Ghostfinders 02 - Ghost of a Smile

in such a hurry. We’re not to everyone’s taste, these days. Once I was a man, like you, but I got better. ReSet saw to that. But . . . not all of us blessed by the drug became New People. We all took the same drug, but ReSet only woke up part of our junk DNA. Perhaps it was damaged in us, or it mutated, down the millennia. Either way, we were cheated of our inheritance. We only got part of the package. Not enough to take us all the way, to what we were meant to be. We didn’t get to become more than human, to become New People. No—we became monsters. Not fit to associate with the glorious and wonderful New People, up on the top floor. We are Outcasts.”
    “How many of you are there?” said JC. “Maybe there’s something we can do to help.”
    “Help?” said the Voice. “What makes you think we want help, little man? There are two of us here, now. Male and female, as it should be. There were others, but we killed them. They were superfluous.” The Voice laughed again, a dark and nasty sound that sent shivers up and down JC’s spine. “Only room for one alpha male and alpha female. The best of the best. The beast of the beast. So we killed the others and ate their bodies. Delicious . . . There’s still some left if you’re interested.”
    JC gestured surreptitiously for Happy to ease in behind him. Without looking back, JC murmured over his shoulder, “What are you picking up, Happy? Are there really only two of them here?”
    “I can’t see or hear a damned thing,” Happy said quietly. “The jamming’s so oppressive in here, I have to keep all my mental shields nailed down tight to stop my brains leaking out my ears. Sorry, JC, you’re on your own. I’m going to go back and hide behind Melody now.”
    A single dark figure moved slowly forward to the edge of the jungle, emerging from the blood-red light and the dark shadows. It was nine, ten feet tall, with broad shoulders and a vast barrel chest. It was careful to stay a silhouette against the blood-red light. Its powerful arms hung down past its knees, and the ground trembled with every step it took. It stood still, and another figure suddenly appeared beside it. Just as tall, just as massive, but something about it suggested female, to the first figure’s male. They stood easily together, as though they belonged in each other’s company and no-one else’s, in the bloody jungle the New People had made.
    “Take off your sunglasses,” said the Voice. “We want to see your eyes.”
    JC did so, with his very best dramatic flourish, as though he’d meant to do it all along. His eyes glowed fiercely bright, but the golden glow didn’t travel far and made no impact at all on the blood-red light. JC’s eyes didn’t affect the jungle or the two figures in the least. JC’s breath caught in his chest as he saw them clearly for the first time. The larger figure laughed its slow, awful laugh.
    “Yes . . . You have more in common with the New People than we do. You have their eyes . . .”
    JC swallowed hard and fought to keep his voice steady. This would be a really bad time to sound nervous or uncertain. “Come with us. We represent an organisation that is used to dealing with strange and unnatural things. We have all kinds of specialists. We can help you.”
    “Can you?” said a second Voice, the female Voice. It was just as savage, just as brutal, but there were emotional undertones that somehow made it even worse. “I don’t think you understand, you Good Samaritan. Can you undo what has been done to us? Make us human again? I don’t think so . . . We’ve moved on from being human.”
    “What makes you think we’d want to go back?” said the first Voice. “To being merely human? That’s your limited thinking getting in the way there. If you could only see us, and our world, the way we do . . . without your petty human preconceptions getting in the way . . . This is a glorious world, and we glory in it.”
    “I can See you,” said JC. “I can See everything you are. Step forward into the light, and show yourselves if you’re not ashamed to be seen.”
    He put his sunglasses back on and gestured for the rest of his team to come forward and stand beside him. They did so, some more readily than others. There was a pause, and the two dark shapes moved smoothly forward into the blood-red light at the edge of the jungle. They straightened up, to show themselves off, and JC could feel the rest of his team fighting not to look