizes what I want him to do Maya foxley went inside and while she did so I tugged bullet’s ears and rubbed his throat and he didn’t seem to mind at all at least he didn’t try to take another chunk of flesh out of my thumb let’s go find Jill boy yes let’s go find that Mistress of yours bullet grew more and more excited and when I clipped his leash on his collar he immediately ran out across the driveway dragging me after him he was a hell of a lot stronger than I had anticipated and he seemed to be even more determined to find Jill than I was I’ll call you I shouted back to Maya foxley as we turned onto the main London to Brighton Road I had a sudden thought George can you take me to Dr Watkins house we’re going to be pretty push for time old man how long will it take us to reach Southampton it’s about 65 miles if I really step on it we should make it in an hour okay but I really need to go to The Laurels first I directed him to Pampers for Road and he slewed to a halt on the grass Burge Outside The Laurels the two Bobbies on duty recognized me and they saluted and said morning sir and let me through without any trouble inside the house I went directly to Dr Watkins surgery and opened up his fridge inside there were dozens of bottles of various vaccines smallpox diptheria yellow fever on the middle shelf on the right hand side there were a dozen bottles of Suk Antipolo mytischi CC syringes bullet barked excitedly as I returned to the car and we pulled away from the Laurels with the Rover’s rear end sliding sideways in the grass I checked my watch it was 10 minutes of 11 already don’t worry said George if I keep my foot flat on the floor we should get there in time okay then I told him try not to kill us that’s all I ask the sky began to grow increasingly thundery as we sped southwestward through Su and Hampshire the clouds rolled in so quickly they looked like a speeded up film and by the time we reached the town of havant huge warm drops of rain had begun to patter onto the windshield of George’s Rover I had never been frightened by anybody’s driving before not even during World War II when I was driven in a jeep between Brussels and nagan by a stogy chewing marine sergeant who had drunk a bottle and a half of Napoleon Brandy but George drove so furiously that I found myself gripping the door handle to keep myself from sliding from one side of my seat to the other and constantly jamming my foot on an imaginary brake pedal he hardly ever dropped below 50 mph he drove the wrong way along dual carriages he even drove right over the middle of a traffic circle leaving parallel tire tracks in the grass he ran countless red lights and blasted his horn at anybody who looked as if they might slow him down all this time he smoked one cigarette after another lighting a fresh one from the burn down butt of the last do you know who I admire the most he asked me as we slewed around the corner into havant High Street vanio what a driver the last lap of the German Grand Prix he averaged 91.7 M an hour averaged we reached the outskirts of Southampton at 3 minutes of 12 it was raining hard and The Rovers windshield wipers were having difficulty in coping so the George had to drive more slowly but as we approached the docks I could see the Queen Elizabeth’s two red funnels over the rooftops and as we turned the corner to the Canard terminal and the sheer black wall of the liner sides came into view it was clear that she wasn’t yet ready to sail George parked by the railings at the terminal entrance a policeman in a rain Cape came up and knocked on the window can’t leave it here mate George produced hiside identity card I think you’ll find that I can he said with public school self assurance look after it for me will you Constable yes sir said the policeman grudgingly you’ll be wanting Chief Inspector Holloway sir he’s inside the terminal at the information desk we climbed out of the car I turned my coat collar up against the rain which was hammering down all across the docks come on bullet I urged him let’s find Jill shall we come on boy we crossed the wet reflective asphalt close up the Queen Elizabeth was enormous over 1,000 ft long and nearly 200 ft High its sides stre with runnels of rain passengers were looking down on us from the upper decks and waving even though the ship’s gangways were still down and the dock was still cluttered with Vans and trucks and Luggage the air smelled strongly of brine in diesel we went through the swing doors into the reception area which was still noisy and crowded with passengers and relatives we found Chief Inspector Holloway next to one of the stainless steel counters surrounded by detective constables and at least 15 uniformed officers Chief Inspector Holloway was very tall and lugubrious looking with a thin sow face and a nose like a fire ax his brown trilby hat was soaked with rain and the PS of his Flappy Brown double breasted suit were curled up I don’t know why Hampshire constabulary can’t be trusted to deal with this he said to George even before George had introduced himself it’s what you might call a specialist operation I put in you’re American said Chief Inspector Holloway that’s correct sir Captain James Falcon sued to MI6 this is all very irregular yes sir you’re right it is irregular have you checked the passenger manifest one of the detectives held out a clipboard Mr Terren Mitchell made a telephone reservation early this morning and booked a middle class cabin m64 he hasn’t checked in yet K not have promised to let us know as soon as he does I said okay Officer thanks then I turned to George I need to get on board now Duke is here already I can feel it but he hasn’t checked in yet it won’t it doesn’t have to it can get on board without anybody seeing it Christ it could climb straight up the side of the ship if it needed to all it needs is a cabin for itself and Jill while it crosses the Atlantic I looked down at bullet I think bullet had picked up the scent too he was quivering and staring toward the doorway which led out to the pier come on boy I told him there’s one little thing we have have to do before we go on board I asked one of the uniformed Girls behind the Canard counter if there was a spare office I could use then I led bullet into the back and opened up my kit I took out two pots of white and black paint and a paintbrush what on Earth are you doing asked George hold bullet’s head still would you I’m giving him an extra pair of eyes Dua at Bay bullet and I walked up the gang way with the rain drumming on the canvas awning above our heads two detectives came with us so that we wouldn’t have any trouble getting on board a smooth-faced Canard perser greeted us at the top of the gangway and he looked down at bullet with Amusement I’ve seen plenty of four-eyed people but this is the first time I’ve ever seen a foure dog please I said he gets embarrassed very easily yes sir sorry sir I guess the perser was experienced in dealing with eccentric passengers once we were on board I told the detectives to wait where they were can’t really do that sir we’re supposed to stick close just in case you need us you’re that eager to die one detective looked at the other detective if you put it that way sir we can wait here yes but call us if you need us the Queen Elizabeth was supposed to have sailed over 20 minutes ago and her turbine engines were making the whole ship vibrate but the decks and promenades were still crowded and chaotic passengers were saying tearful goodbyes Pig Boys in pillbox hats were hurrying about with messages and bunches of flowers Porters were carrying suitcases on board as bullet and I made our way down to M deck we shared the elevator with a strongly perfumed woman in a green Dior dress and a veiled hat who was openly sobbing as if her world were coming to an end we hurried along the corridor to m64 bullets claws pattered on the highly polished corid flooring come on boy I encouraged him find Jill for me okay a Canard official had given me a pasy but as it turned out I didn’t need it the door to cabin m64 was unlocked I put down my kit turned the handle and cautiously eased it open there was nobody around the bed was neatly made the blinds were drawn down over the port holes the only indication that anybody had been here was the pale blue overnight case in the corner and the rucked up throw on the floor I led bullet into the cabin and let him sniff around he trotted over to the overnight case licked it and then turned to me and gave a high pitched whine good boy bullet go find chill bullet nudged the cabin door open with his nose and began to patter his way along the passageway the scent that he had picked up must have been very strong