PART THREE

The Start Of It

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

Second Thoughts, And Others Less MundaneNoticing Jake's distress, Liz had scrambled from her gunner's seat into the narrow cargo area, crouched down beside him, and was now hauling on the lapels of his jacket, roughing him up a little. 'Jake! Jake, wake up!' Then  -  as his eyes snapped open, startling her, and lightning reflexes and hands worked in combination to slap her wrists aside, then grab them  -  'You were shouting,' she explained. 'And now you're hurting!'He let go of her, dragged himself into an upright, seated position among the jumble of packs, and mumbled, 'What? Shouting?' Of course he had been shouting, because he'd been nightmaring. But what about? Already the waking world, in the shape of Liz, was obliterating his dreams, consigning them to innermost recesses of his subconscious mind. But realizing something of their importance, Jake was reluctant to let them go. 'What was I shouting about?' he demanded harshly, but too late. For even as his head cleared the nightmare was retreating, shrinking to nothing.

Then he looked about  -  at the piled packs, the chopper's interior, the faces of the men up front looking back at him  -  and remembered where he was. And as the fear went out of Jake's eyes it was replaced by a worried frown. His face was damp with sweat, despite that it wasn't any too warm in ... the aircraft? In the jet-copter, yes. His orientation was still a little off, making everything feel and sound unreal. Then it dawned on him that the hiss of the horizontal jets was absent, and the crisp chop! chop! chop! of rotors had taken over. They must be descending, into Alice Springs.'I don't know what you were shouting about/ Liz answered him. 'Most of what you said was pure babble, until just before you woke up.' She went back to her seat and buckled herself in. 'Then you mentioned Szwart, Malinari, and Vavara. But you were doing a lot of twitching, too. It was a nightmare, Jake. A killer of a nightmare, I'd say." A killer. Yes, she was right:A grotesque thing  -  Wamphyri!  -  its taloned hands reaching to snuff the life from an innocent baby boy. And:'Yulian Bodescu!' Jake gasped aloud, starting as if he'd been slapped in the face. 'Does anyone know who ... who Yulian Bodescu was?' But that final scene, too, was fading away, following the rest of the nightmare into limbo.In their seats up front, however, Ben Trask and lan Goodly exchanged secretive but mainly wondering glances and said nothing ... not until they were on the ground and they'd stretched their legs and made their way to the lounge and the airport's watering hole ...Jake and Lardis sat at the almost empty bar, chewing nuts and nursing large beers; Liz, Trask, and Goodly had a small table, smaller drinks, and ate from a plate of sandwiches. Huge overhead fans did their best to stir the sluggish air and keep the atmosphere bearable. But even the local Aussies were sweating. It was that kind of summer. El Nifio, drying everything to kindling.

Lardis smacked his lips in appreciation, sighed and told Jake: 'This has to be one of the few true benefits of your entire world.' And then, noticing how the bartender was giving him curious looks, he added, 'Er, of Australia, I mean. One of the true benefits of Australia. They certainly know how to brew a good beer, these Australians.'

The bartender looked Lardis up and down, and said, 'I saw that movie, too, me old mate, way back when I was a little kid. But it didn't influence me mode o' dress!'

'Eh?' said Lardis.'Crocodile bleedin' Dundee!' The other shook his head and moved off along the bar. 'Jesus, what is it with you tourists? Do yer think we all live in the bleedin' outback?'Lardis looked down at his clothes, lizard-skin belt, machete, shad-hide sandals, and scowled. 'Have I been insulted?' he wondered out loud.But Jake's thoughts were elsewhere. 'Lardis, tell me about Harry Keogh,' he said. 'I mean, I've heard Trask talk about his compassion, warmth, and humility, which you have to admit makes him sound like a pacifist. But if he was so humble, how come he ended up as a  -  a what? A vampire-killer? And I gather it wasn't only vampires he killed.''As for Harry Dwellersire's history in this world,' the Old Lidesci answered, having first made sure that the bartender was well out of earshot, 'I don't know the entire story. That's why I was only able to talk about Sunside/Starside. But from what I saw of him ... well, I wouldn't be too sure about Harry's "humility," or his compassion either. After all, Nathan Kiklu was a humble one, too, upon a time. Anyway, I only met the Necroscope towards the end, which wasn't a pretty end ...'Then, abruptly, Lardis's tone changed, and peering at Jake suspiciously he snapped, 'Now do me a favour and stop trying to wheedle things out of me, okay? What am I anyway but "a bleedin' tourist", eh?'While at the table, also out of earshot, Goodly, Liz, and Trask were considering something else. 'Yulian Bodescu?' Trask looked at Liz. 'You're sure he said Yulian Bodescu? We thought so, too, but we were too far away to be sure. Now tell me, how in hell did he come up with that name? If he's read it or perhaps remembered it from something someone has said, why has it chosen to surface now, in a dream?'

