The Demi-Monde: Winter (28 page)

‘I think you overestimate the influence I have.’

Now it was Aaliz’s turn to laugh. ‘And I think you underestimate how capable I am. I am my father’s daughter, Norma. Whilst you squander your intelligence and your time cultivating your image of anti-establishment emo, losing yourself to self-pity and self-loathing, I have applied my will to shaping this world. Here, in the Demi-Monde, I am leader of the Party’s youth wing: the RightNix.’

‘Oh, bully for you: I stopped being a Girl Guide years ago.’

‘More fool you. The work of the RightNix is vital in forming the attitudes and the beliefs of the young people of the ForthRight. I am alive to the fact that the youngster of today is the Party member of tomorrow. As leader of the RightNix I am responsible for inculcating a belief in the ForthRight’s children that to be true Aryans they must display an unquestioning obedience to the Leader. They are taught that denying the doctrine of UnFunDaMentalism as set out in the nuCommandments is a Betrayal of their FatherLand. They are taught that the Strong have command over the Weak, and that the Aryan Race is the Master Race. When my RightNixes come of age they will show no mercy to the ForthRight’s enemies: whoever blocks the ForthRight’s path to Purity and Oneness with ABBA will be destroyed.’ Aaliz stretched over and took Heydrich’s hand in hers. ‘My father has taught me well. And I think your father, Norma, will be delighted to have a daughter suddenly willing to take a more active, a more committed role in the running of America. He must be sick of your selfishness and your glowering introspection. Having an emo for a daughter is hardly an electoral asset, especially with your father struggling for support in the more conservative Midwest.’

It was a nightmare. It was bad enough for Norma to be stuck in the Demi-Monde, but to have a Dupe talking about taking
over her body – taking over her life – was mind-blowingly awful.

‘You’ll never be able to pull off a stunt like that. You might look like me, you might talk like me, but you know squat about me and my life. It’s impossible. You don’t know anything about the Real World apart from what you learned serving behind the counter of a clothes shop. They’ll spot you as a fraud straight away.’

Heydrich gave Norma a crooked smile. ‘Unfortunately, Miss Williams, there is much in what you say: even someone as intelligent and as diligent as Aaliz will have difficulty in performing in a manner that does not arouse at least some suspicion. That is why, Miss Williams, we have had you kept here at Dashwood Manor in the hope that Comrade Commissar Dashwood’s daughter would be able to persuade you to speak about your life in the Real World.’

He paused to take another draw on his cigarette. ‘Unfortunately your intransigence defeated Trixiebell Dash -wood. I am not surprised: Comrade Commissar Dashwood is a Royalist recidivist and hence an Enemy of the People and as for his daughter …’ Heydrich laughed. ‘She is nothing more than a stupid, idle, vacuous non-entity. It will be better when the pair of them have been arrested and shot. I will have Beria purge the Dashwoods immediately after this evening’s séance is complete. He will enjoy that: Trixie Dashwood is a trim little piece.’

Heydrich stubbed out his cigarette. ‘Happily for us, Miss Williams, Fate has presented us with another, more certain means of unpicking your memories. Crowley has located a clairvoyant of immense power who will be able to delve into the deepest and most private recesses of your mind. Tonight, Miss Williams, we will drain you dry.’ He glanced at the grandfather
clock ticking in the corner of the room. ‘Look at the time. I have other matters to attend to. You, Miss Williams, will spend the afternoon with Aaliz getting to know one another. After all, soon the pair of you will be inseparable.’

Case White will be undertaken by the SS-Ordo Templi Aryanis under the command of SS Colonel Archie Clement. Commencing on the 59th day of Winter 1004, two divisions of SS-Ordo Templi Aryanis StormTroops will surround and seal the Warsaw Ghetto. Once this is achieved, the SS will enter the Ghetto and systematically exterminate all UnderMentionables (approximately three million subhumans) living within the walls of the city. The legal basis for this extermination is given by the Racial Classification and Control Law which removed the protection of ForthRight Law from UnderMentionables, nonNixes and those demonstrating hereditary physical and mental disabilities. Case White is to be completed by the 90th day of Winter 1004.

