"Why now?" I said.

"Because the Walking Man has finally come to the Nightside," said Walker.

I sat up straight, and Suzie pushed herself away from the wall. Walker's voice was as cool and collected as always, but some statements have a power all their own. I would have sworn the room was suddenly colder.

"How do you know it's really him and not just some wannabe?" said Suzie.

"Because it's my business to know things like that," said Walker. "The Walking Man, the wrath of G.o.d in the world of men, the most powerful and scariest agent of the Good, ever, has come at last to the Nightside to punish the guilty. And everyone here is either running for the horizon, barricading themselves in while arming themselves to the teeth, or hiding under their beds and wetting themselves. And every single one of them is looking to the new Authorities to do something."

Suzie paced up and down the room, scowling heavily, her thumbs tucked in the top of her jeans. She might have been worried, or she might have been relishing the challenge. She wasn't scared. Suzie didn't get scared or intimidated. Those were things that happened to other people, usually because of Suzie. She sat down abruptly on the edge of the couch, next to me. Close though she was, she still didn't quite touch me. I caught Walker noticing that, and he nodded slowly.

"So close," he said. "In every way but one."

I gave him my best hard look, but to his credit he didn't flinch. "Is there anything you don't know about?" I said.

He smiled briefly. "You'd be surprised."

"It's none of your business," said Suzie. "And if you say anything to anyone, I'll kill you."

"You'd be surprised how many people already know, or guess," said Walker. "It's hard to keep secrets in the Nightside. I am merely . . . concerned."

"Why?" I said bluntly. "What are we, to you? What have I ever been to you, except a threat to your precious status quo, or an expendable agent for some mission too dangerous or too dirty for your own people? And now, suddenly, you're concerned concerned about me? Why, for G.o.d's sake?" about me? Why, for G.o.d's sake?"

"Because you're my son," said Walker. "In every way that matters."

He couldn't have surprised me more if he'd taken out a gun and shot me. Suzie and I looked blankly at each other, then back at Walker, but he gave every indication of being perfectly serious. He smiled briefly, holding his dignity close about him.

"We've never really talked, have we?" he said. "Only shared a few threats and insults, in pa.s.sing . . . or discussed the details of some case we had to work on together. All very brisk and businesslike. You can't afford to get too close to someone you know you may have to kill one day. But things are different now, in so many ways."

"I thought you had two sons?" I said. I didn't know what else to say.

"Oh yes," said Walker. "Good boys, both of them. We don't talk. What could we talk about? I've gone to great pains to ensure that neither they nor their mother has any idea what it is I do for a living. They know nothing about the Nightside, or the terrible things I have to do here, just to keep the peace. I couldn't bear it if they knew. They might look at me as though I were some kind of monster. I used to be so good at keeping my two lives separate. Two lives, two Walkers, doing my best to give equal time to both. But the Nightside is a jealous mistress . . . and what used to be my real life, my sane and rational life, got sacrificed to the greater good.

"My boys, my fine boys . . . are strangers to me now. You're all I've got, John. The only son of my oldest friend. I'd forgotten how much that time meant to me, until I met your father again during the Lilith War. Those happy days of our youth . . . We thought we were going to change the world; and unfortunately we did. Now your father is gone, again, and you're all I've got left, John. Perhaps the nearest thing to a real son I'll ever have. The only son who could ever hope to understand me."

"How many times have you tried to kill me?" I said. "Directly, or indirectly?"

"That's family for you," said Walker. "In the Nightside."

I looked at him for a long time.

"Don't listen to him," said Suzie. "You can't believe him. It's Walker."

"The words manipulative and emotional blackmail emotional blackmail do spring to mind," I said. "This is all so sudden, Walker." do spring to mind," I said. "This is all so sudden, Walker."

"I know," he said calmly. "I put it all down to midlife crisis myself."

"And where does all this leave us?" I said.

