Guy Adams - The Clown Service

‘I was actually there for one of the experiments. The body was subjected to a sonic wave, a trigger signal I assume, activating the nervous system. I watched the corpse of a homeless man suddenly thrash and contort on the operating table, a violent wreck. It was utterly silent; I think that was the most disturbing thing – it didn’t scream or grunt, its face was rigid and empty. It just fought .

‘They kept it alive for four days. Four days of this thing beating itself (or anyone or anything that came anywhere near it).

‘I remember one of the other men in the team crossing himself and offering an apologetic prayer. “It fights to be free,” he said. “It knows it’s unnatural, is desperate to return to the darkness.” We Russians always were pompous old sods.

‘Having brought it back to life, they couldn’t “kill” it again. Whatever they did, it continued to writhe around. In the end they cut it up and dumped it.

‘Krishnin was ordered to cease the experiment, to reassign the funding and men to something more palatable and actually viable. But Krishnin was not a man to give up so easily. Besides, he had already been pursuing Black Earth off his own bat for some time. He considered the experiment a success and had already rolled out a program of contamination. The serum was being distributed on a large scale; undertakers all over the country were using it. Security was negligible – nobody worries about poisoning the dead. The serum was spread far and wide.’

‘And then?’

‘This went on for some considerable time. Krishnin was determined he would prove our government wrong. In the end though, he was shot, and as far as we were concerned the matter was buried. Literally.’

I took my phone out of my pocket and triggered the app. ‘It’s been dug up again.’

‘ Eight hundred and seventy three, five, five, seven, five, five, seven …’

‘When that countdown reaches zero, I imagine we’ll be seeing a lot more bodies clawing their way back onto our streets. How many?’

Gavrill looked panicked. ‘I don’t know, I really don’t… but… hundreds of thousands! You have to understand we were distributing that stuff for well over a year. Nearly two. Shining only became aware of it when Krishnin returned from that final visit to Moscow.’

Wonderful. A fifty-year-old time bomb, ignored by everyone, was about to blow up on my watch.

‘We have to stop the control signal,’ said Gavrill. ‘It’s the only thing we can do. A bomb without a trigger is nothing.’

‘No shit, Ivan,’ I said, biting down on The Fear.

This was too much. I had to find a way of getting the rest of the Service involved. There was no way I could handle it on my own. But would anyone believe me? I had the evidence of Harry Reid… but could I convince them that he was only the tip of the iceberg? That there might be whole armies waiting to follow his example?

‘So stupid,’ Gavrill was saying, his manner, calm until then, overcome by his own panic. ‘He should never have been allowed to operate. They knew what he was like, knew he was mad. That thing he did, that ability of his… you’re not supposed to be able to take your body with you. That was what did it. That’s what turned him, I’m sure of it…’

Some of his words filtered through my thoughts and triggered an alarm at the back of my head. I realised that I hadn’t asked the one question of him I should have done. Suddenly The Fear lifted.

‘Say that again…’

‘Are you all right, Krishnin old chap? I heard one hell of a kerfuffle going on upstairs. Argumentative rats? Oh… If you’ll forgive me for noticing, you don’t look your best either. Something happen to your chest? You look like someone’s been using you as a pin cushion for a particularly lethal pin.’

‘I have been keeping an eye on your colleagues. For someone who claims to be working on his own, you seem surrounded by people.’

‘A few well-meaning amateurs, perhaps, nothing more. Did one of them take umbrage? With something sharp?’

‘It is of no consequence. I am in a better condition than you, I think.’

‘There’s nothing wrong with me some stitches, ibuprofen and a lazy week in Brighton won’t fix. We Shinings heal quickly.’

‘Then perhaps I should see about making your condition more permanent.’

‘If you were going to kill me, you’d have done so by now. It’s obvious I don’t know anything and, even if I did, tied to a chair and steadily bleeding on my nice suit trousers, I’m not in a position to do much with the knowledge. I suppose you craved the company?’

‘It has been a quiet few years. It is better here if one keeps to oneself.’

‘A strange choice for a base of operations, certainly.’

‘It is peaceful and, thanks to my unusual condition, the residents tend to leave me alone.’

‘Unusual condition. Yes. I’m impressed. You move well, considering. Is there a gym here?’

‘I am better than most. My motor functions seem relatively unimpaired. Other test subjects varied. The process is imperfect. So far, for example, I have been the only candidate with sufficient strength of will to continue functioning intelligently.’

‘Strength of will? From what you said I think it’s more likely you owe your continued thought-processes to my youthful squeamishness. I didn’t take a head-shot. You died slowly. The transition was controlled, the switch from one state of being to the other gradual. How long were you even medically brain dead I wonder? Seconds?’

‘I wasn’t in a fit state to judge.’

‘I imagine not. Could have made all the difference though, don’t you think?’

‘It doesn’t matter. Intelligence isn’t necessary to have Black Earth prove a success. I need an army of fighters not thinkers.’

‘A common enough assumption on the part of dictators.’

‘A dictator? No. I have no wish to rule. I just want to destroy things.’

‘Hardly a noble goal. I realise we never knew each other that well, but I confess I expected better from you. I thought you were a man of learning?’

‘I am. I have learned what I would like to do.’

‘But why? Where’s the gain? Is it revenge? Is it ideology?’

‘There must have been a good reason once. As the years have gone by it becomes hard to remember. Does it matter?’

‘Of course it matters! You’re proposing to be responsible for the deaths of thousands of people. You can’t just do that sort of thing on a whim.’

‘It feels like I can. And that might be the most important thing. I do it because I can.’

‘That’s an aphorism for climbing mountains, not mass slaughter. You said before that you want power, you want control… Power over whom? Control over what?’

‘I don’t know. You’re trying to analyse me. Trying to understand me. Why? Is it because you think that knowledge will help you talk me out of what I want to do?’

‘Yes, of course.’

‘But the thing I really want, the thing that drives me more than anything else is to see this happen. You have nothing to argue against. I am doing this because I want to.’

‘But there must be a reason…’

‘Must there? Not anymore. I am a simpler man. I am a force. A solid punch aimed at your country. I look forward greatly to clenching my fist.’

a) Sampson Court, King’s Cross, London

I pressed the doorbell at number sixty-three, and paced up and down waiting for it to be answered.

‘Oh, it’s you…’ It was Jamie. ‘How unexpected and slightly annoying – I’m on the last few pages of Death Comes as the End and it’s all working out rather well.’