Liz could only shrug and ask, 'Is it really that strange? I mean, it's hardly the most common of names, now is it? To be honest, it's just exactly the kind of name that would stick in my mind.'But Trask was out of sorts with himself, and it showed. 'I put you in that gunner's bucket-seat, close to him, so that you could listen in on him/ he said. 'In E-Branch we know how important dreams can be. But you say you got nothing?''To start with,' Liz's voice hardened as she began to flare up, i-r t j. > I don t - But the precog quickly cautioned her: 'SW. Keep it down.' 'Well, I don't understand why we can't tell Jake about the entire Bodescu affair." she continued in a lowered but emphatic tone. 'And what's more,' (looking at Trask) 'I didn't much like what you asked me to do. To start with, it's not E-Branch policy to spy on our colleagues, and - ''Don't go lecturing me about Branch policy  -  Miss!' Trask glared. 'As for Jake Cutter: he won't be a colleague until I'm one hundred per cent sure he's on our side. The man vacillates, sits on the fence. I'm not even sure he won't make a break for it the first chance he gets."' - And' Liz continued, determined to be heard, 'the last time I tried it he ... he knew.''He what?' Goodly stared at her.'Jake knew I was listening in on him/ Liz said, deflated now. 'He was dreaming  -  something sexy, erotic, yes, and frightening, too  -  and when I broke in on him it woke him up. So how can I ask him to trust me when he thinks I'm constantly in his mind?''So you didn't try?' Trask said.'That's not so/ she shook her head. 'I did try, but I was blocked. I couldn't get in. Or I could, but it was like walking through a fog, all dismal and distorted. I didn't get one single clear picture.'

'Precisely what I didn't want to hear/ Trask grunted. 'So now I'll tell you why I'm not ready to tell him the entire Yulian Bodescu story. You know that a vampire isn't safe even when he's dead and buried? If there was anything we learned from the Necroscope, it was that. Even as we burned the very earth where Thibor Ferenczy had been buried, still the bastard was instructing Yulian Bodescu, telling him about E-Branch. After that, the damage Yulian caused us, the deaths, the pain ...' He paused and shook his head.And Goodly said, 'So even at this stage you're not entirely certain that this is the Necroscope's work? You think that Jake might be under the influence of someone or something else? Just as Thibor got at Yulian, so someone might be getting at Jake?''We have to remember what Harry was, and what he became at the end/ Trask answered. 'And not only him but his lover Penny Sanderson, and what both the Dweller and Harry's other son Nestor became.''Vampires/ Liz said, with a small shudder.'Wamphyri!' said Trask. 'All of them. The Necroscope died on Starside. And now something  -  three somethings  -  have come out of Starside to infest our world. And Jake is being influenced by a remnant, or revenant, of the Necroscope himself. Let's not forget that just as Harry sired Nathan Kiklu, he also fathered Nestor. Two sides of the same coin, do you see? And do you wonder that I'm cautious? Why, of course I'm cautious! I should let something like that infiltrate E-Branch, get in amongst us, learn our secrets, use them against us? No, I don't think so/'And if you're wrong?' said Liz.'I hope I'm wrong!' Trask answered. 'I believe I'm wrong, and I want to be wrong. But if I'm right I'll be alive, and so will you, Liz. Look, you've read about Harry but you never knew him, you haven't seen what he could do. Not the other things he could do. I have, and I don't want to see powers such as those fall into the wrong hands. That could mean the end of us all/He sat back in his chair, let his brooding eyes rest specula-tively on Jake and Lardis at the bar, but only for a moment. Then he finished by saying, 'So that's that. For now let it go. Let's all of us let it go. But Liz, try to remember what I've said. And the next time I ask you to do something, don't be so damn quick off the mark to question my motives . ..'Meanwhile, at the bar, Jake had asked the bartender for a sedative, something to help him sleep during the next stage of the journey. And after the man had gone off to fetch him something:'Haven't you had enough of sleep?' Lardis asked him.Jake looked at him. 'Sleep is a funny thing,' he said. 'Do you know what my doctor told me, when I was laid up in hospital in Marseille that time, after I'd got myself trampled on?''But how could I possibly know?' Lardis answered, as yet a long way from mastering the vagaries of the English tongue. 'It isn't as if I was there with you, now is it?''Anyway,' said Jake, 'I had things to do and wanted to be out of there, but they wouldn't let me go. And this doctor told me I needed to rest, get some sleep. He said there were different kinds of sleep: a kind that comes from physical exhaustion, and another from mental. And that even when you've done no physical or mental work, there's the kind that tells you your body and brain have been mobile for too long without a decent break. Sleep is a medicine  -  the best you can get  -  following injury or mental trauma, yet too much of it can be debilitating rather than curative. You can walk and talk in your sleep, and in some cases solve intricate problems. Sleep can be induced, resisted, prolonged or interrupted, but no one can do without it for too long ...' As he fell silent, Lardis said, 'Phew! Ask a simple question!' Jake nodded his agreement, said, 'I'm not usually so longwinded, but it's been on my mind  -  not so much what that doctor said about sleep, but the things he left out. At the time those things didn't apply to my case. Now they do.'Tm learning a lot about sleep!' Lardis grunted. 'Tell me more.'

