Brian Lumley [Necroscope 13] [E Branch 03] Avengers v1.0

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had revitalised and inhabited the brain-dead body of Alec Kyle. In short, he was as they
seemed to remember him, those of them who were fortunate enough to have known
him.
But Liz hadn't known him, only what she'd read and heard of him. His gaze had
gone from Trask to Chung and then Millie and, skipping the precog, it now settled on
Liz. And:
'A new one,' he said. 'New to the inner circle. We've never met before, or after.
This is the one time, the one place. It's a real pleasure.'
'And for me,' she answered, tremulously. And then: 'No, we never met, but I
could sense you there when you were talking to Jake. He is the reason we've called you
here, because he needs your help.'
Jake?' And again the apparition frowned.
'Your focus,' Liz told him. 'Your... your genius loci?'
'Ah, Jake!' Harry let his electric arms float wide, looked down into himself and
said, 'This Jake!' Then he looked at Liz again. 'And so we have met after all. I remember
now: his mind was full of you and of one other. But she was only a memory. And now
there's only you.'
'I wish there was only me!' said Liz, and she almost broke the circle by starting
forward. 'But there's Korath, too.'
'Korath?' said Harry. But this time, while his lips didn't move his eyebrows came
together in a grim frown. 'Yes, I remember him, too. And how I warned Jake not to have
anything to do with him. But are you saying that Korath is in here?'
Now Trask spoke up, saying, 'Harry, Jake's problem is only one of the reasons
we brought you here. An important reason considering what's happened between you
but only one of many. And Korath isn't the only vampire we're having to deal with. In
fact we could be about to suffer a plague of vampires. Which is why there are things we
still need to know about them.'
'About those three who came through the Gate with Korath?' (Harry was very
focused now; he seemed more conscious of when and where, and the importance of his
presence here.) 'But Jake was there with me when I talked to Korath. He knows about
them, all of their history. Except... that was while he dreamed. Are you saying it didn't
take, he didn't remember?'
'It took eventually,' said Trask. 'He did finally remember it all. But Malinari, Vavara
and Szwart, they're only the start of it. Or rather, they're the source of what could end up
being the real problem.'
'They have been at work? Here in your world, in this world, in what was my
world?' Intent on Trask, Harry was leaning forward now, half in and half out of Jake, and
his neon eyes were brilliant in their passion.
'Right now, they're running wild.' Trask nodded. 'We did a lot of damage, wrecked
three years' worth of what they had been doing here. Now it looks like they've gone on
the run, and they don't care what havoc they leave behind them. Also, we mightn't have
been as successful as we thought...'
'What have they done?' Harry growled now, 'What corruption have they spilled
here?'
And Trask told him about Szwart his cavern under London, his fungus garden,
the spores that he might have sent drifting up into the city's night air.
Then Harry groaned and his neon outlines wavered, becoming even more
indistinct before slowly firming up again. And Trask commanded his people, 'Hold on to
him, all of you!'
'Hold on, yes,' Harry nodded. 'Other times and places call. Other worlds and
other hosts. So you had better ask your questions, Ben, while I'm still here to answer
them.'
'Spores,' Trask said. 'What do you know of them?'
'I fell victim to spores,' said Harry. 'Faethor Ferenczy's spores. He'd been dead a
long time but it made no difference. I made the mistake of thinking I could simply talk to
him because he was dead and gone, so how could he possibly harm me? Also, I slept
where his fats had rendered down in a fire. But his metamorphic filth was still there,
lying dormant in the ground. His vampire essence "knew" I was there; it put up black
toadstools; I breathed their spores, and the rest you know. You were one of the last to
see me in your world. You, Zek, and poor Penny.'
This was the closest the ex-Necroscope had come to reality, to making real
sense, and Trask believed he knew why. Dispersed throughout all the Universes of
Light, still his basic instinct was to do what he'd done in life. And in life he couldn't abide
the thought of vampires. This was what had taken him to Jake in the first place a task
left unfinished in life and Jake's vendetta with Luigi Castellano had provided Harry
with an opportunity to put things right. The scarlet vampire lifelines that he'd seen
merging with Jake's blue human threads in future time which was now recent-past
time had been those of Castellano and his gang, and despite that Harry hadn't
remembered the lost years, when he'd destroyed Castellano's vampire forebears at Le
Manse Madonie, still he'd sensed something of the continuity of their evil.
But vampires are vampires, and they all leave the same crimson trails in M�bius
time. The ex-Necroscope had confused Luigi Castellano's trail with Malinari's, Vavara's,
and Szwart's, for which reason he had taken Jake to visit Korath-once-Mindsthrall
where Malinari had murdered him...
These thoughts were only semi-original to Trask who previously hadn't been
privy to all the details but as he thought back on what he did know, so Harry 'read' his
mind and was able to fill in the blank spaces. And: [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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