The Land Across

by Gene Wolfe

  Papa Zenon nodded. “Continue, please. I am most interested.”

  “I also,” Naala said.

  “All of a sudden, I’m gone and nobody knows where. Bang! and she’s a widow because the cops shoot Kleon—Kleon was her husband when I knew her. Maybe she gets some money from his life insurance. For sure she can sell the house. So whatever, and off she goes. Next thing we know, she’s bringing the hand to Papa Iason. How the heck does she get it?”

  “You must ask yourself,” Naala told me. “We do not know.”

  “I have and it’s easy. The Unholy Way is trying to kill Russ. I told you that. They send the hand to do the job, give it to him or smuggle it into the place where he’s staying or whatever. That doesn’t work. Russ grabs the shawl from somewhere and wraps it up. He has sealing wax, or somebody there does, and there’s this seal with the crosses he made for some other job, maybe sealing a letter. Whatever. He seals the shawl, stamps it with the cross, and gets Martya to take it to his son and tell him he’s got to burn it. He’s supposed to hold a crucifix while it burns, and pray, and so forth.”

  Naala said, “Rathaus is an Amerikan. She does not know him. Or how?”

  “I don’t know, but I can give one way it might happen easy. Remember the magic shop? I told you about it and gave you that card.”

  She nodded. “It I still have.”

  “Okay. Next door’s a shop where you can buy women’s stuff, clothes, accessories, underwear, all that. Good stuff. Martya has money now, so she goes there. Maybe she’ll buy a silk dress or something. She notices the magic shop next door, she’s curious and she goes in. But before she goes there she’s heard me on the radio. The Legion of the Light has gotten its act together and is broadcasting some of my old recordings. Martya heard one somewhere and recognized my voice.”

  Papa Zenon said, “Continue, my son.”

  “She would look for me, or anyhow I think she would. While she was in the magic shop she asked somebody in there about me. Did they know me or know where I was, all that shit. They said, no, no, no. But Russ had told them about me, his cellmate. So the next time they saw Russ they told him. He wanted to talk to this girl Martya, so they found her and brought her to him. She was probably staying in a hotel, so it wouldn’t be hard. He got her to work with him after that. That wouldn’t be hard, either.”

  Papa Zenon nodded. “He might tell her he was trying to get you out of prison. He may not know that you are free.”

  “I’m not exactly free,” I told him. “If Naala wanted to, she could pop me back in today.”

  “Then Martya may hope to free you from her.”

  Naala made a noise.

  “Here’s another idea, a good strong one. Russ has money, quite a bit of it, back in America. If he’s found some way to tap it, he could have real money here. Martya likes money, and the money she got from Kleon’s insurance won’t be much. Russ may have hired her. It could be no more than that.”

  Naala said, “Money is always possible. Money or the promise of money. Other things there are also. How do we tell Papa Iason his father dies?”

  “We must consider,” Papa Zenon told her. He sounded thoughtful. “There are ways … many ways in which it might be done. I wish to consider all that I can call to mind before we act. Whatever we choose to do must convince.”

  “But you tell us, not act alone?”

  Slowly, Papa Zenon nodded. “I will consult you. If I cannot persuade you, I must choose another. Or you must.”

  I said, “I’ve a question for you both that’s a hell of a lot tougher than that one. How do we keep the Unholy Way from killing Russ after we find him? Suppose the JAKA sticks him back in prison, and in a day or two somebody cuts his throat?”

  Papa Zenon said, “He was in prison before, in prison with you. No one tried to take his life, or you would have said this.”

  “Sure, because they thought he couldn’t get out. Now they know he can.”

  “He will escape again?” Naala asked.

  “Or try to. Absolutely.”

  “He will succeed?”

  I shrugged. “How would I know?”

  “I do not ask your knowledge, Grafton, only your opinion. What is it you think?”

  “Yes, he will if he lives long enough.”

  Papa Zenon added, “Or he may be released.”