because I could hardly keep up with him several passengers looked at his extra pair of painted on eyes and laughed they wouldn’t have found it so using if they’d known why I had done it bullet made his way to one of the elevators aft and sat down outside the closed doors Keening Dua and Jill could have gone upward or downward to any number of decks but I took a guess that they had gone up to the prominade deck or the sun deck like most of the other passengers and I took out my stoy Compass to confirm it the elevator took over 5 minutes to come down and when it did it was jam-packed with passengers in their luggage and they took another two or 3 minutes to jostle their way out of it with lots of sorries and do excuse me we Rose slowly upward the page boy who shared the elevator with us kept making kissing noises at bullet which bullet disdainfully ignored I kept my compass open and as we came to the prominade deck the needle sharply swiveled and pointed forward the elevator doors opened and and bullet immediately trotted out and started sniffing around the deck it was still raining but not as heavily now and over the solent the sky was gradually beginning to clear the ship’s horn blew deep and deafening and bullet looked up at me in alarm it’s okay boy just find Jill for me Bullet picked up the scent almost at once I followed him along the wet planking of the prominade deck and 20 yards in front of me leaning against the railings with their backs to me I saw Dua wearing a gray Fedora and a dark gray suit and Jill in a light Fawn summer coat they were standing so close to each other that anybody would have thought they were husband and wife or lovers bullet started to run even faster but I yanked on his leash and forced him to slow down careful bullet careful boy he gave a strangled wine but I think he must have understood that something wasn’t right because he didn’t bark or strain at his leash and he obediently came to heal here boy hold up a minute I went into the doorway of the cocktail lounge and put down my kit Sit Boy stay I took out one of the hypodermics that I had found in Dr Watkins Consulting room my hands were shaking but I filled it with anti-oomycete and squirted a few drops out to make sure that the needle was clear come on boy this is it Showdown time I approached Dua and Jill until bullet and I were standing less than 10 ft away from them neither of them turned around but dukka must have sensed that I was there because it took a step sideways away from Jill and let go overand over Southampton water the sun suddenly broke through and shafts of light Shone down from the clouds as if they were the windows of a Great Gray Cathedral so Captain said Dua still with his back to me you have found me Bullet barked and Jill turned round at once her face was so bloodless that I hardly recognized her she stared at me in shock and then she said bullet bullet what are you doing here what’s that on your face instead of running toward her and jumping up bullet sat down and gave another whine bullet she said bullet what’s wrong with you boy she stepped toward us but Dua reached out and held her wrist then it turned around and faced us let me tell you something Captain duka began but then it saw a bullet and bullet’s extra pair of eyes its reaction was astonishing it raised one hand to Shield its face and it jolted convulsively backward until it was up against the ship’s railings then it seemed to slide away sideways still holding up its hand you there it rasped at me you dare to bring a devil dog with you chill looked bewildered bullet she said bullet here boy but bullet stood up now with his f bristling and he started to stalk toward Dua with his teeth Beed growling I came right behind him holding my hypodermic in the palm of my right hand several people stopped and stared at us but nobody could have understood what duka was and what was really happening here stay back Dua warned me take that dog away from me Captain fulan or I will make sure that you die the most agonizing of all part possible deaths sorry Dua this is where you find out what it’s like to be mortal Jill snapped Tuka take this devil dog away Jill I said without looking at her just stay back bullet Jill called him here boy bullet bullet was confused now he knew that I wanted him to keep duka at Bay but at the same time he had grown up with Jill and she had trained him since puppyhood to obey her implicitly bullet I ordered him stay but Jill crouched down and held out her hands toward him and bullet didn’t really have any choice he trotted toward her and even though he still seemed to be unsure about her he allowed her to take hold of his collar take it away Dua ordered her take that cursed animal out of my sight Jill I appealed but Jill LED bullet away and the two of them disappeared around the curved Windows of the cocktail lounge well Captain said Dua lowering its hand it looked more relaxed now but I thought that its face was grayer and more strained than the last time I had seen it its seag green eyes seemed to have faded and its lips were redder almost as if they were bleeding it was beginning to look more and more like a creature whose time was coming to an end a creature that had survived for too many centuries and committed too many acts of murder and cruelty this is the finish duka I told it you’re not going to get away this time oh that’s where to go very wrong Captain nobody will ever find me on this vessel even if they search it from stem to stern and I have a new love in my life to give give me sucker and support Jill won’t stay with you it smiled and raised its eyebrows you really don’t think so she reminds me so much of my UNCA she could almost be Ana reincarnated I will certainly love her just as much and give her just as much devotion forever what have you done to her what do you think I have won her heart won her heart you’re kidding me chill knows exactly what kind of creature you are oh yes but I have won her heart all the same and now I am going to win your heart too but in a very different way I am going to cut it out of your body and drink your life’s blood fresh and warm and watch the light in your eyes go out while I do so oh I see you’re going to kill me right here in front of all these people of course not you and I we’re going to go below to the privacy of my cabin and you can feed me there and what makes you think that I’m going to come with you I am 10 times stronger than you are captain and aund times quicker and what will you do when I take hold of your arm and force you to walk through these crowds with me will you shout out for help I don’t think so you know what I will do to any of these innocent people if they try to intervene duka lifted its hat and smoothed back his hair with its hand then it took a step toward me holding out its right hand what do you think Captain shall we walk together there’s no way that you can stop me not even with your box of tricks you think a Bible can stop me you think a silver miral can stop me you think whips and nails and puppy seeds can stop me I stayed where I was even though several passengers had to push their way past me Dua came right up to me there was no denying how handsome it was what good bone structure it had but close up there was an unhealthy transparency to its skin which reminded me that for all of its good looks it was dead why don’t you put down your box it smiled there was a moment when I considered running and opening up my kit and taking out my silver mirror and my silver Whip and trying to destroy duga with all the religious and super stitious paraphernalia that I had used for so long but duka was infinitely faster than me and somehow I knew that the time for all of those ancient and medieval artifacts was passed this was the modern age and both duka and I had to get used to the idea I sat down my kit and pushed it with my foot underneath one of the varnish benches that ran around beneath the fascia of the cocktail lounge there you are I told it satisfied Dua took hold of my left elbow its grip was painfully strong and its thumb dug deep into my nerve so that my forearm felt numb I assume you know which cabin I reserved said duka yes I told it in which case it said and started to steer me along the deck the Queen Elizabeth’s siren blew again and again which was the signal for those who weren’t sailing to go ashore Dua was saying something else something which caused it to smile but I couldn’t hear what it was blood Feud we reached the elevator and waited dua’s grip on my elbow was unrelenting you really think you’re going to get away I asked it you know I am so where are you going I have an appointment to keep in America an appointment who the hell