Page 86 of Concluded
Achilles, who was a little fuzzy on those points himself when it came to Abe, prompted, “And?”
“And I’m nothing but an old man and useless to them.So they sent me here.”
“For Irina’s collection.”
“And you, Achilles?How did you end up in this place?”
So Achilles explained, accompanied by grunts and other little sounds from Abe.
“A djinn!”Abe exclaimed when Achilles was done.“Who would have thought that, at my age, I could still encounter something new?But I’m glad to hear that Dee changed his mind after I spoke with him.Even if it’s gone badly for you.”
“This was my idea, so don’t blame him for it.Abe, were you really not valuable to Spurling?I heard that you can, um….”
“I see dead people.”Abe chuckled.“Yeah, I watched that movie.It’s nothing like that for me, but yes, I can often converse with spirits.The schmucks who sent me here don’t know that, though.”He sounded a little smug.
“And there aren’t any spirits here?”
“I’m not sure.Sometimes I sense… a whisper.An almost-scent.Not enough to connect to, which is just as well.Without access to booze, I doubt I could hold them off.”
Achilles frowned in confusion.“What do you mean by that?Are they hostile?”
“Not necessarily.But some of them….It’s difficult to be without a body.So some of them try to shove themselves into one.Fortunately, they usually can’t.The spirit of the living person takes up too much room.A few of us, though, we’re susceptible.It’s easier for us to be possessed, and I don’t know why.A quirk of some kind.Alcohol helps keep the spirits out.”
Although none of this had any obvious relevance at the moment, it was interesting.Better than collapsing in existential fear, at any rate.Also, something was nibbling at the edge of Achilles’ mind, something he couldn’t yet identify.
“What happens when a spirit takes over?”
Achilles felt Abe shudder.“It’s not pleasant.It happened to me once, and I’d rather not talk about that.Some spirits are worse than others.Dybbuks, they bring no end of misery.But an ibbur can be benign, even helpful.Possession by an ibbur prolongs life and can bring strong powers.”He snorted.“Still not necessarily nice for the host, though.”
Prolongs life.Maybe that explained Abe’s longevity.Of course, lots of Bureau agents were long-lived for a variety of reasons.Townsend, for instance, had remained seemingly unchanged for many decades.
That nibbling morphed into something more like a vigorous gnawing.“Chief Townsend.Was he?—”
“Possessed by an ibbur.Yes.”Abe sounded old and tired.“Originally Townsend was a chazer, a true pig of a man.But an ibbur, the spirit of a mensch, a righteous man, possessed him, and he became the chief you knew.”
Well, that explained some things.Achilles wondered why Abe had never shared this tidbit of knowledge with anyone.Generations of Bureau agents had speculated fruitlessly about Townsend’s secrets.
“Okay.So Townsend gets possessed by a good guy and he becomes… everything that Townsend was.But when someone gets possessed by a bad guy, a dybbuk, are they equally powerful?”
“They can be.”
Shit.Oh, shit.“Spurling.”
Abe sucked in his breath.“What makes you think this?”
“Just a hunch.I didn’t spend a lot of quality time with the guy, but he reminded me of something.Not exactly the same, but similar.I couldn’t put my finger on what, but now I know.He reminded me of Townsend.”
“I interacted with him only briefly.Something was certainly off, but I didn’t have a chance to evaluate it.”
“I didn’t have much time either.But the more I think about it, the surer I get.”
Abe responded with what sounded like a string of curses in Yiddish, and Achilles added a few in Greek for good measure.Because Townsend had been very powerful and, even though they were on the same side, scary as hell.They both sat silently for a while.
“What are we going to do about this?”Achilles finally asked.
“You’re asking me?”
“You have way more years of experience than I do.And you know much more about Townsend, which means much more about Spurling.”