  “That is better,” Naala said. “Better for us of the JAKA if he is die in the street. To die in prison would appear most bad.”

  “Then let him go,” I told her. “Send him to Germany and wash your hands of him.”

  “I have not the authority. I can persuade, perhaps. I will try. But now we have say all we have to say, I think.” She pointed a finger at Papa Zenon. “Do not tell Papa Iason of his father’s illness without consulting me, and I will do nothing of that kind without consulting you. You agree?”

  “I do, but I am not ready to adjourn. I have never seen the hand. Do you know that? You have seen it, you have held it. Not I, not even for a moment. It moves of itself?”

  Naala nodded. “Like a rat it runs. It scuttle on the fingers.”

  “Most wonderful!”

  I said, “Here’s the way you have to think of it. It’s a young woman’s. She’s dead, but her left hand is still alive. She’s there, it’s still on her arm, but she can’t lift it or anything. She has to move it by moving the fingers.”

  “An earthbound spirit.”

  “Yeah, exactly.”

  “These I have encountered before, but not like this. Very much I desire to see the hand, to see it move, and to read what is inscribed upon it. You will show it to me?”

  The hand squeezed mine. I thought I knew what that meant, but I was not sure. Then it let go and started to climb out of my pocket. I caught it.

  “You are a priest,” Naala was saying. “You will say it must be destroyed. Perhaps you yourself will try to destroy it.”

  “If you ask it, yes. Not otherwise. You have it here?”

  “It is in a safe place. We can get it if it is needed.”

  Papa Zenon looked at me. “Do you know where it is, Grafton?”

  I nodded, hoping my nod did not tell too much.

  “You will not tell me? Tell me, and I will do all I can for you. I have many friends; some are people of great importance here in our little country.”

  I kept my mouth shut.

  “Already I am friendly to you. I try to help you. You will concede this?”

  “Sure.”

  “You have not forgotten the burial you wished me to perform. It was dangerous, and most dangerous for me. Yet I did it and received only empty thanks. I have dunned you for money?”

  I shook my head.

  “Tell me where is the hand, and I forgive the debt.”

  I was thinking then and thinking hard. Also I was holding the hand all the time. It would have crawled out onto the table if I had let it go. Finally I said, “Papa, I think you’re a little bit of a crook, but you’re our crook and an honest crook, meaning not a double-crosser. I want a bunch of things, and they’re not the same things you or Naala want. I want Martya. I want to find Russ and get him back to the States in one piece. Let’s make that Russ and Rosalee, and I want to get back there myself. Are you following this?”

  “I am, my son.”

  “Will you promise, on your honor, to do all you can to help me if I tell you where the hand is?”

  Naala was staring, but I paid no attention to her.

  “Your answer will not be a trick?”

  “Absolutely not. Honest as daylight, without one bit of bullshit.”

  “Then I agree. You have my word.”

  “Okay,” I said. I was moving it as I spoke. “It’s right here on this table.” I was tempted to slap it down, but I did not. I laid it gently on the tablecloth, right in front of his eggs.

  18

  GETTING AHEAD

  When the waiter came around with more coffee, Papa Zenon covered the hand with a napkin. That sticks in my memo
ry, and I always want to laugh. Sometimes I do. It is the kind of nervous laugh that comes when I have a really close call but do not get hurt.

  When the waiter had gone, Papa uncovered it and bent over the hand looking at the tattoos. “This is no curse.” He pointed to the writing in the palm. “It is a spell to find treasure, first in Greek and after in Latin but the same. Here on the thumb, a prayer to Haaiah. It is very short.”

  Naala said, “He is a demon?”

  Papa Zenon shook his head, hard. “Three times no. Haaiah is an angel, an angel most honored. The supplicant asks that the strangers become new friends. Nothing is in this prayer I myself would not say on my knees.”

  Naala looked like I felt.

