Jekyll & Hyde Inc.

“Yes,” said Daniel. It was one of the few things he was still sure about. “But I can’t be a cop anymore.”

“You could be a hunter of monsters,” said Paul.

“Of things like you?” said Daniel.

“I hate what I’ve been made into,” said Paul. “Driven by a hunger that never ends, always at the beck and call of things worse than me. No one trusts me, so I get all the worst jobs. Like disappearing innocent people, when they get too close to the truth about how things really are.”

“People like me?” said Daniel.

“You’re not dangerous enough to be a problem to them,” said Paul. “Though you could be, if you wanted.”

“Have you . . . fed, yet?” said Daniel.

“Of course I have! I didn’t have any choice. This is what I am now.” Paul shook his head slowly. “The only chance I have for revenge on the monsters who did this to me, and all the others who make this world a living hell for everyone else . . . is you. That’s why I risked everything to come here. You’re the only one I can trust to do the right thing.”

“Look at me!” Daniel said harshly. “It’s all I can do to walk from one end of my flat to the other. How am I supposed to fight monsters?”

Paul produced a card from inside his coat. “This is the address for Jekyll & Hyde Incorporated.”

Daniel couldn’t help but smile. Paul didn’t.

“You have got to be kidding . . . ” said Daniel.

“I don’t do that anymore,” said Paul.

“But . . . Jekyll and Hyde? Really?”

Paul smiled, showing his teeth. “Set a thief to catch a thief. Or a monster to kill a monster. Go see them, Dan. They can tell you everything you need to know. And . . . they can put you back the way you used to be.”

While Daniel was still struggling to get his head round that, Paul rose to his feet. He produced a book from inside his coat and thrust it into Daniel’s hands. A battered old copy of The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mister Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson. Paul smiled.

“Do your homework before you go to see them.”

“Aren’t you going to give me Dracula, as well?” said Daniel.

“No,” said Paul. “Stoker got it all wrong.”

He drifted silently over to the front door.

“What about Commissioner Gill?” said Daniel. “Do you know what happened to her?”

Paul looked back at him. “I happened to her. The Clan sent me to shut her up, and after what she did to us . . . it was a pleasure. Listen to me, Danny boy: I can’t help you directly in this, but I will be around. In the background.”

“Is there anyone you’d like me to contact?” said Daniel. “There must be people who’d be glad to know you’re back . . . ”

“Let them think I’m dead,” said Paul. “Because I am.”

He left, closing the door quietly behind him. Daniel sat alone in the quiet of his empty flat, and looked at the address on the card.

Chapter Three

HYDE AND SEEK

All the way across London on the Tube, no one sat next to Daniel. His permanent scowl had a lot to do with that. He needed a stick to walk any distance, and hated the way it made people look at him. But anger and stubbornness kept him going, and by late afternoon he was limping through an only slightly run-down business area. The pavements were so crowded he was sorely tempted to strike people down with his stick when they didn’t get out of his way fast enough, and from the looks on some of their faces he thought they understood that. Daniel was not in the best of moods, but then, he rarely was.

The address Paul had given him turned out to be a pleasantly old-fashioned building, with a businesslike facade and tinted front windows, but no name on the door. Daniel shouldered it open and lurched into the lobby. The great open space was saved from a natural gloom by bright shafts of light streaming in through the higher windows. A gleaming parquet floor smelled as though it had been waxed extremely recently, and Daniel was careful to watch his footing as he slowly crossed the wide-open expanse. There was no reception desk, and no one to be seen anywhere. There wasn’t even any background music. He ended up before a long list of company names, scrolling proudly down a wood-paneled wall, and right there at the top in dignified gold leaf was: Jekyll & Hyde Inc. There was nothing to indicate what the company’s actual business might be . . . but it wasn’t as though he had anywhere else to go.