Ghost of a Dream (10 page)

It made sense to have stuck the Ghost Caller in the baggage-car, at the end of the train, as far-away from the passengers as possible; but in the end it hadn’t made any difference. JC insisted that they all walk the length of the train at a steady pace because it would have been only too easy to lose control and break into a run; and they couldn’t afford to lose control here, in these conditions, not even in the smallest of ways. The light blasting out of the baggage-car’s single grilled window was blindingly bright, incandescent almost beyond bearing, so harsh that even JC had to screw up his altered eyes to deal with it. The station gloom seemed to shrink away from the light as though it was afraid or intimidated. JC found the door to the baggage-car and tried it. Locked, of course, with an immense steel padlock. JC tore the heavy door right off its hinges and threw it aside. He pulled himself up into the new opening and entered the rear carriage. Melody and Happy looked at the thrown-aside door, lying on the platform, looked at each other, then followed JC into the baggage car.

The light was easier to bear once they got inside, as their eyes adjusted to the new conditions. It only took them a moment to recognise the Ghost Caller. It wasn’t a machine, after all. It was a human corpse, sitting upright
in a stiff-backed chair, held firmly in place by a series of heavy leather straps and restraints. Even after so long Away, or perhaps because of it, the body was still perfectly intact. Not a trace of rot or decay, nor any smell of formaldehyde or any other preservative. The three Ghost Finders looked into the set grey face of the dead man and knew him immediately. It was Dr. Emil Todd. The head had been cut open, quite neatly, sawn across above the eyebrows.

JC, Melody, and Happy moved slowly forward, surrounding the corpse. There was nothing else in the carriage worth looking at. They all leaned in, to look inside the dead man’s head. There was a brain, but quite clearly it had come from someone else. It slumped to one side, not even close to fitting. A series of brass and copper wires had been threaded through the brain, to hold it in place in the oversized skull. Silver pins protruded from the pink-and-grey matter, set in strange patterns, like a grotesque pincushion. And on top of the truncated head, someone had carefully placed an ornate crown, made of silver, with a dozen human eyeballs set firmly in place at regular intervals, staring unblinkingly out at the world.

“Okay,” said Happy, breathlessly, “that is seriously creepy, and I have seen more than my fair share of creep.”

“It’s also a major disappointment,” said Melody. “I was looking forward to examining some glory of steampunk engineering, not this…messed-about abomination. What the hell is this?”

“That is my body, given in repentance for all the wrong I did,” said a new voice, behind them. They all
looked around sharply, and there in the baggage-car with them was the ghost of Dr. Todd. Staring sadly at his own corpse. “This is what I gave up my life for and why I have spent my death here, trying to prevent its return. There were supposed to be protections set in place, to prevent the Ghost Caller from activating. They promised me there would be protections…A defensive circle around the chair, binding Wards and Signs carved into the wooden floor…But they lied.”

“They?” said JC, carefully.

“My partners in crime,” said Dr. Todd. His voice was clear, but distant, as though it had to travel some unknowable interval to reach them. “Let their worthless names be forgotten by history. I let them kill me, and make use of my body, to create this wonder…and repair my reputation. I never meant to cheat people. When I started out, I wanted to give comfort to the bereaved. But I was tempted—by the money, and the fame, and the women…and I fell. This was to be my recompense. A device to summon ghosts, real ghosts…To do what I could not.

“I sat down in that chair, and they tightened the straps around me. A terrible experience, to sit down, knowing you will never stand up again. Almost as bad as having the top of my head sawn off. They couldn’t give me opiates, you see; it would have interfered with the process. I can’t remember if I screamed. I probably did. I passed out long before they cut and levered my brain out of my skull, and I died. Imagine my surprise when I discovered I was still there, as a ghost. I watched as they removed my brain, according to my instructions and specifications,
and replaced it with the stolen brain of Oliver Lando, a genuine medium, with quite amazing psychic powers. The man who’d replaced me in the public affection, with his very successful tour of the provinces.

