was a precog, as you know. They all have this thing about the future; they're all a little scared of it - and sometimes a lot. If, and I mean if, Alec had a problem, he kept it pretty wel hid. And if he had one, you can bet your last penny it would have to do with his talent. "Talent": that's a laugh! I sometimes wonder if we're not all cursed!'
Harry thought about that, then said, Thanks, Darcy.'
'No, it's me, we, us, who should be thanking you,' Darcy told him.
'You're welcome,' Harry answered, automatically, and he started to put the 'phone down - then paused and said:
'Darcy, I'll be up here for maybe three more weeks, then I'll probably be out of the country. I think they must have gone abroad. But when I go ... I may be gone a while. I mean, I won't be coming back here each night. And I'll need funds.'
'I can swing that,' Darcy told him, without hesitation.
'No,' Harry answered, 'I'm not going to hit on you or E-Branch for money. But there is something you can do for me.'
'Just mention it.'
'Find out where the Russians keep their gold.'
'What?' (Astonishment). 'Where the Russians - ?'
'I mean, their repository? Like Fort Knox or something?'
As the last word fell from his lips, so Harry reeled. It was as if for a single second he was no longer in his room. It was just like that time in Darcy's office, in the moment folowing the warning of an imminent IRA attack. Except this time nothing had prompted it, there was nothing to explain why -
- Why Harry stood in the open, somewhere else, in bright daylight, and craned his neck to look up, and up, at stark yellow and white clifs .. . and at the squat, white-walled castle, mansion, or chateau that was perched there on the edge of oblivion. A fortress on a mountainside (from Harry's viewpoint), at the very rim of a sheer drop that must be all of twelve hundred metres to the sloping scree of a rubble-strewn gorge. The scene was ... Mediterranean? All sun-bleached rocks, brittle scrub, a few stunted pines, and a salty tang from the unseen ocean.
Their repository?' Darcy answered, abruptly yanking the Necro-scope back to the here and now. 'Why, I'm sure they must have! And I can probably find out about it, yes. But - '
Harry quickly pulled himself together. It could only have been a manifestation of Alec Kyle's precognition. As to what it meant. . . who could say? He tried to carry on the conversation as if nothing had happened. 'Or if not the Russians, someone or some outfit - maybe the Mafia, or some other organization like that, with bullion - who you'd like to see lose some big money? Maybe to our advantage? Like, gunrunners, or drug traffickers? I'm sure you know what I'm saying.'
Darcy laughed out loud ... but the Necroscope didn't even chuckle; he was still recovering from the effects of his inexplicable - what, visitation? Finally the head of E-Branch said, 'Ahem!
You know, if I didn't know better, Harry, I might accuse you of planning something decidedly ilegal?'
'I suppose it depends whose side you're on. You'll do it?'
'If that's what you want, yes,' Darcy said.
Harry nodded, despite that the other couldn't see him, and said, Then do it soon. And Darcy - see if you can find someone who'l give us a decent exchange rate, no questions asked.'
This time, putting the 'phone down, Harry was smiling despite his headache. Because he knew that on the other end of the line, Darcy Clarke wasn't.
But even as the 'phone settled in its cradle -
- He was there again! But this time he was up there on the rim of the clif, and the walls of the keep rising before him. Its medieval turret towers seemed semi-sentient - like stone sentinels - where he craned his neck to look up at them. And he felt his hair moving on his head, perhaps blown by the winds of the gorge.
It came and it went, and Harry sat there beside the telephone again. With his hair still standing on end ...
Bonnie Jean was worried. About E-Branch: how successful she'd been in throwing Harry, or 'them', off her trail.' About Harry Keogh himself, because she believed there was still something about that one that wasn't connecting. Where he was concerned, no sooner was one mystery cleared up than