‘Not at all. It was a positive effect. Georgie became more positive in real life, more vibrant and, dare I say it, more sexy. Yes, Daisy. Very much so, so how could we stop now? It was Susan who came up with the rule of not going in alone.’
‘She was linked up as well?’
‘We all were, eventually. Myself, Malthorpe, Susan, your father; each with our chosen wanderers, specially numbered. Two-Zero, Six-Six, Five-Zero, Five-Four. We all wanted a piece of this action. All of us trying to follow after Georgie’s Double-Zero. We didn’t quite make it…’
‘Tell me, please.’
Hackle stood up with an effort. ‘Let’s walk some more…’
Along corridors, round corners. More stairs, further down. Corners, corridors, another clearing. This one dark. ‘Turn on the lights, please,’ said Daisy.
‘There aren’t any,’ replied the professor. ‘Not here. This is the centre of the maze. I have a torch…’
Click!
A beam of diffuse light, seeping into damp walls, the scurrying of a mouse or a rat. Daisy shivering with it, the sudden cold spot. A place of ghosts. Hackle playing the beam over the walls to where a wooden table rested. On it, an array of electrical equipment, an old computer, all covered with dust and cobwebs, mouse-droppings.
‘Haven’t been down here… not since…’
‘It feels haunted,’ said Daisy. Hackle turned the beam on her. She could no longer see his face behind the shaking light. ‘Professor…’
‘You don’t know the meaning of it, Daisy… perhaps you never will… even after I’ve told you…’
Hackle walked over to the workbench, placed the torch down on it so that the beam now illuminated the room in general. From the light available, Daisy could see that the place was roughly circular, with three separate entrances, and only a small pallet bed resting in the centre. ‘This is where Georgie would…’
‘Yes?’
‘Sleep, whilst visiting the dream-maze. One time I came down early, I found him masturbating, furiously, on the bed. Pardon my language, please. He didn’t even notice me come in. On the screen, over there, the wanderers were going crazy with his adopted lust. The brainwaves, during sexual dreams, Daisy… are quite different from the usual kind. Did you know that?’
Daisy was suddenly worried by the turn of the conversation. For the first time she began to doubt the professor’s motives. She’d always thought of him as being an essentially asexual creature, witness her own crush on him. But hadn’t Celia told her she’d seen him kissing Joe before? He wasn’t such an old man, and not so innocent.
‘You must have noticed, Daisy…’ Hackle continued, ‘the effect that watching the blurb-info can have upon the human physiology?’
‘No… I…’
‘Oh come on… your relationship with Jazir… where did that come from?’
‘We were…’
‘You were quite, quite cold, Daisy, for the whole first term. Coming to university is a time of throwing off the shackles; freshers are known for their availability among the older students. I do not condone this activity, but nor can I deny the immense sexuality that crawls the corridors during the first months. But you Daisy… not a whisper of passion have I noticed. Until now…’
‘I would like to go back upstairs now, please.’
‘Even I have been affected by it. Which surprised me, having put all such things behind me.’
‘Benny knows.’
Hackle went silent for a moment. ‘He does? Well… I cannot be blamed, now can I… any more than…’
‘Upstairs, please.’
‘As you wish. I shall remain here for a while.’
Daisy looked around, nervously. She couldn’t even remember through which of the three doors they had entered the circle.
‘It’s not easy, is it? Escaping?’ Hackle was now standing over the bed in the centre. ‘Would you like to sit down?’
‘No. Please. Take me back upstairs. I insist.’
‘But this has always been a house of love. I have always allowed my guests the ultimate expression. We came from the Sixties, what else can be said? And the equations of mathemagica contain certain rituals, shall we say, of a sexual nature. In this room,’ he gestured to the darkness, the air, the walls, and finally, the bed… ‘In this room, we performed them.’
‘You’re scaring me…’
‘He who is not scared, shall never understand. Georgie was scared, he understood far better than all us mathematicians. It was he who insisted upon the ritual being performed. Here! Upon this bed, he would make love for the first time, and we would capture his initiation upon the screen. His passion would roam the labyrinth, increasing the knowledge, the nymphomation.’