Forces from Beyond (31 page)

“It can do that?” said Melody.

“Apparently,” said Happy.

“We have to close it,” said Latimer.

“How?” said JC. “How could we do that?”

“The scientists!” said Melody. “We need their equipment, their data-mining techniques . . . Something to give us some idea of what might work!”

“I’ve always admired your optimism,” said JC.

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The three Ghost Finders raced down through the ship’s decks, to the lab at the bottom of the
Moonchilde
. Where the three scientists were darting agitatedly from one monitor screen to another, while shouting and screaming at each other. New information, new theories, and old grudges were thrown back and forth at full volume. They were so caught up in their increasingly acrimonious arguments, they didn’t even notice JC, Happy, and Melody arrive. JC looked from one scientist to another, waiting for them to pause for breath long enough for him to get a word in, but they just kept shouting at each other and not listening to the replies. Latimer finally caught up with the Ghost Finders, pushed past them, and raised her voice, demanding the scientists’ attention. They didn’t even look round, just shouted that much louder to drown her out.

“This is what gives science a bad name,” said Melody.

Happy grabbed JC by the arm and pulled him close so he could shout into JC’s ear. “Something’s very wrong here, JC. One of those scientists isn’t human.”

JC looked at Goldsmith, Hedley, and Hamilton. “They all look, and sound, very human to me.”

“One of them is Flesh,” Happy insisted, “masquerading as human.”

“I heard that!” said Melody. “Just what we needed. More complications.”

JC looked at Happy. “And you didn’t notice this before, because . . . ?”

“It was shielding itself. But with everything that’s been going on, the shield has weakened. The Flesh Undying has other things on its mind.”

“All right,” said Latimer. “Which one is it?”

Happy scowled. “I can’t tell. It doesn’t know it’s not human.”

“We have to get their attention,” said JC.

“I can do that,” said Medley.

She drew one of her pistols and fired several shots into the bunker’s low ceiling. The three scientists broke off arguing and dived for cover. There was a pause, then they peered cautiously out from their hiding places with wide, startled eyes. JC stepped forward.

“Sorry about that. But it seems one of you isn’t who or even what they appear to be. One of you is an agent for the Flesh Undying.”

Interestingly, none of the scientists challenged the claim. They just started shouting again: first denying it was them, then accusing the others. Angry voices quickly gave way to pushing and shoving.

“Isn’t there some kind of test we can do?” said JC, raising his voice again to be heard over the din.

“Yes,” said Latimer. “Shoot them all and see which one is still talking afterwards.”

“Works for me,” said Melody.

She took careful aim with her pistol. JC was pretty sure she was bluffing. The three scientists stopped arguing to look at Melody. They didn’t seem nearly as sure. And Hedley went wild. His shape slumped, his back rising and rippling as his arms and legs stretched impossibly. His face sloughed away, revealing a demonic visage underneath. Hamilton and Goldsmith dived for cover again, making loud noises of distress. Hedley, or what was left of him, moved quickly to intercept them.

“Shoot it!” Latimer said to Medley.

“I can’t!” said Melody. “I might hit one of the real scientists. Or some piece of equipment we might need.”

“Work with me, Mr. Chance,” said Latimer.

Her eyes blazed golden in the gloom of the bunker, and the thing that had been Hedley made a wounded sound and flinched back. JC whipped off his sunglasses and moved in beside Latimer. The combined golden light from their eyes filled the bunker. The Hedley thing broke down even further, barely human now . . . as though it couldn’t maintain its shape in the presence of the golden light. Elongated arms lashed out and snapped around Goldsmith and Hamilton, pinioning them in heaving coils.

“Stay back!” said the Hedley thing. It didn’t sound at all human. “I’ll kill them both if you don’t leave me alone and get out of here!”

“Please!” said Goldsmith, struggling helplessly against the dead white tentacle that held him. “Don’t let him kill me!”

“Don’t leave me here, with this thing!” said Hamilton.

