level you know that.”
“Okay… damn.”
Not giving myself time for second thoughts, I hang up and log into the system as HARPER/SYSOP 2, then click into the Blue Room. It’s empty. I type a quick query-
Almost immediately, “BERKMANN/SYSOP 1” appears in the top left corner of my screen under “WHO’S HERE?” Then, like a voice from the grave, the now chilling digital baritone fills the office as letters appear on my screen.
BERKMANN› Hello, Harper. How did you like my little film?
This final proof that Berkmann is alive starts my heart pumping like a fist clenching and unclenching in my chest. Fighting fear, I pull on the headset and begin speaking-not as Erin this time, but as myself.
HARPER› Not as well as the FBI did.
BERKMANN› Don’t lie, little ankle biter. You didn’t show that tape to anyone.
HARPER› Where are you, Doctor?
BERKMANN› South of the border, north of the Antarctic. I’m quite safe, as I told you I would be. That’s why I’m not worried about being traced.
HARPER› A lot of people thought you died in a plane crash.
BERKMANN› Very gratifying. It took a bit of effort to create that illusion.
HARPER› Why bother creating an illusion? Why not use the plane to run?
BERKMANN› Obviously Daniel Baxter told you to keep me on the line. I’ll oblige. You deserve a little entertainment before the remainder of your pathetic life turns to shit.
HARPER› What does that mean?
BERKMANN› The mills of the Gods, remember? When I left your house, I managed to reach the plane all right, and get airborne. But the plane developed engine trouble. I considered ditching in the river, but my nerve failed. I ended up setting down on a spur levee. I’d heard of a Venezuelan crew that landed a 727 on a levee near New Orleans in an emergency. It was simple enough. The difficult part was taxiing down the slope and into the water. Amazing that the plane turned up, though. Very dramatic. The Lord taketh away my engine but giveth confusion unto mine enemies.
HARPER› You don’t believe in God.
BERKMANN› You are not qualified to discuss the concept of God with me.
I’ve yet to see a single typo in Berkmann’s words, but I want to be absolutely sure I’ve given him enough time.
HARPER› I’ve asked Baxter to let me view your execution. He said he’d do all he could, but there’s a long waiting list. It’s the gas chamber here in Mississippi, you know.
BERKMANN› Empty words. I honestly can’t believe you fooled me for a minute. But you did, didn’t you? You and your Southern charm. It turned out to be as hollow as Southern honor.
The sudden ring of the telephone jars me. Hitting the space bar to mute the mike, I answer it.
“Well?” says Miles, as Berkmann’s voice continues from the speakers.
“I’m on with him now.”
“Any typos?”
“None yet. Two screens worth of text.”
“He’s back in New York!”
“He says he’s outside the country, Miles. Sounds like maybe South America.”
“Out of the country? Shit. How could he get out?”
“Same way he could get back to New York.”
“Keep him on as long as you can.”
“I don’t want to talk to him!”
“
Berkmann’s voice shocks me back to reality.
BERKMANN› Having a nice chat with Daniel Baxter?
HARPER› My mother-in-law was trying to come into the office. I had to get her out.
BERKMANN› Another lie. She wouldn’t be speaking to you at all. Not after you got her daughter killed.
The ringing sibilance of water rushing through pipes breaks my concentration. Drewe is taking a shower. I guess I can put up with Berkmann’s crap for a few minutes in the hope that Miles could be right about the killing house.
HARPER› Did you really try to save Erin?
BERKMANN› Yes. There was no need for her to die. Were it not for you, she would be alive tonight.
HARPER› Turn yourself in, Doctor. This game’s over. They know who you are. It’s just a matter of time.
BERKMANN› No, no, no. I still have much to do.
HARPER› Such as?
BERKMANN› I am smiling, Harper. Smiling with cosmic humor at fate’s great joke. You lured me to your house to capture me and instead led me to the threshold of my apotheosis.
HARPER› I don’t understand.
BERKMANN› How could you? You are a polyp of fetid protoplasm in the cesspool of the herd. I speak to you for only one reason. You have something I want. And very soon I shall have it.
Lenz’s warnings echo in my head like the shouts of an unheeded prophet.
HARPER› What do you want?
BERKMANN› Don’t you know? I want Drewe.
I have to squeeze my hands together to stop them shaking.
HARPER› What connection do you think you have with Drewe?
BERKMANN› What connection do we not have? Erin was an illusion. A Caucasian Kali, expanded into symbol by your imagination. But Drewe is real. Everything that has happened, each apparent mistake, every seeming obstacle was but a waypoint on the road to Drewe. She is my mother and my father together. She is Apollonian woman, pale and proud, Aryan, brilliant, uncontaminated by your corrupt seed because she is incorruptible. She is a vessel full yet waiting to be filled. She is OMPHALOS, a navel of the world. Through her loins I SHALL CONQUER TIME. For years she has waited, uncertain why. But soon she will know. And she will come to me like the moth to the flame.
HARPER› She’ll laugh in your face. Or spit in it.
BERKMANN› You tremble at every word I speak. You KNOW she is a seed you have not brought to flower. Because you are unequal to her. How she must have dreaded your clumsy carnal attentions. It SICKENS me.
HARPER› How do you plan to bring her to flower?
BERKMANN› By separating her from you.
HARPER› How can you do that?
BERKMANN› With the truth. We are broken from within, remember? Your life holds the key to its own destruction. You are a liar and a coward. The truth of your betrayal with Erin, and her child, will separate you from Drewe as certainly as prison walls. When she delivers my issue from her pure womb, you will feel pain as of nails being driven through your skull.
From a whirlwind of fear, a lifeline of hope. The sword Berkmann thinks he holds over my head hangs over his own. But there’s no reason to let him know that.
HARPER› You’ll never get close to her, you piece of shit.
BERKMANN› Do I need to? What is truth but information? And that is the easiest thing in the world to move.
HARPER› She’d kill herself before she’d let you touch her.
BERKMANN› Keep telling yourself that. By tonight she will be trying to reach me.
HARPER› You’re amazing. You’re a fucking parasite. A second-rate quack who spent his life stealing
