Dead Man Walking

by Simon R. Green

  ‘That’s all right,’ I said. ‘So am I. Show me Frank Parker. What’s he doing right now?’

  ‘Not a lot,’ said Martin.

  He gestured to one particular screen. And there was Parker sitting on his bed in his cell, looking at nothing. He didn’t seem to have moved since I left him.

  ‘Now, that is spooky!’ said Penny. ‘A man in his position shouldn’t be that calm. Not with all the things he’s got to be worried about. If I was in there, I’d be climbing those walls by now.’

  ‘Yes,’ I said. ‘But he’s been trained. This is what I would expect to see from an experienced field agent. Show no fear, show no weakness. Give your interrogators nothing to work with. He has something they want, so that puts him in the driver’s seat.’

  ‘I could send Baxter and Redd down there, when they return,’ said MacKay. ‘Have them beat some of the cockiness out of him.’

  ‘No you couldn’t,’ I said. ‘Even allowing for his age, a trained field agent could still kick the crap out of a couple of standard thugs. And if by some chance one of them did get in a lucky shot and Parker fell and hit his head, a man with concussion isn’t going to be answering any questions. I really don’t think the Organization would be too happy about that.’

  MacKay inclined his head. ‘You are of course entirely correct, Mr Jones. I withdraw the suggestion.’

  ‘First you want to kill him, and now you want him beaten up!’ said Penny. ‘Don’t you like Parker?’

  ‘He’s a traitor,’ said MacKay. And in his voice was all the merciless judgement of the old soldier.

  I looked at Parker, sitting there in his cell. ‘He’s a professional. But whose professional? He came home to this country when he could have gone anywhere, sold his information to anyone. I think it has something to do with the woman and child he mentioned. The family he never knew.’

  ‘I never knew my father,’ said Martin. ‘Grew up perfectly well without one. Families are overrated.’

  I nodded, slowly. ‘Hayley and Doyle said they’d already talked to him. Do you have that recording?’

  Martin looked to MacKay. ‘Doctor Hayley told me not to let anyone else see it …’

  ‘Mr Jones is in charge,’ said MacKay. ‘Show him anything he wishes to see.’

  Martin shrugged. ‘So long as you keep the vultures off my back …’

  His hands darted across the keyboard, and a screen suddenly cleared to show us Hayley and Doyle sitting together on the sofa in the lounge. They had Parker’s unexpurgated file open on the coffee table before them. They seemed much more relaxed, on their own.

  ‘This isn’t what I asked to see,’ I said.

  ‘It’s relevant,’ Martin said quickly. ‘Keep watching.’

  ‘We’ve been through this, Alice,’ Doyle was saying patiently. ‘The Organization was very clear about which questions they want us to ask. We’re supposed to compile a complete list of everyone Parker ever worked for, and details of all the missions he carried out for them.’

  ‘We haven’t got time for that, Robbie,’ said Hayley. ‘Let’s just prove it’s really him, and then someone else can dig out the rest.’

  Penny looked at me and mouthed ‘Alice’ and ‘Robbie’. As if she couldn’t believe such cold-blooded interrogators could have such ordinary names.

  ‘I’ll be amazed if Parker tells us one thing he doesn’t want us to know,’ Hayley continued. ‘That man is a professional hard case.’ She stretched slowly, her face becoming almost sensuous as she savoured the sensation. ‘I wonder how much we can persuade him to tell us about the traitors?’

  ‘No, Alice,’ said Doyle, smiling indulgently. ‘Until we know for sure who we’re dealing with, we can’t even raise the subject. Or allow him to. We don’t want him casting suspicions, in case it makes the Organization distrust perfectly good people. Which might be what this is all about, after all.’

  ‘I love it when you boss me around, Robbie,’ said Hayley. And she gave Doyle a surprisingly wicked smile before returning to the subject. ‘It’s the areas we’re not supposed to get into that fascinate me. Aren’t you tempted to ask him anyway? I know I am.’

  ‘Of course I’m tempted,’ said Doyle. ‘But I’m not going to, and neither are you.’

  ‘Don’t be such a poop, Robbie. Why not?’

  ‘Because I don’t want to end up sitting in a cell next door to Parker, waiting for an interview with someone like us.’