  “Here.” He squinted at the fine writing on the index finger. “It begs Lamach for peace.” He read the prayer to us in Greek, but I do not remember the words well enough to quote them.

  “Another angel?” Naala asked.

  “Indeed yes, the guardian of Mars.” Papa Zenon turned the hand over. “You say this moves. It is a dead thing.”

  “It moves,” Naala insisted.

  I added, “I’ve been sitting pretty still myself.”

  He gave me a nice smile, a happy mouse. “All you ask me to do, my son, I will do it for you. You fulfilled your part of our bargain. I strive to fulfill mine.”

  I guess the hand ran across the table while Papa Zenon was looking up, but I did not see it. I did not know what had happened until I felt it climb back into my pocket.

  He looked down and then stared at me, but I just shrugged.

  When he had gone, Naala asked, “You have it, Grafton?”

  “Right. In my side pocket. I didn’t know it was in there until we were sitting down in here, and I wasn’t sure I ought to bring it up.”

  “It likes you, I think. Even as I. You must keep it most safe for us.”

  I said I would.

  “Papa is go. Where and to do what? Do you know?”

  I shook my head.

  “No more do I. What of us? What should we do? I ask the suggestion.”

  I said, “Go back to your apartment so I can shave.”

  She laughed. “Another.”

  “Not me. I gave you mine. What’s yours?”

  “The magic shop, of course. You say Rathaus is hide there.”

  “No, I didn’t. I say he might have hidden there for a while, or somebody in that shop might know where he is. I think Martya tried to find out where I was, and somebody there recognized my name because Russ had talked about me. Only Russ wasn’t in there when I broke in. I searched the whole place, and I would have found him.”

  “You found signs that someone had been hidden there, perhaps?”

  “No. Nothing.”

  “They clean up most carefully, I think. Often I have find such signs. Bread crusts, perhaps. A blanket hidden it might be.”

  I shook my head.

  “That I do not like, but we will go even so. The shawl bring you there. This you say.”

  “Right. It was from the other shop. There are two shops on that floor, the magic shop and a dress shop.”

  “I wish to see both, and they will be open now.”

  So off we went, walking pretty fast and not talking much. I was going over everything Papa Zenon had said. I do not know why I did it, except that I had a hunch he knew more than he was telling. He had kept saying that he was telling us all he knew. (I have not told you about a bunch of stuff that turned out not to matter.) When somebody does that, it is usually because they are not. So what could he be hiding? He had read more prayers from the hand to us. I have not told you about those, either, but I went over them in my mind as we walked along.

  The only thing I came up with was pretty small. He told us he had watched the archbishop early that morning, and I figured it was probably when he climbed the tower where the bells were. That was all he had said, but he had looked worried. Maybe it was just because the archbishop was pretty old, or because he had been out of breath when he came down. But I wondered.

  We got to the building and I showed Naala the sign I had seen, the one with the spotted cat pushing the lilies to one side.

  She said, “This is the dress shop upstairs?”

  “Right. Papa Iason read the label on the shawl for me. It said Lily and Civet. That’s what he said, so when I saw this sign I got interested.”

  “I, too.” Naala smiled. “More interesting even is what is not here. Did you see it?”

  I did not know what she meant.

  “We go to another magic shop once, it is Left-Hand Magic Supplies. We stop and go back because the Rathaus woman see the sign as we drive.”

  “Right.”

  “Where is sign for this magic shop you search?”

  There was not one, and I mulled that over as we went upstairs.

  I had thought that Naala would start with the dress shop, but I was wrong. She went straight to the magic shop. The door I had broken was gone. It had been taken off the hinges and carried away, but you could still see little pieces of broken glass on the floor. We went right in.

  A guy came out of the back fast. I suppose he had heard us. He was younger than I would have expected, a lot younger but stooped, and he looked worried.

  “Yes. May I help you, madame?”

  Naala laughed. “You may show us things if you wish. This I find most interesting.”

