'Good! Now then, Jimmy, can you cross-reference that date with phases of the moon?'
It took but a moment, but then Trask's shoulders sagged as he slumped into a seat and said, 'Damn it all to hell! The last thing I wanted. A bloody full moon!' And looking at the precog: 'So maybe you can see the past, and not just remember it, after all…'
'And maybe he can't/ said Jake. It was the first time he had spoken, and now everyone looked at him. And after a while:
'Well, go on then,' said Trask.
'Shouldn't we take the next step?' Jake said. 'The same as we did with David Chung? I seem to have been hearing about synchronicity, coincidence, and what have you ever since I collided with this outfit. So couldn't this be exactly the same thing? I mean, just because there was a full moon on the night in question back in '97, that doesn't mean the precog wasn't seeing the future up there at Xanadu. Or aren't there going to be any more full moons? Me, I'm wondering when the next one is due.'
Trask frowned, stared at Jake, then turned again to Jimmy Harvey. 'Do it,' he said.
And in a very short time the answer was up on the screen.
'Three days' time!' Trask husked then, open-mouthed, staring at the date and full-moon symbol. And Goodly cautioned:
'But does it mean what we're thinking? Are we going to do it, or is it our old friend El Nino again? Will it result from us attacking the place and burning out a nest, or from a freak of nature, a terrible disaster? I still can't see how it's possible for our quarry to exist up there.'
And Jake said, 'Neither could the locator see how a vampire could live out on the ocean. And maybe I'm stupid, or a lot less bright than you people, but I can't see there being a fire up at Xanadu without we're the cause. Surely the first thing we do if Xanadu isn't what we're looking for, we'll warn whoever's responsible about the fire. And we'll be able to tell him when, so there'll be no loss of life.'
The precog shook his head. 'You're not at all stupid, Jake. In the dark it's always the blind who see best. But believe me, you don't understand the future. I don't understand the future! And I say again: it's not knowing what will happen that counts, but how it's going to happen. The only sure thing is once it's foreseen, then it will happen. As for loss of life: I did hear that voice calling, 'To me! To me!''
'Rescuers?' said Liz.
'Or one of us, pulling the teams out,' said Trask. 'Didn't you recognize the voice?'
Goodly shook his head. 'Not over the roaring of the flames, the shattering of glass.'
'Glass?' said Jake. 'Did I miss something, or is that something you didn't mention before?'
'I just this minute remembered it!' said the precog.
'There was plenty of glass in that topmost dome,' Jake said 'In the pleasure dome itself. Black glass, from the look of it, covering everything but the windows.'
'No/ said the precog. 'Not black glass but solar panels — a sort of glass, I suppose. The upper dome was covered in them: a very startling effect. But the windows themselves, they were glass, certainly, and they circled all three lower floors.'
Trask was looking at the colour brochure. 'You think that the casino's going to burn?'
But Goodly could only shrug his defeat. 'It's all speculation. Don't ask me what I think. I still don't know for sure if the fire was in the past or the future. And I'm damned if I can see how any kind of vampire could live up there!'
'But I can,' said Jake, watching Harvey searching for Xanadu, and finally putting that area of the Macpherson Range onto the screen. And, as before, Jake was suddenly the centre of attention. 'It was something Lardis said that got me thinking about it,' he explained.
'Me?' said Lardis, looking surprised.
'When you said, 'Now wouldn't this make a wonderful aerie, without all this sunlight, of course.''
'That's right/ said Lardis. 'I said that.'
'Look at the map,' Jake told them. 'That dog-leg fold and the false plateau sitting in the middle. The mountains are much higher, and steep-sided. The fold goes north to south, and then backtracks. Certainly Xanadu gets plenty of sunlight, from, say 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 in the evening. But the rest of the time it's in the shade, and during the night the darkness must be utter — except for electric lighting, of course.'