with this seemed to amuse duka even more before you and I finish our business together Captain I will tell you I want to see the expression on your face oh yes the elevator doors opened Dua had to step back to allow half a dozen people to get out and as it did so I half Twisted myself around and stabbed it in the forearm with my hyper dermic Dua flinched but dead scates are not as sensitive as we are before it could turn its head and realized what I was doing I had jammed down the plunger with my thumb and injected it with the full 5 CC of polio vacine Dua slammed me against the side of the elevator door two women were tried to get into the elevator and one of them shrilled in alarm what have you done to me duka shouted at me it seized my wrist and forced the hypodermic out of my grasp what is this what have you done to me you’re just about to find out friend I told it Dua dropped the hypodermic on the deck and stamped on it then it struggled out of its coat yanked out its cuff lengths and pulled up its shirt sleeve the needle prick was clearly visible and the skin around it was already looking inflamed what have you done to me Dua raged it lowered its head and tried to suck the needle prick but it was out of its reach and it let out an incoherent Roar of utter frustration I backed away intending to retrieve my kit but Dua came after me as fast as a camera shutter it seized my arm and threw me across the deck so that I collided with the rail then it came came after me again as if it was going to rip me apart it twisted my coat in both hands and shouted directly into my face so that I could feel its freezing breath tell me what you have done to me it screamed tell me what poison you have given me like I said Dua I panted I felt as if my shoulder was dislocated you’ll soon find out for yourself at least I hoped it would supposing I were wrong and Antipolo vaccine had no effect on dead screechers at all or supposing even if it did work that it took hours before the dead viruses came back to life or even days there was a crowd around us now but duka was too enraged to take any notice of them a white jacketed Steward came up to us and said now then pack it in you to or I’ll call the police and have you thrown off the ship Dua jerked its head up and S snarled at him like a wild beast its face was so distorted with Fury that the steward raised both hands and said okay mate okay just take it easy all right the rest of the crowd shuffled back too some of them stepping on each other’s feet daoka gripped my coat even Tighter and its fists trembled with effort I’m going to drag out your intestines for this Captain I’m going to hoist you on a pole and watch the Crowes eat your eyes out it was half choking me and I could barely speak but I managed to say wrong country Dua you’re not in Romania anymore worse than that wrong Century Dua began to shudder and its breathing started to become more labored it looked into my eyes and I could tell now that I had compromised its immortality I have an appointment in America it said I swore that I would get my revenge and I shall come on chance said the steward weily get up off the floor and let’s be having you this is the Queen Elizabeth not the bloody aisle of white fairy dooka grasped my throat and pressed its thumbs into my Adam’s Apple I took hold of its wrists and tried to pull its hands away but it was still far too strong for me I have an appointment it repeated and now now its voice was softer and hser I have an appointment in America I tried to cough but I couldn’t I thought with a strange feeling of Serenity that I was going to die here with all of these well-dressed people watching me and none of them lifting a finger to help me but dua’s hands began to tremble more and more violently and little by little it script began to weaken I managed to take a breath and then another come on mate said the steward and laid his hand on dua’s shoulder only a few minutes before Dua would probably have Twisted the steward’s arm off but now it reached out and held on to him for support slowly painfully it managed to climb onto its feet and to Lurch across to the handrail it stood there for a while its chest rising and falling as if it had been running a marathon its face ashy its blood red mouth gaping open two men helped me to stand up too what’s the matter with your Sparling partner said one of them is he ill or something I’ll call the ship’s doctor said the steward there are two police detectives down by the main gangway I told him I’d like you to call them too and please I coughed can we C clear all of these people away I took out my identity card and held it up please MI6 this man is a dangerous suspect the steward said blly me then come on ladies and gentlemen if you’d be so kind can we give this gentleman a bit of breathing space as the crowds of passengers reluctantly began to dispers I approached duka and stood facing it although I made sure that I didn’t get too close ducas stared back at me with utter hatred one hand pressed against its chest but it didn’t have enough breath to be able to speak what did I tell you I said this is where you find out what it’s like to be mortal Dua took one step forward and then another and slowly shuffled its way toward the cocktail lounge I followed it but I still kept my distance if may have been affected by creeping paralysis but I didn’t trust it one inch it turned to me and said you are going to die for this Captain then it opened the door to the cocktail lounge and disappeared inside I hurried along the prominade deck and dragged my kit out from under the bench then I shouldered my way into the cocktail lounge urgently looking left and right to see where Dua had gone the lounge wasn’t open yet and it was deserted although a syrupy Orchestral Version of Diana was playing over the loudspeaker system it was decorated in the highly contemporary 1950s Style of all of the Queen Elizabeth’s public spaces with Sycamore panel walls dyed to the color of lobster shells inlaid with markety pictures of scenes from the circus behind the bar stood scores of shining bar botles cremon and perau and grenadine and rows of chromium cocktail shakers I couldn’t see duka at first but then I saw a spasmodic movement halfway up the panel that depicted a trapeze artist duka was slowly and painfully climbing up the wall clinging to the paneling like a dying man crawling across a desert when I came in it managed to turn its head around but it didn’t speak instead it continued its climb gasping for breath with every few inches that it managed to ascend I sat down my kit on one of the polished wood tables and opened it I took out my Bible my holy oil my hammer and my nails I felt like a priest taking out everything he needed for an exorcism this was the day when the devil got what the devil deserved Dua dorin Dua are you going to come down from there or do I have to pull you down Dua had nearly reached the top of the wall now the polio virus was already stiffening its arms and its legs because it clawed feebly at the ceiling two or three times before it managed to get a grip and I thought for a moment that it was going to fall eventually however it started to creep upside down toward the central light fitting I couldn’t understand where Dua thought it was going or how it was going to escape me maybe it was giving me a final demonstration of its supernatural abilities its superiority its differentness I opened my Bible at Revelation and stood directly underneath duka you feel this Tuka you feel the power of the word there was a long silence punctuated only by duk’s agonized breathing I will kiss you Captain you and all your kin I don’t think so Dua there are too many people who want their revenge on you I laid down the Bible and unstoppered the bottle of holy oil taking a couple of steps backward I flicked my wrist in a crisscross pattern so that the oil sprayed all over duk’s back and over its hair dua’s evil was so intense that the oil actually smoked on contct with it and it leted out a howl of pain I sprayed it again and again and the smoke poured out thicker and faster it reached around with one hand trying to tear the oil soaked shirt from its back and as it did so it spontaneously burst into flames these weren’t the Flames that I would have expected from olive oil no matter who had blessed it these Flames were Fierce and bluish white like burning Napa Dua clung onto the ceiling screaming hely with its half paralyzed lungs while all around it the light gray paint was blackened with twists and whls of City smoke suddenly duka dropped to the floor it rolled over and over still blazing and I had to step smartly sideways to avoid it it rolled up against