Here Be Monsters

bar. But then he stopped and turned back, with his hand on the curtain. 'Prob'ly jus' as well. You wanta 'ave yer wits about yer wiv 'im, Miss. 'Cause 'e's artful.' He nodded. 'Artful - like the other one.' He watched her with sharp little eyes. 'The big fella - okay?'

'Okay.' She wondered how much he knew - or guessed - about their business. 'Thank you, Tom.'

'And thank you too, Tom,' Paul called after the little man as he disappeared through the curtain. 'I'll do the same for you some time.'

Elizabeth studied him. 'Why were you so sure I'd come?'

He returned the scrutiny. 'I wasn't sure. It depended on… oh, several things.'

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'Such as?'

'Does it matter - now you're here?'

Artful. It was a curiously archaic word, but nonetheless accurate. 'Let me guess. You thought maybe I wouldn't get away from David Audley? 'For starters', as Tom would say?'

'That was certainly a consideration.' He drank again. 'Let's say, Elizabeth, that I did you the compliment of assuming that you would. And that you would then do what I would do, if I were in your dainty shoes.'

She had to clear this matter first. 'But you're not, are you.'

'No. More's the pity.'

'So what has all this got to do with you?'

He thought for a moment. 'If I was to say that what happens to you does concern me - ' He held up his hand quickly to forestall her ' - no, let me finish - that would not be good enough, I know! So I'll give you a choice: either I'm insatiably inquisitive, and when something rather extremely interesting is happening I like to know about it - especially when I've been written out of it.' He smiled. 'Curiosity and sour grapes, maybe?'

Some truth might be there, but nowhere near all of it. 'Or?'

'Or…' He took another moment. 'You know, the way our revered department works, Elizabeth, is never in straight lines. We circle round problems, in different dimensions, looking for openings. We behave eccentrically, even amateurishly, and certainly unpredictably.' He squinted at her suddenly. 'How did you get away from David?'

Whatever it was that he didn't want to say, it must be closer to the truth. But she would come back to it from a different direction. 'I'll tell you how, Paul - if you'll tell me why you tried to follow me this morning.'

'To the Xenophon Building?'

She stared at him. 'What? I started from outside there. But - ?'

'You thought you'd lost me? You did. But I've seen David use that silly trick before. And the coincidence of Xenophon was worth a try, so I went back and lurked behind the Magdala obelisk. And back you came.'

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'What coincidence?'

'Oh - come on, Elizabeth!' He cocked his head at her knowingly, but also with a suggestion of anger. 'Stop buggering around, for God's sake!'

'What do you mean?' She hated to be sworn at like that, and he knew it.

'What do I mean?' The anger increased. 'I mean… I mean that I stuck my neck out for you this morning, to the edge of blowing a secure classification, when I gave you Ed Parker.

Because you weren't cleared then for the material in which his name comes up - I know, because I punched it up on the computer not ten minutes before, and your name wasn't on it. There were only four names there: Jack Butler's, of course. And then Latimer, Oliver St John and Audley, David Longsdon, and finally poor bloody Mitchell, Paul Lefevre. And the computer duly registered that I'd made that particular inquiry, so any moment now I shall be in trouble, for sure.'

'Paul -'

'No. I haven't finished. So then you went in for your little session with Fatso, and did your Joan of Arc bit, letting yourself be summoned by your voices. Which I also know, because I waited for a bit, and then I punched the Beast again. And low and behold! There was a new name on the clearance! Which was - would you believe it - none other than Loftus, Elizabeth Jane. Recognize that name?'

' Paul - '

'I haven't finished, dear Elizabeth Jane.' He bulldozed forwards. 'Which inquiry the computer also duly registered. But you can only die once, so they say… So what did Elizabeth Jane do then, I ask you? Or, what did she eventually do? Why, she went and stood outside the London headquarters of Xenophon Oil Incorporated, did she not? Which are presided over by none other than Barrie, Sir Peter William, KBE, whose name also rang a bell, because it figured in a certain list, from long ago, to which Elizabeth Jane now has free access. Correct?'

As a small boy, he must have been objectionable, she decided. Indeed, she had known girls at school like him, whose power lay in their precocious understanding of how systems worked, and who never scrupled to use their knowledge. But, on the other hand, he had stuck his neck out - for that last and as-yet- unrevealed reason.

He nodded. 'But that was all of two hours since.' He looked at his watch. 'What have you done with David, Elizabeth Jane?'

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He had never called her 'Elizabeth Jane' before. But there was an edge of bitterness in that additional 'Jane' which could mean that he was going off her at last, thank heavens!

'I gave him a job to do. Or two jobs, actually.' When she thought about it, she didn't really want him to go off her in bitterness: she wanted so very much for him still to be a friend, but even more than that she needed him as a