JC and Latimer paused and looked at each other. JC was pretty sure they were going to need Hamilton and Goldsmith’s help to stop the sink-hole. But they couldn’t let Hedley escape. There was no telling how much it knew, or how much damage it could cause, if they didn’t take it down. Happy eased past JC and Latimer in the confined space, holding both hands up to show he didn’t have a weapon. What was left of Hedley’s face snapped forward on an elongating neck, fanged jaws opening impossibly wide. Happy tossed one of his pills into the gaping mouth, and hit Hedley with a hard, telepathic shove. The mouth snapped shut, and Hedley swallowed. And then the horrid thing just collapsed, slumping almost liquidly to the floor, as Happy’s chemicals went to work. In a few moments, there was nothing left of Hedley but a slowly spreading heap of grey, undifferentiated Flesh.

Happy smiled smugly. “My medicine is stronger than your bad medicine.”

Goldsmith and Hamilton moved quickly forward, no longer held by the tentacles. They joined the Ghost Finders and shuddered as the last of Hedley’s body fell apart, leaving just a pool of thick grey goo.

“That was our colleague . . .” said Hamilton.

“How did that thing replace Hedley?” said Goldsmith.

“How can we be sure there ever was a real Hedley?” said Hamilton. “When he arrived, did anyone check his credentials? Or did they just assume he must have the right clearances to have got this far? Maybe it’s been an agent all along.”

“But . . . he did good work!” said Goldsmith. “Useful work!”

“How can we be sure of that, now?” said Hamilton. “Maybe it only gave us small successes, to steer us away from bigger ones, or more useful areas we might have investigated?”

“We’re going to have to go back and recheck all our work,” said Goldsmith.

“Not right now you’re not,” said JC.

“You’ve been close to that man all this time,” said Latimer. “Working side by side, in close proximity. Didn’t either of you notice anything strange about him?”

Goldsmith and Hamilton looked at each other. The question seemed to confuse them. They looked back at Latimer.

“Well, no,” said Goldsmith.

“He did good work,” said Hamilton.

“We have a more important problem, people!” said JC. “The sink-hole!”

“Yes!” said Goldsmith. “The dimensional rupture! We’ve been following its progress on the monitors.”

“Fascinating,” said Hamilton. “Why are you interrupting us? We need to study this . . .”

“What can we do to shut it down?” said Latimer.

Goldsmith and Hamilton looked at each other.

“We have a possible solution,” said Goldsmith.

“Something that might work,” said Hamilton.

“The theory is sound!” said Goldsmith, bristling immediately.

“It’s still just a theory!” said Hamilton.

“What is?” Latimer said loudly, before they could start shouting at each other again.

“An EMP,” said Goldsmith, still glaring at Hamilton. “Electromagnetic pulse. We have the capability to generate a small, localised EMP. Enough to temporarily disrupt the Flesh Undying’s energies. Scramble its thoughts—the way that pill did with Hedley. The ship’s systems won’t be affected. They’re shielded.”

“Hold it,” said Melody, suspiciously. “You can generate a localised EMP? Why would you need to be able to do that?”

Goldsmith shrugged, just a bit guiltily. “Project orders. They supplied the equipment. In case another ship got too close and took too much of an interest in what we were doing. The EMP would wipe their computers, shut down their systems.”

“But that would have left the other ship dead in the water!” said Melody. “Stranded all the way out here, miles from the shipping routes!”

“We had our orders,” said Hamilton.

“Wouldn’t something as powerful as an EMP reveal the ship’s location to the Flesh Undying?” said JC.

“We don’t think so,” said Hamilton.

“It shouldn’t be in any condition to think that clearly,” said Goldsmith.

“Theoretically,” said Hamilton.

“Then do it,” said Latimer.

The two scientists looked at each other again. JC was getting really tired of that. It always meant something bad was coming.

“What?” he said loudly. “What’s the problem now?”

“We need you to do something to distract the Flesh Undying, hold its attention, while we prepare to generate the EMP,” said Goldsmith.

“Otherwise, there’s always the chance it could detect what’s going to happen and shield itself,” said Hamilton. “Our only hope is to catch it by surprise.”

JC, Happy, and Melody looked at each other.

“I suppose,” said JC, “if we were to link up again and focus our thoughts through Happy, like we did with the ghost . . .”

“If we shout loudly enough, that should grab its attention,” said Melody.

“Would that wake it up?” JC asked Happy.

“I keep telling you, it’s not really asleep!” Happy scowled, as he thought about it. “If we do get its attention . . . that will make us a target. It will see us as a danger and strike directly at us.”