"Exactly where we were before," said Walker. "We'll still probably end up having to kill each other, someday. For what will no doubt seem like perfectly good reasons at the time. But it means . . . I'm allowed to be concerned. About you, and Suzie. And no, you don't get a say in the matter."

"We're doing fine," said Suzie. "We're making progress."

She let one arm rest casually across my shoulders. And I hope only I could tell what the effort cost her.

"Let us talk about the Walking Man," I said. Everything else could wait till later, after I'd had more time to think about it. "He's never come here before. So, why now?"

"In the past, the Nightside's unique nature kept out all direct agents of Heaven and h.e.l.l," said Walker. "But since Lilith was banished again, it appears a subtle change has come over the Nightside, and many things that were not possible before are cropping up now with regrettable regularity."

"So all kinds of agents for the Good could be turning up here?" I said.

"Or agents of Evil," said Suzie.

"Well, quite," murmured Walker. "As if things weren't complicated enough . . ."

"Still," I said, "what's bringing the Walking Man here now now?"

"It would appear he disapproves of the new Authorities," said Walker. "The group whose interests I now represent."

"That's why you're here!" I said. "Because if they're in danger, so are you!"

Walker smiled and said nothing.

"Who are they?" said Suzie. "These new Authorities? The old bunch were nothing more than faceless businessmen who ran things because they owned most of the Nightside. So, are we talking about their families? The next generation? Meet the new boss, same as the old boss, don't get screwed again?"

"The inheritors?" said Walker, with something very like a sniff. "They wish. We saw them off. One quick glimpse of what actually goes on here, and they couldn't sell their holdings fast enough. No . . . Certain personages in the Nightside have come together to represent the main interests in this place. Essentially, the Nightside is now determined to run itself."

"Who, exactly?" I said. "Who are these brand-new self-appointed self-appointed Authorities? Do I know them?" Authorities? Do I know them?"

"Some of them, certainly," said Walker. "They all know you. That's why I'm here."

"How can you serve people from the Nightside?" I said, honestly curious. "You've never made any secret about your feelings for us. You always said the best thing to do would be to nuke the place and wipe out the whole d.a.m.ned freak show once and for all."

"I've mellowed," said Walker. "Just possibly, these new Authorities can bring about real change, from within. I would like to see that, before I die. Now, come with me and meet the new Authorities. Hear what they have to say; learn what they mean to do. Before the Walking Man tracks them down and kills them all."

"But what do they want with me and Suzie?" I said.

Walker raised an eyebrow. "I would have thought that was obvious. They want you to use your gift to find the Walking Man, then find a way to stop him. Shall we go?"

THREE.

Not Really Fitting In at All at the Adventurers Club

I let Suzie finish setting up the house's defences while Walker and I stood outside in what used to be the garden, not looking at each other. Suzie always likes arming the hidden charges and taking the safeties off the concealed weaponry and contemplating the mayhem and general carnage that will undoubtedly ensue if anyone is dumb enough to try to get into the house while we're out. One very professional burglar actually made it all the way to our front door once, and the door ate him. The letter-box was spitting out bone fragments for weeks afterwards. let Suzie finish setting up the house's defences while Walker and I stood outside in what used to be the garden, not looking at each other. Suzie always likes arming the hidden charges and taking the safeties off the concealed weaponry and contemplating the mayhem and general carnage that will undoubtedly ensue if anyone is dumb enough to try to get into the house while we're out. One very professional burglar actually made it all the way to our front door once, and the door ate him. The letter-box was spitting out bone fragments for weeks afterwards.

I was still thinking about what Walker had said. You're my son, in every way that matters. You can't just drop an emotional bomb-sh.e.l.l like that into the conversation and expect everyone to act all business-like afterwards, as though nothing had happened. Unless you're Walker, I suppose. That calm, collected, cold-hearted functionary, who only runs the Nightside because he doesn't trust anyone else to do the job properly. Who always has an agenda, and a secret goal hidden inside every end game. Was he telling the truth this time? With Walker you could never tell, until it was too late. And what did I feel about him, after all these years? He's always been there, in the background of my life, sometimes helping, sometimes watching, sometimes sending his dogs after me. He's tried to have me killed on several occasions, but I never took that personally. For Walker, it was always just business.