  ‘You always were the sensible one. But aren’t you excited? This is the first time we’ve had access to an actual field agent. The knowledge we gain could be invaluable!’

  ‘Yes …’ said Doyle. ‘Well … as long as we’re careful, Alice. And I mean quite extraordinarily careful.’

  ‘Of course, sweetie.’

  They leaned towards each other, and Martin hurried to shut the screen down.

  ‘Did they know they were being recorded?’ said Penny.

  ‘They should have,’ said Martin. ‘I told them every room in the Lodge is covered by hidden cameras and microphones. But it’s hard to be on your guard all the time.’

  ‘Love among the headshrinkers,’ said Penny. ‘The horror! I wonder if he psychoanalyses her in bed?’

  ‘Before or after?’ I said.

  Penny grinned. ‘Probably during …’

  ‘Moving on,’ I said. I looked to Martin, who was smirking broadly. ‘Are you ready to show me the Parker interview now?’

  ‘Hold on to your socks!’ said Martin. ‘This is the good stuff.’

  The screen changed to show Hayley and Doyle standing together in front of Parker’s cell. He stood on the other side of the bars, facing them calmly. Hayley gave him her best scowl, but if Parker was in any way intimidated he made a really good job of hiding it.

  ‘I thought it would be you,’ he said. ‘Doctor Hayley, Doctor Doyle. You’ve made a name for yourselves these past few years. Not a particularly nice name, but I suppose that goes with the territory.’

  ‘You must have known this was going to happen, Frank,’ said Doyle. ‘Interrogation and debriefing are standard procedure in cases like yours.’

  ‘There are no cases like mine,’ said Parker. ‘And of course I knew, I’ve been looking forward to it.’

  Hayley and Doyle exchanged a glance, and then Hayley fixed Parker with her best cold stare.

  ‘Stand back from the bars now, Frank. And keep both your hands where we can see them.’

  ‘I have been very thoroughly searched,’ Parker said easily. ‘Including all my important little places. I thought I was going to have to get engaged at one point. Yes, I know … standard procedure.’

  He backed away from the bars, not taking his eyes off Hayley and Doyle, until he bumped against the rear wall of his cell. Hayley raised her voice.

  ‘Martin, open the door.’

  The lock on the cell door made a series of complicated sounds as Martin operated it by remote control, and then the bars slid smoothly sideways. Hayley and Doyle stepped inside the cell and the bars immediately slid back into position. Parker sat down on the bed, without asking for permission. He kept his hands ostentatiously in sight, clasped together in his lap, and smiled engagingly at Hayley and Doyle.

  ‘Well, isn’t this cozy? I would ask you to sit down, but I haven’t been supplied with any chairs. There is the toilet, if one of you isn’t too fussy. Or you could snuggle up beside me on the bed. No? Suit yourselves. Feel free to lean against the wall. Or not, as you wish. Now, what shall we talk about?’

  Hayley stepped forward, taking the lead. Doyle stayed where he was, watching Parker carefully.

  ‘Why have you chosen to come back now, Frank?’ said Hayley. ‘Did something happen?’

  ‘I don’t want to talk about that,’ said Parker. ‘I want to talk about what’s wrong inside the Organization.’

  ‘We’re not allowed to discuss that,’ said Doyle. ‘You must understand, Frank, we’re not cleared for that level of information.’

  ‘Then se
nd for someone who is,’ said Parker. ‘There are things the Organization needs to know. Urgently.’

  ‘We’ve been given a list of things to ask you, Frank,’ said Hayley. ‘You have to give us something, so we can give you something.’

  ‘No,’ said Parker. ‘Go back and talk to your superiors. Get all the clearances you need, or you’re wasting my time. If you aren’t up to this, pass me on to someone who is. I don’t know how much time I’ve got before someone turns up at the Lodge looking for me.’

  ‘You’re perfectly safe here, Frank,’ said Hayley.

  ‘I know all about Ringstone Lodge,’ said Parker. ‘Everyone in our line of business does. Which means our mutual enemies will expect to find me here. I can’t stay long. It isn’t safe. For any of us.’

  ‘You’re in no position to make demands, Frank,’ said Doyle.

  ‘I think you’ll find I am,’ said Parker.

  ‘We’re here to get answers out of you,’ said Hayley. ‘And we’re prepared to be very persuasive.’

