Necroscope - The Lost Years, Vol II Part 33

Ah, but you're one hundred an d seventy years too late! For I am dead, after all! How may someone who is ex-animate examine the liv ing?

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then, quickly, as if to change the subject But the way you came here - this miracle of instantaneous travel! What manner of new science is this?

For the moment - despite his frustration - the Necroscope all owed himself to be sidetrack ed from the main purpose of his visit... or perhaps not For he had learned how to argue with the best (or worst) of them, and was quick to see how Mesmer's interest in his weird talents might provide a key to the door that the good doctor seemed to have locked on his own hypnotic skills. And so he said, 'A science, sir?'

But if not magic, how else would you describe it? Mesmer couldn't understand Harry's hesitancy, the pause of a few seconds in which his mind worked overtime to develop his plan of campaign, his word game. And: 'A new science,' he eventually mused ... and denied it in a moment Well, scarcely! For as far as I'm aware and excluding my lost son, I'm its sole pract.i.tioner! It isn't something I ca n publish, for the mat h is alien, metaphysical. The equations don't equate, and the formulae mutate within themselves. And as you'll appreciate, if a formula isn't constant it isn't a formula.'

Mesmer tried to understand him, gave up and said: Myself, I was no great mathematician. Are you saying...

you 're so far ahead of your time you would be misunderstood?

Harry nodded. 'I suppose so. Much like yourself, in your time. Oh, I could "prove" what I do, but even so I'd probably be called a charlatan, a fraud, a trickster or stage magician, as you were. We see men on our television screens who "fly" or make ma.s.sive monuments "disappear," or read the minds of their audiences.

Sometimes they "converse" with the dead, too! They are fakers, of course. Yet at the same time, I am living proof that the physical and metaphysical are definitely linked. You were ridiculed - worse, you now ridicule yourself! - for having sought or "invented" a metaphysical medium or "fluidum" in order to explain your physical cures. Yet even now we can't be sure that the fluidum doesn't in fact exist.'

But of course we can be sure, because it hasn't been discovered! Mesmer was hooked... not only on their philosophical exchange but more probably, the Necroscope thought on the notion, the forlorn hope, that perhaps in proposing his theories he hadn't been such a qu ack after all.

'I'm not sur e I understand you,' Harry answered, knowing full well Mesmer's meaning but feigning ignorance. 'Not discovered? But neither have we explored the deepest ocean floor, yet we're sure it's there!'

/ mean that in your modem ag e of radio waves, X-rays and gamma Necroscope: The Lost Years - Vol.

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rays, and what have you - in the super-scientific world in which you live - th ere has not bee n discovered the tiniest, remotest germ of evidence to support the existence of any kind of fluidum! I mean that if it was there, your scientists would have found it. I am not that much out of touch, Necroscope!

Harry pounced: 'And yet there is an entirely physical, universal force, with universal laws that are universally accepted, whose influence within metaphysical or near-metaphysical spheres is extraordina ry and entirely inexplicable! To give you a clue, it was "di scovered" by Sir Isaac Newton, who died seven years before you were born.'

Gravity? Well, afluidum of sorts, granted. But metaphysical? I have to say pish!

We see its effects every day, and as you say, its laws are visible and universally accepted.

'Its physical laws,' Harry nodded. 'But can its other side be explained as easily?'

What other side?

'But didn't one of your "quack" theories consider the motion of planetary bodie s contrib utory to the ailments of human minds and bodies? Wasn't that what your fluidum theory was all about?' Harry sensed an incorporeal frown and quickly went on: The moon, sir! It lures the tides, youll agree?'

Yes.

'And the fluid balance of the brain, to turn men and creatures into lunatics? So weren't you right after all?'

Gravity, my fluidum?

'Perhaps,' Harry shrugged. "Who knows? And I've only given you one example of the moon's influence."

Eh?

'Isn't a woman's cycle governed by the phases of the moon? And what was unknown in your time, and probably unknown to you even now, a myriad ocean polyps and corals all around the world sp.a.w.n together and turn the sea to milk, all in resonance with the moon.'

But- '-And sunspots?'

What?

'Disturbances on the surface of the sun. Whirlpools in its plasma. They interfere with our radio waves, television, communications in general. And the sun's rays cause cancers. So who can say about the other heavenly bodies?'

/ was right then? (Mesmer was utterly fascinated now). As the spheres influence each other, the earth, its oceans, denizens, and all inanimate matter, so they also influence ... men?

'So it would appear. But haven't the astrologers been telling us that for ages?'

Bah! Mesmer was vastly disappointed. You leap from science to fantasy in a breath!

But: 'No,' the Necroscope denied it. 'I move from the physical to the metaphysical. Do you know, I had an almost identical argument with Mobius?'

Eh? I don't know him.

