‘Interesting,’ murmured Vanka as he caressed her fingers between his. It was really quite distracting. ‘So your family must have been caught up in the Troubles. There was some vicious fighting in and around Washington.’
‘I’m an orphan. My adoptive family died when I was a baby.’
‘Of course.’
Ella ignored the sarcasm. ‘I went to school in London during the Troubles.’
‘But you never lost your Yank accent?’
‘No.’
‘It must be difficult to be a Yank and a Shade amongst the Anglos. The Yanks were the most fervent of all the Royalists: they were the last to surrender to the Party during the Troubles. As I understood it the Anglos hate the Yanks and animosities in the ForthRight die hard. And as for how Anglos view Shades… sorry, people of colour…’
‘London had its moments, but I’ve never had any real problems.’
‘Until a few days ago when you had your little contretemps with the Checkya.’
She shrugged.
‘Why are you so interested in Daemons, Ella?’
‘I’m not!’
‘Then why did you tear out that article about them from yesterday’s Stormer?’
Cursing herself for leaving the newspaper lying around, Ella pulled her hands away from Vanka’s and glowered at him.
He selected another cigarette, lit it and blew smoke towards the ceiling. ‘That’s something else you’ll need to understand about doing cold readings: lies are almost invariably signalled by a pause before they are made. Even the most accomplished of liars need a moment to get their lies in order before they answer. You have been lying to me, Ella.’ He flicked some ash into the fire. ‘As I say, you’re an enigma. You’re a woman of colour, born in NoirVille but adopted by Yanks who had the distinct lack of consideration to die when you were a baby. You’re a fashionable girl brought up in fashionable London but who didn’t adopt a fashionable Anglo accent. You went to a school in London when I know for a fact that none of them would ever accept a Sha – a girl of colour – as a pupil. And yet, having been brought up in London, you are still unaware that ForthRight soldiers wear red coats. You have a professor who you are more than a little frightened of and who you believe has placed you in danger. You have a peculiar interest in Daemons but you want to keep that interest a secret. You don’t believe in Spiritualism but you are the only true clairvoyant I’ve ever met. And, last but not least, you are being pursued by the Checkya. What an enigma you are, Ella, what an enigma you are.’
‘You’ve just got a very suspicious mind, Vanka.’
‘Suspicious, perhaps, but being a suspicious bastard has kept me alive when some truly horrible people have been determined to kill me.’ He held up a hand to still her protests. ‘Look, young lady, I don’t know who you are but one thing I am certain of is that what you have just told me is a pack of lies. I’ve a real suspicion that you’re bad news, so let’s cut to the chase. I’ve been thinking about you a lot these last few days and my feeling is that you’re a crypto working for NoirVille. Am I right?’
Ella hesitated. It was impossible to admit who and what she really was, but she sensed that unless he got something approximating to a believable explanation Vanka might, just might, throw her out onto the streets. But with a man as sharp as he was…
‘Okay,’ she said finally. ‘I admit it: I’m a crypto, here in the ForthRight on a mission to rescue a Daemon who has been abducted by Aleister Crowley and take her to NoirVille.’
Vanka stared at Ella, dumbfounded, then slowly stood up, poured himself a tumbler full of Solution and downed it in one. ‘No wonder the Checkya are after you.’
‘Look, Vanka, I’ve been straight with you. The question is: will you help me?’
‘Quite frankly, Miss Thomas…’
Miss Thomas? What had happened to ‘Ella’?
‘… I don’t give a hoot about your politics, but what I most certainly do give a hoot about is my neck and ensuring Beria isn’t given an excuse to lengthen it. Therefore I think our partnership is destined to be a short one: I want nothing to do with rescuing Daemons in distress from Aleister Crowley. Crossing that bastard is as good as signing your own death warrant. You can stay here until the Checkya heat has died down and in return you’ll help me do a few seances. Let’s say a month.’ He gave Ella a lopsided grin. ‘Then, Miss Thomas, we go off in opposite directions and I never, ever want to meet up with you again. As you Yanks – and here I am assuming that you are a Yank – would say, do we have a deal?’
The look in his eyes convinced Ella that further demurral would be a waste of time. ‘It’s a deal. And thanks, Vanka.’
20
The Demi-Monde: 47th to 50th Days of Winter, 1004
Operation Barbarossa: Case Red
Case Red is to be undertaken by the ForthRight Army under the command of Comrade General Mikhail Skobelev. Commencing on the first day of Spring 1005, the campaign will last thirty-nine days. Case Red involves the invasion of the Coven, the defeat of the Covenite army and the imposition of total and uncompromised political, economic and military control on that Sector. Once said control is achieved the intelligentsia of the Coven is to be eliminated. Those eliminated are to include, inter alia: all members of Empress Wu’s Court, Imperial NoNs, army officers, politicians, government officials, HerEtical Priestesses, Suffer-O-Gettes, RaTionalists, scholars, teachers, businessFemmes, journalists, artists, playwrights, writers and others demonstrating leadership or creative potential.
– minutes of the PolitBuro meeting held under the guidance of the Great Leader on the 39th day of Winter, 1004
Vanka might have been a cynic when it came to the more supernatural aspects of Spiritualism but he was a professional cynic. And if Ella was to be his assistant then he demanded that she aspire to the same professional standards he evinced in his act.
Over the next few days he made Ella practise hard until she knew her cues, her lines and her tricks from back to front. As she discovered, her role as a PsyChick was something akin to being a stooge who helped Vanka do some of the things that added a little pizzazz to his performance as a psychic. Specifically she was to attend his seances posing as a customer, gasp in amazement at crucial points in the performance, use the toe of her boot to set the table rattling at the instant Vanka was possessed by his ‘Spirit Guide’, and, most importantly of all, produce the calico ectoplasm from where it was hidden in her bustle and wave it around in the darkness of the seance room.
Learning how to conjure and then handle the ectoplasm was tricky but it had educated her as to why all seances were conducted in the dark. To pull out the luminous calico from the back of her dress, extend the thin metal rod hidden under her skirts, attach one to the other and then wave the calico around high in the air without anybody noticing was a nightmare to master. It also required her to have the use of both her hands, so Vanka had to teach her how to trick the couple she was sitting between and hand in hand with at the seance table into believing that they had an unrelenting grip on her hands when, in fact, Ella had arranged things so that they were gripping each other’s hand.
But she managed it.
And as they worked, Ella began to appreciate why Vanka was such a successful Spiritualist. Besides being handsome and very charming, he was a natural flatterer and a very good listener. She could easily understand why the customers at his seances – especially the women – would be convinced that they were in the presence of someone who could truly commune with the Spirit World.
Finally Vanka announced her ready. Two days later she found herself standing in the back room of the Prancing Pig as the customers began to arrive for their first seance. They were, so far as she could judge, a well- heeled group, but then to afford the one-guinea entrance fee that Burlesque demanded they had to be. As it was
