Petrified

by Graham Masterton

  ‘When the prison was opened in eighteen twenty-nine, each prisoner was kept in solitary confinement, with only one small skylight in the ceiling of his cell, the Eye of God, to make prisoners feel that the Lord was always watching them.’

  Nathan crossed the street. Theodor Zauber took off his black leather glove and held out his hand but Nathan didn’t shake it. ‘Please yourself, Professor,’ said Theodor Zauber, tugging his glove back on again. ‘I merely thought that if you and I were going to be colleagues in our research, we might as well behave in a cordial manner.’

  ‘You want me to be cordial? After wrecking my house and killing my son’s best friend? Like you said, I’m only agreeing to help you under extreme duress.’

  Theodor Zauber said, ‘I regret very much that I have had to apply so much pressure, Professor. But you left me no alternative, did you?’

  ‘Forget the crocodile tears. Just tell me what you want me to do, OK?’

  Theodor Zauber produced two tickets from his coat pocket. ‘Here – let us go inside. Have you ever visited this penitentiary before? It is most educational, and most entertaining. I came here last week, and lay down on the very bed that Al Capone used to sleep in.’

  ‘You and he deserve each other. Spiritual bedfellows.’

  They went inside the penitentiary. It was chilly, and echoing, and even though the last prisoner had left over thirty years ago, it was still gloomy and smelled of despair. It was a preserved ruin, and no attempt had been made to restore it, so the cream-colored paint on the walls was peeling and the cells were cluttered with broken chairs and old newspapers and other detritus, and most of the toilets had been smashed.

  Theodor Zauber led the way up the narrow spiral staircase to the central guard tower, his polished shoes clanging on the iron treads. When they reached the top and stepped outside, Nathan could see the way that the fifteen cell-blocks had been built, like the radiating spokes of a wheel. He could see for miles in every direction, although the sky was as gray as the penitentiary walls.

  Theodor Zauber took a deep breath and pummeled his chest with his fists. ‘Refreshing up here, yes? Auffrischung, as we say in Germany.’

  ‘You think so?’ Nathan retorted. ‘I think it’s cold enough to freeze your nuts off, as we say in America. Do you want to make this quick?’

  ‘Very well. You know that I can restore life to the gargoyles by using the formula that Artephius devised for “quenching water”. But for reasons that I cannot fathom, their revivification has only a limited duration. I have tried a hundred different variations of the same formula but it makes no difference. After only a few hours, at the very most, they always begin spontaneously to transmute back into stone. If they are flying, they drop out of the sky.

  ‘As you know, they can prolong their animation if they can find a living human heart and devour it. But I do not want to see dozens of innocent people slaughtered any more than you do, Professor, especially since – at the moment, anyway – they are dying in vain. That is why I am appealing to you to lend me your cryptozoological expertise. You can save so many lives, believe me.’

  Nathan went across to the rusted guard-rail and looked down over the rooftops. Who could imagine what it must have been like, locked up in here for year after year with no other human contact except for the prison governor and the prison guards? Each cell had its own small exercise yard, with walls so high that prisoners had no contact with each other. The idea had been that intense isolation would lead to spiritual and social reform, but in practice it had driven many inmates insane.

  Without turning around, Nathan said, ‘I did some preliminary research yesterday and I’ve come up with one or two ideas that may help to prevent your gargoyles from reverting so rapidly into limestone. But if I’m going to test them out, I’ll have to have at least two or three gargoyles to work on, and I’ll have to know what this “quenching water” is made of.’

  ‘Of course. Yes. But first I really need to know that I can trust you.’

  Nathan raised both hands, although he still didn’t turn around. ‘What can I say, Herr Zauber? You have me over a barrel, don’t you? Of course you can trust me.’

  ‘You do believe that it can work, don’t you, petrifying people? You believe that it can be a success?’

  ‘Theoretically, yes. I’m not so sure that you’ll find many takers, even if they’re terminally ill. But who knows? The worst that can happen to them is that they leave their loved ones a statue of themselves.’