'It produces dreams,' said Jake. 'Often they're enigmatic, insoluble, and they're usually unremembered because they don't mean anything. Are you with me?'

'And I'm learning a lot of new words, too!' Lardis sighed. 'But go on, go on.'

'But from time to time,' Jake went on, 'from time to time, they do mean something. They're like  -  I don't know  -  clearing houses for all the jumble of our waking hours. And when the rubble has been cleared away, sometimes there's a silver nugget or two left over.'

'And you've been pros -  er, prospec -  er ...''Prospecting?''Right! Right?''Aboard the jet-copter,' Jake answered, Tm sure my dream  -  my nightmare  -  meant something. And I want to get back into it.' He offered a weary shrug. 'I must be crazy, right? To look forward to returning to a bad dream? But anyway, what the hell? I may have been sleeping, but I didn't get much rest. I'm still dead on my feet.''It's the heat,' said Lardis. 'It drains a man's strength. I'm tired, too ... we all are. On Sunside I'd probably be under some tree right now, asleep in a deep cool forest. But I've had trouble with my dreams, too, Jake. The fact is, I'd probably be nightmaring about the hell that's brewing in Starside! And that kind of sleep ... well, you're right: it can't cure anything.''Me, I'll risk it anyway,' Jake muttered. 'Just as soon as I'm back on that chopper ...'When the pilot declared the jet-copter refuelled, the two technicians were the first out across the asphalt. Jake and Lardis were next, and tailing them Trask, Goodly and Liz. They had at least one hundred and fifty yards to walk to the helipad.'Funny thing,' Goodly reported as they left the embarkation building and set out into the sizzling sunlight, 'but what Liz said suddenly makes sense. There's Jake in plain view, not forty yards ahead, and I can't read a thing of his future. Not any longer.''But isn't that normal?' Trask was immediately concerned.

'Aren't you always telling us that this talent of yours isn't controllable, that you can't just switch it on and off)'Goodly nodded and said, 'Right. But I should at least be aware of something. My original prediction, that Jake would be with us for some time to come, hasn't changed. The future doesn't chop and change like that; what has been foreseen is inevitable ... or it should be. It's how it will be, its circumstances, that can change. But now, with Jake, I can't sense a damn thing! It's as if there were nothing there.''Like he's shielded?' Now Trask was even more concerned. 1 suppose so, yes,' said the precog.'Huh!' Trask grunted. 'It's the same for me. I thought I was imagining it. I still know the truth of him, the reality? But I'm no longer sure whose truth it is.''Harry's dart?' Goodly wondered. 'The Necroscope had powerful shields. Has he perhaps passed them on to Jake?''Yes, Harry was shielded,' Trask answered. 'Him, and the traitor Wellesley, too. But Nathan also has shields, and likewise  -  and especially  -  the Wamphyri! So Harry isn't the only one who could have passed this on, whatever it is. And I can't help thinking: maybe it hasn't been passed for the best possible reasons. I mean, why should he want to keep us out?'And Liz put in: 'Maybe it's not deliberately or aggressively active, but just... active?''Like something new, feeling its way?' Trask said. 'Well, it's possible, I suppose.''You could always check it out,' the precog said. 'David Chung can locate us  -  any one of us  -  just like snapping his fingers. He'd soon tell us if we have something of that nature travelling with us.''Mindsmog?' said Trask.

