think I might have the very thing…” He fished in a jacket pocket, pulled out a grenade, primed it, and tossed it neatly into the advancing dead men. “Guard your eyes, children! Flashbang!”
The grenade exploded in a blast of incandescent light. Even with their eyes closed and their heads instinctively turned away, JC and Happy and Melody all cried out as the brilliant light seared their eyes. The light snapped off, and when they could all see again, all the dead men were gone, and the lobby was completely empty.
“What the hell was that?” said Melody.
“The very latest in a long line of useful gadgets that I’m not supposed to have,” JC said easily. “An exorcism grenade.”
Melody looked at him dangerously. “An exorcism… Are you taking the piss?”
“The very latest improvement!” said JC. “Gets the job done in half the time! Holy light!”
“I know I’m going to regret asking this,” said Happy. “But how.. .”
“You make water holy by saying the right religious words over it,” said JC. “Why should light be any different?”
“It’s thinking things like that that make my head hurt,” said Happy.
“Wait a moment,” said Kim, who hadn’t been dazzled by the light at all, “How did you know that grenade wouldn’t affect me?”
“Because you’re with us,” said JC. “One of the good guys.”
“Have you ever tested that thing in the field before?” said Melody.
“Guess,” said JC.
“I’m not picking up any remaining traces of the shells,” said Happy. “Any chance that light destroyed them completely?”
“Not really,” said JC. “More likely, the light only chased them away.”
“Oh joy,” said Happy.
“Deep joy,” said Melody.
“Happy happy joy joy!” said Kim, pogoing up and down in mid air.
“Come along, children,” said JC. “We need to get up to the next floor. We need information.”
“And weapons,” said Happy. “Really big weapons.”
THREE
They went up the stairs to the next floor because none of them trusted the elevator. They didn’t particularly trust the stairs, either, but as Happy pointed out, at least stairs don’t get you half-way there and then plummet to the basement. Or turn into something nasty and swallow you up. Happy had a lot of other reasons why he didn’t trust elevators in general and this one in particular, but the others were already half-way up the stairs and not listening to him. JC went bounding up the stairs two at a time, with all his usual energy and enthusiasm, Kim floating along beside him. Melody followed behind, still grumbling under her breath over what had happened to her precious equipment. Happy sighed deeply and brought up the rear, very reluctantly.
The stairs were only stairs, with no graces or comforts. The walls were bare, the single railing was as basic as health and safety regulations would allow, and the light was sharp and bright, with no shadows anywhere. Even so, there was still something distinctly uneasy about the narrow stairway, something… not quite right.
“I know we’re going up,” said Happy, after a while. “But I swear it feels like we’re going down…”
“Steady in the ranks,” said JC. “Don’t let the place get to you. All right, this building has proved to be entirely spooky and mysterious, in a malevolent sort of way, full of uncanny things that we haven’t encountered before, but is that any reason to be downhearted?”
“Well, yes!” said Happy.
“It makes the job that much more interesting,” JC said firmly. “You’re never too old to learn something new. And make a serious profit from it.”
He slammed through the swinging doors at the next floor and led his team into a brightly lit corridor. He stopped abruptly to take a good look. Melody nearly ran into him. A seriously long corridor stretched away before them, barely wide enough for two people to walk down abreast. To JC’s left, a series of rooms lined the corridor. All the doors were standing open. To his right was a blank wall, painted industrial off-white. With all the doors open, there was only room to walk down the corridor single file. No windows, no signs or instructions on the wall or the doors, and no signs of violence or destruction anywhere. Like the lobby, it was all very still and very quiet, with a subtle tension in the air. JC moved over to the first open door and studied it carefully.
“All right,” he said. “First interesting thing. This door has a very heavy, very solid steel lock. No electronics. Far more security than you’d need for what is, after all, a basic hotel room. Especially when beefed up by this very solid steel bolt, on the outside of the door. Suggesting that once the subjects were bedded in for the night, they were intended to stay put until someone came and let them out in the morning. Now why would the researchers feel the need to do that? To stop their subjects from wandering? Or because said subjects might become dangerous once they’d been dosed? Or even… because they might panic when the first symptoms or changes occurred and try to run?”
“Let’s not get ahead of ourselves,” said Melody. “The best security measure, with drug trials or anything else, is to control the supply of information. The people in the trial might have been locked in to make sure they didn’t see anything they weren’t supposed to. Never put down to supernatural nastiness what you can as easily put down to the fear of industrial espionage.”
“A lock and a bolt,” said Happy. “The researchers weren’t taking any chances, were they?”
JC strode off down the corridor, leaving the others to catch up with him. He was doing his best to seem cool and calm and utterly at his ease, but he looked very thoroughly into every room he passed, taking it all in. The rooms were comfortable enough, if somewhat small, with all the usual luxuries. Television, computer…
Melody waited till they reached the third room, then she couldn’t stand it any longer. She darted inside and sat down at the computer. The others stopped and came back, watching from the doorway as Melody turned on the computer and logged on.
JC sighed quietly.“So much for being in charge…”
“You need information,” said Melody, not looking up from the many illegal things she was doing. “This is where I find information.”
“Indeed,” murmured JC. “I’m amazed you were able to hold yourself back this long. So, what is the computer telling you, in what I’ve decided to call Room Three? Because there are no numbers or other designations on any of the doors. Did any of the rest of you notice that? I always notice things like that. Happy, Melody doesn’t seem to be talking to me. What about you? Do you have anything to tell me? Are you picking up anything?”
“Not really,” said Happy, looking vaguely up and down the empty corridor. “No-one lived here long enough to make much of an impression. I can say there’s definitely no-one alive hiding anywhere on this floor. All the rooms are empty. Still, it’s odd… normally when I lower my shields and look around, you three all start shouting at me with your minds, and I have to fade you down before I can hear anything else. But here… I’m only sensing you dimly, as though from a great distance. Somewhere in this building, something is interfering with my reception.”
“Are you saying someone is jamming you?” said JC.
“Wouldn’t surprise me,” said Happy. “Can’t say I’m that bothered. It’s actually quite relaxing, not having to keep all your voices out of my head for a change.”
“Can you pick up any traces of the person who used to live in this room?” said JC.
Happy glared at him. “I keep telling you, I’m not that kind of psychic! I read people, and places, and that’s it! I do not read objects, channel past events, or read tea leaves! I am a telepath, and that’s more than enough to deal with. I am not a miracle-worker!”
“Pity,” said JC. “I could use a miracle-worker. I’m going to take a stroll further down the corridor, see what there is to see. Yell if you need anything, Melody.”
And he was off and gone, with Kim drifting after him. Happy slouched sullenly in the doorway.
