The Burning Man

1

New York was awake. From Battery Park to Harlem, the streets were already beginning to gridlock under the bright, silvery gleam of the dawn sky. In the diners, the cooks were preparing for the onslaught of morning customers, filling the air with steam from the coffee machines, loading trays of bagels and croissants, opening boxes of eggs. The chatter of life started low, the words not yet apparent.

Church sat on the sidewalk at Fifth Avenue and Thirty-Fourth Street, bone-weary from the night’s exertions, knowing the worst was yet to come. The Lexus pulled up next to him at speed and Laura lurched angrily out of the back seat.

‘God, the smell in there was disgusting. Ham. And shit.’

Nelson climbed out of the passenger seat. ‘You sure you want her back? I think we’ve got due cause to put her away — for being in possession of a dangerous mouth and a lethal personality.’

Exchanging a silent, knowing look with Nelson, Church hugged Laura as Tom emerged from the car carrying a long package wrapped loosely in pages from the New York Post. He handed Caledfwlch to Church.

Bad-tempered, Tombstone threw open the driver’s door. ‘More weird shit.’ The police radio was continually interrupted by bursts of loud static, within which Church could just make out a single repeated word: Croatoan. On Tombstone’s BlackBerry, random emails blinked in, quoting the same word.

‘Multiple streams of information transmitting the same message,’ Shavi said. ‘It is starting.’

‘Then we’d better get moving.’ Church unwrapped Caledfwlch and slipped it into the scabbard on his back.

‘We’re giving you one chance here,’ Nelson said.

‘That’s all I need.’

Nelson glanced at Tombstone, unsure. ‘You think we’ve been infected with stupidtron particles?’

‘Oh, yeah. You, me and the rest of the world.’

‘My girlfriend’s always going on about shit like this,’ Nelson confided. A flicker of doubt crossed his face. “The world is an illusion. We’re all tricked into believing a lie. The evidence is there if you look close enough.” She always thought it was funny — me, a detective with ten years’ service, couldn’t see the evidence. I used to laugh at her.’ He tapped his head. ‘Last week she tried to kill herself. Nearly did it, too. Now she won’t talk to me.’

‘Don’t start with all that maudlin shit again,’ Tombstone said. ‘She’ll come round, I told ya. Give her time.’ He grinned, but he couldn’t keep his true thoughts from his eyes.

Nelson looked up to the summit of the Empire State Building at Church’s back. ‘I still think you’re crazy.’

‘Main observatory is on the eighty-sixth floor, another on the one hundred and second,’ Tombstone said. ‘You can see eighty miles on a clear day. They say.’

‘You’ve not been up?’ Nelson asked.

‘Don’t like heights.’

‘That’s not high enough.’ Shielding his eyes, Church tried to see to the top of the one-hundred-and-two-storey structure. ‘Can you get me out at the very top?’

After Nelson and Tombstone spoke to security, they returned to the car as Church and the others took the elevator as high as it would go. Steel steps led to a small, circular, windowed observation area with a ladder leading up to a hatch that gave access to the dirigible mooring mast.

Pressing her face to the glass, Laura looked out over the city. ‘Church-dude, it’s not often I agree with the Filth, but that detective is right. You are seriously fucked in the head if you’re going out there.’

With his alien eye, Shavi searched for some sign of the invisible maze, but found nothing.

‘What if those gods were just ragging on you?’ Laura continued. ‘There’s nothing out there. One step, one thousand four hundred feet to the pavement. My friend Church, a fine red mist.’

‘That’s it — give him a pep talk,’ Tom said.

‘I’ve come prepared. To a point.’ Steeling himself, Church stepped onto the ladder. ‘We don’t have a choice. We need the Second Key now. If you listen carefully you can hear the city talking, repeating one word over and over again, everywhere. The Void isn’t going to take any chances. It’s going to pull the plug.’

‘I can go,’ Shavi said.

Church smiled unconvincingly. ‘You get to have the second go.’

They all fell silent. Church nodded once, then climbed the ladder and went through the metal hatch.

‘Idiot or hero, you decide.’ Laura glanced back out at the dizzying drop. ‘I think I’m going to vomit. Look away.’

The rattle of feet on steel made them think Church was returning until a low sound like a badly tuned radio set their teeth on edge. Veitch stepped into the room, the black flames of his sword casting odd shadows.

‘Here we are again,’ he said. ‘All together one last time.’ Behind him, Ruth looked uncomfortable and Miller kept his eyes down selfconsciously.

‘How did you find us, you tattooed fuck-head?’ Laura said.

‘Me and Church are like brothers these days, didn’t you know? Even more than we were in the old days.’ He began to climb the ladder to the hatch. ‘Time to finish this.’