'Well then, you two should get together some time. August Ferdinand would enjoy that, I'm sure. But he would have been a young man, only twenty-three or - four, when you died. He was a mathematician, an astronomer, and a very brilliant man. Unlike you, he continued to develop his sidereal math in death and so discovered his Mobius Continuum, without which I wouldn't have been able to visit you. For just as it applied to Mobius - an incorporeal, "metaphysical" being - so it applied to me, or I was able to apply it to myself. He an d I, we imposed the metaphysic al upon the physical. But more to the point, what is the Mobius Continuum - if not another example of your fluidum?'

My fluidum... is several, even many things? Is that what you're saying?

'It could be,' the Necroscope gave a shrug. 'I don't know.' (And in all truth he didn't). 'But just because it hasn't been discovered or isolated yet doesn't mean it doesn't exist Why, it's a theory of mine that if men can imagine something, then sooner or later they'll discover, or make it, or prove it!'

/ have heard something like that before, (Mesmer was far more animated now). 7 think, therefore I am!' It seems to me that what you propose is simply a new - and if I may say so, an egocentric - slant on an old theme: 7 imagine it could be so, wherefore I shall make it so!'

'Something like that, yes.'

A many-layered fluidum, Mesmer mused. But a moment later, sharply, even suspiciously: And I think that you are trying to inveigle me!

'Well of course I am; I need your help! But that's not to say I've been talking rubbish.'

All of this to make me attempt what can't be done? What I cannot do?

The Necroscope shook his head. That runs contrary to our discussion,' he said. 'Not to mention the evidence.'

What evidence?

'My evidence. I'm an entirely physical human being, yet I habitually impose myself on the metaphysical Mftbius Continuum. Why shouldn't we simply reverse the process?'

But you are unique, Harry, (Mesmer sighed), while I am one of a very Mundane Majority. You're of the air above, while lam of the earth below. Indeed, I have even pa.s.sed into the earth! Mundane, aye. Why, I can't even see you! Not the physical you.322.

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The Great Majority,' Harry told him then, 'men like yourself, sir, but not nearly as learned as you - not all of them - have helped me in so many ways, so many times, that without them I would be literally nothing, gone from the world forever; not even dead, not necessarily, but very likely dead! As for sight I believe you will see me as no other man saw me before. You'll even be able to see into me, if I open my mind to you.

Explain.

But Harry had no more time for arguments or explanations, philosophical or otherwise. He might have talked about the vampire Thibor Ferenczy, dead for hundreds of years, who in his own way had 'hypnotized' and entered the mind of his necromancer procge Boris Dragosani, in order to direct his thoughts and actions from a thousand miles away. He could have mentioned Thibor's vampire 'father' Faethor, who from the grave ha d lured up liches from their graves to perform an act of vengeance. And as he had pointed out, he himself was living proof of the many ways in which the dead may have influence over the li ving. But if a picture is worth a thousand words, there were pictures in the Necroscope's mind that were worth millions. And: 'Let me show you something,' he said. 'Maybe that will be explanation enough.'

He concentrated, and with Mesmer maintaining contact let Mobius mathematics commence their metaphysical mutation, their evolution, across the screen of his mind. The numbers, symbols and formulae that govern the universe,' he explained, and even his voice was hushed. 'Now stay with me... come with me.' And he felt Mesmer's presence closing with his.

Come with you? Mesmer's dead voice was the merest whisper; his attention was riveted - mesmerized? - by the ever-changing display.

Before he could withdraw, even if he would, Harry formed a door and drew Mesmer across the threshold.

The Mobius Continuum, the Necroscope switched his conversation to pure thought, for even thoughts have weight in Mobius s.p.a.cetime. From here I can go... anywhere! And take you with me. (Mesmer could sense it was t rue, that this place was a great Universal Crossroads). But I won't take you far because your pla ce is here, or if not "here,' then at a parallel point in s.p.a.ce.

And this - this place - is all s.p.a.ce? Mesmer's awe was transmissible; Harry felt it, no less than the good doctor himself. Yes, he answered, the inside and outside both. A gateway to everywh ere, containing everything that has been, is now, or will be.

Has been? Will be? Time, too?

Let me show you, said Harry. He found a past-time door and drew Mesmer to the threshold. A million, million miles away, or so it seemed -but distant in time, not s.p.a.ce - the taint bue haze of human creation, mankind's beginning, was like some vast long-exploded galaxy. Streaming out from this astonishing starburst, seeming to intensify and multiply as they rushed towards the time-door, a myriad neon-blue filaments traced the lives of people who had been and many who still were. Indeed, one of the threads crossed the threshold and connected with Harry himself, appearing to thrust him, the door, and Franz Anton Mesmer, too, before itself into the future.

The effect was dizzying. The time-door was the singularity men call NOW; to maintain the status quo, it must fle e from the past into the future... as everything in creation does. Except with the past displayed beyond the immundane frame of the door, and Harry's blue-thread - the line of his life, his lifeline - seeming to thrust him ahead of it, he and Mesmer were actually witnessing time's unwinding! And all accompanied by an orchestrated one-note ahhhhhhhhhh! like a ma.s.sed sighing of angels.

