“Ah, but it wasn’t always like that,” said Melody. “The Ghost Caller, this incredible machine, was the brain- child of Dr. Emil Todd, (almost certainly not his real name,) one of the greatest and most popular mediums of Victorian times. When they were all going mad for Spiritualism, and raising the ghosts of the departed, so they could make contact with loved ones on the Other Side. Dr. Todd toured the country with his act, appearing in all the biggest theatres, putting on spectacular shows. He produced spirit voices, visions, ectoplasm, and extended conversations with the dearly departed of people in his audience. Charged a pretty price for admission but always gave the people their money’s worth. He was, briefly, a national sensation. But he’d barely been in the big time a year before he was exposed as a fake and a fraud. He really did do most of it with mirrors. And ventriloquism, conjuring tricks, and plants in the audience. All very obvious, in retrospect. A jumped-up showman, with delusions of grandeur. He was ruined, abandoned by the audiences who’d adored and believed in him. He was hounded from the stage and forced into early retirement. Had to go into hiding, for his own safety.
“And then he disappeared. As suddenly and completely as one of his own stage effects.
“With anyone else, the story might have ended there, but Dr. Todd was made of sterner stuff. He was determined to restore his reputation by presenting the public with something undeniably real. So he took the extensive fortune he’d amassed and spent pretty much all of it in having the Ghost Caller created for him. An apparently very impressive device, for which no contemporary description survives, but powerful enough to call ghosts to it, like moths to a bright light.
“However, before Dr. Todd could demonstrate the Call For The Dead on stage, he was shut down by the Queen’s champion of that time, the legendary Victorian Adventurer, Julien Advent. He confiscated the Ghost Caller because of the threat it posed. Not to the Nation, but all Humanity. Apparently, the machine was so powerful that once its Call began, anything, and by that I mean anything at all, could be summoned into our reality from any of the Outer Reaches. Ghosts, demons, abhuman monstrosities—you name it. An irresistible Call, a summons with no limit to its reach…Who knows what that might have let in. There are always things Out There, lurking on the threshold of our world, waiting for an invitation…”
“We’re talking about the Great Beasts, aren’t we?” said Happy. “The Abominations, the Entities from the Outer Reaches.”
“You might be,” said Laurie. “I haven’t a clue what you’re talking about.”
“Be grateful,” said Happy.
He moved away, to be on his own for a moment. One hand deep in his trouser pocket closed around a pill bottle. Melody had worked hard to keep Happy from depending on chemical supports, mostly by having lots of sex with him whenever he looked like weakening. But really, all she’d done was distract him. And she couldn’t be there all the time. The problem remained the same: that Happy saw, heard, and sensed far more of reality than was good for him. He needed his special medications to shut his telepathy down to bearable levels, to keep the hidden world and all its horrors outside his head. He’d hoped that sex, and maybe even love, might be enough; but they couldn’t give him the peace of mind the pills could. Or the strength. Happy was not a strong man. He never had been. And he knew it. He had done his best to keep off the pills because it meant so much to Melody; but at times like this, faced with imminent dangers from Awful Things from Beyond…Happy reached for the only real strength he’d ever known.
His hand closed tightly around the pill bottle; but he didn’t take it out. Not yet.
Happy didn’t know, but JC had already talked with Melody about providing Happy with some kind of experimental tech support. Some kind of machine, to keep the bad stuff outside Happy’s head. But Melody had been forced to admit she’d already tried everything she could think of, and she could think of some pretty extreme things. Not one of them had worked. She’d failed Happy and failed herself. She wasn’t used to that. JC and Melody hadn’t told Happy any of this. They didn’t want him to give up hope. Because Happy needed hope more than anything.
And Happy wasn’t the only one.
“This…Ghost Caller,” JC said to Melody. “Is it something I could use, to call Kim back to me?”
“Not a good idea, JC,” Melody said quietly. “The Ghost Caller was, by all accounts, anything but subtle. You can’t choose whom you want to call. There’s an On/Off switch, to open and close a Door. And God alone knows what might be waiting on the Other Side.”
“Hold everything,” said Happy, turning back to face them. “Didn’t I hear something recently about an Apocalypse Door? A Door to give you direct access to the Hereafter? Am I remembering that right? Could that be something like our Ghost Caller?”
“Not really,” JC said patiently. “The Apocalypse Door allowed you to open the Gates of Hell. It was destroyed by the Droods.”
“Why would anyone…?” said Laurie.
“Don’t go there,” said JC.
“The Ghost Caller doesn’t give you access to the Hereafter,” said Melody. “It sends out an open call to the restless dead. Of which there has never been any shortage…” She thought for a moment, then sniffed loudly. “What we could really use is a Ghost Repellent. Something to send ghosts away.”
“Some kind of spray, perhaps,” Happy said brightly. “Something in a can—Ghost Away! I’d pay good money for a can of that.”
JC gave Melody a look, and she resumed telling Dr. Todd’s story.
“It seems that Julien Advent took the Ghost Caller away from Dr. Todd, despite his strong and even violent objections. And put the device on a train, under guard, to be taken to a place of safety. Where it could be studied, and, if necessary, dismantled. The files don’t say where this would have taken place…Probably the original Dark Heir Headquarters, down in Cornwall. That was the main repository, back then, our very own Area 51, for all the really dangerous weird shit that the world wasn’t ready for. Is it Area 51, the Americans use, these days? I get mixed up, there are so many stories…”
“It’s Area 52,” said Happy, unexpectedly. “Situated in the Antarctic Circle, up past the McMurdo Sound. So if anything should go suddenly and unpleasantly and explosively wrong, there’s no-one around to be killed, maimed, or nastily transformed. Except a few penguins.”
“There aren’t any penguins in the Antarctic,” said Melody.
Happy glared at her. “They had some moved in, for camouflage.”
“You’ve been working your way through the forbidden files I downloaded, haven’t you?” said Melody. “Good boy. There will be treats later.”
“Young rebels in love,” said JC. “The horror, the horror…Get on with the story, Melody. It’s getting late.”
“Later than you think,” said Laurie. The others looked at him, but he had nothing more to say.
“Oh, I think we can make some pretty good guesses,” said JC. “The Ghost Caller was placed on a train, which entered a tunnel, and was never seen again! Because it was sent Away, out of our reality, to some Other Place. So no-one else could have it. And Dr. Todd’s ghost is here to guard the station, to frighten people away…so no-one could do anything that might bring the train back again. He’s stood guard all these years, to protect us all from the terrible machine he made.
“But the volunteers came and made changes in the station, changing the conditions that helped keep the train Away…And now there’s a dimensional weak spot where the accumulated pressure has burst through. A doorway, or at least a potential doorway, between here and Away.”
“You think the missing train is coming home, at last?” said Laurie.
“And bringing the Ghost Caller with it,” said JC.
“All right, I’m sort of with you,” said Happy. “But none of that explains why the top of Dr. Todd’s head is missing.”
“One thing at a time,” JC said cheerfully. “Let’s go out onto the platform again. See what there is to see.”
“It’ll all end in tears,” said Happy. “Probably mine.”
