Simon Green - Ghost of a Smile

“I think we can still trust her,” JC said steadily. “If only because she’s got too much pride to hide her dark side under a bushel. If she was the villain of the piece, she’d want everyone to know, and bow down to her. No-I was thinking more that whatever we tell the Boss might not stay with the Boss.”

They all paused to consider the implications of that, and none of them liked what they were thinking.

“We have to go our own way now,” JC said finally. “Follow the leads we’ve got and run our own very secret investigations into who’s really who, and what’s really what, inside the Carnacki Institute.”

“We can’t trust anyone any more, can we?” said Melody.

“Welcome to my world,” said Happy. “Lonely, isn’t it?”

“We only trust each other,” said JC.

“Situation entirely bloody normal,” said Happy. But he couldn’t keep from grinning.

“Just because one conspiracy theory has turned out to be true, it doesn’t mean they all are,” JC said sternly. “Let us all please concentrate on the matter at hand. The Carnacki Institute is far too important to the world to remain compromised in this way.”

“What is this other secret organisation?” said Melody. “We don’t have a name, or a statement of intent.”

“They have got to be big,” said Happy. “And I mean really, really big to have the connections and resources to pull off something like this, right under the Boss’s radar.”

“So how come no-one even heard a whisper?” said Melody. “You can’t put something like ReSet together without making serious waves.”

“We did hear a whisper,” said JC. “Those agents from the Crowley Project, Natasha Chang and Erik Grossman. They said there were forces at work bigger than either the Institute or the Project. But we didn’t believe them because Project agents lie like they breathe. They live to spread lies and paranoia. But now…”

“We have one end of the string,” said Happy. “I say we tug on it and see what unravels.”

“You are enjoying this entirely too much,” said Melody.

“My entire paranoid existence has been justified,” said Happy. “I am a deeply satisfied man.”

“We’re not going to solve this mess overnight,” said JC. “We have to be in this for the long haul… all the way to the end. So we carry on taking cases, going on missions, as though everything were still normal. People… some people… are going to be watching us very carefully.”

“But… wouldn’t it be safer to let it go?” said Kim. “I mean, what can the four of us do, against a secret society this big, this dangerous?”

“We go on,” said JC. “Because we have to. Because it’s part of the job. And because no-one plays us and gets away with it.”

“Right,” said Happy.

“Damn right,” said Melody.

“Oh well, if you put it like that,” said Kim. “Kill them all, and let God sort them out.”

They walked away from Chimera House, putting it all behind them, for the time being at least. Happy looked sideways at JC.

“So,” he said casually, “did you really steal that Hand of Glory thing from the Carnacki Institute’s Armoury?”

“You’d be surprised at what I’ve gotten away with, over the years,” JC said solemnly.

They all stopped abruptly as Kim clapped both her hands to her head and cried out in pain. The sound rose and rose, a miserable howl of horror and agony, filling the night, continuing on long after living lungs would have been unable to sustain it. She swayed on her feet, eyes clenched shut. JC stood before her, saying her name over and over, trying to make himself heard over the deafening noise she was making, reaching out but unable to touch or comfort her. Melody and Happy looked at each other, both of them lost for anything useful to do. Latimer came hurrying back to join them. And Kim stopped screaming as suddenly as she’d begun. The returning quiet would have been a relief, if it hadn’t been for the horror and abject misery still filling her pale face.

“What is it?” said Latimer. “What’s happening? Why was she making that God-awful noise?”

“I don’t know,” said JC. “Nothing happened… Kim? Kim, sweetie, what is it? What’s upsetting you… Kim, look at me!”

Kim finally forced her eyes open but didn’t look at JC. She only had eyes for Chimera House, staring at the tall building as though it was the entrance to Hell itself. JC looked, too, but it all seemed perfectly ordinary to him. Everything was as it should be. He could see silhouettes of the Institute people outlined against brightly lit windows, going about their business.

“It’s not over,” said Kim. “It’s not finished. Not yet.”

“What do you mean?” said Latimer. “Is it the New People? You said they were gone.”

“They are gone,” JC said impatiently. “We all saw them move on.. . Kim, did you… hear something?”

Kim looked at him for the first time, her pale features still slack with shock. “You didn’t hear that? You didn’t hear anything?”

“I didn’t hear a damned thing,” said Melody. “Except you, screaming fit to burst my eardrums.” She looked at Happy, and he shrugged quickly.

“Don’t look at me. I’m not picking up anything. If this night was any quieter, it would be tucked up in bed with a nice cup of hot milk.”

“It sounded… like the roar of some great Beast,” Kim said slowly. “Nothing human in it, not in intent, or emotion. Just this great roar, of anger and hatred and defiance… and evil. An ancient evil, beyond anything human.”

Happy’s head snapped round, and he stared at Chimera House with wide, shocked eyes. His face screwed up with pain, and he bent over suddenly, as though he’d been hit, and hit hard. He made soft grunting, moaning sounds. Melody moved quickly in beside him but had enough sense not to touch him.

“What is it, Happy? Are you hearing something now?”

“He’s killing them,” said Happy, forcing the words out between harsh gasps of strained breathing. “He’s killing them all! He’s going back and forth in the building, killing everyone he finds. Get them out! Get everyone out of there!”

Latimer moved in close, to glare right into his face. “Talk to me, Happy. I need to know what’s happening. Concentrate! Follow your training! Find your focus and tell me what the hell is going on inside that building!”

Happy swallowed hard and bit down on his moans, fighting to regain his self-control. He made himself straighten up, by sheer effort of will, though his hands still clenched and unclenched at his sides.

“They’re all dead,” he said flatly. “Everyone on the upper floors. He killed them all. I heard their terror, their dying screams. He’s working his way down through the building, floor by floor, killing everyone he finds. And loving every moment of it.”

Latimer glared at JC. “You missed something. Some monster, some hidden killer… You told me it was safe to send my people in there! But you left something hidden in some secret place, waiting for its chance because you didn’t do your job properly!”

“That’s bullshit, and you know it!” said JC, giving the Boss glare for glare. “Your own psychics told you the place was clean!”

“We didn’t miss anything,” Happy said flatly. “This is something new.”

JC deliberately turned his back on Latimer, to face Happy. “Human? Alive? Dead? What?”

“Yes. No. I don’t know!” Happy wiped the sweat from his face with the back of one shaking hand. “There’s something new in there, and it’s big and powerful… Trying to See it is like staring into a spotlight. Its presence is hitting me so hard, I can hardly think straight, barely keep it outside my head… It’s a man… but it’s so much more than a man! And there’s something very familiar about it…”