The Concarnadine Chronicles #042 -- "Triangle"
Title: Triangle
'Fandom': The Concarnadine Chronicles
Claim: General; Characters
Prompt: #042 :: "Triangle"
Word Count: c. 2500
Rating: PG -13
Summary: The threatened confrontation.
Author's Notes: Ramping the tension up a touch more, as the "End" approaches.
Probably best if you've read the previous few bits, to catch up wth the plot-line.
“Triangle”
“It’s not safe !”
Concarnadine adopted a blank and expression and turned to face Linkletter.
“If he’s here, then Ilona will be, too. And the only reason she’d be here is to find me and use me to keep the Big One quiet.”
Concarnadine glanced at the mirrored wall. It was no secret that Rejker was on the far side and that she could see and hear everything that went on. Officially Linkletter was in the north of Alaska, and only reachable intermittently, while he undertook a survey on behalf of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office of the ecosphere of the Artic icecap. In fact, he had spent almost every hour since his arrest in one or another of Barnaby’s installations, coming clean about a variety of things - his own researches into the necromantic arts, and details of everyone who had assisted him; details of the various libraries he had used (several of which Concarnadine had already contacted, and was planning on (discreetly) ransacking in due course, replacing key volumes with almost-exact-but-bowdlerised duplicates); and, more recently, also the details of a number of … irregular activities … of which he knew, going on within the Civil Service.
“I’m sure you’re worth more alive than as a sacrifice,” he replied; “And if not, I’ll offer you a quicker and more painless death than anyone else.”
: : : : :
“Without Linkletter, we’re considerably - ”
“If,” Ilona Comeyn said, “you’re going to say that you’re other than fully ready, Ellis - ”
“Ilona,” Caleb’s deep, measured voice said: “Calm down. All that Ellis meant - ”
“What I meant,” Ellis Vinedresser said, petulantly, “was that we’re back down to three members of the Five, and that you seem utterly unconcerned.”
Ilona looked him up and down. “If,” she said, contempt dripping from her like tempest rain, “you want to step out - well, I’m sure we can oblige you.”
“That will leave you with only two - ”
“I would rather have two people I can trust - ”
There was a sudden cracking noise, and she looked across towards where Vinedresser had been, to see Caleb gripping the man by the neck … and then releasing his limp body.
“We could have used him as a sacrifice,” she said.
“I know - but would the Master have accepted him ? Better we only give him worthy sacrifices, and preserve our selves. Especially since the traitor has cost us much of the regalia.”
“That wasn’t Euan’s fault - they made him … ”
“Ilona, whether it was his idea or not, we don’t have it any more. And unless you’ve already told the Master … I thought not: well, I don’t imagine that he’ll be very pleased. Now, losing Ellis makes one thing easier - all three of the candidates can be promoted to membership of the Five. Which will mean that we will be at full strength when its time to deal with Euan.”
“I may be getting closer to an opportunity,” Ilona Comeyn told him, Ellis Vinedresser’s limp body having left her immediate attention (since it had been Caleb who had killed him, it would be Caleb who would see to whatever was necessary). “Dear Edgar has been … persuaded … to help us, by getting Concarnadine to come to us. With him in our hands … ”
: : : : :
Given that the Durbar Theatre had formerly been a library, it wasn’t really surprising, when Elizabeth thought about it, that there was a second, small (and original) theatre inside the building.
“They used it for philosophical meetings and debates,” Tremair said. “We never needed to use it till now, but what with the youngsters from the Academy … ”
“Anyway, it’s what we need,” Concarnadine said.
“Good that I had Mr. Concannon clean it up, then.”
“Okay - we’ll all be involved in this,” Concarnadine said, looking round the backstage. “For a start, David, I’ll need you to make sure that, when our guests arrive, they’re taken straight to the theatre, and not allowed to wander anywhere else.”
“I’ll tell Don - he and Jamie will do the escort.”
“What makes you think they’ll come ?” Elizabeth asked: “They wanted a private interview, not a performance.”
“Because you will tell them that I’m in intensive preparation for a world tour, and that the only way I’ll see them is during a rehearsal run.”
“Me ?” she squeaked: “But, they were going to sacrifice … !”
“Exactly. Oh, don’t worry - you’ll meet them at their hotel, in the lounge: they can hardly abduct you from there. Plus I’ll lend you an amulet that will make them think twice.”