Mesmer was stunned. But before he could comment, or find words to try, the Necroscope drew back from the door and found its twin -but this time a doorway to the future. And no need to explain what this was, as he and the good doctor gazed away and out into every tomorrow. Those myriad neon threads sighing awa y into the ever-expanding future... And new lives blazing into being, scintillant sap phire threads separating from their parent lifelines to hurtle on alone, signifying birth and life ... And others fading to amethyst and gradually expiring along with their weary sources, signifying old age and death ... And the Necroscope's lifeline continu ally unwinding from him, luring him into the future, while the angelic chorus went on and on: Ahhhhhhhhhh!

Those lines of blue light, Mesmer said after a while, but very quietly. I know what they are, and why I don't have one.

But you did have one, Harry told him, upon a time. And he conjured a door at Mesmer's co-ordinates.

And did I sigh and soar, and burn as bright as they do?

'Brighter than most,' the Necroscope answered, as he and Mesmer emerged from the Mobius Continuum together at the dead man's tomb.

Do you think so, Harry? Really? Mesmer sank down into his place, which he would never leave again.

'Yes, I really do. That's why I had to show you that which you yourself might well have imagined and sought after, without even knowing what it was.'

Myftuidum?

'I honestly don't know, but it could be. Even now scientists all over the world are seeking for a Grand Unification.'

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But if it is so, then it's so muck greater than I might ever have imagined! An incredible aether - a Great Fluidum - connecting the Earth, the moon, planets and stars, the sun and suns, the universe itself, past, present and future, and every creature in it. All in the mind... of a man?

But Harry hastily shook his head. Being nominated as the All-Important Factor in something as big as this seemed like a great blasphemy. 'No, I simply tap into it. If s there without me. But I wouldn't be here without it Nothing would.'

Mesmer's morale was boosted, uplifted; the Necroscope felt it in him: a sud den soaring o f his spirits. It isn't the way I imagined it, but it does exist! he said.

"Well maybe,' Harry was cautious. 'I mean, I won't lie to you, sir. I use it and it works for me, but I don't pretend to understand what it is.'

Much like myself, Mesmer nodded. / used my - my hypnotism, yes -without understanding it.

'But it worked. And it can work again, if just this once. Isn't that what matters?"

You're so very far ahead of me. Yet you've come to me for help...

Tou were first in your field."

But I can perceive no outward sign of imbalance. And from what little I have seen inside... Necroscope, your mind seems very well-ordered to me!

'But it isn't. Someone is fooling with it - fooling with me - and it could well be a matter of life and death.'

Do you say is fooling with it, or has fooled with it?

'I'm sorry?'

Who do you know - who are you in contact with - who might wish you harm or seek to control you?

'Are you taking the case?' Harry heard muted voices. Real, living voices. There were other people in the cemetery now and he would have to be careful. The sooner he could get finished here the better.

Taking the case? Mesmer answered, as if suprised at such a suggestion. Why, so it would appear!

Harry thought about it. Who was he in regular contact with who might seek to harm or control him? His enemies? R.L Stevenson Jamieson said he had enemies, anyway. BJ. Mirlu? No, for she... was innocent He backed off from the very thought But AH! GREAT G.o.d IN HEAVEN! Mesmer cried then, so suddenly it shook Harry to his roots. And more quietl y, in a sort of disbelieving whisper Show me...show me that again.

'Show you what?' Harry was mystified.

That girl, that woman. She flickered over your mind's eye and was gone. But the picture was vivid. And she was the image - the living image - of someone I knew once, who I can never forget.

'BJ.?' In the Necroscope's mind, immediate conflict. His denial was instinctive: 'But how could you possibly know BJ.?' And a moment later he realized that Mesmer had said nothing of the sort He had only said that BJ. was 'the image of someone he had known.' And Harry began to sweat, because from deep inside - from a hidden place - something warned him that indeed Mesmer might have known her. And if the good doctor looked any deeper, he would know he had known her!

But BJ. was innocent.

Of what? (Harry argued with himself.) Of anything, everything!

Innocent? An innocent with a killer's instinct? In London, I saw her kill one man and try to kill another!

They were my enemies.

I owe her my life for that. She has beco me my life! And I have become ... her wee man!

The full moon! A wolf- head in silhouette!

The Necroscope's mind was wide open, unguarded, and Mesmer witness to all that pa.s.sed through it And despite Harry's confusion - his sudden terror? - he held it open. Because this was what he'd wanted Mesmer to see... wasn't it? Or was there stuff in there that he couldn't let anyone see? Stuff that belonged to someone else?

Harry's mind began spinning in ever-decreasing circles, a mental vertigo he couldn't pull out of. But through the kaleidoscopic chaos of colliding ideas and conflicting knowledge, one thing stayed uppermost the fact of B J.'s innocence.

Oh, really? But the look on her face as she squeezed the trigger of that crossbow. And the Thing in the animal shelter. Wamphyri! Wamphyri!