“Sixty lead-lined coffins!” she once told me. “Who needs lead-lined coffins at the best of times. But sixty! What are they doing down there?”
If Szabo was in charge of the Dark Team then that made him an exorcist. When things went wrong, as they invariably did for the Dark Team, you always wanted an exorcist making the big calls. The best exorcists usually start off as Catholic priests which presents us with something of a dilemma. How does The Bear Garden recruit from an organisation whose one over-riding aim is to eradicate it?
I couldn’t work out whether Szabo was out of shape or just very solidly built. With his short cropped hair and his pale skin he sort of reminded me of a panda I’d once seen at a zoo in Denmark snapping off bamboo shoots. Seemingly benign yet deceptively powerful. It was hard not to warm to him. If he had been a priest he would have been a very charming one.
“Thank you, Niall, for inviting us up here this morning, I know that this is a difficult topic but we’re hoping to make some sense of it for all concerned. I’d just like to start off by saying that I don’t think that the situation is quite as bad as we first thought.”
“I’m sorry,” I looked at Angela and then at Szabo. “What situation?”
Kinsella raised a hand. “Sorry, Dominic. Because of the on-going nature of what’s happening, I’ve not had the opportunity to brief either Helena or Bronte properly.”
Szabo, looking non-plussed began again. “Obviously, both of you were involved in the original investigation into Melissa Stahl’s activities. It was traumatic for everyone involved, both spiritually and emotionally.”
Helena, who had pointedly ignored me up until this point, straightened in her chair and gave me a look that was full of recrimination.
I turned to Szabo. “I don’t know what it is that I’m supposed to have…”
Szabo raised his hands in a conciliatory fashion. “This is not intended as a criticism of anyone. In my day-to-day job I encounter all kinds of difficult and challenging situations, some of which I find deeply unsettling. In fact, if it wasn’t for the help and support I’ve received from Angela over the years, I’d have been consigned to a psychiatric ward years ago.”
I regarded Angela with renewed respect. But she was looking down at her hands.
Szabo laughed. “Now I’m embarrassing Angela – what with client confidentiality and all. But I’m just saying that we all need support at times. We find ourselves in some very dark places at times and, if we don’t ask for help, we’re only building up problems for the future.”
He pointed towards Helena. “I don’t know whether you find that, Helena?”
At first, she appeared not to have heard him but then she said, “I don’t see how any of this applies to me. I’m not even sure why I’m here. I took early retirement not because I wanted to but because I had to. After everything that had happened it became self-evident that I wouldn’t be able to return to active duty. Also, working with Amir in an attempt to get me walking again is proving to be a full-time job.”
She continued. “As I said, I don’t see what help I can be in this situation. Bronte and I have had a few issues in the past but what’s done is done. I can’t understand why she would want to listen to anything I had to say on the matter.”
I looked at Kinsella. “You want me to retire? Is that it?”
Kinsella exchanged glances with Valeria. “Okay, we’re getting ahead of ourselves here. Time for a quick update. Bronte, I know you’re aware of some of this – Helena perhaps less so. It seems that Melissa Stahl had been grooming a small group of young witches from all over the world. She had planned to use them as hosts for the souls of witches long dead. Luckily, for all our sakes, Bronte managed to prevent this.”
Then, a weird thing happened. They all broke into polite applause.
I turned to Angela. “I don’t understand. I thought this was some kind of competency thing.”
Angela placed her hand on mine and said levelly. “Competency? No. No one’s trying to sack you, Bronte. I know that this is confusing but it’s confusing for us as well.”
“What happened to Melissa?” Helena looked straight ahead. “I keep asking and nobody ever gives me a straight answer. Is she still alive?”
Dominic indicated Kinsella. “Niall, would you like to field this one?”
Kinsella’s lips tightened, he had dark bags under his eyes and I was aware, for the first time of how much weight he’d lost. In the past I’d always thought of him as being attractive in a no-nonsense kind of way. Now, he just looked gaunt.
“Melissa Stahl is – as of two days ago – in a specially constructed secure facility. It’s not an ideal situation but it’s the best we can do in the circumstances. We’re in a unique situation in that she is possessed by not one but –“ he looked up at Szabo. “Dominic, you’re the expert on this. How many spirits?”
Szabo gave a crowd-pleasing shrug. “Who knows? More than one and less than a hundred. We find ourselves in uncharted waters.”
Kinsella continued. “As I said: a unique situation.”
“So, she’s not dead then?” Helena said.
“No, she’s not dead,” Kinsella steepled his fingers. “Though I think she might prefer it if she were. She’s alive - just. But my thought is that there’s very little of the real Melissa left in her. She can’t feed herself, take herself to the bathroom. It’s pretty pitiful in fact. Now, the normal procedure would be to engage Dominic and his Dark Team in a formal exorcism but, because of the sheer number of spirits involved, it’s turned out to be more difficult than we first thought.”
Szabo nodded, his eyes impossibly sad. “We’ve dealt with multiple possessions in the past. I’ve personally dealt with six spirits but this … this is beyond anything we’ve encountered before. The spirits seem well appraised of their situation. They understand what we’re trying to do and … well, the last time we tried something they tried to overwhelm us. If we went ahead with the exorcism I’m afraid we’d be doing more harm than good.”
