Elisabeth Kostova - The Historian

“‘Very good.’ He tucked it into his breast pocket. ‘And here’s my card for you. I do hope we’ll be running into each other again.’ We sat there in silence for a few seconds, his gaze lowered to the table with its empty cups and plates and flickering candle flame. ‘Look here,’ he said finally. ‘If all you’ve said is true-or all Rossi said, anyway-and there is a Count Dracula, or a Vlad the Impaler-extant-in some awful sense, then I’d like to help you -’

“‘Eradicate him?’ I finished quietly. ‘I’ll remember that.’

“There seemed to be nothing left for us to say just now, although I hoped we would talk again someday. We found a taxi to take us back to Pest, and he insisted on walking me into the hotel. We were saying a cordial good-bye at the front desk when the clerk I’d talked with earlier suddenly came out of his cubicle and grasped my arm. ‘Herr Paul!’ he said urgently.

“‘What is it?’ Hugh and I both turned to stare at the man. He was a tall, drooping man in a blue worker’s jacket, with mustaches that would have suited a Hun warrior. He pulled me close to speak in a low voice, and I managed to signal to Hugh not to leave us. There was no one else in sight, and I didn’t especially want to be alone with any new crisis.

“‘Herr Paul, I know who was in yourzimmer this afternoon.’

“‘What? Who?’ I said.

“‘Hmm, hmm.’ The clerk began almost to hum to himself and to glance around, searching his jacket pocket in what would have been a meaningful way if only I’d understood his meaning. I wondered if the man was some sort of idiot.

“‘He wants a bribe,’ Hugh translated in an undertone.

“‘Oh, for heaven’s sake,’ I said in exasperation, but the man’s eyes seemed to glaze over, brightening only when I fished out two large Hungarian bills. He took them secretively and hid them in his pocket, but said nothing to acknowledge my capitulation.

“‘Herr American,’ he whispered. ‘I know it was not onlyein man from this afternoon. It is two men. One comes in first, very important man. Then the other. I see him when I go up with a suitcase to anotherzimmer. Then I see them. They talk. They walk out together.’

“‘Didn’t anyone stop them?’ I snapped. ‘Who were they? Were they Hungarian?’ The man was glancing all around him again, and I suppressed the urge to throttle him. This atmosphere of censorship was taking a toll on my nerves. I must have looked angry, because Hugh put a restraining hand on my arm.

“‘Important man Hungarian. Other man not Hungarian.’

“‘How do you know?’

“He lowered his voice. ‘One man Hungarian, but they speaksAnglisch together.’ That was all he would say, despite my increasingly threatening questions. Since he had apparently decided he’d given me enough information for the number of forints I’d handed over, I might never have heard another word from him had it not been for something that seemed suddenly to catch his attention. He was looking past me, and after a second I turned, too, to follow his gaze through the great window by the hotel door. Through it, for a split second, I saw a hungry, hollow-eyed countenance I’d come to know much too well, a face that belonged in a grave, not on the street. The clerk was spluttering, clinging to my arm. ‘There he is, with his devil face-theAnglischer man!’

“With what must have been a howl, I shook off the clerk and ran for the door; Hugh, with great presence of mind (I later realized), plucked an umbrella from the stand by the desk and bolted after me. Even in my alarm, I kept a tight grip on my briefcase, and that slowed me down as I ran. We turned this way and that, dashed up the street and back, but it was no use. I hadn’t even heard the man’s footsteps, so I couldn’t tell which way he’d fled.

“Finally, I stopped to lean against the side of a building, trying to catch my breath. Hugh was panting hard. ‘What was it?’ he gasped.

“‘The librarian,’ I said when I could manage a few words. ‘The one who followed us to Istanbul. I’m sure it was him.’

“‘Good Lord.’ Hugh wiped his forehead with his sleeve. ‘What’s he doing here?’

“‘Trying to get the rest of my notes,’ I wheezed. ‘He’s a vampire, if you can believe that, and now we’ve led him to this beautiful city.’ Actually, I said more than that, and Hugh must have recognized from our common language all the American variants of infuriation. The thought of the curse I was trailing almost brought tears to my eyes.

“‘Come, now,’ Hugh said soothingly. ‘They’ve had vampires here before, as we know.’ But his face was white and he stared around him, gripping the umbrella.

“‘Blast it!’ I beat the side of the building with my fist.

“‘You’ve got to keep a close eye out,’ Hugh said soberly. ‘Is Miss Rossi back?’

“‘Helen!’ I hadn’t thought of her at once, and Hugh seemed on the verge of a smile at my exclamation. ‘I’ll go back now and check. I’m going to call Professor Bora, too. Look, Hugh-you keep a close eye out, too. Be careful, all right? He saw you with me, and that doesn’t seem to be good luck for anyone these days.’

“‘Don’t worry about me.’ Hugh was looking thoughtfully at the umbrella in his hand. ‘How much did you pay that clerk?’

“I laughed in spite of my breathlessness. ‘Yes, keep it on you.’ We shook hands heartily, and Hugh vanished up the street in the direction of his hotel, which wasn’t far. I didn’t like his going on his own, but there were people in the street now, strolling and talking. In any case, I knew he’d always go his own way; he was that sort of man.

“Back in the hotel lobby, there was no sign of the terrified clerk. Perhaps it was only that his shift had ended, for a clean-shaven young man had taken his place behind the counter. He showed me that the key to Helen’s new room was on its hook, so I knew she must still be with her aunt. The young man let me use the phone, after a careful arrangement for the cost, and then it took me a couple of tries to make Turgut’s number ring. It galled me to call from the hotel phone, which I knew could be bugged, but it was the only possibility at this hour. I would have to hope our conversation would be too peculiar to be understood. At last I heard a clicking on the line, and then Turgut’s voice, far away but jovial, answering in Turkish.

“‘Professor Bora!’ I shouted. ‘Turgut, it’s Paul, calling from Budapest.’

“‘Paul, my dear man!’ I thought I’d never heard anything sweeter than that rumbling, distant voice. ‘There’s some problem on the line-give me your number there in case we are cut asunder.’

“I got it from the hotel clerk and shouted it to him. He shouted back. ‘How are you? Have you found him?’

“‘No!’ I shouted. ‘We are fine, and I’ve learned a little more, but something awful has happened.’

“‘What is that?’ I could hear his consternation, faintly, over the line. ‘Have you been hurt? Miss Rossi?’

“‘No-we’re fine, but the librarian has followed us here.’ I heard a swell of words that could have been some Shakespearean curse but was impossible to distinguish from the static. ‘What do you think we should do?’

“‘I don’t know yet.’ Turgut’s voice was a little clearer now. ‘Do you carry all the time the kit I gave you?’

“‘Yes,’ I said. ‘But I can’t get close enough to this ghoul to do anything with it. I think he searched my room today while we were at the conference, and apparently someone helped him.’ Perhaps the police were listening in at this very moment. Who knew what they would make of all this anyway?

“‘Be very careful, Professor.’ Turgut sounded worried. ‘I do not have any wise advice for you, but I shall have some news soon, maybe even before you return to Istanbul. I am glad you called tonight. Mr. Aksoy and I have found a new document, one neither one of us has ever seen before. He found it in the archive of Mehmed. This document was written by a monk of the Eastern Orthodox Church in 1477, and it must be translated.’