Ghostfinders 01 - Ghost of a Chance

. . If an old lady hadn’t died here, killed by a man in a hurry. So—a ceremony, blood and death, calling across the centuries, like to like. A direct link between Past and Present, awakening . . . Something ancient and unspeakably powerful. All it needed to manifest fully was three poor damned fools who thought they knew what they were doing. A telepath, a woman with powerful technology, and a leader who should have known better. It’s us. We did this. We woke it up.”
    All six cars started rocking back and forth in place, shaking wildly. Their headlights snapped on, burning bright like dragons’ eyes. Their engines revved and roared like angry beasts, their horns bleating and blaring. Then they all surged forward. The three ghost finders scattered, and the cars ploughed right through Melody’s stacked instruments. The comforting circle of light disappeared, replaced by the fierce, stabbing beams from the cars and the pitiless glare of the full moon. The cars screeched around in narrow turns and came back again, only to slam into each other in head-on collisions, like maddened stags going head to head in rut. They rocked to a halt, steam rising from the crumpled bonnets, their headlights slowly fading like the light going out of dying eyes. The three ghost finders came together again, breathing hard.
    “Whatever it is, it doesn’t know how to drive a car,” said Happy. “Sorry about your toys, Melody.”
    “They’ll give me some more,” she said, but her heart wasn’t in it.
    JC glared at Happy. “Concentrate! That was only the overture, to throw us off-balance and remove the advantage Melody’s tech gave us! What do you feel , Happy?”
    “Something’s here,” Happy said slowly. “Something’s right here, with us. The chain of events opened a door, and now Something from the Past is forcing its way through, into the Present!”
    JC turned to Melody, scrabbling on her knees amid the wreckage of her instruments. “Anything still working that you can use to break the link between Past and Present, slam the door shut in its face?”
    “Not a damned thing!” Melody rose suddenly, brandishing a very large machine-pistol. “On the other hand . . . Any caveman with a club who turns up here is in for a nasty surprise.”
    “I want a gun,” said Happy. “You never let me have a gun.”
    “Damn right,” said Melody. “I am not having the words friendly fire on my death certificate.”
    “Hush,” said JC, looking slowly around him. “It’s here . . . I can feel it, like the gaze of a blind god, smell it, like the dragon’s breath . . . the cold of the winter that never ends, the dark between the stars . . .”
    “Nothing like imminent death to bring out the poet in you, JC,” said Happy. “How about composing something really lyrical that we can retreat to? Because I’d really like to get the hell out of here . . .”
    “Too late! Too late . . .” JC glared about him, searching for an answer he could sense but not pin down. “Think! Something big, Something powerful . . . What did those primitive people dance and sacrifice to, what did they believe in and worship, strong enough to make the sun rise and the winter end? They weren’t ready for gods yet, nothing so civilised . . . But together, their massed minds and desperate need invoked a powerful Force from Outside . . . Created, or summoned, by the terrible brutal passion of their faith . . . A god with no name or singular nature; simply a Presence . . .”
    “Could it be one of the Great Beasts?” said Melody. “The Hogge, or the Serpent?”
    “No,” Happy said immediately. “I know them. What I’m feeling . . . is even older than they. More primitive. Just a force. A Presence. And since its worshippers had no language to name it, to define it and limit its powers . . . We can’t hope to control or dismiss it with any of the usual techniques or formulas. We don’t have anything we can use against it!”
    The dark was all around them now. The supermarket was gone, and most of the car park. Only a circle of moonlight remained, stabbing down like a spotlight, picking them out. No stars shone in that dark night, no distinction left between earth and sky. Just the three of them left, the only living things in the night, huddling together for comfort and warmth, adrift in an endless dark sea. And it was cold, so cold . . .
    “Dark and cold,” said JC, shuddering despite himself. “The dark before the sun rises, and the cold