The Land Across (32 page)

I knocked and listened, and knocked again, and finally heard footsteps. They sounded to me like a big man walking quickly, careful not to make a lot of noise.

The door opened, and I saw a big man with no belly and a big black beard.

I showed him my badge. “Nothing serious, sir, but I’d like to talk to you for a few minutes. All right if I come in?”

“Oh, most naturally!” He stepped to one side, smiling a little. “I warn that I may keep you. Few come here, nor are they intelligent. I have, um … the hundred-year brandy. Wine, naturally, some not very bad. Milk and coffee.”

The coffee sounded good, and I said so as I stepped inside.

“Already is late. Perhaps you do not sleep.”

“Fine with me. I’m going to work all night, if I can find enough work to do.”

He chuckled. “Come, then.”

We went toward the back of the house and down a few steps into the kitchen. Once in a while I heard a board creak under his weight, but his feet made no noise at all.

“My kitchen you do not mind, I hope, operator? There is also a parlor wherein I speak with those I do not like.”

“I’m glad you like me, sir.”

“I and the ghost. Of you we two are fond. You are not unaware you possess this ghost?”

I said, “Sure.”

“You do not object?”

“Nope.”

“You have seen her, it may be?”

“Can you show her to me, sir? I’d like that.”

“Very much you know about me.”

“You know a lot about me, too, sir. That’s how it seems, anyway. Did you know I was coming?”

“Not I.” He had gone to the sink. He opened a tap while he spoke, filling an old percolator with water. “I knew someone was coming, because I know such things. I did not know it was to be so young a man with a badge, a gun, and a ghost. A young man who fights.”

He turned to look at me, his mustache twitching. “Do not feel surprise. I see your knuckles. A bad fight?”

I thought back. “Depends on which one you mean, I guess.”

“I see.”

“Yeah, you’re good at that, sir. Can you see my ghost?”

He nodded.

“Will you show her to me?” The hand was climbing out of my pocket. I could feel it, and I was tempted to catch it and stop it.

“Now not. Later it may be.” He set the percolator on the stove and spooned in coffee. “A dish of fruit? I do not have much.”

I waved it off. “Not now, thanks. Later maybe. If I get to eating, I’ll forget what I came here for.”

He sat down at the table with me, and I started to say something about not wanting to make trouble for him. I stopped when I saw the hand run across the table and roll over on its back.

He stared. Whatever he might have been expecting, it was not that. Then the mustache twitched. He picked up the hand, very delicately. He had big, strong hands and long fingers. He held the hand as if it were porcelain and might break, raised it to his lips, and laid it gently back down on the table.

That was when I saw her, just for half a second maybe. A tall girl with long hair and a good face. She did not look dead, but her dress did. As soon as I saw her, she knew I was seeing her and smiled.

It kind of paralyzed me. All I could do was stare. Then she was gone, and the hand was back in my pocket.

Magos X said, “She likes you, operator. That is most fortunate.”

I just sat there. After a while the percolator began to bubble, and that kind of brought me out of it.

He got up and got mugs for us, and poured cream into a little pot-bellied pitcher.

I said, “You’re the real thing, sir.”

“Do not ask me to tell your fortune.”

“Okay, sir. I won’t. Thanks for letting me see the lady.”

“I did not do it. You did it.”

“Really? You’re not kidding me?”

“I do not play such games. You speak with our tongue most supplely.”

“Thank you, sir.”

“For what do you come here?”

“You’ve got a guest, sir. His name’s Russell Rathaus. He’s a friend of mine, and I need to talk to him.”

“Let us imagine that I tell you I have no guest. What then?”

“It would be a lie, sir, and you don’t like to lie.”

“You are correct. I do not.”

“Suppose I were to ask you a question you didn’t want to answer. Would you lie to me, sir?”

I was looking for the twitching mustache that meant a smile, but the big shoulders went up and down instead. “I might, operator.”

“Who is the Undead Dragon?”

That got me the twitch. “I do not have to lie, or even remain silent, which I prefer. I do not know.”

“Do I?”

“You think I am he, operator? I am not.”

I shook my head. “I never thought that, sir. You would’ve killed Russ, not hidden him. I’m just asking because I think I know, and I thought you might know if I really do.”

“You will tell me?”

