Simon Green: Ghost of a Smile

“I suppose the first question,” JC said finally, “has to be-did it fall, or was it pushed? Was it some kind of accident, or did Something Else push that thing through the door, against its will?”

“No, that can wait,” Happy said immediately. “What matters is, something really quite appalling has entered our world from the Outer Reaches, and we have no idea what it is, or what it can do. It’s trapped here… and you all felt the same things I did. It’s awful and it’s vast and it’s powerful, and it wants to go home. Back to where it came from, where it did awful things and loved it. This thing is what’s been working behind the scenes of our reality all this time, weakening the walls of the world, so it can break out of it. It sees this world, our reality, as a prison! It doesn’t care if it destroys this whole world and everything that lives on it, as long as it gets to go home again!”

“Stop hyperventilating,” Melody said coldly. “You know what that does to your sinuses. JC’s got a point. Even if we could open the door to send it back, would what lives there take it back? Would they fight to keep it out?”

“We’re getting ahead of ourselves,” said Latimer. “We have to identify this Entity first, then decide what to do about it. There are options…”

“Really?” said Happy. “I would love to know what the options are for dealing with a Power and Domination from the Outer Reaches!”

“Am I going to have to get you a brown paper bag to breathe into?” said Melody.

“We’ve dealt with such threats before,” Latimer said firmly. “We identify it, contain it, then either destroy it or send it somewhere else. The Carnacki Institute has a long history of knowing what to do with Abhuman Monstrosities. Did any of you pick up a name from that memory, or a description…”

“I got something,” Happy said reluctantly. “But you’re really not going to like it.”

“There’s been precious little about this day I’ve enjoyed,” said Latimer. “What have you got?”

“Might be a name, or a description,” said Happy. “Or maybe even a warning… The Flesh Undying.”

There was a long pause as they all thought about that, none of them happily. Latimer shook her head slowly.

“Doesn’t ring any bells. I’ll have to do some research. Did any of you get a sense of time? How long ago did this incursion into our space happen?”

“Hard to say,” said JC. “I got the sense we were looking at an historical record, of something that happened years ago. How long have there been stories about something untoward going on behind the scenes? Of people working to destroy the walls of the world?”

“Decades,” Happy said immediately, taking an entirely inappropriate pleasure in presenting the bad news. “I’ve been saying all along, there are all kinds of stories, of varying reliability. I believe them all, of course, on general principles, but that’s just me

… We have to ask-how long has this thing had to build an army of followers, or fellow travellers, the dupes and the possessed? If they could get their hooks into someone like Patterson, the public face of the Institute… How long has he been secretly working against us? How many others like him are there? How deep has the infiltration of the Institute gone?”

“Okay, you’re scaring me now,” said Melody.

“Welcome to my world,” said Happy. “Cold and spooky, isn’t it?”

“As always, you think too small,” said Latimer. She wasn’t even looking at Happy, her gaze far away. “The question is how many of the secret organisations of this world might The Flesh Undying have infiltrated? Not only the Institute, but the Crowley Project, the London Knights, perhaps even the Droods… We’ve always suspected their power source originated in another dimension… If that’s the case, how do we warn people? Should we warn anyone and perhaps give away how much we know?”

“The rider was human,” said JC. “Or at least, was human once. He said we’d know his name… But he could have been saying that to mess with our heads.”

“He called me by my first name,” said Latimer. “Not many have ever done that… And there was something about the way he said it.. .”

“I was right!” said Happy triumphantly. “All along, I was right! You all said I was paranoid, well you didn’t say it, but I knew you were thinking it, when I told you Something was going on behind the scenes, but you didn’t believe me! You said I’d been working too hard, reading too many forbidden texts, taking too many of my little chemical helpers, but I was right all along! Forces from Outside are working to destroy the world, using traitors inside our organisations! Ow!”

“It was either a slap round the head, or a major tranquiliser,” said Melody. “And you’d probably have enjoyed the latter.”

“Quite right,” said JC. “You are enjoying this entirely too much, Happy. And anyway, it’s only one Force from Outside. Like the Boss said, the Carnacki Institute has a very successful history in dealing with such things.”

“Victors write the histories,” Happy said darkly, rubbing at the back of his head. “And they tend to leave out all the times when it all went horribly wrong.”

“If you don’t knock off the X-Files shit right now, I foresee a whole bunch of slaps in your immediate future,” said Melody.

“Sorry,” said Happy. “I’m not used to being right.”

“But… why would anyone, any human being, ally themselves with such a thing?” said JC. “Why aid something that wants to destroy the whole world?”

“Don’t be naive,” said Latimer. “Why do Satanists sign away their souls when they must know that Hell is real? For power, or money, or to be major players in the game. And most of them probably don’t know the whole story anyway. They could be lied to, manipulated, even possessed. Some people will always go where the power is, planning to jump off at exactly the right moment and avoid paying the bill when it comes due. Fools. We need to know a lot more about The Flesh Undying.”

“We don’t even know what it is!” said Melody. “What we Saw could have been a vision, or an interpretation, of what actually happened! We couldn’t even look at the thing directly!”

“Could be one of the Great Beasts,” said JC. “Or one of the Abominations from the Outer Rings… We need to consult the Institute Libraries, Boss, and not only the official ones. We need to see everything.”

“Ooh!” said Happy, brightening suddenly. “I’ve always wanted access to the Secret Libraries!”

“I’ll think about it,” said Latimer. “Letting you run loose in those stacks would probably be more dangerous than anything The Flesh Undying would come up with.”

“I resent that,” said Happy.

“I notice you’re not denying it,” said JC.

“All right!” said Latimer, “Very much against my better judgement, I will authorise you to enter the Secret Files. But no-one is to know what you’re looking for. Anything you sign out will be under my name, which should keep anyone else from looking at it, and I will expect to see full reports from each of you on whatever you discover.” She looked at all three of them in turn, and her eyes were very cold. “I’m trusting you in this because I have no choice. You are not the team, or even the individual agents, I would have chosen for a matter as important as this, but… it’s clear I don’t know my own people as well as I thought I did. You’re all new to the Institute, and to field work, so hopefully that means you haven’t been got at yet. You did good work against Fenris Tenebrae. I haven’t forgotten. I do wish you had more experience. Then I wouldn’t feel quite so guilty about kicking you in the deep end to play with the sharks.”