Petrified

by Graham Masterton

  ‘His idea was to turn terminally ill people into human statues – just like cryogenics except that you wouldn’t need the freezers. Sometime in the future – when doctors eventually find a treatment for whatever disease was about to kill them – they would be un-petrified, if that’s the right word, and then, hopefully, cured.’

  ‘But?’

  ‘Why do you say, “but”?’

  ‘Because there’s always a “but”. Because this Zauber character threatened to set his gargoyles on you. Why did he do that?’

  Nathan explained how Theodor Zauber had found that his newly-revived gargoyles were unable to stay living and breathing for more than a few hours before they started to turn back into stone, and how they needed an almost endless supply of fresh human hearts to keep them alive. He explained how Theodor Zauber had asked him to join him in his enterprise, and give him the benefit of his cryptozoological expertise. The sorcerer desperately needed a scientist, but the scientist had said no.

  ‘Do you have any idea of Zauber’s current location, or where he stores these gargoyles?’ Jenna asked him.

  ‘No,’ said Nathan. ‘None whatsoever.’

  He did tell her, however, about Sukie Harris, and how Sukie Harris had pointed south-westward from her hospital bed.

  ‘She’s convinced that the gargoyles are stored somewhere in that direction. But as my assistant said, that could mean that they’re three blocks away, or three hundred miles.’

  ‘Do you think that Zauber will try to contact you again?’ asked Jenna. She was frustrated and annoyed with Nathan, but at the same time she could understand that he had been trying to protect himself and his family, as well as his reputation. She had dealt with a similar case only last year, when the Black Mafia had threatened the family of a very reputable lawyer unless he represented one of their members in a drugs prosecution. Before he had given in, the lawyer’s two German shepherds had been decapitated and their heads impaled on each side of his cast-iron gates.

  Nathan said, ‘Yes. I’m sure he’ll be in touch. He seriously believes that this petrification scheme is the future of medicine. He’s convinced that it’s going to make him rich and famous, and it doesn’t even occur to him that killing innocent people is wrong, so long as he achieves his dream.’

  ‘OK, then,’ said Jenna. ‘When he does get in touch, I want you to arrange to meet him. We’ll be there, too.’

  ‘He’s pretty elusive, I warn you. He can walk in and out of places and nobody even sees him.’

  ‘There’s nobody born who can get past me, Professor, I promise you. Thauma-thingummy or not.’

  ‘Like I say, I’m just warning you.’

  Jenna and Dan stayed for another hour and a half, asking questions and taking notes. As simply as he could, Nathan explained his cryptozoological research to them, and how he had developed the phoenix, and this time he confessed what had really happened when Ron Kasabian had been burned to death.

  Jenna said, ‘You realize there could be a case here for criminally negligent homicide? Not that any jury would believe anything that you just told me, not for a moment.’

  ‘Right now, it’s only important that you believe it,’ Nathan told her.

  He described how Theodor Zauber had visited his room at Temple University Hospital, and how Theodor Zauber had urged the gargoyle to plunge from the top of the physiotherapy building and kill Eduardo Sanchez Delgado.

  When she had finished, Jenna closed her notebook and said, ‘You won’t tell anybody else about any of this, will you, Professor? Especially not the media. You know it’s true and now I know it’s true, but if it gets out before we can properly substantiate it, we’re going to look like we’re barking mad.’

  Nathan and Grace stood together at the front door watching Jenna and Dan climb into their car and drive away.

  ‘I’m so angry with you,’ said Grace. ‘I’m so angry I don’t know what to say to you. Stu’s dead because of you.’

  ‘Stu’s dead because Theodor Zauber is a psychopath. Like I said before, if I had told the police about the gargoyles, they never would have believed me. And even if they had, what then? You think they could have protected us? How do you stop a gargoyle from crashing into your house?’

  ‘Those detectives believe you now.’

  ‘You think so? I don’t know. I don’t really believe it myself.’

  ‘But if only you had told them sooner, they could have done something. They could have found Zauber and arrested him.’

  ‘On what charge, Grace? Owning a large collection of grotesque medieval statues?’

  ‘I don’t know. Making threats against you.’

