Guy Adams - The Clown Service

I pushed Gavrill inside.

‘How charming,’ Jamie shouted over his shoulder. ‘Alasdair, have you been ordering old men online again?’

‘He’s a neighbour of yours and he has something to discuss with you.’ I looked at Gavrill. ‘Tell him what you just told me.’

The old Russian squirmed. ‘I do not make a habit of discussing state secrets with strangers.’

‘I’m not asking you to make a habit of it. Just tell him about Krishnin.’

‘Should I put the kettle on?’ Jamie asked.

‘Just pay attention.’

Jamie sighed, ushered us through into his lounge and turned off the radio. Lauren Laverne was cut off halfway through extolling the virtues of the latest bright young thing to pick up a guitar and sing about heartbreak.

‘Krishnin was a traveller,’ said Gavrill. ‘He could step out of our plane of existence and into a higher one.’

‘Him and me both,’ said Jamie. He looked to me. ‘Are you trying to get some social club started?’

‘Krishnin had a special skill, though,’ Gavrill continued. ‘Not only could he travel in that other plane mentally, he could pass physically into it. He could step out of our world completely and into the other.’

‘That’s not possible,’ Jamie declared. ‘People are uncertain how to even define the other plane, but most agree on one thing: it’s theoretical not physical. It’s head space, a concept, not a solid geographical location.’

‘You are wrong,’ said Gavrill. ‘It’s both – a region of the mind that exists as a real, solid place. But you are right that Krishnin should not be able to go there. It is the ability to do so that made him the creature he is.’

‘You’ve been there,’ Jamie said to me. ‘You’ve seen what it’s like. A hollow nightmare of a place, outside the physical laws we’re used to. Locations shift, time isn’t a constant… It just isn’t possible – a person can’t physically go there…’

‘It was that skill that made him so precious to my government back then,’ Gavrill continued. ‘Think of it: a perfect spy or assassin, able to step in or out of our world as he chose. You want to plant a bomb at the heart of your enemy’s stronghold? Fine. He will carry it there, place it where needed and then vanish once more.’

‘He can carry other physical objects with him?’

Gavrill nodded. ‘Of course, although in actuality, it wasn’t as simple as that. If we had been able to control such a man, we would have been unstoppable.

‘However, the act of passing between the planes had a great effect on him – it exhausted him. He had to rest between the transitions. More importantly, time is not synchronised between the two planes. There was no way of guaranteeing when he would arrive back in our world once he had left it. His skills looked good on paper, but they didn’t work on a practical level. Still, the potential was there and he was the darling of the Service because of it.’

‘But it affected his mind,’ I prompted.

‘Yes. The other plane, whatever it is, does not like intruders. It tries to repel foreign matter, like a body expelling a bullet. It altered him, twisted him. By the time I met him I’m not entirely sure he was fit for either world. Eventually, as you know, he proved too unreliable and there was no other choice but to have him removed.’

‘Except someone saved you the job.’

‘They did.’

‘Or rather didn’t , as has now been proved by the fact that Krishnin is alive and well and has snatched the old man from beneath my very nose.’

‘Tim’s in trouble?’ asked Jamie.

‘He is, and he needs you to help him.’

Alasdair appeared in the doorway. ‘Oh God, spies again? We must have a word with the council; they can’t keep cluttering up the place.’ With this he promptly retreated.

‘Of course I’m happy to help,’ said Jamie, ignoring Alasdair’s interruption. ‘What do you need me to do?’

‘Where Krishnin’s gone, we need to follow.’

b) Section 37, Wood Green, London

Back at the office and trying not to take out my frustration on the soft furnishings, I was descended on by April. It felt like the last straw on my particularly over-burdened and aching back, but she managed to calm me down.

‘Sit down or I’ll slap you,’ were her words.

I told her everything I’d discovered from Gavrill and filled her in on my plan for Jamie and I to follow Krishnin. She took it all in her stride – was there anything that could ruffle this woman’s feathers? She sat and listened, filling the office with the smoke from endless menthol cigarettes.

‘And you’re still here because… ?’

‘Jamie won’t go right away. He says he needs time to prepare. Which I think means get drunk. Or catch up on The Archers , I really don’t know, but it’s driving me up the wall.’

‘You say that time between this plane and the other doesn’t run in parallel?’

‘Normally, though it’s certainly parallel enough for the countdown to be working. Maybe the radio signal is holding the two in sync? Oh I don’t know… Still, I can’t force him, can I? It does make sense to be refreshed and we have until the 31st. I just can’t reconcile delay with the fact that Shining’s trapped in that place and the clock is ticking.’

‘Understandable, but I suppose you have little choice bar holding a gun to the boy’s head.’

‘Precisely.’

‘And what’s Gavrill doing in the meantime?’

‘Talking endlessly to Moscow, I imagine, preparing a cover story for use when this all blows up in our faces.’

She smiled. ‘Glad to see you’re feeling positive.’

‘Oh for God’s sake, how can I? I thought I was managing, you know? Keeping pace with the weirdness, accepting what was going on and dealing with it the best I could. But now I’ve stopped. The adrenaline is running out and I can’t even begin to get my head around the absurdity of everything .’

‘Oh, it’s all mad, certainly. August’s life always is. I don’t know how he manages. I suppose he’s been doing this so long it’s become second nature. I joke with him, of course, as the one person who knows as much about this section and its cases as he does, but it’s beyond me too. I just let it wash over me. Because I can. Because it’s not my problem. So I do sympathise.’

‘I just…’ I leaned back on the sofa, resting my head and closing my eyes, trying to find a sense of calm. ‘Your brother acted as if I was more than capable of handling all this and, to be honest, that was lovely. That was a first. My career has not been exactly plain-sailing. I’ve made a few mistakes and—’ Was I going to tell her this? Yes. I rather think I was. ‘I’ve been suffering from panic attacks for a few years. They’re not too bad. Nothing compared to some people, certainly. I manage. But August doesn’t really know me. He thinks I’m stronger than I am and right now he’s depending on me and… I can’t share his sense of faith. I am not the man he thinks I am.’

‘I dare say you’re not the man you think you are, either,’ April said. ‘Seems to me the only real problem you have is one of self-doubt. Well, that and a truly disastrous dress-sense, but that’s hardly life-threatening.’

‘What’s wrong with my dress-sense?’

‘We were discussing your sense of self-doubt.’

‘Fuck that! I want to know what your problem is with my suit.’

‘Nothing at all. I’m sure it was excellent value and it’s lovely that you like to donate to charity.’

‘It wasn’t second-hand!’

‘Oh, I was wondering why such a thing would have been bought twice. A catalogue then?’

‘This from the woman who looks like a cake stand in a self-indulgent French patisserie.’