Ghostfinders 02 - Ghost of a Smile

Latimer. “What’s happening? Why was she making that God-awful noise?”
    “I don’t know,” said JC. “Nothing happened . . . Kim? Kim, sweetie, what is it? What’s upsetting you . . . Kim, look at me!”
    Kim finally forced her eyes open but didn’t look at JC. She only had eyes for Chimera House, staring at the tall building as though it was the entrance to Hell itself. JC looked, too, but it all seemed perfectly ordinary to him. Everything was as it should be. He could see silhouettes of the Institute people outlined against brightly lit windows, going about their business.
    “It’s not over,” said Kim. “It’s not finished. Not yet.”
    “What do you mean?” said Latimer. “Is it the New People? You said they were gone.”
    “They are gone,” JC said impatiently. “We all saw them move on . . . Kim, did you . . . hear something?”
    Kim looked at him for the first time, her pale features still slack with shock. “You didn’t hear that? You didn’t hear anything?”
    “I didn’t hear a damned thing,” said Melody. “Except you, screaming fit to burst my eardrums.” She looked at Happy, and he shrugged quickly.
    “Don’t look at me. I’m not picking up anything. If this night was any quieter, it would be tucked up in bed with a nice cup of hot milk.”
    “It sounded . . . like the roar of some great Beast,” Kim said slowly. “Nothing human in it, not in intent, or emotion. Just this great roar, of anger and hatred and defiance . . . and evil. An ancient evil, beyond anything human.”
    Happy’s head snapped round, and he stared at Chimera House with wide, shocked eyes. His face screwed up with pain, and he bent over suddenly, as though he’d been hit, and hit hard. He made soft grunting, moaning sounds. Melody moved quickly in beside him but had enough sense not to touch him.
    “What is it, Happy? Are you hearing something now?”
    “He’s killing them,” said Happy, forcing the words out between harsh gasps of strained breathing. “He’s killing them all! He’s going back and forth in the building, killing everyone he finds. Get them out! Get everyone out of there!”
    Latimer moved in close, to glare right into his face. “Talk to me, Happy. I need to know what’s happening. Concentrate! Follow your training! Find your focus and tell me what the hell is going on inside that building!”
    Happy swallowed hard and bit down on his moans, fighting to regain his self-control. He made himself straighten up, by sheer effort of will, though his hands still clenched and unclenched at his sides.
    “They’re all dead,” he said flatly. “Everyone on the upper floors. He killed them all. I heard their terror, their dying screams. He’s working his way down through the building, floor by floor, killing everyone he finds. And loving every moment of it.”
    Latimer glared at JC. “You missed something. Some monster, some hidden killer . . . You told me it was safe to send my people in there! But you left something hidden in some secret place, waiting for its chance because you didn’t do your job properly!”
    “That’s bullshit, and you know it!” said JC, giving the Boss glare for glare. “Your own psychics told you the place was clean!”
    “We didn’t miss anything,” Happy said flatly. “This is something new.”
    JC deliberately turned his back on Latimer, to face Happy. “Human? Alive? Dead? What?”
    “Yes. No. I don’t know!” Happy wiped the sweat from his face with the back of one shaking hand. “There’s something new in there, and it’s big and powerful . . . Trying to See it is like staring into a spotlight. Its presence is hitting me so hard, I can hardly think straight, barely keep it outside my head . . . It’s a man . . . but it’s so much more than a man! And there’s something very familiar about it . . .”
    They were all looking at Chimera House by then. Latimer took out her cell phone and tried to raise someone, anyone, on the upper floors of the building, but no-one answered. She put the phone away and gave a series of quiet orders to the commander in charge of her security people. They moved quickly forward to form a semicircle facing the building, guns at the ready. Everyone else left, clearing the area, followed by all the other vehicles, and the ambulance. Kim hovered beside JC, fading in and out as her concentration wavered under the onslaught of so many unpleasant emotions. Happy was still breathing hard but was as back in