  ‘My word against his. No, Grace, when it comes down to it, there’s only one person who can stop Theodor Zauber and his gargoyles, and you’re looking at him.’

  THIRTY-ONE

  Sunday, 9:42 a.m.

  He came out of the shower, toweling his hair, and went into his dressing room. He was standing naked in front of his mirror, wondering if he had put on any weight around his midriff, when an amused voice said, ‘Very well endowed, Professor. I’m impressed.’

  He shouted out, ‘Ah!’ and turned around, bundling the towel between his legs. Sitting in the pale blue basketwork chair in the corner, his legs crossed, was Theodor Zauber, dressed in his usual black suit and glossy black shoes.

  ‘How in God’s name did you get in here?’ Nathan demanded.

  ‘God’s name had nothing at all to do with it,’ Theodor Zauber replied. ‘It was the name of another, equally powerful. You should know me by now. I am able to go wherever I please. Ich bin wie Glas transparent. I am no more visible than a window. By the way, I am sorry about your window. What damage those gargoyles can do!’

  ‘Do you think I care about the goddamned window? It’s young Stu Wintergreen that I care about. You killed him, you bastard. He was only seventeen years old and now he’s dead.’

  Theodor Zauber gave a one-shouldered shrug. ‘It’s very regretful, Professor. But you know what they say about omelets and eggs. I did warn you what might happen if you persisted in being so uncooperative.’

  ‘Stu Wintergreen was nothing to do with you and me. He was an innocent kid who had the whole of his life in front of him.’

  ‘Well, now the whole of his life is behind him. What can I say? There is nothing that can bring him back to us now, not even the greatest spells devised by the greatest sorcerers of all time. Dead is dead, Professor. But you can make sure that he did not die in vain, your Wintergreen boy.’

  ‘What do you mean?’

  ‘If you agree to join with me now, and work to perfect the petrification process, his death will have had some lasting value. If you like, we can name the process after him, in his memory. The Wintergreen Process. I like the sound of that. It sounds like fresh growth emerging at a time when everything is chilly and barren. Life, emerging out of cold stone.’

  ‘Do you seriously think that I would consider working with you after what you’ve done?’

  ‘Have I not managed to persuade you yet? You saw what happened to that poor fellow at the hospital; and now you have seen for yourself that you and your family are not safe anywhere, even inside your own home. If you do not agree to assist me, Professor, I will have no option but to continue trying to find a thaumaturgic method to prevent my gargoyles from reverting back to stone. That will mean bringing more and more of them to life, and sacrificing the lives of many more innocent people.’

  Nathan took a deep breath, making the most reluctant decision of his life. ‘OK,’ he said. ‘Let me do some background research today, and see if there’s anything practical I can do to help you. Then maybe you can show me the gargoyles and I can try out some preliminary chemical tests on them. Where do you have them stored?’

  Theodor Zauber smiled. ‘All in good time, Professor.’ He checked his wristwatch. ‘Why don’t you meet me at ten o’clock tomorrow morning at the Eastern State Penitentiary? That would be an appropriate rendezvous,
don’t you think? Then you can tell me what you have discovered about reanimating gargoyles, if anything, and we can discuss how we can go forward together with our research.’

  ‘I see. You don’t entirely trust me, even though you’re threatening to kill my wife and my son, and who knows how many other people?’

  ‘I have learned to trust nobody, Professor, regardless of the duress they may be under. Many people will not hesitate to sacrifice others for the greater good, even the ones they love. Like my father, for instance, and like myself.’

  Nathan said, ‘My God. You’re a piece of work, aren’t you, Herr Zauber?’

  ‘All living things are “pieces of work”, Professor. You and I devote ourselves to finding out what these “pieces of work” are made of, and how they are put together. Also, how one may take them apart.’

  He paused, and then he said, ‘I will see you tomorrow, then, at the penitentiary. I must ask that you tell nobody, however – especially the police. Otherwise, the consequences may be doubly terrible. Ein Blutbad, as we Germans so graphically describe it. A massacre.’

  Nathan went across to his closet and took out his navy blue toweling bathrobe, and put it on. When he turned around again, tying up the belt, Theodor Zauber had gone.