By which time Liz was thoroughly alarmed. 'Or it could be just his taint!' she now broke in. 'Harry's taint, I mean. For he was, after all - '

' - We know what he was,' Trask quickly cut her short.'And we knew then what he was,' Goodly said, taking Liz's side. 'And we accepted it. You especially, Ben. It was you who let him go, remember? When Harry's house  -  his last vestige on Earth  -  when we burned it to ashes, you could have killed him then.''I could have tried,' said the other.'But you didn't.''We all have our talents,' Trask argued. 'Maybe mine told me it wasn't possible.''And maybe it told you to let him live,' said Goodly. (As Trask's closest friend, he was the only member of E-Branch who had ever been able to talk to him as openly as this.)'I was younger then,' Trask answered gruffly, 'and a sight more foolish. The Necroscope could have been lying when he said he was quitting Earth for Starside. Talent or no talent, Ididn't have the right to take that chance. But I did. Foolish, as

I have said.'Younger I remember,' the precog nodded. 'But foolish? If Harry hadn't lived, what then? Who would have stopped Shaitan, and given his life for us in the vampire world? And what would have been our fate then? The chance that you took paid offBut now the jet-copter loomed, with Jake leaning out and down, offering a helping hand to Liz. And: 'We'll just have to let it go for now,' Trask murmured, his voice almost inaudible even to his companions as the engine coughed into life and the rotor blades began slicing the air overhead. 'But that doesn'tmean we'll stop watching. And sooner or later, we'll see whatMI > WE 11 SEE.What he didn't tell them, keeping it back for the moment, was that in fact he had already contacted David Chung by telephone from the airport. From now on they wouldn't be the only ones who were 'watching.'And while Chung, the Branch's top locator, would still be far distant in the purely physical sense, psychically he would be very close indeed  -  and closer in both senses when he found a relief to take over his duties, allowing him to join up with his colleagues in Brisbane ...... 50 damn hard to get in?! The hinted question but definite exclamation rang like a shout in Jake's sleeping mind, startling him. But he immediately recognized the Voice' and said: 'You? I was hoping you'd come by.'You could have fooled me! said the ex-Necroscope. But for that tiny piece of me that will be with you always, I wouldn't know where to find you. Even with it, it's hard to get through your shields. Still, maybe that's a good thing. I'm sure it's going to be, eventually.'But where are you?' Jake had been waiting for everything to straighten up but nothing had, so that now he wondered: And for that matter, where am IPHe was floating. Not surprising, really, for he had often dreamed he could fly, and as often been disappointed on waking up to discover that he couldn't. This must be a different version of the same thing. But floating in darkness?You don't recognize the place? Harry Keogh's disembodied voice asked him.'A place?' Jake answered. 'But there's nothing here. Nothing at all.' And as he lazily turned (or at least he felt like he was turning) on his own axis, he could see that what he had said was literally true. There was absolutely nothing here. As if this were the bottom of a bottomless pit, or the darkest of dark nights, or -

Or the kind of nowhere and no~when place that the universe must have been like before there was light? Yes, I know, said Harry. Once experienced, however, there's no forgetting it. So when we were here last you must have had your eyes shut. I can understand that. It's always been the same, and for just about everyone who ever tried it  -  including me! So now let me welcome you to the Mobius Continuum. No gravity or light or matter at all. Not even a sound unless we make it, which isn't advisable. Not here.

'And this is it? Your way of... of getting about?' This is it. But it's still only a dream. Your dream, Jake. And the only thing that's real about it is me.'So how did I get here?'I influenced it, and you dreamed it. I just wanted you to see it through my eyes, and maybe get used to it. For, you see, you've been lucky on three occasions now. Three times when you thought you were in danger  -  two of which you really were  -  I was close enough to help you out.'My escape from jail?' Jake nodded his understanding. 'And the next time from Bruce Trennier, right?'

Right. But as my dart  -  let's call it my metaphysical intuition  -  becomes a more accepted part of you, there'll be less room for the actual me. Already you've reached the stage where you're almost able to shut me out. But before you can do that, you still have a lot to learn.

