Down: Trilogy Box Set (29 page)

He pulled a wad of tissues from a box and hurried around the desk. “Look, Mrs. Duncan …”

“Arabel.”

“Okay, Arabel. I’m not authorized to say much—this situation is quite sensitive as you can imagine, but believe me, if your sister were dead you would have been told.”

She looked up hopefully. “Then she’s not?”

“Like I said, you would have been told.”

“I tried to contact John, John Camp. I hope it’s not a secret that they’ve been seeing each other. I’ve never met him but …”

“It’s not a secret.”

“He hasn’t answered any of my messages. Is he all right?”

“He may have been caught up in the same situation as Emily.”

“Oh my.”

“I can’t say more.”

“When do you think we’ll be given more information? When can we speak to Emily?”

“I don’t have a timetable for you. I wish I did. But please know that the best people in the country are working on getting her well and back to you. Do you believe what I’m saying?”

She smiled at him. “You have kind eyes and I can tell you have a good heart. I do believe you. Will you ring me the second you have any news?”

“I will.”

He made a call and by the time he had her back in reception, Delia had the children ready to go. When she left he stood in the lobby watching her put the kids into their car seats and driving off and for the rest of the day and into the night he couldn’t get her out of his mind.

“Where’s your telephone?” Woodbourne demanded.

Benona said she didn’t have one.

He looked around the flat and didn’t see a set but he now knew about these new, pocket-sized phones and he asked if she had one of them.

She said no, but he searched her handbag and found her mobile.

“What’s this? Scotch mist?” He stomped on it and it went to pieces.

“You will wake my girl.”

“She’s got to get up eventually.”

“She has school tomorrow. She needs her sleep.”

“She’s not going to school.”

“Why not?”

“Don’t be daft.”

Benona lit a cigarette but Woodbourne snatched it from her lips and started smoking it. She lit another for herself. “What you going to do with us?”

“To be honest, haven’t got a plan. I’m a fish out of water here. Alls I know is I don’t want to go back.”

“Back where?”

He inhaled the smoke deeply, seeming to lose himself in the taste and aroma. “You won’t believe me.”

“For me to decide.”

“All right then.”

He told her the story of his life and death. He told her about Hell. He told her about his inexplicable return. He told her about his week on the run but didn’t mention the killings.

But she knew about them anyway. “On the news it says you killed three people. Is true?”

“Yes.”

“Why you did this?”

“I didn’t want to get caught.”

“You didn’t have to kill.”

He lit another cigarette on the spent one. “I couldn’t help myself. Never could.” He shook off his faraway gaze and changed the subject. “You didn’t say if you believe my story.”

She took the cigarette from his mouth, used it to light her own then passed it back. He seemed disarmed by the gesture and smiled for the first time in the week.

“I had brother who was crazy,” she said. “Schizophrenia was diagnosis by doctors. He say all kinds of things which not true or real. You don’t sound crazy like him.”

“So you believe me?”

She shrugged. “I believe in Heaven. I believe in Hell. So I can believe half your story. It sound like from your life and the bad things you did, you deserve to be in Hell. Coming back from there, I don’t think so.”

“It’s all true.”

“Okay, what you say. I don’t know.”

“How come you’re not afraid of me?”

“Sure I’m afraid. More for Polly than for me.”

“You don’t show it.”

“I had hard life. I am tough person. I been through a lot. Listen mister, you can do anything to me but I want you promise me you won’t hurt my Polly.”

“Brandon.”

“What?”

“That’s my name.”

“Okay Brandon, you promise?”

“I promise.”

Emily’s room was so high in the turreted tower that bars were not needed on her window. Andreas, the eunuch, had exhausted himself carrying pails of hot water up the stairs to fill an iron bath basin. He sat cross-legged on the floor, resting and wholly disinterested in her naked body as she bathed.

“Is there any soap?” she asked.

“Ha! Soap. No. Only water.”

“Right then, I suppose I’m done. Might you have a towel then?”