the cocktail bar and lay there not moving while the Flames subsided and flickered out I picked up my hammer and my nails and approached it its face was charred and raw and most of its hair was burned off its shirt had been reduced to a few blackened shreds but when it opened its eyes and looked up at me I wasn’t surprised a stoy Mort couldn’t be killed by fire or by bullets no matter what the bullets had been cast out of and it couldn’t be killed by polio either even if it remained paralyzed for all eternity duka whispered I will kill you for this I promise you and all of your kin smoke actually leaked out of its mouth I knelt down beside it I detested it and all of the death and bement it had caused and I only wished that its suffering could have lasted longer I thought of an deer’s children and all of the other children who had been orphaned by Dua and its disciples most of all I thought of my mother I lifted one of the nails and held it over du’s right eye it didn’t even blink then I raised my hammer at that moment the doors to the cocktail lounge swung open and the two detectives came running in closely followed by George bloody hell said one of the detectives what’s all this bloody smoke what the bloody hell’s happened to him keep away I warned him but in that Split Second of distraction Dua snatched my wrist and wouldn’t let go the skin on its fingers was crusted and split like pork crackling but its grip was bony and incredibly strong with a deep grunt it seized the shaft of my hammer and twisted it around so viciously that I dropped it it bounced across the corid floor well out of my reach Jim Jim asked George in a panic what do you want us to do one of the detectives pulled out a large webly revolver and waved it at us but Dua and I were so close together that he was obviously too scared to shoot not that a bullet would have done any good even if it had hit daoka right between the eyes oil I told George there on the table what there’s a bottle of oil on the table pour it over it now that it had relieved me of my hammer Dua was concentrating on the crucifixion nail that I was holding in my left hand trying to screw it around so that it was pointing at my heart dua’s breathing was harsh and it kept coughing up a thick bloody mucus its eyes were bloodshot and unfocused but it was absolutely determined to kill me I could hear the cartilage in my wrist crackle as it gradually bent my hand around the wrong way and I couldn’t stop myself from saying you want to talk about mortality it wheezed it had managed to Lodge the point of the nail underneath my rib cage and was pressing hard you want to talk about death I felt the point of the nail break my skin the pain was so intense that I went cold all over even my blood felt cold as it soaked down the front of my shirt you want to talk about revenge said daoka this is my revenge it hooked its left arm around my back trying to pull me downward so that the nail would penetrate my rib cage and force its way upward and an angle of 45 degrees into my heart it was making thick animall likee grunts almost as if it were trying to violate me I didn’t see George but I suddenly felt something slippery slide down the side of my face and poured directly onto dua’s forehead and into its eyes the holy oil couldn’t harm me at all but it had a devastating effect on daoka its face began to crackle and what was left of its skin began to crumple up like cellophane thrown into an open fire no screamed named Dua smoke poured out of its face and its eyes literally fried in front of me so that they turned opaque the young detective with the webly revolver came up close now and pointed the muzzle at dua’s right Temple don’t I warned him you won’t be able to kill it bring me that hammer but Dua let out a terrible Screech and the detective jerked backward and pulled the trigger there was a deafening bang and a bony chunk of dua’s right eye socket was blown away but at the same time the shot ignited the holy oil Dua exploded into flames still relentlessly gripping my wrist I felt a scorching blast of heat on my face and I heard my hair crackle my silk necktie caught fire and flared up around my neck get it off me I screamed out but Dua was Blazing so fiercely that George and the two detectives couldn’t get close there was only one thing I could do I heed myself upward so that I was kneeling and then I gave another heave so that I was on my feet the pain was horrifying I felt as if my face was being blasted with a blowtorch all of my clothes were a light now and I was sure that I was going to die duka was a dead weight and a burning dead weight but somehow I managed to drag it across the cocktail lounge to the doors open the doors I shouted at George open the godamn doors George and one of the detectives ran ahead of me and opened them I pulled Dua out of the cocktail lounge and onto the deck even today I find it hard to believe that I managed to manhandle dooka across the deck and over to the rail I can’t actually remember doing it I do remember falling though and heading the water over over 100 ft below it was like hitting a cold concrete sidewalk both of us went under but at least duka released its grip I went down and down and I thought that I would never come up again but I managed to kick my legs and paddle with my hands and At Last I began to rise to the surface when I finally broke out into the daylight I found that there were crowds of people staring down at me and it was raining red and white life belts two young Sailors stripped off their sweaters and dived into the water to help me I circled around and around looking desperately for any sign of duga there was another man I panted as the sailors swam up to me one of them dived under the water and disappeared for what seemed like 5 minutes when he reappeared he shook his head and shouted out can’t see anyone m think we’ve lost him the sailors swam with me to the dark side between them they have carried me up a ladder and when I reached the top there were willing hands everywhere all of them outstretched to help me I was wrapped warmly in a blanket and a wheelchair was brought from the office so that I could sit down I was shaking uncontrollably with shock how are you feeling mate said an elderly man in a cloth cap leaning over me with a worried frown he reached into his pocket and took out a pack of Woodbine cigarettes bet you could do with a for some reason I couldn’t stop myself from bursting into tears days of Silence I was taken by ambulance to East grinstead in susex to the archal Mendo Burns unit which had cared for so many young Spitfire pilots during World War II I spent six weeks there recovering from my injuries while August turned to September and the sweltering heat of the summer became a memory my Burns were mostly first degree although I needed a skin graft on the left side of my neck and two fingers on my left hand were permanently Crooked I broke my collarbone too when I hit the water and fractured three ribs it was a peaceful almost dreamlike time out of my window I could see a red tile rooftop and the top of a large horse chestnut tree with bright green conquers beginning to ripen on it the sky seemed to be the same pale blue every day as if it were a child’s painting rather than a real Sky I had plenty plenty of visitors of course Charles frii came to see me two days after I was admitted along with George Goodhue and a bespectacled woman from the home office who said nothing at all but took pages of notes in pitman’s shorthand Charles frii brought me a large box of Cadbury’s milk tray chocolates which he immediately opened and proceeded to eat hope you don’t like coffee creams he said they are my favorite no sign of duok I suppose I asked him Charles fith picked out another chocolate and shook his head we’ve had Royal Navy divers searching the whole area said George they’ve even been diving as far away as py Island where they found Commander crab thanks to your efforts Captain Charles fith added I think we can safely say that Mr dorin Dua has had his chips not only that we’ve tracked down three of your dead screechers and given them polio Jabs too two in London and one in Birmingham heads removed bodies buried in consecrated ground Charles fith put his fingertip to his lips the health minister is going to announce to the Press tomorrow that the Korean flu epidemic has been successfully contained isn’t that kind of premature we still don’t know how many stroy Morty there might be true but when we do find them we know how to deal with him don’t we thanks to you he stood up by the way the police dug up the back Garden at The Laurels they found poor old Dr Watkins and his receptionist and they found