The soundless tape showed the dining room of the actual house. A girl entered the room, perhaps twelve, thirteen. Blonde locks. Up-tilted nose. Tanned lithe body with tight hips, budding breasts, perfect legs — a kiddy-porn starlet and lecher’s wet-dream. But she was sullen, pouting, her movements angry.
As she crossed to the table, she banged her fist down on its top, yelling at someone.
A mirror on the wall behind her cracked, fell to the floor. She turned, still soundlessly yelling. An ornament on a sideboard flew across the room, hovered in the air, then went back to its original position.
Cain said, ‘Is this for real?’
The table in the room began to shake. A metal candlestick lifted off it and stuck to the girl’s cheek. She had trouble pulling it away, then wrenched it free and threw it across the room.
He blurted, ‘Shit.’
Rhonda said, ‘There’s hours of this but that’s probably enough.’ She stood up. ‘Next we meet the duplicates in person.’
They walked past the plastic surgeon’s section, the operating theatre, the dental lab, training rooms, cosmetic workshop, reached Pat’s office and knocked.
The door was opened by the same girl he’d seen on the video. Except she had bands on her teeth and a surgical bandage across her nose. She said in her breathy voice, ‘Hi. I’m Nina. Come and meet the family.’
Pat’s office doubled as a casting room. It had a light-stand facing a bare wall, a scattering of plastic chairs, a monitor with video player and a pin-board with a profusion of head-sheets. Pat was sitting on a plastic chair talking to two women. She looked up as they entered and came brightly forward to kiss him. ‘Hello, stranger.’
He returned the kiss, delighted to see her, but surprised at her gaunt appearance. It had only been two years.
She said, ‘So how’s the thousand bucks coming? Remember our psychic phenomena bet? I take Amex.’
‘Not a penny till I see it in person.’
She introduced the two women. ‘Meet Eve and Jane.’ Neither duplicate was finished. The shorter, curvaceous one had two black eyes and face scars from operations. The taller, athletic one had a bandage on both ears, bandaged hands and a livid scar at the hairline.
The shorter one said, ‘Wow, he’s dishy.’
Pat said. ‘Hands off. He’s mine.’
The girl playing the daughter said, ‘What about me?’
Pat said, ‘You’re supposed to be sexually frustrated.’
‘Got it in one.’
‘They wanted to meet you,’ she told him. ‘I know they’re not completed but you’re looking at the last of many operations. It hasn’t been easy for them. All right, you three. You’ve met him now. Back to the voice-matching booth.’
The duplicates blew him kisses as she shooed them out.
When they’d left, she put an arm around him. ‘Taking me to dinner tonight?’
‘Don’t I always?’
‘Bloody wombat. Eats, roots and leaves.’
Rhonda said. ‘Charming. Now if you lovebirds will accompany me to Logistics…’
Logistics was a barrel-shaped room adjoining the reference library with a circular central table and screens built into the walls.
The three of them sat around the table. Rhonda threw the jamming switch. Red lights came on above the door. She told Pat, ‘You have the floor.’
‘Okay.’ Pat put on a Play School voice. ‘Once upon a time in a big big house in the backwoods of New Zealand’s brooding volcanic South Island, lived two rich, reclusive half-sisters and a daughter. The sisters slept in big beds and quite often shared boyfriends.’
He blinked.
‘But the daughter slept in a small bed all by herself because she had emotional problems as you can imagine. And on bad days, she had invisible playmates — that flung things around the room.’
‘Weird.’
‘Now in a far, far country,’ Pat simpered on, ‘in a big walled compound called the Kremlin, people heard about the family — people interested in anti-bloody-gravity and psi-effects. Some wanted to visit them. Some wanted to kidnap them.’
‘The whole family? Why not just the girl?’
‘Because,’ Rhonda cut in, ‘if you disturb the situation the manifestations could stop. It could be a form of energy produced by the nervous system. The girl is certainly the focus, but no one knows the conditions causing the effect. It could be the girl alone or the family dynamics. So far, they know it’s not the house because, if the family goes away, the thing follows.’
‘Anyway,’ Pat did a hand sashay for attention, ‘in a big country called America a kind-hearted CIA man said, “Seeing the house isn’t a factor, wouldn’t it be nice to take the family to a cosy lab and study them? But in case that disappoints the people in the Kremlin, we’ll make a duplicate family they can invite or kidnap if they want to.”’
‘Clever.’
‘The problem’s how to do it without upsetting them,’ Rhonda added. ‘A crude switch could affect the phenomena. So we need the family’s cooperation.’
‘You mean — tell them we’re going to replace them?’
‘We have.’
‘Shit. Did they buy it?’
‘No.’
‘Which is where you come in,’ Pat said. ‘Because it’s right up your street. You’re a chick-magnet. Good at bullshit. Able to handle loopy females. Your religious background connects with Stromlo, you’re psychologically strong…’
‘And,’ Rhonda added, ‘you’re good at extermination.’
‘Hold it. I’m supposed to kill people?’
She stroked her chins. ‘Stromlo’s an alcoholic, old and shot. Sharp enough to mastermind the switch. But he can’t charm women or knock off storm-troops.’
‘Storm-troops?’
She lowered her head as if looking at him over glasses. ‘This isn’t old home week, dear heart. We’ve just lost our key man in Pretoria. They’ve killed a Grade Two in Bosnia. Last month we lost the team in Yugoslavia — including the surgeons would you believe? And side job or not — you could be next.’
‘So who’s behind it?’ He glared at them both. ‘And if it’s that bad, why aren’t we blown?’
Pat glanced at Rhonda. ‘Do we spill our guts?’
Rhonda picked her ear with a pencil, thinking. ‘No.’ She turned to him. ‘It’s not because we don’t trust you, Ray. But if someone gets to you and grills you… All we can say now is that things are changing fast. And you’ll need to be ready for anything. All overseas assignments — even yours — are now Condition Red.’
‘Condition Red? For a doddle with three females and a poltergeist?’
‘Don’t assume it’s a doddle. Now we can’t spare surgeon backup for this number. Vanqua’s pushed for trained people as well, so you’re it. All hands to the pumps. Tu comprends?’
He spent the rest of the day in ops, absorbing detailed briefings, then took the lift to the bistro to meet Pat. Unlike the canteen, the place had candles, fabric tablecloths and its windows overlooked the valley wilderness. Couples mostly ate there, despite the nominal charge.
She was waiting in a corner booth. She’d put on lipstick, done her best, but nothing could disguise her worn-out look. She pointed to the cliff and dusk-smudged trees. ‘Isn’t that beautiful?’
He nodded, sat down, uneasy. Life was rough sailing and reunions definite shoals.
‘So how’s the pet food and tampons trade?’
‘Busy.’
‘Enjoy it?’
‘For a while. Now it feels a bit pointless. It’s such a small tight push. People vanishing up their bums.’
‘I told Rhonda you’d get jack of it.’ There was great tiredness behind her smile. ‘So… women?’