'About the Mobius Continuum?'For one thing, yes.(Jake was still turning; he didn't know which way was up, but he wasn't at all dizzy from it.) 'And that's why I'm here?'You tell me. You dreamed it! But it's as good a starting place as any.'You did influence it, though?'Yes, but you must have wanted it. Wanted to visit, wanted to know.'To know how to use it, you mean?'Exactly. And how not to misuse it.'Eh?'Well, if this were really it, the Continuum, you'd probably be stone deaf by now. You see, you don't talk in the Mobius Continuum, Jake  -  not in a place where even thoughts have weight.'Thoughts have weight here?'They do in the physical world, too. Ask any telepath, or any scientist for that matter. Those tiny sparks that jump the gaps in your brain, Jake? If they didn't make the connections, you couldn't think. Have you never wondered why geniuses have 'weighty thoughts'?'But that's just an expression, surely?'But in the Mobius Continuum it's reality. Well, of sorts. A parallel reality, at least.'So ... I've no need to talk?' Not at all. Thinking will suffice. But here in your dream it makes no difference  -  because you aren't talking anyway. Or at best you're only muttering to yourself.'You're making me feel like a cretin!' Jake burst out. 'I don't know where I am or how I got here  -  or how to get out of here  -  and you're telling me I have a lot to learn about it? A lot to learn about nothing, about nowhere, about emptiness?'Oh, it isn't nothing, Jake. It isn't nowhere, but a route to every-where and -when! Let me ask you to do something for me ... actually, for you. Just keep quiet for a moment or two, and float. And feel it! Feel the Mobius Continuum!Jake did, and felt it. 'It's ... big/ he said then, feeling very small. 'It's ... huge! It knows I'm here, and it doesn't especially want me here. But where here?'Everywhere! said Harry. Or anywhere. Anywhere you want to be, want to go, as long as you know the coordinates. Come with me. Just come, and you'll see.'You mean follow you?' And suddenly Jake was afraid. 'But I can't even see you!'I'm in your head, Jake. Just let go.'Of you?'Of everything.And Jake did it, let go. He sensed motion in himself, and also felt himself come to a halt. At a door.A time door, said Harry. A door on past time. And:'But this is even more like a ... a ... ahhhh!' said Jake. Because now he was standing on the threshold, looking back into the past. And while it wasn't deliberate he was echoing what he seemed to be hearing:

A concerted 'Ahhhhhk!' like some unending one-note chorus, the vocal product of a vast choir of angels echoing in a sounding church or cathedral. And yet Jake only seemed to be hearing it; it was in his mind as a result of what he was seeing, which must surely be accompanied by just such a SOUND  -  the sound of life, of evolution, from its prehistoric source to this present moment, this very NOW.

More like A Christmas Carol? Harry finished it for him. Isuppose it is, in a way. But this isn't a ghost of the past, it is the past  -  as viewed in Mobius-time.Looking out, looking back, through the door, Jake saw what appeared to be the core of some vastly distant nova, an incredible neon-blue bomb-burst, whose streamers were lines of light. A myriad endlessly twisting, twining, frequently-touching lines or neon tubes of blue light, all reaching out from that central explosion, expanding towards him, rushing upon him like a luminous meteorite shower. Except the tracks didn't dim but remained printed on space  -  indeed, printed on time! And all Jake could say was, 'W-what?'The blue life-threads of humanity, of all Mankindfrom its very beginning, Harry told him, quietly. And that central nova: that is the beginning, the source, the birthlight a quarter of a billion years ago, when our ancestors crept out of the soupy oceans to evolve primitive lungs on volcanic-lava beaches.'Life-threads?' Jake whispered. He had scarcely heard the other, was merely repeating him like a man in a dream  -  which of course he was.The tracks we've left in time, Harry answered, like metaphysical fossils. A photograph of Man's snail-trail, his evolution from his humblest beginnings. The proof of it is there, Jake, right before your eyes. For see, one of those blue life-threads connects with you. Follow it back far enough and you'd see it blaze into being, a pure blue glow to light you on your way through life. The moment you were born, yes ... And:'You don't appear to have a thread,' said Jake. But since the explanation was obvious, he quickly went on: 'If I were to trip and fall through this door, I might fall all the way back to the Big Bang!'No, Harry told him. But if you willed it you might travel back through all your ancestors to the beginning of life. Awesome, isn't it? And before Jake could answer:Back there some little way I saw your blue thread crossed by scarlet. But the vampire threads stopped right there, while yours sped on. It was Bruce Trennierand his brood, when they died the true death.'At which time/ Jake frowned, ' - what, just yesterday?  -  Ihad already received your dart. Some kind of paradox?'He sensed Harry's shrug, his irritation. But that was one of thereasons you received it! Time is relative; what will be has been. You think oftime as having been, or as being now, or as still to come. But the way I seeit times are just different places, all within reach. It's the fourth dimension, Jake. And the Mobius Continuum lies parallel to all four. As for paradoxes:they'd be rife if we could actually change the past or see the future. That's why precogs like lan Goodly have such a hard time of it. It's why they are allowedto know something of what will be, but never how it will be.Jake looked again through the door and made a futile effort to follow the track of the neon-blue thread that flowed out of him where it twisted and twined its way to his origins. Perhaps he would see what Harry had seen: scarlet threads crossing it in Mobius-time and coming to an end there. But among all the myriad lives that had been, his was soon lost to sight. And:'All the world's past/ he said.This time I helped you find it, said Harry. The next time  -  if you should ever need it  -  you could well he on your own, so try to remember these coordinates. As for future-time doors: that's easy. They point the other way, that's all! You'll work it out (a barely suppressed chuckle) in time.'I... I shouldn't be here/ said Jake, suddenly dizzy. 'I mean, no one should be here/That's a normal reaction, (Jake sensed Harry's nod). Anyway, we have to be moving on. Those names you gave me: I found a connection, someone who knew their owners.'N-not in this world, you didn't/ said Jake, as the time door closed. 'They were Wamphyri and came out of Starside/