Professor braithway to and his two assistants from the Royal aircraft establishment all of them gut it like hering he put another chocolate into his mouth but promptly spad it into my waist basket got Turkish delight on the afternoon of my third day in hospital I phoned Jill her father answered and he didn’t sound at all pleased to hear from me Jill’s not here Captain is she okay I said said she’s not here well can you ask her to call me please I’d really like to talk to her I’m sorry old man but I think you’ve already caused us enough trouble don’t you he hung up for a moment I thought of calling back but then I hung up too I telephoned Louise every day however and on the third week she flew over from New York to see me I was out in the hospital Garden by by then in a wheelchair with a thick plaid blanket wrapped around me she came across the lawn carrying a large bunch of flowers and a shopping bag full of books her hair was cut short and pixie feathery so that she looked even more like Audrey heern than ever she was wearing a smart lemon yellow suit with white piping around it she smelled of Chanel Number Five I’m sorry I told you can’t kiss me yet risk of infection she sat down on the green painted bench next to me my God Jim your poor face don’t worry it’s not so bad as it looks my left hand got the worst of it Jean and Harold send you their best so does MO when do you think you’ll be able to come home as soon as the doctors give me the all clear three or four weeks not much longer I wish he could tell me what happened I laid my bandage right hand on her knee I think it’s better if you don’t know sometimes ignorance is bliss you won’t have to do this again though no but it’s possible that I’m still at risk she raised one of her perfectly plucked eyebrows I don’t understand what kind kind of a risk well the people I was brought over here to deal with they’re not very good at forgiving and forgetting I think we’ve managed to catch up with most of them but there’s always a chance that one or two of them might have slipped through the net meaning what that they’re going to come after you something like that even in the states they don’t give up easy I’m afraid so what are you going to do move I’m afraid go live someplace else under a different name move are you serious where I can’t move I have all my friends in New Milford my work besides I don’t want to move and I happen to like the name Falcon sweetheart these people are very very dangerous so why did you agree to get mixed up in this at all didn’t you spare one single thought for me I didn’t have any choice I’m sorry you’re sorry that makes it all right then Louise stayed all afternoon but I guess I already knew that our marriage had been torpedoed below the waterline Louise lived for her social life her dinner parties and her charity drives and her craft classes she would never be able to tolerate a solitary existence in a strange city under an assumed name jumping every time the phone rang and checking every stranger who came knocking at our door but until I was sure that dua’s remains had been quartered and beheaded and buried in Holy Ground and until I was sure that every other stroy Morty had been hunted down and destroyed I would always have to live with the fear that they would be trying to find me the living scates I was less concerned about without a dead screecher to guide them and to give them the final drink of blood they needed to become immortal they would soon Decay so much that they would be Beyond any hope of transformation their bodies would eventually be discovered in cellers and attics and under railroad archers so extensively decayed that nobody would ever realize that they had once been vampires Louise flew home 5 days later she was still advised by my doctors not to kiss me and it occurred to me that I might never kiss her again Nappa 1957 I returned to the States on November 22nd leaving Heath airport in a silvery gray fog with George Goodhue and warrant officer Tim Hedley I had Tracked Down only two more stoy Morty one close to Oxford and the other in swinden but I was pretty sure that we had now caught all of them there had been six or seven more outbreaks of Korean flu in the London suburbs but as far as I could tell these were the last desperate beaing frenzies of the few live screechers who were left after guy fox day on November 5th there were no more reported killings Charles fith came to the airport himself to see me off he wore a gray suit and tan leather gloves I want you to know that we deeply appreciate what you managed to do for us Captain it’s a great pity that I we can never give you the Public Credit you so richly deserve George had been carrying my kit for me and when I reached the gate he handed it over let’s hope you won’t be needing this again thanks George let’s hope so I returned to New Milford but when I arrived the house was empty Louise was in Boston visiting her sister I was pretty sure that she had timed the trip deliberately so that she wouldn’t have to welcome me home but I didn’t have any proof of it I had been back less than a day when I was visited by the two cater Intelligence Officers from Fort hird who had first briefed me on my mission to London the one with the Sandy hair and the one with the Clark Kent spectacles they came into the house with their caps tucked under their arms we’ve received a very positive report back from MI6 said the Sandy hered officer this little oper ation has done great things for our relationship with British intelligence well I’m glad to hear that I wasn’t half crad for nothing you won’t be staying here for very much longer I need to pack some things make some arrangements talk to my wife the officer in the heavy rimmed eyeglasses looked around the room and said expect you’ll be sorry to leave but we fixed you and your wife up with a very pleasant home in Louisville Louisville Kentucky that’s the one a four-bedroom house with an orchard in back and we can handle all the moving for you why the hell would I want to live in Louisville Kentucky because it’s a very friendly City and it’s very Central and that’s where they invented the hot brown sandwich and who’s going to think of looking for you there of all places Louise refused to come with me I can’t say that I blamed her but she put me into an impossible position if I stayed in New Milford with her there was always the possibility that one of the stoy Mory would find me and kill me and kill her too and I couldn’t expose her to a danger like that especially since I wasn’t even allowed to tell her what the danger was we said a very polite goodbye almost as if we scarcely knew each other I took my kit and a single suitcase and climbed into my car there was a fresh Breeze blowing and the street was filled with whirling storms of red and yellow leaves Louise came out of the house and I wanded down the car window I’ll call when I get there I told her she nodded but said nothing you know that I haven’t stopped loving you don’t you love does doesn’t mean anything without trust Jim I’m sorry I never wanted to have a double life I just wanted to spend all of my time with you you can’t though can you no I admitted I sat there for a little while longer Louise started to shiver so I started up the engine and said I’ll be seeing you sweetheart no you won’t at Christmas I flew out to San Diego to see my father earlier that year he had sold the house in mil Valley and mov South to Rancho Santa Fe a small retirement community in the Hills near Escondido it was very quiet here and the weather was always warm there was a strong fragrance of Eucalyptus in the air he lived in a small Spanish style Cottage with a Walled Garden filled with flowers he was white-haired now but the sunshine and the gentle lifestyle had been kind to him we sat on the red tiled Veranda on Christmas morning drinking champagne and orange juice you don’t want to get the sun on those Burns of yours he cautioned me they’re healing Dad don’t worry about it still can’t tell me what happened secret stuff sorry God damn am oppressive interfering government if a son can’t even tell his own father how he ended up with Burns all over his mush just like you never told me the truth about what happened to mom he looked at me over his half glasses you know about that I nodded let’s just put it this way what I was doing in England that was connected with that and the debt got repaid that’s all I can tell you I see well as a matter of fact I don’t see he sipped his champag and orange juice for a while then without another word he got up from his chair and went into the living room it was cool in there with a draft that stirred the zigzag pattern drapes most of the