  ‘Zynisch, aber wahr,’ said Theodor Zauber. ‘Cynical, but true. Meet me tomorrow at six o’clock in the evening in the parking lot outside the Bala Cynwyd Shopping Center on West City Drive. Bring with you any equipment that you think you may need.’

  At that moment, however, they heard footsteps clattering up the stairs. It sounded like five or six people, and they were coming up fast. Theodor Zauber threw Nathan a look of perplexity and backed away from the staircase. Nathan was about to tell him that he didn’t know what was going on, either, when Detective Pullet appeared, with her gun drawn, closely followed by Detective Rubik and three uniformed police officers.

  ‘Theodor Zauber?’ snapped Detective Pullet. ‘Put your hands on top of your head and get down on your knees.’

  ‘Why?’ asked Theodor Zauber. ‘What do you imagine that I have done wrong?’

  Jenna crossed the guard tower, her boots crunching on broken glass. ‘I don’t imagine that you’ve done something wrong, sir. I know that you’ve done something wrong. Theodor Zauber, I’m arresting you for the murders of Chet Huntley, William Barrow, James Hallam Junior and Stuart Wintergreen. Hook him up, Dan.’

  ‘Wait,’ Theodor Zauber protested. ‘This is absurd. You have absolutely no evidence of this. I have never heard of any of these people. I have never met them, and I have certainly never done them any harm.’

  ‘Well, you can explain that back at the district,’ said Jenna. ‘But let’s put it this way: if a man is the owner of a dangerous dog, and he lets that dangerous dog loose to go out and attack other people, whether he knows these people or not, then who do you think is responsible in law? Not the dog, sir, and you’d better believe it.’

  Jenna came over to Nathan. She holstered her gun and stood in front of him with her hands resting on her hips. ‘It was my distinct impression, Professor, that when you arranged to meet Theodor Zauber, you were going to inform me in advance. Or was I mistaken?’

  ‘I’m sorry, but I didn’t see how you could realistically charge him with any offense. I thought that if I could find out where his gargoyles were stored—’

  ‘You could do what, exactly?’

  ‘I thought that I could destroy them, and that would be an end to it.’

  ‘So now we have the truth, Professor!’ Theodor Zauber barked at him. ‘You had no intention of helping me with my research! You did the same to my father! You lied to him and cheated him and destroyed his entire life’s work, and then you took his life, too! And now you want to do the same to me! Well, I can assure you that you won’t get the better of me!’

  Jenna turned back to Nathan. ‘Did you really not think that I would put a tail on you? Every time I questioned you, I knew that you weren’t giving me the whole picture. It’s a funny thing, but after you’ve questioned thousands and thousands of liars and bluffers and double-talkers, you get to recognize who’s telling you the truth and who isn’t.’

  ‘You really think you can charge Zauber with all of those murders and make it stick? I mean, where’s your proof?’

  ‘We should have more than enough forensic evidence. Zauber’s prints all over the gargoyles, for beginners. And your expert testimony, too, that it’s scientifically possible to turn a stone statue into a living, flying creature.’

  Nathan gave her a disbelieving shake of his head, ‘How can I possibly stand up in court and testify to that, when I don’t have any idea how he does it? That’s why I wanted to meet him alone. He says he has some stuff called “quenching wate
r” which he uses to bring the gargoyles back to life, but I don’t have a clue what’s in it or how it works. Right now, all we have is speculation. He only has to say that he can’t bring a gargoyle back to life, and never has done, and who do you think a jury’s going to believe?’

  ‘Well, we’ll see about that,’ Jenna told him. ‘Right now he’s coming to the district for some gentle interrogation, and we’ll take it from there. Dan – can you escort our prisoner downstairs, please? And make sure he doesn’t trip. I don’t want to be accused of police brutality.’

  Dan said, ‘What prisoner?’

  ‘Herr Theodor Zauber, of course.’

  ‘Herr who?’

  ‘Theodor Zauber. Do you want me to spell it for you?’

  ‘Not really. There’s nobody here.’

