It was a matter of minutes to reach Paris.
I caught sight of the unmistakable light patterns of the roofs of Collingsworth Pharmaceuticals and within seconds we were on the tarmac surface and headed for "our door" that led directly to Fareed's secret quarters and work area, with Thorne and Cyril following.
These new facilities had been remodeled last fall especially for Fareed, and he had an immense glass-walled office which opened directly into a vast laboratory with tables, machines, sinks, cabinets, and apparatuses of ornate and baffling complexity that wandered on for half a city block.
The office itself was furnished, as all of Fareed's offices were, with a mixture of ornate antiques and comfortable modern couches and shapeless chairs.
There was the de rigueur marble Adam fireplace with its porcelain gas logs and the array of carefully modulated flames. There was the Louis XV desk for writing, and then there was the endless computer table with its five or six brilliantly illuminated monitors, and Fareed, in his white lab coat and white cotton pants, slumped in a great engulfing leather office chair replete with buttons and levers on the arms, and, opposite him as he turned to face us, the inevitable "conversation pit" of velvet recliners and a broad couch that ran on forever and the coffee table littered with medical journals and sketch pads filled with nightmarish drawings and diagrams--and Seth, in a white thawb, standing beside Fareed.
Viktor and Rose were already settled on the couch. And so was David. I took the recliner to the right. It pained me dreadfully to think Louis was about to be dismissed out of hand by the two scientific geniuses of the Blood, and that Viktor and Rose were here to witness his humiliation, but Louis seemed utterly undeterred.
Louis went right to it, standing off to Fareed's left so that his small audience had a clear view of Fareed.
"You know what the silver cord is," he said. He was rather deferential. "The old British psychics spoke of it, the cord that connects the astral body or etheric body to the biological body when a person astral projects."
"Yes, I'm familiar with it," said Fareed. "But I think of it as metaphorical."
"Yes," said David cheerfully and he began quoting from scriptures:
"Because man goeth to his long home, and the mourners go about the streets; or ever the silver cord be loosed, or the golden bowl be broken, or the pitcher broken at the fountain..."
"That's it," said Louis. "I'd forgotten it in scriptures. I remembered it from the Theosophical literature, and when it's snapped the etheric body or brain or soul is free."
"And the biological body dies," said Rose. "I've read those wonderful books. I used to try so hard to astral project when I was in high school, but it never happened. I'd lie on my bed and try for hours to go up and out the window and over New York, and all that ever happened was that I went to sleep."
Louis smiled. "But let's for the moment think of it in reverse. Let's not say if the silver cord is snapped the body dies, but rather if the body dies, the silver cord is snapped."
"What has this to do with us, Louis?" Fareed asked. He was really playing the gentleman. I knew how tired he was, how discouraged.
"Well, I'll tell you. I believe that these cords that connect us to Amel are a version of the silver cord; it's the silver cord connecting Amel's etheric body to the new etheric body formed in a new vampire--and the reason that we all remain connected is that we never actually die physically, when we are made. There is an etheric brain planted in us at the time we are brought over and it quickly generates an etheric body in us; but our biological body doesn't really die. It's merely transformed. So we remained tethered--Amel's etheric body and our etheric body. If we did actually die, the cord would snap, and the new etheric body which has taken over the physical body would be free of Amel."
"I thought we died as soon as the vampiric element took hold," said Viktor. "We went out to die after we were brought over. Our bodies had to get rid of fluids, waste--that was physical death."
"But you didn't really die, did you?" asked Louis. "Yes, that transformation happened. But you didn't really die."
"Well, if we had we wouldn't be here now," said Seth. "If the fledgling dies before the process is complete--."
"But what if the fledgling dies after the process is complete?" asked Louis.
"Well, you have everybody's interest, I'll say that for you," I murmured.
"Lestat, do be quiet," said David in a gentle voice.