  Immediately, he went out on to the landing. Grace was coming up the stairs, and she said, ‘What’s the matter, darling? You look like you’ve seen a ghost.’

  ‘Theodor Zauber was here.’

  ‘What?’

  ‘He was right here, in my dressing room, talking to me. Then he just vanished. You didn’t see him come downstairs, did you?’

  ‘No. Nobody. But it was very strange . . . halfway up the stairs I felt like somebody brushed past me.’

  ‘That was Zauber. He can do that. It’s some kind of hypnotic thing.’

  ‘What did he want?’

  Nathan went into the master bedroom and crossed quickly to the window. He was just in time to see Theodor Zauber climbing into his rented Impala. Theodor Zauber looked back at the house as he was fastening his seat belt, and Nathan was sure that he smiled up at him.

  ‘He wanted the same as he wanted before, the bastard. He needs help to reanimate these gargoyles of his. He can bring them back to life, but after an hour or two they start to turn back into stone again.’

  ‘Could you help him?’

  ‘I think so. It’s all a question of modifying the coding in their chromosomes. At the moment, being petrified is their default state, because of the way in which they turned to stone. What I would have to do is alter their chromosomes so that their default state is flesh and blood. It’s a bit like reprogramming a computer.’

  ‘More to the point,’ said Grace, ‘would you help him?’

  ‘I think you know the answer to that. It’s time to disinfect the world of Zaubers. This particular line of Zaubers, anyhow. He’s asked me to meet him tomorrow morning at the Eastern State Penitentiary.’

  ‘And you’re going?’

  ‘Of course. If I can find out where Theodor Zauber keeps his gargoyles, I can make sure that none of them ever comes to life again. I know enough about recreating mythical creatures to know how to exterminate them, too.’

  ‘You’re not telling Detective Pullet?’

  ‘What’s the point? Like I said before, she couldn’t arrest him for possession of legally-purchased statues. And how could she ever prove that Theodor Zauber had brought them to life, so that they could fly, and attack people? He would simply have to say that the whole idea was absurd, and it is, when you think about it – like the phoenix, and the gryphon, and the basilisk.’

  ‘I guess so, when you put it like that. But you will be careful, won’t you?’

  Nathan heard a soft rumbling noise. It sounded like distant thunder, but actually it was the tarpaulin that the builders had rigged up as a temporary cover for Denver’s bedroom window, rumbling in the wind.

  He held Grace close, and kissed her forehead, and she smelled of roses and citrus, like she always did.

  ‘I’ll be careful. I promise.’

  THIRTY-TWO

  Monday, 9:07 a.m.

  Monday morning was one of those gray, grainy days when Philadelphia looked like a tinted black-and-white photograph of itself. A cold wind was blowing from the north-west and there was a feeling that winter was beginning to wake up, somewhere on the Canadian prairies, and shake his coat of icicles.

  Nathan visited the Schiller building first, to see how Torchy was developing. Kavita was there, in the laboratory, but Aarif had taken the morning off to have his nose X-rayed. It was still swollen and he was having difficulty breathing.

  The phoenix was larger and grander and more dazzling than ever, with plumage that shone like gold leaf. On the floor of his cage, Kavita had made him a comfortable nest of dried grass and feathers and dried flowers and laced-together twigs, and instead of sitting on his perch he now preferred to sit here with his head regally raised, looking from side to side as if he had nothing but contempt for everybody who approached him.

  Kavita nodded toward the laptop at her workstation. On the screen was a picture of Sukie Harris, happily smiling. Her skin was almost completely healed, and even the redness had faded.

  ‘Doctor Berman sent that across at seven thirty this morning,’ said Kavita. ‘He’s expecting to be able to discharge her by Wednesday. He also says that he’d like to arrange a meeting with us as soon as possible, so that we can discuss the phoenix procedure for more of his patients.’

  Nathan examined the picture on the laptop closely. ‘She looks terrific, doesn’t she, when you consider how seriously she was burned? I can’t wait to test it on some more patients. Third-degree burns, especially.’

