Petrified (19 page)

Sitting with his legs crossed and a sloping smile on his face was Theodor Zauber, dressed entirely in black – black three-piece suit, black silk shirt, black necktie, black polished shoes. His hands were steepled as if he were about to deliver a lecture, or say a prayer. The bedside lamp was reflected in both lenses of his spectacles.

‘What the hell are
you
doing here?' Nathan demanded.

‘Please do not overexcite yourself, Professor Underhill,' said Theodor Zauber. ‘I am sure that you have suffered quite enough trauma in the past twenty-four hours.'

‘How did you get past security?'

‘Ah, that. You know that my late father taught me the arts of thaumaturgy. I can pass through any security and nobody sees me. You remember Obi-Wan Kenobi in
Star Wars
?'

‘What do you want? I thought I made it pretty damn crystal clear when you came around to my house that I didn't want anything to do with you and your gargoyles.'

‘I know what you did, Professor. I know that you deliberately burned yourself. I also know that you have achieved a miraculous recovery.'

‘Who told you that?'

Theodor Zauber tapped the side of his nose with his fingertip. ‘Like I said, I am a thaumaturge. People will willingly talk to me without realizing who they are talking to and what they are saying.'

Nathan said, ‘Great.' The last thing he needed right now was Theodor Zauber trying to cajole him into helping him. His encounters with Theodor's father had taught him a healthy respect for alchemy and the so-called magical spells that were devised by medieval sorcerers. Without the instructions contained in
Kitab Al-Ajahr, The Book of Stones,
he could never have recreated a phoenix. Although he rarely said so at zoological conventions, he believed that modern scientists could learn a great deal from the dark arts practiced in the Middle Ages.

But it was almost midnight, and he had enough on his plate with his own experiments. More than that, he didn't like Theodor Zauber. He had too much self-esteem, just like his father. And, just like his father, he seemed to have no regard whatsoever for other people's lives. If a few people die in the course of this experiment, so what? The outcome will be worth it for mankind as a whole.

‘I think you need to leave now,' Nathan told him. ‘I don't want to discuss this any further. Not now, not ever.'

‘Ah, but you must,' Theodor Zauber retorted. ‘I have reached a critical stage now with my gargoyles and I urgently need your expertise.'

‘What gargoyles?'

‘The many gargoyles that I have in my possession.'

‘What? I thought you said that they were all stored under the Eastern State Penitentiary, in the vaults.'

‘Until February of this year, they were, yes. But then the board of directors wanted to clear most of them out so that they could open a new exhibition area. They sought tenders to remove them, and my bid was successful. I now have more than a hundred of them in premises of my own.'

‘You're kidding me.'

‘Not at all, Professor. It is the most extraordinary collection of gargoyles that you have ever seen. From France, from Germany, from Poland. They are all gathered together, frozen in time, waiting for the moment when they can be brought back to life.'

‘So what exactly do you want
me
to do?'

Theodor Zauber stood up and walked across to the window. ‘I have been attempting, perhaps rashly, to bring them back to life myself, using a formula devised by Artephius for reversing the process of petrification. To turn the gargoyles into stone, he used his “secret fire”. To change them back, he mixed a liquid he called “quenching water”.'

‘So you've been trying to mix your own “quenching water”? But no luck, huh? That's too bad, Mr Zauber. I'm sorry you got nowhere with it. Maybe you should take up something else for a living, like stage hypnotism. You seem to be pretty good at that.'

‘No,' said Theodor Zauber. ‘The whole point is that I
have
had success. I have already brought several gargoyles back to life. They can walk, they can feed, they can articulate their feelings in cries and screams. They can
fly
.'

Nathan sat up straight. ‘Is this some kind of hoax, Mr Zauber? If it is, I don't find it very rib-tickling, I'm afraid.'

‘Why would I tell you anything but the truth, Professor? Besides, don't they always say that we Germans have no sense of humor?'

‘You're trying to convince me that you have actually succeeded in breathing life back into a creature made of stone?'

‘You don't have to take my word for it, Professor. You can see for yourself.'