"Let me explain," said Louis. "I was present decades ago when Akasha was killed. I was in the very room. And when it happened I was as connected to Amel then as everyone else was. I lost consciousness when the Mother's head was struck off, and I only know what happened later because people told me. I was revived only after the brain was taken out of Akasha and consumed by Mekare, or when the vampiric brain within Akasha's brain found another host and locked in to that new host."
"Locked in," David repeated. "That's a good description."
"Well," said Louis. "I'm not connected now."
"What are you talking about, of course you're connected," I said. "You were connected ten nights ago when I felt the pain, when Amel forced that unspeakable pain."
"I certainly was," said Viktor in a low voice.
"But I wasn't," said Louis. "I didn't feel the pain."
"Are you certain?" asked David.
"Even I felt it," said Seth.
"That's because you are connected," said Louis. "But I'm not."
"But I thought you did," I insisted. "Louis, everyone said that you did, that everyone felt it."
"They assumed that I'd felt it," said Louis. "But I didn't. And at Trinity Gate, the night you took the Amel brain out of Mekare's brain, I didn't feel anything then either. Everyone else did. Everyone else experienced something. But I experienced nothing. Oh, I was frantic when I gathered from all of them what was happening, but I didn't lose consciousness, I felt no pain, and my vision wasn't impaired, not even for a second. I saw the others around me standing stock-still as if frozen, or going down on their knees at some point. But I felt nothing and I think I know why."
We were all looking at him.
"Well?" I said. "Tell us why."
"Because I died years ago," he said. "I actually physically died. I died completely. I died when I deliberately exposed myself to the sun behind our flat in the French Quarter. It was after my misadventure with Merrick. Merrick had bewitched me. And I didn't want to go on. I exposed myself to the sun, and I had none of the blood of the elders to strengthen me, and all day I lay in the sun and I burned and I died."
Louis looked at me.
"You remember, Lestat, and you remember, too, David. You were both there. David, it was you who found me. I was as dead as anyone can be--until you both poured your powerful blood right into the coffin, right into my burnt remains and brought me back."
"But the etheric body, the Amel body, was still in you," said Fareed. "It had to be or you couldn't have been revived."
"That's true," Louis said. "It was there inside me and it would have remained there until the ashes were scattered. It would have remained suspended, waiting, waiting for how long we don't know. Remember the old admonition from Magnus, Lestat? Scatter the ashes? Well, no one scattered my ashes and I was brought back--by your blood, and David's blood, and Merrick's blood too."
"Then you were not really dead, Louis," said Fareed patiently.
"Oh, but I was," said Louis. "I know now that I was. I was dead according to one ancient and highly significant definition of 'dead.' "
"I'm not following you," said Fareed. I saw the first signs of impatience but it wasn't impolite.
"My heart had stopped," said Louis. "There was no blood pumping in me. All circulation had stopped when my heart stopped. That is how I was dead."
I was speechless. Then slowly it dawned on me. It came back to me what Kapetria had said...something about the invisible tentacles--or the cord--being the only part of us that was not filled with blood.
Nobody
was speaking. Even Fareed had narrowed his eyes and was looking at Louis in the hard sightless way of someone peering only into his own thoughts. Seth too was pondering.
"I see!" said David in amazement. "I don't know the scientific explanation for it. But I see it. Your heart stopped; the blood wasn't pumping. And the cord snapped. Of course!" He looked to me. "Lestat, how many times have you ever seen or heard of a vampire brought back from such a state where the heart had stopped, where the ashes were still perfectly formed, and everything remained there but the heart had stopped!"
"Never seen another example of it, ever," I said.
"Neither have I," said Seth, "but I know the old admonition, scatter the ashes."
"Well?" asked Louis. He looked to Fareed. "You want to try an experiment or two to see if I'm right? Viktor here is bravery personified. If you put a candle flame to Lestat's hand Viktor will feel it. Unfortunately so will Rose and so will every vampire in the world, though in different degrees, correct? I won't feel it. You can see this for yourself. And ancient blood or no, I should feel it, because I'm not even three hundred years old."
