The Unlikely Escape of Uriah Heep by H. G. Parry

Author:H. G. Parry
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Orbit
Published: 2019-07-22T16:00:00+00:00

When they reached Millie’s apartment, a window was open, and rain had blown through onto the table. A few minutes after that, they realized that the summoner’s copy of Dickens’s Criminal Underworld had gone.

XVII

On Friday after lunch, Eric came into my office. I had found an excuse for him to spend the morning in the archives, just to give me breathing space.

“I have the files you wanted, Mr. Sutherland,” Eric said. “I know you said I could take all day if I needed, but I really couldn’t bring myself to waste so much of your valuable time.”

“Fine, thanks, Eric.” It might have been my imagination, but the dark circles under his eyes looked deeper than usual, and his hair was a little less smooth. “Just put them over there.”

“Of course, Mr. Sutherland,” he said. “Is there anything else?”

Perhaps I should have kept my mouth shut. It was his last day as my personal assistant; as of next week, the interns would be rotated around the firm, and I would probably be able to stay out of his way. I doubted he would be back in November with the other two. But something Frankenstein had said had been niggling at me. They were trying to warn us, he said. The creatures the other summoner had made—the creatures like Eric, the ones sent to do his bidding. If he was right, then Eric’s method of trying to warn me was very peculiar. So far, he had done nothing but offer oblique taunts that may or may not hold meaning. But they were strange, the things my brother brought out of books, and the ones the summoner made were stranger still. And as long as we kept up this pretense that neither of us knew who the other was, I would never get anything more.

“Last weekend, I saw where you live, Eric,” I said as casually as I could. My heart was pounding. “Or rather, the place where the summoner keeps you. You can’t like being there.”

He stiffened, then straightened slowly. With a twitch, he pulled his glasses from his face, and his red eyes gleamed. “I’m not, anymore. We’ve shifted now, thanks to you and your friends, Mr. Sutherland.”

So I was right. He did know I knew. And both our masks were off now. “And where you are now is better?”

“Oh, much better, Mr. Sutherland,” Eric said. “The new place has rats as well as spiders. And the damp is ever so much more penetrating.”

“You could actually mean that seriously and I would believe you,” I couldn’t resist returning. What was it about Uriah Heep that made it so difficult to speak to him civilly? “But assuming you’re being sarcastic, and you’re half as miserable as I would be—why would you stay? I could help you, you know.”

“You couldn’t.” The obsequiousness had dropped from his voice. For once, he sounded almost human.

“Why not?”

“Because he would know. Believe me, Mr. Sutherland, your movements are being watched very closely.”

“Not that closely,” I said. “The

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