“Now, once we get them here, I’m aiming on doing about twenty minutes to get them settled, and then we go for the kill. Mr. Linkletter will be the catalyst, but we’ll need to establish Urtu ab first, so that he can read them.”
“What will you be doing ?” Linkletter asked, nervously.
“Stopping them from killing you,” Concarnadine replied. “I imagine that will be the immediate priority once they know you are present.”
: : : : :
“Ilona, my dear - is it essential that we go to this performance ? I cannot understand why this man cannot come to the hotel - after all, we’ll only be talking for ten minutes, won’t we ?”
“Edgar - this will be over as quickly as I can organise it to be. Not a moment longer, I promise you. But Mr. Concarnadine has been interfering in some of my work … ”
“Yes: one day, my dearest, you must explain to me exactly what it is that you do - ”
But then the concierge came to tell them that their car was there, and the conversation had to be put on hold (not that Ilona Comeyn had any intention of telling her husband what it was she did on her ‘business trips’).
The trip to the theatre took twenty minutes, twenty minutes during which Edgar Comeyn looked out at a London he had never properly understood, and Ilona went over and over with herself her plan for dealing with this interfering stage-magician. But, when they arrived at the theatre, they were a little surprised to find not only the theatre staff waiting for them but also two taxi-loads of people they knew. In Ilona’s case, these were Caleb and Trehana Rehayne, who was one of the leading candidates to join the Five.
“What are you doing here ?” she hissed, trying to keep Edgar from asking who her friends were (though he seemed busy enough with the occupants of the other cab).
“I thought you’d sent for us,” Caleb said. “The other two couldn’t make it but - ”
“Sshh !” Edgar was coming over, and Ilona didn’t want more questions than were essential.
“Ilona, my dear - do you remember Septimus FitzLawrence ? He came to see us in Yorkshire about eight months ago; he’s an associate of the Company … Galtres, you see … though he rarely leaves London.”
Ilona shook FitzLawrence’s hand, trying to suppress her fury: this was the fool whom Euan was supposed to have found and had killed, so that they could seize control of one of the Mystic Grails.
“And this is Mr.Barratt - I gather he’s a new acquaintance of Septimus’s.”
The fury was replaced by ice, as Detective Inspector Barratt (with whom she had spent so many tedious hours only a few days earlier, on one of the trips Edgar hadn’t had to know about) stepped out from behind FitzLawrence and held out his hand.
“A pleasure to meet you, Lady Comeyn: Septimus has told me so much about you.” And his unctuous, almost servile tone gave the lie to Edgar against the fact that she knew him to be a ruthless and implacable police officer. Why, he’d even suppressed his hint of Scots accent.
“My Lord, my Lady, Ms. Rehayne, gentlemen: may I show you in ?” David Tremair’s voice broke in and the tableau broke as they followed him.
: : : : :
The dancing bouquets of flowers were nothing outstanding, but the Cornucopia, seen from the relatively closer quarters, was impressive, and did a lot to set all of them at ease. When the Mystic Sphinx was brought out, however, Concarnadine could sense the tension level ratcheting upwards, as the audience (or key members of it) feared that their minds were to be read. Instead, he brought Elizabeth out, and they demonstrated how the Sphinx was able not only to read her mind, but also to transmit images from its mind to hers (except that, of course, the audience assumed that Urtu ab was but a Coad-stone statue, in some way deftly manipulated to make it appear to move, and it was Concarnadine who, in some way, was engaged in the telepathic contact).
Then the demonstration was over and Elizabeth was heading off-stage, leaving the Sphinx behind.
“For my next trick,” Concarnadine said, while both Sir Edgar and Lady Ilona Comeyn (for their different reasons) wondered exactly how much more of this they were expected to endure, “I shall use an assistant to show that solid objects can be used to interpenetrate each other, without damage … ”
He could have been reciting Coleridge’s Xanadu for all that it mattered. On cue, Euan Linkletter had stepped from behind the wings curtain, and at once the triangle which Concarnadine had set up fell into place, as the Comeyns and their two cohorts caught sight of the man. In that moment the entire attention of the four members of the audience for which all this had been arranged was utterly taken, and Concarnadine was free to act.
: : : : :
Borin stood beside Elizabeth, in the little backstage area. On the table in front of them lay a map of London, stretching out to the farther extents of the suburbs. On a second table there were copies of larger-scale maps covering all the same area in greater detail, as well as maps of the London hinterland, just in case they were required.
