Ghostfinders 02 - Ghost of a Smile

We don’t know how many other traitors there might be, hidden away inside the Carnacki Institute.”
    “Are you saying we can’t even trust the Boss?” said Happy, his eyes widening at the thought of trying to keep things from the dreaded Catherine Latimer.
    “She’s the Boss!” said Melody. “She’s in charge of everything! If she’s gone over to the dark side, we are all royally screwed!”
    “I think we can still trust her,” JC said steadily. “If only because she’s got too much pride to hide her dark side under a bushel. If she was the villain of the piece, she’d want everyone to know, and bow down to her. No—I was thinking more that whatever we tell the Boss might not stay with the Boss.”
    They all paused to consider the implications of that, and none of them liked what they were thinking.
    “We have to go our own way now,” JC said finally. “Follow the leads we’ve got and run our own very secret investigations into who’s really who, and what’s really what, inside the Carnacki Institute.”
    “We can’t trust anyone any more, can we?” said Melody.
    “Welcome to my world,” said Happy. “Lonely, isn’t it?”
    “We only trust each other,” said JC.
    “Situation entirely bloody normal,” said Happy. But he couldn’t keep from grinning.
    “Just because one conspiracy theory has turned out to be true, it doesn’t mean they all are,” JC said sternly. “Let us all please concentrate on the matter at hand. The Carnacki Institute is far too important to the world to remain compromised in this way.”
    “What is this other secret organisation?” said Melody. “We don’t have a name, or a statement of intent.”
    “They have got to be big,” said Happy. “And I mean really, really big to have the connections and resources to pull off something like this, right under the Boss’s radar.”
    “So how come no-one even heard a whisper?” said Melody. “You can’t put something like ReSet together without making serious waves.”
    “We did hear a whisper,” said JC. “Those agents from the Crowley Project, Natasha Chang and Erik Grossman. They said there were forces at work bigger than either the Institute or the Project. But we didn’t believe them because Project agents lie like they breathe. They live to spread lies and paranoia. But now . . .”
    “We have one end of the string,” said Happy. “I say we tug on it and see what unravels.”
    “You are enjoying this entirely too much,” said Melody.
    “My entire paranoid existence has been justified,” said Happy. “I am a deeply satisfied man.”
    “We’re not going to solve this mess overnight,” said JC. “We have to be in this for the long haul . . . all the way to the end. So we carry on taking cases, going on missions, as though everything were still normal. People . . . some people . . . are going to be watching us very carefully.”
    “But . . . wouldn’t it be safer to let it go?” said Kim. “I mean, what can the four of us do, against a secret society this big, this dangerous?”
    “We go on,” said JC. “Because we have to. Because it’s part of the job. And because no-one plays us and gets away with it.”
    “Right,” said Happy.
    “Damn right,” said Melody.
    “Oh well, if you put it like that,” said Kim. “Kill them all, and let God sort them out.”
    They walked away from Chimera House, putting it all behind them, for the time being at least. Happy looked sideways at JC.
    “So,” he said casually, “did you really steal that Hand of Glory thing from the Carnacki Institute’s Armoury?”
    “You’d be surprised at what I’ve gotten away with, over the years,” JC said solemnly.
    They all stopped abruptly as Kim clapped both her hands to her head and cried out in pain. The sound rose and rose, a miserable howl of horror and agony, filling the night, continuing on long after living lungs would have been unable to sustain it. She swayed on her feet, eyes clenched shut. JC stood before her, saying her name over and over, trying to make himself heard over the deafening noise she was making, reaching out but unable to touch or comfort her. Melody and Happy looked at each other, both of them lost for anything useful to do. Latimer came hurrying back to join them. And Kim stopped screaming as suddenly as she’d begun. The returning quiet would have been a relief, if it hadn’t been for the horror and abject misery still filling her pale face.
    “What is it?” said