  He went across to Torchy’s cage and peered inside. Torchy ruffled his golden feathers and made that threatening warble in the back of his throat.

  ‘He still doesn’t like me, does he?’

  ‘I think he’s a woman’s bird,’ said Kavita. ‘In fact, I don’t think he realizes that he’s a bird at all. He thinks he’s my mate.’

  ‘Well, I don’t mind that, so long as he keeps on supplying us with stem cells. Unfortunately, we have to get approval from the FDA and the Department of Health and Human Services before we can do any more tests. I know Doctor Berman is itching to get started – so am I. But the last thing we need is for somebody to hit us with a major lawsuit. Which they inevitably will, even if the phoenix procedure has cured them completely. And we don’t yet know if there are any long-term side-effects.’

  ‘You still feel well, don’t you, Professor?’ Kavita asked him.

  ‘So far. But I’ll feel a whole lot better once we’ve gotten rid of Theodor Zauber and his goddamned gargoyles. I’m supposed to be meeting him at ten o’clock this morning. I think I’ve managed to convince him that I’m prepared to help him. Well, half-convince him, anyhow. He still won’t tell me where his gargoyles are stashed.’

  Kavita said, ‘I did a whole lot of research last night on gargoyles. Do you know of Zosimos of Panopolis?’

  ‘Sure. Good old Zosimos of Panopolis, where would modern science be without him? He was practically the first known alchemist, wasn’t he, back in three hundred AD, in Greece? Wasn’t he the guy who thought that fallen angels fell in love with human women, and married them, and taught them chemistry and metalworking and how to paint their eyelids? And as far as I remember there followed much licentiousness and fornication.’

  ‘That’s right. But he also wrote about gargoyles, and how to petrify them, centuries before Artephius, even though he never actually managed to do it, like Artephius did.’

  ‘No, I didn’t know that.’

  ‘Well, neither did I until I looked it up. But I thought one thing was really interesting. Zosimos warned that once a gargoyle was petrified, you can break it up, but you can never destroy it simply by smashing it to pieces. That is why gargoyles were always mounted on the tops of churches and cathedrals, rather than shattered. If they were shatt
ered, the fragments would always come back together again, somehow, but if they were attached to a sacred building, they could never escape, for as long as the building remained standing, and they could never call on Satan to rescue them, because their mouths were purified by rainwater from the sacred building.’

  ‘Now that is interesting,’ said Nathan. ‘In fact it’s more than interesting. If I can manage to locate Theodor Zauber’s gargoyles, I’ll have to know how to destroy them, and if smashing them to pieces isn’t going to do it—’

  ‘That’s right,’ said Kavita. ‘But Zosimos believed that he had worked out the answer to that little problem. He theorized that you can exterminate gargoyles by changing their chemistry. All you have to do is expose them to intense heat and then drench them with water. Zosimos said that this will “purify” them with holy fire.’

  Nathan thought about that, and then nodded. ‘He was right, chemically speaking. If you heat limestone it changes from calcium carbonate into basic calcium oxide. All you have to do then is drench it in water, and you get a fierce exothermic reaction. Up to one hundred fifty degrees Celsius, which changes it into quicklime.’

  The clock on the laboratory wall now read 9:26. Nathan said, ‘Listen, Kavita, I’d better get going. I’m meeting Zauber at the Eastern State Penitentiary.’

  ‘Why does he want to meet you there, of all places?’

  ‘I don’t know. I think he’s trying to frighten me, that’s all.’

  ‘I think you should be frightened.’

  Nathan kissed her on the cheek. ‘Who says I’m not?’

  THIRTY-THREE

  Monday, 10:04 a.m.

  Theodor Zauber was waiting for him outside the prison’s main entrance on Fairmount Avenue, wearing a long black overcoat and mirror sunglasses.

  The Eastern State Penitentiary occupied an entire city block between Corinthian Avenue and North 22nd Street. Its facade was built of gray stone, like a medieval castle, with forbidding square towers and battlements. Two gargoyles were perched above either side of the entrance, holding chains in their claws to remind inmates that this was a place of punishment and retribution. There was already a shuffling line of visitors outside the door, and a party of Japanese tourists listening to their tour guide.