“Well yes,” said Hamilton. “Probably.”

“Almost certainly,” said Goldsmith. “But you only have to hold its attention long enough to buy us the time we need.”

“We’re bait,” said Melody.

“Situation entirely bloody normal, where the Ghost Finders are concerned,” said Happy.

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They went back up on deck, so the scientists could get to work. JC, Melody, and Happy stood together at the bow, staring out into the night. Latimer wanted to stay with them, but JC sent her back to join Captain Katt. Because somebody had to survive this.

“So,” said JC. “The last stand of the Three Musketeers.”

“I could do this alone,” said Happy.

“No you couldn’t,” Melody said immediately. “You’d burn out too quickly. You need JC and me to stabilise you.”

“I always did,” said Happy. “Let’s do it.”

“I wish Kim were here,” said JC.

“Who’s to say she isn’t?” said Melody.

They took hold of each other’s hands. No-one mentioned how clammy or unsteady they might be. A cold wind was blowing right into their faces. They linked their minds telepathically and sent their joined thoughts blasting out into the dark. Not as an attack; just a concentrated announcement of their presence. And something heard them. A great tower of light manifested in the dark before them, unbearably brilliant, rising into the heavens. Full of unnatural energies. It advanced slowly on the
Moonchilde
, churning up the waters as it came.

“I think we should back away now,” said Happy.

“We have to hold its attention,” said JC.

“Trust me!” said Happy. “It knows we’re here!”

“What’s taking Goldsmith and Hamilton so long?” said Melody. “I could have organised an EMP and a tactical nuclear strike by now! Oh shit . . . That thing is getting way too close.”

“What will happen if it reaches us?” said JC.

“What do you think?” said Happy.

“That bad?” said JC.

“Worse,” said Happy.

“I always expected to die on some job, out in the field,” said Melody. “But to die protecting a Crowley Project operation . . . Smell the irony.”

And then Kim appeared out of nowhere, smiled dazzlingly at all of them, and stepped inside JC. Her presence blasted power through all of them, as though she was the missing component in some mighty engine; and all of them glowed a bright golden in the night. The blazing tower stopped its advance. And the whole ship shuddered as the EMP detonated.

The tower of light snapped off, leaving behind just a few after-images in the eyes of the Ghost Finders. There was a huge uproar of water off the ship’s port bow, as the sink-hole started to fill itself in again. And the night . . . felt suddenly empty.

Kim stepped back out of JC. He let go of Happy’s and Melody’s hands, and the glow surrounding them disappeared. As though a spiritual current had been cut off. They all sat down hard on the deck, exhausted. Kim sat cross-legged beside JC, floating just an inch or so above the deck. JC looked at her.

“Where have you been, all this time?”

“Hiding from the Flesh Undying until I was needed,” said Kim. “I was your secret weapon! Your trouble, JC, is you have no sense of drama.”

“What if we had held the Flesh Undying’s attention, and the EMP hadn’t worked?” said Melody.

“Then we would have been screwed,” said Happy. “Aren’t you glad you’ve got me around to explain the technical stuff to you?”

“I have a gun,” said Melody.

“And I think we might need it,” said JC. “Look . . .”

“Oh shit,” said Happy.

They all scrambled back onto their feet. Where the tower of light had been, a shining figure had appeared, apparently standing knee-deep in the dark waters. It rose up before them, looking a lot like the shimmering ghost, but a hundred feet tall or more, towering over the
Moonchilde
. It advanced slowly towards the ship, ploughing through the dark waters. It looked far more solid, more physical and more real, than it had before.

“Where the hell did that come from?” said JC. “I thought we scrambled the Flesh Undying’s thoughts!”

“Obviously, not completely!” said Melody.

“I don’t think disbelieving in it is going to work this time,” said JC.

“I believe in it,” said Happy. “It looks very real to me.”

The massive shining figure loomed over the
Moonchilde
. It raised a shimmering fist, big enough to sink the ship.

“What do we do?” said Melody.

“Run,” said Happy.

“We’re on a ship!” said JC. “There’s nowhere to run to!”

“It’s still a plan,” said Happy.

“Try the telepathic link again,” said JC. “Just . . . hit it with everything we’ve got.”