‘I have to find someone.’
‘Who?’
‘I have information that there is a guide somewhere in this place.’
The girl laughed. It was short, sharp and with a trace of a sneer.
‘I should have guessed you’d be after him. There are always people coming from outside looking for him. They usually want him to take them somewhere. You’re wasting your time, you know. He never goes. He won’t do it any more.’
‘Why is that? Surely it is his gift? A man cannot turn his back on his gift.’
‘He can. He finds it really easy. Ever since he got into sensory deprivation he’s found it really easy.’
Jeb Stuart Ho’s face formed itself into a look of grim patience.
‘He will go this time.’
***
The Minstrel Boy could feel something and he didn’t like it. Something was reaching into his cosy cocooned tank. Something touched him. He’d felt nothing for so long that it affected his nerves. He twisted away from it, and the pads over his eyes slipped. Light smashed into his head. The Minstrel Boy went rigid. Every response silently screamed. His legs kicked convulsively. The touch came again. It was more deliberate this time. It was a hand. It was reaching for the drip feed. It was trying to remove it from his arm.
Anger exploded inside the Minstrel Boy. It was intolerable. Someone was actually interfering with him, bringing him back to reality. His privacy was being invaded. His consciousness was being changed against his will. What gave anyone the right to mess with him like that?
In one violent move he surfaced. He sat up inside the coffin-shaped cubicle. It was the only thing in the high stone turret room. He tore the headphones from his ears. The amplified sound of his own circulation abruptly stopped.
‘What the fuck …’
The real world crashed in on him. He felt sick and dropped back on to the cushioned interior of the coffin. He tried it a little more gently this time. Carefully he opened his eyes again. The light still hurt, but it was bearable. He found that he could see. He didn’t like what he saw.
A tall thin man in a black cloak was standing beside the black steel coffin. The clear plastic feeder tube was still in his hand. The Minstrel Boy sat up, slowly and carefully this time.
‘What the fuck do you think you’re doing? What makes you think you can walk in here and drag me down to your level?’
Jeb Stuart Ho looked calmly at the Minstrel Boy.
‘I have need of you.’
The Minstrel Boy’s first response was to try to damage this stranger who had caused him so much pain. He checked the impulse when he saw the array of weapons hung around the man’s body. Instead, he rested an arm on the side of the coffin and curled his lip.
‘I suppose you think you can get me to go with you? I suppose you think you can threaten me with violence?’
Jeb Stuart Ho stared steadily at the Minstrel Boy.
‘I could, but that isn’t the way that I operate.’
The Minstrel Boy laughed harshly.
‘That’s not the way you operate? I’ll tell you one thing, you won’t get me to go anywhere any other way.’
Jeb Stuart Ho shrugged.
‘I think you’ll come with me in the end.’
‘You think that? Is that what you think?’
‘I’m confident that you’ll guide me.’
‘Confident, hey? So what makes you so fucking confident? I like this place. I don’t have to move, I don’t have to think. I’m quite happy here, in fact I love it. I don’t see any way you could get me to leave here without holding a gun to my head.’
Jeb Stuart Ho shook his head.
‘I don’t think that will be necessary.’
‘You don’t, hey? You don’t think it’ll be necessary?’
‘I don’t.’
‘So what do you intend to do?’
‘I thought that if I explained the nature of my task to you, you might become more willing to guide me.’
‘Explain the nature of your task? You got to be crazy. Can’t you understand that I’m just not interested? I’ve had it. I’ve had it with the travelling and the concentrating. Knowing where you are don’t come easy. You have to work at it. There are times when it actually hurts. I don’t need it. I don’t give a fuck what high-minded mission you got. I don’t want to know.’
Jeb Stuart Ho waited until the Minstrel Boy had finished, then he spoke very softly.
‘I am from the temple. My task is an executive assignment.’
The Minstrel Boy sneered.
‘Is that supposed to frighten me? Is that supposed to fill me with awe? It might have done, years ago, but now I just don’t care. I’m never going travelling again. You’ll have to find someone else.’
‘You’re the one I need.’
‘I’m not the one you’re going to get. I’m staying right here.’
Jeb Stuart Ho stroked his chin.
‘You are a guest here. Perhaps your hosts would not be so anxious for you to stay here if they knew you had incurred the displeasure of the temple.’
The Minstrel Boy laughed.
‘For a temple executive you really don’t know very much. You ought to do a bit more homework. The One who rules this place don’t care whose displeasure He incurs. He don’t care.’
‘The temple is very powerful.’
‘So the temple’s powerful, He’s not interested. He’s not even interested that Wainscote is falling apart around Him. He just lies in His vault and soaks up energy from the fools at the party. If that ever stops, then maybe He’ll wake and move out into the world. When that happens, even the temple won’t be able to stop Him doing what He wants. He’s invincible.’
‘And you want to be just like Him.’
The Minstrel Boy shook his head.
‘That’s where you’re wrong. I don’t want anything, or, more to the point, I want nothing. I badly want nothing at all. You understand?’
Jeb Stuart Ho nodded.
‘I understand, but it seems a very negative attitude.’
‘That’s right. That’s exactly what it is. Negative. That’s for me, Mister Executive.’
‘So it would be no use outlining the importance of my task?’
The Minstrel Boy grinned.
‘No use at all, buddy. So you might as well move along, and let me go back to sleep.’
Jeb Stuart Ho looked sadly at the Minstrel Boy.
‘You’re putting me in a very difficult position.’
‘That’s really too bad.’
‘In the temple we strive to make every statement an absolute truth.’
‘So?’
‘On the other hand it is of paramount importance that a member of the brotherhood should not fail in an assigned task.’
The Minstrel Boy frowned.
‘I don’t know what the fuck you’re talking about.’
Jeb Stuart Ho sighed
‘I’m attempting to explain the awkward position you have placed me in by your refusal to cooperate.’
The Minstrel Boy began to get annoyed.
‘Can’t I get it across to you that I don’t want to know?’
Jeb Stuart Ho ignored him and went on.
‘By your refusal to cooperate, you are forcing me to go back on a previous statement.’
‘I should worry.’
‘Perhaps you should.’
‘Huh?’
‘I said earlier that I would not use violence or threats of violence to force you to cooperate. Your attitude and the importance of my mission make it necessary to reverse that statement.’
‘What do you mean?’
Jeb Stuart Ho slowly removed the .90 magnum from its holster.
‘If you don’t accompany me on my mission, I’ll kill you.’
The Minstrel Boy’s jaw dropped.
‘You can’t do that. It’s illogical. The brotherhood can’t go around behaving illogically.’
Jeb Stuart Ho trained the gun on the Minstrel Boy.
‘That’s true, but my analysis of the situation indicates that this is the only course. I think we have delayed long enough. You will get out of that coffin and put on your travelling clothes.’