  Jenna turned her head. Dan was right. The only people standing in the derelict shell of the guard tower were her, and Dan, and the three police officers who had accompanied them up the stairs, and Nathan. Theodor Zauber had vanished.

  ‘Where the hell did he go?’ said Jenna.

  ‘Who?’ asked Dan. He seemed to be genuinely baffled.

  ‘The prisoner! Theodor Zauber! The man you were just about to hook up! Look – you’re even holding your goddamned cuffs in your hand, ready!’

  Dan frowned, and pressed his fingertips to his forehead, as if he were trying to remember something important that had completely slipped his mind.

  Jenna turned to the uniformed officers. ‘He must have walked right past you! Why didn’t you stop him? What are you, blind?’

  One of the officers said, ‘Excuse me, Detective, I have to say that I resent that remark.’

  ‘Then why didn’t you stop him, for Christ’s sake?’

  ‘I’m sorry, Detective, I don’t know who you’re talking about.’

  ‘Aaahhhhh!’ screamed Jenna, in frustration. ‘Why do you think we came up here? To feed the pigeons? To admire the lovely view, maybe?’

  Another officer said, ‘We came up here – we came up here to—’ he stopped, and then he said, ‘I don’t know why we came up here.’

  Nathan said, ‘Detective—’

  ‘What?’

  ‘It’s no use, Detective. They honestly don’t know. Theodor Zauber has the gift of hypnotizing people. He’s done it to me. One second he’s there, the next second he’s gone, and you don’t remember seeing him go, or if he was ever there at all. There’s nothing magical about it. It’s nothing more than standard clinical hypnosis, but he happens to be very, very good at it.’

  ‘So we’ve lost him.’

  ‘For now, yes. But I think there’s a chance that he’ll get in touch with me again. He may be angry with me, but he still needs my help.’

  ‘I don’t believe this,’ said Jenna. ‘I’ve only just managed to persuade myself that stone statues can come to life, and now the man who can do it has disappeared in front of my eyes. I was worried that my captain was going to send me off on psych leave. Now I think I’ll volunteer for it.’

  THIRTY-FOUR

  Monday, 3:13 p.m.

  Nathan returned to his laboratory in the Schiller building. In the absence of any vetoes from the Schiller board of directors, he was continuing his work on the phoenix project as if nothing had happened. He had heard no more about future funding, or whether Schiller would support the project to its logical conclusion – which would be to breed phoenixes on a large scale so that their stem cells could be used to heal burns sufferers all over the world.

  Kavita was running tests on Torchy’s glands. She was wearing a white lab coat but a red silk scarf tied around her head, pirate style, and large gold earrings.

  ‘How’s it going?’ Nathan asked her.

  ‘There’s at least twenty percent more prolactin in his pituitary gland than there was the last time I tested him, and almost twice as much corticosterone in his adrenal gland. Normally, birds only produce hormones in this quantity when they’re getting ready to migrate, and need a huge amount of stored energy for very long flights. I think it’s possible that Torchy releases all of this tremendous energy in one burst to become incandescent.’

  Nathan went over and looked at the results that she had printed out from the QX diagnostic computer. ‘That looks highly likely, Kavita. Good work.’

  He was about to suggest some further blood tests when his cellphone bleeped. He checked the number but he didn’t recognize it.

  ‘Nathan Underhill.’

  ‘Ah, Professor Underhill. Here is Theodor Zauber.’

  ‘Herr Zauber – I was wondering if you’d call me. What happened at the penitentiary this morning, that was nothing to do with me. I had no idea that the police had a tail on me.’

  ‘And you expect me to believe that? You think I am some kind of dummkopf?’

  ‘No, I don’t. But I wouldn’t do anything that puts my family at risk.’

  ‘You can protest as much as you like, Professor. It is plain to me that I cannot trust you.’

  ‘So what are you going to do now? If you want your gargoyles to come back to life and stay alive, you’ll have to trust me, won’t you?’

  ‘You told that police detective that your intention in meeting me was to find out where they are and destroy them. Was that a lie?’

