other. So this is private - and that's a capital "P." '
As he switched off again, Harry nodded and said, 'Gadgets and ghosts, yes. Machines are easy to switch off. But minds ... are something else, right?' He glanced about the office. 'Well, nothing seems to have changed much around here.'
'Er ... how's it going?' Darcy rubbed his hands in a businesslike fashion. He was lost for words if only for a moment. 'So, where have you been, Harry? And for that mater, how have you been?'
'How do I look?' The Necroscope was unsmiling.
'Fine!' Darcy answered, then slumped and shook his head. 'Hey, we're friends, Harry,' he said, his tone of voice flattening out a little, losing its bounce. 'I'd like to think so, anyway. And in that respect I'm pretty much like Ben Trask: I don't like to lie.'
'So don't.'
'You look about the same as last time,' Darcy told him. 'You've lost weight, gained a few wrinkles, and you seem very tired. But at the same time - I don't know - somehow you look more like you, too? But you don't talk like you. I mean, I've given a lot of thought to that conversation we had about Alec Kyle - could he have been a secret drinker and so forth? That was pretty strange stuff!
So, you know, apart from Brenda and the baby ... what is it that's troubling you, Harry? I mean, I'd realy like to help, if I can.'
And suddenly the Necroscope felt he could relax a little. Darcy's friendship was genuine. Oh, there would always be this E-Branch thing, but that aside Darcy was real, and Harry felt able to talk to him. About certain things, anyway. And he did talk to him: Told him about Alec Kyle's precognition, how he seemed to have inherited it, and something about his strange new problem with drink. He didn't go into details on the latter, but enough that Darcy got the message. Certainly he got the message on the other thing.
'About Alec drinking; I still think you're wrong,' Darcy said, when Harry was through. 'And even if you're right, it's amazing to me that he hid it so wel! As for this,' he picked up the picture from his desk. 'You say you've seen it before?'
The Necroscope nodded. 'Yes. A scene, or sudden vision - in my head - but absolutely real. Actually, it was during our conversation about a Russian Fort Knox. Do you remember?'
'Of course, as a result of which I sent you the picture.'
'Right, but my mind - or maybe Alec Kyle's mind, the last wrinkle in his grey matter? - had already sent it to me! Only I didn't recognize it, didn't know what it meant.'
Darcy nodded. That's how it was with Alec, too,' he said. 'He rarely understood anything he saw but simply had to run with his visions to see how they worked out. He had to wait until he caught up with the future.'
'Me, too,' Harry said. 'Except this time I've been given more than just a precognitive glimpse, more than a mental clue.
I have your photograph, too,' he leaned forward and tapped his index finger on the picture. 'And I know that you know quite a bit about this ... what, target? So I won't be going in blind, because now that I'm sure this place is waiting to happen to me somewhere in my future, you'l be giving me al the details.'
'As much as we have,' Darcy said. 'Certainly. But even so, it's still fait accompli. You are going to do it.'
'So it would appear,' Harry's face was grim. 'So maybe we can start with you telling me who it is I'll be doing it to ...'
DARCY'S TARGET. BONNIE JEAN AT HARRY'S.
IV
DARCY'S TARGET. BONNIE JEAN AT HARRY'S.
'First the place,' Darcy pushed the photograph back across the desk closer to Harry. 'We don't know much about it; its history is vague at best. But you can probably find out more localy if you're so inclined.' (In fact the 'probably' was redundant, for Darcy knew that the Necroscope could do just that - could actually talk to the original owners or builders, if he so desired - but he didn't want to broach that subject).
'Anyway,' he went on, 'it's called Le Manse Madonie, named after the mountainous region in Sicily where it stands.
It was built about four hundred years ago on the foundations of a castle dating back to crusader times. And like most ancient properties, it's been