I respected him. Even admired him on occasion, from a safe distance. But you couldn't like Walker. He wouldn't let you. He never let anyone get close enough to see the real him.

Suzie slammed the front door shut and muttered the last few activating Words, then I led us down the safe path, through the mine-field. Walker strode casually along beside me, swinging his furled umbrella like a walking-stick. Typical of the man. You could set fire to his old-school tie, and it still wouldn't affect his stiff upper lip. Walker was old school all the way, and proud of it. Family means a lot, to people like him. It's all they've got outside duty.

Once we were safely out on the street, Walker drew his gold watch from his waistcoat pocket and looked at me thoughtfully.

"I'm about to share one of my greatest secrets with you, John, Suzie. So do pay attention. I don't tell them to just anyone. So, basically, Timeslips don't just happen. Well, actually yes they do, suddenly and violently and all over the place. b.l.o.o.d.y things are always popping up exactly where they're least needed and making trouble for everyone . . . But, there is a reason, a pattern, behind their appearances, and some people have learned to control them. Like Mammon Emporium . . ."

"Like the one we found in Frankenstein's cellar," said Suzie, determined not to be left out of things.

"Well, quite," said Walker. "They learned how to stabilise Timeslips, for their own profit. The old Authorities learned how to control them, for their own purposes. And the old Authorities didn't just give me my Voice-they also gave me this." He indicated the gold pocket-watch in his hand. "A Portable Timeslip. A doorway to everywhere, in and out of the Nightside. So that I can be wherever I need to be, whenever I need to be there. And sometimes just a little bit in advance."

"That explains a lot," said Suzie.

"I'll be d.a.m.ned," I said, staring at the watch. I'd seen it in Walker's hands a hundred times before and never thought twice about it. Typical of the man, to hide his greatest secret in plain sight.

"I'm only revealing this to you now because we have to get where we're going without being observed," said Walker. "I hope I can depend on both of you to be discreet about this?"

"Oh sure," I said cheerfully. "Right up to the point where I need to blackmail a favour out of you. So, where are we going?"

"Uptown," said Walker. "Clubland, to be exact. The Adventurers Club. That distinguished home away from home for all the great heroes, gallants, and adventurers who pa.s.s through the Nightside. And most of them have, at one time or another."

"Why not the Londinium Club?" I said. "It's older, more established, and more exclusive than any other club in the Nightside, and it's always been the home base of all the real Powers That Be."

"Precisely," said Walker. "Far too connected with the old order. The new Authorities intend to make a clean break with all the old ways of doing things and are determined to send a clear message, right from the start. So, the Adventurers Club it is."

He fiddled with the rolled gold fob on the side of his watch, and the lid flew open, revealing an impenetrable darkness within. A deep, deep dark that seemed to draw my gaze in, till it felt like I was standing on the edge of an abyss and might fall in at any moment. And then the darkness leapt up and out, enveloping us all, and when it fell back again, we were somewhere else.

Uptown is the very best part of the Nightside, where all the very best people go. The most exclusive and exciting night spots, the most expensive bars and restaurants, and all the richest, most famous and powerful and totally up themselves people you could ever hope not to meet. And all the most exclusive, members-only, circle the wagons to keep out the riffraff clubs in Uptown gather together in Clubland. Where distinguished and discreet establishments cater to every need, enthusiasm, and obsession known to man. Some are nearly as old as the Nightside itself, while others deal in fads and fancies that come and go like mayflies. But they all have one thing in common. Membership is by invitation only. Plebs need not apply.

