Trask remembered it so well. The way he'd felt: confusion, pity, shame. And his last futile attempt to find another way: 'Harry, wait!'
But again the Necroscope had used a Mobius door to make his exit, and for the last time Trask had seen him step sideways into another place, space, time. If there'd been a rope, it might well have been the Indian rope trick ... if there'd been a trick! But there was no trick, and the magic was all mathematical.
Look after yourself, Ben ...
Again, in the eye of memory, Trask saw Harry standing there - a monster, yes, but a man for all that - followed by a replay of his eerie disappearance. Then dreams and memories gradually fading ... until suddenly, even startlingly, the Head of Branch was back in the empty Ops room ...
. .. Where now a hand fell on his shoulder!
Trask gave a massive start, half-turned, saw the Necroscope standing there! But it was a newer, younger Necroscope, himself startled by the older man's reaction to his presence and drawing back from him. Until Trask regained control and took his arm.
'Nathan, I'm sorry! I was just thinking about your father, and ...' But here he paused, as the look on the other's face gave him away. Nathan already knew what Trask had been thinking about.
'Your thoughts, memories, were so strong ...' He shrugged by way of excusing himself, but in no way negligently. Nathan knew better than to enter another man's mind unbidden. 'I knew they'd be about me, or about my father. You should learn to guard your thoughts, Ben. Especially in your line of business. Better if you'd kept that hypnotic guard on your mind, which you had in Perchorsk.'
Trask gave his head a rueful shake. 'No, I made mistakes in Perchorsk. A few, anyway. It seems that the act of blocking access to my mind took the edge off my talent. Tzonov and company couldn't see in too well, but my vision was obscured too! I'm only interested in the truth, Nathan.
Half-truths aren't good enough. Anyway, this is E-Branch. There isn't a man here I wouldn't trust with my life, let alone my thoughts.'
'Your mind was very clear,' Nathan told him. 'So clear, it was like I was there with you. You were frightened when you saw my father. And seeing him in your mind, I knew why.'
Trask nodded. 'He was Wamphyri, yes - but he was strong, too. He never gave in to it, not once.'
That's what everyone keeps telling me,' Nathan answered. 'It's as if you were saying: "If it should come to the worst, remember that your father never gave in to it".'
'Maybe we are saying that.' Trask didn't deny it. 'Nathan, even now you don't fully understand what a weapon you are. And if you were Wamphyri, too? If you should become Wamphyri...?'
There was no way Trask could know it, but quite apart from Tzonov and the Opposition, there were other men, right there in London, who had thought that selfsame thought. The big difference between those men and Trask was this: that he was able to live with it...