Helena said, “So, you’re just going to leave her like that?”
Szabo replied, “She’s under twenty four hour surveillance, she’s being well cared for. We’ve even arranged for her assistant to take charge of her day-to-day care.”
“Anathema?” I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. “You’re working with Anathema?”
Anathema had been instrumental in Silas’ death. She’d held me back on-board the boat when I could have saved him.
Kinsella stood up, “Which is one of the reasons why you’re here, Bronte. We’re trying to keep everyone informed. When we first took Stahl into custody she posed a significant threat. This Anathema woman - for all her failings - seems to be the only one capable of placating her. That doesn’t absolve her of her past crimes but she’s the best we’ve got in the short term. The Inner Court is meeting as we speak. It’s up to them to formulate a solution.”
“Good luck with that,” Helena muttered.
The Inner Court is the ultimate arbiter in as far as they oversee and enforce the judicial system for all magical practitioners. They operate under something of an ethical dilemma in that they and their system of justice is not recognised by all groups. It has its roots in Roman law, and has a much older structure than the current British legal system and so some of its rulings can seem unfamiliar or even bizarre.
“Which brings us to the reason we’re here,” Valeria said. “We believe that The Inner Court will pass a ruling on Melissa Stahl in the next few days.”
I turned to Kinsella. “But what’s happening in the meantime? I don’t trust Anathema. What if she tries to perform her own impromptu exorcism? What happens to these spirits then?”
Szabo cast a look across in Kinsella’s direction. Kinsella didn’t look happy.
Szabo said, “Do you want me to answer that?”
When Kinsella didn’t respond Szabo went ahead.
“We have wards in place to prevent her from doing that but you’re righ
t about the threat she poses. We don’t, for example, know how Stahl has been able to contain so many spirits for so long. Part of Anathema’s brief is to ensure that Stahl doesn’t take her own life.”
Kinsella said, “We can’t allow those spirits to get free under any circumstances.
Szabo said, “So we’ve engineered a kind of spiritual safety net in the meantime.”
I didn’t like the sound of that.
Kinsella said, “This a worst-case scenario. We hope it won’t come to this.”
Szabo continued. “If the unthinkable happens and the spirits do get free we’d need a way of containing them. So we’ve surrounded Stahl’s unit with the Novice witches she brought over.”
I stood up, looked straight at Kinsella. “I can’t believe that you’re considering this.”
He just stared straight ahead, didn’t even look at me.
“The Novices are the perfect recipients,” Szabo was saying. “They are, by definition, Innocents. The spirits would be naturally drawn to them.”
“This is so wrong!” I said.
A muscle in Kinsella’s jaw bunched, “Hear him out.”
Szabo said, “The girls are already contained. If they were to be possessed by one of these spirits then it would be a simple job to exorcise them. In many cases the subject of a possession has no re-collection of the incident afterwards. In some ways, it’s the perfect solution.”
Tears were welling up in my eyes and I struggled to contain myself. “And have you consulted the women about this?”
“No, of course not.”
“So they’re completely oblivious to the danger they’re in.”
Kinsella rested his palms on the desk. “We are managing the situation as best we can.”
“By putting these women in harm’s way.”
I looked to Valeria for support but she simply looked away, embarrassed.
I said, “So your back up plan is to complete Stahl’s work for her.”
“That’s ridiculous,” Kinsella snapped. “Until the Inner Court makes a ruling this is all we’ve got. Dominic assures me that if the worst should happen, the women could be exorcised in the conventional manner.”
“These women are innocent of any wrong doing and yet they’re still being held against their will. They’re far from home and vulnerable and here you are talking about demonic possession as though it were some kind of career choice. I take it that they’re being held in close proximity to Stahl?”
Szabo made a non-committal face.
Kinsella said, “In the same facility, yes.”
“Then you’ve got to get them out of there.”
“And we will, once the Inner Court has ruled.” Kinsella was getting annoyed. “It is by no means an ideal situation. But Stahl has no direct contact with any of them: you’ll just have to take my word on that. We will need to find alternative accommodation for these women but, for the moment, they stay where they are.”
“They’re totally innocent of any wrong doing,” I said. “They had no idea what Stahl had planned for them.”
Kinsella made a dismissive gesture. “We can’t be sure of that. Individuals within the group may still pose a significant threat. We are currently restricting their movements in order to regulate who they interact with.”
“And at what point is that the same as depriving them of their liberty?”
We were going round in circles.
There was a beeping noise from Helena’s direction followed by the sound of the cuff on her arm being inflated. Amir poured her a cup of water and then stood over her whilst she drank it. For a woman in her early thirties, she looked terribly frail. No one spoke until the machine beeped and the cuff deflated.
Finally it was Amir who spoke, “Look, I’m just checking Helena’s blood pressure and it’s far too high. We’re going to have to take a break.”
Kinsella stood up, seemingly relieved by the interruption.
“And I think that’s a good time for us to take a break as well. If it’s alright with you, I suggest that we re-convene here at one o’clock.”