Walker led Suzie and me through the packed streets, and everyone gave way before us. Some because they recognised Walker, some because they recognised me, and quite a few because Suzie always looks dangerous even when she's just wondering what's for dinner. Walker nodded easily to famous and powerful faces, and they nodded respectfully back. He was one of them. Suzie and I quite definitely weren't. They did give us plenty of room. Which on the whole I think I preferred.

I gave my attention to the various clubs we pa.s.sed along the way-the famous and the infamous, the outrageously exotic and the determinedly obscene. Names you could drop to impress your friends, or infuriate your enemies. Members-only clubs are the ultimate extension of the Old Boys Network, and it is in these very private back rooms that all the real decisions get made. In between the very best drinks and drugs and debauchery, of course. You go to clubs like them to do things behind closed doors that you'd never even think of discussing in polite society, to do the things of which your friends and family would never approve.

Like the Caligula Club, dedicated to exploring the furthest reaches of pleasure and pain, the most extreme forms of sensation. Or Club Dead, exclusively for the mortally challenged. A club for zombies, vampires, mummies, and quite a few of the Frankenstein clan's creations. (Club motto: We belong dead. We belong dead.) The Blue Parrott exists to cater to the Nightside's bird-watchers. Oh yes, we have them, too. You'd be surprised at some of the strange species that turn up here, and bird-watchers from all over the world come to the Nightside to observe ancient, rare, and impossible species that can't be found anywhere else. Everything from the dodo to the pteranodon, the giant roc to the fabled Oozalum bird. But no pigeons . . . There are no pigeons in the Nightside; or at least, not for long. Something eats them.

Then there's Pagan's Place, for barbarian warriors who want to better themselves, and right next to that, the Adventurers Club. Older than all the others put together, the original Club was supposedly founded back in the sixth century, and has been a watering hole for heroes between quests ever since. You wouldn't have thought any real hero would be seen dead in a place like the Nightside, but something about its reputation draws them here, possibly like moths to a flame, and the Adventurers Club is where they gather. Getting in is not easy. In fact, simply getting past the Doorman can be an adventure in itself. I think you have to slay an ogre and rescue a princess just to be allowed to use the rest rooms.

Still, every adventurer with a name or a reputation worth the knowing is supposed to have pa.s.sed through its doors at one time or another. Why? Perhaps because the Nightside is the single greatest challenge any hero can face, the Mount Everest of challenges, and you can't call yourself a real hero until you've tested yourself against it. I only know about the Club because my sometime friend Julien Advent has been a Member in good standing on two separate occasions. First, when he was the greatest hero and adventurer of the Victorian Age, then again after a Timeslip brought him here in the nineteen sixties. Julien's a good man and a revered personage; I planned to drop his name at every opportunity and hope some of his respectability rubbed off on me.

I said as much to Suzie, but she just shrugged. She's never cared about being respectable.

"Julien's not the oldest Member in the Club, though, is he?" she said.

"Not by a long way. I think that honour goes to Tommy Squarefoot. Of course, he's a Neanderthal."

Walker led us right up to the Adventurers Club Doorman, who stood tall and broad and very large before the closed Club doors. He was supposed to be a were sabre-tooth tiger, and given the sheer size of him, I was perfectly prepared to believe it. He stood aside for Walker, because everyone does, but gave first Suzie and then me his best cold, a.s.sessing look as we pa.s.sed. Suzie glared right back at him, and he actually blushed a little and looked away.

"He likes you," I said solemnly to Suzie.

"Shut up," said Suzie.

"He likes you. He's your special Doorman friend."

"I have a gun."

"Never knew you when you didn't."

"Children, children," murmured Walker as he led us into the gorgeously appointed lobby. "Try not to show me up . . ."

I decided immediately to p.i.s.s in the first potted plant I saw, on general principles, but I got distracted. The interior of the Adventurers Club was as impressive as I'd always thought it would be. The Club proper was all gleaming wood-panelled walls, waxed floors, portraits and chandeliers, and proudly antique furnishings. Familiar faces pa.s.sed by on every side, or gathered together to chat happily in the luxurious meeting rooms, or consult the leather-bound volumes of Club history in the huge private Library, or just brag to each other in the Club bar about their latest exploits.