He knocked his head with one hand and the floor with the other and told her he’d forgotten one. Panting after another climb, he returned and held out a rough but seemingly clean piece of cloth and began to dry her when she stepped out.

“Thank you very much, but I can do it myself.”

“Clever lass.”

While she dressed he busied himself emptying the tub, bucket by bucket, through the open window.

“So how long have you been here, Andreas?”

He stopped and made a show of counting on his fingers before saying, “I don’t know. I forget.” He found that hilarious and almost pissed himself laughing.

“How many women do you look after?” she asked when he resumed his bucket work.

“Lots. You’re the prettiest.”

“Why thank you. Does the king have a queen?”

“Him? No chance of that.”

“Why’s that?”

“Can’t say. Cat got my tongue and ate it after it ate my balls.”

“Tell me this, then, what’s he like?”

“He’s like a turnip.”

“What?”

“No, he likes turnips!”

“Thank you, Andreas. I shall lower my expectations for future conversations.”

“You are very welcome, fraulein. Are you clean?”

“I believe I am as clean as water alone will make me, yes.”

“Then come. Rainald said to bring you when you were clean.”

Marksburg was a very large castle and it took a long time for Emily to reach the chancellor’s quarters in its own small building off one of the multiple baileys. Rainald greeted her cordially, told Andreas to wait outside, and ushered her into his reception room, a well-appointed chamber with a smattering of luxury items such as jewel-encrusted cups and silver and gold plates. He offered her food and wine and she hungrily accepted, though without the benefit of utensils, she had to tear into a warm, whole chicken with her fingers.

He sat opposite her, sipping modestly from a cup of wine, watching in silence. When she was done she pushed away her plate and thanked him for the good food.

“Good victuals are one of the blessings of my position.”

“I suppose you’re a one-percenter then.”

He was confused as to her meaning.

“It’s an expression from my time, the one out of one hundred, the wealthiest people in society.”

“Yes, I see. There are those far more miserable than myself, that is without question.”

She asked about JoJo and he said she was being treated well. She pointed at the food and asked, “This well?”

“No, not this well.”

“Could you please have Andreas bring her this food?”

He called Andreas in and Emily loaded a plate.

“Would you like some of this food too, Andreas?” she said.

“Oh no, fraulein, this food is not for the likes of me.”

“It’s all right for you to have some.”

The eunuch thought this was very amusing and laughed himself out the door.

“I’d like you to reconsider having JoJo stay with me in my room,” she said to Rainald.

“Why?”

“I want her to receive the same treatment I do.”

“But she is quite ordinary and you are quite extraordinary.”

“Please. I want the company.”

He acquiesced and she thanked him.

“You are a good person,” Rainald said.

“I like to think so.”

“I had forgotten what goodness was. How very strange this must be for you. This place I mean.”

“Indeed it is.”

“Tell me, before coming here, how did you imagine Hell?”

“I didn’t believe it existed.”

“Are you not a Christian?”

“I was born one but I never considered myself a believer. My parents are religious, my sister too, but science has given me my view of the world and the universe.”

“And now?”

“Well, good question, that.”

“And your answer to that good question?”

“If and when I get home, I’m sure I’ll spend a good deal of time thinking on it.”

“I must say that I have spent a thousand years thinking about this question and for me, the answer is clear. If there is a Hell, there must also be a Heaven. And if Heaven and Hell exist, then God must exist, though he is far from here. Therefore, the faith which I possessed on Earth has been affirmed, at least intellectually.”

“Do you pray?”

Rainald tented his fingers and placed them to his lips. “I prayed to God for some time, but I stopped long ago. God cannot hear my prayers here. Without the hope of salvation, hope wanes. It is a sad state of affairs and I would like to be put out of my misery and die but I cannot do so.” He tapped his hands against the table emphatically and rose. “Well, enough of this. Now that you are supped, I must take you to the king. Himmler has been filling his head with all the marvelous things you will have Germania achieve and he is most anxious to meet you.”

“There is really nothing I can do to help him.”

“This is not a subject for me.”

“Is there anything I should know about the king?”