  ‘Of course it was a lie. I couldn’t let them think I was really going to help you, could I?’

  Theodor Zauber was breathing very hard, as if he were trying to control his temper. ‘No,’ he said, ‘I cannot risk you discovering where my gargoyles are. I will just have to carry on my experiments without you. If I bring enough gargoyles back to life, I am bound to find out eventually how to prevent them from transmuting back into stone.’

  ‘You said yourself that if you do that, a whole lot of innocent people are going to get killed.’

  ‘Well, so be it. My father took many lives in order to further his research. I will have to do the same. You have only yourself to blame, Professor. You could have prevented this, but you chose instead to double-cross me. When the people of this city start to be torn to pieces, look in the mirror and ask yourself who is responsible.’

  ‘Listen, I will help you!’ said Nathan. ‘Just give me the chance to prove that you can trust me! We could start with only a couple of gargoyles, in any location you choose.’

  ‘Too late, I’m afraid. You admit that you lied to the police. How do I know that you are not lying to me? You have poisoned the well, Professor. Now you and many others will have to pay the price for that.’

  ‘Zauber—’ Nathan began, but Theodor Zauber had gone. He tried to call the number back, but the cellphone had been switched off.

  ‘Shit,’ he said, under his breath.

  Kavita looked up from her readings. ‘What’s wrong, Professor?’

  Nathan was already punching out Grace’s number at Chestnut Hill Medical Center, so that he could warn her not to go home this evening.

  ‘What’s wrong?’ he replied. ‘I think I just set the end of the world in motion.’

  He called Grace, and then he called Denver, and told them not to go home when Grace had finished her surgery for the day and Denver had finished football practice, but to meet him at the Doubletree Hotel downtown.

  After what had happened to Stu, Nathan had asked Denver if he wanted to take some time off school, but Denver had preferred to go back to his studies and his sports. ‘I don’t want to think about Stu, Dad, even for a second. Every time I close my eyes I see him lying on the floor, all covered in blood. And that screaming monster trying to bust in through the window.’

  Next, Nathan called Detective Pullet. She was on a coffee break and she had her mouth full of lemon Danish.

  ‘I just had a call from Theodor Zauber. He’s extremely pissed, to say the least.’

  ‘Did you get his number? I doubt if we’ll be able to trace it, but we can try.’

  ‘I have it on my cell. I’ll send it to you. But trying to arrest him like that – you blew any chance I had of findin
g out where he’s keeping those gargoyles.’

  ‘Look, I’m sorry. I had no idea that he would be able to give us the slip. I mean, how was I to know that he was a hypnotist?’

  ‘There’s no point in beating yourself up about it, Detective. But I have to warn you that he’s going to bring a whole lot more of those things to life, and everybody who’s out on the street is going to be in danger of being attacked.’

  ‘We can’t put out a warning like that,’ said Jenna. ‘Either people won’t believe us, or else there’ll be total panic, like that War of the Worlds broadcast. The whole city could come to a standstill.’

  ‘I don’t know,’ Nathan told her. ‘Maybe you could find some way of wording it so that people will just keep their eyes on the skies. Maybe you could tell them that the city is being plagued by a flock of unusually aggressive crows.’

  ‘Unusually aggressive crows? You can’t be serious.’

  ‘People remember The Birds, don’t they? Tell them it’s a similar problem to that.’

  ‘I don’t know. I think I need to talk to my captain.’

  Nathan said, ‘Our number one priority is locating Theodor Zauber. Maybe you could put out a description.’

  ‘Again, I’ll have to talk to my captain. It took me long enough to believe that these gargoyles are really real, but he’s the most skeptical man I ever met. He doesn’t even believe in global warming.’

  ‘Please keep me up to date, Detective. I’m taking my wife and son to stay at the Doubletree Hotel until this is all over.’

  ‘OK, Professor. And if you hear from Zauber again, let me know immediately, you got it?’

  ‘I hate to say this, but I think we’ll be hearing from one of his gargoyles before we hear from him.’