Ghostfinders 02 - Ghost of a Smile

believed in.
    “Can’t shake off a feeling we’re being watched,” said Melody. “Is anyone else feeling it?”
    “We’re heading towards Something,” said Kim. “I can feel that.”
    “They know we’re coming,” said JC. “The New People. They’re waiting for us. Smug bastards . . .”
    “I am definitely not standing anywhere near you when we meet them,” said Happy. “What do you think they’ll look like?”
    “Probably a lot like us,” said Melody. “I mean, come on—whatever changes or improvements ReSet has worked in these people, they’re mostly likely to be on the mental and psychic level. Even the Beasts, Gog and Magog, were still basically human in shape. Their mindsets had been affected the most, making them what they were. I think we’re building these New People up into far more than they can reasonably be.”
    JC stopped abruptly, leaned heavily on the railing to get his breath, and looked back down the steps at the others. “If I’ve been counting off the floors correctly, and I have, the stairs around the corner above us will lead to the final set of doors, and the final floor of this building. Happy, are you picking up anything ?”
    “Something big and scary,” said Happy. He leaned heavily on Melody’s shoulder, his face wet with sweat, flushed a really unhealthy colour. “It’s taking all my shields to keep it outside my head. Don’t ask me what it is, JC. Or what’s causing it. I think . . . it’s the presence of the New People, weighing down on reality, overwhelming everything else. Just by being here, by existing . . . they’re the most important thing there is.”
    JC frowned. “You haven’t started taking your little pills again?”
    “I wish,” said Happy. “I would love to be able to float off on a soft pink cloud of medication. But I daren’t. I daren’t be that open, that vulnerable. Operating at anything less than one hundred per cent in this situation will get us all killed. You can put good money on it.”
    “My little boy is growing up,” said JC. “I am so proud.”
    “Up your arse with a bent banana,” said Happy.
    Suddenly, a voice spoke to them from above. A very human, very familiar voice.
    “Well done, thou good and faithful servants. I really wasn’t sure you’d get this far.”
    They all stared intently at the corner above them, as slow and steady footsteps descended towards them. And then he came round the corner, and there he was, standing at the top of the stairs, smiling urbanely. Robert Patterson, sharp and immaculate as ever in his smart city suit, looking very pleased with himself. Tall, black, a shaven head and a noble brow, handsome features and a condescending smile—a high-up functionary in the Carnacki Institute who very definitely should not have been there. JC looked at him for a long moment.
    “What the hell are you doing here, Patterson?”
    “You’d forgotten all about me, hadn’t you?” said Patterson, extending one perfect white cuff and flicking an invisible piece of lint off his sleeve. “That’s all right. Everyone does. For all my high-ranking duties in the Institute, I’m really nothing more than a glorified messenger boy, sent here and there at the Boss’s whim, to carry out all the dreary day-to-day business that our dear Catherine Latimer can’t be bothered with. All the soul-destroying shitwork that makes the Institute run smoothly—Patterson will take care of that. But, unfortunately for all concerned, that hasn’t been true for some time. I don’t answer to the Carnacki Institute, or Catherine bloody Latimer, any more. I’m part of something bigger and far more important, now. An organisation, a cause, greater than anything you could hope to understand.”
    Happy looked at JC triumphantly. “You see? You see! I told you there was something going on behind the scenes! I told you there were secret enemy forces, operating in the shadows, working to undermine us, while we were all kept distracted with everyday missions . . .”
    “Try not to sound quite so pleased about it,” said Melody. “If I’m reading the situation right, Patterson’s presence here means we are in even deeper doo-doo than we thought . . .”
    “Oh yes, you are all screwed,” said Patterson. “You are all quite monumentally screwed and shafted. You were out of your depth the moment you walked through the lobby doors.”
    “How did you get up here ahead of us?” said JC. “I saw you leave, in that hideously