even suspicious.
'No, other things. Business ... "
'I didn't know you had any "business." Not any more.'
This is financial. I have to move my bank accounts, sort things out in general. I've got nothing fixed up localy. It's your fault, in a way. You've occupied my free time, not to mention my thoughts. I'm doing some important personal administration, that's al. Stuff I've let slip. But it doesn't interfere with anything, and I'm not due to see you until Saturday.'
There was a long pause, until B.J. very softly said: 'Are you sure? That it won't interfere with anything?' And before he could answer, even as he framed words to answer: 'Now listen to me, mah - '
' - Of course I'm sure!' he cut her off, and was surprised to find himself perspiring. 'B.J., it's Thursday night. I'll be back tomorrow night, or Saturday morning at the latest.'
And after another pause: 'Very well - but remember, Harry, we're climbing this weekend.'
'I wouldn't miss it for the world,' he told her ...
After that:
Briefly Harry gave thought to what he was doing. Something puzzled him, and he couldn't figure out what it was. Eventually it came to him.
There had been a time when he would have simply used the Mobius Continuum to jump straight into Palermo. Now -
- It seemed he'd developed a real need for his litle subterfuges, the secrecy, this esoteric camouflage for his metaphysical talents. But that was ridiculous: of course he needed to keep his skils secret! Obviously he did - but to this extent? It was odd; he was more concerned now about someone discovering his talents than ever before in his life. But why now (he kept asking himself), in a time of relative safety?
Safety? Scarcely that, considering what he had in mind!
But if there was an answer to al of this, it was going to have to wait. His course was set, his plans made. For the next few days, at least.
It was 9:45 in Edinburgh, 10:45 in Sicily.
Harry made an international cal to the airport at Catania to check the sitrep on the incoming flight from Athens. It was descending, starting its approach run. He alowed it forty-five minutes to land and commence discharging its passengers toward customs, then took the Mobius route directly to the stall he'd booked in the men's toilets. Two or three minutes later he was queuing to change pounds into lira at the cambio, then walking out of the airport reception area into the Sicilian night with a handful of rather more mundane travellers.
Now he was just another tourist with a heavy suitcase.
Heavy for its size, anyway ...
DAHAM DRAKESH - LE MANSE MADONIE - DEAD SILENCE
II
DAHAM DRAKESH - LE MANSE MADONIE - DEAD SILENCE
The Necroscope took a taxi to Paterno, paid for a room at the Hotel Adrano two nights in advance, and by 12:30 was taking a shower before retiring. With a litle luck, the fan above his bed would keep him cool in the seventy-plus degrees of heat...
Hot in Sicily, yes ... but some four and a half thousand miles away, on the Roof of the World, it was anything but hot; indeed, on Tibet's Tingri Plateau at 7:00 a.m. the temperature hovered just one degree above freezing. But the sun was bright where its burgeoning golden blister threatened to burst on the eastern horizon, and Major Chang Lun was comfortable enough in his winter-warfare uniform, fur-lined boots and hooded jacket.
He and his Corporal driver had set out from the barracks at Xigaze ninety minutes earlier because they knew they had to reach Drakesh Monastery within an hour or so of the sun clearing the horizon. Any later and they'd be denied entry. No one was allowed to enter the monastery at Drakesh in ful daylight. Daylight was for contemplation, worship; darkness was for mundane man in his wickedness, the taking of food, the thinking of mundane thoughts, the maintenance of the body as opposed to the soul. The Major must consider himself fortunate indeed that the High Priest of the sect, the enigmatic Daham Drakesh, had seen fit to grant him audience during daylight hours.
Such would be the opinion of outsiders, anyway. Hah! Wel, Major Chang Lun knew differently. Powerful as this monkish creature was in his own spheres, the so-called 'People's' Army of Communist China was more powerful yet. But Chang Lun was under orders and must play Drakesh's game.
The Major's vehicle was a two-seater halftrack, a snow-cat equipped for the plateau's