"I wish there were some other way of proving it," David said. "There has to be."
"There is," I said. "It's simple. Stop my heart! Stop my heart. Stop it until the blood in me stops circulating, and what will happen to all the others all over the world? They'll lose consciousness, yes, but..."
"But that's what happened when Akasha was decapitated," said Seth. "You told me."
"But only for three or four seconds, Seth," I said. "It was no longer than that. She was decapitated and her skull was shattered by the falling glass. And Mekare scooped up the brain in her hands and had it in her mouth immediately, just as Maharet ripped open her chest and took out the still-beating heart. I know the heart was still beating because of the way the blood was flowing. So it was only a matter of seconds. What if the heart of Akasha had really been stopped and stopped for a long time?"
"It's been proven in tests on animals," said Fareed, "that the brain lives for perhaps as long as seventeen seconds after decapitation."
"Well, there you have it," said Louis. "It was only a matter of seconds."
"He's right," I said. I was almost too excited to speak. "Fareed, he's right. Stop my heart. Stop it for a long time, and then start it again."
"If I do that, Lestat, I'll lose consciousness and there won't be anyone here to restart your heart. Unless you trust a mortal with such a responsibility."
"No, wait a minute. There's no need to trust a mortal," said David. "Gremt can do this. Gremt can restart it. You only have to give him the instructions. Gremt knows all about the theory of the silver cord. Good Lord, Gremt founded the Talamasca and he probably has read more literature on the silver cord than anyone, and Gremt can be trusted to do this!"
"You don't need Gremt," said Louis. "You have me. If you stop Lestat's heart and every other blood drinker worldwide suffers it in one form or another, I won't suffer it. I will be wholly conscious and able to restart Lestat's heart. You just have to tell me how."
"If you're right about the disconnection," said Fareed.
"I am right," said Louis. "But if you want Gremt to do this, then ask Gremt. I'll sit with Gremt for the duration. Doesn't matter to me. The question is, do you have a simple way to stop and restart Lestat's heart?"
"Yes," said Fareed. "But think what might happen to all the vampires everywhere when this little experiment is carried out! There's no way in the world to warn everyone."
"What do you want us to do?" I said. "Send out an alert? We don't even know how to reach all the blood drinkers of the world."
"Yes, we do," said Louis. "Use Benji's broadcast. Set a time for this tomorrow night, and tonight have Benji broadcast the alert, that at a certain hour Greenwich mean time all blood drinkers must be in a safe and secure place for the space of sixty minutes. And have Benji loop the broadcast all day tomorrow and up to the time of the experiment. That's the best you can do, really. And have all the old ones send out the word telepathically. We come here at sunset and Fareed stops your heart. If it's started a half hour or forty-five minutes later by Gremt..."
"We could lose some of the young ones doing this," said Seth. "Louis did not die when things appeared hopeless. But we are talking about Lestat. And suppose the minute the invisible connection is severed, death follows for all who are disconnected."
"But death didn't follow for me," said Louis again. "Look, you're not thinking of all aspects at the same time."
"We're about to face pure annihilation!" I said. "I say do it. Do it now! The Hell with sending out a message. Where is Gremt? Gremt is at the Chateau or he's at his home in the country. That's not three minutes from here for one of us."
At that moment, the door to the back stairway opened and Teskhamen and Gremt appeared. They wore long heavy coats, with cravats. And I could see at once that Teskhamen had brought Gremt here via the wind and they were both dusty and ruddy from the cold.
Gremt approached slowly as if he might be intruding and then he said in a soft voice to Fareed, "What is it I have to do? Can you give me precise instructions?"
We all went back to arguing, until quite suddenly Cyril stepped out of the shadows and cried, "Enough!"
Of course this commanded everyone's attention as the great hulking Egyptian stood there with an expression of pure exasperation on his face.
"You can't stop me!" I said.
"I don't want to stop you, boss," he said. "What I want is for somebody to stop my heart now and see if I can survive it. I volunteer. Stop my heart. Let it remain stopped for an hour, for all I care, then try to wake me up. If I can survive, can't you survive?"