On-stage, Concarnadine had conjured a point of light from thin air, and then had focussed his will, through the light, to capture and hold the consciousness of his audience. In the case of FitzLawrence and Barratt, the effect was simply to encourage their eyes to adjust to the lighting so that they would be able, for the future, to certify that nothing untoward happened.
So far as Sir Edgar was concerned, he was watching the exact “trick” Concarnadine had promised. The only thing which might have caused remark was that while, to him, the whole thing was taking place in a matter of scant minutes, so far as everyone else was concerned, more than forty minutes were passing.
Linkletter was caught up in a slight variation of the hypnosis Urtu-ab was applying: his role was to act as a lie-detector - were Ilona or the other two to give a reply which he knew to be false, he would react. Otherwise, Euan would simply remain calm and serene.
The main thrust of the hypnosis was Ilona Comeyn, with Caleb and Trehana as secondary subjects.
“You will answer my questions honestly and succinctly. You will not deliberately omit material form your answers but neither will you indulge in irrelevancies. The Crocodile, the Jackal and the Vulture will hear and assess your words. So speaks Urtu-ab, servant to Great Nitocris.”
Before the Sphinx their three human minds lay like open books. And anything he read he could transmit, flawlessly, to Elizabeth Stellamer. The problem … well, there were several, actually: not that Urtu-ab would have confessed any of them. For one thing, people’s minds had moved on by leaps and bounds since the time of Great Nitocris. Urtu-ab could cope when they were minds he knew, like Concarnadine’s or Elizabeth’s (or Borin’s, though he and the dwarf had a, frankly, guarded relationship); he could also cope when, in the show, Concarnadine would have the person involved concentrate on the thing Urtu-ab needed to peel off the top of their mind. This time that luxury was, perforce, denied.
For another, this time he had to find things out which would probably be buried deep within the minds in question. And Urtu-ab could already sense that, while Trehana Rehayne might have a relatively uncrumpled mind, both Ilona Comeyn and Caleb Kingston had minds which had developed twists and dead-ends making it very difficult to navigate.
And there was the issue of Jovimort. Though that hadn’t been his name when Nitocris had ruled. In her day he had been Sun-Apep, and in Urtu-ab’s day he had indwelled in Dj’ua, Queen Nitocris’ nominal uncle (actually a son of a dung-collector who had risen to fame because of his skill in football). Urtu-ab knew that the spirit that was Jovimort was not native to his own plane: equally he knew all too well how powerful Jovimort could become, with willing followers. And these were people whom Jovimort had touched - indeed, glancing into Caleb’s mind, it was clear that he had more than touched, he had “remodelled”: a man who had been amoral at the outset was now fully sociopathic, able to consider killing another living soul on no more than a mere whim.
: : : : :
Finally it was done - there were a series of marks on the maps, with notes in Borin’s hand, on a block-pad, and also some more, in Elizabeth’s flowing script, once the cartographic work had been completed, and Concarnadine and Urtu-ab had moved on to probing the cultists’ memories in other directions.
“I’m glad that’s over.”
“Me too.”
“Do we know how he’s playing them out ?”
“Oh, sh- ”
Borin rushed off, and a few minutes later, while Elizabeth was still getting herself together, there were muffled curses and a stifled scream. She darted out into the corridor, to see Linkletter mopping his brow.
“Does he set all his assistants on fire ?” he asked.
“On fire ?”
“Something called the Incendiary Illusion. Felt like I was being burned alive and then, suddenly, I’m out here, cool and - ”
“Mr. Linkletter, I think it’s time for you to come back, with me.” Barratt’s voice rang out and Linkletter’s shoulders dropped.
“After all, after he’s just burned you alive it would be a little difficult were your former friends to find you were still alive, wouldn’t it ?”
“You did the Incendiary with him ?” Elizabeth was almost (but not quite) shouting (she called it ‘talking with purpose’) “I thought - !”
“It was the best way I could think of to make them think he was dead,” Concarnadine said. “Of course, they wouldn’t have fallen for it, but for the fact that they were under the ‘fluence - ” He waggled his fingers “- but Urtu-ab says that Ilona and Caleb are sure I did him in, mostly because they remember him ranting at me and threatening me with the knife - the rubber knife - I happened to have up there.”
“It’ll wear off.”
“By then, it’ll be a little late. By then, I mean to have settled this, once and for all. In the meantime, Mr. Rejker and his friends can carry on keeping Linkletter alive, for all that they think it’s worth. Now, if you don’t mind, I’m eager to see what you and Urtu-ab managed to pull out of them.”