  ‘Get your clearance,’ said Frank, ‘And I’ll tell you everything. All kinds of amazing things.’

  ‘You assured the Organization you would cooperate, Frank,’ said Doyle.

  ‘I am,’ said Parker. ‘Ask me anything you like about my past. I can talk about that. Enough to convince you I’m me. But the real stuff, the reason I’m here, that’s too important to put off for long.’

  ‘Frank …’ said Hayley.

  ‘No,’ said Parker. ‘You’re wasting time, and the Organization won’t thank you for it. Not once they know what I know.’

  Hayley and Doyle looked at each other, then moved back to the cell door. It slid open and they left. Parker waited till the bars had closed again, and then raised his voice after them.

  ‘And when you come back, don’t call me Frank.’

  Hayley looked back at him. ‘Why not? Isn’t that your name?’

  ‘Don’t try to pretend we’re friends. Call me Mr Parker.’

  Martin shut down the screen. I turned to MacKay.

  ‘You said he was being cooperative. No trouble at all, you said.’

  ‘He was,’ said MacKay. ‘Right up to the point where they went in to talk to him. And even then he sounded like he was making sense.’

  ‘Have Hayley and Doyle requested the necessary clearances?’ I said.

  ‘Of course,’ said MacKay. ‘They’re still waiting for someone to make a decision.’

  ‘Is that why you’re here, Ishmael?’ asked Martin. ‘Do you have that level of clearance?’

  ‘Sorry,’ I said. ‘That’s classified.’

  ‘What just happened there didn’t go the way Hayley and Doyle thought it would …’ Penny said thoughtfully. ‘Could this be what Parker intended all along? Blow smoke in interrogators’ eyes to keep them away from him?’

  ‘Wouldn’t surprise me,’ I said. ‘I really don’t like how quickly that man was able to stop two trained interrogators in their tracks. Did you see how easily he took charge? Call me Mr Parker … That man has been very well trained.’

  I stood and thought for a moment, considering possibilities, while the others watched me. Finally, I turned to Martin.

  ‘Ghosts,’ I said. ‘You’re supposed to have evidence of hauntings. Show me what you’ve got.’

  Martin nodded quickly, and tapped away at his keyboard. ‘No one wanted to believe anything supernatural was going on at the Lodge until I showed them what my systems had picked up. How much do you want to see? I’ve got hours of recordings. Nothing conclusive, I’ll admit, but they are fascinating. With a heavy side order of downright disturbing.’

  ‘Do you have evidence, or not?’ I said.

  ‘Well, yes and no. I’ve got evidence of something … As to what, you’ll have to decide for yourself.’ Martin nodded to a particular screen. ‘OK, I’ve put together some edited highlights. Hang on to your undies, we are about to go full on spooky.’

  The screen showed a long corridor with subdued lighting and two rows of closed doors facing each other. The time stamp in the bottom right hand corner said 23:45. MacKay leaned in close beside me.

  ‘Upper floor of the Lodge. Living quarters for the support staff.’

  ‘Hush!’ said Martin. ‘Listen …’

  My head came up as I heard, quite distinctly, the sound of human footsteps progressing slowly down the corridor, with no one visible on the screen to make them. There was nowhere for anyone to hide, no shadows or blind spots, but still the footsteps carried on. Growing steadily louder and heavier. Suddenly doors were flung open the whole length of the corridor, one after another, and people came stumbling out of their rooms in a variety of nightclothes. The sound of footsteps cut off the moment the first door opened. Men and women with confused expressions and serious bed hair looked up and down the corridor, shouting questions and accusations at each other. It was clear this wasn’t the first time such a thing had happened. Some of the people looked angry, some looked frightened. All of them were taking it very seriously.

  The scene changed. It was the same length of corridor, but now the time stamp said 3:17. Even though it was early in the morning, all of the lights were on. As if no one wanted them turned off. I studied the screen carefully. Nothing moved, and there were no footsteps. No sound at all. And then one of the closed doors suddenly swung open, all on its own. No one came out of the room. After a while, the door slowly shut itself again. Martin froze the image on the screen.