With that, Theodor Zauber tugged the cord that drew back the blinds. Nathan's room was on the top floor, and out of the window he could see the ten-story building opposite, which was the physiotherapy wing. Most of the building was in darkness, although a pattern of windows was still lit.

‘What am I supposed to be looking at?' he asked.

Theodor Zauber pointed upward. ‘The roof. Come closer, Professor. You won't be able to see anything from over there.'

Nathan hesitated, but then he swung his legs off the bed and walked across to the window. To his discomfort, Theodor Zauber laid his hand on his shoulder, as if they were old friends.

‘There, Professor. Do you see it, sitting right on the very edge of the roof, next to that satellite dish?'

Nathan could see it quite clearly – a silhouette that looked like one of the gargoyles perched on the steeples of Notre-Dame cathedral in Paris. It had a hunched back, with dragon-like wings folded over it, and stubby horns, and a curved beak.

‘So how did you manage to get
that
baby up there?' he asked Theodor Zauber. ‘If that's a real gargoyle, and not a Styrofoam replica, it must weigh all of half a ton.'

‘I told you. I brought it back to life. It
flew
up there.'

Nathan peered at the silhouette more intently. ‘It's not moving. If it flew up there, I'm a Dutchman. This
is
a hoax, isn't it?'

‘It is not moving, Professor, because it is waiting for me to give it permission to go looking for what it needs. I brought it back to life. I am its master.'

Nathan turned away from the window, shaking his head. ‘What kind of a sucker do you take me for, Mr Zauber? Now – please. I'd very much appreciate it if you went, and let me get some badly-needed sleep.'

‘No, please! Come back here. You
must
see this. I promise you that you will never forget it.'

Nathan took a deep breath. ‘Very well,' he said. ‘But make it quick, whatever it is, and then I want you to go.'

He rejoined Theodor Zauber at the window. The gargoyle was still crouching exactly where it had been before, motionless.

‘Look down there,' said Theodor Zauber, and pointed to the hospital parking lot ten stories below. There were only twenty or thirty cars parked in it tonight, and the only people that Nathan could see were two hospital orderlies standing in a dark corner between the buildings having a surreptitious smoke. The tips of their cigarettes glowed red in the shadows.

‘OK, what is it you wanted to show me?' asked Nathan.

Theodor Zauber turned the handle and opened the window as far as the safety catch would allow, which was only about two inches. Nathan could feel the cool night breeze blowing in.

‘As I told you, I have reached a critical stage with my gargoyles. I can use the “quenching water” to turn them back into living flesh, and a static electrical charge to start their hearts beating again, just as Artephius would have done. So far I have succeeded with four of them, including this one you see sitting on the rooftop opposite. And – as I explained, they can walk and they can feed and they can scream and they can fly.

‘The problem is that after quite a short time, they rapidly start to transmute back into stone. At my first attempt, only an hour passed before this started to happen. The next two took a little longer, but they still suffered the same fate. The “quenching water” reanimates them very quickly, but the effect is only temporary, and I cannot find a way to overcome this problem. Not with alchemy, anyhow.'

‘I see,' said Nathan. ‘So this puts paid to your idea of turning terminally ill people into stone and bringing them back to life again when a cure's been discovered. Pity. In its way, it was a very cool idea. Now, is that it? Because I'm dying to get back into bed.'

Theodor Zauber turned to stare at him. Behind his spectacles his eyes were as cold as two pebbles found on a Baltic beach in winter.

‘There
is
a way that a gargoyle can stop itself from transmuting back into stone – or at least postpone the process. Artephius himself wrote about it. He called it “the baptism of blood”. If the gargoyle can devour a human heart every three or four hours – a living heart, which is still beating – then it can carry on living indefinitely.'

‘Erm . . . slight problem there,' said Nathan. ‘Where are you going to find an almost endless supply of beating human hearts?'

‘The whole world is crowded with beating human hearts, Professor. But I am not seriously talking about feeding my gargoyles on them. I am simply saying that – knowing this – it might help us to find a way to stabilize their physiology, once I have turned them back into living flesh.

