about.'
'Some complaint. And he wasn't too relaxed about it when Palusinski helped him into the house. Have you seen him like this before?'
'No.'
'We really ought to get a doctor to take a look at him.'
'He insists that we shouldn't. His orders are that we let him rest and send Khayed and Daoud to him as soon as they return from London. They have special lotions that can help.' She seemed uncertain. 'I didn't want to disturb you. You must be very tired.'
'A clean-up and a change of clothes helped. I even managed to grab a sandwich.' fie extended a hand.
'Cora, I need to talk to you. Please come over.' For a moment he thought she might leave. But then she walked to the bed. 'Sit by me,' he said.
She obeyed, and immediately leaned into him, her head against his chest. He held onto her, surprised, but glad her reserve had broken.
'Liam,' she whispered, 'I have such strange feelings, such a sense of dread . . .'
'I can understand why. I get the same feeling about this dace.' She looked up at him. 'You too?'
'Maybe it's a neurosis we're catching from Kline. You know he's mad, don't you?' -In a way I wish that were true—insanity would be easier to deal with. Felix is unstable and, as you say, neurotic; but not mad, Liam, not totally mad.'
'He thinks you've been giving away company secrets.' Halloran had been deliberately blunt, the unexpectedness of the remark meant to throw her off balance so that lie could judge her reaction.
'You're not serious,' she said incredulously.
lie took her hand, now having no doubts about her loyalty to Kline. 'I'm afraid so. That's why all the fuss at Magma this morning. New locations of untapped resources have been leaked to one of your rival companies.'
'It's happened again?' He nodded. 'Kline put the finger on you.'
'But why? I wouldn't -' Halloran shrugged. 'You're closest to him.' She seemed to shrink within herself.
'How could he even think that? Liam, I -' He pulled her to him again. 'I know it isn't true, and maybe Kline will see reason. Who can tell with someone so unpredictable?
'I still don't understand why he should accuse me.'
'I don't understand what makes you so loyal to such a bastard.' She didn't answer riight away. Then she said., almost sorrowfully: 'I depend on him.. He . . . Vs like a drug to me. I need him, Liam.'
'Then you're as crazy as he is.'
'No, don't say that, you don't know . . .'
'What is there to know, Cora?' he said angryily 'Just what the hell goes on between you and Kline?' She began to weep. 'Help me, Liam,' she said quietly. 'Please help me.
'How can I when you won't tell me what's wrong:” Cora began to fumble with the buttons of per blouse.
'Make love to me. Hold me and make love to me, but gently, like last night, after you . . . Let me feel how good it can be again.' Baffled, Halloran stood up and crossed to the door. He locked it.
The room's thick curtains were drawn against outside light, so that scattered artefacts of another age stood as dark shapes in the gloom. The smell of burning incense came from one corner, filling the air with a heavy and faintly acrid musk. Zodiac signs and symbols, drawings of horned beasts, of winged creatures, of single eyes, were roughly etched into walls and woodwork, obscure and patternless in the poor light. Books lay scattered around the floor. A canopied bed dominated the room, its four stout carved posts supporting layers of sheer drapes, the material hanging in loose folds.
A dry, rasping breathing came from within.
Kline lay on the bed, the skin of his naked body broken and ravaged, creating new fissures, causing paper-thin tissue to dislodge and fall away.
He feebly lifted an arm, but the darkness was even greater inside the shroud and all he could see was a myriad of interjoining cracks. His arm fell back to his side and a sob escaped him.
It couldn't be, it wasn't time. The ritual had been enacted, the psyche strengthened. The sacrifice made.
This shedding of the outer layer had come too soon, and with it there was pain. But why, what did it mean?
His unsightly body spasmed as another sob burst from him, and he felt the breaking of delicate tissue with the violence of the movement.
Must lie still. Must not move until Asil and Youssef arrive with their salves. It was too soon, too soon!
He was root prepared! And the pain had never been like this before. Hurry, my friends, bring me your soothing oils! Spare me from this wretchedness!
Kline tried to steady his breathing for even the rising and lowering of his chest was loosening the dead skin. He moaned, a self-pitying sound, and salt from his tears stung the sensitive grooves around his eyes.
And as he lay there, his mind absorbed in his own suffering, something inside the sepulchre that was hidden away in the blackest depths of Neath, throbbed once.
33 INSIDE THE LODGE
From his position by the main entrance, Monk watched the Shield operative descend the broad staircase and wondered what was inside the black case he was carrying. The bodyguard's thick lips set in a sneer, his heavy-set body tensing as Halloran approached.
'I'm taking a look around the grounds,' Halloran told him.
'You'll get your ass bit off.' The hope in Monk's high-pitched voice did not go unnoticed by the other man. 'I intend to stay in the car,' Halloran replied. 'Did the Arabs let you know how Kline is?' Khayed and Daoud had returned some hours earlier, rushing up to their master's roam immediately they learned of his condition.
'They ain't been down,' said Monk, shaking his large head.
*All right, let's assume it's nothing drastic. Dock the door behind me when I go out and don't open it far an} body until I return. I'm taking a spare key, but I'll let you know it's me before I come in just so you don't get over- excited. If I knock a regular three times it means there's trouble and I'm not alone. I'll repeat that knock after a pause so you'll know it's for real. You got that'?' Monk smirked rather than reply.
'Check around the house every fifteen minutes” test windows and doors each time. And I mean test them -try them, make sure they're properly locked.'
'What the fuck for?' Outrage accompanied the bodyguard's hostility now.
'Just do it. I'll be back in about an hour. Any calls, far me: and you write down the message. Don't try and remember.” 'You think I'm stupid, talisman'?'
'We both know it.' Monk's shoulders visibly straightened and he almost took a step forward. Only Halloran's hard-eyed smile stopped him.
The Shield operative went by the American and unlocked one side of the double-doors. A breeze of cold air from the lake made him shiver as he stepped outside. It was like the first chill of winter out there instead of the coming of summer. Vic called back to Monk: 'Lock it and take out the key.' Then he walked through the porch to the outside.; Although cold, the night had temporarily cleared, the moon, an edge sliced off, still low in the sky. There were thunderous clouds on the horizon. The slopes around the house and lake were of deep-toned greys, trees and shrubbery the darkest patches. The lake itself appeared smooth and unbroken. even though a wind ruffled the grass before it.
Halloran climbed into the Mercedes, placing the black bag on the passenger seat beside him. He switched on the engine and lights and pulled away, gravel crunching beneath the tyres, bringing the car round in an arc. As he did so, he glimpsed the neglected topiary garden at the side of the house, the tortured shapes resembling surrealistic figures, misshapen limbs twisted towards Neath like a frozen tableau of anguished souls.
He left the house behind, heading uphill towards the main gates, the woods soon closing around him, the car's beams seeming to swathe a path through the trees. Halloran kept a vigilant eye on either side of the road, searching for low shapes slinking through undergrowth, but saw nothing that moved. A sharp crack on his left startled him. A thin branch had snapped against the side window. Halloran eased over the road's centre, realising he had drifted too close to the edge.