Chandra Singh, the monster hunter, and Janissary Jane, the demon killer, were discussing new tracking techniques in the Library. They completely ignored me as I peered in through the open door. Jane was wearing her usual battered combat fatigues, which I knew from personal experience would smell of smoke, blood, and brimstone up close. Because they always did. She'd fought in every major demon war in the last twenty years, in as many different time-lines and dimensions, and while she'd been on as many losing as winning sides, she was a true professional, feared and respected by all who knew her. Especially when she had a few drinks in her.

Chandra Singh was tall, dark-skinned, and distinguished, with a sophisticated style and a truly impressive black beard. He was wearing his usual height-of-the-Raj finery, all splendid silks and satins, topped with a jet-black turban boasting the biggest single diamond I'd ever seen. Chandra hunted monsters in and around the Indian subcontinent, with a pa.s.sion and enthusiasm unmatched anywhere in the world. His wall of trophies was legendary. He says he does it to protect the innocent and keep them safe, but I think he just likes killing monsters.

Well h.e.l.l, who doesn't?

Walker dropped Suzie and me off in the bar while he went upstairs to tell the new Authorities we'd arrived. I didn't argue. I felt like I could use several large drinks, with an even larger drink for a chaser. The bar itself was almost overpoweringly luxurious, and I was impressed despite myself. No expense had been spared to make the Adventurers Club bar the envy of all lesser mortals, and it openly boasted every comfort known to man. The bar itself was a work of art, in gleaming mahogany and brightly polished gla.s.s and crystal, with a whole world of extraordinary potables lined up, just waiting to be ordered by some hero who'd worked up a serious thirst slaughtering everything in sight. Suzie, who had never been impressed by anything in her entire life, marched straight up to the bar, ordered a bottle of Bombay Gin, and put it on Walker's tab. I drifted in beside her, studied the bottles on display, and ordered an heroic measure of the most expensive brandy I could see. Also on Walker's tab. Having thus happily attended to the inner man, I put my back to the mahogany bar and took a good look at my fellow imbibers.

A dozen good men and women stood scattered about the oversized bar, in various garb from various times and places, all intent on each other and thoroughly ignoring Suzie and me. So I just as deliberately ignored them, giving my full attention to the various displays and trophies and portraits that adorned the bar. The walls were positively crowded with portraits of old Club Members who'd distinguished themselves down the years. There were Admiral Syn, Salvation Kane, Julien Advent, Owen Deathstalker, in a whole series of clashing styles and periods. And the bar was positively lousy with impressive trophies.

The shadow of a Leopard Man, imprisoned in a great block of transparent lucite. A hollowed-out alien's skull, put to use as an ash-tray. Something I didn't recognise from the Black Lagoon, stuffed and mounted, and a severed demon head, unconsumed by ever-burning flames. Several of the Club Members lit their cigars off it. And up on the far wall, proudly presented, the withered and mummified arm of the original Grendel monster. Donated by Beowulf himself, apparently. (I told you the Club dated back to the sixth century.) Most of the famous faces were quite happy to pretend Suzie and I weren't there, but two braver adventurers made a point of coming over to say h.e.l.lo. Augusta Moon was a professional trouble-shooter, and a noted dispatcher of problem supernatural menaces. She was also an impressively large middle-aged woman who looked like she should have been running a girls' finishing school somewhere in the Home Counties. Augusta was large and loud and famous for not giving a d.a.m.n. She dressed like an old-fashioned maiden aunt, in a battered tweed suit, with a monocle screwed firmly into her left eye. She also carried a stout walking-stick topped with silver, and wasn't above poking people with it to make her point. Augusta greeted me with a firm handshake, accompanied by her usual bark of a laugh, loud enough to shake the furnishings. She had the good sense just to nod to Suzie, who nodded back. Augusta shrugged cheerfully.

