Psychomech by Brian Lumley

used black arts, dark forces. Oh, yes, they actually did. They interested him in their subject and he was converted. He came to believe in the metapsychic powers of the mind. And he had certain powers, believe me. Or if you doubt me, listen to his oratories. He did not merely rant, Richard.’
    ‘Perhaps he was merely grasping at straws, like us,’ Garrison answered. ‘I mean, in respect of his war effort.’
    ‘I don’t know. He was of course a madman. But if it might help him rule the world, then he must try it. Still, he only dabbled. There were those in his employ, however… I was for a time very friendly with one of them, even though I had always considered him a crank. Certain experiments, some of which I myself took part in, helped convince me that there was more to the parapsychological world than mundane science might explain away. You may not sense it in me, but I am highly intuitive.’
    ‘I have noticed,’ Garrison wryly answered. ‘You often act instinctively, like me.’
    Schroeder nodded. ‘But I am also a sensitive. That is to say, my hunches work out more often than they fail me. I hope soon to prove that you too are a vessel.’
    ‘Vessel?’
    ‘A receiver for whatever these forces are which we loosely term ESP.’
    After a moment Garrison said: ‘Go on with what you were telling me.’
    ‘Well, it was then, towards the end of the war, the collapse, that I became interested in the, shall we say, esoteric sciences? And it was an interest which has never flagged. What I have learned has been profitable. I am “instinctive” in business, too, you see? By 1952 I was a millionaire, by ‘57 a multi-millionaire. Now…’? Suffice it to say that I am very, very rich.
    ‘However, I do not wish to bore you with the entire story, which would take up far too much of our time. Only believe me when I tell you that I have come to be extremely learned in several obscure fields. Not a master in any of them, no, for I started too late; but I do have contact with the masters.
    ‘Adam Schenk is one such. He is the astrologer, a great clairvoyant, an interpreter of dreams. In short, the stuff of ESP is strong in him.
    ‘As to why he came to me: he said I needed him, that the cosmic influences on my life were bending towards a focus, and that the genius loci lay in an outsider, a foreigner to whom I owed a great debt.’
    ‘Myself,’ said Garrison.
    ‘Who else? And so Schenk came, cast my horoscope and those of my inner circle of friends, and yours—’
    ‘Mine?’ Garrison felt a small annoyance.
    ‘Yes, it was necessary. If the idea offends you then I am sorry. But since I had already collected together so many of your, shall we say, “details”, it was not a difficult task. And once you were so obviously indicated by my own horoscope, I requested that he do it.’
    Garrison’s annoyance turned to amusement. Suddenly the whole thing seemed funny to the point of ridiculous, ‘I’m listening,’ he said, ‘and I’m trying to keep an open mind, but—’
    ‘Be quiet!’ Schroeder snapped, angry in a moment. ‘Open mind, you say? You had better keep an open mind! We are talking about your entire future. We may even be talking about my entire future…’ And again that strange chill struck at Garrison out of nowhere.
    ‘Copies of Schenk’s forecasts,’ Schroeder continued in a moment, ‘are still here on this very table.’ There was the rustle of paper. ‘Here is yours. There, hold it up for me while I read it. If you don’t believe what I tell you is on it, take it to Willy and ask him.’
    The strip of card, perhaps three inches wide and nine long, felt heavy as a death warrant in Garrison’s hand. He held it up towards Schroeder’s voice. ‘OK,’ he said, ‘what’s in it?’
    Schroeder drew a deep breath. ‘Just a series of words, Some bunched together, others by themselves, written in ink to form a column down the left-hand side of the card. There’s a time-scale on the right.