– minutes of the PolitBuro meeting held under the guidance of the Great Leader on the 39th day of Winter, 1004

Immediately Captain Dabrowski heard the door of the study shut behind Heydrich, he very carefully replaced the steel fire screen across the fireplace and swept up the small fall of soot that had collected on the hearth. When he was finished there
was nothing to show that anything had ever been disturbed.

Not that Trixie took much notice of the Captain’s housekeeping: all she had the energy to do was sit slumped on one of the armchairs scattered around the room desperately trying to make sense of what she had heard. Her head was spinning.

Of course, much of it had been gibberish, especially the discussion between Heydrich and the Daemon about this man Hitler. And the part about Demi-Mondians being replicas of Real Worlders and Aaliz Heydrich being sent to the Real World as a replacement for the Daemon sounded like the stuff of trashy scientific romance.

But some of what she had heard couldn’t be dismissed so easily, especially the part when Heydrich had stated his intent to destroy the poor people living in Warsaw.

Or that tonight she and her father were to be arrested and executed. That was a cold-blooded observation she couldn’t ignore. Tonight she and her father were to be purged, just like her friend Lillibeth Marlborough and her family. It seemed hardly believable that she was going to be touched by the terror that had taken so many of her friends.

‘He’s going to kill us,’ she breathed, hardly able to understand the horror of what was happening.

It seemed unreal.

Dabrowski nodded and then added, ‘Yes. He means to exterminate my people.’

My people?

Of course: the Poles. The Captain was one of the Under -Mentionables: it was his people that Heydrich was talking about murdering in Warsaw. As she looked at the pale, trembling Dabrowski, for the first time in her young life Trixie understood the full horrific implications of the philosophy of racial purity that was UnFunDaMentalism. It was not a rather
farcical and non-RaTional exercise in religious whimsy but something much more serious. Now she understood that UnFunDa Mentalism was simply an excuse for genocide.

Before she had simply accepted the undeniable need for the ForthRight to achieve the racial purity propounded by UnFunDaMentalism – it had, after all, been drummed into her throughout her life. She had unthinkingly accepted that it was a violation of Nature for an Anglo-Slav to interbreed with one of the UnderMentionables, just as it would be against Nature for a dog to breed with a cat. The Seventh nuCommandment was, after all, explicit in its condemnation of miscegenation. Every day she thanked ABBA – not that she believed ABBA existed – that she had been born an Anglo-Slav, that she was one of the Master Race. By being born an Aryan she had won first prize in the lottery of life. But never had she thought that to preserve and promote the racial purity of the Anglo-Slavic people the Party would destroy the UnderMentionables wholesale.

Segregation: of course. Condemnation of miscegenation: naturally. The abortion of mixlings: certainly. Control of race through the State Register of Racial Purity: without a doubt. But genocide …

The Party condoning the killing of three million or more men, women and children living in the Warsaw Ghetto was unbelievable. But now the unbelievable had been made believable: she had heard Heydrich himself talk with casual indifference about slaughtering these poor innocent people.

‘What will you do?’ she asked.

‘I’m not sure,’ admitted the ashen-faced Dabrowski. Usually so decisive and energetic, he sat becalmed in his chair, numbed by the words that had come drifting up from the study. ‘Oh, we knew that the situation wasn’t good. We knew that we Poles
were classified with the nuJus as Second-Class citizens of the ForthRight, but none of us ever thought that Heydrich was so deformed of character as to contemplate mass murder. The man is obviously mad.’ He shook his head, trying to clear it. ‘I have to get to Warsaw. I have to warn my people.’

‘Will they listen?’

‘I don’t know. How can anybody believe such a monstrous thing? But I have to try. The first thing we have to do is get out of here. And that won’t be easy.’

‘We’ll speak to my father. He’ll know what to do.’

They found Trixie’s father sitting alone in the morning room going through his red boxes of Ministry papers and doing the best he could to forget the baleful presence of Heydrich stalking the house. That he was surprised to be interrupted by his daughter and the Polish Captain was an understatement: it was an unbreakable rule in the Dashwood household that the Comrade Commissar was not to be disturbed when he was working.

Dashwood’s surprise mutated into real concern when he saw Trixie lock the door and approach with a finger pressed to her lips. ‘The Captain and I have overheard something, father,’ she whispered, ‘something so terrible that we felt obliged to come to warn you. It is imperative, father, that no one eavesdrop on our conversation.’