“I could have chosen someone else, some other genuine medium; but he was so very powerful…and I regret to say I could be a very petty man, back when I was alive. He was the real thing, you see: no tricks, no showmanship, a genuine Voice for the dead. Everything I’d aspired to be. I like to think he would have approved of what we made from his stolen brain. After I had him murdered.”

“What’s that thing on his head?” said Melody.

“That, dear lady, is the Crown of Tears,” said Dr. Todd. “My associates brought the design to me, the one thing I needed to be sure my Ghost Caller would work. Twelve human eyes, removed from the heads of six genuine psychics. I insisted we take only their eyes, not their lives. I saw no need to be cruel. Twelve psychic eyes, in the proper setting, to amplify the power of Lando’s brain, boosted by what was done to my body. Part engineering, part magic, part…

“I had help. That’s all you need to know.”

“Your Ghost Caller is still operating,” said Happy. “I can hear its false Voice, see its rotten Light. It’s still summoning ghosts, right now. And they will come like moths to a consuming flame. You can’t let this go on. Your…device must be shut down.”

“I don’t know how,” said Dr. Todd. “I never did. Operation of the marvellous device was to be left to my associates as they toured the country, in all the biggest
theatres. Bringing back the dearly departed, to give comfort to those they’d left behind.”

“You thought the authorities would allow a corpse to be exhibited, and call up ghosts?” said Melody. “No wonder Julien Advent shut you down.”

The ghost smiled thinly. “Is that what it says in the history books? No. My associates heard he was coming and made haste to load the device onto this train. To get away and hide, and make plans for the future. They didn’t know I was still there, watching. I’d seen how powerful my device was and how much damage it could, would, cause. So I used the last of my power over the Ghost Caller to send the train Away. And I have stood guard in this place ever since, preventing its return. Until now.”

“Maybe we should tear this…thing apart,” said Happy. “You said there aren’t any protections.”

“It can’t be broken,” said Dr. Todd. “I had it made too well. It will…defend itself. And I can’t help you. I’ve been dead too long, worn too thin…That isn’t my body any more. Not a body at all, really. An infernal machine; and no human hand can undo what I have wrought. God damn me.”

“Lucky I’m here, then,” JC said cheerfully. “Because I’m not merely human and haven’t been for some time now.”

He reached inside the dead man’s head, thrust his fingers deep into the soft grey tissues, and ripped the brain right out of the skull, along with all its brass and copper and silver attachments. He threw the brain on the floor and stamped on it hard. Pink-and-grey matter exploded under his foot. Melody and Happy retreated quickly, making
loud sounds of distress and disgust at what had splattered over their shoes. The ghost of Dr. Todd looked on blankly as JC tore the Crown of Tears from the dead head and broke the silver frame in his strong hands. He turned it inside out, so that the human eyes were all staring at each other, then carefully replaced the Crown on the empty head. JC stepped back and smiled about him easily.

“Time to leave, I think. Our work here is at an end.”

Out on the platform again, the three Ghost Finders looked hopefully around them. Evening had descended into night. Moonlight dappled the length of the platform. Eerie phosphorescent glows still spilled out of the carriage windows, interrupted here and there by the shadows of human shapes moving in inhuman ways.

“Nothing’s changed,” said Happy, nervously.

“It will,” JC said confidently. “Ripping out the stolen brain and reversing the Crown? Bound to do the job. Symbolic logic, very big in magic circles.” He turned to the ghost of Dr. Todd, trudging silently along beside them. “The rest is up to you, Doctor. If you really want to put a stop to all the horrors you’re responsible for.”

“You know I do,” said Dr. Todd. “I gave my life to creating them, so it is only proper I give my death to ending them. What do you want me to do?”

