‘I am sure Agnes has already indicated why this was naïve.’
‘A little, yes.’
‘The truth is this: there is more danger now than there has ever been. The advances being made in science and medicine are not advances to be welcomed: germ theory and microbiology and immunology. Last year they found the vaccine for typhoid. What you won’t know is that in pursuit of their research the inventors of the vaccine capitalised on the work of the Institute for Experimental Research in Berlin.’
‘Surely a typhoid vaccination is a good thing?’
‘Not when the research was conducted at the expense of us.’ He clenched his jaw slightly, trying to keep his anger out of view. Agnes’ stiff silence made me worry even more. Maybe there was a gun in his desk. Maybe this had been a kind of test and I had failed and now he was going to put a bullet in my head.
‘Scientists’ – he said the word as if it tasted of sulphur – ‘are the new witchfinders. You know about witchfinders, don’t you? I know you do.’
‘He knows about witchfinders,’ assured Agnes, blowing a thin stream of smoke towards the standing lamp.
‘But what you don’t know is that the witch trials never ended. It just goes by a different name. We are their dead frogs. The institute knows of us.’ He leaned over the desk, dropping ash onto a fresh copy of theNew York Tribune, his stare burning like the butt of his cigar. ‘Do you understand? There are members of the scientific communitywho do know about us.’ He sat back in his chair. ‘Not many. But a few. In Berlin. They have no interest in us as human beings. Indeed, they don’t even see usashuman beings. They imprisoned two of us. Tortured them in the laboratory where they kept their guinea pigs. A man and a woman. The woman escaped. She is part of the society now. She still lives in Germany, in a village in the Bavarian countryside, but we got her a new life and name. She helps us when we need her. And we help her.’
‘I didn’t know this.’
‘You’re not meant to.’
I noticed that the park was cluttered with fallen trees.
A bird landed on the windowsill.
I didn’t recognise it. Birds were different here. A small robust yellow creature with dull grey wings, it jerked its head towards the window. Then the other way. I never tired of the way birds moved when they weren’t in flight. It was a series of tableaux rather than continuous movement. Staccato. Stuck moments.
‘Your daughter could be in danger. We all could. We need to work together, you understand?’
‘I do.’
‘There is one last question I need to ask you,’ Hendrich said, after a sip of whisky.
‘Please do.’
‘Do you want to survive? I mean, really? Do you want to stay alive?’
I had long asked myself this question. The answer was usually yes, because I didn’t want to die while I still had a daughter, possibly still alive, and yet it was very difficult to say I wanted to survive. Ever since Rose, it had been a pendulum between the two possibilities. To be or not to be. But in that lavish apartment, with that yellow bird still on the ledge, the answer seemed clearer. From this height, with the hard blue sky and bold new city in front of me, I felt closer to Marion. America made you think in the future tense. ‘Yes. Yes, I do want to survive.’
‘Well, to survive we must work together.’
The bird flew away.
‘Right,’ I said. ‘Right. Work together.’
‘Don’t look so worried. We are not a religious sect. Our aim is to stay alive, yes, but only so we can enjoy life. We have no gods here, save maybe Aphrodite. And Dionysus.’ He looked wistful for a moment. ‘Agnes, are you heading up to Harlem?’
‘Yes. I’m going to see an old friend, and then sedate myself and sleep for a week.’
Light gleamed like a jewel on the decanter. The sight made Hendrich happy. ‘Look! The sun is out. Shall we take a walk in the park?’
An uprooted maple tree was in our path.
‘Hurricane,’ Hendrich explained. ‘Killed some people a few weeks ago, sailors mainly. The park keepers have been a bit slow to do the clear-up.’
I stared at the roots, spreading like tentacles. ‘Must have been ferocious.’
Hendrich smiled at me. ‘It was quite a show.’
He stared down at the scattered earth and leaves on the path.