I shook my head again. “I don’t think I’d say even if I was sure, and I’m not. It’s just what I think.”

“Someone you would not willingly slander, then.”

“I wouldn’t willingly slander anybody, sir.”

“You may slander me, if you wish. Many have. What I ask is that you do not arrest me.” Magos X looked dead serious when he said that.
Serious
may not be the right word, but it is as close as I can come. He looked like he was not going to be arrested without a fight, and he had ways of fighting most people had never even heard of.

I said, “Arrest you for hiding Russ? Hell no!”

“You would like coffee. I will get it.” He stood up, took the percolator off his old cast-iron stove, and poured us each a cup. “You do not fear I may poison you?”

I shook my head. “You wouldn’t do that, sir. You’re not the type.”

“Many think I am.”

“They’re wrong.” I had heard a noise somewhere in the house just before I said that. Russ was coming to listen, or that was how I figured it.

“You seek Russell Rathaus? This you say.”

“That’s right. Russ was in prison. You probably know that. He escaped. You—”

“How he does this you know?” Magos X was staring at me like he wanted to hypnotize me.

I was not about to let him do it. “If I do, I’m not telling.”

“Proceed, operator.”

“Russ is a friend of mine, like I said. We were cellmates for a pretty long time. I’m American, too.”

“This I knew. Also JAKA. They know you were in their prison?”

I nodded. “They know, too, that I didn’t really do anything. I made some broadcasts for the Legion of the Light—”

That was as far as I got. Magos X started laughing, and it was like a lion laughing, roaring and rocking in his chair. It about knocked out the windows.

When he finally stopped he said, “You are that one! I know I hear sometime the voice. It is you on the radio.”

“Yeah, they were holding me prisoner, and they made me do it. I don’t believe any of that shit.”

“A pity!” He chuckled. “A terrible pity, because some of it is quite true.” He raised his voice, which was pretty loud already. “Come in, my friend! You must join us for coffee.”

20

THAT CRUEL LOOK

“Hello, Grafton,” Russ said. “How did you get out?”

“You got me out,” I told him. “I told them I didn’t know how you’d done it, but I knew you pretty well and I could help them find you. You want to hear the rest of it?”

“Sure.” Russ took one of the old wooden chairs. “They bought it?”

“Right. Especially a senior operator named Naala. I’ll introduce you to her by and by. She sort of adopted me. I helped her with this and that, and they made me an operator myself.”

“I hope you’re not going to snap the cuffs on me.”

Magos X said, “He will not.”

“Right,” I said. “What I’m going to try to do is show them that you’re worth a lot more to us loose than locked in a cell. We’ll offer a deal. You work for us, and when the job’s wrapped up we let you go back to America with our blessings.”

He looked skeptical, so I added, “That’s not just you, that’s you and Rosalee. I’ve sprung her already, by the way.”

Magos X said, “Well, well, well!”

“She’s a dish,” I told him. “Wait til you see her.”

“You are going to have to do a lot more explaining,” Russ said, “before I buy into any of this.”

“Then I’ll do it. This is your big chance to get home safe, and I wouldn’t want to see you blow it.”

Magos X was pouring coffee for Russ and everything got quiet for a minute. Then Russ said, “Yours, too, Grafton.”

“No way! I quit worrying about me yesterday.” That was stretching it a little, but it is what I said. “Just look at it. I’m a JAKA man with a badge and a gun. They send me out alone to snoop, because I’m good at it and I’ve turned up some major stuff for them. Ever tried to get in touch with the American embassy?”

It took Russ a while, but in the end he nodded.

“I thought so. I know where it is, and I know I told you my dad was in the State Department. Okay, his old pals are still around.”

Russ did not look completely convinced but he was coming over; so I said, “Listen up. This is no bullshit. I could go out on the street right now, stop a police car, and tell the cop to take me to the embassy. And he’d do it. If you were in my shoes, would you worry?”

“Probably not, if that’s all true.”

I pulled my gun. “Gun, okay? I’d shoot it for you but it would make holes in the ceiling.” I showed him my badge. “Silver, okay? Naala’s is gold. Maybe she’ll let you touch it.”

“Do you really know where the embassy is?”

