Simon Green: Spirits from Beyond

* * *

It didn’t take them long to get to Chimera House, not with Happy on board. His marvellous telepathic mind could detect short cuts, avoid obstacles, and when necessary make other people get the hell out of the way without even knowing why they were doing it. And it did help that JC drove like a demon, ignoring the occasional wails of distress from his passengers. As they entered the home-stretch, JC shot Happy a thoughtful gaze.

“I know the streets look empty. But could anyone be following us? Are we being observed, perhaps, from a distance?”

“No, and no,” said Happy, clinging to his seat belt determinedly with both hands. “Accompanied by a large side order of Not A Chance In Hell. I’d know.”

“I could check,” Melody said immediately, determined not to be left out of things. “I’ve got a down-and-dirty sensor package somewhere in my back-pack.”

“By the time you’ve got it out and adjusted the settings, we’ll be there,” Happy said witheringly.

“Someone’s looking for a short sharp visit from the Slap Fairy,” said Melody.

Chimera House was right in the middle of London’s business centre; but when JC finally brought the car screeching to a halt in front of the massive office building, the entire area was completely deserted. Not a living soul in sight. Which was a bit suspicious because there’s always someone about in every part of London, whatever the hour. Everyone from the police to the homeless, party-goers, and minor celebrities-all of them out and about doing something they shouldn’t because there was no-one around to see. .

Melody was immediately out of the back of the car, her hand-held scanner at the ready. She waved it around, adjusting the dials and hitting the thing with the flat of her hand when it didn’t do what she wanted it to do quickly enough. Happy took his time getting out of the car, so he could get his slouch exactly right, and show everyone how unhappy he was at being more or less awake at such an uncivilised time of the morning. JC got out of the car, locked it carefully, then sat on the bonnet and looked thoughtfully about him.

“No life signs anywhere,” Melody said briskly. “No dead signs, either. We are strictly on our own here. Sorry, JC.”

“Bad vibes,” Happy said wisely. “People can sense this is a bad place, and go out of their way to avoid it, even if they couldn’t tell you why. I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t have to be. Of all the places Kim could have chosen to show up again. I don’t like it here. I’ve got the shudders. Have you got the shudders? Even the homeless wouldn’t sleep in these doorways. This entire area is spiritually polluted, right down to the stone and concrete.”

The three Ghost Finders stuck close together, looking the area over with professionally discerning eyes. None of them had been back here since the distressing Affair of the New People. Which. . could have gone better. Chimera House still dominated the area, a massive steel-and-glass business edifice towering over the open square before it. The square itself felt cold and empty, laid out under an open night sky full of stars, and a pale full moon. The main illumination was the unwavering flat amber light from the street-lamps.

Everything had been carefully cleared up since the great battle of Chimera House. No sign anywhere of the great cracks in the ground or the shattered windows in the surrounding buildings. All the blood and bodies gathered up and spirited away. . Someone had gone to a great deal of trouble to make it all seem as if nothing happened .

Chimera House itself stood silent and empty. No lights on anywhere, and heavy steel chains hung from the closed front doors. No-one allowed in or out, by order; and if you were wise, you didn’t ask on whose order. JC looked the building over carefully. He couldn’t avoid an uncomfortable feeling that the building was looking back at him. And not in a good way.

“Shouldn’t there be guards outside that building?” said Happy. “I mean, armed guards, heavily armed, to make sure no-one messes with whatever’s left inside?”

“Chimera House was supposed to be pulled down,” JC said steadily. “Completely destroyed, reduced to rubble, and built over because of all the really bad things that happened inside it. More than enough to make the entire building a strange attractor, drawing in nasty people, and things, from all around. So I have to ask: why is it still here?”

“You should keep up on your interdepartmental memos,” said Melody. “Somebody very high up on the food chain over-ruled the Carnacki Institute. And I mean someone with really impressive clout. They insisted on preserving the building until a full investigative study could be performed on its contents. The Boss was mad as hell. Took her argument all the way to the top. And got nowhere.”

“Are we talking political or business clout?” said Happy.

“Yes,” said Melody.

“Ah,” said Happy.

“Pretty much the same thing, at that level,” said JC. “What was the name of the big company in charge of the medical experiments that went wrong, in Chimera House?”

“Mutable Solutions Incorporated,” said Melody. “One of the biggest drug companies in the world. Where does the eight-hundred-pound drug company sit? Anywhere it wants. .”

“But what good does it do them, keeping Chimera House intact?” said Happy. “No-one will be able to work in it for ages. It’ll take years, more likely decades, to get the psychic stains out. You’ve heard of Sick Building Syndrome; well, Chimera House is the psychic equivalent of the Ebola virus. That whole building is crazy on a stick, waiting to happen.”

JC couldn’t help noticing that Happy didn’t even want to look at Chimera House as he spoke. They could all hear the open strain in the telepath’s voice.

“Maybe what happened inside the building is what makes it valuable,” said JC. “Valuable to The Flesh Undying, or its agents. . Maybe it wants to maintain bad places, to make weak points in the walls of the world, so it can break out and get back where it came from.”

“Don’t you start,” Melody said firmly. “It’s bad enough having to live with a paranoid depressive, without having two of them on the team.”

“I don’t like it here!” Happy said loudly. “I feel. . vulnerable. Like a target. Like I’m standing at ground zero, right in the middle of a bloody big bull’s-eye. With a target painted on my forehead.”

“Will you please calm the hell down!” said Melody, waving her hand scanner around. “There’s no-one else here!”

“There’s always something here,” said Happy. “We’re never alone, wherever we are. The world is packed full. . I can See things, feel things. . I want to get out of here!”

“We’re not going anywhere until Kim turns up!” JC said firmly. “However long that takes. Get a grip on yourself, Happy. This isn’t your first time at the rodeo.”

Happy sniffed miserably and stared determinedly down at his shoes. “Still want to know why there aren’t any guards.”

“He may be paranoid, but he has a point,” said Melody. “I’m pretty sure that was a condition on the building being allowed to stand. So where are they?”

“Someone must have called them off,” said JC. “Which implies. . someone knew we were coming here before we did.”

The three of them stood close together. It was still the early hours of morning, cold and quiet and empty. No sign of the living, or the dead. But not exactly peaceful. JC and Happy and Melody hugged themselves against the chill and stamped their feet hard on the ground to keep warm.

“This is just like last time,” said Melody.

“Bloody better not be,” said Happy. “We were lucky to come out of that mission with all our important parts still attached. Dead men walking, insane doctors with cutty things, rogue transplant organs on the loose, Gog and Magog and the New People. . We should get danger money. We should get unionised!” He scowled about him, still carefully avoiding looking at Chimera House. “I never thought it would be like this when the time came to get Kim back. I thought we’d have to storm some kind of castle, fight some monsters, to win back our lost princess.”