True, said the other, hut they didn't come alone. I... I have been advised to look up someone who came with them. And I think you should meet him, too.

More motion  -  an acceleration  -  that Jake sensed rather than felt. 'W-where are we going?'

To the Refuge.'But it isn't there any more/Its ruins an.'But why there?'To talk to someone who died there.'Someone who died? Past tense? But we can't be going into the past. The past-time door has closed/That's right. And anyway it's not physically possible, not for you. You couldn't materialize there. No, we're going to the Refuge in your present, your now, your dream.'But if this someone is dead, how can we ... ?'Too many huts, said Harry. And anyway, we're there.'There' was an awful place to be. Jake was up to his knees in cold water, in a darkness almost as deep as that of the Mobius Continuum itself. The water  -  river water from the resurgence, he supposed  -  slopped around his legs and roved on, while the unseen ceiling dripped cold moisture down his collar. The atmosphere was stale, still foul with a lingering stench of smoke, spent explosives, and ... other tastes and taints.As Jake's eyes grew accustomed to the darkness, he began to make out certain features of this cavern ... and saw that it was more than just a cavern. It was the sump, what was left of it in the aftermath of Zek Foener's horrific, heroic death. Now he remembered Trask's story, also something of what Harry Keogh had said: that they were here to talk to someone (a dead someone?) who had come through from Starside with Malinari and the others. And:Oh, he's here, the incorporeal Harry told him, causing Jake to start yet again. Zek, too, but she has company. Good company, as do a majority of the dead. A Great Majority. When Zek 15 ... when she's accustomed to all this, then I'll return and talk to her about old times, remind her that we'll be together again  -  all of us  -  eventually. But that might take some time yet, for Zek was very much alive. She was one of my very dearest friends right to the end. Which reminds me of our reason for being here ... to talk to the other fellow.Harry's voice had dropped to a low growl; it seemed to Jake that an unaccustomed darkness had crept into it, and a very uncharacteristic threat. So threatening, in fact, that in another moment his mind went into overdrive as he identified the source of his main concern, which until now had mainly been lost among the minutiae and maziness of dreaming: the fact that Harry Keogh was here to talk to someone who was dead.'The other fellow?' Jake repeated the words of his still unseen companion. 'I thought Zek was alone down here? And anyway, how can  -  you  -  we  -  talk  -  to ... ?' But by now everything was coming together that much faster, including things Jake really didn't want to think about, but which were there anyway.Like the meaning of a certain word or name: 'Necroscope'. And what the precog lan Goodly had told him about Harry: that he didn't view life and death the way others did, and his means of communication was similar to telepathy, but he had a different name for it.Like what? Like necromancy?'You're a necromancer!' Jake gasped, before he could check himself.NO!!! The incorporeal other's denial lashed him, like a cry of rage in Jake's cringing mind. Whatever else I am or may have been, I'm NOT a necromancer! Never call me that again!And now another voice out of nowhere, but sweet as a breath of fresh air to fan Jake's feverish mind. And despite that he'd never known her, still he knew her: Zek Foener!

Necromancer? Ah, no, (her voice was a sigh). Just call him Harry, and know him for a true friend. And as for this  -  this blessing he gave us, letting us comfort each other through the long lonely night of death  -  do you take it for an evil thing? Then you're mistaken. It's our one light in this eternal darkness. And you may simply call it deadspeak ...