‘What if that’s the lie?’ I threw in for the sake of argument.
Jenna-Jane shook her head brusquely. ‘He’s removed himself from your sphere of influence. If he had any faith in your abilities, or your efforts, he would have stayed where he was, in Imelda Probert’s custody. Or else, when he left there, he would have come to you and made his demands clear. No, it’s something else, Felix. He chose his moment. Oh, I know the Anathemata gave him the opening which he seized on to escape, but I believe he acted on a decision he’d already made. He has a project, and you are a part of it.’
‘You just said he didn’t need me.’
‘As an exorcist,’ Jenna-Jane amended, with a touch of impatience. ‘He doesn’t need you in a professional capacity. But he is still interested in you. He sought you out on no fewer than three occasions, first in Brixton and then at Pamela Bruckner’s house. He hovers around you, and he lets you see him doing it. I don’t believe for a moment that’s random.’
‘What is it then?’ The ache in my shoulder and chest made me terse.
Jenna-Jane was silent for a moment, musing. ‘Something we can exploit,’ she said at last. She stood up and crossed to a filing cabinet, where she opened the second drawer and took out the file she wanted without hesitation, seeming to know exactly where it was. She brought it back to the desk.
‘The problem resolves itself into two problems,’ she said, as she took her seat again. ‘Finding Asmodeus, and dealing with him once we have him. You, Felix, are probably the key to the first of those. At least you are our default option. If all else fails, it’s reasonable to hope that the demon will come to you.
‘The second part of the equation will tax us more. We need a mechanism that will bring Asmodeus into our power without permanently harming Ditko.’ She was leafing through the file now, holding it so that I couldn’t see its contents. ‘You say you crafted a lullaby? A sedative of some kind?’
I nodded. ‘I used to use it on Rafi when he was at the Stanger. And then I worked on it some more with Imelda. It seems to knock Asmodeus offline for a while. Sometimes it sends Rafi to sleep too, but other times it lets him be himself for a while.’
‘May I hear it?’
Wincing, I took out my whistle. I played a few repetitions of the tune, clumsily and stiffly. When I’d finished, Jenna-Jane nodded. She had that schoolteacherly look on her face again, as if she’d been listening to a proposition in pure logic.
‘I’d like you to record that for our technical team,’ she said. ‘Before you leave today.’
I made a negative gesture. I didn’t want Jenna-Jane and her white-coated cut-throats to go chasing up any blind alleys, diverting as that might have been at any other time. ‘I tried it on Asmodeus last night,’ I told her. ‘He just ignored it.’
‘But it worked in the past.’
‘It worked when I had him as a captive audience,’ I said, pointing out the obvious. ‘It’s slow, J-J. It does the job, but it’s slow. It’s never going to make a difference in an ambush.’
‘My people will look at it,’ she said. ‘Dissect it. Possibly turn it into something that works a little better.’
‘How?’
She gave me an austere look, hearing the scepticism in my voice. ‘Amplification,’ she said. ‘Distortion. Tonal variation. Peak-trough manipulation. Subsonic harmonic mapping. Instrumental translation. Modal translation. Conceptual reflection and repetition.’ She didn’t bother to wait for my inevitable reductionist put-down. ‘The craft has developed its own specialised vocabulary here at St Mary’s, Felix,’ she said. ‘Its own theoretical underpinnings. Trust me. You made the right decision when you came to me. Now, I wanted to pick your brains on two other matters.’
‘Go on.’
‘The first is the one that Gentle raised with you yesterday. The succubus, Ajulutsikael. I have it on the very best authority that what Gentle said is correct: that the demon remained on Earth after she was raised to kill you, and that you remained on . . . shall I say, friendly terms with her.’
I waited her out. Knowing how sharp she was, I wasn’t prepared to say one word on that particular subject. There was always a chance that I’d give something away without meaning to.
‘She ought to be in my custody,’ J-J said.
I kept up the deadpan for as long as I needed to. Finally, Jenna-Jane sighed theatrically.
‘Very well,’ she murmured. ‘That will have to be a discussion for another day.’
She took a single sheet of paper out of the file and set it down in front of me. It was a badly photocopied passport photograph. Badly enough that it took me a few seconds to identify the person I was looking at.
‘Trudie Pax,’ I said.
‘Yes,’ Jenna-Jane confirmed. ‘She’s applied for a position here at the MOU, as an exorcist. I’ve already assigned her to a team, on a probationary basis. What do you know about her?’
I paused for a couple of seconds of reflection. Was J-J really using me as a reference for Trudie, or was this some kind of loyalty test for me? Given the circumstances in which my path and Trudie’s had last crossed, it could be either. But ultimately I didn’t care enough about this political bullshit to lie.
‘She gets the job done,’ I said.
‘You’ve worked with her?’
‘Yes. Recently. When I was trying to clear up that mess at the Salisbury. You probably read about it in the papers.’
‘The riots. Yes, I was aware that something interesting was happening there, and that you were involved in some way. I offered my services, but the detective in charge of the operation – Trotwood, Deadwood, something of that nature – declined. So you and Miss Pax performed an exorcism together?’
‘No, a summoning. She’s good.’
‘But you don’t like her?’
‘She was part of Gwillam’s bunch. You know how much I love religious fanatics.’
‘But you’d have no misgivings about working with her again?’
Another pause for thought. ‘No,’ I grunted at last. I prefer known quantities to unknown ones. Trudie hadn’t flinched when the shit started flying.
‘Good,’ said Jenna-Jane. ‘Because she’s here now. And given her background, I was very much inclined to make her part of our Asmodeus plan.’ She put the sheet back in the file, scribbled something on the inside of the file folder and closed it again.
‘The plan,’ I echoed sardonically. ‘You mean amplification, distortion, attrition and general masturbation?’
Jenna-Jane looked at her watch, a little theatrically. ‘I think it’s time to introduce you to the rest of the team,’ she said.
I followed Jenna-Jane, about as enthusiastically as Dante followed Vergil, down a maze of branching corridors into a room labelled STAFF LOUNGE. Even as a work-in-progress it was pretty well appointed: big enough for a couple of dozen people to chill out without bumping shoulders, widescreen TV, Tchibo coffee machine. I guess if you can afford to use pure silver as wallpaper, then a few comfy chairs and a coffee machine aren’t going to break the bank.
Three men – one of them Gil McClennan – and a woman were sitting in a group at the far end of the room, talking animatedly, but they stopped and turned to face us as we came in. The woman stood, seemed about to put out her hand for me to shake and then thought better of it. After the discussion in J-J’s office she came as no surprise, but I still found seeing her called up enough unpleasant memories to make me grit my teeth momentarily.
‘Trudie Pax,’ Jenna-Jane said.
‘We’ve met,’ I answered bluntly. The tall dark-haired woman flushed slightly and looked away. I noticed that she had several dozen thicknesses of string wound round each wrist. Where I conducted my exorcisms via music, Trudie channelled hers through the children’s game of cat’s cradle, making visual patterns where I made auditory ones. I also noticed that she’d cut her hair extremely short. It had been a good decision. The ponytail she used to wear made her resemble a Lara Croft strippergram, whereas now she looked as though she’d switched role models and gone for Ellen Ripley.
‘The newest member of our little family,’ Jenna-Jane was saying. ‘And she comes with truly impressive
