Brian Lumley - Psychomech 01, page 25
. . There was none.
And all the while a spark in his brain grew brighter and brighter, and ever and again he would see before his blind eyes those burning letters and words of Adam Schenk’s horoscope:
‘Machine - RG/TS - Light!’
Garrison’s next two months were in the main given over to deliberation, preparation and planning, but all overshadowed by a sense of impending – something. An exhilaration previously unknown to him - a deathly thrill. Oh, he feared Psychomech a little now, certainly, but still he must ride. And while Jimmy Craig checked and re-checked his handiwork on the machine, dry-running the humming, crackling beast hour after hour, day after day, Garrison sat in the study of his own home not many miles away and pondered the strange trails his life had followed to bring him to this junction.
But at last Jimmy Craig completed his checks and reported that Psychomech was go, and from that moment on Garrison moved quickly indeed.
First he set the date with Wyatt (it was to begin on Sunday, 6 June), and signed a cheque to the tune of a quarter-million pounds in the psychiatrist’s favour. This was partly to show good faith and bolster their original agreement, partly to insure his personal safety. His life would be in Wyatt’s hands all the time he was on the machine. There would be a second quarter-million for the psychiatrist when, sound in mind and body -or, as Garrison preferred to think of it, sound in body and especially in mind - he climbed back down from Psychomech.
As for commercial implications, they would be looked into later. Such was Garrison’s excitement now that he could not think beyond his actual ride. The general future would have to wait; his own immediate future could not.
And of course there was Suzy to be taken care of. Garrison had been worried about the bitch for some little time. It was as if she read the change in him, his sudden excitement, as if she knew something strange and vast was in the offing - something she feared.
This showed in her completely uncharacteristic shortness of temper, not only with Terri and Koenig but often with Garrison himself, something previously quite unthinkable. She would be particularly aggressive when Jimmy Craig called, as if she sensed that he was playing a large part in Garrison’s change; and whenever Wyatt came on the scene, which mercifully was only very rarely, why then Suzy must actually be restrained! She openly detested the psychiatrist and had flown at him on three occasions, when only direct and repeated orders from Garrison himself had brought her to heel and saved the man from severe savagings. Nor was her hatred for Terri so well concealed these days, and on more that one occasion she had growled low in her throat at her mistress, baring her teeth at her.
As for her attitude towards Koenig: when he looked into her soft eyes and through them, into the soul behind them -it was as if he gazed in a mirror. He saw all of his own doubts and apprehensions reflected in their liquid depths, and he suspected that Suzy tolerated him because she sensed his empathy.
And yet it was only partly because of the strangeness of Suzy’s behaviour - the irrational angers and foreign attitudes which made her dangerous - that Garrison decided to kennel her during the period of the Psychomech experiments. Wyatt had told him that these would take a few days, perhaps even a week, during which time and depending upon the initial results the blind man would spend up to five or six hours a day on the machine. Very well, since Suzy was no longer to be trusted she must be shut up for that entire week. Plainly it would not be safe to leave her alone with Terri, not with Willy Koenig away at the same time . ..
This was the first Koenig had heard of his being ’away’ during the proposed experiments, and when Garrison told him he was taken completely by surprise. More than that, he was very concerned and very worried.
‘Away?’ he had blankly repeated Garrison’s words. ‘You want me to go away while you ride that damned machine? But surely I should be right there with you, if only to make sure nothing goes wrong. And—’
‘No!’ Garrison’s tone had been sharp. ‘No, you should be as far away as possible. It may not even be safe for you to be with me.’
‘Not safe? I don’t follow you.’
‘Not safe for you, nor for Suzy. That’s the other reason I’m putting her in the kennels.’
Koenig had stared hard, shaken his head and shrugged helplessly. ‘You’ve lost me, Richard.’
‘In my first dream,’ Garrison had explained, ‘Idreamed of a bomb. This was the result.’ He lifted his blinkers and showed his blind, uniformly scarlet orbs. ‘In my second dream there was another bomb - but this time it was aimed at you!’