Amir looked sideways at Helena who gave a curt little nod.
“Okay,” Kinsella said. “Back here for one.”
CHAPTER FIVE
I waited for everyone to file out of the room before making my move. I didn’t want to get stuck making polite conversation with Doctor Angela. She was a nice enough woman, I’m sure, but I couldn’t see how we’d have much in common. Once I was certain that everyone had gone their separate ways I went downstairs and asked one of the nurses where I could find the smoking area. She gave me directions towards a central courtyard.
It was a miserable little place which I supposed got very little direct sunlight even today when it was reasonably sunny. No matter what the weather was like outside, a substantial part of the courtyard was always going to be in permanent shadow. There were a number of large potted plants and a few curved benches but it was fairly clear from the number of cigarette butts languishing in the pot plants that no one, other than smokers, ever saw fit to patronise the place. Which suited me.
I perched on one of the benches before lighting my cigarette. Then I sent Millie a text. It would have been nice to have had her come with me but I had purposefully not asked her. If my career was about to come to a premature end then I didn’t want to drag Millie down with me. Even though they’d said that there were no plans to sack me, I didn’t feel I could sit silent whilst Kinsella sold the girls away without a second thought. I knew what that felt like.
When my mother had snatched me away from my father and taken me to live in Northern Russia she had kept me a virtual prisoner, speaking to me only in Russian and beating me whenever I mentioned my father. I probably wouldn’t have survived without my grandmother who took my side whenever she could. Even she was afraid of my mother.
On my birthday they took me to Gdansk as a treat and I managed to get away from them for a short while and send a postcard to my father. I arranged for us to meet at the main station in Gdansk the following year. It was a long time to wait but it was the only date that I could be certain of. Then I had to spend the next year being as agreeable as I could. I couldn’t risk antagonising my mother in spite of her attempts to kill me. And when I left, I had to abandon everything, certain in my knowledge that I would never see my grandmother again.
When I finally met up with my father in Gdansk two terrible things happened. First of all, he walked straight past me on the station concourse: I’d been gone so long that he simply didn’t recognise me. Then, when he realised his mistake, I tried to speak to him. Only he couldn’t understand a word I was saying. At first I thought that my mother had put some sort of spell on me but then I realised the truth: I’d simply forgotten how to speak English. We couldn’t communicate.
On the train home, every time he spoke English I cried. My grasp of the language came back eventually but it took a good six months for me to be able to speak with any degree of confidence and in all that time I knew what it was like to feel like a foreigner. Someone who didn’t belong.
That was how those girls were feeling now. Far from home, abandoned and betrayed. And here was Kinsella trying to make some capital out of it.
When my phone rang I was grateful of the distraction.
But then I checked the caller i.d.
It was Silas.
I stared blankly at the screen for several seconds as my mind scrambled to make sense of what I was seeing. Silas? But he didn’t even have my number.
Except he did. We’d exchanged numbers right after we’d kissed that first time. He’d wanted to take me to dinner but I had resisted. Put him off ‘til later.
“Like that’s ever going to happen!” he’d said.
So, in an effort to appease him, I’d taken his phone and given him my number.
“Is this your real number?” he’d wanted to know.
“Why don’t you call it and find out?”
It had given me a great deal o
f pleasure to pick up my phone when it started ringing. Though not as much pleasure as I took from saving his number to my contacts.
But that had been before. When Silas was alive.
The phone in my hand was still ringing.
I pressed ‘Accept’ and raised it to my ear.
Nothing.
Only that wasn’t quite right. There was someone there. Only they weren’t saying anything. Just listening.
“Silas?” I said, my voice cracking. “Is that you?”
I hung there in an ecstasy of anticipation.
Then the line went dead.
*
By twelve fifty five everyone but Angela was back in the conference room. It seemed that she’d been called away to an emergency. Not that I was particularly concerned. I was still reeling from the phantom phone call. I ran through various possibilities of what might have happened in order to explain it away. The obvious thing to do would have been to ring the number back. I just couldn’t bring myself to do it.
When the meeting re-started Amir was sitting in Angela’s seat and Szabo was sitting off to one side leaving Valeria to run through her power-point.
“Yesterday we received word that the Vatican had overturned the agreement Melissa Stahl brokered which ended the long running conflict between the magical community and the Church. In it, the pontiff had agreed to revoke a centuries old declaration which stated that one of the main priorities of the Church of Rome was to identify and eradicate the threat of witchcraft anywhere in the world.”
“ ‘And I will not suffer a witch to live’,” I quoted.
For the first time that day, Helena held my gaze. The agreement had garnered international coverage and was largely instrumental in cementing Stahl’s career as a politician. There had been rumours that at one time she had been pushing for The Ministry to throw off its cloak of secrecy and reveal its workings to the world. That was unlikely to happen now.
“What does this mean for us?” Helena asked.
Valeria gestured towards Kinsella
“Nothing good,” he said. “As of yesterday afternoon, the Vatican has stated that they are in the process of undergoing a major policy change in their attitude towards combating witchcraft. I don’t know how they got wind of the events at the Tower but they do seem particularly well informed.”
Bitter Moon: Urban Witch Series - Book 2 Page 5