Jack of Ravens

4

In April, Marcy persuaded Gabe that he wouldn’t find anything else in Dallas and if he still wanted to dig for information, they should head east, to New York first, and then to Washington if he could find anything concrete to pursue.

Church was surprised by Tom’s developing affinity for American culture and the music of the times. In the damp-ridden apartment they found for themselves in Queens, he installed a record player on which he would listen to Paul Revere and the Raiders and the Beau Brummels at full volume until the neighbours banged on the walls. He went to clubs on his own, and developed a wide network of eccentric friends. Church began to understand that for Tom, the ultimate outsider cut off from his own time and race by what had been done to him at the Court of the Final Word, this was finally somewhere he could feel at home. In the end they were all trying to forget the past and lose themselves in the present.

As the days grew longer and the leaves started to appear on the trees in the park, Tom returned one afternoon and told Church there was someone he needed to meet.

‘A psychologist,’ Tom said, ‘by the name of Timothy Leary. He evangelises about a drug called LSD. He believes it can unlock areas of consciousness, and set off a big evolutionary leap for mankind.’

‘I’ve heard of him,’ Church said. ‘Nixon called him “the most dangerous man in America”.’

Tom snorted. ‘He has a research centre in a mansion. Good work is being done.’

‘What have you been doing with him?’ Church asked.

‘None of your business.’ Tom pulled out a screwed-up magazine article. ‘This is what he said about his first drug trip: “I could look back and see my body on the bed. I relived my life, and re-experienced many events I had forgotten … The discovery that the human brain possesses an infinity of potentialities and can operate at unexpected space-time dimensions left me feeling exhilarated, awed, and quite convinced that I had awakened from a long ontological sleep. A profound transcendent experience should leave in its wake a changed man and a changed life.” ’

Church realised what Tom was proposing. ‘You want me to drop acid with Timothy Leary? To get my memory back?’

‘Yes.’

‘No.’

‘Hear me out — not just for that,’ Tom said. ‘Leary’s research has given him some perception of the structure of reality-’

‘It’s over, Tom — you’ve got to understand that. I’m not fighting this war any more. Every time I get involved people close to me die. Next time it could be you, or Niamh … Somebody else can do the heavy lifting now.’

Tom folded the article carefully and returned it to his pocket. ‘He’s seen the spiders,’ he said quietly.

‘And don’t go dragging Gabe into all that. He deserves some kind of life before it all goes pear-shaped. If he ignores the Army of the Ten Billion Spiders, they’ll ignore him-’

‘You think that’s how it works?’ Tom said sharply. ‘And what kind of philosophy are you promoting there? Look after yourself and everyone else be damned?’

‘Why not? I haven’t done any good. What’s the point in carrying on, tell me that?’

Niamh and Marcy walked in laughing, but their high spirits ebbed away when they felt the tense atmosphere.

‘Then I’ll just take Gabe,’ Tom said slyly.

Church glared at him. ‘I’ll come. Just to make sure you don’t screw up someone else’s life.’