'Fandom': The Concarnadine Chronicles
Claim: General; Characters
Prompt: #042 :: "Triangle"
Word Count: c. 2500
Rating: PG -13
Summary: The threatened confrontation.
Author's Notes: Ramping the tension up a touch more, as the "End" approaches.
Probably best if you've read the previous few bits, to catch up wth the plot-line.
“Triangle”
“It’s not safe !”
Concarnadine adopted a blank and expression and turned to face Linkletter.
“If he’s here, then Ilona will be, too. And the only reason she’d be here is to find me and use me to keep the Big One quiet.”
Concarnadine glanced at the mirrored wall. It was no secret that Rejker was on the far side and that she could see and hear everything that went on. Officially Linkletter was in the north of Alaska, and only reachable intermittently, while he undertook a survey on behalf of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office of the ecosphere of the Artic icecap. In fact, he had spent almost every hour since his arrest in one or another of Barnaby’s installations, coming clean about a variety of things - his own researches into the necromantic arts, and details of everyone who had assisted him; details of the various libraries he had used (several of which Concarnadine had already contacted, and was planning on (discreetly) ransacking in due course, replacing key volumes with almost-exact-but-bowdlerised duplicates); and, more recently, also the details of a number of … irregular activities … of which he knew, going on within the Civil Service.
“I’m sure you’re worth more alive than as a sacrifice,” he replied; “And if not, I’ll offer you a quicker and more painless death than anyone else.”
: : : : :
“Without Linkletter, we’re considerably - ”
“If,” Ilona Comeyn said, “you’re going to say that you’re other than fully ready, Ellis - ”
“Ilona,” Caleb’s deep, measured voice said: “Calm down. All that Ellis meant - ”
“What I meant,” Ellis Vinedresser said, petulantly, “was that we’re back down to three members of the Five, and that you seem utterly unconcerned.”
Ilona looked him up and down. “If,” she said, contempt dripping from her like tempest rain, “you want to step out - well, I’m sure we can oblige you.”
“That will leave you with only two - ”
“I would rather have two people I can trust - ”
There was a sudden cracking noise, and she looked across towards where Vinedresser had been, to see Caleb gripping the man by the neck … and then releasing his limp body.
“We could have used him as a sacrifice,” she said.
“I know - but would the Master have accepted him ? Better we only give him worthy sacrifices, and preserve our selves. Especially since the traitor has cost us much of the regalia.”
“That wasn’t Euan’s fault - they made him … ”
“Ilona, whether it was his idea or not, we don’t have it any more. And unless you’ve already told the Master … I thought not: well, I don’t imagine that he’ll be very pleased. Now, losing Ellis makes one thing easier - all three of the candidates can be promoted to membership of the Five. Which will mean that we will be at full strength when its time to deal with Euan.”
“I may be getting closer to an opportunity,” Ilona Comeyn told him, Ellis Vinedresser’s limp body having left her immediate attention (since it had been Caleb who had killed him, it would be Caleb who would see to whatever was necessary). “Dear Edgar has been … persuaded … to help us, by getting Concarnadine to come to us. With him in our hands … ”
: : : : :
Given that the Durbar Theatre had formerly been a library, it wasn’t really surprising, when Elizabeth thought about it, that there was a second, small (and original) theatre inside the building.
“They used it for philosophical meetings and debates,” Tremair said. “We never needed to use it till now, but what with the youngsters from the Academy … ”
“Anyway, it’s what we need,” Concarnadine said.
“Good that I had Mr. Concannon clean it up, then.”
“Okay - we’ll all be involved in this,” Concarnadine said, looking round the backstage. “For a start, David, I’ll need you to make sure that, when our guests arrive, they’re taken straight to the theatre, and not allowed to wander anywhere else.”
“I’ll tell Don - he and Jamie will do the escort.”
“What makes you think they’ll come ?” Elizabeth asked: “They wanted a private interview, not a performance.”
“Because you will tell them that I’m in intensive preparation for a world tour, and that the only way I’ll see them is during a rehearsal run.”
“Me ?” she squeaked: “But, they were going to sacrifice … !”
“Exactly. Oh, don’t worry - you’ll meet them at their hotel, in the lounge: they can hardly abduct you from there. Plus I’ll lend you an amulet that will make them think twice.”
“Now, once we get them here, I’m aiming on doing about twenty minutes to get them settled, and then we go for the kill. Mr. Linkletter will be the catalyst, but we’ll need to establish Urtu ab first, so that he can read them.”