I pointed. “Over that way, in a little park. Nice and private, and if you drive past, or walk, you don’t think there’s anything in there. Magos X here would know, too. Did you ask him?”

Slowly Russ nodded.

“Only you didn’t go.”

“I went, but after dark. I can’t afford to be seen.”

“And it was closed.”

Russ nodded again.

“You must know the Unholy Way’s trying to kill you. We found the big doll in your tent.”

“You know about that.” Russ looked tired.

“Sure we do. What do you know about the head? The one they threw into Naala’s place?”

Russ’s eyes went wide and Magos X said, “I must hear of this. Tell me, please.”

“Sure. Naala’s door was locked and she’s supposed to have the only key, so they picked the lock. Or else they got another key somewhere. Whoever it was tossed the head in and beat it. The thing is, it was Butch Bobokis’s. I doubt that you ever met him, but Russ knows who he was.”

Russ said, “He was a JAKA man. He used to question us, question Grafton here and me, while we were in prison. What’s this got to do with the doll, Grafton?”

“You left that doll in our cell, figuring it would fool anybody who saw it, which it did. Also figuring the JAKA wouldn’t know how to use it, which was right, too. The last time I saw it was when Butch and Aegis pulled me out and questioned me about it. They had it then. I told them how you got the face on, but that was all I told them. I had already seen a note Rosalee wrote that said you were sick. When I saw Butch’s head I knew why. They had made a cut in the face and let some of the pellets out, but Butch must have put them back in and sewed up the cut. Then the Unholy Way had gotten their hands on the doll, and they knew how to use it against you.”

Russ muttered, “Right.”

“We took it out of there and left it in the woods. I didn’t know what to do with it. If we’d burned it…” I shrugged. “I don’t think you would have liked that.”

“Could the sunlight hit it?”

I didn’t know what Russ was getting at, but I said it could, at least in the morning.

“Good. That’s how you wipe the face.”

“Super. But they could put yours back on, right? If they had a picture of you and the doll. Butch and Aegis had wiped it, so they must have one.”

Russ shrugged. “Maybe.”

“They probably know the spells. They’re in the little book.”

“Right. But they may not want to use them.”

I thought about that and decided I might be getting out of my league. So I said, “You want to go back to the States. You and Rosalee.”

He nodded.

“The JAKA, me included, wants to put a stop to the Unholy Way. If you’ll agree to help us, I think we can get the brass at JAKA headquarters to put you on a plane to Germany when we’ve wrapped things up. You speak good German, so—”

“Wait up. How did you find out I spoke German?”

“There’s a shop where they sell magic tricks. They bought some dolls from you. I talked to the old man who runs the place and he said no Americans had been in. I showed him your picture—”

“You’ve got my picture? Let me have it, please.”

I got it out and handed it over, and watched Russ tear it up.

Magos X said, “He fears you will be captured.”

“Sure, but I could get another copy where I got that one. Only I don’t think I will. I’ve found him now.”

“You’ve found me,” Russ said. He had gone over to the stove. “Only it’s not going to do you a hell of a lot of good.” He dropped the torn pieces in the stove.

“You’re saying you won’t help us?”

“Be the worm on the JAKA’s hook? No, I won’t.” Russ turned to face me. “I’ve fished a lot, Grafton, and I know what happens to the worm.”

I drank some coffee. It was pretty good, and I knew I wouldn’t be around there much longer.

Magos X said, “There must be another way you can find and arrest them. Yes?”

I nodded. “Sure. But there isn’t any other way I can see to get Russ back home. Can he have free room and board here with you for another month?”

“He can.”

“What about three years?”

“Yes, but he must be useful to me.”

“Got it.” I stood up. “When you gave me the coffee, I said I might work all night. Now I don’t think I will. I feel like crashing.”

“You must yawn when you say it,” Magos X instructed me. “The yawn lends verisimilitude.”

“Okay.” I stretched and yawned. “Would you like to see the Unholy Way wiped out?”

“I would be most happy.”

“Then maybe you can talk him into it.”

Magos X showed me to the door and we chatted a little. With Russ still at the back of the house, both of us were a little more relaxed. “I wish you peace and good fortune,” Magos X said before I left. “I do not know how effective my blessing may be. It goes and it returns. But you shall have it.” Then he whispered in a language I thought was probably Latin.