E-Branch - Invaders Part 49

The other cut him short. 'The only consolation lies in what we've achieved. For let's face it, no sane people could ever suffer such as tha t to live. Those four lives might have saved thousands.'

But Trask shook his head. "Think again,' he said.

'Thousands? There are over six billion people on this small planet. And that's how many we might have saved. Or that we've started to save.'

And after a while the Major said, 'Hearing you put it like that, I know it was worth it.'

At which Liz called across and said, 'They're boarding.'

'It's time we weren't here,' said Trask, standing up. And as the Major reached out his hand Trask looked at it, took it, and said, 'I don't even know your name!'

'It's Tom,' said the other.

'Just Tom? Major Tom?'

'That'll suffice,' said the Major, grinning.

Trask smiled, too, and said, 'Well, Major Tom, ground control is calling for us.'

The Major had been carrying a fat, eighteen-inch-long parcel. Now he gave it to Trask. 'This is for you,' he said. 'The men found it when they went down and burned out the underground rooms, tunnels and conduits in Xanadu. It got burned, too, so I can guarantee it's clean. I don't believe in trophy-taking, not after a job like that one. Maybe you'll find a use for it.'

After that there was no time for anything other than handshakes all round. Then Trask and his people went to board their Qantas VTOL Skyskip ...

But as they queued at the boarding gate, Jake sensed someone's gaze upon him and glanced toward the reinforced flexigla.s.s wall 546.

547.

that secured the boarding area from the viewing promenade. From the far side of the wall, distorted by the images of other pa.s.sengers that moved across its reflective surface, a thin, pock-marked face looked back at him. And for a moment their eyes met before Jake looked away.

He looked away, but only for a moment...

... Until something went click in his memory and he gave a start and looked again. But the face was gone. Standing just behind him, Ben Trask had noticed his reaction and said, 'Is there something?'

Jake frowned, then shook his head. 'No/ he said. 'I don't think so. But just for a moment then I thought I might have ... recognized someone?'

Trask looked at him in a certain way, with his head c.o.c.ked a little on one side, and said, 'Or you're concerned that maybe someone recognized you?'

Jake shrugged uncomfortably, said, 'That, too. But here in Australia? Unlikely.'

Very unlikely, yes. For as Jake had said, what would that lousy, murdering, b.a.s.t.a.r.d thug - what would the face of a man who had featured in his worst nightmares for far too long now, one of Luigi Castellano's soldiers, unforgotten from a certain monstrous night in Ma.r.s.eille - what would he be doing here?

Then he shrugged again and put it out of his mind. It was part of his growing obsession, that was all, when from time to time he would see those faces wherever he looked; this despite that several of them were no more, dead by his hand. But still Jake looked again at the flexigla.s.s part.i.tion before moving on into the boarding tunnel.

And of course there was no one there ...

As the VTOL Skyskip was rising vertically into the air, lifting its nose, and accelerating into the sky, the man with the pock-marked face was in a telephone kiosk, speaking long-distance to Palermo. 'No doubt about it/ he said in Italian. 'I'd know the guy anywhere. He's alive and kicking, and there's been all kinds of s.h.i.+t going down around here, yeah! That Xanadu thing: they said it was a plague-spot, and an accidental fire burned it out down to the foundations. But I can tell you, Luigi, some of the crew who were up there clearing up afterwards - like, you know, military types? - they were here at the airport to see Cutter and these British people onto their plane. Like pals all round, you know? Me, I'd like to know how you knew this Jake Cutter would be out here in the first place ...

'You didn't know? You were only interested in Xanadu ... ?

'And I ... I ask too many questions. Yeah, I know. You're right, sorry. So what now?

'I should find out who the Brits were? Get after them, on the next plane? Sure, I can handle that. And I can use the account in England, have myself some fun? Hey, I like it!

'Er, yeah ... ?

'But if I don't find out who they are, I needn't bother to go back to Ma.r.s.eille ... or anywhere. Right, Luigi, I got that. But say .. / And there he stopped short, scowling at the phone. For it was purring away vacantly to itself in his hand, and the oh-so-dark voice on the other end was gone ...

On board the Skyskip, when they were indeed skipping across the outer atmosphere, Ben Trask started to open the parcel given to him by the Major. But as gleaming metal hooks appeared, flexible fish-scale plates and sharp-pointed gouges, he stopped, went pale, and wrapped the thing up again.

Having seen its like before, on Starside in an alien world of vampires, he knew exactly what it was: a battle gauntlet, as used by the Wamphyri!

But then, looking up and across the central aisle at David Chung, Trask's colour returned and he smiled a mirthless, vengeful smile. And: 'Lord Nephran Malinari/ he murmured to himself, under the subdued rumble of the Skyskip's engines, 'you can run but you can't hide.'

548.

549.

And again, nodding to himself, 'You can't ever hide, Malinari - not for long, not from me - and definitely not from E-Branch...'

Be sure to visit the author's web site at: http://www.brianlumley.com 551.

NEXT: E-BRANCH: DEFILERS.

Vavara's Sisterhood of Evil. Szwart's Maze of Darkness. Jake and Korath: their Struggle for Supremacy.

Malinari's Madness, and more ...