'Artificial lighting can't harm them/ said Trask. 'Szwart doesn't like it but it can't kill him. Only natural light, sunlight itself, can do that.'
'Not quite true/ Lardis barked. 'The Dweller, Harry Hell-lander's changeling son, used artif— er, artificial light, yes — in the form of ultra, er, ultraviolet lamps, when he battled the Wamphyri in his garden in the mountains west of Starside.'
'But that's sunlight, Lardis/ Trask told him. 'Artifical, I'll grant you, but sunlight nevertheless.' And to Jake: 'Maybe you're right. For sixteen or more hours a day, the sun isn't in fact shining directly onto that place. When it is shining, however, it's doing it very brightly/
And Jake answered, 'But don't they sleep during the day?'
And again Lardis: 'In Starside, when the sun's rim came up over the barrier mountains, the Lords and Ladies usually ran to their northermost apartments. And there they slept — but even there with drapes at their windows! But if they were caught out in the open Sunside of the mountains, as occasionally happened, then they had to find caves or deep holes in the earth 'til nightfall/
Jake nodded, and said to Trask, 'So, do you think there are no 'deep holes in the earth' in Xanadu? But that brochure says it all. Fancy fountains, swimming pools, saunas and gymnasiums. An aerial monorail, and a casino. I mean, do you think that all of that stuff is above ground? No, a complex like that is like an iceberg: you only see its tip. All the cellars and conduits; the pipelines, tunnels, sewerage, and water systems; the reservoirs, pump-, boiler-and storage-rooms, and refrigerators — they're all underground — or rather, they're on the old bed of the plateau, while the resort has been built above them. That's why the place looks so clean and uncluttered..
Trask blinked, shook his head as if to clear it, and said, 'Do you know, I believe you could be right? This creature we're looking for could be right there, in or under Xanadu!' He tossed the brochure onto the table. 'A place like that, where we would least expect to find him!' Then once more he said, 'Three days, and we have a lot to do… not least to prove our point, clear the way before we can take any real action/
'Prove our point?' Liz looked at him.
'Make sure we're on the right track/ Trask nodded. 'So we can be certain when we go in that what we want is there. And as for clearing the way: well, the Gibson Desert job was one thing but Xanadu is quite another. All of those people; we'll have to find a way to get them out of there before we go in — and without arousing anyone's suspicion..
'Right, so let's get to it. This night is still young, but there may be only three of them left.'
Heading for a door leading to an outer room, where the SAS Commanders were poring over their maps, Trask's heart was a little lighter; for now at least he had something to tell them. But before leaving, he turned and said, lan, David, Liz — and you, too, Jake — I'm very grateful. You've all worked well, despite initial doubts. But today was only your first time out and you're not finished yet. I want you all back in those Skytours choppers again tomorrow. So, maybe we have struck it lucky this first time, but who knows what else could be hiding out there?' Then he looked at his technicians: the gnomish Harvey, and the gangling Paul Arenson.
'But there are more skills than this freaky stuff that we espers use — or that uses us, whichever,' he said. 'Our ghost-talents may serve us well, but without your gadgets for back-up they wouldn't be nearly as effective. So well done, all of you. And now get your thinking caps on and try to look ahead. Jimmy: dig up some plans of Xanadu, its subsurface systems, et cetera, lan: please draft a comprehensive record of this meeting. Paul: it's late now, but first thing tomorrow ensure I have access to Prime Minister Blackmore's office so that I can organize a liaison with someone on this marine park thing.'
Turning away, he offered one of his rare smiles and said: 'And that, I think, is that. Now I have to speak to our Australian friends. I'll see you all in the morning…'
The next day, a Saturday, they split the teams up. Lardis, Jake and Liz were together on the northern routes (Trask didn't want Liz anywhere near Xanadu); Goodly and Chung flew south, each of them hoping to complement the other's strange talent.
The trips were mainly uneventful; the precog's mind was a frustrating blank — at least where the future was