Comrade Commissar Dashwood, a survivor of the Troubles and of the Royalist purges that followed, had lived for too long in the ForthRight to disregard such warnings. He gave a nod and waved his guests over to an alcove set in the corner of the room. As soon as they were settled, he pulled a heavy curtain across the alcove, effectively sealing the three of them from the rest of the house. ‘We are safe here from prying ears,’ he said quietly, ‘but
speak softly. They say Beria hears every word uttered in the ForthRight, even the whispers of lovers. Very well, Trixie, what are these secrets that you are so determined to share with me?’

Trixie gave a breathless synopsis of what they had heard when Heydrich was meeting with the Daemon. Through the five minutes of Trixie’s monologue her father sat silent and impassive, occasionally glancing to Captain Dabrowski for his nodded confirmation of what Trixie was saying. At the end of Trixie’s speech her father lit a cigarette and spent a minute or so in rumi-native reflection. Eventually he turned to the Captain. ‘So, Captain Dabrowski, it would appear I have been nurturing a viper in my bosom. Am I right in assuming that you are a crypto … one of the Cichociemni perhaps?’

‘The Cichociemni?’ asked Trixie.

‘It is the name we Poles give to the dark, silent ones,’ explained Dabrowski. ‘We are a group of Polish patriots who are dedicated to securing the freedom of the Polish people from the bondage of the ForthRight. As your father correctly surmises, I am one of the Cichociemni. I am a Polish crypto, my mission being to infiltrate the ForthRight hierarchy and learn their plans.’

Trixie looked at the Captain with surprise. The man was a counter-revolutionary. A Polish counter-revolutionary!

Dashwood gave a mirthless chuckle. ‘An accurate if somewhat disingenuous summary, if I might say so, Captain. I have an inkling that your intentions are somewhat more robust than simply the gleaning of information. Checkya intelligence reports indicate that in the event of the ForthRight moving against the Warsaw Ghetto the Cichociemni are sworn to eliminate specific targets within the Party’s senior personnel.’ He took a long draw of his cigarette. ‘Presumably, Captain, you intended to assassinate me.’

The Captain had the good grace to blush. ‘I make no apology for being a Polish patriot, Sir, nor for my ambition to defend my people from tyranny. You are, Sir, a legitimate military target: our information is that you are the foremost expert in the ForthRight regarding matters of logistics. You are, after all, the man who refashioned the ForthRight’s road network; your ministry supervises the traffic moving along the Thames, the Rhine and the Volga. You are the genius behind the ForthRight’s new railway network, you are the man responsible for the suffering of the ten thousand men of the Polish Slave Labour Division forced to work through the Winter building the new railway spurs connecting the ForthRight to the Hub.’

‘You were going to murder my father?’ interjected an incredulous Trixie.

‘There are nearly three million people confined to the Warsaw Ghetto, Miss Dashwood, their lives made a living Hel by the ForthRight. Is it any wonder that we have been provoked into the contemplation of such an ignoble action? But in my defence, Miss Trixie, understand that your father and only your father was targeted. We are not like the Party: we would not eradicate a man’s family in senseless retaliation. This was to be a military operation, not a purging.’

Dashwood gave a wry laugh. ‘It is a fine distinction, Captain Dabrowski.’

‘But an important one, Comrade Commissar!’ retorted Dabrowski. ‘I am a Polish officer and a gentleman and as such I would not deliberately endanger your daughter. Unfortunately, as your daughter and I have heard, Heydrich is not of the same mind. Once this evening’s séance has taken place he intends to have Beria place both you and your family under arrest. Your daughter, Sir, is to suffer for your supposed misdemeanours. That is the Party’s way, is it not: collective responsibility for all
crimes? And we both know what will be the fate of your daughter once she is in the hands of that monster Beria.’

Dashwood glanced nervously at Trixie. ‘I would prefer it, Sir, if you would refrain from discussing such matters in front of my daughter.’ He drummed his fingers on the arm of his chair. ‘I suppose I have been lucky to survive as long as I have. No matter how careful I was, I knew that some day they would come for me. In Beria’s book, once a Royalist, always a Royalist. It’s just a shame they have come sooner than I had planned.’