The Naming of the Beasts

‘I’m saying you need to wait,’ I said. ‘There’s probably a way to drive this thing out without facing it head on. I had an idea last night: sort of a time bomb. A way of giving this thing some grief from a safe distance. I don’t know if it will work, but I want to try it. It will take a while to set up, that’s all. A day or two. Maybe longer.’

‘From a safe distance?’ McClennan echoed me. ‘How would that work?’

But Jenna-Jane was already shaking her head, very firmly. ‘We go ahead with the plan as agreed,’ she said.

‘Why?’ I demanded. ‘Why take the risk?’

‘Because we’re scientists,’ she said simply. ‘We gather data and then we reach conclusions based on that data. We don’t prejudge, however tempting a particular prefabricated theory may be. By all means proceed with your own plans too. If Gilbert’s team doesn’t succeed tonight, you can try your alternative method. I see no harm in that - in having two strings to our bow.’

‘The harm is that your first string might snap and put someone’s eye out,’ I said caustically. ‘You’re sending your people into a dangerous situation when there’s no need.’

I looked to McClennan for support, but J-J’s rationalist call to arms had stiffened his sinews. ‘I think the team I’ve put together will be up to the job,’ he said, toeing the company line. ‘You can tell me what your back-up plan is, if you want to. If I think it’s got any merit, I’ll put someone on it.’

There was a dead silence. Both of them looked at me expectantly. All I could think of was to quote Gil’s own words back at him, like a snot-nosed schoolkid doing dumb insolence.

‘Well maybe I’ll brief you later,’ I said. ‘If you need to hear it.’

Nobody was going to give me any exit music, so I just left. Jenna-Jane called out something to me, but I was already halfway down the corridor and I didn’t hear it.

Trudie Pax was loitering by the lifts, leaning against the wall with her arms folded and a grim look on her face. She straightened as I approached. ‘I have to get out of here,’ she said.

‘I thought you were on map duty,’ I reminded her.

‘I’ll come back later. Right now I need the air.’

‘When you go back,’ I said, ‘take this with you.’ I handed her the package and she hefted it, feeling its weight.

‘What is it?’ she asked.

‘A photo of Rafi. Take a look.’

She tore away the paper from one corner and examined the contents of the package without enthusiasm.

‘I’ve seen this technique before,’ she said. ‘The photo was developed right onto the glass, right?’

‘Printed onto the glass,’ I corrected her. ‘Right. It was all the rage back in the Victorian era. But apparently Macedonia gets the fashions late.’

‘So is the picture significant in some way?’

I see-sawed my hand. ‘Maybe. Maybe not. It was Rafi’s first communion. Big day for most Catholic kids, right? A lot of emotion invested, a lot of vivid memories laid down. I thought it might give you another focus, if you need one.’

Trudie didn’t seem impressed. ‘It’s a lot older than the fingernail.’

‘I know. Look, try it if you think you need it. Otherwise don’t. And either way give it back to me when you’re done. I’ll give it to Pen for a keepsake.’

I shied away from the implications of that statement: that whether Asmodeus won or lost, keeping Rafi alive might turn out to be a trick outside our collective skills; that the photo might turn out to be the last thing Pen had to remember her former lover by.

‘I’ll try it,’ Trudie promised. ‘I’ll put it back in the map room now and feed it into the loop later on.’

‘Later on? Why not now?’

‘Because if you’re going to go down to Holborn and look for Asmodeus’ rabbit hole, I’d like to join you.’

I tried the idea on for size, and found I hated it less than I would have expected. ‘I’ve got something else I need to do first,’ I warned her.

Pax seemed nonplussed. ‘Something more important than Asmodeus?’

‘No, less important. A lot less. It’s just . . .’ I threw up my hands in a shrug, found that I had to unclench them in order to do it. I hadn’t realised how angry and frustrated I was until that moment. I almost punched the wall, but my left hand was still stiff and sore from punching Gil McClennan’s jaw exactly twenty-four hours before. ‘Super-Self,’ I exploded. ‘Fucking Super-Self. Jenna-Jane is determined to send in the troops, even though they don’t have a blind clue what it is they’re facing. She thinks blitzkrieg is the right answer no matter what the question is. No, actually it’s worse than that: she thinks the data you get from a wipe-out are as good as any other kind. If some of Gil’s people die in the process, or get their brains fried like Etheridge, well, what the fuck? Science marches on.’

Pax was giving me a curious look. I threw it right back at her. ‘What?’ I demanded.

She shook her head. ‘Nothing. It’s just . . . do you think it will help?’

‘Help what? What are you talking about?’