“I need you to re-enter your old body for a while and make it yours again,” said JC, as kindly as he could. “You can do that now Lando’s brain is gone, and the Crown of Tears has been turned around. Repossess your old body,
and you’ll be able to bring the Ghost Caller, or what’s left of it, under your control.”

“Yes,” said Dr. Todd. “A fitting punishment for a foolish old man. Wait here, please. There are some things…that should be done in private.”

He disappeared abruptly, and all three Ghost Finders jumped. They’d got too used to the ghost of Dr. Todd still doing things in human ways. And then they all looked back, as the light blasting out of the baggage-car’s single grilled window shut off abruptly. There was a pause, then the body of Dr. Todd stepped slowly and stiffly out of the rear carriage and down onto the platform. The body walked slowly along the platform towards them as though every step, every movement, was a conscious effort. Dr. Todd lurched to a halt before the Ghost Finders and worked his dead mouth for a long moment before words finally emerged, dry and dusty and determined.

“Of course,” he said. “It’s all so clear to me now, what I must do.”

“Then maybe you’d explain it to me,” said Happy, testily. “Because I haven’t got a clue what’s going on!”

The dead lips smiled, briefly. “Time…to go home. The end of every life, and every death. We all get to go home.”

He strode off down the platform, lurching this way and that, and all the passengers’ heads in all the windows turned to watch him pass. Cracks had appeared in some of the windows; but the passengers seemed to have lost interest in that. Happy leaned in close beside JC.

“He’s doing something. I can feel it. He’s not the Ghost Caller any more; but he’s still…reaching out, to
Something. I think…it’s another weak spot in reality, another door or potential door, but at the other end of the tracks! Talk to me, JC; tell me what’s happening here, or I am leaving!”

“Where’s your curiosity?” said JC.

“I had it surgically removed!” said Happy. “It kept getting me into trouble!”

“It’s true,” Melody said solemnly. “I held his hand while they did it. We keep it in a jar on the mantelpiece now.”

“Watch, my children,” said JC. “And learn…”

The dead body of Dr. Todd climbed into the engine cab and started it up again. Steam blew thickly from the chimney-stack, curled up from the great steel wheels, and howled through the whistle. The passengers in the carriages were all utterly still, waiting for something they couldn’t quite bring themselves to believe in. JC stepped forward, took off his sunglasses, and stared down the platform.

“It’s not a weak spot,” he said, “And it’s not a door. It’s a tunnel. I can see the tunnel; and it’s full of light.”

Suddenly, there was a tunnel. An exact duplicate of the old brick-lined tunnel-mouth the train had arrived through, but standing at the opposite end of the railway tracks. Full of a warm and inviting light instead of darkness. The train lurched forward, gathering speed, leaving JC and Melody and Happy behind on the platform. The engine roared into the tunnel, steam-whistle blowing triumphantly, and, one by one, the carriages roared into the light after it. The tunnel entrance disappeared after the train; and all the tension
in the night was gone. The air was as clear and calm as a summer night after the storm has passed, and all the shadows were only shadows again.

“Mission accomplished,” said JC, replacing his sunglasses with a flourish. “I wish all our cases were this simple.”

“You speak for yourself,” said Happy. “Hey, where did old man Laurie go?”

They all looked around, and called out after him; but there was no sign of the old man anywhere, and no reply. Melody shrugged.

“Everyone has their limits. Pity he didn’t stick around; he could have told the Preservation volunteers it was safe to return. Now, somebody find me a brush and some sacks, so I can clear up what’s left of my poor machines and take them home with me.”

“Don’t pout, sweetie,” said Happy. “You know the Institute will give you some new toys once we get back.”

“It’s not the same,” said Melody, pouting.

“The important thing,” said JC, “is that my Kim appeared to me, in my hour of need. Which has to mean…that she isn’t being held against her will, any more.”

“We can’t know that for sure, JC,” Happy said carefully.

“I know,” said JC. “But there is hope now.”

“We can’t be sure it was really her, JC,” Melody said carefully.