"What the h.e.l.l are you doing here, John? Thought you had more good taste than to show up in a dump like this. Place has gone severely downhill, since they started letting in people like us. Eh? Eh? Bunch of stiffs for the most part, old thing, haven't a clue how to have a good time. Had that Charlston Blue Blade in here the other day, really big noise by all accounts, but he d.a.m.n near fainted away when I pinned him in a corner and inquired about the possibility of a little nookie!"

She laughed again, a loud, uncomplicated, and only faintly threatening sound. "Did you hear about my latest exploit? Jolly good sport, and a nice day out into the bargain. I was down in Cornwall on a walking holiday, just seeing the sights and putting the wind up the locals, when word came of a possible manifestation of the old G.o.d Pan. Well! Wasn't going to let that one by, was I? You mention Pan these days, to your modern high-tech hero, and all they can come up with is the goaty fella with the pipes and the hairy legs and the maiden fixation. No, no, Pan is where we get the word panic panic from. The spirit of wild and remote places that strike terror into the human heart for no good reason. Well, thought I, just the thing to shake up the old const.i.tution, so I get myself down there and have a good old poke around. from. The spirit of wild and remote places that strike terror into the human heart for no good reason. Well, thought I, just the thing to shake up the old const.i.tution, so I get myself down there and have a good old poke around.

"Didn't take me long to track down the source. An old village church, not far from Land's End. Norman architecture mostly, though not in the best of condition. Only thing holding it together was the ivy. Anyway, turned out that back in the day the locals had captured this terrible beastie and imprisoned it in a dimensional trap under the church, to be used as a defence against marauding Nors.e.m.e.n. Except, of course, the bally Vikings never did get that far south, so the beastie was left there and eventually forgotten. You can see the rest coming, can't you? The trap was finally breaking down, and beastie was flexing his muscles and preparing a break-out. The locals were picking up on the dread thing's thoughts of escape and revenge, and reacting accordingly, even if they didn't know why.

"So I broke into the church, kicked the trap apart, and let the beastie out, then slapped the nasty thing down with vim and vigour. Mercy killing really, poor old chap. No place left for olde-worlde monsters, in this day and age."

"How did you kill it?" I asked, professionally curious.

Her head went right back as she laughed her appalling laugh again. She brandished her walking-stick before me. "Clubbed it to death with this, old thing! Blessed oak and a silver handle, nothing better for beating the brick-dust out of a tall dark nasty!"

Some heroes are more frightening than others. I turned, with a certain amount of relief, to the only other adventurer who was prepared to be seen talking with the likes of me. Sebastian Stargrave, also known as the Fractured Protagonist, who claimed to have been three other Members of the Adventurers Club at different times in his confused time-line. Sebastian was tall and fragile, with an air of defeated n.o.bility. A pale face under stringy jet-black hair, with eyes like coals coughed up out of h.e.l.l. He never smiled, and an air of quiet melancholy hung about him like an old tattered cape. He wore shimmering, futuristic golden armour, cut close to the skin, that murmured and whispered to itself, and rose up in a tall, stiff collar behind his head. Sebastian had been back and forth in Time so often, explored so many different timetracks and been so many different people, that he'd quite forgotten who he originally was. I've seen five different versions of him discussing the problem at the Hawk's Wind Bar & Grille, trying to work out where they might have come from originally. He may, or may not, have done many amazing and impressive things, in his time. He was quite certainly crazy as a bagful of badgers, and dangerous with it. I smiled and shook his frail hand, and said pleasant things because everyone does. Sebastian's been down on his luck for so long he brings out the protective instinct in most of us. Especially Augusta, who was always ready to clap him on the back and offer bluff, well-meant advice. Which is probably why he avoided her as much as he did.

Sebastian started one of his long, wandering quest stories, but none of us had the patience for that, so Augusta b.u.t.ted in and fixed me with a blunt glare through her gold-rimmed monocle.