ornaments and pictures were familiar to me from the house in mil Valley although there were quite a few photographs that I didn’t recognize dad said sat down at the piano and started to play who made DOA the small mouth of a baby left asleep by his mother who found him singing the DOA remember that one your mother loved that one on top of the piano stood a framed photograph of a handsome looking woman in a smartly pressed US Army uniform one hand was raised to Shield her eyes from the Sun the other was holding the collar of a glossy looking Blood Hound who’s this I asked my father he carried on playing very softly his wrinkled hands barely touching the keys as if he were remembering the music in his mind rather than listening to it that that’s Margo ketner friend of your mom’s during the war that’s a blood hound a mant trailer really I wouldn’t know all I know is Margot ketner and your mom they were very close I never heard her mention any Margot ketner more than likely you weren’t listening I put the photograph back on top of the piano no dad you’re right I probably wasn’t you know me a postcard from England 1961 I settled down in Kenwood Hill Louisville under the name William Crow they gave me a new social security number and a new bank account and even a new passport I started up a freelance business consultancy pretty much along the lines of the work I’d been doing before I was sent to England I made friends I joined a couple of local Charities I played golf at Quail Chase I dated a few women and with one of them a theous redhead called Mandy Ridgeway I had a long and serious relationship that almost went as far as marriage somehow though I could never bring myself to make the commitment every time I thought about marriage I thought about my kit lying on the top shelf of my bedroom closet and the possibility that I might be called on to use it again there’s something you’re not telling me said Mandy one September evening in 1961 as we sat in Stan’s fish sandwich on Lexington Road eating rolled oysters what do you mean it’s always like there’s something on your mind something private something that’s worrying you such as what you tell me that wherever we go you’re always looking around around you like you’re checking everybody out look you’re doing it now you’re not looking at me you’re looking over my shoulder sorry it’s a bad habit that’s all guess I’m just nosy she reached across the table and held my hand there’s something else too a couple of times lately you’ve been talking in your sleep oh really don’t tell me I’ve been calling out another woman’s name not unless Dua is a woman the next morning I opened up my mailbox and found a plain yellow envelope in it postmarked Washington DC inside was a compliment slip from MI6 in London and a picture postcard of Nelson’s column in Trafalger square with an improbably Blue Sky the postcard was dated June 12th 1961 so it had taken nearly 3 months months to reach me presumably it had been vetted by MI6 and then by us Counter Intelligence before it had been decided that it was harmless and that they could send it on the writing was loopy in smudged purple ink dear Jim even after all this time I still think of you I am so sorry for the way things turned out poor bullet died late last year I would love to know how you are yours Jill I felt as if I had been punched in the stomach very hard I sat down at the kitchen table just as Mandy came in tightening the belt of her robe Jim are you okay sure I’m fine I was thinking maybe we could go to Shaker town today you’ve never been have you it’s really fascinating actually I have an unnatural craving for a slice of their lemon pie I hope I’m not pregnant not today Mandy okay something just came up she came over and sat on my lap and kissed my ear I certainly hope so she said suggestively it was Jill herself who opened the front door her hair was different flicked up like a tulip and she was wearing a tight white sweater and a russet colored Tweed skirt she looked even more beautiful than I had remembered her dark skinned with those dark feline eyes and those full suggestive lips Jim she said in total shock and clapped her hand to her mouth hey I got your postcard I told her holding it up I thought of writing back but then I thought nah I’ll come over to see you instead she rushed out of the doorway and threw her arms around me and kissed me I felt like I was in one of those ridiculously romantic TV commercials but she felt so good and she smelled so good and she seemed to be so delighted to see me that I really didn’t care oh God she said I thought I was never going to see you again oh yeah I hope you didn’t think you could keep me away that easy why don’t you come inside Mommy and Daddy are both out for the day when did you arrive I followed her into the house outside the living room window a gardener was raking up Beach leaves from the lawn and burning them on a bonfire there was a Melancholy smell of smoke in the air would you like a cup of tea or a drink perhaps I took hold of her hands and looked at her I couldn’t believe how gorgeous she was what’s more I couldn’t believe how excited she was to see me after more than four years after all I was 43 now while she couldn’t have been much older than 31 I could murder a beer if you have any beer I think Daddy’s got some macasin we sat together on one of the flowery covered couches are you still married she asked me you’re not wearing a wedding ring I told her about Louise and she nodded seriously I’m so sorry she said but maybe it was all for the best maybe what about you nobody swept you off your feet yet not the way that you did I’m flattered I’m not flattering you I’m telling you the truth I’ve never been able to get you out of my mind I sipped my Stout there was something in her intonation that made me think this isn’t just about sexual attraction this is something more I suppose there was some unfinished business between us I said wearily a few loose ends that needed to be tied up I know what happened to duka she said so they told you she reached out and gently stroked the Twisted burn on the left side of my neck you were very brave she said there aren’t many men who would have the courage to face up to a creature like that I didn’t say anything but watched her eyes you’re different from other men that’s why I couldn’t forget you that night we slept together I felt it and then when I saw you and Dua together what happened Jill what happened that day in the surgery what did Dua do to you she turned her face away in profile nothing he didn’t do anything it didn’t do anything but afterward you were dizzy and you were sick Dua must have done something did it cut you did it scratch you did it inject you with any of its blood I was frightened that’s all I was suffering from shock I didn’t have any experience of screeches not like you I simply couldn’t take anymore okay I reassured her I’m sorry I I didn’t mean to give you the third degree it was just that I was worried about you I know she said but you didn’t have to worry and you don’t have to worry now ever again I stayed in England for another five weeks Jill and I saw each other nearly every day we went walking in the Parks we visited the National Gallery we sat in pubs talking to each other as if it would take a whole lifetime of talking for us to catch up we made love in my hotel room with the gray afternoon light falling through the net curtains and the sheets Twisted beneath us afterward she would lie next to me and stroke my back with her fingertips so lightly that my nerve endings tingled I could have stared at her all day with her broad angular shoulders and her huge rounded breasts and her nipples that crinkled like raisins one morning though I realized that this couldn’t continue it was a dream not reality and I couldn’t ask her to spend the rest of her life in a dream I have to to go back to the States I said that’s all right I’ll come with you you can’t I’m sorry but why not I want to stay with you forever you can’t chill it’s too dangerous you shouldn’t even be here with me now but you destroyed all the screeches didn’t you maybe I did maybe I didn’t one thing’s for sure I didn’t manage to dispose of dua’s body not only that du went into the harbor and screechers are always revived by water the Belgian resistance made that mistake during World War II they shot screechers and threw them into the river’s scelt they might just as well have given them the kiss of Life Jill sat up naked and put her arms around me I’m not frightened I want to come with you I looked at her closely she was Absol absolutely Flawless and I was in love with her all right I said at last so long as you know what the risks are