Aye, go if you will, said the other. But best that you go bravely to your death, Jake, not whimpering as you whimper now. Go on, face Malinari the Mind, for you may be sure it is him in the mountains! Go against him with nothing but your puny human muscles, nothing but your puling, childlike mind — which even I can enter, as stealthy as a thief in the night. Oh? Oh really? And how do you think you'll fare against such as Malinari, eh? And. this woman who you keep in your mind, this Liz of whom you sometimes dream — what, a mentalist, you say? But how unfortunate! For how will she fare against such as him? As for Vavara… ah, but she has her ways with pretty women, aye. Vavaaara! Oh, ha ha ha haaaaaaa!
Korath's deadspeak laugh reverberated into a throbbing silence, but Jake knew that he was there, waiting. And Korath knew that Jake was hooked. To a point, at least. And he was right.
'How can you be sure that it's Malinari in the mountains?' Jake said, in a little while. 'What can you know of that?'
Ah, no! Too late! the other cried.
'But you still haven't told me what you want!' Jake answered. 'Not everything that you want. And until you do, I'm not going to be signing any blank cheques, Korath.'
And because deadspeak conveys more or other than is actually said, because it translates much as telepathy translates, Korath understood him well enough.
You are afraid that I would take advantage? But how may I take advantage? I'm only a dead thing drowned in a pipe! Korath Mindsthrall
is no more except he acts through you. Ah, but Jake… the acts we can accomplish, and the things I have to offer!
'Such as?'
Everything I know about Malinari, Vavara, Szwart.
'You've already told me those things, both me and the Necroscope, Harry Keogh.'
But can you remember them? When you're awake? I think not. For I have crept into your waking mind, too, Jake, and found it blank of all such knowledge, of everything I told you. Now tell me: who do you suppose it was reminded you of how Malinari came by his name? Did you really think you were so clever as to work it out all by yourself that the name Aristotle Milan was a disguise, a pseudonym?
'But it… it was obvious,' said Jake, caught momentarily off guard.
As it must also be obvious that I was there with you! Korath pounced. Else how would I know it ever happened? And when we flew together, you and I, in that aerial machine, that helicopter with its twirling wings: did you once suspect that I was there with you? No, never, not for a moment. But I was…
Jake was shaken, but he was also Jake. 'So you're a sneaky bastard!' he said. 'What does that prove — except I can't trust you?'
It proves that I can help you — as I helped you with Malinari's name. And then, grudgingly: Also, it proves that you are no slouch, no easy adversary, when it comes to word-games. More of the Necroscope's inheritance, I should think.
And Jake wondered, could Korath help him? What harm could it do to call on the vampire for advice in a tight spot? Surely it wouldn't be that much different from calling on Harry, whose help was uncertain anyway? And these thoughts, too — unguarded as they were — were deadspeak.
Exactly! said Korath. And at all times I would be on hand to… to advise you, aye.
'Not at all times!' said Jake, hearing warning bells. 'For when we started this conversation you were happy with 'rarely,' or 'infrequently,' when little else was 'intruding on my time'. So how come you now arrive at being on hand 'at all times?''
A figure of speech! Korath protested.
'And how would I do that? I mean, call for you?'
Why, by thinking of me, of my situation down there in that cruel conduit, and by calling for me by name, Korath.
But the dead vampire was getting ahead of himself; believing that he was winning Jake over, his deep Voice' had become semi-hypnotic, more phlegmy, glutinous and sly than ever. Jake gave himself a shake and 'woke up' to that fact.
'What, like rubbing a lamp to call out the genie?' he said. 'And what happenes when I've had my three wishes, eh?'
He sensed the sad shake of an incorporeal head. Jake, Jake! Were you always this ungrateful, this misgiving?
'No,' Jake answered. 'Not misgiving, not yet. Just cautious. But let's get on. What else is on offer? For after all, you did say 'things,' in the plural.'
So, said the other, esoteric knowledge is not enough. It is too ethereal — too immundane — for a clod- hopper such as you. You would have something more physical.
'No small feat/ said Jake, feeling stung and retaliating, 'for someone as far removed from physical things as you are.'
Hurtful! said the other. Hah! And you accuse me of taking advantage! But argument gets us nowhere, while what I'm proposing would be of mutual benefit. Very well, you ask what else is on offer, what other 'thing' I have in mind. And that is exactly where it is: in my mind. Now say, do you remember the Necroscope asking you about your numerical skills?
'In connection with the Mobius Continuum? Yes,' said Jake.
5o then. And how are your numbers, Jake?
'I'm not innumerate, if that's what you mean.'
Odd, said the other, for I was. In my world, Jake, mathematics went no further than the count of a man's thralls or the beasts in his pens. Numbers? I had no use for them, nor have I even now, though I may have shortly. But in
Starside, addition was a recruitingforay into Sunside. And division was what happened to the spoils.
'What are you getting at?'
We come to it, said Korath. Do you remember those numbers that the Necroscope showed you before he took his leave of us? And do you know what they were?
'They were a formula,' Jake answered. 'They were the numbers that govern all space and time, Harry's gateway to the Mobius Continuum. But do I remember them?'
He thought back on it:
That incredible wall of numbers — like a computer screen run riot, evolving in the eye of his mind — its symbols, calculi, and incredible equations marching and mutating until they achieved some sort of numerical critical mass… and formed a door. A Mobius door.
Remember it? He would never forget it! It was like watching creation itself. But duplicate it?
No, you can't, said Korath. But I can! I can make it, but I can't use it. Not without you. And you can't make it without me. And there you have my offer…
'Tempting, if it were true,' said Jake.
It is.
'But how? You said yourself that numbers were practically unknown in your world.'
Just so. But didn't I also say that Malinari's essence is strong in my blood?
And now Jake understood. 'His photographic memory? That's what you got from him! And it's why he killed you, because one day you might know as much as him.'
Now you have it all, Korath said, and I await your answer. What's it to be? Can we work together, for Malinari's downfall?
'But there's something else.' Still Jake was cagey.
And Korath sighed his frustration. What now?
'The secret that Harry Keogh was searching for, or in your own words 'the crux of the matter', which is probably more important than all the rest put together. The Wamphyri — Malinari and the others — have been here for some time now, but it seems they've achieved very little. So like the Necroscope before me I'm asking you: what are they up to, Korath? What's their plan? You were one of theirs and so you must know.'