  “We are closed,” he told her. “Our door would be locked, but…” He let it trail off.

  “But you have none. This I see.”

  “Someone broke in last night. New glass must be fitted. Mounted also. Next week we are promised.”

  “By then you will have nothing left,” Naala told him. “They come back every night and carry away big boxes until all is gone.”

  He shook his head. “Whoever broke in took nothing. We have examined and counted all the most valuable things. Nothing is gone.”

  “You have not have much time for this.”

  “We are two. It is sufficient.”

  “Ah! You open most early.”

  The young guy shook his head. “In morning we do not open at all.” He cleared his throat. “We are closed. I must ask you go out.”

  “I go most gladly,” Naala told him, “when you have told me what you sell here and display for me your wares.”

  “You must tell your son to stop poking them.”

  I said, “I’m not poking.”

  Naala chuckled. “He is a bad boy. His poor mother he never obeys, but he will come with me when I go. This you will see.”

  “Soon, I hope.” The young guy was about beaten, and he knew it. “You climb the stair to buy a dress?”

  “I did not say, I know.”

  “I do not own this shop,” the young guy told her. “To my father it belongs. He is in the dress shop. Go to him and ask to see as you desire. If he says yes, you will see everything.”

  “He buys a dress for your mother, I hope.”

  “No. Both shops are his.”

  I froze when I heard that. When Naala had said we would come here, I thought it was just because she could not think of anything better to do and wanted to keep busy. Now it seemed like a whole bunch of stuff was falling into place in my mind.

  Naala was saying, “Then I will speak with your father also,” when I came over and braced the young guy.

  “You’re Ferenc Narkatsos.”

  He said he was and held out his hand.

  I ignored it. “I was a friend of Yelena’s.” I said that as I swung, and this time I did not go for the face. The heart is right in the middle of the chest, right under the breastbone, and that was where I hit him. Everything I had was behind it, and I followed up with my left so fast it caught the right side of his face before he fell.

  Naala had her gun out when I looked around. “Stay down!” was what she told Ferenc. Only she did not have to. He was not getting up anytime soon.

  “Much you are too rough, Grafton.” She was pushing me back
with her free hand, but not looking at me.

  “He killed her,” I told Naala. “He killed Yelena. You want a picture? I’ll draw you one.”

  Nobody said anything after that, then Naala laughed. “He turn pale. You think you escape the law, Ferenc? It find you out most quick.”

  “I—I…” There were tears rolling down his face.

  “You will enjoy hell. This I think. There you will find many like yourself. Do you wish to go and see? If no, you must tell us. Otherwise you try to escape and I shoot. You know about this? It is most easy. I am a senior operator of the JAKA. Here! Look!”

  You could tell opening her purse with her left hand and getting out her gold badge was no new trick to Naala. She did it so fast and slick I could not believe it.

  “I say, ‘I arrest him. We will take him outside and wave to stop a police car, but he run.’ They will say, ‘Good. A trial cost more than bullets.’”

  The young guy—Ferenc—did not speak, so I caught both wrists and twisted his arms behind him like Naala told me. He started gasping, and at first I thought it was because I was hurting his arms and backed off a little. As soon as I did, I saw it was not me at all. The hand was just getting a good grip on his throat. I let go of his arms then and clapped my right hand over his mouth. As quick as I could, I grabbed the hand with my left and jerked it away from his throat.

  “You do not like,” Naala told him. “Tell us, and you will not see that again.”

  After that he said, “She wouldn’t sign. Everything I say to her, it is still no. She wants the police.” There was a lot more after that. That was just the beginning.

  Finally we took him downstairs and flagged a car with two cops in it. They put the cuffs on him and one cop got out to make more room.

  So it was back to JAKA headquarters. The cop marched him inside, and Naala and I tagged along with me wondering when I would ever get out. And whether.

  Next was Baldy’s waiting room, only I did not know it was Baldy’s until we went into his office. We had been parked outside for about an hour.