Hellboy: Unnatural Selection(35)

"Ah, the Memory." She picked up a sheaf of notes and began flipping through them, but Hellboy could not help thinking that she was not really seeing anything written there.

"Kate?" he said. "Is it just me, or did you say that with a capital M?"

She looked up at Hellboy and smiled. "There's a book," she said. "It's a map to the Memory, where humankind has relegated many of the most wonderful things that ever lived — allegedly. It tells its owners how to find that place, how to dig down through layers of the veil that overshadows this world until they break into the pure darkness of that other. It's a plane in itself, the Memory, a whole level of existence. A sad place but a temporary place as well, because one day it will be touched upon from this side, and those creatures shunned by humankind will find themselves once more."

"Seems to me this Memory leaks," Hellboy said. "We've all been dealing with this stuff for years."

"Maybe it does," Kate said. "But it's only a minor leak compared with today. The book is the key and the map. Again, allegedly. It was written by a man called Zahid de Lainree, but there's no proof anywhere that he ever existed."

"A book is no proof?" Abe said.

"Even if it existed, would it be proof enough? No one has ever seen it or met anyone who has seen it, but its existence is mooted by cultures and societies all across the world. Some think it's a guilt thing; having turned their backs on creatures of imagination, people have to manufacture a belief in something that can explain what happened. Others think it's just a story made up and carried down through time, designed to explain why these creatures of myth don't exist in this world anymore."

"And you?" Hellboy asked. "You're a lady with strong opinions. What do you think?"

"Yesterday I'd have said it was make-believe. Today ... ?" She shrugged and threw down a batch of photographs that fanned out across the table: a dragon, a herd of unicorns, a still from the destruction of the ocean liner by the kraken. "Today I'm starting to wonder."

"But who could be doing this?" Abe said. "Supposing the book even exists, who would have the knowledge to know how to use it?"

"A megalomaniacal madman," Hellboy muttered. Everyone turned to look at him, and he smiled grimly. "Isn't it always? Something I talked about with Amelia Francis down in Rio. For her, the dragon she saw was impossible, so she deduced that something impossible must have created it: magic. Reverse logic, I thought, but maybe — "

"Benedict Blake," Kate whispered.

"Huh?"

Kate was not listening. As if she were alone in the room, she flipped the lid on her laptop and started tapping at the keys. A minute later she sat back, shaking her head. "But he's dead. He must be dead. Especially after so long ... "

"Sorry, Kate," Hellboy said. "I don't want to crash your party, but who the hell is Benedict Blake?"

"An insane genius who knew magic, and mythologies were his love," she said. "After what was done to him and his family, it'd be only a small step to add 'megalomaniac' to his resume. If he were alive, of course."

"Sometimes being dead's no obstacle. You know that," Hellboy said.

"Tell us what you know," Tom said. "I'm tired, Kate. This could well be the worst time we've ever faced. So if there's any chance that you have any idea at all about what's going on here, stand up and cough up. Because I sure as hell don't. Abe?"

"Lots of monsters, and we can't fight them all," he said.

"Hellboy?"

"Just got my ass kicked by a dragon."

Tom nodded. "Right. Kate ... the floor's all yours."

Kate Corrigan stood and opened her laptop wider. She glanced down at the screen for a few seconds, frowned, and then began.

"You have to remember, this all happened when I was a little girl. Everything I know about this man comes from reports written at the time, and you'll see from what I say in a minute that those who wrote the reports ... well, they all had their own agendas. But I've read everything I can about Benedict Blake, and I know as much about him as anyone. A few years ago he became something of a fascination for me, though I haven't really thought about him for some time." Kate scrolled down the file she was looking at and turned the computer around. "Haven't really had cause to." She showed them all a photograph of Blake, standing behind a lectern, delivering a speech or lecture.