whoever it was used to live here. It’s as though all traces have been wiped clean, scoured out by the sheer intensity of what happened. No stone tape, no psychic imprinting… the occurrence was too powerful for that… But I am feeling things. Emotions. Strong, supercharged, impossibly extreme emotions, saturating the aether.”
Melody sniffed. “She’s making it up. No such thing as aether.”
“Lot you know, girl geek,” said Kim. “Emotions… but not human emotions.”
“Animal?” said JC.
“No. More than human,” said Kim. “I can feel them, but I can’t understand them, or describe how they make me feel. It’s like listening to a thunderstorm that’s also a name that’s also a howl of rage and horror and enlightenment. Emotions so big, so complicated.. . they frighten me, JC.”
Happy was concentrating so hard his face was one big scowl, trying to get some feel, some sense of what Kim was experiencing, but it eluded him.
“I’m getting a word, JC,” he said finally. “Yes, a word. Repeated over and over. One word. ReSet.”
And then his gaze snapped past JC, caught by something behind him. Happy cried out, and pointed urgently with a quivering hand. Everyone spun round, to stare at the cracked mirror on the wall behind them. They all looked hard, but all they saw were their own startled reflections.
“What is it, Happy?” said JC. “What did you see?”
“There was a face!” Happy’s face was grey, wet with sudden sweat. “There was a face in the mirror, and it wasn’t one of us!”
They all looked again, but the reflection was still stubbornly only them.
“It’s gone now,” said Happy. “But it was there. A face. Watching us!”
“All right,” said JC. “I believe you. What kind of face?”
“I don’t know,” said Happy. He looked confused, like an overtired child. “It wasn’t human… not really. A face, like a human face, but… more so. It was like God looking out of the mirror, and judging us.” He shook his head. “I can remember seeing it, but I can’t remember what it looked like any more. As though my mind can’t… hold on to it.”
JC nodded slowly. For all his nervous talk, Happy was a veteran of many cases, and there wasn’t much that could genuinely shake him any more. Melody moved in close beside Happy, calming him with her presence.
“ReSet?” said JC. “You’re sure about that?”
“Oh yes,” said Happy. “I heard it. Clear as a bell.”
Then the sounds started. They all looked round sharply as they heard running feet. A great many people, all heading down the corridor, towards Room Seven. JC darted out of the room, then stopped as he saw that the corridor was empty. The sounds grew louder and more urgent, and there were voices, too, shouting and crying out, voices overlapping and drowning each other out. The sounds reached the doorway and stopped abruptly.
A new Voice filled the room, a huge, overpowering Voice, like God crying out from a mountaintop-or a cross.
Help me! Somebody, help me! What’s happening to me?
A Voice that was both more and less than human, full of over- and undertones, too subtle for the human mind to comprehend. It shuddered through flesh and bone, shaking them with a deep atavistic terror. Even Kim cried out. She might be dead, but she was still human. And the Voice wasn’t.
And then the Voice was gone, and everything was still and quiet again.
“Okay,” said JC, shakily. “That bit out in the corridor was a stone tape, extreme events imprinting themselves on the surroundings, and playing back… but the Voice… was a hell of a lot more than that. Something really bad happened in here.”
“Or started here,” said Melody. “Whatever it was, it isn’t finished yet. We need to go up to the next floor, to the science labs, and get some answers.”
“I’m not sure I want to know,” said Happy. “They might have gone looking for a supersoldier, but I think they ended up with a lot more than they bargained for.”
FOUR
They went up the next set of stairs like a military unit. Taking their time, checking the corners and the shadows, listening hard for any hint of an attack. Kim went first, flitting silently up the stairs without touching them, out in front because of all of them she was the least in danger. You see? she said brightly. Being dead does have its advantages. JC went next, pushing forward because he always did, eager to get into the next interesting thing. Melody came next, bristling with caution, alert for the smallest noise or hint of danger, so she could do nasty things to it. And Happy brought up the rear because that was what he did best. He somehow managed to hold his peace until they were more than half-way up, but finally an urgent question forced its way out.
“What, exactly, are we proposing to do if attacked?”
“I have my machine pistol,” Melody said immediately.
“Not actually noted for its use against things that are already dead,” said Happy.
“Be of good cheer, my children,” said JC, not looking back. “I have many useful and really quite nasty and only borderline-illegal items tucked away about my person. I won’t tell if you won’t.”
“It’s true,” Kim said solemnly. “He does.”
“I can’t believe we’re still going on,” Happy said miserably. “We’re ghost finders! This is a job for the psychic commandos of the SAS!”
“Well, for mass destruction, general bloodshed, and scorched-earth policies, they do have their uses,” said JC. “But I think even they would admit that subtlety is not their favoured suit. There is a mystery here, questions that need answering, secrets that must be dug up, and that is what we do best. You are, of course, free to walk away at any time, Happy. But you know the rules-you walk out on an active investigation, and your time with the Institute is over.”
“You say that like it’s a bad thing,” growled Happy.
“You make it sound like we volunteered to be ghost finders,” said Melody.
“Didn’t you?” JC said innocently. “I positively jumped at the chance.”
“Yes, but you’re weird,” said Happy. He looked back down the stairs. “I’m pretty sure that leaving is no longer a viable option.. . Whatever’s in here with us, it won’t give up on us that easily. The higher we go, the more doors close behind us. We are climbing up into the belly of the beast…”
“Then try not to think too much about the eventual way out,” JC said briskly.
They’d reached the next set of swing doors, giving out onto the next floor. Huddling together before the doors, they listened carefully, but all they could hear was their own massed breathing. The atmosphere was so still, it almost had a presence of its own. JC put his head right next to the door, straining for even the slightest sound or trace of movement. He bit his lower lip thoughtfully, straightened up, and looked back at Happy.
“Can you sense anything?”
“Not from out here,” said Happy. “I swear something in this building is interfering with my talent. And I mean deliberately, not as a side effect. Something is targeting me. All right, yes, I feel like that most of the time, but this time I have evidence. There’s a psychic weight in the atmosphere, an unnatural oppression… Trying to sense anything here is like listening for bird-song in the middle of a thunderstorm.”
“A simple no would have sufficed,” murmured JC. “You’re sure it couldn’t be some kind of basic phenomenon, a result of the drug trials?”
“No,” said Happy. “Something’s doing this to me.”
“Or someone,” said Melody.
“Oh right,” said Happy. “Thanks a whole bunch. Cheer me up, why don’t you?”
“I have tried being cautious and sensible, and a fat lot of good it has done me,” announced JC. “I am therefore kicking that plan in the head and reverting to standard operating procedure.” He slammed through the doors and strode arrogantly onto the next floor, shouting “Anybody here? Anything weird and unnatural and quite probably illegal, make yourself known! We are here to solve mysteries, whether they like it or not, and dispense