Now Koenig had grown angry. ‘But this is England, Richard, not Northern Ireland - and I’m pretty damned good at looking after myself! Also, you’ve said yourself that your ESP is often vague and misleading. Granted your first dream was partly prophetic, but how can you be so sure that the second wasn’t simply - well, an ordinary dream, a nightmare? And anyway, didn’t Suzy save you in that second dream? Didn’t she drag you from the Machine just as the bomb exploded?’
‘That’s just it,’ Garrison had answered. ‘She tried to save me, to drag me from the Machine - but that can’t be allowed to happen. I have to go on, across the lake, into the black castle. I have to find the Black Room. I have to know what’s in there. Can’t you see that?’
Koenig had slowly nodded. ‘So the way you see it, the first dream was partly prevision while the second was pure warning?’
‘Not exactly. Both of them were prevision and warning combined. If I had heeded the first warning I wouldn’t be blind now. That’s why I have to heed the second warning. Look, the second bomb may be sheer symbolism, I don’t know. Symbolic of some danger to you, that is. Well, I don’t want you to be in any sort of danger. And not just because you’re my main man. In my dream your being in danger hindered my quest. That mustn’t happen. Nothing must hinder my quest. That’s why I’m sending you away.’
‘Mein Gott!’ Koenig had exploded then, stamping to and fro in the study where they talked and astonishing Garrison with his uncharacteristic outburst. ‘All this on the strength of a verfluchte dream?’
‘More than a dream, Willy!’ Garrison had insisted. ‘Can’t you see it working even now? Think! Do you remember what I said you cried out to me in that dream? "Get off the Machine, Richard," you cried. You were trying to stop my ride. So was Suzy. And sure enough, the two of you are trying to stop it right now!’
‘But—’
‘The hell with buts! I have to ride. I have to know. And what of my pact with your beloved Colonel?’
‘Your pact?’ The German’s jaw had dropped. ‘I had . . . forgotten!’
‘Oh, no, Willy,’ Garrison shook his head. ‘You hadn’t forgotten! It’s just that the years have changed your perspective, that’s all. Forgotten? Not you. Shit, you think he’s already in me! That’s true, isn’t it? Well he isn’t, and I’m not so bloody sure I want him! But don’t worry, I’m not going to run out on him. At least I’ll give him the chance to make it - if he’s strong enough. But that’s something else I have to find out.’
‘The pact,’ Koenig had softly repeated, nodding his head. ‘Of course.’
And now, knowing he had won, Garrison relaxed. He too nodded. ‘So you see, there’s no other way. I ride. And you, and Suzy - the pair of you keep out of my way.’
‘Yes,’ the German slowly answered, ‘I think I see it now.’ ‘Book a holiday for yourself somewhere in Germany,’
Garrison had ordered then. ‘The Retreat, if you like. Anywhere - but make sure you do it. I’ll want to see the tickets, Willy, and I’ll want to be there to see you off when you board the plane ...’
At 10.00 a.m. on Wednesday 2 June Suzy was delivered to the kennels in Midhurst.
The journey was not a long one, little more than half an hour, but the atmosphere in the car was tangibly strained. Suzy was not happy. She whined continuously and licked Garrison’s hand with a frenetic tongue.
For of course the bitch knew where she was going. She had picked it straight out of Garrison’s mind, had confirmed it in Terri’s controlled smugness and in Koenig’s own dissatisfaction; and she did not like being sent away any more than the German liked it.
At the kennels she made a scene, yelping and snarling until Garrison was obliged to enter her into her cage. Then she was docile enough, but as soon as the steel mesh door had closed on her and her master got back into the Mercedes she set up such a howling that he must immediately dismount and command her to be still and good. And as the great silver car drove away Suzy had sat there behind a mesh of steel, her eyes softer and more moist than ever, so that anyone watching her must swear that she was crying.
‘That animal’, said Terri as Koenig turned on to the motorway and headed for Gatwick, ’is mad and ungovernable. The time will come, Richard, when even you will lose your authority with her.’