the face in the mirror we were married at Kenwood Heights Christian Church on Saturday April 28th 1962 it was a bright warm day and pink cherry Blossom blew over us as we left the church I saw a man in a long dark coat standing on the opposite side of the street as we climbed into the wedding car his face was white and he looked strangely two-dimensional more like a black and white photograph than a real person I looked at him and he looked back at me but there was no way of telling if he was a screecher or nothing more than a curious passer by but who wears a winter Overcoat on an April afternoon in Louisville the years came and went and we lived the kind of life that most everybody lives in Louisville playing golf eating out at Mike Lin’s place going to Churchill Downs in May and betting against the crowd I was William Crow and Jill was Jill Crow and we were happy we bought a black Labrador and called him Ricochet in March 1965 Jill gave birth to Mark he was a quiet introspective boy who always preferred playing on his own but he was very clever and by the time he was 11 years old he could play the piano as well as his grandfather I’ll never forget though that summer morning in 1977 when he came into my study and stood there for a long time saying nothing and the way that the sun Shone read through his ears reminded me of an Walter’s little boy kneeling in front of the window in antp all those years before he looked so much like Jill darkhaired and almost too pretty for a boy what am I he asked me not who am I but what am I I I looked up from the papers on my desk and smiled at him in Amusement you’re a 12-year-old boy haven’t you looked in the mirror lately no but what am I I leaned back in my chair you’re an American but you’re part Burmese and part Romanian and part Irish I feel as if I’m something else something else like what I don’t know that’s why I’m asking you well tell me what it’s like this feeling he frowned it’s like being alone it’s like being different it’s like being inside somebody else’s head I ruffled his hair you’re growing up that’s all you’re a boy now but there’s a young man inside you trying to get out but I remembered his words 3 years later it was just past 11: in the evening I was sitting in the armchair in the corner of our bedroom trying to finish the cryptic crossword that I had started earlier that day and cooling off after my shower Jill was sitting in front of her Dressing Table brushing her hair do you know what I’d like to do for my birthday this year she asked me I’d like to go to Mexico me you know I hate Mexican food all those beans all those burritos Molly and David went to Mexico and they loved it okay I said dropping my newspaper on the floor and standing up behind her if you want to go to Mexico we’ll go to godamn Mexico I kissed her on top of her head but it was then that I thought she’s going to be 49 years old next birthday 49 years old and she doesn’t have a single gray hair or a single line on her forehead in fact she looks exactly the same as she did when I flew back to England in 1961 18 years ago what’s the matter she said looking at me in her Dressing Table mirror you look like something’s bothering you nothing no but then I thought her figure is is just the same too she has no cellulite on her thighs her stomach is flat her breasts are still big and firm I had seen men turning around to look at her in the street and i’ had always taken it for granted that they were looking at her because she was so attractive but supposing they were wondering what a woman who had the face and figure of a 31-year-old was doing with a gray-haired man of 61 for the next few days I couldn’t stop thinking about it I hated myself for being so disloyal but the thought wouldn’t leave me alone something’s wrong isn’t it she asked me over breakfast you don’t have money worries you’re not telling me about do you no no everything’s fine but you’ve hardly spoken to me for the past two days and you keep staring at me in this really strange way it’s almost like you’ve forgotten who I am I haven’t forgotten who you are I thought maybe I never knew who you were to begin with I went upstairs opened up my bedroom closet and took down my kit I looked at it for a long time before I opened it up I loved Jill so much and this was an act of betrayal no matter what I found out but I had to know for sure or else I was going to spend the rest of my life one Wonder ing what I was sharing my bed with she was still sitting at the kitchen table when I came down holding a cup of coffee in both hands watching television the Sun was shining on her hair and on her pink satin robe she looked so beautiful that I almost went straight back upstairs without doing what I had come down to do Bill she said she always called me Bill in case she accidentally slipped up and called me Jim in front of our friends come and take a look at this hold on I told her I stood to one side of the kitchen door and held up the pure silver mirror that I had taken out of my kit my hand was trembling so much that at first I couldn’t focus properly but then I steadied it against the door frame and angled it so that I could see Jill’s profile it took only a Split Second Glance to tell me what I needed to know the woman sitting at the kitchen table had hair that was stre with gray there were wrinkles around her eyes and her hands were patterned with liver spots I came into the kitchen and sat down next to her this is hilarious she said this woman thinks that her husband is having an affair with another woman but all the time she stopped and stared at me Jim she said Jim what’s happened you look terrible I had to find out sooner or later didn’t I I told her my throat was constricted and I found it very difficult to speak I don’t know what you’re talking about you had to find out what come on Jill how much longer did you think he could keep it from me you’re going to be 50 in a couple of years what happens when you get to 60 and you still look just as young as you do now she lowered her coffee cup I couldn’t tell you I tried to lots of times but I love you Jim I knew what you would do if I told you what did Dua do to you I asked her her eyes filled with tears can’t we just go on like we are can’t we just pretend tell me what dooka did to you Jim think about Mark please please think about us we can still be happy can’t we I stood up and went to the window next door Fred Nordstrom was lathering his new green Buick Electra he saw me and waved his soapy sponge Jill said it asked me to lie on the couch it stood next to me and at first I didn’t think it was going to do anything it just talked to me very quietly I don’t even remember what it said then what Jim please there was nothing I could do to stop it I turned around I know I told her it was all my fault not yours I shouldn’t have expected you to do it I tore off a sheet of kitchen tissue and handed it to her so that she could wipe her eyes I felt as if I didn’t have have any willpower at all I was lying there and I simply couldn’t move I wasn’t unconscious or anything I simply couldn’t make my muscles work it’s a form of hypnosis I said some screechers use it to stop their victims from resisting them if you practice it for as long as duka must have been practicing it I guess you can make a person do whatever you want it opened up its pants it was hard and I was sure that it was going to rape me I tried to call you but I couldn’t make my voice work I closed my eyes for a moment I was dreading to hear what she was going to say next Dua picked up a scalpel he showed it to me held it right in front of my face and it was smiling then it sliced the end of its penis right across all this blood came spurting out Dua held its penis over my lips so that the blood dripped into my mouth she wiped her mouth with the back of her hand as if she could still taste it that was when it heard you upstairs and it stopped I pulled out one of the kitchen chairs and sat down next to her I didn’t take her hand why didn’t you tell me at the time I don’t know I was very confused I was ashamed too I thought it was disgusting what duka had done to me but I hadn’t resisted it had I I didn’t want you to think that I might have encouraged it but you began to change Jill nodded I tried so hard to fight it I needed to drink blood so badly I felt as if my throat was on fire I could feel what was happening inside my own body too I hated myself I hated the way I was starting to smell I hated the way I looked I pretended that I was sick so that I could stay in my room you don’t know how much willpower it took not to kill my own parents then duka came for me it said that it had to get away from England because you