part 2

Four days later I returned. As I entered the darkened room, with the steel table and the candles and the chains, I felt as if I had passed some invisible threshold into another dimension, some parallel universe where I was a stranger called to act in a world whose rules I did not understand. The prince, for all his bonds, did not seem bound, it was I who felt helpless before him.

I had waited outside for a few minutes with my eyes closed, trying to accommodate to the dimness before I entered. It helped ease the transition. The prince greeted me warmly.

"Good morning David. You look well."

"Thank you. Unfortunately you look like a man in shackles and a straight jacket. I may be able to do something about that, but first I want to show you something."

From my briefcase I withdrew two electronic devices with meters and dials.

"Very good," he said, smiling.

I was surprised. "You know what these are?"

"Yes, of course. Security is an issue with us, as you might imagine. I didn't know you were familiar with such devices."

"I'm not. I have no idea how to use this stuff."

"I see," he said and smiled again. "If they let you bring them in, there must be nothing to find. Tell me, do you play poker?"

"Actually I don't, but we may as well go through with it if you'll tell me how to operate these things."

"I don't think it's necessary. I am satisfied we would find nothing. There are other means of listening to our exchanges that would not be detectable with those instruments, if they are determined they can succeed without our knowing. But is was an excellent idea and I am more at ease because of it."

"Good." I sat down and took out my things. "I'd like to put you even more at ease and that's the purpose of my visit today. I won't stay long because I don't have much news. I'm still digging but I've been trying to get you out of those medieval restraints, and I've managed to identify the problem. They're afraid you have superhuman strength. Moreover, they are afraid you can morph yourself into a wolf or a bat and escape."

He laughed. "I see. I thought it might be something like that. The Hollywood Factor. What do you think, Sifter?"

"What do I think? I have no idea, and I'm dying to find out."

"Speculate for a moment. I would be interested to hear your best guess."

"Well, my attitude is scientific. I started out to be a scientist and thought about physics until I learned there are about ten jobs for every thousand physicists. But I was trained to think like a scientist and that's good experience for a lawyer, to understand the process of observation and evidence."

"Then what does your training tell you is likely about the question at hand?"

I looked at him for a moment. "You've been a teacher, haven't you?"

"Yes," he answered, "many times. It's become a habit to draw the answers out of the same people who are asking the questions."

"All right. But I think you're playing a game, learning to read how my mind operates. I think you already have an idea what I'm going to say and you're just looking for feedback, comfirmation."

He smiled.

"OK, here it is: I don't believe in magic. That you are different is simply a fact, but the differences must be subject to the limitations of the laws of physics. In this case, my reasoning is simple: There are principles with regard to the conservation of energy. You look to be nearly two hundred pounds. If you could turn into a bat, that mass can't just disappear, it must be converted into energy, quite a lot of energy, enough that it would be obvious, or it must remain. I can't see you getting very far as a two hundred pound bat. With respect to another animal with similar mass, once again I can't see those kinds of tissue changes happening that rapidly."

He nodded. "Well done. You are exactly right, I cannot change my form in any way. I have quite remarkable recuperative and regenerative powers, however I am not immortal either. I have aged, very slowly, probably twenty or thirty years over the last nine hundred. I am however, quite strong and dense. I am six feet four and though I am slender, I weigh more than two hundred and seventy pounds. I am stronger that any human, even champion athletes in strength competition. But I am still flesh and bone, and most conventional restraints would be fully adequate."

"And you can be killed?"

"Of course. Superficial wounds heal quickly and things that would kill an ordinary man might heal in hours or days. But there are obviously limits. Consider the Hollywood factor. There is nothing special about a wooden stake for instance. Anything that pierces the heart is serious, but mine will begin to seal itself immediately and if the stake is removed within a few hours, I will heal completely. So a stake is not enough, it is only a temporary measure, it must be followed, as it is in some lore, with something that is impossible to restore, as decapitation. Nothing with a central nervous system survives that. Clearly there are limits to tissue regeneration. Bodies subject to fragmentation like that which occurs in bombings and plane crashes are typically beyond recovery. Anything that tears a body apart, particularly the brain, would be fatal."

"I see. That makes sense. You are being extremely candid, Prince András."

He sighed and looked absently away. "Perhaps the time has come to speak of these things." His gaze returned to me. "I know you are working diligently to establish a position with regard to my status and how that will determine what my rights are within the laws of this country. I commend your effort, particularly as it may eventually be of value to others of my kind if we are to be targeted by this agency. However I have limited interest in your results at this time, as you understand. We agree they may be of little use to me now. When you return, I would like to use our time to discuss other matters. I would like to share with you more of what it is like to be one of us. I would like you to keep a record of this, but not here. Keep this journal, this chronicle, secure."

I nodded. "There will still be matters pertinent to your case that I will need to discuss. As I told you last time, there are things they want from you and we may be able to use that to your advantage. But I'll be prepared to do as you ask."

Once again he bowed, I returned it as well as I could, feeling like an impostor, a monkey in a suit.