“Only this. Be careful. He is most ruthless and most dangerous.”

“Will he try and force himself on me?”

“If you were a handsome young man I would fear for you. But you are quite safe.” He paused and added, “Though not from the likes of Himmler.”

“Will you protect me?”

“I will try.”

Rainald walked her across the main bailey to the largest building within the castle, an imposing palace that occupied much of the edifice overlooking the Rhine. The chancellor told her that Frederick was in the great banqueting hall and when they entered it was so large and dark that she didn’t see him at first. The windowless hall had no wall hangings or floor coverings. The beamed ceiling was black with age and smoke. A host of supporting columns as thick as tree trunks rose from the floor creating the illusion of a nocturnal forest. Though it was warm outside the hall was cold and a fire was blazing in the large, hooded hearth. The only furniture was an impossibly long banqueting table and dozens of high-backed chairs and at the center of the table sat a hunched old man, who though normal in size, seemed dwarfed by the surroundings. Two muscle-bound young men flanked him drinking from goblets.

The old man looked up from his food. He was too far away for Emily to get a good look at him but before Rainald could announce her, Himmler bounded in from an adjoining room and scurried over with mincing steps.

Ignoring Rainald completely he said, “Your Highness, I present to you Frau Doktor Emily Loughty. As you can see for yourself, she is more than well, she is alive and well!”

Frederick made a small hand gesture inviting her to approach and when she was close enough to make out his features she stopped dead in her tracks. She could well believe this man was a thousand years old. The skin on his face was slack and hung from his skull like laundry on a line. His eyes were dull and rheumy and if his beard was once red and defining, there were now only a few white wisps, mirroring the sparse sprouts on his eczematous scalp. For his part after the briefest of glances he lowered his gaze, seemingly more interested in spearing a leek with his knife.

“Does she speak our language?” he asked.

“I speak German,” she said.

“I did not ask her to speak.”

Himmler nodded urgently. “He did not ask you to speak.”

“I don’t think you needed to repeat that,” Emily said. Rainald smirked.

The king’s two male companions kept up their stares like attentive hounds. Both were handsome with chiseled faces and though not twins, they were strikingly similar in appearance as if chosen to be a matching pair.

Frederick glanced again and said, “Why are you here?”

“It was not by my choice. There was an accident in a scientific experiment.”

“She is a physicist,” Himmler said.

“I do not know what this is.”

“Do you remember, Your Highness, I told you that they are men, and in this case, women of science who can make great weapons.”

“I seem to remember something. What kind of weapons can you make for me?”

Emily stiffened. “I can’t make any weapons at all. I’m not that kind of a physicist.”

The king shot Himmler a ferocious scowl. “She says she cannot make me weapons.”

“It doesn’t matter what she says, Your Highness. She possesses great technical knowledge. She will know more than anyone else in our realm how to make the greatest weapons known to modern man. Do you remember when I spoke of the awesome power of the atomic bomb? I will work with her and the technicians I have assembled and I will extract that knowledge for your glory and the glory of Germania. We will build great weapons which will allow us to conquer all of Europa and beyond.”

Emily laughed. “You don’t even have electricity, do you? And you want to build an A-bomb?”

“You would be wise not to laugh,” Himmler said. “We will build turbines, we will harness hydro-power, we will find uranium. Maybe not tomorrow or the next day but we possess something great and powerful already. We possess time.”

“You might have ten thousand years, but I’m telling you that the only weapon I know how to make is a slingshot.”

Rainald spoke up for the first time. “Your Highness, it seems to me that Herr Himmler has grossly exaggerated the benefits of this costly adventure he has undertaken in Francia. If the good doktor says she is not capable of making weapons for you then I for one, believe her.”

Frederick pushed himself to his feet and swayed on his ancient legs. His two young companions snapped to their feet.

“Here is my decision,” the king said. “Vice Chancellor Himmler will have one month to judge how useful this woman is to us. He will make a report. If she is not of use then she will be deposited into my harem for the pleasure of high-ranking members of my court.”