were coming after it it wanted to go to America because it had a score to settle I don’t know what score it never said so you went with it it promised me blood Jim I was worse than a drug addict how could I say no so you and Dua you killed some many and drank their blood no it was going to kill a young woman who was waiting at a bus stop but I wouldn’t let it I was burning for blood but I couldn’t let it take an innocent woman’s life not for me I drank some of dukas’s blood instead and that’s why I am what I am I’m never going to grow any older Jim you’re not Immortal Jill you’re dead the only difference is you’re dead but you won’t lie down don’t you think I know that I love you Jim but I’m going to have to watch you grow older right in front of my eyes one day I’m going to have to bury you I took a deep breath this was a nightmare Jill didn’t look any different I couldn’t stop myself from loving her but she wasn’t her anymore she was it she was a thing rather than a person Jim she pleaded please try to forgive me you could be the same name you could live forever too you want me to become a screecher are you out of your mind so what are you going to do cut off my head chop me into bits and bury my body I don’t know I don’t know what the hell I’m going to do Jim please you’re a St Jill how can I pretend that you’re human because you love me because I love you I pushed my chair back and stood up if you’re a STG you need to drink human blood at least once a month don’t you or you’ll start to lose those perfect looks Jim come on Jill whose blood have you been drinking nobody that matters I promise you nobody that matters what the hell do you mean nobody that matters dereli down and outs mostly from Southern Indiana people that nobody’s going to miss and nobody has missed them Jim ever did you ever see a story in the papers about them did you ever see them mentioned on TV Christ chill we’re talking about 12 people a year for 18 years that’s a massacre I have to Jim I can’t St St but strig we’re not like stoy we don’t have the same need to spread the infection we just want to be normal we just want to be loved I looked at her and she looks so desperate and so miserable who would have thought that I could love a screature me of all people the bane of screechers everywhere I’m going of I told her I need some time to think the sacred seal I took Ricochet for a walk around the scenic loop at Cherokee Park it was a warm Gusty afternoon and kites of all shapes and sizes were flying from Hill one they reminded me of that Japanese print of people being caught in a sudden Gale with papers flying in the air and their whole lives suddenly being turned into chaos as mine had been Jill was a St I wondered if I had ever suspected it before and deliberately ignored it but it really didn’t matter what did matter was that I was morally obliged to do something she would have to kill more people to s satisfy her endless thirst for blood and even if they were dereli or drunks or down and outs that nobody else would miss they were human lives and I couldn’t allow her to take them but I loved her I had loved her from the moment I had first seen her in St Augustine’s Avenue in Cen on that hot summer Day in 1957 so how could I drive nails into her eyes and cut off her head and dismember her I couldn’t even ask anybody else to do it I sat down on a bench and Ricochet came up and laid his head on my knees as if he understood what I was going through he was so much like bullet except for a tiny tan colored smudge between his eyes God damn it Rick I told him if it hadn’t been for Duke it was then that I thought Dua was caught by my mother but she didn’t kill it she had sealed it into a casket and if that plane hadn’t crashed Dua might still be preserved today not destroyed not dismembered but rendered harmless maybe I could do the same to Jill seal her away so that she wouldn’t kill anybody else then maybe I could find a way to bring her back to life as a human being but how was I going to do it only my mother had known how I stood up the kites were whirling in the Wind come on Rick I told him I think I need to go to San Diego who made do that I flew to San Diego the next day I told Jill that I wanted to talk to my father after all he was 83 now and suffering from a heart condition I didn’t tell her that I was going to look for something that my mother may have left behind a note a book a diary entry anything that might have told me how to seal away a before I left she took hold of my hand and tried to kiss me I’m so sorry she said you can’t can’t blame yourself you didn’t know what you were getting into and I used you I’m the one who should be saying sorry in the hallway with the light shining on us like two bloodshot eyes we held each other close God Almighty she didn’t feel any different she didn’t feel dead she was warm and soft and my heart felt as if it were crumbling apart Jill I said stroking her hair come back soon she said and she tried to kiss me but I couldn’t help thinking of all the people she had cut open and whose blood she had drunk warm and sickly straight from their pumping Hearts sure I said and left her I paid off the cab and stood outside inside my father’s house with my overnight bag it was a warm fragrant afternoon and the sunlight was very bright I was beginning to feel very tired so that everything looked almost too Vivid to be true as if I had been smoking pot I was about to open the gate which led into my father’s Garden when I heard a woman singing I stopped and listened and gradually I felt a terrible cold oldness soaked through me it was a sweet high voice a voice I hadn’t heard in a very long time who made DOA the small mouth of a baby left asleep by his mother who found him singing the DOA I opened the gate my father was sitting on The Veranda with a glass of white wine on the other side of the yard my mother was cutting roses she stopped singing and dropped all the Roses onto the terracotta tiles her hair was dark and she looked exactly the same as the last time that I had seen her James she said she picked up the photograph from the top of the piano and smiled at it sadly ly poor Margo when the plane crashed I tried to get her out but her leg was caught under the seat of course I got out I couldn’t die even if I was trapped in that plane for the next hundred years my father stood on the opposite side of the room saying nothing don’t blame your father said my mother love can make us blind to other people’s suffering love can make us very selfish and cruel I shook my head so it was you that Dua was after when it tried to sail to America Dua knew that it wasn’t your body in that airplane my mother nodded it may be looking for me still and if it finds you if it survived and it manages to find any of us then I’m afraid we have a very horrible experience waiting for us I didn’t know what else to say my mother came up to me and held out her hands but I couldn’t take them I have your watch I told her I’ll make sure you get it back so now you know the truth now you know what really happened during that summer of 1957 in South London and now you know what happened afterward now you know that when your great-grandfather first went to Romania and fell in love with your great grandmother and decided to marry he was quite aware of what she was and he was also aware of the price that other people would have to pay to keep her perfect for all eternity now you know what blood runs in my veins and why I was capable of being so heartless in my pursuit of screeches and so cruel when I finally caught up with them I have Screech your blood in me too as your father does and you do in spite of our cruelty though we’re deeply sentimental which is why your great-grandfather could never destroy my mother or seal her away and which is why I could never bring myself to destroy your grandmother although she still lies in the cellar in a lead casket Bound by the seals and rituals which my mother was taught in her childhood I don’t know for sure if Dua is still walking this Earth looking for me and looking for your grandmother but vampires never forgive and they never forget and you should keep your eyes open for men and women with pale faces and you should tightly close close all of your windows at night I am old now James and I cannot protect you any longer one day soon you will inherit my house and you will also inherit the casket that lies in the cellar I could never bring myself to destroy the woman I loved and I am sorry that I have left you such a legacy but whatever you decide to do always remember that I loved you that was descendant by greme masterton read by Garrick Hagen audible hopes you’ve enjoyed this program