“What will you be doing ?” Linkletter asked, nervously.
“Stopping them from killing you,” Concarnadine replied. “I imagine that will be the immediate priority once they know you are present.”
: : : : :
“Ilona, my dear - is it essential that we go to this performance ? I cannot understand why this man cannot come to the hotel - after all, we’ll only be talking for ten minutes, won’t we ?”
“Edgar - this will be over as quickly as I can organise it to be. Not a moment longer, I promise you. But Mr. Concarnadine has been interfering in some of my work … ”
“Yes: one day, my dearest, you must explain to me exactly what it is that you do - ”
But then the concierge came to tell them that their car was there, and the conversation had to be put on hold (not that Ilona Comeyn had any intention of telling her husband what it was she did on her ‘business trips’).
The trip to the theatre took twenty minutes, twenty minutes during which Edgar Comeyn looked out at a London he had never properly understood, and Ilona went over and over with herself her plan for dealing with this interfering stage-magician. But, when they arrived at the theatre, they were a little surprised to find not only the theatre staff waiting for them but also two taxi-loads of people they knew. In Ilona’s case, these were Caleb and Trehana Rehayne, who was one of the leading candidates to join the Five.
“What are you doing here ?” she hissed, trying to keep Edgar from asking who her friends were (though he seemed busy enough with the occupants of the other cab).
“I thought you’d sent for us,” Caleb said. “The other two couldn’t make it but - ”
“Sshh !” Edgar was coming over, and Ilona didn’t want more questions than were essential.
“Ilona, my dear - do you remember Septimus FitzLawrence ? He came to see us in Yorkshire about eight months ago; he’s an associate of the Company … Galtres, you see … though he rarely leaves London.”
Ilona shook FitzLawrence’s hand, trying to suppress her fury: this was the fool whom Euan was supposed to have found and had killed, so that they could seize control of one of the Mystic Grails.
“And this is Mr.Barratt - I gather he’s a new acquaintance of Septimus’s.”
The fury was replaced by ice, as Detective Inspector Barratt (with whom she had spent so many tedious hours only a few days earlier, on one of the trips Edgar hadn’t had to know about) stepped out from behind FitzLawrence and held out his hand.
“A pleasure to meet you, Lady Comeyn: Septimus has told me so much about you.” And his unctuous, almost servile tone gave the lie to Edgar against the fact that she knew him to be a ruthless and implacable police officer. Why, he’d even suppressed his hint of Scots accent.
“My Lord, my Lady, Ms. Rehayne, gentlemen: may I show you in ?” David Tremair’s voice broke in and the tableau broke as they followed him.
: : : : :
The dancing bouquets of flowers were nothing outstanding, but the Cornucopia, seen from the relatively closer quarters, was impressive, and did a lot to set all of them at ease. When the Mystic Sphinx was brought out, however, Concarnadine could sense the tension level ratcheting upwards, as the audience (or key members of it) feared that their minds were to be read. Instead, he brought Elizabeth out, and they demonstrated how the Sphinx was able not only to read her mind, but also to transmit images from its mind to hers (except that, of course, the audience assumed that Urtu ab was but a Coad-stone statue, in some way deftly manipulated to make it appear to move, and it was Concarnadine who, in some way, was engaged in the telepathic contact).
Then the demonstration was over and Elizabeth was heading off-stage, leaving the Sphinx behind.
“For my next trick,” Concarnadine said, while both Sir Edgar and Lady Ilona Comeyn (for their different reasons) wondered exactly how much more of this they were expected to endure, “I shall use an assistant to show that solid objects can be used to interpenetrate each other, without damage … ”
He could have been reciting Coleridge’s Xanadu for all that it mattered. On cue, Euan Linkletter had stepped from behind the wings curtain, and at once the triangle which Concarnadine had set up fell into place, as the Comeyns and their two cohorts caught sight of the man. In that moment the entire attention of the four members of the audience for which all this had been arranged was utterly taken, and Concarnadine was free to act.
: : : : :
Borin stood beside Elizabeth, in the little backstage area. On the table in front of them lay a map of London, stretching out to the farther extents of the suburbs. On a second table there were copies of larger-scale maps covering all the same area in greater detail, as well as maps of the London hinterland, just in case they were required.