"You're mixing everything up!" I protested. "One minute we're talking about me dying when my heart's stopped, and the next about all of you dying when my heart's stopped."
"No, best to do it to me," said Viktor. "You've got thousands of years in the Blood. I was born yesterday. Do it to me."
Rose immediately insisted that she must be the one for she was most certainly the weakest and everyone was quarreling again. But then Thorne protested that he was not even fifteen hundred years old, and he ought to be the one, and then David insisted he should be the one and so on it went.
They were confusing me mightily. But I might have been the only one to observe Fareed slipping away quietly, and disappearing into his laboratory amid the apparatuses and the machines.
Everyone was still arguing when Fareed returned. He had two syringes in his hand.
He gave one of these syringes to Seth as he whispered in Seth's ear. Then he plunged the other syringe into his chest and went down unconscious on the floor.
"He's done it," I said. "He's stopped his heart."
What followed was likely the longest half hour of my life.
No one spoke, but I think we were turning the idea round and round in our minds, trying to think of every conceivable possibility, as Fareed lay there on the tiled floor in his white coat and pants staring straight up into the ceiling lights.
At last Seth knelt down beside Fareed and plunged his syringe into Fareed's chest. A big hoarse breath came from Fareed. He blinked, and then closed his eyes. Then very slowly he sat up. He appeared shaky, and though Seth offered his hand, Fareed sat still for a moment with his own hand to his eyes.
Perhaps two minutes passed, and then Fareed rose to his feet.
"Well, I seem to be quite all right," he said. "Now let's take it a step further. I was hypersensitive to the pain Lestat felt when Amel convulsed or whatever it was that Amel did, so let's devise some reasonable pain test now to see if I am truly disconnected as well as perfectly all right."
Another heated argument started, with everyone talking at once. I tried to get a word in, that we might make it a mild experiment, but Seth was shouting at Fareed this time, and Flannery Gilman had come in and demanded to know what was going on.
I tried to answer her. But suddenly, without the slightest warning I f
elt a dreadful pain in the back of my neck. It grew so intense that I cried out and went down on my knees. I heard Rose scream. David fell to his knees with his hands to his head. I looked up at Fareed. Fareed was feeling nothing. Louis was right next to him and Louis was feeling nothing.
"Enough!" I shouted. And it was gone, just like that. No pain.
I looked around me as I rose to my feet. Everyone--but Gremt, Fareed, and Louis--was recovering more or less from the pain. I didn't have to ask whether Teskhamen or Seth had felt it. There was blood in Teskhamen's eyes and Seth was still holding his head with both hands, his eyebrows knitted, as if he was straining to remember just what he'd felt.
"Well, this is extremely helpful," said Fareed. "Because I didn't feel a thing."
Amel was still making himself known to me, but in the gentlest way.
"And what do you think, Amel?" I asked aloud so all could hear me. "Do you think this experiment will work?"
"You won't die and I won't die if your heart stops," Amel answered. "Do it for the same amount of time that Fareed did it. No more."
I sat down on the couch, still numb from the pain. Gremt sat beside me but said nothing.
Amel spoke. "I told you I could not go into Louis, did I not? And now I tell you, I cannot go into Fareed."
I looked up at Fareed, and then to Louis. "Well, you two will survive, whatever happens," I said. I wanted to weep with relief. "Look, we have to go ahead with this. But you do keep mixing up the matter of my heart and your individual hearts. Fledglings may die when my heart is stopped. Everybody but--. I'm sorry, I can't keep it straight."
Fareed and Seth were looking at one another. Something was wrong.
Suddenly Amel spoke to me softly as if he didn't want anyone else to hear, but of course most of them could hear. "Do it," said Amel. "Nobody will die. You won't die because I'm inside you, and I and your body will simply be waiting for your heart to be restarted, that's all. And they won't die, all the others, because they are safe and intact and they will likely be disconnected almost at once."