Garrison, now seated in the front beside Koenig, inclined his head slightly back and towards her. ‘Suzy is completely sane,’ he told her, his voice flat and even. ‘Saner by far than any six of your so-called "socialite" friends ... and she has more sheer brain than any dozen of them! As for loyalty—’ and he had paused.
‘Yes?’ Her voice was slightly haughty, but Garrison sensed a wary probing behind the apparently automatic response.
‘She is very loyal,’ he eventually answered.
Terri sniffed but said no more, and a moment later Koenig broke the awkward silence with: ‘Sir, my plane leaves at 12.45.1 calculate a wait of at least an hour. There really is no need for you and Mrs Garrison to put yourselves out by seeing me on my way.’
‘No trouble, Willy,’ Garrison answered. ‘It’s just that I’ll be happier knowing you’re safely aboard.’
Koenig knew what he meant: that he was to get out of England - quite definitely out - and stay out until this thing was over. Once aboard the plane there would be no turning back. Like Suzy, he was being temporarily banished. Both of them, for their own safety. For the good of Garrison’s dream-quest.
But what of your own safety. Richard? Koenig silently asked. What of your good?
He lapsed into a watchful, unhappy silence, but in the back Terri smiled smugly and congratulated herself. First Suzy out of the way, and now Koenig. And on Sunday, just four days away, Richard himself - for the better part of a week!
She thought about it for a while, then let the smile slip from her face and allowed herself an inaudible sigh. If only it were for a year, or even longer. If only it were—
Forever... ?
On Thursday Garrison had business people down from the Midlands to see him. Normally he would have had Koenig in attendance but on this occasion handled it himself.
He felt more or less obliged to listen to them and spend most of the day with them, however, and so had written it off entirely to business talk and entertainment. Terri, who was not much good at the former and had her own ideas about the latter, went ’into the city’ by train to see friends. In fact she did not go to London but left the train at Arundel to meet Gareth Wyatt. They spent the day at a charming, sprawling hotel in the town, whose bar was cosy and discreet and where their room was adequately intimate.
There, in the crisp, clean sheets of their bed, they made various sorts of love for many hours and to their complete satisfaction, then talked of their hopes for the future -especially the immediate future. For during the last six months their lives had changed so completely that neither one of them would ever have believed it could be like this. They were, in short, desperately in love; their resumed affair had blossomed out of all proportion and quite beyond their control.
Now, lying in Wyatt’s arms while he stroked her breasts and kissed her throat, Terri had just asked him how long they would have together each day when Richard was on the machine.
‘About five hours or so. He’ll go on to Psychomech about 11.00 each morning and stay until 5.00. After that he’ll be pretty groggy for an hour or two. He won’t be coming home at all during that week. It’s to be a very exacting routine for him. I expect Psychomech to drain him both emotionally and physically, even though he professes to have no hangups. It will be machine, sleep, food and drink, a little exercise, machine again, and so on.’
‘What’s all this about hangups?’ she asked.
‘That’s what Psychomech is for, silly: to cure neuroses and psychoses. Richard doesn’t believe he has any, but you may be sure he has. Curing them will be a great strain on him. If he’s hidden them away, Psychomech will have to dig that much deeper, that’s all. But afterwards—’ he shrugged. ‘He’ll be the better man for it.’
‘And while he’s actually on the machine, you’ll have all that time to be with me?’
He held her close for a moment. ‘Oh, yes. The process is quite automatic. I need only check the safety margins every now and then. The rest of the time will be ours.’
‘And afterwards you’ll be richer to the tune of half a million1,’ She snuggled closer to his warm, firm body.
‘That’s only starters,’ he answered. ‘If all goes well Psychomech will soon be making us a great deal more money than that. Miller Micros will build more machines, and of course I shall demand control of the patents.’
‘And that’s when we’ll let Richard find out about us -which is when he’ll divorce me.’
Wyatt pushed her gently away to arms’ length and stared at her. She was so utterly lovely he knew he had to have her for his own. For the first time in his life he, too, was now truly and deeply in love. And yet he frowned.
