Taltos

Eighteen

“I THINK WE should leave now,” said Marklin.

He lay on Tommy’s bed, his head resting on his clasped hands, studying over and over the knots in the wood of the bed’s coffered canopy.

Tommy sat at the desk, feet crossed on the black leather ottoman. This room was larger than Marklin’s, with a southern exposure, but he had never resented it. He had loved his own room. Well, he was ready now to get out of it. He had packed everything of importance in one suitcase, and hidden it under his own bed.

“Call it a premonition. I don’t want to stay here,” he said. “There’s no reason to stay longer.”

“You’re being fatalistic and a bit silly,” said Tommy.

“Look, you’ve wiped the computers. Stuart’s quarters are absolutely impenetrable, unless we want to risk breaking in the doors, and I don’t like being under a curfew.”

“The curfew is for everyone, may I remind you, and if we were to leave now, we wouldn’t make it to the door without a dozen questions. Besides, to walk out before the memorial service would be blatantly disrespectful.”

“Tommy, I can’t endure some tenebrious ceremony in the small hours of the morning, with a lot of preposterous speeches about Anton and Aaron. I want to go now. Customs; rituals. These people are fools, Tommy. It’s too late to be anything but frank. There are back stairs; there are side stairs. I’m for leaving here immediately. I have things on my mind. I have work to do.”

“I want to do what they asked us to do,” said Tommy, “which is what I intend to do. Observe the curfew they have asked us to observe. And go down when the bell is sounded. Now, please, Marklin, if you have nothing insightful or helpful to say, be quiet, will you?”

“Why should I be quiet? Why do you want to stay here?”

“All right, if you must know, we may have a chance during the memorial, or whatever it is, to find out where Stuart is keeping Tessa.”

“How could we find out that?”

“Stuart’s not a rich man, Marklin. He’s bound to have a home somewhere, a place we’ve never seen, some ancestral manse or something. Now, if we play our cards right, we can ask a few questions about this subject, out of concern, of course, for Stuart. Have you got a better idea?”

“Tommy, I don’t think Stuart would hide Tessa in a place that was known to be his home. He’s a coward, perhaps, a melodramatic lunatic even, but he’s not stupid. We are not going to find Stuart. And we are not going to find Tessa.”

“Then what do we do?” asked Tommy. “Abandon everything? With what we know?”

“No. We leave here. We go back to Regent’s Park. And we think. We think about something far more important to us now than anything the Talamasca can offer.”

“Which is?”

“We think, Tommy, about the Mayfair witches. We go over Aaron’s last fax to the Elders. And we study the File, we study it closely for every clue as to which of the clan is most useful for our purposes.”

“You’re going too fast,” said Tommy. “What do you mean to do? Kidnap a couple of Americans?”

“We can’t discuss it here. We can’t plan anything. Look, I’ll wait till the damned ceremony starts, but then I’m leaving. I’m stepping out at the first opportunity. You can come later if you like.”

“Don’t be stupid,” said Tommy. “I don’t have a car. I have to go with you. And what if Stuart’s at the ceremony? Have you thought of that?”

“Stuart’s not coming back here. He has better sense. Now, listen, Tommy. This is my final decision. I’ll stay for the beginning of the ceremony, I’ll pay my respects, chat with a few of the members, that sort of thing. And then I’m out of here! And on, on to my rendezvous with the Mayfair witches, Stuart and Tessa be damned.”

“All right, I’ll go with you.”

“That’s better. That’s intelligent. That’s my practical Tommy.”

“Get some sleep then. They didn’t say when they’d call us. And you’re the one who’s going to drive.”