Necroscope II Wamphyri(Vampyri) - By Brian Lumley Page 0,165

sort of thing that lies hidden in the mountains beyond Chernovtsy?'

Again she nodded.

'Very well.' Gerenko smiled without emotion. 'And now, my dear, you must return to your work. Give it total priority.'

'Of course,' she answered. 'I only came away while they were dosing him again. And because I need a break from...' She shook her head dazedly. Her eyes were wide, bright with strange new knowledge. 'Comrade, this thing is utterly - '

Again Gerenko held up his child's hand in warning. 'I know.'

She nodded, turned and left, her footsteps a little uncertain on the descending stone stairs.

'What was all that about?' Dolgikh was mystified.

'That was the joint death certificate of Krakovitch, Gulharov and Quint,' Gerenko answered. 'Actually, Quint was the only one who might have been useful - but no longer. Now you can get on your way. Is the branch helicopter ready for you?'

Dolgikh nodded. He began to stand up, then frowned and said, 'First tell me, what will happen to Kyle when you are finished with him? I mean, I'll take care of that

other pair of traitors, and the British esper, Quint, but what of Kyle? What will become of him?'

Gerenko raised his eyebrows. 'I thought that was obvious. When we have what we want, everything we want, then we'll dump him in the British zone in Berlin. There he'll simply die, and their best doctors won't know why.'

'But why will he die? And what of that drug you're pumping into him? Surely their doctors will pick up traces?'

Gerenko shook his walnut head. 'It leaves no trace. It completely voids itself in a few hours. That is why we have to keep dosing him. A clever lot, our Bulgarian friends. He's not the first one we've drained in this fashion, and the results have always been the same. As to why he will die: he will have no incentive for life. Less than a cabbage, he will not retain sufficient knowledge or instinct even to move his body. There will be no control - none! His vital organs will not function. He might survive longer on a life-support machine, but...' And he shrugged.

'Brain-death.' Dolgikh nodded and grinned.

'But there you have it in a nutshell.' Gerenko emotionlessly clapped his child's hands. 'Bravo! For what is an entirely empty brain if not dead, eh? And now, if you'll excuse me, I have a telephone call to make.'

Dolgikh stood up. 'I'll be on my way,' he said. Already he was looking forward to the task in hand.

'Theo,' said Gerenko. 'Krakovitch and his friends - they should be killed with despatch. Don't linger over it. And one last thing: do not be too curious about what they are trying to do up there in the mountains. Do not concern yourself with it. Believe me, too much curiosity could be very, very dangerous!'

In answer to which Dolgikh could only nod. Then he turned and left the room . .

As their car drew away from the checkpoint towards Chernovtsy, Quint might have expected Krakovitch to carry on raging. But he didn't. Instead the head of the Soviet E-Branch was quiet and thoughtful, and even more so after Gulharov quickly told him about the disconnected cable.

'There are several things I not liking here,' Krakovitch told Quint in a little while. 'At first I am thinking that fat man back there is simply stupid, but now not being so sure. And this business with the electricity - all very strange. Sergei finds and fixes that which they could not - and he does it quickly and without difficulty. Which would seem to make our fat friend at the checkpoint not only stupid but incompetent!'

'You think we were deliberately delayed?' Quint felt an uneasy, dark oppressiveness settling all around him, like a positive weight on his head and shoulders.

'That telephone call he got just now,' Krakovitch mused. 'The Commissioner for Frontier Control, in Moscow? I never heard of him! But I suppose he must exist. Or must he? One commissioner, controlling all of the thousands of crossing points into the Soviet Union? So, I assume he exists. Which is meaning that Ivan Gerenko got in touch with him, in the dead of night, and that he then personally called up this little fat official in his stupid sentry-box of a control hut - all in ten minutes!'

'Who knew we were coming through here tonight?' Quint, in his way of going to the root of things, asked the most obvious question.

'Eh?' Krakovitch scratched behind his ear. 'We knew