He fell silent, but I could see that he was calculating fiercely, and then I realized how much he was savoring all this, that he had been all along. He was like a great actor, deeply immersed in the most challenging part of his career.
He smiled at me, with startling seductiveness, and then, carefully removing his right glove, he drew a little item out of his pocket and put it in my hand. An old photograph of a gaunt man with thick white wavy hair. I judged him to be perhaps fifty. He wore some sort of white uniform with a little black bow tie.
He was a very nice looking man, actually, much more delicate in appearance than David, but he had the same sort of British elegance about him, and his smile was not unpleasant. He was leaning on the railing of what might have been the deck of a ship. Yes, it was a ship.
You knew I'd ask for this, didn't you?
Sooner or later, he said.
When was this taken?
That's of no importance. Why on earth do you want to know? He betrayed just a little annoyance, but then he covered it at once. It was ten years ago, he said with a slight sinking of the voice. Will it do?
And so that makes you . . . what Mid-sixties, perhaps?
I'll settle for that, he said with a very broad and intimate smile.
How did you learn all this Why haven't others perfected this trick?
He looked me up and down and a little coldly, and I thought his composure might snap. Then he retreated into his polite manner again. Many people have done it, he said, his voice assuming a tone of special confidence. Your friend David Talbot could have told you that. He didn't want to. He lies, like all those wizards in the Talamasca. They're religious. They think they can control people; they use their knowledge for control.
How do you know about them?
I was a member of their order, he said, his eyes brightening playfully, as he smiled again. They kicked me out of it. They accused me of using my powers for gain. What else is there, Monsieur de Lioncourt What do you use your powers for, if not for gain?
So, Louis had been right. I didn't speak. I tried to scan him but it was useless. Instead, I received a strong sense of his physical presence, of the heat emanating from him, of the hot fount of his blood. Succulent, that was the word for this body, no matter what one thought of his soul. I disliked the feeling because it made me want to kill him now.
I found out about you through the Talamasca, he said, assuming the same confidential tone as before. Of course I was familiar with your little fictions. I read all th
at sort of thing. That's why I used those short stories to communicate with you. But it was in the archives of the Talamasca that I discovered that your fictions weren't fictions at all.
I was silently enraged that Louis had figured it right.
All right, I said. I understand all this about the divided brain and the divided soul, but what if you don't want to give my body back to me after we've made this little switch, and I'm not strong enough to reclaim it; what's to keep you from making off with my body for good?
He was quite still for a moment, and then said with slow measured words: A very large bribe.
Ah.
Ten million dollars in a bank account waiting for me when I repossess this body. He reached into his coat pocket again and drew out a small plastic card with a thumbnail picture of his new face on it. There was also a clear fingerprint, and his name, Raglan James, and a Washington address.
You can arrange it, surely. A fortune that can only be claimed by the man with this face and this fingerprint You don't think I'd forfeit a fortune of that size, do you Besides, I don't want your body forever. You don't even want it forever, do you You've been far too eloquent on the subject of your agonies, your angst, your extended and noisy descent into hell, etcetera. No. I only want your body for a little while. There are many bodies out there, waiting for me to take possession of them, many kinds of adventure. I studied the little card. Ten million, I said. That's quite a price. It's nothing to you and you know it. You have billions squirreled away in international banks under all your colorful aliases. A creature with your formidable powers can acquire all the riches of the world. It's only the tawdry vampires of second-rate motion pictures who tramp through eternity living hand to mouth, as we both know.
He blotted his lips fastidiously with a linen handkerchief, then drank a gulp of his coffee.
I was powerfully intrigued, he said, by your descriptions of the vampire Armand in The Queen of the Damned-how he used his precious powers to acquire wealth, and built his great enterprise, the Night Island, such a lovely name. It rather took my breath away. He smiled, and then went on, the voice amiable and smooth as before. It wasn't very difficult for me to document and annotate your assertions, you realize, though as we both know, your mysterious comrade has long ago abandoned the Night Island, and has vanished from the realm of computer records-at least as far as I can ascertain. I didn't say anything.
Besides, for what I offer, ten million is a bargain. Who else has made you such an offer There isn't anyone else-at the moment, that is-who can or will.
And suppose / don't want to switch back at the end of the week? I asked. Suppose I want to be human forever. That's perfectly fine with me, he said graciously. I can get rid of your body anytime I want. There are lots of others who'll take it off my hands. He gave me a respectful and admiring smile.
What are you going to do with my body?
Enjoy it. Enjoy the strength, the power! I've had everything the human body has to offer-youth, beauty, resilience. I've even been in the body of a woman, you know. And by the way, I don't recommend that at all. Now I want what you have to offer. He narrowed his eyes and cocked his head. If there were any corporeal angels hanging about, well, I might approach one of them.
The Talamasca has no record of angels?
He hesitated, then gave a small contained laugh. Angels are pure spirit, Monsieur de Lioncourt, he said. We are talking bodies, no I am addicted to the pleasures of the flesh. And vampires are fleshly monsters, are they not They thrive on blood. Again, a light came into his eyes when he said the word blood.