On-stage, Concarnadine had conjured a point of light from thin air, and then had focussed his will, through the light, to capture and hold the consciousness of his audience. In the case of FitzLawrence and Barratt, the effect was simply to encourage their eyes to adjust to the lighting so that they would be able, for the future, to certify that nothing untoward happened.
So far as Sir Edgar was concerned, he was watching the exact “trick” Concarnadine had promised. The only thing which might have caused remark was that while, to him, the whole thing was taking place in a matter of scant minutes, so far as everyone else was concerned, more than forty minutes were passing.
Linkletter was caught up in a slight variation of the hypnosis Urtu-ab was applying: his role was to act as a lie-detector - were Ilona or the other two to give a reply which he knew to be false, he would react. Otherwise, Euan would simply remain calm and serene.
The main thrust of the hypnosis was Ilona Comeyn, with Caleb and Trehana as secondary subjects.
“You will answer my questions honestly and succinctly. You will not deliberately omit material form your answers but neither will you indulge in irrelevancies. The Crocodile, the Jackal and the Vulture will hear and assess your words. So speaks Urtu-ab, servant to Great Nitocris.”
Before the Sphinx their three human minds lay like open books. And anything he read he could transmit, flawlessly, to Elizabeth Stellamer. The problem … well, there were several, actually: not that Urtu-ab would have confessed any of them. For one thing, people’s minds had moved on by leaps and bounds since the time of Great Nitocris. Urtu-ab could cope when they were minds he knew, like Concarnadine’s or Elizabeth’s (or Borin’s, though he and the dwarf had a, frankly, guarded relationship); he could also cope when, in the show, Concarnadine would have the person involved concentrate on the thing Urtu-ab needed to peel off the top of their mind. This time that luxury was, perforce, denied.
For another, this time he had to find things out which would probably be buried deep within the minds in question. And Urtu-ab could already sense that, while Trehana Rehayne might have a relatively uncrumpled mind, both Ilona Comeyn and Caleb Kingston had minds which had developed twists and dead-ends making it very difficult to navigate.
And there was the issue of Jovimort. Though that hadn’t been his name when Nitocris had ruled. In her day he had been Sun-Apep, and in Urtu-ab’s day he had indwelled in Dj’ua, Queen Nitocris’ nominal uncle (actually a son of a dung-collector who had risen to fame because of his skill in football). Urtu-ab knew that the spirit that was Jovimort was not native to his own plane: equally he knew all too well how powerful Jovimort could become, with willing followers. And these were people whom Jovimort had touched - indeed, glancing into Caleb’s mind, it was clear that he had more than touched, he had “remodelled”: a man who had been amoral at the outset was now fully sociopathic, able to consider killing another living soul on no more than a mere whim.
: : : : :
Finally it was done - there were a series of marks on the maps, with notes in Borin’s hand, on a block-pad, and also some more, in Elizabeth’s flowing script, once the cartographic work had been completed, and Concarnadine and Urtu-ab had moved on to probing the cultists’ memories in other directions.
“I’m glad that’s over.”
“Me too.”
“Do we know how he’s playing them out ?”
“Oh, sh- ”
Borin rushed off, and a few minutes later, while Elizabeth was still getting herself together, there were muffled curses and a stifled scream. She darted out into the corridor, to see Linkletter mopping his brow.
“Does he set all his assistants on fire ?” he asked.
“On fire ?”
“Something called the Incendiary Illusion. Felt like I was being burned alive and then, suddenly, I’m out here, cool and - ”
“Mr. Linkletter, I think it’s time for you to come back, with me.” Barratt’s voice rang out and Linkletter’s shoulders dropped.
“After all, after he’s just burned you alive it would be a little difficult were your former friends to find you were still alive, wouldn’t it ?”
“You did the Incendiary with him ?” Elizabeth was almost (but not quite) shouting (she called it ‘talking with purpose’) “I thought - !”
“It was the best way I could think of to make them think he was dead,” Concarnadine said. “Of course, they wouldn’t have fallen for it, but for the fact that they were under the ‘fluence - ” He waggled his fingers “- but Urtu-ab says that Ilona and Caleb are sure I did him in, mostly because they remember him ranting at me and threatening me with the knife - the rubber knife - I happened to have up there.”
“It’ll wear off.”
“By then, it’ll be a little late. By then, I mean to have settled this, once and for all. In the meantime, Mr. Rejker and his friends can carry on keeping Linkletter alive, for all that they think it’s worth. Now, if you don’t mind, I’m eager to see what you and Urtu-ab managed to pull out of them.”