  ‘No one saw that happen at the time,’ he said proudly. ‘I only came across it by accident, when I was checking some old recordings for technical quality. It made me wonder what else there might be, so I went looking. And I found this. Watch, and wonder. This is a bit special.’

  Same corridor, time stamp 7:12. The electric lights had been replaced by daylight. Again, nothing happened for a while and then a dark human shadow appeared on one wall. It lurched slowly down the corridor, without anyone present to cast it. I leaned forward, intrigued. There was something wrong about the shape of the shadow, and the way it moved. And then it just disappeared. Martin punched the air, froze the screen, and spun round in his squeaky chair to grin triumphantly at us.

  ‘Isn’t that absolutely amazing?’

  ‘Doesn’t it scare you?’ said Penny.

  ‘Oh sure,’ said Martin. ‘If I’d been there when it happened, I’d still be running. But that is just so cool. I could make a fortune out of material like this! If I wasn’t bound by the Official Secrets Act, of course. I mean, I am definitely not thinking of trying to sell it. I’m very scared of what the Organization would do to me if I tried.’

  ‘I’m watching you, Mr Martin,’ MacKay said darkly.

  Penny looked at me. ‘That was pretty creepy.’

  I thought about it.

  ‘And there’s lots more,’ Martin said happily. ‘All kinds of sights and sounds. Add to that the way people have been feeling just recently …’ He shot a glance at MacKay. ‘People will talk to me when they wouldn’t talk to you. Because I can’t have them fired. All the staff have been talking about how some parts of the Lodge have started getting on their nerves. They’ve all been experiencing bad dreams, bad feelings … Sensing things, even when they can’t see or hear anything. Cold spots. Feelings of not being alone. Things glimpsed out of the corner of the eye that are never there when you look at them directly. A sense of being followed … The staff were going out of their minds. When the order came through for them to vacate, you never saw people pack so quickly. Hell, I’ll be amazed if any of them come back.’

  ‘Doctor Hayley put it all down to cabin fever,’ I said.

  Martin snorted dismissively. ‘One, she hasn’t been here long. And two, that woman has the sensitivity of a brick. You saw the way that shadow moved! Did that look like cabin fever to you?’

  ‘Could your recordings have been tampered with?’ I said.

  ‘I’ve checked everything,’ Martin said firmly. ‘No one could gain access to my systems
without me knowing. All the data you’ve seen is completely accurate and entirely uncorrupted. You can check for yourself if you want, but I’m telling you … You won’t find anything.’

  ‘What else have you got?’ I said.

  ‘You mean, that wasn’t enough?’ Martin looked taken aback. ‘Well … OK, there is this.’

  The screen before us showed a series of different locations inside the Lodge, at different times of day. In each case, the lights were flickering. Sometimes they turned themselves on and off. When people were in the rooms while it was happening, they looked very upset. Not just scared. Terrorized.

  ‘That should not be possible,’ said MacKay. ‘All the electric lighting in the Lodge is controlled by the security systems. Completely independent from all outside interference, for security reasons.’

  ‘Could it be interruptions in the power supply?’ I said.

  ‘The Lodge has its own generator,’ said MacKay. ‘Any interruption or breakdown would set off all kinds of alarms.’

  ‘Right,’ said Martin. ‘And there’s been nothing. I’ve run scans on all my systems, and they’re all perfectly clean. You can check for yourselves.’

  ‘Have you seen anything strange or supernatural yourself?’ said Penny. ‘I mean, in person?’

  ‘No …’ Martin sounded a bit wistful. ‘Not personally … But then I’m in here most of the time.’

  ‘I’m still not convinced,’ I said.

  ‘No more am I,’ said MacKay. ‘But in my army days I did see my share of … unusual things. And I assume you have seen your share too, Mr Jones. So why not spooks and spirits?’

  I didn’t have an answer.

  MacKay offered to spell Martin for a few hours so he could take a nap, but Martin didn’t want to know. He said he wouldn’t feel safe away from the screens. And, his look implied, neither should we. We went back into the entrance hall, and he immediately closed the door behind us. I looked around sharply as I heard footsteps approaching the front door from outside. Then the door was flung open, and Baxter and Redd came bustling in. They were laughing and joking together, but their easy manner disappeared the moment they saw us. Redd closed the door carefully, while Baxter nodded to MacKay, ostentatiously ignoring Penny and me.