‘The problem for me is that I do not have the expertise to do this. Of all the scientists in all the world, the only one who could do such a thing – the only one who understands how mythical creatures can be brought back to sustainable life – the only one who believes it is possible, is you.'

Nathan said, ‘There's a much simpler solution, Mr Zauber.'

‘And that is . . .?'

‘That is for you to abandon this screwball research altogether, before somebody gets seriously hurt, or even killed. At some point you'll have to petrify a living person, but if you can't
un
-petrify them, they'll wind up being a statue for ever.'

‘How can I abandon it? It is the future of medicine! It is the future of mankind! You persisted with your gryphon and your phoenix experiments even when it seemed as if there was no hope for them! Now you have reached your moment of triumph, and so will I, if you help me! I can
never
give this up!'

‘Read my lips,' said Nathan. ‘I-am-not-going-to-help-you. Period.'

‘I can pay you handsomely, Professor. When my father died, he left me a great deal of money. And now that Schiller have cut off your funds—'

‘
No
,' Nathan repeated. ‘I think your concept is extraordinary, as a concept, but I can't see any way of taking it forward without the risk of multiple fatalities. This isn't Nazi Germany, Mr Zauber. You can't conduct life-threatening experiments on living people. This is twenty-first-century America, where every life is held to be equally valuable, no matter how poor you are or how sick you are or how old you are.'

Theodor Zauber continued to stare at him for a few seconds with those Baltic pebble eyes. Then, without warning, he turned back toward the window and let out a harsh, high-pitched scream, more like an angry animal than a man.

Immediately, the gargoyle crouched on the roof of the physiotherapy building swiveled its head and shook out its wings. Nathan had been so sure that it was a statue that he felt a thrill of shock.

‘
Fliegen
!' screamed Theodor Zauber. ‘
Finden Sie Ihre Fest
!
Das ist ihr Meister
sprechen
!
Finden Sie Ihre Fest
!'

‘What the hell are you doing?' Nathan shouted at him, snatching at his sleeve.

Theodor Zauber twisted himself away. ‘
Fliegen
!' he screamed, one more time. Then he turned to Nathan with his voice shaking and spit flying from his lips, ‘I am going to bring back these gargoyles to life, Professor, whatever it takes, and if you refuse to help me to do it safely then damn the consequences.'

‘Jesus! And I thought your old man was crazy!'

‘I am not crazy, Professor! I am determined. We can learn from the past but we cannot live in the past. If we do not take risks, if we do not make sacrifices, we will all die, eventually, even if we look as if we are still living and breathing.'

Nathan looked out of the window. The gargoyle had now raised itself up on its legs and stretched its wings to their widest extent. It lifted its head and let out a high, eerie howl. Then it launched itself into the air, its wings beating in long, steady strokes. Even though the window was open only two inches, Nathan could hear the repetitive
flap,
flap,
flap
as it gradually gained height.

It flew up almost vertically until it was hovering at least two hundred feet above the parking lot. It kept itself aloft with languid beats of its wings, and every now and then it let out another howl.

‘So you've managed to bring a stone gargoyle to life,' said Nathan. ‘I'm impressed. In fact I'm
very
impressed. But I'm still not going to help you.'

‘What if you had no choice?'

‘But I do have a choice, and my choice is no.'

He couldn't keep his eyes off the gargoyle, with its horns and its bulging eyes and its curved beak. It was like something out of a nightmare. In fact it was like something out of Braydon Harris' nightmare. ‘
It was all about these huge dark creatures flying through the sky. Like dragons, you know? And they were making this terrible screaming noise. Sukie calls them Spooglies
.'

Theodor Zauber said, ‘Very well. I did not want to do this, Professor, but regrettably you leave me no option.'

Again, he screamed out, ‘
Finden Sie Ihre Fest
!' and as soon as he did so, the gargoyle half folded its wings and peeled off head first to the left as if it were diving off a high diving board. It swooped and looped, heading downward toward the parking lot. It looked as if it was taking its time, but it seemed to know exactly where it was heading. Nathan saw it briefly flicker against some of the lighted windows in the physiotherapy building, but then it disappeared into the shadows.