‘Is something wrong?’ Her voice was suddenly full of anxiety.
‘Yes,’ he answered, ’something is wrong. It may not be as easy as all that, Terri. If Richard wants to fight it—’
‘Fight the divorce, you mean? Then I would simply come away with you.’
‘But you’ve told me he loves you.’
‘He does, as much as he can love anyone. I’m sure of it. But I’m not necessary to him. I am necessary to you, and you to me.’
‘Yes, I know,’ he nodded patiently, ’but that wouldn’t stop him from taking me for every penny I had! And then we’d be back where we started. On the other hand—’ Something he had said to her a minute earlier kept repeating in his memory.
‘Yes?’
‘If all does not go well—’
She froze in his arms. ‘But you said Psychomech was a hundred per cent safe!’
He tried to relax a little and smiled, but she could see that his smile was forced. ‘Well, it’s all still very experimental, you know. I mean, how do you carry out dry-runs on a machine like Psychomech? Richard will be sort of a guinea pig. That’s why I’ve insisted he signs an indemnity. We’re doing that tomorrow, at your place.’
‘God, yes, he mentioned it!’ she said. ‘To see you and not to be able to touch you.’
‘I know,’ he stroked her,’—but at least that damned dog is out of the way.’
She nodded. ‘And Koenig. He’s so watchful, that man.’
‘Yes, but it seems the coast is pretty clear for us now.’ He paused again, suddenly restless, clasping her to him so that she could not see his eyes. ‘But if something were to go wrong... I mean, if he were actually to die on the machine—’
He felt her body stiffen once more, then slowly relax. ‘I’m Richard’s sole beneficiary, so far as I know,’ she said, her voice very quiet. She drew back and gazed steadily at him.
‘You would be an incredibly rich woman,’ he told her, just as quietly.
She pulled him close, buried her head in his chest, felt him stirring against her. ‘But nothing will go wrong . . . will it?’ She drew him into her body, her flesh a soft vice as her hips began their gentle gyrations.
‘No, of course not,’ he answered, finding amazement in the fact that they had started to make love yet again, and at such a juncture. ‘And don’t worry about us, Terri. Things will work out. Just see if they don’t. . .’
11.00 a.m. Sunday 6 June, and Garrison, clad only in a short-sleeved dressing gown, went on to the machine. As soon as consciousness slipped away and Psychomech took over, Wyatt left the room of the machine and half an hour later Terri was with him. There were only the three of them in the entire house. Or rather, four of them - if Psychomech itself were included.
11.00 a.m. and in the Midhurst kennels Suzy, the great black Dobermann bitch, set up such a yelping and screaming - her screams sounding like nothing so much as those of a human being - that a keeper in a protective suit had to enter her cage and sedate her heavily. But Suzy was ever a quick learner. She would not scream again, not until it suited her purpose - and the next time she would make sure there was no sedation.
11.00 a.m. and in his hotel room in Hamburg overlooking the Reeperbahn, Willy Koenig jerked spastically on . his bed and dropped his Keil cigarillo. The naked whore he was with mistook his spasm for something else and moved her hand climactically on his flesh, only pausing when there was no positive result. Then she delicately picked up his smoke by its plastic mouthpiece and placed it back between his lips, her hand returning at once to a member gone suddenly limp.
‘1st et was los, Willy? What’s wrong, mein Schatz?’ she asked. ‘You come without coming?’
He stared at the ceiling in silence for a moment, then looked at her. ‘I didn’t come, no.’ He looked at his watch. ‘It’s 11.00 a.m. in England right now.’
‘So?’
He shrugged. ‘I should be there, that’s all.’
‘Oh, Willy!’ she pouted, removing the cigar from his mouth and leaning over to replace it with her left nipple. ‘But isn’t it so much nicer here?’
Again he shrugged. ‘Actually, I have no choice.’ He forced a short, barking laugh. ‘You have big sweet tits, Hannelore,’ he told her. He was big again, beginning to throb. ‘Sit on me.’
Happily, she complied ...
